Cria!



Dolly had her baby a little after 7:00 this evening. He was worth the wait! Isn't he adorable? He was pretty clumsy first trying to get up. Carol kept saying that he looked like Emporor Kuzco from The Emporor's New Groove, and there is a resemblance. He's all neck and legs! Given just a little time, though, he did figure it out. Already good at acting shy by hiding his face in mama's wool, but he came right up to me and smelled my face and nibbled at my coat after he was finished with his act. We'll have to work with him daily to keep him tame, especially since his sire is a guanaco.



Can't get enough baby pictures? Here and here are a couple more.

Apron



I'm making an effort to post about knitting sometimes. It's just not as exciting as newborn llama/guanaco crias though. Do you think that contrast color at the bottom is too red?

Can You Believe It?!



We woke up this morning to snow! Yes, it melted off, but it is raining tonight and the wind is howling again, so snow again in the morning would not be a big surprise.

Oh, I did get shearing scheduled. It will be Saturday, May 15th at 8:30 a.m. if you would like to come help. It always comes in handy to have extra people to help catch the sheep, hold them for hoof trimming and worming, and deal with the fleeces. We try to bribe the shearers to slow down and at least let us have time to sweep off the shearing floor and get the finished fleece out of the way before they tromple it, not to mention be careful with the sheep and not cut them so much, but these guys always think it's a race or something, and I dread shearing time. The two things that have a chance of helping to get the best results are to pay them extra to go slower, and to have plenty of help. It's getting to the point that we are lucky to be able to find anyone at all who will shear. And no, they are not at all interested in shearing angora goats or llamas, so I get to do that myself. That's ok, as I can take my time and do a decent job, and the goats stand on the milk stand and the llama cushes, so it's not nearly as hard on the back as shearing sheep. And yes, I have tried shearing sheep myself. It is well worth it to pay someone else instead. But I wish they would do a decent job, and recognize that (1) these are my babies and seeing them cut a lot is not good, and (2) the fleeces are being used for hand spinning and throwing them in the dirt, going over the same area and making second cuts, etc. ruins a good fleece.

We Got Adopted



This turned up at our house on Sunday morning. The kids took her around and asked the neighbors, but nobody claimed her. She must have been dropped off. At first she was pretty scared, but now she has made herself right at home. She's a trouble-maker too. Well, I guess she is just acting like a normal kitten. Click here to see what happens when the kids forget to put away their shoes. (I'm not going to put pictures with dirty socks in them out here in plain sight, but other than that it's a funny picture and worth a look). Today she has really been getting brave. She has been chasing the dogs all over the place. Taz gives her his best exasperated look, but Nosie tolerates it pretty patiently. Look how well Susie (as the kids are calling the kitten) and Nosie match! (and please excuse the junk that the kids left on the couch).



Cats are very fun to photograph, and I am understanding how cat pictures sneak into knitting blogs so frequently. This is the first time we have gotten away with having a cat in the house! Mark is allergic. But Susie is insistent and so far she is getting her way. She is quite a spoiled little baby already.

Diet and Exercise



Now that I don't have school to obsess about (for a while at least), I had to find something else to obsess about. That's right - diet and exercise. I've actually been exercising quite a bit since it got warm again. Yoga can be pretty good. Mark got me a pedometer so I can obsess more efficiently too. It says in the instructions to try for 10,000 steps per day. Well, I've got a ways to go to do that. Jumping rope gets the count up there faster than anything else I've found. Is that cheating?

As for diet, well, I'm living on chocolate, but other than that it's healthy stuff. They have this stuff called broccoli slaw, and it's pretty good. Only 25 calories per serving too! (But it doesn't come with dressing, and that adds to the calories significantly). I remember seeing a set of fun diet tips a long time ago, and they have turned up from time to time. It's basically how to justify eating whatever you want to eat. You can find anything on the internet! Check out the Stress Diet and its accompanying diet tips! I've been thinking about adding a food section here too, with recipes, etc. I have a few food links in the link section - recipes for mixes to put in jars and give as gifts, recipes from the Middle Ages, and also a searchable database for just about any recipe imaginable.

