It's All About Carter

Well, Ok, it's not ALL about Carter, but he has kept my hands busy the last week and I have not been able to take any outdoor photos.  Acclimating a new dog into our routine is something I take seriously because I want the dog to succeed and become a good member of our family.  Bringing him home the week of deer season did not help.  Our schedule was crazy and there was much more traffic than usual on our little unpaved road and there were lots of guys with guns in the woods.  That all ended on Sunday and we have since been able to take some walks and allow Carter some off-leash time.  We have also been perfecting our two -dog two-flippy flopper sessions in the yard.  I throw Carter's first and then fire Rowdy's off in a slightly different direction.  So fun, especially when they both leap and catch.
                                                                                   

And of course, there is indoor play as well.  

In my experience, a tired dog is a good, happy dog.


This Saturday will be the Christmas Festival in Woodsfield.  I will have a booth set up in the courthouse along with many other crafters and will have yarn, rugs, socks and other alpaca products for sale.  I usually take my spinning wheel along in case I have time to spin.  The very first year I had LOTS of time to spin, but the festival has kind of caught on and lots of local folks attend, as well as some of the people who are staying in town and working on gas and oil leases, etc.  

Which reminds me, they are once again drilling within earshot of our place and are working on preparing a drill pad within  sight of our place as well.  

I have finished up the rugs that I started before Thanksgiving. I removed them from the loom last week and tied the fringes over the last couple days.  I am pleased with how they came out.  

 The one on the left is a little short because the yarn I used was a little thinner than the yarn on the other 2.  I can't just measure the length of the rugs on the loom when I am doing color changes, I have to count the number of "pics" or passes of the yarn.  The rug yarn is rather rustic, so it varies in thickness sometimes and I should have taken that into account on that dark rug and added a few more pics.  But it is fine.  These rugs will be available for sale at the festival.

I also finished up a couple more small gift projects.  A neck warmer with alpaca yarn that I spun from fiber I had made into roving and then dyed.  Love how the colors came out.  I only had a small amount of this yarn and this project was perfect.

 And for an even smaller amount of yarn, I knitted up a quick headband.  This is the same yarn as the mitts I posted about last week, I believe.

Sam and I really have no special plans for the holidays.  We will go to his folks' on Christmas and I figure my  mom will come to visit the  next day or so.  She has to get around to visit all 3 of her kids and generally spends Christmas morning with my younger brother who still has young children at home.  I miss those days.  I am pretty much finished with holiday shopping.  I did most of it online.  Everything should be arriving in a few days so I can ship things off to the west coast.

My sons will be spending the holidays in Portland and Yosemite.  However, younger son, Sam/Zac, is planning to be home for a couple weeks in January.  He is the sous chef at Evergreen Lodge  www.evergreenlodge.com  
just outside Yosemite and they close for the month of January every year.  Last year, both sons were working at the Grand Canyon on the south rim and were not able to get any time off.  I am looking forward to Zac's visit as I have not seen him since August last year at Tahoe. By the way, I highly recommend Evergreen Lodge if you ever plan to visit Yosemite.  It is nicely located and the cabins are wonderful as is the restaurant.  It is not cheap, but it is California!  I look forward to visiting there again hopefully this year.

After Zac's visit, we will be pretty close to February and I have a trip to Florida planned.  Will be driving down with my sister-in-law Jill and joining my mother, aunt and cousin, Tracey.  When I get home from that jaunt, it will be maple syrup season.  I hope we have better weather for the sap run this year.  Once syrup season is over, we will be into spring in no time.  We really have not even had winter yet here, although my thermometer registered 19 degrees this morning when I got up!