Way out in the Middle of Nowhere

I swear that there are times when my husband spends more time in front of that mirror than I! I know he's done showering, but I don't even WANT to know what he's doing in there now... So here's my two knitting projects going on right now: The shawl is called Geese in Flight so DUH, I had to knit it. It's actually an easy pattern to memorize. I'm on my 2nd skein of yarn and it will end up being my own shawl, I think. http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/geese-in-flight-shawl Then there's this Scarf: knitted from Fisherman's wool. It's a Purl Bee pattern, I think. April Showers Scarf It's supposed to be done in a lighter weight yarn, but here in the frozen tundra, the heavier yarn will be better. 

With all the rants lately, you'd think I was not knitting. Actually I am, I just don't talk much about it. With part time work, part time flock,  part time school, I DO knit, just mostly when I'm sitting at the end of the day watching TV. Incidentally, the thing that we've been watching other than movies lately is Grimm. We're trying to catch up on the whole storyline. It's an interesting show. I swear Monroe and his wife make  the show with their candor. My 1/4 German ancestry comes in handy during the show too. My Paternal Grandmother is German, and much of my kin live in the same town today near Sparta WI. I know German. First up is my prayer shawl  that I've been working on so long I swear it will have it's own birthday soon. It's the usual yarn from Hobby Lobby and a pattern that's easy to do. The Pattern:  * I usually start off with about 6 rows of garter stitch at the beginning and end so the shawl has a bit of structure. * 1 row ...

oh Hey! that's George saying hi to me. He and Fred like to come up and chew on me a bit while I'm outside. I've been inside now for a few days struggling with a nasty cold. First day was the clogged yet drippy sinuses, Yesterday was the migration to the asthmatic lungs. Today is just meh.  really really meh. I'm tired and glad to be going nowhere. Last weekend was the Sheep and Wool festival in Jefferson, WI. As Dave found a cooking partner this year for his task of cooking the roasts for the Church's Harvest Festival, I got to go! I finally got my hands on one of Adam Mielke 's spindles. I've wanted one since he started making them. I understand he's stopped, but a few can be had. I started spinning with some nice red merino roving in it from the Fairy Yarn Mother. . Susan is a good friend of mine that I enjoy talking with at the fair each time. She has the most wonderful shades of roving around.  It's the one roving I am most trustworthy ...

So here I sit, on a Google sponsored site: Blogger. Of course, I have nice photos and videos on Google + because they INSIST! I must put my cell phone photos there...but I cannot share them on blogger...........a Google site without downloading them and then uploading them again. Stupid, moronic and vapid. If you want to compete with places like Facebook, you need to start acting like you can do better than them. It's been a summer of 'meh'. Meh as in I just have not done much except sit on the ground staring  at goslings or taking naps. Yah, sure knitting is going on. This is the photo of my prayer shawl with the pattern I've devised. So far I'm into it for a skein and a 1/3.  I'm thinking it would take about a skein and a half to get about a 6' shawl. It's almost done. Then there's another one in purple that I'm making as well. Each one is from a pattern I've modified from looking at photos of other shawls/baby blankets. The patt...

I'll let you in on a little secret: In my mind, I have like 5 ideas for blog posts every week. Due to age and my schedule, by the time I get to the posting, I forget them. Some ideas: A nice listing of hobbies/interests that I understand, but just don't 'get'.  List of what I've learned from my Grandmother. It boils down to three things: 1, independence 2. frugality, and 3 putting family first. Moments in my life where I've dodged HUGE bullets.  I lead a blessed life, not because it's all been easy, but because there were moments in there where I was given a choice between easy and correct. I chose correct.  If I were to write a book, which story would I choose? Mindless rants about how people drive, stare at their phones or just are assholes. Yeah, like that  hasn't been overdone on other blogs! inane photos of more geese, ducks, chickens and knitting. Oh you know  that will happen anyways, right?  Summer is summer. Tyranny of the shoulds ...

This is Nelly who has a baby gosling nestled under her wing with it's little head sticking out by her butt. Look closely and you'll see. I tucked this pipped egg under her wing 3 days ago and it hatched. Her eggs weren't viable. She's last years' gosling and they really don't get the hang of brooding and such until the 2nd year. We've got a few gals that are really good Moms; Luna is foster Mom to Elsa and she is just loving it. Molly is just a natural Mom who has always had good clutches of goslings. Nelly is slowly picking up what to do. The last 2 days we've had her segregated 98% of the time from the flock so that the gosling can get on it's feet, learn to eat and drink and learn who is Mom. Today they are out on the land checking out stuff. Nelly's got the jist of keeping the kid near her, but does not understand when the baby needs to have mom lay down so it can warm itself under her wing. She's very protective of her; attacked...

