Regia Trio

Three more small batches of Regia sock yarn to knit up, and I will have freed up another cubby in my stash de-clutter programme.

Both above batches are from the Mini Ringel series (mini stripes). Three colours of double stripes on a 4th colour background.

This series was MADE for those who want both socks in a pair to match. Very easy to find the repeat.

On the other hand,

There is a reason this yarn is from the Crazy Color series. You will go crazy trying to find the repeat. Nice look in the pattern, but the repeat only comes once in a Medium adult sock.

My solution - knit one pair that don't match and see where the $#&#@#@ pattern begins. Then knit another pair that match.

So, this will be another free cubby on the shelf. (Not that I'll be out of Regia - three more cubbies are waiting their turn to be deRegialated).

You were asking about Triplet Lambs - and how I decide which lamb to remove if the mother doesn't have enough milk to raise all three.

If there is an odd one out, that's normally who I'll take.

In yesterday's case Maggie was slow to her feet, a bit depressed and not too interested in suckling. Her two siblings were much smaller, but equal in size, and fairly aggressive about locking onto the teats. Maggie is the one who would get left behind, so I chose her to remove.

If there had been two weaker ones and one stronger one, I would have removed the stronger one, and penned the mother with the other two until they were up and at'em - usually 3 or 4 days - and then taken them back to pasture.

Biff Gets a Friend

Biff got a friend today.

That's Biff on the left, and Maggie on the right. Maggie was born yesterday, a triplet. Her mother is only a yearling and won't have nearly enough milk to raise three. I left her overnight so she could get the all important colostrum from her mother, and this morning removed her to join Biff as a poddy.

You can see how tiny Biff is. Maggie, is just shy of 10 lbs.

Meanwhile in one of the lambing paddocks:

This group is enjoying a mid day siesta in the shade of an elm grove.

Lorna's Shepherd Wooltop
I unpacked a box from Lorna's. These are all Shepherd Wooltop - 100% superwash merino; ~ 7 yds/ 5 oz.

While intended primarily for hand spinning, needle felters like these tops because they include several colours in a theme within a single pack.

(Being superwash, it would not do for wet felting.)

Blue Jeans

Devon

Motherlode

Desert Flower

River

Rainbow

Vera

Regia Jacquard Color

I'm on a mission to clear another cubby in my stash shelving.

This Medium sized pair of socks is Regia Jacquard Color # 5269.

I may have knit more in this yarn than even in Lorna's Blue Jeans. It was my first 'greatest hit' ;o) I found 10 balls in the stash and now have zero.

Same yarn in a size Medium beaded socks.

Here's a close up of the bead work. The beads, applied while knitting, are 6mm pony beads in black, navy, fuchsia, green, yellow and orange. The yellow is an orangey-yellow so isn't a lot different from the orange. I haven't been able to find 'sunshine yellow' beads ;o(

And a few other colourways in the Jacquard series:

This Medium sized pair is colour # 5241.

And this Small sized pair is colour # 5242.

I don't knit a lot of size Small (ladies shoe 4 - 5.5 US/CAN). The leg and foot are 10 rows each shorter than my sized Medium. And the hem top is a 2:1 mock rib instead of a 3:1. The foot is actually the same length as a kids 7-9, but the latter is narrower in both the leg and foot. They are knit on the Legare 400, 54 cylinder.

And on the farm....

This is Biff, and he is the first poddy (bottle lamb) of 2008. His (very stupid) mother kept losing him, and eventually forgot she had him.

He is under 5 lbs. (Typical birth weight on this farm is 10 - 12 lbs.) I named him Biff after the main character in a book I'm currently reading.

You may recall:

Iddy Biddy Thang - my first poddy last year - she became deaf and blind and couldn't keep up with her litter mates and was wasting away. You may also recall that she got better and regained her sight and hearing and earned herself a special place in my flock.

This is Iddy Biddy Thang this morning, with her own baby. The baby is huge (~ 16 lbs). She had a protracted delivery, but in the end managed all on her ownself.

In the photo the baby's head looks huge.

It was huge.

It's not uncommon in a long delivery when the head is in the birth canal for an extended period of time that the head swells. Sometimes quite ghastly looking with eyes bugged out and all. But as long as they aren't completely strangled, they recover. In a few days the head will be back to normal.

Quiet Simplicity

This is my first completed batch of the colourway Quiet Simplicity by Prochem for fall/winter 2008/09

The dyes are all Prochem Washfast Acid Dye. The yarn is my own 2 ply mule spun (worsted weight) 100% wool, ~ 210m/112g.

The variegation is muted in the darker tones, and more variable in the lighter tones.

I like the colourway, but I don't particularly care for the Maple Sugar Deep (far left) interacting with the Grasshopper (far right). I personally prefer this set as a group of 5, with either the Maple Sugar Deep OR the Grasshopper, but not both.

(The colour chit on Prochem site shows the Grasshopper as a deeper green with not so much yellow - I think that would work with the Maple Sugar just fine - hmmm - maybe I'll another batch at a deeper value.)

Maple Sugar Deep

Charcoal Grey Lite

Mauve

Charcoal Grey Dark

Grasshopper

In the email

This pair of socks knit by LC2 of London ON (not to be confused with LC1, also of London ON!) using my HP Theme hand painted sock yarn. The yarn is my own 75/25 wool/nylon; ~ 400 y/100+ g; painted with various tones of cranberry and toffee.

Bit of this and that...

This is a Yearling Ewe. So, she is just coming on two years old.

