What Housework?

Guess what I made?

Hand-dyed yarn!

This week marks two years since I Got a Real Job, and the point at which my ability to keep my online yarn and fiber shop going started to decline. I can't even remember when I finally pulled the website.

I have now opened an Etsy shop. For anyone not in the know, Etsy is an online marketplace where people can list their handmade items for sale. Since I can no longer sell enough items to pay for a full website with shopping cart, I'm trying Etsy, which charges by item.

Look to your right: There's a widget showing some of the items I have for sale. I'm still working out the tweaks, but it looks like clicking over there will bring you right to my "shop." Bear with me. I posted these items last night but this is all very different from what I am used to. But I think it will work. If all goes well, I will slooooooowly be adding inventory, buying more raw materials out of my earnings. Next up: baby Romney batts from a local Vermont sheep. :-) Please give me whatever feedback you have; I'm listening.

I've gotten a few requests to please update this blog and I hadn't realized how long its been since my last post. Strangely enough, I've had more free time in the past month than I have in ages. The harvest is in. The days are short. Did you know it's December? Yikes.

I'm laying off the gift knitting this year. I didn't quite hit the mark last year on most of my attempts so instead of making recipients feel guilty about handknits they aren't totally jazzed about, I'm concentrating on myself. That's the Christmas spirit, right?

I've been doing some spinning and loving it. Below, the black fiber in front is local alpaca. The white in back is my sheep Sophie's. She's a Border Leicester and her locks are very shiny and strong but not very soft. I've decided to make a pair of felted slippers for myself and figured this was just the stuff.

I could have dyed her fleece; it takes color beautifully. But in the end I went for a lightly carded gray.

I am almost done with the first slipper. It's HUGE! But it's going to be felted and I have a feeling it will wear like iron, provided it shrinks up enough.

I also finished spinning the tencel/merino I had overdyed.

It's like a fingering weight, which is finer than my norm. But I'm making the Shaelyn shawl (Ravelry link) I have made more progress than this picture shows:

But right now my feet are colder than my neck, so I'm focusing on the slippers.

We did go away one weekend in November, to see my stepson wrestle. He's a student at Bridgewater State in Mass. and is nationally ranked (19th, I think) in the 165-pound Division III weight class. He took second place in a field of 36 wrestlers, which I believe is his highest college finish so far. (That's him on top.)

 

With his proud dad:

And with his girlfriend of five years, as of this month:

Upon our return, our first-time housesitter reported that Milo attacked her at one point. I had warned her but she said he was purring and looked so sweet she didn't think he'd turn on her.

Heh.

Never trust this cat.

And last, you know I'm a big proponent of farm-raised foods. My eggs are a thing of beauty, I can't deny it. But I had forgotten just how beautiful they were until I started to run out (damn these short days) and had to supplement my stock with storebought ones. Local, but still storebought. Can you tell which is which?

Free-range chickens are happy, healthy chickens. Say it with me, people.

 

Let's get this party started

Unlike most years, we're hitting the holidays hard and fast this year.

I actually think I like it.

Most of our shopping is done (out of economic necessity, not good planning). I started my Christmas knitting last month, only to find that no one in the family will leave my side long enough for me to sneak in any work on their gifts. So I've started making these:

Korknisser! Are these not the most adorable things you ever saw? (I say this as a Christmas cynic who thinks Bad Santa was hysterically funny and who considers National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation high art.) But when you have to keep hiding your real knitting from gift recipients, these little guys can keep you busy for 20 minutes or so. The pattern is here in Ravelry, here on the web in Norwegian, and translated to English here. I changed up the hat decreases for a little variety. I think stripes might be next, but I'll have to drink more wine first. For the corks, I mean.

Since I can hardly find a quiet moment for gift knitting, I have been working on my own project. Remember this stuff?

It was something like 26 batts of fiber I carded and then dyed. I carded it again to blend it into this:

...which I then spun into a 2-ply bulky yarn:

I immediately knit the sleeves and then waited for inspiration for the design. I wanted a really basic sweater for the express purpose of keeping me warm at work, and since the blend contains a bunch of local alpaca and a bit of silk, in addition to a lot of Blue-Faced Leicester, warmth is practically guaranteed.

With help from Ann Budd and Elizabeth Zimmerman, I came up with a round-yoke neck with knit-purl patterning. With this yarn, however, the purls were invisible; it looked like someone had made a lot of mistakes rather than a cunning Norwegian design. So I ripped it out.

