Swatch #2... and other UFO's

This is the second swatch in my lace lessons, I'm about a third the way through. I was talking to Mim earlier who reminded me that it had been her that suggested the marker string. I was telling her it was kind of funny, I was using the marker string, but I went on a few rows without moving the string (I get cocky that way, or lazy, or something), counted out my stitches and realized I had one extra.
I had time to regret not moving my marker string up to the last row, when I noticed one of the holes about 4 rows back was in the wrong place. And the marker string was right below it! HA! HahaHA!
One of those instances where you can mock your cockiness, or laziness, or whatever.

I have been wracking my brain, trying to decide what to enter in the state fair this year. I don't think I can beat what I put in last year; a three ply merino lace yarn that got reserve. I spun up some BFL and cabled it, I'm not horribly impressed with it, can't imagine a judge that would be... I thought about entering my seed stitch scarf ('member, the green one?), but that was just a practice piece, something to teach me what the stitches looked like in relation to each other...
So I started this. It is actually supposed to be done in garter stitch, and with a smaller needle, but I didn't like the tightness of the material, no drape whatsoever. So I decided to do a seed stitch with a bigger needle. I think I should have made it narrower too... the finished scarf will be about 42" long, with a gathered middle, I think the pattern is after a mariner's scarf.
Here's whats on the wheel! A very pretty dyed BFL, we'll see how this one turns out... fair material?

Lace! ...well almost

I actually haven't seen one of these since I was a kid. To be honest, I really think there are not as many now as there were... admittedly, there is less desert around here than there used to be and I don't spend near as much time in what desert there is left, but when I say I haven't seen one since I was a kid, I'm talking almost 30 years.
Derek and I went fishing last weekend, turns out my sister had the same idea and we ran into each other out at Willow Pond. As we pulled up, Mikah, my niece, had this lizard in her hand and was taking him back to the sage so I had to take a picture.
Below is Mikah closet, my sis Arlee and Derek.

Remember this?
I finally got through all the information about the Oomingmac Co-op in Anchorage, and all the delightful history of the musk ox and the unequaled fiber they produce called qiviut, to the real reason I bought the book to start with. To learn how to knit lace.

The author takes you through three steps to learn knitted lace techniques. All three lessons consist of knitting swatches with basic lace stitches, starting with size 7 needles and sport weight yarn, then size 5 needles and fingering, then the third swatch takes you into lace weight and size 3 needles.
It took me TWO (thats 2!) days to do the first swatch, knit rip, knit rip, I have no idea how many times. Then I remembered something, a tip, someone (Mim?) had given me about knitting lace; run a string through the stitches of a row you know is right, then if you mess something up in the next couple rows, you just rip back to the string. As I discovered, picking up stitches in a lace pattern is nearly impossible. After I started this, it was much easier to fix a mistake.
Here is my first swatch. (click for big, you gotta see that pin cushion :)
As I was trying to block it (on the foot rest of my recliner because I don't have another surface large enough to pin something like this to), Joy decided to help me.
I made a lot of mistakes that I hadn't realized I'd made but for the most part, I think I didn't do too bad for my first time! :)

I decided to put the foot rest down, Joy was playing in her toy box, but came scuttling back over, to check it out again.

Trust me, she's quicker than she looks....
And not near as innocent as she seems...
And much more determined than you might think :)
When she finally gave up trying to push her way through my legs (Jari and I both laughed at her tenacity so hard we cried), I went back to working on the second swatch. I've already had to frog it twice before I could put my string in, but its going ok now!

Ratoodle?

As most of the followers of this blog know, about a year and a half ago, we lost our very special chahuahua, Tug, to coyotes or dogs. We have often thought of getting another small dog, but I have been afraid that if we were to get another puppy too soon, we would constantly compare the new one to Tug, and it would be no contest; he was the perfect dog for our family and our way of life.
Time heals all wounds they say, well I have to agree that it at least heals most of them, makes others easier to bear. So when I heard that two rat terriers belonging to a friend of mine both whelped at the same time and collectively bore 10 puppies, I decided it was time to take that step. I asked Derek if he was ready to look at puppies too, and he said sure. My friend also has two males, a miniature pincer, and a poodle. The min-pin wasn't supposed to be fertile, so she separated the girls from the poodle, but didn't bother to separate them from the min-pin... yeah.

Meet Mitzy :)

All of the puppies were slick haired except for this one. We've decided that the poodle didn't get entirely left out. New designer dog? Ratoodle?
And of course, new pics of Joy!
She's getting so big and learning so fast!
I washed this fleece and started working it yesterday, it is the Romney I picked up in Oregon at BSG. So nice!