Knitting

Oh yeah, I finally committed to starting a new project; the party apron from Knitty. I look better in more peachy colors than pink though, so mine has more of an orangy tone. I'm using Peaches & Cream cotton yarn in "Orange Sherbet" with contrast in Chenille (Terracotta), which looks just a bit too red but I think I will like it when it's done. I'll post pictures later.

I think I'll just start with another lamb picture - they grow!



Still no cria, but Dolly does look like she is pregnant. Thanks, Nita, for your help with that! I will definitely post when we have a new arrival.

Additions to the Website

To the right, in the navigation box, I have added the paper I wrote about the Microculture of Knitting Bloggers. Let me know what you think! I have also done some revisions on the other pages, including adding a bunch of new links that I hope you will enjoy.

Rejection Letters

I was waiting for rejection letters from two more graduate programs. They arrived on Friday and Saturday. So it's official that I will not be going to graduate school this year.

Here he is again



Finally got that lamb from last week to pose for a picture. I still think he's gorgeous.

Dolly looked like she was considering giving birth this afternoon (in the middle of a hail storm), but she changed her mind. We are starting to question whether she is actually pregnant or just always an ornery creature. But I was glad that the cria did not emerge during the hail storm, which covered the entire ground with quarter-inch hailstones in less than five minutes before tapering off. Still cool and cloudy outside.

No More Classes

They are all finished. And I know my grades already too. I got all A's in everything for the entire year! Maybe only taking 12 credits at a time was cheating, but I honestly couldn't find any more classes that were available and appropriate for me to take. The research project was my main thing I wanted to get out of this year, and everything else was a bonus. No regrets though - I enjoyed each and every class. In fact, I'm not rejoicing that they are over. In fact, I'm really going to miss them. Actually, it's really not like I will have nothing to do now. There are lots of things that I want to work on, and I'm not quite sure where I want to start, probably a bit of each:

• study my Norwegian (I have been neglecting it since I had other things to study - I have some ideas involving that and blogging that will be announced shortly.)
• take violin lessons, since I haven't gotten very far with it on my own - it's quite a bit different from piano and the wind instruments I am used to
• process a whole bunch of wool
• knit!
• a whole bunch of house and yard work (in fact, it looks like we will be trying to sell this house and move to the other end of the Uintah Basin!)
• there are a bunch of books I want to read
• write a book!
• the regular, everyday stuff goes on, including homeschool - anybody have any tips for not getting extremely frustrated when trying to teach a child to read? He's actually doing pretty well - the problem is that I get frustrated when it seems obvious that he knows the word but he won't say it right!
• I guess that's enough for now!

Where to Start

Do you get the idea that I save everything up and then blog all at once? That seems to be my pattern, doesn't it? Not that I remember who said it, but one blogger I read recently said something about that she would like to tell us that she hasn't gotten much blogging done due to being busy actually having a life, but ..., well, I guess I am actually having a life and I get too busy to blog about it. But my classes will be over in about a week, and then I will have to find something to do with myself. Actually, they have wound down significantly already. In case you were wondering what my plans are for next year, I really thought that I would know by now, but it is still not settled. Only one of the graduate schools I applied to gave me an answer (it was "no"). That was back in February. But my chances at the others at this point are not encouraging. Last I heard, I was on the alternate list at one program. I will probably be applying to graduate school again next year.

I wish that I had kept a few more goats. We still have more than enough sheep, and we keep getting the most beautiful lambs. Another one was born yesterday.



He's a quick little guy and wouldn't stand still with his face towards the camera. This lamb was born about as big as Lucky is, with teeth and hard hooves, and an inch of wool. He has pronounced horn buds. Four of them! One eyelid does have a slight break. Some people say that it isn't possible to have four-horned Churros without at least a marker of a split eyelid. I think he is a very nice lamb, very healthy, with beautiful colors. Click here for another shot.

Nessie is his mama.



