We have lambs!  Oreo and 1tag decided to have their babies on the same night.  It was fortuitous!  The Mr and I had cleaned out the old turkey stall just that day and gotten it ready for their arrival.  We ushered the sheep inside (which was a huge pain in the butt because that’s what sheep are) but we got them all in and settled.  That night it snowed 5″ and the sheep dropped off 2 lambs for our trouble.  I can’t tell you how glad I was that we had them inside.  Now we are only waiting on 1 more ewe.

The girls gave us two ram lambs so they won’t be staying long term on the homestead.  When you have boys on the farm they aren’t good for much.  You only need one breeder and from there, every male is superfluous.

We also have baby goats!

Brutus (in back) and little Twinkie take a nap.

Need a goat of your very own?  Jet is now for sale.

Rocket is staying with us because she has the privellage of being a girl.

Tank ADORES the baby goats.  Well, he adores all goats no matter what.  He’s a super goat enthusist.  He will sit at the gate and just gaze at them adoringly as they play.  It’s really pretty sweet.

So much has been happening.  It’s like it was all planned out (if sheep and goats had the ability to plan anything that is).  DD gave birth to amazing triplets that I adore so much.  They are healthy and happy and bouncing around like puppies.  They are the epitome of SWEETNESS.  Then the other day (because we’ve been meaning to do it for 2 weeks) the Mr and I cleaned out the old turkey stall and threw down fresh straw.  The sheep were getting close to their due date we knew so on a whim we put them in the barn to get them used to it.

Overnight it snowed 5 inches and in the morning the Mr went out to the barn to discover 2 little lambs.  Pictures are terrible because it’s the BARN and has terrible barn lighting but yeah.  2 little healthy boys.  Since they are boys they will both end up…well…as dinner.  I know that probably made a few of you sad, but on a farm, boys get eaten, it’s a fact of life.  Girls, girls are gold.  The goats produce milk and the ewes produce wool (which is finer this year than any I’ve seen it from my sheep!).  Boys?  Boys get floods of testosterone and become idiots.  So boys aren’t our thing.

And now there are some of you who are all “But Preita!!! You had baby boy goats! Surely you aren’t going to eat them!!!”  No, rest asured we are not.  They are going to be sold off to other people.  Maybe as a future breeder, maybe as brush control, maybe as something else.  But they won’t be staying here either in the barn or anywhere else.

So you know how much I love my goats?  I love that I can go in to the stall and pick them up for a sweet cuddle and they lay their heads on my shoulder or kiss my nose.  I love that they are content just to be snuggled and chill out.  Lambs?  Lambs are not like this.  Lambs are quite the opposite.  Lambs KNOW they are not supposed to be off the ground, they KNOW they are not supposed to be cuddled or snuggled or pet.  It makes me a little sad because they are sweet little babies with curly little fleeces that make them look like poodles but yeah, I guess it helps with attachment issues.  Maybe my goats KNOW they could never be dinner so they don’t mind?  I don’t know.  Lambs, while cute, are not goats.

We have been handling the goats a lot which is something we probably won’t do too much with the sheep.  The kids on the other hand benefit from a lot of handling because two of them will be future milkers.  A wild goat is a pain in the butt.  Goats that are used to handling are easier to milk, lead, and groom.  Above I’m holding our little girl out of DD.  Since the Mr was the midwife and pulled 2 out of 3 goats from DD’s womb I gave him full honors of naming them all (something that was hard for me because I’m a control freak sometimes).  Above is Twinkie which makes me giggle ridiculously.  Especially since DD is short for Dumbledor (we did not name her) so when we register her it will be Dumbledor’s Twinkie.  It’s silly but I love it.

So yeah.  We are waiting on 1 more ewe and then we are done with babies for the year.  Kind of makes me a little sad because I loved the process.

In other news I’ve decided to start work on an E-book on Ravelry turning some of my most popular shawls into rectangular wraps/scarves.  It will be a lot of knitting but I hope to have the release by the end of summer.  I don’t just want them to be plain rectangles where anyone with half a brain could have pulled them off so it will take a little more planning.  Where the wrong side is just not as nice I plan on dealing with that so no one has to see it.  So yeah.  Off I go to the races!

My list includes;

Cherry Surprise

Rough Sea

High Desert

Pix

Weave It!

Coastal Waters

and Strigose

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.

Queue It here.

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.

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

Well, I can begin so I will…with goats.

Who on earth can resist a goat smile?  No one I say, NO ONE.  It’s kryptonite, you know it is.  You see a little goat smirk and your insides go all squishy then try as you might a force bubbles up inside you till you just can’t contain it and you explode with an ‘awwww’.  You know you do.  I KNOW you do which is really all that matters right?

Running Prancer runs.  He also prances quite a lot.  He also side kicks and wiggles happily.  I swear La Mancas are the happiest goats on the face of the earth.

Sometimes I see him running and he’s running right at me and I won’t lie, I pucker a little when he doesn’t turn directions until the LAST second.  You will read a report one day that I am completely bowled over by this goat.  It might even be the way I die.  If it is that would be the most ridiculous thing ever and if the Mr posts a damn obituary saying “at least she died doing what she loved” I would haunt his ass so hard because no one loves getting run over by a goat.  But I digress. Back to the cuteness.

There aren’t a whole lot of hat wearing holidays are there?  I think we’ll have to make some up to be quite frank.

We had snow and the goats didn’t really know what to think.  It wasn’t bad like rain but it wasn’t awesome like sun either.

And as a special little extra tree here is a little video of goaty goodness!

Outlaw is a pullover sweater knit in Cascade 220 with a slipped stitch yoke and a similar rib hem.  A cozy slipped stitch hood and a high cowl neck makes this sweater a very comfortable and stylish option for those cold months.  Queue it here.

The specs:

***Gauge 20 sts = 4.5” in stockinette***
***Gauge in Slipped St Pattern 20 sts = 4”***

Yarn: Cascade 220 5(5, 6, 6, 6) {7, 7, 7, 8} (8, 8, 9, 9) {9, 10, 10, 10} skeins
Needles: US # 6 24” circular and DPNs, US # 8 24” circular and DPNs
Notions: stitch markers, tapestry needle, stitch holders or waste yarn

***Sizes available***
Finished Bust Size 28(30, 32, 34, 36) {38, 40, 42, 44} (46, 48, 50, 52) {54, 56, 58, 60}”

We wish you a merry goat-mass,

We wish you a merry goat-mass!

And a happy Baaaah year!

It was the night before Christmas and we were dressing up a goat…

“What is finer than dressing up a goat in headbands so cheery?”

The only thing better is dressing up a wooly ram…clearly.

Here is what I am up to…

1. I designed a new cowl with shaping. It reminds me of the Robin Hood cowls that are all drapy and perfect.

2.  I designed a sweater but am waiting for my model to be free.  Stupid holidays & life getting in the way

3. Herman is still making funny faces and jumping all over ewes.  I hope we’ll have some little red lambs this spring!

4. Milk Goats.  I have em.  Well, almost.  We are picking them up next sunday.  I have two girls and a buck because you need a buck and babies for milk goats to have milk!  They are all pure La Manchas and yes, I am going to make cheese.  And maybe butter.

5. It’s been cold here in the mornings which is colder than it was last year but still..it’s December and NO SNOW.

6. I am trying to finish writing up Frankenfine and then I might be back to the real world.  I’ve been lost in the land of farming and writing and now it’s almost Christmas and I don’t know where the time went.  Soon it will be time for reflection and new years resolutions!

Charlie is a super star.  He can’t help it, he just has that charisma that makes everyone fall in love with him.  Now?  he likes to wear things on his head.  Super star x 10.  My cousin Rebecca thinks I should start a separate blog called “Stuff My Goat Wears” which I think might be funny.  I kind of want to go to a party store and buy out their novelty headbands.

Charlie is not the only super star on the farm though…

Herman is our rent-a-ram that we will be buying at the end of this breeding season.  He’s so damn sweet and gentle and a beautiful red the Mr and I don’t want to let him go.  Also?  He’s festive.  This ram let me put on his crazy head band and then just stood there like a champion.  Then!  He struck a few more poses.  He couldn’t have cared LESS about what I was doing as long as it got him a chin scratch.  Dear Herman, I love you.

Aw My Mr. Dude.  He does abide.  You have to admit that anything along with his sweet bunny face is just adorable as can be!

Oops was not so happy about the adornment but I think that’s because it was a little big on him and kept slipping.  In the end Charlie wanted it back and pulled it off everyone’s head until we put it back on him.

