Shrug off the Bichon

Last fall, M had requested a shrug for my canine nephew.  He tends to wear mostly shades of dark blue and she had a pattern in mind--Cables and Bits from Knitty . I agreed that it would be a worthy undertaking and, since she's family by choice if not blood, set out. Yarn was picked out, the pattern was printed.....

And then time passed without anything happening. I keep having projects seriously stall out. It's frustrating and clutters up the living room excessively as I keep searching for something else to knit.  Something new, something shiny. I rearranged things on Ravelry the other day, moving things into hibernation and realized that I really only have about 4 projects that are in rotation and aren't just lurking in various places around the apartment. I keep telling myself I'll get them out and work on them. Soon. Very soon. Really. No, I don't believe me either.

But packing for a recent trip to Atlanta to see dog and M, I threw the yarn and the DPNs into the bag. Granted, I didn't pack the straights, stitch markers, or circulars that I needed but hey...who doesn't feel like improvising and frantically needing to shove stitches together every 3 minutes whilst knitting...

It was 80 degrees and I could sit outside on a bench surrounding a large magnolia tree in M's backyard and knit. Dog refused to come and hang out--he needed to supervise his mother and ensure that she wasn't having a potential snack without him but I could be alone with the various insects that kept dropping out of the tree or climbing up my legs. The tiny little green inchworm that I discovered on the v-neck of my t-shirt was  probably the most interesting.

The shrug took about three days of knitting time. It would have gone much faster if I'd had straights and circulars with me. I didn't do the "bits" part of it because I'm not really a fan of bobbles and I think a male dog doesn't really need them. Plain ribbing was equally handsome.