She is a favorite of mine. Our very first Churro was a ram named Jo-Jo. He was black/dark brown, and four-horned. After about a year we got a few ewes, and Nessie was in that group. She came with a mature daughter and a granddaughter, so at a minimum she was two years old then, which makes her at least thirteen now. She had triplet lambs the year we got her (we didn't get the lambs - purchased her at weaning time), and twinned every year for us up until the last few years, when she twinned every other year for a few more years. I didn't even expect this old matriarch to have a lamb this year. Her wool is a bit finer, with less outer coat, and shorter than typical for Churro, but given her age we can allow for that. Hers is my favorite to spin, as it is soft, and a lovely brown/grey color. She is a special old ewe at any rate.

We are still waiting on Dolly (the llama) to have her cria any day now, but she is holding out. Dolly is bred to a guanaco stud, so her baby will be a very interesting critter.

Lucky is doing great! He figured out that his milk comes from Jitterbug, the La Mancha goat, and persuaded her to let him have it straight from the source. Since we didn't breed Jitterbug this year she seems glad to claim a baby. Leia (Lucky's real mom) was milked for a couple of days but went dry before Lucky was quite up and around enough to join the flock, and didn't quite seem to remember him anymore by that time or know what she was to do with him. Ashley thought that Lucky was her baby and was not happy with Jitterbug for stealing him, but since Lucky still plays with humans happily, all it really means is a little less work for us.



Easter



I hope that you all had a terrific Easter. This is all the eggs we colored, as we all know the true purpose of Easter egg dye, don't we?



The daffodils almost bloomed in time for Easter. They are open now, but here is the picture of them from Sunday:



Yesterday I got drafted once again to demonstrate spinning to all the fourth graders in Uintah county for the annual "Farm Day" activity. I took my camera, and thought about asking someone to take pictures, but then I got so busy that it didn't happen. Ashley was a major help with that - I couldn't have done it without her. She passed out the materials to each group of kids, acted as a partner when there was an odd man out, and helped show them what we were doing. Each fourth grader (about 450 of them) spun a small sample of wool using a modified spindle (actually just a metal hook). One student was the spinning wheel, and turned the hook, while their partner drafted. Then they changed jobs. Each of them made their own sample of yarn which most tied around their wrist as a bracelet.

So all this focus on wool and spinning and shearing time (I still need to get my critters sheared - the weather turned too wet to do that last week) is motivating me to start getting some wool processed. I've been washing some, but there is a huge amount to do and not much space for drying it.

No knitting is currently in progress. There are lots of things I want to knit, but I need to get the patterns and the yarn matched up together. Some knitters like starting projects, and I do too, but I like finishing them more. I don't mean the sewing up and working in loose ends - I mean having a finished project. So I get something started and obsess about it until it's done, leaving me with nothing to knit. Instead of having lots of things in progress, I have lots of things in the contemplation stage. And I think I need to start something that won't get done quite so fast - maybe it's about time to work on another sweater. The problem with hand-spun yarn is that you have to work so hard to have enough of it that matches to be able to knit bigger projects like sweaters.

Well, it sounds like I am starting to ramble now - could it be a sign that I am up past my bedtime? Nah!

I'll leave you with a picture of the horse-drawn cart that happened down our street Sunday afternoon. This is not actually an unusual sight for us if you can believe it. Although cattle drives down our street are slightly more common. We are definitely rural out here, aren't we? Still walking distance from the public library though. I grew up in cities, but can't imagine living in one now!

Let's Talk About Knitting!

I've been procrastinating long enough on discussing a few of my projects. First, the shawl that I finished last fall before the computer crashes.



Other pictures previously posted can be viewed by clicking here and here if you don't feel like hunting through my website to find them.