Next, I went with a seamless raglan and cowl/turtleneck. Finished!

Cute, right?

Not so fast.

As it turns out, I can't stand alpaca near my chin and neck. I got so itchy just trying it on I knew I'd have to make some adjustments. (And you can't see it too well, but these garter stitch raglan decreases did not work at all -- too stretchy.)

So the finished sweater soon looked like this:

Sigh.

I went back to it and turned it into an Elizabeth Zimmerman seamless saddle-shoulder (with a little fudging around the armpits, as I was too lazy to rip out those last few rows). I need to get a good picture, but the out-of-focus one gives you the basic idea:

Plain. Effective. Comfortable. The sleeves are extra long to cover my wrists, key when typing all day in sub-zero temps. The length, while pretty long in comparison to my other sweaters, looks a bit short. I think the longer lengths and tunics currently in style make this look practically cropped in comparison.

Warm? Yes. Itchy? No, as long as it's not touching my chin area (an area that is getting lower every year...).

In fact, I wore it today on our expedition to ... get a Christmas tree. You heard me.

Tree cutting is an annual event that causes great stress at our house, usually some time after Dec. 12. Today we had an opportunity, sunny weather, and the inclination to at least tag a tree. But we decided to save another trip and just bring the damn thing home.

Two hours later, it's up and lit and, yes, decorated. Crazy. I make fun of people who put their trees up in November.

And yet, it feels pretty good. One less stressor in the limited number of weekends remaining before Christmas.

So that's where I am. Four Christmas projects and two baby projects under way, and ready to knit. Now that the tree is up, I've just opened up a whole Saturday afternoon and evening to knitting, as long as I can get away from Those People. My family. It's all good.

All I have left to share is the shop update at A Piece of Vermont Yarn & Fiber. I currently have these colorways available in merino/bamboo/nylon fingering:

I only have two colorways available in Long Trail (wool/nylon sock yarn):

Crisp:

and Blush:

And for spinners, two pairs of superwash sock yarn batts. Blue-Faced Leicester and nylon carded together for Hansel and Gretel:

and Autumn Leaves:

Here's to a smooth holiday season for all of us, from a newly converted early bird.

Sheesh.

Who wants a cat?

Just kidding, we're keeping him. But Milo, he is truly a possessed semi-feral animal.

The pictures above show him in the morning. He comes in for breakfast after a night spent terrorizing the local small animals. He expects affection done just right; pet him the wrong way and he eats your arm.

Each day, I go upstairs to shower and make the bed, and within seconds, he races up there, alternately running around under the sheets and then hiding under the bed, the better to attack my ankles. After a few minutes of making the bed with one hand, and using my other as a defensive shield on my legs, I get cranky. I wait for Milo to attack my forearm and then I walk out into the hallway, shake my arm vigorously until he lets go and drops off, and then race back into the bedroom and lock the door.

My hands look like I get a daily manicure from Edward Scissorhands.

Anyway. Life is busy. There are some things to report, such as that my older stepson proposed to his girlfriend last Sunday. (He bought the ring in July, but has been waiting to ask her father for her hand. Let's just say they do things a bit more formally in Oklahoma than in Vermont!) Both of them are still in college, but again, in OK this does not seem wildly impulsive. In Vermont, I knew exactly one person who got engaged while still a student. He also just started a full-time firefighting/EMT position at the Will Rogers Airport in Oklahoma City, even though he has half a semester to finish out at OSU. Should be interesting. He's a hard worker, and at worst he'll have to take one more class next semester, on his dime. The wedding will be in Oklahoma next summer (!) but he wants to have a huge second reception back in Vermont. At our house.

Okie-doke...

Back in the relatively uneventful life of Jessie, there has been some knitting.

I made some Fleece Stuffed Mittens for my daughter from the Robin Hansen book, using unspun wool/angora rabbit for the thrums and two strands of my Long Trail sock yarn for the mitten. Delicious.

You see two mittens but I actually knit four in total because I had to rip each one out once. I'm so tired of thrums. And, it turns out, my 10yo LOVES them, except not to actually wear in public, let alone school, because they are very bulky. Nice. See if I ever knit her four mittens again.

I also knit something more enjoyable: Ishbel. (Note the yucky incandescent-light photos; short days have come to Vermont.)

Ah, you say, "But Jessie, you are not a knitter of lace. You have a pathological fear of yarn-overs."

