A Sweet Little Sweater And A Sad But Sweet Story And Our Solstice Winner

A special friend asked for a tiny memento of Jared so I spun a little yarn and knit a tiny sweater ornament for her.  I enjoyed spending a little time with Big J and wasn't as sad as I thought I might be.  I was happy to be sharing a little of him and enjoyed knowing I wasn't the only one who loved him so much.

Here is the pattern I used.  Tiny sweaters are fun and not really that fiddly and are a great way to use up small amounts of leftover yarn or handspun samples.  This probably works best with a DK or worsted weight yarn.  A heavier or lighter weight yarn would maybe need the stitch counts adjusted.

Tiny Sweater Pattern

Cast on 20 stitches and decide what sort of collar you want.

For a rolled collar, knit all stitches around.  A ribbed collar works best with K1P1 rib and you can make it short for a plain collar or tall for a fold over turtleneck. Knit as many rows as you need. For a fold over collar you should knit one more row than you think.

I knit using Magic Loop so I'm setting my rows up that way. Double points are perfectly fine. You'll just need to adjust your stitches around the needles to make it make sense.

Needle 1. K2 (sleeve), PM (place marker), K6 (front), PM, K2 (10 stitches)

Needle 2. K2, PM (place marker), K6 (back), PM, K2 (10 stitches)

Knit to one stitch before each marker, KFB (knit one front and back), slip marker, KFB, knit to end. Repeat increases until you have 6 sleeve stitches (left), 14 front or back stitches (body), and 6 more sleeve stitches on each needle (26 stitches each side). 

Knit one round plain.

Knit 6 sleeve stitches and 14 body stitches and then cast on 3 stitches (I use the backward loop method). Put next 12 stitches on waste yarn. Knit the next 14 body stitches and cast on 3 more stitches. Put next 12 sleeve stitches on waste yarn. You now have 17 body stitches on each needle and two sleeves on waste yarn.

Knit a few rows for the body and decide how you want to finish the hem. K1P1 ribbing works well, but you could also just continue in stockinette stitch for a rolled bottom. You might want to add an extra row to account for the roll up. Bind off in pattern.

Pick up the 12 sleeve stitches and then pick up and knit the three cast on stitches (15 stitches total). Knit 3 rounds and then do a K2TOG (knit two together) on the bottom side of the sleeve. Knit 2-3 rounds and K2TOG and knit 2-3 more rounds and decrease one more time. Finish sleeve to suit. Repeat for second sleeve.

Weave in your ends and use that yarn to tighten up any holes under the sleeves.

Add a strand of yarn or ribbon at the back of the collar for a hanger loop.

Give it a little steam to "finish" it, especially if you chose a rolled bottom.

* * * * *

Jared didn't just join me on my needles, but also found me in the driveway one last time.  I wanted to post a reminder on IG about the Christmas Eve flock walk and thought I'd re-use the picture we took of Short Round with the holiday lights last year as my photo.

I was speed scrolling down through my phone archives with the photos flying by.  When I picked my finger up the pictures stopped spinning...at the driveway picture I'd been searching for since Jared died.  

When you miss someone as much as I miss him you can't help but think that was a message and I'm just going to tuck that into my heart and leave it at that.

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Sara Dunham (@thecrazysheeplady)

* * * * *

Random.org selected Far Side of Fifty for the blog drawing.   

A Sneak Peek And A Giveaway

I'll post the actual card and the back diagram tomorrow (Friday) at noon ET.  In the meantime, if you'd like to work the puzzle (click the picture) for a sneak peek, let's have some fun!  How many characters can you identify?  

Leave a comment with A. the total number of animals and B. how many you can recognize and I'll have 20 do a random drawing giveaway for a fun prize on Friday afternoon :-D

Equinox Farm

Today is our 15th anniversary.  It doesn't seem like it's been that long.  And it seems like we've been here forever.  Now that I think about it, I haven't heard our farm referred to as the "Douglas place" or the "Singer place" in several years.  Usually now it's "the place with the sheep."  I guess we've become part of the history now.  Or the sheep have.

I found some old pictures Tim took from the early days, the day we first saw the farm and some of the early work we did.  I thought I'd share them here because they are fun to look at and try to put then and now together...and if the house ever burns down, they'll live on forever on the internet.  Worst Case Scenario reason #168 for blogging... 

From the road.

