I have been knitting lately even if I haven’t really been up on posting. I just finished this the other day and I wish I could keep it. Unfortunately for me it’s my dad’s sweater and will be mailed off to him soon. I like it so much I’m going to make a pattern for it.
Specs: 3 skeins Cascade Eco Wool
The ribbing makes it stretchy so one size fits lots of bodies.
The shawl collar is nuts and I love it. It’s almost big enough to be a hood and is super cozy!
Honestly, I haven’t really had time to keep up with what’s been going on. Things have been changing at such a rapid pace I can’t even begin to explain it. There are super new exciting things on the horizon I can’t wait to talk about, and of course, there are goats…there are always goats. So instead of endless words – I’ll get to those later – here are some pictures and we’ll get caught up on all the other stuff soon.
We had a surprise nest of chicks hatch.
There has been cuddly goats…
I spun a bunch of yarn….
We had a ton of plums I turned into jam…
I knit the magnamity cardi which I love.
These pockets are amazing!
And then there is this…which is super duper exciting. I’ll post full pictures asap and the full story but right now…just a hint of what’s to come.
My strigose cowl is now available! I can’t tell you how beautiful the tests turned out! I’ll just show you!
They turned out so amazingly! Also, I have a new design fresh off the blocking wires!
I have not been blogging so much these past three weeks which I apologize for. I’ve been crazy busy with work and the farm and all sorts of OTHER stuff. I have lots of pictures (goat pictures) to share this weekend and maybe even some news that I’ve been sitting on for a while.
See, things went down about a month ago that I wasn’t really willing or ready to talk about. Life changing news (and not the OMG THIS IS SO AWESOME! kind either). I took some time to look inward and harden my shell a little bit. I’m an odd mix of completely extroverted guarded person. I am free about my happiness and addresses, my embarrassing mistakes, my failures, and triumphs but this was beyond those things. This needed some time to just be and for the Mr and I to recover. It was a sort of phoenix moment and I finally feel as if the wind has picked up and started to blow away the ash of the old and what lays ahead of us, our rebirth, is exciting, terrifying, and brilliant. I know I am the luckiest woman in the world to have such an amazing family, such fantastic friends, the worlds best husband, two dogs that make me laugh and snuggle me when I need it, and a wonderful base of blog readers who don’t know me but leave such fantastically supportive comments.
I love you all.
So there are things you learn when you have farm animals. Things that should be intuitive and obvious and really not.
1. You will get over any fear you ever had of poop.
This means you will not even think about poop in your daily life, you will just assume that you have some form of it on you and it’s not a big deal. It’s in your boots, it’s on your jeans, it’s probably under your nails (yeah a few of you just were grossed out) and it’s most definitely on your shirt. That mud your stepping in? Probably mostly poop. Maybe some pee for good measure. It’s just not a big thing after a while and you wash your jeans on Hot in the washer. You also don’t touch your face with your hands, you learn to use your sleeve or shoulder to scratch that itch.
2. Hay gets everywhere.
It’s ridiculous, this stuff is better than velcro. I started wearing overalls the other day (I know, totally not sexy at all) after my pants had fallen down around my knees for the umpteenth time (no belts don’t work for me because I have no actual hips to speak of) and you know what? I gave in. I decided I just didn’t want to deal with pulling up my jeans when I was feeding or running after the animals. I’ve had these overalls ready for almost 6 months and I figured, it’s almost gardening season, what better time to not worry about your pants falling down when your bent over your veggies? So I wore them and they are super handy. They are men’s overalls which meant some tailoring and I have a huge superfluous zipper in front, and I might not be able to wait till the last-minute when I have to pee, but other than that I dig em for around the barn. What I don’t dig? The moment I found that I had a bit of hay in my underwear. Yeah, that was probably too much information but it just goes to show hay gets EVERYWHERE.
3. You will have things that you can’t throw away but can’t recycle either.
Such as bailing twine (which is not twine but plastic) and feed bags. I think they have a recycle program for the feed bags at the farm store but I’m not sure how much of those bags are actually recycled. They are pretty heavy-duty poly plastic so maybe it works out perfect but I’m somehow a little doubtful of the process. It’s like when you find out that all that glass your recycling isn’t good enough to be recycled so it’s crushed and sent to the dump. Yeah, that makes me upset more than just about anything.
