Steps in the Right Direction

It's not that I often make anything directly from the patterns on theanticraft.com (although a friend did crochet Maiden's Glory for me to wear at our little ceremony last September). But their patterns seem to trigger an endless number of ideas and useful bits and pieces. Take that baby pirate hat. The chart came from a project on that website, a shrug that I can't find just now which had colorwork skull & crossbones symbols on the wrist of each blousy sleeve. But I went back there tonight to try to dig the chart back up for the adult version of the hat, and came across this instead:





Cute, eh? The chart is 17 stitches wide, which works out well on 80 stitches worth of hat as a 4 pattern repeat with three stitches in between. I got my sticks, I got my string - I'm ready to rock.
.

Dog report: in a moment of joyful abandon fueled by sunshine, uncut grass and several bits of cheese, Nora let me hook a 5' web leash to her collar and lead her back into the house at the end of our after-work romp. She's a little less sure of herself with the leash in place, so it seemed best to leave it on so that she could get used to it (and so I wouldn't have to fiddle around under the neck of a nervous dog who is still learning not to snap). This meant that when I threw some tortellini and veggies in a bowl for my supper, I was able to hook the retractable leash onto the handle of the web leash easily, step out on the porch, and let her roam the full 23' combined length while I sat and ate. She was having such a good time sniffing around in the evening air, we even went for a little "walk" around the field to see how well she'd react to the leash. She did fine. I still intend to pick up a muzzle for her; I seldom run into anyone on my morning walks, but if I did I don't want to unconsciously tense up and communicate to her that strangers are worrisome. Not only do I have liability concerns, but I want to be sure that (a) she can't hurt anyone in a panic; and (b) she learns that fear aggression is not only disapproved, but useless. But I'm still very encouraged by the fast progress she's made so far.