This is looking at the back of the barn.  Tim took this picture from what is now the back of the Del Boca Vista paddock.  I am standing near the gate to the arena.  The corgi is sweet Sophie and the collie is my beloved Sam.

Standing at the back corner of the barn, looking out to the road.  Tim is standing pretty close to where the Grahaminator2000 is now.

This is the barn lot.  The weeds on the left are now where the front corner of the Del Boca Vista fence is, the two gates that make the corner.  The sliding doors are the barn aisle.  Those doors now roll all the way to the right along with two more doors that cover the end openings for the inside and added on outside shed.   

Looking out towards the back.  I think that's basically where the curved alleyway goes down the hill to the left, heading to the middle paddocks.

The gate at the front corner of the horse side of the barn.  Now the fence curves down to the left, following the driveway.

Looking up from the road.

The old stripping room, now where the Wool House stands.  

The corn crib on the left is now the garage.

Looking at those two buildings from the yard.

View from the back corner.

Closer view of the big pond, now known as the skating pond :-).  Where Tim is standing is now all full of trees and undergrowth.  

The old cistern.  Now the home of the greenhouse.

I find this picture one of the most amazing.  I'd forgotten how you could see the neighbors across the sheep field.  The raised bed garden is the asparagus bed.  Punkin is buried underneath; Abby on the right side.

There were two round rock gardens, one on each end of this.  There were quite a few little gardens or landscapings scattered throughout the yard.  I wanted to consolidate and clean them up so we connected the two gardens here and it made a nice natural division from the yard to the orchard.  

I fought weeds in here for years though and finally this summer I'd had enough and we took it all out.  I'd hoped to transplant the bleeding heart, but I couldn't find it.  I should have dug it just after it bloomed this spring.  I'm hoping a piece will poke through the grass next spring.  I did get my favorite rose bush moved and so far it seems okay.

This must have been the next spring when they started fixing some eroded areas and sink holes we and had the riding arena enlarged.

I'm not exactly sure what this is.  I know the wet weather creek runs through there, but there isn't water anywhere else so maybe this is leftover from the spring fed pond that used to be out front.  

It had been filled in years before, but I believe it needed some work and they also put in a bridge to drive from one side of the creek to the other.  Cecil Aguilar later added the stone work to all the bridges and culverts.

This is looking out back towards the Frog Pond.  The guys doing the grading work wanted to just tear out the little pond.  I'm glad I fought to save it.  Not only is it pretty, it's also good habitat for birds , rabbits and frogs, monarch butterflies, sometimes muskrats and even a skunk family has lived in there.

The barn.  Tim tore out almost everything on the right hand side and put it the big sheep stall.  

And the rock.  Oh the rock.  

This is something else I barely remember.  We walked up and down the grass hill to get onto the porch.  There is a concrete sidewalk to the front door and I think the couple we bought the farm from were front door folks.  I primarily use the back door and it didn't take long for this to get messy.  The rock sidewalk was a huge improvement.

I think pretty much everything was a huge improvement.  We've let some shrubs overgrow that I wish I'd stayed on top of better.  The beautiful tidy porch...will never be the same, but it's a porch that is well used and well loved and I think it's happy even though I'm sure it would appreciate an overhaul.  I think the rest of the farm is happy, too.  

Happy Anniversary!  We're glad to be here.

*     *     *

And if you are still here, leave a comment telling us your favorite part of the farm and Sunday night I'll draw for a winner and send out a 2019 Equinox Farm calendar.  They are almost done and ready to print :-D.

Once Again, The Calendar Post...Finally

The "finally" parts seems to be a trend with the calendars...every year.  This year I thought I was really on top of the game.  Postage had gone up yet again, so I steeled myself to try and send as many First Class as I could this year and ordered two cases of plain padded mailers.  I took some test calendars to the post office earlier this week...

Several years ago Tim had an "old" printer that did a really nice job printing the photo cards and calendars.  It was obsolete though and they stopped servicing it so he had to get a new machine.  I, of course, liked the old machine better.  I thought the quality of the photos last year wasn't as good with the new "improved" machine.

This year Tim experimented with some different styles of paper.  There are probably as many different papers as there are different breeds of sheep.  Different types, weights, finishes, coatings...  This year's calendars are printed using a matte finish, clay coated paper.  Don't ask me to explain a clay coated paper; I just know (now) that it's heavier.  The calendars look very nice though and that's the important part :-).

The 2018 Farm and Lamb Camp calendars!

