Yarn Along - The Photo Shoot

I was concerned the Maisie sweater was going to be too bulky, too tight, too hot, too stiff seamed. That I'd wear it and ladders would crash down on me, I'd trip and fall into the creek, Hickory would step on my foot...  Nope, it's perfect and I love it!  It's very comfortable and cozy and everything I hoped it would be.  Sorta like Maisie ;-).

The Official Photo Shoot went off about as expected.  It was a brisk, cool morning (perfect sweater weather), the sun was shining and I had a full box of Cheerios.  We lucked out and Saint Tim and I was able to sneak out there without anyone noticing anything other than all the green grass.

Maisie and Hank, sharing some Cheerios.

So sweet.

And then, as all photo shoots with Maisie, it rapidly deteriorated into a punch fest.

Ripping the box to shreds...  At that point Kate decided things were getting too out of control so she gathered everyone up and sent them back to the barn.

Heading out for Round Two.

Which turned into a mob scene...

...with me running to safety, tossing the Cheerio box over the nearby fence.

And sneaking back with just a few Cheerios left in the bag, the rest having been scattered for distraction ;-).

Then to try for a close up, posed momma-daughter picture.

"Help!  Help!  I'm being repressed!" **

"You can repress me!"  Sweet Murphy

And away she goes...again ;-).

Joining in with Ginny.  Oh, and the book I listened to to finish up the sweater was All The Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr.  Fabulous!

Vitamin L

Your daily dose of lambie. Look at this cute spotted face!

The Training Center, Cynthiana, Kentucky

Lamb Camp

Final Frontier Farm, Paris, Kentucky

Happy Easter

An afternoon in the lamb barn with good friends. A very happy Easter :-).

The Portal Sheep - Hershey

The first thing I look for as I walk through the barn is who is sleeping in "the portal".  That's the spot you see when you look beyond the inside stall through the narrow door to the outside stall.  I'm going to start documenting these more often as I think it's interesting to see who's there, almost always a Nistock sheep now that I think about it.  This morning it was Handsome Hershey.

The photo shoot with Maisie went pretty much as expected ;-).  Pictures tomorrow!

The Burled Arch

Remember when I was complaining about how long it was taking to spin Maisie's yarn? And then how long it was taking to knit a fairly straightforward sweater?  It finally dawned on me that it took forever for her to grow up enough to move out of the house, so what did I expect? ;-)

We finally made it!

I took the finished sweater out to the barn yesterday to show Maisie.  She was standing behind the barn with several other sheep.  I kind of flipped it over the back gate to hold it up and all the sheep scattered.  Except Maisie.  She didn't even flinch.  She just looked very intently at the sweater.  And looked.  And looked.  No one else was in the least bit interested.  

I am hoping to do the "formal" pictures tomorrow.  It's supposed to clear off and be sunny and 44 in the morning.  Almost sweater weather :-).  In the meantime, here is a sneak peak...

This was the easiest blocking job Stella and I have ever done.  It washed wonderfully and fit perfectly so all we had to do was set it out, measure to make sure everything was even and placed a few pins, pink of course :-).  

And as a special treat for Maisie, I let her come out and eat with the boys last night.  Her Iknitarod Banquet.  Look how small she is next to them.  I never think of her as being that small.  My silly little girl :-).

Yarn Along - The Lights Of Nome

I love designing the fun little "buttons" I use on the blog here (on the right) and on Ravelry, for special challenges, events...  On Ravelry they are called Ravatars rather than avatars :-).  I especially love Maisie bucking along the Iknitarod Trail with her Cheerio boxes flying out of the sled, but 2014's was nice too with the three dogs safely pulling me into Nome...on time.

The Iknitarod race committee asked me if I'd like to create the Ravatar for the "winning" Iknitarod mushers this year.  I thought a little on it and came up with our dog mascot, Blue, standing under the Burled Arch wearing all sorts of completed items.  I loved it when some of the close, but not quite there knitters saw it and decided to push on to the end so they could "win" it.  

I had planned to make my own "finally got there" button with me and Maisie standing under the arch by ourselves.  I'd be wearing the sweater and Maisie would probably butting me or kicking me in the kneecap.  I knew though that so many of my Iknitarod friends were still knitting just as hard as I was and came up with this "still out there" button.

And I think I actually like this button better than the winning one because it tells the real story of our wonderful, fun, interesting, supportive group who is indeed standing at the finish shining the Red Lantern for us and cheering when they can see our headlamps off in the distance.  We're almost there! That's me!  I'm almost there!

Two days ago I had the back done and was starting on the front.  I wondered how the split was going to be worked and how on earth you'd do that with only one needle.  You use two separate balls of yarn!  

I used the front and back of the same skein instead since being handspun spun by me, each ball was a little different and I didn't want that to show...just in case.  Anyway, you just knit across the right side, jump across the opening onto the left side and as long as you make sure you're using the correct yarn, easy peasy.  

Here is the complete body and sleeves.  See how curled up and wonky everything is?  A quick soak in some warm water relaxes all that and if you apply the proper amount of cat weight, it all lays out flat and orderly, ready to be stitched together.

Yesterday.  It took me a little while to teach myself how to properly seam knitting.  I used a good book I have and also some videos on YouTube.  I put in some stitches, pulled them out, tried again, pulled them out, tried again, that looks okay...  Good thing the yarn is as tough as Maisie!  

I kept getting confused as to which row I was using, so ended up running a piece of thread down the center to mark the exact spots I needed to pick up the stitches on each side. I won't be afraid to seam anything again.  I love how each project I pick teaches me something new :-).

I'm a little worried that maybe I pulled the seaming stitches too tight.  I haven't woven in any of my ends just in case.  I know that the safest thing to do is try it on and see how it feels, but I just can't bring myself to do it.  I am knitting on with confidence, but mostly hope even though it's a little tough with my head buried in the sand ;-).  All I need (I hope!) is the collar, which I'm going to start on as soon as I get this posted.

I can see the lights of Nome!

Joining in with Ginny.  Oh, and my books the last two weeks were The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry and the companion/sequel The Love Song of Miss Queenie Hennessy.  I loved both.