Trying to keep this a knitting blog

I am very cognizant of how long it has been since my last blog. I was hoping to be further along, if not finished, with the green, traveling shells cardigan before I blogged again. I'm close, yet, I'm a long way from a finished object.



I've completed the sleeves of the cardigan and 1/2 of the collar. I will baste the sleeves to the body tomorrow and have my mom try it on, as it's her sweater, but the sleeves sure look too short to me. I knit the sleeves 1.5 inches beyond the pattern suggested length and still they look too short. Hopefully the hang/drape of the fabric will change my opinion once I have my mom try it on. I think I'll shed real tears if I have to lengthen the sleeves but I'll do it.



Perhaps it is because of the time I've put into this project but I'm not too happy with the overall look. Maybe it will get better after I do all the finishing. I think the sweater looks better without the collar. I like the scalloped edges of the cardigan and the collar, at least as I've knit it, hides this pretty detail. I hope to complete the brunt of the finishing work this weekend. We'll see how it all comes together after that.



My puppy girl is doing great. She has really grown since I last blogged. I've moved her to bigger "digs" and still she is close to being able to crawl out of the larger sized swimming pool. Next will be an X-pen (exercise pen) in the dining room area will she will be able to interact with a bigger part of the canine family living here.


Her Cuteness

This And That

Again, not much knitting content this evening. I was dog showing it this weekend but did manage to knit about an inch on the sleeves of the traveling shells cardigan. I'd show you pictures but I figure if I'm bored with the project - and I am - I can only imagine how bored the rest of you must be with it. The Second Wave Clapotis starts next weekend so I need to finish this cardigan soon.

Dak did well this weekend at the obedience trials. He was second in his class both days with a score of 196.5 out of 200 on Saturday and a 195.5 out of 200 on Sunday. I'm very pleased with his performance and consistency though I realize we need to bump up our performance if we want to be truly competitive. Shamrock acquired the first leg towards her Rally Advanced title. She wasn't very enthusiastic about it and her score suffered as a result but at least it's done.

I managed to drown my favorite laptop last week. I left it on the kitchen counter along side a gallon jug of water which sprung a leak over night, flooding my laptop, kitchen counter and floor. What a mess! My replacement laptop is not as nice, smaller screen and smaller, more uncomfortable keyboard. Oh well, I still get to work for home so my complaints are minimal.

My Big and Only Girl is doing well. She's just as cute as she can be.

First Meal


Playing With "Litter Mates"

And then there was one

Precious little knitting content

I took four hours of vacation this morning to go herding with JJ. I've done this quite a bit this summer. My regular lesson is suppose to be late in the afternoon on Wednesdays but with the heat this summer, I've frequently had to make other arrangements.

And it was another scorcher today! Hot and so humid. As we Minnesotans like to say, "It's not the heat, it's the humidity". The humidity is especially hard on the sheep and dogs. I ended up spending 3+ hours driving for 10-15 minutes of herding time. Makes it tempting to get your own sheep at times...



As I mentioned in an earlier post, my herding instructor had a Herding Fun Day on Labor Day. I took a few casual shots. It was an absolutely beautiful day, warm but not humid(!). The sun was shining so bright I could not see anything in the camera's view finder so I just clicked away. They aren't the best pictures but hopefully give you a bit of the flavor of the day.



If you enlarge this picture you can see some of the sheep and a friend with her Cardigan Welsh Corgi. These are not woolly sheep. You wouldn't want to spin any yarn from these gals. They are mostly Katahdins, some Barbs and Barb crosses. Many people who keep sheep for herding have small flocks and do not want the trouble and expense of shearing. My instructor added some new lambs this year and she keeps telling me they are hair sheep, but they sure look like Jacobs to me. Lucky for her, I'm no sheep expert.



I had to stop in the office on the way home from herding lessons and it was far too hot - and humid - to leave a dog in the car, so here's JJ in the office behaving himself.

And you didn't think you'd get away without looking at puppy pictures did you?



Above is Big Girl and Little Boy at one week old. I'll leave it to you to guess which is which.





And here they are today. I still don't know what to make of my little boy. He's gained a pitiful 2 ounces over his birth weight at 10 days old. I'll let him grow on a bit until he can be better diagnosed or he takes a turn for worse.

No knitting pictures tonight. I worked several hours on the sleeves of the traveling shells cardigan this past weekend but there's nothing new to see. I've really got to get this finished as the Clapotis KAL starts soon. I'm feeling like the slowest knitter in the world!

Almost Lost My Camera!

I went to a Herding Fun Day at my herding instructor's today. It was so nice of her to have us all out. Unfortunately, I left my camera sitting on the top of a fence post. It might not seem like much but my sister Anne bought the camera for me when I came down with Rheumatoid Arthritis and it took everything I had for a few months just go get out of bed and care for my dogs. That particular camera was such an inspiration for me, plus it not only has some neat sheep herding pictures from today it has the latest pictures of my two little puppies (whom I'm currently calling Jack Sprat and His Wife Sister). Luckily, Polly, my herding instructor, found the camera and has it in her house for safe keeping. I hope to update my blog with new puppy pictures - and some Herding Fun Day pictures - on Wednesday evening.

So far, my two little pups are, well, still here. The boy is excruciatingly small and his sister is exactly the opposite, excruciatingly big. I find raising puppies so difficult. I currently have 22 AKC Champions to my credit but I am amazed/aghast at how the puppy millers do it. I have found breeding and raising healthy, quality Pembrokes very difficult. Sometimes I think I must be doing something wrong...

Hopefully new pictures, both knitting and dogwise, on Wednesday.