Casper Yacht Club

It has been a very wet spring here in Casper - so wet in fact that yesterday the Elkhorn Creek overflowed its banks and flooded our golf course. It is rather disturbing to see whitewater where the driving range is/was. The fantablous grounds crew is pumping our bunkers, checking out the erosion around the bridges and just working their arses off getting the course back into shape before our big tournament next week. We were supposed to have a tournament today, but as we don't have boats to rent to the golfers, they are across town playing golf. Check out the coverage in the local paper.

We have also been installing new software at work so between the conversion process, the rain, and everything I will be working many more hours than I am used to. Thankfully I have a wonderful yarn escape! Tomorrow I get to work at one of the LYS!! Charlotte needs me to cover the store tomorrow so darn it all, I will have to spend the entire day in a yarn store. Mom says is like having the fox guard the chicken coop, but I think I will be able to restrain myself. I will be teaching a cable knit class at the end of June so I will probably be playing with fiber and figuring out a pattern. I knit a really cute cable headband this week - pictures are still on the camera - out of a poppy red cotton yarn (the yarn label is also at home - sorry for the vague details for those that care). I have also been doing some spinning this week. I purchased some roving from Lucy's Sheep Camp (out of Thermopolis, WY) and have spun up one bobbin so far. I also took a drop spinning class last night - I needed a refresher on the drop spindle - and it was much easier than I remember. Thanks Rebecca for being a most excellent teacher!!

Finished Projects!

I finally have some finished projects - with photos - to show ya'll.

Disco Socks:

This pattern I found in my Knitting Pattern-a-Day calendar. Very cool socks that mom is now wearing.

Baby Blanket:

My boss and his wife are expecting baby girl #3 in October and as his house will now be overflowing with pink I decided that he needed a Chicago Bears Baby Blanket. He is a huge Bears fan and now he will have something to curl up under with his new daughter. Everyone go "awwwww". The pattern is called Tilting at Windmills that I found in the vast reaches of the internet. I modified the stripes to mimic the blue, white and orange stripes on the old Chicago Bears uniforms. I had to show it to boss-man as it was just so cool. He won't officially receive it tho until closer to the due date.

And this is why my blog is called Knits With Dogs. That is Lucie helping me take the photo of the blanket. Yes, I have a whole house for them to roam in and this is where she hangs out. Earlier, there was a squeaky toy on the blanket. I missed getting Pershing in the photo but he was helping out as well. Sigh - dogs.

My cousin and his wife are expecting twins - a girl and a boy - also in early October. (I am blaming the writers strike for this "baby boom". There was nothing good on TV so let's make our own entertainment! People have no consideration for us knitters.) Anywho, I have the two blankets done for the twins - just the basic diagonal dishcloth blanket, but I will be adding edgings to coordinate to the sexes. I knit both blankets in a verigated yarn by Universal Yarns called Easter Parade and then I can match up the blue and pink colors to knit up edgings. Time to go shopping for yarn!!

On a separate note, Casper now has TWO yarn stores. Yes, I have two LYS to choose from when purchasing yarn. I am currently teaching a beginning knitting class at the new store and taking a shawl sampler class at the other store. If you are ever in Casper be sure to check out All That Yarn and Dancing Sheep Yarn & Fiber. Joan and Charlotte run excellent stores and I am so glad to have ever more selection of beautiful yarns. My checkbook is not so happy however.

What Happened to April?

Apparently I missed April.

The World's Largest Crop was great fun. There were so many cool page ideas - I can't believe how creative some people are.

The Ironman was tiring, awesome, hot, stressful, and wonderful. Dave finished!! Woo Hoo! That is the important thing. The athletes had 17 hours to finish and Dave did it in 16:48:48. His swim and bike were excellent but the run nearly did him him. And the crazy boy wants to do another one in a year or so. I can't be related to someone like this. But, there were 2100 other crazy people compeating as well.

I got home, unburied my desk at work, and then somehow acquired a sinus infection. I'm blaming typhoid Ron for this one. The course of antibiotics is almost done (yeah!) but I still have a mild cough. I started this 10 days ago while doing another scrapbooking weekend. I was slightly out of it and did not have as much fun as I had anticipated. I did get a album completed tho so that is a good thing. But, that Sunday I got even sicker and spent the whole day throwing up.

I am finally feeling better, but realized it is now May and somehow a whole month has gotten away from me. Hopefully nothing too important passed me by.

