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I haven’t been getting much spinning or knitting done lately, but I did manage to get our big King apple tree pruned last weekend

He still looks a little wild and crazy, but at least I got all the new upright growth out- which is a lot!

And it occurred to me as the whips piled up that it might be fun to try my hand at using them to create a wattle fence panel. Something I could use as an afternoon sun-shade for the chickens in the summer.

So I sorted the cuttings, and kept out the ones that seemed most suitable.

I probably should have taken some instruction from tutorials online, but I just dove in and got started, stabilizing the “warp” branches in a raised garden bed and then weaving lighter whips back and forth across them.

I’m pretty pleased with how it’s turning out. I think it’s about as big as I need, but before I pull it out of the ground I’m going to need to stabilize it.

So I guess it’s back to the internet. I’m sure someone’s got a handy YouTube video that will be of help!

We lost Frank last night.

Found him this morning in his favorite “laying low” spot in a far corner of the pasture.

My poor boy. He’d seemed kind of off for a couple of days, and I’d suspected he might be bloating. Friday he seemed to respond to treatment and was up an about, but Saturday he backslid. He was just shy of 10 years old.

He was a very shy sheep and never liked being handled, but was a real sweetie and never uncooperative once I managed to get a hold of him.

He is survived by his twin brother Felix, who is now the last of my original Shetlands. Feeling out in the pasture is rather somber, but Felix and the girls are sticking together and carrying on as best they can.

Here are a few choice pictures of our friend Handsome Frank through the years.

Rest in peace, sweet sheep.

Since devising a plan on how to approach my new sweater project, I have cast on for the first sleeve three times. Here is my latest start-

I don’t think that it’s any fault of the pattern, it’s just me and a bit of a problem with focus. And not having a lot of knitting time of late.

I hope that as the days lengthen my attention span will as well!

In the meantime, I have been able to do a little bit of stitching to support the Bellingham Sock Monkey Project

I always give them curly woolly hairdos that make them stand out in a crowd -and normally I would embroider the eyes, but felted peepers like the ones I gave the sheep puppets were right at hand and so were an easy answer. They still need some details, but are shaping up nicely.

Hopefully by next week I’ll be moving on from monkey business. 🙂

Valentine flowers from The Man

and some pretty little things that I picked up In LaConner on a field trip with my knitting peeps 🙂

and for the weekly chicken content- I wanted to share these couple of fabulous pieces on display at the quilt museum

Here’s to finding bright spots in these soggy days of late winter!