This is one of the cowls I designed this past weekend.

It's 10x24 inches in size and was knit on size 6 needles. It's a very easy pattern - it has "tumbling blocks" knit as the design. This design consists of simply knit and purl stitches - nothing fancy.

It is an easy pattern, so someone who is brand new to knitting could make this without any problem.

It is available for $20.00, which includes the pattern and enough yarn to make the cowl. The yarn is superwash sock yarn so the cowl can be put thru the washer and dryer when it gets dirty and will not shrink.

The next cowl, at the left, was designed and knit by me late last week. It is 10x22 inches and has a raised texture to the fabric. It is aslo easy enough for a beginner knitter to make.

This cowl comes in a kit with the yarn and pattern instructions for $20.00.

Let me know what colors you are looking for because I have a large stash of sock yarns and should beable to find what you want.

This is what I did over this past weekend. I made some bright new sparkly roving.

I added some white Shetland roving and some undyed firestar for sparkle and pop and got the above ball of bling.

I can hardly wait to get the rest of the wool and firestar mixed together so I can spin it. The new roving is absolutely soft and it sparkles like crazy.

I did add some firestar to some dyed roving and spun it up but it wasn't as bling-bling as this roving. I will be doing more with the wool and firestar as I found a box with 2 pounds of firestar in it that I had forgotten I had ordered. I plan on dyeing more roving next weekend if I can work it into the scheduled programs.

Well, after 4 days of work and almost 20 large trash bags of crap, the room is starting to look better. It still needs a good sweeping but my asthma is acting up today so all I was able to do was take out more trash bags to the road for pick up tomorrow.

I can actually get into the closet that holds all my fabrics now. I had forgotten what I had in there. It was nice to be able to close the closet door after I went thru it. I need to decide what fabrics will stay and what will go. Have tons of polyester which will go but have some knits I will keep. Looks like I'll be putting things on ebay this coming weekend.

I will be telling everyone what this room will end up being AFTER I get it fixed up. I'd like to get to that point by Turkey Day, but no promises. I have decided what furniture, from other rooms, will be moving into this room and what won't. I was going to move the love seat from the living room into here but then I found the twin bed frame I had bought quite a while ago. I think I'll repurpose it into a love seat - and hope that Chloe doesn't figure it out, she loves to snuggle on things with blankets and quilts on them.

Speaking of quilts, I found my antique quilt templates I bought over 7 years ago and the fabric that had been cut out. I also found an old cutter quilt I fixed (removed the destroyed blocks and put other block from the same quilt in their place) and I found 2 small quilts (wall size?) that I can quilt and display. One of these quilts has bright multi-colored blocks with jet black edging - talk about an eye-catcher. The other small quilt is made up of pastel baby-themed blocks edged in a deep royal blue - need to replace 2 of the blocks as some 4-legged rodent wanted to use it and chewed up the blocks. The bright colored quilt will definitely be put up on the wall, and the lighter one will probably be draped over my computer desk.

Well, better go for now, it's supposed to rain again and have possible thunder storms and I do not want to be on this computer during that.

Til later,

Bye.

It was 36 degrees when I finally let the dogs out this morning and we had frost. Not the killing frost we need to get rid of the pollen so Gracie can get off the prednisone, just a light dust of frost.

Will be glad when I can take her off the prednisone, she's getting to be a real crank. I think if she beats up on Travis one more time, he may decide to pack up his bags and blankie and leave. She is a real holy terror with the prednisone.

Hi All,

Just thought I'd introduce you to the site boss for the bedroom repurposing.

This is Vinnie. He is a 12 1/2 year old black Labrador retriever who moved back into the house after his kennel mate of over 11 years, and aunt, died in June of this year. Since he's been here he has learned to like pizza (his favorite is PapaJohn's The Works), to "talk" to his food pan (he started this when he was a baby - he scoops out some of his dog food out of the bowl with his nose, grabs the side of the pan and barks - of course this works better and gets more echoing if he has the pan backed into a corner), is trying to figure out the space heater in the dining room (when it comes on, he will stand there with his nose about 1 inch away from the outside mesh staring at it), and tries to keep track of me as I move thru the house. He does a pretty good job of all this except he keeps losing me at times.

He has been over-seeing the fix-up of the bedroom by lying in front of the door (one of his ways to keep track of me), snooping around in piles of junk to be thrown out (probably looking for a mouse) and just lying in the middle of the room in the sunlight.

He will be checking on things later today when I work in the room again. He's so helpful, in his own mind.

Now to go block a sweater.

Hi All,

I decided, since I wasn't working at the time, it was about time that I did something with all this wool around here (besides using it as insulation). So, yesterday I started to clean up the 2nd largest bedroom and make it into a studio for knitting, sewing, spinning, and writing. BUT, this is how it looked AFTER I removed 7, count them, seven bags of *&^%.

