Wicked Witch of the Wool

Snow Day!

2008-04-10T19:02:00.000-07:00

So, it's April, right? The time of year when the grass turns green, the ranchers fill their pastures with young cattle, little goats are born, and the thermometer is supposed to stay above freezing during the day. Maybe if you live anywhere but in Colorado.

We had a snow storm today. A good foot and howling winds out of the north. I had to put the horses inside the barn, and the poor goats had to come inside as well. The babies were very excited, and soon trashed my whole barn. Here is a little photo impression of their day...

Hi, I'm Pebbles and I'm the queen of the hill.

I'm Sammie, and I'm the King of the hill. So there!

Jezebel is on top with her brother Sammie below. These bags of shavings were stacked very nicely last night.

Look what those darned goats did to my barn floor!!

Elvis wants to sit on my lap. He's the sweetheart of the bunch.

Pebbles and Trouble (last years' girls) are having fun too!

Sammie and Jezebel are having a drink before continuing on with their mayhem.

Look what I can do!

Elvis is a big boy too!

Pito is checking out the goats.

we'll be getting a little more snow tomorrow, but then it'll be warm and sunny for the weekend. I can't wait! Maybe then I can put the barn back in order after the attack of the goats!

Goat Baby Surprise!

2008-02-26T06:56:00.000-08:00

This is what greeted us this morning at 7AM when we went out to feed:

They were up, dry, and with their bellies full of milk. Sneaky Annabelle, she wasn't supposed to deliver for another 2 weeks or so. I had calculated that the goat ladies would need up to 3 weeks to get in their cycle once they were put in with Lancelot, but I guess she was rater keen on getting the job done.
We had planned on making a new kidding stall this past weekend, but Jan got the flu and shared it very graciously with me. They are now living in a horse stall, and luckily the weather is cooperating so the horses can be outside.

Mom and babies are doing great. We picked them up to move them, check their gender and dip the navels with iodine. The white one is a boy, and the black one is a girl. Now we need to find them some appropriate names.
I'll update the blog later today with more pictures.

Evening Update: The twins are doing great. Eating well, and even starting to play a little. Annabelle has been cleaned, and is a very proud Mom. Here are some more pictures:

Seriously, what's cuter than little baby goats?

Oh Wow, it's been ages..

2008-02-20T07:41:00.000-08:00

With the birth of the online knitting community Ravelry, I've been neglecting my blog something fiercely. My bad. Lots of things have happened here since my last update. The goat babies from last year have grown up and both mommies are pregnant and should be delivering again in a couple of weeks. I've been back to Holland to be with my Mom twice; she was too ill to make the trip, so I went over to see her for her birthday and also shortly before Christmas. I've been doing quite a bit of knitting, and most of my new creations are listed on Ravelry now.

There is one thing I'd like to show off here, though. Hanne Falkenberg's Ballerina was a huge time investment, but ell worth the effort.

I've also started another obsession; Black Phoenix Alchemy Lab , which is a fabulous of company selling essential oil perfumes. I'm normally not a big collector, but I've totally been bitten by this perfume bug and have managed to amass almost a hundred bottles since October. They also sell gorgeously designed t-shirts, yoga pants, scent lockets and so much more.

Here is the first t-shirt which I just got in the mail yesterday, along with some incredibly comfortable yoga pants:

Although I love the pants with a passion, I should have known better than to clothe myself in all black. My house gets vacuumed very regularly (honest!), but with 3 big dogs and 4 cats it can be a very hairy deal.

This is how they look after a couple of hours. Sacre Bleu!

Jan gave me a wonderful Lavalliere (scent locket) for Christmas. That was so sweet of him, and I wear it nearly every day. Here's the obligatory headless torso shot, taken very poorly by myself....

Well, that was a very quick and dirty update of the last half year. With the upcoming spring I hope to be more regular in my postings, especially when my garden starts to wake up again.

Progress, and Mystery Stole 3

2007-07-03T06:51:00.000-07:00

Time flies, and progress is evident in the smallest of things.

This was Trouble when she was just a few weeks old....

Here she is in the same food bowl, only now she really doesn't fit in there anymore.....

We are also making progress with the greenhouse....

It's not done yet, but we're getting there. It is just too hot to spend any significant amount of time outside working in the sun.

This weekend we had our first real meal from the veggie garden; golden wax beans and green pole beans. They tasted so good!

And finally, I jumped on the Mystery Stole 3 bandwagon and finished the first clue last night. I have been having so much fun trying to guess the theme of the stole, and maybe it is wishful thinking, but I seem to be seeing the head of a goat developing. I dragged out some lovely dark blue zephyr from my stash and used clear seed beads. This is my first time working beeds into a design without having them pre-strung on the yarn, and it is actually easier than I thought. Now I have to wait until Friday for the next clue.

Have a great week everybody, and stay cool!

Weird Weather and Weaning Woes

2007-06-26T09:51:00.000-07:00

Time to update, it's been over a week since my last post. Funny, it reminds me of "Bless me father for I have sinned, it's been 3 weeks since my last confession", doesn't it? Lost Roses just had a nice entry in honor of her Blogiversary where she comments on the similarities between blogging and the penpal writings of yesteryear. I guess I see blogging more like a confession, whether it be to a diary or a priest. I never kept a regular diary growing up, and I never confessed my sins to a priest. My mom came from a catholic family, and my dad from a protestant. They never got involved with a church, so neither did I. I had a mormon girlfriend at one point, and her family took me along to their church on several occasions. I've been present at a few catholic services, and some protestant services too. I've read quite a bit of material on Buddhism, Hinduism, and even excerpts from the Koran. There ar also several books on Nature Religions in my library. I do believe in a higher power, but I have a hard time with the dogmas of religion. My philosphy is to be the best person I can be for everybody at all times.
How's that for a confession?!

Lots of things have happened since last week. It is currently weaning time here at Goat Central. Poor Barney is almost 3 months old and could potentially become "interested" in his mom, aunt, sister, and half-sister. Since we are planning on keeping him intact, the only option for him right now is to go live with his dad. Barney is not too thrilled about the new living situation. He would gladly trade his family jewels to be able to spend time with the ladies and just be a baby. The cries are tearing at my heart strings. Not only is Barney crying, but Pebbles, his sister, is quite upset, as is his mom, Leslie. I'm surprised that I haven't had any calls from my neighbors yet, asking what on earth we are doing to those poor goats. It sounds like we are slowly strangling our little goats.
This is Little Barney in happier days, 2 weeks ago when we had some visitors here to pet the goats.....

This winter and spring has been strange. We have had countless snow storms, a very wet spring, and now it looks like summer will be odd too. 2 days ago, this is the sunset we had....

It looks like there is a fire going on, but although there are some wildfires raging in our state, none of them are in our area. Then last night we were treated to a spectacular light show, amazing colors, and a decent downpour.

I can't withhold these two pictures of 2 of my kitties.....
Here is Miss Mini Bikini playing the "Princess and the Pea". Due to the rain we have been getting, I've been storing the pillows from the deck furniture under the covered porch. She absolutely loves sleeping on top of the pillows, but she looks slightly miffed, as if there is a pea underneath there somewhere bothering her to no end.

And here is Moby Wan Kanobi, claiming my new sheep skin. If he could talk, he probably would say "This is MY spot, lady, find somewhere else to sit or I'll pierce you with my Daggers of Death".

Finally, I had promised you some pictures of my garden in progress.

My 1st clematis is blooming. I need to make some kind of trellis to support it further.

I love the purplish-blue color of my Sea Holly. The picture is slightly blurred, for some reason my camera has a hard time with close-ups.

The potatoes are really starting a growth spurt. I need to start hilling them up this week.

The Tree Mallow is blooming like crazy. The color is great, and I only hope it will survive the winter.

Cabbage perfection!

Here is my row of 18 Magnum Sunflowers. They have been positively exploding this past week....

That's it for now. I need to go spend some time with poor little Barney.

A Weekend at the Estes Park Wool Market

2007-06-19T09:23:00.000-07:00

Last weekend we went up to the Wool Market at Estes Park. Linda picked me up in The Beast along with Chery Friday afternoon. I almost thought that the fumes of yarn and fiber had clouded their minds making them forget to pick me up, but I should have known they would run a little on the late side ;-)
Traffic through Denver was actually pretty decent for a Friday afternoon, and we made good time up to Estes. We stopped at the Safeway there and bought all kinds of goodies for our weekend. Then we met up with Phoebe at the condo belonging to Phoebe's aunt. What a gorgeous place! The condo was a 1 bedroom apartment with a kitchen, living room with a fireplace, and a huge bathroom with a heart shaped jetted bathtub. More on the tub later. He he he.
Here is a picture of Cheri and Phoebe getting their knit on, while eating brie and crackers.

Linda was blocking her Clapotis. She had just experienced a knitter's nightmare; running out of yarn a few rows before completion while under a deadline to finish the project. Oy vey! The shawl was absolutely stunning, but missed the last few rows. Luckily, no-one would be the wiser after the blocking, and more yarn is underway. Her first attempt at blocking was pitiful (sorry Linda), all crooked as you can see in this picture....

We quickly made her block the shawl in the living room where there was more room, and I have a fantastic picture of her, with her bottom in the air, but for fear of death and dismemberment I won't be posting it here.

Saturday morning we awoke early to see the stunning surroundings. The condo was right next to a cute little pond with a bridge to a little island. Here you see Linda and Phoebe on the bridge.....

After breakfast at Starbuck's we headed over to the fairgrounds. Silly me did not take any pictures of the critters or the vendors, bit I did take some pictures of the people at the Blogger Meet. Here is Kristy with her famous self-dyed, self-spun knitted socks that grace the cover of Spin-Off magazine. I also met Miriam of Icarus and Seraphim fame, and I just had to tell her about my Icarus Gigantuous I made with a wingspan of nearly 10 feet. I need to re-block the shawl and take a good picture and send it to her.

This is my loot.....

First and foremost, I picked out a gorgeous sheep skin. I almost bought one last year, and have been regretting not getting it for a whole year. I'm actually sitting on it as I type right now. Since I really loved the yarn I got last year from Brooks Farm, I decided to get 3 skeins of their Duet in a nice variegated blue colorway. It is a total of 1,500 yards, and I'm thinking of making the Elektra jacket from Twisted Sisters with it. I also bought 1 skein of their Primero Mohair yarn to make a Moebius scarf with. Then I got 2,400 yard of blue alpaca lace from A Star (I must have been channeling blue this weekend). Finally I got 3 balls of Golden Crown Suri Alpaca (total 1,300 yards), 2 balls of brown 100% Qiviut, and a big ball of natural colored cashmere/merino laceweight (1,380 yards). I also got a pretty shawl pin, some shawl patterns, and some Addi Turbo Lace needles. I didn't buy any fleece this year. I have quite a few down in my basement, and since my back has not been letting me do any spinning I thought it better not to get any this time around.

