The First Picture Tonight

I took a bunch of sunset picture this evening. This happens to be the first one. I like it. It might not be the best one...but it might be. I'll look at the rest tomorrow.  In the meantime, enjoy a new puzzle :-).

A Strange Voice In The Barn

As I was starting to do evening chores the other night and the sheep were filtering in from the back field I heard a strange "ba-a-a-a-a".  Low and gravel-y. 

"Who was that?" I called out. 

"Ba-a-a-a-a."

Hmmmm...  "Who said that?" I asked again, hoping to see someone's lips move, but it was nearly dark. 

"Ba-a-a-a-a."

I know pretty much every "baaaa" in the flock.  Rarely does someone say something that I don't at least recognize as a familiar voice.  A deep voice does not necessarily mean a ram or wether; a high voice doesn't necessarily mean a ewe.  Liddy can growl with the best of them and Jared sings soprano ;-).

I called out one more time.  The sheep looking most intently at me was Big Moose.  He was standing just outside the door though and it was too dark to see his black face...and besides, I knew his voice.  Still...  I pulled out the lamb dinner call.

"Beh-bies?"

"Ba-a-a-a-a-a!"  "Baaaaaa!"

It was Big Moose.  His voice had changed!

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This is fixin’ to be a blog post and will make more sense in a few minutes. Just need to have this sound bite uploaded first 😉.

A post shared by Sara Dunham (@thecrazysheeplady) on Mar 5, 2020 at 7:43am PST

And Mini Moose's hasn't.  Just something silly to make you laugh :-).

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Running and jumping their way back to the barn.

A post shared by Sara Dunham (@thecrazysheeplady) on Mar 3, 2020 at 8:03am PST

Speaking of big voices, if you missed this video the other day, that's Biscuit with the Big Baaa hollering as the sheep run up.  And you definitely don't want to miss Maisie racing everyone in with her propeller spinning :-D.

Glamour Shot

While this looks like a fancy shot, it's actually a very simple photo trick I learned by accident a few years ago.  Biscuit is just standing right at the end of the barn with the sun is lighting his face.  

The camera meters on his brightly lit face which then underexposes the shadowed barn behind him.  You can see his face is a little overexposed in this bottom picture because the camera was trying to pick up some of light behind him.  For the upper shot I zoomed in with my telephoto lens, made sure the camera was metering his face correctly and bingo, his face looks good and the background disappears.  

King Of The Dirt Pile

"What are you doing, Biscuit?"

"Nothin'."

"Okay then.  Carry on."

I'm still not convinced they're not up to something, but we can puzzle it out...with a new puzzle :-).

Birthday Memories

It was getting late and the sun was going down and I thought about postponing Maisie's birthday party.  When I walked out back and saw that all the sheep were grazing out in the back fields, that was the icing on the cake...until I saw Maisie standing just down the hill staring at me.  Oh well, okay.

I grabbed a bale of straw and carried it through the barn lot.  I tossed it over the short fence, turned around and found Maisie was now standing right beside me.  "I know what today is!"  I opened the gate, she walked herself through without any fuss.  I think she really DID know it was her birthday.  

I gathered up the "cake", her candle, one of Auntie Reg's birthday balloons and my camera.  Maisie was now grazing at the far corner of the...whatever you'd call that little area with the mounting block.  She watched me assemble her cake and then walked over and dug right in.

She totally knew it was her birthday.

Studying the new balloon in between bites.

The only sheep that were near the barn were Cheeto, who's knee is bothering her, Clover Belly, who was hoping for early dinner and Biscuit...who probably also knew what that bale of straw meant.  After Maisie had eaten as many Cheerios as I thought she needed, I let them come in and join the party.

"I've never been to a birthday party before.  This is fun!  I love birthday cake!"

"I think I love this balloon!"

And then we all heard it.  Sheep bells.  Coming in fast.  Someone out in the field finally noticed the party in progress at the barn and everyone  raced in.

And that was the end of the Maisie's seventh birthday party.

Resting During The Heat Of The Day

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Resting my “dogs” during the “heat” of the day. We’ve had a couple chilly nights, but the sheep are warm and comfy once the sun comes up. #iknitarod2019

A post shared by Sara Dunham (@thecrazysheeplady) on Mar 19, 2019 at 9:45am PDT

I've got the body basically finished (still deciding on final length and what sort of bottom edging I want) and both sleeves started, so I can almost see the lights of Nome off in the distance. Once I get finished, I'll get the official shearing post up and also some other fun pictures from before shearing.

In the meantime, enjoy sitting in the sun with everyone for a few minutes :-).

In At The Bottom Of The Yoke Checkpoint

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I’m in at the bottom of the yoke checkpoint! 😀 #iknitarod2019

A post shared by Sara Dunham (@thecrazysheeplady) on Mar 7, 2019 at 1:16pm PST

Looking forward to the next leg...or arm :-).

