Indeed I am!
Got all the pieces together and I’m finally yoke-ing.
Feels good to be in the final stretch.
I guess I always get a little anxious as the end of a project approaches.
Perhaps I just lose focus after working on one thing for a while and start looking for diversion.
Or maybe I worry about if it’s going to turn out just right.
But I’m close. Really close.
Chone says “lookin’ good so far, Maaaaa!”
Feb 2 came and went.
Punxsutawney Phil prognosticated that we’re going to have 6 more weeks of winter.
But in my experience, the weather guessers (people and rodents) are fairly unreliable, so I’m keeping a good thought for a nice mild remainder of the winter and a timely transition to spring.
Can’t hardly believe it’s February already.
Before you know it we’ll be pruning the fruit trees, and shearing the sheep again!
It was a beautiful weekend here, and I was glad to get some “hangin’ with the sheeps” time in
The boys were just chillin’ in the pasture
and I thought I’d maybe get a little fleece preview, but noone would let me get a good fleece picture.
But in summary-
Edgar and Griff look fabulous, a little lighter than last year, beautiful golden brown/taupe, both fleeces seem to be in really good shape, Griff is very crimpy, Edgar more wavy and silky.
Chone, a little shorter than I expected by now, but probably about 3 to 3.5 inches overall. some white fibers throughout. Starting to get a little matted in places where he scratches himself against the fence.
Frank and Felix- the fleeces are lookin pretty rough right now. Frank has managed to get a whole section of his back covered in some sort of green mossy stuff, and they both look very matted and bedraggled.
Would like to get in there and clean them up a little, but they aren’t guys who volunteer for a trip to the beauty shop, so I’ll just wait until next month hope it looks more promising under the surface.
Griff says, “It’s all about the fleece, baby”.
In sweater news, I was very excited about getting the sleeves and body joined up this weekend and getting to work on the yoke.
But then in handling the pieces I detected a slight inconsistency in weight between the two sleeves. Turns out the yarn I used in the second half of sleeve #1 is a little bit heavier than the rest.
The measurements are still pretty much right on. But it was bugging me, so I ripped it out.
So I’ve gotta go back and do another half of a sleeve. Not a big deal, but a little bit of a setback. I’ll reuse the slightly thicker yarn in the yoke where it won’t cause an imbalance.
Still think I can get it done by the end of the month. 😉
Let the sheep go! Ovines unite!
For a long time I’ve been thinking that our chicken feed bags were worth saving.
They are colorful, with cool chicken art, and I really couldn’t bring myself to throw them away.
Sometimes they even have different background colors, like this pink one for breast cancer awareness-
And they are fairly indestructible, being made of plastic woven tarp-like material-
And this week, while stuck home in the snow, I finally decided to do something with them!
Tote bags! Aren’t they sporty?
Great for the grocery, the farmers market, holding projects, etc. etc.
The material is a little bit of a pain to sew, because it slips around some, and it is really hard on stick pins, but the tote bag styling is really simple, and I think now that I’ve done a few the next batch will go faster and easier.
And in wool news, I am making steady progress on Cobblestone
One more sleeve, then we get to the exciting part: the yoke! A little texture, some short rows.
Pretty sure I’ve got the yarn to cover it now.