No, I'm not. And yes, I do. But this was far too easy and fun to be lace. I don't know what it was but I loved it. Knit with my bamboo blend sock yarn in the "Martha's Gown" colorway.

I didn't get a good picture of it, and you'll notice that my points on the edges ended up fading away and even curling a little. I'm not sure if it was the fiber content or my blocking procedure. (Note: If the only rug in your home is on the floor next to your husband's side of the bed, make sure you don't leave any stray pins around. Men can be so whiny.)

I still haven't done anything but the sleeves on my handspun sweater. The yarn, in case it's been too long for anyone to remember, is this:

I think I want a pullover, but I can't decide on the yoke. Round yoke? Raglan? Turtleneck? Hoodie? I just don't know. But it's so cold in my office, I need to make up my mind soon. There's a Downy commercial on TV these days where a woman steps off the elevator at work wrapped in a down comforter. That's what it looks like at my office; two people actually bundle up in blankets at their desks.

However, I'm already planning Christmas knitting (not for the 10yo, oddly enough). The bright side of our personal economic crisis (which is, I'm happy to say, easing up a bit, 10 months or so after it started) is that we've done quite a bit of Christmas shopping, as odd as it sounds. Rather than have the big all-out shop-a-thon in December, we're picking up one or two things a week as the grocery money allows. It's not going to be a normal over-the-top Christmas (which I hate anyway; my husband's the crazy one), but I'm thinking we may be able to avoid the mall altogether this year. One can only hope.

Okay, as I am going on and on, let me say there's been a lot of this:

Pumpkin pie made with the only little pumpkins I managed to get out of our garden. I had to buy more this week and today I'll make a pie and put the rest of the filling in the freezer for this winter. So delicious. We're still rocking the freezer full of our own meat and frozen veggies and fruits. Nothing beats the flavor.

Also, I had a shop update last night, which many of you already know from A Piece of Vermont Yarn & Fiber's mailing list. If you want to receive extremely infrequent updates, sign up here.

Bamboo Blend sock yarn, two skeins of each:

Late October:

Gingerbread:

Mountain Laurel:

Olive a Sudden:

Merino/Tussah silk 80/20 blend top. Remaining colorways are

Truth or Dare, 4 ounces:

 

Wildest Dreams, 8 ounces:

Okay, I think I've gone on long enough this morning. The house is a mess and the chickens want out of the coop.

Have a good weekend.

Foliage break

We're heading into a classic Vermont autumn weekend, and I'm taking a small getaway. Unfortunately, I'm not actually going anywhere. I'm just taking a weekend off from the February Lady Sweater (on Ravelry here):

I'm making steady progress and all that, but the weather is about to turn sharply colder, and a lacy sweater is not really at the top of my list right now. I promised my daughter some fingerless gloves (not fingerless mittens; she wants the individual finger holes) and I decided I would devote this weekend, starting tonight, to making her a pair. We'll see how I do...

The February Lady sweater is interesting. Assuming you have been under a rock, knittingwise, the deal is that the pattern was originally a lovely baby sweater designed by Elizabeth Zimmerman. In June, Flint Knits reworked it "to fit a grown ass woman" and posted it on Ravelry, where it took off. When I cast on for it a couple of weeks ago, 2,013 people had it listed as a project. Three days ago, that number was 2,254. Today it's 2,282. I'm a sheep, but a very trendy one.

Anyway, I was at the local farmer's market last weekend, and damned if I didn't see a woman wearing one. I practically tackled her. Yes, lots of people are knitting them, but in Middlebury, Vermont? Her husband rolled his eyes as soon as we started gabbing about lace repeats in the arms and such and said, "Here we go." He and my daughter chatted while we gushed.

It was a lovely week, weatherwise. Yesterday, I accompanied my daughter's class west across Lake Champlain (via ferry) to Mt. Defiance, a Revolutionary War site that looks down on Fort Ticonderoga and also Mt. Independence, which her class hiked last fall.

The view doesn't suck.

This is the view looking east at Lake Champlain and Vermont and the Green Mountains in the background.

Although you may not be able to tell from the picture, Fort Ti is that gray thing just to the left of the cannon tip. (Try clicking on the picture.) Mt. Independence is on the point of land off to the right.

