Walking the dog, the 'Smiling Dutchwoman'

Although I don't walk the dog as much as I probably should, I do get out in all kinds of weather. She needs to be on a leash, so I thought I'd do up some felted fingerless mitts to get the job done easily--- for my paws, that is. They turned out pretty nice and I know they'll be warm. I used worsted weight wool on the midgauge machine. Before felting them, I embroidered some flourishes with loose stitches as an experiment. At worst, I thought, they'll pucker up around the embroidery and at best, the embroidery would kind of sit on top of or sink into the rest of the top of the mitt. The later turned out to be the case. So, I'm pretty satisfied with them.
The dawg in question is our Gertie, aka Queen of Holland, as she is called by the hubby. She does look like she's smiling, happy to be on the blog, doesn't she? She's a Keeshond, pronounced KAZE hund. Did a little research on her breed and found lots of info from the American Kennel Club and other places. The Keeshond was named after the 18th-century Dutch patriot, Cornelis (Kees) de Gyselaer, leader of the Dutch rebellion against the House of Orange. The dog became the rebels' symbol, and when the House of Orange was returned to power, this wonderful breed almost disappeared. The word 'keeshond' is a compound word: 'Kees' is a nickname for Cornelius (de Gyselaer), and 'hond' is a Dutch word for dog. In Holland, "keeshond" is the term for German Spitzes that encompass them all from the toy or dwarf (Pomeranian) to the Wolfsspitz (Keeshond). The sole difference between the German Spitzes is their coloring and size guidelines. You might see them referred to as "The Smiling Dutchman".

Another, less popular story, is that way back-originally the breed is the result of a cross between a wolf and a chow chow, in China, a thousand years ago. Who knows? The more widely accepted version is that the Keeshond was developed from the northern sleigh dogs of the Arctic. These spitz type dogs have been around in Holland for hundreds of years. They are believed to have come from Vikings. A legend tells of a Viking ship which sank, with only the captain's son surviving. He was rescued by a Christian fisherman of northern Holland and his dog. The fisherman, the rescuee and the dog all landed on a foreign land and built a chapel to St. Olaf out of gratefulness for finding land. From here a village was built near the Amstel River, which later led to a dam being built. This dam led to the name of the town becoming Amstelredam, which is now currently Amsterdam. Today, the seal of the city shows a ship with a spitz type dog looking over the side of it. Because of this story and other legends, taking a dog on board a ship became good luck. The breed then served as dogs accompanying people to sea on boats and barges, and became known as the Dutch Barge Dog. (Our Gertie HATES water. Bathtub, lake, whatever. She thinks I'm torturing her if I give her a bath. Do you suppose they were bred to NOT jump off the barge into the water?)




First Registered by the AKC: 1930
AKC Group: Non-Sporting
Class: Non-Sporting
Registries: AKC, ANKC, CKC, FCI (Group 5), KC (GB), UKC

Keeshonden tend to be very playful, (Gertie is a stand up comedian) with quick reflexes and strong jumping ability. (At dinner time, she invariably jumps about a foot off the floor to see what's on the stove top for dinner! Never gets close to it, just wants to see what's cookin'.) They are quick learners and eager to please. Because Keeshonden are quick learners, they also learn the things you didn't necessarily wish to teach them - very quickly. However, Keeshonden make excellent agility and obedience dogs. So amenable to proper training is this bright, sturdy dog that Keeshonden have been successfully trained to serve as guide dogs for the blind; only their lack of size has prevented them from being more widely used in this role.

They love children and are excellent family dogs, preferring to be close to their humans whenever possible. They generally get along with other dogs as well and will enjoy a good chase around the yard. Keeshonden are very intuitive and empathic and are often used as comfort dogs. Most notably, at least one Keeshond, Tikva, was at Ground Zero on 9/11 to help comfort the rescue workers. I read an article that said "Tikva" means "hope". The breed has a tendency to become especially clingy towards their owners, even in comparison to other dogs. If their owner is out, or in another room behind a closed door, they may sit, waiting for their owner to reappear, even if there are other people nearby. Many have been referred to as their "owner's shadow," or "velcro dogs".

I don't know about velcro, but this dog is more of a yarn dog. If she were human---she would be a knitter.
Probably a machine knitter. She loves yarn. Being kind of a yarn snob, she loves wool. I have to be careful not to leave any skeins of yarn or cones of yarn within her reach.















We got Gertie from a breeder in Kansas last summer as a 6 month old pup. She was destined to be a show dog like her parents, but the breeder said she had a bit of an underbite, which would cause points to be knocked off her score. O well, so much for glory. She is a beauty anyway and definitely the queen of our household.

Big Foot is Alive! And Well!

The felted slipper/boots turned out great! I was afraid I had overdone the size and they wouldn't fit anyone BUT bigfoot. Amazingly, they are perfect. Felting is so unpredictable, I feel lucky. And, the husband says the cuff is just the right height. The picture doesn't do justice to the quality of the felted fabric. They're nice and sturdy. I might look for some fabric paint to make the bottoms less slippery. For now I'm content to let them dry flat. We're going to be in for cool weather, it seems, faster than usual and will need cozy stuff like this.

It was in the 90's when the RNC'ers came to town. Quite a shock to have the temp drop 40 degrees.... to the 50's at night. Makes for great sleeping under the down comforter, but I'm not ready for the cold weather. Summer in MN is never long enough.

