"Properly practiced, knitting soothes the troubled spirit, and it doesn't hurt the untroubled spirit either." ~ Elizabeth Zimmerman

1/1/12

Happy New Year

Happy New Year! Wow, where did 2011 go? I can't believe it's 2012 already.

As you can see, I am starting the New Year with a new blog template. I have been having problems with the format of the old template and could not figure out how to fix it. After some discussion with Sweet Hubby, I decided to get one of the Blogger WYSIWYG layout templates and customize it. It's more compatible with Blogger and much easier for me to mess around with.

I hope your New Years eve was a pleasant one. We went to my nieces house and partied. I played two games of Farkel and actually won one of them. I also started a new knitting project, which I'll talk about at a later date. Mostly I ate, drank, and was merry.

The biggest thing, though, is we took Cable with us and introduced her to the family. I was very nervous about this. Dogs can sense your nervousness and will feel anxious too, so I was trying very hard to remain calm. I was worried about all the family dogs. Would Cable get along with them? Would they accept her?

You see, Tommy and Morgan were not socialized properly with other dogs, which has remained a complete and total mystery to me because Morgan was a retired show dog (he was afraid of dogs bigger than him. He was fine with dogs smaller than him) and Tommy spent 2 years in a shelter with big Greyhounds. But he had a terrible time getting along with other dogs. For the most part, I had to leave them both home whenever the family had one of it's parties. So I was expecting bad things to happen with Cable.

I need not have worried. Rocky and Gracie (my nieces dogs) were happy to meet her, and she was happy to meet them. None of the other family dogs were there, so it was less overwhelming for me and Cable. We'll meet the rest at a later date.

Introducing her to the people was a little bit more difficult. She is extremely timid around humans. Especially men, which makes me wonder. She really pulled on the leash when we walked in the door and she saw all these strangers. But I dragged her in anyway. I introduced her individually to each person (this is your cousin Brendan, this is your grandma Diane, this is your aunt Sue...), and everyone gave her lovins. My husband's family are big dog lovers. I sat at the table most of the evening playing games. She spent the time under the table, watching. Every so often she'd venture out to sniff someone, then retreat under the table. By the end of our evening she was much more relaxed and willing to be petted.

I remember when I first brought Morgan home he was deathly afraid of people. Especially men, because his prime abuser was a man. After a year with us he would happily trot up to any stranger he met. I think, in time, Cable will get over her fear of people too.

The knitting project I started will be a baby sweater for Knit Wits using my favorite baby aran cardigan pattern. I'm using a soft orange yarn. I got it cast on and the bottom welt done.

I've been thinking about what knitting goals I want to set for 2012. I want to get a sweater made for me. I should work on the Alice Starmore sweater and get it done. I'm going to write more patterns to post on my Beadknitter Patterns blog too. That should keep me busy.

What knitting goals do you have?

Live long and prosper. \\//



1 comment:

  1. My knitting goal this year is to start/finish all projects waiting in totes, baskets & bags. Quite a lofty goal....however my rule is that I can't buy anything new until all the "old" is done.

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