I talked to several local cashmere goat breeders about doing a breeding swap and possibly to buy some more goats to add to our herd. Why I didn't take any pictures is beyond me. I also talked to some llama breeders about possibly selling my llamas sometime in the future. If we are going to expand our goat herd, we'll have to get rid of the llamas.

Saturday night we hooked up with Lisa and Brad who were camping in the Rocky Mountain National Park just above Estes. Lisa had brought her new Lendrum wheel along and was spinning while camping.

Brad and Lisa had a wonderful campsite overlooking a valley below where a good-sized herd of elk were grazing. We could hear them bugeling below all night. The dinner was very nice. We had brats, cold chicken, corn on the cob, strawberries, grapes, cookies, and finally, s'mores. Now, I was a s'mores virgin. We don't eat those in Europe. Linda had brought her "roto-roasters" and showed me the right way to roast a marshmallow. I'm sorry to say that I wasn't too fond of the s'mores, though. It might have something to do with hershey's chocolate I don't care for.
Here are some pictures of the festivities.....

I ended the evening in the heart shaped jetted tub back at the condo. Remind me to never add a large glob of bath soap to a jetted tub. The suds kept on growing and growing, until I could barely breathe. The ladies came running when I started laughing uncontrollably, and I think Linda took a picture of me in my soap-heaven.

The next morning we got back on the road around 9AM. We decided to take the long road home over Trail Ridge Road. What a gorgeous trip. I'll let the pictures speak for themselves.

We arrived in my driveway at 2:30PM right behind my visitors who arrived half an hour early. Jan's colleague with wife and 2 kids had come to see the farm and pet the baby goats. I quickly unloaded all my stuff and got to playhostess for the rest of the day.

All in all a great weekend. Jan had managed to keep my plants alive in my absence, and he even started assembling my new greenhouse. I'll have some more gardening pictures in my next post.

Pissed Off!

2007-06-08T15:50:00.000-07:00

So, I have been spending countless hours these past few weeks trying to get my vegetable garden going. A few days ago we had 100 mph winds in some parts of the state, and although I don't think we got quite that much wind we still got a lot of very strong gusts here. We have had hail storms; 3 in 1 day. My veggie garden has survived reasonably well.
This morning I come outside and this is what's greeting me:

Dead Tomatoes

Dead Basil

Dead Cucumber

Frost! It dipped well below freezing overnight. If I had known in advance, I would have covered the tender plants. On the news they are saying that it has only dipped below freezing 2 other times in June in recorded history. And it has never done so as late as June 8th. I am exceptionally bummed, and frankly, pissed off. Now I get to start over again with a lot of my crop. The corn is looking very bad as well are the beans. Today the wind is blowing like mad. It is like Mother Nature wants to make sure that every plant that is not quite dead, will be.

Oh well. I assume I will have forgotten all about this in a month or two. On to other things. Look at this cool moth I spotted the other day:

It has been hanging out for a couple of days by the sliding glass door. I didn't see it today; maybe it felt a little cold overnight.
I went down in the pasture yesterday and picked a lovely bouquet of wild flowers.

I also have been finishing some socks:

The sock on the left is "Sauvie Island" from Blue Moon Fiber Arts, and the one on the right is "Rock and Weave" from the same. I love the little sheep buttons I used for the closure, and I really like both of these socks a lot.

Next weekend I'll be heading up to Estes Park Fiber Festival. I can't wait to fondle all the fibery goodness. Many of the girls from Spinners with Altitude will be going as well, so it should be a fun excursion.

Another Weekend in the Garden

2007-06-03T16:29:00.000-07:00

Look what was delivered in our driveway on Saturday!

The orange machine in the front is an industrial strength wood chipper, and attached to the rear of Kermit the Tractor is a bush hog used to mow pastures. My hubby is so excited and had to try everything right away. With 35 acres mostly consisting of scrub oak, we have plenty of dead wood to chip. That came to good use in my vegetable garden. I didn't like the rocks we had put on the ground, so I removed the rocks while Jan got to play with the wood chipper. This is the end result:

I finished off the day by turning a cattle panel into a trellis over the seating area. There are grape vines growing in the beds on either side, so I hope to eventually be able to train them to grow across the trellis.

I plan on moving around as little as possible for what is left of the weekend to give my back a rest. It might be time to get out my long neglected knitting. I promise to show more knitting in the next post.

A Lot of Work, but a Lot to Show Too!

2007-05-29T16:33:00.000-07:00

Hubby and I worked up quite a sweat this Memorial Day Weekend. My veggie garden had been laying idle in half-finished state since last summer. This year we (meaning I, especially) wanted to finish the fencing around it (to prevent certain members of the family , i.e. the goats from eating the crop), work some of our wonderful llama manure in the soil and then plant it full with green goodies.
Here you see the fencing complete (minus the gate) and my dear husband tilling the soil....

I planted sweet corn, cucumbers, onions, peppers, grapes, strawberries, sunflowers, rosemary, basil, marjoram, pole beans, wax beans, tomatoes, cabbage, and probably lots more that I just can't remember off the top of my head. I'm still waiting for my potato seeds to arrive, and I'm still looking for the lovage seeds that Maus gave me last year. The veggie garden is 24 feet by 24 feet, and I'm quickly running out of space to plant. I bought a 4 foot diameter water trough to place in the middle for a little water garden effect.

This is how it looked this morning....

I put up some planks on the right side to form a little wind break for my tender plants, and it turned out to be a very good idea. More on this later. We still need to add more rocks to the path, but it has become very tedious work. We have tons of this rock spread in our garden, but they are not all in one place, rather the dogs have spread them out over vast areas. I have to sit on a stool and pick up each individual rock by hand. Who wants to guess how many rocks it takes to cover the ground with at least a 3 inch layer?! I also need to add a circular bed around the water trough to add some flowery color to the garden. I got the plants today; Nasturtiums, Lady's Mantle and Tree Mallow. Now I need to go get the bricks to form the bed.
Here are some more pictures....

I'm going to hang a hammock in the middle of the back portion of the garden so that I can really enjoy the view.
Here is a close up of the water feature....

I also did some re-arranging on the deck. A table from the basement was brought upstairs and together with a rocking chair forms a perfect place for me to sit and knit. If you look closely you can see the beginning of a sock on the table, along with a good book, the required favorite beverage (diet pepsi) and my binoculars.

This morning I planted two beds next to the house with summer bulbs. I don't have pictures of that yet, since there is nothing really to show yet besides soggy dirt. Yes, soggy! I left for my physical therapy session in full sun and returned in a torrential downpour and hail. The streets were flooded, and so was my poor garden.
This is what the sky looked like....

Here is the deck, after most of the hail had already melted (note the broken leaves on the ground). I haven't yet had the heart to look at the ravage to my garden.

The storms are still raging. The barn has flooded, the horses are standing in mud up to their knees, and the goats are cranky. Speaking of goats, I leave you with one final picture taken this weekend of Annabelle and Trouble.....

It's a Hard Life.....

2007-05-15T12:02:00.000-07:00

Just kidding! We just got back from a 9 day trip to Bimini, the Bahamas to go scuba diving. Bimini is the least known and least touristy of the Bahamian Islands. There is nothing really to do there on the roughly 9 square miles of land than fish and scuba. Since we prefer to swim with the fish instead of killing them, scuba it is. We had a couple of great days blowing bubbles, but lost 4 of the 7 days under water due to high seas and winds. We also had a lot of smoke from the Florida bush fires. That made for a lot of down time on a deck chair by the pool. We're definitely nice and rested by now.

The dives we did get in were fantastic. Hubby saw a big honking hammerhead shark, and there were 2 testosterone filled male bull shark on our first dive.

I had one spectacular experience swimming with wild Spotted Atlantic Dolphins for nearly an hour and a half. They are such magnificent animals, and the encounter was so serene. I feel truly blessed to have experienced this.

Our trip back home was less serene. Due to the enormeous Florida fires, our little plane had a delay of almost 5 hours which caused us to miss our connection in Fort Lauderdale. Thank goodness we got seats on a different airline so we got back to Denver around 11PM. Then we had a lengthy wait at the baggage caroussel. They had managed to lose our big bag full of dive gear. Not good. Luckily it was delivered to our doorstep within 24 hours.

Tomorrow I get a nerve root block in my back. I had a second opinion on my back issue the day we left for Bimini. The first surgeon had recommended a 2 level fusion, and I wasn't very keen on that. The second surgeon said that a 2 level fusion wouldn't be enough since the disc above the 2 crushed discs was herniating. I would need a 3 level fusion. Now that's a pretty darned involved thing to undergo, and I can forget about ever riding a horse again. I would basically be reduced to a couch potato for the rest of my life. I refuse, I simply refuse. Now I hope this injection will at least give me some temporary relief.

I've been doing some knitting while away, but not as much as I get done while at home.

This is the Anniversary Sock by Nancy Bush, made in STR April 2007 sock yarn club yarn. I didn't like the pattern it came with, so I found this pattern instead.

I've also started on what Blogless MJ calls her Blueberry Shawl. I'm making it with some of the fabulous Brook's Farms Mohair she gifted me. It is so nice and soft.

More later. I need to do a boatload of laundry.

Old Man Winter just doesn't want to leave!

2007-04-25T07:04:00.000-07:00

Dear Mr. Winter,

I would like to point out that Ms. Spring arrived more than a month ago and your presence is no longer needed. Although I thoroughly enjoy you in all your white fluffiness, I do believe that there is a time and place for everything and your time has come and gone and your place is at the southern hemisphere. The time for snowball fights and the construction of pathetic snowmen belongs in the past, and I should be outside digging in my vegetable garden right now and not be shoveling several feet of heavy snow. I did not particularly enjoy being left without power yesterday either, and let's not get started on my feelings about the the barn being flooded. Don't even try to deny you were here for an unscheduled visit; I've got pictures to prove it.

I would really appreciate it if you could pack up your ice crystals and head south. I'm sure I'll be looking forward to your arrival again in October, but for now I'm planning on re-acquainting myself with the Misses Spring and Summer.

Sincerely,
"Tired of Winter in Colorado"

*************************************************

It's been a while since I've been updating the blog and lots of things have happened.
First and foremost, we wnt to see the Yarn Harlot at the Tattered Cover in downtown Denver. She is friggin' hilarious!!!! I laughed and laughed, and then I laughed some more for good measure. My sides were hurting the next day. We were all the way in the back, and it took us a good 2 hours to get out books signed. To our delight, Miss Harlot was still very pleasant even though she must have been exhausted by the time we got to her.

I even got to pet the infamous and fabulous Bohus sweater....

We got home at 0'dark thirty, but it was well worth the trip. A good time was had by all.

