The After Party

"This was supposed to be MY party!"

 

Let's celebrate Maisie's birthday with a new puzzle :-).

Happy Birthday, Maisie

Our little Maisie turned nine today.  Yes...nine.  That is a odd number to me.  Nine seems so much older than she should be...and yet it feels like she's always been here...  Here's to many more odd years!

Auntie Reg baked her favorite cake and we made her a special birthday princess crown, complete with sappy hearts and lots of glitter :-D.

Now we only do this once a year.  The other 364 days are just normal days where you would struggle to get Maisie to separate from the flock and go off into the arena by herself  do anything.  Somehow she knows what her birthday is and once again marched right in and immediately looked for her cake.

Remember, pictures can lie.  The chickens were absolutely not this polite.  

The spillage :-D.

And like all good Maisie birthday parties, it deteriorated into fisticuffs.

I'm pretty sure if I were a chicken I'd sleep with one eye open tonight!

But, not to worry.  Auntie Reg repeatedly ran them off and made everything all better.  

I'll post pictures of the after party with the rest of the flock tomorrow.  A good birthday was had by all :-).

Wovember Day 24. Stash

I've decided I need a new sweater.  While I really don't mind wearing any of my handknit sweaters out to the barn, the sweaters I reach for the most are Baaxter and B. Willard - the simple, dark colored pullovers.  I'd wear Ford too, but that's 20's favorite sweater ;-).  

I was also looking for a simple, almost mindless evening knitting project and a simple sweater definitely meets that criteria...until I mess up something ;-).  I have Jared's yarn set aside for the Iknitarod in March, but who wants to wait that long!

Remember the Jacob yarn I spun for the Tour de Fleece a couple of years ago?  It would be perfect for a cozy warm barn sweater.  I then searched Ravelry for a new pattern and picked the Sophiasburgh sweater by Sam Lamb.  Just enough color to keep things interesting and it has an interesting design feature I want to try.

I was sure I had something in the yarn stash that would work for the patterning and I did.  I could tell it was Jacob, but I couldn't remember which sheep it was.  I had a couple guesses, but unfortunately I hadn't tagged it.  I scrolled back through the blog and found it under a Spinzilla post from 2015.  

To refresh your memory, the dark Jacob yarn was from our very first five Jacob sheep.  I think it was a 2005 shearing.  It had originally been processed by Ohio Valley Natural Fibers as quilt batting, but when it became obvious I was never going to get a quilt made, I had them re-run it as roving.

The light gray? It's a blend of Emily and Annabelly, our very next two Jacobs!  Nothing could be more perfect.  

The historical significance of these yarns is (inspiring/heartwarming/exciting....?).  I'm really looking forward to spending some time with seven of my most favorite Jacob sheep ever and wearing the finished sweater while working around our present day flock.

Stash for the win!

Dese* Bea's Beds

Apparently one is for playing and one is for sleeping.  Who knew?

*There is a series of posts on IG and FB of Possum claiming and sleeping in all sorts of places around the farm.  Each post is titled "Dis my bed." ;-)

The 2021 Lunar Eclipse

I got up several times last night to watch the lunar eclipse.  At 2:00 there wasn't much to look at.  By 3:00 it was starting to get interesting.  By 4:00 it was excellent!  We had crystal clear skies and a great view.  It was cold, but no wind.  Perfect. 

It reminded me of watching the 2017 solar eclipse.  

Without the soul crushing heat.

But with 20.

Oh dear.  He really should get to see this eclipse as well.

I mean, how many sheep can claim to have seen both eclipses?  

I probably couldn't have pulled it off at, say 11:00, but by 4:00 I was up for an adventure.  I thought 20 was always up for an adventure as well, but he actually seemed a bit confused as to why I was putting his sweater on him in the wee hours of the morning.  Once we got outside though, he was all in.  

We sat out by the farm truck looking at the moon, taking some pictures with my phone and the big camera, talking about the solar eclipse and how the moon was different and why we could look right at it and I thanked him for being a good friend and a good sport about everything ;-).  

Note: I did wake Saint Tim up to take a quick look, but he too seemed a bit confused as to why I was waking him up in the wee hours of the morning ;-D.

It was worth it.

Fall Friends

Bea and I went for a walk out back yesterday afternoon.  Possum came with us for the first time.  She followed Kate down to the creek in the front field once a couple of weeks ago, but I think that was more her taking care of Kate than taking a walk with friends.

Possum is lonely.  She and Betsy do not get along.  She likes me, but is still wary and only lets me pet her when she feels safe up on something like a cabinet or one of her beds.  She loved those quiet old dogs.  Bea is as far from old and quiet as she could possibly be.

I think Possum understands that Bea is a baby.  I bet, like me, she is just hoping Bea eventually quickly grows out of her way too exuberant behavior.  In the meantime, I'm seeing some action that makes me think she's trying to figure out a way to be friends.

I try very hard to stop Bea when I see her chasing Possum.  There is nothing I hate more than a dog who chases other animals...well, unless it's a guard dog chasing a coyote.  Lately I think Possum might be deliberately letting Bea chase her sometimes, almost teasing her into a race.  

Yesterday I saw Possum chase Bea back a couple of times as we explored around the Frog Pond.  The forays up a nearby tree looked almost more like a fun game than an escape.  I'm still not comfortable with Bea's behavior, but I think we're all trying.  No one's trying harder than Possum.

I thought this picture would be too busy and not fun, but it is actually made for a good puzzle.  Bea is a bit too busy as well, but maybe she's turning into a fun puzzle for Possum as well.

Just In The Nick Of Time

I think the last time I dyed the yarn for this sweater was fall of 2019...which is around the time the blog got sketchy, so who knows what really happened :-/.  

I do remember the yarn started out (years ago) in springtime colors, then (years ago) tweaked to be more summer and then (two years ago), when once again I wasn't finding much inspiration from the yarn that was so special, it occurred to me to shoot for a fall palette and then, even better, a blanket flower palette. 

I started (for the last time) knitting the sweater for the 2020 Iknitarod.  Something went wrong, I think the gauge in the green section (?), and it didn't get finished until the 2021 Iknitarod.  At least it was finally finished and I miraculously remembered to take pictures the other day just before the blanket flowers were finished for the year.

I regret I was not able to finish this sweater while Renny was still alive.  I would have loved a picture of it with her.  I would have loved for her to see her beautiful yarn made into something that will last long after she and I are gone.  It's hard not to compare the hard fought journey from sheep to happy sweater with her hard fought journey from what should have been her tragic end to such a happy life.

Blanket flowers make for happy bees, too :-).

There are so many previous posts I should link throughout this post to tell a more complete story of the sheep, yarn and knitting, but it's a beautiful fall day and I'm going back outside.  Long time readers know her story.  If you are new, follow this link or her "label" on the right hand side of the blog and meet a tough sheep and her even tougher yarn.

October

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Happy Halloween

"Yeah...they dressed me up as a spider."

"A spider."

"But wait...don't spiders bite people?"

"You better give me a bunch of cookies!"

"I prefer to think of myself as a super hero!"

While you sure don't want to see your deluxe Halloween costume destroyed, I'd be lying if I didn't admit there is a little part of me that sort of misses the Maisie who wouldn't even wear a wizards hat.