SO! I went on a soul-searching journey (for like 2 seconds) and wondered what I could do with my copious empty feed sacks. Then it hit me….I could repurpose them!
I bring to you the Feed Sack Grocery Bag! My bags are thoughtfully constructed so that they are sturdy, easy to carry, just the right size (have you ever seen those stupid too small grocery bags that won’t carry a gallon of milk?! DUMB!) and they are recycled from my very own feed bags. I have sewn them up in a way that they fold completely flat for easy storage and also? They can hold 40LBS of groceries without even a whimper.
Here my lovely assistant demonstrates how the bag isn’t even phased in the lease when it’s holding 20lbs of milk jugs filled with water. I tested it for a greater weight but seriously, who’s shoving 40lbs of groceries into one bag? I know I could easily lift it but I know a lot of other women who can’t. So I think 20lbs is a good weight for the average grocery goer.
Seeming was really important to me. I wanted to make sure that they would hold up and look nice. The feed sacks already have natural box seems so I emphasized those on the sides after I’d cut out and sewn up the bottom. They stand nicely on their own whether filled or empty.
Here it is on my composter which wasn’t the best stage I thought at first, but then, it is a recycled bag on a composter. It kinda goes right?
We are not limited to only chicken feed either! I have goat bags, turkey bags, and general livestock bags. There is something different about the texture of the goat bags. Maybe they are more highly recycled than the other two? They are a little more cloth like than the chicken crumbles.
If you would like your very own bag I have put some up for sale on my etsy shop. They are $3.50 a piece and all proceeds will be dumped back into the animals themselves 
I remember back in the day when all I’d post up here would be knitting. Now I post more about the farm than anything else don’t I? Well, what can I say? People love goats (and who can blame them?!) I LOVE GOATS. So yeah, there is a lot of goating going on here. But I do still knit. I think the reason I don’t post as many “I MADE THIS” posts is because I’ve been designing a lot more. It’s a lot more work and slower going when you design something, scribble down a line of pattern, knit a little more, realize that your pattern repeat doesn’t work for the second pass, sigh heavily (and you do) then scribble down some more lines. Oddly as good as I am a knitting math (and I’m really damn good at knitting math) final stitch counts kick my butt so hard. I can work the same numbers 4 different times and come up with 4 different final stitch counts. Yeah, it’s dumb and frustrating. But this project was not. It came together in a breeze (probably because the pattern translated from another already tested pattern quite easily) and frankly, I love it. I have been wearing it non-stop since the Mr and I turned off the heat in the house.
The Strigose Cowl is a nod to my Strigose Shawl! It uses the same slipped/ twisted stitch pattern in two different colors then translates into smooth stockinette for the center in a vibrant pop of color!
I used three skeins of MadelineTosh Sport from the Stash. 1 each of charcoal, mare (which might actually be marine if it wasn’t written wrong because I don’t understand how mare is blue) and citrus. The smooth yarn was beautiful to work with, it’s so tightly spun and bouncy that the cowl is cozy, stretchy, and beautiful.
That Strigose pattern is so mesmerizing!
And that pop of color! I think it just makes it. I’m working on a small cowl version right now that would only use 2 skeins since I think people like the option of using less yarn. This pattern is open for testers right now and I think one of them is actually going to make this in fingering weight because she is a petite thing and infinity scarves are too long for her so I’m excited about that. Think of this pattern in a variegated yarn for the strigose pattern! I can’t wait to see this knit up by other knitters!
I have also started working on a wrap version of the Rough Sea’s Shawl. I don’t have any pictures right now because it is just a blob on the needles but it’s turning out quite wonderfully. It’s knit in a way I haven’t done before and something that makes this a totally new pattern with out just turning my existing stitches into a rectangle. I think it’s really quite special and I can’t wait to get to that pretty lace border with all those nice edges. I’m just about there but, *sigh*, I am charting it out and making adjustments to make sure it fits nicely in pattern. This is my most un-favorite part of the whole process but hopefully I’ll be on track today and this project will be off the needles (and ready to be blocked, photographed and blogged) by the end of next week.
