Knitting–let’s see. I’m stuck on Sleeve Island with my Union Square Market Pullover. Right now, the pair of them are about 5″ long–and it’s taken me over a week to get them that far. I have a feeling I’m going to be stranded here for a while . . . anyone got a pina colada?

My Suede bag is about 7″ long–growing slooooowly but surely.

I’m starting to think I’m never going to actually FINISH a project again! Nor have I had a chance to spin in the last three nights, and I’ve so wanted to! But there have been other things to get done–like getting my Christmas Tree Pattern ready to self-publish. I think I’ve got it–now I just have to finish setting up the Knit-Along. I’ve got a button for it, though! (It’s not too big, do you think??)

Now, this was an election week, and two of the interesting things that got voted in this week?

An 18-year old mayor in Michigan, a young man, still a senior in high school, who ran a write-in campaign to beat (by apparently 2 votes on the recount) the 51-year old incumbent. He’ll be working out of his bedroom after school . . . do you suppose, as Mayor, that he can get away with extra absences for his Senior year, if there’s a town emergency, or something? What a great way to pad his college applications, too. “So, tell me about your extracurricular activities.” “Well, I’m the Mayor….”

And then, the AKC (American Kennel Club) took one more step to recognizing my favorite breed of dog, the Boykin Spaniel. This is part of an interesting political upheaval in the Boykin Spaniel world–there’s the original group, the Boykin Spaniel Society, and then there’s the newer, but more forward-thinking Boykin Spaniel Club and Breeders Association of America. The BSS was the only breed registry around for years, but if you didn’t live in or near South Carolina, and weren’t interested in hunting trials (I don’t seem to you like a person interested in hunting, do I?) . . . which meant there wasn’t much that someone like me could do with my dog. I was frustrated with Katy, because I wanted to be able to try some of those cool AKC things like competitive obedience, or agility, but if your breed isn’t acknowledged, you can’t compete at an AKC event. The newer Boykin Spaniel group was apparently determined to get the breed into the AKC and so started its own registry group, sparking huge in-breed debates. In fact, they’ve got a button on their site devoted to the Lawsuit that was just settled (coincidentally) on Chappy’s birthday. Who knew dog-lovers could be so acrimonious?

But anyway, I’m not about to run out and start trying to train Chappy to properly retrieve a dumbbell or anything, but as a non-hunting, Northern Boykin owner, I’m thrilled to hear that the breed is one step closer to AKC recognition. I acknowledge that the breed began as a hunting dog and would rather it stayed a healthy, robust, hunting dog than a foo-foo kind of show dog, just because I think that would be healthier for the breed at large–breed for what it can do, now hot it looks–but still. I’ve hated that I couldn’t even think about any real competitions for my dog–not that Chappy’s interested, but Katy would have loved it.

• Tags: General, Knitting/Spinning • Permalink:Voter’s (are) Right (?) //