This might be my all time favorite Buddy picture.  There's so much "Buddy" here - is messy wool, his big mouth yelling at me, his ear fuzz curls (my favorite part of Buddy) with one ear forward and one ear back.  The quintessential Buddy portrait.

The almost quintessential Comby picture.  "Well, at least I'm not asleep this year."

Lots of Hank this year.

And Biscuit.

And Muffin, Mrs. Pepperpot, B. Willard, Hickory and T-Bone and  Maisie (of course ;-).

The lambs in the Lamb Camp calendars are as sweet as ever.  

Make your teeth hurt sweet ;-).

Leaping lambs.

Sleeping lambs.

And even a Christmas lamb.

*     *     *     *     *

We'll do it basically like we do every year.  Equinox Farm calendars are still $12.50 each and the Lamb Camp calendars are $10.00. Shipping (to the US) will run anywhere from $4.50 to $7.20 depending on weight and distance.  Shipping overseas is usually not as expensive as I fear.  I'm happy to get a quote for you. Likewise for Canada.

If you'd like to order one (or more), just send me an email with what you'd like and your shipping address. I'll send everything out with an invoice and a return envelope and you can just drop a check in the mail upon receipt.  Checks are preferred, but we can also handle credit cards if that's easiest.

There are also Lamb Camp note cards, Christmas cards, drop spindle kits, Biscuit and Muffin ornaments, Maisie Orneries, Mug Shot mugs, My Favorite Sheep canvas totes, a little wool...in the Farm Shop if you are interested.   And there are also have two cases of padded mailers in case anyone needs to ship a bunch of lightweight items ;-).

As always, we truly thank you for your support. Your purchases help pay for hay, grain, bedding, shearing, vet bills...and even cookies ;-).  

*     *     *     *     *

One person who won't need to purchase a calendar is Karen B.  She won the calendar from 20's giveaway earlier this week :-).  Drop me an email with your address and I'll get that shipped right out.  Depending on where you live, I might even get to use one of the plain mailers ;-D.

She's Baaa-aack

After the sheep were shorn back in the spring, the Sheep Chicken had to stop sleeping on her ledge.  She couldn't get enough traction on the slick sheep backs to make her jumps.  About the time their wool started growing back to an acceptable length, the days got long and hot and the sheep stayed out grazing in the evenings, well past the time when she wanted to go to bed.  

She slept in the coop all long summer.  A week or so ago I noticed she was back on her platform perch.  I caught an occasional picture of her on various sheep's backs, jumping for her ledge, but hadn't had time to post them and then forgot. 

Two nights (or I should say late afternoons - chickens go to bed early!) ago short little Clover Belly followed a couple of the older sheep in hoping for an evening snack.  She didn't get one, but poked around the stalls for a bit looking for anything that might have dropped.

She was standing at the doorway between the inside and outside stalls (the right side of the picture) when the chicken hopped aboard.  She stood there for a couple seconds and then walked straight over to the ledge and the chicken jumped on up.  If you look closely you can see her next to the fan on the back wall. 

Sometimes I just "live in the moment" and watch what goes on without recording it.  Sunrises and sunsets are always better in real life and should sometimes just be enjoyed.  Bees working flowers...well, they are good either way.  A chicken and sheep so deliberately working together, especially one I've never seen helping the chicken before?  I wish I'd turned on the video camera.

*     *     *   In other news  *     *     *

Hank and June are now best friends.  Other than taking a walk yesterday where she shouldn't have, June is doing really, really well.  I'm putting up some more fencing today to hopefully stop her from future exploration missions.  If the Adventure Chickens figure out they could ride her to town... :-o

Cecil Aguilar's been back and made something extra special for us.  I'm telling you, drystone work is like tattoos.  Once you start you can't stop.  I of course took lots of pictures including a very cool one with Eli, who is trying really hard to make the calendar next year.  I'd say things are looking good for him ;-).

Tonight is the big neighborhood Pumpkin Carving Party.  I had planned to try to do a special felted pumpkin to carve, but...I'm now spending my day putting up fence :-/.  At least I can think about my real pumpkin design while I work.  I'm guessing it will be a Biscuit and Muffin design.  Stay tuned!

I don't know how it could possibly be almost the end of October, but it is and next Saturday is National Hug a Sheep Day :-D.  We are once again hosting a farm party to celebrate and would love if everyone could come!  Needless to say if I can't find time to post blog pictures, I probably haven't had time to work on the teleporter either, but June is all about some cookies as are Biscuit and Muffin and Mrs. Pepperpot and everyone else.  It will be a fun afternoon if you can make it :-D.

