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Meet the Monkey.

I think I’m naming him Seth.
He kind of looks like a Seth, doesn’t he?
Not sure his eyes are right yet. The green centers don’t stand out very well.
Might take another shot at them sometime this week.
But Seth thinks it’s pretty cool that I’m knitting myself a sweater so I’ll look like him.

Maybe once I finish my sweater I’ll make him some clothes too.
What are stylish monkeys wearing these days?

Anyway, I’m almost to the point where the arms join the body and grow into the yoke.
Exciting stuff!
It’s all going according to plan so far, but I am a little anxious to get to the shoulder shaping.
I’m working at a smaller gauge than the pattern, so my stitch count is higher and I’m having to do some math to adjust the pattern, but I’m pretty sure the ratios are about right.

Me and the Monkey signing off for now-
Have a good week!

We started with the lawn chair method

But had to progress to the halter to get the haircut completed

Chone put up a bit more fuss, and went straight to the halter.

Crazy little bugger was ok through the shoulders and back,, but as soon as I got near his little tush, he turned into a bucking bronco!
We wrestled a while, but it was going nowhere, so I finally let him go and now he’s got a messy, shaggy haircut with a straggly butt.

Oh well. Suppose I’ll get him cleaned up later. (I think he kind of likes being a a mess)

A couple of weeks ago we changed up the chicken management scheme.

And everything seemed cool for about a week.

The girls settled in fine, and I set up a special little dust bathing area for them.

Then the hawk showed up.

We lost two girls before we realized what was going on and who the culprit was. 🙁

We moved the chicken house out of the pen and set the girls back to free-ranging.

They seemed to get over the shock of the hawk attacks and went back to their old routine of sitting on the front porch and pooping on everything 🙂

Which meant that the free-ranging thing was not going to last.

So this weekend we moved the girls into the pasture.

The fencing is to keep the sheep away from the chicken house (they know there is chicken food in there).

They’ve got their nesting boxes in there (with a little bit of makeshift tarp to keep the crazy sideways rain out)

And they can access the pasture through their special little chicken-sized doorway (between the rebar arches).

So far, the sheep have been pretty cool about sharing the pasture with our feathered friends.

But they I’m not sure they know quite what to make of the new decorating scheme.

We’ve just returned from a few days down in Cannon Beach, Oregon.
It’s a great spot to just go and hang out and do not much for a while.
Which is exactly what we did.

Here is the view from out room (+work in progress)

Don’t think I’ve posted about this current project yet- it’s a Brooklyn Tweed Brownstone for me!

I’ve been meaning to make one of these for a while, but other projects kept pushing it down the priority list.

This will be the first project spun entirely on my new lateral treadle wheel, and is a blend of Edgar and Griff, with a little touch of white from a forgotten source that just happened to be about the right weight.

The red tips are the same Edgar/Griff yarn dyed with a blend of red-pink Kool-Aids that I had hanging around.

I am really excited about this sweater. I’m expecting it to be a lightweight yet sturdy staple in the wardrobe. A workin-around-the-homestead sweater that I’ll live in most weekends.

And I didn’t really plan it to, but it kind of has a traditional sock-monkey color scheme going on.

Cool.

‘Tis now my Monkey Sweater.

I mostly just knit, read, played scrabble and drank coffee in Cannon Beach, but in case you are planning a trip to the Oregon Coast, I should mention that there is a nice little yarn shop there:

(sorry for the funny face there- the sun was in my eyes) 🙂

And an awesome but tiny restaurant, The Irish Table, that you should not miss! They are located in the same building as Sleepy Monk coffee roasters, and don’t have a website.
Amazing food, super service, cozy setting.