are all up in the shop! They tweaked the colors a teeny bit on the bags with their new manufacturer and I’m loving the inside colors of them. I think they all changed a little. The Bamboo is my favorite now. I’m a sucker for that light blue.  I have every color and size of GoKnits Pouches in right now too. I wanted to make sure I got the shop stocked before I left. I also put up some more Protect the Swag! sachets. The Haiku Bags sell out pretty quickly so if you miss out on one you can pre-order one from the next order. Just let me know.

Want to know something? I think I am actually going to bring knitting on vacation! Oh pick yourself up off of the floor. My Chevron Scarf might get lucky and get some action. We’ll see how my fingers feel. But honestly? I am looking forward to knitting on vacation! Crazy huh!?!?

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includes a bike racer in it. Sorry! It’s all I’ve got. That’s my T. taken today at his bike race up near Santa Fe. I can’t remember if I’ve ever mentioned that he races on the blog? Well he does! He placed second today in the Pro, 1, 2, race and the only guy to beat him was this guy, some young Pro from Arizona.

The coolest thing is that T. is able to be in the lead of the New Mexico Road Racing series at age 40 with a full time job, a wife and two kids. I like to say, “Not bad for an old dude huh!?” Most of the guys who beat him are at at least 10 years younger than he is. The kids and I are so damn proud of him and we love going to watch him race. Although, our joke is that if he doesn’t win, we don’t come back to watch him…..

I’ve become friends with Tom, who runs the New Mexico Cycling Website and I’ve promised to take pictures at the races I attend to get shots for the website. My second picture is up on the website right now from a race 2 weeks ago. Pretty cool huh!? I dunno, I think it is! If you want to see the other shots I took today and at the other race I created a separate Flickr account for them. At some point I’ll get the proper zoom lens for action shots and then I’ll really get some great ones.

Hope you are having a great weekend. And this is brought to you by another post that has nothing to do with knitting! Whoo hoo!

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Click to picture to see it on black which is really pretty. This shot is called “good enough to eat” because those clouds seriously look edible. Don’t they?

What else is new? Not much. I got the order of Haiku Bags in, and after I emailed customers of the store they were sold out in a few hours. I never even got to post about them here. As I’ve said before, if you want to know first when I get stuff, you need to sign up for the shop newsletter. I am taking pre-orders on the next shipment so just let me know if you want one. I ordered a lot this time so I hopefully won’t sell out. They should get here by August 1st and I will ship them out before we leave on vacation.

Speaking of vacation, I will be keeping the shop open the whole time I’m gone but just won’t be able to ship until we get back. I’m not going to take yarn orders until I get back from vacation since they won’t get dyed before then anyway. So nothing will be mailed out from August 4th-11th. If you need something before then get it now! Get it? Got it? Good!

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OMG y’all. Five out of 10 of my fingers got smashed yesterday morning in the garage door as I tried to manually close it after we lost power. I thought I had to go to the ER at first it hurt so badly. That was after I thought I was going to pass out in front of my kids. This is the worst one. I think I need to do the ole poke a needle through the nail to relieve the pressure. T. wasn’t here when it happened and I sort of panicked at first because I couldn’t feel the tips of a few fingers. Did I mention I’m right handed? Thank goodness Carole was waiting for me to come get her so when Superboy called her and told her I was “really hurt” she was here in less than 5 minutes. I think she was expecting to see me bleeding to death based on what the boy said.

This leads me to the next bit of news. I am only going to take yarn orders for a few more days and then won’t take any again until I get back from vacation. We leave August 4th for a week to go on our first real family vacation ever. In 17 years!!  I am thinking I will take yarn orders again after August 15th. The shop will still be opened the whole time though. Thank goodness I’m fairly caught up because I can’t see dyeing yarn with my fingers like this. So if you’ve been wanting to place a yarn order and want it before September, now is the time to do it. I’m telling everyone 3-5 weeks on all orders. Most times I get it done faster than that but I would rather say longer right up front.

Crap. I need to go put this hand up. It’s hurting. Hey at least I have a good excuse now for not being able to knit. Right?

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If you haven’t been to my Flickr stream today I would greatly appreciate it if you could stop by and read what I have to say in the description and tags in this picture. Leave a comment, think about Carole and her kids, light a candle or whatever it is that you could do that will send her the strength she needs to get through tonight. She’s at work right now and will be able to see this all in a few hours when she gets home. I debated whether or not to say anything here but realized the more people who can hold her in their thoughts, the better. Right?

Thank you. She and her kids thank you too.

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Gus continues to do well so thank you again for all of the sweet comments. There is a fun Flickr group called FUTAB - feet up take a break, and here was my submission for today.

Awwww. Isn’t that cute?

Here’s my real Eye Candy for today.

Store update! I’m actually really excited that I got in some yarn ball winders today! You can find them here. I can’t imagine life without a ball winder. I would get swifts in too but they take up too much space that I don’t have. I also restocked the Yarn Ball Magnets and Heal My Hands.I also got in a new K1P1 magnet. Haiku Bags should be here on Monday. I updated the shop page with the new bags so you can check them out. I know I already said it, but I am totally coveting that Amethyst Flower! I am giving all store customers the heads up first. If you are not a store customer and want to be the first to know when they arrive, just go to www.scoutsswag.com and sign up! UPS usually comes mid-day so fingers crossed we’ll have them by lunch time on Monday!

I am so ready for this week to be over. Thank you all again for being here for Gus. Y’all rock. Have a great weekend!

