Aquarian Hamster

Sittin' Knittin' Mittens

2012-01-20T13:03:00.000-08:00

I wish I could say that my most recent projects have gone smoothly, but it’s quite the opposite. The Bird In The Hand Mittens were started and frogged four times. Not the fault of the pattern, just to clarify. First problem was gauge. My handspun yarn, from a friend’s East Fresian sheep took a couple of needle size attempts before I was in the right gauge range. (I am not counting those first attempts.) Then came the realization that although I was knitting white birds on a dark background, the pattern was the reverse. A sort of color value dyslexia, if you will, which threw me off within the first several rows of the pattern. Then, factor in my decision to change the pattern’s thumb to the version in the SELBUVOTTER book . I discovered that I had begun the thumb gusset increases waaaaay too early, resulting in a very short (if existent at all) cuff. So back to the frog pond. After those mishaps resolved, I sailed along with the graph, delighted with my progress. Gauge was good, fit was great, and I was very pleased with the contrast in value of the yarns, both of which had come from a single fleece from an apparently polka-dotted sheep. So I cast on the second mitten. After progressing a generous third of the way through, I realized that I was making two right mittens. So I ripped back to the wrist on the second mitten. Then discovered that the left & right mittens *are not* simply mirror images of each other. They are slightly different. Which put the thumb gusset three rows lower than I thought it was. Fortunately just a few rows to rip back. So there you go. I am rather proud of myself for not hurling the lot under the truck & running it over a few times.

The other mitten project is one that I started three years ago, at St. Distaff’s Day. It has been living in a basket on a time out, and for what reason, I couldn’t recall. I remember being seduced by some lovely hand-dyed yarn, locks of mohair which I carefully selected to blend with the yarn colors, and realizing that I had *exactly the right color* of alpaca roving at home to use for thrums. All my friends were making thrummed mittens by the dozens. Certainly it couldn’t be difficult, and really, it’s not. It’s just a matter of taking segments of roving, folding it into little bows, spit-twirling the centers together (well, that’s what worked for me) to compact/full the fiber, and knitting those into the body of the mittens. What my friends taught me was to pull the middle of the thrum through the stitch below the one on the needle, pull the loop up to the needle, and knit it together with the stitch. Every four stitches, every four rows (offset). At 48 stitches around, that’s 12 thrums per thrum row. I have discovered that I don’t *like* making thrums. Silly, really. What’s not to like about playing with fiber? But I discovered after this length of time that the alpaca, with the lovely pale camel color, that blends so well with the multicolored hand-dyed yarn, that has a lovely texture by itself, has segments *full* of VM. Not the large chunky kind which is easily pulled out. This is the nasty stuff - minute bits of grass, seeds, and molecules of God-Knows-What the alpaca liked to roll in. But I am determined, and slogging through.

The inspiration for The Great Mitten Binge is a snowfall, which happened here a few days ago. Temperatures have been as low as 8 degrees, have hovered for days in the teens, and for the first time, just now, are up to 32 degrees. We have had winds (Thank You Canada) that bite noses & earlobes. I hear temps are supposed to get up to 40 degrees now (somewhere). But when I got up this morning, expecting to see melty slush outside, I was disheartened to find yet another inch of crunchiness. Back to the mittens. I’ll probably have them done in time for the thaw.

Ho Ho Ho 2011!

2011-12-14T19:46:00.000-08:00

We’re going to completely ignore the fact that it’s been over a year since I blogged at Aquarian Hamster. It happens. Hubby & I are well (other than a whopping cold) & I have no excuses to offer. So here I am. I suppose I could consider my superpower to be Procrastination. . . I am, as a matter of fact, cooking (Thanksgiving) turkey for dinner tonight.

I’ve been trying to avoid getting into that phase of the Christmas season that leaves no time whatsoever to get an unreasonably humongous pile of knitting projects done, bringing on an exponentially increasing state of panic. The kids’ (not-knitted) gifts were done last summer & I am just making a few odds & ends - little projects that don’t require massive allotments of time. Yay!

I did manage to get to both performances of THE MESSIAH, done by the Northwest Chorale. My #3 son plays oboe in the Starry Nights Chamber Orchestra (yes, he’s a pro). The performances were *breathtaking*. I can’t find adequate words to describe the soloists. This production happens every other year. Doug & also I went on our annual downtown Seattle visit, staying at the Fairmont Hotel, where he attends an annual meeting. We always enjoy the festive atmosphere there. We saw A CHRISTMAS CAROL at ACT, which was a fund-raiser for Children’s Hospital in Seattle.

I have had time to relax a bit more throughout the year, and have to admit that this is my first real cold all year! OMG! Part of the more relaxed pace is that my hubby, Doug, has cut down on his work hours. That makes him available to help with our farm & flock. The truly wonderful thing is that he really enjoys it all. Loves the beasties, loves his tractor, and doesn’t mind hauling alfalfa pellets by the ton from the farm store home, and doesn’t mind climbing up to the hay loft to pitch down bales. The biggest plus is that he’s a great guy & fun to be around, to boot. :-)

We celebrated our 30th anniversary with a cruise last August. We took a Holland America Lines ship, the Prinsendam from Amsterdam through the Kiel Canal to the Baltic Sea, visiting Germany, Estonia, St. Petersburg (Russia), & Scandinavia, ending up in London. What a wonderful time! We particularly loved Estonia & Sweden. We hope to get back, and will take a land-based trip next time, so that we can explore the different countries more thoroughly. Cruising (although wonderful) allows for shore excursions which provide mostly a “sampler plate” - just a taste of each port of call. I did manage to come home with yarn from many of our day trips. :-)

On the knitting front, I’ve finished a pair of leafy fingerless mitts which went to a friend. I hope to write up the pattern (my own design, using a lacy leaf pattern from Barbara Walker’s Treasuries). Also finished some Selbuvotter Poodle mittens. I have been trying (for years) to break my lace knitting obsession, & progress to color work and cables. It’s not been an easy transition. I have both kinds of projects lying dormant in baskets until I finish my remaining wee little Christmas projects. So, assuming that I don’t get seduced by yet another lacy, frothy, delicate shawl (as if I seriously needed more to wear in the barn), I should be able to return to my new endeavors by December 26. . . this year.

HO HO HO!

2010-05-31T21:10:00.001-07:00

Well it's about time. Christmas gifts are done! This year, I will not procrastinate. . . I will not procrastinate. . . I will not. . . . .

Here is the Andean Chullo Hat, a kit which was put out by Knitpicks a few years ago. I just couldn't resist making it for our dear friend & llama expert, Niki, who gave me such wonderful guidance over the last few years with our camelids. It was a fun knit (if you don't count the many issues I had with gauge) and eventually I will be making more of this pattern. I have stocked up yarn for several different colorways, and if I can figure out how to do sheep instead of llamas, I'll probably get to it even sooner. I do need to say that the kit is quite generous. I think there are at least two hats, maybe three, worth of yarn in that kit. Niki looks great in red so that was my choice for her.

DeeDee's booties were the other delayed project, mostly because I didn't have access to her feet when I was ready to felt the booties. The unfelted booties lay in a box in the laundry room for several months until I finally gave up & felted them on my own. I am known as “Bigfoot” to friends because of my generous but bony size 10s. My best friends & daughter all wear 8 ½ s which is very inconvenient when I want to do something like this. Fortunately, if they are way off D2 knows how to felt. Or she can bring them back to me, along with her feet, and I will redo them. The pattern is from Cat Bordhi's TREASURY OF MAGICAL KNITTING.

The other knitting project that I tackled in the last few months was a garter stitch shawl. I needed something that I could knit while waiting in the barn, in the cold, in poor light, for my ewes to give birth to their lambs. That needed to be something I could knit in a near-sleep state, with minimally confusing elements & cozy yarn. I chose Suri Dream alpaca from Knitpicks, size 11 needles and a pattern that I ripped out of a magazine years ago. I can't put my fingers on it right now, but it has double increases down the midline & increases on the beginning of each row. A couple rows of yos & togs add a little detail. So there you have it. That's basically the pattern. I did discover that metal needles in a 40 degree barn are not a good idea, so I switched to bamboo early on. Photo will have to wait.

Current knitting is the “Wings of Fantasy” shawl from Blackberry Ridge. I'm using handspun from my yearling ram, Elmer, a moorit (brown) CVM/Romeldale. Last year we showed him at the National CVM/Romeldale show in Estes Park, Colorado, and he came in Reserve (2nd place), behind a lovely ewe who now resides at our farm, too. Elmer won the trophy for “Best Fleece” on the sheep. So this is one very special guy, and I am enjoying every minute of working with his fleece. I am on the border now, last side, halfway done, and I will post a photo later, when I have it knitted & blocked, as we all know that unblocked lace looks like crap. Anyway, here's a photo of my boy, Elmer.

Early Spring

2010-02-01T11:00:00.001-08:00

We celebrated Blossom's first birthday & sheared on January 23rd. Blossom has grown into a lovely little ewe, despite the really rough start that she had last year. In every way she appears to be a healthy and happy girl, and was very proud to get her first haircut. She is looking forward to being “auntie” to all the little lambs that will be born over the next month or so.

We chose to shear a little earlier this year for a few different reasons. Weather in this part of the country has been mild, the ewes will be more inclined to spend time inside the barn, and without the mommies' coat of wool, the new lambies will have a pretty easy time finding teats. The sheep are all coated, so that does provide some warmth for them as well. If you are interested in fleeces, email me at yvonne(dot)m(at)comcast(dot)net

Our eight hens go on a little sabbatical from laying eggs in the short winter days with fewer hours of sunshine. We choose not to force the issue by providing extra light in their coop during those days, so we are always delighted when they begin their production again. There's nothing quite like the feel of eggs, still warm from the hens, in my hands. The kids call them “just-got-laid eggs”.

On the knitting front, I am still finishing Christmas knitting. No photos right now because I don't want to spoil a surprise.

I'm Having Issues.

2010-01-21T00:10:00.000-08:00

Gauge issues. This is the last of the belated Christmas gifts that I am still trying to finish. (Christmas last year. Long story. Don't ask.) And it's been awhile since I've done any two-color knitting. These little ear flaps are knitted flat (rather than circular), which complicates matters. It seems that I purl much more loosely than I knit, so my gauge is off. Not so much the stitch gauge, but the row gauge. The first time I knitted one of these pieces, what was supposed to be 4” tall turned out 5 1/4”. The width, which was also supposed to be 4”, was 4 1/2” How can that be??? Wouldn't it seem logical that it would increase equally in both directions? Clearly, my knitting is messing with me again. Anyway, I frogged & went down a needle size. When I finished these two pieces (and they turned out a bit closer to the suggested size) & attached them to the body of the hat to work in the round, my gauge suddenly changed, and I needed to jump back up a needle size to have the stitches look more alike. Live and learn.

Well, I am glad that I'm down to the last project.

I did finish a set of quilted placemats for the in-laws. Doug's folks in Arizona moved into a new home last year, and these should work well with their new décor & dishes. The placemats are reversible. I machine quilted a large piece of fabric for the centers, cut that into 12 3/4” squares, then added the side rectangles. Binding took the longest.

On another front, the chickens have suddenly realized that the days are getting longer again! We are getting 2 – 5 eggs/day from our eight little ladies. As the days lengthen even more, we will get 6 or 7/day. The weather has been warm enough that the girls have been able to go out & wander in the yard, searching out bugs & worms to consume. Amazing little creatures, these hens! They take leftover food, & veggie scraps from food preparation, along with a bit of chicken food, and make eggs out of them, all the while entertaining us with their antics.

Happy New Year, 2010!

2010-01-01T12:35:00.000-08:00

We were so happy to have the family with us for the holidays. Last year, snow nearly everywhere from Bellingham WA to Billings MT kept our daughter & her boyfriend on the other side of the hump. We didn't get together until spring. But this year, travel was without incident, and all made it here safely. Lisa & Josh, Brian & Robin, Scott, Jeff & Mandi were all here at the same time. Daughter-in-law, Libby had to work & we missed her, but her gift went home with Jeff. And Doug was actually off both Christmas Eve & Christmas Day!

We did have a house-full, and had planned to overflow into our trailer. When I went out to turn up the heat & make up the bed, I found that the carpet in the bedroom was saturated with water. Squishy. Nearly frozen. No mildew, though. There was “room at the inn”, fortunately, so Brian & Robin went to stay at the Comfort Inn nearby. I hear that the TV was better there, anyway. (The trailer will be fine.)

Brian & Robin have a tradition of making chocolate truffles every year. They got a late start this year, but worked early into the morning preparing ganache in various flavors (lavender/vanilla is our favorite), which they brought here to finish off with the assistance of other family members. It's a messy job, but, you know, somebody's got to do it. While the rest of us were in the kitchen, Doug & Josh pulled the soggy carpet from the trailer.

Gifting is sometimes a challenge, but I think I did okay this year. I swore up & down that I wasn't going to knit any Christmas gifts this year, and I really didn't do very much. The one that remains to be opened was the biggest project, and of course I can't tell you because the recipient hasn't received it yet. But here's a peek.

I can tell you that I got hooked on the “Mrs. Beeton” wrist warmer pattern from Knitty.com. I wore the first one while knitting the second one, and I haven't been able to part with any of them yet. I can knit one in an evening, and despite the fact that they're, as one knitter describes, “a bit fiddly”, they turn out gorgeous, and I feel compelled to choose different colors of DK yarn to combine with different colors of lace weight yarn, and beads. Oh My, the possibilities. And I really don't even like ruffles. It just seems that no matter how warm the rest of me is, the wrists are cold. Not enough fat or muscle mass there, I guess. The ones I plan to keep are alpaca, which should be really warm.

The one major project that I did finish this year was the Christmas tree skirt. I've made five of this pattern now, and this is the first one I've kept. Over the years, one was made for Jeff & Libby using fabrics from their wedding, one for Scott (who was a banker at the time) out of neckties, and two of Christmas fabrics. This one is staying with us.

Happy New Year, everybody!

Summer Knitting

2009-08-19T17:23:00.001-07:00

Usually, summers are filled with gardening, vacationing, animal care, and many outdoor-type activities. This year, however, we've had an unusually large number of hot, sunny days. I am, you know, in the Pacific Northwest, and we just don't see temperatures in the high 90s. Well, not often, anyway. We're truly weenies when it comes to dealing with heat. But here we are. We're in the 80s today. It's pretty comfortable – certainly better than a few weeks ago. So during these warmish days, I've been spending much more time indoors, parked by a fan. . . most conducive to knitting.

I've finished another shawl. This one is the Swallowtail Shawl by Evelyn Clark, available at: http://www.evelynclarkdesigns.com/pdf/Swallowtail.pdf I love this pattern. It is an easy knit (for lace), and has just enough variety with the lily-of-the-valley portion to make it just a bit more challenging, and interesting, as well. It is now hanging in the Wool Show at the NW Washington Fair, and I am happy to say it has a blue ribbon on it. It's not the “Best in Show” (that award went to a friend) but I am delighted. BTW, nupps are not that difficult if you remember to make the yarn-over loops loose. Loose nupps (that rhymes). Then when you go to purl the five stitches together on the back side of your work, you can actually get the needle into all five stitches together. :-)

I'm nearly done with a pair of socks for hubby. I've been using the “Magic Loop” method, and, despite the fact that I don't often fall for what I consider to be trendy techniques, I think this one is a real winner. I am particularly pleased that I can stuff the sock, complete with yarn, needle, and its mate into my purse and not risk losing stitches. I've found that the 40” length works best for me, especially during the heel knitting. 32” is just too short when I get to that portion of the sock. So I am gradually adding to my stash of 40” needles in various sizes. I think this method will be great for mittens & sleeves, too. Oh, and if you're wondering about “ladders”, those annoying loose stitches that often form between the front & back, it's not been a problem for me. The stitches on one side are on the cable of the needle, so are easy to pull a bit snug. That eliminates the problem.

