Kid Sisters

"So there I was, just minding my own business..."

"I swear I didn't do anything to cause this!"

I guess Liddy just wanted to eat in Maisie's spot ;-).

A CPW Play Date

Last fall, when two Kentucky spinners ended up at the same New York fiber festival playing with a nice CPW (Canadian Production Wheel) for sale (that I ended up buying :-), we laughed that we were going to have to have a CPW play date when we got home.  Pat already had a CPW as did another friend, Debbie (debky on Ravelry).  

Spin Ins are not uncommon.  Spin Ins with three antique wheels (I'm guessing each wheel is somewhere around 100 years old) are a bit rarer.

Spinning (or knitting or crocheting or weaving...) with a cat sitting on your lap - not uncommon (as anyone with a cat knows ;-).

Being able to spin with a cat AND and dog - a bit rarer :-D.

Debbie and I did some wheel maintenance and Pat happened to have a new bobbin that didn't fit her wheel, but fit mine perfectly, and she was able to get my wheel's excited chattering down to an acceptable purr.  

Check out these neat shoes.  They are see-through to showcase your hand knit socks!  I think those were hand dyed, too.

What a fun afternoon.

Even if you'd maybe rather have gone for a walk ;-).

Perspectives On Hank

The sun was in and out yesterday afternoon as the clouds rolled through.  Overcast skies are the easiest to work with, especially if you are photographing animals.  Sunshine and blue skies are usually, but not always, prettier.  It's all pretty to me :-).

Overcast - soft light, no distracting shadows, good colors.  Hank was excited to have some back field company and he quickly made his rounds, checking for any new news.

Now the sun's out.  Too early to catch the "golden" light, the sheep are dark, everything has an almost harsh look...but still pretty to me because of the subject matter.

Hank is still in the same spot, but I moved around behind him, thinking I was just including the sheep.  Still a bit harsh, but the blue sky sure adds something.

I need to check my light metering settings - just for curiosity.  Notice Hank is much brighter now, but the sheep are darker?  I wasn't really thinking about what I was shooting, just recording scenes and honestly, that's fine.  Just getting out to shoot is what's important sometimes!  I also like the balance between ground and sky better with this picture.  And Woolliam giving Hank the stink eye.  Subject matter rules :-).

Here's a fun puzzle for you.  I set it up for 200 pieces, but it would be a good one at even more. Remember you can change the number of pieces yourself using the "Play As" feature at the top right. You'll have to click the puzzle piece at the bottom right on this screen to get to that feature on the puzzle site.

Have a great weekend!

A New Adventure Chicken

Back around Christmas we took in a small flock of chickens from a friend who was having some health issues.  Three of our four old hens had moved into the barn during the summer, so we set the remaining hen next to her sister the first night and settled the new chickens into the coop on the horse side of the barn.  That's where everyone (except one) stayed for many weeks.

I can only guess that the new chickens peeked around the end of the barn their first day out, saw the sheep or maybe the old hens and beat it back to "safety"on "their" side of the barn.  They are quite happy (?) to hang out in and around the horse stalls and that's where they have stayed. They don't even venture down to the creek (!).

One red hen, however, took full advantage of her new situation and not only quickly came over to introduce herself to the old hens, but also the sheep, or maybe especially the sheep.  She happily started snacking on the DBV breakfasts, scratching around in the sheep stalls and headed out to graze the big fields with them.  Way out in the big fields.

Kate and I took the sheep out to the pond field this afternoon.  They weren't super excited about taking a forced march even if there is good grass back there and after not too much time, beat it back to the barn.  Several were jumping and bouncing and I was snapping pictures and didn't notice the red hen until everyone was gone.

"Where'd everybody go?"

I know!  It's a nice afternoon and those sheep are just being silly.  Kate happily brought them all back out and we moved into the lower paddock.  Sure enough, the red hen came along.  Comby has a new walking companion.  A true Adventure Chicken!

She loves her sheeps :-).

The Frozen Fog...From Last Week

It's in the 50s and raining right now, but if I'm lucky it sounds like it might turn into snow tomorrow night.  Yeah, I know (ducking and running ;-).

It was warm and slushy/snowy.  Betsy had to shake her feet after each step, but she was determined to get out and do some "pre-fishing".  She's on your side about winter.

That's a strand of spider web that has survived all winter!

Just go on back to bed, Betsy ;-).

