October KAL

KnitPurlHunter had another mystery knit a-long this October. It was a lot of fun! Here are the four clues we received.

First clue, this was a super simple and quick knit. I think just by itself it would make a wonderful scarf!

The second clue, an I-cord using 7 stitches. I have never done an I-cord before this one and while it was not hard, I had trouble getting it to be consistent all the way around. 

Clue three, this was an easy pattern to remember, well, almost too easy! I have several mistakes because I was flying through it! Love the texture of this one!

So the first three clues where all the same length. All had provisional cast-ons and all waiting patiently on stitch holders. The fourth clue was putting them all together!!

I think it turned out really good! It really isn't anything I would ever wear, so will probably end up as a gift. Now to figure out who to give it to.

If you would like to knit this easy crowl up, here is the link to the KAL. Michelle has excellent videos of all the techniques she uses.

About that time again

Usually I try to put breeding groups together the last weekend of October, but I have been trying desperately to get some fencing redone so I can have all the breeding groups out on pasture since the grass recovered wonderfully with the few inches we had in late September and early October.

So with some major luck, the fences necessary to get everyone separated will be finished Saturday and Sunday will be the sorting day. So keep your fingers and toes crossed!!

Here some pictures of the "boys" I will be using this year.

Budster a black badgarface Icelandic, I think this ram is my favorite. Just love his horn set and mellow disposition. And his fleece is incredibly soft. And he is my favorite color.

Herriot, a black grey Icelandic ram. I really like the lambs that this ram gave me this spring. They all grew wonderfully and have beautiful fleeces.

Athos, a black Icelandic ram. I bought him last fall as a lamb. He grows an incredible heavy fleece
that is thick with soft thel. He is a little smaller than what I like in my Icelandic's, but he was a triplet
so I am thinking he may not have gotten his fair share.  This breeding season will be
the decider, if his lambs don't grow well he will be become a fiber wether. 

 Skor, a moorit gray Icelandic ram that I bought as a lamb last fall. He has nice fleece, good horn set, and a nice meaty build. He should produce some nice lambs.

Di Nozzo, my only Shetland ram. He is such a little guy compared to the Icelandics, but he is boss of the ram pasture. He will have 4 Icelandic ewes this year. I was so impressed with the Shetland/Icelandic cross, I am making it a priority this year. The offspring have the absolute best fleeces and so far have not needed to be dewormed. And the rams grow well so they can go to market sooner than the purebred Shetlands.

The "boy's" in their pasture. Some of these have been sold. And the merino ram in the back will be going to another farm this fall. Plus there are 3 angora bucks in the group behind the Icelandic rams in front.

Basic, Basic Basic

That is the name of the class I am taking.
It is kind of a 'get ready' class for the Master Knitting courses.

I have been knitting for about 2 years now and have decided to take my knitting a step further. Well, ok, maybe MANY steps forward, but I am starting with one step at a time.

The TKGA is The Knitting Guild Association and they offer many corresponded classes. The Basic, Basic, Basic class is set up as three lessons. You are given instructions to knit certain things (swatches) and then you send them off to have them evaluated.

I have just completed the swatches for the first lesson.

Here are the swatches before they have been blocked. The lesson was seeing the some different styles of doing increases and learning some basics of reading the stitches.

Here they all are all blocked. I have only blocked lace shawls before so this was a little different. With the shawls you wanted to aggressively block them (or stretch them out). With these swatches the idea was just to flatten them out without flattening the stitches.
Here is an excellent video of this technique.

These next five pictures are just the individual swatches. You (and I) can enlarge them to better see the things that need to be improved. One of my major problems that I can see (with my untrained eye) is that my tension is not consistent. That is something I will have to really pay attention to as I work through this course in preparation for the master classes.

All the pretty colors

With the exceptional drought we had this summer I did not think we would have a very colorful fall.

But, I was so wrong!! It was beautiful!!

 These picture were taken with the camera on my phone so they aren't the best, but you can see the colors!!

These are three of my horses. Sky, the gray on the left, is 29 years old this year. Agape, the bay in the middle, is 31 years old this year. And Legend, the chestnut on the right is only 13 years old.

This is the view from our back deck. It was just stunning this year.

And the ewe flock was all ready to be moved onto the next paddock. Just love these sheep!