The Titan

There has been a group of sheep here over the years that I've considered titans.  Buddy, Woolliam, Ewen McTeagle, Jester, Marcel, Keebler, Graham Lamb...  Big in stature...and personality.  Count Chocula was The Titan.  

We've been trying to fight through a bladder stone attack for a week.  He patiently tolerated everything we tried and we tried pretty much everything.  I finally had to call it. 

I will sure miss seeing you standing in your doorway.  Thank you for one final classic picture last night.  You were a good sheep.  The bravest Titan of them all.

May 2013 - June 26, 2020

At The Ceremonial Start

This is my seventh Iknitarod!  I always have to like to go back and count - Marcel/Woolliam, Keebler, Maisie, Baaxter, Liddy/Buddy, Baaxter and now Muffin/Biscuit/Mrs. Pepperpot.  

Each race has been different, but they've all been fun.  I've learned a lot about knitting each year.  I've learned a lot about mushing.  I've made some great new friends and we've enjoyed challenging ourselves and cheering each other on. 

I treat the Iknitarod very seriously.  Well, not like life and death seriously, but definitely seriously as in embracing the spirit of the Iditarod race itself.  I enjoy thinking about it throughout the year, planning my race.  I push myself to do something hard.  I choose my team carefully.  I get as prepared as possible.  

And on race day eve, I pack my sled.

My race map this year is the Dreyma sweater by knit.love.wool.  I took a bunch of pictures of the yarn and the color gradients (yes, there are colors if you look closely) and thought I'd already downloaded them to post here...but I haven't.  I'll include those in a future post.  

Before each Iditarod race, for a fundraiser they auction off the sleds for each musher and the winners  (IditaRiders) gets to ride in their musher's sled for the 11 mile Ceremonial Start. For the last several years I've carried a mascot in my sled throughout the race. My IknitaRider this year is that sweet little sheep I picked up off the road last summer.  

I didn't think sending a sheep to Nome wearing acrylic was a good idea, so I knit her a little wool poncho featuring some pattern colors and thereby getting to practice the increase stitch I was going to need to use for the sweater pattern.  I think she'll be toasty warm :-).

Muffin and Pepperpot came to watch the sled packing, but they won't be riding along.  The trail can be messy and dangerous (Oh, Graham, how we miss you!) and I would hate for something to go wrong.

Packed and ready...and without further ado...

This might be my favorite ravatar to date.  Like a Dreyma (dream), Biscuit and Muffin and I are at the Iknitarod, watching the Northern Lights and staring up at a bright shining star (Mrs. Pepperpot).  I have my hand on their backs to let Mrs. P. know I'm taking good care of her babies.

My project is too big, my hands are too sore.  Still, the pattern with it's bright shining star yoke is perfect and the ravatar is so sweet I just want to stand there forever...and so we once again hit the trail.  

*      *      *      *      *

The Ceremonial Start begins at 2:00 p.m. EST today.  I believe you can watch live for free on Iditarod.com .  If you enjoy that coverage and want to watch video updates throughout the race (these are so fun!), I encourage you to sign up for one of the Insider packages.

Hank Appreciation Post

Hank and Comby, getting ready for the early evening shift.

Which is a bit hard to do when your close talking co-worker won't leave you alone ;-D.

Spud cracks me up.  He and Hershey love to hang out with Hank.  Marcel did, too.  

Hank can smell trouble.  That's not even the direction the wind blows.

A not Biscuit and Muffin puzzle ;-).

Enjoy!

Yarn Along - Guess What Time It Is

I finished my "spring" Baa-ble hat for the Meridian Jacobs KAL (knit along).  For some insane reason I added back in the two rows I'd taken out for the first one and on top of that must have knit at a slightly looser gauge, so it turned out...too big.  

I could have ripped it all the way back down to the sheep and started over, but I really need a couple days off from knitting so I decided to try to shrink it in a hot, soapy, agitating (the ingredients for shrinking wool) bath.  

It didn't shrink.  I tried three times.  I finally tossed it in the dryer and ran it about an hour total on high heat and it finally shrank a tiny bit.  Luckily I knit the ribbing tight enough that it mostly stays out of my eyes.  It fits 20 perfectly :-D.

I decided to knit a dandelion on the top instead of a big sun pom pom and guess what!

I saw the first dandelion of the year as I carried it in from the Wool House yesterday.  

So what are 20 and the Sock Monkey studying on so hard?  The Iknitarod starts this Saturday (!). Yes, in just over two days (!). And I don't have a pattern picked out yet (!).  I've had a couple good choices set aside for several months now.  The front runner was a simple sweater with a pretty horizontal cable pattern across the yoke.

