At The Start

After last year's musher and dog issues I was no longer looking forward to the next two weeks as my favorite two weeks of the year...but I had a new project ready to start so I've decided to give it one more go.  I miss the old mushers and the more historical feel the race used to have, but maybe the kids will do them proud.  For the 2025 Iknitarod...

Yes, this is the same Lamb Camp Bottle Lamb yarn from last year and the same general project (vest) that I did not finish last year, but I've switched to a different pattern.  This is the Lulu Slipover from Petite Knits, the same designer as the Jared sweater.  We cast on this afternoon!

The ravatar is still basically the same, but I've lost my red hat (!) so I changed that out to a new hat made from the same Lamb Camp yarn...for good luck.  My Iknitarider (I almost forgot to pick someone :-o) is a nameless (!) little gray faced lambie wearing a Jacob sweater that I knit maybe as a pattern for a sweater I knit for a friend.  

I think I might call the lamb Punkin because as I was dusting off my ravatar from last year and looking at all the sheep, I couldn't for the life of me think who was standing next to me. Most of the sheep are pretty obvious, at least to me, but I was completely stumped by...Punkin :-o.

Maybe I'll find my brain when I dust off my Red Lantern and my sled!

Here's Your Sign

 I couldn't resist.

"I like it!"

Sheep Magic

I asked Santa for an Apple Watch for Christmas.  I'm not a watch wearer and I'm a little creeped out by wearing something electronic (is that the right word?) strapped to my skin all day, but I was worried about falling on the ice while doing the night check or out of the barn loft or off Frankie...and decided there was probably a bigger risk of that than whatever might happen by wearing what is basically a miniature cell phone.

I figured I'd only really use it for the "I've fallen, please send help" feature.  I need one more screen to look at and worry about like...well, like everyone else does...  Still, I went through the normal easy Apple set up and when it walked me through choosing my "watch face" I set it up to rotate through pictures taken with my iPhone.

I have no idea how it picks the pictures, but I am totally in love with this feature.  All day, any time I look at my watch, a different beautiful picture shows up from my camera roll.  Not goofy pictures of what I cooked for dinner or stupid screen shots, but sunrises, sunsets, sheep, horses, dogs, flowers, cats, rabbits...

A couple of days ago I looked down to see a big black sheep and a tiny white lamb out in the side field.  I had to stop and think for a minute, well  maybe two seconds ;-).  It was B. Willard and Early!  And it was so, so nice to see them.

The pictures change every time you raise your wrist up or tap the screen, so when it's something extra special, I'll stop what I'm doing and enjoy a fine, but fleeting memory.  The picture above showed up yesterday.  I'll never have to stop and think for a second who this is.  My heart, right there on my wrist.  

Except...that wasn't the first time I saw that picture yesterday.  I'd originally seen it just after lunch.  And again when I got in the car to run an errand.  And again when I stopped to make a cup of tea.  And again at 3:20...when I took this picture to remember that sometimes Big J shows up and stays with me for awhile.

This is not the first time this has happened.  I can remember at least two other times a picture of Big J has hung around like that.  Maybe other pictures are doing this too and I'm just not noticing them as much or maybe there's a logical reason those pictures do that.  Maybe it's something sort of disturbing like it can tell my heart rate goes up when I see that picture or can tell that I'm staring at it longer than the others.  

I've decided to not overthink it and just chalk it up to magic...and enjoy standing in the driveway once again.

On The Coldest Days I Wear Willard

Dressing for the cold is a strange balance of warmth and comfort.  For example, the green jacket I usually wear is not my warmest coat, but it's my most comfortable.  It's warm enough if I put a wool sweater underneath and it's lightweight and slick on the inside and I can move and work in it without it weighing me down and feeling stiff.

None of my sweaters are heavy and uncomfortable and most are quite warm, but for some reason my Willard sweater is the one I always grab on the coldest mornings.  It's also the one I picked on the morning after the chicken disaster.  The temperature wasn't that cold, but I was mentally freezing.  I always called B. Willard "The Sheep of Impeccable Character" and he truly was.  Willard took good care.

His sweater is cozy by design (a simple Elizabeth Zimmerman percentage sweater pattern) made with thick yarn and a tall neck, but also because the yarn was spun so that even though the yarn is thick, it is light and airy.  Both the yarn and the sweater trap and hold warm air like a warm Willard hug.

I actually started this post a couple of weeks ago, but knew it was going to be hard to look back through all the old blog posts to find the picture below of us "dressed alike", but as Bea and I sat in the truck the other day, trying to get our nerve up to get out, I snapped this picture and knew it was more important to say "On the coldest days I wear Willard" than to leave it forever in the drafts.

Wear your irreplaceable handspun hand knits.  There's magic in them...and good company.  I've been wearing this sweater every winter since...

...2011 (!).  The sweater is holding up better than I am.  :-o

Here's a new freezing cold puzzle for you.  Hope you have a Willard sweater or a wool blanket or maybe a warm cat on your lap :-).

An Epiphany

  I never thought I'd say these words, but I am ready for winter to be over.  

At least the morning snow mess is covering up the January/February mud mess.  When I walked up to the barn last night, that mud water puddle was twice the size and twice as deep. Fun times.

One thing trudging to and from the barn in freezing mud and blowing snow and rain and temperatures so cold your fingers actually hurt reveals is how much you love (or don't love) your job and your animals.

I am still grateful to "have to" trudge out there all day and half the night.  I am still happier to have to do that than not have my friends up there waiting for me.  And as I was in the horse stalls cleaning out flooded hay and shavings with icy gravel mixed in the other night I thought of a couple of my friends, now gone, who'd give anything to be out there doing what I was doing.

I'm still ready for a break in the weather, but the gift this winter (besides the sleigh rides, which seem like forever ago) is finding out just how much I love my animal family.

If Pinot's fence hadn't blown over this would be a really pretty picture.  It's still pretty, but it probably makes a better puzzle and you can enjoy that without having to bundle up :-).