What Housework?

Green Eggs and Damn

It's like this.

We have these Araucana hens (they lay the greenish blue eggs) who have finally started laying. But I've only found 2 eggs in the nest box. My brother-in-law discovered their hiding place the other day:

Right there in the dirt, in the lower part of the shop barn (right under the dye studio, in fact). Damn chickens. There are disadvantages to free-ranging your chickens, that's all I'm saying. And I know for a fact that several of our other hens are hiding their eggs, too, but I'm not sure where.

We are such half-assed farmers. If we were serious, these girls would be incarcerated so we could have a decent supply of eggs in the fridge.

Damn chickens.

Knitting update: I have been knitting like a madwoman. I feel like I've been a prisoner of size 0 needles since I made the pledge to knit a pair of socks a month. I've thrown away the pledge (although I like it for summer) and have raced to needles that one can see with the naked eye.

My latest finished object: The Opus 2007 (ha) sheep-to-sweater project:

This is hardly my finest work. I stopped working on it last winter when it became clear that my yarn was going to run out. I couldn't bear to get it almost done and then have to give up, so I abandoned it instead. But it was taking up a lot of room in the knitting basket, so I decided to finish it for the husband's birthday on Friday.

I did.

As it turns out, I did have enough yarn to finish, but that was only because I resorted to using spare bits of sample yarns. The neck and shoulders are made with the super-chunky version, so they're huge. And I haven't blocked it yet, so maybe that will help with the bulging in the upper back.

If you want a trip down memory lane to see how this project began, you can check out the original brown fleece (the darker part of the ragg wool) in this post from September 2006(!). The carded fleece, in both brown and white, the white being from our own J.J., makes its appearance in a post from August 1, 2007. Most of the spinning took place late this winter. Then came the dyeing. And, after a few false starts I got knitting soon after that.

The sweater was based on the Seamless Hybrid pattern (Ravelry link here) by Elizabeth Zimmerman in Knitting Without Tears. I love the freedom of making a sweater with just a general idea of shaping, based on percentages of the body stitches. I just wish I hadn't taken such sloppy notes and put the project away for so many months. When I got around to finishing it last week, I was so panicked watching my yarn slip away without knowing if I'd have enough, I completely lost track of the big picture. If I do a similar sweater again, which I probably will, I'll make sure I have more yarn so I can concentrate more on the details. I'd also go with the shirt-yoke back, in which the saddle runs across the upper back and connects the sleeves. Very slick.

This important thing is that my husband does love it. Or, knowing what's good for him, he pretends really, really well.

And I finished another whole sweater this month, but it's blocking. You can see it in my next post.

Since I'm not knitting much in the way of socks lately, it's a good thing other people are. Today I got not one but two messages from knitters who have recently finished socks using yarn from A Piece of Vermont Yarn & Fiber. First, a customer named Tracey sent me pictures of her "Spritely" knee socks, made with my Long Trail sock yarn in the "Water Sprite" colorway. More details on Ravelry here.

Aren't they amazing?

Then, I got a Ravelry message from ZippyZinnia, showing off her own Long Trail socks, this time in the "Balsam" colorway. Details on Ravelry, here.

Beautiful!

Too bad I have hardly any yarn available online right now. I'm dyeing as fast as I can.

Now, you are probably wondering what a woman does when she has just finished two sweaters in a week. After celebrating with apple dumplings,

she looks around for a new project. Mine was going to be a simple neck-down hooded tunic (Ravelry link here, and why look, it's our own Jessalu modeling hers right on the pattern page!), but I've misplaced the pattern. Then there are some thrummed mittens, but I don't have the thrums made yet. So I'm starting the February Lady Sweater. Based on EZ's February Baby Sweater from The Knitter's Almanac. If you're on Ravelry, you must have heard of it. Over 2,000 people on Ravelry have made the adult version.

It won't keep me warm outside like the hoodie. But it's so cute. I've swatched, and now I'm off to my daughter's field hockey practice and my nephew's football game to get started. So excited.

One last picture. Young turkeys in the wood shop. I have no idea why.