I love love love this shawl. I don’t even know how it really came about. I started knitting this in the car while my parents were here for Christmas just as something to do. The end result is just stunning!
Using just slipped stitches and a simple right twist stitch you get such a neat effect. Also? I added loops!
Here are the specs
Techniques used: Knit, purl, slipped stitches, right twist stitches, & applied i-cord.
Finished Measurements: 60” wide & 25” deep
Materials: 2 skeins of 400 yds each (in two different colors), 1 US #6 24” (or longer) circular needle, 2 US #4 DPNs, tapestry needle, stitch markers, row counter.
The loops are super handy becuase you can secure the shawl around your neck and never worry about it slipping off!
Also the loops are just neat.
I’ve been knitting even if I haven’t been talking about it. Weird I know but that’s just how things have been. I’ve either been on a deadline, exhausted by technical number crunching questions from my testers, or focused on farm stuff. I still knit though and here is some proof.
I knit a second Strigose Shawl to test my pattern before it went to testers. This is actually out of sport weight yarn and came out quite large. I like the contrast though.
I like how it came out but I’m not sure how often I’ll wear a shawll this big.
And of course I love love love the loops! Look, you can wear it as a scarf and make it secure with out a shawl pin. Neat right?
Then there is this shawl I started in the ER when I was sure I’d broken my ankle. It was a fast easy knit and blocked out HUGE.
I’m going to offer this as a free pattern since it’s so easy.
I also knit this hat for my friend Corey who’s a pretty funny guy. That’s his logo.
And because I’m a little bit insane sometimes I made it in double knit so that it’s reversable. This was actually my first double knitting experience and it was kinda fun.
I also knit my cousin this cardigan. It’s the Chloe Cardigan (you can find it on my ravelry page) and frankly, I’ll be honest…I wasn’t convinced by this knit up until the point it was finished. It’s knit in two rectangles, then seamed together in the back and folded over for the arms. At everyh single point in knitting this sweater I would try it on and frown while thinking “I just don’t know.” It wasn’t until I had knit both cuffs that I finally GOT it. See, I’m not a slouchy sweater person. I don’t have time to mess with making sure my sweater says closed or on my shoulders. I’m not stylish enough to DO that. So when I was knitting this and the pictures were all slouchy I was unconvinced of the sweater.
The cuffs lock it into place. They are just tight enough that this sweater stays put. I don’t know how and I don’t know why but it works. I almost didn’t put them on because the sleeves seemed long enough but at the last minute I was like “ah screw it” and did. Thank god I did!
And because I can’t resist adding something crazy in…here are my leaping sheep.
A few things have been going on in the last week which is why I’ve remained silent. Last Thursday I stepped down into the goat stall as I was getting ready to put everyone away for the night, and I rolled my ankle. Seriously, I heard that gross popping sound and I face planted into the straw. Thing was is that though I am usually awesome and paranoid about bringing my phone with me at all times I decided not to take off my muck boots and go back into the house to retrieve my phone not 5 minutes before. So there I was, laying on my face in agony with the almost certainty that I’d broken my ankle. My husband wasn’t due home for another 2 hours and it is a long way back from the barn to the house when you are a cripple.
So I sat there for a moment and took a deep breath of the musky straw of the goat stall and remembered that I am not the ‘wait to be saved’ type. I go onto my knees – my poor unreliable angry knees – and crawled out of the stall trying not to hit my foot to hard on the floor below because every tap was agony. I used bits of straw and fallen hay as knee pads as I crawled on my hands and knees down the cement hallway toward the door. The whole time – and this is probably stupid – I was physically saying to myself “I can do this.” over and over again. Every shuffle of the knee and hand was “I can do this.” Oddly though I still wasn’t crying.
Pretty pathetic right? Yeah, well, I knew once I got to the door of the barn I had 20 feet of mud to the fence and a bunch of goats who wanted their grain more than anything so I decided I’d test it. I pulled myself to my feet and with the aid of one of the Mr’s many 2×4′s I took my first tentative step. It hurt like hell but I could move. So I did. I used that 2×4 as a bastardized cane and moved as quickly as I could through the barnyard and through the yard and into the house where I had enough thought to grab and icepack before falling onto the couch and reclining as far as I could to elevate the offending joint. I went fast because I knew that I was working on adrenaline and that it would probably wear off at any moment. And it did. Just about the moment I heard my husband’s voice on the other end of the phone.
