Fair Isle Hat Finished

Finished my Fair Isle hat today. It was a quick knit and I think I'd like to make more for Christmas gifts for next year.

Outside of Knitting -

Yesterday we went into Springfield. I had my appointment with the Perineonatologist for my genetic counselling and work-up. They drew 15 tubes of blood and a finger stick. What are we looking for? Good question- I've done alot of research on my own so I was somewhat familiar with what was being discussed. I think the main tests are for clotting disorders- V Factor Leiden being one of these, an Balanced Translocation (in me) - meaning I have 2 chromosomes- Chrom. A and Chrom. B. Chrom A has some of Chrom. B in it, Chrom. B has some of Chrom. A, in equal amounts. If the baby gets one of these chromosomes- dad's wouldn't match because his are normal and the baby will die at some point- in womb or out. If mine come back okay- he'll be tested. The results should be back in 1-2 weeks. I need to know what is going on. Can this be prevented by simple measure- i.e. an aspirin a day for a clotting disorder ( or warfarin), hormones or is this something that just is (Balanced Translocation) and nothing can be done. I'm not into the weird things they are doing with invitro. fert. and the other stuff. With the things that can't be helped with medicine, hormones..... it is simply in God's hands and I am okay knowing there is nothing else that I can do. Now we wait and see. We may not find any answer with these tests, but it's a start.

I sure am not asking for sympathy. It's amazing to me the things that happen to us in our lifetimes. When we lost our 1st son, it all was a blur and my husband had to take pictures of cemeteries to bring for me to look at and choose in the hospital. There was no time, no warning. A few years later, we were there, burying another son. Painful, oh yes. But, if I can spread awareness and share what I am doing. Perhaps someone can be helped, maybe it'll be a friend or relative of someone who reads this blog post.

Blocked and Ready for Wrapping

I managed to get my scarf blocked this morning. I used the wires and pins for this and it went quickly. It's a beautiful scarf and the photo does not do it justice. I used a wool/silk blend in an eggshell color. I cast on for the second one already.
This afternoon we ran out to rephotograph the bulls. They've put on alot of weight and thickness. Spent some time visiting before it was time to head home for chores and milking.

Fair Isle Project

Yesterday I started on my Fair Isle hat project. One City Market (Yarn Shop) has mini classes called Saturday Snipits where their teacher, Vanessa Montileone, teaches a new technique to advance ones knitting skills. The last class was Estonian Braid- this class, held on Sunday afternoon, was the Fair Isle.
I'm really liking knitting this. It was difficult at first and the first row had to take well over 15 minutes if not 30 to get through. It was the knitting with 2 fingers, one yarn on the left hand and one yarn on the right. I'm used to carrying my yarn on the left hand ( Continental ?) and using the right was quite a challenge. Carrying yarn on the right hand just increased the difficulty.Although it was a struggle at first, it didn't take long to become comfortable knitting this way and now it's almost effortless and I can speed along.

One of the main things taught was how to make the inside neat and tack/secure the strands of yarn on the inside so that you don't have long strands to catch fingers on. This is especially true with sweaters. I never thought I'd learn to do this, knitting with a variety of colors seemed daunting. In the end it wasn't all that bad and I'm so glad I gave it a try.

