PembrokePurls

The Gang of Seven

2011-05-13T20:37:00.000-05:00

Ms. Fancy had seven beautiful puppies on Tuesday, May 10,2011.

Four girls, 2 are tricolors, 2 are red and white. Three boys, one tricolor and 2 red and white.

So far, things are going very well. Everyone healthy, strong and gaining weight.

Puppy Watch

2011-05-08T17:12:00.000-05:00

Knitting

There won't be much knitting in this post. I finished a second doily. I think I'm well and done with doilies for awhile. Someday I'd like to knit a Niebling and the doilies have been good practice. Perhaps I'll start next winter. I'll need to find a period of time when I'm staying home and not off to dog events every non-working hour. I don't think knitting a Niebling is very compatible with agility trials or even obedience trials. Maybe an obedience trial...

The doily above is the Knit Flower Doily. It honestly looks better in person than in the picture. It's quite small. It was knit on 2.25 dpns using DMC Baroque crochet cotton thread.

Dogs

We're on puppy watch here. Fancy is expecting 6 puppies Wednesday, May 11th. It's a very impressive breeding on paper if you look at championship titles, performance titles and most importantly, the health clearances of the parents. These little puppies will have a lot to live up to. But at this point, all I'm hoping for is a safe delivery for the babies and for Fancy. It's so nerve wracking. I've been breeding for 30+ years but I haven't had a litter in 3+ years. I'm hoping I haven't forgotten how.

After using nothing but little kiddy pools for so many years, I decided to invest in a "real" whelping box this time. I set it up last weekend and Fancy hopped right in and started nesting. However, in the last few days she's gotten too big to get in and out by herself. Her temperature is still up and she's still eating all her meals and treats, so no puppies for at least the next 24 hours.

Meanwhile, I've started a shape-up program for Tinkerbelle, Rumor and myself. All three of us need to be in better shape for the summer agility trials. We're up to two miles, not much but better than nothing. We use the Sakatah Singing Hills trail. It was raining this morning but I'm proud to say I stuck with the program. Can you tell Rumor is related to Bunny? Who knew no-ears-up-for-the-camera was hereditary!

My view on the walks.

Yesterday, when it was so sunny and warm and the lake so beautiful, I forgot my camera. Today it was cloudy and gray but at least there was no ice and snow on the lake.

JJ gets a walk also. He's finally getting a little bit better. Still limps on occasion but can actually walk quite a ways before he starts to limp. JJ gets a separate walk as he isn't allowed yet to go at the speed Belle, Rumor and I move at. JJ is suppose to go at a 'smell the daisies' pace. It's not a pace JJ is too familiar with.

Despite getting a little better, I'm afraid this could be the end of JJ's performance career. Even if he walks perfectly after this, I can't imagine allowing him to do herding again, and certainly not agility. Maybe he can do a little obedience. I'm bummed, JJ is such a fun dog to work with, he loves working with me, never tires or gets grouchy. To think it all started with a little limp when he came in the house after his bedtime potty break.

Birds

Spring has finally come to Minnesota and all the summer birds are back. They seem extra colorful and noisy to me this year. I suspect this is related to the extra long, extreme winter we had. My only disappointment so far is no bluebirds in any of my houses. They are here, they are back perching on the weave poles looking for food. Maybe they have decided not to nest yet. Maybe they have found natural nesting spots in the trees which would be great. I hope they stick around for the summer, I'll miss them so much if not.

Sassy

2011-04-17T22:13:00.000-05:00

Gosh, I pubished my previous post and forgot to add pictures of Sassy! Sassy (aka The Springy Thingy) has conquered her chute and teeter fears to complete her Novice Agility Standard title.

These pictures are by Amy at Great Dane Photography

White Lawn, white knitting

2011-04-17T21:39:00.001-05:00

There's snow in my yard still. It had finally all melted last weekend but then it snowed again Friday evening and it's still on the ground. Ugh. I know I'm not alone in asking, when will this winter ever end?

Knitting

I've been wanting to knit a few doilies. Don't ask me why, I certainly don't have the kind of house one would think of as needing doilies but they are quick and small projects, don't take up much space for storage and I enjoy lace knitting.

So here's my first doily. This Doily With Star. The pattern called for a plain cast off. I didn't like the look of that at all so I did a knitted cast off. It's not quite right for this pattern. The edges want to curl up. I've blocked it and starched the heck out it but the edges still want to curl. I should have done a crochet cast off as is shown in the pattern picture. This was knit on 2.50mm dpns and circular needles using size 10 crochet cotton.

The picture isn't very good. I took it early this morning and wasn't happy with the flash so figured I'd take new ones later in the day. However, my camera battery died and I can't find the charger. Although some people may think I have too many dogs, no one could accuse me of being a hoarder. I'm quite the opposite. I can't stand junk laying around and sometimes I get over ambitious with my cleaning. I remember straightening out the drawer the camera charger lived in and I must have accidentally tossed out the charger with other "junk". I found and ordered one from the internet today. I hope it arrives soon. I don't fancy myself any kind of photographer but I enjoy taking pictures of the daily occurrences here.

I also knit up two swatches this weekend (which I'd show you if I had a camera...). One swatch is for Jordan using Louet Euroflax and the other is for Delphine from French Girl Knits. I can't decide which one to start on. They are similar. Knitting with the Euroflax was like knitting with a rope. I plan to use Patons Grace for Delphine. I've used Patons Grace before and have plenty in my stash. I like Patons Grace, the poor man's Rowan Cotton Glace. I think I'm leaning toward knitting Delpine because it looks like it would be easier to modify to fit properly.

Dogs

JJ is still limping. He's been limping since January because of a tricep muscle strain in his left shoulder. JJ has finished up ultrasound treatments and is now doing rehabilitation work which includes the water treadmill, some walking and stretching exercises at Twin Cities Animal Rehabilitation Clinic. It's expensive. It's also discouraging as I'm not seeing a lot of progress. Meanwhile JJ is not allowed to do any of the fun things he enjoys, no herding lessons, little obedience training and certainly agility is off limits.

Fancy is expecting puppies May 11th. She has really popped in the last few days. An ultrasound showed 5 puppies but I'm starting to wonder if there may be more. I left her in the bedroom last weekend while I was at agility trials and came home to find her all curled up on my bed. I have no idea how she managed to get herself up there and sure glad I arrived home before she decided to jump down.

Percy had is yearly physical and shots one morning last week. He was zonked for the afternoon after his trip to the vet.

Knitting Up A Dog

2011-03-27T22:42:00.046-05:00

Knitting

I finally finished knitting my mom's birthday socks. I'm happy with them. I don't enjoy knitting socks much but my mom loves my knitted socks so once in a while I find an easy pattern and knit a pair of socks for my mom. My blog friend Guinifer is a super fast and very accomplished sock knitter. I'm in awe of her. It takes me forever to knit a pair of socks. Truth be told, my mom wears the socks I knit for her to bed so they are never to be seen in public. And that's perfectly fine with me, my mom has neuropathy in one of her feet so I'm happy they make her feel warm and comfortable and I don't have to worry if they are not quite perfect.

Here's the finished product. The pattern is Dublin Bay Socks knit from Pagewood Farm yarn on 2.25 dpns.

Now that I've finished the socks, I'm starting on a knitted Pembroke Welsh Corgi.

I know, as if I need another dog!I've started knitting the Pembroke Welsh Corgi from Knit Your Own Dog. It's super easy knitting, yet, I've managed to complete only the two back legs.

Why? Because I can't motivate to complete the rest of the dog. It's all in bits and pieces. The sewing up of the dog is going to be oh so futsy, putsy. It makes it difficult to continue. I can knit up the pieces with no problem, just not sure I want to bother with sewing together all the teeny pieces. Here are the two back legs knit in Elann Pure Alpaca Fina on Size 2 needles. I'm thinking of ripping these up and starting over using the same yarn doubled and size 4 or 5 needles so the sewing up is a bit easier.

I've knit a few of the Fiber Trends sheep and dogs and they are not knit in tiny, little pieces. So I'm a bit concerned about the finishing work required on these Knit Your Own Dog patterns.

Also, I don't think the Pembroke is very realistic. Some of the other dogs, especially the Jack Russell, the Westie and the Scottie are very realistic. I have a friend with both a Scottie and a Westie and at first I thought I'd knit up both for her. Now that I know how much finishing work is required, and since my friend is a knitter herself, I think I'll just loan her my book and she can knit her own!

A very nice feature of the book is stating the number of stitches at the end of each row. There's a lot of shaping going on and it's especially nice to be able to check you work after a shaping row. The quality of the pictures and the paper the book is printed on are excellent. There's a number of errors in the descriptions of the dogs and their jobs, for example, the Pembroke Welsh Corgi is stated to be a dog who "use their agility to nip at the heels of sheep and horses." Horses? Actually, Pems were used as cattle driving dogs and yes, they did nip at the heels of cattle. But horses? I can't imagine any horse owner I know allowing a dog to nip at the heels of their horses. I only hope the patterns themselves do not contain as many errors. Still, over all, a book I had to add to my collection and am happy to have done so.

Indoor Gardening

Don't these tomatoes in my hydrophonic garden look fantastic? I thought they were ready to eat but I picked one and not only was it difficult to pluck off the vine, a good sign in itself the tomato was not ripe, but it also tasted like a green tomato. I thought for sure I'd make a nice meal out of these this weekend but looks (or rather tastes) like next weekend instead.

My herbs and leaf lettuce are doing great. The romaine lettuce, not so good. About half my Romaine lettuce has wilted, the other half is looking and tasting great but I wish I knew why I lost the other half.

Dogs

2011 has started out great for the dogs. Tinkerbelle is racking up the QQs, Fancy finished her OA and is making good progress toward her OAJ, Rumor started agility with one weekend in February and one in March and has already completed her NA and NAJ. Also lots of obedience training happening here. I'll need to give up a few agility weekends for obedience trials later this year.

Percy spent all winter indoors, which was quite unusual for him. I guess he's getting old. I can't really blame him, it's been a long, hard winter here and still no spring in sight. Percy's now starting to insist on going outdoors several times a day which makes me very happy. I know, it's so politically incorrect of me, but Percy's always been an indoor/outdoor cat and is a working cat here. I cleaned and bleached the cat box today. I confess, I'm happy to know, barring any illness or injury, the cat box won't be used again until next winter.

Pictures From Japan

2011-03-15T08:25:00.000-05:00

A good friend and long time co-worker and teammate lives and works in Japan. He was in the Philippines at the time of the quake, about to board a plane to return home to Tokyo. His flight was cancelled on Friday and he finally made it home on Monday. He has sent us a few pictures and has given me permission to post them on my blog. It's such a horrible tragedy. These pictures do not show the terrible devastation, but they certainly make it more personal for me.

My friend's home suffered no damage. This is in a high-rise in Tokyo. I was happy to learn his family and his family's home are also fine.

Having been gone from home my friend went to the supermarket looking for vegetables and toilet paper and this is what he found. I was happy to learn this morning he was able to find another market today with plenty of vegetables and also - toilet paper!

Above is a picture of a line for gas. I'm pretty sure I would not have the patience for a line as long as this. Hopefully in a time of crisis I would surprise myself.

My friend's lovely chocolate poodle, Taro, was being boarded while his owner was in the Philippines. He's now safe at home though still feeling stress from the quake.

My friend in Tokyo told me the best place for me to donate is the Red Cross.

I'm sure all my dog friends have seen this picture circulating on the web of the tsunami just before it wipes out an agility field set up with jumps, A-frame, weaves. Makes you realize what a small world we live in. Sometimes for me it's difficult to wrap your mind around the scope of such a tragedy, this picture really hit home. Agility folks around the world are rallying to help.

Sassy

2011-02-27T13:41:00.000-06:00

Guinfier asked if Sassy, my Toy Manchester Terrier, is fragile. Despite a few health problems, I do not consider Sassy fragile. She's a toy dog in size but a terrier in her heart. She has a few sweaters and fleece jackets to wear outside in the winter, otherwise I don't make too many concessions for her. Here's a video of Sassy in a Novice Jumpers With Weaves class. She's quite the springy little thing.

Knitting and Sewing

I started a new sewing project today. It's going to be a spring themed picture. I'm at the point where I need to do the applique but I don't have any fusible and don't feel like going out to purchase any so I've set sewing aside in favor of knitting and am hoping to finish up my mom's socks instead. The little quilt pattern includes a bunny rabbit to applique on the yellow fabric. If you've followed my blog you know how I feel about rabbits. I'm thinking of finding a nice outline of a corgi to applique instead.

Dogs

Tinkerbelle and Rumor had a herding lesson with ducks this week. Oh my, were they ever excited about the ducks. I'm happy to say no ducks became lunch though there was a close call or two. JJ, who loves his sheep, wasn't the least bit interested in ducks. "Why bother?" he asked.

I tried so hard to get a picture of Bunny with her ears up. I failed.

Dot celebrated her tenth birthday. Happy Birthday Dottie.

Uncle!

2011-02-20T19:26:00.002-06:00

Okay Winter of 2010-2011, you win! I've had enough. I'm crying UNCLE! We are once again in the middle of a huge snowstorm. Early this morning it was heavy snow, then it turned to heavy ice pellets, now it's back to snow. Enough already, I'm sick and tired of this!

Knitting and Sewing

There hasn't been much knitting progress here though I've very much been wanting to knit. My RA has flared this winter and despite new meds my fingers are swollen and so painful I can only knit for a short while.

This is a pair of socks I was hoping to complete for my mother's birthday, February 1st. I obviously didn't make it. The pattern is Dublin Bay Socks. I first saw these socks knit up on my blogger friend Bridget's site. The pattern is easy to memorize and the perfect take-along project. The yarn is ... is ... I thought for sure I still had the ball band but now I can't find it. I do remember the colorway is Denim. I'm a little worried about running out of yarn but otherwise have enjoyed this project. If only my fingers would co-operate a little more often.

A friend asked me to make her a Kindle cover. I wasn't sure what colors she would like so I made up two. I'm worried about sending them to her because she is an excellent seamstress who is without a sewing machine at the moment and I don't want her to see my sloppy work. I'm teaching myself to sew and haven't gotten the details down yet, the finer points which make something beautifully handmade rather than sloppily homemade. At least I'm trying.

A New Hobby

I know, I know, I so don't need another hobby, but I have one. I've been stalking the AeroGarden website for over a year now wondering if I would like one and if so, should I order the biggest they make or the smallest. This past Thanksgiving weekend they offered a deal I couldn't refuse, buy the largest AeroGarden and get the smallest one free. Now I actually have 4 AeroGardens and I love them! I have two growing lettuce, one with herbs and the extra large size currently has about 2 dozen green tomatoes slowly ripening in my basement.

I'm waiting for the sheriff to come and inquire as to my high electricity usage.

I realize I'm not saving money growing a few of my vegetables and herbs this way. In addition to the extra electricity I also need to buy water for the plants because neither well water nor softened water is recommended. Here I have softened well water! Still, it's loads of fun and there's nothing like picking your own salad greens for supper in the middle of a Minnesota winter. The tomatoes and mature lettuce are water hogs though. I always thought other people were silly to buy water...

Dogs

I've been keeping myself very busy with agility trials in January. I do this on purpose as I'm not at all a lover of winter and staying busy every weekend makes January pass much faster. It also exhausts me - not as young as I used to be or would still like to be.

We've had some nice runs. TinkerBelle and I are finally running as a good team. Feels great to be out there on the course with her. Fancy and I are struggling a bit in the Open classes. Fancy started her agility career on January 2nd and breezed through the novice classes so I'm not too surprised Open has been a bit troublesome. It's a huge jump in difficulty from Novice to Open and although I know Fancy is trained well through the Open classes, the stress of being at real trials as opposed to home practice and lessons is hard on a young dog. Fancy has 2 legs on her OA and one on her OAJ. I'm confident we'll be advancing soon. Rumor was also entered in trials but went into season so had to sit out the month of February. I hope to have some good progress to report on Rumor in March.

I've been keeping a secret....

And her she is. This is Sassy, my Toy Manchester Terrier. Sassy is two years old. She's been with me since puppyhood. It hasn't been all smooth sailing even though I'm totally smitten with her. Sassy came down with Leggs-Perth disease at 7 months and had major surgery to keep her pain free and much rehab work to make her as sound as possible. She also suffers from seasonal alopeica, thus her bare nakedness in the photo. Sassy started her agility career in February. She is excelling in the jumpers classes, not so much in the standard class where the chute (or closed tunnel) scares her and suddenly this week, the teeter has her scared also. Still, I'm not complaining. Sassy is a total blast to work with and I'm sure we'll get this all figured out soon enough.

Not to worry though - the Pembrokes - they're still my kind of dog.

Christmas 2010

2010-12-24T13:19:00.000-06:00

Photo by Great Dane Photo

'Tis The Season

2010-12-19T14:00:00.002-06:00

I started getting ready for the Holiday Season on Thanksgiving weekend. Decorations up, online shopping completed, some knitting and sewing projects completed and others started, but then I fell behind. Finally mailed my packages last week with fingers crossed they will arrive by Christmas. I'm doing Christmas cards while I wait for pictures to be uploaded to blogger.

(Dear Santa, Could you please bring me a faster internet connection for Christmas?
"Only if you move to a better neighborhood Mary where such things actually exist."
Okay Santa, I figured there was no harm in asking.)

Knitting and Sewing

I've finished knitting several small projects and still have one more hat to complete before Christmas.

Here's a scarf knit in Misty Alpaca Chunky. I think I've made at least half a dozen of these over the years. It's quick knit and the yarn, 100% baby alpaca, is so soft and luxurious. I finished this on Thanksgiving and stuff it in a plastic bag! Good thing I got it out today to take a picture of it as it needs a good washing and blocking now. And there's ends to sew in also.

I made another reversible hat of one of my brothers. It's much more attractive on than it looks here.

When completed, it looks like a closed tube.

But once shaped, it becomes a reversible hat. This is knit in Elann's Sock It To Me yarn on size 3 needles. Miles and miles of mindless stockinette knitting. I did a lot of this over a three day agility trial and yes, I still need to wash the dog hair out of this hat and block it.

