More Goals

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?

This and That

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.