I am Socked out....am off to Knit Something else!!

Look what I found in the flowerbed, could not believe she was blooming before the Tulips, the Tulips flower buds are finally showing but they are so late this year. Every Tomato and pepper plant I just transplanted are doing great and are getting new leaves. We have the greenhouse all ready for me to move out the Geraniums and other plants I held over but the weather is either really warm or there is a chance of snow so will wait a bit longer but they need to be clipped back and repotted in new soil. I spent a day cleaning up all the old leaves that our winds blew onto the front deck and dumping the soil out of the three big pots I always have on the deck, now have to get them filled up again with new potting soil and ready to put the plants in them.RH has the garden area all tilled and now will wait until the weeds start growing again then will give it another till before we plant, I have the raised beds which are covered with straw from last year and just need to pull the straw back and dig the soil up a bit and they will be ready to plant. So it is getting closer!!

I had said I was going to stop knitting socks and knit something else after the headache I had with the last pair of socks....but then I had this ball all wound and ready to go so thought I would knit it up....well am having a terrible time....I am really socked out!! I have to knit something else for a while!

I have been trying to remember what pattern I used for a scarf I made a couple years ago to be auctioned off....I loved the the way that scarf knit up...and I just can not remember the stitch I used. I know it was an easy one and would love to knit some more, it only had one or two rows to it...this is going to drive me crazy looking for it!! I came a cross a pattern for a one row scarf thinking maybe that was the pattern but it isn't, but am going to knit it anyway. I knit a swatch in white yarn and it looks great so started with this multicoloured yarn I had left over from the toes of the headache socks...hmmm.....I think I like the swatch better....the one colour shows the stitches off better. So now have to make a decision....should I knit it in a solid colour or the multicolour??? Or should I knit one of each?? Did not get much knit up today as yesterday I was off to get my eyes checked to see if I needed new glasses and the Dr. put these yellow drops in my eyes which irritated them and I have a headache and hard to do much today...but the thing about those yellow drops in my eyes......when I left the office...I went shopping...and my eyes were watering...when I got back to the car...RH said you have yellow stuff running out of your eyes....I looked in the mirror...good grief!! Yes there was yellow stuff running out of my eyes and down my face and here I was walking around...and talking to people.....tomorrow is another day....

Another Snow Day...And potting up Plants....

Here we have Another Snow Day! it would have been nice to have a nice warm rain but we will take what we can get to stop the grass fires, will be glad when the farmers get their fields worked up. It has been so dry and windy lately.

The poor Robins were just sitting there in shock, tonight it is all melted so tomorrow should be a good worm day for them....unless we get more snow tonight. So what have I been doing....not much knitting....have not gotten back to spinning...and only a few swipes at pulling the guard hair out of the llama fleece I have been working at....came to the conclusion that the fleece is Posy's, looks different sheared than it does on her. I have been potting up the tomato and pepper plants I had started, I have thirty-eight Tomato plants, seven varieties and Fifty Pepper plants and have run out of space under my light in the shed, if it warms up I will be able to put the Geraniums etc out in the greenhouse with a small heater for the nights, do not want to get an unexpected frost like last year where there was frost damage.

Here they are...and so far everyone looks great! Last year I had such beautiful Mini Roses and wanted to keep them over the winter, a friend of mine said she always keeps hers over the winter in the ground, I had mine in large pots so last fall I buried the pots in the ground and made a fence of chicken wire around them and filled it with tree leaves, the wire thank-goodness kept the leaves in place or the winds we had would have blown them away. I just removed the leaf mulch yesterday and there are little leaves coming out on all three pots!! I have tried to keep them over in the heated shed with the other plants and while they would live they did not look good and never bloomed the following year.So am hoping to have them bloom this summer!!

Finishing the Headache Socks !!

The weather has been so nice the last two days I have been working in the yard. Love to see all my perennial rockery plants turning green and some starting to bloom.

Forget the name right now, will have to check it out. Washed and bleached the pots I want to plant my little seedlings into so they are ready, sat the bag of potting soil in the sun to warm it up but did not get the potting done today, hopefully tomorrow.

i am calling this pair of socks my headache socks...they are the pair I ran out of yarn on so ordered another ball and finished the toe on the one sock.........look at the toes.....the colouring in the yarn does not match!!!!!! It knit in stripes...they must have had a new dye lot. This was getting to be too much...have started hating these socks!! What to do...what to do.

Finally decided to rip the toe back on the other sock and knit a matching toe the sock I had finished with the original yarn, do you think someone will think it was a planned design feature??? At this point I could care less...think I am going to go back to knitting fingerless mitts again for a while. Tomorrow is another day......

Weather is making me crazy!! But a little Butterfly saved the day! First of the Season!

