Now Norma Knits

Breaking: Red Scarf News

2012-11-28T20:47:35-05:00

Well, hello again everybody. You just never know when I might pop in here and say hi. I hope I didn't startle you.

Things are starting to slow down around here just a little bit, and I'm looking forward to a slower December. You have no idea how twitchy it makes me feel to say that. Being a self-employed person, and now a bona fide one of those much-talked-about-of-late small business job creators (but without all those billions) as well, it deeply goes against my grain to wish for a slow-down, so just forget I even said that.

Moving on....

I received a most wonderful email a couple of days ago, and I wanted to share it with you (with the writer's permission, of course).

It read:

Norma,
I'm a long-time follower of your blog, and have enjoyed reading it for a number of years. I wanted to share with you a project our library worked on this year. Our knitting group was getting stale, and looking for a good cause to work toward. With my gentle prodding, they chose the Red Scarf Project. The library provided the yarn and good information, and they provided the talent. I've attached a few pictures of the scarves (none of the knitters wanted to be in the pictures), but in our first attempt, we managed to put together 11 scarves that are being sent out tomorrow! Thank you for championing this cause!

-Kevin

Here are the photos that came attached:

I love the labels they made and attached to the scarves:

Don't they just look cozy and warm and beautifully made?

Bra-VO! Cedarvale Community Library Needlework Group for this gorgeous array of red scarves. I am so very thankful that, in this year when I was unable to be as cheerleaderish about this project as in the past several years, the baton is being carried on by wonderful groups like you!

I'd welcome receipt of any other groups or persons' photos of their red scarves, if you want to send them. I pledge to carve out enough time to post them here, and I'm even going to get my one completed red scarf in the mail by the end of this week.

Mr. Jefferies says he'll help.

P.S. I hope everyone had a lovely Thanksgiving.

Terrier Tuesday: The Rescue Edition

2012-11-20T00:07:00-05:00

Dear Readers,

No, wait! Don't click out! You have the right blog!

I know! You're surprised to see me here so soon after my last visit! (and surprised to see me use so many exclamation points!) Me too. Actually, it's like we've entered into some sort of time warp, because believe it or NOT, Alpha has been knitting again! I'm not kidding! Don't believe me? Look here:

Is that....? No, it can't be! Alpha has been soooo busy, how could it be?

But yes, it is! It is a red scarf!

To be perfectly honest, though, that one is a little bit of a cheat. Because Alpha knitted that last winter, and she had carefully put it away in a safe place. And yes, you guessed it -- she then completely forgot about it.

Alpha says there must be some sort of sim-bee-OH-sis going on here (sometimes she uses weird words!), because she ran across it when she was hunting for the pattern for this:

Do you know what that is? Yes, it truly is! It's a new sweater for me! I can't wait, I can't wait, I can't wait!

We hoped it would be done so that I could model it for you by today, but sadly it's not quite yet.

So instead, we did our own version of this "awwwwww"-worthy photo that Alpha saw on Facebook yesterday:

Here's our version:

I know this is not a fair question, but: Which one do you think is cuter?

Love,

Mr. Jefferies

The Only Presidential Endorsement That Really Matters

2012-11-04T08:23:55-05:00

It's from Pee-wee Herman.

You're voting, RIGHT? Or you have already, RIGHT?

Terrier Tuesday: The "Hello, Is This Thing On?" Edition

2012-10-29T20:45:16-04:00

Dear Readers:

Well, folks, as Hurricane Sandy is breathing down our necks, and already causing major havoc all up the East Coast (we're especially worried about New York City, because that's where our Abigail lives), Alpha and I thought it would be a good time to pop in and say hello. Alpha has been receiving increasingly more emails from folks who are worried about us, so we both figured this would be as good a time as any to break our unintended long silence.

