What Housework?

Sacrificing my dignity in the interest of knitting

The terrible self-portrait, no-makeup, end-of-long-day photos come at the end. First, the background, stated as a list of sad truths:

• I have very thick, very curly hair. A lot of it.
• I generally wear my hair up, and therefore, I can't wear hats, which don't fit and look extra stupid.
• I live in Vermont. It is cold here.
• I need to be able to wear a hat.

I had been thinking of possible options to solve this problem. A headband of the Calorimetry sort was last year's effort, but a headband is not a hat. I need full head coverage.

This year, thank to some asking around on Ravelry and doing some of my own independent research, I decided a hat with a pony-tail hole was worth a shot. But rather than knit a whole hat and risk it being a  dumb idea, I sacrificed a simple, super-chunky rolled-brim hat I like but can't really wear because it won't stay on over my hair. Enter Elizabeth Zimmerman and her afterthought buttonhole.

Tonight, I tried on the hat, marked out the space where a hole should go, and got to work. I have never before cut into a piece of knitting. (Steeking? Giving myself a tracheotomy would be less stressful.) But it's not a big deal! Just mark the stitches to be opened up:

Assemble your buttonhole-trimming yarn (which doesn't match the hat but is close), a tapestry needle, and a courage booster:

Now cut--actually snip with scissors--the center stitch to removed, and then pull out two stitches on each side. Because the hat has been worn and sort of felted, the stitches remain where they are, so you don't need to put them on spare dpns:

Then, following EZ's instructions for a "cast-on, cast-off" edging, you get busy with the tapestry needle:

In a matter of moments, with no tears shed (That EZ knows what she's talking about), you have a pony-tail hole:

Now for the photos.

Here's where I demonstrate that either I am so secure that I don't mind posting awful pictures of myself, or I have such low self-esteem that I think it can't possibly make me come across as any more of a loser. But this post needs before and after shots, and I just didn't have the fortitude to get cleaned up to show you. It's Friday night.

First, the before front shot. See how high a hat sits when it's riding on top of a cubic foot of hair?

(My husband could not believe I would put this photo on the Internet. But I've put worse ones of him up here, he just never found out.)

After, the hat sits much lower and covers my ears.

Also, I am smiling because everyone knows the after shot always has to show how your weight loss/makeover/hat modification has made you a much happier individual.

Now, the before shot from the side shows the real problem. Conehead much?

Here, I considered PhotoShopping out a couple of chins, but I'm too lazy. Like you're perfect? The point is the hat is barely even on my head.

Fortunately, thanks to Elizabeth Zimmerman, I now have a hat that fits:


I'll be honest: I think it still looks kind of dorky to have a big poof of hair sticking out the back of a simple hat. But at least if I'm going to look dorky, my ears and forehead ought to be warm. Right?

This little experiment has changed my whole attitude toward hats. Now I know I can knit myself a hat and bust out the back if necessary. I'm liberated. And I love Elizabeth Zimmerman for promising that I could cut a hole in my knitting and live to tell the tale.

The last of the Real Vermonter... and a poll

Step right up, folks. Here's your last chance to score a skein of "Weybridge" Real Vermonter yarn. That's primo Vermont fiber in there: wool, alpaca, and mohair. And once these 7 skeins are gone, there will be no more of the Weybridge blend. If you go to A Piece of Vermont, you'll find these 4 new colorways:

Easy Peasy:

Still Waters:

Baby Doll:

And The Ocean Blue:

In light of the lack of Real Vermonter yarn in stock, I have posted a poll, over to your left in the sidebar. If you think you might someday be interested in some Real Vermonter yarn (no it's not superwash, but it is made from animals right here in Addison County, Vermont, and is uniquely mine), please answer the poll questions, making sure to pick 1 yarn weight, 1 fiber blend, and 1 ply. The poll is open for another month or so. I'm hoping your answers will steer me in the best direction for what yarn to create.

Production in ye olde fiber studio has been down, as you may have noticed. Now that I'm back on my feet, I'm trying to address the situation. One thing I made yesterday is going to help:

It's a multi-skein yarn winder. (And if you think I had fun explaining this to the people at the hardware store, you'd be wrong.) This will dramatically increase the number of skeins I can wind off cones, leaving me more time for Ravelry dyeing.

Did someone say Ravelry? Here's Reason #113 Why I Love Ravelry: Project photos. See, I recently went trolling Ravelry for a cool scarf pattern. I settled on the Morning Surf Scarf, which is kind of a surprise because I found thepattern photo of it to be less than inspiring. But on Ravelry, I saw other people's versions of it, and suddenly it looked like a very cool pattern. For example, check out Smoking Hot Needles'  handspun version. In fact, there were 34 other photos of that very scarf in all different colors, widths, and weights, and suddenly, I liked the pattern a lot.

