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Happy Anniversary, babe.

Though this isn’t one of those big “round number” anniversaries, it felt like a good time to reflect on how our life has changed and evolved over the years.

12 years ago,

You were about to leave for six months in Turkey.

We had just bought our first house, new construction on a tiny lot in a neighborhood with an HOA.

We had no pets.

We’d never built a fence.

I didn’t have a ball of yarn to my name (and didn’t know what I was missing).

You drove a Chrysler LeBaron convertible, and owned maybe one power tool.

Today

We know that we’ll be home together every night.

Home is a little old house on a couple of acres out in the boonies.

We have two dogs, a cat, five chickens, and 5 sheep that will be arriving shortly. (!)

We’ve done more home improvement in the last five years than most people do in a lifetime.

I have raw fleece stashed in the laundry room closet.

Your third truck is a tractor, and the shop is overflowing into the garage.

But one thing has not changed.

You’re my very favorite person.  And I’m so glad I dragged you down the aisle.

Thanks for sharing the adventure.  (And special thanks for hanging in there with me for the fencing. I know it’s been rough.)

With love, for always-

Denisee

First off, many thanks to Donna for the award!

Donna and her husband Tom have a great little farm down the road a bit from us. It’s amazing what all they’ve got going there- especially since they both have day jobs.  And I’m really excited to be getting 3 little wethers from them this summer.

Now, I don’t know if I’m nearly as versatile as she is- I’ve been pretty much singlemindedly pursuing my dream of having sheep for the last few years, but I do like variety in my wool, so maybe that counts for something 🙂

In response to receiving this award I’m supposed to provide a little background on myself, so here goes:

Born in Iowa

Grew up in the village of West Dundee, Illinois in the days before it was a desirable suburb of Chicago.

I learned to knit about 6 years ago. And in some ways that really started this chapter in my life.

For me it was a gateway hobby.

It led to spinning,  wool processing, and moving to the boonies so that I could have sheep.

And I feel like I’ve finally found my calling.

I’d like to pass this award along to Juliet and Nancy, whose blogs I really enjoy and don’t comment on nearly enough.

Before:

(and again, for scale)

And after:

(They are slightly different because I’m trying to use up stash yarn and ran out of one color towards the end of slipper #2.)

I think they turned out great! They felted down nice and hard after about 20 minutes in the washing machine.
Still too wet to wear, though. If the rain ever abates, I’ll set them out in the sun to speed the drying process.

In other news, I’ve been working on some very pretty Huey singles-

And Sheep Prep continues. Two weeks until we bring Franklin and Felix home!

I almost can’t believe it.

For a cute action shot of Felix from a few weeks ago, go to Tina’s blog!

The fix for the Gradient Sweater, that is.

At least I think it is.

I’ve done a lot of thinking about it, and am fairly certain that what I need is some bust shaping
(And maybe some waist shaping,, but I’m going to wait on that one because it might involve sewing.)

I’ve never done short-row bust shaping on a sweater before, probably because most things I make aren’t very close-fitting, but this is roughly what I’m envisioning.

The extra rows will being the color change down a bit, and the wedge-shape of the insert should help with how the sweater hangs in the front.

In order to make this happen, I’m going to have to open it up.
Sweater surgery.
I’ll snip a yarn near the underarm and unravel a row, work the short rows, and then graft it back together with the stitches on the top side of the incision.

Easy, right?

Maybe, but I’m not quite ready to jump into it yet,, so I’m engaged in some distraction knitting for the moment-

finishing socks:

and starting slippers:

And if anyone has experience with this kind of sweater mod, I’d really appreciate your suggestions!