Bye Hopper

If you have livestock, you have to be prepared for deadstock

I don't know who came up with that quote, but it's so true. I don't really consider my hens livestock, though, I consider them pets. Hopper, a buff Orpington, was the leader of my little flock. She got egg bound on December 8th. We brought her inside and put her in a box with a heat lamp and some food and water. I was hoping I'd find her running around the house because she flew out of the box, but it wasn't meant to be. She was very lethargic when I brought her in, so I just held her on my lap for a while. I left her overnight in the box. She didn't seem to be in distress when I left her. In the morning, however, it was pretty obvious she was in pain. She was panting and bearing down (trying to get that egg out, I assume). I called a friend who's daughter is in vet school as well as our own vet, and the consensus was to slaughter her. I wish I could say I was brave and just slaughtered her myself, but I'm not, and as I said before: she was a pet. I took her to a local Amish butcher and asked him to do the deed. He said he didn't really have time (they were very busy dressing deer). I said I didn't want the meat, I just wanted her put out of her misery. He agreed to do it (which was very, very nice of him.) I left her with him. She was a really good layer and a very friendly hen. I'll miss her.

We're down to a flock of 4 now: Grace (another Buff Orpington), Ada (an Ameraucana who lays big, blue-green eggs), Annie and Dora (both Australorps). I'm already starting to think of what I want to get to add to the flock in the spring. I'm thinking maybe a couple more Ameraucanas and a couple of Welsummers or Marans. I want hens that will be as friendly as the girls we have now.

Baby Hopper

Grown-up Hopper

Christmas card...done!

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Happy Thanksgiving

I have so much to be thankful for this year: 

• My daughter and my older son both graduated from college this year and they both, very recently, got jobs.  
• My younger son has been accepted into the Art Institute in Vancouver...now we just need to find the money to pay for it.  
• My husband and I are still crazy in love with each other.
• I got 6 chicks in the spring and now am getting 2-4 eggs every day
• Went on a lovely vacation with my older son, his fiancee, my younger son, and my DH this summer.  It was a 9-day cruise from Norfolk to the Caribbean and back.
• DH and I are both in good health
• DH and I are both working full-time (such a blessing in this economy)
• We have a warm, welcoming home
• We have many dear friends and a very supportive extended family
• We remain firm in our faith and involved in our wonderful parish 

Chicken news:
As mentioned above, the girls are laying pretty regularly now.  We are getting eggs every day.  We have 4 girls that lay brown eggs and 1 that lays blue eggs.  The eggs are absolutely delicious and the yolks are dark, dark yellowish-orange.  I make egg casserole for Thanksgiving morning every year...and this year was no different EXCEPT that I made it with our very own eggs this year.  I made some corn pudding tonight with our eggs, too.  The "pudding" part of the corn pudding was as dark as the corn after it was cooked due to our healthful, organic eggs. 

Knitting news:
I have several projects I'd like to finish before Christmas.  I have finished a simple cabled cowl for my BFF in a wonderful feeling 100% cashmere.  I am making a hat for my godson.  The ribbing is done and the rest of the hat will be done as soon as my size 6-16" circular needle arrives in the mail.  I am also working on a pair of flip-top mitts for my BFF's daughter who is teaching English as a second language in South Korea.  I am making a button-up vest for my DH, and a central park hoodie for my DD.  I am hoping to make felted slippers for my DH, DD, and DSIL (those are lower priority than the other items.) 

I am also trying to finish up the wedding present I started for my DD: a nice, warm cabled afghan.  They've been married almost 18 months, so it really does need to get done soon!!! 

Peace.

Goodbye to Gravy

Gravy was a beautiful, 17 year old, black cat with a kink in her tail.  DH and I got her when she was just a kitten.  She has always been my cat.  She would sit on my lap and give me love bites when I pet her tummy.  She would use her paws to put my hands in the right place - and keep them there.  Unfortunately, she'd been sick for the last few years with a thyroid problem.  We had her on medication, but she still lost lots of weight (over 1/2 of her body weight).  In the last few weeks she was having trouble walking straight and her back legs often failed when she jumped off of the couch.

Christmas - 2008

I will miss her very loud purr the most.  I will also miss her eccentricities.  She loved laying on any kind of paper and she liked to chew on plastic bags.

Happy (almost) Labor Day!