I wanted the snow to disappear....but not like this!! We had gale force wind for two days, I could not stand to be upstairs so spent the days...with a headache downstairs in my work area....pulling the guard hair out of the llama fleece I had just washed plus carding some very soft alpaca fibre with some merino and silk and it is so beautiful, have started spinning it and can not wait until I can get some plyed!! What should I make with it? What should I make...have to wait and see how it turns out.Finished the pair of socks I was working on and got my yarn order with a skein to finish the other pair I was short of yarn, just have the toe to finish. Now today was a nice sunny day, not much I can do outside as yet so did some house cleaning and I had gone out to shake a rug and look what I found....

She was flying around and landed on the flowers and I ran for my camera and she stayed until I got her picture! Is this a sign that spring is really here, I would sure like to think so but weather forecast tonight was...some areas getting snow tomorrow...and some areas getting rain....YUK..Yuk...I should have spent my day outside today and did my house cleaning tomorrow. I did spend a little time outside checking up on my plants that have started growing, was so worried as there was ice on the garden pond two mornings in a row....but everyone is good...no frost damage that I can see and the new rose bushes I bought last year have a few leaves coming...so excited about that. I had moved my little tomato and pepper plants out under the grow lights and they are doing well, the tomatoes are getting their second bunch of leaves so will be ready to pot up into individual pots in a few days. hoping that the wet weather holds off until around noon tomorrow as RH has the truck full of bags of feed for the animals, hopefully he has it covered...he seems to think it will be dry until later in the day...like...after the weather we have had....he thinks the weather is going to wait until he unloads the feed.....Tomorrow is another day....a cool wet day...after he gets the feed unloaded....

Where did Friday go?? I thought Tomorrow was Friday!!

Our snow is not going away! It was so cold today with the breeze blowing off the snow.

RH cleaned the snow off the decks but the ground is still covered and the strange thing about it is, a couple miles on either side of us there is no snow......Mother Nature...what did we do to upset you...is it because I started my seeds too early!! I promise I will never do it again! Please take this snow away....I moved my tomato and pepper plants I started in the house out to the heated shed under the grow lights today...so I have been so nervous...this is their first night out of the house....I know I need to get a life! What have I been knitting? I hate to show you...it is so boring....

I finished the dish cloths for the lady that ordered them.......and I could not stop making them!! I forced myself to get the socks out I was working on before the dishcloths and knit on them tonight, just have a toe to finish on the second sock and will have another pair finished.What I have been doing since I finished the skein of the dog/alpaca/wool is cleaning up my work area, cleaned the picker...cleaned the carder...and today I washed a fleece and have it drying on the screen, have a fan on it and is surprising me how fast it is drying, will leave the fan on all night and it should be dry by morning.

I had sorted this fleece and had it in bags ready to wash for a while, was actually wanting to dry it outside but the way the weather has been thought I would just get it done and dry it in the house. Now....I thought it was an alpaca fleece......but it is a llama fleece...and I have a mind blank on who the llama is that gave me this fleece....this is going to keep me awake all night!! It is a fleece from a young animal..and it is beautiful...but whose fleece is it? I will be out early in the morning to try to figure out which llama gave me the fleece....Tomorrow is another day...which I thought was Friday.......but it just dawned on me...today is Friday!! So guess tomorrow is Saturday!!

Finally!! The skein of Dog/Alpaca/Wool yarn is Finished!!!

Here we are finally! The skein of Dog Hair/Alpaca/Wool is spun...plyed...washed and hanging to dry, if it is dry tomorrow it will be off to the dog owner. Here she sits in the bag of dog hair just before her bath. She turned out great after the hard time I had finding time to spin, the cat not wanting me to spin, plying it this afternoon and now washing it and hanging to dry. Will have to tuck the dog hair away now for a while and get some more fibre cleaned and sorted as pretty soon it will be shearing time again.

Was it Christmas....or...Easter this past Weekend????

It started to snow Saturday night....and this is what we woke up to Sunday morning!! And it snowed all day! So there was no coming or going for Easter so was a lazy day...eating turkey all by ourselves...and eating turkey for the rest of the week. Making turkey pies to go in the freezer for another day. Was it only last week that it was so dry there were grass fires, one thing we do not have to worry about for a while. The poor birds who had been so happy last week whipping around the yard finding places to build nests were now trying to find some place to perch and food to eat!

The Doves went from Sunning themselves to flopping through the trees trying to find a place to sit and this poor bird hanging onto the truck of a tree. Bird feeders were covered with snow so RH put some seed out in a large flat pan on the ground and we could see the birds helping them selves all day. Now this morning the sun is out and it is supposed to warm up....and then we will have water all over the place. Decided yesterday I had to get the rest of the dog/alpaca/wool spun up if it took me all night, spun a bit in the morning, a bit after lunch and finished up just before midnight...had no cats helping until the last half hour then here came grey Kitty with her howling and yowling but I ignored her and finished up the other bobbin and today it will be plying, washing and hanging to dry and tomorrow it will be in the mail and I can get at something else. The tomato and pepper seeds I had planted are coming up so the first thing will be to get the plants in the shed organized so I can get at the grow lights and get my little plants under them. Right now they are sitting on the dining room table with a small light on them.

