'Tis The Season

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

Three Green Ribbons

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.

Clearing the pantry

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.

Gosh, thanks!

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

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.

Christmas Knitting Continues

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

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

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

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.