I finished my corset-t last weekend.  Not totally loving it, but at least it's done!  The shoulders are a bit too big and I'm not sure where I can wear it.  I decided to sew the front together and then sew the buttons on so it LOOKS like it buttons up the front, but I don't have to worry about gap-o-sis.  I made it out of Encore worsted, a wool / acrylic blend, (in my defense I didn't know any better when I start it!) and it's really pretty hot for what should be a summer top. 

I finished my cabled fingerless mitts last night.  A little story about those:  I whipped out the first mitt, the right mitt, in just a day (thanks to an all-day faculty meeting).  These are worsted weight, easy mitts...I'm not really all that fast.  I'm starting to feel a little cocky, so I start the next mitt right away at another (much shorter) meeting.  I'm cruising along on that mitt.  I remember to reverse the cable.  When I made the first mitt, I noticed the ribbing at the fingers is a little loose, so I decided to go down a needle size for the top ribbing.  All that's left is the thumb, so I quickly try it on (really, just to admire it and my work)...and that's when it becomes, as the Yarn Harlot says, wine o'clock.  I remember to reverse the cable, but I did NOT remember to reverse the thumb placement...so I now have TWO right mitts.  ::sigh:: (the good news: the smaller needle size has helped to tighten up the top ribbing just enough.)  I cast on the left mitt (really, this time), and manage to knit 2 together in my cable by accident.  This causes me to tink almost 2 rows.  At this point, the mitts go to a brief time out.  It's not a hard to fix mistake, but it's extra frustrating because I've just made these same mitts TWICE.  :: harumph ::  After a brief time out, I finish up the mitt (in just a couple of hours).  At this point, I just wanted the darn things done.  So, did I use smaller needles to make the top ribbing smaller?  No, because I was in a hurry and just forgot!  grrrr.  Oh well, they fit ok.  They're nice and soft and I may try to shrink them just a teeny bit in the wash. 

The chickens are 18 and 16 weeks old now and they are really getting big!  The older girls, Gracie, Hopper, and Ada, should start laying in the next month or so (if we're lucky).  Hopper's comb and waddles are really developing and she's starting to look "grown-up".  She the one in the foreground in the picture to the right.

The little girls, Annie and Dora, (ok, I guess I'll have to start calling them the younger girls) are getting big, too! 

Annie and Dora

Ada and Gracie

My DH finished the trim work on the coop a month ago (or more).  Here, finally, are some pictures of both the coop and the run (which can now be moved separately and then attached to each other).  We find we're moving them about once a week.  The girls manage to dig at least one chicken-sized hole in the grass during that week. 

Finally, a pic of my grand-puppy (older son's puppy who lives with us while DS figures out his permanent living arrangements for his new job) - she's almost 5 months old.

I have yarn for 4 new projects: some pretty red tonal yarn for another Ishbel shawl, some charcoal gray superwash for a vest for my DH for Christmas, some teal green Cascade Sierra (cotton  and wool) for a Miette sweater, and some purple Ultra Alpaca for a Vivian sweater.  Now that the weather is starting to cool off, I feel a MAJOR bout of start-itis coming on!

A new beginning

It's just about time for school to start again...yaay!  I can't wait to meet all of my new students.

On the knitting front:

• I'm almost finished my corset-t (ok, so it took several years to finish).  I just need to tuck in the ends and sew on the buttons.  One reason I've procrastinated on this is that I don't really think I like it that much now that it's done.  Time will tell if I wear it a lot or not.
• I have finished my Soleil tank (yaay!)  I love how it turned out.  I did frog about 1/3 of it, then re-did it.  I read the directions incorrectly and thought it would be fine...but it wasn't.  Now that I've made it correctly...it looks great!
• I have started some new socks - Cookie A's BFF socks.  I'm using Mini-Mochi yarn in a rainbow colorway.  Mini-Mochi is a single-ply yarn.  It's a bit like knitting with roving to me.  I am using size 0 needles and it feels like I'm knitting with long toothpicks.  I am going to carry socks and / or mitts to knit everywhere I go from now on.  They're easy to keep in my purse and you never know when you'll catch a few minutes to work on them.
• I have started some new mitts to match the cowl I made in February.  I was in an 8 hour meeting (blech!) this past Thursday.  I cast on for one of the mitts at the beginning of the meeting.  By meeting's end, I was done all but the thumb of that mitt!  I finished it up the very next day and cast on the second mitt (which I've had to frog twice so far)
• My biggest knitting accomplishment this summer:  I am now a continental knitter.  I have been wanting to learn the continental method for a long time and this summer I watched youtube videos and practiced until I got it.  It took 3 dishcloths to get anywhere near comfortable with it.  My knitting is still not quite as even as it used to be, but I know that will come with more practice.  I was considering going back to throwing so my knitting would be nice and even again.  I started knitting something the "old" way and decided it's WAAAYYY too slow.  I occasionally throw now, but I really think continental is much faster and has the potential (for me) to get even faster.
• Oh, I almost forgot:  I finished my Monkey socks this summer, too!  I should have gone down 2 needle sizes, so they're a bit too big, but they're fine for keeping my tooties warm at home.

Soleil tank

On the parenting front:

• DD (the oldest) is waiting to take her PTA boards
• DS (middle) just got a job offer (FINALLY!)...it's not the ideal job, but it's a job!  Ideally, he want to be a Java programmer, but he's taking a help desk job for now.  Hope this economy improves soon!  A BA in Computer Science should be worth more than $12 an hour.
• DS (the youngest) had a TERRIBLE accident last month.  He came around a blind curve, there was a deer in the road, he swerved to miss it, went up an embankment and rolled the car.  Car is totaled.  DS was wearing his seat belt.  He came away with a couple of scratches.  Next time: hit the darn deer!  If you look at the car, you wonder how many people died in the accident...it was that bad.  I am SOOOO thankful he wasn't hurt. 

Before the accident

After the accident

On the chicken front:

• The girls are getting big!  Gracie, Hopper, and Ada are 17 weeks old and Annie and Dora are 15 weeks old.  We should be getting eggs in the next month or so.  Hopper's comb and waddle are getting much bigger and redder...that's a good sign that she'll be laying soon, I think.

Hopper

Ada

Dora

 

 

 

 

A loss, in chickens and in knitting

The hens are getting SO BIG!  Alas, this growth also reveals their gender a bit more clearly.   I was suspecting that Lovelace, one of my ameraucanas, was a cockerel and not a pullet.  As I was walking toward the coop one morning last week I heard a funny noise.  At first I thought it was our Amish neighbors calling their horses for morning chores, but as I got closer to the coop, I realized the noise was coming from inside the coop.  The noise sounded like a teenage cock-a-doodle-doo.  So, we took Lovelace to one of our Amish neighbors that has chickens.  He'll either be their dinner someday soon or they'll breed him with some of their hens so they can have blue or green eggs.  I'm betting on dinner.  I'm worried that one of my austrolorps might be a rooster too.  The 2 austrolorps are a couple of weeks younger than the others, so it may be a few weeks before I know when I have a male or not.  Chicken loss: 1 cockerel (my choice, but it still makes be sad)

On to knitting adventures:  I have been working on a Soliel tank top in Knitpicks' cotlin (a cotton-linen blend). I realized about 2/3 of the through that I had made a major mistake.  I hemmed and hawed and put it aside for a few days.  At that point I decided that I could make adjustments and make it work.  I finished it up, kitchnered the shoulders and tried it on...not good.  So I put it aside again for a few days while I was trying to decide if I should undo it or suck it up and wear it as is.  I decided I'd never wear it because it didn't fit properly, so today, I frogged it back to the bust line. Knitting loss: half of a tank top

I have made some VERY yummy yarn purchases recently:  I bought some ultra alpaca in a really nice purple.  I'm going to make a Vivian sweater for the fall from it.  I also bought some REALLY beautiful green, blue, and yellow malabrigo to make a Cecilia sweater.  I can't wait to cast on for it!

Guess what I'm doing now though?  Making discloths!  No, really.  I'm trying to make myself learn to knit continentally.  I was hoping to take a class, but I can't seem to find one, so I'm teaching myself using youtube videos.  I have knitting down pretty well, my gauge is getting much more even.  Purling still feels a bit weird, but it's starting to feel a little more normal.  I have 2 dishcloths done (the first was all knitting, the second was just knit and purl).  I want to do at least one more that has some holes (lace) in it, so I can practice yo's, ssk, and k2tog.  I had to do some of that for the 1st dishcloth, but I often cheated and went back to throwing to do that part.  I can already tell that continental will be much, much faster as soon as I get better at it.  It's so much more efficient in terms of body movement.  I hope I get more comfortable and faster with it soon!

A picture of Lovelace (remember, I thought he was a she when I named him) just before I gave him away:

Chickens, engagements, knitting....life is so good!

First, family news:  My older son is engaged!  He and his fiancee (wow, it feels weird to type that!) are graduating from college next week.  They met the first day of college, so I think they know each other well enough.  She is a wonderfully nice person and we are so happy for them.  No news on a date yet.

Now, chicken news:  All of our peeps are here!  The first 4 peeps (2 buff orpingtons and 2 ameraucanas) came 2 weeks ago and the last 2 peeps (2 australorps) came yesterday.  What are their names?  Oh, glad you asked!  One of the buffs is Grace (we've been calling her Gracie) and the other is Hopper.  Back story:  I teach Management Information Systems at a university.  Captain Grace Hopper, PhD is one of the first women computer scientists.  My ameraucanas are Ada and Lovelace.  Ada, Countess of Lovelace (Lord Byron's daughter) is considered to be the first computer programmer.  She worked on programs for Charles Babbage's difference engine way back in the early 1800s.  Our 2 new babies are Annie and Dora.  Annie is named after Annie Easley.  Ms. Easley worked at NASA as a computer scientist from 1958-1999. I chose the names Grace, Hopper, Ada, and Lovelace.  When I first talked of getting peeps, my daughter asked me if she would be allowed to name one the them.  After realizing my "theme" (ok, it's really just a bit of dorkiness on my part), she chose Annie.  She did her little bit of research and called me with some possibilities and we chose Annie together.  My daughter's husband was hoping to name one of babies, too (although I didn't know that).  He suggested Dora.  He and my daughter were married on the cruise ship Explorer of the Seas last year, so he was thinking Dora the Explorer.  I thought it was very sweet, so, while Dora isn't a computer scientist, she is a really cute little peep!  Here are some pictures of my new babies. 

Ada:

Lovelace on left, Ada on right

 Gracie (on the feeder), Hopper, Ada, and Lovelace

The girls yesterday (wow - they grow so fast)

 DoraAnnie

I haven't been knitting much lately, but I have been working my my monkey socks a tiny bit.



Life is so good!

Finished one afghan....YAY!

I promised my son's girlfriend that I'd make her a nice, warm blanket / afghan for Christmas (btw, I meant Christmas 2009.)  Well, I just finished it (finally!)  It was super-duper easy (all knitting) and super-duper boring.  I used Cascade eco-wool in natural colors and it's very lovely.  It's the Moderne Log Cabin blanket from the Mason-Dixon knitting book.  DH is stretching it out...it is really even.

Travelling woman done (in both senses!)

I don't usually travel very frequently.  I go to one professional conference every year and I try to get to Brussels once a year (to visit my BFF).  There are some years when I don't get a chance to go to Brussels.  This year all of my travel happened in the last two weeks.  I went to San Diego a couple of weeks ago for the professional conference and I went to Brussels last week.  Whew!  I finished my travelling woman shawl during my travels (how coincidental!)  It turned out great.  I did add an extra course of the "A" rows (mostly because of several posts on ravelry.) I also surpassed the half-century mark the day before yesterday.  I hope I'm older and wiser and not just older.  :-)

Almost done - whatever that means

I now have several "almost done" knitting projects.  My travelling woman shawl is actually in the bind-off row BUT...I'm going to have to frog a row or 2 because I've dropped a couple of stitches ::swears under breath::.  I'm starting to think this poor shawl is never going to be done!

My corset-t, which has been languishing for nearly 2 years has been getting some action (oh, wait, that doesn't sound quite right!) lately.  The first dozen or so rows of the corset-t is pretty fun.  After that, it's k2p2 the whole way.  While it looks good and will probably fit well, it is B..O..R..I..N..G.  I've taken to keeping the project in my car so I can take it with me whenever I'm somewhere that I'll have some waiting or down time (doctors, dentist, choir practice, etc.)  This may get done in my lifetime, I just hope I still want to wear it when it's done.

The moderne log cabin blanket I'm making for my son's girlfriend is about 90 rows from completion.  I'll probably run out of yarn before then, so I think I'll just stop knitting when I'm out of yarn.  I have enough of one of the colors not in the last block to do a quick border, I think.

My oldest child and only daughter got married last June.  I started a reversible cable afghan for her and her husband...I really want it to be done by their first anniversary!!!

Lastly, I'm working on a birds nest shawl for my BFF.  It's a rectangular shawl that's knit along the long side.  The good news: there are only 150 or so rows.  The bad news: each row is about 4 bajillion stitches!  I'm going to Belgium to visit her this weekend, so I'll take the shawl with me and work on it a bit while I'm there.  The yarn I'm using for the shawl is Bristol Yarn Gallery's Buckingham which is a silk / baby alpaca blend which feels heavenly.

