We had a good long weekend at the cabin. The dogs had a lot of fun. We experimented more with letting Willow off the leash and she sort of listened most of the time. She's getting better though. River continued her journey as a water dog. She doesn't want to get wet initially, but once she's wet then it's game on and she'll just keep going in. Both dogs are totally warn out.

I will be at Carroll County Art in the Park this Saturday June 3 and the Belle Aire Market next Sunday June 11.

We took our annual trip up to Chaumont during the winter this weekend. At first I thought we weren't going to get any snow because it had been so warm there last week, but they got a little bit of snow on Friday so we were able to see just a bit.

There were a ton of geese on the water, more than we've ever seen. They were up and down the river as far as we could see.


The gazebo is holding up through the winter. We took a chance not taking the screens down, but all is well. There was a dusting of snow inside that the puppies were eating for a quick drink.




The wind must have blown over the canoe at some point. It was too heavy for us to flip back over. It didn't seem like the ice was breaking the hull so hopefully it survives until spring.




When we came back on Sunday there were 4 swans on the river. We've never seen swans up there before! Of course the geese proceeded to be jerks and scared them away after a couple of minutes.




After much running and chasing the pups passed out at the hotel.

We decided to go to a beach closer to home for the holidays this year. Ocean City is only a couple of hours away and there's a ton to do there. When we booked it we weren't expecting it to be frigid, but we still had fun. The first couple of days there it was almost unbearable outside. It was in the single digits at night and teens during the day. With the windchill it was colder than that.

Of course I brought my "travel clay" with me :) I spent Christmas day afternoon making gnomes and mushrooms.




My sister's boyfriend also got in on the action and made a few gnomes as well. I started off by making some wine topper gnomes, which are the same as normal gnomes but much smaller. I've actually gotten pretty quick a making each gnome, but then spend a good amount of time at the end fussing over the details.




Then I moved onto making larger gnomes.




And finished off with a whole lot of mushrooms that will turn into jewelry.




We did actually get to enjoy the beach as the weather got "warmer" (it was about 35). Willow liked to dig holes. Sometimes she would start on her own, but if you pointed at the ground when she was looking she would do it on command as well.




River, however, liked to play fetch with the shells. She would go flying after them, getting a face full of sand to pick it up if it landed the wrong way down.

Izzy came over about a month ago to play with some clay. She made a few cups (handbuilt and thrown!), but her prize item was this rat. I was really worried that even after a month it wasn't dry enough, but no explosions!






On Saturday we went to our first party in 2 years. It was Willow's first party ever and River's first party since she was about 6 months old. They were so very tired on Sunday.

So last week we went up to Chaumont to visit the property in the snow. We ran into a few challenges. First, was a major snowstorm on the way up Thursday night. We ended up having to stop in Binghamton because of a winter storm. The rain was fine, but when we hit the ice it was getting a little dicey. It actually wasn't too far to the "snow line", but driving slow into the night so we stopped at a hotel.

Getting the dogs into the hotel was interesting. We took them for a walk, but they were both so excited about the new place and the snow neither would do their business. But on the walk we saw there was covered parking so Craig went to move the car while I went with the dogs up to the room. I get into the hotel and my glasses completely fog up so I can barely see. River and I get into the elevator and in a millisecond Willow backs out of her harness and starts running away. River and I barely get out of the elevator before it closes to go after Willow. They are both still so excited and start running around. Takes me a couple of minutes to catch Willow and get her back in her harness.

We go back to the elevator and Willow is petrified of it. I end up having to drag her in by the scruff of her neck. Later I realized that was literally her first encounter with an elevator. We get to the room and the two of them are in crazy mode just running around, and also looking for Craig. They calm down slightly when he comes but won't settle. River finally decides to go to bed under the covers and gets repeatedly attacked by Willow. Willow just won't settle and eventually she indicates she needs to go out. It's now nearly 1am. Craig gets out of bed gets dressed and takes her out. He has to bribe her in and out of the elevator with treats. Once he gets back River starts begging to go out.