Fort Ti was built by the French and was a pivotal place in the 1700s, because at the time the lake was surrounded by virgin forest and the lake was about the only way to travel. It's sited at the point where the LaChute River (which starts at Lake George) flows into the Champlain; the mouth of the LaChute is there in the left foreground. The fort changed hands a lot during the Revolution, but it may be best known for one early morning in 1775, when Benedict Arnold, Ethan Allen, and the Green Mountain Boys surprised the French garrison there, and scored the first American victory of the Revolutionary War.

Here is a view of Lake Champlain looking south from Mt. Defiance.

.

The very steep (now paved) road that we hiked up yesterday was originally cleared in 1777 by 700 of British General Burgoyne's men, in 36 hours. They wanted a place from which to rain cannon fire down on Fort Ti, and the oxen that hauled the cannon couldn't get through the dense forest. The move was a good one, apparently, as it allowed the British to retake the fort until the end of the war.

Thirty-six hours is pretty quick to clear a road using hand tools, considering how long it takes today's road crews to get paving done. But then, the British army probably didn't have to follow union rules...

It's not quite peak foliage here yet, but the views were still beautiful, both at long range and close up.

This also marked the second day in two weeks that I have spent with my daughter's class. Last week, we hiked through the woods behind the school--to our house! Farm field trip, don't you know.

Anyway, despite all the chaperone time I've been putting in, I did update the shop a couple of days ago. If you are on the mailing list, you've seen all this. For the rest of you, here goes. I posted my favorite decadent-luxury spinning fiber: bombyx silk and merino top. Delicous.

Sea Glass:

Crime of Passion:

Monet's Bridge:

Monet's Bridge is actually 7.5 ounces (or a little more), whereas the others are just over 4 ounces. I may end up keeping 3.5 ounces of it for myself, but first I'll offer it up to the spinner who wants a somewhat larger project. It's the same stuff I photographed in process in my last post.

I also have yet another non-yarn, non-fiber offering: silver-wire jewelry. You remember way back when I bragged about the bracelet my friend Amy surprised me with? I asked her to make more jewelry for me to sell, and she did. Like this:

And this necklace:

And this necklace:

Amy bends almost all the wire herself, so even the beads that go through the wires are her own, not factory-made. Each piece is unique, all are lovely, and you can get more details by clicking on the links.

Life continues on the farm. Here's a shot of the trout having breakfast. I should have brought my camera out last night. They must have been hungry because the water looked like there was a piranha attack going on; sometimes the fish flip right up, almost completely out of the water. When a dozen of them are doing it at once, it's pretty fun to watch.

Milo injured a baby rabbit that my husband and brother-in-law tried to nurse back to health.

It didn't work, or I'd have pictures.

Rotten cat.

That's all for now. I've got merino/silk yarn and BFL top to dye today. And bamboo-blend sock yarn. Have a wonderful weekend.

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...

So close and yet so far away

A lovely neckwarmer...

...that I didn't swatch for. This is some of my own silk/merino and while I like the yarn and the simple pattern (the Stacked Eyelet Cowl by Ami Madison), it would have been much better with a 20" circumference instead of the 24" I ended up with:

It really isn't going to keep my neck very warm with that kind of roominess. I could fit another head in there with me.

Since there is no way I'm going to bother ripping this out, I can either add a pin or something to cinch it together in front, or maybe slice up the back, cut out 4 inches, and sew it back up. At least the yarn is nice and soft...

The weather has turned distinctly autumnal here in Vermont (read: Hard to Dress For). The days go up to 80 and it's been very sunny. But the nights are cold. I believe last night got down into the mid-40s. It does inspire the knitter in one to get to work, though. Besides whipping up the barrel cozy neckwarmer, I have started another pair of socks for me and an earflap hat for my nephew. He is in 9th grade and has been begging me for a patterned earflap hat in maroon and cream.

I am positively itching to spin but time is tight right now. I may have to take up Carole's challenge to spin 10 minutes a day, because I know once I get back into it, I'll keep going.

The socks are, once again, from Favorite Socks (scroll down for the associated A Piece of Vermont sales pitch). This time it's Priscilla's Dream Socks, which I'm doing in stripes using two shades of the Long Trail superwash seconds.

The hat is the Norwegian Star Earflap hat by Tiennie, and for that I'm using O'Wool.

Right now it looks like a teeny wool bikini top.

***

SHOP UPDATE. To avoid offending any readers who hate to read a blog that seems more like an ad for the blogger's yarn business, I'm saving the shop news for the end here. I fully understand if you want to bail right here. But if you want to see some cool new stuff, read on...

