Author: denisemor

Big news in the pasture this weekend!

Friday afternoon Matt, Jena and Elton from McIntrye Family Farm delivered Fiona (previously Harmony), a sweet little Icelandic ewe lamb with a lovely creamy fawn colored fleece.

Here she is meeting Ether, Dottie, Daphne and Felix

She cried for her mama a little bit the first evening, but since then she’s seemed to be settling in pretty well.

Here she is over by the shed with Felix and Dottie (because Felix, being a shy boy, doesn’t get that much exposure on the blog) 🙂

So excited about the new little girl, and to have creamy brownish tones back in my fleece palette.

And in project news- I’ve been busy doing some fine spinning for the Alcott vest. Lightest yarn that I think I’ve ever done. This Griff two-ply is coming in at about 115 yds/ oz

Hope to achieve a similar-weight two ply from Frank’s last fleece, which I’m hand carding.

I’d almost forgotten how much I like spinning from rolags.

I get a bit itchy when I don’t have anything on the needles, and so pretty much immediately after completing the Layton cuffs, I took a browse through my favorites on Ravelry, and was reminded of something I’ve wanted to make for a long time.

Alcott, by Mary Henderson. Mine just won’t be as pink.

I picked up some beautiful light fingerling weight yarn at Tolt yarn and wool a while back that should be perfect. Biches & Buches Le Petit Lambswool.

In the front there are two of my own spins that I’m hoping will be close enough in weight to be compatible in stranded colorwork. And I hope/plan to use a natural Griff (oatmeal colored) yarn of the same weight as the background color rather than white.

So I’ve got to rework the color charts for my vest- and I found something cool online that I wanted to share- https://www.stitchfiddle.com/

It’s web-based knitting design software- I’ve just started playing with it, but it’s pretty neat. here is a first attempt at recoloring the Alcott chart-

Also on the topic of Afterwards, I’m pleased that we’ve got July 4th in the rearview mirror. This one was particularly tough on the critters, with neighbors on both sides going all out on fireworks. I hung out with the sheep through the worst of it, as they seemed quite stressed.

Today everyone is tired, but enjoying some rose cuttings in the sunshine, so I guess we came through it ok.

Friday I finished Layton!

I knit the collar, folded and stitched it down, grafted the underarms, wove in the ends, washed, and blocked it.

And then I realized I’d forgotten about the optional cuffs.

Early on I’d kind of written off the idea of the cuffs, because I thought they’d make the bottom of the sleeves too bulky. But the sweater fabric is pretty light, so I thought I’d give them a go.

If they work out ok, it will be nice to have a substantial edge at the wrist that kind of echos the doubled collar. And if they don’t, I can always just remove them.

So, I was done, and then I wasn’t. But I’m mighty close. 🙂

Also wanted to share an update on that little rose that I started from seed this spring- she’s got a bloom!

Can’t believe how fast she’s grown!

Very exciting to see it coming together—–

Tomorrow I will tackle the other side and do a quick steam block to relax everything and make sure all the bits fall in place nicely.

Hard to tell for sure at this point, but it looks like the short row shaping had the desired effect in raising the back neck. Kind of wish it was my size so I could try it on and check,, but not possible with this one. Hmmm.