Sweet Babies

Hickory's mom, Paige, just had a sweet little baby and I wanted to knit her something special from the farm.  I have no clue what size to knit a baby sweater and I figured it would be outgrown in just a few weeks anyway, so I made a sweater for a sweet little stuffed lamb :-).

Since Paige was one of Liddy's aunties, I thought a Liddy sweater would be the most appropriate, so I spun a small skein of worsted weight yarn and pulled out a trusty Elizabeth Zimmermann book.  Most of it was knit on a couple of beautiful fall afternoons.

Of course it wouldn't be a sweater project if I didn't have to rip it all back at least once.

The lamb waited and waited...

And finally it was finished :-).

Before he left for New York, he took his sweater up to show Clay's Kentucky Great Aunt, Stella. He loved hearing stories about the trip he was going to take and what fun he was going to have with his new family.  He arrived safe and sound earlier this week...and I bet he's glad he has a warm wool sweater :-).  

The Fourth Picture

The first picture was good, but the fourth picture was better ;-).  Less distracting sunburst and better composition.

 

Evening light is my favorite.  Evening in general is my favorite.  Everything seems to take a deep breath and slowly exhale.  Some days it's the nice end to a good day.  Some days it's just a we made it to the end.  Or maybe this it's just a summer thing.  

The trick to these pictures is waiting until the sunlight is perfect.  Or noticing the sun is perfect and grabbing your camera and running out.  It doesn't stay perfect for long.  The Golden Hour doesn't last quite an hour I've found.

Once the sunlight is perfect, you still need to work a bit.  It helps to filter the bright light through some trees.  Move around and watch how your camera reacts.  If it's too blown out, change your angle just a little.  Too dark?  Again, move around.  

If you want to get more technical, read up on metering so you'll better understand how your camera is thinking.  I also set my white balance to cloudy.  White balance and exposure compensation are two very basic camera tools everyone should learn to use.  Read your manual or look online.

The always photogenic Count Chocula.

This is too sunset-y, but I like the composition.  Daniel, Liddy, Kaala.

Muuufin :-)

This is Baaxter with the sun shining from the side...

...and now shining from behind.  I like the little bit more definition of the first picture, but the soft light of the second picture.  The background of the second picture is more interesting as well.  

And this was my favorite picture of the evening.  Kaala with the light balanced just right behind the filtering trees.  It's also a new puzzle :-).

Put Your Coffee Down

The 2020 Iditarod started yesterday.  Well, the ceremonial start was yesterday.  The actual start is today.  And like the Iditarod, my Iknitarod has once again made a ceremonial start...and will restart today.  Sigh...

I was planning on doing my official start post yesterday to let you know who and what I was knitting and introduce my Iknitarider and share my Ravatar, but something hilarious happened and I'm going to preempt that post with something silly.

Put your coffee down.

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😂😂😂😂😂 . . We are using a working chute for shearing this year. I wanted everyone to practice going through ahead of time so they wouldn’t be scared on shearing day. I know you shouldn’t laugh at your kids, but... 😂😂😂😂😂 . #theyareFLUFFY #orfat🙄

A post shared by Sara Dunham (@thecrazysheeplady) on Mar 7, 2020 at 3:07pm PST

Our 15 Minutes Of [Snow]

We enjoyed it while it lasted :-).

Mini Moose and Chocula

Big J aka Jared

The little darlin' ;-).  And I think that's Mini Moose.

Big Moose.  He's just so fun to photograph.  What expression.  

Chocula, Tessa and Tabitha.  Chocula was picking hay of Tessa's back.  I'll have to up his pay :-).

Liddle

Petunia and Tessa

And a new puzzle!

Two Birds...

I posted five pictures to Instagram and tried to just embed the post here, but I don't think all the pictures were going to come through so I've copied and pasted it over here mostly to let you know Rebecca Boone is still fighting and maybe showing a little improvement and also a little Liddy to make you smile ;-).

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First an update on Rebecca Boone- she’s still fighting and maybe a little better this morning. Thank you for all the prayers and concern. I love how we take care of each other. It matters. ️
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If I’d read forward on the Fiberuary list I would have held off on my pictures from the other day because I actually nailed several challenges that day . So I’m not just sharing the same pictures for days, I’m going to combine a few challenges with this post, which also gives me a little more room to keep my focus on sheep care. .

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Days 4, 5, 6 and 7 - Close Up, WIP, Outside, Technique. .

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The close up of my work in progress that I was knitting outside looks complicated, but it’s not!  Only one color per row and the patterning comes from a simple slipped stitches technique . .

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I included a picture of Liddy because... Liddy . The two Moose thugs pillaging my knitting bag while I was rescuing the short dog who was on the wrong side of the gate. And the muddy hoof print at the top of the super close up . Oh, and that’s Woody, the king of close ups .
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#fiberuary #fiberuarychallenge #agatecovehat #farmyarn #lambcamplegacy #lambcamplegacyyarn #knittersofinstagram #barnyardknits

Zzzzzzz

Nobody naps like Liddy :-).

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.  

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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.

Good Company

The sunshine this morning was lovely. Everyone stayed out (and laid out) and enjoyed it for a good while.  It's gone now and guess what?  We have 2-4" of rain predicted for this week, starting this afternoon.  Unbelievable.  

Being locked out of the front field has created a "desperate situation" with the "hungry" flock.  Luckily the old timers have Rocky and Jared to lead them back to greener pastures.  It's great to see them grazing less trafficked areas.

I have some more good Hank pictures for tomorrow and there are two new puzzles from this group :-).  Enjoy!