There has been plenty going on at A Piece of Vermont Yarn & Fiber, including a decent update of bamboo blend sock yarn, much of which sold after the recent update to the mailing list. There's still some left, however.

If you haven't done so already, please check out the Kits & Combos section. There you'll find two copies of Interweave's Favorite Socks, each bundled with a skein of bamboo sock yarn:

and, even more exciting,

three Dye & Spin kits!

I love these! Each kit contains a copy of the Twisted Sisters Sock Workbook, 8 ounces of undyed Blue-Faced Leicester top, acid dye powders in three primaries plus black, squeeze bottles for mixing, and a dust mask. (You provide gloves, white vinegar, plastic wrap, and a stainless steel stock pot or electric steamer.)

If you are not familiar with the Twisted Sisters book, it is not a learn-to-spin book. Rather, it is a book devoted to handspun yarn (esp. with a drop spindle) made from fiber you've dyed yourself. It's part color theory, part dyeing lesson, part spinning, part knitting. The book assumes you have basic spinning skills. Various basic sock patterns are included, but I really consider this book more of a dyeing and spinning book than a sock book. I go back to it over and over.

If you have ever been curious about how to make cool handspun yarn, this is the kit for you. You'll have enough dye to do plenty more yarn or fiber down the road. (The book includes instructions on dyeing yarn as well as fiber, but the focus is definitely on the fiber.)

***

School started today so I will have more time in the shop now. Today I'm working on dyeing more bamboo blend sock yarn (which will be seeing a price increase on Sept. 1) and Blue-Faced Leicester top. I will have more Learn to Spin kits going up at the end of the week, as well as some other book/yarn combos. A skein of bamboo blend superwash with Nancy Bush's Knitting Vintage Socks, anyone? Or, for the newbie, how about Ann Budd's Getting Started Knitting Socks? And keep an eye out for some beautiful new drop spindles in the coming month...

Fall is here, people. Knit faster.

Bzzzzzzz...

 

Hear that buzzing sound? My husband and I heard it all day yesterday and finally figured it out when we sat down on the porch for a beer before dinner.

Bees. There's one in the photo up there.

Big bumblebees, feasting on the nectar of black-locust blossoms.

Our yard is full of these trees, which it turns out are actually a nuisance species. But the short-lived blossoms make the whole yard smell delightful and attract orioles and, apparently, hordes of big, bumbling, buzzing, bumblebees. (Then 200 million petals drift down from the trees and settle several inches thick on your porch furniture. Day after day.)

Other things make a buzzing sound, too.

 

I had a few interruptions that didn't allow me to get the hummingbird photos until the good light had faded, but I did get this one perching for a moment on our clothesline:

We're all about the birds. This week, we have some sad bird news. First of all, Daisy is no longer with us. My light Brahma hen, she would have turned five years old this month. It's a little graphic to go into on the blog, but let's just say the three tom turkeys are murderers. Deviants, too.

On another sad note, we are down to just two turkey poults!

Trixie has finally started roosting in the turkey house again, instead of sleeping in the middle of the field. But poult #3 apparently fell off the roost and into the goats' sleeping quarters and got rolled on during the night.

Meanwhile, gray turkey Rose has disappeared, likely on a nest but possibly fox food. And the peahen is gone, too. We knew she was nesting in the woods, but she hasn't been home for her every-other-day afternoon snack in a few days. She might have hatched her babies and is busy helping them find food closer to the nest. Or she may have been eaten. I'll keep you posted.

We've been super busy in the garden. So far there's not much to show for our efforts, except the peas. I think pea vines are lovely.

  

These two are holding hands:

Cliche tractor photo:

The piglets are growing fast. I couldn't get good photos because of two electric fences between me and them but you get the idea.

Polly:

Chip, with something to say:

      

Now, this is supposed to be a knitting blog. Confession: I am still struggling with my handspun April socks, which are taking FOREVER. No pictures. Besides, I have plenty of other yarn and fiber stealing my attention, although nothing new on the wheel or the needles. I WILL finish those damn socks before our annual camping trip at the end of the month.

I forgot to mention in my last post a gift I received from Rainbow Yarns Northwest: Two bumps of incredibly decadent and luxurious spinning fiber. The first is called First Love and is a blend of 75 percent Pygora and 25 percent silk.

The second is an undyed blend of 75 percent Pygora and 25 percent superfine Merino:

Pictures don't do this fiber justice. I have no idea what I will do with these, other than bury my face in them now and then. But when I find the right project, these will be fabulous.