Her flight zone (comfort circle) is about 50 feet 'stronger' than her mothering instinct. Recall how the older ewe in last photo series stayed right by her lambs while I tagged and photoed them. Her bond to her lambs was stronger than her comfort circle.

In the Dye Room

This is part of a new series I'm working on. These two batches are Grasshopper and Plum.

And this is two different values of Charcoal Grey. The darker batch using 5.4 tsp dye per 2 lbs yarn, and the lighter value using 0.4 tsp/2 lb.

The yarn is my 2 ply mule spun worsted weight, 100% wool, ~ 210m/112g.

On the Sock Machine

I had a few part balls of my Sky Blues leftover. In this first pair I put it together with my Chestnut Plum.

And in this pair I've the Sky Blues together with my Cranberry Toffee.

Both pairs of socks are sized Medium and knit on the Legare 400, 54 needle cylinder with my own 75/25 wool/nylon fingering weight sock yarn.

Lego knitting machine

The Soxophone Player was hit with a nasty virus ;o(

I hope to be blogging properly next week.

In the meantime, check out the Lego Knitting Machine...

The Real Sock Makers

Naked Ladies

The girls are all a titter. What with being parted from their fleece. (Or fleeced from their part?)

Each fleece is laid out on the 'skirting table' as it comes off the sheep.

The bits of yuk, goo, poo and other undesirable matter are pulled off and discarded. Once skirted, the fleece is then rolled up and packed in large burlap bags for shipping.

Fleece dealt with, the ladies given their spring oral dose of de-worming medication, sorted into lambing groups, and off they go to the lambing paddocks.

The sheep are Set Stocked at a rate of ~ 5 per acre in the different lambing paddocks. The far paddock in the picture is 6 acres and so has 30 ewes. The near paddock is only 2 acres and so has 10 ewes. And so on amongst all the lambing paddocks.

From today, until the youngest lamb will be 30 days old, the farm will be managed in favour of the lambs. That is to say, all farming decisions consider the needs of the lambs first. The ewes, pastures, any any other aspects become secondary.

Yesterday's pics featured sheep shearer, Donny. If you noticed in the pictures - there is no time during his work in which his back is not stooped. The only time he is vertical is when he lets one sheep go and steps into the catch pen to grab the next.

Meanwhile at the farm...

Sky Blues

Here's a pair of size Medium beaded socks. I knit them on the Legare 400, 54 cylinder.

The beads are white wood pony beads, 6mm, applied during the knit with a 1.25mm crochet hook.

The yarn is my own 75/25 wool/nylon, ~400y/100+g, colour Sky Blues.

I was pleased how these turned out, so I knit a few pairs while I was on a roll ;o)

In the Dye Room
I've started working on a new colour theme for Fall/Winter 2008/09.

The first two colours are Maple Sugar and Mauve, both at ~ 2.7 tsp washfast acid dye per pound of yarn. The yarn is my own 2 ply worsted weight, 100% mule spun wool.

And on the farm:

Jesse and I scouted the back 40 yesterday, looking for bodies or other signs of predation.

The sheep have been acting VERY strange for a few days now. They are refusing to go out back, even though that's where the excellent grass is and they have no access to the front pastures.

It's hard for a person to find a dead sheep out back (except after a few warm steamy days) as there is some heavy brush, but Jesse's keen nose would take me to anything untoward.

We didn't find a thing, so I can only presume they have seen or smelt coyotes, even if they haven't yet been hit.

With lambing due to start (yesterday) I can't have them refusing feed, so I've opened one of the front pastures I was reserving for later use.

And all is well.

For now.....

World Wide Knit in Public Day
Have you heard of this?

It's on June 14th, 2008. That's a Saturday.

I read about it in a newsletter from Pickup Sticks. They are one of the hosting partners.

Cool idea!

Red Delicious

This is Apple Laine's Apple Pie, colour Red Delicious. 50% wool 20% mohair, 20% silk, 10% nylon. ~ 174m/56g.

And here are two skeins knit up into a pair of Medium Sized socks on my Legare 400, 54 needle cylinder.

Each sock weights 45 grams, so I'm not sure if I'd be able to squeak a Medium + pair out of two skeins on the 72 cylinder or not. Definitely not a Large pair (with MY recipes).

The knit is stiff, like the other silk, bamboo and tencel blends I use, and 1/2 turn looser than usual 4 ply worked best for me.

Make no mistake about it, this is the softest, most sensual yarn this side of cashmere.

The weight of yarn is about midway between 4 ply and 6 ply, IMHO (another reason for looser tension).

Kids Today.

These are some of GK3's stuffed toys. He has too many to fit on one bed, so there are some piles in other places too.

(Egad, is this the GK version of a stash!)

When I was a boy - besides walking 3 miles to school, dragging my canoe behind me - I had ONE stuffed toy.

His name was Teddy. Of course. He had belonged to a late great uncle and had lost his fur and one eye long before I adopted him. But Teddy and I were inseparable. For more years than I care to admit.

Each summer when I went off to camp the first and last thing I did before leaving was to make sure Teddy was in my suitcase.

But when I was 'old enough' my mother pulled a fast one on me and spirited Teddy away from my suitcase. Well! My first few weeks at camp were miserable, but eventually I adjusted, and life went on without Teddy. And by the time I returned home at summer's end I had forgotten all about him.

My mother passed about 10 years ago. In the end, her life space became much smaller and her 'personal effects' had been reduced pretty much to one shoe box we found tucked away in her closet.

In the shoe box - her personal papers and:

Happy Mother's Day to all of you who are, and all of you who would be.