My Winter Hiatus

Good afternoon and happy Sunday! I meant to publish this on Saturday morning but I was struggling with formatting and adding photos. I dislike The new WordPress editor I am forced to use now.

 

Our long, cold, and dark winter is coming to an end. While the calendar may say spring is still a couple of weeks away, the clock change this weekend is my benchmark. That our weather forecast for the next week has so many days in the 50’s and 60’s is a bonus.

 

I didn’t intend to take a break from blogging, but for most of the winter, the only fiber related project I was working on was a dog sweater. There is a sock project currently on the needles too, but there is always a sock project on the needles and they are typically my “waiting room” project and don’t get worked on at home anyway. The dog sweater is now complete and has been sent off to its recipient and I am still waiting for pictures of him modeling it. I have finally cast on a new project for myself, kind of a big one too, so I will have something knitting related to write about for a while.

I know a few of you are likely wondering why it took all winter to knit a dog sweater, and there is a perfectly logical answer to that.

 

Jade will be one year old next month. If you’re not familiar with what adolescent pharaoh hounds are like, count yourself lucky. They have no off switch, only a recharge mode, and that recharge mode could be five minutes or five hours. You never know. Also, we did pick one of if not the most rambunctious puppy in the litter, so we are kind of getting what we asked for. Keeping her exercised and entertained when we haven’t been able to spend much time outside or on a leash has been challenging for everyone in the house, even our IG boys. On top of that, the breed is known for being very intelligent, and good problem solvers. They will find a way to get what they want, and Jade is certainly representative of that trait. She is also incredibly manipulative too, just like Halo, because for all of the exhausting (and sometimes exasperating) antics and activity, Jade knows exactly how to make us forget all about that. For all the ways that Jade is typical of the breed and shares many of the same traits as Halo, they are very different too. Halo was just as energetic and mischievous at the same age, and just as much of a sweetheart and cuddle muffin, but she was also a major daddy’s girl and lacked the rebelliousness streak that runs so deep in Jade.

 

Don’t take any of my words as complaints though, because both of them are absolutely beautiful and perfect exactly as they are, and you’ll see a lot more of all our dogs in future blog entries.

 

But wait, there’s more! We love all kinds of board games in this house, especially the darker themed ones, with bonus points for Lovecraft themes! Several new games were added to our collection for Christmas, and we have spent so many evenings since gathered around the kitchen table with friends enjoying their company as we play. Although this did occupy a lot of time I could have spent knitting, in fact, playing board games is probably the biggest reason next to keeping Jade entertained, this is not a complaint, and I did manage to get some knitting done during some games.

What about my morning spinning time? Well, that’s a very good question. In my ongoing decluttering and reorganizing of my craft room, I found myself thinking a lot about the violin in the corner that I treated myself to several years ago for Christmas. I love the sound of string instruments and I used to play in grade school and middle school, so I thought it would be fun to learn again. I spent about two weeks or so at the time after a couple of introductory lessons with a friend, but never committed to practicing daily so I did not pursue any more lessons. This instrument, a very good quality one while still being in the entry level category, was languishing, so at the end of January I began lessons with my friend Colette at the CM School of Fine Arts in Clifton Park. I have been taking weekly lessons and practicing at home daily for a little over a month and I am improving. Slowly, but progress is progress and I am an adult beginner which I think has advantages and disadvantages.

 

Oh yeah, I almost forgot the spinning part.

 

Finding daily practice time for the violin was challenging, so I decide to devote my morning spinning time to practice. Don’t worry, Michael is awake by this point and he says he actually enjoys my beginner sounds. Since my morning time is 15-20 minutes at best, I squeeze in another 20-30 in the evenings. Not too much, but enough to lay the foundations of building that crucial muscle memory and that effort has really paid off over the last few weeks. I’ll have more to write about this new endeavor too. That’s it for this morning. It is looking like it is going to be a really nice day, the girls are anxious to get outside and chase some squirrels, and I have a lot of things I want to do today. Have a great weekend!