Then we had an excursion to the Lamb Shoppe's Pajama Jam. It is a monthly event where local knitters descend on the store from 5PM to midnight, bringing food, wine, and fabulous projects along with them. A lot of knitting and even more gabbing and socializing goes on. We had a lot of fun. Linda and I decided it would be fun to stay the night in a hotel in Denver instead of driving all the way back home. Her sister works for Marriott, so we got a fabulous deal on a room. We stayed up and yapped until 2:30AM and didn't wake up until 10:30AM the next day. After a quick breakfast at the local Starbucks and a stop at a gas station to inflate some tires on "the Beast" we headed home. Do you know that gas stations charge 75 cents per tire to pump air and charge a dollar and 25 cents to suck it out again (vacuum)? Highway robbery!

Now on to some knitting news. I've been a busy little bee since last posting.
First, I finished the Looking Glass Top from last year's Interweave knits. I made it in Louisa Harding Grace Silk-Wool. ove knitting with stuff, but the seaming and weaving in of the ends was a little difficult. The yarn was very slippery. I had a whopping foot and a half left when all was said and done. Scary.

I also made the "Lizzy" jacket out of one of the Noro pattern books. It is originally made in Silk Garden or Silver Thaw, but I had some Iro I wanted to try. The gauge is much larger, so I had to adapt the pattern to fit me. I love this jacket, and I've gotten a lot of compliments while wearing it.

My dear hubby floored me with a request for a sweater, he has never wanted me to make him something. We picked out an Alice Starmore pattern called Fern. I just started it, and I'm sure it won't be done until the fall. Summer heat and knitting a big woollen sweater just doesn't mix well. I love the involvedness (is that even a word?) of the pattern, but I can't knit much on it when I'm in company. I need to focus really hard on the pattern. I love the way it looks, though.

I'm also knitting away on some simple socks. I started them at the Pajama Jam to have something simple to knit while I was yakking away. The yarn is Henry's Attic and I dyed it myself last year during the yarn dyeing party at Christy's house.

The other thing on the needles right now is the Inside-Out socks from the Socks That Rock sock club. I'm almost done, but since they look like "willie-warmers" when not worn, I won't be taking a picture until they're all done.

Last, but not least I have to share some obligatory goat pictures......
Here Miss Trouble is enjoying a nice back scratch from the hubby.

And here Barney and Pebbles are enjoying a snooze in the sun. Back when we still had sun, that is.

Double Trouble!

2007-04-01T19:21:00.000-07:00

Friday evening Leslie didn't want to eat her grain. Hubby did a goat check at 10:30PM and came running back in the house yelling that we had another baby. I went out to the barn and discovered a new little baby boy, still wet, trying to stand up and screaming his little lungs out. We kicked the horses to pasture and made a cozy little bed for mom and child. Since Leslie is fairly skiddish, we decided to leave them alone after we were sure the little boy had a good drink of colostrum. It took a little while for Leslie to let the milk down, though I got it going with a little effort.
Hubby went back to the barn at 6AM and found a little baby girl, still wet. She must have been born within the hour. I started getting a little concerned with the scarcity of her milk and the size of the kids. They were quite a bit smaller than Trouble was when she was born. I decided to call another veterinarian for a second opinion. He came within the hour and gave mom and kids some antibiotics, vitamin B injections and calmed me down. Everything would be ok.

Here they are on Saturday morning. They still didn't have a name yet. We kept them inside the stall all day. Leslie doesn't seem to be quite as adept at being a mom as Annabelle does, but we're hoping she'll figure it out. I had collected a bit of her colostrum and was syringe feeding the kids during the day just to make sure they got enough nourishment.
Later that night while we were resting our tired bones in the hot tub we came up with their names.
Please meet.....

PEBBLES & BARNEY!

Here they are meeting big sis Trouble for the first time....

Trouble was indeed living up to her name and wanted to play a little too rough with her smaller siblings. We have them separated for the time being, until the wee ones are a little more steady on their legs.
Daddy Lancelot was proudly surveying his empire and offspring......

And we can't complete the post without this cute picture of Trouble, laying in her mom's food bowl....

In knitterly news; I am almost done with the Looking Glass Top. Just need to do the seaming and weaving in ends. Pictures to follow soon. Thursday we'll get to see the Yarn Harlot in Denver. That should be a great excursion.

Yarn Crawl

2007-03-25T19:28:00.000-07:00

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.

Trouble......

2007-03-13T17:16:00.000-07:00

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.

Surprise!!!!

2007-03-12T07:52:00.000-07:00

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.

Hodgepodge

2007-03-07T09:50:00.000-08:00

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......

It's a bright, sunny day!

2007-02-06T14:43:00.000-08:00

For the first time since December 20th we have a nice, sunny day and the snow is melting like crazy. Half the barn is under water - whoever decided to build a barn at the bottom of a hill?

Let's see; what all has happened since my last blog entry? Well, I finished my 3rd Noro sweater. It's the Fitzmaurice by Jane Ellison in Noro Silk Garden #84. I love the sweater, but I had a little blocking mishap. I spent the whole Superbowl Sunday sewing and weaving in ends, and got it wet and blocking Monday morning. Since I was meeting Maus today and I knew she would want to see the finished sweater, I thought I could speed up the drying process a little. Last night the sweater was still quite wet, so I decided to put it on a hanger. Big mistake! It is now 33 inches long. I need to wet it down again and just lay it down flat to dry.

Last Saturday the husband and I went and bought a new couch. This has been a major issue for us. We like nice furniture, but with 3 big dogs and 4 not-declawed cats nice furniture stands the same chance to remain nice as for Hell to freeze over. So, we wanted something nice-looking but not expensive, and it had to have a lot of seating space. Well, we found it. This couch seats 8, and 3 people can lie comfortably and watch tv. YAY!

It is actually so big that I can't get the whole thing in the picture. Go figure.

This morning I went to the Llama Store for a quick Sit and Knit thing. They had a photographer from the Gazette taking pictures, the reporter couldn't make it today, but she will come next time.

In other knitterly news; I'm back to plodding along on my Elsebeth Lavold sweater, but I have such a hard time staying focused on this thing. I might just have to cast on for a sock or something to keep my sanity. Stay tuned!

Can you guess what this is???

2007-01-22T07:33:00.000-08:00

We now have had 5 straight weekends of nasty winter weather. The poor cattle on the south eastern plains are suffering tremenduously. Yes you read it right; this is a cow! I am furious. The first blizzard hit really hard down there, but they had plenty of warning. Why didn't the ranchers round up the cattle in advance so they didn't have to go and search for them later on? Now they can't get hay and water to them. I have it on good authority that some ranchers would rather let the cattle die and get re-imbursed for their losses than make the effort to rescue them. Thousands of cattle have died so far.

In knitting news; I frogged Lady Eleanor. I need to go down a needle size or two and then start again. Maybe someday. I couldn't help myself, I *had* to cast on for the Skeppsta by Cornelia Tuttle Hamilton. I used the same Noro Transitions colorway as Maus, but I omitted all the greens and blues. Ended up using 14! skeins, but it was well worth it. I can always use the blues and greens for something else.

While the Skeppsta was blocking, I just had to cast on for my next stop on the "Knit-With-Noro"-trip; the Fitzmaurice by Jane ellison in Silk Garden colorway 84. I am enthralled. I am having a vey hard time getting the colors to show true in a picture. They are so deep and rich, and the Silk Garden is a joy to work with.

My husband had a work party last weekend in the Denver Downtown Aquarium. Boy was that neat! It was so nice to be walking around in semi-darkness looking at all the fish and other critters. I had never been there before, and had a grand ole time.
The weather guru's are calling for a new round of winter storms next weekend. GAAAAAHHHH!!!

Preparing for Round 4!

2007-01-11T11:37:00.000-08:00

It's coming. Round 4 of winter's knockout punch. Starting tonight we'll be getting subzero temperatures and snow. When I was wishing for more moisture I had no idea to what excess my wish would be granted. Oh well, our propane tank was filled yesterday and we have plenty of firewood, so we should be able to stay warm.

Last weekend I had the knitterly ladies over for a fun day of knitting and High Tea. I was afraid that Round 3 of our snowstorms would ruin the day, but most of our members braved the elements and showed up. I had a blast, and I think the ladies did too. Here are a few pictures:

The food table......

A closeup of some of the food.....

3 types of scones, Devon double clotted cream, and cream cheese & walnut sandwiches......

Last closeup.....

Here are Crazy Monkey Christy and Phabulous Phoebe......(no, Christy is not performing the fine art of stripping; it was a little hot in the sun - or so she lead us to believe)

Here we have Anne-of-the-Bottomless-Stash, Emplyoee-of-the-Month-Darcie, and ChocoLoco-Liesel (yum, the hot chocolate is to die for) .......

In this picture you'll see Lady-Back-to-Work-Lisa (more on that later), Chery of the NeverEnding Sock, and Glamgirl Kirsten (whose new hairstyle rocked the place).........

And last but not least; we have Mademoiselle MJ, the new supermodel complete with the hottest accessory of the season, Moby wan Kanobi. Moby says "dare to move lady, and you'll get speared with my daggers!"

I finally finished the front of my Elsebeth Lavold sweater. Now on to the back and the sleeves. Ugh!

In a previous picture, you might be able to see Lisa knitting away on her beautiful Lady Eleanor. Well, I just HAD to jump on the bandwagon and start my own. Not wanting to be a complete copycat I started mine in a different color, Patons Soy Wool Stripes in Natural Plum.

I've placed quite a few orders online for yarn recently. As a matter of fact, I'm sure my husband now wishes that he HAD bought me a birthday present. Too bad, so sad. He he he! I'm anxiously waiting for my Noro Transitions to make the Skeppsta sweater, enough Noro Silk Garden to make the Fitzmaurice sweater, 2 sock kits from the Tsocktsarina (Imbas and Poseidon), and the first intallment from the Socks that Rock Club. I'm sure you're already aware of the problem Blue Moon Fiberarts is having with their bank. If not, go look at the Yarnharlot's blog for a complete explanation. What a mess. I haven't received my credit yet, so I'm holding off on re-ordering until I see it back in my account.

That's it for now. I'm off to get groceries to last through the next 5 days of deep-freeze.

Quick and Fetching

2007-01-04T06:46:00.000-08:00

In less than a day's knitting I've produced these fingerless gloves from Knitty. They are so easy and fun to knit, so I'm sure I'll be making them again and again in different colors and yarns. This time around I used Louisa Harding's Kimono Angora, color #6, less than one ball. They are so soft and yummy that I have been unable to put them down.

Today I'll be out shopping for food stuff in preparation of this Saturday's KnitMeet. Tomorrow will be spent in the kitchen. You might think this is a bad thing, but I love cooking.

I'm anxiously awaiting my shipment of Noro Transitions from Webs. In the meantime I'll be plodding along on my Elsebeth Lavold sweater.

Happy New Year!

