Solstice Sheep Of The Day - Biscuit

I took at least a dozen pictures of Biscuit on a sunny day (which it is definitely not today!) last week and turns out in all but three weird looking shots, he had his mouth open.  I thought, briefly, about trying for another shot this afternoon (in the definitely not pleasant weather)...and talked myself into this picture.  

It definitely shows his signature curls.  And his messy foretop.  And the constant piece of something stuck in there (he's a mess).  And him watching his buddies head on out for a late afternoon graze while he then sidles over to me for some back scratchies.

He does this every morning too as I open the gate to let everyone out.  He'll stand there as long as I'll stay and scratch his back and then finally I get tired and stop scratching, give him a gentle pop on the butt and tell him to "Go get 'em, tiger."  And off he goes to catch up.

Biscuit mostly stays in the background.  He can fight his way in for cookies, but he doesn't fight too hard.  There are some tough nuts in the front and who needs all that conflict.  Muffin is still his best friend and they are frequently side by side, especially when they are eating.  I just love that.

I let Mrs. Pepperpot take over as his mom when he moved from the house to the barn and his transition was seamless.  She was a kind old ewe and took him under her wing.  She probably knew Muffin was going to need a good friend by her side.  She was right.

Biscuit is truly grateful for any treats you can sneak in to him, but he's also pretty happy with a good back scratchy.

Solstice Sheep Day One - Muffin

As I was preparing to get up this morning I decided I would wear my Maisie sweater today.  I love all my sheep sweaters and I like to think the sheep know I'm wearing their wool and are maybe a bit disappointed if I wear something not from our flock.  

I was rustling around trying to find Maisie - I do this by feel in the dark - and felt Muffin's sweater and changed my mind and decided to wear her.  As I was pulling it on I thought "Wouldn't it be fun if I drew Muffin's name this morning!"

I cut all the name tags out, folded them tightly and then shook them up in a bowl and without looking put each one into a pocket.  I love surprises and if I'd seen a name, I'd have put it back in the bowl and tried again.  I was Very Careful.

And on the very first day of Sheep Solstice I drew...Muffin :-).

Muffin and her mom, Mrs. Pepperpot, moved over here from Final Frontier Farm in...are you sitting down?...2017.  Good.  Grief.  Time flies.  She'd been the sickest little lamb I'd ever seen who actually lived and she still looked pretty rough when she moved over here to be Biscuit's best friend.

"First hot day this summer, you are probably going to lose her, so don't get too attached."  Too late.  I was already attached.

Watching Muffin and her mom take the very best care of each other was one of the highlights of my sheep life.  Remember them sleeping together, Muffin's head tucked over her momma's back?  The day we had to put old Pepperpot down was soul crushing, but the last thing I told her was that we'd take good care of Muffin and here we are seven year later, still enjoying some Muffin magic.

About an hour later I walked into the front room and found a ceramic sheep laying on the floor.  Archie!  It was a sweet little shiny black sheep and I picked her up and set her on the kitchen counter.  She'll be our mascot for the season.

Muffin is a sweet treat lover, but she also loves pumpkins, so today everyone got to have a pumpkin party.  My friend Celia and I picked up an entire car full of pumpkins at the season end at our local orchard.  I never shared that picture and need to go find it.  That car was loaded!  I think we had over 150 pumpkins of various sizes piled in there.

Muffin's portrait?  One only a mother could love.  Look at that slimy pumpkin face :-o.  Her calendar picture is so much prettier, but this one tells a good story.  Oh, and who is that sheep trying to share her pumpkin?  Yep, it's Biscuit.  I love that they are still best friends.

We'll try to do better tomorrow ;-).

Who Am I?

I like this little cartoon.  I really didn't think I'd be able to successfully put that many friends into a small square, but it works :-).

I didn't do my Muffin sweater right.  It's now a yoke sweater with Mrs. Pepperpot's white showing.  Much better.  I fed Muffin a lot of bottles, but she never lived in my kitchen so I hadn't included her in the yarn mix...but she fits perfectly in this scenario.

