And we have a clean fleece


I got 1/2 of Lacie's fleece washed and now it's on the island drying - it looks so nice and white ( alright, there are some grey areas because she had grey spots as a baby ). Now, to do the other 1/2.

I've decided to dye 1/2 of the fleece navy and take the other 1/2 and divide it into fourths and dye each 1/4 one of the following colors : 1 will be red; the next will be green; the next will be bright yellow, and the last will be turquoise. When I get everything dyed and carded, I plan on spinning the navy as a solid single and spin the other 4 colors as I pull them out of the basket into a single and then ply it with the navy single and see what I get. I figure either 1) I'll like it and repeat it, or 2) I'll hate it and do something else. It's a 50-50 chance.

Better go see if I can find another sweater drying rack so I can start on the other 1/2 of the fleece.

Today's agenda is ....

Since I have running water again ( it froze last Thursday, and I thought the well was dry by the way it was acting so I had 1100 gal of water delivered on Sat only to find that the well was 3/4 full - go figure ), I thought I'd wash the few dishes I have and then wash Lacie's fleece that I skirted almost 2 weeks ago.My how time flies when you want to do something but are blocked.
I figure, I'll wash this fleece and let it dry on the kitchen island ( with the stern admonishments to Chloe AGAIN ) so that I can dye it later this week. Not sure what colors I'm going to use yet ... probably a red, green, blue, and orange combo and card it with the white to make a type of heathered yarn, but we'll see, things can change between now and then.

I have an interview at the hospital I want to work at on Wed at 1230pm - I'm sooo happy I can hardly stand it. Mainly, because one of my favorite docs works there and I miss working with him - hopefully, I will get the job, so I must calm down before the interview.

The temp is finally above freezing today for the 2nd day in a row. Yesterday, it was in the fortys and the water pipes thawed out by 5pm and water was running, without the rust, by 6pm ( takes a little time to clear out the lines. ). Oh Happy Day - we have running water again !!!! Will make sure to get the dishes and the laundry done before it freezes again - the weatherman ( ? ) is calling for low 30's for next weekend. Well, as the saying goes - if you don't like the weather, wait a few minutes and it will change ( but to tell the truth, I have just about had it with this cold frigid stuff this year - and I like cold, but frigid is above and beyond cold. ).

I found a lovely little yarn shop last Fri and will definitely be going back there. It's run by a young lady and her mom comes with her to care for her 10 month old baby. She has some beautiful yarns - I just touched, rubbed, cuddled, and slobbered myself into oblivion while I was there. I could have died happy. Oh, and of course, I came back with some wonderful yarns and will be going back to buy more. * sigh *

Guess, I'd better go see what Chloe is doing - she's tooooo quiet - don't trust an active rambunctious 2-yr-old pup when she's quiet.

Canine cooking .....

Because it's so blasted cold ( it was 13 when I was reluctantly forced out of my nice warm bed this morning and the temp continues to go down ) and the weather people are calling for STILL air temps of 0 and wind chills of -3 to -10 overnight, I thought I'd be the nice lab mom and cook some dog chow for my beasties. YUMMMMM. I fill an old dutch oven with dog chow and cover it ( well, almost is more correct ) with water and then put it on the burner on low and " it's soup " in about 35-40 minutes. Everytime I get up to stir it, my resident taste-testers are waiting with ribbons of slobber hanging from the corners of their mouths.
So, the teaste-testers ( aka, Chloe and Stylle ) have to sample every batch I make to make sure it's good enough for the kennel dogs and the ducks to eat. You should see the ducks - the minute I get near their pen, they start squaking and yelling so that by the time I try to open the gate I have to push them away. Then it's a free-for-all to get to their feed pan and dump the still warm dog food in it and run or you lose a hand - to say the ducks like the hot/warm dog food would be an understatement. The first time I gave it to them late last fall, they just looked at the food in their pan, looked at me, and then one hen became brave enough to try it, and since she didn't drop over dead ( the ducks greatest fear, next to having Vinnie catch them out of their pen when he's out ) they dove into the pan and haven't looked back since.
So, I need to carry this mixture out and feed the dogs and ducks and give the sheep their hay and sweet feed mix so I can wrap up in a couple of quilts with a couple of dogs and knit and not freeze to death tonight.
Hopefully, it will get a little warmer tomorrow ... who knows what Mother Nature has up her sleeve .....

HOT RUNNING WATER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! AND THE TOILET FLUSHES, TOO!!!!!!!!!

When I got up this morning, the hot water in the bathroom and kitchen was still frozen even tho the cold water was running. AND, if that isn't enough - the water line to the toilet is still frozen!!! Oh, the toilet can be flushed only if you pour 2 gallons of water into the tank, it's such a pain in the backside to do so but a necessity.

