I finally finished this hat after 3 frogging sessions and trying to figure out how I could use the yarn from my scarf to make a hat that included them.

This hat contains a little over 2 skeins of Noro Kureyon yarn in 209 and 185 - this is the same yarn that I made my Noro scarf from. The hat is reversible with 209 on the outside form the very light blue stripe ( above the shaded pink stripesand below the purple and brown stripes ) and the rest is 185 ( I had more of this yarn - and now it looks as if Noro may have discontniued 185 because I can't find it anyplace ).

This hat is VERY warm. I wore it out this morning in 34 degree F weather when I came back inside I was sweating. I am anxious to see just how warm it is when the weather gets colder ( but Mother Nature doesn't have to drop the temps just for me, tho).

Will probably make another one in a different color after the holidays.

Bye for now.

I decided that I needed a new hat to wear this winter that had the same yarns in it as the scarf I wear, so after stash diving I came up with 1 skein of Noro Kureyon 209 ( on the left ) and # 180 ( on the right ).

What I did was to hold 1 strand from each skein and knit them together so the hat would be warm.

I like to way the colors play against each other. Should have it done in a couple of days and will post a picture of it then.

Well, we have a new member of the family. She's been here for 2 weeks today and has taken over the place. I will let Travis tell you all about her on his blog ( he already thought the world revolved around him before he got his blog - now there's no living with him ). But I told Chloe she could say a little bit about her, so here's Chloe

Hi Everyone,

I wanted to tell you that I have a new baby sister and her name is Gracie ( MOM says her fancy name is Duegar's Say G'nite Gracie ) and Travis does not like her. Oh, he'll play with her but when he tries to stop her from getting near the food bowl when he's ready to eat and he growls at her, well Gracie stands up to him and gives her opinion about him hogging the food bowl. I just love it !!!!! If he plays with her and gets too rough and pinches her a little too hard - MOM has to come in and pull Gracie off Travis' face because she goes after him. It's absolutely wonderful to see him back down from someone else and be told he isn't the king of the world.

I'd better go for now because I don't want to have to listen to Travis complain that he was supposed to talk about the new baby and not anyone else. PPLLeeasseeee.

Bye for now - Chloe.

As Chloe said, it's been wild around her since Gracie came to live here, but I'll let Travis tell you all about that - just remember that he isn't happy she's here because she isn't afraid of him and he can't bully her around. It's interesting to see a 100 pound dog cower away from a 20 pound pup because she will rip him apart and is any thing but subtle about it.

Til later.

Hi All

MOM decided that, since things had been bad around here during the last few weeks, that SHE wanted to change some things. So, she tried a new website and found out, after she had put a lot of work into making a new blog, that the website was under attack and had to close out that blog. ( I could have told HER it wouldn't work but you can't tell HER anything when SHE's like this ).

So, here we are. And MOM decided to let me tell you what's going on around here.

We will be changing a few things around here during the next few weeks and hope you will bear with us.

We are bringing back Chloe's Chlosett ( because Chloe has been driving everyone NUTZ about not being able to make pretty clothes for all her doggie friends. Girlie stuff, YUCK!!!! ) and we will also be bringing back Just My Stylle ( Stylle asked MOM, nicely, if she could start baking goodies again. YIPPEE, COOKIES!!!!! And I get to be the official taster. Life is GOOOOD!!!! ).

MOM will be selling some yarns SHE has in HER stash ( whatever that is ) and I get to help HER do that ( I'm a big boy now ) and SHE says that SHE will also be spinning some of the sheeps wool into yarns and selling them and making other things ( sweaters, socks, scarves ) for sale, too.

I still have my blog ( Duegar Kennels ) where I will keep everyone up to date on what I'm doing and all.

So, come in, sit a spell and chat - you never know what you'll find here at " A Sheep's Tail ".