It is so Pitiful when you have to hide from the Cat!

I wanted to get some more of the dog/alpaca/wool roving spun...I so want to get this finished...so...when Grey Kitty was not looking....I quickly went downstairs...and hid behind the cutting/blocking table...and spun. I could hear her yowling up and down the stairs running here and there....and she did not find me, what saved me was RH was in the shower and she thought it was me so she waited at the bathroom door to ambush me when I came out.....

As you can see....she is not impressed at all....she is not speaking to me...and it does not upset me.... as for me it is a treat. Now for the problem of the ball of yarn that was sucked into the central Vacuum hose and was stuck....I tried the clothes hanger that I took apart, bent a hook into the end....did not work...just could not hook the yarn. Finally tonight RH brought the stock blower from the barn that we use to blow the dirt and as much debris from the animals that we can before we shear them, it is powerful...and he stuck it in the end of the hose and turned it on high...and boy that ball of yarn came flying out!! All I can say is thank-goodness. Note to self...if you even suspect a ball of yarn is hiding any where near where you are vacuuming....do not take the attachment off the end of the hose!! Tomorrow is another day.....

Some Flowery Cheer...and Another Problem to Solve

I think this Christmas Cactus thinks it is an Easter cactus!! I think I heard somewhere there is an Easter Cactus that looks much like a Christmas Cactus.

Will have to google Easter Cactus.....

And look who else does not want to be left out. And here I have forgot her proper name...is called the Wax Plant too. Well onto the spinning problem of yesterday..finally got that sorted out and spun a bit more...really wanted to finish spinning but too many interruptions today, did get two more dishcloths knit so am finished with them and can get them off to the lady that wanted them. Disaster of the day...there just had to be one....I was vacuuming the furniture....a never ending job with these cats, I was using the central vacuum and I must have somehow left a small ball of yarn tucked in one of the cushions.....which was vacuumed up...and plugged the hose...thank-goodness it was the hose because for a while I thought it had went into the pipes in the wall....that would have really been a disaster. I think it is up close to the beginning of the hose, so the job for tomorrow will be to try to fashion a wire clothes hanger with a hook on it to hook the ball of yarn and get it out. Tomorrow...is another day!

Where is that Easter Bunny!! I need some Chocolate!!

Well I was determined to get enough of the dog/alpaca/wool carded and pulled into roving and start spinning it yesterday......I did not have time until later in the evening but I was determined to get some progress made before I went to bed! So I started carding....and here came my two old cats who protested that they wanting me to come upstairs, grey Kitty yowling and running around...so I went upstairs and gave them something to eat...these two cats are fifteen years old and can only eat a little at a time...which means eating all day..which means I am their servant...and they know how to work me. I thought once they had eaten they would have calmed down and forgot I was downstairs...but no...here they were again...howling...under my feet... I tried to ignore them and carried on with carding...Grey Kitty thinks she is the boss downstairs so she smacked poor Sheba around and chased her upstairs, then came back down to carry on with trying to get me to go upstairs...I got the fibre carded and pulled into roving and sat to the spinning wheel to spin...well she was not happy at all and yowling away almost getting her tail caught in the spinning wheel...bumping my leg...and I was spinning along, thinking I would just get a good start and then finish today...and then...if you are a spinner you will cringe....I lost of end of the fibre I was spinning and there it was hanging there and had lost all its twist.......

Now it is midnight...Grey Kitty is still doing her yowling and running around.....and I am trying...with no luck to get enough twist in the loose end so I can pull it back through the orfice so I can continue spinning.....I sat for a minute..and calmed down...then went upstairs...gave the cat a bit of food and went to bed!!! And no Chocolate Easter Bunnies were harmed....I did not get down to solve the problem today...I was going to as RH was going into town to pick up his new glasses and had a list (which I reviewed with him before he left so he knew what he was getting)and I thought good I will have all this time with no interruptions, cats usually sleep and I just have to mix up some muffins and then will be able to go down and get spinning again.....nope did not get done....RH phoned me...seven times...SEVEN TIMES!!!!! before he came home with questions on what he was getting. The last phone call....I said...bring me home some chocolate!!!!

I did accomplish one thing today......I made a dishcloth....one dishcloth....I made the other one yesterday...and of course the muffins......please let tomorrow be a better day......The old cats are smacking each other as I type this and I am on my way to bed!!