Meanwhile, at A Piece of Vermont Yarn & Fiber, I have nothing  really new, but things will be coming soon. I just sent a small wholesale yarn order off to Kaleidoscope Yarns here in Vermont. And on Wednesday, my partner in crime Jenn and I made a return road trip to Green Mountain Spinnery to pick up my newest Real Vermonter yarn order. Ta-da!

  

I am in LOVE with this yarn! The folks at the Spinnery outdid themselves, as did the Vermont sheep and alpacas who contributed their fiber. It's a 2-ply sport weight and I have 37 pounds of it. As soon as I finalize the name, the price, and all that jazz, it will be available for sale. I have just dyed up the first few skeins and while they do look fantastic, I'm pretty partial to the undyed color, which has a touch of fawn-colored alpaca that gives it a golden tinge. It smells like real sheep, and while that may not appeal to everyone, to me it underscores the fact that this is 100 percent Vermont yarn. I've met the animals that produced the fiber and the people who spun it. And it's "Greenspun," the Spinnery's term for their special milling process that uses petroleum-free spinning oils. Heaven, I tell you. 

I know it's bad PR for my commercial yarns and fibers when I gush so about Vermont fiber and small-mill fibers and yarns with provenance and all that. But I can't help myself. This yarn is so yarn-y and unique and sheepy and textural and anything but mass-produced, I just have to sing it out. I'll have some ready for you (dyed and undyed) by next week. I wish you could smell this stuff. I've been huffing it all morning. I hope that's legal.

And, to wrap up this very long post, two more quick things.

1. Thank you for all your yarn name suggestions. I am still working on final names and I'll let you know when all is said and done. I am still taking entries, if you have more.

2. I'm about to expand beyond yarn and fiber. I have recently purchased a batch of hand-printed wood-block notecards by a local artist, which will be on sale next week. Here's a sneak preview of one of her 8 designs:

Love them.

Attrition

Well, didn't the overconfident little farmer wannabes take a fall this week! We had a turkey tragedy.

Last week, Trixie hatched out 5 poults and we gave her the 6 we had hatched in the incubator. She was frantic to get them outside and we stupidly let her. One disappeared. And then there were 10.

She was doing fine with them, but kept sleeping out in the woods rather than near the house (probably to avoid Milo!). But my husband and brother-in-law dug a couple dozen post holes for the new, improved goat yard they are building. Sunday morning, we found that 3 of them had fallen into the holes and, unable to get out, had died. And then there were 7.

Meanwhile, the survivors were standing around in the cold, wet grass while their mother tried to rescue the victims in the holes. One died. And then there were 6.

The boys brought the survivors into the house and we put them under a heat lamp while we set up proper housing for Trixie and the poults. One of them just couldn't warm up. And then there were 5.

We made Trixie a nice setup right in the turkey barn, with a board across the door to keep the poults from getting outside but allowing the other birds to come and go. We brought the babies back to their distraught mother and she stepped on one's head.

And now there are 4.

Well camouflaged, aren't they?

Everyone left seems to be doing fine at this point. We are sadder but wiser now and, as with so much around here, have learned from the experience. I feel responsible for the loss of most of the other poults, but such is life on the homestead. You can't dwell on it.

Spring is full of contrasts, especially that of birth and death. Although this week is cold and windy, the weekend was a lot nicer than the forecast predicted. Here's Dave under the cherry tree:

Tulips and grape hyacinths:

My younger stepson home for the summer (do all guys just love tractors?):

The new, fortified goat fence in progress (the permanent part, which will now be electrified so we won't have quite so many daring escapes):

I have been busy in the shop. I shipped off my order to yarn4socks.com and have been concentrating on fiber. Some of you asked about my new Pat Green Triple Picker and what it does. Oh, I'll tell you. Here we have a couple of pounds of scoured Romney fleece from a local farm:

There's some VM, and while it looks quite fluffy, those locks are a bit too intact to put through the drum carder. You put on your leather gloves, feed the locks into the Triple Picker, and within a few minutes you have this:

A lot of the VM has fallen out, and the volume of the fleece has more than quadrupled. It's like a cloud of Romney! Now we can card.

