How To Embed A Puzzle

First off, if you ask me a question and I don't answer it, do not feel at all bad bugging me. Sometimes I check something on my iPhone and forget to go back when I get to the computer. There are limited brain cells working here :-o.

Jo had asked how I uploaded the puzzles to my blog.  If you are interested in such things, read on. If you'd just like to work a new Hank puzzle, skip to the bottom :-).

I've only used Jigsaw Planet and have been very happy with it.  There may be better sites and better methods, but this is how I do it.  I don't think you have to have to sign up for an account to make or work puzzles, but I signed up and have not been inconvenienced in any way.

1. Go to http://www.jigsawplanet.com/
2. "Create" a puzzle - this is pretty intuitive, but if you have any questions, let me know.
3. Look to the upper right for "share" button.  Click that and then "Embed" (see below).

4. On the next page (it takes you there automatically) scroll down to decide how you want to embed your puzzle.  I use the "Game" option (see below).
5.  Click where it says "Select the code".  It then highlights the code you need.
6. Use "Ctrl C" to "copy" the code (see below).

7.  Go to your blog post page and switch from Compose to HTML mode (see below).
8.  Use "Ctrl V" to paste the code into your blog's HTML.  Where you put is is your own choice.  I tend to put it at the very end, but it can go in anywhere.
9.  The code with the "br" included is a line break - when you hit "return" in Compose mode or insert manually in HTML mode.  Handy to know.
10. Switch back to Compose mode and it should be right there.
11. Publish as normal.

And here's your embedded puzzle.



Enjoy! And let me know if I've totally confused you, aka welcome to my world ;-).

A Warm Winter's Nap

Hank and Baba (Blossom) napping in the sun, when...maybe two weeks ago?  I just remember that it was a lovely afternoon.  Even in the 20s with snow on the ground, if it's sunny, I can curl up outside just like that.  I must be a sheep.  I'm not hard working enough to be a Hank.

"You might think I'm sound asleep..."

Here's a new puzzle.  I made two actually.  Here is a link to my entire album of puzzles.  Have fun :-).

Always Good For A Laugh

When I got up Monday morning, I thought I was taking Graham to the vet clinic to get a mouth x-ray. He'd been losing some weight and we were pretty sure he had a tooth issue, which is common with older sheep.  Not usually a big deal.

I don't ever like to haul a sheep by itself, especially an older one.  As with most things in life, having a buddy with you always helps.  When we took Maisie to Hagyards, I rode in the trailer with her.  I picked Maisie to ride with Graham.

And why did I pick Maisie?  Well, um, let's see...how to put this, um, delicately...Maisie has a big boob.  She always has what the vets and I refer to as her "fat girl boobs".  Right now one is extra fat and I wanted it checked out.

I tricked her into the trailer with food (partly why she has "fat girl boobs" ;-) and then led Graham in behind her.   When we got to the clinic we unloaded Graham, I gave Maisie a flake of hay and told her we'd be back in a few minutes.  We weren't back for over an hour.

Graham collapsed in the hallway, they pulled a blood sample, his numbers were awful, there was something very wrong with his liver that the chances of fixing were pretty much zero, we talked to several other vets to make sure, Graham calmly sat next to me, the vet cried as much as I did as she gave him a shot and he laid his head across my lap just like he did when he was a baby, a class act to the end.

And then we had to carry on.  

As we walked outside, I carried Graham's bell to the truck and quickly warned the vet not to open the trailer door until I got back there.  She knows Maisie and completely understood ;-).  We carefully slid in and as I slammed the door behind us I heard "Oh my goodness, what's on her head?!?"

I took one look and knew exactly what she'd done.  I just had to figure out what she'd done it on. Maisie had eaten as much of the hay as she wanted, felt like she'd stood there as long as she should and with no people around to punch (the little darlin' ;-), had head butted the next best thing, the aluminum trailer divider post.  