2007-01-02T11:57:00.000-08:00

Storms are over and done with! My birthday was spent cooped up inside, and our plans of going to the Denver Zoo to watch the ZooLights and then on to the Melting Pot for a nice fondue dinner were scrapped. Even worse, the planned KnitMeet at my house on Saturday had to be cancelled too. Well, it is not too big a deal, we'll have the Meet next weekend instead.

Once the snow subsided and the sun came out again, I went outside to snap a few shots of the mayhem. I don't feel like posting pictures of the huge drifts and the deep snow, so here's to the brighter side of what the snows brought:

And:

All the staying inside by the fireplace has given me plenty of time to knit. I finished the Rolling Thunder socks from Knitty:

I joined the Socks that Rock sock kit club for 2007. Even though I haven't seen the STR yarn in person, I am very excited to get started. I also placed an order with Webs for some of their yummy Noro Transitions yarn to make the Skeppsta sweater. Can't wait for it to arrive. I'm back to plodding along on my Elsebeth Lavold sweater. I wish it was finished, but I'm just 8 inches along on the front. It takes forever, but that's ok.

As for New Year's resolutions......whatever. I plan to knit, love, and be merry. I wish that on all of you too.

Here we go again......

2006-12-28T12:01:00.000-08:00

Snow is falling - again. We are expecting an even bigger storm than the one we got last week. Even though I love a big storm, this one is coming at a time where it is somewhat inconvenient. Not as inconvenient as for some people who are undoubtedly going to be stranded at the airport again (poor folks), but my birthday is tomorrow and we had lots of fun stuff planned for the day. I also had planned to host our weekly knitmeet on Saturday, but the outlook is such that we have postponed it until next week.

In knitting news; Santa brought me blocking wires, so I set out to block the Earnshaw sweater. Now, I'm a big girl. I'm 5'8 and not skinny by any stretch of the imagination. I started to knit the XL size, but soon noticed it was going to be too big. Switched to Small and even knit the sleeves a little shorter than the pattern called for. After blocking, the sleeves turned out be about 6 inches too long. Oh boy! Luckily I can turn the cuffs, so it isn't that big a deal. What I do find annoying however, is that the angora part of of the Kochoran yarn is shedding like crazy. My t-shirt is covered, my pants are covered, the chair I sit in is full of little white hairs, and my new knitting project is lazed with angora now. How long will this go on? Hopefully it will slow down after a while. Here is a picture of the sweater after blocking.

Right now I'm working on the Rolling Thunder socks from the Winter 2006 Knitty issue. It's my first time beading, and even though it is a slight pain in the rear I am loving the process.

Santa brought me lots of knitterly things for Christmas. In addition to the blocking wires, I got the full Knitpicks needle set complete with the snazzy storage binder. I also got a sweater stone (to remove pilling), a handy optical tube to help select colors to fit together (look through the tube too much and you'll think you're on an acid trip) and a sock pattern. Got some other things too, but they don't qualify under the knitting category.

Well, I'm sure we'll be snuggling up by the fire in the coming days. I've brought Monopoly, Scrabble, and Risk up from the basement, and I am certain we'll be doing a lot of this too:

Stay warm, dry, and safe out there........

Veni, Vidi, Vici!

2006-12-23T14:08:00.000-08:00

We got Santa's Deere up and running - finally!
And I finished my sweater - finally!

It is the Earnshaw sweater from Noro in Kochoran #11. I LOVE it, although I did make some minor modifications to the pattern. Now I'm ready for a new project; I think I'll make the cute pink beaded socks from Knitty.

Winter Wonderland

2006-12-21T13:24:00.000-08:00

The Holiday Blizzard of 2006 is finally winding down. We have been stuck inside for 2 days and have only ventured outside to take care of the livestock. Yet again I was prepared for the worst; storing water in the bath tubs, stocking up on firewood in a dry place inside, lots of non-perishable food, etc. Yet again, we did not lose power or have anything unfortunate happen - save one incident. More on that later. I am convinced that my preparedness wards off the possibility of cut power lines and other horrible things.

We woke up yesterday to a veritable blizzard. Hubby decided to stay home, for which I was eternally grateful. During the March blizzard of 2003 he was working in Philly. Not fun. Except for brief expeditions to the barn, we remained inside glued to the newscast and shaking our heads at all the crazy people on the roads getting stuck. This morning we woke up to this:

And this:

The chicken coop is buried:

We had to dig a path for the llamas from their shelter to the water tank:

And the horses were very happy to be able to get outside and stretch their legs for a while:

Allthough they were soon covered with snow:

The dogs were ok with the snow for a little while, but thought it was too strenuous to play after a few minutes:

When the snow finally slowed down a little, we thought it time to fire up Santa's Deere (or, Kermit, the John Deere tractor), only there ws one slight problem:

That really sucks! We can't fix a flat tire here at home, and we don't have the right tool to remove the wheel. So we first need to go get the tool tomorrow and then we can bring the wheel to get fixed on Saturday. What's the big problem, you think. Well, Waste Management didn't get out here yesterday to empty our manure container. They usually come every Wednesday. With 4 horses (1 is at the trainer, thank goodness), we have somewhere in the vicinity of 320 pounds of sh*t a day that goes in this container, along with the rest of of garbage. It is filled to max capacity now. I'm suspecting they will be here tomorrow, and when they see they can't get into our driveway they'll probably just skip us for the week. Next week they won't come until Thursday due to Christmas, which leaves us with 2,240 pounds of manure and nowhere to put it. We're in deep sh*t, literally!

Oh well. I guess we'll survive. For now, I'm plodding along nicely on my Noro sweater. This is how far I'm at right now:

I'll be doing some modifications to the hoodie; I don't like how pointy it turned out. I'm also going to pick up stitches at the bottom edge of the body and make a new border to prevent the curling of the stockinette edge. Other than that, I can't wait for it to be finished. It would have been really nice to have the sweater for this storm, but this is Colorado and I'm sure there will be more storms in the near future.

Ketchup

2006-11-30T11:18:00.000-08:00

Don't know what the deal is, but even though a lot of fibery things have happened I haven't felt like updating the blog. Therefore, today is dedicated to ketchup, or catch-up.

The weekend before Thanksgiving I took a felting class at the Llama Store. It was loads of fun, but it was brutal on my body; my hands and back in particular. I still need to felt my pieces a little more, and I have purchased a needle felting kit for just that purpose. It was a jolly group; there were five of us. I only knew blogless Sabine from before. BTW, thank you again so much Sabine for the lovely chocolate covered marsipan. It has now taken up permanent residence on my hips.
We got to make 2 big pieces of felt that we have to cut and sew together in shape to make a vest. See, that's my problem. I am a far cry from a seamstress, so I fear those pieces will forever stay as they are.
Here is the front:

And the back:

I still need to add to the flower as I needle felt it. THere was just not enough time during the class to give it enough attention.

I also finished the luxurious qiviut cowl that will be a Christmas present to my mom. It hasn't been blocked yet, but I stretched it over an empty box to give you an idea of what it looks like. It is incredibly warm and weighs only 1 ounce. I had a whopping 2 yards left at the end, so it made for a scary knit.

Right now I'm working on 2 different projects. I'm making the Diamond Edge Moebius Scarf which is a fairly mindless knit. I'm making it out of Brooks Farms silk/mohair/wool that I got at the Estes Park fiber festival earlier this year. It feels wonderful, but it splits very easily. That makes it a little hard doing the k3tog's.

And then this: Elsebeth Lavold's Estrud from the second collection of Viking Knits. This is certainly a stretch for me. It takes a lot of time, patience and precision. I fear it is going to take me a loooong time to finish.

We are just starting to warm up a bit after a deep arctic freeze blew through the last couple of days. It was 15 below this morning when I got out of bed. It has been quite the challenge getting outside to feed the critters. Luckily all was well this morning; even Horatio our solitary rooster was happily running around.
So, this was a quick update. Let's see if I can keep you posted more regularly.

Shooting Blanks - or, It's the Second Hole From the Neck, You Dumb Buck!

2006-11-13T07:16:00.000-08:00

Lancelot, my cashmere buck, must be one dpn short of a sock kit, I guess. Leslie came back into raging heat last week. I witnessed countless attempts on Lancelot's part to get the job done, but it seems like my educational procreation talk with him last time had went unnoticed. The poor guy tried a multitude of angles and orifices (I'm trying to not be too graphic here), but somehow he missed the finer points of baby making. If she comes back yet again I fear hubby and I need to jump in and assist. Ever smelled a buck in rut? Not the nicest perfume, I can assure you, but Leslie would beg to differ. Annabelle has not shown any interest in him whatsoever, and he hasn't courted her either. She might be pregnant already, but given his amateurish behavior I'm concerned she might be open too. Stay tuned for more news here at Goat Central.

Hubby was gone all last week. He went to visit family back in Holland. That left me a lot of time to work on the cardi from Hell. I am pleased to inform you that it is stick-a-fork-in-me-I'm-done. Unfortunately I'm very disappointed. I blocked the living daylights out of it and it is still very short, especially in the back. It is extremely wide, to the point of being uncomfortably wide. I nailed the gauge, and the measurements are accurate. Serves me right, I should have payed more attention to the specifics of the pattern. Now I know why the model is standing bent forward and sideways in the picture. Too bad; the kit was very expensive and I spent more than 100 hours making it. Remind me to never make a project this big with cotton. It was really rough on my hands.

This week I'll be very busy cleaning llama fleeces. At the shearing of my llamas this summer it turned out that only Apollo's fleece was high enough quality to bother spinning. That left me with Einstein and Lone Star's fleeces. What to do with them? Well, I found a purpose for them. I am taking a felting class this coming Saturday at the Llama Store, which means I have a lot of work to do preparing the fleece. Here is what I'm looking at to get cleaned. Ugh!

Occasionally I'll get totally smitten with an artist, be it a musician, painter, fiber-god(dess), or something else. This is what I have been enjoying looking at and listening to recently:
First up, here and here. I saw them on Jay Leno last week and had to look them up. I especially her voice. The band is named after the singer, Damien Rice, but I am awestruck by Lisa Hannigan's voice. I went to iTunes and purchased their 2 previous cd's and pre-ordered their new one coming out this week.
I found the most amazing spinning wheels online at Golding Shepherds. My goodness, that's truly art! Now if I only could afford one of them.
For those of you residing in the Denver area, there is a wonderful art gallery where a friend of mine is exhibiting her jewelry. Her name is Anna Blake. Go here to see what they are currently showing. There is even some shawl pins and some fiber arts.

I'll leave you with a picture of the skies on fire, taken a few days ago.....

Long Overdue....

2006-11-01T09:24:00.000-08:00

I've been a bad girl. Actually, Blogger has been bad. I had a heck of a time getting anything posted. I've tried 3 or 4 times, but had to give up. So, what all has happened? Quite a bit. We had a wonderful spin-and-knit meet, got snowed in, re-arranged the livingroom furniture, to name a few.

A week and a half ago, on a Saturday, the ladies met up at the Llama Store for some serious knitting and spinning. I didn't bring my wheel along (the Kromski wheel is a hassle to travel with), but many others did.