Travis

Well, it looks like it was a pack ( or at least 1 ) of dogs that got into the pastures and ran the sheep to death.
A friend and I went out last Thursday,7/17, to put down the last surviving ewe from the attack ( the other Shetland ewe and the border Leicester wether are still fine, but continue to look for the rest of the flock ), but we found her dead ( the last time I'd seen her was around 10 am and she looked bad then ). So we dragged her to the edge of the front pasture and the woods and " dressed " her for her killer(s). Can't say what type of " spices " were used as it's not exactly legal what we did but it's my property and my sheep and since the Indiana DNR is useless, it doesn't matter what we did.
After we took care of the ewe, we walked the fence row looking for ways the killer(s) could have gotten in. My friend had 2 rifles with him and had me carry 1 as he went across the back fence where we found a hole dug underneath it ( this hole was about 4-5 inches deep and had markings showing that the killer(s) had slid underneath the fence to get to the sheep ).
I walked the interior of the fence line and my friend walked the exterior and into the creek bed and found 2 foot prints that looked kind of like dog but the rain had washed part of 1 away and the other was on hard-pack and couldn't make a positive ID ( he decided that with everything else we found, there was a good likelihood that it was dogs that got the sheep ).
We found all of the missing sheep. One was a surprize, tho.
When I came out the backdoor to get things ready to go out back I heard a familiar voice calling from the neighbor's drive way. I looked over to the neighbor's and saw Lacie, my favorite Shetland ewe, standing there calling to me. I called her name and she ran to the gate and thru it , paused long enough to get a cookie/ handful of dog chow and then went to greet the other 2 sheep left. I just stood and cried because I thought I'd lost her in the killing spree and now she was home. Since that day, she comes into the backyard withthe other 2 every night and expects to have a cup of dog food or a cookie waiting for her - yes, she has always been spoiled and now even more so. I can hardly wait to breed her and Wen again to get more of their babies, but that won't happen until I get at least 1 Pyr to protect them - something I will be doing next spring sionce I won't breed them unti I graduate in the fall of 2010 from college.
As I have always said, I don't mind as much if a wild aminal kills one of my sheep as that's Mother Nature's way of keeping the species going BUT I do mind it my animals are killed by someone's pet dog - that's just pure laziness on the pet owner's side. My dogs are not allowed to run loose ( even tho Vinnie does like to get out and hunt along the creek bed for wood chucks and rabbits ), I expect others to keep their dogs under control or face the fact that if I catch them in my pasture chasing/killing my sheep, they will get their pet back with a bullet in the head ( I will let the state police do the delivering ).
Now, I can get off my soap box and just enjoy the sheep again.
Thanks for all the caring I received from everyone during this stressful time, I hope to never have to go thru this type of thing again.
Benita