My Piper's journey is done. In the middle is Malabrigo sock yarn in the colorway of Solis - a blend of dark blues, greens and a hint of mint. Which is why I chose the Mint to finish it off with. It was purchased off a Ravelry user since it is on backorder w/Knitpicks. It was a fast shawl to create, and yet...I'm meh about it. I like the colors but as a shawl it just doesn't work. I need shawls that cover my back and my shoulders and will lay there just warming me. This is more of an affectation shawl meant to accent an outfit.   This is just an awesome picture of Percy. He's got his "I'm a STUD!" pose out there. Nice form, ginormous knob, good honk...he's a stud. But I'm not going to tell him that :).   Now that it is warmer out there, the flock is in breeding mode. It's like a frat house on a Saturday night out there.............all day, all the time. Fights between ganders, shagging girls in the pools, girls nipping off to lay eggs, a...

I'm determined to not let it get me down, but then it pretty much did. Last Saturday I was out doing night chores and slipped on the ice. I went down carrying to canisters of water. My arm was not happy to suffer another injury. The left knee has a bruise and oddly enough; my stomach muscles were pulled. Aleve is my friend this winter. A quick look at the chickens that were hatched last weekend. We had 8 hatch, and another two are expected today.  This is the 1st week of the 3 week long hatching fun that will culminate in us having 30 chickens to raise to butcher and eat next fall/winter. They're doing well. I have one that hatched last night that is a bit more tired than the others. As you see in the photo, we first stuck them in the bathtub after realizing the usual spot in the laundry room was not going to work. There is little heat in the laundry room, and the heat lamp was not putting out a consistent temp. **Normally, the weather outside by now is consistently ...

So far, the coldest winter on record here in WI, officially.  Each winter there is one article of clothing that I grow sick and tired of wearing. This year, that would be my full-length powder blue goose down coat. Yeah, it's a great coat. It's warm. But if I have to endure that thing for another month, I'm going to scream. About a year ago I purchased some 10 skeins of blue alpaca yarn off of eBay. Last weekend it finally told me what it wanted to be. It's a farose shawl in cables. The pattern is entirely made up in my head. Right now I'm going to get down to a rant, so plug your ears. I'm sitting here with my ipad on my laptop, with photos in my ipad that refuse to be shared with my laptop. I mean, it's on the same flipping network, it's supposed  to be sharing on the icloud but no.  I went to 3 different websites, including Flickr to put this *ONE* photo on so I could share it with my blog. None of the sites would allow sharing with blogger, ...

Calculus is going decently.  I sit in the back of the class next to a young man who has had the pleasure of being in two classes with me. He reminds me much of my son, Alex but with ambition. So, Alex got discharged from the Marines for failing to meet their physical criteria.  Right now he's thinking that he'll spend 2 years copping a squat on my couch while going to community college.  Meh.  I'm still ticked about that, but apparently my prayers and my wishes will never be taken into play with his life. That's the way it goes, I guess. (I'd credit the photo, but I'm pretty sure it's from a meme generator.) Poultry is well, except for Daisy the Duck who got into a fight with like 1/2 the flock and was injured. Now there's a nice, melodic story about picking maggots out of wounds that I could share, but why? It's bad enough that I got to DO it. Suffice it to say she's healed from her external wounds, but will need another month conval...

Nope, I'm not dead.  I bought a wool fleece off a farmer on Ebay.  Four pounds of wooly goodness.  I've been washing and spinning up bits of it all week.  About 500 yards of fingering weight cream colored wool has come off my spindle. I happen to go off in my own little world with a fleece.  I totally immerse myself in the process of washing, drying, carding and spinning.  I find it very calming. In fact, you know in the Harry Potter movies, where Harry is being taught how to produce a Patronus charm and he must remember a very happy moment? This is one of mine. The other one involves snuggling with my honey on the couch watching the Packers. At the time I had sprained both my ankles and could not go anywhere.  My ass was planted on that couch whenever I was home for like,  4 months.  When there's no where you can go, and nothing you can do...you accept it. Dave sat near me while I had both ankles under ice packs watching the Packers pla...