I'm off to work on a little crochet pattern, and maybe to finish those thrummed mittens that I started last January. Looks like it'll be awhile before I need those. . .

Highland Games 2009

2009-07-14T10:49:00.000-07:00

Our local spinners' guild, Spindrifters, participates each year in the Highland Games in Mount Vernon, Washington. We do a fleece-to-shawl demonstration. Using a fleece that previously was sheared off a sheep, skirted (nasty bits around the edges removed), and washed, we pick and card the fiber and then spin it into yarn, which is then used as weft in weaving a shawl.

This year, our Fearless Leader chose a white Romney fleece. We decided to do a plain weave shawl on a Baby Wolf loom, which is very portable. We got donations of handspun yarn from several of our members to use for warp, and generally mentioned “blue” as a suggested color & “worsted weight” for thickness of yarn. Of course, those were general guidelines and we ended up with a great assortment of yarns which made for a very interesting warp.

The pickers & carders set to work, and then the spinners took the prepared fiber and spun yarn for the weft. The shawl was woven mostly by one weaver so that the beat was consistent and the shawl turned out gorgeous! It will be raffled off at our next spin-in, and I hope I win it. :-)

Of course there are lots of other things to see at the games. There are sports which actually make sense to me – hurling a small bale of hay over a high bar, and carrying a 265 pound keg as far as possible (many of the competitors got over 200 feet)! Then there were the sheep-herding dogs who competed, and lots of bagpipe bands & guys in kilts. A fun day was had by all, despite the rather chilly weather and rain.

On another note. . .

IT JUST DOES NOT WORK

I have been knitting the Swallowtail Shawl by Evelyn Clark, which can be found here: http://www.evelynclarkdesigns.com/pdf/Swallowtail.pdf
and I have to say it's a lovely knit, a wonderful pattern, and I'm enjoying working with the 2 ply yarn which I spun from a friend's llama combings.

The problem was that I misunderestimated the yardage required & came up just a bit short. I don't know why it is that any time I think I may be running out of yarn for a project, I knit faster. It seems that maybe I'll have enough if I finish sooner. It's kind of like driving faster to a gas station when I think I'm going to run out of gas. Somehow, I've always been able to finish or get there just in the nick of time. Not this time. I came to the end of the ball while ¼ of the way through the cast-off edge. So, yes, I could technically have gone back to the beginning of the row & just done a regular cast-off with the existing loops, but that wouldn't have given me the elastic edge that I suspect will be important when I need to block the shawl.

So it's back to the bag of fiber (fortunately there was some left) & the spinning wheel. I think I have spun enough, now, to finish. It's drying & I'll let you know soon.

Oh - and my other blog is at: http://www.spinnerseden.blogspot.com

New Blog - Spinner's Eden!

2009-07-07T21:05:00.000-07:00

Just thought I'd let you know that we have changed the name of our farm from "Aquarian Hamster Farm" to "Spinner's Eden". Please go to the new blog to see why!

In the meantime, I will probably keep posting here, too. So just thought I'd let you know that

I FINISHED THE SWEATER!

This is Nora Gaughan's Asymmetrical Cardigan, but I changed the scarf portion from a cabled motif to leaves that I found in one of Barbara Walker's books. I'm very happy with it (although the sleeves are longer than I'd hoped), and I've gotten lots of compliments on it!

Now, go check the new blog! Thanks!

There Are Three Kinds of People - Those Who Can Do Math, and Those Who Can't

2009-04-22T22:21:00.001-07:00

I have been trying to knit socks that fit my size 10 feet, using Cat Bordhi’s sock book, NEW PATHWAYS FOR SOCK KNITTERS. She is a dear lady and extraordinarily clever. I’ve been fortunate enough to take a class from her, in which we knitted the “Little Sky Sock”. I learned her new methods of increasing, her flexibility in the type of needles we could choose for the project (I’m a 5 dp kind of gal), and I grasped her method for wrapped & turned stitches, no problem. The little sock I made is cute - doesn’t have a mate yet, but it is cute and will fit *some* little body at some time. The problem came when I attempted to make a sock that would fit *me*.

The way the book is written is that there are master patterns in which one gets the general idea of the sock’s structure. Specifics relating to gauge and the individual recipient’s foot measurements are all on tables at the back of the book. It’s simple enough to refer to the back of the book for numbers of stitches & numbers of increases to use. I thought, again, what a clever idea, and I took the book into Office Max & had it spiral bound so that I could easily flip back and forth. (BTW, I came to the conclusion that if Cat were ever to need a nom de plume, I’d suggest “Paige Turner”.)

I chose to knit the Riverbed sock, which originates at the toe, increases & widens on the sole of the foot toward the heel, turns the heel, and in a very clever way, knits the heel flap in combination with eating up wing stitches. It’s a wonderful design. Really. Should one want to do any fancy lace or cables, well, the top of the foot has no complicating minutiae whatsoever. All the increases are on the bottom of the foot. Brilliant!

Here’s my problem. Each time I have made this sock (four so far, in various weights of yarn) I have had issues with the length. Always too long. Which totally sucks, because I don’t realize how long the sock will turn out to be until after the heel turn is done, at which point I have to rip back past all the increases to the toe. I decided to use up some of my leftover yarns & make a sample sock, again, following the tables in the back of the book, to determine exactly where my problem is. All the yarns I used are “sock weight yarn” & are very similar in thickness.

So here is the fruit of my labor. This sample sock is over 12” long. My foot is 10 3/8”. And the only thing that I can figure is that perhaps the numbers do not include the length of the heel turn & flap. Of my two friends that have tried this pattern, one seems to be able to execute it without any difficulty whatsoever. The other has exactly the same issues that I have. So who knows. The last time I became this frustrated with my knitting was when I began knitting lace. I do have to say that I have not *yet* thrown the sock into the driveway & run over it with the car, though. Yet.

Opposite Day/Week/Month

2009-03-30T21:54:00.000-07:00

It’s now the 30th day of March, and April is just around the corner. We’ve passed the Vernal Equinox and spring is officially here. We’ve had just enough days of sunshine and warmish (50s - hey, it’s the Pacific Northwest - that’s warm for here) weather that I’ve said in the last few weeks that it’s time to get out the short-sleeved T-shirts & put away the long-sleeved ones. (Yes, I am a slave to fashion.)

I have been thinking of summertime knits. . . maybe a 3/4-sleeved cardigan in cotton, with some bright color like Provence’s Be-Bop Rhubarb variegated red. Or perhaps even getting out the crochet hook again to do a Luna Lovegood short-sleeved number that would be a great topper over. . . what? Well, I’ll resolve that later. And it seems to me that *every time* I entertain such thoughts, we have snowflakes and/or I awaken to temperatures in the 20s again. So I’m taking a different tack.

From now until May 1 (I’ve chosen that as an arbitrary day - surely it won’t snow in May) I’m going to knit as if it were November, and blizzards are just around the corner. I am going to knit socks - warm boot socks out of heavy yarn that will keep my toesies toasty on the way to the barn as I tromp through icy puddles. And if I can find the thrummed mittens that I started on St. Distaff’s Day, I’ll work on those, too. And the sweater under construction will be wool (although a springy green color that will wear well if the weather were ever to change).

I will cook soups. Hot, hearty beef barley, split pea with ham and carrots & parsnips, and maybe even a beef stew. No chilled green salads for dinner, and maybe not even for lunch. It’s going to be spicy chili & cornbread. Or maybe posole.

As for the sheep, most are in full fleece right now, and will need shearing whenever the weather turns warm. We sheared four of the ten grown-ups, while under the delusion that spring had arrived. We just ordered new coats for them. The little ones are still in polar fleece & it’s a challenge to keep up as they grow into larger sizes, but their fleece is growing out and they are pretty comfortable even without. So there are a couple of naked sheep out there right now. Fortunately they are able to take shelter.

Busy Days

2009-03-15T22:50:00.000-07:00

I suppose I deserve flogging for letting the blog go so long without a post. I have truly had my hands full with a barn full of lambies & their moms. At this point, I'm really behind with pedicures, which need to be done at regular intervals to keep the sheeple comfortable. But that's on tomorrow's agenda.

Weather here has been abysmal. We got away for a week long vacation in Arizona, where it was in the 70s. We enjoyed our visit with Doug's folks, and our trip to the San Diego Zoo's Wild Animal Park where we visited with giraffes, rhinos & birds. We were very happy that our daughter got to come with us on this trip.

The morning after we returned, we awoke to two inches of snow on the ground, and temps in the 20s. Snow here, and especially with temps below freezing for a long time, means that it's time to drag the hose (full of ice) into the house & place in the bathtub to thaw. Then I drag it back out to the barn & loop it over the pillars, so that after I'm done watering the animals, I can easily drain the water out & keep the hose from freezing solid again. The spigot in the barn doesn't freeze - just the hoses. This sure beats dragging buckets of water to the trough.

I got some serious knitting done on our vacation. Finished the Tina Shawl, a Fiddlesticks pattern. I've drug this project around for about two years now and I'm very glad to have it finished. Woohoooo! I am planning to enter it in the Lynden Fair this year. Other than the shawl, I've been test knitting a sock pattern for a friend. This pattern uses Cat Bordhi's method of toe-up socks, and it's given my brain a bit of a cramp, but I think I'm on the right track. Pictures will follow when I finish.

Meet the Flockers

2009-02-11T15:13:00.001-08:00

I thought it was about time for an update on our little ewe, Blossom. She’s doing great! She’s over 12 lbs now and spends some time each day with her Mom, Aunties, siblings & cousins in the barn. I’m hoping eventually she’ll come to feel more at home out there. She takes her bottles of lamb milk replacer with enthusiasm & loves nibbling hay & grain.

Most of Blossom’s sheepy antics, though, take place in the house. In the evenings, she gets a burst of energy & acts like a little Road Runner (from Buggs Bunny cartoons), except that she says “Ma-a-a-a-a” instead of “Meep Meep”. She tears around the house and at times the front end is going at a different pace than the back end. There are jumps straight up into the air, & general cavorting. She has figured out how to climb stairs, but not how to get down again. She’s a very busy & inquisitive little girl. It’s much like having a toddler around.

All the other births this year were rams. All the boys are doing well with their Mommies in the barn. One has been a bottle baby - that’s Demetri, whose Mom, Pebbles got mastitis. She regained some function on that side, so Demetri now gets most of his milk from her, but he still likes a bottle once a day. He is a little squirt by comparison to his burly brother, Cosmo, so I figure he needs it.

So here are some photos - Blossom’s brothers, Elmer (brown) & Finnegan (black), and Gabriel with his Mom, Anemarie. They’re all Romeldales, and Gabriel has the CVM (California Variegated Mutant) color markings. Otherwise, they’re all the same breed.

Blossom is Awesome!

2009-02-02T18:43:00.000-08:00

Meet Blossom, our little ewe, who is one of triplets born to Helena, a first-time mom, on January 23rd. The morning she and her two brothers were born, it was 23 degrees. They were inside the barn, but it’s not all that much warmer in there.

When I got out to the barn in the morning, Helena had *just* delivered her triplets and was busily cleaning them up. It appeared that Blossom had been born first, and Helena, being very busy giving birth to lambs #2 & #3 hadn’t gotten around to cleaning her up & getting her moving as would normally have been the case. Certainly, three lambs is a lot to look after, especially for a first-timer.

Little Blossom was cold and covered in amniotic fluid, and although she was breathing, she was less active than the two little rams, who were just beginning to get up. I called Doug from the barn & he brought out a large bucket of warm water & a plastic bag. Blossom went into the bag, and I floated her in the warm water, as we attempted to get her body temperature up. Doug needed to go to work so I phoned BFF Janice, who came to assist. FYI, the plastic bag allows the scent of the amniotic fluid to remain on the little lamb, so that when mom smells her, she realizes it’s her lamb.

Three buckets of water later, we still weren’t having much success getting her warmed up in the barn, so we took her into the house. The laundry room has a deep sink, so I filled that with warm water & dispensed with the plastic bag. We had gotten a few “Maaaa’s” from her, and she was breathing better so things started looking hopeful. We got her temp up to 102 (normal for sheep), and began feeding her. I was able to get some colostrum from Helena, and the little tyke did okay with the bottle.

When things began to calm down, Blossom settled down on the floor with my dog, Shaela, a very experienced mom from the looks of things. (We adoped Shaela last spring & don’t know much about her background.) Shaela took Blossom as her puppy, and licked her from nose to tail, got her standing up & moving around. I could see the concern in Shaela’s face (Boxers are incredibly expressive) as she worked diligently to get that baby going. Blosson, for her part, showed us a determination & strength that gave us hope for her survival.

It was later that afternoon that Blossom began breathing very fast & panting like an overheated dog. She felt very warm as Janice held her in her lap. We decided that a trip to the vet to evaluate the respiratory distress would be a good idea. At the vet’s office, Blossom’s temp was 108.6. Blossom received alcohol baths to cool her down, and we went ahead with antibiotics & IV Banamine, an anti-inflammatory. I decided to begin gavage feedings at home to see if we could allow her some time to clear up what we figured was aspiration pneumonia. We came home with a gavage tube. Once home, her temp registered 109.5 & we again put her in the sink, but this time to cool her down rather than warm her up. I began gavaging Pedialyte, because I knew that she would have lost fluids with the high fever. Eventually she was back on colostrum, which I milked from Helena (who, by the way, was less than enthusiastic about that activity).

It’s been over a week now, and I have to say that at every turn, Blossom has showed us her determination to survive. She has had her setbacks & more trips to the vet, but at this writing, she is able to take bottles of milk replacer, and spends her time toddling around the house in a diaper, following me and/or Shaela, and generally exploring. We’ve taken her out to the barn for visits with her sheep family, but it’s a bit cold out there for her right now & she is under “doctor’s orders” to not subject her to temperature stress. She starts wheezing like a little asthmatic with stress, and then has difficulty eating. She’s almost up to eight pounds now.

There will be a time that she can join her flock, but it’s not going to be this week. Maybe not next week. But we’ll allow her to grow & gain weight as a house lamb for now. In the meantime, the two little rams are thriving in the barn under their Mom’s care, along with the other moms & their little cousins. We hold onto the hope that Blossom will be able to go out there & enjoy the pasture with her family eventually.

I Get By With a Little Help From My Friends

2009-01-17T20:34:00.000-08:00

Pebbles has mastitis. It developed shortly after she gave birth to Cosmo & Demetri. At first, I thought the two lambs didn’t seem to realize that there were two milk spigots. Eventually, I came to realize that Pebs was circling the pen with her left side against the wall, so the lambs wound up suckling on her right side almost the entire time. The left boob became pretty firm in places. Pebs seemed uncomfortable, and eventually a bit cranky. (Not her usual nature - not even close.)

Good friend, Deborah made a visit to see the lambs and was willing to milk Pebs out on the left side. I should mention here that Deborah comes from a farming background, and I consider her to be an animal savant. Aside from being a very kind & lovely person to know, she has given me lots of information on animal husbandry. Now, some animals take to milking pretty easily. This wasn’t on Pebbles’ agenda. But Deborah, with her calm and assured manner, got the job done quickly & with as little discomfort as possible.