Someone mentioned that they'd like some local fiber pulled into roving instead of sold as batts. I thought that would be fun because it opens up the option of space dyeing and keeping the colors separate. The good news is I tried it. From batts to roving:

It's lovely. The bad news is I discovered that pulling batts into roving takes approximately FOREVER. I will dye this stuff up but the price is going to reflect the labor involved in handling a raw fleece at every stage, from scouring to drying to picking to carding, to re-carding, to pulling into roving, to dyeing, to rinsing, to drying, to packaging, photographing, and uploading. On the bright side, there are not very many sources for non-mill-processed fiber from known sources.

Speaking of mill-processed fiber from an unknown source (weren't we?), I have updated A Piece of Vermont Yarn and Fiber with bamboo/merino top. Before I shop you the new stuff, look what I did with mine. I had meant to spin enough for a Clapotis, but after one skein I realized the colorway was a bit too My Little Pony for me. My daughter loved it. So, here's how it went:

Finished in two days, it's the Shrug This from One Skein Wonders. Like others on Ravelry, I question how this could ever have been intended for an adult. My gauge is smaller than what is called for, but even so... Anyway, it was a quick knit and my daughter (don't you love the summer bob, even uncombed?) modeled it and then wore it to school today. Now she wants a poncho from the same merino/bamboo.

And so we come to the shop update. I posted the following 60/40 merino/bamboo bumps to A Piece of Vermont Yarn and Fiber today:

Spring Fling, Mist, Three-Day Weekend, Mossy Stones, and Farmer's Market:

ETA: FARMER'S MARKET IS SOLD. YOWZA THAT WAS FAST.

Farmer's Market (the last one, above) comes with a special quantity discount. There are four bumps of that colorway totalling over 16 ounces, and if you buy all four at once, each one is $1.50 off, plus you get automatic free shipping for orders $60 or over. I know how tough it is to buy bigger amounts of fiber or yarn without breaking the bank, but this stuff would make a fantastic summer sweater or shawl. Of course, the discount will only work as long as all four bumps are still available.

And I just have to share the surprise that came in the mail for me yesterday:

That's real Oklahoma alpaca blended with silk. Gorgeous and buttery and I can't wait to do something with it. It was part of a thank-you gift from Susan, a.k.a. Red Dirt Knitter, to whom I recently introduced the magic that is real maple syrup. (I think she likes it.) Thank you, Susan!!!!

So, I have a little time before my daughter gets home to go for a run. I'm up to four (slow) miles a couple of times a week and I can still walk and take the stairs, which is nice. Standing up after long periods of sitting requires a bit more time than it otherwise would, but I can do it without yelling almost every time.

We're throwing a big Memorial Day barbecue/potluck on Sunday night. If I don't get another post in by the weekend, have a good one.

Pigs, poults, and a yarn sale

Yes, more animal pictures. It's all I've got these days.

More spring excitement on the homefront. The piglets finally got to hang out with their dad:

who seemed quite comfortable with them:

In fact, he slept through most of the fun.

I wonder what this piglet's so happy about:

Here, two of them sample the trough:

This one likes rubber shoes:

This same afternoon, my husband and brother-in-law made a temporary fenced-in area for them all to go outside. One piglet contemplates the great world beyond the barn:

So tempted...

Mom?

Eventually, Sassy did take them all out to the wallow:

A mother who's been cooped up with six little ones for several weeks might understandably want a "Calgon-take-me-away" bath:

But any mom will tell you that once you have kids, privacy and quiet, reflective moments come rarely and briefly.

On the same day, we managed to get an asparagus bed and three blueberry bushes planted. And the peas are up... We also got our fire pit set up and had a cookout and an evening around the campfire after dinner. Life still doesn't suck around here.

Meanwhile, inside the house, a slightly unexpected thing happened. Saturday night, some of the turkey eggs we had been incubating started to peep. We really didn't think they'd hatch. By Sunday morning, there was one poult staggering around among the 7 remaining eggs. It wasn't easy to get pictures through the window, but I tried. Here's another egg about to hatch:

Minutes later, a very tired poult emerged:

Two poults:

Over the course of the day, all but 2 of the eggs hatched. The last (sixth) one to show signs of life struggled all day long to break through the shell. Although it had gaps all the way around the egg, the inner membrane started to dry and no matter how hard the poult wobbled and pushed, it couldn't break through.

Moral dilemma.

Some people say you should never help a bird hatch. If it can't do it on its own, it isn't meant to live. Others warn that if you do help, you risk hurting the chick or causing it to hemorrhage. Others say you should do what you can. My husband decided to snip some of the dried membrane and see what happened.

Within minutes, a very loud and lively poult popped out!