One last hat, this one done in Cascade Cloud Nine with a pattern from The Rainey Sisters. Yet another hat I need to wash and block yet.

My quilting skills are improving bit by bit. I finished this table runner and am very proud of it. My blocks fit together almost perfectly and my quilting stitches are very nice. Still struggling with the binding though. This was made from a kit by Connecting Threads in fabric "Wrap It Up".

I received a Kindle as a Christmas present (yes I open my presents early!) so made a cover for the Kindle. This pattern is loosely based on The Bookeeper pattern I found in the Moda Bake Shop. I loved it and was proud of the job I did - right up until the binding. Still struggling. Oh well, practice makes perfect right?

Birds

We've had so much snow this year feeding the birds has become somewhat of a chore these days what with having to wade through all the deep snow. It's a lot of fun though to watch the birds from inside a warm house.

The pheasants are back.

And of course the turkeys.

I buy cheap, mostly corn based, bird seed for the pheasants and turkeys because they eat me out of house and home. However, cheaper seed attracts the house sparrows who then compete with and kill the bluebirds in the spring for housing. It's a dilemma for sure.

Dogs

I had a successful year with my dogs.

Ch Kantishna Make Believe
Fancy finished her championship in 4 weekends in May making up my 26th champion. She's already entered in agility trials in January and starting to work on her heeling and retrieving. She is a fun, fun girl.

Ch Busy B's Dakota's Bright Sunshine UD RE AX AXJ VC
Dak completed his OAJ, AX and AXJ. Dak should finish up his MX and MXJ in early 2011 and we'll see where we go after that.

Ch Kantishna Star Kissed CDX RE AX AXJ AXP AJP VC
Dot finished her OAP, AXP and AJP this year. She will soon be 10 years old so is retired - I think, might go back and do some Rally with her as she hates being left out of all the activities. In addition to her own accomplishments, Dot has produced several wonderful working dogs. Thank you Dot!

Ch Kantishna Jump For Joy PT AX AXJ VC
My wonderful JJ. With a lot of hard work and I'm sure every jumping exercise ever known to the world of agility, JJ managed to keep the bars up long enough to finish his Excellent titles. I'm pretty sure he's retired now from agility. However, JJ's back taking herding lessons and doing very well with his obedience training.

Kantishna Keep'n A Secret MX MXJ
Whisper finished her MX and MXJ this year. She's very consistent in agility but not very fast. I've yet to decide what goals to set for Whisper next year. Perhaps some obedience...

Kantishna Keep'n In Motion CD RN
Shy little Bunny held it together long enough to capture her CD. This is a huge accomplishment for Bunny. I will continue to torture :) her in 2011 with more obedience training and trials

Ch Busy B's Dakota's Moon Dust CD PT MX MXJ VC
There was a new CD title for Dusty in 2010 and definitely more obedience planned for Dusty in 2011. Dusty produced two litters of puppies this year and we have high hopes for successful conformation and performance Pembrokes for these puppies. One already has her TD!

Ch Busy B's St. Patricks Day Parade CD RN
Shamrock also finished her CD title this year and should be starting on her open title in early 2011.

Kantishna Believe In Me OA OAJ
I sure do believe in you Tinkerbelle! After a rough start where Belle and I had to work through some injury issues, team work and training issues, I think we're back on track for a successful 2011. In addition to agility, Belle is also doing lots of obedience training.

Whew, I think that's everyone!

HAPPY HOLIDAYS

Spooky

2010-10-31T18:12:00.000-05:00

Death and destruction will be covered in this blog post. Since it's Halloween, it seems appropriate.

I electrocuted a mouse the other morning.

I turned on the light over the kitchen sink at o'dark hundred and fierce mouse scratching ensued. The scratching lasted about 3 minutes before complete silence. Ooops, electrocuted mouse in the ceiling plate of the hanging lamp.

See this darling, sweet, adorable little dog? This picture makes it hard to believe she's a murderer! I heard a commotion and yapping out in the yard and looked out the window to see cute little Tinkerbelle laying over a huge rabbit she had just killed. Belle was laying on top of the rabbit with the rabbit's head between her two front paws and she wasn't letting any other dog share her fresh kill! There was blood dripping from her mouth, fur caught in her teeth and her pretty white paws were solid red, covered in blood. Belle has had two baths since then and I swear she still smells like blood. Gross.

A rabbit kill around here means Frontline for everyone. Expensive.

Knitting

I finished my reversible hat. It turned out as I wanted it too, in fact it's already been usurped by one of my brothers so I'll be ordering yarn to make a few more for Christmas gifts. The hat hadn't been washed or block yet in this picture so don't notice all the dog hair on it.

I started a quilted Christmas table runner. The pattern is rated as easy. It hasn't come easy to me though.

In this picture the inner red and outer green border still need to be sewn on and then it needs quilting. I'm disappointed I couldn't get all my stars to have nice sharp points.

I'm happy enough with the big center star. I thought this would be difficult but I found it easier than the smaller stars. I have a pattern and material for another table runner. This one is squares and should hopefully be easier.

Dogs

I attended an agility seminar a few weekends ago. It was fun. The seminar was for beginning dogs and covered lots of fundamentals. Not only was it a great review of the fundamentals for me but it was also an excellent reminder of all the agility work a person can accomplish with only one or two jumps in a small indoor area over a long Minnesota winter.

Here I am with Rumor. I'm getting constructive criticism on my handling of a difficult tunnel entrance and Rumor's getting treats for doing what her inept handler told her to do even though Rumor was pretty sure I was sending her to the wrong end of the tunnel!

HAPPY HALLOWEEN EVERYONE!

Three Green Ribbons

2010-10-03T15:01:00.000-05:00

I don't have much to say today but I'm trying to pay more attention to my blog. Feeding it daily is beyond my capability. However, I think I ought to be able to stick to a weekly schedule...I think I've said this before though.

Knitting

I'm working on small projects I'd like to gift at Christmas. Above is a reversible hat I'm knitting without a pattern. I'm trying to model it after the small, tight wool hats I noticed my brothers and nephews wearing last year. I suspect they cost a small fortune and thought I could easily make them myself. I'm pleased with my first attempt. Other than the yarn that is. I picked two balls of sock yarn from my stash to make the prototype before I invest in good wool sport yarn. This sock yarn was inexpensive and is 75% superwash wool and 25% nylon. The nylon gives it a nice stretch and longer wear which is perfect for socks, but a bit too much stretch and "scratchiness" for a hat.

I have a ball of Misti Alpaca Chunky waiting to become a scarf. I know I'm repeating myself but this yarn is so soft, it's one of my favorite all time yarns. And knitting a scarf on size 13 needles is a breeze!

I sorted out Christmas themed material for the two table runners I want to make but that's as far as it went. Maybe I'll get back to it this afternoon yet, but I need to clean my patio, get rid of the outdoor potted plants and vegetables, train a few dogs, clip a few toenails (canine ones that is!) and put away the folded laundry.

Dogs

This morning I drove to Hugo for an obedience trial with Shamrock and Dusty. They each qualified! Shamrock received a decent score but she's capable of much better. She was so distracted during her on leash heeling. I think she thought she was back in the show ring and she should strut her stuff out in front of me for her clamoring fans to appreciate. Thankfully, she settled down for her off leash heeling which was quite good.

Dusty worked above what I think I've trained him at. I was very pleased! If it hadn't been for his one no sit he would have scored way over what I was expecting. I haven't put the time into Dusty's obedience training that I should but after today, I'm motivated to do so.

Bunny picked up her first leg (that's a qualifying score towards an obedience title for my non-doggie friends - I think I still have a few) towards her CD (companion dog) title back in August. So I made all three of them sit for a picture with their little green ribbons. You can tell how thrilled they were to pose. From left to right it's Dusty, Bunny and Shamrock. I'll try to get ears on Dusty and Bunny next time. Good grief but they were lacking a sense of humor for this picture.

Catch Up Time

2010-09-26T14:38:00.001-05:00

After a busy summer where I've been absent from my own and my friends' blogs, I decided it was time to do a short update.

Knitting and Sewing

I finished my Watershed shrug. It was a fun knit, a very different construction than I've done before which made this an interesting project. Watershed should be a quick knit, unfortunately my RA really flared up this summer and affected my wrists and fingers the most. I could only manage a few minutes of knitting a day before the pain was too much. What a bummer. I wanted to knit, it just hurt too much. Still, the sweater is finished, I enjoyed knitting it and it's something I will actually wear.

I used only two balls of Rowan Calmer in a purple-ish pink color. Knit on size 8 Addi Turbo needles.

I'm currently taking advantage of my good working fingers and wrists and working on small projects, a few hats and scarves for Christmas gifts.

Back in May I made a big purchase, an Elna 7300 sewing machine. Isn't it pretty? This machine is meant for someone with far better sewing skills than I have, but my reasoning is this, once I'm retired and have more time to sew and improve my skills, I won't be able to afford such a nice machine. So I bought it now while I'm still working. It was my contribution to the stimulus program too! I'm still learning all the features and there are many I haven't even read about yet, all in good time I figure.

I finished my Pink and Green quilt and am happy with it. It's a simple pattern which gave me lots of practice sewing straight seams and making my pieces fit properly. I wanted to quilt it myself so I split the quilt into three sections and created a "quilt as you go" project. I'm so happy I did this. It was much easier to quilt smaller sections rather than wrestling with a large quilt. Blind hem stitching the sections together by hand wasn't quite as much fun...

I love the back of this quilt. I have a bit of the fabric left over and think I'll make a few place mats out of it.

Here's a quilt top I worked on but is in hiatus for a while. I will quilt this in sections also and haven't decided yet on a quit pattern. Meanwhile, I am going to start on a few Christmas themed table runners. Time to work on a few smaller projects and concentrate on improving my skills.

Dogs

The dogs and I did many agility trials this summer and even a few (very few) obedience trials.

Happy boy JJ came through for me in the end and finished his AX (agility excellent) title which gave him his Versatile Corgi (VC) award. While I plan to continue to trial JJ in agility and chip away at his MX and MXJ (master agility titles) I am concentrating on his obedience training. JJ in obedience? I'm probably crazy but I do so enjoy working with this silly, happy dog, so obedience it is.

Fancy finished her Championship in 4 weekends in May. That went fast! She's so pretty though, I wasn't surprised.

Tinkerbelle started her agility career. I thought she'd breeze right through to the excellent level but we've hit a few snags. We're getting back on track now, still have a few teamwork issues to work out and some fears of strange contact equipment like the teeter and especially strange dog walks. That's what it's all about though, working together, spending time together training and having fun. The picture is proof at least Belle is having fun! This great picture was taken by Great Dane Photos.

Here's a picture of Tinkerbelle and Rumor aroo-roo-rooing together. Wish I had the sound to go with this picture. They start and stop together and stay in tune the whole time. It's so cute!

It's Back!

2010-05-08T09:44:00.000-05:00

Knitting

I got my knitting mojo back! I don't know where it went or why it left, but it's back and I'm thrilled. I think it was seeing this pattern, Watershed. I ordered the pattern as soon as I saw it and then went digging through my stash and came up with more than enough Rowan Calmer in a bright purple/pink color. I'm not sure Calmer is a good yarn substitute, I don't see it used too often in lacy patterns, but it's the right gauge and so far I'm liking the look of it. Besides, I've been spending a lot of money on the dogs lately so it was nice to use yarn I already had.

Here is the beginning of the bottom lace edge. It's going quickly now but it took me about an hour to get started. I wanted to teach myself how to do a figure 8 cast on. There's plenty of videos and instructions on the web, but being a lefty, I have to struggle with thinking in mirror images.

In addition to starting something new, I also went through my unfinished projects. I'm determined to finish them.

I started this chevron scarf a long time ago. This is Lorna's Laces sock yarn. I love the yarn and the color. The reason I put the project on the back burner is because I'm not much of a scarf wearer. I'm trying to figure out what else I could use the yarn for instead of a scarf I'll never wear. Socks seem the likely candidate I know, but I'm not crazy about knitting socks. I have more than enough yarn for a shawl, but I'm not much of a shawl wearer either and these are bright colors for a shawl. Any ideas?

And this is my Cameo sweater from Custom Knits. All I have left are the button bands and the little capped sleeves. It should only be a few hours work. I'm having trouble getting it done though because the sweater is going to be too small. I'll finish it though, I hate leaving things undone.

Best of all, I finished my Mother's Day gift in plenty of time.

Dogs

Wait, isn't that a picture of a rabbit? Yes, it is. There's a family of rabbits living and copulating under my pine trees in an unfenced area of the yard I use for agility training. I'm not a fan of bunnies at all and I'd like them to move on. Cute as they may be, rabbits are covered in fleas and full of tape worms. I don't want my pets around rabbits.

Percy is a great rabbit killer, but I'm keeping him in the house until the 5 baby bluebirds leave their nest. I have several dogs who are excellent and experienced bunny killers. I'll omit their names to protect the guilty. I could send the dogs out to dispatch of the bunny family, but then they'd be covered with fleas.

My A-frame is sitting unused because, in addition to the rabbit family, the wheels on the A-frame mover broke and I can't move the A-frame myself without the A-frame mover. I'm afraid to move the tunnel because I'm thinking there will be nests of baby bunnies under it, or worse, snakes. Guess we'll do obedience training in the basement today. Like Scarlett, I'll think about it tomorrow.

More On The Neighbors

2010-04-25T10:17:00.000-05:00

Thank you to those who commented on my previous post. I tried to reply to each of you but found out I'm missing some current email addresses.

Chris asked why I don't turn my neighbors in. I don't need to turn in my neighbors as they are constantly being watched and inspected. Although dumping their dog waste next to my driveway was probably illegal (they cleaned it up with one warning phone call from me) unfortunately, there is nothing illegal about the way they keep their dogs.

It's a bit of a dilemma for me. Dog breeders are constantly fighting against legislation to limit or halt the breeding of dogs. Naturally, I don't want to lose my freedom to breed dogs. Still, as a responsible dog breeder and lover of dogs, I'm saddened by the sorry life many dogs live. Responsible dog breeders are so afraid of losing their right to their hobby that we just scream No! to every piece of legislation. I'm not convinced this is the best tactic. Perhaps instead of standing in place, shaking our fists and hollering No! we should sit down and come up with some reasonable compromise. Otherwise, we're leaving dogs like my neighbor's quite literally out in the cold.

On to more pleasant topics.

Knitting

I actually finished something! This is a face cloth from Fiber Trends Bath Time Blossoms pattern. I plan to start on a pink one today and am hoping to finish up my Mother's Day gift on time. Actually, I've made a number of these as gifts over the past few months. They knit up quickly and are great portable projects. I like using the Cotton Fine for these because the bit of wool in this yarn feels better and gives the cloth a better shape than 100% cotton.

Dogs

I've been keeping up with my self-assigned dog training challenge. Bunny has the nicest retrieve now! It's exciting because there were days I wondered if she'd ever get to this point. A few years ago I trained my Winger, a shy, quiet, lacking in confidence dog, and swore I'd never train another dog with such a temperament. So here I am training Bunny. I think I know a little more this time around. I've always known and thought I understood that dog training is all about breaking the final desired behaviour into smaller pieces. Training Bunny has taught me there's always an even smaller piece I can train and perfect. Make the right behavior easy to do and the wrong behavior difficult to do. That's how to train Bunny. It's slow going at times, but it sure is fun when it all comes together.

Practicing their down stays, with their bright green flash bulb eyes, is Bunny, Shamrock, Dusty and Whisper.

Food

I lost the ten pounds I've wanted to lose so I celebrated this weekend with lots of white food, white flour and white rice. Not good diet food that's for sure. It's okay though, I'll get back on the wagon. You can't deny yourself everything forever.

Shrimp risotto with asparagus and red peppers

Buttermilk and currants scone

Percy

It's the time of year Percy has to stay in the house. He hates it. I'm not too crazy about it either. He has moments of acceptance though and I managed to capture one here.

We Need To Talk

2010-04-15T21:43:00.000-05:00

It's time for a confession. I am a breeder. Yes, one of those horrible, politically incorrect breeders of purebred dogs. I've owned and bred Pembroke Welsh Corgis since 1980. Thirty years. I've finished 25 AKC champions, many of them group placing dogs and 3 breeder/owner/handler group winners and almost all of them with more than one performance (obedience, tracking, herding or agility) title. I'm not bragging, I'm just saying.

In this day and age, it's extremely unpopular to be a "breeder" of purebred dogs. Yep, I know all about those dogs in shelters. I am as sad for them as you are. I hate to see any dog suffer. I don't care if it's a purebred dog or a mutt. I don't even care if it is a new designer dog which, let's face it folks, are sweet, lovable mutts. But those dogs in shelters are not my dogs!

I follow up with all my puppies. My dogs all live in my house. I clean up my yard constantly. I buy the very best dog food available. Each of my dogs are individually trained and worked with daily. In contrast, my neighbor breeds "quality pets" in her unheated quanstet hut. What is a "quality pet"? It's any little furry, fluffy dog which can be bred to another little furry, fluffy dog. Health cleareances? None. Temperament testing? Nope.Early puppy training? You've got to be kidding.

My neighbor once asked me how I kept my puppies alive in the winter. Excuse me? I honestly did not understand what she was asking me. Me, I have heating pads and heat lamps, my puppies are kept in my bedroom until old enough to move into the dinning room/kitchen area. My neighbor, on the other hand, hangs a 40 watt light bulb over her winter litters out in the unheated quanstet hut. And yes, she has muliple winter litters. So sad. Again, I'm just saying.

This is what my "breeder of quality pets" neighbor dumped along my driveway last week. I didn't take a very good picture of it so I'll tell you, it is a winter's worth of pee and poop soaked sawdust scooped out from under the wire cages her dogs have for living quarters in the unheated quanstet hut.

Why am I blogging about this? Because I want you to think about the difference in "breeders" and think before you purchase your next dog, purebred, designer dog or shelter rescue. Because you could very well be "rescuing" a dog from my neighbor, which will only keep her breeding more (cough, cough) quality pets.

So let's move on to more enjoyable topics.

