Wicked Witch of the Wool

My adventures in knitting and my daily life on the farm.

Sunday, March 25, 2007

Yarn Crawl

Yesterday was our first Yarn Crawl with the gang. The weather was horrible; lots of rain, but that wasn't going to keep us away from getting our fibery fix.
Linda picked us up in "the Beast" and was our excellent chauffeur while Chery was the navigator. It was very cozy in the back seat and we had loads of fun. Our first stop was Shuttles, Spindles, and Skeins in Boulder. The store was huge with lots of yarn and other goodies, but my yarn-purchasing sense must still have been asleep. I wasn't tempted to buy any yarn. I did however buy 2 cute pins, some nice buttons, and a set of size 00 dpn's.



Here Chery, MJ and Linda are fondling some roving they had in the store. I didn't get any because I have enough roving to last several years.



We met up with birthday girl Lisa and hubby at the store. They were up camping in Estes Park. When we were done shopping at this store we decided to go to lunch near by.



Next stop on the trip was the Lamb Shoppe in Denver. What an absolute delight! The store owner was so helpful and courteous, and we even got free beverages. I did most of my "damage" there: are fabulous pink Namaste bag, skeins of Noro Iro, and 1 skein of Cherry Tree Hill "Water" sock yarn.



Here we all are posing in front of one of the colorful walls of fibery goodness.



The last stop was Strings in Highlands Ranch. I only made one purchase there: a skein of Colinette Jitterbug sock yarn.



We arrived back at my place at the end of a long, fun-filled day. The ladies did stop for long enough to pet "Trouble" the baby goat.

Today the weather was spectacular. A friend and his daughter stopped by to visit.





All in all a great weekend.

Tuesday, March 13, 2007

Trouble......

This will be a picture-less post; for some reason Blogger won't let me upload pictures. As soon as I can get it to work I'll make sure to post them.

A wise dutchman once said: "if you want to learn how to swear, get a goat!"
How very true that is. Around 5.30PM yesterday I went out to do a goat check. The baby was no-where to be found. I looked literally EVERYWHERE until about 8PM. Annabelle was extremely upset, crying out loud and running all over the place. Now, we have 35 acres, most of which is covered in scrub oak. The goats have their enclosure, but the mesh in the hog panels is apparently just wide enough for a small goat kid to escape through. I went bush-whacking for what seemed like an eternity, but the little girl was simply gone. I listened for little goat cries; this baby had a healthy set of lungs and could easily be heard from a long distance. Nothing. Annabelle was inconsolable, and so was I. I let her have free reign of hte area fenced in for the dogs, which is a couple of acres. She spent the whole night on our deck, crying up a storm. My heart was breaking along with hers. She would peek inside the house to see if the baby was inside. This morning she was still crying. I had just hung up the phone from talking to my husband, letting him know that the baby most likely was taken by a bird. All of a sudden I noticed that Annabelle had stopped crying. I ran outside, fearing she was getting ill from the pressure in her udder, and what do I see? The little brat is latched onto a teat and wagging her short little tail. She is jumping around and playing like nothing is wrong. I don't get it, I really don't. I know for sure she wasn't with her mama for at least 16 hours. By all accounts she should have died from exposure and dehydration. We'll probably never know for sure what she was up to. Kid, thy name is Trouble. Trouble and Annabelle are currently in Goat Prison, and only get outside under strict supervision until we can get some chicken wire fencing up to prevent any more breakouts. I'm sure I've got lots more grey hair since yesterday.

Papa Lancelot is loving his new shelter. It is not finished yet; we need to put a front with an entrance door on it, but it is so nice and warm that it doesn't matter. Lancelot is especially enjoying the view from the roof. He can see all over his "empire" from the roof top.


It's amazing what a sleepless night can do for your productivity. I finished a pair of socks out of Mountain Colors yarn. It's the Diagonal Cross-Rib socks from Ann Budd.....


....and I also made a necklace and bracelet out of amber and green opal.

Monday, March 12, 2007

Surprise!!!!

