I’m not sure if it was the smoke or some other underlying cause, but about two weeks ago our rooster #1, Trey, lost his voice.
This precipitated a ugly bit of fighting between he and Bertrand, who emerged the victor.
Poor Trey was in pretty bad shape, so I gathered him up and put him in the chick nursery so he could rest and recover.
But he didn’t make it.
I buried him with full pasture honors on Friday before work.
He was a good rooster- attentive to the girls and not aggressive. Pretty sure all this year’s chicks are his progeny.
Lost one of those this week too, though 🙁
And so we are down to one rooster for now. But we can probably count on at least one of the remaining three chickies being a boy.
In other news, I have hit upon my next sweater idea!
I came across a copy of Handknitting with Meg Swansen a couple weeks ago at a used book shop. It’s a great little book, and within it I found just the thing- a Shawl Collared Vest
It’s steeked, which seemed like and interesting choice for a solid colored sweater, and then I thought, as long as I’m steeking, I should do some colorwork instead of cables!
So that’s the plan. Going to apply my go-to stranded colorwork motif from my market hats to this sweater vest, and then do the shawl collar and other trim in a coordinating color.
After much contemplation, I decided to go with naturals so that I can wear it with almost everything.
The front and back are allover repeats of the circle motif,but they are separated on each side under each arm by a 7 stitch panel of stripes. I did this so I can incorporate some waist shaping without interrupting the flow of the pattern.
So excited to have a plan and be able to get knitting on it right away.
Many thanks to the stash for making that possible 🙂
So sorry to hear about Trey. I cannot imagine only having one rooster, as we have way too many right now. Look forward to seeing this sweater come to fruition.