With the appointments and the heat, I am progressing nicely on this hat. I have about an inch to finish and then the crown. It changed from a beanie to a hat with a nice flap for cold weather. So I am now using from the second ball.
Category Archive: Knitting
Winter beanie; ducks, grapes, and sheep
Winter Beanie
I found this Rowan tweed in my small stash of skeins. I doubt that I purchased it, but I don’t know from where it came. There are two balls of it and one is enough to make a beanie. Since it is hot, that’s my latest project. I have no pattern yet. I cast 100 stitches on size 6 needles and am doing a flap of 4″, then will decide if I want to get fancy or not. I may just do a stockinette stitch since I plant to wear it to work with the animals when it gets cold.
DUCKS:
Just look how much these ducks have grown in a mere 3 weeks. Last year the baby ducks all drowned. It turns out that infant ducks don’t have the oil in the feathers to keep from drowning for 2-3 weeks. This year, our son has been giving them a lot of attention and has gradually been giving them deeper water. They have enough oil on their feathers and are very good at swimming, so he doesn’t have to worry about them, but now he has become quite fond of them.
GRAPES:
While someone wasn’t watching, the grapes grew right through the top of the netting. No use cutting them back now. We will wait until they die back and next year have a better plan.
SHEEP:
It’s just too hot to do much besides lie in the shade, so other than coming in to eat, most of the day is spent lying in the shade chewing cud.
Autumn socks are finished
Autumn socks are finished because I am dealing with spotty internet. They are made from Lorna Laces sport weight wool on #4 needles. I’m not crazy about how much orange is in the pattern, and can hardly believe I bought this yarn. So I used plain stockinette stitch and they are done and wearable. And when I’m wearing socks, I’m not looking at them, so who knows, the person looking at them may like these colors.
The internet here has been extremely spotty because of modem problems. I have been having horrible withdrawals, however, there is enough to do around here, that I have kept busy. There are now 90# of blueberries in the freezer. The socks are done. The garden is doing well, though, it has to be watered daily. The dogs are digging holes in the dirt to stay cool. It is an unusually hot summer.
20 ton of hay is being delivered in the morning. I believe I have coordinated enough people to get it unloaded and stacked before noon. I have water and Gatorade in the refrigerator for the workers and I really hope they will be done before noon, when the temperature is scheduled to reach 80 degrees. This is too hot to have to be working this hard.
There has been so much to do this summer that it is going fast and before I blink a few more times, I’ll be wondering where it went.
Hot weather
We are having unusually hot weather for July as are many of you. Because this is unusual for us, we have not invested in air conditioning. So we have a single fan – why buy another when we use it so seldom? Does it slow you down as much as it does me?
In the morning before the heat, I pick blueberries for a couple of hours – 4 days a week. If you haven’t picked blueberries before, you should try it. Our berries are on a hillside, meaning the hill goes downhill both ways. Therefore when picking, not only does one do the gymnastics of picking high berries, berries on the ground, berries inside the bush and berries hiding behind the leaves, but this is all done while trying to stay on your feet. The benefits are fresh air, sunshine and exercise at no extra cost.
I just put my gorgeous Shetland rams on the market. I need new blood and they have done a marvelous job here.
I’ll spare you the photos, but Saturday, we had the vet visit to pull a lamb that died before it arrived in this world. The vet told us that when it gets this hot, many times (across species) mothers give a couple pushes and decide it’s too hot for that and quit.
The Autumn socks are now up to the heel flap. So a bit of progress is being made.
I haven’t done much besides just trying to maintain in this hot weather – making sure everyone, everything has plenty of water and food. So until things cool off and return to normal, posts will be more sporadic.
How are you doing? Keeping up with life or slowing down in heat?
Sheep migration; autumn socks
Sheep migration:
Today was migration day – time to move to fresh forage and grasses. It was really great that the neighbor brought over her border collie herding dog, because these sheep will stop for every blade of grass and without the dog, this job could have taken hours. Because they are going into an area where already many weeds have gone to seed, I wanted each to have a coat on first. Seeds are nasty to get out of wool. They will spend about a week to 10 days taking down the new area and then will need to be moved once again. Without rain, the pastures are not growing back.
Autumn socks
Lorna laces hand dyed sport yarn
I have been a couple of weeks without a knitting project and it is really warm outside, so I need something that doesn’t take too much thinking to do in the middle of the day. Using a Lorna Laces hand dyed sport yarn and number 4 needles, I cast on 56 stitches for a simple sock. My lofty goal is to get it done by the end of the month.
With the warmer weather, animals to water, a foot to pamper, and blueberries to pick among other things, I’ve slowed down a bit, so I’m just going with the flow and not pushing myself. Life will continue even if I don’t get everything done that I would like.
Euro style scarf finished
This Euro style scarf is finished. It was a fast and easy knit, however, I did learn that if I’m not paying attention, I don’t count accurately. The pattern is a multiple of 5, which isn’t hard, just had to pay attention. This is very, very soft in the Cascade yarn. I will block it later.
This is another suggested way to wear it, which I won’t be wearing as I don’t go to formal events.
After finishing this, i spent 3 hours cleaning barn stall floors, so did not start anything else. And I will admit to wanting to eat something totally off program, but I won’t.
Euro cowl update
I’ve been knitting this euro cowl as I really like how the colors are moving in the scarf. I’m now about 1/3 done. The other nice thing is that one knits until the last 4 feet of yarn and then the bind off, so when you are done, you don’t have left over yarn either.
This wisteria would like to claim the deck as its home. These are last years branches and it has already started on this years. However after researching their habits, we decided to stop that now. so I cut the branches down and now we’ll put copper in the ground which is supposed to kill the roots.
And today I say a thank you to those of you joining the challenge to lose any amount of weight in June. I went to the grocery store from the chiropractor. It was 12.15 and I was hungry. I picked up a goodie to eat on the way home, thought of you, and put it back down. I waited until I got home for lunch. Thanks for helping me by taking the challenge. And there is still time for you to join if you are one of the ones who hasn’t yet taken the challenge. You decide how much you want to lose during the month and we’ll check each week to see we are on task. Our reward will be at the end of the month when some piece of clothing is not quite as tight. (you never have to reveal your weight)
Safely enjoy your weekend.
Yarn, more yarn, and patterns
Today was the day to gather the yarn from various places, sort and make a written inventory. I don’t have nearly as much as many of my friends, but it seemed to be hiding in various places. Then I gathered the sock instructions that I get free of the internet – which were also hither and yon and they are now in 2 notebooks.
This is one of the smallest lambs and one of the most difficult to catch. She makes up for size in her zippy movements. Today was her third day of halter training. The first day, she was a bucking bronco, yesterday, not too bad. Today, she managed to slip out of it and get away. Somedays, it is hard for me to win these battles.
The “Impossible Girl” socks (Pattern by Madeline Gannon) were knit out of the Madelinetosh BFL (Blue faced Leicester) sock yarn. I did not realize until I finished that they are 100% wool without nylon. They may be a bit less sturdy, so I will use them for special instead of everyday. I really enjoyed working with this wool and like the depth of color. And next time I may reinforce the toe and heel with nylon – or maybe not. It is sock yarn and may wear very well.