For some reason I've decided that Baaxter really wants to be a zippered turtleneck with straight lines. Something sort of like this.

Unfortunately I can't find an existing pattern that looks like that (!).  

Now it's really a pretty simple sweater design.  I have very little concern that I couldn't figure out how to make it happen...eventually.  The only part that should give me any trouble is the top third of the sweater and if I get it wrong, I can just rip it back and try again. The problem?  

The Iknitarod.  

That I didn't "win" last year.  Remember that?  I hooked Maisie to my sled (my first mistake ;-) and nearly killed myself to get it done almost what, two weeks late?  Marcel sweater, win.  Keebler shawl, win.  Maisie sweater?  Sigh... 

Do I dare try to design and knit a custom sweater with no pattern?  In approximately two weeks time? 20's been pouring over the stash of knitting books and thinks it can be done.  Baaxter is a sheep of great confidence.   He's tough and level headed (unless there are cookies involved) and that would also be a good way to describe his yarn.  

What do you think?  Are we up to the challenge?  Should we stay with the Tucker Sweater?

Back to the Yarn Along - my book this week is The Book Thief by Markus Zusak.  Very good!

Joining in with Ginny...

Walk With Me Wednesday

I could actually do a Wednesday Yarn Along post.  I finished the second sleeve.  I'm going to try to get it blocked today, but a. I really should be doing other things to get ready for this weekend and b. I'm not sure it will dry.   We sure needed the rain, but at this point, couldn't the rest of the week's forecast have waited until after the festival?  

Still, if it's going to be cold and damp (which is actually perfect for a fall wool festival) it would be nice to have a long sleeve wool sweater to wear in the evenings (we are there until 10:00 p.m. :-o). Plus, it's technically advertising, right?  I usually say the sweaters are there for inspiration...but if it's for advertisement then I'm practically required to get it blocked :-D. 

In the meantime, enjoy taking a walk with Hank, Tilly and Kate :-). 

Spiders have been light this year :-(.

The bees are happy with all the fall flowers.

Liddy likes flowers, too :-).

Our walk out back inspired the sheep to come out.  

I guess it was a good advertisement ;-).

Yarn Along - Long Sleeves Needed

Not much knitting going on because my focus needs to be finishing up stuff for the Kentucky Wool Festival the first weekend of October.  I am working on one small project I've had in the queue for a year though.  Just in time for cooler weather, I've decided to change my 3/4 length sleeves on the Marcel sweater to full length sleeves.

One down, one to go.

Since the yarn used in the sweater has seen all sorts of sunlight and might not still be exactly the same color as the leftover yarn from my stash, I am alternating a few rows of old and new yarn to ease the color transition.

I didn't make any notes (yeesh) about what needle size I used so I had to guess on that.  I know my knitting has changed significantly since then (I knit tighter now) so I had to try and figure that in as well.  I test blocked the first sleeve and it's pretty darn close.  I can see some slight differences, but anyone else would have to look really close...and that would be really weird...so I'm not too worried ;-).

When the single beds turn to double beds...yep, time to be thinking about long sleeves.  Comby and Eli aren't thrilled.  I'm jumping for joy :-D.

And another beautiful officially first day of fall morning.  Half the sheep have already headed back in.  I think Hank would like to as well, but he's got some making another pass through the breakfast bar on the hill, so he's splitting the difference.

We are often asked why our farm is named Equinox Farm.  It's because that's the day we closed on it back in the fall of 2003.  A very happy anniversary :-)

My book for the week was Don't Let Me Go by Catherine Ryan Hyde.  It was cute and a fun listen.

Joining in with Ginny...

Where Are They Now - Hank And Daniel Not-Boone

Just to be clear, Daniel is completely down with back scratches (and eye rubs, hugs and kisses :-).  In fact, he's probably my chummiest sheep.  So much so that he will push other sheep away from me, especially Burrnie.

"She is talking to ME right now, Burrnie/Hershey/Maisie/Annabelly..."

When Daniel first got here, he was terribly afraid of people.  For the first couple of weeks I actually thought he might never settle in and that was such a surprise because his brother, Marcel, was the most laid back love bug ever.  Marcel loved everybody, especially me and super especially Hank.  

Side note - I'm so glad I have a blog.  I'd forgotten the story of Marcel banging on the gate and Hank stopping him.  I re-read it when I was picking a post to link for "super especially Hank".  It's nice to have good memories :-).

Back to the story at hand, what Daniel's never gotten over is his fear of Hank.  Hank has never done anything bad to Daniel. Or Chocula, who is also very scared of Hank.  Nothing bad happened to them before they came here.  Hershey?  Hank can't get away from him.  I have no answers.

