Dec

A Happy Happy Joy Joy Post

I’ve been a downer and I’m sorry for that. I wanted to thank you for all your wonderful lovely encouraging comments. It’s been a little hard to pull myself out of this downward spiral. Maybe because Christmas is coming, maybe because I’m just super tired, or maybe because I really can’t take one more stupid thing happening. So in order to get past all that I have some photos that will make you smile. I giggled my butt off taking these…

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.

172 days ago Short URL 8 Comments

farm/fiber/Goats/Icelandic Sheep/knit/Memories/photography/Picture/Pictures/Pygora/Sheep/Toulouse Goose

Nov

Oh jease, I’m so behind on blogging. I know it’s probably been boring around here but I kind of lost my mojo after Minnesota. I seemed to get behind with one thing and then I was behind on everything. So here is a mass random update (There will be goats I promise!)

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.

179 days ago Short URL 8 Comments

Craft/farm/fiber/Goats/Icelandic Sheep/knit/Knitting/photography/Picture/Pictures/Portland/Pygora/Sheep/Turkey

Nov

Ternion Shawl

Another rejection by Knitty which really isn’t a surprise. I don’t think that I’m ever going to be what Knitty is looking for and I’m ok with that. So on that note here is the shawl I designed back this summer. This shawl is available free for a limited time!

This shawl is knit and joined modularity. It’s quite fun and really interesting to do! It has just enough to keep you interested while it isn’t too hard that you can’t watch tv at the same time.

I designed this shawl to take full advantage of varigated yarns, self striping yarns, and pooling yarns of doom. Get your pattern here! This would also be absolutely amazing with hand spun yarn!

On the smaller shawl I used Malabrigo sock yarn and a skein of Jager matchmaker. On the larger version I used almost 3 skeins of Noro Silk Garden Sock.

So since I was rejected from Knitty again I’m going to make this shawl available for free for a limited time only.

Make sure to get your pattern soon because this pattern won’t be free forever!

184 days ago Short URL 6 Comments

knit/Knitting/Pattern/photography/Picture/Pictures

Nov

Authors Are Not Knitters

Well, some are I guess by the game of numbers, but for the sake of my post I’m not talking about those cross overs.

For the last few months I’ve been following more and more authors either on twitter or on facebook. I’m always interested in to how their minds work, how they write, and what their styles are. There have been some lovely experiences and there have been some that have made me feel bad about myself, what I read, and what I write. When the first post came through I frowned and thought that it was just a bad day this person must surely be having. We all have those, we all post about them in one way or another and then we move on. The world understands.

Then the posts became more frequent and frankly, more hateful. I unfollowed this particular person on twitter and am now contemplating doing the same with facebook. Is it life changing? Not at all. Is it frustrating? Sort of. The posts in themselves are not as terrible as I’m sure others could be but the nature of them I feel was that of a 13 year old boy not getting enough attention. This particular author calls out others by name (but not enough to link them so that the author would know about it), calling their work dumb, uninspired, and the readers of that particular book vapid. (He did not actually call them ‘vapid’ but I inferred that). This post has happened twice in the last week’s time, and more like it prior. I’ve had enough. I’m a polite person (usually) by nature and I believe that each person should be treated with respect and dignity. This kind of behavior rubs me wrong in all sorts of ways.

Frowning at this post, this tiny snippet of nothingness asking his followers to forsake this “crappy” book for one by another (which I have read and haven’t written a review because I still don’t know if I actually LIKE it) made me think…”This guy obviously doesn’t knit.”

That’s pretty random right? Well not so much. Knitters as a community understand each other I think at a more base level than any other sort of hobby community. We all do the same exact thing. You can’t knit any better than anyone else. You can have projects that turn out better but you can’t actually knit better. Why? Because the knit stitch for you is exactly the same as it is for me or for the Queen of England (does she knit? I think it’d be lovely if she did!). It’s the same. The yarn may be different, the gauge, and the drape but it’s all the same stitch. Sure, some projects turn out better than others but it’s all relative.