I don't have a stuffed sheep Iknitarider this year.  I stewed on that a bit and finally decided Bea was obviously my rider this year.  Duh.

I've finally cast on and have a few rows knitted.  I really struggled with what to knit this year and had it narrowed down to two choices, neither of which I was super thrilled with.  One I will do eventually.  The other...maybe with some different yarn.  I ended up going with a back burner third choice.

More to come!

Don't Worry About Me

Maisie gave me a bit of a scare yesterday.  I knew she's been cold the last few days, but she was smart about tucking herself back in the corner of the skirting area, a place out of the wind and surrounded by wool insulation, and seemed to be okay.  

I was hopeful yesterday's warm up into the 20s would help, but I found her huddled in the corner shivering in the afternoon.  I couldn't find anything physically wrong with her and she's got plenty of wool and "good cover" (fat ;-), but I don't want to see anyone shivering.

I knew her red coat from after shearing last year would not fit over her wool, but thought Jared's bigger coat would...but it was too small, too.  I was just about to sew some extensions on it, but luckily remembered Mrs. Pepperpot's old blue coat.  With just a small alteration in the front, it fits perfectly.

"I'm fine!"

"I just needed a puffy coat."

I wonder if The Crowing Hen would wear a puffy coat.  She looks pretty cold up in the top picture.  I've been bringing her into the Wool House at night and making her stay in on the really cold days.  We'll all be glad when this weather breaks.  I have gotten a few nice pictures though :-).

A couple new puzzles coming tomorrow!  

My Favorite Sheep...Of The Week

By special request...

Muuuuuffin ("You gotta say it right." :-)

I also had some questions about the black sheep turning gray so I thought I could talk about both things in one post, but then I thought about all the sweet pictures of Muffin and her mom that I wanted to include and decided to leave the focus just on the sheep and do a separate post about the interesting colors.

Muffin had a rough start in life with a mom too old to really take care of her.  Like most tough little girls, she probably shouldn't have made it, but her momma loved her very much and her shepherd did everything she could to help and against all odds, here she is...six (!) years later.  

I doubt there has ever been a sweeter momma and baby.  "Granny" (later named Mrs. Pepperpot when she moved here) might not have been able to feed her own lamb, but she watched every bottle given to her.  Every time we gave her baby medicine, she watched.  Mean shots...she was right there.  Naptime was where she shined.

I loved both the darling lamb and her kind old mom and when I ready to get a buddy for Biscuit, I picked them.  I knew Pepperpot wouldn't care about Biscuit hanging around and I also knew that compromised little lamb would be less stressed moving over here if her mom was with her.  They both needed a soft spot to land and they became one of my favorite chapters in the Punkin's Patch story.

This is how they always slept.  I have a feeling they might still sleep together if Mrs. P was still here.  The day I had to make that hard call was heartbreaking.  I'm so glad I was able to save enough of her wool to make their mother/daughter sweater.

Something I always marveled at was how pretty Mrs. Pepperpot got after she moved here.  She was definitely not a pretty ewe in those early pictures...and I always chose the prettiest pictures to post.  I wish she'd have had more years here, but the time she spent I know she enjoyed.

By the way, that's Biscuit looking on from the background.  He was never really a snuggler, but he always stayed close.  He and Muffin are still almost always side by side. 

Remember, if you want to read more stories about any of the featured sheep, just follow their link in the tags at the bottom of the post or their label on the right hand side of the blog.

Are You Ready To Race?

"This doesn't look like knitting to me."

"Yeah, that is definitely Not Knitting."

"What exactly is she doing this year, Chocula Chip?"

I bought a punch needle set up back in 2020 and have never gotten brave enough to even take it out of the box.  I did read the book, which is very good and also charmingly written, but the two different size needles are still in their boxes and the monk's cloth is still suffocating in it's plastic bag.  

