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I am making steady progress on spinning the stash, with the help of a little blending for added interest:

Here is a little bit of shetland and mohair hankering to get together-

and here are some of my results from this week and last (the shetland/mohair is on the left)

The mindless scarf project is morphing into a hooded scarf-

And the sheep are busy munching away out in the pasture-

Chone is always ready and willing to spend some quality time with his maaaaa,,

but I’m still not having any luck with Griff.

He appears to be impervious to the lure of treats, and is really slippery.

If I’m ever gonna get a hold of this little bugger, perhaps our next dog needs to be a border collie.

Any other suggestions?

And a little local color:

Many thanks to John and Tina for the lovely california poppies that are brightening our yard!

Sheep grazing:

(And posing)

Chickens free ranging (for the first time!)

(and Syd lounging)

A couple of the girls bedded down in newly spread compost

Wool on the bobbin:

Interim Knitting in progress

Gotta make room in the fiber stash, as the boys are busy out in the pasture turning grass into wool!

Have a great week!

This was The Man’s first slipper on Saturday”

And here it is next to one of my (size 9.5) feet, just so you get a real true sense of how humongous it is (was).

I had a nagging thought in the back of my mind as I was knitting it.
It went something like this:
“Wow. I remember your slippers being mighty big before felting,,, but this is nutso”

But, would you believe, it didn’t dawn on me until this morning that I should measure it and see how far out of the ballpark I was. (denial?) This is even after I had already cast on and knit the first couple rows of the sole for slipper #2.

18 inches.

Yes, It was 18 inches long. And I figure that the maximum possible shrinkage I can expect from a full-on hard felting is maybe 30%.

So, this is The Man’s slipper as of Sunday afternoon:

(it looks happier out in the lawn, doesn’t it?)

Other knitting that hasn’t received coverage on the blog yet (pre-empted by sheep) include

Suffolk socks:

And another Huey cowl:

Don’t know if I’ll get right back to the slippers.
I think I need a break from the line-by-line pattern following. Too much of that sort of thing really gets me down.

I need a nice, mindless, summer project.
Got any ideas for me?

Thanks in advance for any suggestions!

Denise

Ps. Briar roses from the garden

Beauty, no?
Ever wonder why they call them Briar Roses?

Ouch!

More photos of my little Shetland guys now available at
http://shimonmor.com/TheShetlandSheepFlock/index.html

Chone is the flock’s offical goodwill ambassador, always coming to greet us at the gate with a smile-
And just this morning, I finally got some quality time with Edgar. Was so nice to just sit with him and fondle his lovely moorit locks while he and Chone chewed their cud. His fleece has such a nice silky feel. Just love it!

So, now I’m 4 for 5 on the socialization-
Griff is my only holdout, and I think he’ll give in pretty soon, now that his brother has warmed up to me.

Will try to get some good pictures of the fleeces this week-

Denise 🙂