For lots of basic information on shawls, including an assortment of basic construction methods and some ideas on ornamentation, Knitting In The Nordic Tradition, by Vibeke Lind, is really a great book. There, in fact, is where I got the basic pattern that this shawl is based on (Double-triangle shawl increased from the neck. Basic form III, p. 76). Start by casting on 3 stitches. From there, I modified the pattern slightly in that I used a YO increase, to make those pretty little eyelets. So, first row: k2 stitches in first stitch, yo, k2. (my method - the book uses an invisible increase). Second row: k2 stitches in first stitch, yo, k to end of row. Continue in this manner, knitting two stitches in the first stitch of each row, then knitting to the stitch before the center stitch (which becomes visible by the third row as the straight chain of stitches in between the yarn overs), yo, then k the center stitch and keep knitting to the end of the row. In order to make the shawl fit better over the shoulders, include a few increase rows somewhere in the first 7 inches or so (measuring the front edge out from the center). Just k 2 stitches in every other stitch across those rows, maintaining the eyelets and center stitch. This is optional but recommended. When the shawl is as big as you want it to be, cast off any way you like. There are any number of lace cast-offs that are appropriate. What I did was a picot border (presented in the book as a cast-on border, but not difficult to modify for casting off). To do this, when you are ready to cast off, in the first stitch cast on 4 stitches (by knitting into the stitch, twisting the new stitch, and placing it back on the left needle) and bind off 5. Repeat across the row until all stitches are casted off. The main part of the shawl took just over 2 skeins of yarn, and the border took most of a third. If you are short on yarn, you might consider making a picot only in every other or every third stitch, binding off the stitches in between normally. Knitting shawls offers the opportunity to work in lace patterns and borders as you like, and should be treated as an opportunity to be creative, so do your own thing! I'm sure it will be beautiful!

And the purple/blue striped socks

They are pictured just a few entries ago, but just in case, you can click here if your memory needs refreshing. These are the ones that I started one week while the kids were at dance class, and then finished most of them as car knitting on the way to Price and back. The Pattern is from The Sock Calendar: Socks for All Seasons by Catherine Wingate and Jackie Erickson-Schweitzer. It is the pattern for September, "Autumnal Equinox." I used Lion Brand Magic Stripes yarn, which I find to be equivalent to Opal. It is 75% wool, 25% nylon, and machine washable, with comparable weight and yardage. I used the 2 circs method for these socks, working from the top down as I wanted to try out the Dutch heel.



I do like the Dutch heel, but where the directions say to use stitch markers and to make the stitches over the markers very snug, either use yarn for markers or omit the markers. I don't tend to like using stitch markers since I can see where the shaping belongs without them. For turning heels (of any turned heel style) where you see a gap between two stitches, those are the stitches to knit (or purl) together. Someone correct me if I am wrong, but no matter how the decreases are spaced, once you have it set up I have found that to be true. Anyway, stitch markers are too bulky and will get in the way, resulting in loose spots.



With the 2 circs method, when you get to the heel it is easiest to just work back and forth on one heel at a time until ready to pick up the instep stitches. I find the use of double-pointed needles to be very helpful for the task of picking up stitches for the instep. The dpns are not in use for long, as those stitches are knitted onto the same circular needle holding the heel stitches as soon as you come around to them. Markers, again, are not needed to keep track of the instep decreases as the decreases always come at the beginning and the end of the needle.



These socks do not match exactly, since I knitted from the inside and outside of the same skein of yarn, resulting in stripes in reverse order. I like them this way - they have character! Who says that socks need to be identical in order to match? You can tell that they go together, and the stripes even line up, pretty much! That is saying something when using self-striping sock yarn.

Knitter's Geek Code

Thanks go to Knitty for starting yet another trend that is taking over knit blogs all over the world, this one included! Well, it is a cool idea anyway. And, as usual, they have some new patterns that are on my must do list. Specifically, Otis and Party Apron are calling to me at the moment. Otis just might be the perfect use for my soy silk yarn, with possible embellishment using the purple silk and/or red silk/merino. And who doesn't need an apron that isn't hideous???

-----BEGIN KNITTER'S GEEK CODE BLOCK-----
Version: 1.1
KCRL++ Exp++>$ SPM+++ Wood Bam++@ Cas+ AddiT++@ Boye+@ Syn- Nov+ Cot+ Wool+++ Lux+++ Hemp+ Stash++ Scale++ Fin Ent FI+ Int+++ Tex+++ Lace+ Felt+ Flat- Circ++ ML[2] Swatch- GaugeS(B) KIP+++ Blog+++ SNB++ EZ+++ FO+++ WIP- ALT CrXEmSw-Wv+Sp++
------END KNITTER'S GEEK CODE BLOCK------

Although the Knitty article will tell you how to interpret this, I just want to add that I'm not exactly bragging about my Stiches Per Minute, since I actually have won speed contests (knitting back and forth ambidextrously without turning my work)!

