Are These Cute Dogs or What?

Is this a cute dog or what? This is my DD (Darling Dak) winning the Novice B class at obedience trials in Iowa this weekend. Dak did quite well for himself on Saturday and I was ever so happy with his success. This completed his CD title. Dak scored 196.5 out of a possible 200 points. Three of the points he lost were because of my poor foot work. Dak himself only lost 1/2 of a point. I bet he wishes he had a better handler!

The show was overall a pleasant show. Camping was nice with lots of grass for walking dogs and plenty of power outlets which means almost no RVs running their generators which translates into peace and quiet - except for Friday night when the race track at the fair grounds held a very big, busy and LOUD race. Well, I guess that is what race tracks are for.

This is JJ, all groomed up and waiting to go into the show ring. I think he's ever so handsome. Unfortunately, the judges this weekend found dogs they thought were more handsome than JJ.

And this pretty girl is Addie, like JJ, all dressed up and waiting to go to the show. Addie didn't fare much better than JJ this weekend in the conformation ring. Our successes this weekend were definitely in the obedience and rally rings. Shamrock, Addie's dam, won the Rally Novice B class with a perfect score of 100. This completed her RN title. Good for Shammie!

Here's Whisper checking out the grooming supplies.


And knitting? I did knit a bit this weekend. I knit exactly 7 rows of my pretty pink shrug. Four of these rows were straight purl stitch. I did those four rows correctly, but I had to tink backwards to correct mistakes in 2 of the 3 pattern rows. After that I decided I was far too tired to knit and went to bed.


My ever so beautiful, eleven year old Ch. Kantishna Red Wing UD RAE.

Recipes and Such

I'm most happy to share my pizza recipe though it's a simple margherita pizza. I'm not exactly sure where I picked up this particular pizza dough recipe. A few years ago I found and purchased several of the "cookbooks" pictured above. They are blank books with pages for your favorite appetizers, breads, salads, entrees, etc.. I gave them as Christmas gifts to several of my sisters and sister-in-laws. I'm not so sure they appreciated them as much as I have appreciated mine. I copy my favorite recipes into this little book. Unfortunately, it looks like I've forgotten to credit where my pizza dough came from. Anyway, here is the recipe I use for pizza dough. Mind you, it's a thin crust. I love a thin crust and work hard to produce the perfect thin crust pizza.


In a non-reactive bowl combine 2 tablespoons of sugar, one packet of dry yeast and 1.5 cups of warm (105-115 F) water. Let this sit until foamy, about 5 minutes.

Meanwhile, in a heavy duty mixer bowl mix up 3 1/2 cups of flour, 1/2 cup of bread flour and 1 tablespoon salt. I use kosher salt mostly but use seasoned sea salt on occasion. Whisk these dry ingredients together.

Once the yeast mixture is foamy, add 3 tablespoons olive oil to the yeast mixture. Now add the oil and yeast mixture to the dry ingredients and using the dough hook, knead on low speed for 10 minutes.

You may have to add more flour. I often need to. You should be able to hear the dough "slapping" on the mixing bowl by the end of the 10 minutes of kneading. If the dough is still sticking to the sides of the bowl, you need to add more flour. I start adding flour 1/4 tablespoon at a time and keep adding until the dough is slapping against a clean sided bowl. The dough will be somewhat sticky when done.

Now place your dough in a lightly oiled bowl, cover with a floured cloth or plastic wrap, set in a warm place and let rise - I don't know exactly - but until 'done', about an 1.5 - 2 hours.

Punch the dough down. At this point I divide it into 4 pieces and freeze 3 of the pieces. Depending on the size of your family, you might want to use the whole works for one or several pizzas for a single meal.

To freeze the dough I simply place the pieces into their own plastic bags. Take out a dough piece the morning you intend to use it. Place it into a lightly oiled bowl, cover with plastic wrap and let rise through the day. Use that evening.

For the dough you are using the day you make it, simply brush the dough with a little olive oil and let rise again, about another hour or until ready to use.

I place my pizza stone in the oven when ready to bake and pre-heat to 525 F.

Roll out the pizza dough as thin as possible on a peel sprinkled with flour and corn meal. I recently read somewhere - can't remember where - to roll out the dough as thin as you can, then let it rest about 5 minutes. Now it will roll out even thinner. This little hint has worked for me.

A marghertia pizza is just tomatoes, fresh mozzarella, kosher salt and fresh basil.