*     *     *   One more thing   *     *     *

When I was looking for a link for the words "Sheep Chicken" above, I found the post about Baby Belly and Spud helping last year.  I'd forgotten that had been Baby Belly.  Clover Belly is Baby Belly's daughter.  While Muffin may have ditched me and Mrs. Pepperpot, Clover Belly stayed very close to her momma her whole life.  We lost Baby Belly last week.

I am quite sure we don't have even an ounce of understanding about what goes on between animals, especially animals in a close family.  I was amazed that a sheep who I had thought had no previous experience with the chicken routine was helping out.  Now I'm extra amazed.  Remember Tilly stepping up after Iris died?  Something else to ponder while I'm stringing fence today.

SO, as I did with the long post about Tilly, let's see who made it to the end of this epistle.  Leave me a comment saying which sheep you'd love to hug most and I'll have 20 draw for a winner at the end of the weekend.  There's a 2018 Farm Calendar in it for the winner :-).

My Favorite Sheep Is...

I always love it when someone stops by a festival booth and tells me they enjoy reading the blog.  I could look up the computer stats to see if people are still reading, but a personal comment is always more fun.  For extra fun this year we have a small gift for anyone stopping by.  

I tried to figure out a way to link this "coupon" as a downloadable file, but that seems to be above my pay grade.  You could do a screen shot and print it that way I guess, but I'm going to draw on one of my favorite/most useful Homer Simpson lines "Can't someone else do it?"  Someone meaning Saint Tim ;-).

If you are as non-techy as I am and can't figure out how to print your own coupon, I'll have a stack of them available in the booth.  Stop by this weekend and say hi and vote for Maisie your favorite sheep.  

Another Winner

The moon doesn't have to be full for me to enjoy watching it "rise".  Last night's full moon though was a winner for sure.  Bright, bright orange and big.  It looks like Blogger has "optimized" my picture, but if you look really closely maybe you can still see a hint of the horses near the bottom. Sigh...

As the moon rose, a thick fog rolled in.  I couldn't capture a picture of that, but just imagine all the low areas on the farm filled with heavy white fog with the bright moon light reflecting off it. Very beautiful.  It was still foggy this morning, so for anyone keeping score on Instagram, we are now officially at one snowfall this winter :-).

I use Random.org to pick my giveaway winners and have never really thought about keeping track of who wins.  Since the first draw, Windswept Farm, seems to have this random giveaway thing figured out, I just did a second draw to give the rest of you a chance ;-D.  Denny Gross is the second pick. Drop me an email with your mailing address and I'll get a new Punkin's Patch bag out to you as well :-).

Bats, Bags And Blooms

During a late winter trip to Wilson's Nurseries in Frankfort, I impulse bought a packet of cotton seeds.  I started (or tried to) the entire packet, but the seed starter kit I used was a disaster :-(.  Only six plants made it to the garden.  I had to mark them so I didn't grab them thinking they were weeds.  

Once they started blooming though there was no confusion.  I had no idea cotton bloomed so pretty! Some of the flowers are white.  Some are white and turn pink.  Some seem to start pink.  I wish I had a time lapse camera set out there to say for sure.  The blooms don't last very long and drop to the ground.

The plants are waist high.

I think these "hands" are holding a new bud.

But these are holding what I'm guessing is the start of a cotton boll!

I don't know what kind of harvest I'm going to have with only six plants, but I've had enough fun so far to warrant giving them another try next spring.  I'm going to make my own starter pots though and not use the kits from TSC.

*     *     *     *     *

I'm glad I asked you all to count the bats.  I thought we only had around 20!  I try to count them but get distracted by watching where one goes and miss a couple more coming out or Baaxter walks over to talk to me or...  They haven't moved into the new house yet, but putting it up there didn't seem to scare them away.  Whew!

Windswept Farm won the drawing!  Send me an email with your mailing address and I'll get one of the new Punkin's Patch bags in the mail to you right away :-).

Full House

If you are following my Instagram feed, you probably did wonder what on earth we were up to last night.

"What are you doing over there?" Andy

A post shared by Sara Dunham (@thecrazysheeplady) on Aug 2, 2017 at 5:58pm PDT

Andy reminds me so much of Graham Lamb...which is why I am set up on the outside of the gate 😉. What AM I doing?