I love hooked rugs and enjoyed making a kit I bought years ago, but I didn't enjoy acquiring and storing wool fabric for future projects so I handed it all off to Auntie Reg.  Robin and Andy started making punch needle frames a few years ago and I watched Robin working on a rug using yarn during a zoom call and thought, hmmm, I'm already good at acquiring and storing yarn...

For the Iknitarod this year I am going to unpack all the boxes and bags, learn how to use the tools, draw a pattern, dye the yarn and make a rug.  In Iknitarod spirit my pattern will be my 2019 ravatar with Biscuit and Muffin looking up at Mrs. Pepperpot (and all our other friends) in the stars.  

The Iknitarod starts today with the ceremonial start for the Iditarod.  This is my ninth year.  I can't wait!

"Sounds interesting, but I bet it would be more fun if there were some chickens on that pattern!"

Wovember - Day 9 - Traceability

I'm enjoying all the Wovember challenge prompts. Today's post is one of my favorites so far.  Oh to scroll back through old pictures :-).

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Wovember - Day 9 - Traceability 🐑 . I can trace my Muffin and Mrs. Pepperpot sweater all the way back to the day Muffin was born 😍. I can also trace the knitting of the sweater...but let's not remember that part/all those parts 😆. 🐑 . #wovember #wovember2019 #sheeptosweater #handspun #handknit #motherdaughtersweater

A post shared by Sara Dunham (@thecrazysheeplady) on Nov 9, 2019 at 5:32am PST

I remember all the challenges with raising up Muffin and her sweater.  Both were worth all the effort :-).

Meanwhile, Back In Nome...

If I tried to write up everything that happened during this year's Iknitarod it would probably read more like Homer's Odyssey...with some lots of "grown up words".  Most of it was documented on my Instagram/Facebook feed and sadly not here (where I really want it).  If you weren't following along, here is a Reader's Digest version.

I cast on during the Iditarod's Ceremonial Start.  I hit the patterning section...and the stitches per inch gauge went haywire. I'd swatched the stockinette section, but not the patterning, which was a "rookie mistake"...by a non-rookie.  Turns out it wouldn't have helped.  Things got That Crazy.

I knit and reknit the top 20 rows two or three times, changing needles...to try to "get gauge" and finally gave up and went up a pattern size and then "knit on with confidence".  I got to the body and about four inches in started knitting tighter and tighter and kept knitting on "with confidence" and around 11 inches in decided it was terrible (which I knew at, say, six inches) and ripped the whole body back to the starburst.

The second reknit of the body ended up getting looser as I went on (slow learner), so much so that the bottom flared out.  But that wasn't the only issue.  The sleeves were huge as well.  I should have stayed with the original pattern size I'd swatched for...and done a better job knitting.  The sweater was wearable, but as I said on my IG post, that was not the W I was looking for.  I frogged the entire thing.

Since I was ripping back to the start, I decided to try to do the entire top in Mrs. Pepperpot's white.  I'd had quite a bit of white left over and it measured out to the same amount of all the grays I'd used, plus I was going down a pattern size, so I should have been golden.  I knit the entire top...well, most of it.  I got to two rows left...and was out of white.  

Mathematically that should not have happened.  So why did it?  I'd knit a smaller pattern size, with the same needle as before...and slopped it out.  Gauge and tension matter.  This is not breaking news.  And even if it was, I should have already learned that lesson...the hard way...TWICE.  I ripped it all back out again.  

By now I was just knitting on with [persistence]...and much more care/attention.  I'd had questions about how the yarn was holding up (a good question for sure!) and I am happy to report that Muffin and Mrs. Pepperpot, (oh, those good longwool crosses :-) held up bravely.  

Pip hung in there until the very end as well and I think really enjoyed the whole event.  Stella of course approved all the rips back to "do it right" even though several other neighbors were starting to have thoughts of calling in the white coats.  In the end, Saint Tim said it best, "Well worth the effort."