One Spoiled Lamb



As you can see, Lucky thinks that he is a house pet. The kids think so too. They like to bring him in to feed him, but we are working towards feeding him outside. He sleeps with the sheep outside now too, but is positive that life is not fair.

New Project

Have you tried two-ended knitting? If you haven't, give it a try! It's fun, and the results are pretty cool. I decided that the Autumn yarn was not what I wanted for the Knitty corset. It isn't just that there wasn't enough of it - since I separated the colors there was a big chunk of red/blue which worked into green and finally orange/black. It would have made wide horizontal stripes that would probably not have been exactly even, and I would have needed to use a different yarn for the back. Since the Autumn yarn came off the spinning wheel I was wondering what to make with it. Too thick for socks. Not enough for a sweater. It is really neat yarn but it didn't know what it wanted to be when it grew up. I decided that I didn't actually want the big sections of color to knit up separately, and was wishing that I had spun it more randomly, mixing up the colors. I thought, what if I knit from each end of the skein, alternating rows for finer, more controlled stripes? What about alternating stitches to mix it up? Hey, that sounds like two-ended knitting!!! I have one book that has all the right ideas for things to knit out of handspun yarn that really give the yarn a chance to shine. That book, of course, would be Linda Ligon's Homespun Handknit. So I was looking through the book, and on page 70 there is a pattern for a Two-End Cap and Gauntlet Mittens. Two-end! That rings a bell. What size yarn does it use? 12 wraps/inch. What size needle would I need? Circular 40 cm, size 5 or 6. I was in luck!



I didn't even bother to swatch. I don't worry about swatching for small items (1) because the item is small enough to rip it out and start over if the gauge is way off, (2) because if you make a hat it is going to fit somebody's head, and (3) I'm a member of the full-size sample club anyway (I often just can't be bothered to swatch even though I know I should). The cap just zipped along and was finished in one day. It is just a bit snug on me, but I like my hats that way, so this is my new favorite hat! Don't you just love the way the colors worked up? It's colorful, but I don't think it is overwhelmingly so. The fabric is nice for a hat - thick - it will be warm, as a hat should. But now I have to start on another project.



I found the yarn pictures



That isn't a great picture so click here to see it all skeined up. The first skein is purple silk, then the red one is a silk/merino blend. Next comes the Autumn yarn (I had two skeins of it - the hat took just over one, and there is not quite enough for the mittens, so I still have one to decide what to do with if you have any ideas), then some llama/soysilk, and finally the infamous green bead yarn (which I will probably use for the corset vest, although I think I will still need something else for the back - black would go well).

Conference Weekend Again

Since I finished the hat on Saturday I did some spinning on Sunday. I listen better with my hands busy. Currently on the spinning wheel is a cotton/silk blend that is a bit of a pain because it is so short and keeps breaking, but it will be nice when it is done. I just have so much of it to spin that I get tired of it. The girls brought out their knitting too!



They are making shawls. It is their first major knitting project so I wanted to give them something easy, forgiving, and that would move along quickly. The pattern is just like the popular washcloths except that you keep going instead of decreasing to make a square. When you have a big enough triangle it is time to bind off. Here's the whole pattern: Cast on 3. First and every row: k1, yo, k to end. Bind off when big enough. It just keeps growing until it becomes a shawl. No need to swatch or anything like that either. The trick is to use big yarn and big needles. This is Lion Brand Homespun. Or you can use finer yarn. It will just take longer.

Now, my shawl (which I am modeling in the margin of my 100 things page) is constructed differently, since it is knit from the middle of the long edge going out, increasing in the middle. I will get that posted too - it's also simple, but it's getting late tonight and I really should be going to bed. Someone remind me this week, okay? Jesse are you out there?