A post shared by Sara Dunham (@thecrazysheeplady) on Aug 2, 2017 at 5:59pm PDT

Remember the barn quilt bats?  They set up camp behind the barn quilt again this spring, but about a month ago I stopped seeing bat droppings on the ground and I was afraid we'd lost them all.  There were never very many and bats are really struggling these days :-/.

I was very happy and relieved to still see a couple bats leaving the barn in the days to follow.  I tried to poke around to see if I could figure out where they'd moved, but had no luck.  I didn't worry too much about it though.  I was just happy they were still here, alive and well.

When the weather turned so hot and humid that I was locking the sheep out of the barn in the late afternoon to force them into the shade (the sun beats down on the outer shed) and give the barn a chance to dry out, I'd sit behind the barn with them for awhile at night before I let them back in.

Right as it got dark, whoosh whoosh whoosh...  So that's where the bats were living!  I again poked around the back part of the barn, but couldn't find them.  Were they in the rafters?  Under the eaves? I still couldn't find them, the sneaky little bats, but I was on to them ;-).

Last week I happened upon some tell tale signs of bats, guano.  I'd come around the back corner of the barn and noticed it on the gate for the last stall on the horse side of the barn.  Huh.  Right under the bat house.  How about that.

My brother gave us that bat house (five or six?) years ago.  No one had ever used it.  We didn't have any other suitable locations to try moving it to, so we'd just left it.  After all these years, it was now occupied.  And not by just a couple bats!

I took this video last night.  Tim noticed one bat flying from the front of the barn over to the bat house and then everyone started leaving the house.  We are wondering if that was an adult waking all the kids up?

How many can you count?  Leave your number in the comments and we'll have a drawing for one of the new drawstring bags.  The bats aren't named, but we can be thankful that they are keeping so many bugs away from all the named sheep :-).

Here is a shorter, closer up video from the night before.  Isn't this cool?

After everyone cleared out and was safely off to work, Saint Tim got to work installing a second bat house.  He put it next to the original house, about 12" away.  I'm a bit worried that it is too close, but he had to work around a tobacco vent.  

I've emailed a bat conservation group to check.  Hopefully he won't have to go back up and move it although he did say he was less scared of heights when it was too dark to see how far he might fall ;-).  Reason #1694 for why we call him Saint Tim!

Keeping Watch

Even when they are really tired, good mommas keep watch.

Thank you all so much for keeping watch as well.  You have no idea how much that means to me. As a tiny token of gratitude, a Punkin's Patch/My Favorite Sheep tote will be headed to Susan (and Smokey Blue in spirit) and Cheryl.  Please drop me an email with your mailing address :-).

And here's a fun, fairly easy puzzle that I will work tomorrow...who am I kidding...I'm going to go work it now...even though my eyes are crossing ;-).

Enjoy!

Tongue Out Tuesday

Since it's still Tuesday for two more hours, here's a series of pictures of a lamb doing something you don't often see.  I should have taken a video, but didn't think about it until it was too late.  

"What are you doing?"

"I'm sucking my tongue."

"That's a little weird."

"Well, I don't have a thumb to suck."

"It's fun.  See?"

"Well, it is."

Holy Moly!  I had no idea so many people were having trouble commenting.  I thought everyone was just doing Facebook these days and clicking "like" and not reading blogs anymore.  And I, being the queen of obsoletion, was just going to keep trudging along even if no one else was reading.  

I am blown away by all the comments!  There have been so many that I'm going to up the giveaway to two tote bags tomorrow so everyone has a little better chance.  Thank you! Thank you! Thank you!

Here are a couple tips that might help if you are still having trouble:

1.  That stupid "prove you are not a robot" thing.  Sigh...  I can't figure out a way to remove it.  TRY just ignoring it and go straight to "publish".

2.  Okay, I only have one tip I guess.  This is more of a question I need a tip from you about.  So, on the new format, we no longer have the option to reply to a previously posted comment?  This makes no sense. Any thoughts?

I'm just not a fan of "improvements".  They so seldom are.

Queen. Of. Obsoletion.  That's really a word even if blogger says it isn't.  And to prove it I went to Merriam-Webster online and in doing so, found that the word of the day (for 1 1/2 more hours) is grimalkin, which they say means "an old female cat".  I thought that was kind of sweet until I looked into it further.  There are a few more definitions ;-).

You never know what you'll find here, especially when I blog tired haha.