Saturday, August 9, 2008

Gone to the dogs..... er, chickens...

My youngest daughter is infinitely amused that my "knitting blog" has more chicken content than knitting content.
More pics of our Rhode Island Reds - they're about 2 months old now.
When I opened the coop door, they all mobbed me. For such dumb creatures, they're extremely curious...

Notice the differences in their combs - we'll be able to tell the boys from the girls soon.

They're still trying to decide if the camera is something to eat, or if it's a chicken-eating monster...


I washed one more double-handful of the Cotswold fleece - then I'm going to call it close enough. I went back and counted all the yards of yarn I had and discovered that, instead of the 900+ yards that I thought I had, there were actually a little over 1400 yards. Woohoo! Apparently I forgot to add a few skeins to the list as I was going along. (If I'm going to screw up, better it's that way than writing down the same skeins twice...)
So, here's the last batch of Cotswold (for now. I've still got about half a fleece in my sewing room) drying out on the deck. I've sandwiched it between a couple of baker's cooling racks to keep the wind from snatching it away.



And a little closer view:
Those little ringlets are really cute in the fleece, but a real bear to card out. I've been using the hand-cards, since I still can't find anything reliable to use as a drive belt on the drum carder. I've had some success with large rubber-bands, but they wear out fast.

And, since I've been such a very good girl, and the last batch of Cotswald is drying... I got to do this:

Alpaca at last!! It's currently soaking, and I'm off now to rinse.
Woohoo!!

And, last but not least, I bought myself Selbuvotter for my birthday! It's the first pattern book I've ever seen where I want to knit ALL the patterns... Bless Knit Picks and their book sale!
I've already cast something on...

Everyone's getting mittens and gloves for Christmas this year, I'll tell ya! And possibly made of alpaca, if I can get off my butt and start with the spinning.