Author: denisemor

I’ve been thinking for a while that I’d like to have a green cabled sweater.
But I had’t had much luck with dyeing greens, so I’d put it on the back burner.

Then I went to the Jonasson Farm fleece sale on Saturday.

Nothing like a fleece sale for inspiration 🙂

I came home with a big bag of dyed Border Leicester, in a fabulous range of greens

Just what I needed to get this project moving!

I was so excited about the acquisition that I dove right in and started sampling.

Here is the electric green blend after a couple of passes through the drum carder.

Fun, eh? But probably a little intense for a whole sweater.

So I started playing around with adding some Chone to create deeper shades.

First I mixed 1:1 (greens:black)

I really liked the result in the batt (on the left). However, when I spun it up and knitted a swatch, it seemed just a tad too dark.

So I went back and tried 3:1.

Clockwise from top that’s all greens, 25% black, and 50% black

Little more spinning and swatching permitted this side by side comparison of the two blends

I really like how the yellow tones still come through but don’t seem so harsh.
I think I might have found my perfect green!

Little mister Gus has been keeping us pretty busy.

Thankfully, the weather has been really nice and we’ve been able to spend quite a bit of time outside, wearing him out 🙂

We’ve finally got all the frost-free spigots replaced, and the area where the big laurel came out cleared out and cleaned up!

Not terribly exciting, I know- but it’s been a long time coming, I’m mighty pleased.

I missed “Hug A Sheep Day” earlier this week, so tried to make it up to the woolly gang today. Got some quality time with the sheepers in the Fall sunshine, which was nice.

I should mention- it seems that the tables have turned out in the pasture. A couple of nights ago Dottie and Esther were tussling when I went out to do sheep and chicken checks. Seems like they got it sorted out without anyone getting injured, and Esther is now calling the shots.

Crazy girls.

And I’ve finally gotten back to working on my tiny birds- giving them eyes, and tassles to fancy them up a bit and make them into ornaments

I think they are pretty cute. Hope to get at least dozen done in time for the Holiday Festival Market at Beau Lodge on Nov 11.

Trying to make the most of what might be our last good weather weekend of the fall-

Caught up on hoof trimming for Felix, Frank and Esther-

And tried to tidy up Frank and Felix’s fleeces a little-

Finally dug the rest of our potatoes-

Moved and replaced a frost-free water hydrant, mowed, and spent a fair bit of time playing ball with tiny Gus to work out some of his crazy energy-

And when I was all done, I noticed something kind of fun and completely unexpected.

Someone had come by and put these cute little pumpkins on all of our fenceposts, and all the way down the street as far as I could see.

No idea who it was, as we must have been busy out back when they came by.
But they made me smile.

I’ve not been getting a lot of wool-work done lately, but have managed to finish a few more tiny birds (12 done so far)

And then yesterday I got the urge to do some garter stitch.

The fiber is Malabrigo Nube in the Diana colorway, that i picked up in Salt Lake City earlier this year. The chain plying is a bit uneven, but you don’t notice that so much once it’s knit up. Simple garter seemed the best way to show off the fabulous colors and make the fabric thick and squishy.

So there you go. 🙂

And in sheep news, I think that we might have turned the corner with flock relations. During Friday night’s heavy rain I noticed everyone (including Esther) hanging out in the shed. What a relief.

Go Hawks!