We Are All Crazy

I am off to Denver this weekend to attend what is being billed as "The World's Largest Crop". 1500 scrapbookers in one room having a wonderful time with photos, paper, sissors, stickers and tape runners. I will spend 12 hours on Saturday working on my Year-Abroad album. I orginally put together an album of my photos from my year in Lancaster, England shortly after returning home. I am now putting it in a Creative Memories album and including all sorts of other stuff there wasn't room for before.

I started my scrapbooking "hobby" to record all of my knitting projects. I am on my third knitting album and I keep on knitting. I am also recording my girl scout troop, the dogs (of course!), life with Ron, and several heritage albums.

Ron will be spending the weekend with the dogs - I wonder who will miss me more - Ron, or Lucie and Pershing.

Speaking of Crazy...
Next week I am off to Tempe, AZ to support my brother as he participates in the Ironman Triathlon on the 13th! Check it out: http://www.ironmanarizona.com/ This event is for crazy people. Why would anyone in their right mind spend a perfectly good Sunday swimming 2 miles, biking 112 miles and running 26 miles when you could be knitting or reading or something. Actually, these athletes are very dedicated and work very hard preparing for the Ironman. I am very excitied to attend and support Dave in his first Ironman! I'll post reports when I get back.

No photos again this time. I did get some photos of the Disco Socks I recently finished but once again forgot to download the photos.

THNGVBD

Raise your hand if you ever read the book "Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day". I had one of those yesterday. I'm glad that day is over and I hope to never have it repeat again. It was a payroll issue at work and there is nothing like explaining the same thing over and over (and over) again to 40 employees.

I splurged and spent part of my income tax refund on a new iPod. I have the cutest little Nano now - red! Very cool. I figured I can now have my music travel with me as I knit and spin and play with fiber. I also purchased a jumbo flier wheel for my spinning wheel. Yep, I'm a fiber dork.

Along those lines, one of my girl scouts sold me some raw fiber - 3 bags of wool! (yes sir, yes sir, 3 bags full). This led to the determination that Ron needed to install a utility sink for me in which to wash yarn and wool and perhaps even laundry. Did you know it is a 12 mile round trip from my house to Home Depot and that if you drive it 6 times in a 24-hour period you still don't win a prize? Yes, we spent our Easter attempting to do plumbing, which also meant we spent Easter attempting to get water back to our house. We are NOT DIY'ers. I have cold water going to my sink, but no hot water yet, and no drain attached either. Maybe in a weekend or two.

I really should post a photo but I need to take of photo of the socks I finished knitting a few weeks ago before I give them away. I started knitting a cardigan for myself but was not happy with how it was turning out and I frogged the whole thing and will re-think the pattern. I have started another pair of socks and have several projects that need to be started as well. That should keep me out of trouble.

Random Thoughts of the Day

Ron and I took the dogs to the dog park the other weekend and Lucie was running around like a crazy person, as normal. We encountered some other dog owners that had a Benji-type dog and a Bichon Frise type dog. The dogs greeted each other in the typical manner "Yep, smells like a dog". One of the women asked me if Pershing was a very large schiperkee (sp?) and I said no, he is a lab/chow mix. And then I pointed to Lucie and said she was a lab/wing-nut mix. The woman looked at me and stated "Wingnut? I haven't heard of that breed before?" Yes, she had a straight face. I just wanted Bill Engval around to do his "here's your sign" bit. Um, I cleared her confusion by claiming Lucie was an idiot, and she understood. Actually, the labnut is a new designer breed along the lines of the labradoodle.

I did some much delayed spinning last night. And no, for you excercise types it was not what you think. I used an Ashford Traditional wheel and spun some lovely wool dyed a gorgeous poppy red. Actually, I have not spun for a long time as my right leg muscles were not happy with me after several hours. I tried treadling with my left leg (managable, but not as smooth). Who knew that you should stretch and warm up before spinning. I am now trying to decide if I should ply the red wool with itself, or with a black wool (that would be sharp) or something totally off the wall and glittery.

My Girl Scout troop has been selling cookies at booth sales around town. We sold both Saturday and Sunday last weekend and we will be at it again this Saturday. Please, buy GS cookies! It is for a good cause, it helps to support the troops and the council, and the sooner I am rid of all the cookies the sooner we can get on with our lives. I do finally have my garage back as all the cookies now fit in my car. Now I want my trunk back.

Fibertarians United

To h-e-double hockey sticks with the democrats and the republicans! I am so sick of all this primary nonsense! I have switched parties!!! Vote for Dolores in 2008!!! Fibertarians United!!

For more information regarding her platform (shoes) visit The Panopticon.