Beautiful life, beautiful fiber…
April 22, 2008 at 10:32 pm · Filed under Dyeing, Natural Dyeing and tagged: Dyeing, natural
Ok, so I moved my blog over to WordPress and now Ravelry doesn’t have anything to show for the move. Well I do, I started a new group on Ravelry the other day called “Plants to Dye For”, it’s all about dyeing with natural plants. I’ll be writing a three part article on Natural Dyeing for the weekly newsletter on Ravelry (TWIR). The first article is scheduled for April 28th and it will focus on natural dye gardens. The second article will be about wildflowers weeds, mushrooms and lichen. The third will be on an overview of natural dyeing.
April 22, 2008 at 8:45 am · Filed under General, Knitting projects and tagged: Knitting, socks
I decided to move my blog over to WordPress instead of using blogger.com so please excuse me while I finish getting everything set up. I wanted a cleaner more professional looking blog where everyone could find what they needed easily by category. I know I could have revamped my old blog to do this but I’m always looking at new ways to do things, new looks, new adventures….call me daring.
The latest project on my needles are a pair of socks, Cascading Leaves by Jeannie Townsend.
I’m knitting them for the Ravelry Socknitters Anonymous group for the April Sockdown. The theme this month is Jeannie’s patterns or a Mystery sock (pattern without a picture of the finished sock). The object is to cast on no earlier than April 1st and cast off no later than May 31st. Each month brings a new challenge, it keeps me knitting more socks. I have other projects on the needles that I need to work on but somehow the socks keep jumping into my hands and getting knitted.
April 16, 2008 at 6:47 pm · Filed under Animals, Finns, Sheep and tagged: Finns, lambs, Sheep
Dolly was the last of the Finns to have her lambs. She was so big and uncomfortable the last few days. Now we know why, she had triplets, 2 ewes and a ram. From L to R they are Loretta Lynn, Alex, and Patsy. They were born on 4/14/08 in the evening just after dinner. I had stayed in the barn before dinner and realized how uncomfortable Dolly was and thought she was going to start going into labor at any time. I sat with her and rubbed her belly and tried to make her feel more comfortable. Dinner was ready, so I came inside and ate and went back out to the barn as soon as I could. Within minutes of returning, she started into labor. Loretta Lynn was first out, no problem. Then came Alex, and I moved Alex in front of Dolly to start cleaning him up. I could see Patsy’s hooves starting to appear when I heard a newborn lamb crying. I turned around to find Loretta Lynn was already across the pen by the feeder. I picked her up and moved her back closer to momma. Then Patsy decided to appear hind legs and butt first. All of the lambs are doing fine, so far, with Dolly nursing all of them. I’m keeping an eye on them to make sure all of them are getting enough milk from mom. I hope that Dolly will be able to raise all three on her own. If not, I may be bottle feeding at least one.
April 16, 2008 at 6:39 pm · Filed under Animals and tagged: kittens
My cat had kittens, AGAIN! She had 4 kittens this time, 3 boys and 1 girl. The two orange ones are boys, the lighter tiger is also a boy and the dark tiger is a little girl. They don’t have names yet…so many babies born around the farm this past week. They were born 4/14/08 in the corner of the stack of hay in the barn. We moved the hay bales and provided her with a box and an old saddle pad for comfort. We put the box in the same corner where we’d found the babies, obviously Rosie liked that spot for her babies.
April 16, 2008 at 6:36 pm · Filed under Animals, Finns, Sheep and tagged: Finns, lambs, Sheep
Daisy, our white Finn ewe finally had her lambs. A set of twins, one ewe and one Ram. They were born on my daughter’s birthday, 4/12/08, so I named the ewe after her and the ram after her boyfriend. Tara is on the left and Aaron is on the right.
April 10, 2008 at 2:05 pm · Filed under Animals, Finns, Sheep and tagged: Finns, lambs, ram
Here’s a picture of Elvis, the ram twin. He’s Clara Bella’s brother. He looks kind of shy, but he’s not! They were both up and nursing within minutes of birth. When they were just a couple hours old they were already sproing around like little lambs do.
April 10, 2008 at 2:02 pm · Filed under Animals, Finns, Sheep and tagged: ewe, Finns, lambs
Bella Vita Farm & Fiber welcomed twins yesterday, 4/9/08. The twins are Finn lambs and this is a picture of Clara Bella. She looks like a little panda bear doesn’t she? Clara Bella will be staying here at Bella Vita Farm.
April 8, 2008 at 2:35 pm · Filed under Animals, Finns, Sheep and tagged: ewe, Finns, lamb, Shetland
Our first lamb born on Bella Vita Farm & Fiber, April 7, 2008. She is a little Shetland x Finn ewe, we named Donna. She was born around 9 AM while I was doing morning chores. We were late for an appointment with our CPA, Don. So we named her Donna, seemed very fitting.
March 13, 2008 at 3:34 am · Filed under Knitting and tagged: Knitting, lace
I got my swatch done for the Mystic Light Shawl Mystery KAL which starts on March 26, 2008. I used US #6 circular needles, gotta order some Addi lace. The blunt tips on regular needles won’t cut it. I’m using Fearless Fiber’s Inner Sanctum colorway for this project. The yarn suggested in the pattern is sockweight due to the cabling that the pattern calls for in addition to the lace. You can see the cables on the edges in the swatch. This is my first big lace project and I’m kind of excited and at the same time scared I’ll screw up.
March 7, 2008 at 5:56 pm · Filed under How To, Knitting and tagged: casting on, Knitting, Magic Loop, two socks at a time
Magic Loop 2 socks at a time in progress. It’s not hard, here are the basic concepts to keep in mind.
This is often referred to as the “Home Position” in Magic Loop knitting. When knitting one sock using Magic Loop this is the only position you will refer to. See how the yarn is coming from the back needle? That is the most important thing to remember. You will pull the back needle out to become your working needle.
This shows the back needle from the picture above pulled out and ready to use as the working needle. If you look close you can also see the working yarn is coming from the cable from the back needle. That is an important concept to remember in ML. Always make sure when in the home position that the yarn is on the back needle.
This is what I refer to as the “Resting Position” in Magic Loop knitting. You only have this position when doing two socks at a time. The right needle should have the yarn coming from the front from the last stitch on the needle. The left sock will have the yarn coming from the stitch that is on the cable (positioned behind the left needle).
This is the position that I usually leave my knitting when taking a break. You will see the home position and the rest position twice for each round of knitting on both socks.
Tips with Magic Loop, hold on to the tip of your needle when pulling on the cables, so you don’t have dropped stitches. I also keep a finger in the loop where the bend is between the front and back of a sock, so the stitches don’t slip off there either.
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