March Forth and Doggie Leg Warmers

March Forth

I'm not typically a celebrator of punny holidays (May the Fourth Be With You, etc.), but I do like the idea behind March Forth.  A writer/creative coach named Deborah Shouse created the holiday.  It's not well known at the time, so it deserves some attention.

The idea is that this is a day for everyone to commit to marching forth in their lives -- exploring new ideas and celebrating accomplishments.  It's akin to New Year's Day but without all of the pressure of resolutions.  (if you feel like it, you could take out that resolution list and revise/throw away/celebrate/reaffirm.)  The day sounds more hopeful to me too -- perhaps because it comes at a time when Spring is right around the corner, the days are getting longer, and plans are being made for outdoor activities.  

Doggie Leg Warmers

Today, my main project was to knit a pair of leg warmers for Andy the dog.  He's an older, arthritic dog that would appreciate some warmth on his legs, so these should be perfect.  Per the custom order, they are grey and black striped and will be lined with a light fleece.

This order highlights one of the great things about Etsy and the ability to create custom orders.  I would not have thought to line leg warmers with fleece -- it was all the client's idea.  Now that I think about it, it's a great variation that I will consider adding in the future.  

The above shot shows the first completed leg warmer beside one of my model leg warmers.  As you can see, Andy has much longer legs than Archie (9.5" vs 4" leg warmers).  When I took this picture, I was in fear that I would not have enough grey yarn to complete the second leg warmer.  

I had already scoured my yarn stash and determined that I didn't have any more of this particular yarn.  I realized that one of the hats I'd made for myself in January was made of this yarn and internally debated whether or not is was a good idea to unravel some of the hat for the sake of the project.  

Oh, the drama!!!

In the end, I had sufficient grey yarn to finish the second leg warmer - hooray!  Look at how close I came to running out.  It's very satisfying when something like this works out.

Before the leg warmers can be put in the mail, they need to be lined.  A trip to JoAnn's is on the errand list for the weekend.  I had forgotten that there was a JoAnn's in the city and was very relieved that there was one in an area that wasn't too difficult to visit with public transportation and there were a couple other stores of interest.