Do the dogs sleep in? No. Of course not. They are up at 630 wanting to play. I had a call at 8 and right after I get on the dogs want to go out. I hear them leave and then 30 seconds later Willow is back. Craig was unable to bribe her into the elevator and manage River.




It was really cold and snowy up at the property. We weren't able to park and go down to check on the land because the shoulder hadn't been plowed yet so there was no place for us to park. We did take the dogs out on the Chaumont Bay and they had a blast.




Since it was so cold we spent a lot of time in the hotel room and I finished the sweater I was working on and started a new sweater. I got the back panel and one side panel done before I flew down to Atlanta for work on Sunday. This sweater really was a lot of emergent design. The yarn just told me what it wanted to be and I went with it.




The yarn is from Miss Babs - 2 skeins of Moss and 1 of Birthday Favors in Big Silk. I used a 6mm hook.

Here's the pattern....

Back panel:

Chain your alternate color to desired length. I'm 5'3 and I wanted it to be to about mid thigh so I chained 92.
Row 1: SC into the 3rd chain from the hook. *ch 1. skip a stich. SC. * Repeat * to the end of the row
Row 2: Ch 2. SC into the chain space. ch 1. Repeat to the end of the row
Row 3: SC into the chain space. *Skip a stich. single crochet twice* Repeat * until the end of the row
Row 2-18: Ch 1. 2 SC into the space between the two stitches till the end of the row
Row 19: Switch to your alternating color. Ch 2. SC into the space between the two stiches ch 1. Repeat to the end of the row
Row 20-22: Ch 2. SC into the chain space. ch 1. Repeat to the end of the row
Repeat the alternating pattern of 16 rows of the main color and 4 rows of the alternate color until you reach your desired width. I had 4 sections. To know the width you're looking for measure from shoulder to shoulder across the back. You want it to be 1-2 inches larger than shoulder to shoulder.

For the last section only do 2 rows of the alternate color.






Side Panel - Make 2

Start with how many times you repeated the back panel. I did 4 so I knew that my side panels should be 2 of the pattern across. Since the edge in the alternate color is only 2 that means there will be 2 stitches in the center when I sew the panels together for where the neck will be. Since this has vertical stripes its important that the stripes from the back meet the stripes in the front. For my size with this yarn it worked out that a pattern of 16 of the main color with 4 of the alternating color worked - you can play it with it to determine the right pattern for you.
For the side panels - end in the main color. We'll add the alternating color as a collar later.

Sew the side panels to the back panel. The side panel with the alternating color should align to the alternating color of the back panel. Since you have 2 rows on each of the ends, sewing them together you end up with 4 rows together. When sewing the top together pay particular attention that your stripe from front to back lines up.

Now we can start making the collar. I decided I wanted a really wide collar so I did the alternating color for 12 rows. Once I finished the yarn decided it needed a ruffle edge.

Collar Row 1: Ch 2. SC into the space between the two stiches ch 1. Repeat to the end of the row
Collar Row 2-12:Ch 2. SC into the chain space. ch 1. Repeat to the end of the row
Collar Row 13: Ch 2. 2 HDC into the first stitch. * 3 HDC into the ch stich. 3 HDC into the next stich. * Repeat * until the end of the row

Sleeves

I like to start my sleeves on the bottom because it hides the join nicely - no one is ever looking in my armpit :) For my sweater I started with my main color. In retrospect, I probably should have started with 2 rows of the alternate color, but by the time I realized that I was done with both sleeves and it looked fine. Make your decision what you want to do.

Sleeve length is going to depend on the length of your arms. Measure from the top of your shoulder to the wrist. I have very short arms so I did the pattern 3 times and it worked perfect.

Row 1-16: SC into the 2nd stich from the hook twice. *Skip a stich. single crochet twice* Join with a slip stich. Repeat * until the end of the row Row 17-20: Switch to your alternating color. Ch 2. *SC into the space between the two stiches ch 1.* Join with a slip stitch. Repeat to the end of the row Repeat rows 1-20 twice.

