Surprise!

It's not that I haven't had anything to blog about. It's that I have too much to blog about. I've always known that I've had step-children - 5 of them, in fact. But now I really have step-children. And not only step-children, I have grandchildren, too! Wow! What a long strange - but WONDERFUL - trip it's been.

Hop on over to my myspace page and check out my pictures.

http://www.myspace.com/brendamanfredi

Elfed!

Seasons Greetings from Terry and Brenda!

Them Dog Kickers

Adorable Puppy Photo #2

This is Lolly. She is about the same size as her brother, Loki. Loki is still working to get his ears to stand up but Lolly did it days ago. She is a very spirited and sweet little puppy.

Adorable Puppy Photo of the Day

This is Loki. He is eight weeks old today. Look at those eyes. They're like little chinquapins.

Welcome to the World

Last June, I gave my notice at McFarland, a job I had held for seven years, and became a stay-at-home mom of sorts. It was the beginning of Karma's Kennel, a dream with it's inception in my childhood. A dream of owning my own kennel and having puppies and raising and training dogs. Yesterday, this long-held dream of mine was brought to fruition by the arrival of five, yes - FIVE, brand-new Yorkie puppies. The proud Momma is Shiva and the oblivious Poppa is our very own Little Buddha.

Carla (as Miss Prissy in this role: "I know lots about birthin' puppies") decided to return to Indiana to visit her children for her birthday and Terry ("Dogs have puppies every day") was in Utah so I was at home alone for the delivery, just as I prophesied. Shiva's water broke about 10:45 yesterday morning and she was in obvious panic. As long as I sat by her and encouraged her with soothing words, she was fine. When I got up to return some of the blood to my numb extremities, she began vigorously pacing her crate and whining most piteously. Finally, at about 2 pm, puppy #1 made her grand arrival and Shiva decided she could carry on without my help, thank you very much. Which turned out not to be exactly true. I waited and waited for puppy #2 but it never came and I knew there had to be another one there. So, as I also prophesied, I made the long and arduous trip to Sparta and Twin Oaks Veterinary Clinic where, as prophesied, I learned that puppy #2 was indeed stuck. Anesthetic was required and a nasty-looking pair of forceps and puppy #2 arrived without surgery. Puppy #3 followed after a shot of oxytocin and Dr. Potts felt like I was safe enough to take the happy little family back home but did give me her home and cell phone numbers, "just in case."

By midnight, I was sure that there were going to be no more puppies. Shiva didn't seem inclined to have any more and after assuring Terry (still in Utah) that she wasn't laboring any more and him assuring me that there was still more to come, I went to bed. Bright and early this morning, there were two more arrivals and the family seems to be complete. There are three girls and two boys. They are all mostly black with little dabs of brown on their faces and feet and they all have a little blaze of white on their chests, which, I believe, will disappear as they get older.

I'm ecstatic and mother and puppies are all doing fine.*

*as prophesied

Singing to His Girl

Happy Halloween!

I love pumpkins. I love everything about them. I love their color, their smooth, wedged surface. I love the feeling of plunging your hand inside to remove the strings and seeds before carving. I love the smell of pumpkin in the oven and I love the taste of pumpkin cake, pumpkin bread, pumpkin cheesecake, pumpkin butter and that all-American Thanksgiving favorite: pumpkin pie. Pumpkins represent to me, October, my favorite month of the year and all the brilliance, fragrance and spirit of the changing season. And I especially love the pumpkin holiday - Halloween and the dark, delightful mysteries that have surrounded October 31st through the ages.

To commemorate and celebrate, I have combined two of my passions in this autumn knitting project: felted pumpkins. If you've ever accidentally washed a wool sweater in hot water or put it in the dryer then you know all about felting. The washing and drying agitates the fibers until they bind together and the wool also shrinks so that you're left with a smaller, felted sweater that doesn't fit you anymore.



Knitters and crocheters alike have used this to their advantage creating felted accessories of all types, including bags, mittens, clogs, blankets and so forth. This is my first felted project since I generally feel if you're going to put all that work into knitting the stitches, then you want the work to show. I made an exception in this case for a variety of reasons but mostly because I loved the pumpkins.

I used Cascade 220 yarn (100% Peruvian wool) and the pattern is free by Jordana Paige at Knitty.com. Jordana used a brownish color for the stem but I chose green and bright orange, of course, for the pumpkin. First I had to wind the yarn into balls and since Terry's arms were busy wielding drum sticks, I had to make do with the kitchen chairs. It worked out pretty well.



The pumpkins are made up of little wedges so I knit 14 of them, then the stem and top and sewed it all together. Stuffed with plastic bags, the pumpkins were dumped in hot water with a couple of pairs of jeans for extra agitation and washed on a hot water/economy setting. They didn't look so good when they come out of the wash but after blocking and finishing, I was pretty pleased with the end result. Now I can enjoy pumpkins all year long and look forward to the next batch in October 2007.



Happy Halloween, y'all!