Dogs

We've had some nice success in agility trials lately. Dot finished up her Excellent Preferred titles and the next day picked up her first double Q. Yeah Dot. Dak also completed his Excellent titles and the very next day his first double Q, go Dak! Whisper and Dusty have also been doing nicely. Whisper has gained so much confidence and speed lately it's difficult to remember she's the same dog who spent 5 days in the ICU at the U of MN Vet Clinic where we twice talked about letting her go.

Tinkerbelle, my 16 pound wonder, my little "corgette", made her novice agility appearance for one day and aced both her Standard and Jumpers With Weaves (JWW) runs. Belle is so much fun to train and run. You should be able to view her JWW run here.

And my JJ? Well, after taking forever to get his Open Jumpers title, he whizzed through his Excellent Jumpers title but now is taking a little longer than forever to get through his Excellent Standard title.

It's a good thing I love you JJ!

Food

I've been so in love with quinoa lately. Here's my rendition of quinoa with sauteed peppers and onions along with some grated lemon peel, lemon juice and parmigiano reggiano cheese. Yum!

Birds

I love my cardinals. Love how they always show up in pairs either very early in the morning or far into dusk in the evening.

So Happy With This

2010-03-27T22:38:00.001-05:00

Knitting and Sewing

I finished my little hat. I'm not as happy with it as I was with the first hat I knit from this pattern. I think my choice of yarn was at fault. The Risata yarn is too stretchy for this pattern, thus the lace layer does not fit as well over the stockinette layer as it should. Still, I'll wear it. It is warm and the colors match my down jacket - a neccesity in Minnesota (the down jacket that is, not the matching hat). Still, I'm disappointed in the results.

Finally had time to get back to quilting today. I have been waiting on batting ordered online to finish the green and pink quilt. The batting arrived a few weeks ago but between agility seminars and trials, finally had a free Saturday today.

As mentioned in a previous post, I'm quilting this in sections. After completing one section today, I'm so psyched about this method. It was much easier to quilt a small piece compared to trying to quilt an entire twin sized quilt on my little machine. Quilting one third of it at a time was not difficult at all and was actually fun! Above is the first completed section. I still have two more sections to go. I'll join them all together once they are all quilted. It will create a bit more bulk but these are not show quilts, they are just my playing around with my hobbies.

Here is the back of the quilt. I think it shows the quilting a bit more. Nothing fancy, I'm still a beginner, but so happy I found this method of quilting in sections. Someday, when I piece together an intricate, beautiful quilt top, I'll send it out to be professionally quilted. Meanwhile, I am very happy with pieceing together my simple quilts.

I have two more sections to sandwich, pin and quilt. I'd like to think I'll get them done tomorrow but tomorrow I need to accomplish so much of my spring work, washing windows, putting on window screens, moving all the agility equipment outside, putting up the bird houses, feeders and fountains, I'll be very lucky to get even an hour for sewing or knitting.

Dogs

I've ignored the dogs in my last few posts.

We've been doing many agility trials and even an agility seminar or two. It's been fun and a great way to ignore the long, snowy winter. The two pictures below are not the greatest quality but are of my little girl Tinkerbelle. Perhaps you remember her from my last litter? Tinkerbelle is 16 pounds of hard driving, "I can't go fast enough" agility dog . She is the love of my life - please don't tell the other dogs - and very much in love with life herself!

Above she is slamming through the weaves.

And here she is about to slam the teeter. Belle is so much fun. Tinkerbelle seems to understand she's not just running for herself but also for her old friend Fame, another "I just can't run fast enough" agility dog. It's a lot of weight for sixteen pound Belle to carry yet she does it so well. For you Minnesotans, yep, that's the big Gopher "M" in the background. These classes were held at the livestock arena on the St. Paul campus of the U of MN. The classes are over for the season now. We look forward to next fall when they start up again.

I have devoted much time to agility in the past two years yet do not want to give up on obedience training. I read an article recently in Front And Finish about training a dog for 5 minutes a day for a year and being able to get a Utility Dog title. Hum...I don't know, that is a big goal if you ask me. Still, a very intriguing goal. So I'm going to try it. No, not necessarily getting a Utility Dog title, but I'm going to try training Dusty for 5 minutes a day for a year and see where we end up. So far, I've stuck to my goal for a whopping 3 days! I'll try to keep my blog updated on my progress.

It was way past time to get rid of the flannel Christmas themed dog throws I had over the dogs' beds. Today I splurged at Wally World and bought new dog throws to put over their raised bed. Doesn't Dusty look regal on his new royal blue blanket? He is the the king!

And please excuse the X-rated picture of Shamrock. She not only knows how to relax, she deserves it!

March Already

2010-03-07T17:47:00.001-06:00

It's March already. I set a goal to blog at least twice a month and I failed as early as February. I also set a goal to obedience train certain of my dogs for 5 minutes a day and I haven't come close to reaching that goal either.

My work life's been a bit of a hassle lately. The company I worked for was acquired by another company and I suddenly find myself a day one employee with no vacation working for a company I can't imagine I would have ever wanted to work for. Oh well, in this economy and at my age, a job is a job.

Knitting and Sewing

I finished my first quilt. It's not just my first quilt, I also taught myself to sew by doing this quilt. Despite all the mistakes, I'm very happy with it. The pattern is from Easy Quilts, Fall 2009.

Next I tackled another basic project, a "Peppers" table runner to match the new rugs in my kitchen. This was really fun and came together quickly. My flying geese are not very "pointy" but I'm cutting myself some slack. I'm still learning. Here the material is from my local Wal-Mart.

I started yet another basic quilt in pink and green, one of my favorite color combinations. Here it is laid out on the floor. A simple pattern of squares to see if I can make the seams match. The fabric is Nicey Jane by Heather Bailey. I have it partially pieced together now while I wait for more batting to arrive. I am going to try quilting this in pieces using directions from Marti Michell's Machine Quilting In Sections.

I'm knitting this hat from Lace Style. It's the second time I've made this hat, this time out of Risata from Knit Picks. I'm a bit further along than the picture shows. I had high hopes of finishing it this afternoon until my day was rudely interrupted by a stray, somewhat vicious dog who refused to leave...a long story.

Dogs

Shame on me! I have no recent pictures of the dogs to share. My training time today was taken up dealing with the stray dog who managed to get his foot caught in my fence. In the end, the sheriff had to be called. The dog will be at the humane society tomorrow. I wonder if his owners are looking for him? Or even know he is gone?

So I'll leave you today with a picture of the grapefruit sandwich cookies I made from Martha Stewart's Baking Handbook. I love making sandwich cookies and I'm a big Martha fan. These are very good.

Sins Of Omission

2010-02-01T22:28:00.000-06:00

I spent most of this past weekend picking up my sins of omission. This is what I call the frozen dog poop in my snow and ice filled yard. I'm religious about this duty from mid-March through mid-December, but once it gets extremely cold and snowy, I become an atheist. Add to this excuse the fact that I spent the first three weekends of January at dog activities and you can bet my fenced yard was in need of attention.

It seems no matter how warmly I dress, down jacket, snow pants, heavy boots, my fingers and hands get cold long before the job is done. It's not only holding on to two metal poles that makes my fingers so cold but like most knitters, I've no warm, hand knit mittens of my own. I seem to only give them as gifts and never gift myself. On Saturday my fingers were getting stiff and cold, yet I knew if I went in the house to warm them I'd never finish the job. Necessity is the mother of invention however, and I came up with the idea of putting a pair of wool socks on my pooper scooper poles. Problem solved!

Note, my recycled dog food leaves here in the same bag it came in. Always makes me laugh.

Knitting

I do still knit. I just don't seem to finish anything lately.

I started a capped sleeve sweater but couldn't make myself happy with how the cable was turning out.

I finally did the right thing. I'll start it over someday - and choose a different cable pattern.

Made some good progress on my first quilt over the weekend. Just need to top stitch the binding in place and I'm done. You can see how uneven my machine quilting is. I love the straight line quilting this lady does. Her tutorial makes straight line quilting look simple, it's not! Her quilts always look so clean and simple but elegant. Mine didn't exactly turn out quite so elegant and error free, but it's my first and I'm happy with it. And most importantly, I am already thinking about my next one.

Dogs

Remember all my moaning and groaning because JJ took months and months to qualify for his Open Jumpers title? Well, guess who finished his Excellent Jumpers title? JJ did! I think I'm still in shock. The other dogs did great also. I love agility, still, 6 out of 10 days as it was in January, is exhausting even for me. I was seriously contemplating staying at home on the last Sunday when I remembered I'd left 3 dog crates and my nice chair at the arena, so off we went for the final day of agility.

Percy is the real star of January though as he killed a mouse that had been living in my basement. Good boy Percy! I only wish he hadn't chewed the head off so I not only had to pick up a dead mouse body but also a head and blood. Ick.

Mr. Shyness And My First Quilt

2010-01-09T22:29:00.001-06:00

Birds

So often people say to me, "You can tell we have a heavy snow cover when the pheasants and turkeys come up to eat the bird seed". Ah, hello? You can't already tell we have a heavy snow cover? It's like the people who say "Oh look at the sun dogs, must be a cold morning". Seriously, if you need sun dogs to tell you it's way below -20 F, I think you need to live somewhere besides the Northern Plains.

Okay, sorry, being this cold for so long makes me crabby. I've been trying to get pictures of Mr. Shyness for a few days. This rooster has been very camera shy. I guess he was finally cold and hungry enough to hang around for a few pictures.

Isn't he pretty? My pheasant family this winter consists of Mr. Shyness and his two ladies. They are living out under my pine trees. One of the females appears to be younger than the other. She's quite a bit smaller and has a little tuft, or cowlick, on the top of her head. So cute! The girls hang around through the dog barking and camera clicking so I haven't been as determined to catch them on film (film? I guess I should say "bits and bytes") as I have been Mr. Shyness. I'll try to post pictures of the cowlick tufted female next.

I've finally given in and purchased corn and other cheap bird seed for the pheasants and turkeys. I really don't like to do this. Not because I don't love my pheasants and turkeys, and birds of course, but because it seems I'm only spending my own money so next autumn trespassers can come and shoot the birds I've fed all winter and have a human feast of their own, never offering me a single bird and certainly never an apology for trespassing all over my property. I'm not anti-hunting, but I've sure become anti-hunter in the last few years. These folks need to learn manners and a whole lot about property rights. Don't even get me started on the snowmobilers and ATVers. Argh!

First Quilt

I needed another hobby like I needed a hole in my head, so I started my first quilt a few weeks ago. Here it is ready to to be pieced together.

And here with painters tape ready to be quilted.

The actual machine quilting is not going too well. I have a lot to learn yet and am finding machine quilting difficult. Still, I'm enjoying it tremendously. I might not be good yet, but I'm learning and having a lot of fun.

Dogs

One of the few New Year's resolutions I made this year was to spend more time obedience training my dogs. So far I've done alright with this resolution, not nearly as much time as I would like to, but at least I'm thinking about it.

Dusty is doing great on his heeling work. He is still "butt out" in his heeling, something I find so typical in new-to-heeling dogs. I'm using the two leash method and also doing lots of heeling against a wall to help fix this. Dusty is reaching well for his dumb bell. I'm very pleased with this progress, but he's not holding the dumb bell well, lots of rolling of the dumb bell and nervous "chewing" of it. I have come to realize these days I'm a bit old fashion in teaching a "hold", but I think it is imperative to a good retrieve. I want a dog to hold the dumb bell, glove, article, whatever, still in his mouth, be able to heel and also execute a finish with the dumb bell held still in the mouth. Only then will I move on to the actual retrieve exercises. We're getting there, Dusty is so willing to learn and happy to co-operate, it's just a matter of more time and work on my part.

Shamrock needs more work on the broad jump. She doesn't quite understand the jumping through the middle of the jump yet, she figures it's just as well to jump over the corner of the jump and come to me. I'm using lots of props to get her past this in addition to having her jump with me on both the left and right side of the broad jump. We're working on the Utility hand signals and go-outs. My basement is too narrow to do much with the directed jumping so that will have to wait a few months yet. So far, I'm very pleased with her progress.

Bunny is in a holding pattern at the moment on her retrieve, go-outs and automatic sits. There's nothing wrong with her automatic sits on heeling, it's just that they are so darn fast, I need to learn to adjust to her. Or, better yet, she needs to learn to adjust to my foot work - now there's an idea! As for retrieving, and her go-outs too, Bunny does that herding dog thing of making a WIDE arch to get to her dumb bell or go-out spot. I'm not concentrating on the go-outs with her yet, as for the retrieves, I've tried a thin ribbon slipped under her collar to keep her "in" when I send her for the dumb bell, but Bunny is so shy and worried, she stops and freezes up as soon as she feels the "pressure" (such as it is (not!)) from the ribbon. I'm back to kneeling beside her for the retrieves and go-outs. This is working. I'm not however, looking forward to my aching knees as I slowly work my way up to a standing position. I'm thinking on a better way to change this behaviour... Bunny doesn't like props, she's afraid of everything and anything that seems out of place, so I haven't tried props yet, but I'm thinking hard on this...

Bookends Dak and Dot

Happy 2010

2010-01-02T10:07:00.000-06:00

A New Year

This is what dogs do when it is -22 F outside.

Actually, this is pretty much what I do too.

Hope you all had a wonderful holiday season. I did. The whole family was able to get together as my sister drove home from Kentucky and my parents flew home from Arizona.

Knitting

I didn't do much Christmas knitting this year. A few simple hats.

And a pair of complicated bed socks for my mom.

The socks turned out very nice and they are super soft and cozy. The first sock took forever to complete, thus the lack of other holiday knitting. However, I completed the second sock in a only a few days. As they say, practice makes perfect, or at least in this case, practice made for speedier.

Dogs

In 2009 I had many good moments to remember and a few sad ones I'll never forget.

Congratulations to Dot who gained her VC and is now
Ch. Kantishna Star Kissed CDX RE AX AXJ NAP OJP VC

And Dot's best friend Dak managed his VC too and is now
Ch. Busy B's Dakota's Bright Sunrise UD RE OA NAJ VC

JJ came oh so close to his VC, in the end, just couldn't keep the bars from crashing in order to pick up his last excellent legs.
Ch. Kantishna Jump For Joy PT OA OAJ

Dusty managed his MX and MXJ to become
Ch. Busy B's Dakota's Moon Dust PT MX MXJ VC

My little Whisper accumulated a bunch of agility titles, starting out in Novice in mid-March and finishing up her Excellent titles in early July.
Kantishna Keep'n A Secret AX AXJ

I really fell down in the obedience department this year, managing only a few OM points with Dak and an RN on Bunny,
Kantishna Keep'n In Motion RN

I hope to do better in obedience this year.

I lost my precious Fame to hemolytic anemia just days before her 2nd birthday. It broke my heart.
Kantishna Remember My Name 2007-2009

Clearing the pantry

2009-12-09T20:41:00.001-06:00

In case you haven't heard, we had quite a snow storm here in Southern MN over the past 24 hours. I decided to celebrate the occasion, or perhaps 'mark the occasion' would be a better choice of words since I'm definitely a glass half empty person when it comes to appreciating the beauty and utter coldness of a Minnesota winter. In any case, I woke up this morning and knew I wanted one of my favorite comfort foods for dinner, split pea soup and homemade 7 Grain Bread.

As I reached into the pantry for a package of dried, split peas, I saw I had 3 packages of lentils and only 1 package of split peas. Definitely time for a pantry clearing soup, so lentil soup it would be. In addition to the excess lentils, I had at least half a dozen cans of tomatoes. There must have been quite a sale on canned tomatoes at some point because fresh tomatoes out of the garden, a big favorite with me, tomatoes in any other form, not so much.

I sauted onions, carrots, garlic and some quickly getting old celery from my refrigerator. I knew I had a ring of turkey kielbasa which had been far too long in the freezer so I invited it to the party also.

I added chicken stock, dried oregano and basil, and after several hours of simmering, my soup tasted pretty good. I thought another can of diced tomatoes would be an excellent addition but there wasn't room in the 6 quart pot. Fortunately, the kielbasa slices turned out to be big party poopers. Although they added a nice smokey flavor to the soup, individually, they tasted terrible. They'd spent far too long in the freezer. So I removed the kielbasa slices. After another hour of simmering, there was plenty of room for the additonal can of diced tomatoes.

It's difficult to photogragh Pantry Clearing Lentil soup without it looking like, well, let's not go there.

Don't worry about the kielbasa, it won't go to waste. The dogs have already and will continue to enjoy it as an addition to their kibble and as training treats.

No worries for my 7 Grain Bread either. It never fails me. It's a meal in itself.

I rated my soup a 6 on a scale of 1-10. Percy thought it was a 10.

Knitting

I'm so far behind in my Christmas knitting, don't even ask.

Catching Up

2009-12-06T10:40:00.006-06:00

Must I? It's raining so hard.

Wheee!

Hey, that was fun!

Photos by Great Dane Photos

He Did It!

2009-08-31T19:35:00.005-05:00

Yep, my JJ gave me the only birthday present I wanted this year and managed to get the third leg (i.e., the third qualifying score) of his Open Jumpers title on my birthday! Now he can finally move on to the Excellent class. Thank you JJ, you silly, "Venice Beach Boy Blonde" dog.

(Don't you love my pink "dogs"?)

I have video of JJ's successful run but I'm not going to post it. It's not my best work. I tried twice to take him off course. I don't usually have a problem remembering courses. I think I was a bit nervous this time. Instead, I'm posting snapshots taken from that video. These pictures might not be the best quality, but I do love my Flip camera. It's perfect for events like this.

Here we are, both jumping for joy at the end of his run. I'm also about to reach down and quickly grab JJ before he runs out of the ring without his leash on, thereby disqualifying his run. Why am I prepared to do this? Because JJ, that little social butterfly, has already disqualified more than one successful run by doing this. JJ is so sure those spectators outside the ring are totally enamored with him and will give him more pets and lots more treats than I do.

Some of my other dogs had a bit of success also. Dusty, JJ's sire, completed his MX (Master Agility) title and also picked up the ninth of ten passing scores needed for his MXJ (Master Agility Jumper) title. I moved Dot down to the "preferred" classes which means she can jump one height lower than her measured height. Dot loved going back to the easier Novice Preferred classes and managed to qualify in four of four runs. Good for you Dot!

