Muddy Paws Whistling Dixie

I just realized that I forgot to tell you all about Miss Dixie. Dixie is also our resident counter surfer, intruder alert (be it boogieman or UPS driver), and cuddlebug. Senior girl now at the ripe old age of eight and a benevolent if heavy handed dictator.

It has been a hard year for her. Dix never really showed her age, but since Lucy (our first newf) died last Halloween, it seems her age has caught up with her. From the time Dixie came home with us at 16 weeks old, she and Lucy were inseparable -- for the next 7 years they weren't apart for more than 12 hours... EVER. It wasn't a plan, it was just always easier for the newfs to be together. She has bounced back for the most part. Dixie plays with the boys and gets into her share of trouble, but not with the same carefree attitude she used to have. She takes the world much more seriously now that she it our pack leader.

Mystery Stole 3... Me too! Me too...

This is another in a long line of accidental projects. I have been looking for a stole/shawl pattern to use for a knitting project to donate to the auction at the Newfoundland Club of America National Specialty which our local club will be hosting in March of 2008 using my own handspun of a Newf/Merino blend. As I was poking around the web looking for a pattern that fit, I stumbled on the Mystery Stole 3 KAL. When I read that the yarn recommendation is a black or white, I was hooked... I get to participate in the KAL and produce a stole that will be appropriate for the auction. What more could I ask for. So what if I hadn't spun any of the yarn yet? So what if I have never knit with beads before? It will be a learning experience. LOL...

Here is my stole completed thru clue #2. I am a little behind, but I think I will be able to catch up this week.

Here is some detail of the metallic multicolor 8/0 beads from Caravan Beads.

If you haven't seen Melanie's work before... Check out her blog: http://pinklemontwist.blogspot.com/ I am sorry to report that if you are not one of the 6700+ people already participating in MS3, you are gonna have to wait until next year as the group has been closed. The patterns for previous mystery stoles are available from Melanie and the MS3 stole will be available sometime at the end of Aug. or beginning of Sept.

Time to start Clue #3...

All Branched Out

Pattern: Branching Out
Author: Susan Pierce Lawrence
Source: Knitty
Materials: Alpaca/Samoyed Handspun 2-Ply Light Sport Weight
Needles: Clover Bamboo Circulars - Size 5

Another Finished Object to add to my collection! As this is as a demo project for my "Spinning Dog Fluff" seminar, I am not sure what will become of it. Kerri has her greedy eyes on it, so in the event I don't give it away before next winter that's probably where it will end up! Here's some press for my Clematis and a look at the fuzzy halo...

M

Happy Birthday Eli!

Yesterday was Eli's first birthday. We spent the day celebrating and making plaster paw prints. Eli gobbled up his first DQ softserve and doesn't understand why his birthday can't be everyday. Jasper and Dixie want to know when their birthdays are so they can have ice cream more often.

I promised I would tell the story behind Eli's name so here it is.... Ellen Toll Katz was one of my dearest friends and Newfie mentor. Last spring she was diagnosed with a brain tumor and she passed away from complications arising from surgery to remove it on the day before Eli's litter was born. We weren't looking for a puppy. We already had two newfs and Jasper. My life was complicated enough... thank you very much... But, Kerri and I had a running gag with Ellen that when the time came for us to get a newfie boy to show, we would have Ellen do all the work finding him, picking him out and would just tell us when to pick him up. As it would happen, Cathy Derench, Ellen's best friend and cohort in Newf Rescue, not to mention probably the breeder I respect most in this world, had a litter of 9 puppies (7 males, 2 females) due the day Ellen died and were born the day between her death and her funeral. Ellen's daughter, Tracy mentioned she thought we should have one of these puppies. Her mom would have wanted it that way. How could we resist using that logic.... As for the name.... obviously Eli loosely correlates to Ellen and his AKC registered name is MtnView's Life Goes On.

So this is a bittersweet milestone for me.

