Yarn Along - In Preparation For The New Year

The weather this afternoon was lovely.  Not a word you typically see attached to January 1st, but it was.  I sat outside and knit several rows on a new hat.  Which I'm going to need starting tomorrow.

What the heck kinda forecast is that?!?

They say how you spend the first day of the new year is a forecast of the upcoming year.  I did play with Hickory some, did NOT do any house cleaning or grocery shopping (good or bad, depending on if you are me or Saint Tim ;-), visited with Stella for awhile, read a little, knit a little...and got the song YMCA (stupid dancing spiders - don't ask) stuck in my head.  And then I noticed Rebecca Boone not acting quite right.  

She was easy (yep, she's sick) to catch, halter and lead over to the wall tie to take her temperature.  I'd rather have a 2013 toothache than a stupid ear worm and a sick sheepy.  Rebecca Boone should be fine.  We started her on a round of antibiotics and "aspirin" and I'm sure hoping she won't be quite as easy to catch tomorrow...when the weather swings from 48 and sunny down to 9 and snowy.  It's a miracle we're not all sick!

Back to Ginny's Yarn Along.  The pattern is Brooklyn Tweed's Habitat.  The yarn is some leftover Punkin I've been saving for little special projects like this.  Very fun.  Of all my sheep, his wool is/has been my favorite.  All those years I just gave his wool to the shearers...  Who knew.  Heck, I still need to pinch myself sometimes.  Wait, what?  I raise sheep?  Spin yarn??  Knit hats???

Turns out, I guess I'm a Yarn Farmer!  As soon as I saw the title to this week's book it clicked.  Hopefully I'm not stealing a trademarked job title.  While not on a scale anywhere near Springdelle Farm and Foxfire Fiber, I think our little farm and flock definitely qualify, and being able to say I'm "farming yarn" is much more concise than "we just raise our sheep for fiber, no, no market lambs, just for the wool, yes, yes people do still buy wool these days..."

The book is wonderful!  I am thoroughly enjoying it - the stories, the photographs, the patterns, dyeing tips...  Adventures in Yarn Farming - Four Seasons on a New England Fiber Farm by Barbara Perry.  There's a really nice video at the bottom of the book link as well.  Check it out :-).