A Lovely Gift

2009-08-25T20:02:00.017-05:00

Knitting

I received the loveliest gift from Bridget.

Aren't they sweet? These are five stitch markers made to resemble Fame. Each marker is in a different position, sitting, begging, laying down, playing, standing. They have Fame's white face marking and her half white collar. Since I always carry some knitting project in my purse, I'll always have these markers with me to remember Fame. So thoughtful of Bridget. Thank you so much!

These stitch markers were made by WeeOnes Creations.

So what am I knitting these days? I've set aside my Cameo sweater. I have completed the body, still need to do the button and neck band and the sleeves. I'll finish the sweater, I'm not unhappy with it at all, just bored and needed a change. I started the Bath Time Blossoms, a project I've always wanted to knit. I'm enjoying this very much. It's fast knitting and enough variety to keep me interested. I'm using Brown Sheep Cotton Fine and really like this yarn. It's just the size and texture of yarn I enjoy working with and knits up easily. I am currently using two different shades of lavender and white for this project, which I plan to give as a gift. I see me ordering more Cotton Fine in the future in my favorite colors.

I've also decided to teach myself a little about quilting. No, I do not have plans to become a master quilter or anything, I simply want to learn enough to make a few small quilts of my own. I took a class but it didn't go very well. I did not learn much and left with the feeling I was imposing on the teacher. My choice of first project may also may have been partly to blame as turned out to be almost all fusible applique and didn't give me much chance to learn about cutting and piecing. So I've been scouring the web and library books for knowledge. I taught myself to knit and I don't remember that being too difficult, but teaching myself to quilt seems very challenging. Maybe I've gotten too old to learn! No pictures to show yet but I promise to share my failures along with my successes. Hopefully there will be some successes.

Dogs

Nothing new on the dog front. We have agility trials this coming weekend - outdoors, with forecast of rain and chilly temps. Doesn't that sound like fun? It's my birthday this weekend and I'm thinking JJ could give me the gift of passing his final Open Jumpers course and moving on to the Excellent Jumpers class. Are you listening JJ? No, he's sound asleep, snoring in his dog bed.

Thank You

2009-08-18T17:28:00.002-05:00

A sincere thank you to everyone who sent me comments or email on my loss of Fame. I'm sorry I haven't replied to each of you individually. Honestly, it's still too hard. Having bred/owned/trained/exhibited Pembrokes for 30 years, you'd think I'd be beyond this, but I'm not. Fame was so young, so full of potential, so wanted to enjoy life. It hurts so bad that she never got the chance.

What is life?
It is the flash of a firefly in the night.
It is the breath of a buffalo in the wintertime.
It is the little shadow which runs across the grass and loses itself in the sunset.

- Crowfoot

Fame

2009-08-16T10:45:00.014-05:00

Kantishna Remember My Name
8/25/2007 - 8/16/2009

Fame, I will always remember your name. You will live forever with me. You were so very, very special.

Time For Prayers

2009-08-14T22:45:00.005-05:00

I know I've asked before, but it's time again for many prayers and positive thoughts for my Fame.

Fame started to agglutinate this evening. This means her hemolytic anemia is active again. It had been under control since her terrible crisis back in December of 2008. In December her HCT was 12. That's so near death I don't even want to think about it. This evening, her HCT as 21.3, or maybe it was 21.7, I forget, I was so upset. So we started Fame on loads of pred again along with cyclosporine. Tomorrow we will start antibiotics and some kind of human medicine (sorry, forgot the exact name) to help her stomach cope with all the prednisone she will be on. Tomorrow we will also decide if she needs a blood transfusion or not.

I've already been warned by many knowledgeable and insightful people that the second, or Lord help us, third or fourth time around, battling this disease is much more difficult with not a very positive outcome. I'm willing to fight for Fame as long as she is willing and able to fight. Please send us your best.

Family and Summer Fun

2009-07-28T20:23:00.016-05:00

Two posts in the same month, that's a pretty good record for me. It's summer time in the North, a very busy time for Minnesotans.

Knitting

I haven't spent the time knitting that I would like to. I've made a bit of progress on my Cameo sweater. I only need to knit 12 rows of the ribbing, the small, capped sleeves and the button and neck band. "Just" those few things and I'm done! This is a very nice knit, perhaps a little boring. I'm going to finish it though, I swear I am, before I start several other interesting projects calling me.

Family

My sister, who lives in Kentucky, came home for a visit in July. We had such a nice time together. Not only did we walk the entire Mall Of America one day, we then crossed the street to walk all of IKEA. That's a lot of walking. I think I'm still recovering. The weekend my sister returned home, she won the Ladies Race at Kentucky Lake. Here is a picture of my sister and her beautiful boat. She's the one in the back, steering. Well, I think it is called steering, I'm not much of sailor. I do know she's the only race participant who recruits an all lady crew for the Ladies Race so it's great they won this year!

We had several nice family gathering while my sister was home. My mom made popovers one night. Aren't they the prettiest? I love popovers.

Dogs

The dogs and I have been having a blast this summer. We've suffered the ups and downs of agility. Here is Dot who has definitely been on the up.

Dot finished her OA, OAJ, AX and AXJ titles this year despite a forced 6 weeks off any training or participating in March and April for foot surgery. At 8.5 years old, it goes without saying I'm pretty proud of her. I'm not sure what's up next for Dot. You can be certain she's not ready to settle on being a couch potato. Dot's still looking for fun and I hope to provide it for her.

Meanwhile, JJ, the love of my life, the happiest dog in the whole wide world, is showing me the down side of agility.

JJ has more fun and is faster in agility than any of my other dogs. Still, JJ can't keep the jump bars up. Both Dot and Whisper have come and gone through Novice, Open, Excellent A and in to Excellent B and yet there is my JJ, still hanging out in the Open Jumpers Class. It isn't that he doesn't love agility, it isn't that he doesn't have tons of potential, it's just that JJ says, "Bars? I don't care about no stinking bars, I just want to run fast and have fun and those bars are in my way". Very.Big.Sigh.

I swear, if JJ could speak English his first two words would be "Dudes, hey"! Still, what a handsome, happy dog. His registered name includes "Jump For Joy" and I sure got the Joy part of it right...even if I did miss the Jump part!

By the way, these agility photos were taken by and purchased from Great Dane Photos. I have no affiliation, other than think they take the greatest action shots and I have spent far too much money there.

Hope you are having a great summer!

Happy 4th Of July!

2009-07-04T11:57:00.001-05:00

Doe In The Headlights

2009-07-03T06:24:00.010-05:00

This lovely doe eating out of the bird bath bird feeder was the first thing I saw this morning. I stood and watched her for the longest time, then finally woke up enough to go looking for my camera. The doe was walking away by the time I came back to the window with my camera. I thought I had missed her.

But I hadn't. Percy, who had been outside overnight, came walking down the driveway to have his own look at the doe who in turn was intensely curious about Percy. She started following Percy around the yard.

Here she is giving Percy a good look over.

Percy's sitting in one of his favorite places. He's a little hard to see in the picture.

A fun way to start my three day weekend. Hope you have a great Independence Day holiday!

Fame's New Hobbles

2009-06-15T20:55:00.010-05:00

Knitting

I know I said I was going to warp my rigid heddle loom instead of knitting and even though I had a large block of time this past Sunday for doing just that, I ended up knitting on my Cameo sweater instead. I am hoping to get to the joining of the front and back before I set this project on the side burner.

The sweater looks as if it could fit a doll doesn't it? I am totally winging it as far as gauge goes. I could get the suggested pattern gauge on US size 8 needles but didn't like the looseness of the stitch pattern at that size. I played around with several other needle sizes and decided I liked the look of the Broken Rib pattern on US size 5 needles best. So I am trying to fit my gauge on size 5 needles to the size of the sweater. Wish me luck! If it doesn't fit, oh well, it's the learning process that counts right? Actually, when I hold it up to my favorite sweaters, it seems okay. It is a very "stretchy" pattern. Failure or success, I'll keep you posted on the outcome.

Dogs

Fame was fitted with her Dog Leggs this afternoon. Fame has been diagnosed with MSI, medial shoulder instability, similar to rotator cuff injury in humans. Supposedly, these braces will keep her shoulders stable for the next 4 months and allow her ligaments to heal. I'm so, SO happy Fame survived her hemolytic anemia, now I just need her to survive the side effects of the drugs that saved her.

Sorry for the fuzzy picture but Fame is still adjusting to her hobbles and can't seem to sit still for the camera. Keep your fingers crossed for my little Fame-ous!

Busy Summer

2009-06-07T17:34:00.026-05:00

Fame survived her bamboo knitting needle, knitting pattern and yarn eating experience just fine. Can't say the same for my mother's bed socks. They were so saturated with dog saliva and slobber I tossed the entire project into the garbage. I did order more yarn and the pattern (again) and plan to start over. I was enjoying knitting those socks, I just don't have the ambition to start it over so soon.

Knitting

Meanwhile, I started the Cameo sweater from Custom Knits.

This is Rowan Cashsoft DK in a creamy white. (Yes, I know, I've been in a "white" mood lately.) Love the yarn, enjoying the pattern. However, my right index finger has still not healed. Perhaps you remember my complaining about it this past winter. I injured my index finger many years ago and then last summer re-injured the very same spot when a knife slipped while I was cutting up lemons and limes. I use my right index finger to push the yarn along and am constantly irritating this finger all the time I am knitting.

I need to take a break from knitting. I'm not too happy about it but it needs to be done. This finger has got to heal! I plan to keep the Cameo sweater in my purse and knit while I have free moments, but I've decided to go back (way back) to weaving on my rigid heddle loom.

I used to be a decent weaver. Though I haven't done it in years I'm sure I can learn again. Above is a picture of one of eight placements I wove way back in 1975. They've held up nicely. These are made of 100% linen. It's time to pick up this hobby again and give my sore finger a rest.

Having said that, I need to find a large block of time to re-learn how to warp my loom and that's a problem. My busy summers do not lend themselves to big blocks of unused time. I'll update my blog with pictures as I start the process of warping, whenever that may be.

Dogs

The dogs and I have been doing lots of agility trials lately. We've had some very successful weekends and some less than such weekends. Still, we've always had fun.

I've been feeling guilty about ignoring obedience this spring so beginning in June, have made a conscious effort to do more obedience training especially with Dusty, Shamrock and Bunny. My goal is obedience trials starting in August. We'll see how it goes. I'm in the office much of the rest of June and those two hours of commuting time each day mean a negative two hours a day for dog training. Oh well, it's good to have a job.

Fame is having more health problems. Fame started limping on her left shoulder when she was on so much prednisone for her hemolytic anemia. Although off the pred, Fame still limped intermittently through the winter and spring. The limping is constant now. I was able to get Fame in to see Dr. Julia at Twin City Animal Rehab where she was diagnosed with MSI, Medial Shoulder Instability. Big Bummer! The pred saved her life but the muscle wasting side effect has caused another serious problem.

Fame was measured for and will be fitted with shoulder braces next week. I'll take pictures of her in her "hobbles" once they arrived. It will be four full months of shoulder braces for Fame along with tons of crate rest and stretching exercises, walking only, no running and absolutely no agility, ball chasing or playing with her housemates! Fingers crossed she'll be able to do obedience and agility after all this sacrifice.

Meanwhile, I'm relaxing tonight in preparation for a very busy upcoming work week. Here's a little relaxation I created. It's one part vodka, two parts Pom Juice, a splash of OJ and 2-3 ice cubes. Excellent if I do say so myself.

Now I must go. It is thundering out and this sends Dusty into a total state of panic. Time to go rescue my little friend from his terror.

No! Oh no!

2009-05-22T19:21:00.007-05:00

Remember those pretty, white socks I was making as a Mother's Day gift? Well, here they are this evening.

I can't believe it! I've been knitting even longer than I've been raising Pembrokes, and I started with Pems in 1980. I've never had this happen before. Not even any of my cats have been so bad. A little, red dog whose registered name is Kantishna Remember My Name, and whose call name starts with "F" and ends with "e" and has the letters "a" and "m" in the middle, did this damage. I still can't believe it! What a naughty dog.

I realized after I made my last blog post that the socks I was knitting were not the Drooping Elm socks, but rather, the Swirling Lace Anklets. I actually paid money for this pattern - four bucks! The pattern is totally annihilated. I wonder if Elann would send me another? I mean, honest, my dog ate it! She ate my only set of size 1 dpns too. Argh!

The yarn, Peruvian Baby Cashmere, which I love by the way, is completely useless. It's so full of dog saliva it cannot be saved. I still have 2 more balls in off white but I don't have the heart to start over. I think I'll buy my mother an expensive bottle of bourbon instead. She'll like that and I could use a drink myself.

Now I am hoping Fame will pass the size one dpns she ate. I picked up pieces of chewed bamboo but not nearly enough to put together 4 dpns. Fingers and toes crossed, prayers said, candles lit, incense burning before Buddha, whatever it takes to prevent major surgery for Fame over the weekend.

Gee, I still can't believe this!

A little dog who ate her supper in jail tonight

Springtime

2009-05-18T19:36:00.009-05:00

I've been absent from my blog (and yours too!) for a bit. Busy with job work, springtime yard and house work, agility trials (definitely not work), and having to travel for work. Ugh to the traveling. It's not that I object to traveling so much as I objected to the reason for my latest trip, and it's not like there's a lot new to see in Silicon Valley. It is what it is. Though I will say there seemed to be less traffic and far more office space for lease then my last visit to the Mecca Of High Tech. A not so good sign of the times I'm afraid.

While I was gone I left my numerous dogs in the very capable hands of Heidi, who did the most amazing job. She not only took great care of the dogs, and Percy, but left me a nice paragraph or two on each day describing who got their required meds, if Percy was in or out, who had loose stool, who didn't eat all their food, but she also left many great pictures of the dogs. My dogs not only survived without me, they also seemed to have a great time while I was gone. If you're in the area and looking for a dog sitter, I highly recommend Heidi. And I don't do that lightly or often.

Knitting

I do have a new finished object. It's the baby blanket I have been knitting for my nephew's new son. I think it turned out quite nice. This blanket was very simple and quick to knit. This is the Eyelet Squares Blanket from Vogue Knitting On The Go Baby Blankets Two. This is a reverse stockinette pattern so here's the wrong side of baby blanket:

And this is the "right" side:

I think either way looks just as nice, an important aspect for a baby blanket if you ask me.

The blanket was knit in Debbie Bliss Baby Cashmerino. I enjoyed working with this yarn as much as I did not enjoy working with the Debbie Bliss Cashmerino Aran for my Amelia sweater.

Here's another picture of Amelia, all block and already worn once or twice.

My current project is a pair of Dropping Elm socks for my mom for Mother's Day. Yes, I know Mother's Day was a bit ago. My gift is late, what can I say. Worse yet, this is not the second sock, this is only the first sock. I have some catching up to do.

Dogs

I think I last showed a picture of Dusty after his neuter surgery. Well, Dusty managed to pull his stitches out not once, not twice, but three times! It took forever for his incision to heal. I guess he let me know what he thought about being neutered. Here is Dusty with the huge E-collar he wore for almost three weeks. He was not too happy about it, then again, I was not too happy about the 3 extra trips to the vet - nor the three extra vet bills.

I'm happy to say Dusty is all healed now and running in agility again. He's also frozen for posterity too. I love science. I now have the best of both worlds, all neutered males in my house and their sperm in the bank for future use. Life is good.

Percy

Last fall I hired a tree company to do a bunch of clean up around here. It really needed to be done but I was worried my birds might not return to nest this spring as they have in the past. All those old, storm blown trees in the fence rows and those weedy trees along the driveway might not look too pretty but they make excellent bird habitat. I'm happy to report I have an abundance of birds again this spring. Grosbeaks, orioles, larks, warblers, blue birds, they're all here.

The blue birds are not in the nesting boxes I have set out for them, but they are all over my yard each day, perching on the agility equipment before they swoop down to catch their meals. Since they are not in their boxes, I decide I could let Percy continue to be an indoor/outdoor cat. That is, until I found a dead Indigo Bunting this morning. I'm not sure Percy killed it, in his defense I will say Percy eats his prey and this bird was not mutilated. Still, I decided Percy will stay in the house now until mid-July. It's torture for him and torture for me too. He howls and whines and scratches to get out. It's close to intolerable for me to listen to him. Here is Percy finally catching a nap in his favorite old bed in the basement. It's not a very good picture but the sound of the camera was starting to wake him and I was not ready for that, I needed a few more minutes of peace and quiet. It will be a long 6-8 weeks for Percy and me. Wish us luck!

Amelia Is Finished

2009-04-14T20:40:00.007-05:00

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.

A Finished Object And A Started Object

2009-02-15T19:45:00.015-06:00

While digging through my stash last Friday night I came upon the lace hat from Lace Style I had started last fall and then completely forgotten about while it fell deeper and deeper into my stash. It only needed ten rows to complete so I stayed up late that evening and finished it.

I've worn it ever since, even with jackets and sweaters that don't match. The hat does match the bulky down jacket I wore all of our frigid December and January with a cheapo hat from Target. How silly of me! The yarn is Debbie Bliss Baby Cashmerino. I have enough yarn left over to make a second hat if I reverse the colors.

I know I last blogged about starting Cameo from Custom Knits, and I fully intend to start this soon, but Amelia from Knitty was calling my name too loudly.

So I started it instead. If I keep at it, I should finish with plenty of cool weather left for wearing this sweater. And better yet, I am using yarn from my stash. It's a teal green color of Debbie Bliss Cashmerino Aran. I would have loved to have bought some new Dream In Color for this project, but it's good to use what you already have.

I'm at least an inch further along than this picture shows. So far it's been a quick knit. I had to give up on this for today though. This is how my index finger looks:

Ouch! I push the yarn along with my index finger and some yarns irritate it more than others. This yarn, along with the twisted rib stitch pattern, is making my finger almost the worst it has been. The Hemlock Ring project still takes first place though for hurting my finger. I spent my knitting time today working on my Lily Of The Valley shawl from Lace Style. The lace weight Alpaca I'm using for it doesn't irritate my finger at all.