I want to thank the ladies at the Llama Store for opening up their doors to our wild horde of women. It is really appreciated!
Then last Thursday we had a major snowstorm and blizzard. We got nearly 2 feet of snow, and the drifts were really high. My DH stayed home from work, as the roads out here were completely unpassable and visibility was down to zero. I love staying inside by the fireplace on days like these, but we do have a lot of critters that need extra care in bad weather, so we have to go outside several times a day to make sure they are ok. The aftermath is not so much fun, though. Massive amounts of melting snow equals massive amounts of mud. Yuck! I also have to make special arrangements when we have a big storm. Since we get our water from a well, we are dependent on electricity for water. I always fill up the bathtubs just in case. I also had to make sure we had enough firewood stacked in a dry place. Lots of extra work, but I didn't mind it. It turned out we didn't lose electricity, so all was well.

We still need to finish the house for our billy goat Lancelot, but it was way too muddy last weekend. What better thing to do than re-arrange the whole livingroom. It was a little scary moving the grand piano, but it turned out not to be as heavy as I expected. Speaking of the piano; I just signed up for lessons again. YAY. I start next Tuesday.

With all the stuff going on I haven't been knitting as much as I wanted. I did get halfway on the first front piece of the Twisted Sisters Jaywalking cardigan. I am so not enjoying knitting with cotton. It makes my hands really dry. I do like the result, though. Can't wait for it to be done.

I'm sure I've forgotten a lot that has happened in the last 2 weeks, but that my fault for not posting sooner. No, make it Blogger's fault. ;-)

48 Things......

2006-10-18T09:29:00.000-07:00

48 Things Tou Could Care Less About

1. FIRST NAME? Ellen

2. WERE YOU NAMED AFTER ANYONE? Nope. My parents looked for a name that would be pronouncable in several languages, as they were from 2 different countries and I was born in a third.

3. WHEN DID YOU LAST CRY? Wow, that's a surprisingly hard one. I don't cry often. I had a short, good cry 2 years ago when I had to make the decision to put down my first-born foal, Milagro, at 6 days old. Other than that, I have had a few tears running down my cheeks at the end of the movie "The Notebook". I must say, I feel embarrassed when I cry. Don't know why.

4. DO YOU LIKE YOUR HANDWRITING? Yes I do, but I find that it is getting worse due to under-use.

5. WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE LUNCHMEAT? I LOVE roast beef, especially if accompanied by a good mayo or horseradish dressing.

6. IF YOU WERE ANOTHER PERSON WOULD YOU BE FRIENDS WITH YOU? I hope so. I am very loyal and will go out of my way to help other people.

7. DO YOU HAVE A JOURNAL? Other than this blog, no. I've never been one to write down my thoughts or emotions before.

8. DO YOU STILL HAVE YOUR TONSILS? No.

9. WOULD YOU BUNGEE JUMP? Heck, yeah! Funny, this is about the only crazy thing I haven't done yet. I'm a scuba diver, I've sky-dived, I've jumped from one speedboat to another while going REALLY fast.

10. WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE CEREAL? None, I don't like cereal.

11. DO YOU UNTIE YOUR SHOES WHEN YOU TAKE THEM OFF? Yes, 'cause you still need to untie them to gt them back on. So why not do it right away?

12. DO YOU THINK YOU ARE STRONG? Emotionally yes, physically yes. Carrying 70 lbs bales of hay does wonders for your strength.

13. WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE ICE CREAM FLAVOR? Actually, I don't eat much ice cream. If I buy some, it usually ends up stale in the freezer.

14. SHOE SIZE? 8 1/2

15. RED OR PINK? I like them both, but if I had to choose, pink.

16. WHAT IS THE LEAST FAVORITE THING ABOUT YOURSELF? I let people take advantage of me.

17. WHO DO YOU MISS THE MOST? My mom, who lives 3,000 miles away with failing health.

18. DO YOU WANT EVERYONE TO SEND THIS BACK TO YOU? No.

19. WHAT COLOR PANTS, SHIRT AND SHOES ARE YOU WEARING? Black sweatpants, black and white sweater, no shoes.

20. LAST THING YOU ATE? 2 gummybears.

21. WHAT ARE YOU LISTENING TO RIGHT NOW? Lisa Gerrard's Duality. Absolutely gorgeous music, highly recommeded.

22. IF YOU WERE A CRAYON, WHAT COLOR WOULD YOU BE? Silver, matching the silver-white snow outside.

23. FAVORITE SMELL? Puppy-breath, patchouli, fresh-baked bread.

24. WHO WAS THE LAST PERSON YOU TALKED TO ON THE PHONE? My husband, letting me know he arrived safely at work.

25. THE FIRST THING YOU NOTICE ABOUT PEOPLE YOU ARE ATTRACTED TO? Their nose. Yup, I'm weird.

26. DO YOU LIKE THE PERSON YOU STOLE this FROM? Yes, I stole it from Anne

27. FAVORITE DRINK? Diet Pepsi. Hands down.

28. FAVORITE SPORT? Speed skating. How can a half dutch, half norwegian not love that?

29. EYE COLOR? Blue.

30. HAT SIZE? I have a fairly small head, don't know the exact size.

31. DO YOU WEAR CONTACTS? No.

32. FAVORITE FOOD? Sushi. Nothing comes even close.

33. SCARY MOVIES OR HAPPY ENDINGS? Both. Especially if the end makes you THINK.

34. What happened to 34, Anne?

35. SUMMER OR WINTER? Neither. Fall and spring are my favorites.

36. HUGS OR KISSES? Depends. The big question is when to do what. It's so much easier in Holland where you always kiss 3 times; left-right-left cheek.

37. FAVORITE DESSERT? Crepes suzette, but I rarely eat desserts anymore.

38. WHO IS MOST LIKELY TO RESPOND? I echo Anne's response: To what?

39. LEAST LIKELY TO RESPOND? Same.

40. WHAT BOOKS ARE YOU READING? I used to read 3 or 4 books a week, but lately I've been knitting more. I'm currently reading 2 books. Bob Woodward's State of Denial, and Susan Holloway Scott's Duchess.

41. WHAT'S ON YOUR MOUSE PAD? I don't have one. My mouse is wireless and I drag it across the armrest of my comfy chair.

42. WHAT DID YOU WATCH LAST NIGHT ON TV? The news.

43. FAVORITE SOUNDS? A heart-rendering cello-solo, the horses nickering when I enter the barn, the click-clack of knitting needles, my husband whispering that he loves me.

44. ROLLING STONES OR THE BEATLES? Both, depending on the mood du jour.

45. THE FURTHEST YOU'VE BEEN FROM HOME? As far as I can go without entering outer space.

46. WHAT'S YOUR SPECIAL TALENT? Healing sick animals.

47. WHERE WERE YOU BORN? Denmark.

48. WHO SENT THIS TO YOU? I stole it from Anne.

It's a Beautiful Morning!

2006-10-17T07:11:00.000-07:00

This is what I woke up to.

I tend to get up at the crack of dawn. Being post-menopausal can be a b*tch. However, this morning was just beautiful. I had a little added incentive to get out of bed as well. Nugget, my Anatolian shepherd had jumped the fence last night for the first time in 3 years. I could hear him barking and chasing coyotes all night. I finally caught him around 8AM. He was exhausted, but happy.

So, what has been going on since my last blog entry? Last Friday, Christy came up to use the drum carder. She had this gorgeous alpaca cria fleece (named Burt), and it came out beautifully.

We also got to play with the goats. They are suckers for anything edible. Christy had some fun on the deck feeding them bread out of hand. Speaking of goats; I had hoped that my doe would be pregnant by now. But yesterday Leslie began to be extremely amorous towards Lancelot. Poor Lancelot does not quite seem to understand what to do with her. She is flagging her tail and presenting her hind end to him. Lancelot is trying to mount her, only he favors doing it sideways. I had a long talk with him this morning, explaining the finer details of baby-making. Hopefully he'll get the picture soon.

I had to miss Saturday's knit meet. DH and I went out and got some more cattle panels and t-posts to make the billy pen. Once the does are confirmed pregnant we're planning on separating the goats to ensure the billy does not head-butt the does and thus jeopardize the pregnancy.
We also stopped by the Apple Store to get the new Apple Mini. My laptop had been working non-stop for 3 years, but was getting a little old and sketchy. I love this new computer. It has a large screen and all kinds of cool features.
Sunday was spent building the billy pen and watching football.

Yesterday Maus came up to visit, and we went to The Red Wheel where she will be taking weaving classes for the next 6 weeks. We also went to Knitty Cat (sadly closed on Mondays) and Strings, where we looked at Twisted Sisters knitting kits. Unfortunately, Maus didn't find a colorway she liked for the Jaywalker cardigan. I did go away with 2 balls of Louisa Harding Kimono Angora, enough to make a fabulously decadent pair of socks. It is 70% angora, 25% wool and 5% nylon, and I have no clue if it will make a good sock or not, but I'll give it a try.
Then today I whipped down to the Llama Store for a quick morning knit group. I had to fondle all the new fibery goodies, and of course I had to make a little purchase. I bought 2 handpainted skeins of 100% alpaca by Lonesome Stone Color Collection. It's Breastcancer Awareness Month, so I have to think pink.

On my way back home the weather had turned nasty. I encountered freezing rain and thick fog. At some points I could see maybe 20 yards ahead of me. Yuk. This is what it looks like now....

And, lo and behold, I just went out to put the horses in the barn and out of the weather. This is the sight that greated me:

Maybe we'll have little kidlets in March after all!

A Bad Case of Starteritis

2006-10-12T07:58:00.000-07:00

I know, I know. I have too many things on my knitting plate already. I'm working on the Phoebe jackets, the plain blue neck warmer, the Qiviut scarf, and I need to get more of the Alapaca with a Twist spun. If I'd had half a brain I would have put my Twisted Sister Cardigan kit downstairs in the basement with the rest of my stash, but no.

The kit sat there, in my basket, luring me to cast on. I was totally defenseless. I've made a deal with myself; 1 stripe a day. Then I have to knit one or two items for the Phoebe jackets. I need to spin at least an hour. The rest of the time I can knit whatever else. Phew! Whether any housework will be done or if we'll be eating anything but pizza remains to be seen. I'll keep you posted.

As if that isn't enough, I found this ubercool shawl online:

This is the Heere Be Dragone Shawl. The designer, Sharon Winsauer, from Aurora Alpacas has a website with a shawl gallery, but this pattern has not been added yet. You can contact her personally, and she will send you the pattern for $12.

Sigh. I need another project like I need a hole in my head.......

Learning to Link....

2006-10-11T07:41:00.000-07:00

Thank you so much Brie for teaching me how to make a link show up on my page. As I've stated previously, I'm a complete novice when it comes to programming and such.