After A Few Wrecks

I finally seem to have all my dogs facing the same direction and my sled upright.  Rough start, but we are mushing on.  I took several snowy pictures this morning and yesterday morning.  I'll try to get them posted tomorrow.  

The Official Restart

Because...oh you know it...

At least I'm consistent.  I continue to "be an example to others."  Always swatch in your pattern as well as stockinette.  Straight outta the book.  Sigh...

I guess if I want to stay true to the actual race, this is fitting.  The start yesterday was just ceremonial.  The actual race starts today. 

Mushing on!

At The Ceremonial Start

This is my seventh Iknitarod!  I always have to like to go back and count - Marcel/Woolliam, Keebler, Maisie, Baaxter, Liddy/Buddy, Baaxter and now Muffin/Biscuit/Mrs. Pepperpot.  

Each race has been different, but they've all been fun.  I've learned a lot about knitting each year.  I've learned a lot about mushing.  I've made some great new friends and we've enjoyed challenging ourselves and cheering each other on. 

I treat the Iknitarod very seriously.  Well, not like life and death seriously, but definitely seriously as in embracing the spirit of the Iditarod race itself.  I enjoy thinking about it throughout the year, planning my race.  I push myself to do something hard.  I choose my team carefully.  I get as prepared as possible.  

And on race day eve, I pack my sled.

My race map this year is the Dreyma sweater by knit.love.wool.  I took a bunch of pictures of the yarn and the color gradients (yes, there are colors if you look closely) and thought I'd already downloaded them to post here...but I haven't.  I'll include those in a future post.  

Before each Iditarod race, for a fundraiser they auction off the sleds for each musher and the winners  (IditaRiders) gets to ride in their musher's sled for the 11 mile Ceremonial Start. For the last several years I've carried a mascot in my sled throughout the race. My IknitaRider this year is that sweet little sheep I picked up off the road last summer.  

I didn't think sending a sheep to Nome wearing acrylic was a good idea, so I knit her a little wool poncho featuring some pattern colors and thereby getting to practice the increase stitch I was going to need to use for the sweater pattern.  I think she'll be toasty warm :-).

Muffin and Pepperpot came to watch the sled packing, but they won't be riding along.  The trail can be messy and dangerous (Oh, Graham, how we miss you!) and I would hate for something to go wrong.

Packed and ready...and without further ado...

This might be my favorite ravatar to date.  Like a Dreyma (dream), Biscuit and Muffin and I are at the Iknitarod, watching the Northern Lights and staring up at a bright shining star (Mrs. Pepperpot).  I have my hand on their backs to let Mrs. P. know I'm taking good care of her babies.

My project is too big, my hands are too sore.  Still, the pattern with it's bright shining star yoke is perfect and the ravatar is so sweet I just want to stand there forever...and so we once again hit the trail.  

*      *      *      *      *

The Ceremonial Start begins at 2:00 p.m. EST today.  I believe you can watch live for free on Iditarod.com .  If you enjoy that coverage and want to watch video updates throughout the race (these are so fun!), I encourage you to sign up for one of the Insider packages.

So Here's Where We're At

Sweet basket of spun singles.

The singles paired up for plying.  If you notice, there are numbers on each.  That was the order I spun them.  The first five ended up too thin I thought so for the second five I tried to spin them just a hair thicker.  I'm still not sure I did the right thing, but we are not going to dwell on that.

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Well...it’s plied...and steamed. I’m not sure I’m happy with it 😐. I sample and sample and think I’ve got it set...and then I spin the big amount...and it doesn’t match the sample. The samples were all wet finished and this is just steamed. Maybe that’s the issue. Maybe it’s late and I’m just tired and cranky. I’m going to go to bed and look at it with fresh eyes in the morning. #handspinning #woes

A post shared by Sara Dunham (@thecrazysheeplady) on Feb 19, 2019 at 8:47pm PST

I'm sure they're fine.  I will re-swatch to make sure I'm still getting the gauge I thought I was getting and all will be fine.  All will be fine...all will be fine...all will be fine...

...until I hit the next problem.  The pattern I've picked (so far...all will be fine, all will be fine...) has a beautiful patterned yoke.  The designer's version was a black sweater with two grays transitioning into white.  It was like a custom Muffin and Pepperpot sweater!

I knew I was going to be tight on the gray/white portion of the project, so I did some sampling with PPPP rather than chance wasting any of Mrs. P.  I had an idea of how little black I'd need to add in to get my two grays, but when I started actually blending I was shocked.

From left to right the ratios are 1 part white to 1 part black, 2-1, 3-1, 4-1, 5-1 and 10-1.  Yeah...  My hopes that where I was tight on having enough Mrs. Pepperpot, Muffin would make up the difference were dashed.  There will be very little Muffin in the grays.

