Dare I ask.....

how it got to be 2018? I was not-so-gently poked that it had been a very long time since I had posted on my blog. I post all the time...... oh wait,  on another platform. It would have been so easy to look at the amount of time since my last update (that would be July) and rationalize that it was best to let it go. Sadly that is just not something I could do. So here we go.....

 Our time with Sunny came to an end in July. We took her back to the 'mothership' (read here Guiding Eyes for the Blind) for In For Training evaluation. Sitting in the audience watching her go through the process was an amazing experience. All those hours we spent with her came down to a 20 minute assessment.... and she passed. They mentioned something about 'breed eval' but we didn't pay too much attention only to get notified a few days later that she had been chosen. The head of the breeding program watches every IFT looking at lineage, qualities in the pup, etc. choosing whose genetics they want passed on. It seems that Sunny had what they wanted so she is now living with a foster family waiting to go into season for breeding. I expect we'll find out soon how she is doing.

 With Sunny on her way, we got this little gal to work with~ meet Tavi

She is such a sweet little girl. fast forward to  Christmas

with her vest and well on her way. We have had more fun on this second time around. 

What about fiber ?

Went to Rhinebeck with my peeps. It was a whirlwind of fleece, fiber, yarn and fun. This is hard to believe but I really didn't come home with lots. Roving from Into the Whirled,  some weaving gadgets and lots of ideas. 

I joined the Holiday KAL with Artyarns. Everything about this project spoke to me..... the colors, yarn, beads, pattern. I love every minute of knitting it. I've worn it several times which makes me pleased that it is not just draped over a chair. Since that was so much fun it was easy to fall down for this....

Find your fade. I'm a bit late to this party. I missed all the hoopla when this first started and saw one finished at a guild meeting. It is ginormous. I popped it on and fell in love. An off-hand comment to a friend about splitting a kit was remembered. We waited for Miss Bab's to have her end of year sale and Bam! it was ours. Neither of us really read the pattern until we had ordered the kit, and discovered that we would need to be creative with our division of the yarn. we each added an additional skein and one that we divided with the rest. There is a lot of mindless knitting (garter stitch) and also patches of lace. I have to wait for the mindless parts to make it my travel knitting. 

The pup loves to walk each and every morning. Before dawn in the morning. No matter what the temperature or snow fall amount, she is ready to go. I was battling frozen fingers until I got smart enough to make myself mittens. I rooted around in the stash and found some chunky handspun, I used small needles to get a super tight fabric and voila ~ 

the best defense against winter. In my typical fashion, I knit several pairs of mittens so I'll be set for a bit. 

This is my bag of fiber from the next GVHG exchange project. Those that wanted to play along brought in 4 ounces of roving which was divided into 8- 1/2 ounce balls. we grouped them all onto a large table and randomly filled bags with 8 pieces to again have 4 ounces of roving. Every bag had one white and one gray neutral, the remainder was just a hodgepodge of colors. I took my cue from another spinner and divided them into 4 warms and 4 cools, spinning each and plying them together.

it turned out better than I had planned. I've got ample yardage to make the pattern so I may make it a bit wider.  

Whew. that brings me up to date. I'm sure I missed a few things along the way ( at least one sweater and another wrap) so I'll add them in the future. And I'll try not to let another six months just past me.