Give two knitters the same skein of yarn, the same gauage and ask them to make plain socks and you will come out with two pairs of perfectly wearable socks. I very much doubt that one would be a clear winner. And here’s the serious kicker, even if there was both knitters are gracious about it and will not draw attention to it.

Knitters are kind to each other even if we don’t care for the project being worked on we appreciate the spirit of the knit. I’ve never before heard a knitter call out another for a crappy project. (Crazy design is different mind you). Never have I read a post that would declare that all knitters knit this sock over that other sock because it is “smarter”. How crazy would you sound if you publicly declared a sound knitable design that brought hours of pleasure “stupid”? Knitters would laugh at you and tell you that you have missed the whole point. Not everything has to be entrelac fair isle complicated just to bring pleasure, people, we love the garter stitch because of it’s ease and sometimes, it’s just the right thing.

I think the world would be a better place if more people knit. They’d push aside this nasty better than you attitude and realize that a knit is a knit for everyone and a purl is just the back side of a knit. No matter the arrogance you knit with, your stitch is still the same as mine and they are both equally as good.

Let’s remember to get off each other’s cases, pick each other up, and knit.

192 days ago Short URL 2 Comments

Books/Craft/crochet/Fantasy/knit/Knitting/Spin/spinning/thoughts/Writing

Nov

Perfection Cowl – Free Pattern!

Just dropping in to say I didn’t die in Minnesota – as much as I tried! I had an amazing time and ran myself absolutely ragged seeing friends and family. There was only one low point which didn’t come as a surprise – and it wasn’t even family related! Amazing! I’m just about back to normal and ready to post pictures, goat news, turkey egg progress, and sheep sex. You know you’ve been wondering about the sheep sex, I know you have, I can feel it from here.

So to tide you over I have a new free pattern. The Perfection Cowl was designed to be just that…Perfect. It adds ribbing and garter stitch to make a cowl that wont be too baggy up top while still leaving lots of wonderful drape at the bottom. This cowl is easy as pie to knit and is the perfect stash buster for that extra skein of yarn you have lying around. This would also be amazing in handspun!

This pattern is free!

What do you need?

200 yds of worsted weight yarn
1 us #8 16″ circular needle
Stich Marker
You need to be able to cast on, knit, purl, and cast off.

That’s it! Have fun and I hope you enjoy!

201 days ago Short URL 2 Comments

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Oct

Goat Post

Because I know you guys are fiending for it.

Charlie is head goat and he always wants to be right up in your face.

I love the expression that Gordy is making in the background. He’s like that guy that walks into your vacation photo, ruins the shot, and you don’t notice till you get home and develop your film.

Tank and Charlie are good friends. It looks like Tank is being mean to Charlie but he’s only using his front little teeth to give Charlie a good scratch. They do this ALL THE TIME and it’s hilarious.

Mr Wally Waddles has neck waddles of course.

Blue Steel strikes a pose. I named this little man Blue Steel after the movie Zoolander because he always seems to be making the face! He’s also the least smart goat and has gotten tangled in blackberry vines (to the point where he’s literally trapped) more than once. He’s not smart but he’s pretty which I guess makes up for it.

“Bitch say what?” That’s what I expect the goats are saying with that expression.

218 days ago Short URL 3 Comments

farm/fiber/Goats/knit/photography/Picture/Pictures/Pygora/Spin

Oct

Updated Designs

So I have a problem, I knit a lot of designs but don’t model them (because lets be frank, the skinny girls sell the patterns). I didn’t really have a go-to model for when I finished a knit design which was becoming a sort of problem. Knits just look better when they are modeled. Well that problem has been solved. The Mr’s business partner’s wife is drop dead gorgeous and agreed to model some shawls for me. So today we went out to a local park and I drug out some old shawls to get some better photos. They turned out amazing.

Fall fields looks way better on her than it ever did on me.