Sleeve end

Row 1: Ch 2. SC into the space between the two stiches ch 1. Repeat to the end of the row
Row 2-4:Ch 2. SC into the chain space. ch 1. Repeat to the end of the row
Row 5: Ch 2. 2 HDC into the first stitch. * 3 HDC into the ch stich. 3 HDC into the next stich. * Repeat * until the end of the row

Pockets make 2

Chain 14 in the main color
Row 1: 2 SC into 2nd chain from the hook . *Skip a stich. single crochet twice* Repeat * until the end of the row
Row 2-8: Ch 1. 2 SC into the space between the two stitches till the end of the row
Row 9: Switch to your alternating color. Ch 2. SC into the space between the two stiches ch 1. Repeat to the end of the row
Row 10-12: Ch 2. SC into the chain space. ch 1. Repeat to the end of the row
Row 13-20: Ch 1. 2 SC into the space between the two stitches till the end of the row
Re-orient the pocket so you're going across the top now
Row 1: Ch 2. SC into the space between the two stiches ch 1. Repeat to the end of the row
Row 2-4:Ch 2. SC into the chain space. ch 1. Repeat to the end of the row
Row 5: Ch 2. 2 HDC into the first stitch. * 3 HDC into the ch stich. 3 HDC into the next stich. * Repeat * until the end of the row
The stripe for the pockets lines up with the last stripe before the collar on the panel. How high up it goes depends on the length of your arms. Mine are 5 inches from the bottom. Sew on the pockets - leave the ruffle free

I've had this ready to glaze for a couple of months and just couldn't decide how to do it knowing I wouldn't have a second chance. I ended up doing speedball black wiped back with Amaco Deep Sea watered down.


I love that I can even see his fur. Miss you Boris.

River loves her new sweater. I also tried it on Willow but she just tried to eat it. She needed a backup sweater because the last time we went to Chaumont, River rolled in deer poop like 2 hours in. 

River has never been alone before. Boris wasn't a great playmate, but he was there for her. We went up to close down the cabin for winter this weekend and River suddenly is afraid to be in the back of the car by herself. Soo we got a puppy!

Meet Willow. She is 5 months old and a yellow lab mutt. So far the two are thick as thieves with just a bit of jealousy. Willow seems to already be potty trained. She has some work to do around listening.

Yesterday we lost Boris. He had a really fast growing tumor in his liver/spleen. He was such a good and obedient dog. The running joke has been that people have emotional support dogs, but I was his emotional support human. He will be missed.

Got a bit of a late start yesterday, but had a nice uneventful drive. Boris and River were very good puppies.




The water is way down this year. It did not deter Boris who had to get a taste of that Chaumont River water.




All week we kept saying that we were going to Chaumont. River has no recollection of the word, but as soon as we got here she was so very excited. She's also loving the tall grass. Wonder if she will try to defend it once Craig starts cutting.

Lucy has decided that Boris is non threatening. She doesn't fly away when he first comes out and I caught this pic of them just chilling earlier.

I also saw the dad bird for the first time today. Wasn't quick enough catch a picture, but he brought worms for the baby. Baby is getting bigger every day.


The last egg is still there. Don't think it's going to hatch at this point.

Sunday ended up being a really productive day. I made new pillows for the couch. The old pillows were just threadbare. As I was making the new ones I realized that I made the old pillows at my first apartment 20 years ago! They held up a long time, but it was time for new ones. I'm really happy with the fabric from Spoonflower and I'd order from them again.




Spent the bulk of Sunday glazing. It is amazing how time consuming it ends up being. I still need to glaze my fish before I'm ready to load up the kiln. I also re-made the zinc free clear that I made a few weeks ago with the wrong silica. I have a few mugs I'm going to use it on the outside on with decals./>





The dogs kept me company while I was out in the garage. Looking at this picture I really need to do another bottle melting to gain some space and also look like less of a wino.




Finished up Sunday making my own bead/earring holder. This is going to hold a lot more in a much more confined space than what I was using previously. I'm super excited to try it out.