I know in my heart that Ellen sent Eli our way somehow knowing that he would be a comfort when we lost Lucy so suddenly. We were lucky that he came to us in time to learn some important lessons from Lucy before she died -- even now there are some quirky things he still does that he learned from her. Eli's arrival in here in Maine will always be tied to those losses, but that certainly doesn't diminish the joy he brings every day.

I know the other eight puppies in his litter are all wonderful, but I know for sure that we got the best one.

Happy Birthday my smart, handsome boy!

Thank you Ellen.

Tahoe Cardigan!

It's DONE! Okay, it's not blocked yet but that doesn't count... Does it? It started out as the Tahoe Cardigan from Knitty, but I tailored almost everything to suit me. I made the sleeves narrower from the elbow to the wrist;I knit the hems in the same yarn as the body rather than a contrasting color; I shortened the overall length and I gave it a little bit of additional shaping in the chest to better accommodate my more ...ahem... generous curves. In the end it is a basic beige everyday sweater. The pics are crappy but there you go.

Details:

Pattern: Tahoe Cardigan from Knitty
Yarn: KnitPicks Merino Style in Nutmeg (color 23460)
Buttons: Keith O'Connor Pottery Beads at Maine Fiber Frolic

I really love the picot edge on the sleeves and the green raku buttons. They are just enough detail to keep the sweater from being overly boring.

Jasper doesn't understand why I was disturbing his nap with all this photography....

Branching Out

I finally have actual knitting to show you... I finally finished the Alpaca/Samoyed which turned out to be a really nice heavy fingering weight; I forget the actual WPI. Believe it or not I ended up with about 490 yards of the stuff. I have decided to knit it into Branching Out from Knitty, which is a fairly straightforward lace scarf that doesn't require too many brain cells all at once. It doesn't look like much now but as is the way of lace, it will block up into something swell... I think.

I thought the second one was a bit better at showing off the halo. The Samoyed is more like angora than any of the chiengora I produced before. Blended with the Alpaca, it feels like I am knitting a cloud. I can't tell you how much I love this stuff.

Maine Fiber Frolic

Be Warned... This is a picture heavy wool porn post!!

I have just returned from my second annual sojourn to the Maine Fiber Frolic put on by the Maine Llama Breeders Assn. It isn't a behemoth like Maryland or Rheinbeck, but it is a really nice local event. I would guess that more than 50% of the vendors are from Maine and the balance are from the rest of New England.

No one can say I didn't do my share to support the Maine sheep farmers! I bought a coated Romney fleece from Raffaella Reimer at North Tempest Farm (no web page). I wasn't supposed to be buying anymore raw fleece but it was absolutely irresistible. See...



Could you resist such a fleece? If so, you are a better person than I.

Was that all I bought... well... no... I also acquired 8 oz. of hand-dyed Wool/Mohair blend from Stanmere Farm (no web page) in Fayette, ME.

AND... 8 oz. of blue/green wool from Friends Folly Farm...

AND... 12 oz. of cotton candy Romney wool that I can't figure out where I bought it, but it is the most ethereal clouds of pink. Someone needs to have a baby girl... I'm not naming names, but you know who you are...

AND a whole pound of rose/peach/ecru wool from End of the World Farm (no web page) also in Fayette, ME to spin/knit a sweater for one of the nieces. This is actually a Kerri project.

AND buttons for the Tahoe Cardigan which you will see when I finish the darn thing. I think that's everything.

Other than the buttons and the rose wool from End of the World, I have no idea what I am going to be doing with any of it. I bought it because it brought me a little joy, not because I had any agenda. I went in search of sock yarn, but for some reason I couldn't commit to any.

As I fell in love with this llama and as the event is put on by Maine Llama Breeders Assn. I thought I should show him to you.

I am a sucker for a speckled llama. Isn't he gorgeous? I know less about llamas than I do astrophysics, but I was quite taken by his handsome face and quiet charm.

That's my report from Fiber Frolic. I am already looking forward to next year.