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He hasn’t moved since I took the picture on the right. He’s wiped out and very happy to be home. We are totally relieved he’s home too. Even though he ripped the catheter out in the car and bled all over the carpet in the living room. That was fabulous! It freaked the shit out of the kids to see him bleeding all over the place too. Luckily they gave us the gauze to put over it so we took care of it right away.

I think I need a beer. Can this week be over yet?

And thank you all again and again for your thoughts and kind words.

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I just got back from getting him from the ER and dropping him back at our Vets and he’s feeling a lot better. The great news is that he doesn’t have Addison’s Disease! YAY! They are going to check his HCT again and will call me in a bit. He’s so damn tired he just wanted to go to sleep. Fingers crossed that he will come home tonight. I think I need to go buy him a new doggie bed. He deserves it after all of this. Dontcha think?

I’ll update again later once I hear back from the Vet. Thank you all so much for your sweet comments and emails. I appreciate it so much.

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Can you believe it? Two posts already this week. I have a lot to talk about so grab a cuppa and have a seat.

First up, I got an email from Sharon, the owner of Haiku Bags and they finally got the bags yesterday. Their shipment has been stuck in customs for three weeks! I thought I would have them this week but will have them within 4-5 days depending on if they get them out today or tomorrow. But they are finally at Haiku Headquarters at least!

I got some yarny love yesterday from Elemmaciltur all the way from Germany! He was so sweet to send me a skein of Wollmeise so I didn’t feel left out. It’s really gorgeous and totally the colors I would have chosen for myself.

Thank you again Elemm! And if you have yet to listen to the Knitters Uncensored podcast what the heck are you waiting for? Huh? Go!!

I also have a new gorgeous colorway. This morning I was looking through the newest issue of Domino Magazine and there is an article on power couples/color trends. I saw one of the color combinations and literally had to go outside and immediately dye it. I would have never thought to mix these three colors but they look amazing together. This is one of “four utterly of-the-moment pairings (and a rockin’ threesome) destined to become palette standouts.” The one I dyed is the “rockin’ threesome”.

Damn. I really like it. Isn’t it pretty? I’m calling it Power Couples. I was going to put it up here to sell but John/YarnBallBoogie snatched it right up out of everyone’s hands. You can yell at him.

Finally, could you please send a little love to Gus? I’m taking him to the vet in a little bit and I’m really worried. He has something seriously wrong with him and I’m just hoping he doesn’t need surgery. Standard Poodles are notorious trash eaters and he must have eaten something because he’s pretty sick. Although I don’t know what he could have gotten into because there is nothing but his dog stuff in the back yard. I won’t go into details because it’s pretty gross but basically he hasn’t eaten in two days and is only drinking water as well as a bunch of other things where I just saw some blood which I know is a big red flag. Ugh.

***Just got back from the Vet. and Gus is staying overnight. The good news is that the moron didn’t eat something that requires surgery. They said he has a “mystery disease” that can be easily treated with some IV Antibiotics. It’s called Hemorrhagic Gastroenteritis (HGE). Don’t read that description is you have a weak stomach or are eating. It’s gross. But the Vet. said that he should be feeling much better by tomorrow morning. I’m so glad I followed my instinct and took him in. Damn that dog for scaring me. He’s lucky he’s cute.
**Update #2** I just got off the phone with the Vet. and they are worried about him because he’s still pretty sick. With some of his symptoms they are worried he might have an ulcer which is related to possibly having Addison’s Disease. We probably need to go pick him up in a bit and bring him to the Emergency Vet Clinic for the night. Ugh. I really, really hope he does not have that disease. So please think about Gus again? Until we know more? Thank you….

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Cookie likes to give me crap (lovingly!) about not posting enough and when I told her I wasn’t knitting and didn’t know what to write about, she said to just share anything!! Since a lot of you out there are mothers or friends of mothers I’d love to get some feedback from you on this. I just posted this on my Flickr account and thought it was a good one to cross-post. Deep breath, and here we go.

Can we talk about this for a minute. I’d really like to hear from other parents out there. This, my friends is what I had to buy for my kids for school this year. The stuff on the left is for Supergirl for kindergarten and the pile on the right is for Superboy for 3rd grade.

Does everyone else out there with kids have to buy this much stuff? The thing that gets me is how specific these lists are. I mean, the boy had to get Crayloa OR Prang watercolors. Nothing else. All of the colored pencils, markers, and crayons are to be Crayola too. I mean I know I probably don’t have to buy Crayola, but it’s just easier to get exactly what’s on the supply list than to hear about it later. My kids are already old enough to see what everyone else brings to school and would definitely come home and give me shit if I didn’t get what I was supposed to.

Now don’t get me wrong, I used to be a teacher. I know that teachers barely make and money and don’t get money for supplies. But man, this seems like a lot of stuff for a 5 & 8 year old to have to buy and bring to school. Doesn’t it? And oh, this doesn’t even include the money we are to send for a few other things too. So is this the norm? I want to know.

I mean do you know how expensive dry erase markers are? VERY! Seriously, there’s no way that everyone can afford to buy this stuff for their kids. What happens with those kids? What do they do when their parents can’t afford $35-40 in supplies for each one of their kids? I am going to call the school and ask if I can donate some money to put towards supplies for kids who can’t afford to get theirs. Then maybe I will feel better about this whole thing. This has really bothered me today.

**just sent off an email to the woman in charge of making supply kits asking if I can donate something and she’s going to bring this up at the next meeting to see what we can do**

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