Author: denisemor

Sorry I missed y’all last week.
No, we didn’t go anywhere. We had company!
Yep. Had the Mom out last week to visit.

I have to imagine it was a little bit of a culture shock, leaving her comfy condo in the Chicago suburbs to come and hang here with us and all the critters out in the backwoods of Western Washington. But she took it all in good humor, and seemed to enjoy the antics of Clara chicken.

Here’s a for-instance:  Clara is in her favorite spot- giving a whole new meaning to the term “chicken tractor”

(Clara has chosen the seat of the Kubota tractor as her nesting spot. And she looks so sweet sitting there that we’ve decided that’s ok with us) 🙂

While mom was here, we took a field trip to Anacortes for their annual Art Festival, where there were really quite a lot of really nice ceramics, glass, photography, etc etc. Not a whole lot of fiber art representation, but I did find (and purchase) this lovely handwoven blanket:

It was woven by a man named Chule, who is originally from Macedonia.

(We went a bunch of other places too, but sadly, the weather wasn’t great and I didn’t think to take pictures.)

Since Mom returned home mid-last-week, we’ve pretty much gotten back to our normal routine.
Yesterday I helped John, from Marietta Shetlands, show a couple of his ewe lambs at the Skagit County Fair.

That was a good time. Love hanging out with sheep and Sheep People.

But then this morning, I went out to visit with my boys and noticed that Griff has a limp. Clearly something wrong with his left front leg, and he looks a bit of bloated on the right side (?). But we can’t get any closer than about 20 feet.
So, we’ve spent a good portion of today trying different strategies to catch him up.
All to no avail.

We even had someone bring a dog over that, while untrained, has some good herding instincts.
That was kind of interesting, and most of the other guys were pretty amenable to her guidance,, but Griff seems to be a tough case.

Even on three legs, he is pretty quick and springy. Somehow he seems better able to run than walk. I don’t understand that at all. And so he is still out in the pasture, alternately hobbling and resting.

I really hope that whatever is ailing him will resolve itself with time and rest, because it doesn’t appear that he will let me help him. 🙁

On the up-side, Stash Abatement continues apace.

Exhibit A, more squishy shimmery navajo plied Huey yarn.

Exhibit B, white mystery wool “handpainted” (ha!) with red food dye and Wilton’s paste frosting color

Have a good week!

Denise

I am making steady progress on spinning the stash, with the help of a little blending for added interest:

Here is a little bit of shetland and mohair hankering to get together-

and here are some of my results from this week and last (the shetland/mohair is on the left)

The mindless scarf project is morphing into a hooded scarf-

And the sheep are busy munching away out in the pasture-

Chone is always ready and willing to spend some quality time with his maaaaa,,

but I’m still not having any luck with Griff.

He appears to be impervious to the lure of treats, and is really slippery.

If I’m ever gonna get a hold of this little bugger, perhaps our next dog needs to be a border collie.

Any other suggestions?

And a little local color:

Many thanks to John and Tina for the lovely california poppies that are brightening our yard!

Sheep grazing:

(And posing)

Chickens free ranging (for the first time!)

(and Syd lounging)

A couple of the girls bedded down in newly spread compost

Wool on the bobbin:

Interim Knitting in progress

Gotta make room in the fiber stash, as the boys are busy out in the pasture turning grass into wool!

Have a great week!

This was The Man’s first slipper on Saturday”

And here it is next to one of my (size 9.5) feet, just so you get a real true sense of how humongous it is (was).

I had a nagging thought in the back of my mind as I was knitting it.
It went something like this:
“Wow. I remember your slippers being mighty big before felting,,, but this is nutso”

But, would you believe, it didn’t dawn on me until this morning that I should measure it and see how far out of the ballpark I was. (denial?) This is even after I had already cast on and knit the first couple rows of the sole for slipper #2.

18 inches.

Yes, It was 18 inches long. And I figure that the maximum possible shrinkage I can expect from a full-on hard felting is maybe 30%.

So, this is The Man’s slipper as of Sunday afternoon:

(it looks happier out in the lawn, doesn’t it?)

Other knitting that hasn’t received coverage on the blog yet (pre-empted by sheep) include

Suffolk socks:

And another Huey cowl:

Don’t know if I’ll get right back to the slippers.
I think I need a break from the line-by-line pattern following. Too much of that sort of thing really gets me down.

I need a nice, mindless, summer project.
Got any ideas for me?

Thanks in advance for any suggestions!

Denise

Ps. Briar roses from the garden

Beauty, no?
Ever wonder why they call them Briar Roses?

Ouch!