And as if that wasn’t enough excitement for the week, the rain afforded me the opportunity to get Frank and Felix sheared!
So that was cool.
Think I got more usable wool off them this year than last, but it’s going to take quite a bit of prep to get it ready to spin. More on that next week.
In the meantime, here are some things that caught my eye in the garden today 🙂
but have never been a big fan of pointy tips. So I though a bout it a long time, and then, after decreasing about half the number of stitches, I decide to knit the three “sidewall” stitches over the top, and connect it up with the three edge stitches on the other side.
The details: after completing last decrease round, knit the three edge stitches. Then wrap the next two stitches one at a time- one with the main color, and one with the contrast color. knit back across first two edge stitches. Knit last edge stitch together with next two mitten stitches, then wrap next two stitches one at a time, first with main color, then second with the contrast color. Continue in this manner, eating up two mitten body stitches at each edge, until all mitten body stitches are worked. Then graft the edge stitches to their corresponding edge stitches from the other side. Voila!
Yeah, I know- I’m a day late for the Star Wars tie-in.
But I’m very pleased to have finally gotten Dottie’s heavy coat off of her.
It was not an easy feat- we wrestled for a while, and in the end I had to call for backup- with an extra pair of hands (The Man) keeping her under control I was able to get her tidied up.
Crazy amounts of wool on that girl!
About a third of it went straight in to the suint bath that I started last weekend with seconds from Esther’s fleece.
I used the lesser quality parts of Esther’s fleece to get it going- left it for 6 days. The wool that came out on Saturday looks pretty good now that it’s had a couple of rinses. It’s still drying, but seems nice and clean, except for some tips that are still a little bit junky.
Now that the suint mixture is charged up, I might use it to do a fair bit of the wool washing this year. Takes a while, but it really low-input.
This weekend also saw another improvement to chicken infrastructure- introducing the Chicken Atrium!
Still hope to move entirely away from netting at some point this summer, but this is a step in the right direction!
And Welsie is still sitting on her eggs, (due date is May 15).
In knitting news, I’ve got some cool mittens on the needles right now, but this post is already getting kind of long.
I’ll show you a interesting new mitten finishing technique I’m working on next week-
It was a beautiful weekend here- and I managed to get the shearing started in earnest.
No in-progress shots, but here is the girl all tidied up and looking fresh and springy-
And the take-
So, one down, 3 to go!
Tried to get ahold of Dottie today to make a start on her haircut, but she was pretty wary, so that will have to wait until later-
Meanwhile, in the shed, chickens enjoyed basking in the sun-
Except Welsie, my welsummer hen, who is intent on being a momma. She had taken up sitting on eggs in the most popular nesting box, and was getting a lot of flack from the other girls who wanted their turn, so I’ve moved her to a secure sitting location
where she can focus on the task at hand 🙂
And here’s a little shot of spring color that I spun up earlier this week-
That’s border leicester from Jonasson Farm that I’ve been sitting on since Nov. Just love those dyed locks!
