More About Spit

For those who have asked, here is a photo of Shadow in his astronaut-wannabe collar:

Poor fellow, he's got some sort of allergic dermatitis that we can't seem to find a solution for--and he just about chewed off his leg! Antibiotics and the collar (supplemented with duct tape) have helped tremendously, but given a half-hour reprieve this afternoon he commenced to chew again. Sigh. Unlike how some people--say, me--would respond, Shadow does not appear to be bitter.

In the comments on the Sleight of Hand post, Mary M. made some very interesting observations about the enzymes in spit and how they work with the felted splice. Some people say that the enzymes are what makes the felted splice work; others aver that the enzymes eat away the wool. Mary, in command of a great deal of scientific information, notes that the enzymes in spit dissolve carbohydrates, not the protein and fat that wool is made of; she also confirms that the enzymes are not necessary to felt, either. Isn't it funny how misinformation gets spread around? But now you have the truth and can feel free to spit on your knitting... That didn't sound right.

I've reached the shoulder of the Curry Sweater. Starting tomorrow I'll show you in excrutiating detail how I conceptualize and operationalize the Shaped Shoulder in the Round! Get a good night's sleep, OK? I'll try to do a better job of making the pictures legible this time.

Not wanting the flower picture blog train to leave me behind, I'll leave you with this photo of some roses in our backyard. Now that we have a fence across the driveway, the rose bushes are no longer being pruned nightly by the visiting deer. I'm still amazed that we had these nocturnal guests--Berkeley, at least the part where I live, is hardly rural!

Comments

[grumperina]

Absolutely! I once demonstrated the felted splice to a friend, and in order to not get my "germs" on her knitting, I made the splice with hot tap water - works like a charm! The enzymes, I'm guessing, are not necessary... maybe they make the splice better? I wonder if there's a scientific way to test that? :)

[Rebecca]

Poor Poopster! I hope he feels better soon!

Not sure if this is the same for dogs but a friend of mine took her cat to the pet derm. center and now the cat takes drops for her skin everyday. It will all work out.

[RK]

I'm glad to hear that spit isn't more helpful to water, as I just can't deal with spitting into (or licking) my hand at every color change. Blech. I've been using water in my current (and first!) fair isle, and am loving it. One thing I found is that I had some trouble when cutting off one ply from each strand of yarn. I found it was difficult to cut off exactly the same amount from each, and that even when I did, the action of spit splicing made things shift around, and disrupted the remaining end of that ply on either side of the pieces of yarn I was splicing together. I started just splicing together two whole pieces, and have found that the extra girth of the yarn doesn't really seem to be noticeable in the fabric. I think I'm going to stay with that method for now. Whatever will keep me from weaving in hundreds of ends later on is a good thing! :-)

[Deb]

Poor boy! I always feel sorry for the dogs stuck in those collars, but what can you do? I got Chappy a soft one, though, when he needed one--at least it looked more comfortable and he could get through his doggy door!

In addition to whatever your vet's telling you to do, I've got two suggestions, which you may take or leave, but that have worked for us. Tea Tree Oil is the first. It's naturally healing, yes, but it also smells (and apparently tastes) just horrible. When Chappy's got a spot he's supposed to stay away from, I dab a little diluted TTO around the area, which keeps him from licking--at least for a while. (And the "ick!" faces are cute, too.) Second, which you may be doing already, is those coat-friendly dietary supplements, like Lipiderm or Shed Stop--anything that helps promote healthy skin and coat from the inside. Can't hurt!

[Laurie]

Those roses are sumptuous beauties. Poor doggie. It's so no-win...if he is free, he is exfoliated, and if he isn't, he has itches he can't scratch. Ouch either way. Reminds me of being in a cast.

[Nathania]

Aw, poor Shadow. I think that dermatitis thing is going around, Bud has a spot like that too. Though it hasn't gotten bad enough to require a C-collar.

On the spit thing... I remember years ago on a cross stitch list there was a big hullabaloo about licking the floss before threading the needle. One woman, an adamant preservationist referred to it as floss slurping and claimed that on historical samplers they could test for what the person had been eating when they slurped the floss. Ew! It was all terribly controversial with lots of misinformation floating around. Thanks for clarifying the spit splice.

[The Mysterious K]

Poor, poor puppy! There's nothing worse than watching your best friend scratch and chew maniacally at themselves. Frankie had a similar skin problem last summer. Not quite as severe as Shadow, though. I ended up changing Frankie's food from Eukanuba to Natural Choice Lamb & Rice. While I was waiting for the food change to do it's purported magic, I discovered she had one (count one) flea. The only flea she's ever had. Turns out she's allergic to the little buggers. Really allergic. I think the food change helped as much as the flea treatment did. I'm sure your vet has already thought of this, but I thought I'd mention, just in case. Kisses to the pup! TMK

[Laura J]

Have you tried food-allergy challenges? Sometimes they can't cope with soy in the food, and (speaking as a gluten-intolerant human) sometimes it's wheat and there probably other possible allergens.

All the free advice you could possibly want. The Curry Sweater is perfectly lovely. I am impressed everytime I see it.