If I find any good yarn shops in Brussels, I'll post them here!

Shawl is almost done and less animals (for now)

Tapioca, the cat in my previous post, has found a new home.  A co-worker of my DH's took him.  She's a single mom with one son.  I think Tapioca will be very happy with them.  He's a "one-cat-family" kind of guy. 

I've been making great progress on my beautiful Travelling woman scarf (using the British spelling because its used in the pattern.)  I only had about 12 rows to go when I decided to add another pattern of chart A.  I finished a few more rows and now have about 15 rows to go.  I'll put a photo up as soon as I start to block it.  Lace (even though there isn't tons of lace on this) does NOT look good unblocked.  It's made with sock yarn on size 6 needles, so that makes it look kind of wonky too before blocking (at least that's what I'm hoping!)

Had a really fun day on Saturday.  My DH and I went to a small event in Harrington, DE called COOPtastic.  It was an information day with vendors and contests for folks with backyard chickens.  I've ordered 6 peeps that will be in next month, so I thought I would get some good info there.  Got some good info on chicks and chickens, but not much on coops (hey, it was called COOPtastic...I thought there would be lots of different types of coops!)  DH will probably finish the coop design this week and start putting it together next week.  We've decided to pasture the chickens, so we're going to use a mobile coop and a mobile run.  I need to come up with a name for the coop (Coop-a-cabana is currently my favorite, but that's likely to change).  I also need to come up with names for all 6 of the girls.  Here are some thoughts (we're getting 2 of each: austrolorps, buff orpingtons, and ameraucanas):

• List 1:  Laverne and Shirley, Lucy and Ethyl, Betty and Wilma (my late mother's name is Betty, so that seems kind of disrespectful)
• List 2: Grace and Hopper, Ada and Countess, Winifred and Asprey (computer scientists)

I'm trying to come up with others, too.

Progress and more animals

The baby dress is done:

 

My friend's daughter is named Hannah, so I just HAD to make a banana for her too!

I've cast on the travelling woman shawl and started to work on it.  I've also made a couple of scrubbies for the kitchen.  I made the scrubbies from Peaches 'n cream and tulle.  The tulle is a bit hard on my hands, so I'll make some more scrubbies tomorrow.

In non-knitting news:

1. I ordered my first chicks ever!  I ordered 2 Araucanas, 2 Buff Orpingtons, and 2 Black Austrolorps.  I ordered them at the local feed store and they'll be here around the middle of April.  Yaay!  
2. Jeff, my DH, brought home ANOTHER cat on Thursday.  We had him (yes, a him, we thought he was a she for 2 days) evaluated at the vet today and he has a clean bill of health.  He is all white and has a very sweet disposition.  The vet thinks he's probably 4-5 years old.  He's already been neutered and declawed.  We've decided to name him Tapioca for now.  This brings our cat "herd" to 5!!!  I'm definitely starting to feel like the crazy cat lady.  Our other male cat, Brownie, is not too happy about this new addition.  The girls, Gravy, Buffy, and Mittens, don't really seem to care. 

The baby dress continues

Got a bit more done on the baby dress yesterday.  It's coming along nicely:

 

The colors are lovely (a light, creamy pale yellow and a medium dusty blue) and the yarn is quite soft.

What's new? Ravelympics, of course!

I've been working pretty steadily on my projects for Ravelympics!  For those who are not in the know: ravelry.com sets up olympic-style events and folks can compete in lots of different events.  Unlike the real Olympics, everyone who finishes get a medal (my kind of competition).  I have 5 projects I'm hoping to complete:

• Finish the 2nd of 2 mitts I started just after Christmas.  I finished these on February 14th and put them in the mail for my niece:

(my medal in WIPs (Work-In-Progress) Dancing)

• Finish my corset-t that I started 2-1/2 years ago:

• Start and finish a dress for a friends new baby:

 

  

• The baby's name is Hannah, so I want to make a stuffed banana for her, and
• Make a travelling woman shawl from some beautiful yarn my DH bought me for Christmas this year

I'll post my progress and and accomplishments here

Other news:  The chicken saga continues.  Looks like I won't be getting eggs, but chicks (which is fine with me!)  Now to find the "perfect" chicken coop design.