'Reality' is only getting worse

Except, perhaps, for the filthy rich. But even for them, a Divine reckoning is coming....

After a few days of togetherness for my remaining eight ewes, little Miss Bernice, she of the teenage fling with her half-brother, starting escaping from the wooded lot. She is the smallest sheep I have thanks to her growth-stunting pregnancy, and she figured out she could squeeze under the old wire fence to graze the grassy verges of the driveway. I did my best to block her escape route, however inelegantly, and that seems to have done the trick.

In the meantime, I was sent this wonderful photo of the third of my ewes who left:

I must say they got a nice variety of colors and patterns. The little girl said she was going to rename one of them "Mary" because of "Mary had a little lamb." (Hmm; shouldn't she have renamed herself?)

My Inglenook Fibers/silk hankies yarn when my silk singles ran out:

I need to do a serious stash dive to see if I have anything that would be close enough to ply with the rest of the IF singles. If I don't, I may just ply it on itself and set it aside. The 2-ply I have should be plenty for a soft, warm neck accessory.

I've also finished spinning over half my navy SW merino/alpaca top on my Dovekies; four more ounces to spin before deciding whether to make this a 2-ply or ply it with something else.

Other miscellaneous photos I've made since my last post follow, some with explanatory captions.

New & shiny (we had to replace our 23-year-old range)

the Yarn Harlot featured this recipe during Veganuary and I had to make it; YUM!

sunset by horseback, above and below

Big Dipper

Orion

"Neighborhood Watch"

That's it for now from . . .

A day from door to door

Yesterday morning I awoke early, got up to close the windows and blinds (our east-facing wall of windows/French doors gives us a LOT of solar gain) and found this:

Squeeeee! A pretty sunrise! Lately the sun has come up in a cloudless sky . . . or I'm still asleep. I stepped out on the deck to take a picture and enjoy the cool(er) morning air – and a female Anna's hummingbird flew in for breakfast an arm's length away. I held my breath, slowly rotated my iPhone, and started snapping away. She must have been really hungry, because she mostly kept eating/drinking. I didn't get great photos, but for me they capture a special experience.

 

Yesterday evening a coast breeze cooled us down enough that I could think about riding for the first time in days, so Lance and I chased a sunset.

Then I spun awhile on my spindle (I had finished spinning Braveheart's roving on my mS the night before) until bedtime. I let Jackson out one last time (Dozer didn't want to go) and thought I heard running and rustling. Hoping it wasn't another skunk, I gave him a couple minutes and called him from the front door. He slowly walked onto the light porch with something in his mouth. When I informed him whatever it was wasn't coming inside, he dropped a big, almost dead gopher!

Needless to say, he got lots of praise and a treat for that.

Today dawned cooler and the house stayed cooler longer. And tonight, thanks to another coast breeze, the temperature in the house is below 70-something for the first time in recent memory; woot!

I started another turtle on my horn spindle today (here she is in a 'string bikini'; ha!), and wound the Braveheart singles into a ball for plying. Then I decided to use Rick's newest creation to model the yarn. He got a new tool that allows him hollow out bowls through a small hole, which is holding the pirn. It also has some copper accents, along with the 'wings.' Something different!

I needed something else to spin on Miss Maple for the rest of the Tour, so into the stash I dove again. I found this 8+ ounces of dark chocolate roving with no identification. It's from one of my past sheep, but I'll have to do some research to figure out which one. I also found some medium brown roving from Bramble, almost a pound, and got to thinking what a beautiful Fair Isle cardigan I could knit with these three shades. Hmmm....

That's all for this post from . . .

Cashmere dreams

Even though we're weathering a bit of a parenting storm, the day dawned beautifully this morning.

When the sun cleared the clouds, it illuminated the valley fog, the contrails, a little sun dog – and a sheep!

I took care of chores, started the dryer, washing machine and dishwasher, and sat down to play with fiber for a little while.

After finishing the camel down last week, I needed at least 20g of something to complete the January/February Jenkins YarnTools challenge of 70g. Looking around my disaster area stash room, my eye fell on some fluff in a plastic bag labeled "Brown Cashmere Fiber, 1 oz." Perfect; a small amount of something new-to-me that might even play well with the camel down if I chose to ply them together. (I'm sure it was a gift but I can't remember who was so kind as to send it to me.) :-/

Oh, YUM! It is every bit as soft as the camel down, but with a silkier handle; I love it!

After more work, more parenting, and some bad news on the dad-front (I'm afraid there's never going to be good news there), I did get a little time on my compromised pony while the sky put on a closing show.

Ah; all's well that ends well at . . .