WhiteStar

It Matters To ALL Of Us

When the Animal Rights Nazis came for the Pit Bulls,
I remained silent;
I did not own a pit bull.

When they outlawed the hobby breeders,
I remained silent;
I was not a hobby breeder.

When they abolished dog shows and performance events,
I did not speak out;
I was not a dog exhibitor.

When they came for me and my pets,
there was no one left to speak out.

D. Newell

PETA, HSUS and many other "animal rights" groups are trying to take away your rights to own pets. It's starts with breed specific legislation (already in place in many areas) and then expands to the people who carefully and ethically breed only the best dogs to the best dogs with health and quality foremost in their intent.

You will be next.

Help support the fight against anti-dog legislation today! Visit this site and sign the petition now!

Anne at 2:02 PM

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LIfe. In Colorado.

The sun is shining, there is not a cloud in the sky.

It's supposed to be near 60 degrees today!

And there is a blizzard warning for tonight.

Anne at 7:15 AM

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In Search of ..... the Perfect Bag

Long time, no post.

And when I finally do post it's non-knitting content.

Okay a little bit of knitting content. The Epic Sweater (see below) is coming along nicely. The body is done. The neckband is done The button bands are done. I'm halfway down one sleeve. Maybe I'll post pictures someday.

The real purpose of this post is to moan about how I cannot find the perfect bag. Not a knitting bag, not a purse, but an all purpose whatever-I-need-it-to-be bag. To take with me to dog shows. To carry all the miscellaneous stuff that needs to be carried safely and in style.

It must have some pockets but not useless pcckets. I need pockets for:

Cellphone
iPod
PDA
My small camera

Then it need to hold a whole mess of other stuff. Up to something the size of an average magazine. Maybe a book. Altoids mints. Dog leashes. Poop bags. (yes, you read that right) A bottle of water. Right now I use a stiff leather totebag but it only has one pocket. It holds a lot but it's very disorganized.

The bag must have structure. (i.e. no floppy fabric bags)

It must be easily cleanable. Or at least not easily stainable.

It must be reasonably affordable (under $200) If it was REALLY erfect I might go higher.

No gloppy hardware or overdone topstitching. No big buckles. Not heavy zippers all over the place.

It must be "pretty", pink would be perfect :)

I'm not asking for much am I?

I have not seen anything online or in the stores that even comes close. I love a lot of the Dooney and Bourke bags but they have no or very few pockets. I looked at carry on luggage, too big and the fabrics are usually icky.

Any suggestions? Leave a comment.

Anne at 9:10 AM

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Epic Knitting

In addition to this being the year of Knit From My Stash, it's also going to be a year of Epic Knitting.

I plan on starting two projects that will probably take all year (or more) to finish.

Epic Projects.

The first is the Knit Picks Fair Isle Cardigan...

Some friends and I are going to embark on this project together. I know it's not a very complex fair isle design but in the past I've always managed to get about 3 inches done on the various Jamieson and Starmore fair isles I've started and then just kind of fizzled out. Bored with the little needles. Not interested to pay so much attention to my knitting (WHY does lace not bore me then???) So for me, this is an Epic Project.

Second is this:

Yup. It's a full length dressing gown. From Romantic Style. It's why I bought those 20 balls of Kid Classic recently. God knows if I'll ever actually wear it, but I WANT it.

Epic Knitting Rules

1) The only new projects I can start for the first 3 months of 2007 are my designated Epic Projects.

2) I need to finish 3 Works in Progress before I start another new project.

3) When I can start a new project, it must be Epic in Nature.

3b) Epic is defined as a project I believe would take me more time than I usually have the patience for. (I know I've knit lots of lace shawls in the past, (which many consider Epic) but lately I've been suffering from some form of Knitter's ADD and have not completed one in over a year!)

4) Socks don't count because one must ALWAYS have socks on the needles.

(Speaking of Epic Knitting - check out this beautiful blanket made by The Scarlet Knitter.)

Spindle Lust

Have you seen these? sigh.....

Anne at 4:23 PM

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How Much Snow?

What people who don't live in blizzard country often don't know is that it's not about "how much snow?", it's about "how much wind?"

12 inches of gently falling snow, lying softly on the ground, doesn't make a blizzard. A few inches of snow being driven horizontally across the open plains by 50 mph hours winds... THAT is what makes a blizzard.

And so I offer up these pictures... the first is of my side yard, taken not after any melting has occurred, but right after the storm subsided. The gate behind the snow is 5 feet tall. How much snow do YOU think I have?

Why yes, that IS bare dirt on the right side of the picture...
And here is a picture of my front door.

My kennel runs are made up of 6 foot high panels. When I complained about not being able to use my kennels, a friend asked why I didn't dig them out. And the answer is:

My poor dogs are on house arrest. They are used to having multiple acres to run. Why can't they go out? See the red arrow in the picture below? It's pointing at the TOP of my 5 foot fence....

I have a Ford F-250 4 x 4 Super Duty Truck. It's BIG. There are three ways to get out of my neighborhood. Do I get snowed in during blizzards? You be the judge?

One:

Two:

Three:

A neighbor starts to dig out his garage. This is where he stores his motorhome. The door is 10 feet tall.

Another neighbor doesn't even want to contemplate what digging out is going t take.

Happy New Year Everyone!!

Anne at 9:25 AM

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Out the Back Door Saturday

Click for BIG.

Anne at 10:09 PM

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Where?

Leisel and La asked where I made my great yarn score.

Holly Berry Needleworks in Colorado Springs.

Unfortunately they don't have a website. I'm not even sure they'll mail order stuff over the phone.

And ummm.... I kind of bought most of the good stuff they had left.

No, that's not entirely true. They still have a bit of Kid Classic but no more than 2 or 3 balls of a few colors.

Some of the Felted Tweed, but again, not 10 balls of any single color. Also some Yorkshire Tweed (Aran? Chunky?) and bit of the 4 ply as well.

They did have a lot of Rowan Wool Cotton, at least 10 or more balls in a dark navy blue and a rose color as well as 6 or so balls in several other colors.

Quite bit of Katia Scotch (a heavy worsted weight silk wool yarn - think Silky Wool only HEAVIER) in several colors.

And many of the cottons were on sale including Elsbeth Lavold Cotton Patine, Debbie Bliss Cotton DK (quite bit of this), DB Cotton Cashmere (10+ balls in several colors), DB Cathay and DB Cotton Angora (not very much of either of those). And a few skeins of DB Merino Aran - no more than 6 or so per color.

Finally, I think there were two odd balls of the Noro Kujako in a different color than I bought.

Have at it.

Anne at 5:11 PM