All in all it was a fun trip.  The sweater is lovely and I finished this project a much better and more careful knitter. I'm sad I didn't get it finished in time for a winter picture, but the weather yesterday was definitely cold enough for a wool photo shoot and honestly, Mother's Day was the perfect day to celebrate this mother-daughter sweater.

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.  

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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.

So Here's Where We're At

First, a little catch up...

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 2-1 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 :-).

Assembling The Team

I made this needle felted Muffin and Mrs. Pepperpot before Mrs. P was gone.  I knew I would not be able to afterwards...and I still think that's probably right.  I'm crying now as I try to type this.  

I don't think I was really that attached to Pepperpot herself.  I think I was attached to her relationship with Muffin.  Her relationship with me as she watched as we cared for her tiny lamb, continuing as her lamb grew up.  As I cared for her as she grew so feeble, while she continued to care for her little girl to the very end.

In the beginning I had big plans to knit a fancy cabled cardigan from her upcoming spring shearing.  Something very Mrs. P.  We talked about it all that first summer and into fall.  I feel she would have "got it" when it was finished and we had our picture taken "dressed alike". I truly believe some sheep know there's a connection.

In the end, I sheared her myself after Dr. Bridge left and I salvaged what I could. I carefully washed it, combed out all the mess and fiber breaks and then carded it all into batts which I piled up and set on the coffee table and just enjoyed like that all summer. 

It was a less than stellar summer all around and seeing a few of Muffin's tiny black face hairs still mixed in (click to biggify), still laying across her momma's back, was comforting.  I knew our special project was now going to be a blend of both sheep.  Muffin could help her mom still make a sweater.

I really didn't want to take on a huge Iknitarod project this year.  I miss out on a lot of the fun Iditarod coverage when I'm in a big race as well, so I planned to find an easier project for this year.  

However, once stupid spring and summer comes I have very limited time to knit.  Fall is usually a scramble as well.  If I wanted to knit this sweater yet this year...it was going to have to be during the Iknitarod, my last bit of free not quite as busy time.  

I was still hedging on taking on such a big challenge...and then a ravatar popped into my head.  I enjoy creating those badges (scroll down the right side of the blog to see the past years) as much as the final project.  Once seen, it couldn't be unseen...and Muffin, Mrs. Pepperpot and I are off to the Iknitarod.  

I have 16 days to spin a sweater's amount of yarn.  The pattern I picked has four colors, so there will be some fiber blending as well before the last 6 ounces of white and gray are spun.  I'm starting with Muffin.  Pictured here are ten two ounce bundles.  I'm going to try to spin two of those per day, although typing this blog post has probably eaten up one of the bundles for today.  

That's okay.  I'm not panicking...yet.

And it never hurts to have 20 on the team as well ;-).

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The leaves in the basket of Mrs. Pepperpot are bay leaves, which I scatter around open wool baskets to help protect from insects..plus they smell nice :-).

I'll announce the pattern and ravatar nearer the start of the race.  Stay tuned.

Friends...With Assigned Seats

Remember how I painted all the Jacobs sleeping together on the right side of the barn in the Christmas card?  They really do all tend to sleep there.  There actually being the aisleway stall...which is the furthest to the right in real life.

Blossom is sleeping in there with them right now.  She picks a spot for awhile, then moves to another spot and then when she's tired of that spot she moves again...  I should keep a note of how many days she stays each place, just for curiosity.  The "T" in this picture is not actually a "T".  That's Clover Belly.  

Clover Belly stayed with her mom, Baby Belly, her whole life, the way Muffin did with Mrs. Pepperpot.  After Baby Belly passed, Clover Belly just sort of drifted.  No one ever picked on her (Baby Belly saw to that early on ;-), but she didn't really seem to have any close friends.  

I'm not sure why that was and I don't want to speculate on all the reasons that might factor in.  I'm just happy to see six T's now, whether out in the field or napping together in the sunshine.  It's nice to know which table you are going to sit at for lunch every day :-). 

Don't get excited.  It's not sunny here.  I took this picture last week before the weather changed.  Sigh...