So yeah. We had a lovely little ER trip to our local hospital where I was checked in by a woman too bored with me to stop looking at houses and who got snippy with me about my -completely abnormal for me - high blood pressure. HA! You know, the only people who make a big deal out of that are people who’ve never been hurt so bad they needed to go to the ER before. Unless you’ve felt that fear and pain you can shut your sweet ass up. My blood pressure was high because I was in pain, because I was terrified I wasn’t going to make it out of the barn by myself, because I had already broken this ankle when I was 13 and have two screws in it, and I was terrified that I would be out of commission for 8 weeks.
People, I have stuff to do. I’m too busy to be a cripple for that long.
So 4 hours later I was greeted with the news that it was NOT broken. People, I felt like I had just won the lottery at that point. Everything else didn’t matter, I was as good as gold.
So yeah. My wonderful husband took amazing care of me for the next 3 solid days. I hobbled on crutches and scooted around the house on a rolly chair and did my best to keep completely off it for that time. The swelling went down and the bruising came - omg it is SO bruised! – and I’m able to walk around pretty confidently now with aid of a brace.
To celebrate let’s have a contest! Comment here with your worst injury and I’ll pick 5 random people (with help of the random number generator) to win 3 patterns of mine of their choice. You have until Monday the 27th before I’ll pick my winners.
And though this has nothing to do with the post here are some goats.
So I’m working on a new pattern that will soon be ready to go to testers. It was something I started on a whim during Christmas and after much ripping out I’m kind of in love with it. You know how some yarns just know what they want to become? This was definitely one of those experiences.
Knit with 2 different colorways of MadelineTosh Sock. I have to say, this lady really knows her color, though the two skeins didn’t have a lot in common they had enough of the same tones to be perfect together.
I used a non-traditional edging for this shawl that I don’t think I’ve ever seen before. Basically I didn’t want to interrupt the beauty and smoothness of the yarn and an applied i-cord was just the ticket. The loops were an afterthought but I kind of love them.
You guys, I am so overwhelmed by all your kindness and your wonderful comments. I’m responding to all of them as I can. I find that if I write back all at once they tend to be generic and I hate that. So I’ve had kind of an awesome 2012 so far and it’s not even 33 days into the year! (Lets pepper this post with some goats shall we? It just makes everything better.)
1. My testers are JUST about done with my Coastal Waters Shawl which is turning out BEAUTIFULLY. They have worked so hard and so completely that this will be such an easy shawl to knit when I publish it. It is a study in slipped stitches and really fun and interesting!
2. I’ve just finished another shawl design that I’m pretty sure is one of the neatest things I’ve done because it was with out planning and just spur of the moment. I just really dig it.
3. I’m fairly certain that at least one of my goats is pregnant and that 3 of my sheep are which rocks my world.
4. I finally was able to string together 150 words for my Ariel synopsis to eventually put into an agent letter. It took the help of my wonderfully honest cousin, my best friend, and the Mr who spent a half an hour alone re-writing the last line but I think it might actually be what I’m looking for. If you’ve never tried to compress a book into 150 short words it’s pure torture. The first few attempts I had sounded as if they were written by grade school kids.
Through the eyes of the casual observer Portland may seem like just another city but just below the eco-friendly surface it’s a hub for forgotten gods, mythical creatures, and things that go bump in the night. Standing between these two worlds is the arch angel Ariel. Ariel is divine justice and keeps the peace between pantheons, creatures, and humans for as long as such things have existed. It is her job – and her job alone – to make sure that everyone who walks among humans follows the laws set down by the most powerful of her kind. Now someone or something is changing the game and setting its sights directly on the peacekeeper herself. Now not only is the lion of heaven in grave peril but the world itself.
Right now things are going pretty good and I’m pretty pleased with myself. I have some knitting to show you but I thought goats might be just the ticket
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