Here's my handspun alpaca version, in progress:

I am knitting this on size 10 needles and although it's only 36 stitches aross, it's about a foot wide. It's getting big enough to keep my lap warm while I knit, which is nice.

Not that I need any more knitting to take care of. After some soul-searching (and a question on Ravelry, naturally) about gifts for my daughter's teacher and classroom aide, I decided that handknit gifts were maybe a bit too personal and since time is getting short, we'd just make them some homemade sugar scrub.

So imagine my surprise when my daughter came home Monday saying she'd asked her teacher about some handknit fingerless mitts and it turns out the teacher would LOVE a pair and had always WANTED a pair (in purple, rather long on the wrist) and would gladly PAY for a pair (not that I would take money). DD even pulled from her backpack a tracing of the teacher's hand to give me sizing info.

I'm actually tickled to hear the news, and only slightly panicked. I was torn between making simple mitts out of handspun, or slightly dressier mitts out of store-bought yarn, and in the interest of time I have decided to go the second route. I think it will be Princess Mitts for both teachers.

I need to get to the yarn store.

Rogue, Finished

Rogue is finished!

I was hoping for some fun, outdoor "reveal" photos,

but I was too cold to look happy about by biggest FO of the year.

So I moved indoors and did the standard, ultra-serious, dorky self-portraits.

Love the side cables, the length, the hemmed edges:

Love the hood cable:

I worked the arms extra long (the body, too, actually). I never make my sweater sleeves long enough because it seems inconceivable that I would need a 20" sleeve. But apparently that's just right:

In case you have been living underground for a while, Rogue was designed by the fabulous Jenna Wilson and everybody who knows a good pattern when they see one has knit it. (Although I don't think the official pattern photo shows the cables off as well as they deserve.) Thanks to Ravelry, I was able to see photos of dozens of finished Rogues and read all about how fun the pattern was to knit.  They didn't lie.) Elegant touches, like using side cables to provide waist shaping, really made this a pattern among patterns.

Mine was knit with Vermont Organic Fiber Company's O'Wool Classic. The yarn was a bit heavy for gauge so I used smaller needles and got a nice dense fabric. The yarn is merino but spun in a way that shows good stitch definition. I was toasty all day.

The hand-dyed alpaca I've been spinning is still not dry, but it's close. I navajo-plied it and got a pretty substantial yarn out of it, 270 yards to I don't know how many ounces:

Until it is ready to knit, I'm back to spinning my Opus 2007. I said that my husband changed his mind and didn't want a sweater out of my own hand-processed, handspun, hand-dyed yarn. I guess I was wrong. When he said, "Why are you making that for me? I don't need another sweater," apparently he meant, "I can't wait for you to make me a sweater from that." He can't understand how I misunderstood him, and I can't understand why he's such a goober. I may not have it ready for Christmas, but I'm plugging away.

Today he picked up another two piglets, from the same litter as the two we got last week. They come from a not-very-lovely place where they are in cold mud all the time and they get here looking pretty dirty, but they clean up quickly.

The two newbies:

They were very nervous and shaking (more fear than cold, I think, but I could be wrong), and desperately trying to join this pig pile:

After a few minutes, they worked up the courage to get somewhat close:

When suddenly, the four other piglets reacted like this:

Taking that as a good sign, the new little piggies joined in, ever so gingerly:

By tomorrow they'll be as clean and pink as the others. It's a piggy mystery, but they wake up spotless.

A little Thankgiving irony

Our turkeys, eating cranberry sauce. Does anyone else see the irony in this?

 

Yes, we did eat a local turkey for Thanksgiving, just not one of ours. Maybe next year... We had a lovely Thanksgiving, and thanks to the locavore group on Ravelry, I attempted the "100-mile Thanksgiving," in which almost everything we ate came from a 100-mile radius. And I did manage to eat pumpkin pie with gusto, so I guess I'm all better now!

Milo weathered the Great Neutering of 2007 without a hitch. (We had it done at the house, thanks to a wonderful visiting vet service.)

My younger stepson came home for Thanksgiving and Milo was pleased with that:

The cat's even been loving up the big dog lately, as shown in the following series (taken last week when it was sunny):



This kinder, gentler side of Milo is misleading. He is still a ruthless killer and ankle biter and has become so gluttonous that we have to lock him outside during dinner to keep him off the table.

I have been busy spinning and I finished a large skein of the alpaca 3-ply I hand-dyed. But the skein is soaking right now so all I have is a shot of the partially finished bobbin of singles:

More subtle than I had planned but nice nonetheless. Final skein shot to come later. I have also been doing a little more gift knitting and working on Rogue:


Milo, the attention hog, had to join in:



I have a set a goal of finishing this sweater by Sunday. I've been stalling even though all I have to do is finish the sleeve caps, seam the sleeves, and sew them in. I want to get back to gift stuff. (Did I mention my fickle husband did a 180 and now DOES want a handspun heavy sweater? He may not get it by Christmas, but he'll get one. It's just the the Opus 2007 project really should be finished in 2007. Maybe by New Year's.)