And I still need to make up the pony tail portion of my sister's Pony Tail Hat.

A Pathetic Blogger

2009-02-05T20:07:00.006-06:00

I just realized I've been blogging since October, 2006 and this is only my 101st blog. How pathetic.

Knitting

Even though I feel as if I've been living knitting in my spare time, though not much spare time at that, I have little knitting to show you tonight. I've mostly been reading all my new Elizabeth Zimmerman books and enjoying them very much. What an inspiring author. I have knit up one swatch for Cameo from Custom Knits and started on a second swatch on smaller needles. I'm think I'm going to go with the smaller needles.

I finished the hat portion of the Pony Tail Hat. I need to add the Pony Tail yet. Blogger doesn't want to up load a picture of the hat tonight so I'm skipping it. Who has time to fool around with this?

Sister in Ky

My sister in KY is still without power. It will be at least the end of February before she has power. Meanwhile, she is coping quite well. Like a pioneer woman, it's up at dawn with many chores in the morning before work, heating water on the fireplace, cooking oatmeal, taking a Navy bath from the hot water, then off to work as a Nurse Practitioner in a private practice with many patients in the hospital and in nursing homes, additional hospice patients have been moved to the nursing homes because they have no power at home. It's long, hard days for her, only to get home with no power at night. She reports ice (the kind you use in a refrigerator, not the kind that hangs on trees and power lines) is now more widely available in Western KY, along with open gas stations. The gas stations only take cash. She buys food as often as she can and stores it in a cooler packed with the now available ice. She lost so much food from her freezer. It's still difficult in Ky and I hope we don't forget all the people there.

Dogs

Thanks for all the comments on Bunny. She's such a lovely dog. I've entered her in March for her Rally Novice title. I'm not all that enamored with Rally, but I will say, it's a great place to start out shy, noise sensitive, retiring little dogs like Bunny. It will keep me motivated to work with her and that's the most important thing.

Above is Bunny taking it easy. Only in Minnesota can dogs and humans alike take such pleasure in +16 degree temperatures and longer, sun lit days. It always calms me to find my dogs so relaxed.

Text Message From KY

2009-01-30T07:29:00.008-06:00

(I'm editing this one blog post as I receive information from my sister. Figure it's easier than a new post each time)

I received two text messages this morning from my sister. The first one:

>No NPR

The second:

>War Zone

>War zone here no elec prob not a week
>fp works cooking on it too no cell since tues 0830
>hope this gets thru

I've been envisioning tree branches through her house, broken water pipes. At least there was no mention of this. The weather reports are for it to reach into the 50s for this weekend. That should help. At least she'll be warmer.

Thank you crgilvr for you update from Kentucky!

Edited to add:

Here's a good story of conditions in western Kentucky. My sister lived in Murray a few years ago but now lives in Gilbertsville, up closer to the lakes.

Edited to add:

And here's and even better article from the Murray State news.

Edited to add

Text message from 12:00 p.m.

>No cell no elex for at least a week no npr no fuel
>trees down everywhere have gas logs hooray
>bored silly went out yesterday too dangerous

>Have water

>House is warm

Last Update

My sister finally got through on her cell phone. She was at friends' and had just taken a hot shower. They were sitting in the sun, the ice was starting to melt. I could hear the branches popping in the background. They were well into their cocktails. Good for them. A little relaxation in a time of crisis. It will be some time before there is any electricity. Every wire is down, transformers are laying in the road and in the trees. I guess it's quite a mess. At least she is safe.

Looking For My Sister

2009-01-28T22:53:00.002-06:00

I know there's been terrible ice storms in Kentucky and elsewhere. My sister who lives a few miles from Kentucky Lake sent me a text message last evening telling me she thought her cell phone was out of service. I tried calling her back but no luck.

I've called numerous times today and this evening. I've texted, I've emailed. I'm sure she's okay, just not able to contact anyone. I hope you are warm and safe somewhere Ann. You're very resourceful and have lots of friends. I hope you are holed up with them somewhere. I hope you did not try to go and see your patients today because I'm sure the roads are terrible.

So as soon as you can, call, text, email, float a balloon, just let us know you are okay!

All my love, Mary

More Goals

2009-01-26T19:48:00.005-06:00

Thanks for the comments on Percy's tail. It has healed nicely, too bad though he can no longer wrap it about his feet. Still, it's a very serviceable tail and Percy's a very handsome cat isn't he? At least in the winter he is - when he stays home, grows a plush coat and puts a little fat on him. In the summer, Percy goes almost wild, gets too skinny and comes home once a day at best.

Knitting

I completed the Valour Vest.

I stopped in at Knitter's Palette today so had a chance to check out the store sample again. Mine is as nice, but I am a teeny bit unhappy with it. I knit this vest on the suggested 10.5 US needles and I wish I had gone down to a size 10 US. I think I would like the tighter gauge better. But it's a small disappointment. Overall, I like this project very much. The vest is already boxed up and ready for the Post Office tomorrow. Can you believe it? A knitted gift ready before the due date. I'm not disappointed about that.

This weekend I played around with several different projects. I made a swatch for Cameo from Custom Knits and another swatch for Amelia. I also played around with a couple of sock patterns. I couldn't decide what to start next. Then I found the kit for the Pony Tail Hat my sister Rita had picked out.

This is what I'll do next. Should be easy and fast. I couldn't decide if I should make the hat green or blue, so I decided I'll make a striped hat. Why not? A Pony Tail Hat is already a pretty wild and crazy thing, might as well add to the wildness and craziness of it.

Dogs

I listed my knitting goals last post. I should list my dog goals this post.

I'm pretty ambitious here. Honestly, I know I'll fall down on some of these. Still, if you don't aim high, you'll always shoot low. So here goes:

Dot - OA, OAJ, AX, AXJ
Dusty - MX, MXJ, CD
Dak - NA NAJ plus a few UDX legs
JJ - OA OAJ CD
Shamrock - CD CDX
Bunny - CD
Fame - health

You can find a short description of these titles here.

Tonight I'll leave you with a picture of Bunny. Poor Bunny, she is so quiet and reserve, I have to be careful not to overlook her.

A final note, RIF means Reduction In Force - or laid off! So I'm still employed and starting this week, quite happily employed with a new manager. Life is good. Well, except for this interminable winter. I am so over it already.

A final question, does anyone else have trouble uploading pictures using blogger? I sure do. I have to try over and over again for each picture. It's probably the biggest reason I don't blog very often. How can I fix this?

Setting Goals

2009-01-23T19:18:00.010-06:00

I can't believe I haven't blogged since the start of the year. I blogged a few dozen times in my head but I guess that doesn't count.

The biggest news of the year is that I was not RIF'ed this week. Several of my good friends and peers were. That part was very sad.

I asked and received a transfer to another group back in October. My transfer was granted but not until January 23, 2009. RIFs were January 22, 2009. Lucky for me, I was able to get my transfer to the new group and was not laid off. I have very mixed feelings however. The manager I've had for the past 5 months is evil incarnate - and I realize what I just said and I stand by it. Any manager who motivates by fear, treats employees with disrespect and total condescension and thinks it's fun to play games ("I am giving Mary all the "crap" work because she's leaving the group") rates so low in my esteem. I'm ashamed to work for a company who would promote and support such a person. On the other hand, I very much like and respect my new manager and the work I am doing. And let's face it, any additional quarter you can stay employed in this economy is a very good thing.

Okay, enough ranting.

Oh wait, before I go back to the non-confrontational subjects, did you watch the inauguration? I did. It was amazing to see so many people attending, waving their flags, telling their stories. I hope we haven't put too much on the shoulders of one human being, still, it's good to see some hope for our country and its place on the planet Earth.

Knitting

I've been working hard on my mom's birthday vest. Here's a picture of the back and one side.

I've completed the other side and have just to block the pieces and sew up the seams. I'm happy with this project. I hope my mother doesn't find the colors too bright. I could have skipped by some the brighter pinks and greens but personally, I like the bright colors so I did not. Let's hope it will all match up and look good together once it is completed.

I'd have it all blocked and seamed by now but my spare bedroom, where I normally do all blocking, currently looks like this

This is the top of my desk. The floor looks the same or perhaps worse. I've had 3 straight weekends of dog events and all I've managed to do with my Christmas decorations so far is to pick them up and stuff them in the spare bedroom. I'm home all this weekend and so this weekend is dedicated to cleaning my house which includes putting away the Christmas stuff. Then I'll have a clutter free room for blocking the vest.

Setting Goals

So, what about this setting goals?

I always like to set goals at the beginning of the year. As for knitting goals, I have many.

I want to complete my white blob.

I want to learn more about knitting instead of just knitting. I think/hope this statement makes sense to my knitting blogger friends.

I've knit plenty of top down sweaters, but all raglans. I want to knit a top down sweater with set in sleaves. I want to learn lots more about seamless knitting.

I want to knit more without being tied to a pattern.

I want to do more color knitting.

Lots of goals. So what am I going to do to reach for these goals?

I've started the Cameo sweater from Custom Knits.

I've order all the Elizabeth Zimmerman books I do not already have. And I'm going to read them all!

I plan to knit the Baby Bonnet from the Jan/Feb Piecework.

This should get me started.

Dogs

The dogs and I have been very busy. I took Moby, Rumor and Fancy to the shows at the Excel Center in St. Paul the first weekend of January. It's a very nice show site once you are there and settled. To get there and settled however, is so much lugging and hauling, loading and unloading. Every year I do it I swear I'll skip it the next year. Still, I was very happy with my dogs' showings. Rumor won her class each day and Fancy placed in the competitive Bred By Exhibitor class even though she was the youngest in the class.

Since then we've done two weekends of agility trials in January. Not a lot of success to report there, but then, my dogs and I are novices still in agility. March will mark our first year since entering an AKC agility trial. We have a lot to learn yet.

Still, that doesn't stop us from setting goals. Lots of goals for the dogs this year. Someone suggested I make a training blog. Hum, I've been thinking about this. Perhaps I'll add a training section to the blog. I don't blog very often as it is though, so it deserves more thought.

Meanwhile, I'll leave you with this picture of Percy. My dogs are such a big part of my life, my job is so important, my knitting is my relaxation. Percy, I don't know how to describe Percy, but the dogs and I would be lost without him. For sure we'd at least be overrun by mice!

This and That

2008-12-28T16:19:00.010-06:00

Knitting Projects

After Christmas I forced my mom to come with me to Knitters Palette, my LYS, though not all that local. I wanted to start on a project for her birthday in February. She says she loves the socks I made her out of Lorna's Laces but she balked at the price when she saw what two skeins would cost (yes, even though I was paying for them). At least now I know the colors she likes and I can always go back to get those or similar skeins. But to be honest, I'm not crazy about knitting socks, it's fine, it's okay, sometimes I really wish I had a pair of socks in the works, but most of the time, I simply admire other people's sock projects.

My mom was taken with a vest knit in Rowan Colourscape Chunky. I wasn't so taken with it at first but I purchased the yarn and the pattern so I could make it for her. It's a chunky yarn and I'm not so much into chunky, especially a wool, and having just finished the Hemlock Ring in a chunky wool...well...but I have to tell you, I've done a complete 180 on this. It's turning out so pretty. I love the color changes. This picture doesn't do it justice but at least gives you an idea.

I always knew my mom had better taste than I do. You can see I'm having a bit of trouble with my tension between the purl and knit stitches. I don't usually have this trouble so I'm blaming it on the yarn :-). Actually, I'm hoping blocking will fix up all my problems.

My other project in the works is my white blob, or rather, the Lilies Of The Valley shawl from Lace Style.

I'm on the third of ten repeats. Of course, my progress will slow considerably when I go back to work. There is also the lace border to knit after the ten repeats which is a project in and of itself. I'm loving this knitting though and in no hurry to finish it. This is not a project for a particular person or date so it will be finished when it's finished. I love doing the nupps. I think they are fun to do and add so much to the look of the shawl.

Holiday Eating

I made a cranberry salsa for Christmas which went over well.

The recipe came from here. I definitely recommend making the salsa the night before. For Christmas I spread cream cheese over the bottom of my Christmas Tree dish and then the salsa over that. Very good.

Dogs and Such

Fame had another check up the day after Christmas and is doing quite well as far as her hemolytic anemia. However, she's having a particular side effect from the prednisone, the pred which is keeping her hemolytic anemia in check. A Catch-22 for sure. Fame has considerable muscle wasting which is a side effect of high doses (dosages?) of pred.

Fame is seriously down on her pasterns and limps rather frequently. Her bones are very loose and rattling around in her joints due to the severe muscle wasting. Not a very technical explanation I realize, but despite the number of dogs I have, I'm not a vet and don't play one on TV. X-rays were done and we could not find any other problem for her limping so we are cutting down on the prednisone. Fingers crossed this does not bring back the hemolytic anemia. It's a dance that's for sure. A little here, a little less there, but I'm confident we'll figure it out. If you asked Fame, she'd say she's doing great and certainly that's what matters the most.

We had a warm (well, warm for MN in December) day on Friday and quite a bit of snow melted in my yard exposing my 'sins of omission' as I like to call those poopsicles. Shame on me! So I'm busy picking up the yard.

A turkey now and then visiting one of my bird feeders is fun. Over two dozen of them every morning is getting to be a bit much.

MERRY CHRISTMAS

2008-12-24T08:49:00.000-06:00

Gosh, thanks!

2008-12-19T18:23:00.012-06:00

I had no idea people would actually miss me if quit blogging. It was nice to know. I think I live one of the most boring lives around so it's nice to know folks actually read this stuff.

Knitting

I finished Teddy Bear. He's cute, if not a little lopsided. I enjoyed knitting him. I always enjoy knitting toys and how much I enjoy knitting them always surprises me when I do knit toys. Toys are fun. You can tie knots and make mistakes and experiment at covering up your mistakes because, hey, it's a toy! And I enjoy taking the time to add features and personality to a toy to make it unique. Unfortunately, I was a bit rushed completing Teddy and I would have liked to take more time on this final phase. Here's Teddy at the end of my knitting.

I tried to add personality by embroidering eyes, nose and a mouth, but it looked awful. I ended up using buttons for both his eyes and nose and needle felting a mouth. I'm not sure how long the needle felting will hold up on the chenille yarn.

I purchased this Teddy Bear as a kit. He is a Knit One Crochet Too pattern and made out of Knit One Crochet Too Fleece. It looks as if I overstuffed him but I don't think so. I had to concentrate on knitting very loosely because the yarn has no give or stretch. Unfortunately, my loose knitting showed up once I stuffed the bear. Still, over all, a fun knit, a decent pattern and Teddy is oh so soft to the touch.

I started a new project. It is the Lily Of The Valley Shawl by Nancy Bush from Lace Style. Doesn't look like much yet does it?

Christmas Gifts

My sister and I gave each other the same Christmas gift! What a hoot! Here are the insulated glasses she gave me.

My sister gave me glasses with sailor designs because she is one great sailor. She captained her crew and her own boat to first place in two huge races at Kentucky Lake this past summer. She was the first woman to win the Governor's Cup race in the 50 some year history of the race.

So that's why my sister gave me sailor theme glasses. Me, I bought my sister drink theme glasses because...ah...because...I make the best pomegranate martinis around. That's my story and I'm sticking to it.

I think that's all I have to write about today. The dogs are doing great although we are all very sick of the snow, frigid temps and being house bound. Fame continues to improve. What? You want to see a picture of her? Why I'd be happy to oblige.

I'm Back

2008-12-14T09:35:00.017-06:00

After some deliberation, I decided to start blogging again. I had considered just tossing the blog away. I was simply too busy this summer to keep up and once I was out of the habit, it was tempting to not pick up the habit again.

Knitting

I can't remember where I left off. I've completed two Mr. Greenjeans, one for my sister and one for me. Here's the one I made for myself.

It's nice. The button hole is too big. I need to stitch it up a bit. For some reason, this sweater doesn't fit as well as the one I made for my sister. Isn't that the way things go! I swear I made it exactly the same. Oh well. I've worn it a few times and will wear it even more once I fix up the button hole. This is knit from Dream in Color Classy, colorway Beach Fog.

I completed the Drop Stitch Tank from Fitted Knits.

Not too interesting of a picture is it? It was an equally uninteresting knit. No shaping, no challenge. I completed this simply because I'm a person who hates to leave a project undone. Surprisingly, it's cute on and I wear it often. I think I made a poor choice in substituting yarn. My tank is made from yarn in my stash, Lana Grossa Point. It's too heavy of a yarn for a summer tank so I wear this sweater over a silk long underwear shirt. I bought the yarn for the color and I still love the color. I have enough left over for something...perhaps a small shrug.

This weekend I completed my first Hemlock Ring. I say first because it's such a fun and easy knit and the results are so spectacular, I'm already planning on making a few more. My family thinks I'm an expert knitter after seeing this!

I made this one using Cascade Ecological Wool. I've seen several on Ravelry made in cotton and I definitely want to try that. I'd also like to knit this as a doily but will most likely leave that project for the summer time. According to Ravelry I'm only about the 3000th knitter to make a Hemlock Ring. Nothing like being original!

I have a Teddy Bear in progress for a Christmas gift.

I'm a little further along than this picture shows. My bear needs to be completed by December 20th so I need to dedicate more time to Teddy. Then, I have some golf club covers planned before Christmas. After Christmas? I don't know. I'm looking around for something different and original. Suggestions are welcome.

Dogs

The dogs and I had a great summer. Lots of agility, a little bit of obedience and almost no conformation shows. Yes! Dusty went from Novice A agility in March to completing his Excellent titles in September. Quite an accomplishment. Now we are working towards his MACH title and progressing much more slowly. I think now we are paying our dues :-) Dot and JJ finished up their Novice agility titles and Dot even has a leg on her Open Jumpers title. Dot is so happy I gave up obedience with her to concentrate on agility. Speaking of obedience, Dak completed his Utility title. Way to go Dak. There's always such a feeling of true accomplishment when you get that UD title. It's hard.