Update

It's been a while since the last post. Our life seems to have been turned upside down and my normal, comforable level of chaos hasn't been for the last 3 weeks. Which, I can barely remember much of. We had a warm spell and I took full advantage of that. The garden was made ready for winter, pruned the raspberries, burned some brush and washed windows. Everyone seemed to have appointments for the dentist, eye doctor.......even the horse. Glory had gotten a really bad infection of some sort. I had her on antibiotics for over 2 months. She saw a special Equine vet last week and underwent ultrasounds of her uterus and urinary tract. We also pulled samples to send out and culture. All came back okay. Great news. Had a large load of alfalfa hay trucked in as we are about officially out of grass. That also means we are officially broke until Spring. Within a span of 3-4 days- I stepped on a nail, went in for the tetnus shot and then followed that up by stepping on a tack. Tacks are deceiving. You'd think they would come out easily, but this one had to be worked out. My children had never seen their mother cry until the tack, and it alarmed them. I don't usually cry-but they've left no stone unturned with regards to destruction, getting into things and trying to kill themselves. I've hung on to my sanity rather well - daily trips to the coffee shop for 20oz. Mocha. This happens to other people- not us. I don't know what is going on but I hope it stops soon. L.O.L. Of coarse there was still the house to care for, meals to cook, lessons to teach, records to keep, lessons to get to and chores to do. I did manage to find time to spin and ply all of the singles I had. I also have started a Fair Isle hat-I've never knitted Fair Isle before so it is a challange to myself. I've also started a lace stole made from the pattern "Twinnings" (I think) from Knit Spot. One of these days I'll have to post photos. We had a nice Thanksgiving. We've gone to friends the past few years and it has always been nice. Rushed, but nice. Dairy farming doesn't leave much social time- basically showing up to eat and by the time dessert is finished, heading out and your about 2 hours behind in chores then milking. This year we decided to stay home. I think we are just tired, not in the physical way- this is different. It's been a long, hard year and we needed some time to just spend time as a family and rest. I made the big dinner and we all chipped in to clean up the grand mess. Spent the afternoon watching movies- which we never do. It was nice. The sheep had gotten out one morning and managed to get into something and made themselves sick. They were depressed, wouldn't eat, drink, baaa...nothing. We hit them with everything we could and drenched them with baking soda and mineral oil. Did the soda drences for 2 days. Vitamin B shots, thiamin even an antibiotic just in case as one had a low fever. After about 5 days, they started feeling better and are back to normal. Yesterday was the first day they were out on grass and they were loving that. Below are some photos of the handspun I've managed lately. I'm always intrigued with process of watching those colors in the roving come together in the finished, plyed product.

Hello Yarn's Winter Storage
Hello Yarn's Patchwork

Hello Yarn's ??

Hello Yarn's or Spunky Club -I can't remember.

Fiddlehead Mittens

My Fiddlehead Mitten kit arrived today. I had first found the pattern on Hello Yarn's website and I loved the colors in the mittens she had knit. Tanis at Tanis Fiber Arts www.tanisfiberarts.com has been putting together these Fiddlehead Mitten kits in several colorway groupings, with just the right amount of yarn. I'm finally going to be able to make myself a pair.

This Years Rams and More

Meet Three Ring Henry. Allena was too generous and loaned him to me this fall. He was a Spring 09 lamb, not very old but he's getting the job done. I like his size, fleece length, and overall looks. Is AFD was a low, 23.6. The only thing I'd fault him with it a high CV at 33.5.

Fletcher Crescendo has a gorgeous head. I really like this ram. He's double coated and his numbers are pretty good for that type of coat I.M.H.O. -AFD 26.4, CV 32.2. He was born in 06. He has 2 of the girls.

Lettie is a Crescendo daughter.

Glory (Parr T on the Bar) and Geno (Poco G Sassy Lady) were up waiting on us. Glory is the 2 year old filly(Buckskin) I bought this spring. She has a fantastic disposition and has thusfar been easy to work with. I've several rides on her now. We named her Glory after the kids kept saying her name was Party on the Bar, at church and everyone knows how some people can be. Geno came with her name. Named after a friend of the previous owner. She has been a wonderful horse. She had been used for everything-from shows to rodeo. She is definitely a cow horse as she is amazing to watch when she is let loose with the calves. She flies around penning and sorting a calf or two out. While she is chasing them off, she is watching the others to hold them in their "corner" of the pasture.

Several years ago a big gust of wind and blew a big Walnut tree, like the one pictured below, over. It was sudden and the wind was indredible. My husband thought a tornado was down, but it was just straight line winds. Anyhow, it crushed half of our garage. For the last few years there has just been a gaping hole there.