This picture (above) is right in front of the door looking into the room. To the right are about 20 bags of fleece I plan of scouring and spinning into yarn - most of it is varying shades of Shetland, with an occassional border Leicester cross thrown in for good measure. The colors range from Shetland black to grey to different shades of moorit (brown, to the uninitiated) so a white with grey fibers.

This picture is to the left of the door and shows more fleeces in the black bags, some books I need to decide whether to keep or not and an old chest of drawers.

This picture is toward corner next to the big south facing double window. There is a lot of light in this room during the day, even in the winter.

I plan to take the entrance door to the room and make it into the desk/sewing table/knitting table. I also plan on moving the love seat from the living room into this room, painting the walls, and putting up a cork bulletin board.

So, come back often and see how this room is changing from a junk room into a studio where I can write and make yarns, and sew.

Til then,

BYE.

Hi All,
I finally finished my nursing degree and have taken some time off to relax and recoop and now it's time to get back to work. Unfortunately, around here pickin's are slim so I decided to start up this blog again.

As of today, September 24,2010, I am knitting my fingers off to make some samples of the knitting I have to offer for sale. I will have kits for a scarf and/or hat which will contain the needed yarns (very very soft acryilcs), the pattern(s), and, if you just want the scarf, knitting needles will be included. The scarf pattern is very easy for a novice to handle. The hat kit will include the yarn for the hat and the pattern and possibly dpns (if I can find some I like). This pattern is also easy. There will be a number of colors - I think the varigated yarn makes the prettiest scarf and hat - but you can have it in solids if you like. The scarf kits will sell for $20.00 and the hat kit for 15.00.

I will be posting a picture of the scarf and hat as soon as I can convince this laptop to accept the pictures and I will give you a list of the colors I will have available. I was going to have the finished product to sell but things changed earlier this week making that idea difficult to manage, namely with everything else going on.

Starting next year, I will have patterns for sweaters, small shoulder shawls and a Shetland shawl for sale. I hope to have some hand-dyed yarns for sale also. There will probably be other things, so keep checking back.

So, stay tuned and come back frequently to see what is available. I hope to have the kits ready for November sales. That is if the Knitting Fairy will cool her jets and let me work on these in peace. Nothing like a cantankerous Fairy.

See you soon.

Well, we are in the midst of a winter snow storm - unfortunately, my camera didn't like the new batteries I put in ( 2x) and now it just sits there and looks at me. So, I decided to use another pix of the snow falling here.

This picture shows how it looks when the snow is falling down the "lane" under the trees going toward the front pasture. It is really pretty ( even if the picture is almost 2 years old ).

When I got up and looked out the backdoor at about 6:45AM there was no snow anywhere to be seen, but when my alarm clocks got me up at 8AM, there was almost 2 inches of fine powder on back steps and, if it had been rain instead of snow, it would have been pouring ( you could just see to the front of the pasture ).

The pups ( Gracie and Travis ) have been out 2x already playing in the snow. You would have thought that this was Travis' 1st snowfall with the way he's been acting - running around like a wild thing with Gracie hot on his heels. I wish I could have gotten a picture of it - oh. well, maybe next time.

Gracie and Travis are getting along a little bit better as long as he does what she wants when she wants. She let's him know when he can eat, if he can talk to me, and whether he can talk in his crate. Bossy isn't a strong enough word for this littler girl. But, she isn't like this with the older girls in the house or outside, just with him.

Better go for now as Gracie has Travis pinned in a corner and I'd like to keep both of them alive to have a litter of pups in a couple of years, so .....

Bye for now.

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.

 

Hi Everyone,

It's Chloe again and I'm here helping MOM write an entry.

We now have some pictures of Travis ( he held still for a nano second or 2 ) and MOM said I could share them.

Travis has been here with us since the last Friday in August when MOM brought him home from the dog show. Stylle and I were not expecting to have a new little brother ( even tho MOM said SHE wanted a new baby in the house ), so when he was brought in we were not happy. We didn't like his pulling of our ears, neck, tail or biting us. Stylle bit him several times and he FINALLY decided ( I think boy pups must be slow - it took Stylle about 3-4 days of doing serious biting ) to leave her alone.

But, lucky ( ? ) me, he plays with me all the time.

This is a picture of the little boy-pup wondering what MOM is up to. He can be cute when he wants something - like ALL of MOM's attention.

I think he should stop being cute and then MOM could play with all of us. But, NNNOOOOO - he wants ALL the attention. Stupid, boy-pup.

It looks like he has horns growing out the top of his head but MOM says it's just the way his hair is marked ( Personally, I KNOW those are horns.