Unfortunately, I was only able to bask in Dak's obedience success for 36 hours before getting some very bad news on Fame. I'm sure you remember my Fame? She was the only surviving puppy from a litter born 8/25/07. Fame was diagnosed with hemolytic anemia three weeks ago. She was one sick puppy. Her HCT (red blood cell count) was 12, which is very, very low. Her gums were gray and she had a heart murmur caused by the anemia. Thanks to Dr. Julia at Twin City Animal Rehab Clinic and to the doctors and technicians at Inver Grove Heights Animal Clinic for saving Fame's life.

Fame had a blood transfusion and was living on Golden Retriever blood for several days. Now I'm happy to report her HCT is up to 38 which is low normal and she's behaving like 100% Pembroke. Fame is on high doses of prednisone and will very slowly, over many months, be weaned off the drugs. Hopefully she can go into remission and be drug free, or at least be maintained on a low dosage of steroids. Some dogs make a complete recovery and never have another incident in their life time, others never go into remission. Most fall somewhere in between. So I'm definitely praying for the best outcome for Fame.

Summer Time

2008-07-06T21:31:00.018-05:00

Let's see, if I can still remember how blogger works, I can update my long lax blog.

Percy

Percy has pretty much recovered. He still has episodes of phantom pain and will start to attack his tail all the while growling and hissing in such a non-Percy personality I can barely recognize him. These episodes have slowly started to recede but I can't wait until they are gone forever. As my vet told me and I have slowly learned, tails are funny things with cats. As much as I love my Percy, I don't love the almost vicious Percy who appears during his tail attacks.

I'm not sure why Percy his sticking his tongue out at me in the above picture, then again, after all he has been through, guess I can't blame him.

It was difficult for Percy to eat while wearing the E-collar. I finally settled on the large pasta serving bowl from a set of pasta bowls I have. The individual bowls were not quite large enough but the serving bowl worked fairly well. He still spilled cat kibble all over the counter while eating in his E-collar. Glad that phase is over with.

Knitting

I made good progress on my second Mr. Greenjeans before the heat set in and I couldn't bear to knit with wool. I'll finish it soon enough. I've already learned this is fast knit. I'm knitting it in Dream In Color Classy, colorway Beach Fog.

Meanwhile, I started the Drop Stitch Lace Tank using Lana Grossa Point from my stash. Humm...not quite sure what I think so far. This yarn is very similar to Rowan Calmer and like Calmer, I find it difficult to hold gauge with this yarn and it has a tendency to want to split. Most of all, I think it will be a heavy piece for a sleeveless summer tank. We'll see...perhaps I'll frog it all soon and start something else.

I did finish my diamond lace scarf knit in Karabella Terrain. I think it turned out quite nice - other than I finished it in mid June and it was a birthday present for my sister's birthday in May. Ah, those best laid plans!

Dogs

I've been very busy with the dogs. Dusty finished his Open Standard and Open Jumper with Weaves agility titles. JJ has started showing in Novice Agility with some success and Dak managed to pick up one "leg" (passing score) on his Utility title. We're heading to Duluth this weekend in hopes of Dak completing his Utility title. He needs two more passing scores to complete the title.

I had to laugh over the puppy girls playing "The Princess And The Pea" on the stack of dog beds I made a few weeks ago while I was cleaning the floors. Above is Tinkerbelle and below is Rumor, hopping off in order to hide from that nasty flash on the camera.

Birds

Not too much new in the bird arena. Four of the five bluebird eggs hatched successfully and the 4 birds fledged without event. I think they must have been all males as I have a slew of male bluebirds around here suddenly.

My turkey made daily visits for several weeks but now is not to be seen. I was hoping she would continue to return each day and bring her summer chicks with her once they hatched. However, she has not made an appearance for about 10 days now. I hope she is too busy with her new chicks or has simply moved on, but I'm afraid she made have become coyote or fox bait. I miss her.

Hope you had a great July 4th!

Percy's Home

2008-05-29T21:49:00.003-05:00

He only lost the tip of his tail, but his tail hurts him, and the indignity of a cat in an E collar is indescribable.

Poor Percy

2008-05-27T22:55:00.008-05:00

You know it's been a bad day when you sit down to eat supper while Jay Leno is doing his monologue. Definitely been that kind of day here.

My dear Percy is in trouble. Tomorrow he will have at least a part of his tail amputated. It all started so innocently. As you may know, Percy is an indoor/outdoor cat most of the year. He is a fantastic mouser and rabbit-ter. He is also a birder beyond compare and thus spends a few months each spring and early summer confined to the house so the birds have at least a chance to nest and fledge. Percy gets frustrated being in the house all the time and has invented a fun game of hopping from chair to chair under the dining table all the while teasing and taunting the dogs. Percy loves the game, the dogs love the game, it all seemed like so much fun to me.

This morning one of the dogs, and I have no idea who, managed to nip Percy's tail while playing the musical chairs game. I dropped Percy off at the vet where they sedated him and stitched up his tail. When I picked him up later this afternoon they warned me he might lose his tail. I thought that was too silly. He's the healthiest cat I know. It was just a little nip. However, after being home a few hours, Percy was in serious pain. He would circle and bite and rip at his tail. He ripped the stitches out. I had to take him into the vet on this evening and spent an hour or so there. We were able to give him pain meds and a bit of sedation. I have meds to give him again at 3:30 a.m. (hey, who needs sleep). Tomorrow I will bring him back to the vet and most likely he will have at least the tip of his tail amputated. Hopefully not more but the vet thinks probably more. We had a chance of saving his tail before he ripped it apart.

Birds

Before Percy's accident I thought I would start my blog off with this picture. Isn't she fantastic? I caught the turkey feeding in my front yard this morning. I was almost ready to get a picture of her stretching her neck and eating right out of bird feeder when the dogs also spotted her and starting barking up a storm. Naturally, the turkey left when the barking started, but she wasn't in any big hurry to leave so hopefully she'll be back. My sister in KY just laughed when I sent her this picture. She said the wild turkeys in KY are much fatter than this skinny hen. My sister said you can actually eat the wild turkeys in KY. Ha-rumph! The MN winters must be tougher on our turkeys.

In other bird news, I have a pair of blue birds nesting with 5 white eggs. The Bluebird Mad tells me white eggs are somewhat rare but not unheard of and it is not an indication anything will be wrong with the baby birds.

The Indigo Buntings are still here. I thought they had left but I see them at my feeders almost every day. A few days ago I had 3 pair of Red Breasted Grosbeaks at the feeder all at the same time. They are such beautiful birds. The Orioles are back too, along with the Eastern Phoebes, Chipping Sparrows and Wrens.

Oh, I forgot to mention about a week ago I saw my first American Redstart. He was flitting around my crab apple tree. What a pretty little bird!

Now my crab apple tree looks like this. Very pretty, but also very good camouflage for birds. I predict I'll be seeing fewer and fewer new birds now that the leaves are out.

Dogs

A few days ago the puppies came in looking like this. This is Fancy. Tinkerbelle and Rumor looked much worse but I was only able to catch a picture of Fancy. Believe it or not, they smelled even worse than they looked. I don't know what they found to roll in but ... yuk!

I spent my Memorial Day weekend at 3 days of agility trials. We had a blast. Dusty managed to pick up his OA (Open standard) title and 2 legs toward his OAJ (Open Jumpers) title. Dusty is so good, he even makes me look good!

The agility trails were blessed with good weather and we managed to escape the tornadoes. My manager, who lives in Western WI, was not so fortunate. They lost their barn and roof of their house. Luckily, they are all fine as are their horses and cattle.

Knitting

I do still knit, just no recent pictures to show. I'm working still on my lacy scarf and my Mr. Greejeans II.

Send good thoughts to Percy tomorrow. I could not care less what length or look of tail he ends up with, but I definitely want the "pain free" part of all of this. I think it's going to be a long night here.

Is it spring yet?

2008-05-13T21:04:00.014-05:00

Gosh, seems like we Minnesotans have waited a long time for spring, and we're still waiting. I hope it comes soon. Actually, I'd be quite happy to skip spring at this point and go right to summer.

Birds

I haven't been posting much about my birds this spring. I think it's been so cold and gray most of the time I just can't get excited about it. But I am excited about this - Indigo Buntings!

Can you spot the Bunting on the thistle feeder here? I noticed a small, gray bird sitting in my large feeder a few weeks ago and thought to myself, that's a female Indigo Bunting. But I figured I must be wrong. I haven't seen Indigo Buntings here for about 10 years. Then, last week I spotted two males sitting in my large feeder helping themselves to the food. Two at once! I tried to get a picture but they flew off as soon as I moved towards the window. I did manage to capture a few, blurry, though the window pictures of one at my thistle feeder. The buntings were around for about 4 days, now they seem to have moved on. I wish they would spend the summer but at least I saw them while they were here.

I have bluebirds again but they haven't started nesting. According to the Bluebird Man, it's just too cool yet. I've heard some bluebirds further north are starving to death this year due to the cool weather and lack of food. Mine seem to be doing great in the food category. All this wet weather makes for plenty of worms for the bluebirds. Still, they have started building a nest on the few warm days but abandon efforts as soon as it turns cold and rainy again. This isn't a very good picture but it is proof of my bluebirds.

I spotted my first bluebird this year on April 14th. That's about 3 weeks later than normal. The first Orioles appeared on Monday, May 12th, about a week to 10 days later than expected.

Knitting

I don't think I have published a picture of my Mr. Greenjeans completed with a button and all. My sister Rita wore it to my nephew's college graduation and my mom tells me Rita was the best dressed of the group. I know moms tend to say these things but I must say, it does fit my sister very well and the color is perfect for her.

So, I decided to start my own, my second, Mr. Greenjeans. I turned a few skeins into center pull balls tonight. The way this spring has been going, if I hurry I might still get to wear my own Mr. Greenjeans before summer comes.

Meanwhile, I'm knitting on my lacy scarf. Here it is as a blob of lace.

And here it is stretched out a bit so you can see the pattern.

I think it will be quite nice once I block it out, but it's so boring. I usually manage one pattern repeat before I'm too bored to continue. I definitely need another project in addition to this scarf. I've used up one skein of the Karabella Terrain. I have three. I will definitely use a second skein to complete the scarf. I don't think I can manage knitting up three skeins. Maybe, but it seems too boring at this point. I think the scarf will be plenty long enough using two skeins.

This weekend I knitted several swatches for a project I bought back in . . . 2002? 2001? I can't remember as this project has been marinating on my back shelf for a long time. It's a stranded knitting project, not only stranded but done in cotton (eek, all my errors will show as cotton isn't as forgiving as wool) and it's not done in the round so I will be stranding on the backside (purl stitch). I can't imagine what I was thinking when I bought this. Yikes! Yet I'm sick and tired of looking at this project and am determined to get it started this summer.

I've made several swatches, more than shown here. I've swatched with different needle sizes, different stranding techniques, you name it, I think I've tried it. I want this project to turn out as nice a possible so I'm taking my time at the beginning. My biggest fear is that I don't have enough yarn for the body of the sweater. Now that will be a big bummer! I don't think I have much hope of finding the same yarn in the same dye lot should I run out. One of the perils of retiring a project for so many years!

I'm usually much more monogamous with my knitting projects but looks like I'll have three going at once for a while here.

Dogs

No new puppy pictures. JJ and Bunny go to NADAC trials this weekend so perhaps something new to show next week.

Resistance Is Futile

2008-04-27T21:15:00.009-05:00

Knit News

I had 3 days of obedience trials in the Twin Cities this past weekend and on the way home today I stopped by Knitter's Palette to pick up a nice button for my Mr. Greenjeans sweater. I did come home with a lovely button, but look what else I brought home. I swear, resistance is futile. The last thing I needed was more yarn!

I purchased 3 skeins of Dream In Color Classy to make a second Mr. Greenjeans for myself. My first Mr. Greenjeans turned out quite nice and it was a very fun knit with an excellent pattern. I had only two problems with the first sweater.

First, life took over and I simply ran out of knitting time. This should be a relatively quick knit, I just didn't have that much time to give to it. Second, I had to knit the button band three times because of my own errors. The first time I tried the button band I was spending the night in the hospital keeping an eye on a family member (who is fine now). I knew there was something wrong with what I was doing but I kept on knitting out of nervous energy or something. I hadn't picked up enough stitchs which caused the sweater to pull up badly in the front. So I ripped that button band out.

For the second attempt at the button band, I was so sure I had counted correctly but I ended up with one side starting with a purl two and the opposite ending with a knit two. Clearly, this was not good. Finally, on the third attempt I got smart and used two long dpns to pick up the stitches for either side of the button band and then used the correct size needles to pick up and knit the actual stitches. I am so happy with the result that I am going to make another Mr. Greenjeans for myself.

Here's my first Mr Greenjeans drying after a wash in cool water. Once blocked, it fit me perfectly and was not too small as I had feared. Still, I had promised it to my sister so it is now hers and I'll make another for myself.

The white yarn above is Cascade Ecological Wool from which I plan to knit a Hemlock Ring lap blanket.

I started a diamond lace scarf using Karabella Terrain. It is coming along nicely, if not slowly. I completed this much of it at the dog shows this weekend. I had to rip back a few times. I'm thinking knitting lace at dog obedience trials is not such a good mix.

Dog News

As I mentioned above, I spent the weekend at dog obedience trials. Dot finished her CDX in three shows with very respectable scores and a first and second placing in her classes. Dak tried Utility and unfortunately, did not manage to pass this weekend but I am very happy with his performance and progress. It will be June before I show him again which gives us more time to practice and perfect. He's a very willing dog with a very happy and up attitude and I have no doubt of his success.

Below is a picture of Emma, formerly known as Fussy, from my last litter. I don't know, I might have to demand her back. I'm not sure she has enough toys or dog beds and dog friends to play with.

Mr. Greenjeans

2008-04-20T21:28:00.020-05:00

I have all but completed my Mr. Greenjeans. Unfortunately, it's a bit too small for me. I love the sweater, I just might have to knit another in my size. However, it fits my sister nicely. Here she is modeling it.

I need to sew up a few loose strands, find a nice button, wash and block it and the sweater is ready to go to my sister Rita. A very fun and easy knit done in Dream In Color Classy, colorway Blue Lagoon, size 7 and 8 needles. As I said above, I just might have to knit this again in my own size.

I knit the button band 3 times and I'm still not satisfied with it but it will do. I can't bear to knit it again I think. I have to thank Pam at Knitters Palette, my LYS. I called her long distance and she gave me the excellent advice which finally helped me knit the button band as close to correct as it is going to be.

I haven't decided what I want to knit next. This is odd as I usually have my next project all lined up. I have the yarn and patterns for several lovely scarfs and I will start on at least one of these. However, I do love to knit sweaters. Here's a few of the projects peaking my interest - mostly sweaters but perhaps a toy.

Meanwhile, the dogs have been doing great. Dusty completed his Novice Agility Standard and Jumpers titles and already has a leg up on his Open Standard title. Dusty is such a willing and loyal little dog. I'm so proud of him. He's not the dog I would have ever predicted to be good at agility but he certainly is.

Today Dot and Dak were entered in Open A and Utility A Obedience classes respectively for the first time. Dottie won her Open class with zero points deducted for the heeling exercises - a remarkable accomplishment. She is truly a little heeling machine. Dak also did very well, just missing one of the scent articles because of his speed and missing his go-out spot because of sure greenness. Congrats kids, you are great dogs.

Fame went to her first conformation show - that's the part where you run around in circles and show off your hairstyle says Fame - and managed a 2nd of 4 in her class. That's fine with me. I've never doubted Fame's potential is definitely in the performance arenas and neither I nor Fame could be happier about that. Fame was beside herself with glee the last two weeks as her older brother Moby was here. My goodness, would the two of them play as above for hours.

Meanwhile, the little puppy girls are growing on and are very pleasing.

Here is Fancy with her mother Shamrock. Fancy loves to stick by and imitate everything her mom does.

This is little Rumor, a very pretty sable girl, so attentive and so watchful. Can't wait to to start serious performance training with Rumor.

And we couldn't forget my precious Tinkerbell.

Happy Easter!

2008-03-23T20:51:00.009-05:00

Whoa! I knew I hadn't blogged in a while but I see it's been nearly a month. Bad me.

I've been quite busy with the puppies and other dog activities. As for the puppies, Fussy (now Emma) and Necklace (now Jade) are both in their new homes and have bright futures as performance dogs doing obedience, agility and possibly conformation also. I miss them both but updates from their owners confirm both puppies are well adjusted in their new homes. I'm suppose to be getting pictures (hint hint). I'll publish them when I get them.

Meanwhile, I'm running on Tinkerbelle, Rumor (formerly Splat) and Fancy (formerly Two Spots) for a few more weeks.

This was a very nice litter but do I wonder if they have enough toys?

My Kennel Club held a Meet The Breed at the local mall in early March. Dak demonstrated scent discrimination, heeling, hand signals and a little agility. He had a blast. He loves performing. The really big news around here though is Dusty and his success at the first AKC agility trials he (and I) attended. Dusty ran 2 Novice Jumper With Weaves and 2 Novice Standard courses and ended up with 4 perfect scores! Being a novice agility handler, I made a few mistakes. Dusty is such a reliable and agreeable dog however, he was able to cover for me.

Here is Dusty's first JWW run.

Above is Dusty's first Novice Standard run. The first dog on the video is Moby, Dusty's son, and Moby's owner/trainer Sherry. It was fun to see how much the boys look a like and their similar working styles.

And wait, wait! I do still knit, though not nearly as much as I'd like.

I finished my fingerless gloves the weekend of the agility trials. It was cold in that horse arena and the gloves were the perfect thing to wear. That's why they look a little worn in the photo above. I put them to good use more than once before thinking to take a picture of them. The yarn is Dream In Color Smooshy.

I'm plugging along on my Mr. Greenjeans. Almost done with the first sleeve, one more sleeve and the front edging to do and I'm done. I'm hoping to finish it and be able to wear it yet this season. The way this winter has been going, that should be no problem!

