Thursday, February 01, 2007
What A Puppy!
Keanani came to live with us two weeks ago. Her name means white beautiful flower among other things and the meanings for the parts of her name are white for Kea and beautiful, pretty, glorious, splendid, and beautiful flower for Nani. For me, she filled a large hole in my heart that was labeled “big white dog”.
I had lived with Great Pyrenees for twenty years, when I lost the last three within four months in 2003. Pele and Maddie succumbed to the ravages of old age at almost fourteen. Karlo left too early at eleven with bone cancer. I decided to be practical and not get another. There were none to be had in Hawaii. Importing them was at best time consuming and loaded with paper work and at worst a long drawn out process that wouldn't bring in a puppy. Also the heavy coat was not fun to deal with in our wet, wet East Hawaii climate. No I'd be practical and get a short haired dog.
So Hoku, Rotweiller – German Shepherd mix, and Kip, who knows what mix, entered my life. They came with some traits that I would rather not live with but that can happen with a mixed breed. In general they have been great dogs and they add to my life. But they are not big white dogs nor are they livestock guardian dogs. And when you've lived with a livestock guardian dog, nothing else quite fills the bill.
Then in mid November, I received an e-mail. There was a litter of Maremma puppies about an hour and a half north of me. Puppies! Here on the island! LGD puppies here on the island! I immediately e-mailed the breeder. Yes, I want one. Please. Then the waiting began, and I counted the days until two weeks ago when she arrived.
Now I remember why one should think before one takes on a puppy – sleepless nights, piddles on floors, holes in clothing. But I also know why one wants a puppy – puppy breath and puppy kisses. The grin when you walk into their sight. The total delight on finding some thing new in the yard to pounce on. The joy as a ball of fluff comes racing to you full tilt and skids into you as they try to stop but not soon enough.
Keanani requires all the work of a new puppy. But what a delight she is as she learns and loves and totally becomes part of our lives. Last week she went visiting at the Dojo where I train in Aikido. We walked in the door and she was at once surrounded with six children, six adults, and two Bichons who were telling her that it was their territory. She sat back next to my legs and surveyed the situation. I gave her a couple pets and she walked over to Sensei Tina who was sitting on the floor and sat next to her with her head on Tina's leg. After receiving some pets from Tina, she decided she was ready and she began to work the room. She went from child to child and adult to adult. She tried to convince the Bichons that she was OK, but they were having none of it. Everyone commented on how calm and mellow she was. She was totally curious about everything and everyone. She was confident and ready to face whatever came her way. She was everything that a Livestock Guardian puppy should be. Next week she starts puppy class in the local park. I am expecting her to do well. In the meantime, she keeps me on my toes and delights my days. And she is letting me sleep all night now.
What a puppy!
Serendipity
Serendipity: the effect by which one accidentally discovers something fortunate, especially while looking for something else entirely. This describes my latest dying adventure. I needed some silk for a weaving project. An initial search of my stash didn't produce anything that struck my fancy. I checked out out a couple of vendors online and again nothing jumped out at me. So I decided to dye my own fiber.
I weighed out four ounces from the pound of Tussah that was in my stash. I had in mind a red orange but with more red than yellow in it. But when I weighed out my dye powder, my scale decided that it wasn't going to weigh accurately for me. By the time I realized that I had more yellow than made sense for the color I had in mind, it was pretty well mixed in with the red powder. (Note to self: Weigh your powder out individually so you can put the extra back in the bottle.) I mixed the weighed powder with 12 ounces of hot water. It was a pretty color but not as red as I thought I wanted. So I added a little more red powder. I emptied my red bottle, and still it looked a little orange. Oh well, let's go for it.
I had soaked my silk roving in water in preparation for following my favorite method of dying small quantities of fiber. I learned this cold pour method from "The Twisted Sisters Sock Book" by Lynne Vogel. I divided the roving into four pieces and followed the same procedure for all four. I laid plastic wrap on my newspaper covered counter and placed the fiber on the plastic wrap. I then took the squeeze bottle that contained my dye mixture and poured the dye onto my silk. I wanted a pretty heavy saturation so I tried to not leave much in the way of white showing. I sprayed the fiber with full strength vinegar and turned it over. I applied more dye on the back side and then wrapped the fiber in the plastic wrap and placed it in a colander that was in my dye pot. The large dye pot had about an inch of water in it. It also had three rocks that I use to keep the colander above the water level. Once all four packets of fiber were in the colander, I turned on the heat. I brought the water up to where it was just barely simmering - letting off steam but no bubbles. I set the timer and let the fiber steam for twenty minutes. The heat was turned off and everything sat in the pan overnight. The next day, I rinsed the silk and lay it out to dry.
And the color. Here is where the serendipity comes in. I didn't get the color that I had in mind; but the color I got is beautiful. I call it Orange Sherbet. It will make some beautiful yarn for some project but not for the weaving project that started the whole thing.
Ironically as I was working with the dye and looking at the color that I obtained, I realized that I needed a much more neutral color for my weaving project than either the color I had in mind or the color I obtained. So back to the stash. I am now spinning some beautiful gray/silver colorways from Carol Weymar (www.thesilkworker.com). The yarn from it will work perfectly for my weaving project. More on that project later.
I weighed out four ounces from the pound of Tussah that was in my stash. I had in mind a red orange but with more red than yellow in it. But when I weighed out my dye powder, my scale decided that it wasn't going to weigh accurately for me. By the time I realized that I had more yellow than made sense for the color I had in mind, it was pretty well mixed in with the red powder. (Note to self: Weigh your powder out individually so you can put the extra back in the bottle.) I mixed the weighed powder with 12 ounces of hot water. It was a pretty color but not as red as I thought I wanted. So I added a little more red powder. I emptied my red bottle, and still it looked a little orange. Oh well, let's go for it.
I had soaked my silk roving in water in preparation for following my favorite method of dying small quantities of fiber. I learned this cold pour method from "The Twisted Sisters Sock Book" by Lynne Vogel. I divided the roving into four pieces and followed the same procedure for all four. I laid plastic wrap on my newspaper covered counter and placed the fiber on the plastic wrap. I then took the squeeze bottle that contained my dye mixture and poured the dye onto my silk. I wanted a pretty heavy saturation so I tried to not leave much in the way of white showing. I sprayed the fiber with full strength vinegar and turned it over. I applied more dye on the back side and then wrapped the fiber in the plastic wrap and placed it in a colander that was in my dye pot. The large dye pot had about an inch of water in it. It also had three rocks that I use to keep the colander above the water level. Once all four packets of fiber were in the colander, I turned on the heat. I brought the water up to where it was just barely simmering - letting off steam but no bubbles. I set the timer and let the fiber steam for twenty minutes. The heat was turned off and everything sat in the pan overnight. The next day, I rinsed the silk and lay it out to dry.
And the color. Here is where the serendipity comes in. I didn't get the color that I had in mind; but the color I got is beautiful. I call it Orange Sherbet. It will make some beautiful yarn for some project but not for the weaving project that started the whole thing.
Ironically as I was working with the dye and looking at the color that I obtained, I realized that I needed a much more neutral color for my weaving project than either the color I had in mind or the color I obtained. So back to the stash. I am now spinning some beautiful gray/silver colorways from Carol Weymar (www.thesilkworker.com). The yarn from it will work perfectly for my weaving project. More on that project later.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)