Thinking of Spring

Yesterday was such a nice day to be outdoors. It was warm enough to go out without an actual coat, the snow is all gone, and the sun felt so good. I know that this weather isn’t going to last, but it felt so much like spring. In fact, it felt like a day in late March, but without the wind we almost always have at that time. And today looks like more of the same.

Last night I spent some time looking some stuff up on goat care at Fiasco Farm and found their gestation calculator. It looks like I’ll be getting baby goats for my birthday. I’ve been making a list of things I need to get. Like tattoo pliers and hoof trimmers. I’ve been such a slacker because I know I need to have this stuff on hand for when I need it. I was born and raised on a ranch. That’s probably why I didn’t think about getting it, actually. We always had the stuff.

I got started with the Valentine’s dresses yesterday afternoon. I got all the parts cut out for the first dress. I’m not going to cut out the second one until the first one is done. That way if I want to change something, I can. The girls pretty much wear the same size, Knitter #2 just needs things longer than Knitter #3. I need to sew the first dress today if I am going to get them both done by Thursday. Their parties are on Thursday and Friday.

Wednesday is Brent’s birthday. He told me the girls could get him presents, but I didn’t need to. So I bought him some fish for our tank. He’s been taking care of them and has complained that our Plecostamus doesn’t keep it clean. So I bought another one, some neons, and a couple Mickey Mouse Platys. By the time I got home, there were baby Platys. I don’t know if they snuck in with the water or if one of the fish had them on the way home. I put in some plastic grass for them to hide in. We have a 55 gallon tank that had less than a dozen fish in before I bought fish on Saturday. About once a year, I go buy a bunch of cool fish for our tank and usually most of them die. It is very annoying to spend $50 on fish to have only 5 or 6 fish a month later. And last year I went to a lot of trouble to make sure our tank was healthy before I went and bought fish. If these guys all thrive, I will go back for more fish. I love Mollies and Swordtails, but they didn’t do well for me last year. Heck, if we have a tank full of fish, I might be inspired to buy a new hood for our tank. I love watching fish.

Valentine's Sewing

Yesterday, when I was looking at patterns online, I decided the girls need Valentine’s dresses. I knew the V-day fabrics would be on sale, and I had found the perfect pattern that was on sale. Sadly, they were all out of that pattern. Fortunately, I have tons of dress patterns. I looked one up in the book and found it in the drawer to get the yardage off the back of the envelope. I’m going to add an underskirt with an eyelet ruffle to make them super girly. Not just regular girly.



I’ve used this pattern before. I made a dress for Knitter #2 when she was in preschool. It was WAY too big for her then, so I haven’t used the pattern again until now. She loved the dress, but I had to take it away because it developed a tear at the top. Every dress that I’ve made them that called for you to stay stitch from each side has done that unless I overlapped the stay stitching. Nothing is more off putting than to have a dress be worn 3 or 4 times and then it rips. I don’t buy cheap fabric for their clothes. I want the clothes to last. I’d like to see their kids wear the stuff, too. Providing they have girls to wear the dresses…

Gardening season will be upon us soon. It would behoove me to see if I even have any tomato seeds. If I don’t, I really need to order some. You can’t assume that just because you bought Brandywines and Mortgage Lifters last year that you will be able to get them this year. 2 years ago I bought them to augment our tomato patch and last year they were not to be had at any point in the garden planting season. And this year I have promised myself I won’t kill my baby plants like I did last year and 3 years ago. Hopefully this year the garden will thrive. I bought a book on drip systems to help with that problem. And if we have a bumper crop of grass hoppers, I think I will herd some chickens into the garden. They can’t harm it more than the grasshoppers did last year. I’ve never had chickens devour my entire garden.

A Bagel-y Day

Today I made bagels. Yummy. Knitter #2 will be very happy. She loves to have half a bagel for breakfast. I’m worried my yeast is starting to get old, so I used a bit more than I usually do. Since my bagels came out fine, I have to draw the conclusion that it IS getting old. I like to buy it in large quantities because it is cheaper, but then I slack off on baking and it doesn’t get used up fast enough. This means I need to bake more, obviously. Or start buying in smaller quantities.

For the past few months, I’ve been thinking about doing different things with my hair. I love my hair, but I also want to change it. I think it was back in November that I had highlights put in. I don’t think I will do that again. They look nice, but I like the darkness of my hair. I rather like having my hair match my nearly black eyes. Now I am thinking about adding some bangs. I haven’t had bangs in something like 15 years. I’ve spent the last 3 months looking for pictures of people with hair like mine. There is no point in getting my hair cut to look like something it just isn’t. Like straight as a rail. My hair is wavy, and I have always loved really straight hair. I never used to understand what people meant when they talk about how important a woman’s hair was to her. When I was young, I would regularly cut it all off. Now it doesn’t grow so fast and I worry about even having some bangs cut. Oh, to be 20 again. But just for the hair.

A few days ago, I told my cousin I would pick her up on my way to JoAnn’s because they have Butterick patterns on sale this weekend. Well, probably all week. Anyway, I keep a list of patterns I want. Today I checked my list and there weren’t any Butterick patterns on it. Ha ha, joke’s on me. I am so desperate to be away from my kids and Brent, that I spent the morning looking for Butterick patterns that I might want. I did find some Vogue patterns I want, so it’s all good now.

So Long Chester

Yesterday we took Chester home and did a dance. He’s a nice enough goat, but he doesn’t smell very pretty. Not that he smells really bad. And once the fun part of visiting the girls was over, he started treating them the way bucks treat other goats. One of the girls was afraid of him by the time he left. Right after he came, I made a decision about how things are going to be set up when we have a buck. The buck pen is going to be well away from the girls’ barn and they will go visit him. I don’t want that smell in my milking area. Milk is sensitive to odors. Anyway, happiness and girliness reigns in the goat barn once again.

