Monday, November 29, 2010

We survived Thanksgiving week!! Not that we really need to survive anything, but it was super busy and crazy in a good way. The whole family showed up. For my family that is becoming a major event. We ended up with 16 adults and 4 toddlers here for both Thanksgiving day and the following Saturday.

Missy was in heaven. She adores babies and little kids and loved the opportunity to follow them all around. But Kipp and Kenzi spent extra time in their kennels. They have not yet learned the fine art of schmoozing off little ones without over whelming them. Or the fact that if you sit there and look longingly (instead of trying to help yourself) someone will come share turkey scraps with you.

But the two younger rascals survived (Missy was sacked out 1/2 the day on Sunday recovering from her busy week!) and were very eager to get back to work after the excitement died down.

We've had a couple days of really nice weather for late November in MI. Tonight I bribed the little sister to go hide in the woods for Kenzi. Kenzi worked really nice. There was a nice breeze coming from the east and she picked up H's scent pretty quickly from about 50 yards away and worked her way in. Kenz worked second problem with equally nice results. We'll see what this translates to at SAR training on Wednesday night. I'm really feeling like everything is finally starting to click together for her.

On the knitting front - I finished up a pair of fingerless mitts with Mirasol Hacho yarn. I enjoyed knitting with the Hacho so much that I started in on a pair of socks using more Hacho in another colorway - soft, squishy Merino in bright colors. I love it. I also tried out a traveling cable in both projects decided that it's not nearly as hard as I'd thought it would be.

Thursday, November 18, 2010

It's dark out waaaay too early these days. Sigh. I took the dogs for a run in the field after work tonight just as it was getting dark It was quite nippy with a touch of snow in the air and I think the weather makes them feel good. Kenzi kept begging Missy to play with her and Missy was actually in the mood to play. Kipp was running around like a crazy dog and zipping back and forth barking at Kenzi (he knows better than to bark at Missy!). I love watching them have fun.

On the knitting front, I'm working on a scarf of my own design - knitting it in yummy, soft Malabrigo sock. I'm debating if I should write up the pattern and submit it to KnitPicks for their IDP program. They have plenty of scarves but nothing quite like the one I'm knitting up. Hmmm...

Thursday, November 11, 2010

Introductions

So who am I? An avid knitter and dog lover. I started knitting when I was 6 years old and read my first "real" book at the same age - Black Beauty. I was one of the millions of little girls who fell in love with horses. Sigh. I'm still waiting for that horse because, as my dad often pointed out, horses are a lot of work and cost a lot of money.

At about 10 I started reading Lassie and Terhune's Lad books. I wanted a dog like that. So when my family got sheep a few years later, I naturally fell in love with the Border Collie breed. But dogs were expensive, too and took a lot of responsibility. So I had to wait... In the mean time I got going in knitting a little more seriously and learned how to spin my own yarn from our flock of sheep.

Finally after high school and a couple of years of volunteering and work, I got my first Border Collie. And lo and behold, Missy was everything I'd hoped and dreamed of. My dog, my constant shadow, my best friend. I loved that dog from day 1 and at 11 y/o she is still my girl.

When dog #2 came along 5 years later I decided to try out another long time interest of mine - K-9 search and rescue. Kipp is a wilderness search dog and my goofy rascal.

And because I'm a sucker who used (please note - used) to look through Petfinder, I have dog #3. Sweet, loving, drivey teenage BC Kenzi. I fell in love with her face late one night and through a month long series of events she became mine. She is currently in training for SAR work.

I spend most of my spare time either working with my dogs or knitting. I do a bit of dyeing and sell imy hand dyed yarns through my Etsy shop Reflections Yarn . I am an avid sock knitter - I figure I've made over 60 pairs since I started knitting them 12 years ago. This year I've averaged a pair a month. I love knitting them and really love wearing them. Thankfully Kenzi is now past the eating them stage.

So that's kind of my life in a nutshell. This blog will mainly consist of ramblings of my dogs or my knitting but might on occassion stray to another subject.