Spinning, Knitting, Crocheting, Organic Gardening, Living off-grid, and chasing sheep - because- I'm, like, NOT SANE!

Sunday, June 17, 2007

We spin, WE knit

he knitsI should probably stay in my room, today, as my allergies just woke up this morning and it being Dad's day and all and me being red-faced and grumpy but - what the hell. I couldn't resist jotting in to show you this great specimen. Okay, so you skeptics and couch dr's say, it is a spot of knitting. But you'd only say that because you did not know it was a spot of knitting (ego says, tell them that it is your handspun navajo plied alpaca that he used for his first time) of the LAST REMAINING NON-KNITTER IN THIS HOUSE. A sigh of relief....I have done my duty. Hubster, celebrating this 'new' (albeit kinda scary) phase of our lives (we've decided to try to live off the farm income and doing odd jobs for a while so we can maybe sleep now and then), broke out some knitting needles and some hideous (and coarse )mint green NZ wool and asked me to teach him to knit a square. No, no, I know this man better than he thinks. I knew the texture, the color, the wrong gauge needles to massacre the too fine dk wgt yarn were all a ploy to self-destruct (he is a capricorn, you know). I decided the yarn for him - gray because it is safe and I figure there's no reason to make his eyeballs hurt with a meaningless fling with mint green. Alpaca because I wanted him to do just what he did, stop every now and then to 'pet' his newly knit square, and my own, my precious handspun because -well - because I wanted to BEND him to my will! Can you blame me?

Now, I'm off to see if there's anything we can do to help the remaining turkey chicks fair better than the three that died the first day. It is depressing news to deliver but please keep in mind that sweet as they are, and even though they are an Americana icon, this is the domesticated bird that must be sheltered from the rain for the sad fact that it will look up into the sky and let raindrops drown it through the holes on their beaks. Please cross your fingers that their good food, freshened 567 times a day water and perfect combination of shade and sun and warmth and draft protections and severe death threats upon salivating cats will help the remaining three through the next few days. They becoming increasingly hardy after about a week.

i spinI haven't forgotten I am a Sunday Spinster. Here's proof that I spin. Because I am eager to please, I have also provided proof that I suck at taking photographs. From 12 o clock which is a purple (lurve) with gaudy seed beads throughout, 3 o'clock is a single glitzy, tacky creature that resulted from some easter egg dye and a madwoman on the picker, 6 is some brown alpaca recarded with some 'Hot Mama' batts from last year and the 9 o'clock spot holds some silky, sari silk embedded 'dragon' yarn. You can trust me, it really looks and feels much better than this sad representation would indicate.