Catching Up (photo heavy)

Last Tuesday week, Derek and I decided we wanted to go fishing. We headed out early in the morning with the intention of going to a place called Wilson Reservoir, about three hours north of here. We were about an hour from home when we got the flat.
Derek and I got out, started hunting for the tools we needed to change the tire, knowing that this was the end of our trip, we wouldn't go anywhere but back to town without a spare. We hunted and hunted.
And hunted.
You wouldn't think it would take that long, or that there are that many hiding places in a king cab truck. We finally accepted the fact that we had no way to pull the spare down from under the bed, the bag that contains the bars needed was nowhere to be found, and also that we had no cell service. Derek started walking back towards town and the alfalfa ranches that dot the valley hoping to find cell service so he could text or call someone for help. He was also hoping to get a hold of Kevin, thinking that Kevin was the reason we didn't have the bag of tools, had Derek reached him, he would have had some apologizing to do later.
About twenty minutes later I decided to look again. The seats in the back fold down for cargo space and there are these flaps (for lack of a better word) that go over the bottom of the back of the seat to make a flat surface. We had lifted those flaps... but had forgotten about the 'other' flaps. What I call the 'super secret hiding spot'. We've had this truck for 5 years, and this is only the second time we've had a flat in it. It is also the second time that we both forgot about the 'super secret hiding spot'. Low and behold! There were the bars that, when put together are used to lower the spare tire. I honked on the horn, hoping he was still in range but I couldn't know for sure. I started changing the tire. Thankfully, a very helpful Mexican cowhand happened to drive out that way and gave me a hand. In about 15 minutes we were done and I was headed back the way Derek had started walking. I caught up with him about three miles down the road, picked him up and we laughed about the 'super secret hiding spot', then decided that our day was still fairly new and we could still go fishing.
We decided though, to go through Elko, no matter where we went ultimately, so we could go to Les Schwabb and get the spare fixed. Derek called a friend, told him of our misadventure, then we all decided it would be fun to go to South Fork.
South Fork is just a few minutes out of Spring Creek, about a half hour south and west of Elko. I was surprised! I had never been there and it's so close! We had a great day, wetting line and watching skiers, then muttering and frowning at them as they seemed to think it was funny when they came so close to the bank that we could almost hit them with a water bobber... seriously, Derek threatened to after about the tenth time. We moved to the other side of the lake.
I was pretty floored when we saw these...
We fished all day. Didn't catch a thing. It was a good day though, we talked and laughed and got irritated at selfish skiers. Had a few beers and drowned a few worms. Oh, and cant forget the sunburn :)
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When I was still in Oregon, Jari called to tell me that she'd 'found' a kitten on our porch. Since I, when young, was a professional at the "It followed me home Mom! Really!" line, I was pretty sure she'd found it on the porch after she'd put it out to go potty. Its origin, I later found out was from a litter belonging to someone who had the sad story of "Its the last one, and I can't seem to find a home for it!". So we have for the moment another kitten. When my friend, who just lost her very old cat, comes home from Washington I'm going to take him to her. If she absolutely wont take him, Jari will sit in front of the grocery store until she finds him a home. He's so very cute, but I want my house back and have told her and everyone else, I wont be replacing any cats. As much as I love them, its nigh on impossible to make them respect your space.

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These are the family members that came from Sac for the 4th... Chris, Kim (twins), Gina, Michael, and Mat.
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And a few pics of Joy!




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When I came home from BSG, my poor rooster was on deaths door. I still don't know why, but he was gone soon after. That left me with 7 hens. A few days ago, I went out to feed and couldn't find any of my chickens! I eventually found three and came to the conclusion that there were some well fed coyotes sleeping it off in a nearby den. So, I ordered some chicks from MyPetChicken.com, a really neat chick sales site that is very much aimed at, well, pet chickens!
They got here this morning, all fuzzy and peeping. They've settled in well and so far all of them seem to have traveled well. They're in a galvanized water tank in my living room for a week, then they will move onto the front porch for a week or two, then to a rabbit hutch in the chicken coop for another couple of weeks to climatize and let the remaining hens get use to them. I wont be keeping all of them, the only reason I got so many is because it was the cheapest way to get any, as the only other way was to pay $34.75 in shipping charges, on top of $44 for the chicks them selves, this only cost $47. Five will go to Mim and another 8 or 10 will be sold locally. They are various breeds, wont know anything until the get bigger, but they should be breeds like Buff Orphington, Easter Egger, Wyandote, reds and Australorp.
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I have been working on getting this done since Joy was born, and voila! Finally finished. It was a toss up as to whether it would get done or not for a couple weeks, had some technical trouble (I ran out of a specially dyed yarn and had to go 'backwards' from the foundation row) and sought professional help (the owner of a yarn shop in Elko that goes by the name of "CrochetQueen" and she is!).
This is something I picked up at BSG, very very pretty black merino blended with silk with spots of purple and violet in it. I decided to leave it as a single because the colors are so subtle, I was afraid they would get lost in a ply.