And since this went over so well I found another…

Charlie couldn’t smile anymore if he tried!

He loved it so much he wandered off to eat still wearing his tiara. Gotta love a goat that can accessorize!

Herman was not to be left out though.

In the end though I let them all get back to their dignified naked selves.

And Dude was merry!

Mr Wally knows he’ll probably never be subjected to such indignity because he doesn’t even like an ear scratch.  He’s a sweetie face just the same though.

And the geese are always around, yelling at me and tattling on anyone breaking the rules.

1. Thank you all so much for the wonderful comments on my Ternion Shawl.  I have to say that I was seriously surprised because frankly, I didn’t expect it.  I got a whole bunch of comments on Ravelry and people seem to really like it.  I can only say that I hope this means that Knitty’s winter issue should be badass.  If people actually liked my shawl then the stuff they kept must be amazing.

2. We had one of our very own turkeys for Thanksgiving.  It was amazing beyond words.  This was a bird that I had raised since it was a day old and then it fed my family.  It had the best life a turkey could have.  It got to do pretty much as it wished, eat as much grass and bugs as it could stand, and even mate with the hens should the mood hit.  Remember, just because you buy organic doesn’t mean that bird wasn’t raised with 20,000 other birds in a barn never to see the light of day.  My birds are free range and the more I collect eggs the more birds I might have next year.  So far I’m up to about 26 eggs but none have hatched out yet.

3. The Mr finally bottled his own home made Blackberry wine!  It is amazing.  It actually tastes really wonderful and I have to admit that I had my doubts.  But it is really yummy.  It’s not something that would ever win any snooty awards but it will be all drank to the last drop.  I’m really proud of him.  Now he’s in the middle of making some mead and then there is the quite whispers about a still (for perfume purposes only of course because we are NOT law breakers. HA!)  We totally bought the industrial $70 corker because it is worth every single penny.  Corking is hard otherwise.

He looks so happy doesn’t he?  I know how he feels, I was like that with my jam.  And yes, these are the same blackberries from our property.

4. I knit some socks and they are by far my favorite pair in the longest time.  I have tried to knit these Meida socks by Nancy Bush two pervious times.  It ended in sad too tight socks.  Finally with the right yarn needle combo I came out with these.

Seriously. I absolutely love how these socks feel.  They are Mountain Colors barefoot and I love the yarn SO MUCH! I’m all about having a little mohair in my yarn.  It makes it so much more wooly and wears better I think.

5. Herman the ram.  I can’t remember if I’ve talked about him or not.  If not here we go.  Herman is the ram we are renting to get with some of our ewes.  He’s a beautiful red icelandic mouflon and I love him so much that I’m thinking we will have to buy him.  He’s the most gentle mild mannered fella I’ve ever know.  He’s my husband in sheep form! LOL  And, the ladies are loving him.  Also, he stinks like ass.  Which is a good thing if you are a ram in rut.

I thought he was good natured before but this weekend I bought these festive headbands to embarrass the dogs.  Then I got the crazy idea that these things would fit other animals too…

 Yes, I did put a festive headband on a ram and you know what?  He could have cared LESS.  He snuffled the ladies, asked me for a chin scratch and posed for several pictures.

The goats were not as easy because they want to be RIGHT NEXT TO YOU.

You know what I love?  Goats.  I seriously just love them.  I never would have known.  My friends have sheep and alpacas and llamas.  I never knew a single goat.  But you know what?  Goats totally trump all of those animals x a million.  Not only are they sweet as sugar they enjoy your attention, are silly to be silly, and are so damn affectionate.  Also, they let you humiliate them on the internet.

Some even enjoy it. Charlie is a super star after all.  If you met Charlie in person (or in goat if you will), you’d understand.  This goat has charisma to spare.  After this little experiment I kind of…um…want to dress my goats up more.  I know! It’s sick! I KNOW!  But you guys, it was fun and cute and still makes me smile.  This is better for a foul day than any amount of zoloft.  Bummed?  Dress up your goat.  All better!  So yeah.  This might become a thing.  It’s not like I’m going to knit them little fair isle sweaters and leave them out in the pasture like that but a little headband or scarf for pictures?  Yes.

 6. Lastly I met Monica in Portland the other week for coffee and pictures.  She’s such a good sport for letting me harass her with a camera.