Author: denisemor

Our big apple tree is breathing a sign of relief

after giving up most all of his fruits.

This is maybe half of what we handed off to friends for cider-making

I kept some for our own use, and have a couple boxes of undamaged grounders that will be sheep snacks over the next few weeks.

And there are still some up there-

that I’m ok with leaving to the birds.

There are enough to go around. And around. And around 🙂

And speaking of going around and around, I’ve been making pretty good progress on the shawl collared vest.

About 4 inches ago I put the underarm stitches on holders and cast on the steek stitches for the arm holes. Also started decreases to shape the elongated v-neck.

So far, so good. Maybe by next weekend I’ll be ready to sew and cut the steeks!

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 🙂

And there was much rejoicing!
Thanks to everyone who came out to Fiber Day at the Bow Market. It was a beautiful afternoon, as the sky was blue and we all breathed a little more easily.

And since then, we’ve also had rain! Measurable rain! Which we really needed.

While at the market, I was able to finish up some fingerless mitts that I started on the knitting cruise- as a trial run of a new yarn, Edition 3– the newest member of the zauberball family!

All the awesome color combos of Zauberball Crazy, but in a DK weight. Neato frito, eh? 🙂

Quite a bit left over

Maybe enough for another pair?

In other news, I got started cleaning the cast iron lamb cake mold. I’ve been scrubbing it out with salt, using q-tips to get into the tight areas. Now that I’ve gotten the muzzle cleaned out, it’s kind of amazing to see how much detail is in the mold.

Eye sockets, nose and mouth all coming through now-

though I suspect it will be tricky keeping those lovely details from sticking in the pan.