ETA:
I (looking ashamed now) bought this recently (ashamed because I really shouldn't have...) but its so pretty! As I have typed this, I have a washed lock of this bond x corriedale silvery white fleece sitting on the lap top table, keeping me company. Its so very soft and such crimp!
A special treat for us in Battle Mountain today, a veggie/fruit stand! One of the many wonderful things about summer :)

Fiber Over Load, Finale

Belated Happy 4th of July! We had family here from CA for the weekend, it was great to see them and we had a wonderful time!

SHEEP! That's were I left off, here are some pictures!
Lincoln... love those dreads!
Gotland - a rare breed this side of the pond, all Gotlands in the US are cross breeds, but these happened to be (I think he said, Mim correct me if you remember) 84%.
BFL - oh sooooo soft!
I met this guy last year at OFFF, (blog post is here), as a ram lamb and claimed his fleece then, I got to watch them shear him on Sunday. Wow, there was a lot of fleece on that boy!
If you don't know the story about Jacob sheep, you need to read it. Especially if you are a biblical history buff. I don't know if you can see his fleece, but there was a sign on the outside of his pen telling people not to reach into the pen because the horns can be painful.... guess what I had to do... shhhh, don't tell the owner, k?
Mim and Laura, checking out Mim's pictures. Laura is the gracious one who let us stay at her house :)
And this is my hat mentioned in the first Fiber Overload post! Laura is a knitter/designer and does such beautiful work! The white wool in this hat is from Babs, my Suffolk/Dorset cross ewe.
I am.... A KNITTER! lol I found this pattern at one of the booths and decided I had to make some booties for Joy. I followed the newborn baby pattern, as it's written (these are too small for Joy), and am now working on a larger pair.

THE TAKE
Ok, so who out there is going to throw the first stone!?!? Hmm? Which of you spinners is going to do it?? lol Yeah, I know, not a one of you can say 'no' to a nice fleece. Sigh. I can't either.

I went to the wool show on Friday, where Judith MacKenzie McCuin was judging fleece this year for BSG. I spied a fleece right off the bat that I couldn't live without and when it came time to buy on Sunday, Mim and I had our battle plans all mapped out! I would go for the black Wensleydale (OMGosh! It was gorgeous!), and Mim would head for this (below) Romney. Well, as soon as I entered the building I had my eyes on the table with the Wensleydale (OMGosh! Did I mention it was GORGEOUS!!) but when I got there it was .... sniffle... gone! No one came close to that table, I know, Mim and I were right up at the front of the line (I stood there for an hour and a half. Yeah, I know) so even though I missed my Wensleydale (realized later that the volunteers get first choice, and saw the fleece sitting alongside a wall. hmmm, thinking of volunteering next year :) I did get two beeeutiful fleeces!
This Romney got first in its class...
This is a Romeldale CVM cross, right up my alley. This fleece didn't place; Judith is one tough cookie! I still haven't figured out why it didn't do well, it is sooo soft, no breaks, very consistent. The only thing I can figure is the tips are just slightly cotted. It works up beautifully though!
This is from my nekkid ram above. I left 3.5 lbs of it at Mim's house (I took the train to Reno and it was a toss up as to whether they would let me on the train with all my.... stuff) and she is going to order some bamboo to put with it and I will pay her for that and the shipping to Morro... soon.
This? This is self explanatory :)
And this? I am more excited about this than anything else I bought at BSG. I started knitting because I want to learn how to knit lace. I also lovelovelove qiviut! The first half of this book is dedicated to the discussion of the Oomingmak Co-Op in Anchorage, AK and the Musk Ox that delivers the super fine fiber that spinners drool over and the knitted fabric that rich people hoard. This is my absolute favorite fiber to spin and although there was a booth there that had qiviut roving for $30 an ounce (gulp!) it was not in my cards to get it then. Normally qiviut sells for $25 an ounce raw! The price was astounding and if I'd found it early on in the weekend, I might have walked out with a few ounces.... C'est la vie.

And then we came home. :)

More Fiber Over Load, 2010

Sorry its taking me so long to do this. I've been having a bad week, thinking of Tad, sometimes the hurts come back a little stronger than normal and depression is close. Post BSG blues? Don't know, but here is more on BSG :)

Where were we? Oh, the Sea Lion Caves! Not much to say here so moving on to the pictures! Click for big!


Sea side of the Sea Lion Caves building in the last post.
Mim giving us a comparison in size... the plaque said these were life sized...! wow
Inside the Sea Cave.
King of the Rock!
See the Light House in the distance?
This was below the deck we were standing on for the last picture.. does that look like a cannon ball to you?

Next post: Sheep!