A Little Pre-Holiday Post

First off, before I start my post:

Merry Christmas & Happy Holidays to all my blog friends. May you have a wonderful New Year. This will most likely be the last post of 2010 for me. I might try to do a recap of the year on New Years Eve but I make no promises. 

It's thawing outside....woohoo! The temps are a warmer and the snow is melting. It looks like we'll still have snow on the ground for Christmas so technically it'll be a white Christmas but no new snow is expected. I can't say that I'm disappointed. Ice jams made a mess of a portion of road here in town that is down near the river. The water overflowed onto the road and froze. It feels weird to say that we are under a flood warning and flash flood watch in the middle of winter.

I've actually been doing a little knitting since my last post. Well the post before the last post since my last one was a distraction with puppy cuteness post. 

I finished Bree's Christmas socks. 

These are the Lacy Rib Socks (ravelry)(non Ravelry). The yarn is Lorna's Laces Shepherd sock, colorway Iris Garden. It's an easy pattern, perfect for tv knitting but is a bit more interesting then plain stockinette socks. I may make a pair for myself in the future.

A doll blanket (ravelry)(non ravelry) for Kaity's American Girl doll.

Kaity has one of the daybed doll beds from Target  and it only comes with the blanket for the bed and nothing for the trundle bed. I used some sugar and cream cotton yarn from my stash. It used less then 200 yards. Yes I know I could have just made my own pattern up but that would have require a bit more effort then I wanted to put into it at the moment. I'm planning on browsing my stitch pattern books and make something a little lacy with some Dream in Color Classy. I have a full skein of purple leftover from Bree's sweater. One can never have to many blankets for your doll bed.

Scrunchable Scarf (ravelry)(non ravelry).

I really love this scarf pattern. It's so simple you don't need a pattern. This is one of the scarves I'm making for the 2011 Special Olympics. The drop off for Montana is here in Great Falls so I can take them in instead of having to mail them this year. The yarn is Red Heart Super Saver color numbers 886 and 512. If you're interested here's the website with all the info. I know some of the states have already hit their deadlines but you can knit for any state.

I've also started a new pair of "on the go" socks for myself.

These always take a little longer since I normally only work on them when I'm not at home. The yarn is Opal Rainforest, Flamingo colorway. I'm using my basic toe up pattern with a short row heel. I haven't decided if I'll do a ribbed cuff or a picot edge.

I'll be soon be starting my knitting project for my TLE swap partner. I really need to finish the last test knit I'm working on. I'm about halfway through so it won't be long. I'm not sure if she reads my blog (have a good number of subscribers but a lot of people don't comment) but I have it linked to my Ravelry account so she can easily visit so I won't post anything to give it away. I can say that I'm pretty sure I've found yarn and a pattern to knit that I think she will love.

Now on to some puppy pictures. I know there are a few of you out there that want some new pictures of Penelope. 

I snapped this one the other day.

Zeus crawled into Penelope's crate and fell asleep. Penelope decided she was tired too and crawled in to take a nap with him. He woke up when she crawled in, gave to low, short growls then laid his head down and went back to sleep.

This one was taken a couple of days ago.

Bree decided to crawl into Penelope's crate and play with her. They stayed in there for a good 20 minutes. Penelope actually likes her crate and will crawl in there to sleep when I'm not sitting somewhere where she can lay across my feet.

I'll leave you with this video of Zeus and Penelope playing with one of the stuffed toys.

 

It warms my heart to see those to finally playing together. Not to say Zeus doesn't still growl at Penelope because she's being a pain in the butt. In the background you'll probably hear a bunch of girly screams. Shawn kept scaring the girls and at one point Bree ran into the room where I was at. 

Shall I Distract You with the Cute Puppy?

I have absolutely no knitting to show you so I'm going to tempt you to forget about it with the puppy cuteness of Lady Penelope. (there's a video posted below so if you're using a feed reader it may not show up in your reader)

 

She has such a deep bark for a little puppy. She actually doesn't bark much which from what I gather is a Springer Spaniel trait. Mostly the barking comes about when she wants to play. The more you talk to her the more she barks back. I can't believe how big she's getting. I'm not sure what her weight is but she needs to go in to the vet next week for her next round of shots.

Zeus is still fairly indifferent to Penelope. After she ran off to get a drink Zeus looked up at me as if to say "do we really have to keep her mom?" He still runs around and plays with her upstairs and outside so he's definitely adjusting. 

How this could possibly be comfy I don't know but she stayed like that for over 30 minutes before she woke up to play.