It was a weekend of surprises. On Saturday we had a surprise bridal shower for Phoebe, and then out of the blue we had our first little goat kid enter the world. I was just feeling comfortable saying that the goat ladies were pregnant, but I thought they still had a ways to go. Sunday morning we finally had the time and ability to continue with the build of the billy shelter. We have just had way too much snow and then the resulting mud to get to it. Even though we had a couple of inches of snow Saturday night (they didn't even predict we were getting snow, go figure), the sun was melting it away very fast. We had just separated the billy from the does in anticipation of his new pen, and Annabelle was isolating herself inside the chicken coop. The coop doubles as their indoor shelter, located inside the horse barn. The only other inhabitant is Horatio, the lone and looney rooster. Usually Annabelle is the belle of the ball; sticking her nose in everything that is going on. I was able to comb the loose cashmere off Lancelot the billy without her nibbling at my hair and being a general nuissance. I said, half jokingly, to the hubby that maybe she is in labor. A little later, while I was grocery shopping, I get a phone call: "I THINK A GOAT IS HAVING A BABY!!" I jumped the line at the checkout register and sped home to find a little white bundle of joy already up on her feet.



You can see the proud Papa Lancelot in the background and the horses being very interested in what was going on. You can also see the cup I used to dip the umbilical stump with iodine. The little kid is a girl, and she seems very spunky. We had a minor issue with gtting her to latch on to the milk bar, but it looks like she has it down by now. I had hoped for 2 or 3 kids, but I'll take a healthy singleton any day. She isn't very big, which is very good for a singleton. Sometimes they can get so big that they have a hard time being born.



Annabelle is a very good mom, especially since it is her first time. She will have her hands full with this little firecracker. The kid is bucking and running around, and poor Annabelle is having to do her best keeping up with her. Now we need to find a suitable name. That usually takes some time. I will keep you posted.

Wednesday, March 07, 2007

Hodgepodge

I seem to only be able to get my act together and post once in a blue moon. Oh well, it makes for a longer post with lots of pictures.

Since I last blogged, my friend Phoebe opened up her brick and mortar store; Girl of the Golden West in the Shops at Briargate in Colorado Springs. Her website is still in the beginning stages, but the store is absolutely fabulous. Our whole club turned up for the Grand Opening, and I just HAD to buy the red felted jacket in the front of the picture.......



Phoebe has an impeccable taste, and unfortunately I really like the stuff she buys. If I had unlimited funds I would probably buy one of each item she has for sale. Here you see Phoebe and Kirsten behind the counter on opening day, and you can see Anne perusing the wonderful jewelry at the counter.....



Since then I've been back for another fix. I'm a sucker for shoes and boots in general, and I just couldn't leave these boots behind. And wouldn't you know, the necklace decided to come home with me too!



I've been a busy little knitter, and finished two sweaters since my last post. The first sweater was another Skeppsta (Cornelia Tuttle Hamilton, for Noro), this time in Manos del Uruguay, color #115. The guage is not the same as for the Noro yarn, so I had to add stitches and repeats to make it work. I love this sweater, and I especially dig the scalloped edge.



I also - finally - finished my Elsebeth Lavold "Estrud" sweater that I had been working on for such a long time. I This is the nicest sweater I've ever made, but it was an exercise in patience. I detest long stretches of purling back, so I had to put it down for weeks on end to gather up the will to continue on.



I did make some changes to the pattern, though. The collar in the pattern didn't excite me too much, so I left it as a V-neck, and the back was just plain stockinette stitch. Knowing that I would never finish the sweater if I left the back like that, I decided to adapt a pattern from a different sweater and use it on the back. I really like the way it turned out.



The sweater still needs to be blocked, but I can't make myself part with it just yet. It was finished yesterday afternoon and I've been wearing it ever since. Hopefully I can get to blocking it later today.
So while I didn't have anything significant on the needles last night, I decided to try my hand at making some jewelry. Over the past few months I 've been picking up some beads here and there. Apart from making a grand total of 1 stitch marker, I had never done any beading before. It is FUN!! I still need a lot of work on my technique, but I love the result.



And last, but not least, I received my first shipment of Blue Moon FiberArts Socks that Rock Club kit. Granted, this colorway is not something I would have chosen myself, but that's the beauty of joining this club. The pattern is interesting; the sock can be worn inside-out as well. I'm very eager to learn the new techniques.



Oh, and my cashmere goats are shedding! The ladies don't have a lot of fiber, but Lancelot the buck has a LOT of it. Unfortunately he seems to have a case of dandruff (should I gently suggest he use Selsun Blue when he washes his hair?), but apparently that is fairly common. Can't wait to get all of his fibery gold cleaned, washed, and spun! And the ladies might be pregnant after all. Their udders are starting to develop and their bellies look slightly bigger. I can't feel any kids yet, but they apparently don't become really obvious until the last month of pregnancy.



Well. This was it for now. See ya next time......