By Tuesday, little Dimitri seemed to be getting the short end of things, as he was often second to nurse. Then Pebbles began to push him away. Her left boob was becoming firm in places, and her milk had gotten peachy (blood-tinged) in color. Her temperature was 104 degrees. Time for intervention. The vet came out that afternoon & checked her over. It’s E Coli mastitis, so we began a week of treatments - antibioitic injections, oral pain meds, udder massage & milking followed by a squirt of medication directly into the spigot, and then taping the left teat off so no feeding would take place. And bottle feeding little Dimitri to supplement. The vet said that she may likely lose milk production on that side, which is truly sad for Pebbles, who is such a wonderful mother.

This is a two person job. Our girls are about 150 lbs. There’s *no way* that the treatments could happen without help. (Have you ever tried to take a sheep’s temperature?) We had all the days covered except for one, so Doug & I have managed to get the job done except for Doug’s call day. Fortunately, again, Deborah came over to help with treatments. It’s Saturday now, and Pebbles is doing much better. Dimitri has taken to the bottle just fine. Feeding a little lamby is quite enjoyable, really.

In the midst of all this, I came down with a cold on Wednesday, and although I’m vertical most of the time, I feel like sh*%, and I awoke with a migraine today. God Bless my son Scott, who hauled hay for me, and Janice, who helped clean out a stall & look after animals. And of course, Deborah, who also brought some tasty roasted veggies for lunch on Thursday when she helped with Pebs’ treatments, and to Marla, who delivered a pot of gourmet soup, salad & homemade bread today. I love you all.

In my reading about mastitis in sheep, it suggests that too much grain may precipitate too much milk production, which makes it difficult for wee little lambies to identify the enlarged udder & there’s way too much milk for them in there anyway, so Mom gets engorged. Grain, to sheep (mine, at least), is the most delicious food on the planet. It’s like donuts. Which are fine, in moderation. But the regular food (alfalfa pellets, which contain lots of nutrients & calcium) is about as appealing as broccoli. As for hay, they get as much as they want. I think they’ll always love good hay, but still, when donuts are available. . . we may just have a problem. So we're trying to be extra diligent in limiting the donut (grain) intake to one to two percent of Pebs’ body weight/day. Which means she can get up to three pounds of donuts a day.

We should be finished with Pebs’ treatments on Monday, which means that Tuesday, she’ll get to go out & romp with her girlfriends, and introduce her little guys to them all.

Welcome Cosmo & Demetri

2009-01-11T19:42:00.001-08:00

Pebbles gave birth to her lambs yesterday, right on schedule. We were figuring it would be January 10 or after, so she couldn’t have been closer. Cosmo was on the ground when I arrived in the barn yesterday morning. Demetri required a little assistace to come into the world, and a bit of stimulation to get going. He is also a bit scrawnier.

These little mites are doing well, except for the fact that they’ve only located one of the two milk spigots on Mommy. She’s getting pretty full on the other side, and today, my good friend Deborah came to act as Ovine Lactation Consultant. I’ve now received instruction on milking, and hopefully will be able to alleviate the fullness until the little ones figure out the routine on both sides. Which I hope will be soon. I’m sure Pebbles would be even happier than I.

We have two other pregnant ewes. They are both first-timers so we hope that they have watched & learned from Pebbles, who is an experienced Mom. (Pebbles gave us Athena & Bacchus last year.) We are very excited, and a bit anxious, to see what comes next. We’re hoping for some ewes. So far, at our little farm, we have had two ewes (one of which was stillborn/malformed) and four rams. So we’re due.

On the Knitting Front

I was fortunate to be able to take two classes from Nancy Bush last week. One was on Traditional Estonian Sock Techniques and the other on Estonian Lace Shawls. We learned Welsh heels and French toes in sock class, and the sample we did in class gave us a chance to try both of those in a short-cuffed, compact-length sock (which would probably fit one of the sheep, actually). Lace class was extraordinary. I learned to make nupps that didn’t totally suck. If I get the border on the sample, I’ll post a photo. . . but please don’t hold your breath. I’m still knitting on some other projects.

I’ve been in the barn pretty much for the last two days, very grateful that it’s no longer 22 degrees & windy, or raining buckets. I think I’m gonna take a nice warm bath now & unwind.

The Return of the Light

2008-12-22T19:14:00.000-08:00

Yesterday was Winter Solstice. And today I had meant to write something on the inspirational side about how the dark of the past days will be lessening, how we can look forward to increasing hours of illumination and that rebirth is just around the corner. But at this moment, the idea hasn’t quite processed yet.

We have had below freezing temperatures for over a week now. The first day of cold that I particularly remember is December 13th, the day that I forgot to go to our monthly spinners’ gathering. That was a good thing, in retrospect. As it turned out we had quite a wind storm that day. If I remember correctly, 25 mph winds, with 40 mph gusts, and low 20’s for temperature. So wind chill factor. . . reallly cold. That day, the flashing on the roof of the old barn became partiallly ripped off and flapped violently in the gusts. The animals (rams, goats & alpacas) were startled & agitated, and I feared that the flashing could become detached, fly off & injure somebody. We had the old barn moved last year, and perhaps not quite enough screws were replaced. Whatever the reason, there was nobody to deal with it but me. I was very fortunate in that the one friend that I was able to locate, that had also missed the meeting, had recently put a metal roof on her studio. She knew what kind of screws to use to penetrate the metal & go into the wood, and she was steady & strong on the ladder. Between the two of us (she did most of the work), we got the flashing reattached, and I am happy to say it is still in place.

Since that day, we have not had temperatures above freezing. We have been down to single digits, with and without wind & snowfalls. The chicken and pigeon water freezes & needs changed about three times a day, as does the water for the rams, alpacas & goats. That means hauling water from the house. The ewes are in the new barn, which has running water (which is actually running) but the hoses are all frozen. So again, it’s hauling water, but not as far. The snow on the ground is drifted. In places it’s 5” deep, where in other places, well, I just know that it’s well above my knees. It takes time and energy to slog through all this, getting food & water out as needed.

Considering everything, we really could be much worse off. I keep thinking that as I still grumble, and I feel like a complete wimp. This is Bellingham. We have weather like this some years, but it’s not supposed to last *this long*. And I know that to our foremothers who grew up in Minnesota & dealt with freezing, biting cold for *months* on end, this would have been nothing. This would have been downright balmy.

So here I sit, in a blue funk. I fill the water, drag bales of hay through the snow to the animals in the old barn, and fill the water again. The really rewarding part is the welcome with which I am greeted when I bring food & water. It is reassuring, and downright warming to spend time with my beasties, feel their breath & smell the lanolin of their fleece, and to know that they are all well-fed and at peace. I am rewarded with nuzzles & sniffs, and snatches at my hat.

The Great Figgy Pudding Caroling Contest

2008-12-17T18:12:00.000-08:00

Doug & I recently went to Seattle for his annual Ob/Gyn meeting. While Doug dutifully attends his meetings, it’s been a long tradition for me to shop for Christmas gifts in the beautifully decorated downtown stores, and to visit my two favorite yarn stores in Seattle - the Weaving Works in University District, and Acorn Street Yarn Shop just north of University Village. That’s been my tradition, or at least an attempt at tradition. In recent years I haven’t had the best of luck on this particular weekend. In the last three years, there was the year of the raging sinus infection, the year of the Beetle getting stuck in the bowels of the W Hotel, and last year, the emergency hospitalization of Mother in Mt. Vernon. What would happen this year? Nothing. Perfectly enjoyable.

In the morning I wandered to the Pike Place Market, where I searched kitchen shops for a sheep cookie cutter & electric krumkake iron. I met my son for lunch, shopped some more, and in the evening, we joined friends for dinner & afterward went to The Great Figgy Pudding Caroling Competition. This is an annual fund-raiser for the Pike Place Market Senior Center. It is held at the Westlake Center Park. There were thirty+ choruses that sang on different street corners. The winning group was from Phinney Ridge neighborhood - a truly gifted & enthusiastic group. And best of all, about $60,000 was raised for the Senior Center.

I made my pilgrimage to the two yarn stores on Saturday morning & had a wonderful time there. Mmmm. Alpaca & wool. Mmmmm.

On the Knitting Front

The **** that I’m knitting for **** is finished, except for some blocking & finishing. I’m very pleased with the yarn I chose. I can tell you that it’s Knitpicks bulky superwash. I had a hard time finding bulky superwash elsewhere, and this was very nice to use. Color is bleeding a bit, though. Yellow blood. Strange, considering that the **** is ******.

Other knitting right now is felted mittens. I have had an uncontrollable urge to knit felted mittens. It just may be related to the fact that we haven’t had temperatures above freezing for several days now. We have 3” - 15” of snow on the ground, depending on where you measure. So I’m staying home knitting mittens.

Oops.

2008-11-29T10:48:00.000-08:00

We had a pretty strong wind storm last week. I heard a huge boom while I was in the laundry room & thought it was thunder, but as it turned out, our loafing shed, a three-sided structure in the north end of our back pasture had been lifted up, uprooting its deep anchors, and had been hurled *through* our new fence & into the neigbor’s pasture, where it landed in pieces. The galvanized steel roof had been rolled back like a sardine can lid. The tubular galvanized steel frame had been bent, bowed out on what used to be its sides. The wood panels were still attached & intact. We are very thankful that there were no animals in the neighbor’s pasture right then. They often keep a few cows & bulls there.

Doug hauled the pieces out of the neighbor’s pasture & placed them next to our driveway, making an oh-so-festive looking yard sculpture, and began work on repairing the fence. Again, we were grateful not to have any visiting bulls from our neighbors, and Doug was able to get the fence somewhat restored before our alpacas, sheep or goats could wander into their field.

Since the storm, we have had a series of misty days. Thought you might enjoy this photo.

Fortunately, both the old barn and the new barn came through the storm without any damage. The loafing shed and old barn are Noble Panel structures, and last year, when we had some 90 mph gusts come through, the old barn held fast to the ground like a boulder. The loafing shed, though, being a three-sided structure, acted somewhat like The Flying Nun’s wimple, and with the wind coming from the southeast (not the usual for this area), well, just didn’t stay put. Doug has started repairing the tubular frame. . . by repeatedly running over it with the tractor to flatten out the bowed sides. In the meantime, the beasties still have their barn so are quite comfortable.

Weaving Progress

I am happy to say that the handspun warp scarf, done on the rigid heddle loom, is done and fulled. Amazing to see what a little vigorous washing will do to soften the appearance & feel of the fibers. I did develop a bit more skill using the rigid heddle, but I have to admit it’s not my favorite (as in I’d rather have a root canal). Still, it is a very portable loom so it will have its uses when I *must* have a weaving fix while camping or whatever.

As for knitting projects, well, we all know that Christmas is coming, so you won’t be seeing those for awhile. I can tell you that I am spinning some llama fiber which was given to me years ago, before I knew what to do with llama combings. It will eventually become a scarf of some kind, depending on the yardage that get out of the 5.8 ounces that I have picked & carded so far.

Workshop!

2008-11-13T14:40:00.000-08:00

I knew she had a reputation as an excellent teacher, so I was looking forward to the three days that I’d be spending with Judith MacKenzie McCuin, in a spinning & weaving workshop sponsored by our LYS, Northwest Handspun Yarns. But I was blown away by her ability to take my spinning skills to a whole ‘nother level.

The first day’s class was “Comprehensive Spinning”, exploring the history of spinning, discussing varieties of fibers & their evolution, and polishing worsted & woollen techniques. Judith is a wealth of knowledge, and got us all thinking about fleece with greater depth and appreciation for generations long past.

The second class was “Spinning for Weaving”. We did several novelty yarns which were suitable for use in a mixed warp. It was in this class that I finally came to understand why my own mixed warp, done years ago, didn’t work so well. The key is *strong* two-ply (not three ply), and worsted spinning that is less likely to stretch than woollen. And if we were going to use a thicker yarn, it worked best to allow more space between those thicker warp threads and the adjacent ones. Duh (slapping self upside the head). Several of us were using rigid heddle looms, so we simply skipped two spaces on both sides of the thicker yarn. People using table looms were able to make adjustments in the reed to allow more space for the thicker yarns.

In spinning novelty yarns, I got *way* carried away & made things that were too thick for my rigid heddle loom, so when I returned home that night, I went through stash of unused handspun, and came up with the warp in the photo. I think there are probably some woollen yarns in here, but they’re pretty stable and I’ve had minimal stretchiness & only a couple of breaks. I’m weaving it off with a weft of Harrisville Shetland single from my stash.

The third day was spent “Spinning for Knitting”, so we made three-ply yarns of various weights. You can see, in the photo, that using one prepared combed top & spinning worsted, we were able to go from our “default yarn” - what we normally make if left to our own devices & not trying to do anything different - to both extremes, simply by adjusting the tension on our wheels. We adjusted in very small increments. With looser tension (less pull-in using Scotch tension) the yarn becomes finer & finer, down to what is known as “frog hair” among spinners. Adjusting tension by tightening made the yarn thicken. My thickest is bigger than a pencil. As I said, this is all the same combed top. I used the same whorl (pulley) on all except for the most extreme. I went to a smaller whorl size for the very finest, and larger whorl for the bulkiest yarn.

I’m still weaving on the rigid heddle - not my favorite, I must say, but that’s not the warp’s fault. I do think I’m coming to terms with the RH’s idiosyncrasies (and my own, in working with it).

While Moms are away, dogs will play. I’m going to need to order a replacement piece from Poland.

Bob 1920 - 2008

2008-10-30T12:37:00.000-07:00

Mom met Bob about eight years ago. He moved in next door to her at the retirement center where Mom lived. He was newly widowed. “He says I’m cute”, Mom told me, with a little tiny sparkle in her eyes. Mom had been widowed twice, and she had been contentedly single for over twenty years. It had been quite awhile, but I remembered that little sparkle from when she began going out with my Stepdad.

It wasn’t long before they started spending time together. They were both in their 80’s. At one of my weekly visits, she confided that they were going on a date. “He can drive”, she informed me, and the reversal of the mother/daughter role was instant. Is he a safe driver? Who was this man who suddenly wanted to date my eighty+ year old mother? I felt like the mom of a teenager (which, actually, I was at the time anyway). I felt very protective.

I didn’t think it would go very far, what with Mom being a staunch conservative Lutheran and Bob being a liberal Buddhist/Episcopalian. But, of course, given Mom’s concern for Bob’s eternal soul, she was able to persuade him to attend church with her, and he converted. It was through that time that Bob proposed, and Mom eventually accepted. I figured out that Mom was going to accept Bob’s proposal when we were shopping right before Mother’s Day. What did she want for a gift? A baby blue negligée. The wedding took place in the summer, at their church, during the Sunday morning service.

So Bob became part of our family. He had never had children of his own. This was all new territory for him. He may have been a bit overwhelmed with the grandchildren but he adapted well, and we all came to love him, too.

I often felt that I wished we had known Bob earlier. He was born in Canada & became an American citizen. He fought in WW II in the U.S. Army. He had traveled extensively. He was bright and articulate. I wish we had had more time for conversations. His health worsened, though, and communication became more challenging. He & Mom moved to assisted living.

