This post is going to be heavy with Lizzie pictures. If you come here for Lizzie, you are in luck. If you think I post too many pictures of my dog these days, I must apologize!

We are getting honest to goodness cool weather. In fact, it did frost last evening, all my plants are droopy. With the onset of cooler weather, Lizzie is beginning to do what I’ve hoped all along she’d do. She’s become a bit of a cuddle dog.

Yesterday morning before work, this is what the end of my couch looked like. She usually wants to come up on the couch, but stays there less than 3 minutes. This time she was there for ages, so much so that I wanted to skip work to see how long it would last!

Last night I had to get a blanket out for our bed, since I refused to turn on the heat, it’ll warm up again a bit today. I’d been telling her to try out her bed, which she did, twice, but she really doesn’t like it. The third time I told her to go to bed, she jumped up on our bed. And there she stayed at the end of the bed keeping my feet warm until Mr. Ink came to bed hours later. Throughout the night she was in her own bed quite a bit. I think she’s turned the corner, enjoying a little extra warmth and comfort as the weather cools.

Yesterday while Mr. Ink was home from work at lunchtime, the recycling truck stopped by. Lizzie began barking and carrying on, so Mr. Ink showed her how to look out the window to see what was going on. Apparently she then would just bark for fun. I keep saying we are ruining the dog, because we allow her to do “bad” behaviors she didn’t arrive with. However, she still hasn’t taken to doing these behaviors at times when we aren’t encouraging it, so it’s probably ok.

Then, Miss Butterfly decided to take a little video of what life is like at home when the whole family is home but I haven’t arrived yet. She says to Lizzie “Where’s Mama?” And Lizzie begins running all over the house looking for me and whining. Miss Butterfly asks again, “Where’s Mama?” and Lizzie hops up on the back of the couch.

Just like Mr. Ink taught her. Then settled in for the wait for me to arrive at home.

The new furniture isn’t going to allow for this behavior, it’ll be interesting to see what she does when it arrives.

Last post, I discussed my Pas de Valse sweater, more than halfway done, but I was worried that I couldn’t figure out where I was in the instructions after 2 years of hibernation. I was correct. I couldn’t figure it out. That sweater pattern isn’t particularly intuitive, I don’t think. I do still want to knit it, I love the finished object, but I am going to have to do so at a time when I am powering through an entire sweater at once. Putting it down is the death of that pattern.

I felt a bit sad ripping it out. But, it was either that or let it sit another 2 years on the needles and then rip it out. I knew I’d never finish. And now I am glad I did, because without ripping it out, I’d never have thought to pair that blue that’s almost a purple with a purple that’s almost a red.

In reality, these are darker colors than they appear in the photo. It’s hard to get a good color match on these two. But, I can tell you that the color combo is an absolute win.

I’d spent some time wandering around Ravelry on Monday evening, trying to come up with a new sweater pattern after I’d frogged Pas de Valse. I had favorited Drijfhout at some point, so when I went back to look at other people’s FOs, I realized that I’d done so because Fibergeek56 over at Yarn, Books & Roses made one that was absolutely stunning, 2 tones of grey with some red details. I’d been completely enamored of that sweater so I figured I’d try my hand at one. I yanked the other skeins of wollmeise out of my stash to see what might pair with the intense blue, and this is what popped out.

I am super excited about this knit. Also? The instructions are simple and easy to follow, so if I put it down to complete my mystery shawl, it’s not going to end up in a 2 year hibernation because I wanted to switch projects for a bit.

That’s it from here. It’s been a busy week, I had one of those crazy super long and frustrating work days yesterday. The ones that are busy, stressful, and somehow also emotional. Then I got home and had to turn right around to head out to Miss Butterfly’s choir concert. I was so dead by the time we got done, pretty much just sat on the couch waiting for dinner, and then sat on the couch waiting for it to be an appropriate time to sleep. Thankfully I feel pretty renewed today, and hope to maintain that throughout the day if possible.