Seriously, where DID all that time go? It's quite amazing that we could even remember how to sign in to Typepad. But of course, now we are finally writing, and many people are without power and won't even be able to read this. We hope everyone stays safe and gets through this with a minimum of trauma. Vermont's wounds from Irene are not yet fully healed, and even we tough Vermonters can't take much more. We feel for the folks in New Jersey who are bearing the brunt of the landfall tonight, and then Pennsylvanians .... Well, we are thinking about you and hoping you're all safe.

You may remember, I don't particularly like wind. And when I say I don't particularly like it, I mean that I would rather eat a bucket of nails. I like it even less than I like a grooming appointment. A LOT LESS.

Speaking of grooming appointments, though, this is a picture Alpha took of me on Sunday just after I got out of one. I was giving her the cold shoulder and letting her know just how HURT I was about that appointment, even WITH the candy corn bandana they gave me.

Don't EVEN bother to say I look cute, though we all know that goes without saying, because it will NOT make me feel better about that appointment, NOR about the hurricane wind. But these are the crosses I bear. Life is not always easy for a Yorkie like me.

So.... what have we been doing? Well, my life hasn't changed much. I still get my breakfast and my lunch and my dinner, and my Teeny Greenies, and I get my walks and new toys, and treats and bones to bury from time to time. And this summer it seems like we have had a ton of people come over to do stuff like build porches and replace doors and do yard work, and everybody loves to play tug-of-war with me, which is nice.

Alpha has just been busy, busy, busy, BUSY with her work! She keeps saying this phrase: "It's a little bit of be careful what you wish for, but I'm not complaining!" And she's been going to a new gym that she loves. And in her spare time she has painted many of the rooms in the house and cleaned out rooms and closets and corners, and sent lots and lots of boxes of crap stuff to Goodwill and places like that. But we are still tripping over MORE stuff (will it NEVER end?!), not to mention paint cans and other painting paraphernalia, because she keeps on thinking that maybe soon she will paint the dining room, or whatever.

And meanwhile, she is providing CART to two medical students and one veterinary student, as well as CART and captioning for a growing list of other clients, and wishing that that cloning technology would come along soon, very soon. She has new people to help her with all this CART work, because of course until she gets cloned, she can't be in four or five places at once, and that means a whole lot of scheduling work and worries and people-managing headaches that sometimes keep her awake a little bit at night.

And then, you know, don't even get her started about this election season. At least David is not running for office this year, as his term is not up yet. Thank the LORD for that, she says! And she made sure to go in and vote for President Obama last week, just to make sure that some work thing, or, say, a HURRICANE, wouldn't keep her from voting, because, well, for at least 1,000 reasons, but this picture that was being passed around Facebook tells some of the story, right here:

I know, I know, you don't come to Terrier Tuesday to hear a Yorkie talk about politics. But I'm just sayin': When Mama ain't happy, AIN'T NOBODY HAPPY. And I'm sure that, knowing Alpha as you do, none of this comes as any surprise to you. I've come to love her, even when she swears a lot.

Because even when she's really, really busy, she is the one who buys all my food and my treats and my toys, and she still manages to stay at home, or at least come home at night most of the time, to snuggle with me at bedtime. And that's all I really care about.

Love,

Mr. Jefferies

P.S. Alpha has been too busy using her hands for work (and working out) to be able to knit even a stitch. But she hopes you're all working on your red scarves. Just because she hasn't been blogging and haranguing y'all about the red scarves, doesn't mean she has forgotten her favorite cause, and doesn't mean that those foster kids who are going to college should be without their red scarf care package this year. So please send in your red scarves!

Terrier Tuesday -- Just a Cute Photo of Cute Me

2012-06-26T00:01:00-04:00

Oh, all right, you can also see the dumb fountain that Alpha spent the whole day Saturday setting up.

You see, first she had to clean out the new screened porch and cart all the house plants out there and get everything JUST SO, and then she just plopped and listened to the water for the next, like, 72 hours.

She calls this Her Little Oasis, and she's been sitting out there all the time and eating all her meals there, and...

...she doesn't even play with me AT ALL anymore.

Love,

Mr. Jefferies