In knitting news, here are some recent F.O.'s. I tried my hand at a Moebius wrap that was big enough to cover my head and still go around my neck. It is made out of Crystal Palace Merino Frappe and is oh so soft.

Please excuse the early morning uninspired picture. This was my second Moebius, and although I love the result, I think it will be a while before I make a third. I just don't enjoy knitting them.

Another quick knit that I do enjoy is this:

I found it on this blog. I'm currently making a second one in blue....

In other news; I feel cheated. The local meteorologists had predicted a lot of snow for later today. It ain't gonna happen. No fair! We might get a little dusting for a couple of hours, but then it's back to sunny and 60's. I had really hoped for a good amount of snow. I'm sure I'll be sick and tired of snow come April, but at the end of a season I'm so ready for something new.

Yesterday I had the farrier come out to trim my horses' feet. Rayo is my yearling horse. He had a very rough start to his life. He spent 6 days in ICU on oxygen when he was born. Then a few weeks later he was back in ICU with a colic, and we didn't think he was going to pull through. He did, though, but has been a tough nut to crack ever since. He simply does not like to be messed with. I'm not afraid to say that he is more horse than I know how to handle, which really needs to be remedied as he is a very big boy already. There was no way we were going to get his feet trimmed. He was supposed to go to a trainer a while back to be taught some manners, but circumstances intervened that caused a delay. I hope we'll be able to bring him to the trainer soon.

Here he is hiding behind his mom on the far right. This picture was taken 3 months ago, and he is even bigger today. His half brother (the other brown "baby" is a year older, but Rayo has already passed him in size. He is going to be BIG.

Snow, snow, here we go!

2006-10-10T07:47:00.000-07:00

Albeit much less snow than forecast - I expected to wake up to several inches this morning - it is still snow! Tomorrow might bring more. I hope the dratted flies will die soon. They are feeling the cold and are trying to worm their way inside. I guess that's the beauty of living rural with a lot of livestock.

Last Saturday we held our KnitMeet at the lovely fiber shop Table Rock Llama and Fiber Store. If only I knew how to make links work, I would surely make something "clickable" to direct you there. The ladies brought all kinds of goodies to eat and knit. Funny how yarn and food obsession always seems to go hand in hand. Fab Phoebe brought the samples of the fur-trimmed jackets. I fell completely in love with a raccoon-trimmed jacket, but the jacket itself didn't fit me well. Bummer! After the KnitMeet, my DH and I went down to Douglas County fairgrounds and visited with the alpacas there. If I had gone by myself, I would most likely have done some more fibery stash enhancement, but, oh well. I have enough fiber to keep my wheel going all winter long.

My Kromski is parked in front of the window and I'm busy spinning up enough Alpaca with a Twist roving to knit up a scarf for the DH. I'm kinda on a deadline here, as the scarf needs to be done in about 3 weeks.
I did do some more stash enhancement, though. I bought this:

And this:

I had been oggling the gorgeous Quiviut (Muskox) yarn at the Llama store for several months already, and since I had a $4o credit at the store I finally bit the bullet and made it go home with me. I'm making the Tiger Eye Lace scarf with it.

Sunday was a very dreary day, spent inside by the fire and in front of the tv watching football. I managed to finish yet another Phoebe jacket, this time in pink. I've got enough angora yarn to finish 2 more pink ones, and a white one. That will make the grand total of 8 jackets. It's a fun, quick knit, and the angora is so soft to knit with. The added bonus is that I make a little bit of money knitting. I have my eyes set on some gorgeous snakeskin boots............

Yesterday was spent partially at the hairdresser. I then had to run home and get all the critters taken care of before the snow. Today I'll be out in the barn holding horses for the farrier. What's left of the day looks good for some serious knitting and spinning.

I'll leave you with a final picture. Moby wan Kanobi was none too pleased by having his sleep disturbed for this photo.

And now on to something completely different....

2006-10-06T13:53:00.000-07:00

.....can I have the Letter B, please?

I know, 2 posts in one day. Re-reading my rant from earlier on today I feel the need to put out some more knitting related stuff.
Recently I finished a Noro felted bag. Even though I have a sizeable stash of Noro, I had never knit with it before. I liked knitting with it, but was a little scared of accidentally breaking the yarn. It seems so fragile. Watching the colors unfold was an amazing experience. I used 5 skeins in different colorways. Here is the B for Bag:

Close-up on the B for Button on the Bag

I can't really show you the B for Bobbin, as it is empty right now. I'm supposed to be spinning some more of the yummy Alpaca with a Twist to make enough yarn for a scarf for the DH. He leaves in 4 weeks to go visit his family back home, and it will be really cold there. So I need to get going on that. There's just too many things to do right now.

B is also for Basement. I have my office/storage space down there. Here is a picture of my fiber stash in plastic bags, handspun fiber, and self-dyed yarn. You can also see my meager knitting library.

This is the old couch that got a little facelift and now does duty as my knitting seat whenever I am down in the basement.

And finally, B is for Buck. As in Lancelot, my cashmere buck. He is two years old and raoms around with his two wives. We still haven't seen any "hanky-panky" going on, so whether the does are pregnant or not is still a mystery. I had a gay german shepherd once, so maybe I have a gay goat? Who knows. The earliest due date if he got the deed done right away would be the end of December. The does don't really start to show until 6 weeks pre-partum, so I might see some progress in a good month or so.

Oh, just one more; B is for Ballade. My first horse, who always keeps me on my toes.

Ok, I'll stop after this one. B is for Blue. What shade of Blue are you?

You Are Periwinkle

You're very intuitive and sensitive. You often know other people better than they know themselves.
You're also quite optimistic, and you think well of yourself and others. You know your dreams will come true.

What Color Blue Are You?

To Hell in a Handbasket......

2006-10-06T06:39:00.000-07:00

That's where the world is going right now. Why do people feel the need to go into a school and kill innocent people? Why are elected officials allowed to inappropriately pursue young boys for years without being held accountable? Why can politicians lie, steal, and cheat with seemingly no repercussions? And then why is a young boy in Boulder, Colorado slapped with a $250 fine for playing hackiesack (sp?) in the Pearl Street Mall? C'mon, guys! According to the police officer he was "releasing a projectile". A hackiesack, for crying out loud. A small bag filled with beans!!! That's not a projectile.

So, this is where our hard-earned tax dollars go? I am paying the salary of police officers who are too busy harassing hackiesack players to focus on the real issue at hand. Being a foreigner in this country, it is sometimes hard to understand how things work here. One of my favorite sayings is this: "America is the land of unlimited possibilities and impossible limitations". I can pay taxes, but I can't help decide what happens with the money I pay to Uncle Sam. I guess I could renounce my dutch citizenship and become an american, but with the current animosity towards americans in the world I am a little hesitant to relinquish my dutch passport. It makes me feel a little safer when I'm travelling abroad. To parafrase a line from the Austin Powers movie "Goldmember"; "nobody hates the dutch".

I'm climbing on my soapbox again. Here's why. I came to this country the legal way. The legal way involves jumping through a lot of legal hoops. It takes years, several trees were sacrificed for the copious paper trail, lawyers were paid sums big enough to send 3 kids to college, and I was subjected to medical tests, background checks, etc. That's fine with me. However, it irks me to no end that so many people are not doing it the legal way. I end up paying for their health care, I put their kids through school, I am SOoL if they crash into my car and carry no insurance. Don't get me wrong, I understand their need to better their lives. I know where they come from. I have travelled extensively in central and south america, and in the far east, and africa. I even got married in Guatemala. My mom used to live in Guatemala, Colombia, Hong Kong, and Suriname (former Dutch Guyana). I have seen extreme poverty, and my heart hurts for the people there. I am so incredibly blessed to have been born where I was born, into a life of plenty. That said, I think we are going about the problem in the wrong way. We need to help improve the situation for millions of people in their homeland, thereby eliminating the need for them to tear themselves away from their loved ones to make ends meet in a land far away. Having illegal aliens eeking out a meager existence in the fringes of our society is nothing more than a bandaid solution if it can be called a solution at all. Building a 700 mile long wall along our 2,000 mile border with Mexico is a spectacular waste of taxpayer money.

Election time is upon us. Nobody with a tv set can doubt that. We are inundated with negative campaign ads touting the various character flaws of the opposing candidates. How this practice can be allowed is an enigma to me. I just hope all you legal voters are dedicated to get to the core of the issues at hand and select the right candidate, being it left or right. Most of all; let your voice be heard. Get informed, and vote.

Stash enhancement is a beautiful thing

2006-10-04T08:16:00.000-07:00

I broke down and went yarn shopping yesterday. With the full intention of only buying a skein or two, I succumbed to the beauty of the Twisted Sister's "Jaywalking" cardigan. I have never done entrelac knitting before, so that will be raising the bar for me. I fell in love with the blues and purples in this variation (different from the picture on the pattern book), and can't wait to get started. However, I still need to finish my second moebius cowl/scarf. It will probably be done either today or tomorrow. Then I need to knit the trim to 3 more Phoebe jackets before I'll allow myself to cast on for the cardigan. I also need to get started on a scarf for the DH out of my handspun Alpaca with a Twist. I've spun maybe 15% of the roving I have, and I've plyed 2 bobbins' worth of gorgeousness. The 2-ply is very nice, but I might have to double up and make a 4-ply out of it, as knitting a scarf in fingering weight might take too long.

Yesterday's weather turned really weird. It started to rain heavily in the afternoon, and once it stopped, the sky turned an ominous red and yellow.

This is the view of my deck, where all of a sudden the leaves had fallen from the trees and are now blowing around on the ground. The ambient light is really erie. After a while, the skies cleared up and blessed us with a gorgeous sunset.

The evening ended with a rare display of feline friendship. George and Cobweb are not friends by any stretch of imagination. However, last night they decided to share the couch without fighting. Feline bliss!

A is for Autumn

2006-10-02T08:44:00.000-07:00

I know it is kinda late to be jumping on the ABCalong bandwagon, but since I'm a relatively new blogger I'll give it a try. In the coming posts I'll try to show you what rocks my world.

Autumn always seems to be a very brief intermission between triple digit summer days and biting cold winter nights. I wish it would last a little longer, as I really cherish those temperate days. We have 35 acres of scrub oak on our property, and this time of year they turn a brilliant red and gold. Unfortunately the turn of color only lasts a few days. My DH has been busy this weekend cutting down dead wood, and we now have plenty of oak to keep us in firewood throught the whole winter.

A is also for Apollo. We have had our llamas for a year now. Apollo is the guy I instantly fell in love with. His fleece is very fine, but he doesn't have a lot of it. This past summer was our first time shearing the llamas. Lisa and Linda from the knitting group came out for the occasion. I had hoped to get a lot of gorgeous fiber from all 3 of the boys, but only Apollo had fiber worth saving. Bummer. Llamas are very weird animals. They are extremely aloof animals, and tend to want to keep some distance between you and them. However, they are very curious and they were watching the DH this weekend while he was out cutting down dead scrub oak in their pasture.