Lockdown is a term used to indicate the last 2-3 days of incubation on a poultry egg.  The eggs are not rotated any more but left in the position ideal for hatching.  The humidity is raised to help thin the shell and the warmth stays the same.  This week, we have 10 duck eggs due to hatch.  The first 4 are seen here.  I see internal pipping with the top left one.  That means that the duck has started making a hole to the outside. They all rock back and forth from time to time. It's getting crowded in those shells, and they want out!  We stand there watching for movement, excited when we see them rock back and forth even a little bit. BUT, onto Knitting and Spinning. This is the start of the Tree Roots Scarf by Kristi Holaas.  The yarn is the real story on this scarf so far. In search of yarn/fiber to become my Easter present, I happened on these skeins of Martha Stewart Wool Roving at JoAnn fabrics on clearance for a buck.  Now, I took a...

I was thinking about this so maybe it's time to address bullying in a different way: by a story.  You see, I'm the only one in the knitting group who has been kicked out of a Knit Along. Ok, as I say it, "I was asked to leave."  a knit-along.  Yeah. because I called out the List Mom on bullying. I used to join Knit Alongs.  The jist of them is that the person running the knit along - the List Mom - puts out a section of a chart or directions each week and you knit that part, not knowing what you'll get for a design until the end. The knit alongs is run through a email group, which allows you to control how many people are in the group and who gets what kind of message. Each week the email goes out to gather up another clue and others chat about things and post pictures of their progress.   It's a great way to get a few thousand people to test-knit your designs.  Heck, one of my favorite shawls was made that way: Dem Fisher Sin Fru from Monika Eckert ...

I went in search of some undyed roving in my stash today.  That led to me finding oh, about 6 projects that are unfinished in various totes and bags in my 'she-cave'.   So I think this will be my sacrifice; to finish up these projects and get them off the needles.  Three of them are sweaters, which is my bane.  I cannot finish sweaters for anything.  This is going to be a challenge for me, so to do so during Lent should give me new perspective. 1. These mittens are 2/3 done.  That should be my first goal since it will give me a sense of accomplishment quickly.  The yarn is Malabrigo worsted; which I would love to buy a million yards and just sleep on it. It's so squishy! 2. The   Dockside Cardigan   is a funky knit sweater that starts on the outside and moves to the inside.  That's why it looks like a jumble of crap right now.  I'm on the back and from what I remember, the issue was that the textured pattern was giving me fi...

It's like 6 degrees Fahrenheit outside with a wind chill of -30 degrees Fahrenheit.   NO Animal gets outside today...well except for me to do chores. African Geese can get their knobs frostbitten. So we made the decision to keep them in their enclosure today.  I went out and got them fresh food and water and plugged in a radio to keep them less bored. They're listening to country music. But let's talk knitting, shall we? Or at least fiber play.  Some new things off the needles: Not really all that new, but I've been working on my sock leftover blanket for about 5 years.  I'm currently working on straightening it out.  The right side needed another row added down to the bottom and the left side needed another row added to the top. That squares it up, so I can keep knitting it longer.  Right now, it is about 4 1/2' long by 3' wide. A Pair of fingerless mitts I have been working on for almost a year now.  You know the S...

I seem to have lost my ability to write a coherent thought and extrapolate on it, so I'll do random thoughts today. 1. New Years' goals: Work out for one hour with our new Wii every day.  So far, so good.  Even Dave was bowling and doing archery on it yesterday. The tennis part is kicking my butt, but I've got plenty of time to perfect my swing. 2. Another goal: Pay attention to serving sizes on food.  For instance, this is one serving of cereal.  I've been serving myself way too much of everything.  Time to get into the habit of looking at serving sizes. 3. Our Son has made a decision about the military. More when I get concrete proof this is the real deal. 4. Every Morning since it's been so cold, I schlepp out to the animals 3 gallons of water in the morning and in the evening. Odd thing is that I think they prefer that water to stuff from the faucet. They don't get let out of their pens until the thermometer reaches 10 degrees Farenheit.  Tod...

Sounds like fun doesn't it? Kicking pools.  Except I've been doing it for a few weeks now because of the ice. The pools are used for the geese and ducks.  They're just kiddy pools, but it gives them a chance to bathe and get clean.  Apparently the pools also play a crucial role in mating for both ducks and geese. That happens in the big pool There's a larger pool that's deeper and more uh...mating friendly over by the house.  In this picture, Buddy is in the blue one, Percy is in the pink one and Ron is in front.  Now wait for it............. Up pops Sissy! Isn't she adorable?!?! The interesting development over the last two weeks is that Sissy and Ron have bonded.  Geese are one of the animals that chooses a mate for life. I checked the forums on this and it's not a hard and set rule that the ganders won't go astray, but they do have their favorite gals. Ron likes Sissy.  Oddly enough, Ron is not our biggest gander and he does bully Percy on ...