Monday 28 April 2008

Sock in progress




Made for Sweetheart in Regia African Color.

Monday 21 April 2008

My Kiri shawl

Had this on my old blog yet but I am wearing it a lot right now and I do love it so much! It is made from sock yarn and so not too "girly" for me! Here is the pattern. Also available in French and German now.

Swatch for crochet curtain


It's going to have two parts connected with threads. First part is done, the second halfway.
EDIT: There will be two bands – one with triskelions, one with l’hermine (stout), both symbols of Britanny. 4 of them in a row. Then I will connect them to each other with probabely chain stitches. So one band will be at the top of the window, the other at the bottom, the “threads” inbetween to let more light inside. I got my idea from traditional curtains from Britanny, some are here and from Eibhlin’s curtain that can be seen here! Coucou Eibhlin, ca fait déjà presque une année qu’on c’est rencontrée, uncroyable que le temps passe!!! Oh and you see Cromarty (still to be blocked under the swatch).

The gang

I especially love Josy's coat colour in the warm evening sunlight!
EDIT to answer Leahs questions: I have no idea where the girls were looking, Josy seems to see something not too interesting in the distance, Flavie seems to have spied a bird not too far away and Dingo – daydreaming! Click on the picture to get it bigger.

In general all of them are agility dogs. I started with Dingo in 1997, when agility wasn’t very popular in our region (we had to drive for at least two hours for the nearest competition in the beginning). I found a dog club that was about to start with agility training soon. Was involved in building up the agility group and found myself being a trainer soon after… Dingo was fast but not waiting for my (always late, I know it was my fault never his!!!) directions and I never got him to do the a-frame properly into the contact, and when he nearly killed himself one day in a competition because he flew right over the top of the a-frame and hit into the ground on his breast bone I stopped competing. Had a nice time in practice after that but stopped years ago because I had other focuses and he got old enough to retire and he never got slow, he always gives 200 %, so I have to be the wise one and just stop it! We have fun now with other things that keep him going without braking his bones but still tiring him mentally. There should be some action pic of him on my old blog – see here. There are more dog pitcures over there, click on the dog category at the left and it will bring you there.

When we got Josy, Sweetheart soon started working with her, and they did great. She isn’t as crazy as Dingo is but they worked out to be a great team, she wasn’t as fast as the Border Collies are but a lot tighter in the corners and jumping higher and so often faster in the end and “clean”! One year they qualified for the national championship and did well there but you could clearly see that Josy didn’t like to be in that building, it was a common indoor sports arena, very narrow, very loud, carpet, and she only could go there for practice once before the competiton.*
Then Josy ruptured her cruciate ligament in her left knee which she had surgery on and is doing great but there is some arthrosis left and we chose to stop her agility career. There are also some post surgery pics.
And by the way, Dingo is getting 12 next month, Josy is at least as old as him, maybe even a year older. They are fit and healthy and there are lots of younger dogs that act older but we humans have to be the reasonable ones here!

Flavie will be an agility dog with my Sweetheart (who also is a trainer, still active unlike me) once we are less occupied with house and garden building! She already has started training and seems to have fun and is fast!

*Usually agility is done on lawn, some clubs practice in riding halls with dirt or sand as ground during winter season and some few competitions in the summer are in sand.
In Germany agility is run in three groups based on sizes, and 4 levels in each size.

Friday 18 April 2008

What I forgot to mention in my posts last Sunday over all that excitement about the internet connection was that I had seen the first swallows of the year on that day! They are back and I do hope they find enough insects yet!
This spring weather really is driving me crazy this year. After nice and warm periods where everyone thinks “that’s it” it gets cold again and that icy wind from northern directions is back again… Yesterday evening it really hit me in the face as I somehow wasn’t prepared to it. On my walk in the afternoon the sun was shining, some clouds around, a cool breeze that made me close my coat when walking against it but ripping open my coat when it came from behind as the sun is quite strong yet.
The forecast is talking about 20°C for the weekend – that will throw me off my feet. Too warm too fast… But we’ll see! I don’t complain about the weather – as there is only bad clothing, never bad weather!!!

Sunday 13 April 2008

Yarn


The yarn I bought lately.

Morning sky

This one I took quite a few weeks ago, even before spring equinox but I love it so much that I have wanted to post it all the time and with the good time I am just having on the internet here it is:

Sunday morning

Today was a great morning and I was out with the dogs and the camera. Took a few nice pictures and try to upload them now.
Getting here already makes me think positiv for the posting of the pics...
I've been wanting to post photos of my daily walks for quite some time but there were always some strange difficulties I had with the internet connection. Now it seems to be ok! Good day, as I said!
I am listening to the playlist on Leanne's blog at http://somersetseasons.blogspot.com/ (who has also taken us with her on her walk around her beautiful surroundings in Somerset, UK this week). I love it and will try to get some new cds... Listened to Alan Stivell http://www.alan-stivell.com/ earlier today and am in a very good mood. I MUST listen more to my lovely cds than just the radio!!!