Since I can't share most of the fiber stuff I've been working on, let me throw in some animal photos.

The calves are doing well.

They still want to suck on your fingers (or gloves, as the case may be),

but they've figured out how to drink out of pails, and even know which pail is whose:

We got two more piglets the other day, so now we have 2 teeny ones, 2 little ones, and 2 huge ones. The babies:



Sassy is hopefully With Piglets by now, but we won't know for another two weeks or so. If she doesn't get bred, I'm not sure what we're going to do with her. Here's my husband adding some hay to the pig bed and giving Sassy her daily ear scritching:


Fudd, our loaner boar, is now our own. His former owner really doesn't have the room or the shelter (at all) for his pigs, so my husband and brother-in-law asked if they could keep him in exchange for a little work. Done deal. He's a big boy, but very mild-mannered.

He LOVES a good backrub. It's too bad the pictures don't show him shimmying back and forth to get the full benefit of every scritch. He almost falls over he leans so far from left to right and back:



Last week, before the snow started falling, I brought the goats and sheep a load of cornstalks and cobs. They had a ball.



JJ preferred not to join in. He likes to hang with guys.


My husband's been spending a lot of time around the sheep barn, in order to install this:

A frost-free water spigot = No lugging water buckets through the snow!

I won't go into the details of what happens when an unqualified man uses his new tractor to dig up the  yard with abandon. The bottom line is (a) the water line is now fixed, (b) the sewer pipe is now fixed, and (c) the tractor is now fixed. What more could a girl ask for?

Last: There is going to be a small shop update soon, featuring the last 6 or 7 skeins of Real Vermonter yarn in stock. (Seven if I don't keep one for myself. Most likely 6.) Although I'm feeling better, getting back into a routine has been difficult; it takes a while to build up inventory and make enough money to buy more. I promise I'll be back on track soon, so again, thank you for your patience.

I hope everyone's enjoying a leisurely long weekend.

Slowly gaining speed

Unlike me, Milo has never felt better.

Thank you for all your kind words during my recent near-death-experience illness. My brother-in-law has taken to calling me Typhoid Mary and has renamed our home The House of Pain. I have never been so sick for so long.

I was only totally flat on my back for 3 days, but the recovery period has been very slow. Maybe not eating anything for several days (not to mention not touching a drop of coffee for over a week) took a bigger toll on me than I realized because it's been almost two weeks and I'm just now starting to feel totally human again. As a person who likes to be able to get things done, it's been pretty demoralizing to have day after day of fatigue, and I truly started wondering if I'd ever be able to get back to normal.  Fortunately, my appetite is returning, I drank coffee yesterday and today, and I think I might be able to eat a normal Thanksgiving dinner by next week. Sadly, my love of squash and pumpkin collided with my severe intestinal problems and at the moment I can't even look at orange food. Hope that passes.

I finally managed a shop update, albeit a small one. I have two regular skeins of Dark Malachite:

And one large skein each (5.8 ounces, 629 yards) of Pomegranate [SOLD], 3-Day Weekend [SOLD], and Evening:



I'm afraid I have nothing else in the queue as of this morning, but next I'll have more of the sock yarn, plus what may be the last batch of Real Vermonter yarn for the year. I'm taking ideas for the next round and if I get my act together maybe I'll post a poll to help me figure out what you guys would like in terms of Real Vermonter yarn weight and fiber content.

I have been knitting, actually. Rogue is mostly done except for the top of the sleeves. I put it on hold while I switched to a Christmas-gift knit which I can't share here. You see, we went to my stepson's first college wrestling tournament in Rhode Island this weekend, and I needed something really portable. Then, on the spur of the moment, we went back down to Mass. on Wednesday night to see him wrestle in his first college dual meet, because he nailed a starting spot in the line-up and we were very proud of him. For the record, Wednesday night is the first time my husband and I have gone away overnight without any children in 8 years. All you single and/or childless people out there, think about that.

I finished my first large skein of Opus 2000 yarn:

My husband has basically declined my offer of a sweater for him, so it's going to be a big oversized warm one for me. However, I've stopped spinning it to make way for another Christmas gift project. On the spur of the moment the other day, I found a cool pattern that looked suited to a very drapey yarn. So I grabbed some fawn alpaca I have (which is for sale except I haven't put it up on the website):

ran it through my friend Donna's drum carder and soaked it:

And dyed it up:

I'm planning on spinning it and then Navajo-plying it to keep the colors somewhat distinct. The pattern I'm knitting up (secretly, of course) lends itself to subtle striping and I think this might work. Wish me luck.

