Still and forever spinning Cotswold

Up to 940 yards. Will it never end?
I plan to dye the yarn before I knit it, and I'm scared to death that I'll run out of yarn before I finish the sweater. So that means I should err on the side of Way Too Much, rather than Almost Enough. Now if I can only determine where that line is. In order to figure my necessary yardage, I could try knitting a gauge swatch from the undyed wool, but the dying process could change the gauge. Sort of a Catch 22 - can't figure the gauge till I dye, but can't dye until I have enough, and can't figure how much is enough without a gauge swatch.
Just shoot me now.

*sniff* They grow up so fast...

I mentioned our new Rhode Island Red chicks a while back, but haven't posted any photos of them. Here they are at the age of 2 to 3 weeks. We kept them in big plastic tubs in the living room, with lamps to keep them warm.
You'll notice here, a week later, that they're starting to get that Klingon Chick look - their combs are starting to grow.


They kept us entertained with their constant busy-ness, always running and scratching and trying to fly - just polishing up the new skillz. They fell asleep with their faces in the feeder, and jumped up onto the waterer, then overbalanced and fell off again. And they made the most amazing sounds - little peeps and chirps and warbles.
But now they're 5 weeks old, all feathered out, and ready for the big coop.


Looks like he's saying "What?!?"

Velociraptors? Or is it just me?
I miss their little noises, though I must admit I don't miss the smell...

And last, here's Madman with one of the chicks just before the big move outside. One of them (at least, we think it's the same one. It's a little hard to tell...) thinks he's a parrot. Every time Madman extends his hand to this chicken, it jumps up, then starts sidling up to his shoulder.


I'll have to get the man an eyepatch and a pegleg - he's already got a sword and a "parrot".

Arrrrrrrr.

Still spinning Cotswold

I'm being very very strong. Very. The alpaca fleece is still sitting in bags. I'm not washing it, because that would tempt me to card it. And all that lovely carded alpaca would tempt me to spin it. And then I wouldn't be finishing the Cotswold. Argh.
Must be strong.
Deep breath.
*sigh*
600 yards of 3-ply Cotswold and counting....

Busy busy busy

and busy...

We've got 24 new little Rhode Island Red chicks - which I'll post pictures of as soon as I find the camera. (*sigh*)

And I've got two (that's TWO!!) full alpaca fleeces - one reddish brown and one cream. My dad & stepmom recently got two alpacas, and passed the fleeces to me. Can't wait to start spinning!
(Must finish Cotswold first. Must finish Cotswold first. Must finish Cotswold first...)

Off to look for the camera...

Last one on the Monkeywagon...

Monkeysock
Originally uploaded by mangofeet

So after seeing umpty-bazillion monkey socks out there, I finally got around to knitting them myself. I had looked at the pattern when it first came out, but saw ...

1) lace - not a big fan of lace socks - if you're trying to make a nice warm pair of wooly socks, what's the point of knitting holes in them?

2) double YO's - which I have never liked - they make a big sloppy gloopy hole

so I had just skipped the pattern. But, resistance is futile, as they say.

Mods: I used a tubular cast on, because I'm a big fan.
Instead of the double YO, I used a single YO, then on the following row I knit into the YO and increased a stitch with a backwards loop. This gave the same effect, without the big gloopy hole.
And I used size 0 needles, since I'm a very loose knitter...

The toe on the second sock is ready to kitchener. And I like them so much that I'm already planning a second pair...

Still playing catch-up

Ketchup? Catsup? (sorry)

So, anyway, New Hampshire Sheep and Wool!

I loaded up my mother-in-law and my youngest daughter and we hit the road for NHS&W on the Saturday before Mother's Day. The drive was uneventful, except for the crazy-lady who started to pull into my lane without looking and came within inches of hitting us. (I was too busy screaming to even look for the horn...)
So, other that that....
We had a great time. We saw lots and lots of alpacas, with their sweet faces...


Take a close look at this noble fellow:

Now look a little closer...
and a little closer...and now look really close...

We were amused with the upside-down buck teeth... Poor guy.


And we saw lots of gorgeous little lambs...




any of which I would have been more than happy to take home with me. Sadly, Madman's last words to me as I was leaving were: "Don't bring home any sheep. " Which is what he always says when I'm off to a festival. But this year he added "Or bunnies."



Damn. I was really hoping he wouldn't mention the bunnies. I was so sure I could get away it. "You just said no sheep - you didn't say anything about no bunnies..."
The guy sees right through me, sometimes...

So, no bunnies either. Though I was sorely tempted.

What I did end up with was some Shetland roving - we're going to raise Shetlands, someday. When we get a little more acreage, that is... So it's really important that I check out Shetland fleece, right? Solely in the interests of research, right? Yeah, I thought so, too.
And I found a nice niddy noddy, which I really really needed, and some Hiya Hiya dpns in a size 00 which I really really really needed. And some more roving in a nice teal color that grabbed my arm as I walked by and begged me to buy it. So, all in all, I found treasures without spending much money (see previous references to "cheap")

The three of us had a nice picnic at lunchtime, and in between drooling on all the vendor's pretties, we watched sheepdog demos, and just strolled enjoying the day.

Good times, good company.

Trying to catch up a little...

I keep writing blogposts in my head, but not carrying through to the computer. So, in my head, my blog is full of rich and wonderful posts, oozing with pictures...
In real life, not so much.

So, I'm going to start with Mother's Day and work backwards until I get caught up.
First, of course, I had to load up the pictures that had accumulated. I don't know if Flickr was having problems, or if it was just me (and I suspect it was just me. It always seems to be just me...), but it took hours to get my pics up. The process kept freezing up - and some pictures were being uploaded multiple times, while others disappeared entirely. The last pic took over 3 hours - I finally gave up and went to bed, and it finished up sometime during the night.

So, Mother's Day....

My youngest daughter (the college student) surprised me with a stuffed animal - completely hand-sewn. I love him to distraction (and her, too!)


He makes me smile every time I look at him.

My oldest daughter (the college professor) sent me a huge care package of foodstuffs that aren't available up here in the Back of Beyond...


She actually had them individually wrapped in beautiful papers with lots and lots of ribbons, but that's one of the pictures that kept going astray. I gave up after 4 attempts (and at an hour per attempt, that was a serious time-suck...) I love her to distraction, too!

Madman is also excited about the food - he's very fond of curries, for example. Though not so much with the couscous. The only time I've tried to feed him couscous, he claimed it tasted like spider's eggs.
"And just when did you ever eat spider's eggs, in order to have a basis for comparison?", I asked.
"Well, never," he admitted, "but this is what I would imagine spider's eggs taste like."

There's a hole in that logic, somewhere.