Bob passed away four months to the day following Mom. A few weeks before, we had brought him up to our little farm for lunch. His health was declining. He said he wished he could do things all over again, and would do so many things differently. He was at peace, though, and he was ready to go. It was just a few days later that he was in the hospital, and then placed under hospice care.

We were grateful to have had Bob in our family. We miss you, Bob!

Welcome Home, Boys!

2008-09-23T19:21:00.001-07:00

*Finally*, the fences are done. We brought home our two alpaca dudes, Monk & Teeger, a couple weeks ago. They have settled in well and were joined by our two rams, Adonis & Bacchus. The goat boys will be coming soon to fill up the back pasture. What a wonderful assortment of fiber guys! The photos are of our back yard with Monk, and the goaties with their Mommy, who has raised them with such love & care. We can hardly wait to get our two of them home, too.

Last month we put 2 1/2 of our ewes together with Adonis & Bacchus so we are hoping for some lovely little lambs in January/February. . . that is, unless Helena already had a little bun in the oven. . . which would mean October/November. I say 2 1/2 ewes because although we put Pebbles in with Adonis (“Don”), she didn’t seem to be his type. . . or maybe she hadn’t quite weaned her ewe lamb from last year & just wasn’t cycling yet. But then you never know. I think it’s safe to say that we could be having two to six lambs. CVM/Romeldales often twin, but since Anemarie & Helena are newbies at this, it’s more likely they’ll have singles. I can hardly wait to see what we get. . . hopefully not all rams.

Here is a photo of Athena, the most vocal of our sheep. I think I caught her smiling.

We’re heading to OFFF (Oregon Flock & Fiber Festival) soon so I’ll try to report from there. Happy Knitting!

Late summer 2008

2008-09-02T10:52:00.000-07:00

Here it is, September 2nd already, and I’m not sure exactly where the summer went. Here are a few glimpses, though.

The Oregon shawl won first prize - Best of Knitting - at the Lynden Fair. I am so pleased. It was a huge project - about 2400 yards of yarn - so I’m happy just to have it done. Winning first place was the icing on the cake.

At the fair, I participated in the Wool Show, a collaborative effort put on by the Whatcom Weavers Guild and Spindrifters, part of Northwest Regional Spinners’ Association http://www.nwrsa.org Here is one of my Spindrifter friends, demonstrating spinning on her wheel.

I finished another knitting project. Awhile back I started spinning (Turkish drop spindle) yarn for a vest. I knitted mitered squares using the handspum plus Lamb’s Pride in deep purple for contrast. I’m very happy to have this one done, too, especially in time for the fall ahead. It was great to learn this technique, which I am happy to report, does not require that it be knitted on square needles. Double decreases every other row form the points, turning straight rows of knitting into right angles.

The sheep are doing great. All ten of them. We’re hoping for some lambies in January/February, so have put the ram boys with three of our girls. Of our two rams, Don, (Adonis, the white dude) is more aggressive. If you read the last entry, he spent a good deal of time chasing Pebbles around the field, which caused a lot of panting but no nookie, at least that we saw. Let’s just say that Pebs has been around the block a few times, and her response to Don’s overtures was more eye-rolling than anything else. Don finally gave up on Pebs & started sniffing through to the girls in the next stall. As of now, he’s knocked down the dividers between the stalls *twice* & gone over/through the electric fence three times. Maybe that’s why they call them “rams”. So he’s going to the vet on Friday to have a couple of things removed. We’re not going to deal with that any more. Don is lucky he has scrumptious fiber - Doug has often said that this problem could easily be cured with a little garlic & rosemary. Don did have some “quality time” with Helena, so we’ll see if we get a little vanilla/chocolate swirl type lambie in the winter. Hopefully a ewe.

We *really* wanted to have Anemarie bred by Bacchus. We love Bachus’s color & markings, and hope that together they’ll make another one that looks just like them. Bacchus has been a slow starter, though, and for awhile I thought I might need to bring out some Barry White CD’s, champagne & candles, but I think he’s got things figured out now. I just hope Don didn’t get to her first, during one of his five incursions into their space. I guess we’ll find out in February!

While Doug was Away. . .

2008-08-11T21:56:00.000-07:00

While Doug was away, I got stuck in the chicken coop. It was one of those mornings that I needed to do some spiffing up in their little section of the tool shed, so I replenished their feeder, tidied up their nesting boxes, cleaned out & filled their waterer and brought it back into the coop. Didn’t think much of it when the door slammed shut behind me. But when I turned around and pulled the cord which connects, through a little hole in the wall, to the latch outside, nothing happened. Pulled again. Nothing happened. Tried again. . . same outcome. So, the third time was not a charm. I wondered what would be the best course of action.

The only other hole in the coop is the one the chickens go in and out of. I’m not nearly that skinny. Furthermore, I have this fear of getting stuck in tight places. (Probably a bad experience from my birth, I’ve concluded.) I had fleeting thoughts of having to subsist on raw eggs & water for the remaining several days until Doug returned from his fishing trip. But, thank God, I had my cell phone along. And the battery was not dead.

We’ve been here for just a year. It’s long enough that I should know all the neighbors’ names by now, but the only one that was coming to mind was not all that clear. I phoned 411 & gave the operator the (approximate) name, and the name of our street, explaining my predicament. This was her first chicken coop entrapment, she said. Fortunately I wasn’t far off with the name & she connected me to the neighbors’ home. The fellow that answered the phone, I am sorry to say, has Alzheimer’s. So when I talked with him and explained who and where I was, I wasn’t quite sure that he would be able to make sense of it.

It took about ten minutes for them to arrive. I think. Could have been less. Or more. By that time I was calling an urgent ”HELLOOO?????” at every little noise I could hear. I heard the Mrs. say that they were coming. Thank God for neighbors, and I’m also very grateful that they were actually at home.

The cord had gotten twisted around the latch, which explained the fact that it didn’t function properly. I think we’re going to be re-working that little detail.

Oh, enjoy the photo of the eggs. The larger, blue-green & brown ones are from our chickens. The smaller white ones are from the pigeons. We eat those, too - they’re good for baking.

Meanwhile, In the Pasture -

Here's finally a photo of the barn we had built. We're delighted that we now have water & electricity to it, as well. :-) Should make next winter much easier.

We have put the boys & a few of the girls together, hoping for some beautiful little lambies in January/February. We put Don with Pebbles, and Bacchus with Anemarie & Helena. Don is white, and Pebbles is a white/brown badger face. Bacchus & Anemarie are both white/black badgers (stunning, both of them), and Helena is black. Both boys are newbies at this whole process, as are Anemarie & Helena. Pebbles was a great Mom for us last year, and we hope she’ll be a good example for our young ladies.

It appears that Don views breeding as an Olympic event. After countless laps around the pasture in pursuit of his lady, with much huffing & puffing, things have settled down to a dull roar in their stall. In the adjacent stall, Bacchus is taking a more subtle, suave approach, nuzzling & nudging the girls. We’’ll see which works better. . . I’m betting on Bacchus. Pebbles just appears to be rolling her eyes every time Don takes off after her.

'Tis a Thing of Beauty

2008-08-05T08:29:00.001-07:00

This is our chickens’ first egg. We are so pleased. We actually got two a few days ago, but I stepped on the other one, because I didn’t know it was there, just sitting in the debris on the coop floor. The two eggs must be from the Auracanas, because they’re a light blue/green color. Way to go, Wilma & Stella!

Even though I figured we’d start getting eggs about the first of August, we hadn’t gotten around to making nesting boxes yet. Now that we have nesting boxes in their coop, we’ve had no eggs. . . lots of cackling that *sounds* pretty impressive, but not more eggs. I certainly hope that nobody has taken to eating them. And I wonder when the other girls will start. We have seven ladies & one rooster, all the same age.

The shawl has been delivered to the Lynden Fairgrounds. (Great sigh of relief.) Next week is the Lynden Fair. This week is the Skagit County Fair, in Mount Vernon WA, which is about 45 minutes’ drive south of here. My Country Spinners group is going to demonstrate there this week. I’m looking forward to connecting with some of my sheep-people friends there.

On the weekend, I took my first basketry class. If you overlook the fact that I wove this basket inside out, it’s turning out pretty nice. It’s not exactly rectangular, but I’m learning a lot as I go. In making baskets, I’m working in three dimensions, and the reed, as it flexes over and under the verticals, requires just the right amount of ease. So I’m trying to keep the verticals straight, and to weave the weft at the right tension so that it doesn’t pull the sides in or bow them out. Like I said, it’s not going to be perfect, but later I’ll be able to look at it & realize that I’m improving. . . as in any skill that’s new. (I remember my first skein of bullet-proof handspun yarn.)

p.s. Welcome Home, camera battery charger!

Summer

2008-07-28T21:49:00.000-07:00

All the mosquitoes in Whatcom County are in my yard, in long queues at every door & window, smacking their little lips, waiting to get in and exercise their vampire-like behavior on my body. Now I remember why my Dad never wanted to go camping. I don’t know what the reason is - if they’re particularly fond of O+ or some other factor in my blood, or if it’s some pheromonal phenomenon. And yes, I’ve tried B vitamins. Maybe I’d better up the dose. At this rate, I’m going to need a transfusion before this summer ends.

On happier a note, love is in bloom in our pasture. The sheep (boys separated from girls) are making kissy faces at each other through the fence. We’ve had to reinforce the partition as Don (“Adonis”) has already breached it once. . . don’t know if “anything happened” as we think they were together for a pretty short time. If so, though, we could expect a little bundle of joy around Christmas. We are hoping to put that off just a bit & aim for January, so we are planning to put Don with Anemarie (maybe - they seem to be very fond of each other), and Bacchus with Helena, next month. Pebbles was an excellent Mommy & we might consider putting her with Don, or shipping her off to her previous farm for a conjugal visit.

Wish I had some photos to share, but alas, my battery charger continues to be on its own little vacation somewhere. . .

Yippeee!

2008-07-25T14:54:00.001-07:00

I’ve finished knitting the Oregon shawl. The only thing that remains is to block it, and then enter it in the Lynden Fair. My goal was to have it completed before August 1st, so this will give me more time to fuss over it during blocking to get it “just right”.

It was a lovely knit. I used Madil Kid Seta kid mohair/silk laceweight. I said at one point that the shawl practically knitted itself. As long as I held onto the needles & let the yarn flow over my fingers, I simply watched the pattern emerge. Believe me, lace knitting has not always been this way for me, so I was very pleased.

The Oregon is not a difficult pattern. The center square is an undulating wave pattern which repeats every 16 rows. The side borders are fir cone, also a 16 row repeat, and the trees in the corners are actually pretty simple, an 81-row pattern. I was glad that I ordered an extra ball of yarn. I used about half of it.

In between things I have been washing fleece. This is from my sheep Anemarie, a CVM (California Variegated Mutant, a multicolored version of Romeldale). She has lovely crimp and fine fleece. I didn’t get around to coating her last year, so there’s a bit of yellowing at the tips, most of which is washing out. She’s white/black badger face girl, and has black spots peppered throughout her fleece, which comes out a lovely silver-gray. There was less than a year’s growth on it, and we are just learning how to shear, so the staple length that we got was about 3”. I’m hoping to coat all the girls soon so next year’s fleece will be realllly nice.

Also spent a day dyeing some combed top from my stash. This had been yellow/orange/turquoise, and I decided to overdye into colors that I like a bit better. It wanted to felt, but I think will be usable. . . if not, it’ll be felted into something like a scarf or poncho.

Corbin & Missy Hissypants

2008-07-17T17:28:00.000-07:00

Our daughter took off for Montana yesterday, and arrived safe & sound in Billings, to be with her boyfriend while he is working there. While they are in transition mode, the grandcats came to stay with us. So here are Corbin the Crosseyed, and Missy Hissypants, AKA The Growling Couch or Kaya. Kaya is most often found camped underneath the couch, and when she does take leave of that spot, comes out to hiss & snarl at any other feline beings within visual range. She’s okay with people. And she’s always been like this, not only with us. So it’s nothing personal, I gather. If she’ll let me within petting range, I’m going to try the Rescue Remedy that worked pretty well for the sheep, while we were shearing them.

As for the Oregon Shawl, I can be found knitting on the border at most any hour. I looked back over my posts & found that it took me 10 days to get through 1/4 of the border. I’m halfway through now, so that means I’ve gotta pick up the pace in order to complete it in time for the fair. There was a photo in the last post. Since I can't locate my camera battery charger to take a more current picture, just try to imagine that same border on two of the four sides. Gotta scoot.

Summer 2008

2008-07-05T23:52:00.000-07:00

This summer is whizzing by. Things have been a blur, so I will just tell you a few highlights.

We went to Black Sheep Gathering in Eugene OR last month. It was great fun to gather with other shepherds and fiber folk. Tina at: http://ablipontheradar.blogspot.com/ has a wonderful post with lots of photos, and it’s definitely worth a look. We came home with three new members for our little flock. They’re all CVM/Romeldale ewe lambs, and are (left to right) Bliss, Amity & Arlyss. Amity & Arlyss came in second and third in their category. We are up to ten sheep now.

It’s shearing season, so Doug & I are working together to make it as comfortable for the girls as possible. We’re not fast. They’re not pretty when they’re done, but at least we can get the fleece off & they’re set for summer. Here is Anemarie before and after shearing. I have tried everything to keep them calm during the procedure, and what seems to be most effective is a combination of Bach’s Rescue Remedy & Jedi Mind Tricks. They get very fidgety when they have to pee but other than that, they’re pretty much okay with it.

We had a few really hot days recently. . . so hot that my chickens have been panting. Don’t think I’ve ever seen that before. Daisy (handsome rooster) is pictured here with a couple of the girls. Sadly, if his ungentlemanly behaviour continues, his new name will be “soup”. I don’t care how pretty he is. He had a little “time out” today to give the girls a rest.

I’ve been knitting away on the Oregon shawl, and am 1/4 of the way through the edging, which zig-zags around the entire perimeter. If I keep on track I should be able to get it done in time for the county fair. Wish me luck!

Life Goes On

2008-06-08T23:40:00.000-07:00

I was delighted to spend this weekend with friends, attending the Northwest Regional Spinners’ Association Conference in Salem, Oregon. It was held this year at Willamette University, a truly gorgeous campus. We enjoyed dorm life, spent our days in classes, took our meals at the cafeteria, stayed up late every night and crammed in as much fun as we could. Sounds like college days (except for all the spinning wheels).

I developed quite a fondness for two specific drop spindles, both of which were available at conference. I’ve absolutely fallen in love with Jenkins Turkish spindles: http://jenkinswoodworking.com/Turkish_Spindles.htm and bought a wee little light-weight one for lace spinning. I have two others of heavier weights. They are perfectly balanced, and make a center-pull cake of single from which plying can be done *very easily* (involving no winding onto nostepinne or ball winder). Also, I’m smitten with the square drop spindles from Spindlewood http://spindlewoodco.com/ They don’t roll off the table when set down. The woods are stunning, and the finish work is beyond gorgeous, giving a nice satiny feel to the wood. They spin like a dream. I now have square spindles of three different weights & will enjoy & use them all. My photos were fuzzy so I hope you’ll check out their websites, even if just out of curiosity. Sorry I couldn't get both links to work. . . but cut & paste if you're interested. NAYY. Just an enthusiastic enabler here. :-)

I took a class in spinning bast fibers from Paula Shull, and following that, significantly reduced the supply of hemp and flax top from one of the vendors. The next day, I took “Mud Pies for Adults” from Anita Luvera-Mayer. We experimented with several techniques, using textile paints and dyes, stencils, stamps, foils, adhesives, & burned felt. Way too much fun, and I felt like an artist when I finished the classes. I can hardly wait to put into practice the things I’ve learned, on “real projects” rather than samples.

