Knitting, cooking and puppies of course

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.

Finished my Clapotis

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!

Something new for the New Year

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

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

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.

New Projects and Completed Projects

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.

This And That

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"

Catching Up

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!

Clapotis KAL Second Time Around

I'm about to join my fist KAL (Knit Along) and we will be knitting the Clapotis. The KAL will start September 23rd, the first day of autumn. I'm excited about this new knit. It will give me the impetus I need to finish up the green traveling shells cardigan. It's being organized by Bridget. Send her a note if you would like to join.

I've already purchased new yarn for my Clapotis. I couldn't wait, I haven't bought new yarn since May. I told Bridget I would put a picture on my blog of the new yarn on Thursday but I had a few interruptions which prevented that.

Thursday afternoon started my a/c problems. My air conditioner is a fairly new unit and I was not expecting problems so soon. I had the HVAC folks out on Thursday afternoon and then again on Thursday evening (spendy!). The problem was not completely put to rest until I paid a plumber to come out this morning. Finally I can say the dogs and I are cool and comfortable in our air conditioned house with a dry basement floor. (A side effect of all this trouble is a very clean and (finally) dry basement floor.)

Despite the problem plagued Thursday I sat down Thursday evening with full intention of blogging about my new yarn only to discover the batteries in my camera were dead and I was out of replacements. Geez, when it rains it pours.



So, after all that, here's a photo of my new yarn. I tried several different backgrounds and none do the yarn justice. It's Lorna's Laces Lion and Lamb in color Vera, very autumnal colors, burgundy to dark pinks, brown to light khaki, olive green to paler green. I know it is hotter than the blazes right now but this will be an autumnal KAL and I love the rich colors. I've knit a lot of pastels lately and am looking forward to the change.