"Yeah, I know.  I'm kind of a little stinker."

Maisie's boob doesn't seem to be anything serious, probably just a weird hormonal issue...which would probably explain a lot about Maisie ;-). We are supposed to keep an eye (and hand :-o) on it and wait and see.

"I'll let you feel my boobs if you scratch my butt [to distract me]."

The things we do...

Don't judge me.  I've been on the receiving end of that aluminum block, I mean, black head ;-D.

Yarn Along - The Knitting Bag Of Horrors

If you don't have good knitting to share, post a picture of your cat new favorite bag :-).

I have been trying to knit, but have not been happy with anything that I've worked on.  I did knit and mostly finish (just to feel like I could finish something I'd started :-o) the Baa-ble hat, but it's headed for a frog and re-knit.  I messed up one of the colors (no big deal) and was sloppy with my floats behind the sheep (a medium size deal) and it doesn't fit well (a big deal).

I then started a new shawl from the same designer from the Tales from the Isle of Purbeck shawl. When I knit the Purbeck shawl, I really didn't think I'd ever wear it, but during my camp out last fall I wore it almost every night.   I couldn't believe how warm it was even with all the lacy holes and I was hooked.  My only complaint is that it's a hair small.  

I love the look of the Stories from Snoqualmie Valley shawl and thought if I knit it with the worsted weight Lamb Camp yarn instead of the pattern's suggested DK weight, I'd get exactly what I wanted - a big, warm, smooshy shawl.  

I cast on using a new (to me) cast on technique that I liked, picked the fun pattern up pretty quickly and knit a couple repeats and decided my yarn overs were too loose and my cable too tight.  It may very well block out okay and I'll definitely try it before I frog it, but I sure don't want to knit on [without] confidence*, so...

...time to post another picture of my bag and the always not helpful Eli ;-).  

There is a story behind the bag.  My mother-in-law found a beautiful vintage "make a sheep" pattern/kit stamped onto material and gave it to me for Christmas awhile back.  I didn't think to take a picture, but I did find it online.  Does anyone remember these fun patterns?

I knew I'd never actually get around to making the two sheep and goodness knows I really don't need any more stuffed sheep, but you can always use another knitting bag so I sent it to Amy Klee at Stone Edge Fibers and asked her to work her magic.  If this adorable bag doesn't inspire me to knit, nothing will!

Look at all the inside pockets.  And notice that it's big enough to hold not only the Baa-ble Hat (in the green bag) and the Snoqualmie shawl...

...but also the Adama cowl that I decided was about as no-fail/confidence building as possible, so have now cast that on as well.

"That bag is sure getting a lot of attention!"

And that's exactly why I'm knitting on the other side of the little fence.  In the sun.  Without a hat or gloves.  In February.  Sigh...

You can see my sloppy floats in the the big white sheep.  I can do better.  And by doing better at that, the circumference will fit better.  The height...do you think I can eliminate the first couple rows of stars?  The white at the bottom was supposed to be brown, so I think changing the symmetry of the two "lines" of white above and below the sheep won't be too noticeable. 

One last Graham pic.  I'd forgotten I'd taken this, thinking how clever that I got a picture of him checking out his hat.  If I'd known then what the future held, I'd have opened that stupid gate and let him frog the hat himself.  One of my all time favorite Graham posts was another time he came in there and wreaked havoc on my knitting.  I'd give anything...

Okay, a picture to (try to) make us all laugh a little.  "I love the yarn and the colors are perfect, but can you believe the sloppy knitting job?!?"  Not to worry, Blossom, it's only knitting.  It's always fixable.

I just started Major Pettigrew's Last Stand by Helen Simonson.  Seems that I've been in a "reading" slump as well.  How's things with you?

Joining in with Ginny...

*"Knit on with confidence and hope, through all crises."  Elizabeth Zimmermann

The Butt Of All The Best Jokes

Graham Lamb  

April 2009 - February 2016

It was truly an honor.