A is for Anatolian. Nugget is our first Anatolian shepherd dog. The breed is from Turkey, and they are used to guard the livestock. At a skinny 160 pounds and the size of a Great Dane, he is a formidable character, but he is a sweetheart.

A is also for Andalusian. I have been riding horses since I was 6 years old, but I was always riding other people's horses. When we moved to Colorado 6 years ago I was finally able to realize my longtime dream of owning my own horse. Andalusians had always fascinated me, and Ballade is my first horse. We now have 5.

Agapito de Luna is our first surviving foal. The story of our first foal that didn't survive will come later on in the alphabet. "Pito" is a heartbreaker. He is 2 now, so next year we'll be able to start working him under saddle. He is so sweet and gentle (very unlike his half brother, but that story is for a later time as well).

Finally, there has to be some more knitting related content in the ABCalong. Below is a picture of some of the Angora I am currently working with. This angora is handspun by a co-op of chilean women, and it is a dream to handle. This is the stuff my jacket is made of (see previous post). When I'm knitting with it, I keep having to stop and fondle it. That's how soft it is.

UGH!

2006-09-27T07:20:00.000-07:00

Not a pretty picture, but that's what you get when you have all 4 wisdom teeth pulled at the same time. I feel like a chipmunk, and I'm getting a little bored with bland, easy to digest food. One of my wisdom teeth broke a few months ago, but it didn't bother me at all. Then all of a sudden it started to hurt. And it hurt a lot. Got an appointment with an oral surgeon, and he said it needed to be extracted. Since I had previously been told that all 4 needed to come out anyway, I decided to get it all taken care of in one sitting.

In knitting news; I finished my Phoebe-jacket! I've worn it a couple of times already, and judging by the comments I have gotten I don't think it will be difficult to get them all sold. The angora trim of the collar really feels luxurious up against my face, and I feel like a high society lady wearing it. I know, I know; it's like putting lipstick on a pig. High society I am not!

I am continuing to work on other jackets, but I am also currently working on a Noro felted purse. I had quite a stash of Noro, but had never knitted with it. It knits up like a dream. It is my own concoction, for some reason I cannot find my 2 Pursonalities books, so I had to invent my own pattern. I am knitting 3 long panels from different skeins, and will be grafting them together. Then I'll make a flap and a strap. Can't wait to see how it will turn out. I'll post a picture once it is done.

Today I'll be heading to Sam's Club with a friend to stock up on groceries, and I have a huge load of laundry to do. Last night I had to "de-burr" my buck Lancelot again. I have no clue where he picks up all these burrs. Can't find the culprits. He is not very happy when I have to pull on his beard, and I had to have Jan help me hold him. I tried to do it on my own, but Lancelot got my number and head butted me in the knee. Needless to say, I gave him a well-aimed kick in the butt.

The fall colors are simply spectacular! I'm hoping to be able to take some pictures later today. It is so pretty in the morning when the sun comes up. Pikes Peak is covered in snow, and the sun makes it glow orange. The aspen are turning yellow, and the scrub oak is varying shades of red, orange, and gold.

Hope you all have a great day!

Gloomy Thursday

2006-09-21T10:31:00.000-07:00

What a perfect day to stay inside and knit.

I've got the crockpot going with a nice brisket and the bread machine is humming with Christy's bread. I'm settled in front of the television with my knitting. One of the SWA mademoiselles (who is soon to become a madame!), Phoebe, has a rather brilliant business venture. She is going to sell angora trimmed denim jackets, and I'm helping out with the production. Right now I'm working on my own jackets so that I will be able to run around town showing it off.

This is how far along I am right now. I've done the collar, the buttonhole lapel, and I'm about halfway done with the other lapel. Once that one is done, I only have the cuffs left to knit. Then comes the real test; I need to sew them on. I am no way, shape, or form a seamstress. I think the "stress"-part of seamstress fits my feelings perfectly.

I wish I could stay inside all day, but I have my last physical therapy session to go to. Unfortunately, it seems like Lady Fortune is not smiling on my recently. A while back I broke my wisdom tooth. It didn't hurt at the time, so being the procrastinator that I am, I didn't go to the dentist. Last night it really started hurting. I know it is too far broken to be repaired, so it needs to come out. My last dentist (who was a horror) said I needed to have all 4 pulled at some time. I guess the time has come. Uff da. I need to make an appointment today, even though the tooth feels much better today. Surely, it will start hurting again soon.

Anyway, this is the view from my living room window. Pikes Peak is hiding in the clouds. Friday night they forecast the snow level to drop to 6,000 feet. We're at 7,000 feet, so we'll get our first snow of the season. I'm tired of the summer, but I had rather hoped to have a long, slow autumn. This is going a little too fast for me. The horses don't even have any winter fuzz yet.

The flies are feeling the cold too and have decided "en masse" to move inside. I've been whacking at them all morning.

A Colorful Weekend

2006-09-18T12:42:00.000-07:00

Saturday morning several of the SWA ladies met up at Christy's place for some major dyeing. It was a lot of fun, and we got to experiment a lot with mixing our own colors and shades of colors. Of course, there was a ton of yummy food to be had as well. There even was some spinning!

This is my skein of fall colors; I think I'll call it Autumn Folly. These colors are not what I normally would choose to buy, so it was quite fun to make.

The top picture is of my first attempt at a skein on a warping board. Not for the feint of heart, I'll tell ya. It takes forever to wind, and apparently I did it wrong, so it will be a total mess trying to wind back into a managable skein.

This skein turned out totally different than I had envisioned. I mixed up a burgundy color and kept diluting it with water. To finish it up, I added some grey on top. When I rinsed it out, most of the red coloring disappeared, and this is what it became. Kinda cool, even though it was very much unexpected.

Finally, I also dyed a few silk caps. It was my first time even seeing a silk cap, so it was an interesting experience.

Thank you so much, Christy, for yet again hosting such a wonderful day. Now I need to find out what I want to knit with this stuff.....

I'm Baaaack!

2006-09-14T07:44:00.000-07:00

Contrary to popular belief, I have not been consumed by the aforementioned snake. As a matter of fact, it has not shown shown itself since our first encounter. Nay, I have been suffering terrible hardships at a resort in Keystone. Oy vey! Being a veterinarian, I have to make sure I keep up with new developments in my field, and that includes yearly conferences. It's hard work (said in my best imitation of Dub-ya). The aspen is just starting to turn color, and it is so beautiful up there this time of the year. Stoopid here forgot to bring her camera, so no pics of the gorgeousness. My deepest apologies.

I returned home on Tuesday with a million little trinkets from vendors who want to sell me their whole kit and kaboodle. Since I'm a holistic veterinarian, I don't need all kinds of pharmaceutical products, but if they want to give me their pens, coffee mugs, stuffed toys, etc. who am I to say no?

I continued to spin up the gorgeous alpaca roving yesterday. It drafts like a dream and I can't wait to see the finished product. I can't spin for much longer than 5-10 minutes at a time, so it will likely take a while before I have to full bobbins to ply.

This instrument of torture is my friend. I'm having 3 dates a week with its more modern sister, and it feels really good once I get off the table. I never knew that good ole-fashioned medieval torture could feel so good. By the way, do not google rack + torture + painting. Ever. The amount of filth you'll be exposed to is out of this world. Yuk.

I'll leave you with a last picture to calm your senses. This is the sunrise I watched from my porch last week.

Snakes on the Pavement

2006-09-07T16:30:00.000-07:00

- or F***, WTF did that F***ing snake go?????

[Scene 1]
Unsuspecting Woman (U.W.) enters garage while whistling a little ditty. U.W. hits the button for the garage door. Theme from "Jaws" starts playing. U.W. walks toward the car while door slowly rises. Music nears crescendo. A dozing 3 foot rattlesnake is suddenly visible......

Snake: "hmmm....wha...?
U.W.: "Eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeek!"

THUMP!!! (Bags drop to the ground)

Snake: "hisssssss hi-hisssssssssssss"
U.W.: "F***!!!!!!"
Snake: "HISSSSS!!!!

U.W hoofs it around the front of the car, opens the driver side door. AND DROPS HER KEYS.

U.W.: "Shite"
Snake: "Hiss hiss?"

U.W. cautiously looks around, bends down and quickly retrieves keys.

WHAM!!

U.W. hits head against door jam of car.

U.W.: "F***etty-f***!!
Snake: "Hisssssss rattle and hisss"

[Scene 2]

U.W. finally manages to get inside the car, close the door and start the engine. U.W. puts the car in reverse and backs out of the garage and over the snake. U.W. is now Jubilant Woman (J.W.).

J.W.: "YEAH!!! Bite me, you F***ing snake!"

J.W. exits the car to admire The-Blob-Formerly-Known-As-Snake.

J.W.: "Huh? Where did the f***ing snake go???"

Camera pans out, no snake visible.

[The End]

How's that for a wake up? I apologize for the expletives. They are, however, a true reflection of my emotions at the time.

Eeek-arus gigantuus

2006-09-06T08:43:00.000-07:00

Say "hi" to the monster; 10 feet across and a good 5 feet long. That's what you end up with if you use size 6 needles instead of size 3 as the pattern calls for. I really didn't block it that hard, merely stretched it out a little bit to get the right shape going. If I had blocked it to within an inch of its life I'm sure it would have been at least another foot bigger.

The final stretch was, well......quite something. For someone who rarely has to frog, it ended up being "interesting" when I had to tinker back a whole row, row 3 of the edging which counts more than 600 stitches. Then, I wasn't able to get the beads on. The hole in the bead was too small for passing 2 strands of yarn through. Bummer.
I blocked it last night, and that was something else as well. Sitting on the floor with my bad back wasn't exactly my kind of fun, but I managed. I was too excited to wait. I know I could have done a better job, but it was just too painful. I need to get some better pictures as well. Maybe tomorrow.

A new project is already on the needles. I cast on last night for a moebius cowl in the new pink Classic Yarn Cashsoft. I'm not sure yet if I like it, but it's a quick knit.

In other news; I was put in traction yesterday by my physical therapist. It felt good while I was in it, but today I feel like death warmed over. I hope this is only a temporary setback.
I found this quiz on another blog. I guess my result is fairly obvious; Amsterdam. For those of you not in the know, I'm dutch. Fitting, non?

You Belong in Amsterdam

A little old fashioned, a little modern - you're the best of both worlds. And so is Amsterdam.
Whether you want to be a squatter graffiti artist or a great novelist, Amsterdam has all that you want in Europe (in one small city).

What European City Do You Belong In?