I ended up choosing the 4-1 and 10-1 for my two grays.  The trick now was how to pull that off with the small amount of white I have.  Sit down...think...what are my options...  

I did the thing I always do in these situations...and called kbdoolin ;-D.  I'm surprised she still answers the phone when she sees my number.  We discussed the design, the amounts of dark gray versus the light gray and white and how much I'd actually need of each...and in the end decided not to chance running short.  

The seven ounces of Mrs. P. might be enough, but the mathematical odds were really not in my favor.  Yarn Chicken is fun in certain situations, but once Mrs. P. is gone, it's gone, and in the middle of the Iknitarod you don't want to have to rip it all out and pick a different design using less yardage.

The solution was actually quite simple...and sweet.  

Biscuit to the rescue!

I'd been feeling bad about not including him anyway and I'd bet Mrs. Pepperpot would have wanted him in there as well.  Biscuit and Muffin blended side by side into yarn?  We've sure seen that before :-).

January 2018

The bundle of white on the right will be my white and it will be straight Mrs. Pepperpot.  I'm going to spin that first and check my yardage.  If I'm not sure I have enough then I'll pull some more from the middle pile.  If I think I'm good than I'll blend some Biscuit in with the middle bundle and add little bits of Muffin to start working on my two grays.

So...that's where we're at.

Aw, Come On...

Snow Day

If you aren't enjoying the snow as much as Biscuit and I are, here's a puzzle for you :-).

Since None Of Us Has Any Sun...Again...

How about a sweet picture of Biscuit enjoying the fleeting sun from the other day.  He's looking over at all of the rest of his buddies...on the other side of the fence.  Sometimes it's complicated being Biscuit ;-).  

I'd suggest "putting yourself in the photo, sitting in the sun up on the hill", but you'd end up with muddy pants.  Sigh...

Might as well just torture yourself with  a new puzzle!

Fall Snow

For anyone keeping score at home, this is actually the second snow.  Neither has been very "big", but if it snows enough that I'm excited about it, I'm counting it as a snow!  Maybe these were mildly foggy mornings back in August ;-).

I was walking around the barn trying to figure out a way to take a cell phone picture that really showed how pretty it was this morning, not having any luck, grumbling to myself, "This is one of the many bad things about not blogging enough - no good camera pictures anymore."

...um...

...hel-lo!  If you took 14 steps to the right, you could go pick up your very lonely camera from the Wool House...

...oh...yeah... (insert eye rolling emoticon)

Burrnie looks like he has a posse!

Spud in the foreground, Jared and Tavia, one of his many "girlfriends", on the left.  Jared is still quite the ladies man even after being 'tutered this summer.

From a slightly different angle.

A new favorite picture (and puzzle :-).  I couldn't have captured the colors this well with my phone, hel-LO!  Sigh... 

I took about 20 pictures of Muffin eating a leaf.  Want to see them?  Oh, Muuufffiin ;-).

"Muffin, Muffin, Muffin.  Who wants to see a billion pictures of Muffin eating a stupid leaf!"

Sunday Sheep Shots

I had a request for some head shots, so twist my rubber arm and force me to take my camera to the barn.  Well, actually, that was exactly what I needed.  A good swift kick in the butt.  I think this summer's heat and humidity, among other issues, has really taken a toll.  

The short break in the weather last week really cheered us all up.  Today's steamy 88 degrees with a "real feel" of 97 was just...demoralizing.  I'm just so ready for summer to be over.  I'm a sheep at heart.  I'm happiest when I can comfortably wear a wool sweater.

These aren't my normal style of picture composition, but they are what was requested for the application for which they might be used.  Hopefully they'll inspire me to get back into the routine joy of taking more pictures again.  

Actually, I've taken quite a few pictures.  My broken mojo is more in putting them into a cohesive blog post.  So...basically...here are some pictures.  

Renny

Maisie

Muffin

Muuuuffffiiiinnn ;-)

The neighbor makes fun of me for how I say Muffin.  

Biiiiiiiscuit ;-)

Daniel Not-Boone aka Big D

B. Willard...looking pretty bewildered :-D.

Priddy Liddy

Now that I think about it, I don't believe I've ever officially introduced the old rams who have retired here.  This is Jared.  Being a breeding ram (for 10 years), he was never coddled or played with or fed cookies.  He has become one of my very best barn buddies.  

"I just look tough.  I'm really a sweet, lovable cookie monster.  I've been told I'm going to be in the hugging pen at some party they have here every fall.  I can't wait!"

"I ain't going in any stupid hugging pen.  And you can keep those stupid cookies.  Jared has gone soft in the head."

This is Rocky.  He's actually not as grumpy as he wants everyone to believe.  And he will let you hug and kiss on him and even eat a cookie or two now and then...when he wants to ;-).  If he looks familiar, he should.  He's Hershey and Spud's dad and grandfather to Biscuit, Muffin, Levi and Andy.