Chop or slice your tomatoes, slice the mozzarella thin and place the tomatoes and cheese around the pizza. Add oil olive. I've learned at this point not to add as much olive oil as you will eventually want on your pizza (I like lots) or else it won't come off the pizza peel neatly. You can add more olive oil as soon as you take the pizza out of the oven. Sprinke your pizza with kosher salt or seasoned sea salt.

Bake the pizza about 8-10 minutes or until crust and cheese is a nice golden brown.

Chiffonade fresh basil while the pizza is baking. Sprinkle the basil and any additional olive oil you desire over the pizza as soon as you remove it from the oven.

It's really nothing too fancy. Just one of my favorite meals.

Gosh, my dad called me today from AZ and complained about how infrequently I update my blog. I had no idea how long it has been since the last update. I could swear I blogged just a few days ago!





So here I am in my Nantucket Jacket. I love it, can't wait to wear it next fall and winter. And it was fun to knit, which I can't say about my next project.








This, yes this little piece full of mistakes, is the result of 4 hours of Sunday afternoon knitting. Isn't it pitiful? I think I might have bitten off more than I can chew with this project. Still, I could do this with enough patience. I will have to use stitch markers to indicate every 10 stitch repeat and a life line on every 10th and 19th row. It won't be fast. I'm not sure it will even be fun. I'm trying to think why I want to do a knitting project that will not fun.



I started a little shrug out of Dream In Color yarn, Classy. What a great name. It's a worsted weight, super wash yarn. The color is "Cool Fire". It's a fun yarn to knit with. I'm in the middle of the 4th of 9 repeats so you can see it's also a fast knit. I might stick with this for a while and reconsider my Traveling Shells Cardigan.

Meanwhile, I had a ton of spring cleaning and dog chores to complete this weekend before my dog show season starts in earnest. Too bad I wasted so much time on the silly little swatch for the Traveling Shells Cardigan. I did get all the windows washed and screens put on, the patio hosed down and the house cleaned. Still, I didn't get any dogs groomed or Advantage applied The ticks are out in force around here! Most importantly, I didn't get any dog toenails trimmed. It's a rule in my house that all the dogs' toenails must be trimmed before you go to bed on Sunday night.

Where have the bluebirds gone?
The bluebirds were here in late March, at least 3 males and two females, but they disappeared when the cold and snow came in April. The tree swallows are now mating and fighting over the bluebird houses but it saddens me to see no bluebirds nesting in any of the houses. I am hoping they are nesting in natural cavities. Over the 26 years I've lived here I've let the trees in the fence row grow and I do much to attract woodpeckers so hopefully the bluebirds are finding natural nesting spots and not needing the bluebird houses. I do see them perching out on my dog jumps most every day, I just don't see them using the nesting boxes.

I set up my dog jumps each spring. The primary purpose is to train the dogs of course, but I've learned the jumps make excellent outposts for the bluebirds to sit on and watch for worms and bugs. It's always so relaxing to look up from my computer while at work and see the bluebirds using the dog jumps to hunt for food. I'm not so crazy about it when I go out there in the evenings to train the dogs and find the jumps cover in bird poop...but it's a small price to pay I figure.

See the dog chasing my cat in this picture? That's Addie. I bred her and co-own her and she's here for a few shows this spring. My own dogs do play with the cat but know better than to chase him. Addie hasn't quite learned that lesson yet. Speaking of, poor Percy is sick again. I just had him at the vet for a bladder infection and seems it has returned. Looks like Percy will have to make another visit to the vet tomorrow. He won't be happy about that.

I closed out my weekend (well, not quite, I still need to cut dog toenails...) by making my favorite pizza. I do make good pizza.

Ta-Da!

I'm proud to announce the completion of my Nantucket Jacket. I am very happy with this project. The sweater fits great and it's a sweater I'll wear often and am very comfortable in. So much fun to work on and complete a project like this. I am terrible at taking pictures, much less pictures of myself, so I'll try to get help with an actual 'me modeling' picture next time I go into the office.

Here's a close of of part of the sweater. Collars and I just don't seem to get along. I studied the collar grafting done by Jeanne and mine is not the same. I like Jeanne's better but I'm still happy with mine. For the record, I did my Nantucket Jacket on size 8 Inox needles using Mission Falls 1824 Wool, color Mist. I purchased the yarn and wooden buttons from Knitters Palette.




Spent the weekend dog training. The weather was - finally - almost warm and very sunny. I was able to spend most of Saturday outdoors. Super! Sunday I spent indoors getting private lessons from a great dog trainer. Also super despite the beautiful weather outdoors. Here's Dak attempting a straight front after a retrieve over the high jump. Hum...I'm hoping for better results in the ring! I train other dogs besides Dak. For some reason, he's the dog who keeps getting his picture in the blog.