A friend took Anita’s Knit 1 Purl 1 class, and explored free-form knitting. She came up with some spectacular samples which will eventually end up as a vest. Anita was also our keynote speaker, providing us with even more inspiration. Anybody for a textile tour to Turkey? She’s leading a group there next fall. What a learning experience to be had. . .

I’m home now, and while I was gone, my daughter brought over her two kitties while she’s in Montana. Corbin is quite talkative. Kaya remains under the couch & the only thing I’ve heard from her is growls. Our two, Angus & Annabelle, are just stunned at their presence & can’t quite figure out what they’re doing here. I’m *hoping* for a peaceful night’s sleep. . . wish me luck. ^..^ ^..^ ^..^ ^..^

Mom

2008-05-19T21:11:00.000-07:00

SYLVIA NESKEY-CLARK

August 27, 1917 - May 17, 2008

Mom was born and raised in Alvarado, Minnesota, the eldest daughter of seven children. Her parents were Olaf Lofstrom and Stella Birkness Lofstrom.

Early on, she showed a keen interest and aptitude for music, and began piano lessons at age nine. She often accompanied her family, who sang together every evening. As a young woman, she pursued her studies at North Star College in Minnesota, where she sang in several ensembles.

She moved from Minnesota to Seattle WA during World War II. She worked at Fort Lawton where she met her first husband, my father, Charles Scott. She had two daughters, my sister Beverly Jean, who passed away at an early age, and me. She was widowed in 1971.

A few years later, Mom married long-time family friend, Charles Neskey, who had also been widowed. Together they shared six and a half years of happiness until he passed away. Following Charlie’s death, Mom began composing music, and eventually went to study music composition at Seattle Pacific University. A scholar into her 70s, she was an inspiration to young college students there, and a joy to many professors who became friends.

During her years in Seattle, Mom was an active member of Ballard First Lutheran Church. She faithfully sang in the church choir and directed the cherub (childrens’) choir. She also taught piano lessons privately to many young students. She was a member of the Seattle Music Teachers’ Association and held office in that organization.

In 1994, Mom moved to Mount Vernon WA in order to be closer to family. She joined First Evangelical Lutheran Church, where she sang in the choir. In Mount Vernon, she was also active in Ann Carlson Guild for Childrens’ Hospital in Seattle, and P.E.O. Chapter GB.

In 2001, while living at Mountain Glen Retirement Center, Mom met and married Robert Edwin Clark. They have been devoted to each other, and have been a constant reminder that life is full of surprises.

Shepherds’ Extravaganza

2008-04-28T12:50:00.001-07:00

We were happy to be able to get to the Spring Puyallup Fair this year, which we’ve never attended before. The fall fair is “the Big One” - the State Fair. But the spring fair is much more low-key, and Shepherds’ Extravaganza is just one part of it. We had a great time catching up with some friends there.

Doug tried his hand at handling a sheep without a halter, a skill that we will need if we decide to show our two rams at this summer’s Black Sheep Gathering in Oregon. The fellow he practiced on was one of the more cooperative beasties. With our rams, even *on halter*, it’s a three-ring circus. The last time we tried moving them to a new pasture, one of them turned into a demon-possessed bucking bronco, and the other one went flat on the ground & wouldn’t budge. So we’ve got our work cut out for us.

We saw and heard a bagpipe band - always one of my favorites. There has got to be some Scot in my heritage. In any case, despite suggestions & begging on my part, my hubby and sons have no interest, whatsoever, in donning kilts or playing bagpipes. Sigh.

On the Home Front

The chickens are growing every day. Wilma is the most adventurous & likes to climb on my shoulder - occasionally up on top of my head. She is a very pretty girl & mugs for the camera almost as shamelessly as our sheep, Anemarie, does. Daisy, the darker gray/rust one, is the only one who clucks. I’m wondering if by any chance she’s a dude. All of the others are still peeping.

And as for the Oregon Shawl, it is coming along well. I’m on row 59/81 of the border, and then, will need to knit a patterned edging all the way around it. A friend has knitted this particular shawl three times. And as lovely as this shawl seems to be turning out, I don’t see myself doing it again. At least not for a very long time. It’s an *enormous* shawl. Yardage is somewhere over 2000. I think I’ll want to try something different next time - maybe circular. But then, I’ve vowed to come off this lace binge for awhile & work on something with cables. So we’ll see what comes next. In the meantime, I’m just slow-jogging along.

It's Like Having a Box of Hyperactive Squeaky Toys

2008-04-03T18:58:00.000-07:00

The peeps have grown like crazy, and are now replacing soft fluff with real feathers, sprouting tails & even beginning to grow combs. (I hope that doesn't mean that they're roosters.) They are busy playing leap frog most of the time when I go out to check on them. They'll be moving into a larger home soon.

The barn is actually progressing! The snow is long gone and weather somewhat warmed (although we still have freezing nights & I have to haul out morning water to the sheeple). We are hoping that all will progress well & the new barn should be done in about three weeks.

On the knitting front, I'm trying to get three rows a day done on the huge blue shawl. Photo next time. I promise. :-)

Old Barn, New Location

2008-03-31T23:39:00.001-07:00

Well, on Friday, the barn finally got moved. The old barn is now situated to the southeast of our house, and should provide a great shelter for when the sheep are in the near pasture. In the midst of the relocation, we were quite surprised to have snow again, this time blowing sideways. Lots of it. Doug is quite certain that he heard the blackbirds on the wires asking, "What the Hell???? What the Hell???? What the Hell????" Fortunately the snow didn't start until Saturday. On Sunday, after a break, we were able to get the supplies moved in, straw bedding in place and the sheep situated.

It was funny, looking at the perplexed expression on the animals' faces as they went into the barn, discovering that the view from the back end was entirely different. I could nearly see question marks above their heads. But they caught on. . . especially when food became involved. The birds took a bit longer. They flew as a flock, circling, making figure-eights, and then finally honed in on their new location after a couple of chilly nights.

Our little ram, Bacchus, is growing up. He is, as my friend Janice would say, looking at the girls "in that special way". As soon as the new barn is done, we can start the fences. Soon, I hope.

What's Wrong with this Picture?

2008-03-26T21:23:00.000-07:00

We're having a new barn built. To do this, we need to move the existing barn. Which means we need to provide shelter for the sheeple in the interim. Brilliant idea . . . a loafing shed which will be moved to a permanent location later. It took us only an hour 35 minutes to get the frame up. . . and that included revising it once we realized that the side panels had been reversed. ("When it says "right side", does that mean from the inside of the barn or looking into it?")

There is a lot of moisture in the field and yesterday, in the first hour of the project, the bobcat got stuck. It was determined that a different piece of equipment would be needed, so that ended the first day. Today, the larger piece of equipment arrived (Bobcat? Tractor? Excavator? I really don't know the difference). Anyway, things are progressing well and the diligent crew worked until sundown to get as much done as possible.

The sheep (after a World Federation of Sheep Wrestling match, in which the sheep nearly won) were placed in their new pasture, in the area of the loafing shed. Interesting, how they know, even though it had no walls, that it was to be one of their new structures. The birds are totally confused.

Just hanging with my peeps. . .

2008-03-22T20:50:00.000-07:00

We have a wonderful assortment of baby chicks. Three Auracanas, two Black Australorps (lost one to pasty butt - it's a chicken thing that plugs up their little puckies), one Buff Orpington (which should be huge), and two Barred Rocks. It should make for an interesting flock. It's been a challenge to keep the brooder box at an even temperature. . . like *impossible*. We have had temps from 78 to 112 degrees, and I've tried my darnedest to keep on top of it.

It would probably be much easier to keep their environmental temperature constant if I could keep them in the house. However, with two resident feline beasties, I think it's a better idea to keep them away from likely capture/torture/demise. So they're in the garage.

On the knitting front, I've finished the center square of the Oregon Shawl and just picked up stitches for the border. Yippee!!!

Meet Shaela, Monk & Teeger

2008-03-14T19:18:00.001-07:00

Our little family is growing again this week - and again, in threes. We were so blessed to have Shaela join our family last Sunday. She is an exceptionally well-behaved dog. She must have had plenty of love and attention in her previous homes. I thank those people, whoever they were, for their care of this girl. She's just the sweetest thing.
Just a day after we got Shaela, we brought Monk and Teeger to a friend's farm, to stay there until our fences are done. (Fences will come right after the barn. The barn is slated for the end of this month/beginning of next month.) Monk and Teeger are huacaya alpacas, both black. Monk is larger & has some reddish brown in his coat. Teeger is a blue/black. Both are totally stunning. And yes, they're named for characters in the "Monk" TV show (our favorite). Teeger already had his name, and since Monk didn't respond to his former name anyway ("Cocoa") we decided a change wouldn't disrupt his existence any more than it already was.

This is a new adventure for us. We feel like we're getting a good grip on sheepy behavior, but have cracked the books again for camelids. I am grateful beyond words to the friends who have stepped forward to make this happen for us. Nancy thought of us when she heard of the boys needing a new home, and Deborah willingly allowed us to bring them to her farm, which has ample lush pasture. And Deborah has been very helpful in explaining behavior & helping us watch over Monk, who has developed a bit of a limp since his transport. So far, we're just observing, but if needed, well, I guess I could pack him into my VW Beetle with the roof open to get him to the vet. (Thank goodness, though, our vet makes house calls.)

Needless to say, there has been no knitting time this week. With our new beasts, and a whopping cold, I'm doing all I can to keep up with the basics. It'll pass. In the meantime I'm taking my vitamins.

They're Back

2008-03-13T17:28:00.001-07:00

We lost another one of our pigeons today, so bring your boots. We'll supply the mayonnaise. Viking helmets are optional. See: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i2s7sVhROkQ You'll have to cut & paste, as I can't seem to get Blogger to recognize the link.

A Good Dog Day

2008-03-09T21:31:00.000-07:00

It only seemed appropriate, the day that we got a new dog, that we bury the ashes of our Maggie, who passed away in May. Maggie’s official name was “Magnolia Joy”, so we chose a yellow Butterfly Magnolia tree for our garden, and placed her ashes around it after it went into the ground. Maggie was the most joyful, happy dog I’ve ever known, and she’ll always be with us.

Our new dog, Shaela, arrived this morning. It was one of those rare serendipitous synchronicities that brought her to us. Shaela’s former family moved away, and she would have needed to be quarantined in order to move with them, which the owner was unwilling to do. They found a temporary foster family with a friend of a friend of mine. We crossed paths last week, and my friend told me of the boxer that needed a home.

Doug & I have been talking dogs for the last few months, and we had narrowed our preferences down to either boxer or sheltie. It’s true that these dogs are quite far from each other in terms of character, but these are breeds that we like and that we think will fit into our lifestyle. We don’t need a dog to shepherd. Our little flock members are practically housepets. (Although they don’t “come” when they’re called, they are pretty easy to get where we need them to be - food works best.) What we needed is more a companion dog, large enough not to be attacked by nearby eagles, hawks, or owls. I think we’ll be happy with our choice.

So far, we’ve taken Shaela to Petco for supplies. She was well-behaved, and interacted positively with adults & kids, and other dogs, too. She seems very aware & responsive to us. We’ll be taking her in for vet checkup soon, & she’ll be getting spayed (looks like she recently had puppies). Wish us luck!

Sorry no photos, folks, but blogger seems to be having issues right now.

SEW EXPO!

2008-03-01T21:06:00.000-08:00

I’ve gone to Sew Expo every year except one, for the last eleven years. Most of those years have been with sewing/knitting/spinning friend Janice. I’ve heard many times that this is one of the very best of its kind in the country. Vendors come from all over, with lots of information to share. We usually take a few classes & always come home with lots of enthusiasm & ideas, patterns, fabric & yarn. I just wish they could sell time there, too.

Janice tried out a few brands of embellishment machines. These are like sewing machines that have, instead of a single needle, multiple barbed needles that go up and down. There is no bobbin - no thread is involved. All the machine does is to puncture fabric, pushing bits of fiber (often wool or mohair - sometimes other fabric) through a base fabric, entangling the web into a single layer.

We also stopped by the Philosopher’s Wool booth, always my favorite. I have three (four?) sweater kits at home to prove it. It was Janice’s turn, this year, to bring home a kit. She has recently lost 33 lbs, and is deserving of a new sweater to keep her warm whilst she sits at her daughter’s soccer games & practices. I think the red/purple stripes are quite flattering on her.

Janice also tried on a sample from Park Bench Pattern Co. www.parkbenchpatterns.com. This is their Sentinal Peak Park, pattern #11, which I also think looks quite stunning. I tried on their Chesapeake Bay, pattern #25, which I bought. Now to find just the perfect fabric. . . it’s gotta be in the stash somewhere.

The Sheeple

are growing every day, and Ithought you might like to see an update. I just think these little ones are the cutest things I’ve ever seen. Don (short for “Adonis”) is the white ram, and Athena is the white/brown badger face ewe. And they’re so sweet. . .

Barn Boondoggle

2008-02-20T11:27:00.000-08:00

We decided to build a larger barn last summer, when we first moved here. It’s not that we’re horribly cramped, but if we bring in any more animals, it’d be good to have more space, and also electricity & running water to the barn. As it is now, we have our share of below-freezing temperatures at night, and that means hauling water for the beasties & birdies from the house every morning that it’s freezing.

Late last summer we contracted with a local company to build us a pole barn. All seemed to be progressing well, and we really like the people we’re working with. Together we had come up with a workable plan which would comfortably house our four ewes and their lambs, and allow for some future growth, as well as storage space for equipment. It’s not that we had grand designs or plans for a large operation on our just-under-five-acres, but the sheeple would have plenty of space to hang out on those rare occasions when it rains here (average 36”/year). The existing barn was to be moved to a different site on our property, and that would be pretty much for the birds. (They’ve already taken it over anyway.) Request for a building permit was filed with the county in October, and we planned to begin construction in November so that the project would be complete before our ewes lambed, before the rain got too bad and before we hit freezing temperatures. Well.

It turns out that we live on a critical wetland. Despite the fact that there are no streams, no fish, and no waterfowl here, we were told that we must commission a wetlands study by a certified wetlands specialist before a permit could be issued. We do have a seasonal pond which had been excavated by the previous owner, and drainage from wet areas of the pasture goes to that pond, all of which was delineated by the wetlands specialist. We also have documented two puddles in our lawn, the smaller of which (see photo) is in the front yard, not far from the pasture fence. The proposed site of the new barn is, logically, on the high ground of our pasture, which, fortunately, is relatively close to our house.

Following the submission of the wetlands study to the county, the county planner came out to re-inspect, and brought her co-worker, the mitigation specialist. They told us that since our barn site overlapped a 50’ buffer zone around the puddle (again, see photo) by a few feet, we would need to mitigate by making a 227 square foot conservation easement on our property which would need to be planted with native plants. To ensure that this plan was followed, we would need to post a $1000 bond, and document survival of the native plants annually for a five-year period, after which we would get our $1000 back. Fortunately, we were able to convince them to reduce that amount, as I don’t see how we could possibly have *fit* $1000 worth of plants into a 227 square foot space.