Today I am a spinner

I've been spinning 6 years or so. And yet I don't know that much about spinning. You can find spinners who get off on all the technical aspects of spinning, actual math involving knowing wheel ratios and treadle counts and twist per inch. Those people make lovely, mathematically correct yarns.

I am not one of those people.

In fact, my biggest shameful secret as a spinner is that I only know one way to spin, and I don't know what it's called. I think it might be something called a "short forward draw," but that's not important. What matters is that my spinning produces a "worsted" yarn, as opposed to a "woolen" yarn. (Nonspinners: Read "smooth and dense" versus "fluffy and light.") I haven't had much interest in producing woolen yarns until two recent events.

1. I spun two pounds of ridiculously heavy and impenetrable (and possibly not even usable) worsted yarn

2. I saw someone spinning at a great wheel, which by its very design produces woolen yarn

Ever since, I have been wondering about this mysterious method known as the "long draw" and all its woolen-yarn variants. Could I possibly learn long draw spinning?

(Can you guess the answer to this?)

This weekend, while at the harvest festival, I had the opportunity to try a Jensen Ultimate Production wheel, an experience so close to pure nirvana that I almost floated off into space, and I have since decided that I will have one of those wheels within a year even if I have to sell the tractor. More important, the wheel's owner showed me long draw spinning. So I rushed home and tried it on my own wheel.

True woolen yarns are made with fluffy, non-aligned, carded fibers (don't even get me started on semi-woolen and semi-worsted yarns, it's all a blob of nonessential info to my spinning brain). So I took a combination of llama fiber (in two colors, purchased at the harvest festival),

 

A bit of polwarth remaining from the gift Lynne sent me a while back,

 

and some merino top I had lying around,

 

And with hand-cards (!) I made sloppy rolag after sloppy rolag:

And here's a news flash: I used the hand cards only because I have finally returned the drum carder to its rightful owner (after two years), and I had no other choice. But to my surprise I found the hand carding process to be extremely satisfying. Don't ask me why.

I sat down at the wheel, started whatever version of the long draw I could make work for me, and discovered I was spinning lumpy but lovely fluffy, woolen yarn. Success. Then I dug up an old issue of Spin-Off and found that my method is, in fact, the "double draft" method written up not too long ago. It works! 

Behold what to you may look like a slightly pathetic skein of inexpertly spun yarn:

  

To me, it is one of the best skeins I've ever spun. I love it and I can't stop petting it. I'm thinking of making myself some super-warm mittens (thrummed, hopefully) and this will be the yarn. 

So that's it. I conquered a new, seemingly impossible technique, and it worked. Now I want to spin more and more and perfect that technique. If you are a spinner who hasn't tried any sort of long draw, I'd say it takes a bit of courage to draft out a couple of feet of yarn at one sweep, but with a front hand there to pinch the yarn, let some twist build up, let the twist rush up the yarn, and then stay up front but continue to step in as necessary, it really works. And it looks pretty impressive in action. Try it. (It's pretty fast, too.)

That's about all I've got here, except for some new additions to the menagerie. Here's Daisy:

 

She's the runt of a litter of Tamworths my husband and brother-in-law went to see yesterday. They had planned to pick up two bigger piglets but my husband is a sucker for the underdog so he came home with her, too. They're a bit skittish but I'm sure they'll settle in soon enough. (Current pig count: 13)

 

Catching up, part II

So, to finish what should have been one long blog post...

THE PIGS GOT OUT

 

Not all of them, just four. Three big ones, and one of Sassy's piglets.

It's not a huge trauma; they don't run off. They just like to explore the grounds.

  

The problem is that they're kind of big.

  

  

And they don't have handles.

We got the young one back in just by calling her back to the barn. The other three, however, had other ideas. Once it became clear that yelling and pushing wasn't going to cut any ice with them, we relaxed and let them take their time. We gave them back scratches,

  

gave them a drink,

  

And tried to lure them with apples.

  

Eventually, we rigged up two "hog panels" (fencing) into a V shape, and funneled them back to the barn. Just a normal Saturday morning...

SOPHIE

 The little poodle lives. Recently groomed, she's cold again. But well fed.