This is only half seen in this photo. The Black Walnut trees can be huge.

This afternoon I noticed a flock of Bluebirds in our yard. They are my favorite bird so it was a treat to see them.

Superman is our white Silkie rooster.

And finally, our Peacock was roaming around. He's almost 2 and has a few eye feathers on his back. I've heard that it takes 3 years for their adult feathers to come in.

Trip to A Yarn Shop

I'd never been into a "yarn shop" until today. It was a little bit overwhelming as there was so much to see. The owner, Lisa, was wonderful. I spent a good 3 hours there, mostly just chatting.

I found 2 balls of Wendy happy-bamboo/nylon, a skein of hand dyed sock yarn from Pagewood Farm and a ball of Schoppel Wolle. I'd been eyeballing that yarn on Paradise Fibers site and now I have some. She has alot of yearn to choose from, along with books, undyed yarn and dyes.... The name of the shop is One City Market and it is located in Rogersville, Missouri.

I'm ready to ship out my fleeces, just need to tape up the box. I kept one back to card myself. It's Concetta's fleece, grey, 5" staple. The ends are yellow and a bit funny looking and feeling. I know they could be weather damaged but I didn't think they were at shearing. I am wondering if the detergent can do that sometimes- maybe if too much was used or on certain fibers.

I did a bit of spinning over the weekend, inbetween chaos here and there. Thought I was doing well untill I realized I was plying in the wrong direction. So I got up, and slowly stepped away from the wheel. Haven't been back. l.o.l. I guess I'll have to cut it off. It's a shame though. I don't know what happened there.

Sheared and Picked Wool

Yesterday afternoon I moved the sheep to another paddock and took down the temporary fence. I had planned to just wait to shear because of the cold weather we were having, but it's warmed up and my husband suggested going ahead with it while their fleeces were clean. At 3pm I called the shearer and by 4:30pm he was here. All went well. A few sheep gave us trouble heading into the barn to be penned but all in all it went well. It'll be warm for the next week at least and if it gets cold, we'll just move them into the barn.
Their fleece was extremely clean- even the belly wool was clean.
This afternoon I started in on the fleeces-skirting and picking out what little vm I could find. Tomorrow I can start washing.
Once they are out of grass in their current paddock, my plan was to move them to a pasture and have them help graze down what our replacement heifers won't eat. Shearing now means I will have something vs waiting and having prickly things, possibly burrs and hay embedded in their wool. The staple length was good-nothing under 3 inches and one yearling had a 5 -inch staple length and that is just the growth since shearing this spring.

First Handspun Shetland

Last week I worked on plying the my Shetland/Alpaca blend and this is the finished product. I finally acheived a perfect, even yarn. There is about 240 yards and there is 2.4 ounces. I think it'll make a nice lace scarf or shawl.

Amber Myst Reaches New Heights

It's been a busy week here on the farm. We are running 20-degrees below normal from what I've heard and it's been wet. There were showers last night and will see more tonight. I've been trying to figure out what to do about breeding this fall. What I had planned, I am reconsidering even at this late date. Why? SD and CV values along with the AFD. The SD and CV values on my girls, especially the lambs, are so high that I don't want to waste a breeding season perpetuating more of the same numbers. I enjoy my sheep, but I also want to see them reach their fullest potential. That's not to say that I would get rid of all of my girls, I won't and can't as I only have a few and they are "pets". But, I do want to breed them to the best rams with the best numbers to improve the offspring and move me closer to my goals. I want fine fleeces and conformation. Having a small flock, I am limited on what I can do in some ways. So I need to take advantage of every breeding season and make it count.

On another note, the girls manage to climb up a little higher on our bales. They did jump from there to make their escape from the "paddock" they were in. We just stood in disbelief watching. They were fine though.
I have lots of full bobbins and lots of plying to do. I'm working on the Shetland/Alpaca that I washed, carded and blended.