I did notice the other day though when I was out there with everyone that Daniel was actually grazing calmly no more than 20 feet away from Hank.  That's a Big Deal.  I quietly snapped a few pictures.

While I doubt they Daniel has called a truce, it sure looks like Hank is happy and hopeful.  He loves his sheeps, even the silly ones :-).

  

Speechless

I finally made it out to the Finger Lakes Fiber Festival this year. It poured rain almost all day on Saturday, but everyone made the best of it and still had a great day. This is a very nice festival and I'm already looking forward to next year!

Just for kicks I decided to enter the Marcel sweater and Sunshine's hat in the knitting competition. 

Marcel's sweater received a blue ribbon for Knitted Sweater of Handspun Yarn and the Excellence in Knitting award.

And Sunshine's hat a blue ribbon for Knitted Hat and the Best Use of Handspun in a Knitted Item award.

I was blown away and so incredibly flattered.

The Crazy Sheep Lady

Most folks around town know me as "the sheep lady". Only my online friends call me the crazy sheep lady :-).  Saint Tim and I have been so busy this whole week.  You name it, something's been going on every day.  And we're okay with that.  It's hectic, but important to take care of friends, family, furries, volunteer stuff, town activities, oh yeah, and work.

After we got home from helping with the 5K this morning, I did the morning chores, checked in on everyone and then grabbed a cup of coffee and sat down out with the boys, now affectionately known as "the melon heads".  Even though they are all good buddies and have plenty to keep them busy, they LOVE some special "momma time" and will stand at the gate watching me run to and fro, wishing I'd stop and play.

These are the sweetest boys in the whole world.  Daniel (Marcel's brother) was only originally picked to join the group because he was Marcel's brother.  He wasn't especially friendly and the end of the first two weeks he was here, I was beginning to have my doubts if he was ever going to be.  Count Chocula and Bitey Whitey had shown friendly tenancies as lambs, so Robin knew they'd be a good fit here.  Hershey had not displayed any signs of being interested in being chummy and I doubt Robin would have recommended him as a breeding ram if he did.  A too chummy breeding ram is never a good idea, safety-wise.

Hershey became my first buddy in the group.  I think it was the very first morning that he walked right up to me and started politicking to stay (and not leave to be a breeding ram on another farm).  Within just a couple days he was sleeping in my lap.  He gave me some street cred with Bitey Whitey and Chocula and soon they were pretty chummy, too.  And once Daniel came around, he's been my Very Best Bud, the sheep that loves me most.  That's his nose in the picture below.  He's a close talker, just like his brother :-).

Hershey still sleeps in my lap.  Always.  Everyone else better Move Over.

Daniel waits until things settle down and then he grabs a spot on my left side.  Chocula also sleeps on me too on occasion (there are some sweet pictures on Twitter) and Bitey Whitey likes to lay down behind me so he doesn't have to compete for a spot.  Number One Profile is prime real estate.

And always reserved for Hershey, who likes to lay his head on my stomach and cash out for awhile.  

Nothing makes my day like sitting out in the field covered in sleeping sheep, listening to the rest of the sheep going about their "busy" mornings.  When I go back to my "busy" morning, I'm dirty, greasy, my iPhone is disgusting and usually my hair has been chewed on to the point all I can do is tuck it back under my hat and walk away.  

Like a crazy sheep lady.  

And I'm okay with that :-).

And The Names Are...

Daniel Not-Boone.  Not Daniel Boone, because one Boone (Rebecca ;-) is plenty around here!  Just kidding RB.  Sort of...  If his face looks familiar, it's because he's Marcel's younger brother.

Bitey Whitey.  This is what he looks like, but my favorite view of Bitey Whitey is when he comes up and sticks his nose in my face and his big ears fall backwards all the way down like "Do your ears hang low..."  Very cute.

And, with the shortage of grass in their paddock, having to fight over the same blades seems completely rational.

Count Chocula.  Saint Tim came up with this name accidentally last week when we were trying to do something with one of the other boys and Chocula wouldn't leave him alone and kept chewing on his shirt.

 "Cut it out, Count Chocula!" 

I think that's a great name for him :-D.

I have yet to get a good shot of Hershey, who was supposed to be a fancy pants breeding ram on a big farm and what he really wants to do...

...is just lay down next to me and catch some zzzzzz's.  He's officially one of the friendliest sheep on the farm, and we have some FRIENDLY sheeps!

"Hey!  Where'd the guy with the cookies go???" 

Yep, they're already cookie monsters.  Oh, and the big white lamb is only going to be here a couple more days.  He IS going on to the breeding farm, but in the short time he's been here he's been called Bitey Off-Whitey, Dinsdale, Graham Jr. and a few, um, other names ;-).