Channel Islands Shawl. Still one of my most favorite designs ever and this is probably my most worn shawl I own.

Rough Seas Shawl which I have completely re-written and used my fancy chart software for.

Sweet Corn which looks way better on a body than it ever did on a branch.

She’s amazingly gorgeous right? Yeah, I find it a little intimidating but I worked through it. I had to hear the Mr’s voice and his parents in my head the whole time telling me that we are all good at different things. Hell, I played in Carnegie hall when I was 17 which a lot of people never do in their lives…EVER. So it’s not like I’m a looser but ya know, I might have made a complete ass out of myself talking too much and being a dork. Only time will tell.

All patterns are available through Ravelry (and the links are on my pattern page if your interested). I’m really excited about working with Shauna in the future because she’s so tiny (ie less yarn consumed for patterns, meaning more because they costs me less) so the sweaters I’ve wanted to do for quite a while will fly off the needles. I’ve already ordered yarn for one I’m going to be starting shortly. It’s Robin Hood inspired, but in a good way.

219 days ago Short URL 4 Comments

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Oct

Oregon Flock & Fiber Fest

So I’ve been kinda behind on the blogging thing. We’ve had a lot going on here on the homestead and life has kind of gotten in the way. Frankly, our life has been centered around a lamb with a punctured trachea for the last week and now that we are confident that she’ll make it I’m finally starting to relax again. Farm animals aren’t pets but it doesn’t really matter when you have an animal in pain under your care.

First, we got a new truck. No it’s not a sheep, but it is a Ram!

The Mr is thrilled and I’m thrilled that I don’t have to worry about him breaking down in the suburban anymore.

So, Oregon Flock and Fiber Festival was awesome. We drove down (in the new truck!) and I promised myself I would not buy a sheep or a goat and I actually made good on that promise, but I’ll tell you, seeing those Angora goats made it hard!

We went to the animals first because that’s always my favorite part. I love seeing the goats and the sheep the best, and even at the fair this is my favorite part. It was nice seeing all the adult pygora goats so I know how big my boys will get, and I got some information on local goat dealers, and even might have a line on a boyfriend for my Icelandic gals.

This beautiful boy had blue eyes! He was by far my favorite.

The Jacobs are by far the Mr’s favorite sheep. He has a serious thing for those 4 horns and maybe this year I’ll find him a 4 horned lamb. We also bought fleeces. Romney and Jacobs which I’m pretty excited about. I was amazed at the deal on these fleeces, maybe because there were so many and they were all in one spot? This amount of fleece on the web (if I could find it) would usually cost about 80 bucks but the most we paid for anything was 20 and the lowest was 5!

One thing I didn’t know was that Carrie of Apenglow Yarns was going to be vending here. I met Carrie a few years back through my friends Tom & Mette at Ranch Of The Oaks. It was a lovely surprise to see her and her yarns are just amazing!

Like I said, we met an Icelandic breeder which was nice (because they aren’t a hugely popular sheep) and I’m arranging to see what boys she might have available for me to rent. We aren’t looking to have a ram on our property yet so we basically are looking to rent a gigilo ram during the breeding season.

I bought some yarn, a few fleeces and no animals. It was a sucessful trip even though it poured in the middle of the day and we had a blast!

235 days ago Short URL 3 Comments

farm/fiber/Goats/Icelandic Sheep/knit/Knitting/photography/Picture/Pictures/Pygora/Sheep/Spin/spinning

Oregon Flock and Fiber

Sep

Winter Leaves

I finished another knit! See, my best friend Shawna just moved back to Minnesota because her husband is now over seas in Afghanistan. She moved to be closer to family and friends and not so much in the country. Since I’m from Minnesota I’m going to visit her and my family at the end of October. Back in the day when I first learned to knit I knit her this horrible wide long garter stitch acrylic scarf. The thing was ugly and terrible and she LOVED it. Then her brother borrowed it a couple years ago and lost it.

