Relaxing on Memorial Day

I haven't blogged in so long I wasn't even sure what would be on my camera today when I down loaded photos and there wasn't much. I guess that's one reason I haven't blogged in a while, just not much to say.

On my camera was a very fuzzy picture I decided not to publish of the first Rose-Breasted Grosbeak to visit my feeders this spring, one of my favorite birds. I know I have so many favorite birds but I do love the Grosbeaks. They are so quiet. You can count on them to be at your feeders in the early morning and late evening, quietly feeding once all the raucous birds have gone home or are still sleeping. This morning I also spotted the first Baltimore Oriole at the orange feeder but the most exciting news is there are 5 little blue eggs in one of my blue bird houses.

I know I promised I would not bore my blog readers with my inch by inch progress on the traveling shells cardigan but I had to show you the progress I am making. Here's a picture after 2 1/2 repeats of the pattern. I have purposely not taken a tape measure to it so I can't tell you how long it is. I do know I have some knitting to do yet before separating the back and the two front pieces. Still, I'm pretty proud of my progress. I honestly wasn't sure I could do this and it's always fun to push yourself a bit and find out you really can do it.

Here is a close up of the pattern. You do not have to look too closely to see my mistakes, especially the split yarn towards the beginning. Luckily, I think I am hardly ever splitting yarn any more and am finding the pattern easy to follow. A row takes me any where from 20-35 minutes to complete. Hopefully, things will seem faster once I reach the arm holes.

Some of the dogs and I attended dog shows this past Saturday and Sunday. The breed ring was just so-so, no big wins to report, but I was extremely happy with Dot and her performance in the obedience ring. Dot and I, since obedience is definitely a team sport, have had a serious retrieving problem. I think we are finally over it and Dot did very nice dumb bell work this weekend. I am planning and hoping we are on a training path to get Dot her CDX title in July. The best laid plans of mice and men... I'll keep you posted.

In other dog training news, I've been very good about my resolution to be more consistent with my training of Bunny and she's progressing nicely. Bunny is not at all shy, she loves going to shows and training classes, but she has some silly idiosyncrasies about things like dark corners, big fans, strange noises, so it is going to take some time before I get Bunny in the ring.

I think I have as many dog training books as I have knitting books - and that's a lot! Back in January I purchased Competition Obedience: A Balancing Act. This is not a new book but one I did not have in my library and I must say, I'm glad I bought it. There is a chapter in this book called Power Steering and another called Fundamental Words. I've decided to experiment with teaching Bunny all these concepts before moving on to my own method of preparing a dog for competition. I don't know that one method is any better than the other but I'm having fun trying something new and Bunny seems to be enjoying herself also. I've also gone back to a book I've had in my library for some time now, Schutzhund Obedience: Training In Drive. I find I am using a number of techniques from this book to help Bunny get over her fears and start exhibiting a little more drive. Bunny and I are definitely a work in progress.

Bags, bags and more bags

I am not at all sure how this post evolved into a blog about bags but it has. And before you read further, mind you, there are no pictures of the bags under my eyes!

Guinifer blogged on May 9th about a pretty little project bag. I didn't need a project bag but had been thinking that very day how I needed a new brief case/laptop carrier. Something more feminine than the traditional male brief case. So I went to ebags.com and found myself a great new brief case.



This is it. I like it a lot. Though I work mostly from home I do need to go into the office on occasion. Recently, these occasions have become every Thursday. Though there are work stations in the drop-in offices, I've found it so much easier to just bring my own laptop. This case holds my laptop, power cord, secure id card and lots more.



Here it is with the laptop and power cord inside. Plenty of room for my check book, credit card, cell phone and lunch. It is heavy, but then, it only needs to go from my car to the office which is a short walk through the parking lot.

On the spur of the moment I also bought a what I thought would be a little project bag, just big enough for say, a sock or scarf project.



You can see this bag exceeded my size expectations. I thought I would get a bag about the size of evening clutch, yet it's almost as big as my new laptop carrier. Still, I've put it to use with my current project, the Traveling Shells Cardigan.



I'll keep it. I might continue to look for a smaller project bag. Meanwhile, this will do.

I own so many bags. I can't decide if it's because I have so many hobbies and projects in the works or because I live in a small house and am always striving to stay organized. Here are a few of the bags I use constantly.




This is my knitting bag. Love the cute dogs on the front and back. See all the pockets inside? I have pockets for needles, patterns, tape measures, scissors, you name it, if you need it for knitting, it's in here. However, this bag mostly stays home. It holds several projects at once and I thought I'd like a smaller, single project bag to carry along to places I might get a chance to knit, like the doctor or dentist's office, beautician, you get the idea.

So then for some reason I went nuts taking pictures of the various bags I have.



In my opinion, these Outward Hound bags are the absolute best bags you can get. I have two, the small size in red and the large size in blue.


Here's the inside of my obedience bag. It holds leashes and collars for 5 different dogs, 2 sizes of white gloves for the directed retrieve exercise and 3 different sizes of dumb bells. Of course, the 4-5 dogs I am training could not use the same size of dumb bell!




Above is the inside of my grooming bag which is the large size of Outward Hound gear bag. I love all the pockets, the shoulder strap and hand straps with Velcro closure, all the outside pockets and space for 2 water bottles. I think these are the best bags available for several uses.

Ah, but wait. I have more bags.



Above are all the different scent discrimination article bags I have for my various dogs. These bags are all mesh or some other kind of breathable material so the scent articles can "air out".