I'm really happy with how it is looking and it's super soft.

Isn't she a cutie. Gotta be the cutest kitten I've seen.

Tomorrow I am taking the day off from home :-) and heading down to War Eagle Mill in Arkansas for the big Craft Festival they have. I believe they have something like 300 + vendors there and on the way I remember circus tent sized tents along the roads in fields with more crafters. If I remember right, Rogers, Bentonville even have craft things going on in town at convention centers. It's a biggie anyhow and will surely be alot of fun. Planning on hitting road at 4:30-5 am!

The girls have a horse show this Saturday. Friday we'll be busy getting ready for that. They'll have their horses over at where we have lessons, practicing, clipping and braiding. They'll have to be up early Saturday and do the last minute things before we head out. A busy weekend for sure!

Knitting Under The Influence

This week has been catch up on grading and work on lesson plans week. So when I had the opportunity to be sitting in our Suburban for a lengthy drive, I was looking forward to working a little more on my sock. I've been struggling with car sickness for just over a week now and get gagging, can't stand the movement, please stop and let me walk home....sick. I hang my head out the window, chew gum, lay down....to no avail. After my 4 year old was watching me struggle to hang onto my stomach contents and eventually close my eyes, she sighed and said,"well, I guess mommy's is dead". My 10 year old said, "no, she's sleeping" and the 4 year old replied, "nope, she's dead". At that point I burst out laughing. I've had to resort to Dramamine. Wow! When they say "marked drowsiness" on the label, they aren't fooling. I tried some last Sunday, to get me to Church and home. I barely made it through without keeling over. Sure enough, I had to take it today and what you see in the above photo is why you shouldn't knit while extremely drowsy. I lost a stitch somewhere. I'm still feeling the effects and it's been 4.5 hour since the symptoms hit. I'll be glad when the allergy season is passed.
We had opened up the fence to let the sheep have shelter from the rain. One of them figured out how to climb up higher and was sunning herself this morning.

Chicks Hatching

It started rain sometime during the night and hasn't stopped. I couldn't even tell how much rain we've gotten, but a neighbor stopped by this morning and had 2 inches. The forecast was for 2-3 inches this morning, another 1-2 this afternoon and who knows how much tonight. We've had some dry years so the rain is much appreciated. The neighbors cattle don't seem to mind the rain either.
We opened the cattle panel so that the girls could get in out of the weather. I see they still chose to spend most of their time out in the rain. Shearing has been postponed until they dry out.

Yesterday afternoon one of our eggs hatched. This morning a few more decided to come out of their shells.

Still have several eggs that could hatch. It's day 21, and that was technically this afternoon- so we'll see in the morning. It's been exciting for everyone to be able to watch the progress. I'm really happy with this incubator ( Genesis 1588) - I didn't have to do a thing to it, no fiddling with the temperature, etc. It has the fan and a thermostat. I'd definitely recommend the clear top.

Micron Results In

The Micron results came back today.

AFD 28.8

SD 8.9

CV 31.1

% greater than 30 34.3

Several of my ewes are older girls and I didn't expect alot. They ran at about 30 AFD. The lambs on the other hand, I expected better. My lowest AFD was 26.4, SD was 7.7, CV 25, % greater than 30 was 22.7. Definitely room for improvement.

New Books,Spinning, Hatching Chicks, 1st Dark Marans Egg

I've found several new books to add to my library. "Start Spinning" has alot of general information and photos. There isn't alot of indepth information like the Alden Amos book- It's a really good starter book and I liked the photos. Found the "Knitting Circles Around Socks" at JoAnns. It shows how to knit 2 socks at one time. The photos are great and very self explanitory. "The Shepherd's Rug" is another fantastic book. I had stumbled onto Pine Lake Karakuls page with their rugs. They are beautiful. The book explains how they make the rugs from felted roving. What a great way to use roving. I'm interested in taking wool that may not be the best in microns, or britch wool..... and making rugs with it. They web address for Pine Lake Karakuls is http://www.plfkarakuls.com Tomorrow will be day 21 in the incubator. Yesterday afternoon we heard chirping coming out of the Bator. One shell had been chipped open and another this morning. Several of the eggs are moving around.

