Baby It’s Cold……..Jan. 27, 2005

Man oh man, it has been some kind of cold up here.  You are looking at an icycle hanging off of our sunroom.  The icycle is about 5 feet long…..bbrrrrrrr!!

Night time temps have been ranging in the -25 degree range all week and even with these arctic temps we’ve had close to 18 inches of snow over the last week….bbbrrrrrrrrr!!!

A few years ago, it was on a night with similar temps that I rushed to the vet at 3 am for an emergency c-section.  That trip produced two girls.  Ballymena’s Winter’s Tale and Ballymena Winter’s Wind. 

We are getting ready for what appears to be another Wintery Whelping.

Yesterday, during a snowstorm, Breeze and I made our way to the Vet for an xray.  I always do an xray a week before puppies are due.  This way, I can get a head count, check position and most importantly gauge size.  If you click on this picture, you will see the outline of 4 little spines.  Three of the heads are facing towards the left and one is facing the right.  Of course, the 3 facing left tell me that currently they are going to be born breech…sigh….  The good news is, is that they are a nice size and mom should not have too much trouble delivering them.  They could always flip, but my experience has been that they do not change position too often from what I have seen on the x-ray.

So in between the franticness of trying to find another car and send the van with the shot transmission almost 100 miles away to be repaired, I have been getting supplies washed and ready for the Winter Whelping.  We have our whelping box, hot water bottle, heating pad, clamps, scissors, towels, facecloths (for pulling the little buggers out), along with soft pads for when mom is finished and a baby monitor.  What you don’t see is the glass of wine that will be poured and ready for when I am finished…LOL.  Even though I have been breeding for almost 8 years now, I still get nervous with each delivery, so the wine will be there to help settle down the nurse when she is finished.  For now, we will just take temps twice a day and the waiting game begins.  Wish us luck!

The gang is trying to show Breeze their "close" support……….believe it or not there are 6 dogs, crammed into this crate….LOL

On the Knitting Front

The beaded socks for the KAL are finished.  They were fun to knit, but if I do them again, I will make changes.  I think I would use a smaller needle and do some ribbing all the way down the foot, so that the fit is better.  Smaller beads too.  It was a fun challenge though, never having knit with beads before. 

Pattern: Pink Beaded Socks  (Six Sock Knit along)
Needles:  Size 2 double pointed
Beads:   Size 8 "e" beads (Elegant Ewe)
Yarn:  Gray Koigu

I am close to finishing up the Fluted Bannister socks and I LOVE these socks!  They fit so nicely and the yarn is yummy.  I will post more about them when they are finished.

I am also participating in the Red Scarf Project.  Lisa Miller started this project to raise money for Chinese Orphans. You can read more about Lisa’s story here.

Why red scarves: The Chinese have an ancient belief that says all people who are destined to meet are bound by an invisible red thread. The thread may stretch or tangle, but it will never break. (Very meaningful to the families adopting these Chinese Orphans)

I chose the Opera Scarf that Margene shared with us earlier in the month.  I am making it a bit wider than the pattern calls for and on bigger needles.  Hopefully it will be finished and in the mail tomorrow.  It’s a fun project for a good cause.

Ribby..  The back of the Ribby Cardi is finished and
I have started on the sleeves. This is an easy, mindless project…..sometimes mindless is a good thing!   I love the feel of the lambs pride mohair and it is knitting up fast.  This is going to make a nice spring sweater jacket!

Even though it IS knitting up fast and it IS easy, I am finding that my nagging tendonitis and my now strangely sore thumbs is going to slow me down a bit.  I think that I will have to split my time up more evenly over the different fiber arts that I enjoy, instead of being so focused on one.  Maybe a bit more spinning and weaving and a little less knitting will help eleviate some of the pain.  Of course my DH says……"just stop for a while", but he just doesn’t understand.  I don’t think that I could ever just sit in front of the tv without a project in my hands………could you?