Tuesday, April 14, 2009

Amelia Is Finished

Knitting

I finished Amelia. Here is a picture before blocking. It looks much better after blocking but the picture I took after blocking makes the color look a very dull gray. Definitely not this sweater!



I thought this was a great pattern, easy to follow, no mistakes, fun to knit. I've been wanting to try this type of sweater construction and Amelia was a very nice pattern to do it with. The sweater fits almost perfectly. The sleeves are a little wide but this is my mistake. I knit the second size up for the body and meant to knit the smaller size for the sleeves but I forgot. Still, it's not a big deal. I love the sweater and am sure I'll wear it often.

I'm not as crazy about the yarn, Debbie Bliss Cashmerino Aran. I found the yarn not at all forgiving of being reknit. There's lots of mistakes in this sweater and normally I would have corrected these. I actually enjoy the process of dropping stitches and using knitting and crochet needles to pick all the stitches back up correctly. It's like magic to me! However, after doing it a few times with this yarn, I realized the yarn didn't hold up to being reknit and it looked much better to just leave the mistakes in. I'll try to get a better picture in the daylight tomorrow. Overall, I'm very happy with the project.

I've known all winter I wanted to knit a baby blanket for my nephew's new son, due in early May. Early May, it seemed so far away. Now it's just a few weeks away. And to make matters worse, I'm in the midst of the most awful rheumatoid arthritis flare. I think I've mentioned before on this blog I have RA. I've gone almost two years with barely a hint of symptoms. Just 10-11 days ago I ran 3 dogs at two days of agility trials. Now, I'm almost bed/couch ridden. I'll get better, we'll have to tweak medicines and amounts, but sooner or later, this too will pass. I do hope it's sooner.

Meanwhile, I had to completely change my plans for the baby blanket. My stiff, aching fingers and wrists are not up to the lovely, lacy, heirloom of a baby blanket I had planned. However, I found this tumbling block pattern in Vogue Knitting On The Go Baby Blankets Two and immediately realized it's the perfect pattern for sore hands. This construction will only require me to knit the full blanket size for one 16 row pattern repeat. Too nice! Besides, I think it's an attractive pattern, not to mention very easy. Here's the right side of the pattern:



I think the wrong side looks just as nice, a good feature in a baby blanket as babies are known for kicking their blankies about.



I'm knitting this on size 5 Addis using Debbie Bliss Cashmerino Baby in a bright turquoise color.

Dogs

Let's see, JJ completed his Open Standard agility title. Whisper finished her Novice Standard and Novice Jumpers with Weaves. Dusty's making fast progress towards his MX and MXJ and sweet, shy little Bunny has two legs towards the three she needs to complete her Rally Novice title. Bunny even won first place for one the legs. She and Dak are entered in Rally and Obedience trials respectively this coming weekend and I'm hoping to be well enough to show them.

I couldn't manage a walk to the mailbox this past Saturday but did manage it on Easter Sunday. There I found the results from Dusty and JJ's DM tests. JJ is a carrier - that's good, it means he cannot get the disease himself, though he could pass it on, and Dusty, Dusty is CLEAR! Hurray! So far there's turning out to be few Pembrokes testing Clear of DM. It's great news for Dusty himself and for all his offspring. I'm still waiting for the results of several of the girls I tested.

Despite his good news, Dusty was neutered today. He's six, going on seven years old and starting to have some minor prostrate problems. I figure best to "nip" (if you'll excuse the pun) these prostrate problems early. Dusty also has a sore shoulder and is on strict crate/leash rest for four weeks (absolutely no agility, bummer!) so it seemed like the perfect time to do the deed. Luckily, I had Dusty collected and frozen almost four years ago and we were able to collect and freeze 5 more samples today before his surgery. Dusty's swan song I guess :-)



Dusty's feeling a bit under the weather tonight, but he'll be good as new in a few days.

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