Here they are in the brooder box Sunday night:

If you recall, we incubated four eggs from each of our two hens. Three of each hatched out. Rose, like last year, did not sit on her nest so we knew she'd never hatch her own. Trixie, being less than a year old, was an unknown quantity. But she did set, and her poults hatched over the weekend. My husband caught sight of a couple of them peeking out from under her.

As of this morning, Trixie was still nesting up on a pile of lumber. We had to move her and the poults down to a safer, lower nest before they started wandering around and fallilng. We expected a beak thrashing from Trixie. Instead, when my husband reached under her, she stood aside. We found five happy little poults and several unhatched eggs. We moved them all down to a hay-lined dog crate on the floor and in minutes Trixie joined them, rearranged her eggs and settled in.

Since she only had five poults (the other eggs are not likely to hatch after all this time), we decided to give her the six poults we had in the house. This was a tough decision as, unlike baby chickens, the poults are much mellower and more curious and seem to like to be held. My daughter, rarely moved by small animals, has been cuddling them for two days.

We set them out in front of Trixie. It took about five minutes (I think the poults felt we were putting them up for adoption, because they kept turning to us and trying to get out of the crate!) but one by one they slipped under her. So now she's got her three indoor babies back, plus three of Rose's, plus her five, so 11 in all.  We will miss them, but it's easier for us and better for them this way.

My daughter came home from school, learned what we had done, burst into tears, and is no longer speaking to us. Still, Trixie will make a better mother than we will.

In celebration of all the new babies around here (and because I'm too busy to dye up more yarn this week), I've got a two-day sale going on at A Piece of Vermont Yarn and Fiber (like the new name?). Both the Panda Superwash and Colonial Superwash sock yarns are 10 percent off now through Thursday! Enter the coupon code SPRING at checkout to receive your discount. The sale has already been advertised to people on the mailing list so inventory is down a little bit. But there's still plenty there.

Spinners: I have bamboo/merino top cooling right now, and a freshly scoured pile of fluffy white Romney waiting for something, I don't know what yet.

I actually took a few minutes to spin today because I have desperately wanted to make a Clapotis out of handspun bamboo/merino. Knowing I wouldn't have the time to spin, I eventually decided I'd just dye up some yarn and knit it from that. But I didn't have any suitable yarn on hand. So yesterday, I confess, I went to the LYS and almost bought yarn for this project. At the last minute, I stopped myself, curbed my impulses, and remembered the original goal: Use my own handspun.

I will have a handspun Clapotis. Someday.

Remember, the coupon code at checkout is SPRING!!!!

Fiber heaven, and some piggy pics

Saturday: Rainy, cool, gloomy. But there is goodness to share.

First, I updated the A Piece of Vermont with three colorways of Panda Superwash. Here we have Fern Lake:

May Day:

And River Rocks:

If I ever finish my April socks, my next pair will be in Panda Superwash. It's nice and shiny and makes a good warm-weather sock project, in my opinion. But what with the spring weather and the longer days, knitting has hit the back burner, I'm afraid.

Fiber, however, is right up front. I just put hand-blended batts up in the shop. These are primo fiber: 65 percent Tussah silk, 35 percent alpaca from Champlain Valley Alpacas right here in Vermont. I processed the raw alpaca here, dyed it and then blended it with the silk that I dyed separately. The way the colors end up totally floors me. Check it out.

This silk:

plus this alpaca:

Becomes these Champlain Sunset batts:

You can't see all the color variations that well, but they're in there. Here's the fiber still on the carder after the second pass:

And this silk:

And this alpaca:

becomes these Shore batts:

My friend Jenn was kind enough to spin up a tiny sample of the Champlain Sunset:

I Andean-plied her singles and made a very dumb (too wide, too short) swatch:

It doesn't do the fiber justice, but you can see a bit of the sheen from all the silk. So soft.

Anyway, I've put a bunch of batts (plus or minus 2 ounces each). Honestly, they're pricey. But the alpaca, being local, cost more than the silk, plus I processed it from raw fleece to fiber. But if you're a spinner looking for a unique and really luxurious fiber to spin, this might be the ticket. I'm still swooning from touching it all day yesterday.

And now, the moment you've all been waiting for: Piglets!

I didn't get such great shots, as the lighting is low and I had a backlighting situation going on. But I lightened these up a bit so you could see the growing babies. I have nothing to add to these, so just enjoy them and get on with your day.