My Soria vest is coming along nicely. I’m starting to get impatient to wear it. I have mere inches to go before I get to divide for the front and back. If it hadn’t been so gloomy today, I would have pictures.

A while back, Heather of The A.D.D. Knitter said something about doing the Autumn Rose Pullover for the Ravelympics. I not only dared her, I double dog dared her to do it in 2 weeks. An entire sweater on size 2’s in 2 weeks? I think she is crazy, but I will be so in awe of her if she actually pulls it off.

Vest Obsession

When you make cinnamon rolls for breakfast, the rest of the day just goes better than if you just had cold cereal or toast. I spent my morning with a good book and warm mugs of tea on the couch. I hope yours was just as nice.

Yesterday I finally sat down at the sewing machine and got out the button hole foot. I got all my buttonholes done and now I have a bunch of buttons to get sewn on. I also dug through the stuff still piled around from when we painted and found my patterns. They are patterns for dolls that I have made up myself. And I got a fabulous idea for bunnies to make the girls for Easter. I don’t know when it is this year, I’ll have to check. A couple years ago, I made them some cool bunnies that I had seen in an embroidery book. I’m thinking of making some even cooler bunnies using the pattern I drew up for the first ones. Speaking of Easter, my Mom had the coolest Easter basket when I was a kid. My Aunt Icil made these baskets from a pattern in a magazine once upon a time. It was crocheted with variegated thread, starched, and dried on an upside down bowl to give it the shape. It was beautiful. If I could find the pattern, I could make some this year. I copied the pattern once upon a time and I think I came across it some time in the past year. Or maybe my mom had gotten a copy from my aunt and I found it. If I am lucky, I will be able to find it again. I wish I had a picture of the one Mom had.

Anyone out there joining the Ravelympics? I went hunting for it last week and signed up. I am going to make myself a Bonsai Tunic from the Spring 2007 IK, page 67. I am making mine with Brown Sheep Lamb’s Pride worsted. I got the idea when I ordered some yarn last summer and was sent the worsted instead of the bulky I ordered. For the past year, I’ve been working up to an obsession with knitting vests. For a long time I have admired More Stripes by Amy King for a long time. And the Bonsai Tunic. And Talia. Obviously, when Soria came along, I was going to be obsessed with it. Anyhoo, last summer I was ordering yarn for Talia and Versatility (strangely, not a vest) when I was sent the “wrong” yarn that seemed like it would be great for a Bonsai Tunic. I don’t have yarn to make More Stripes yet. Maybe a I could knit a few more before buying yarn for another! I started into my vest knitting in August when I knit this fabulous little vest from DROPS:



I love it, but if I make another one, I won’t bother with the buttonholes and buttons because I prefer it unbuttoned. It fits so well that I don’t really need the buttons and it adds just the right amount of warmth when it is cool.

Wow. I have a lot links for this post. Maybe after that I should knit a vest.

7 Stitches

It is so wet here right now. We’re having all this warm weather that is melting the snow off and quite a bit of rain, as well. The rivers are not flooding yet, so horrific local stories on the news. Just the news from Haiti. We donated some money to the relief effort. Brent isn’t really one to talk about doing things like that, but one day he asked me if we could. I am so thankful that we don’t have horrific catastrophes here in Idaho. The only thing we live in fear of is fire.

Sunday night we had a trauma. The girls were running back and forth and the unspeakable happened. One of them fell and got hurt. Emergency room bad. She has 7 stitches in her face until tomorrow morning. When I was helping the nurses and doctor bind her up with a pillowcase and blankets, I told her it was like when you wrap a baby up tight in blankies. She liked it for about 30 seconds. Once it was deadened things improved. Today she finally seems like her normal self. And I lived through it, too.

We finally had enough sunshine that I was able to take some pictures today. So first we have a progress shot of Soria:



I am loving this project. Sometimes cables can be taxing and not fun. I really enjoy the 1 row out of every 4 that I get to make cables. Many thanks to Heather, aka The ADD Knitter for her compliments on Soria a couple days ago.

We went and did a little shopping today and I found these at my favorite thrift shop:



I am going to alter them. I am pretty sure the girl who rang it all up wondered why I was buying so many black purses. I will show pictures one of these days when I collect everything I need for the project.

Here a couple things I’ve made lately:



I made a bunch of the tissue covers for my etsy shop. This one is the prototype that I am keeping. The other thing is a little credit card wallet. It is small and perfect when I don’t want to carry my purse with me. Perfect as long as I have pockets, that is. I think it will be handy in my purse for keeping track of my Bi-Mart card.

Opening Shop!

Yesterday, on a whim, I pushed a button on Etsy and re-opened my shop. It was just that easy. I had made some scarves last month for it and took the pictures. And did nothing. I guess I wasn’t ready until yesterday. Apparently, it is the right time for me, because I’ve made a bunch of small things besides the scarves in the past 24 hours.

The goats have settled in and seem to all be happy. This morning, I did notice an odor about the buck. I expect it could give you a headache if you were exposed to it enough in an enclosed space. The new trick is getting the girls to stay in the barn while I close the door. I can’t give them grain while the buck is here because he can’t have grain. Grain is how I trick them into staying out of my way while I lock them in. They thought apple chunks were just plain mean tonight. Possibly worse than nothing at all.

When I get several repeats of my cables on Soria, I will show a fabulous picture of them. A picture, anyway.