Adventures In Pom Poms

I finished my Baa-ble hat re-knit and I'm Much Happier with everything about it.  Yes, Stella, it does always hurt way less to frog (rip it rip it) something than to live with it not exactly the way you want :-).

  

Other than not doing such a sloppy job knitting it to begin with, I did make one modification to the pattern.  I took out two rows of the night sky so it would be just a little shorter since I couldn't get the correct row/height gauge.  It fits perfect now.  

I was torn on putting a pom pom on the top or figuring out some sort of i-cord topper.  I don't really think of myself as a pom pom sort of person, but I couldn't help at least giving it a try.  Why? Because a night sky should have a full moon (even though on a full moon night, the stars don't really show up ;-).

I picked up a Clover Pom Pom maker over the weekend.  I wasn't sure how much yarn I'd need to make a large pom pom, so I made a test one and determined 40 yards would give me plenty, with some room to spare and then I got out the dye pot.  

My first attempt was way too bright/dark yellow, so I tried again.  I've had trouble getting my yellows dark enough in the past.  Now when I wanted it pale...yeah, the second one was better, but still too yellow as well.  Using one strand of yellow mixed with one strand of white worked perfect.

Here is my pom pom in progress.  Note the second pom pom maker in the background.  I got two so there'd be an extra one to give as a prize for the Meridian Jacobs/Punkin's Patch knitalong.  Yep, there are prizes (on top of ending up with a super cute hat :-)!

So you wrap around the two half circle arms, close the circle, cut up the middles and then slide a tie yarn down through the two halves, tie it off, carefully open the arms...

Okay, so I'm not the best pom pom maker in the world...yet ;-).  I trimmed (and trimmed) it up while the hat was soaking.  The hat bloomed quite a bit once it hit the water, so I decided to see if the pom pom would as well.  Bingo!  Of course I forgot to take pictures...

...so I pulled out my test pom pom (that I thought was not very good), trimmed it up a little more and dunked it in the warm, slightly soapy water.

Hey, it's not so bad after all!  Keep in mind this is 100% wool.  It might not be such a great idea to do that if you are using some other sort of fiber.  I don't know though and probably won't ever find out . Why?  Because I'm a Wool Girl ;-).

The finished hat.  Very cute, if I say so myself, even with the temporary blue stitching to hold the brim exactly where I want it (have I mentioned that I love block wool ;-).  

I can't wait until Wednesday to start another one!

The Breakfast Club

Some shots from the other day. Today is sunny and way too hot for February. Ugh.  I know I'm in the minority, but I sure hope winter is not over.

The breakfast greeters.  Left to right - Allie, Liddy, Daniel, Woody

Andy tries hard to be a clever and excited gate climber, but the boy has No Skills.  You can see that Woody has walked away and around the corner to show him how it's really done.  

"Quit taking pictures and just put the food out.  And not that blecky orchard grass.  We want some of that first hay."

We'd all like some more of that first hay, Maisie.  Luckily we have had a mild winter and hay that we couldn't find anywhere last fall is popping up in ads all over the place. Hopefully they won't have to eat the two year old orchard grass much longer.  I am obviously not feeding any more of the "bad" hay.

The old (safe) orchard grass is so unpopular that about a third of the flock has decided to go forage elsewhere.  It's not that bad.  If I'd fed it first this winter they'd have eaten it much better.  It's sort of like eating homemade sweet rolls for a couple months and then having to switch to plain shredded wheat.   

I doubt we'll have to worry about it too much longer.  I think spring is right around the corner....sadly (ducking and running ;-).

Winner!

Random.org picked I'm gonna tell Mom :-D.  Send me an email (thecrazysheeplady AT gmail DOT com) with your address and I'll drop your yarn at the post office right away!

Since No One Could Resist...

Remember this cute picture?  Where we all agreed we couldn't resist giving Woody a cookie for putting his feet on the lower wall and sticking his nose through the stall slats, begging for cookies?

Well, in an effort to get even more cookies, our little circus sheep has turned it up a notch.

For reference, I am 5'8" and the "Good Sheep" sign is chest high.

Either door works.

And when he really stretches up, his nose is well over my head (!).

"I'm a good sheep, aren't I?  Won't you please give me a cookie?"

Of course we will...even though we try not to because we are worried you are going to hurt yourself...but you are so persistent that we finally give in...a couple times.

Woody is a Friday Funny every day :-).