I've finally started Hello Yarn's August fiber "Patchwork".

It is really beautiful. I'm especially taken with the blues/greens, browns and golds.

It's spinning up nicely.

Below is a picture of our first Black Copper Marans egg that is dark. The picture makes it look lighter than it actually is.

Socks 5(or more) : Me 1

Last year I decided I wanted to learn to make socks. Forgot, got sick and just over a week ago started. Allena started me on 2 circular needles. I'll admit, I couldn't at the moment figure the concept out. I ordered a good set of needles and practice joins, knitting in the round on dpn's. Yesterday my Addi needles came and I began casting on for the 5th time (maybe more) on those, got the switching needles figured out and the join, made a few rounds and lost a stitch. So I put that back into my bag and started these. I've never made anything for my son. I've sewn lots of things for the girls and I figured the first pair of socks would be for him. They are a simple sock pattern out of the book "Getting Started Knitting Socks" by Ann Budd. I had forgotten that I had this book sitting on my shelf and glad I found it. It's been a great help.
I've found now that it pays not to cast on too tightly, I knit fairly tight. It makes knitting on the dpn's easier. The more rounds I do, the faster it seems to go. So I think there is hope.

Kettle Dyeing and Spinning

Allena emailed yesterday about coming over to dye. She made it over and gave me a lesson in kettle dyeing. Wow, it's neat. After she had headed out, I put the kids skeins in the pots, on the stove to add a little more color. I let it set until the color absorbed before adding a different shade.

This is a skein for a pair of socks for myself.

These two smaller skeins are for socks for the girls. The bluish skein is a little softer than the picture shows. The purple doesn't stand out quite so.

I haven't started on my Hello Yarn fiber as I have been busy spinning some of my own Shetland fiber instead. It has been amazing to start with a sheep and work through the process to a handspun yarn. This was off of Fletcher Friday. He was a gorgeous ram.

The actual color is somewhere between these two pictures. It is a beautiful oatmeal color. I blended in a little silver and fawn alpaca. It didn't change to coloring, surely added softness though.

First Breeding Group Established

Fletcher Crescendo
Locksfield Kaya Papper, MS Concetta and MS Sara

Sheep Work Day ~ Lambs Come Home

This afternoon I corraled all of the girls and wormed everyone and tagged the ones who needed their tags. I also collected a 2 inch sample of wool from their midsides to send in for micron testing.

I figured it was time. I'm curious as to what the tests will show. Not concerned though. This is a starting point and I am looking forward to whatever the results may be and being able to use that information in selection future rams. Lately I've taken some time to evaluate my long term goals for my flock. There are alot of options out there- spots, modified........I can get a bit overwhelming, especially when one has a small flock. I have come to the descision that I am going to aim for excellent conformation and excellant fleece. The rest will come in time.
This weekend we drove out to Seymore, Missouri and I picked out a couple of my lambs that I had sold in the spring. One of these was an ewe out of Locksfield Braeton and Locksfield Joaquin. This is she. A super little ewe. Her fleece is matted from burr on the surface but underneath she has a soft fleece that has good crimp and alot of luster. She'll have an intermediate fleece. Her conformation is great.

Here she is from the backside.

This little ewe lambs is from Locksfield Rosebriar and Minwawe Tornado. She is also a terrific little ewe lamb. Great conformation and a very nice fleece, also a mess from the burrs.

She also has a super little tail.

Here is Locksfield Braeton. Dam to one of the above lambs.

And Locksfield Kaya Pepper. She is going to be our stinker. The only ewe that wouldn't come into the corral area, even for feed. Isabelle said that she was scared. I told her that she wasn't scared, she was smart. I offered $5 to the person who caught her.