 

  

  

  

NECKWARMER

I knit a neckwarmer for my daughter. I found some handspun (merino?) from last year, dyed especially for my girl-who-loves-girly-colors, and cast on 48 stitches and worked a brioche stitch ribbing, taken directly from Elizabeth Zimmerman's Knitting Without Tears.

  

This was a new stitch for me, and, true to what EZ asserts, it produces a wonderfully "fruity rib."

  

Getting a sweaty kid to try on said neckwarmer on a warm afternoon was more of a challenge than the actual knitting.

  

This is the best I could do.

  

But she'll need it soon enough...

I LOVE YOUR BLOG 

A week or so ago, Gayle of mangofeet named mine as one of the blogs she loves. Perhaps this is because Gayle is from Vermont and has chickens...

Whatever the reason, it's been a while since I praised anyone else's blog and so, doing my part, I now am passing the award along to a few other bloggers, who I think deserve more attention than they get. So, without further ado:

 

• RippedOffKnitter. Her pictures of life in northern Norway are breathtaking.
• SpiderWomanKnits. She lives close to where I grew up,  she has chickens (a recurring theme for me?) and she portrays the best aspects of family life so well through photographs.
• Cloudberry Knit. A most entertaining blogger who has moved from Denmark to New Jersey and back to Denmark in a short span of time.
• no-blog-rachel's blog. She lives in California, but she's from Vermont.
• Princess of Pink. She just moved back to Vermont, and where she lives is even colder than here. (And I bet she's going to have chickens pretty soon.)

There are tons of other blogs I read and try to keep caught up on, and there are a lot I read but don't subscribe to because my list is already huge and I can't take the pressure. I'm sure I've missed at least a dozen blogs that don't get as much traffic as they deserve, but this is a good start. Check them out!

MILO

I'm only putting Milo in here because of reader demand. He has turned from adorable barn kitten to split-personality housecat/feral beast, and every day we experience several of his mood swings. Here's a typical moment from this morning.

1. Sitting on husband's lap, demanding constant petting.

 

2. Not receiving enough petting. Launch retaliation phase.

  

3. General hatefulness toward me. (He loves me the most of anyone in the house, and he hates me the most, too.)

  

4. My typical daily dose of Milo.

  

 HARVEST FESTIVAL

This Saturday, my friend Donna and I will be spinning at the Shelburne Farms Harvest Festival. It's a great family event. If you can get to Vermont for the day, you will find breathtaking views, gorgeous architecture, lots of farm animals (including chickens!), children's activities, cheese making, loads of craftspeople and vendors, live music, a children's play, wagon rides, delicious (though a bit pricy) food, and (predicted) sunny skies and temps in the mid-70s. We''ll be set up under the tent in the family area. If you've never been to Shelburne Farms, it's worth a day trip.

PHEW

That is all.

Catching up, part I

Help! I've fallen so far behind in blogging that I can't find a big enough chunk of time to update everything. Fall, it turns out, is a busy time. So I'll break things down into two parts and see if that helps.

KNITTING

A handspun hat for my husband, done:

 

It's the same Norwegian Star Earflap Hat I just made, only this time it's out of handspun BFL and, obviously, I skipped the colorwork. Who needs Fair Isle when you've got handspun?

  

He refused to try it on for the camera, which may have something to do with the Holly Hobbie thing, but that's fine.

I also got all crazy and pumped up with a desperate need for an Aran vest of my own design. Never mind that I don't know how to design knitwear. After days of taking notes, planning, swatching, and waking up in the middle of the night with a concern about armholes (what, this hasn't happened to you?), I decided to plunge in. I started, top-down, with this:

  

This is my kettle-dyed "Bristol" Real Vermonter yarn, held double for an Aran weight. I absolutely love it.

Then I woke up, again in the middle of the night, and realized I had intended some shoulder shaping so I don't look like a linebacker. I'm going to start again, this time from the bottom up. Don't know when I'll get a chance to work on this.

SPINNING

Good news: I finished my sweater spinning project! Two pounds of wool/alpaca, all local, and processed from raw fleece to finished yarn. I am so awesome!

