One more

Here is the sweater I just finished that is destined to spend the rest of this year in the Christmas box. It's intended for the newest grandchild, born 6 weeks ago. Whether it ends up being a Christmas gift will depend on how quickly he grows! It could possibly end up being a "happy autumn" gift and then I'll have to hustle up something else for Christmas. I love how this sweater turned out, though I did have some issues with it. Not with the knitting. It was super easy. This is a kit from Morehouse Farm (the Classic Baby Jacket). The picture on the website and the pattern that came in the kit showed the color combination just as above---the two blues and orange. The kit arrived with a pinkish-salmon color----not going to work for a boy! I probably should have called them, but instead I just ordered a skein of orange and got on with it. The pattern says it is for a 0-12 months-not sure how that is possible! I didn't follow the written pattern completely, but instead relied on the picture on the pattern (the number of stripes, etc) and then ran out of yarn just as I was finishing the second sleeve. So, once again, I ordered two more skeins of the blues, thinking that this was probably my fault because I didn't follow the directions exactly. When that order arrived, the yarn was not the right color. Yikes! At this point the sweater had cost me nearly double. Finally, I had enough sense to send the wrong color skeins back with samples of yarn in the colors I needed, which they exchanged and returned to me pretty quickly.
This yarn is very soft and is great for baby things that won't get a lot of rough and tumble wear. I try to support small, independant yarn producers when I can and Morehouse Farm does a great job with their product. Check out their website for some cute patterns and kits. The buttons came from my local Hancock Fabric Store.

Knitting little

I love knitting little things, especially baby things. This little sweater is for the new grandbaby, Parker. It was my airplane knitting on my recent flight to Florida and back. The pattern is the garter stitch cardigan from Simple Knits for Cherished Babies by Erika Knight. I used Debbie Bliss Baby Cashmerino instead of the called for Rowan Wool Cotton. The yarn was bought before we even knew if the baby would be a boy or girl. I had seen a dark brown baby sweater trimmed in pink that I loved simply because it was not the usual pastel colors assigned baby things (not that there's anything wrong with that---it's just nice to be different sometimes). So I bought the dark brown, 1 skein of pink and 1 skein of blue. I started the sweater right away, but then got distracted (imagine that!), put it down and just recently picked it up again. I'm not totally happy with the buttons, but the trim shade of blue turned out to be difficult to match. Finally, it seemed best to just get on with it so Parker could have it before he outgrew it!

Speaking of airplane knitting----we had the grumpiest security people I've ever encountered at the Ft. Meyers, Florida airport. I thought one of the agents was going to grab a guy up in front of me because he wasn't moving fast enough. There was a large crowd going through and the agents kept yelling at us to keep our boarding passes out for inspection, take off our shoes, put things in the tubs a certain way, to not come through the metal detector until they tell us to. (I did not like having to walk barefoot on the airport floor!) Frankly, it was very intimidating and the rudeness seemed unnecessary. Maybe there was something going on that was causing them to be extra stressed, but still..... My philosophy has been that I would rather go through security and be safe rather than sorry, so I try not to complain about the indignities (I got pulled aside for a pat-down on this trip, too! Maybe I looked threatening??) Of course, my biggest fear was that they would take my knitting needles! I usually have a stamped, self-addressed, padded envelope with me, just in case, but had forgotten it this time. Boy, there is nothing glamorous about plane travel these days.

Anyway, back to knitting. I finished another little sweater that will be going into the Christmas box (I'm so proud of myself for actually doing this!) It's being blocked right now and I'll show it in a few days.

Peafowl on parade

I looked out the kitchen window a few days ago and this is what I saw. Mrs. Dandy and the kids (they are now as big or bigger than she is!) were out on the terrace checking out the koi pond. As far as I know, this is the first time they have ventured this close to the house. I'm hoping they don't make a habit of it because, as you can see, they are big birds and big birds leave big reminders of their visit everywhere they go!

Mr. Dandy is usually off by himself, though sometimes he joins the group when breakfast is being served. Not long ago Mr. Dandy seemed to think that spring was in the air and felt the need to show Mrs. Dandy and the kids just how beautifully his tail feathers were growing back. (He shed all of his tail feathers back during the fall.) The thing I find amusing about this picture is that he is strutting his stuff and his audience is completely oblivious! They are not impressed at all. Ho hum---he's at it again. It turns out that two of the surviving chicks are males (you can see their necks starting to turn that gorgeous shade of iridescent blue-green---it will take them three years to grow their first set of tail feathers). I'm hoping they are going to all be able to coexist here peacefully. And, if Mrs. Dandy manages to hatch out any eggs this year, I think we'll be looking for homes for the new chicks. We have three barns here on the farm, but we only use the one closest to the house for livestock. All of the peafowl roost in the rafters of the barn at night and I think we may have already reached optimum capacity (please refer to above comment about big birds and big reminders!).

You might have noticed that the koi pond and surroundings look a little rough. Between the ice storm and then the windstorm, everything looks a mess around here. Plus, it's that time of year when everything looks brown and bedraggled. I think I'm ready to start seeing some green around here.

There's no place like..........

home. Really. It was lovely to have a break from the routine, but I'm so happy to be back home. I missed Mike and my animals and no bed ever feels as comfortable as my own. I don't know about anyone else, but being away for a while gives me a fresh perspective on home. I almost always come back with renewed energy and enthusiasm for my "normal" life. (I know that to most people, there is nothing normal about my life!)

These girls are just biding their time now. It's time for all of us to start thinking about and planning for shearing and lambing. I like to get the barn set up and gather my supplies well ahead of time. The shearer is coming in a few weeks to do the pregnant ewes and then he'll come again a little later to do the yearlings. That's not how I usually schedule things, but the way it has to be this year. I'm anxious to see how lambing goes and hoping it is not a repeat of last year. We had 7 sets of triplets last year and it will be perfectly okay with me (not to mention the ewes themselves) if we don't have any triplets this year! The up-side of having all those triplets and having to bottle feed or supplement so many lambs is that nearly all the yearlings are very sweet and friendly because they were handled so much as babies. Every year is a different experience, so we'll see.

Here's a quote from the "mindwise" column in the March issue of Oprah magazine: "According to research at the Harvard-affiliated Benson-Henry Institute for Mind Body Medicine, the repetitive motion and focus of needlework can elicit what's known as the relaxation response - a calming meditation-like state that slows heart rate and causes blood pressure to drop. In addition, a study published in the Journal of the American Geriatrics Society suggests that knitting is associated with a lower risk of dementia for those 65 and older." Well, okay! That's all the validation I need to continue to do something I love.