Penelope is still my little toe warmer. I've actually had her lay across my feet while trying to do the dishes. After talking with the breeder she said that Penelope's daddy does the same thing. He loves to know where his humans are. Speaking of toe warmers she's laying across my feet right now. I'm sure that's going to be fun when she hits 40 pounds and curls up on my feet. 

Oh I do have one knitting related thing to share. I did get in my final shipment from the Unique Sheep's Lord of the Rings sock club. If you want to check it out, CLICK HERE. 

I did join up for YOSS (Year of Stash Socks). It's a pressure free KAL and it's a great way to knit down some of that sock yarn stash. There will be patterns to knit each month so I'm looking forward to seeing the pattern list when it's posted.

Hopefully I'll be back soon to post about some knitting I can actually show you. After these test knits are done I need to finish up Bree's socks for Christmas and get started on my Special Olympic scarves. I have until Feb but I'd rather get them done and in the mail before the deadline. I also have to knit something for my TLE Swap partner so I won't be able to post about that.

Looking Forward to Warmer Temps

The weatherman keeps promising warmer temps but unfortunately he has been wrong in the past and I can no longer trust his information. This time he's promising a warm up into the 40's (that's Fahrenheit) for Tues and Wed which means snow melt....woohoo! The snow has been around since a few days before Thanksgiving. I think it's time for it to go away. I guess time will tell if he's telling the truth or not. According to the local paper we got a total of 19.5 inches of snow in the month of Nov.....yikes! Actually it didn't starting snowing until like mid-Nov so that's almost 20 inches of snow in a two week time frame. Wonder what the totals are for the higher elevations. Our elevation is under 4,000 feet.

We had freezing fog the other day and while it made a bigger mess of things it was rather pretty to see all the naked trees covered in a layer of white.

It kind of reminded me of the years when my parents had their christmas trees flocked. I remember one year the flocking was so thick the tree looked like it was hit with a blizzard. We use a fake tree in our house and I do miss the lovely pine smell in the house with a real tree. We decided to use a fake tree because the idiot cat we use to have ate all things green and it was easier to use a fake tree then to clean up cat vomit. We might do the real tree thing when we get our own home.

The tree shortly after we set it up.

It now has a star that lights up on top. I've put the poor angel up for now. She doesn't sit very well on the tree. She was designed to fit over the top of a real tree so she's be retired for now. 

I have been doing a bit of knitting. Right now I'm working on test knits but before they came in I finished Kaity's socks and made good progress on Bree's.

Kaity's socks are done! The pattern is Lovely Lace Socks (ravelry)(non ravelry). 

The yarn is Lorna's Laces Shepherd sock in the Tickled Pink colorway. I think Kaity is really going to like them. Her feet are still small enough that I can get a pair of socks out of a 50g skein of yarn and still have leftovers to make socks for Bree.

Bree's socks are almost to the heel flap. 

The pattern is Lizzie's Lacy Rib Socks. (ravelry)(non ravelry). The yarn is Lorna's Laces Shepherd sock in the Iris Garden colorway. I'll be able to knock these out in another day or so. I just need to finish up the test knits I'm working on.

Zeus is giving me the "Mom why the hell did we have to get a puppy?" look and yes he really needs to go see the groomer.

He's still iffy on the puppy now that she's home. He'll play with her outside and upstairs when we take the girls up to put them in bed but he wants nothing to do with her when we're downstairs.....silly little dog. Oh and her name is Penelope or Penny for short. We still haven't decided on her full AKC registration name but at least she has a name.

I'll finish this post with a puppy picture.

Penelope sacked out under my desk. She's so angelic when she's sleeping. Then of course she wakes up and the terror begins. I can't believe how much she's grown since we brought her home and she hasn't been home with us a full week yet. 

Puppy Cuteness Overload

As promised a post dedicated to the new puppy. No she does not have a name yet. She's an English Springer Spaniel. Her color is liver and white and she has the prettiest hazel eyes. We're all undecided on her name. I did crack up when I found out her mommy's name is Calamity Jane and her daddy is Duke of Doom. Those are great names. I'm going to make it easy and embed the slide show of pics of puppy girl.

She's my new toe warmer. If I'm setting in my computer chair you can pretty much figure that she's going to be laying on my toes. I must say that she's by far the smartest dog in the world....course I am a little bias. Potty training is going great and she's learning very quickly the rules of the house. Generally a clap of the hand and a firm No makes her stopping doing wrong and she moves on to the next new thing to get into. 

Zeus is kind of meh about her right now. He was fine with the puppy out at the ranch and he has no problem playing outside with her but wants nothing to do with her wants they get in the house. 

I'll have to try to get some video and photos of her playing in the snow. She loves to to bounce around in the snow.