Bad news: I spun it so densely (or the alpaca was dense, or I put in too much lead, or gravity is acting up) that two full pounds only yielded 750 YARDS!!! I suck!

Check it out:

  

That little ball, which fits nicely in the palm of my hand, weighs 4.7 ounces. Hmmm. It's bulky, but it's hardly super chunky. I'm afraid I'm not going to have enough for even the plainest sweater, which is breaking my heart. I have to swatch and see if I do it on big enough needles if it will look cool and artsy or just stupid. It's so heavy, I'm afraid it's going to knit up into chain mail.

VERMONT SHEEP & WOOL FESTIVAL

It seems like ages ago already, but I did attend VT S & W, without a camera. If you were expecting me to reveal the contents of a fiber-stuffed trunk, here's the deal: I don't need any more yarn or spinning fiber. I am not a mad stasher, and since my current projects are at overload, I couldn't see buying more raw materials at the festival. I bought a mug.

But I did get to meet lots of people. In no particular order (and certainly not a complete list; I didn't have a notebook): I met vtknitboy, the Ravelry-pin-sharing Mountain Fiber Folk, Norma, Sandy, Laurie and Laurie, Manise, Monica, Paula, Lee Ann (and her patient family), Gayle, a more-local Gayle, Lee, Marjorie, and a lot of other people who are slipping my mind but only for the moment. It really was cool to meet people in person and to see people I already knew.

I hear the festival is (a) going to be held in October next year and (b) going to be held at the Tunbridge fairgrounds. Thumbs up on both counts. My husband and I just spent a day at the Tunbridge World's Fair last Friday and it was wonderful. We spent most of our time on the "antiques hill" looking at antique farm and home stuff and watching demonstrations of 19th century activities such as hewing logs, making shingles, running a drag saw, etc. The place definitely has the feel for a wool festival. I ran into the same spinner who was running the great wheel at VT S & W (check out pictures in Gayle's post here) and this time I saw her spin flax also.

I must have a great wheel of my own.

Seriously.

APPLES

Apples. We got 'em. Not a huge amount, since our trees got pruned hard this winter. But enough. So far we've made a few batches of applesauce for the freezer, made one pie and put away enough for a few more, made apple dumplings, made applesauce bundt cake, and eaten a few.

Just another reason why fall is the best time of year.

I have also been baking lots of bread and processing an endless supply of tomatoes.

SHOP UPDATE

I almost forgot to mention that I updated the shop with more bamboo blend sock yarn in lots of yummy colors, such as this:

And this:

And, for a change of pace, some giant skeins of Long Trail sock yarn. Superwash wool/nylon in skeins running close to 700 yards and weighing almost 6 and a half ounces. Massive. If you want stockings or have a large-footed husband who wants socks for Christmas, check these out. Here's a teaser:

 

PIGS

I better quit with the update now as I'm already out of time and getting too wordy. I leave you with a happier-than-last-time series of pig photos. (At the moment we have 10 pigs, in case you were wondering. two of whom are presumed pregnant.)

The above pig is one of three we keep in one pen. Sassy and her six piglets are in a different pen. But the piglets made a hole between the pens.

Three of them can still squeeze through.

The other three are very upset that they can no longer get treats over here, and there is much squealing and gnashing of teeth.

Silly pigs.

NEXT TIME...

• My list of favorite blogs, since I got the "I love your blog" award and must pass it on
• Photos of Saturday's Great Pig Escape
• Sophie
• Neckwarmer in progress
• and much, much more...

R.I.P. Fudd

We'll miss him.

Even once you get used to the idea of raising animals for food, sometimes it's hard to let one go. In this case, Fudd was a boar we originally borrowed to breed Sassy.

We liked Fudd's personality and huge ears, and he went on to father Sassy's first litter of piglets this spring. We decided to adopt him.

At first he was an eager and patient father.

But late in the winter he hurt his back leg and never fully recovered. And then, as the piglets got bigger, he got more aggressive and (sometimes inadvertently, sometimes not) slashed them with his tusks.

A few weeks ago, when Sassy came back into heat, it became clear that with a gimpy back leg, he would not be able to get the job done. That ticked both of them off, and there was much grunting, squealing, and cursing coming from their pen.

