Kamikaze Goats

I meant to post these pictures a while ago. When we first started dismantling the roof the normally cognitively challenged goats managed to find their way up on to the top of the building.



They were after the ivy on the walls and even went up the tiled slope. Because of course any scrappy bit of vegetation which is out of reach must be better than the lush pasture in front of your nose!



Surprisingly they also seemed to find there way down again. They seem to entertain themselves with climbing challenges.

High winds and Lambkins

The results of last Friday Nights Spinning. Only about 25g of some merino roving I dyed. I have another 75g to go. This friday however I need to spin up the second skein for my Spin to Knit partner. Cutting it fine I know!


Last Monday I went for lunch with my friend Alex (the one with the alpacas). Back in September she rescued two abandoned kitties which I blogged about. You should see them now.





They are so beautiful.

True to form she had another waif in the house. A three day old lamb, one of triplets who wasn't thiving so she brought her in to hand rear.



She was very inquisitive especially about the knitting.



But got tired very quickly.

This week has been very windy. In fact we apparently had a mini tornado pass by on Saturday night. Whatever the cause we were woken up about 4.30am when the roof canvas went woosh and flapped about for about 3 min. No harm done, we anxiously waited for the next blast for ages but it never came. The following night we heard what sounded like a sonic boom. When Keith went out to investigate with a torch he found the front of the house roof (which he had been dismantling) had slipped off taking the front wall with it.



No big deal as we were taking it down anyway and since Keith had detached it from the gable end no damage was done there. In fact it has fallen ideally as the majority of that wall had to come down to accomodate the entry of the electricity supply following the latest legislation.

The yurt is a bit smelly as I am dying on the rayburn. At the moment some kid mohair locks but later some mohair skeins from my LYS. They had some white mohair that wasn't selling so asked if I would dye it. I need to try and time these things and figure out how much actually goes into these tasks.

Big is Better?

I didn't blog for the Friday Night Spinners for a while but this is what I have been working on. The wonderful Ruth sent me some beautifully soft merino cross roving. I nearly always spin pretty chunky since that is what I mainly knit so I thought it was time I tried to go finer (it is all pretty haphazard since I am self taught and don't really know what I am doing!).



So I spun and spun and spun, well that's what it felt like. I finally finished at my spinning group last Sunday and I am really pleased with the result.



35g and 160m so I guess that would be a fingering weight? Is that like 4 ply in UK speak? Best of all it is still really, really soft. Thanks Ruth.

I have also been trying to finish my belated Christmas gifts.



I made a Sunflower Tam from the book Nature Knits to go with the Fetching mitts I made in child size. I used 2 strands of Patons Fuzzy Wuzzy ( a very old angora yarn) and 4.5 mm DPNs. It is a lovely shape that didn't need blocking and the design on the top is pretty stunning.



The very generous Sylvie from Chez Plum sent me a copy of her Cactus Mitts. They looked so good I had to try them straight away. I loved the colour of the mohair yarn that I used but in retrospect I think it is too fluffy as the pattern just does not show up well.

This is such a fast knit, much faster than Fetching, so ideal for a last minute present. It is knitted on 2 straights but since I dislike seaming I decided to try it in the round for the second one. It might have helped if I had engaged my brain first.



I used 2 stitches less because there would be no seam and the same size needles (5mm) so I was somewhat surprised that they were coming out so big. I mean loads bigger. I accept that my guage might be different on DPN's but surely not this much? I had got more than half way through before I twigged. When I cast on the 28 stitches at the beginning on three needles I thought 12 + 12 + 14 = 28... Doh. This would be funny rather than tragic if I didn't have a Maths degree!



However it seems that I knit tighter on DPN's (left). I knit these with a leftover part ball of yarn and ran out a few rows from the end so stopped then as I have short fat hands. I unpicked the last couple of rows of the first one to finished the left thumb. A bit of a mish mash but so cozy and I am pretty sure of the pattern now so I think another pair will appear soon. Thanks Sylvie.

So back to Ruth, also known as Woolly Wormhead. Last week I got her cable cap pattern and knit it in 3 strandsof Alpaca from my stash. I even swatched it and marked the size I needed.



However since I was knitting on DPN's from the centre out it was hard to get a really good idea of size. So I convinced myself it wasn't big enough and knit it larger.

I realised I was off mark when I switched to 2 circulars and tried to compensated by going down a needle size for the brim. The hat is so nice that Keith was trying to persuade me to keep it myself (friends even told me it made me look like Yoko Ono). But alas it is definitely too big and certainly not ok for my SIL (another late Christmas present). So some frogging is in order I guess.

Lastly look what Amber sent me. Isn't that thoughtful? She saw he picture of my Tricotin and thought I would like them. Can't wait to try them out.

Burning Down the House

I'm a bit late with January photos for the Snap a Dozen Days

I thought I would use as the theme of my photos for the year our efforts at renovating our house and surroundings.

Well you all know I live in a yurt, but do you know why?

Answer - because it is more comfortable than our house. I don't think I have ever shown pictures before. So maybe it is time. There are 2 buildings currently standing (2 others have nearly disappeared). This is one half of the main one. The goats currently shelter here.



This is the other half of it.



This is the other building the end of which fell down about 10 years ago (close to where the small yurt is).



Keith put in a septic tank last year which has nothing to connect to yet but apart from that we have made little progress on the buildings, more on the land.

Since it is a part time activity and we are fairly comfortable as is it may go slowly. On verra.

This is the end of the first building where I will be clearing ivy.

Inside there is literally a carpet of undergrowth to be removed.

We've started removing the roof and the rotting timbers are doing sterling service as firewood.

See how the fleece on the goats is growing, looks like there will be plenty for me by early summer. (All that washing - Sigh)