The icing on the cake is that we just got a bill from the county for the planners’ time. *Nowhere* in any of the regulations online or in any written correspondence, or even verbally, was there a mention of the need to pay for the time of the county planners. So here we are, with as yet no building permit, and the expenses continue to mount up. We are spending *nearly $3000* to be told that we could site the barn exactly where we originally wanted to site the barn, and that we would need to plant 227 square feet of natural vegitation to compensate for close proximity to the puddle. (Again, see photo. I can’t believe it either.) The actual cost of the plants for mitigation (ordered from the Conservation District) is under $100. All other costs have been for wetlands study, filing fees for the assignment of savings, allowance for five years of required documentation that the $100 in plants survive, and county planners’ fees. We are now in contact with the county commissioners and department heads.

Beautiful Sunset

February always seems to be the longest month of the year. I know it’s only 28 or 29 days, but still, the ennnnnndddddlllessssss gray gets to me every February, every year. Sure, next month I’ll get to start pruning roses, but at this point I’m chomping at the bit and getting very impatient. The hope of clearing skies was evident a few nights ago and I thought I’d share this photo. I should mention that this is *the neighbor’s* pond. . . not the aforementioned puddle.

Just thought you'd appreciate this.

R.I.P. Frigidaire Gallery 11-Cycle Energy Star Front Load Washing Machine 2001- 2008

2008-02-05T13:52:00.000-08:00

Frigidaire Washing Machine arrived at the pearly gates at such a young age. It was truly a tragic demise, as it first began not spinning when containing anything larger than average size loads, then developed intermittent leaks, and finally, just prior to its end, it could barely render a groan. Transplant of vital organs was deemed futile and not cost-effective, because of its multi-system failure. It is survived by its life partner, Dryer, who struggled with warming issues two months ago, but was revived by glow-plug replacement. Also survived by much older sibling washing machine, Heavy Duty Kenmore, who remains in good health even into its advancing years.

Because dimensions of washing machines have changed since Frigidaire was installed, elimination of some laundry room counters will be required to accommodate its replacement. Condolences may be sent to the laundress, Yvonne.

On happier notes, we just returned from a family visit to Yuma Arizona. Always a joy to see the folks, and this year, we managed to hit Yuma Lettuce Days. Here, Lisa & I are enjoying the salads - quite generous at $2. There were lots of other things going on, including this guy: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BfKdcKwXpws - truly, the highlight of Lettuce Days.

We visited our camel friends, and I got a lot of knitting done, finishing socks for Doug. These are Trekking yarn, I think my very favorite sock yarn, for its wonderful colors & durability.

We also visited an area of Painted Desert, by Martinez Lake, and hiked the trail there.

Happy Sheeple & Weaving

2008-01-09T15:46:00.000-08:00

The lambs have doubled their birthweights now, and are nearing 30 lbs. Moms are keeping up with their milk needs, and we’re trying to keep up with the Moms’ nutritional needs by giving them extra grain. It’s a bit of a balancing act, trying to get enough food in them without giving them “bloat”, which, in sheep can be a real problem (like fatal). All is going well, and although last night Pebbles looked distended, she’s fine today.

I’ve had a bit of time for weaving lately so thought I’d show you what I’m doing. I can’t take any credit for the design, as it came out of The Best of Weavers THICK & THIN. While the design was originally intended to be a rug, it’ll be tote bags. Don’t know how many yet. The pattern suggested putting on a long warp to allow for experimentation with color/design. The thing about rag weaving that I am not horribly fond of is that the fabric strips don’t stay on a ski shuttle all that well. I end up just scootching the strips through by hand. I can’t seem to get a rhythm like I do with regular weaving. But on the other hand, the weft shots are wider, being that I’m alternating 8/4 rug warp with 1/2” wide cut strips of cotton fabric. Timewise, it probably comes out about even.

The photo here shows the warp, sett at 24 ends per inch, 8/4 cotton rug warp. The idea is that part of the weaving is warp-faced, and part weft-faced, so the colors of both the warp & weft show at different times, depending on which sheds are used. When I get tired of doing squares & rectangles, I may just get random & see what happens!

Happy 2008

2008-01-01T12:28:00.000-08:00

'Tis the gift to be simple, 'tis the gift to be free,
'Tis the gift to come down where we ought to be,
And when we find ourselves in the place just right,
'Twill be in the valley of love and delight.
When true simplicity is gain'd,
To bow and to bend we shan't be asham'd,
To turn, turn will be our delight,
Till by turning, turning we come round right.
Old Shaker Hymn

This has been running through my mind lately, as I think about where we've come in the last year. We've left the busyness, traffic & noise of the city, and are now settled in our hobby farm just outside of town. We now have, instead of just two cats, also seven sheep for fiber animals. We have a flock of homing pigeons which we hadn't planned on. . . but they're beautiful & we enjoy them. We have, instead of a 66-foot-wide city lot on a busy street, almost 5 acres, with peace & quiet for the most part. We don't have the lake. . . but truly, we don't miss the jet-ski traffic, or capsizing canoes full of teenage revelers. Instead we've got a spectacular, serene view of Mount Baker. Neighbors are friendly & helpful. And I have plenty of space to enjoy my fibery pursuits, including those that walk around in our pasture. We are "in a place just right".

I hope that in the new year, we will all "come round right". In that, I mean as a country, too. I don't generally say much regarding politics on this blog, but I am making a little exception today. I am praying for wiser voters, and wiser leadership in the election to come. Don't hesitate, all of you, to ask questions of our leadership, and of our candidates. Look beyond image, and see the realities of priorities, and not just stated beliefs, but deeds. I will stop now, before I go into rant mode.

At the end of the year, a friend of mine plies up all the odds & ends of leftover singles into whatever it turns out to be. I thought this was an excellent idea, so here's my skein. Maybe enough for a small shawl or scarf. I left some of my silk bits for later.

The sheep are doing great! Our three wee ones were shivering from the cold, so I made them little coats of some leftover polar fleece. The two coats I had bought were small wayyyy too fast. The sheep are growing like little weeds, gaining nearly a pound a day, just on milk from their Mommies. The Mommies, by the way, are ravenous and we try to slip them some extra grain to keep up with their increased nutritional needs. All seem to be happy and are getting along well.

In the pasture, there is an ongoing fascination with the turd bucket, which is beyond me, but then, I'm not a sheep. They also like playing "king of the mountain" which, at this point, is just a few blocks stacked by the barn. We hope to make a "real" mountain for them to play on, as soon as we prepare for the new barn.

The new barn. . . well. . . we're still awaiting the permit. We've had a wetlands delineation done, and I understand will need to do some mitigation to compensate for encroaching on the buffer zone by a few feet. The farm plan is done. We're just waiting. . .

Small Blessings

2007-12-20T23:19:00.000-08:00

Yesterday, when I went out to the barn, I found these two little critters cleaned up, standing, and eating from their proud Mama, Pebbles. I think they have got to be the cutest things on the planet. As is their cousin, Adonis. These two will be Athena & Bachhus, as we carry on with names alphabetically. Athena was 12 lbs, Bacchus 13.5 lbs. Athena has a brown polka dot on her behind, and Bacchus has multicolored ears. Their little tails wiggle as they eat.

Adonis is growing by leaps, bounds, and jumps straight up in the air. He is sorting out his place with the other sheeple, who were particularly miffed because all the visitors to our little farm came to see *him*, rather than them. (Anemarie is just a *Bit of a Diva* and is used to mugging for the camera.) We’ve gone to greater lengths to assure both Anemarie & Helena that they are indeed, extraordinarily lovely ladies, and that they are still just as special to us. (Anthropomorphism thrives here.)

I’ve spent much of my time in the barn, tidying up & keeping an eye on everybody, which means Christmas packages are unwrapped. But the cards are done. Mostly.

Ginger & Adonis

2007-12-15T22:55:00.000-08:00

I’ve been waiting to post something until I had something to post. Well here we are! Ginger *finally* gave birth yesterday. The first lamb that Ginger delivered was stillborn. It was a little ewe, black & white with a badger face, like our Anemarie. We had hoped for one with this coloring. Sadly, the little ewe had malformations of the face and neck, and would not have survived. Ginger was quite distraught and worked so hard to get that baby moving and breathing, but it just didn’t happen. Ginger’s belly was so large I was quite sure there was at least one more lamb in there, and we needed to focus on the second one’s delivery. I called a friend to help. I gloved up and went in to find a heinie & then called the vet, who was in the middle of a procedure at her office. I felt further in to locate haunches & worked towards the back feet (which were extended forward), and pulled them out (not an easy task as the little twerp kept pulling them away). The feet were upside down. So the baby needed rotated and I did the best I could. I think we got about 1/4 turn. With Ginger pushing, a friend holding, and me pulling with every muscle in my body, no way was that baby coming out. I called the vet’s office again, and she pulled up just as I was talking to staff there. It took the vet about three minutes once she got in, to get the little guy out. He was quite flaccid & not breathing when he came out. The vet held him upside down & swung him side to side to get the fluid out of his lungs. With Ginger licking & me tickling his nose with a bit of straw, he began breathing & moving. He came around gradually and within about an hour, was trying to stand up (truly amazing, considering all the pulling on his hind legs). We are very thankful that we have a handsome little ram now, that we are calling “Adonis” (Don for short). The stillborn was over 12 pounds. Don - I’m not sure, as I haven’t taken him out for a weight yet.

We have one more ewe that has not delivered yet. Pebbles was bred by the same ram, so we’re keeping our fingers crossed for healthy lamb(s). She’s not nearly as wide as Ginger was, so maybe there’s only one in there. Hope this one isn’t backwards & upside down.

In more playful moments in the barnyard, Anemarie likes to swipe my hat right off my head. So I put it on her head & took this photo. She’s a silly girl. Helena (our chocolate colored girl) likes to nibble on my buttons. They’re full of personality & mischief.

Oh, and the other thing going on here is that Angus picked up fleas. Where? Not a clue, as he’s an indoor cat. Anyway, he earned himself a flea bath, and was *not* amused.

Snow!

2007-12-02T19:33:00.000-08:00

Here I sit with a humongous case of *h*iccups. Too distracting to knit, so I’ll try updating the blog for a*h*while. BTW, I never get those *h* cute little hiccups that a lot of *h* people get - they’re more the truck *h* driver variety that can be rather *h* embarrasing *h* in social situat*h*ions. I’m glad I’m *h*ome.

We had a snowstorm yesterday, with temps ranging from *h* 25 to 25. There was *h* enough snow for us to build a snowsheep & snowman *h* today. *H* The (real) sheep seem to be weathering the storm well, as we are frequently bringing them out *h* warm water. The *h* bird water was frozen, too, *h*, so we thawed out their waterer & they’re happy. They’re hunkered down in the barn *h* on watch for any *h* weasel invaders. (We’ve *h* lost five *h* birds so far.) *H*

With the storm, I’ve been able to spend some time *h* knitting and have finished socks which I started awhile back. The *H* pattern is “Vine Lace Socks” *h* from SOCKS SOCKS SOCKS on page 43 *h*. I've also finished a hat knitted with handspun wool/dog undercoat from a friend's *h* pooch, which will be a *h* Christmas gift. Also, re-knitted the ribbing on *h* hubby's hat, which was *h* waaay too big (as in "made for a *h* conehead").

We were able to get out last night in The Truck (herking *h* large Beast) to the Mount Baker *h* Theater to see Lily Tomlin. *H* Awesome. Wish you *h* both had been there. *h*

I’m going *h* to go back to working *h* on Christmas gifts now. *H*

Midnight Visits from Ozzy Osbourne

2007-11-18T20:03:00.000-08:00

It’s been three days in the last week, now, that we’ve gone out to the barn and found a dead bird. These are our beautiful white homing pigeons, which, although we hadn’t planned on having any, have become part of our family. The heads are gone, but the bodies are pretty much intact.

It just so happened that today that I ran into the former owner of our house - the one who has the remainder of the flock of pigeons at her home in town. Those pigeons were the ones who opted to stay with Karen, at her newly constructed Pigeon Paradise. Perhaps *those* were the wise ones, the ones less likely to be predated by either minks or weasels that Karen said occasionally visit our neighborhood, and would have been responsible for these attacks. We haven’t quite figured out how to deal with these critters. Suggestions are welcome. And No, I’m Not Getting a Snake.

Happier Matters

On the knitting front, today I took a class at NW Handspun Yarns, from Cat Bordhi on sock knitting. Really, I think I could knit a (conventional) sock even if I were in a persistent vegitative state. It’s just that ingrained in my being. (My family has strict instructions that if I were in an accident and injured to the point at which I became unable to knit socks, to go ahead & pull the plug.) But Cat Bordhi’s method???? It opens up all new horizons to sock knitting, so I guess I’d better update my Advance Directives. These really challenge my fuzz brain.

One of the things I like about her new book, New Pathways for Sock Knitters, is that almost all of her sock patterns have a mini (baby) version to practice on, before committing vast amounts of time and/or yarn to a pattern that is beyond me at any particular moment. (I’ve already discussed my migraine vs. knitting issues in previous posts. . . the itty bitty stroke that I had last summer hasn’t helped my memory or focus, either.) So, I was very pleased to try out the basic sock - the Little Sky Sock - and I had moderate success. I can hardly wait to do the Coriolus, which has a very interesting diagonal stripe running through it. Many options for the enlarging size of the instep are offered. Also, some new (to me) methods of doing increases and wrapping for short rows are given, with very clearly written instructions & diagrams. It is an awesome book. And I might even go buy her novel, Treasure Forest.

Sorry for the lack of photos today, folks. Here’s one we took on a recent trip - hanging moss, which I’m using to experiment with for a natural dye.

Happy Thanksgiving, All!

Lace Binge and Other Things

2007-11-04T13:05:00.000-08:00

I’ve been on a lace knitting binge for a few years now. I’m hoping to finish up these last three projects and then move on to cables and fair isle. The lavender Flower Basket shawl (Interweave Knits, Fall 2004 issue) is finished but not blocked. This is the second one of this pattern I’ve made. The previous one was a rich milk-chocolate brown color, very scrumptious. I used Crystal Palace Kid Merino this time, and have to say that it’s *not* my favorite lace knitting yarn. With its blend of 28% kid mohair, 28% merino wool & 44% micro nylon, it just doesn’t have the luxury feel of some other yarns. I guess it must be the nylon content.

The white is the ongoing Tina Shawl from Fiddlesticks Knitting. I’m using Knitpicks laceweight Merino for this one. It’s been living in a bag for awhile because I just could not face the remaining 1.7 sides of the border lace pattern, a 16-row repeat done over and over and over and over and over. . . you get the picture. I’ll pull it out again (promise) and do hope to finish it before it is found by those four-letter-word creatures beginning with the letter “M”.

The blue is my favorite yarn so far - Madil’s Kid Seta. It weighs *nothing*. It’s like knitting with air. The yarn flows through my fingers and over the needles effortlessly, and practically knits itself (as long as I’m not riding in the car on a bumpy road). I have decided that using a headlamp is a great help, especially in the car or for those late-night-knitting-in-bed endeavors. I can watch Jon Stewart, Stephen Colbert and David Letterman and still see my stitches. Oh Joy! I should mention that this is the Oregon Shawl, by Knit One Crochet Too. I have just started it.

On to Other Things

This is a recent sunrise here on our little hobby farm. This is Mount Baker, and for those of you who don’t understand about real mountains, well, this is one. It’s a Washington thing, I guess, but we don’t consider it to be a real mountain unless it’s covered with snow and/or periodically erupts.