We tried moving him into his own pen where he wouldn't hurt the other pigs, but then he got lonely and depressed. And last weekend, at a moment when he really wanted to get to Sassy, he broke down a door, causing my brother-in-law to become a rodeo clown in short order and jump to safety.

So what do you do with an 800-pound boar who is too big and old to provide good pork, can't father any more piglets, eats a lot, takes up a pen needed for other pigs,  is injured, and is getting aggressive?

Sigh. The deed was done last night while I was sitting at the spinning wheel, but unfortunately the window was open and I heard the shot.

Fudd, you were Some Pig.

Moving on to brighter topics...

I made a hat.

It's not easy to find people to model a wool ear-flap hat when it's 82 degrees and muggy out. I did force my husband to do a Holly Hobbie shot for me. Do you see any resemblance? (Well, she might have a mustache, who can tell?)

It is the Norwegian Star Earflap Hat by Tiennie at Tiennie Knits. And I did it in O-Wool on size 6 needles (though 7s are called for). I eliminated the garter stitch band above the ear flaps because I thought it made the flaps look like afterthoughts. (As usual, you can see my knit/purl tension discrepancy in the ear flaps, knit flat.)

I liked this pattern and have already started a second version of it, this time with my handspun BFL. I tried a variety of artsy shots, in an attempt to capture the yarn and the beautiful late summer weather (I take back everything rotten I said about Mother nature in June and July). Not sure any of the pictures really succeed, but the yarn is awesome.

Obviously, the next hat will lack the snowflake pattern. (One thing about the first hat: I should have held the white yarn in my dominant hand; the way I did it, the white stitches sit "behind" the maroon and the individual stitches are hard to see. I noticed it a few rows into the pattern, but I knew my nephew wouldn't care so I didn't bother ripping it out.)

I have done a few rows on my latest socks but I have to tell you, it's pretty satisfying to get away from size 0 needles and finish a hat in a matter of a few days.

I've also been spinning my sweater yarn.

I can't remember if this will become my third or fourth skein. I know one thing: With the alpaca content, each skein feels like I have a strand of lead in there. This is going to be one warm sweater.

Although my mood has not been stellar lately (lack of exercise for 5 weeks = perpetual PMS, but I've gotten back into workout mode and I no longer want to kill anyone, not even my husband), the weather has been outstanding. We have enough sweet corn to feed an army. Every couple of days I pick a dozen or two ears, husk them, blanch them, slice the kernels off the cobs, freeze meal-size baggies, and give the cobs and husks to the pigs.

So far I have 17 bags in the freezer, which is not nearly enough to see us through until next summer. I'll keep picking.

The big tomatoes have all split and rotted, but the little ones are delicious. Fudd's original owner gave us eggplant seedlings, and Monday night we had homemade eggplant parmigiana with them and our tomatoes. Yum, yum. What I love about our veggies is I bring them in, using my t-shirt as a basket, and throw them on the counter and they make a lovely little still life:

How can you not want to eat these?

We also spent a chunk of change on having our apple trees pruned and treated (sorry, but they needed it). The Macs are coming already.

Yield is going to be low this year because the trees got pruned within an inch of their life this winter, but the apples look good (and taste good, although the Macs are a bit tart at the moment).

Even though the weather is warm during the day, the nights are cold. Sophie got a severe haircut (because we let her get all matted), so she requires near-constant cuddling to keep from shivering.

It's certainly put me in the mood to knit and spin and my latest dream is to design and make an Aran vest (hoodie?) using a double strand of the Bristol Real Vermonter yarn I dyed for myself but haven't used yet. Remember this?

My increased knitting time is reflected in my reduced blog-reading time. Well, I may not have read your blog lately, but if you are going to the VT Sheep and Wool festival Saturday, I'll be wandering around fondling wool. I plan to see at least a few of you there!

(Hey, don't be too sad for Fudd. He had a good life compared to the average pig and enjoyed plenty of sunshine, mud, good food, comfortable sleeping quarters, back scratches, and--until late winter--rambunctious sex. And his death was quick. We won't forget him.)