It's been a bad week here.
I came home Tuesday, 7/14, and found 2 of my sheep waiting at the gate to the front yard ( I had let them into the back yard because of all the clover growing there ) which wasn't unusual because TJ thinks he's the guard wether and Wennie is his back-up helper. But what was strange was that the dogs ( who are kenneled right next to this gate ) were in their dogs houses and never made a sound ( now these labs will bark if ANYONE pulls into the drive ) but not that day.
I went into the back yard and didn't see any other sheep, so I called to them, and banged on metal feed pans but no one came, which was strange but I thought they may have found something good to eat in the back pasture and were too busy to answer me.
So, I put the 2 sheep with me in the front pasture and were in to let the house dogs out to potty and came back out. Well, when Chloe and Travis hit the ground at the bottom of the steps Travis cowered to the ground on his belly and both of them tried to climb thro me to get back inside - I 'd never seen them do this before .
I went back out into the pasture to see if I could find the sheep - I found 1kat Shetland ewe hidden under a broken tree branch in the yard and just about never got her out - she had blood on the back of her neck and was walking funny ( Like she was hurt - no clue what had happened ).
I walked farther into the front pasture and found my other 2 year old kat Shetland ewe dead lying next to an old tree stump. She had 1/2 inch cuts on either side of her neck but no other injuries I could see. Something had chased her to death.
Walking further towards the woods, at the edge of the woods/ pasture I found my border Leicester ewe down with part of her rump eaten away. I'm thinking a coyote got in. So, I slowly walked farther into the woods looking for the other 3 ewes when I came upon my moorit Shetland ewe. She was lying in the middle of the path dead with no visible injuries but her wool was soaking went ( whatever got into the pasture had run her to death and tried to bite her but all it got was a mouthful of wool because I hadn't sheared them yet ).
I continued to look in the pasture and didn't see any other sheep - still missing a yearling kat Shetland ewe and a 5 year old AG Shetland ewe. As I was coming up over the hill between the pastures it dawned on me that if I had come across whatever animal had killed my sheep, I was unarmed and had no phone with me - just had the 2 unhurt sheep glued to me. Not a good situation to be in. Needless to say, I made a fairly rapid return to the house.
Last night, 7/15, I talked to the guy who lives up the road and told him what happened and he and his brother ( who lives next door ) drove around my property on their 4-wheeler and checked everything out. He said they saw a foot print but, because it had rained yesterday morning it was too distorted to id the animal.
The ewe that was walking around hurt was worse and the flies had gotten to her on Monday before I could. I looked at her the best I could and saw something " dripping " from underneath her and she was in a lot of pain. I decided that if she lived thru another night and was still as she was I'd have a friend of mine come over with his gun and put her down.
Whatever had killed my sheep also came back laast night and ate more of the border Leicester ewe but didn't attack the injured ewe.
This afternoon, 7/16, my friend will be over and we will put the injured ewe down and use her carcuss as bait for the killer after " fixing it up " for it. Can't say what we're going to do because you aren't supposed to do anything to stop a wild animal from killing your livestock or so says the Indiana DNR - but they want you to let them know what you did with its body - now, if you can't/won't help me get rid of a preditor that's killing my animals, don't expect me to tell you what I did with the carcuss - it ain't gonna happen that way.
I have been asked, since this happened, if I want more sheep. I can't give an answer yet, it's too soon. I'll have to let everyone heal from this ordeal before I do anything.
Hopefully, we can find out what type of preditor it was and stop it.
Benita

A New Year … Better Late Than Never

It's been a while since my last post. Travis came to live here and has been to a dog show ( and didn't embarrass himself ), Chloe and Stylle are doing fine and continually try to train Travis on how to be a " good boy " ( an all consuming effort ), and I'm back in school for the spring 09 quarter.
I have been told that I will graduate with my bachelor's in nursing in the fall of 2010 (which is around the Turkey day holiday) and think it will be time for a PARTY!!!!!! In a way, I want to go on and get a law degree but then I think I will have at least another 3 years in school and I'm not sure I want to spend THAT kind of money (grad school is very expensive – even more than undergrad) and I'm not getting any younger (I'm not sure I want to possibly graduate from law school when I'm 60 years old and then try to find a job to pay off my education). We'll just have to wait and see what time brings. * sigh *

I'm still knitting. The sweater/ cardigan I was knitting on last summer/fall was changed to a sweater (it didn't like right as a cardigan) and now has changed again. Who knows what it will be by the time I get through with it. I am also knitting a fisherman aran sweater from Alice Starmore's collection in pure cotton. The pattern calls for Rowan's cotton yarn and it (the pattern) is worked so that each piece is washed BEFORE sewing together (along with some yarn to sew with) so that it will shrink ON PURPOSE and then is sewn together. The yarn is a little hard on the hands but works up nicely. I had to tink back on it a couple of times – once because I screwed up one of the diamonds and then when I was almost ½ way through the back I looked at it from a distance (more than arm's length) and I didn't like the way the ribbing looked and tinked back and started all over again with a tighter rib and it looks much better. It's slow going because you have to pay attention to the pattern because it's easy to mess it up but it's worth it. I figure if I get it done by this fall (in between going to school and showing Travis) I will be doing well. And a big plus for this sweater – it's machine washable!!! I even started ordering more of the same yarn, in a different color, for my next sweater from the same book. This other color is a lightly faded blue that will fade even more as it's worn and washed – I'm excited to see how it does as opposed to the off white of the yarn I'm now using ( gees, it takes so little to excite me anymore ).

Well, better go for now. Travis and Chloe are together and quiet so it's hard telling what they're into.