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Here in WA, we’re under a Stay Home order, which has just been extended to May 4. Non-essential businesses are closed, and many people are out of work. I am really fortunate to be able to work from home, and so have been doing that for the last week and a half.

It’s pretty amazing that the university is still operating- with almost everyone working remotely. We have so many technological tool available to us now to keep us connected, both to co-workers and data systems.

So I’ve not had much direct contact with the outside world recently.

That actually isn’t too hard on me because I’m kind of an introvert, and I’ve got things to keep me busy here. But I feel compelled to keep up with the news, and that does take an emotional toll.

Saturday, based on the recommendations of the CDC, I dove into the fabric stash to create some masks for The Man and I to wear when we need to venture forth for essentials.

So were covered there. I actually wore mine out in public for the first time today when I went into town for groceries. Was kind of odd, but many other folks doing the same. Good to see that people are taking precautions.

I also took some time this weekend to give myself a little fiber pick-me-up, in the form of a little dyeing. I pulled some Frank & Felix 2019 out of my vacuum-packed wool stash

and dug out the Abundant Earth Wool Tinctures I’d been saving for just such an occasion!

I also did a batch of Black Cherry Kool Aid, just to round out the color pallette 🙂

So fun and satisfying- and now I have a fresh batch of colors to blend and spin! That’s about 7 oz of each color. No plan for these yet. Just dyeing for dyeing’s sake.

And I wanted to share another little thing that made me happy this week-

This is the lone seedling to emerge from my rose seed starting experiment that I started last October. Just started to get real leaves, and got upgraded from the seed tray to a real pot on Friday. 🙂

Alrighty. that’s about all I’ve got for this week.

Stay Home, Stay Healthy, and Knit On!

Here we are, saying goodbye to March already.

It’s been a crazy month, what with the virus concerns and social distancing and all. Thankfully there is lots to do here in the spring, and being busy helps keep anxiety away.

This morning when I went out to do my sheep and chicken routine, I found that the sheeps had gotten themselves shut in the shed overnight. The gate must have blown shut in the wind or something.

But what a lucky start to the day! They were all collected up for me to do CDT shots and deworming. I also got a start on shearing Felix and Dottie. 🙂 So here is the current crazy hairdo status out in the pasture.

Business in the front, party in the back!

In knitting news, I am finally making headway on the Teo scarf for my friend The Shepherd. He wanted a really simple scarf, stockinette with a garter stitch border. Once I started and got a few inches in though I realized that it was’t going to be quite as straightforward as I thought.

Grrr. Row Gauge.

So I ripped back and started again, this time working the stockinette on a size smaller needles. So I’m doing the center part on size 2s, and the garter edges on size 3s. It’s a little fiddly, but I’m getting the hang of it.

It’s looking good so far- though I might do a quick in-progress steam block to make sure it lays flat. Feels good to finally be making progress on this-

Knit on, and stay well!

Made a start on shearing today!

First up was Ether, as she looked like she really needed to be freed from her heavy coat

But she really wasn’t into it, and I was only able to get to just past her armpits before she decided she’d had enough. Wouldn’t even let me circle back to clean up her left cheek, so she’s looking kind of silly right now.

Then I moved on to little Daphne. She was really nervous at the start, as she’d not been through this before (first haircut!) but she actually settled down pretty nicely and we got through it with minimal drama 🙂

She doesn’t look half bad! but I still need to clean up her undercarriage later. Her fleece is crazy long- about 10″, and I’m not sure how much of it I’ll be able to use, as she had some felting going on-

It’s interesting- at about middle of the staple length she’s got some sort of cotting thing going on, but both above and below that point the fleece is ok.

It’s pretty locked up in the middle, but it does come free with a fair bit of picking and pulling. Doesn’t appear to be a break of weak staple.

Hmmm.

But with such a long total length, I might just end up cutting them and using each half separately. But I’m thinking that going forward I might need to shear her twice a year. Little girl grows a lot of wool!

I haven’t been getting much knitting done lately.

Some of it might be because everything just feels kind of unsettled with the virus developments and such.

But normally in that kind of circumstance knitting and/or spinning would be something that I would turn to as a stress reliever.

And I finally realized why it wasn’t doing that form me recently.

I’d spent a lot of time planning and measuring and doing math to figure out how I was going to knit Layton out of the Dottie yarn that I already had in my stash. I think I still had misgivings about it, but was still pressing on. Forcing it.

Just a couple days ago I gave in and decided to listen to the yarn.

Dottie’s yarn, as much as I love it, is not the right yarn for this project. And if I pushed on I know I would not be pleased with the resulting sweater.

So I’m beginning again. This time with Chone wool from probably 2017 or so.

With his sunbleached tips blended in it’s a beautiful warm charcoal gray. And I can make it into exactly the yarn I need for this project. It will just shift the timeline out a couple/few months.

I’ve also finally cast on for The Shepherd’s Teo scarf. Have had the yarn spun for a while now, and it’s lovely light and lofty stuff. Will be a pleasure to knit it up into a simple stockinette and garter sample.

So, I think I’m back on track at last.

Having my wool works back in balance will hopefully help me find some calm amidst the current crisis.

Stay healthy- and knit on! 🙂