Mea Culpa

2006-09-03T11:49:00.000-07:00

I forgot to post the origin of the fiber I showed you a few days ago. Here it is, my Anatolian shepherd, Nuggett. Poor guy has such a thick coat. He can't wait 'till winter, when he simply loves sleeping outside in the snow. We don't leave him outside at night. He'll bark all night long, and we'd like to keep our neighbors happy. Living with an Anatolian is an exercise in patience. The word "shepherd" is very misleading, as shepherds usually aim to please their master. Not so with an Anatolian shepherd. They are a Turkish breed, and are used to guard the sheep and goats. They live with the flock, and guard them against bears and wolves. Nuggett hates coyotes with a passion, and will kill them if he can get to them. The independent nature of an Anatolian makes it almost impossible to train him. If he doesn't want to come when called, he'll stay outside until you physically come and get him. All this aside, we have been very lucky with our dog. He is well socialized and is very friendly towards other dogs and people.

I just had to run outside. Effie, my oldest German shepherd started screaming in pain. I think she got head butted by our billy goat, Lancelot. She's fine, but she needs to learn to leave the goats alone.
Today is a quiet day. We were supposed to haul our yearling horse off to the trainer, but I can't get a hold of the trainer to let her know we're coming. Bummer. I'd rather not do the hauling tomorrow as I'm planning on meeting with some of the ladies from my knitting group. Since the day just opened up, I've put a nice Sunday roast in the crockpot. It will be simmering for the next 8 hours, and will hopefully be yummy. I love my crockpot. Had to buy a new one, as I'd used the old one to dye yarn in.

Yesterday I went to Joann's to get some swarowski crystal beads for the edging of Icarus. I have 10 more rows to go before the edging, so the end is in sight. Each row takes over 30 minutes to complete, so I'm about fed up with Icarus at this point. I stopped by String in Highlands Ranch as well and stocked up on some Koigu and some lovely pink Classic Yarn Cashsoft DK. I'm thinking of making a moebius shawl once the Icarus monster is done.

Well, I'm going to get some knitting done while I watch US Open tennis. See ya later.....

....and a good time was had by all.

2006-09-01T16:58:00.000-07:00

Today I had a group of mademoiselles from my knitting group visiting, and we even had a husband (Maus' DH) show up for a few minutes. Since I've been layed up for the past almost 3 weeks with my bum back, I've been craving some knitterly company. Well, they showed up in full force and with lots of yummy food. Maus and Sabine brought homemade bread, hummus, and baba ganoush. Lisa brought yummy homemade cheesecake and a bag of her private stash of west coast potato chips. Darcie brought homemade rosemary bread that Christy had made (Christy came a little later) and it was still warm! And what else could fabulous Phoebe bring but a fabulous macaroni salad with all kinds of herbs and veggies.

After stuffing ourselves with all the deliciousness it was time to greet the 4-legged friends at our little farm. The horses were petted, the goats were fed (Lisa almost got toppled by a greedy Annabelle), and the llamas graced us with their aloof presence. Of course, we all forgot to bring the cameras outside with us.

Christy finally came after having had her massage, and then it was time for some knitting, spinning and serious cheesecake consumption. I'm sure we all ate enough for about a million weight watcher points, but who's counting anyway?

Here you see Sabine and Maus knitting away.

Darcie is cracking up while Christy is showing off her proficiency as a bunny gynocologist (she is very suggestively stuffing a bunny through the nether orifice, and closing the episiotomy site, after some very funny comments about chocolate covered raisins.

Christy is spinning some yellow roving. She continued on to spin some delicious milk chocolate colored alpaca roving.

Phoebe is knitting along on her new venture; angora edging on denim jackets. We'll all chip in to help her out. The jackets are to be sold later this year along with matching angora scarves and hats. Lisa is rummaging in her purse.

It was 5.30 when the ladies packed up. I hope they all got home safe. The weather turned somewhat nasty this afternoon, with fog and rain. I'm inclined to get a fire going in the fireplace and curl up with my knitting. Sounds like a good idea, non?

Who can guess what kind of fiber this is?

2006-08-31T11:35:00.000-07:00

Look what I got yesterday.... What kind of fiber do you think this is? I'll reveal the source in my next post.

Today I had my first manual therapy session to relieve the pain I'm having from my herniated disc and sciatica. Holy moly! They had me do stretches and I nearly went through the roof. Lucky me get to go 3 times a week for the next 4 weeks. :-(

The weather is starting to change. Tomorow will bring a high in the 60's, and I'm so looking forward to it. Funny how at the end of a season I can't wait for the change. Soon the scrub oak will turn brilliantly red and gold, and with most of our acreage covered in those scrubs, it will be such a gorgeous sight. I promise I'll get some pictures when the time comes.
I've lived in Colorado for nearly 6 years now, and this is the first summer I have experienced the monsoon. The previous summers have all been extremely dry. Our pasture was always dead by the time July came around, but this year it's still nice and green. The horses are really happy with this change; they get to escape from the paddock and gallop around the pasture.

This picture is of Agapito de Luna (Pito for short), when he was a baby and running around in the arena.

Oh by the way, the spaghetti mess of my center pull ball yesterday has been resolved. I ultimately had to cut it and unravel it from 2 sides. I am so thankful that I have another skein of this yarn. The pattern calls for 875 yards and 100 grams, and that is precicely what I have per skein. The pattern also says that they had 10 grams left at the end. I can barely finish chart 3 with my first skein...... Aww, man! I just looked at the pattern again. It calls for size 3 needles. Guess what, I'm knitting on size 6! No wonder I'm using a lot more yarn. Shite, this shawl is going to a gigantic monster! Glad to find that out when I have 28 rows left. Not! Oh well, I'm a big girl. Maybe it won't be so bad. Sheesh!
Ok, I'm going to go sulk in a corner.

I hate when this happens.....

2006-08-30T08:50:00.000-07:00

I had made a nice center pull ball out of my yarn for the Icarus shawl. Lo and behold, it turned into a knotty mess last night. I don't know yet what I want to do; do I just toss the spaghetti and start my second ball (luckily I have another skein), or do I try and screw arond with this mess?

Since I just started my blog, I might just go ahead and introduce myself properly. My name is Ellen, and I hit the big 4-0 this year. I was born in Denmark, grew up in Norway, and moved to Holland when I was 18. My life long dream of being a veterinarian came to fruition while I was there. I met my husband in Amsterdam, and when he was offered a job in the US I decided to come along for the ride (we weren't married yet at that point). A year after he moved to California I crossed the pond with all my belongings. I still had to finish vet school, so I spent my senior year at UCDavis. Once I graduated I moved up to work at a small animal clinic in Seattle, Washington. After 9 months I moved back to San Francisco and worked at another small animal clinic for a while. Since I like a challenge, I decided to up the ante and do an internship in emergency/critical care medicine. Unfortunately, I had to leave my husband behind and move to Fresno, Ca to do that. Since I worked weekends, evenings, and holidays, my husband and I didn't get to spend much time together. He was travelling a lot, especially to Denver, and when I finally had a weekend off, I decided to fly out to Denver and spend some time with him. Just for the heck of it we'd made an appointment with a real estate agent. Needless to say, we found our dream house the very first day.

Leaving the rat race behind was the best thing we've ever done. We have a 35 acre ranch with quite the menagerie of animals. They are: Nuggett the Anatolian shepherd (he's our livestock guardian), Effie and Otto the German shepherds, the cats (George, Cobweb, Mini Bikini, and Moby wan Kanobi. Outside, we have the horses (Ballade, Vlekje, Musette, Agapito de Luna, and Rayo de Luna. They are all Andalusians, pure and partbred, except Musette who is an Arab. Then we have our 3 llama boys; Apollo, Einstein, and Lone Star. Our recent addition to the ranch is the cashmere goats; Lancelot, Leslie, and Annabelle. And last, but not least, we have Horation the lone rooster. We used to have a boatload of chicken as well, but the coyotes have unfortunately worked their way through the ranks.

I started knitting when I was in school in Norway. It was very common for us to be knitting in class, and a lot of the boys were knitting as well. I stopped knitting for over 20 years, and just picked it back up this past Christmas. My first project was to finish a fair isle norwegian sweater that had been laying dormant for all those years. Since then, I've made 6 pairs of socks, a nice aran sweater in alpaca, a cozy mohair cardigan/wrap thingy, the Pacific Northwest shawl, a felted bag, dischcloths, and some other small stuff. My stash has grown quite impressively, and I probably could be knitting for a year or 2 without ever having to buy more yarn.

Since we got the llamas last fall, I decided I needed to able able to work with their fiber as well. Enter the spinning wheel. I love spinning, and can't wait to make lots of my own yarn, especially from the cashmere I'll be getting next spring.

So, now you know a little bit of my background. I'll leave you with a picture of the llama boys...

First real post

2006-08-29T08:11:00.002-07:00

OK, so here's the deal; I'm jumping on the blog bandwagon, but I can't promise I'll be able to post on a daily basis. We'll just have to wait and see how I can fit this into my daily schedule.
Yesterday's picture was of my 2 cashmere does, Annabelle and Leslie. I also have a billy; Lancelot. Can't wait until spring when I can get my first harvest of cashmere :-) Right now, Lancelot is getting himself into a lot of trouble. He evidently really likes to eat thistles, and we have to "de-burr" him every day. Those suckers really get stuck in his coat (read: I'm losing valuable cashmere, dangit), so DH went on a thistle hunt and we now hope we've got all the offenders removed.

On the knitting front, this is what I'm doing right now

Yep, that's the icarus shawl from IK Summer 2006 issue. I kinda wish I'd done this shawl as my first venture into lace knitting and not my second, as the loooooong repeats of chart 1 were very tedious. I'm now on chart 3, so the end is in sight. I'm knitting it with Alpaca with a Twist, Fino, which is 70% Baby Alpaca and 30% Silk. It is a delight to knit with, and especially now that I've finally gotten my Knitpicks needles. YAY! I'm planning on adding beads to the edging; that'll be interesting, I've never done that before.

I'm already thinking about my next project. When my LYS, the Red Wheel, had their close-out sale, I got my hot little hands on some delicious cashmere/silk at 50% off. They only had one skein left, so I need to find a pattern for a scarf that only takes a little over 100 yards. Hmmm, haven't been able to find anything I like yet. with yarn as soft as this stuff, I really want to make something that I can snuggle around my neck. I also really want to make a lacy cowl of some sorts, but I don't think I'll have enough yarn for that. Ah, another project in the planning.

I haven't been able to do any spinning for the past few months. My mom was staying with us for 3 months, and her chair occupied the spot where I was doing my spinning. She left 2 weeks ago, but then I slipped a disc in my back and I haven't been able to sit ever since. It feels like I'm heading in right direction, and I hope I'll be able to pick it back up pretty soon. I've got a boat load of fiber to spin, so I'm very excited.

let's try this again

2006-08-28T13:55:00.000-07:00

Being a total novice in all things bloggy, I have no clue if this is going to work.
Let's see if I can post a picture as well....

first post

2006-02-17T12:00:00.000-08:00

Well, my first venture into Blog-Land. Now i only need to figure out how to post pictures and such.