He is soooo mean - he bites me all the time and gets in the way so I can't sit next to MOM and cuddle. )

Guess, I'll close for now as Travis is in here chewing on my feet and legs and with his baby teeth - IT HURTS!!!!!

`Bye for now,

Chloe.

Hi Everyone!

I'm back again with some info about my baby brother.

If you go to www.ukcdogs.com and then click on the site ( on the right side of the page ) where it talks about the 2008 Autumn Oaks and then click on 2008 Autumn Oaks bench show candids, you'll come to a page of pictures. About 1/2 way down the page ( or for those of you who would rather count the pictures ) - if you count down 20 pictures you'll come to a pair of pictures.

One of the pictures ( on the left side of the page ) shows 2 women in the " Thompson Hillbilly " golf cart. Just opposite this picture is my MOM holding my brand new baby brother !!!!!!! Even tho it isn't a good picture of MOM, it shows my baby brother and just how cute he is. I'm hoping to find this picture of MOM and Travis in the October issue of Coonhound Bloodlines so I can post it here.

MOM and I were looking at the UKC website when we found the pictures. Well, I immediately told Stylle about it, but as usual she didn't want to see anything that has to do with Travis ( but she did look at MOM's picture ).

Well, I need to close because Vinnie, Maggie, Cather, and Rosie are loose in the backyard AGAIN - MOM had to put them up this morning and they're out again. Something tells me that they are in big trouble now.

I will be back soon with more pictures of Travis and the rest of us here at ValleView Farms and Duegar Kennels.

So `bye for now.

Chloe, Style, Travis, and MOM

Hi Everyone!

I'm here to introduce all of you to the newest member of the Farm and Duegar Kennels.

I suppose I should give you a little background on Duegar Kennels before you meet the " new kid on the block ".

MOM started Duegar Kennels back in the late 70's or early 80's when SHE was raising dachshunds and doing color breeding with them ( whatever that is, SHE says I'm too young to know about that kind of stuff ).

Anyway ... She showed the dachshunds and did fairly well in that she put points on one of the first dappled ( you spotted Shetland breeders will read this as " spotted " ) dachshund in the midwest ( second only to her father - the first dapple dachshund champion in the country ). SHE also tried to breed for a chocolate dapple dachshund before going back to school to get a degree in nursing.

After school, SHE started breeding Labrador retrievers ( Stylle: yes, this is where I come in at. ).

And did some showing with Mama Dee ( she has a trophy form when she was in a show that she showed me one day ). Stylle : MOM also showed my mom but Jynxie didn't like the show ring so she came home and had me and Vinnie.

Now, SHE is returning to school to finish HER bachelors ( ??? ) degree and possibly a Masters (?) degree.

I came here 3 years ago after Thanksgiving and have been here since.

MOM says I am her girl-pup but can't be bred ( SHE said I had some type of thing done to my tummy so I can't have babies ). MOM says that I get to help HER with any new pups that come here AND that leads us to today.

MOM has been telling me that SHE wants to get me a new baby brother or sister but wasn't sure if SHE was going to do it now ( with school starting on Tuesday. I wonder what " school " is ? )

SHE came home last Friday from a big coonhound dog show ( that's what I am !!! ) with the most handsome boy I have ever seen !!!!!!!

He is a red-head ( like me ) and has lovely deep brown eyes and the prettiest ( can you say that about a boy ? ) red-ticked ( MOM says this is kinda like spots ) coat. His " registered " name ( MOM says this is just a fancy name on papers ) is Duegar's 4Evr N Evr Amen but I get to call him " Travis ".

MOM won't let me play too rough with him because Travis is just a baby ( he will be 8 weeks on tomorrow ) but we do get fairly roudy when MOM isn't looking. MOM said that when SHE was carrying him to the car to bring him home that Wayne Cavanaugh ( the president of the United Kennel Club ) stopped HER and took HER and Travis's picture for Coonhound Bloodlines magazine ( I must admit it is a nice magazine with pictures of all kinds of coonhounds - and now MY MOM and BABY BROTHER will have their pictures in it. WOW!!!!!! ). He must be some special kind of brother to have such an important man take his picture.

We haven't had any time to take any pictures of me and Stylle with Travis but MOM says we will soon.

Stylle : I wish MOM hadn't brought this thing home with her. He stinks and has VERY sharp teeth. I bit him about 3 times to make sure he knew NOT to bother me. Altho I do have to admit he does keep Chloe busy so she doesn't bother me much any more. So, I guess he can stay for a while as long as he understands that I am the boss around here.

Anyway, I really like Travis even if he does play with my toys. I hope he stays for a LLLLLOOOONNNGGGG time. ( even tho Stylle doesn't like him. She acted the same way when I came here to live wiith her and MOM ).