Mr Greenjeans Progress

2008-02-28T21:36:00.008-06:00

I'm making progress on my Mr. Greenjeans sweater though progress has been slow of late. This is one of many pictures I've taken and none do justice to the color which is much more 'jewel' like in person. I'm happy with it, so far it fits great and I hope I complete my Mr. Greenjeans while there is still time to wear it.

One reason for the slow progress has been a wicked case of, ahem, loose stools in the puppies. It was actually considerably worse than "loose stools". I think words such as "liquid" and "projectile" should be include but I wouldn't want to gross anyone out! I purchased not just rolls and rolls of paper towels but packages and packages of rolls and rolls of paper towels. My wash machine ran continuously, I think I wore the finish off my kitchen floor from the constant washing and I was so exhausted from all the cleaning and bathing of puppies.

Finally a few days ago we achieved hard stool stage. Life is so much better. Aren't they clean and sweet here? (...and quiet and asleep!)

The little gals are eight weeks old today and went to the vet for first shots this afternoon. Time to start making decisions as to their future, who goes where and who stays. And time for individual introductions.

On the left is Splats and on the right is Fussy.

This of course is Tinkerbelle.

And this is Necklace. Twosie didn't want to wake up for a picture so she's missing here. Maybe next time I blog.

And I can't leave out Fame.

Is this my best side?

Knitting, cooking and puppies of course

2008-02-16T21:53:00.012-06:00

The blogs I enjoy the most are the blogs updated regularly. Unfortunately, that's not what I seem to be able to do. It is always my intention, just not my reality. I hope the regular bloggers I enjoy reading will keep it up. Meanwhile, I will work at not feeling guilty for my own irratic blogging.

Knitting

I am making good progress on my Mr Greenjeans. This picture is not very flattering. I can't seem to get a photo which shows off the lovely colors of this Dream In Color yarn. I've made more progess on the cable and rib pattern than shown here. It's a fun project.

I also blocked my Clapotis and re-hung it on the back of Dottie's chair.

Before Christmas I bought this yarn at my LYS to make the Fiber Arts Paws To Remember scarf. I decided to start this scarf in addition to Mr. Greenjeans. I am hoping it will turn out nice enough to send to a friend. The only problem is...this scarf requires size 7 needles and I am currently using my only size 7 needles on the Mr. Greenjeans. Oh oh, I sense a need to visit a yarn store!

Vegan Day

I am not vegan, heck, I am not even vegetarian. However, I do enjoy cooking and experimenting with new cuisines. A few weeks ago we held a Hot Dish Lunch at the office. One of my work mates brought a recipe based on this. I don't think this dish qualifies as a Minnesota Hot Dish, still, so delicous! I made it today and it was very good. I stayed with the basic recipe since it was the first time I've made this. Next time, I'll taste and add salt and a bit of sugar as needed. The worst mistake I made today was roasting the sweet potatos before the rice was ready. I love roasted sweet potatos and ended up snacking too much while waiting for the rice. I had to roast a few more potatoes to round out the dish.

Since I was into a vegan experience today, I made chocolate cupcakes filled with peanut butter cream from Vegan Cupcakes Take Over The World. OMG! These are so good. I will definitely be making more cupcakes from this fun little book. I think I make excellent 'regular' coconut cupcakes so I'm anxious to try coconut and lime cupcakes from the book.

Dogs And Puppies

This picture is already a week old. I'll have to work at getting some new shots. The puppies are doing great though I can't say the same for the beating my kitchen floor is taking. The girls are having visitors for the next few weekends. That will be a lot of fun for the puppies and I'm anxious to show them off.

Fame, always my Wild Child. Fame had agility lessons today. Agility is definitely her sport but she needs to learn to listen and "chill" a bit. Fame tagged along to obedience class on Friday also where she was a big hit. I thought my friend Heidi was going to steal her away from me.

My Life For The Near Future

2008-02-07T21:04:00.000-06:00

It's a girl fight!

We need to get out of here!

Oh my, our human mom says it's above freezing and we can be outside for a few minutes.

We do not like this at all, please take us back inside!

Ah, this is better.

We think we'll stay here until spring.

Our human mom says, "Please God, could you hurry up spring? What did I do before they invented these?"

Meanwhile, she tries to take comfort in the progress of her Mr. Greenjeans.

And remembering, this is what it is all about - a Pembroke who can not only excell in the show ring but also in performance events! Yes indeed, when you are washing your kitchen floor for the 5th time in a day, the picture above is definitely what keeps you going.

Finished my Clapotis

2008-02-05T20:59:00.000-06:00

I completed my Clapotis since the last time I blogged. I finished it the last day of January. It still needs a good blocking but the only space I have to block such a large item is currently filled with the puppy whelping box (alias, large size Kiddy Pool). I think it will look much better once it is blocked but that project is going to have to wait another week.

Meanwhile, blocked or unblocked, Dot approves of the new adnornment to her chair.

I started a new project, the Mr. Greenjeans pattern from Knitty. I'm using one of my favorite yarns, Dream In Color Smooshy. The colorway is Blue Lagoon and so far, this knit is going quickly and I'm enjoying it very much. I hope to complete the sweater in time to wear it yet this season. The way this winter has been going, it should not be a problem at all!

The puppies are doing great. Don't they look cute here? You should have seen them a few hours earlier as they pooped and peed their way through my kitchen. Maybe someday it will warm up enough they can actually go outside. I have to go into the office tomorrow and can't imagine the mess I will come home to! I've raised Pembrokes for 28 years and only worked from home the last 3 years, yet, I've somehow forgotten how I did this while I was commuting. In all seriousness, these girls are as cute as they can be and I'm so happy they have all made it to this age and are healthy and strong.

And the best news of all, Fame thinks the new puppies are the best! She loves them and plays with them very appropriately. I'm so happy to know this as Fame was basically a singleton and it's great to see she has such good dog manners.

Good night!

Just A Little Knitting Content

2008-01-25T16:37:00.000-06:00

These little preemie hats are all the knitting I accomplished so far in January. The hats themselves were quick and easy enough to make but I struggled over getting my pompoms to look nice. Finally, I just gave up on the pompoms. Besides, while searching the web for preemie hat patterns I found one site which stated NICUs prefer hats without pompoms so that's my excuse and I'm sticking to it! These aren't my best work, I thought I'd get many more finished and do a better job on them but January brought several interruptions and minor crises. Such is life.

I have been horribly remiss in posting puppy pictures - as I've been reminded in several emails. The pups are all doing great. The little tri has stayed quite small but she was never without strength and energy so I continued to supplement her. I was anxious to get her started on solid foods, or more correctly at this age, "puppy mush" so I started all of them yesterday when they turned 21 days old. This is a bit earlier than I normally like to, but it has paid off as Tri Girl has gained 3 ounces in the last two days.

The puppy at the top right is Two Spots and that's food stuck on the top of her head. Not at all unlike babies first learning to eat in their highchairs, a puppy's first meals are messy business. I must have snapped this picture before Shamrock had a chance to clean her up. Two Spots has her head draped over the smallest red girl, Fussy. And of course that's the little tri color girl in the center. Isn't she tiny compared to her sisters? Still, you can see she does know how to keep herself warm! Next is the puppy I call Necklace and on the bottom left is the biggest girl, Splats. Notice her lovely smile? She must be dreaming of the great meal she just finished. I had to spend some time teaching Tri Girl and Fussy how to eat off of a platter but there was no need to teach Splats how to eat.

This is a picture of the puppies at 17 days. They had just discovered each other and were biting on each others ears and barking for the first time. It's so funny when they make their first bark as they usually bark and then fall over. They aren't so steady on their feet yet at 17 days.

While her four sisters were learning to bark and play, Necklace was zonked out.

And finally, Shamrock spends less time in the whelping box these days and more time supervising from the leather chair in the puppy room. She thought it was rather insulting for the flash on the camera to disturb her nap here.

Did you survive the bitter cold weekend? I did, but barely. I'm very good at hibernating during the cold. My sister Rita came out on Sunday afternoon. Rita enjoys football just as much as I do not but I did want to sit down with her and watch at least 5 minutes of the Packer game simply because I had to see what kind of crazy fools would sit outdoors in -20 wind chill to watch football. I ended up watching the entire game and what a game it was. I'm sure it's the first entire football game I've watched in 10 years. I do know how to pick them don't I? My sister Rita has Down's so I don't think she quite understands the whole Packer mystique. I told her from the beginning I was cheering for the Green team so naturally Rita was cheering for the White team. Boy, did she have a good time razing me when her team won!

Sorry I don't have a current picture of Fame to post. Fame has been busy learning a few show dog lessons. I despair of ever training her to stand still and let a stranger examine her bite. My little Fame does have a stubborn streak.

No Knittng Content

2008-01-13T22:02:00.000-06:00

It's a good thing this blog is not just a knitting blog as I've no new knitting progress to chat about. I am having to bottle feed my little tri-color girl every three hours and though I have it all down to an efficient system, I'm still longer for a full nights sleep. Whenever I find myself with a few minutes to knit, I find myself dozing off before I can even pick up my needles.

Here are the little treasures, all doing very well. Even the tri girl is strong and active as long as I keep up the feedings. They made it through the first week and we're into the second week now so hopefully everything will continue to be copacetic.

Look at Fame, she's getting so big. She's out grown her little dog bed. I left her at home today when we went to agility lessons. Oh my, was Fame unhappy about that!

And finally in this picture heavy blog, here's Percy, wondering where all his feathered ~~food~~ friends have gone. I've even neglected feeding my birds while I'm preoccupied feeding my puppy. I'll have to get out tomorrow and fill the feeders before the forecasted frigid weather comes.

Preemie Hat knitting

2008-01-06T16:40:00.000-06:00

Jeanne and Chell over at k3tog have started up their annual January preemie hat knitting for the Children's Hospital of St. Paul. I wanted to contribute a few hats this year and I have quite a bit of baby yarn left over from various baby blankets I've made. The hats are so teeny tiny! It does not take long to make one and it takes very little yarn. Here's my first, sans a pompom on top because I've forgotten how to make pompoms so figure I'll knit up a few hats and then sit down one evening and make all the pompoms at once.

I so wanted Fame to model the hat for a picture but Fame was having no part of it and I feared for the survival of my newly knitted hat!

I have a bunch of green baby yarn and a whole bunch of blue I'd like to use up but I figure I best stick with the white and green so the hats can be worn by either boy or girl babies. I'm not sure how many I will finish but I will play around with these until the end of January. If you'd like to contribute just check out their web site for details.

I am starting to catch up on some of the sleep I lost while tending to puppies the last few days so am hoping to also finish up my Clapotis which seems to languish for long periods of time while I work on other projects.

I wanted to show a picture of the green traveling shells cardigan which took up so much of my 2007 knitting. My mom wore it at Christmas with a black blouse and black slacks and it really showed off the pattern.

It was so sweet of her to wear it on Christmas. Makes me want to fix all the mistakes I see in it -- or even consider making a second one since it would be better than the first. Eh, don't worry, I'm not about to tackle that project again!

Since I have no other knitting progress to talk about or display, here's some pictures of what has been taking up all my time the last few days.

Shamrock is looking rightly proud of her new brood.

From top, going clockwise is Necklace, Splat, Blackie, Two Spots and Fussy Mussy. Don't worry, these won't be their permanent names. (At least, they almost never become a puppy's permanent name.) These are their "weigh-in" names, names usually based on distinquishing markings I use to chart their weights for the first few weeks.

And of course Fame is still the delight of the house. She is getting so big and adult looking. For a while I thought Fame would not make it as a show dog but suddenly, she's looking rather nice. I think I might have to train her for the conformation ring in addition to obedience and agility. Here's a picture I caught of her being still. It's a bit out of focus but it is so difficult to get a picture of busy, constantly moving Fame. I managed to take this as she ~~stalked~~ watched the cat who was trying to get down from the kitchen counter.

Something new for the New Year

2008-01-04T05:44:00.000-06:00

I know I've been ignoring my blog lately. There was the Holidays of course, a wonderful Christmas spent with all my family together, my parents home from AZ and my sister here from KY, along with all the rest of the family still living here in MN. It was a great Christmas.

Still, I ignored my blog even after Christmas. Here's the reason why:

These 5 beautiful girls (yes - all girls!) were born late last evening. I've been on pins and needles anticipating this litter since my last litter resulted in only a singleton. As wonderful as Fame is, a one puppy litter is still not a great success. Even when I had time to blog I couldn't. My mind was on nothing else but doing all I could to prepare for a successful litter. I was hoping for something a little bigger this time and it seems I've gotten my wish. So far at least. Everyone is healthy and fat. They have all nursed throughout the night and mama Shamrock is in good shape. The sire of the litter looks like this.

So wish us luck and good health.

Agility Trials

Dusty and I attended a weekend of NADAC agility trials after Christmas. It was So.Much.Fun. And Dusty did great besides having a blast. He even won his first class. I ordered a professional photo from the trial which won't arrive for 4-6 weeks so you'll have to be satisfied with this shot of Dusty taken while we practiced one frigid day after Christmas. Agility lessons are in an unheated building and I dress for the cold. It was strange to run agility indoors at the trials without at least 5 pounds of extra clothes on!

My sister took this picture along with several others of the dogs working and she took some beautiful family pictures during the Holiday get-togethers.

Knitting

I don't have any new knitting pictures to show. I'm finishing up some hand warmers in Dream In Color Smooshy and also my Clapotis. I can't wait to start something new but I am going to finish up these two projects first.

Christmas Knitting Continues

2007-12-19T21:28:00.000-06:00

First I want to say thank you for all the comments on my loss of Winger. It still hurts, as I'm sure all you pet owners know. Winger went so much further in her obedience training than I would have thought possible. Winger always tried so hard and gave each new challenge her very best effort.

I learned much about life from Winger.

Christmas Knitting

I am busy hurrying to finish up my Christmas knitting. Most of the projects are easy, fun knits which I will show pictures of once they are completed and given away. However, I have to show you the cutest little toy.

I warned you in a previous post how enamored I have become with knitted toys. As soon as I finished the Felted Sheep I set out on a Felted Fido project. My sister's first grandchild is crazy about puppies. I hope he likes this little guy.

This Felted Fido is made of Cascade 220 Wool in an off white color and Bernat Boa novelty yarn. I am the world's worse photographer and do not think these pictures do justice to this cute little guy. He has black, needle felted eyes and nose and a red, needle felted tongue. I also made a red I-cord collar and attached "dog tags" snipped from a recently purchased dog collar.

Fame

And here is Fame attacking Santa in typical Fame style.

Gosh, I hope Santa still comes to our house!

Ch. Winger UD RAE 1995-2007

2007-12-13T20:18:00.000-06:00

I lost my Winger today. It has been more difficult than I thought. She had been failing rapidly lately but this past weekend Winger went downhill quickly. She was very uncomfortable and not eating. I know I did the right thing and I had a long time to say good-bye but it still hurts. I loved her so much, I hope she knows that.

Above is my favorite picture of Winger, 18 months old and going Best Of Breed at her very first dog show. Winger meant so much to me. She was a very unlikely obedience prospect, very shy and nervous and extremely sound sensitive. Still, she worked hard and prevailed and her life was much richer for it.

This is Winger a few nights ago. Like so many of my dogs, she loved sleeping between the toilet and the wall.

Here is a picture of Winger I took this past weekend. Winger had bad cataracts and the flash often shown like this in her eyes. I've tried using a few tools to fix her eyes in the picture but without success. Is there anyone who reads my blog who might know how to fix her eyes? I'd love to have this picture of Winger without the shining eyes.

Meanwhile, life goes on. Tomorrow I have to drive into the office for our Christmas party. I'm hardly in the Ho-Ho-Ho mood. Still, we are very busy and it will be good to meet with a few folks in person and talk over current and future work.

Knitting

I have been doing some knitting.

This is Fiber Trends Felted Fido. It's starting to look a bit like a puppy. It will be interesting to see how it turns out after felting. This is knit with Cascade 220 Wool and a novelty yarn I bought at the local big box store.

I'm still working on the golf club covers. Easy (and often boring) knitting. This cover has been completed, except for the seaming, for at least a week. I don't know what's wrong with me but I just can't seem to finish it. Hopefully this weekend.

Life Goes On

Fame continues to delight. Here she is this evening attacking one of my Smart Wool socks instead of any of her multiple toys.

Fame does agility

2007-12-05T21:19:00.000-06:00

Hey, don't faint, it really is me posting more than once in a month!

Work has been insane lately. So many projects, so many problems, so short staffed. The last few days I feel as if I have done nothing but shuffle from one project/problem to another, making little to no progress on any. I'll never understand corporate America's belief in short staffing and expecting the remaining few folks to get everything done.

Anyway, back to my blog subjects of knitting and dogs. As promised, I have a few pictures, albeit not very good, of Fame at her first agility lesson.

Big, brave, oh so independent puppy Fame met her match on the A-frame and the dog walk. Of course we had the A-frame laid out close to the ground like a bridge and very good control of her on the dog walk. Still, it was a bit surprising to see Fame so subdued. It is definitely not her normal character.

Be assured, by the end of Fame's short lesson she was already tackling the contact equipment with confidence and the tunnels with total abandon. She does love her tunnels.

Speaking of, Lauren mentioned in my comments that Percy might love the tunnels. He sure does! I sent JJ through the chute, a cloth, closed tunnel, the other day and to my and JJ's surprise, Percy was napping inside the chute. Now JJ could have cared less. He's a fast, reckless agility dog, but luckily it was JJ surprised by the cat and not Whisper or Bunny who are much less confident about agility. Good old Percy maintained his napping position in the chute even after JJ had buzzed on by.

I started knitting the second golf club cover pairs. I wanted to start something more interesting but figured I'd best complete these first. I don't like having too many unfinished projects laying around.

I couldn't sleep last night so got up too early this morning and made a cranberry nut bread. I used the recipe found here. I substituted clementine juice rather than orange juice as I still had a bunch of clementines left over from last weekend's pork recipe. I did use orange rind as called for in the recipe because have you ever tried getting a tablespoon of rind off of clementines? Almost as boring as knitting golf club covers. The bread was delicious, worth all the early morning effort and I ate too much of it. I love cranberries, so sweet and so tart all at once. I've bought and frozen a bunch.