And this is my hubby, Doug, milking a goat. Not our goat, but belongs to one of his co-workers. It’s an Oberhasli and the milk is truly rich & creamy. As I am lactose-intolerant, I still need to take lactaid or some other enzyme to drink it, but it is sooooooo good. I also must be allergic to the casein in cow’s milk, as even with lactaid, I experience significant gastrointestinal pyrotechnics. Goat milk contains different proteins! They don’t bother me! Will we get a couple of goats? Well, it’s under consideration. We’d need to further work out fencing issues, as goats are more challenging to keep in. We’ll keep you posted.

And here is Angus the Gray, enjoying the back of my vest project which is still in the works (combination of Lamb’s Pride Worsted & handspun, in a free-form modular design that I’m making up as I go.)

There's just no reasoning with them.

2007-10-18T14:27:00.000-07:00

Say “hello” to our birds. Many people look at them & think they’re doves, but they’re actually homing pigeons. The woman who used to live in our house has a business, taking her lovely white homing pigeons to weddings and funerals, releasing them, and then they fly home. When we bought her house, she explained to us that the best way to re-home the birds (convince them to move) was to build them a better coop than the one they were living in before. So despite the fact that she built for them, at her new family home in town, the Taj Mahal of Pigeon Palaces, about half of the birds determinedly and repeatedly returned to us. There’s just no reasoning with them. We had about 20 birds after the move.

The birds have been very contented with us, and we with them, since we enjoy seeing them fly together across the sky, with the mountain in the background. Really, it’s a Little Bit of Heaven here at the Aquarian Hamster farm. And the birds showed their contentment by beginning to lay eggs. This, right about the time that a mutual friend expressed the desire to have some of her own white pigeons. We let the 10 eggs develop and got 8 new babies, who were relocated to their new home as soon as they became capable of eating & flying. I hope they’ll stay with her, and I do believe they were pretty young to have become “homed” to our place already. In the meantime, our birds continue to lay eggs, and I’m pitching them. It did cross my mind to try making wee little omelettes with them, but I hear they’re rather gamey.

The only downside to this situation is that the birds seem to think they own the place - including the sheep stall - so they often invade, leaving droppings in the sheeps’ water and supplies, and sometimes on the girls’ lovely fleece, which does not make me happy. I also worry about parasites and/or diseases. The sheeple do get wormed at regular intervals, but I still worry. Soon, the sheep will have their own personal barn. And the birds can have the old barn. But really, there is no reasoning with them. We’ll see how that works.

On the knitting front, I have finished the seed stitch jacket and a companion hat. They fit perfectly and I’m very happy with the style. I began with Ann Norling’s “Adult Basic: Drop Shoulder Cardigan” pattern but made a few modifications. I’ll try to post a photo next time.

Anemarie says “Hello”.

Mmmmmmm Cashmere!

2007-10-08T15:02:00.000-07:00

A friend of mine casually remarked that she had some cashmere from one of her goats, and wondered if I’d be able to use it at all. I had no idea that she had these beasties. I knew about her chickens & had been greeted by her donkey on occasion, but never met the goats. Oh My Gosh. When I opened the bag and saw the contents, my heart raced. I took it home and washed it, and came up with this.

There were a lot of guard hairs so I’ve been removing them at every phase of my wee little project. After washing & picking out hairs, I had 20 grams of white fluff. Not quite enough for what I had in mind. . . but close! I just happened to have, in my stash of “treasures”, some white yak down. It was a purchase made last winter at Madrona Fiber Arts Festival. I pulled some out of the bag & weighed it - 15 grams. I carded the two together by hand, and came out with oh-so-softly-scrumptious rolags which were the envy of my Knit Night buddies. I spun it long-draw into a lace weight two ply yarn.

The pattern I chose was from the book HOMESPUN HANDKNIT, the Baby’s Lace Set designed by Carol Rhoades. I opted for little socks instead of mitts, and had just a few yards of yarn left when I finished. These will go to a charity auction, and I hope will inspire bidding among the many aspiring grandmothers that I know. :-)

My Girls

2007-09-06T10:03:00.001-07:00

The Girls have been here a little over a week now, and are doing very well. They seemed to take to Doug very quickly -their previous shepherd was a man. I've been able to feed three of the four out of my hand now. The shy one is my little badger face lamb, Anemarie, and she gets a bit closer every day. I love them all dearly, and you can see what happened when I set the snack bucket down to take a photo.

Their fiber is wonderful. I've spun up a little skein of a couple of them so far, and it's next-to-skin soft. They're CVM (a variation of Romeldale), a rare breed. While I don't aspire to shepherd a huge herd, I do hope that the breed will become more familiar to spinners & knitters. It's scrumptious. And The Girls are a delight.

Happy 90th Birthday, Mom!

2007-08-30T20:53:00.001-07:00

Sunday we celebrated Mom's 90th birthday. She looks pretty good, doesn't she? Several of her long-time friends were able to join us for the party. She lives in an Assisted Living facility with her hubby. They met there, and have been married for six years now.

For the party my granddaughter sang "Anyway", a Martina McBride song. If you're one of the few people reading this blog that haven't seen her YouTube video from last spring, just go to: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_h1iEmfL0cg and take a listen. She was eleven then. I hope that works - you may need to copy & paste as I haven't yet figured out how to do links. Sorry. (And the video is fuzzy. Again, sorry. She sings pretty well, though, don't you think?)

They're Here!

2007-08-26T08:32:00.001-07:00

We went to get the girls yesterday. They’re all CVM/Romeldale from Rocky Long’s LIttle Orchard Farm in Bow WA. Rocky was very helpful in preparing the girls for their move. He sheared them as we watched and showed us how to trim hooves. They seemed to come through the short trip home without difficulty and are all settled in their stall. We plan to keep them in there for a few days until they become used to us and then let them out to pasture. The fences are in place and working. We are thrilled! My in-laws went with us so were in on the adventure.

The girls came with names, so “Lucy” & “Ethel” will be saved for ewes yet to be born. I’m still trying to remember their names -Ginger & Pebbles (the two big girls), Helena (little black ewe) & Animarie (spotted little ewe).

On the knitting front, I’ve started a sweater with handspun Shetland & miscellaneous wool. I’m doing a seed stitch cardigan which should be nice & warm for winter.

The Apprehensive Wannabe

2007-08-11T21:40:00.000-07:00

Okay, guys, it’s getting down to the wire here. My sheep are ready to come home, the fence line is mowed & the electric fence is working. The sheep’s feed is here, as are mineral supplements, feeding troughs and bedding for the stall. I’ve gone through the pasture to check for toxic plants, and it should be okay now. So I think we’re pretty much ready to go.

Maybe it’s just my nature to think that I need to read *every* book and consult *every* resource before jumping in, but I’ve gotten assurances that the sheep probably won’t notice my inexperience (that is, if I don’t feed them the wrong feed, they get bloat and die, or if they don’t get attacked by particularly devious & clever coyotes who figure out a way to penetrate the perimeter).

As soon as Doug returns from his fishing trip, and as soon as we get past a gathering here on Tuesday, I’m ready. In the meantime, I’m still pulling weeds, trying to bring some order to the chaos that is my garden.

My Granddaughter came to stay with me for awhile last week. She will be celebrating her 12th birthday next week. With her, as you can see, she brought her well-loved quilt, which I made for her just after she was born. She's a sweetie. But she's not much into weeding.

Peace Arch Spin-In, & Scrapie, OPP & Nose Bots, Oh My

2007-07-31T14:16:00.000-07:00

A wonderful day was had last weekend as we gathered with spinners from British Columbia, for the Peace Arch Spin - In. Weather was perfect, company was delightful as always, and we came home with a few treasures.

My time lately has been spent perusing books in preparation for bringing home animals to our little farm. This is an entire new venture for me. We've had dogs, cats, rats, a lizard and a bunny in the years that the kids were growing up. Never sheep, chickens or camelids.

I inherited a lovely flock of homing pigeons - white ones, which the previous owner here released at weddings, funerals, etc., and some of them have chosen not to move with her to her new home. We are all quite comfortable together now, and I think the birdies are getting used to Doug & me as caretakers. But sheep? The photo you see is not the entire collection of books that I've been reading in an attempt to avoid disaster. But really, it's getting scary. There are things I'd never heard of - Scrapie, OPP, and Nose Bots, Oh My.

The sheep we've bought are California Variegated Mutant - my favorite to spin, as it's incredibly soft & springy, and comes in a lovely array of colors. So we have coming Lucy and Ethel, two ewes who should be presenting us with a few little bundles of joy in December, and Stella & Daisy (named after my grandmothers), two ewe lambs. As soon as the fence is working, they'll be coming home.

Take an Aspirin a Day

2007-07-25T22:34:00.000-07:00

Well, folks, I had a bit of a scare recently. I had a very tiny stroke. I'm very lucky that it was just a warning shot, but it certainly gave me a bit of a shock, especially since I'm not 60 yet.

I get migraines. Several years ago they got to the point that I was having about four a week - time for medical intervention. So now I take medication daily to prevent them, which works quite well. I still get them periodically - now maybe one or two every month or so, but they're no longer the throbbing, puking-my-toenails-up variety. They're much milder. Typically, I have a bit of facial numbness beforehand. And I use Imitrex or Amerge, or sometimes even just Excedrin Migraine and those help a lot. I should also mention that I have identified several triggers, and diligently try to avoid them (things like lack of sleep, bananas, avocados, red wine, Swiss cheese).

It was the end of June that I had a really bad headache again, one of those up-in-the-middle-of-the-night-puking-of-the-toenails variety. I took my medication and felt better, but the left facial numbness remained, and still does to this day. Strange. It had never been that way before. So off to the family practice doc, who ordered an MRI and sent me off to the neurologist. Although the MRI is normal, the symptoms remain so the neurologist feels it most likely was a very small stroke, too small to be detected by the MRI. And my left arm has lost some sensation, too, which I didn't even realize until I saw the first doctor.

I've often suggested to friends that they take an aspirin a day - it acts as a mild anticoagulant and is supposed to prevent strokes. I just rarely remembered to take it myself. (I can't even remember to take my ginko biloba.) But now I'm being religious about it. Just thought I'd pass along the word. A baby aspirin should be enough, but I take the adult one because
that's what I have at home. So, to all of you who may be approaching that age - take an aspirin a day.

The hydrangeas are from my garden. I've always wanted one this blue, and I just love it! (I basically feel like I've died & gone to heaven at our new house. We are so happy to be here. I'll tell you about the sheep next time. . .)

Highland Games Sheep-to-Shawl

2007-07-22T18:20:00.001-07:00

I'm just a bit behind on my posts. So this is what I did *last* weekend, when the Highland Games were in Mount Vernon, Washington. My Spindrifters group, part of Northwest Regional Spinners' Association, held a sheep-to-shawl demonstration. . . well, technically a fleece-to-shawl, as the sheep had already been sheared & fiber washed. We used a yummy silver/gray Romney this time, a donated fleece from one of our members. We picked & carded, then spun and wove a shawl in a waffle weave. Of course I bought raffle tickets on it - it'd coordinate very well with my Goodwill tartan skirt. Wish me luck!

There were two new brands of spinning wheels at the demo this year. One was Louet's new Victoria wheel, and it's owner says it's a great portable wheel which folds up & travels easily in its backpack. The other was a wheel handmade by one of our member's hubby, Doug Dodd. He doesn't have a name for it that I know of yet, but it's very compact and a very different design. It gets good reviews from its owner, too.

It's always great to see & hear the bagpipe bands, & love those kilts! Wish I could convince hubby & sons to wear them!

Gardens Gone Wild

2007-07-10T14:14:00.000-07:00

We're still unpacking boxes, but in between things have taken some time to get out in the gardens. I'm doing some extreme combat gardening, trying to get the buttercups pulled before they all go to seed. At this point, the buttercups are winning, but I keep trying. They're entangled with rose bushes, which truly makes it a challenge, and I have plenty of scratches, thorn punctures, and bruises to show for my work. And one *very sore behind*, probably from all the squatting, crouching, and bending required to get at the little buggers. Mme. Heap de Composte is growing by leaps and bounds.

I've gotten precious little knitting done, but tonight I'm going to the LYS Knit Night (I've earned it) & at this point I'm trying to figure out which knitting project will use the fewest number of muscles. I *have* gotten up to the loom, though. My small study group has decided to do a kitchen towel exchange, and this time (Thank God) it's plain weave, with the stipulation that black be used in some way. I won't give away my exact plans at this point, but I will show you part of the wound warp. :-)

Our New Home

2007-07-03T09:54:00.000-07:00

We’ve been here for two weeks today now. We absolutely love it here. Although much of the house is in order, I still have many boxes left to unpack so I haven’t had much time for fibery endeavors. (Note, I said “much”. I’d probably go into withdrawal if I didn’t have *something* to work on. Right now it’s socks.)

We have our work cut out for us, with an exuberant garden in which it appears that anything will grow. I’m very much trying to resist the temptation to go out & buy a lot of plants at this point. Just want to keep at pulling out the things I don’t want first, and then I’ll see what kind of space I have left. You have *no idea* how difficult this is for me to do. Yesterday, I stopped by Bakerview Nursery in Bellingham, which has an enticing array of pond/water plants. And Doug & I have decided that we will plant a yellow magnolia in memory of our departed pooch, “Magnolia Joy” (Maggie). If I had been able to fit one of those gorgeous magnolias in my VW Beetle yesterday, it’d be here now.

We have three acres of fenced pasture with no furry people out there to mow. Yet. We need to check on the suitability of the electric fence we have, and clear the brush underneath so that the current will flow. I also think we’ll do some dividing of the space to make it possible to rotate pastures. I’m hoping for a few CVM/Romeldale sheep, some alpacas, and maybe a few chickens. But I’m open to suggestions. Friends have recommended Blue Face Leicester & Shetland. . . :-)

Angus has recovered from his laundry mishap. He is now free of bandages & cone, and has dutifully tidied up his paws.

How NOT to Launder a Cat

2007-06-25T18:47:00.001-07:00

We've moved. It's gone very smoothly, thanks to the assistance of several friends who stepped up & volunteered to help pack. There has been only one mishap. Do you remember my post from long ago about laundering a cat? Well, I must have tempted The Fates because while we were unpacking, unbeknownst to us, Angus plopped himself inside of our front loading washer. After a day of unpacking & scrubbing, I threw the last of the towels into the washer & turned it on. It was just a matter of seconds before I discovered that the flopping mass inside of the washer was our kitty. The worst part was that I used the hottest water possible. Poor guy received burns to all four paws, and bruises, and earned himself a trip to the emergency all-night vet. He's doing okay now, other than being one pissed kitty.

We love our new home. Doug has had his work cut out for him, sorting through miles of miscellaneous cables, and attaching them to various pieces of technology. I've enlisted the help of a friend - retired efficiency person - to arrange kitchen cupboards in a logical and orderly fashion. After we get all settled, we hope to bring in a few animals - alpacas, sheep & chickens. :-))))))

Movers & Weavers

2007-06-10T11:17:00.001-07:00

Sorry it’s been so long since my last post. Life has been a whirlwind. Since my last post, our trip to Walla Walla, we sold our house, bought a house, I’ve participated in yet another weaving workshop (truly, if I had a clue that all this would happen in the same time frame, I’d have opted out of the weaving workshop), P.E.O. convention in Spokane WA, and packing up to move. Surprisingly, things are falling into place.

We have to be out of our house by Friday, and can’t move into the new place until Monday. We’re going camping, and over the weekend, all of our stuff will be residing in trucks, storage units, and the barn at our new place.