We had lots of rain during the last few days and this morning finally the sun was out and spring couldn' t hide away. The different shades of green are so amazing!




About ten minutes from our house there are several little lakes, and my usual daily walk takes me there.




There is a meadow along it where the dogs play. The view from
about the middle to one side (Note Josy's back end...):


And to the other side:









Greens...

More spring

These are taken on a little orchard just across the nearest field to our house. Will know later in the year what trees they are...

Kerbihan

Kerbihan, as we named our house, meaning "Little home" in Brezhoneg, the old language (with celtic roots) of Britanny. This is the view from craft room over the field to that orchard. It is nothing big, just a strip of meadow with a row of different fruit trees on it. Like cherries, pears, apples - more about those later in the year :-) , and definitely walnuts.

Wednesday 2 April 2008

The man who listens to horses

(Click on the title to see his website)
Will go to see a demonstration of Monty Roberts at the end of the month. Having read his books years ago his way of connecting to horses has fascinated me ever since. Communicate with the horses in their native language (body-language), not in human language (blahblahblah and body signals you are not aware of and that are different from what you actually want to tell them). I’ve learned to work with dogs in a similar way.
Seeing him a few times on TV made me really want to see him in reality and feel the “magic” first hand. Now is the time.

Garou

(Click on the title to see his website)
Just found out that Garou’s new album is going to be in English and released in May. Saw him twice already on stage and that was so great, lots of energy and intensity running from him to his fans and back! He ROCKS! But I have that hope that maybe with an English cd he will also be promoted in Germany and I can hear his songs on the radio and maybe see him on TV – in addition to listening to his cds. We can’t watch any French TV channels right now what we could before we’ve moved and this is the only thing I am really missing. Will get a satellite thing but this is just not priority 1. Can still listen to web-radio IF the internet connection is ok.

These days,

when I drive to work I can see the effort the sun is making:
Four weeks ago I had to start working an hour later than usual. Same this week. Now I remarked that the sun peeks just over the mountains in the east when I cross the river on the autobahn-bridge at 7 am. Very beautiful. Now and then. ??? We have changed to “summertime” (light saving time) last Sunday so 7 am now means 8 am for the sun. And the four weeks means sunrise is 1 hour earlier. And with this time shift this means sunset is 2 hours later in the evening. Is ok right now for me but in summer it doesn’t really help me as I have to go to bed at a decent hour to get up at 4:20 am to be at least somewhat refreshed. And I don’t really mind if it is still light half or one or two hours after I sleep…

Run

Did another nearly 5k training run, same as last time and was faster! Kneecaps hurt again on that concrete passage though all the other lanes were dried out and hard – but still soil not concrete. Will have to watch that. Had Dingo with me this time who seemed to enjoy to get out with me alone but would have preferred an off leash walk to do his own things, like eating “I really don’t want to know what it was” now and then)…

March 08

14,95 km run
Not as much as I had wanted to but there was that period of strong cold wind which I just could not stand. But I went for many many dog walks (and we walk fast!) lasting over an hour.
I started tracking the kilometers I am running on 08/03/03, when I did that first 5k. The training (from zero) for this run started on 08/01/17 but no records from then…

Tuesday 1 April 2008

And what about the knitting?

There is some knitting related news, though.
Finished objects as well as new yarn. So without pics not worth mentioning? In short; the longtime WIP and UFO Cromarty is done! Waits to be wetted and blocked. It is short and wide but I LOVE it already!
Started a new pair of socks for Sweetheart in greens.
Started two swatches for Aberlady.
Did a swatch for a crochet curtain.
Wanted to get some different yarn for the curtain and see if I could find something nice for Aberlady and perhaps Laminaria, so I went into town last Saturday. Got the cotton crochet yarn I wanted. Didn’t see anything I liked for Aberlady or the shawl.
Found out that one of the downtown LYS had closed four days before (but it was from a “chain” so there is still one in the neighbour town and I even don’t think there were great bargains as they just transfer the yarn that is left to another shop).
Got some nice yarns at low prices and I already know what I want to make with everything. When I was grocery shopping that night I even bought more yarn in the supermarket at a great price.
Now got to find out what is wrong with uploading the pictures!!!