Aiming for 100...80 pairs so far

At the beginning of the year, I made a New Year's Resolution to knit my 100th pair of socks in 2011.

I've knit 80 pairs so far! Here are pairs 75 - 79. I won't be posting #80 for a few days since they are a gift.

Back in January, I went to Vogue Knitting with my personal knitting enable, my sister-in-law.

We took a class from Cookie A, a sock designer I admire. When I heard she was starting a Sock Club, I had to join. Every other month, I get a skein of very pretty sock yarn, 2 sock patterns (one easy / one hard) and 2 cookie recipes!

I didn't use the sock yarn she sent (it has cashmere! too nice for my feet :-) ) so I knit the first pattern, Haleakala using Knit Picks Stroll Tonal in Blue Yonder. I knit the second pattern, Ripple Leaf using Knit Picks Stroll Tonal in Springtime.

Hubby is always asking for more socks. I finally finished his 13th pair. It took me a very long time because I am not fond of cabling and there is a lot of cabling in these socks. I came close to ripping them out at one point because I was worried they weren't going to fit but they do!

In case you haven't realized, I love knitting socks. One of the things I love about sock knitting is that it is a very portable project. I can fit a work-in-progress in my purse and I can get in a bit of knitting while I wait at a doctor's office, etc...

The Cookie A patterns for me and the Manly Aran Socks for hubby are not what I consider portable patterns -- meaning they are really patterns best knit at home while watching Tivo with the remote nearby so I can hit pause when I lose my spot or need to concentrate.

But pairs #75 and #78 are what I consider incredibly portable and I always have at least two portable projects on the needles and ready to go out with me on an errand. I usually do the toe and heels at home but the foot and cuff of the sock are usually a very basic pattern that I have memorized or can just repeat by looking at the rows below.

I just got my next Cookie A sock club yarn last week and I'm hoping to start another pair of Cookie socks tonight!

It's a Puppy!

Welcome Simon! Okay, if you're thinking he doesn't look like a labrador retriever, it's because he isn't. He's a Great Dane puppy and he belongs to our neighbors a few blocks over. I had to go spend some time visiting with him because (in case you don't know already) I am going through serious puppy withdrawal!

He's going to be one big boy!

Quail's Daddy is Okay

Still no word from Quail but we did receive some news about Quail's Daddy, Arnold.

After being retired from The Seeing Eye breeding program, some dogs get to go overseas to continue breeding in guide dog schools abroad. Quail's Daddy, Arnold went to Japan. The last e-newsletter from The Seeing Eye had an article on him and we were happy to hear that he is okay.

We have never met any of the parents of the pups we have raised except for Ava because we raised Harley. But every year when we go to Family Day at The Seeing Eye, we check out the photo room where there is a section featuring the dogs at the breeding center.

Here's the article on Arnold or you can see the entire e-newsletter here.

Seeing Eye Checks up on Arnold in Wake of Devastation in Japan

With the earthquakes, tsunami and threat of radiation in Japan, The Seeing Eye staff, along with the rest of the guide dog community, quickly grew anxious to hear how the guide dog schools in Japan were affected. Included in the Japanese guide dog schools that are members of the International Guide Dog Federation is one in particular that has a special relationship with The Seeing Eye. The Eye Mate, Inc. is located in Tokyo and has Arnold, a 4-year-old black Labrador who The Seeing Eye sent to help with their breeding program. In the weeks following the disaster, all schools and their staff were accounted for and faring well in the aftermath, including Arnold at The Eye Mate. One school, which was located in the region of Send ai that was hit by a tsunami, was lucky enough to survive with minor structural damage. A few guide dog users from the hardest hit areas still remain unaccounted for and the schools are doing everything they can to locate them.

Couch Potatoes

They may be slugs but they sure are cute, aren't they?

Why I Need a Puppy...

Harley and Riley are around the same age -- five going on six. This is them after breakfast -- slugs. And they will stay like this for most of the day unless I mention the W (walk) word. They do wake up around 3'ish because dinner is at 3:30 and they want to make sure I remember. Puppies are more fun...despite the housebreaking, the nipping with puppy teeth and the chewing on inappropriate things.

Me and my Peeps

The Marshmallow kind! I'm not one of those peep lovers like my sister who likes the package to be opened til the peeps are nice and stale. I actually don't like peeps and I'm not a fan of marshmallow either but these were just too cute! No I didn't bake them -- my friend JY did. I'm not even a fan of cupcakes but there was just something about these pretty peeps sitting on top of a frosted cupcake that made it really yummy!

Aren't they pretty? They were very tasty too!

Being Practical Sucks

Top left: Gusto

Top right: Harley

Bottom left: Anita

Bottom right: Ava

Center: Quail

The Seeing Eye called yesterday to tell us we finally had a puppy! A male yellow lab was put aside for us and would be arriving at our home the first week of May. We are in serious puppy deprivation mode especially after watching Evita for a week so I wanted so much to say YES YES YES!

Unfortunately I had to say NO :-( ! We are going to Hawaii for our 20th Anniversary and it would really just be practical to wait until after we return to bring a puppy into our home.

To make it even worse, I hopped onto Facebook to look at the Seeing Eye puppy photos -- I was looking at all the little yellow labs and wondering who had been tagged for us.

I am so bummed!!!

3 Dogs for 24 Hours

I do try to be organized but despite my efforts, sometimes I just don't get it right :-)

I thought Evita was leaving Wednesday and Riley was arriving Thursday but it was sort of the other way around -- Riley arrived Wednesday and Evita left Thursday. We had Evita for a little over a week. Riley is from The Millbrook Inn -- where we stay whenever we are in Vermont -- we'll be watching him for the next 6 weeks.

So for 24 hours, we had 3 dogs in the house. All 3 of them seemed to be having a blast. There was a lot of running around with the crazies mostly in the backyard because if they started to have the crazies inside, I threw them all out into the back :-)

Evita tried very hard to keep up with the two bigger dogs but she couldn't get in on the game of tug.
But she did have fun wrestling with Riley on the floor.