'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

Catch Up Time

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!