Well, after filling out what seemed to be a bazillion applications ( I'm looking for a new job - yes, I do get delusional at times ), I thought " let's see if the hot water is still frozen ". At about 1230 pm today, I had HOT RUNNING WATER AND THE TOILET FLUSHES !!!!!
Yes, it does take sooo little to make me happy.
I was so thrilled to have hot water that I did the dishes and flushed the toilet about 3 times to make sure I wasn't dreaming - and it all still works. Maybe, I can wash the fleece I skirted over the past weekend. I can dream of clean sweet smelling fleece drying on the island in the kitchen ( with Chloe being threatened with bodily harm if she touches it. Girl-pup loves to stand on tippy-toe and smell the fleece and has been caught with her tongue out trying to lick the fleece, hoping that some of it will fall on the floor so she can grab it and make a mad dash with it before I catch her. Fun and games in the kitchen ).
It is so nice to have the dishes done - the kitchen looks so much better than it did this morning.
Now, to go fix dinner and make some dirty dishes so I can wash them again. * sigh *

No new pix today ... IT'S TOOOO COLD!!!!!

The temp, when I let the girls out, was about 3-4 degrees ABOVE zero with a mild wind - so there's no telling exactly how cold it is. All I know is that I have cold running water in the house ( if I need hot water I can always heat it up ) and everyone outside is ok. The kennel dogs were barking as I walked out the back door and the sheep were upset because I ran ( read, grudgingly walked ) them out to the pasture so Chloe and Stylle could go out and see what the sheep left them.

I will never understand why they would rather eat frozen woolie poopsicles instead of dog food. It has to be a dog thing - I just look the other way when they do this and, should someone start coughing, I tell them I am not going down their throats to get out what might be there ( considering WHAT they have just put in there ).

Yesterday,I thought I'd clean a fleece and wash it today so I could dye it later this week. I had intended to clean TJ's fleece but couldn't find one so, I skirted one of Lacie's and divide it into 2 bags, weigh it, wash it, and dye one bag and spin and ply them together and put it on etsy for sale. But since the temp is down ( it's a bit cool in the house ) so I think I can wait until the hot water line is thawed out and make it easier on me. I do have her fleece skirted and divided into 2 bags and weighed ( 1 bag is 14 oz, and the other is 16 oz ), now all I have to do is decide what colors ( yes, I plan on making the yarn a combination of a multi-colored single plied with a white or other solid colored single ) and spin it into a light dk weight yarn. I'm not sure if the solid single will be white, black, brown or some other color - I'll have to see what mood I'm in at that time. It should be an interesting yarn anyway you look at it.

I did finish my purple cap just in time to wear it this weekend in this cold " snap ". It keeps my head nice and warm - now to finish the scarf to go with it.

Well, back to my knitting needles and the green sweater I need to finish - I need to finish the sleeves and do the button bands and sew it together and block it and it will be done. I like this sweater more and more as I knit it - it was supposed to have a lace bodice but I decided to make it plain and , if I do it again, I will make the bodice out of a lace pattern. Like I said, I do like this pattern and the yarn I'm knitting it in is ok ( it's Knit Pics Palete in 100% Peruvian wool in grass ) but I think I'll make it in some other yarn because, even though this is a nice 2 ply yarn, it splits more than I like and tries to untwist with each stitch ( it has become rather tedious making sure it doesn't untwist completely as I knit with it ).Oh well.

Back to the needles - HEY, there's a football game on this afternoon - the best time to knit!!!

Hi Everyone,

MOM is in the other room so I decided to blog a little bit.

I was reading another blog ( Pink Lemon Twist ) with MOM about a really cute boy who was talking about how much he loves raw fleeces. I wrote to him about what it's like living with sheep. Hope he can talk his mom into getting him some sheep.

ANYWHO...

MOM is going thru HER picture books about knitting and I have been helping her. As SHE puts the book ( the real thin kind SHE brings home from the store that has all the food in it ),I move it over to my side of the sofa and look at the pix hoping that MOM will make me another sweater like the one I have on. SHE does such a good job but SHE won't teach me how to knit ... something about not being allowed to chew on the wooden knitting needles ( but it's soooo much fun ).

MOM said that we were going to fix the fence but because it rained so much last night and the spot that needs to be fixed is standing in water, we can't do it. MOM said we'd do it tomorrow and then SHE said I could go out and play and SHE wouldn't have to stand outside and watch me ( I hate it when SHE does that because I can't dig or carry or smell all the good stuff outside ). I hope we can get the fence fixed.