Christmas Knitting

2007-12-01T20:07:00.000-06:00

I've been doing a bit of Christmas knitting in November. I finished a few projects and have started several others.

A few months ago I purchased the Fiber Trends Felt Flock pattern. I finally got around to knitting a sheep and did I ever enjoy it! I would not have thought I'd enjoy such a knitting project but I did. This little lamb is made of Cascade 220 wool for his body and some very old Dale of Norway Heilo I found in my stash for the contrasting color. I ended up with just a bit of the Heilo left so I made an I-cord collar for my little lamb. I think I will give this to my agility and herding instructor who is anticipating the birth of her first grandchild this coming week.

...yes, I know I forgot to knit a tail for my lamb. No excuses, I just plain forgot. I'll do better on my next one as I do intend to knit more lambs.

I so seriously enjoyed knitting the felted lamb I actually purchased this book and hope to knit a few more toys in the future. I think I will even join the Ravelry knitted toy group.

I finished my third Ribs and Ruffles Scarf out of Misti Alpaca Chunky.

My first two scarfs were knit in a natural and a baby blue color. These are a very quick knit and make a luxurious gift. I plan to give this third scarf as a gift also. Now I need to make one for myself.

Unfinished Christmas Knitting

My sister asked me to make golf club covers and gave me a pattern using Red Heart yarn and Lion Brand Fun Fur yarn. Hum... so I experimented a bit.

The tan yarn is Mission Falls 1824 Wool and the green eyelash yarn is called "Funny". I made the bright pink one after searching on the web for knitted golf club covers and reading several patterns and posts which said the gaudier the better. The pink yarn is Red Heart and the eyelash is some Crystal Palace Splash I found in my stash. I'm not a golfer but I find the pink quite gaudy for sure! I do not have enough of the Splash to make another cover but I do have some Fun Fur in pink. I'm not a golfer but I hope a second cover with a different novelty yarn will still make for a "matching pair". The golf covers where fun to knit, but honestly, a little boring. I still need to make another in each color by Christmas but I'm going to put it off a bit as I just can't bear to make two more at this time. Each takes about 4-5 hours to complete.

I've finished one of the fingerless mittens I'm making for myself. I like them. I think I should have made the hand portion of the mittens in a stockinette stitch instead of the ribbing because it would have shown off the colors better but here it is. I still like it. I'll finish the second once all my Christmas knitting is complete.

My Clapotis has also taken a back seat to the completion of Christmas knitting. I'm half way through the straight section. Though I'm normally a pastel color person, I am loving the colors of my Clapotis.

And despite all the Christmas projects I also started a simple cap for myself tonight out of some left over stash Dream In Color yarn. I hope I have enough to finish the cap. I remind myself of the shoemaker's children. All the knit projects I make and I don't even have a hat for myself this winter!

Food Project

I've had this plan in my head for a while now. Shelves of my book cases are taken up with cooking magazines. I never take these old magazines out and use them. So, I've let all my cooking magazine subscriptions expire and I am determined to take one or two magazines a month out of my "collection" and go through them a final time, making any recipes I am interested in, saving them if I really like them, and then tossing the old magazine. In December I will go through all my old December magazines, in January, all my old January magazines, etc., until I've cleared out all my old cooking magazines. Then next year at this time, I'll order all new subscriptions!

This weekend I started with a Real Foods Winter 2005 Byerlys and Lunds magazine. (Minnesota readers will recognize this as a quarterly magazine published by upscale grocer Lunds.) I immediately remembered the Dried Cherry and White Chocolate Chip Oatmeal Cookie recipe from this issue. I made this several times last winter. I'm keeping this recipe. I made the Citrus Pork recipe tonight for supper. It was very good. The marinade was clementines, cloves and scallions. I made a clementine and spinach salad to go with it. Very good. Definitely a keeper. There's a Lime and Tortilla soup I'll also try out of this magazine and then poof, in the garbage the magazine will go.

Dog News

The dogs and I have been taking private agility lessons for the last 4-5 weeks. It's so much fun! All the dogs are doing well but Dusty is especially excelling. He's so fast and I have to run full speed to keep up with him. He is already doing full size A-frames after just 5 lessons. I've entered him in a NADAC trial at the end of December. He does not have the weave poles mastered yet so I've entered him in a Tunnelers (boy, does Dusty love the tunnels!) and Touch N Go class only. It will be great practice for the upcoming AKC agility trials this spring.

Fame Was Here

And what a mess she made! I was working on the computer this afternoon and Fame was quietly destroying my kitchen rugs. Good grief. Fame starts her first agility lesson tomorrow. I'll try to remember to bring my camera and see if we can capture a few pictures of her. She already loves her tunnels.

And finally, a picture of Percy. Why? Because the dogs and I love him and because he killed a mouse in the basement this week and that is his original purpose here. Somehow, the dogs and I fell in love with him forgetting his original purpose. But when he manages to protect us (okay, me) from the great villain which is mouse, he is exulted. Hail Percy!

Now don't give me a bad time about letting the cat eat on the kitchen counter. Keeping dogs from eating cat food is simply impossible. All you can do is keep the cat food away from the dogs.

Way Past Time To Blog

2007-11-15T19:41:00.000-06:00

Gosh, I can't believe it has been almost a month since I blogged. I have been busy but I've been busy doing mostly things I enjoy. Hope you have been also. Before I continue I want to remember to say, my Ravelry name is PembrokePurls. I'm slowly, very slowly, updating all my projects there.

My Clapotis is coming along nicely. It's so easy and fun to knit. I can't wait until it is complete. This picture doesn't begin to do justice to the lovely, deep colors. I promise to get better pictures once it's complete.

I stopped by my LYS last weekend and stocked up on yarn and a few patterns for Christmas gifts. I need to get busy on these.

I purchased a skein of Misti Alpaca Chunky in Natural Cream color and intend to knit up my third Ribs and Ruffles scarf. I don't know who I will give it to yet, just know it will be good to have on hand for a Christmas gift. This is the softest yarn I've ever experienced. All I want to do while knitting with it is hold it against my face. It's so soft.

I also purchased 2 balls of Classic Elite Wool Bam Boo from which I plan to knit the Fiber Trends Diamond Lace Scarf. Again, no particular recipient in mind, just wanting to get some Christmas gifts knit up in time for the Holidays.

Finally, for myself I bought Dream In Color Classy to make Mr. Green Jeans cardigan. I've been wanting to knit a top down sweater for some time now and I feel in love with the Dream In Color yarn while knitting my shrug.

From my stash I also started knitting one of the Fiber Trends Felt Flock sheep for my nephew's son. It doesn't look like much in this picture but I can (barely) start to see the body of a sheep taking shape. Hopefully it will make a nice stuffed toy for a baby. Honestly, at this point is looks much more like a baby bonnet than a sheep don't you think? I'm making this out of Cascade 220 yarn.

Dog News

Dak finished his CDX in three trials so I'm thrilled about that. His first two scores were less than stellar but I had hurt my back and my RA was flaring so terrible that the best I could do was limp and gimp around the ring. Dak did his best with a less than adequate handler. I was feeling much better for his third trial and Dak managed a 195.5 out of 200 for his final score. It was so good to have my high performing Dak and pain free body back for that third and final leg towards his title.

And of course a few pictures of Fame, who has grown so much since I last blogged.

A few weeks ago some awful blue thing attached itself to Fame's neck. Fortunately, Fame has adapted to her collar.

At feeding time Fame loves to jump into the space in the kitchen cupboard freed up when I remove the cat food and dog vitamins. She's so darn cute.

I bought her a toy I called "Mr. Holiday" and it was her favorite toy until today when one of the adult dogs grabbed it.

Mr. Holiday has been appropriately buried in the garbage. I'll try to get to the store this weekend and buy Fame a new Mr. Holiday.

Finally, a picture of Fame in a rare, quiet moment in her dog bed.

Too Much Fun

2007-10-24T21:39:00.000-05:00

New agility equipment arrived for the dogs yesterday and we're having too much fun trying it out.

As you can see, even Percy the cat likes it. Percy took a nap in the tunnel this afternoon.

Agility is a new sport for us. I thought I'd try it as once a week herding lessons do not seem to be enough for the dogs and me to make any real progress. At least we can practice agility at home and it is so much fun! Everyone, from the most shy to the most outgoing dog here, is enjoying it.

Fame has been sick for the last 36 hours but seems to be on the mend. Normally she's such a stubborn, independent little dog who is not the least bit cuddly and who never allows me to hold her on her back even though I insist on practicing this with her several times a day. It has been enjoyable to have a sweet, little lap dog for the last day or so. However, Fame is feeling better now and has no time or desire and is far too alpha to let me cuddle her or for her to sit still on my lap. And be submissive enough to let me roll her on her back - never!

I think I have my work cut out for me with this one.

New Projects and Completed Projects

2007-10-18T19:20:00.000-05:00

Whew, I'm still feeling the relief of completing the Traveling Shells Cardigan. It was a complicated project for me and I'm proud of myself for completing it, but I gotta tell ya, my next two projects are strictly for fun, usefulness, fun, ease, and fun. Enough of being a strict and serious knitter!

I wanted to wait for a sunny day to take pictures of my two new projects as the variegated yarn for both is so beautiful and a flash lit picture taken indoors at night just does not do justice to either yarn. It seems, however, the sun has deserted MN. We are in the middle of the 40 days and 40 nights of rain. Please God or Noah, send me a SAD lamp!

I started the Jacoby fingerless hand warmers. A nice, simple k2p2 pattern. I really need and use these hand warmers during the winter as I am too ~~cheap~~ frugal to heat my house much in the winter and my hands get cold as I'm on the keyboard all day. I'm making these out of Dream In Color Smooshy. This is the second Dream In Color yarn I've used and I love it. So easy to knit with, never wants to split, slides along the needle easily, Smooshy is a great yarn.

My second project is my Clapotis. I'm on the increase section of the pattern and enjoying this very much. It's an easy pattern to remember and fun to knit. I don't have to concentrate on it much, I can even knit it while I watch TV. Now that's nice! Unfortunately, this picture does not show off the beautiful autumnal colors of the Lorna's Laces Lion and Lamb yarn I am using. The sun is suppose to shine on Saturday. If so, I'll try to get a better picture then.

Oops! I almost logged off without posting a picture of Fame. How could I forget?

Even worse, I forgot to post pictures of my new bathrooms! How could that happen? I'm so glad it's done. I highly recommend the folks who did my bathrooms (and kitchen, floors, woodwork and bedrooms). If you want their name, contact me privately. But I am SO GLAD they are done and gone. It is so nice to have my lovely "new" house to myself again. Guess I've lived too long by myself.

It's Done ... IT'S DONE!

2007-10-14T21:28:00.000-05:00

Can you believe it? I finished the traveling shells cardigan! Whoa! I am ever so happy. You can see my mother trying it on above. Remember how I knit and knit on the sleeves because I thought they were too short? As you can see, they are a bit long. Sigh. I will tack them up. I still need to tack down the collar so it will not be a lot more work to tack up the sleeves.

I told my mother to please wear the sweater. It is not heirloom knitting, I made a lot of mistakes, but it's very nice and definitely wearable. I hope she wears it this winter in Arizona. As I told my mother, I do not want her to pack it away and pass it on to me. I don't want to see the sweater again!

Here are two more shots of the sweater laid out and being blocked on my newly tiled bathroom floor. I've had two bathrooms under construction for the past week. They should both be finished tomorrow. I sure hope so. As much as I like and trust the folks I've hired to do the job, I do so hate to see my house in such disorder and can't wait until it's complete. Can you see where my dogs have laid around the toilet over the years? What a mess they made - and I thought I kept a clean house! It's all been cleaned and the walls painted now.

I've started a new knitting project, a simple pair of fingerless gloves to wear while I work this winter. I'm using Dream In Color Smooshy. No pictures yet but it is progressing quickly. So nice to do a simple project again. And of course I need to start my Clapotis for the Second Wave Clapotis KAL. However, my old printer gave up the ghost finally and I can't print out the pattern. I did buy a new printer this weekend but it's not connected yet.

Her Cuteness

You didn't think you'd escape without viewing pictures did you?

Her Cuteness, now called "Fame", at seven weeks.

And I must brag about Dak who performed so nicely last weekend at the obedience trials with scores of 196.5 and 195.5 out of a possible 200. What a guy! He makes trialing him so much fun.

Her Cuteness and a little baking

2007-10-03T20:58:00.000-05:00

I've made a little more progress on the traveling shells cardigan. This is probably the ump-teenth time I've said this but honestly, I'm getting close finishing this project.

So for fun, how about a few more pictures of Her Cuteness?

Although today was quite sunny and nice and tomorrow is forecast to be close to 80, this weekend was cold and damp and very autumn-ish. It really put me in the mood for baking. I made two very tasty loaves of whole wheat bread. I ate one myself and gave the other to my parents. I did take pictures of the bread before I devoured/gave it away, but alas, the pictures refuse to download from the camera. All I have as proof of my endeavours is this picture of my dirty dishes. Sad. It was truly very tasty. I made the poolish on Saturday and put it in the 'frig until Sunday. This really helped to bring out the flavor.

Trying to keep this a knitting blog

2007-09-28T19:57:00.000-05:00

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

2007-09-16T21:42:00.000-05:00

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

2007-09-12T05:12:00.000-05:00

Precious little knitting content

2007-09-05T21:37:00.000-05:00

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!

2007-09-03T22:07:00.000-05:00

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.

Still There Are Two

2007-08-30T20:28:00.001-05:00

I still have two puppies though it has not been without struggle. My little boy wants to live and this has saved him so far. I'm still holding my breath for him and hoping for the best. Dottie looks good doesn't she?

My vet and I agree the little boy was born premature. He is lacking some hair on his head, which you can see in the above picture, and also on his feet. His hair is growing in. I am so amazed he is with us. Of course I understand problems might yet develop but I am in awe of his will to survive and have decided I will help him however I can. You can see he is less than half the size of his sister. I am supplementing him but less and less each day. My "little" girl is a chub isn't she? Hurray for her.

If you have any name suggestions for my premmie boy, send them along.

Belated Happy Birthday To Me

Yesterday was my 55th birthday. Geez, I'm old! I was so busy with work and helping Dot with her puppies that I didn't celebrate much. I received many nice cards and gifts.

Knitting

Have you seen this pattern of the Autumn Cardigan?

You can find it here. I just love it. I even ordered the yarn.

The picture does not do the yarn justice. I have no idea when I will start this project, I just know I had to have the pattern and yarn as soon as I saw it. Perhaps I'll start this winter.

The Autumn Cardigan will be a difficult knit for me and honestly, once I complete the Traveling Shells Cardigan, I will be happy to work on a few simpler projects for a nice break. I have not had any time to knit since my last post. I surely hope to finish the Traveling Shells cardigan soon. I'm not much of a stash person, but look at the lovely sock yarns I have waiting for me. A few simple socks would be a great break.

Twenty Four Hours

2007-08-26T21:47:00.000-05:00

Actually, almost 36 hours old now and both puppies are strong and doing well. My little boy is still quite small but he is a fighter and gaining strength with time. Mother Dot is doing well though she wishes I'd turn down the heat in her new bedroom. Sorry Dot, not until the puppies are a few days older.

I'm exhausted. I did manage to make my roasted tomato sauce though. Here's the conglomeration before it went into the oven for an hour.

Fresh tomatoes, onion, garlic, a little carrot, thyme and basil all coated with oil olive. It was delicious over a little pasta on a night I didn't feel like cooking much.

I'm exhausted but will set the alarm every 3 hours tonight to check on Dot and the puppies. It was a beautiful weekend outside, wish I could have enjoyed it more. I have so much yard work to do...heck, I have so much knitting to do!

Blue Sky

2007-08-25T14:53:00.001-05:00

At least I think that's what this is called. We've been so long in the rain and fog and gray I may have forgotten the correct name for the above. It's an absolutely beautiful day today and my house managed to stay dry through all the rain so I'm trying to enjoy the day as best I can.

My dog Dot had three puppies by C-section this morning. Things aren't going perfectly. We lost one large, beautiful male. My first litter in 2.5 years. It was disappointing enough to be a small litter and to lose one of the three was very sad.

I have one strong female and one weaker, smaller male. I'm helping the little boy and he is able to nurse from a bottle so hopefully I can keep him going until he's able to nurse from mom and until mom's milk comes in stronger. A puppy's survival is always touch and go for the first few weeks but especially after a C-section. Send good thoughts.

I won't make it to the State Fair this year but Susan of The Rainey Sisters posted pictures of her own and a few other winning items. Gosh, those Rainey sisters sure can knit.

Jeanne also did some winning and has photos on her blog. These will have to be my vicarious State Fair experience this year. Next year I'm going to set a goal to enter an item or two.

Speaking of my own knitting, I thought it was time to bore you with the sleeve progress on the traveling shells cardigan. I've completed 1.5 pattern repeats, only 3.5 to go before sleeve completion.

I had hoped to make roasted tomato sauce today but instead will spend my time hovering over Dot and her puppies.

Catching Up

2007-08-17T20:32:00.000-05:00

Nothing particularly new today. I am making slow progress on the sleeves of the traveling shells cardigan. I truly hope to finish by the end of the month - but we'll see.

Both Jeanne and Guinifer asked about my bluebirds so I thought I'd expound a bit. I found the "Bluebird Man" through my sister and her husband who live on the other side of town. As it turns out, he is actually my county's coordinator for the Bluebird Recovery Program, of which I am now a member.

One thing the bluebird man insisted on was that I take down all the bird houses which were attracting wrens who are the enemy of bluebirds he told me. Now I do not like being a bird bigot and the first day we took down the houses the wrens complained all day. By the second day, the wrens were gone. It made me sad, I love to hear those chatty wrens. Still, I must say, by the third day my yard was filled with bluebirds. They visit every day now, especially in the early morning and early evening. They do love the bird baths and it is so fun to watch them play in the water.

Here's a link to the Second Wave Clapotis KAL. I can't decide if I can't wait to get started on my Clapotis or if I can't wait to finish my Traveling Shells Cardigan!