So, I'm going to go see if Travis is awake yet ( he takes a lot of naps - MOM says it's because he's a baby ) and ask MOM if we can go outside and play for a little bit.

I will be back real soon with pictures of MOM and me and Stylle and Travis. MOM said as long as I'm a good girl that I can come back and tell everyone bout Travis. It's so hard to be good but if it means I can use the computer WITHOUT getting in trouble I'll do it.

See everyone soon.

Chloe, big sister to Travis. And Stylle, too.

The Tour de Fleece is over .....................................

It's been over for about a week now and, unfortunately, I wasn't able to do any more spinning than I did at the start. Thanks to a change in my work schedule, I wasn't able to finish anything ( it's hard to spin when you work 7 straight night shifts in a row, with 3 of them being 12 hours long and the rest being 8 hours ) it doesn't make for much time but sleep a few ( maybe 4-5 per day ) and work and somehow eat in between all this.

Chloe and Stylle were not at all impressed with this work schedule and they will like next weeks even less. As of Monday 8/4 I will be working 8 days in a row. I normally don't do things like this but I'm transitioning from a 13 week contract to per diem until another contract becomes available. That is, if I live thru this. * sigh *

I finally got my sheep shears from Premier One and they look HUGE. I haven't tried them yet, but I will, probably after Labor Day when I'll have some time ( I'm taking a well earned vacation during the week of the big coonhound show on Labor Day weekend ). I don't have a dog in it,but I'm going to be looking for a new puppy so Chloe can be a " big sister ". If I find the pup I want, I'll be bringing her home with me ( yes, I said " her " because I want a little girl-pup to go with my big Girl-Pup ). Stylle was heard the other day to be muttering something about another one of those damned loud-mouthed coonhounds coming to live in her house - I don't think she's too happy with the prospect of having another pup around since Chloe will be 3 in Oct. Poor Stylle, I guess I just upset her apple cart.

Well, as usual, Chloe is quiet and that ain't good so I'd better see what she's into.

Come back and see the new baby ( hopefully ) after Labor Day.

Fuzzy Fuzzy Fuzzy

Sorry for the fuzziness of the picture but the camera is having a " bad hair day ".

This is the first part of the first single of Baron's roving that I've spun for the Tour De Fleece. It's a little finer than I wanted so I'll have to spin the other singles a bit thicker to make it the weight I want. It did spin up easily, I just didn't have much time to work on it and haven't done anything since Monday because of work ( I keep trying to convince the dogs and the sheep that if they wouldn't eat then I could stay home with them and get more done. For some reason they don't like that idea. Silly animals. )

I have been knitting with this yarn for about 10 days and I love it. It's Noro Taiyo yarn and it's made up of 40% cotton, 30% silk, 15 % wool and 15 % nylon. It has a nice soft handle and stripes it self into some of the prettiest fabric I've ever worked with. I was going to make a sweater of my own design but decided 1/2 way thru the back that I wanted it made into a cardigan. So, I will continue to knit it as if it were a sweater but when I'm finished I will cut the front ( I plan on putting steeks in the front ) and knitting on button bands. I think I will get more use out of it as a cardigan than a sweater.

This is what the yarn looks like knit up so far. The colors from my camera don't show up as pretty as in person. The fabric has a lot of green in it but it also has some very pretty blues, peachy oranges, purples ( from a lilac/lavender to a rich deep royal purple ) and blacks. It's interesting to see the progression of the colors within the stripes because almost all of the colors found in the yarn are seen in the stripes as they're knit. It's a very entertaining yarn. I normally only wear striped socks but with this yarn I'll make an exception ( besides I figure if others don't like it , then they don't have to look. ).

More later.

Le Tour De Fleece

Here is the roving I plan to spin into a 3-ply worsted weight yarn for my cardigan. It's from my favorite wether, Baron, who I lost 1 year ago this past March.

Baron was one of the few Perendales in the States. He started out as a very dark chocolate moorit when I got him. After his 1st shearing with me, his fleece started to lighten with the increase in grey fibers. He continued to lighten til his death, when he was the color of coffee with a lit of cream in it . His fleece has always had a very soft handle and is springy when spun into yarn. I have spun some of his darker fleece into yarn that will go to make an aran sweater.

This is the cardigan I plan on making out of Baron's wool that I will be spinning in the Tour De Fleece. It's called Oblique and calls for 19 balls of yarn that have 72 yds/ 40 gm ball ( which figures out to 1368 yds needed - I like my cardigans to be big enough that I can wear another sweater beneath it ). I'm gonna try my best to get at least a good bit of it done during these next 3 weeks and I will be posting daily, or as close to daily as my job and sleep schedule will allow, so you can see how things are coming along.

Well, it's time to get off the computer, dust off the wheel and get started on this yarn. Will post more soon. Good luck to all who participate.