That about covers everything. I'm almost better, I'm going to get back to dyeing (and to all my devoted customers, thank you for being so understanding about delayed shipments and any mixups that may have occurred during the Dark Days. I hope it never happens again!) I did, however, want to share one customer's results with some roving my daughter rainbow dyed. This spinner turned this merino superwash:

into this:

And through the magic of Navajo plying, kept the color gradations and knitted the yarn into Fetching:

(For the non-spinners, I will mention once again that Navajo plying is sort of like making a long crochet-chain with one strand of yarn. Because you are not twisting two or three different strands together, Navajo plying keeps each section of color pretty much intact. Margene did a nice comparison between standard plying and Navajo plying, if you are interested.)

Milo, no longer looking like a kitten, has dodged a bullet twice in the past two weeks but I won't be rescheduling with the vet again. Wednesday he gets tutored.


Ignorance is bliss, right?

Blaaaahhhhh

Newsflash:

I am sick.

Stomach bug struck late Saturday. Spent three full days on couch praying for relief or death. Watched 10 hours of "The Real Housewives of Orange County." This may have slowed my recovery. Still not 100 percent. Haven't looked at computer since Saturday. Checked email today, finally. Haven't responded to any emails yet. Screen flicker makes me sick to my stomach. Should be back down to my birth weight by the weekend.

I'll be back.

Jessie

P.S. Does Ravelry exist or was it a fever-induced hallucination?

Whazzzzuuuppppp?

Who can resist a happy piglet with a dirty nose?

I didn't realize the week had gotten away from me but I have little to show for it. The shop update I had planned has been postponed (I had to fulfill a small local wholesale order, and appointments and field trip chaperoning kept me from uploading yarn to the website). Yesterday, I got a very brief visit from Sarah, who was in between sessions at a work conference in town, and Norma almost joined us but chose a lucrative work opportunity instead of driving 2 hours each way. Can't blame her.

I didn't finish Rogue, being put off after a particularly snarky comment from my husband about how I spent all of last weekend knitting. He was right, which didn't make it any less stinging, and because of my obsession, I didn't start my daughter's Halloween costume until Monday night, when we also carved pumpkins and made cookies.

My daughter ended up being a black cat, a reprise of 2005, but turned out more like a gerrymander made of the head of a cat and the body of a yeti:

My advice to you: NEVER sew black fun fur. My sewing machine and my vacuum now hate me.

Since I'm shy on fibery stuff, I'll distract you with autumn and animal pictures. Works every time. You know how a full moon looks absolutely huge when you see it coming over the horizon but when you take a picture it's tiny? Yeah, that:

Here's the view of my ride home from town:

Our town of 8,500 is going through major development woes, as there are applications for both a Staples and a Starbucks being considered, as well as several new housing developments and apartment complexes going up. One of the recent letters to the editor called for us to "catch up with the rest of the U.S." and stop trying to remain a 19th-century town. This picture, while nothing stunning, is a simple reason why I don't want to catch up to anyone else. Not a parking lot in sight and a view of the Green Mountains in the background. It's a losing battle, I'm afraid.

As for the animals, Milo continues to annoy everyone else. Here he is with my old, old cat, who now constantly gives me this betrayed look:

Here, Milo is walking up the turkey ramp. He likes to leap from perch to perch in the turkey house and chase the young chickens that roost in there:

The turkeys, however, don't put up with his shenanigans. I tried to capture the smackdown on his furry little butt, but low light made it difficult:

Roy and Lars with snoods a-swinging:

They don't like the dog either, because he used to chase them. Now he hides behind us when they come around:

They like to come down to the barn at night and see what's going on:

Fudd's just hanging out:

What I didn't tell you is that last weekend two new creatures arrived at our house: Gert and Polly.


They were pretty sickly at first so I didn't get any good pictures. The deal, if you are interested, is that a local dairy farmer called and told my husband he was getting rid of some beef calves and did we want them. Usually beef calves stay with their mother for months, so I wasn't sure why these were only 3 and 5 days old.

Turns out, the father (donor, I mean) was a Hereford, but the mother was a Holstein, and as I'm sure you know, baby milk cows don't get milk: We do. Calves get milk replacer. These two were technically weaned, but after a week, one of them still won't drink from a pail unless you hold your fingers in her mouth while she's drinking/sucking. The vet came out and said one had a fever and both were dehydrated, but they're doing better now. I think our plan is to have them bred next year with a beefer of some sort and then let them raise the babies themselves--no milk replacer.

I guess I'm too softhearted to be a farmer because while eating our own meat doesn't bother me, seeing baby animals taken from their mother does. But that's the way of the world, I guess. I need to toughen up or stop drinking milk!

The weather has been lovely and crisp, perfect for making apple dumplings in vanilla sauce (to die for--google it for a recipe):

And that's all I've got, except for a few more animal pictures. Have a great weekend!