One of my dear friends emailed me out of the blue, offering to spend a day helping pack. This offer included bringing lunch. She is a fellow craft-person, so her help in placing the entire contents of what had become the “sewing room” was invaluable. It is all in boxes now, carefully labeled & we were actually able to retrieve an item desperately needed by my hubby. *He* needed something from the sewing room. Who would have guessed?

The weaving workshop was on woven shibori. I’m including a couple of photos so you can see what we did. First, with 10/2 cotton, wove four shots of plain weave alternating with one shot of pattern, which in my case was a five-thread advancing twill, 8 shaft pattern. The pattern shots were of crochet cotton, and those threads were then pulled up & tied, forming the flat woven fabric into a tightly pleated, narrow piece of fabric. Then, into the dyepot. I did two immersions into instant indigo and then painted with thickened Procion MX in sun yellow. The thickened paint stayed on the top surface of the pleats. Voila! If I use this technique again, I will most likely weave the pattern shots alternating with 6 rows of plain weave and I will most likely not do itty bitty fine pleats.

Now, off to pack!

Thank You

2007-05-18T19:44:00.000-07:00

Thank you, all, who sent messages of sympathy regarding Maggie's passing. I can't begin to tell you how much your kind words meant.

On our last camping trip with Maggie, we went to the Hot Air Balloon Stampede in Walla Walla, Washington. It was over Mothers' Day weekend. As we were driving there, I told my hubby that we'd most likely get an offer on the house while we were out of town. Sure 'nuff, just as we approached Yakima, we got a phone call from the realtor. So last Friday, we spent a good part of the day faxing offers back & forth, sold our house, and bought the house that we had been looking at for the last several weeks. If all goes as hoped, we should close on both places and move mid-June. Wish us luck!

The balloon stampede was great - lots of families in attendance in the early hours of the morning, to watch the balloons inflate & rise in the air. We also loved Walla Walla & will definitely be going back to enjoy the Farmers' Market and the surrounding area wineries.

Maggie Joy October 4, 1994 - May 14, 2007

2007-05-15T21:26:00.001-07:00

Maggie passed away Monday after a long battle with cardiac problems. We are so grateful for the 12 1/2 years during which she demonstrated to us unconditional love.

Maggie was the happiest dog I've ever known. She joined our family as a puppy, small enough to fit in the palm of my hand. As she grew through the years, she was a sweet sibling to a housebunny and several cats, and even a few pet rats. She helped raise our children. They grew into compassionate & gentle people, having learned responsibility in caring for and playing with her. Maggie will always be with us.

JL Don't Peek

2007-04-22T20:21:00.000-07:00

I've been busy with numerous & varied projects since last post, and thought I'd show you one of them. This is going to be a baby quilt, for a friend's almost-born granddaughter. The baby is due within a week. Nothing like leaving it until the last minute. . .

This pattern is the quickest and easiest quilt I know how to make. It is a reversible Roman Stripes, which gets quilted as I sew the strips of fabric on. I will be sewing through multiple layers of fabric & batting so I use a walking foot. Here's how it's done.

1. Cut squares of relatively stable batting. I use Warm & Natural. The squares can be any size, but I usually go for 13 1/2". I'm making 12 blocks, so I cut 12 squares. You can make your quilt as many blocks as you want, and you can make them any size that you want. Mark a diagonal line on both sides of the square (same point-to-point on both sides).

2. Cut squares of two main fabrics, larger than the batting squares - I usually cut them about 14 1/2". I'm making this quilt 3 X 4 blocks, so a total of 12 blocks. I cut six squares of fabric because they're cut in half, diagonally. (If you were making 20 blocks, you would cut 10 squares of fabric & cut those in half diagonally.)

3. Place one triangle of fabric on each side of the square, on opposite corners. The print should show, right side up, and the triangles should cover the diagonal lines which are drawn on each side of the square.

4. Now, place a strip of contrast fabric, right side down, over the diagonal edges of both the fabrics. You should have four layers of fabric + batting sandwiched in the middle.

5. Locate the corner points of the batting under the fabrics & make dots on the top layer of fabric, at those corner points. Then draw lines lightly to mark the diagonal of the square, so that you can see exactly where your first line of stitching will be. Sew on that line, diagonally, from point to point.

6. Fold the contrast strips back on both sides of the block, and iron. Then place another strip on each side, progressing out each time a strip is added, toward the point. When I'm doing a different color on each side, I do all the strips for one side at a time, using a bobbin thread that matches the bottom layer, so that the quilting stitches blend in with the fabric. Then after one side is done, I change bobbin thread to coordinate with the other side, and then add those strips.
*Note - be sure to iron after adding each strip.

7. After all your blocks are made, trim edges to make the blocks square again. Be sure that the diagonal seam runs right down the middle. I usually wind up removing 1/8" - 1/4" to get the blocks back to square.

Next time, sashing & binding. :-)

We're Lost, but We're Making Good Time

2007-04-08T12:52:00.000-07:00

One thing I’ve come to acknowledge, over the years, is my hubby & his family’s penchant for debate. Call it discussion, exchange of ideas, or out & out informing (whomever) of factoids, they’re way into that. So I found it quite amusing to listen to my dear hubby express his insights and differences of opinion to “Lucille”, our newly acquired Garmin Nüvi device which, when installed in our vehicle, is supposed to give us directions to wherever we are going. It appears that Lucille takes into account only distance. . . not scenic routes, and definitely not which particular bridge, in crossing the Columbia River, would appear to be sturdy enough to bear the weight of a diesel truck hauling a travel trailer. So we proceeded, with Doug having an ongoing conversation with Lucille, instructing which routes might be better choices for our trip. I was happy to be out of the loop and enjoyed my knitting time. Lucille spent a lot of time uttering the word “recalculating”.

As for knitting projects on the road, I’ve given up on lace knitting altogether. That requires a stable setting with good light, at least for me. Socks are out of the question, too, taking into account the small needle size, fine yarn & the truck’s frequent bounces & turns. I need something with larger needles, larger yarn, and uncomplicated pattern while traveling. So, I pulled out some Brown Sheep Lamb’s Pride from my stash, and some handspun ditzels of yarn and voila, we’re doing modular knitting.

The square that I’m doing in varying configurations is 11 stitches per side, plus one corner stitch (in the center). I’m doing mostly garter stitch, but once in awhile throw in stocking stitch to show off a pretty color. Double decreases are done every other row on the wrong side, using the center three stitches each time. That leaves one less stitch on the outsides with each decrease row, down to the point where there remains only one stitch on the needle. At that point, I pick up stitches on the right side along an edge of the square, again, having 11 stitches + 1 corner stitch, then cast on the remaining side of 11 stitches. For the smaller squares, I use six stitches per side, and for the larger rectangles that are composed of two squares, 11 stitches + 1 corner stitch, + 22 stitches + 1 corner stitch, + 11 stitches = 46 stitches. For the units of 3 squares, the total stitches cast on are 69. Just thought you might like to know. :-) And by the way, if I were to do it again, I’d probably choose to start with 12 stitches per side since I’m enjoying throwing in a few of the smaller squares (and half of 12 is 6). My squares are turning out to be about 3 1/2".

After we took some time to visit the areas surrounding White Salmon, Washington, we headed south into Central Oregon seeking a few days of sunshine. I’m happy to say that we found sunshine, and weather in the high 60’s & low 70’s. We also found spectacular mountain peaks, and for those of you who live in different parts of the country, we don’t consider them to be mountains unless they are covered with snow and/or periodically erupt. It’s a Pacific Northwest kind of thing.

I hope you enjoy the photos. This is a beautful part of the country & we’ll definitely be coming back. . . hopefully some year to catch the Sisters Quilt Show It’s the second Saturday in July).

Happy Easter everybody!

Alpacapalooza!

2007-04-03T20:11:00.000-07:00

We're taking a week off & having a great time. We spent the first weekend at Alpacapalooza in Puyallup WA. I love these animals. . . always have, and I'm hoping that life will take us in a slightly different direction so that we can actually *have* a couple of them. (There are many steps along the way to this goal, beginning with the fact that we live in town and aren't zoned for such pursuits. If things go as we hope, that will change.)

The part of Alpacapalooza that we spent the most time at was the judging. It was just like a dog show, but with alpacas instead (but the judges don't have to prance them around). The beasties are inspected for quality of fleece and conformity to standards, and the winners receive ribbons and encouragement to reproduce. The highest prized ones command many $$$$$ in price or stud fees. We would be looking more for a couple of healthy pets that I could shear annually, so we wouldn't be breeding, at least not to start. As it turned out, we have friends in the business (that we didn't even realize). . . long-lost contacts which we hope to resume.

So here are a couple of photos of the sweet little ones that we saw. There are two varieties here, regular alpacas & suri (no relation to Suri Cruise). The suris have longer locks, rather like silky dreadlocks. They're all beautiful & charming.

After our fun in Puyallup we headed to southern Washington. We're in White Salmon (hubby picked this spot) which is just across the bridge from Hood River, Oregon. I got to go to Knot Just Another Hat yarn store in Hood River, and met fellow blogger, Yvonne at http://www.lavendersheep.blogspot.com who, it appears, is living a life parallel to mine. We both teach spinning at our respective LYS's and we both hand dye yarns for sale at our LYS's. (She is much younger, though.) What a joy to get acquainted. :-)

Our other point of interest was the Stonehenge replica in Maryhill WA, just up the road from White Salmon. It is a war memorial constructed in memory of WWI soldiers, and it was constructed by (I'm not kidding) Sam Hill.

Tomorrow we head on to Oregon.

We Interrupt the Regular Scheduled Program. . .

2007-03-21T09:10:00.000-07:00

I've been dutifully knitting on the Tina shawl border for awhile now, enough time that It Became Necessary To Take A Break. Coincidentally, the Mountain Colors Moguls yarn that I ordered awhile back arrived at the LYS. So. . . Instant Moebius! The pattern is out of Cat Bordhi's first moebius book. The moguls works up so quickly (it's been awhile since I wrestled with yarn this thick) that the entire thing was knitted & blocked within two days. I like the way that it keeps my shoulders warm, almost like a shawl, only without tails hanging down. If I were to make this pattern again, I might use a few less stitches - it's pretty generously sized.

On the weaving front, my 8 shaft class with Sondra Rose is progressing well enough. . . would be better had my notes not disappeared at the color workshop recently, which made it necessary to redo the entire first week's notes. I know where the notes are now & I should be able to get my hands on them. Anyway, getting back to the 8 shaft class, this week the assignment was to take two four shaft drafts & combine them into a new threading which would enable the weaver to weave two different designs on the same warp, without changing threading or tie-ups. Here are a monk's belt pattern known as "Swedish Point" together with Bumperet, a structure we used in the color workshop. Bumperet is basically plain weave alternating with three-thread floats, and the design forms vertical chains along the fabric.

Weaving Workshop - Oh Boy Oh Boy Oh Boy!

2007-03-11T22:41:00.000-07:00

Well guys, I'm heading to a weaving workshop tomorrow, with Ruby Charuby. It's supposed to be about Fifty Ways to Weave your Color. Hmmm. The warp I received is gorgeous - 8/2 tencel, which I've never worked with before. It's beautiful - silky and glowing with color. A bit of a challenge to work with, though. Knots slipped, which I hope I fixed with Fray Check, so my threading had better be correct!

Here is a photo of the slippery warp, and then, ta daaaa! a few shots of the pattern woven. This is gonna be fun!

How to Launder a Cat

2007-03-06T20:57:00.000-08:00

Angus has had a little problem with his hiney, which I think we have resolved with a little modification in his diet, a haircut in his nether regions and a shower. This system worked for us:
1. Turn on shower to a comfortable temperature.
2. Insert cat.
3. Close shower door.
4. If necessary, apply shampoo to affected areas and use shower spray to rinse.
I am happy to say that he tolerated this procedure, considering, well, that he is a cat. He's always been curious about this Chamber of Falling Water, and it really wasn't all *that* traumatic. I think it really helped that he absolutely *loooooves* his Mommy (me) and I went in there with him. No claws. No blood. Amazing. The funny thing is that he doesn't seem to recognize his tail when it's wet. So periodically, when he notices it, he frantically attacks the strange, long rat-like thing that keeps following him around.

Annabelle continues her interest in the computer (evidenced by the bits of cat hair shed into the keyboard).

On the fiber front, the shadow weave towels are done! The loom is ready to begin my 8 shaft weaving class, which will start this week (instead of last week - we had snow). I can hardly wait!

And the Tina shawl from Fiddlesticks Knitting is progressing well. I'm about halfway around the second side (of four - it's a square) and I try to do at leasts one of the 16-row border pattern repeats every day. I usually manage more than one. I've also managed to throw an EZ ribwarmer into the knitting pile. I started this about a month ago for my Mom and it's nearing completion. Photos next time. . .

Winter Knitting & Weaving

2007-02-16T20:28:00.000-08:00

I have a cold. Bummed. It hit me like a ton of bricks a couple of days when I was out shopping - enough to send me straight to the pharmacy to ask what was recommended these days. I'm taking Mucinex, drinking lots of fluids & sucking on Vitamin C lozenges by the bagful. Thank God for naproxen. I've been pretty tired but since I'm stuck at home, I've had some quality knitting time. I thought I'd post a photo of the Tina shawl border. One of my friends, who just finished this shawl (our LYS had a KAL) said by the end of the border she was able to complete the 16-row repeat in 15 minutes. I've worked down from 40 minutes (first two repeats) to 26 minutes. I think there are close to 100 repeats to get all the way around the shawl . . . so that'll be . . . I don't wanna know.

And I finally got the warp threaded for shadow weave dish towels. Thought I'd better get these woven because the loom needs to be empty for my upcoming 8-shaft class which starts March 1. I see I have another error and/or broken thread & will sort that out tomorrow. Off to a hot bath.

Where I've been Lately

2007-02-12T18:56:00.000-08:00

I promised you a few photos last post, so here we are. I was fortunate enough to get to Madrona Fiber Arts Festival this year. It was my first time and next year I plan to go again. The classes were awesome, teachers were even more awesome. Way too much fun. I took a class from Jill Laski on Blending for Effect, using a variety of fibers. Here is one of my more colorful carding projects. I also took Modular Knitting with Ginger Luters, and we did several samples in our all-day class.

Then, as I mentioned, we went to visit Doug's folks in Arizona, and then headed to Mexico with them for a couple of days of sunshine & seafood.

My take-along knitting project was the Tina Shawl from Fiddlesticks Knitting. Carol asked what color I was using, and it's plain vanilla Knitpicks yarn. I am quite fond of Fiddlesticks patterns. I've done the Lotus Blossom shawl twice - once out of red Aurucania wool, and once out of scrumptious Country Silk. It's a quick knit and surprisingly easy considering how stunning it looks when done. As for the Tina, it's more challenging, but the directions and graphs are clearly written and easy to follow. It's been a great learning experience, and I feel that once the Tina is done, I'll be capable of returning to the Inky Dinky (Mutant) Spider (from Hell) that had me so befuddled earlier on. . . but that will be after one other important project. (Confession time: In the last year I have had three Fiddlesticks shawl patterns on the needles simultaneously. . . I've been on a bit of a lace binge lately. And my other confession is that I suffer from arachnophobia and perhaps that pattern was an unfortunate choice for me.) Getting back to the Tina, I am now on the borders, which are knit perpendicular to the body of the shawl, so I'm beginning the home stretch.