Well, better go for now, I hear MOM coming down the hall ( and SHE doesn't like me to use the computer - I apologized tons after that problem when the computer stopped working after I blogged last spring. I wish SHE would just forget it. Ain't gonna happen in the near future. ).

So, until later,

Chloe.

I decided the other day, while I was watching a soap, that I needed a new wool hat to wear, and since I have been working on a scarf made out of superwash merino/alpaca and nylon in purple that the hat needed to be purple ( makes sense to me ). The camera thought it was blue but it's purple Perendale that I bought at Paradise Fibers before Christmas. It isn't superwash so I have to remember NOT to put it in the washing machine ( been there, done that ) to clean it. It's made in New Zealand out of 8-ply Perendale and is DK weight and soft and a joy to work with - no splits here. ( Don't know why the pix is fuzzy, must have been one of those days ).

I looked all over the internet to find some Perendale yarn after losing Baron this spring, and I found some at a farm in California and at Paradise Fibers. I bought some from both places and was not impressed with the white Perendale yarn I got from Calif. - it was scratchy and full of VM ( not like Baron's wool that I have spun already - his wool is soft and springy ). The wool I 'm using for the hat reminds me of Baron's wool - it's also soft and springy. Will definitely be getting more Perendale wool yarn in the future from Paradise Fibers.

Well, need to get off the computer because Chloe thinks it's time to go out and play in the mud - the snow we got the other day is completely gone and left mud in it's wake.

Back again with more snow pix.

Here, we see Girl-Pup ( a.k.a. Chloe ) stopping and watching what Stylle is doing in the snow. Notice ALL the big foot prints this girl put over the backyard - she sure had a lot of fun running around full tilt in the snow while I froze taking the pix and laughing at her. Talk about a clown!!!

Here are Chloe and Stylle sniffing around in the snow - must have been some big bad animal out there earlier ( or it's that #$%^&* neighbor's cat who has torn the insulation off the furnace ducts so it can lie there and stay warm. Not to mention causing Chloe tons of grief that she " shares " with me at the top of her lungs ). Must be hard to sniff the snow and not get it up your nose.

Here is my beautiful girl - Duegar's Just My Stylle. She loves to have her picture taken - she's such a ham. And as you can see, Stylle hasn't missed too many meals ( but don't ask her that because she thinks that if the gravity-fed feeder in the kitchen isn't full to the top, she has nothing to eat and will tell you so in no uncertain terms. But, that's my girl!!!

This is how it looks as you gaze down toward the woods - the snow is about 1.5 inches deep here and if you look real hard you can see the prints of tiny hooves in the snow. No, Virginia, it ain't Santa's reindeer ( altho I'd really really like to have a pet reindeer ) it's the toe prints of the woolies. They think that if they stomp all over this cold stuff the grass will miraculously re-appear. Silly sheep.













And this is the view looking towards the creek alongside the road near the front of the place. No toe prints here.
















Now, here we find some HUGE footprints ALL OVER the smooth white snow. What could have caused these to appear?.
It was caused by none other than Chloe running around having a great time in the cold while her MOM stands on the deck freezing her tush off!!!
The Girl-pup has no concern for her MOM as long as she is having fun - it must be nice to be 2 years old and have the world as your oyster.
( It would be even better if I didn't have to stay out with her, but she now knows how to jump over the fence and thinks it's great fun to see MOM scream and carry on while she just stands and wiggles. Gotta get the fence fixed after this stuff melts. It's supposed to do that by this weekend - one can only cross one's fingers. )
Now, if I can just remember to fix the date stamp on the camera as some of the pictures have the correct date while others are stamped "13/02/2007 ". Hmmmm, didn't know that 2007 had 13 months in it did you ??? SURPRIZE !!!

Well, it seems that Chloe and Stylle ( along with the help of the the elves at Paradise Fibers ) got me something for Christmas that I can use with my homespun yarns and here is what I found under the tree.

This gizmo is a yarn meter - Chloe says that it will measure the amount of yarn run thru it so I'll know how much I've spun. Smart Girl-pup.

Stylle was the next to give me something and here it is. This is a " WIP " tool. You wrap the yarn around it and , after reading the blue card, find out how many " wraps per inch " you have and how fine the yarn is. Good Girl Stylle.

Both girls got together and bought me some new knitting needles ( like I don't have any ). These are KA wooden knitting needles in sizes US 0, US 1, and US 2. They are very fine and have a nice connection between the needle and the cable. I have been looking for these sizes and now I can knit fine gauge sweaters/scarves/mittens without using my teflon-coated metal needles and chasing the yarn all over the place. Nice going girls!!!

Cookies For Everyone!!!!!