It's been a sad day here in America. I was so busy at work this morning and then so shocked to check out Google News at lunch only to read another school massacre had occurred. I used to think tragedies like this made my life seem so small and inconsequential and in truth, all our lives can be considered such. But our lives are the one most precious thing we have. My life, and your life, are very important. You must live your best life, make yourself happy and take good care of yourself. Otherwise, you have no chance of doing so for anyone else.

Eek! Philosophy from a boring knitter and dog trainer

UFOs

...or Un-Finished Objects for my non-knitting family and friends who read my blog. I honestly didn't think I had many of them. I'm usually very anal about finishing each project I start. However, I dug my UFOs out this past weekend and decided to confess. Eeek! Doing this inventory was rather embarrassing.


I completed the knitting portion of this cotton vest back in the summer of 2004 or maybe it was even 2003. All it needs for finishing is a little crochet around the edges and buttons sewn on. I started the crochet on this vest as my Nantucket Jacket was blocking. I crochet so seldom I need to re-learn the skill each time I use it and figured I'd practice crocheting on this vest before tackling the Nantucket Jacket. I knit left handed, i.e., I move my stitches from the right to the left needle. I've tried in the past to learn how to knit right handed but I've knit in my own way for so long now it's very difficult for me to change. However, I crochet so seldom I'm hoping to take a class and learn to crochet right handed. As for completing the white vest, it's going very slowly. I've crocheted and ripped and crocheted and ripped. I can't seem to make my stitches come out evenly and my crochet is much tighter than my knit causing the knitted item to pucker.



Then there's this little Fiber Trend Sheep Tote Bag. I consider it a UFO because I want to try needle felting and needle felt a corgi outline on the bag. I can't draw worth a darn but I thought perhaps I could trace a corgi outline onto the bag somehow and then needle felt it. I was thinking my bag turned out nice enough until I saw this bag done in two colors on the Knitters Palette blog. Check out the March 30th entry. Isn't that pretty?


Last but hardly least is this Adrienne Vittadini Zebra patterned sweater. This is a very old UFO. Some years back I went crazy for color work. I couldn't knit enough of it. Then I ran into this sweater and it killed my joy of color work completely. I've completed the back and front and checking it out some years later, my knitting is not so bad. It could still make a nice sweater but I just lost my mind with all the dangling bobbins and yarn towards the end of this sleeve. What a mess. I'll have to untangle it all and figure out where I am in the pattern. I remember I'm close to the end of the sleeve. I did this in intarsia. I'm thinking I could possibly finish this first sleeve and the second sleeve by stranding the yarns, not the best method but I'm thinking stranding the two colors might be the only way I'll finish this.

Happy Easter

Hope everyone had a wonderful Easter.

Whoo-who, look what's blocking!



I dug out my "How to Crochet" for lefties book. It's time to review what little I know and remember about crocheting so I can finish my Nantucket Jacket. The buttons are waiting to be attached. I have to go into the office on Thursday and with the weather as cold as it is, should be a perfect time to wear my new sweater.

Almost There

I think I am making good progress on my Nantucket Jacket. I suppose some might think I'm a slow knitter. I don't think I am a particularly slow knitter, though I've never compared my knitting speed to anyone else, I just think I do not have a lot of time for knitting. Enough excuses, I hope to finish the final side in the next few evenings.

I thought long and hard about making button holes in the seed stitching rather than using the crocheted edging for button holes. The sides are wide enough for the "button bands" of seed stitching to overlap and I like my cardigans to fit snugly. It's cold here in the winter. Heck, it's cold here tonight and it's April! Seems as if the sweater is going to fit loosely in the front by using the crocheted edging for button holes. However, in the end, I had my doubts about the seed stitching being strong enough to be used as a button band. If I could sew, I'd sew a nice ribbon edging along the inside of the seed stitching to make it stronger but alas, I'm lousy at sewing and don't even own a sewing machine.

I know I've said it before but I've so enjoyed this knitting project. I predict more textured knitting in my future.

Not too much new on the dog scene here. Haven't been to any shows since February. Looks like my show schedule will start in force at the end of April what with obedience, conformation and herding events coming up. Trying to figure out who will be in coat, who will be far enough along in their training, who will be ready for which events. For now, it seems I'm constantly grooming shedding dogs and rounding up the dust bunnies. Spring!