Roses and Big Foot

I planted three shrub rose bushes last summer. They haven't really bloomed like I thought they would. It's in spurts. That is, not all of the branches have buds and blooms at the same time. Had to take a pic of this one, though. The entire bouquet is just one branch. For some reason the deer have left them alone this year. I used a new repellant called Shotgun, and maybe that's the reason. (It's garlic, hot pepper and dried egg, no bullets. Smells like spaghetti sauce when you first sprinkle it on.) Perhaps the deer have decided to pick on someone else for a change or they don't like spaghetti. They've even left my vegetable garden alone. Amazing. In the past, I've been the local ---free--- salad bar for them.

On the knitting front, I am working on using up the misbegotten wool I bought. It felts well, so I'm making felted slippers for my husband, whose feet are always cold--- even when it's 90 degrees outside. They're ready to be popped into the washing machine. They look gargantuan. Note the lens cap for perspective. Before I felt them, I'm going to make some felted fingerless mitts and do the whole shebang at once. Am using the Brother KX350 and the knitting is lightning fast. Almost! Love that machine.


Happy Labor Day tomorrow!

Sarah Bradberry's Comfort Shawl...YUM!

Next project: a hand knit shawl designed by Sarah Bradberry. Thank you, Sarah, for the beautiful pattern. My daughter gifted me with some Noro Kureyon and it seems perfect for a shawl. Although we have had a wonderful summer weather-wise in Minnesota, from experience, I KNOW it is going to be cold again. (Understatement...) A shawl is a nice thing to have when that happens. The pattern is here:
http://www.knitting-and.com/knitting/patterns/shawls-shrugs/feather-and-fan-comfort-shawl.htm

There is a section on Flickr showing shawls people have made with this pattern. Go to the Flickr website and search on Feather and Fan to view. (Not sure if you need to have an account or not.) If you're a member of Ravelry, there are lots there too. Some very elegant and richly colored ones.

With the Noro, it's hard to go wrong with colors. Every now and then I'll put in a couple of rows of a contrast color from my wool stash to break up the pattern. I'm not at all a fan of fringe, so mine will have the undulating bottom edge. It should block nicely being 100% wool.

Even though machine knitting is probably my favorite of the two arts, every now and then I need to have some hand knitting to do. The blues and greens are a little easier on the eyes than my red stuff of late.

The Tote is Finished!

Here are some pictures of my completed tote for the MKGM. We had our guild mtg last night and I brought it to show.
Not sure if all the members want to use the design and some may choose to make a garment instead. We'll see. Machine knitters are known for doing their own thing, I think. Which is perfectly ok. Was easy to make, anyway. These pictures look a little blurry, but if you click on them you can see a larger, more clear picture.
Wonder if I'll ever tire of red...

Moving on

Now that my sweater is done, I'm moving on to other exciting things. For one, I'm working on a proposal for our machine knitting guild. MKGM = Machine Knitting Guild of Minnesota. Most of us attend the annual Purls of Joy seminar in Minneapolis in the spring. We wanted something for the 2009 seminar to identify ourselves as a group, like some other guilds do. We've tossed around ideas: scarf, vest, sweater, tote, knitted earings, pin, socks... I'm leaning towards the tote idea because it's easy to knit, there aren't any sizing issues, we'd be able to take home our purchases in it, doesn't take much yarn, etc. So with the help of my trusty Designaknit program, I've come up with some variations on a theme. and finally...

So, one of those would be the front and one of these two would be the back:



Some of these jpgs got a little blurry, but hopefully you get the idea. The joke, such as it is, comes from a conversation one machine knitting member of our group had with a hand knitter. Lest I get into a diatribe about machine knitting vs hand knitting, suffice it to say we like what we do and produce some dandy stuff.

Since we have no obligations today, I'm going to knit up the tote, line it with some interfacing, batting and fabric and see what I think. I'll post a pic or two. Whew! That red gets a little overpowering.

Going around in circles

More on the adult circular sweater. It's been occupying my knit time of late. I spent many hours (days) knitting with the worsted weight wool using my Brother KX350. Actually knit the whole circle, which involved a lot of transfers and much patience, 12 wedges. When I got done, I hated it for a couple of reasons. The thing ended up to weigh a lot and I didn't even have the sleeves knit or attached yet. Was thinking I'd have to consider it a winter jacket, which was never my vision. Also, although the yarn was gorgeous on the skein, and ok on the swatch, I didn't like it at all when knit in wedges.

Why didn't I quit before finishing the whole circle, you ask? Very good question. I guess I thought the colors would grow on me and the weight wouldn't seem so impressive off the machine. The more time I invested, the more I hated to give it up. But, after sleeping on it a couple of nights, I decided to start over on my standard gauge machine. It makes beautiful, more intricate lace without eye- popping- brain numbing- hand transfers and the weight of the garment wouldn't be an issue.

I have some beautiful Forsell 100% Pure New Wool that knits up so nicely. Swatched a little, tried some different lace patterns for a border, and off I went. I had the opportunity to have dinner with Mary Anne last weekend and got some advice on finishing the thing. It's going to have cut and sew armholes for the sleeves. She suggested cutting an identical sized circle out of muslin or other throw-away fabric, as she did for the cover garment a couple of issues ago, and snipping into that for armholes. Using that method I can hopefully get the sleeve placement right. I think I have an old sheet I used to use to cover the garden to protect from frost--can use that. I would hate to cut into my hard earned knitting and make a mistake after all that. If they could move Thunder Bay to Minneapolis, I'd be one happy camper.

I still need to knit the scallops and haven't decided which color to use. Have knit a couple of trial runs that I can easily rip out. Am debating between white, blood red and a brown (not pictured). I'm pleased that this scallop makes the edge behave without curling. If this masterpiece turns out, I'm hoping MA will publish it. We'll see! Any preference for color?