For such a big dog....

Purl is a big weeny. I took her for a walk yesterday. It was our normal route, so just around the blog. It totals two miles, and normally is not long enough to put even a dent in Purl's energy levels. Yesterday, about half way through, Purl found a nice tree with lots of shade and laid down. She was done. Today, she refused to go out in the rain. Granted, it was a torrential down pour, but still. Weeny.

This is the view at the bottom of the hill from the parking lot to the trail. Usually there is a nice breeze from the river, which keeps it from being too hot.

View from the top

She's Crafty

My mom is a quilter. The first quilt she ever made was for me - the Ohio Rose - and was beautiful. When I graduated from high school she made graduation quilts for me and my my two best friends (I am still friends with both of these girls. We graduated almost 7 years ago, and have were friends in middle school in one case, and in preschool in the other. This is something I take both pride and joy in). In my opinion my mother is very talented, and has created some very beautiful and useful quilts, including this one, which now hangs on my wall.

She also made a wall hanging of Purl.

I have had this one for almost a year and just now got around to hanging it! When mom made it Purl had a collar with rhinestones on it, so mom used silver and black material for the collar! (I am very upset by the fact that I can't find a sparkle color big enough for her anymore! Big dogs need bling too!)

She made the quilt I use on my bed out of flannel material. It is so comfy!

Really, this one is just an excuse to show how Purl sleeps. This cracks me up!

I love that I finally have stuff on my walls that are not prints! I have had the same art prints up since I was a sophomore in college. It was defiantly time for a change. I'm hoping that I will be able to start saving a little bit of money each pay check to buy real art to hang up.

In knitting news, I finished the first sleeve on something Red. I know this is a bad picture, but none of my neighbors were home and I wanted to show it off!

This,

Has become this.

I got tired of unknitting rows only to find more mistakes. I still love the pattern, and plan to start over again as soon as I finish Something Red. The weather is perfect right now for a light-weight shawl worn over a tank top.

Finally, Purl and I went for a hike on the KT trail today, and I took lots of pictures. I will save those for now. Maybe I will use them in later posts so I have pictures to share for a while. It was a beautiful day, and the KT trail is gorgeous this time of year. Here is a picture of Purl has we leave the apartment. It's her first time in the cruiser, and she is not too sure about it. I had to help lift her in!

She the tail tucked? Poor girl.

Pour Me

I decided, at 9:15pm., that I was going to take Purl for a walk tonight. I had planned on skipping a day, but since it is so close to April 1st, and I have a ways to go before hitting the goal, I can't really skip a day. It's been raining off an on all day, but I thought it was pretty much done with. I got about 1/2 a block away from my apartment when it started to pour. Lots and Lots of rain.

Honestly, it was Purl that decided to turn back. She has a cold.

Murcury

One would think that since I was so close to finishing the red scarf the last time I posted, 3 days ago, that surely it would be finished by now. One would be wrong. I can now add grafting to the list of techniques that I not only don't do well, but also drive me completely nuts. I am ripping out the progress that I have made on the 2 rows of 32 stitches (I included that so you would know how silly it is that I have not finished yet).

Instead of finishing the scarf I did the only practical thing I could think of. I cast on for the Something Red . So far I really like the pattern, but has you can see, I really don't have that much done.

Yes, I do think purple on purple makes for great contrast. Don't you?

I really haven't been walking much. First there was all the snow, and you may remember how well Purl does in the snow, and then I caught the plague, so we havn't gotten out much.

Aren't I pathetic? Please take me out!

She's not taking it well.

Bad Blogger

Wow. So it has been a whole week since my last post, and I have absolutely nothing to show for it. No knitting progress what-so-ever. To be quite honest, I really haven't done much of anything this week. I was a bad student, because not only did I not attend class, I haven't done my reading yet. I get to try and catch up on that this weekend. I did go to an art opening at the Laumeier Sculpture Park last night with Deb. The show is by Karyn Oliver, and was great. I almost didn't go, because of the whole unproductive recluse thing, but I'm glad I did. I have also done better this week with walking. Purl and I are now over the 50 mile mark on out 100 miles by April 1st goal, which is great.
I'll try to do better this week, but for now I am off to do homework.

Almost doesn't count

I almost went for a walk yesterday. I woke up early, got dressed, and took Purl out. We made it half way down the street before I realized that I was under dressed for the weather, so we turned around and I got back in bed for another hour. I didn't even try to take out in the evening - I was way to crabby to take a hyper dog for a walk. I did manage to get 2 more miles in tonight, even though I am still a bit on the crabby side.
I am still tinking the flower basket shawl. It is slow going, basically because I don't want to do it. I forced myself to do a row tonight, so it is getting done. My usual MO is to just ignore projects that need repairs, so this is an improvement for me, really. I really have no progress to show on anything else. Apparently avoiding one project requires that I avoid the others as well for a bit.
I am going to Rolla this weekend to help with a slumber party for my oldest niece, so I don't know when I'll post again. I have a feeling I will need a few days to recuperate before I can string together words coherently.

Football!

This was a bad week, walk wise. Between the cold weather and me being lazy, Purl and I only walked 7.8 miles. When I write it out, it sounds way more then it actually was. We only went for 3 walks. Today I had planned on taking Purl for a very long walk to make up for this last week, but there was snow on the ground. Purl likes snow WAY too much, and spent the whole time jumping up and down, kicking the snow up, and trying to gallop off after what she had kicked up. This all would have been fine, except I was attached to her, so we ended up cutting the walk short by at least a mile.
In knitting news, I am once again unknitting the FBS. This time, though, I am going to put a life line in before I start knitting. I am determined to finish this, because I love the pattern, like the yarn, and know that I am capable of making lace. I have also, finally, cast on for the second Anastasia sock. I needed a portable project that I really don't need to pay attention to. The scarf is too big to carry around, and the shawl requires way to much attention. I love the sock pattern, and really do want to finish the pair, so now I have three objects on the needles.
I'm off to watch a football game.

4th times a charm

I managed to get a walk in today, after taking 2 days off. Monday was just too cold, and I didn't get home from class until after 8:30. Honestly, I have gone on walks later then that with Purl, but I just didn't feel like it last night. Poor Purl. I took pity on her tonight and made myself go. I'm up to 24.1 miles so far, which I was feeling pretty good about until I looked at everyone else's mileage. I just have to remind myself that I am competing against myself and no one else.
I finally finished the 6th repeat on the Flower Basket Shawl. I once again ended up with an extra stitch, but after tinking and reknitting the same row 3 times I gave up and just added an extra decrease. 4 rows later everything looks fine, so I'm just going to pretend it never happened, at least from here on out.
Well, I'm off to the grocery store. We are having a food day at work tomorrow, so I have to go find something to bring.

100 miles

Yes, there is another new button on the sidebar. Apparently I can't stop joining things. I joined the run/walk/swim along runagogo. The goal is to do 100 miles by April 1st. I logged over 6.2 last week - since I'm not sure how much over I am claiming just the 6.2. I figured out the lengths of the routes I take Purl on each day. The short one is 2.1, so I'm pretty sure I can do this. I'm hoping that between this and Purl I can stay motivated to walk each day. We'll see. I already have 3.2 for this week, and it just started! In order to make the goal I need to do 8.6 miles each week.