I figured it was time to replace that scarf, and also, to maybe make it a grown up thing that a woman would be proud to wear.

Pattern: Spring Leaves
Yarn: Beaverslide Dry Goods Sport Weight
Needle: US #8
Specs: 5 repeats each side before binding off, it’s about 7 feet long.

I cast this scarf on last Friday and finished it the following Wednesday. It was such a fast knit! The pattern was great, it was simple to knit, easy to memorize, and yielded an amazing result! I did have a few false starts though because I am not always the best pattern follower. Basically there are some symbols in the chart that I associate with meaning other things so I was a little confused but after I really looked at the key I was good to go.

II love wooly lace. This is very sheepy and warm even though it’s light and airy and lace. It’s perfect to wrap about your shoulders or double up and use as a scarf. It’s wide enough that you can drape it over your head if you’ve forgotten your hat or bunch around your neck.

I like that it’s seamless and mirrors itself. I think the diamonds in the back are a pretty touch too.

I almost want to keep it for myself and why yes, I am wearing plaid flannel and I love it.

247 days ago Short URL 5 Comments

fiber/knit/Knitting/Pattern/photography/Picture/Pictures

beaverslide dry goods/lace/leaf lace

Sep

Twirl Socks

Hey! I finished a knit and I couldn’t love them more! I knit the Twirl Socks in Inigo Moon Superwash and they are just stunning. The sock itself was pretty damn easy (contrary to what it looks like) and I banged these out in the 4 days that my inlaws were visiting. It helped that we had a lot of backseat crafting time as the Mr drove all over creation and back.

I haven’t knit a sock in like…amost 2 years when I burned myself out on them but I still buy sock yarn like it’s going out of business. I still queue socks but I don’t ever knit them. I think I’ve caught the bug again though. These socks have everything I love. Texture, a little bit of lace without being (OMG THEY ARE SO HOLEY!) and a little cable without being full-out too thick to fit into a shoe.

And the color! Which of course I had the hardest time capturing, it amazing! A deep rusty vibrant red. The pattern and the yarn together combine to make magical things happen. You know when you pick up some yarn and your all like “MMmm Smoosh”? but then you knit it and it well…falls a little flat? You still love it but it didn’t sing. Well, this pattern plus this yarn went all “DOUBLE SMOOSH NINJA ATTACK” and it is fabulous.

I can’t stop praising these socks. They are really easy if you’re like me and can see the chart for the pattern (meaning, you can see where your going). I think the hardest thing about these socks for me was the # of stitches on the gusset. See, I kept decreasing because I’m used to smaller stitch counts (The designer has a small size that starts at 72 sts and frankly I don’t see that she needed the medium and large because this fit me perfectly with out adjustments and I wear a size 12 shoe) and before I knew it I had decreased too many.

So I sat back and thought about it for a while as we drove up the coast from Tillamook. I like a tight heel (for there is nothing worse than a sloppy sock) so I made a note of what I did and increased back up throughout the arch until I had enough stitches that I could decrease properly with. Since I made the note I was able to copy this to the second sock and it worked out pretty perfectly.

Another mistake I made (I know right? Lets point out the billion mistakes Preita makes while knitting at light speed) was that I read the heel flap directions and thought I understood what she was saying…I did not. I did a standard slipped stitch heel when the designer did the matching rib. I don’t really mind because I would rather have the sturdy heel any day.

So here are the specs:

Pattern: Twirl (which I kept calling Twist and confusing everyone) Also, this pattern is FREE!
Size: Small because it’s HUGE and fit me great and stretches
Needle: US #1 magic loop
Yarn: Inidgo Moon Merino Super Wash
Mods: I changed the heel flap and did some wonky decrease increase after the heel was completed.
Verdict: LOVE!

256 days ago Short URL 2 Comments

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free sock pattern/hand knit socks/indigo moon merino superwash/sock yarn/twirl socks

Mr Poopers Day Out

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