Friday Felines

Zeus, the wool-seeking missile.

For the Children

I'm not going to write too much tonight.

I am making good progress on my March Sweater Madness project. Worked through two and a half balls of wool today.

Mainly, I want you to visit Dorothy's blog. She has a great post (and a super easy pattern) about finger puppets and the difference they make in children's lives. You can too. After all, I don't know a single knitter that doesn't have leftover yarn from one project or another. It doesn't take a lot. Believe me.

Did you Notice??

It's March already! This year is zooming right along.

Of course, March means March Sweater Madness so hop over there for a peak, check out the patterns, and the prize. Then join me in the race to finish a sweater this month.

I promise it's absolutely satisfying. You'll have your very own cheering section and lots of support! And hopefully once April rolls around you'll also have a pretty sweater to show off.

This is the one that I'll be working on:

I dug through my stash today and came up with two possible yarns, which I will be swatching tonight to see if I get gauge. Yes. Me: swatching! Will wonders never cease??

I'm looking forward to working on this sweater. Rather easy, since it's mostly worked in a rib.

This will be a sizable project in Surmounting the Stash too, so that's another reason for my excitement.

Friday Felines

Grrrr. This was bound to happen sooner or later. Repairs will require crazy glue.

Pandora sleeping the sleep of an innocent.

Zeus: You're gonne be in trouble!

Only a Short Wait Now

I was so excited to see these lovely feathered friends returning to my yard, if only for a little while. Sure sign that spring can't be far off now, right? (The blurrier photos where taken through my screen door, I was worried about scaring them off.)

Finally DONE

Friday Felines

Guarding the sheep and goats (at a friend's farm).

Practice

I have finally learned to spin, well enough that I am starting to acquire a fibre stash (HEY, don't you look at me that way!) I was almost caught up with my spinning but I may have had a weak moment in the face of a 50% off sale on BFL at Gaspereau Valley Fibres. I think I came home with slightly over a kilo in two different colourways. It's so pretty. I'll show you, maybe tomorrow. It's way too dark now to take photos of fibre. And there may have been another incident with an online fibre sale. (It hasn't arrived yet, so maybe I just dreamed it.)

Why am I going on about this when I should be knitting down my stash? (In my defence, the stash would be reducing if I stopped introducing new acquisitions to it.) Well, I discovered some like-minded ladies and we've decided to form a team and participate in the International Back to Back Wool Challenge. Yay! I am really, really excited. I've watched the Sheep Thrills at Gaspereau for a couple years now and it looks like a whole lot of fun.

We practiced spinning in the grease today. Wow. What a difference. The practice fleece is quite nice and not very dirty, thank goodness. I've discovered that I have to be less picky: learn to live with some small vegetative matter, and not be so precise. This is going to be a race, after all. Fast is good, slow is not so good. I have some singles to ply at home so I can practice knitting in the grease. I bet that will be a learning experience!

I even spent some time looking up some links regarding this Challenge. North America's fastest knitter had an interesting first experience. You can read about it here: http://www.spinnersquarterly.com/articles-woolchallenge.html

And if you're interested of putting together your own team, you can find the rules and pattern here:
http://www.paulbunyan.net/users/bsellon/intlchallenge.html

I'd love to know if any of you are thinking of joining in this challenge. You are welcome to come cheer us on in June (date not set as yet) at Noah's Place Farm in Clarence. Hint: there is a shop with fibre and yarn and goat soap and ....

I Won!

Dorothy had a little contest and I won! Woot! Interwoven is lovely and will be on my needles before the week is out, or as soon as I finish the second lace sock (I finally finished the first one last night). The socks are a priority as you can see from this picture. Well, I may be over-dramatizing the need for new hand knit socks. My drawer is stuffed full with them, but not a single pair is all pretty and lacy. It's a Mary Maxim pattern for lacy Bamboo socks but I'm using a Fleece Artist Yarn that's all shiny and awesome and should last longer than the one at right. It's the same pattern that I used for mom's infamous yellow socks. Very easy to memorize and impressive as a finished object. What's not to like?

I know it's not Friday, but I couldn't resist posting this photo. It makes me happy and that's a good thing.

Friday Felines

What are You looking at??