This bag holds all the towels I need for grooming the dogs at the shows. The Pembroke Welsh Corgi model on this bag, and on several T-shirts and Hoodies from this company, is a dog I bred and was owned by the artist, P. Harris.



And finally, I won this little bag at a Christmas party for a dog obedience school I attend. I use the bag to hold the brush, comb and spray bottle of water I take to ring side at dog shows.

And this is just the beginning. I have still more bags I won't bore you with.

My local Public Television station is showing West Side Story tonight. What a great movie! Wonderful choreography, costumes, dancing and songs. Right now they are singing "Tonight, Tonight". How sad, knowing the ending.

Jealous

I am so jealous of all of you who attended the Shepherds Harvest Festival. I don't know how I forgot about it but I did. I didn't remember until I had already made plans I could not cancel. I will have to live vicariously through your pictures and posts, so lots of pictures and reports please! I think I must be the only knitter in MN who did not attend. Next year for sure.


I just had to show you this picture of one of my bluebirds sitting on a bird feeder. I took the picture through a window with a little HP digital camera so it's not the greatest but I was thrilled to capture Mr. Bluebird. He wasn't eating any of the bird seed, just using the perch to catch some bugs. I know he's not really MY bluebird but I am very protective of the blue birds who come to nest here each spring. Just ask my cat, Percy, who is damaging my screens trying to get outside. Poor kitty.

My dog training has been suffering of late. We are very busy at work and I spent time this weekend coding and writing a requirements specification. Sounds like too much fun huh? I did get some training time with Dak and Dot, Shamrock and Dusty, but I think poor Bunny has been ignored of late. She's making good progress and I need to be more consistent about finding time to work with her each day.



I did find time for some knitting this weekend. I'm making progress on the traveling shells cardigan. After many frustrating false starts, tinking back an entire (244 stitch)row two different times, I am actually starting to get the hang of this pattern. I am having a particular problem with yarn splitting. While knitting I think I am being so careful not to split the yarn and to re-do any splits I see, but then I look back at earlier rows and see tons of splits. Geez! It must be my eyesight. Or perhaps I made a poor choice when I substituted yarn. The 'purl two together through the back loop' are especially difficult.



I walked away from this project more than once before I completed the fifth row. I went looking on the web for other patterns I could use with this yarn. In the end, I stuck it out and for some reason, completing the fifth row seemed to be the charm for me. Though I'm still making plenty of mistakes I can now see it is possible to complete this project.

What happened to spring?

I've been incredibly busy with my job lately so blogging and knitting, even dog training, have taken a back seat the last week or so. I finally made it to dog training Monday and Tuesday evening and to herding lessons today.


Spring seems to have come and gone while I was busy. This is a picture of my crab apple tree, the tree I sit on my couch and look at through the winter while I work and while I knit. I study its bare branches and count the days until the tree blooms again. Most years there are at least a few perfect spring days, clear and warm and calm, during which I can enjoy my tree in its best bloom. Sadly, this year there was nothing but rain and wind and cold during the peak bloom of my tree. Now the tree is well past its prime bloom and the temperatures are reaching the mid 80s. What happen to spring?



I've made some knitting progress. I finished my pink shrug and plan to wear it to work tomorrow. I'm always cold in air conditioned buildings so I think it will be useful despite the warm weather.



For the record, this is the "Dream In Color" shrug knit with Dream In Color Classy worsted weight yarn, color way Cool Fire. Knit on size 8 Inox circular needles. I bought the yarn and pattern on a whim but ended up falling in love with the yarn. Classy knits up very fast, never wants to split and the color is so pretty. I'm not to sure how useful a shrug will be so I'm thinking of making a nice cardigan using this yarn. It's a bit pricey but I found it to be worth it.



And here's the beginning of the traveling shells cardigan I am making for my mom. You can see I'm about to start row 2. Woohoo! I'm sure you don't want to be bored with inch by inch progress on this one so I'll have to find something else to blog about for the summer - hopefully I'll finish it yet this summer.

I don't mind if the rain returns but I hope the thunder stays away for a while. My dog Dak is so afraid of thunder. It's been my experience, and other dog owners I've talked to concur, that a dog who is afraid of storms only gets worse with age. This has certainly been true for Dak. Dak has a raised bed like this in his "safe" place in the basement. This past weekend during a short thunder storm I found him with his head under his bed! Silly boy, his entire body was sticking out but his head was hidden safely under his bed. So I told him my favorite joke from my grade school days.

Dak, did you hear about the gaggle of ostriches playing down at the beach when they heard a loud noise and all ran and hid their heads in the sand? Turns out, the big noise was nothing but a large, old ostrich walking down to the beach. The old ostrich gets to the beach, looks around and says "Hey, where did everyone go?"

Ok, Dak didn't laugh either but I can't help myself, I think it's hilarious!

Pink Dogs and Cute Dogs

I am still giggling over Lauren's comment about my "pink dogs". I tell ya, I take no end of ribbing about my pink tennis shoes. Still, I love them. They are very comfortable and I have special inserts in the shoes to help my sore feet. The pink really shows up in the photo though doesn't it?

Thanks to all of you for your nice comments about my dogs. I don't now what the conformation judges were thinking either but that's dog shows. After 27 years and 20 champions, I've learned to grin and bear it. Performance activities like obedience, rally and herding are so much more fun and meaningful. It's why I keep doing both even though it can make for an exhausting weekend. Ah, make that an exhausting life!

Addie, Whisper and Bunny all received their OFAs and their CERFs this week so very good news all around.

The same catalog I ordered the bright pink shoes from last year has sunny yellow ones for sale this year. So tempting...