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: