A Few Sheep Shy of a Farm

who said something like “If you don’t like the weather in New England, wait 5 minutes.”

Today is a great example of that.  If you were to scroll down a little to the botttom of yesterday’s entry and examine the photos that I took yesterday of the little guy on his bike and of the chickens, outside on bare ground in the yard you would see that we’d had enough of a warm stretch that all the snow we got in December had, finally, melted.

Apparently, Mother Nature decided that since its January there was something wrong with that picture and this is what we woke to this morning:

So, much to the disappointment of a certain toddler, it is no longer bike riding weather!

However, being 2.5 he managed to make the best of it and got out there to play in the snow for a bit.

He didn’t last too long because after rolling in the snow for a bit he decided to remove his mittens to get a bitter grip on some snow and his little hands froze!  I think he was really only out there something like 20 minutes before I heard “Mommy, Cold!” and it was time for us to head inside.

While he was playing I went to feed and check on the chickens.  Here is what their coop looked like when I headed down there this morning:

I decided, based on past experience with these particular chickens and snow, not to bother trying to let them out today . . . they aren’t going to go anyway so why not keep the coop shut tight and warm.  Actually, it was warm enough inside that the water wasn’t the least bit icy or anything which means they should be just fine inside today.  There were 3 eggs waiting for me, a darkish brown, a pink and a blue.   After getting 9 yesterday it will be interesting to see just how many there are today.

Knitting wise I’ve made a little progress on the Minimalist Cardigan; the fronts are at about 5.5 inches so far . . . I hope to work on it a bit more today as time allows.  I’m also hoping to go to knitting group tonight but we’ll have to wait and see how the roads are later. 

Time to go do a bit of the “dreaded” housework so that I can claim some knitting time . . .

Its been a grey miserable day.  We had really heavy rain and scattered thundershowers all day long.

Mimmo and I had planned to go to playgroup today.  Unfortunately, they planned a meeting about 30 minutes away and with the weather and all I just didn’t have it in me to dress him up, pack him up, fight to get him into the car without the appearance of a drowned rat from puddle stomping and deal with driving up there . . . then scrambling to do something for lunch . . . etc.  Just not happening today.

That has meant a day of being trapped in the house together (Dom’s working a double shift!) and with him bored.  And did I mention that he didn’t take his nap today? Yeah, we’re having tons of fun.

 We did try the Creme Caramel last night.  It turned out pretty well . . . there were 1 or 2 minor changes I’d make for next time but they really are minor tweeks to what I did.  I’ve got 2 more dishes of it in the fridge but I’ve been asked not to feed any to the little guy until his father is home tomorrow – he wants to see him eat it!

Today was a slow day in the chicken coop, only 5 more eggs . . . but 2 of them are blue! They really are neat to find in the nest box.  We’ve been giving away 1/2 dozen size cartons to a few friends lately and we’ve started including 1 blue egg in each box as a kind of novelty. 

Actually, Dom took some to work and gave them to one of the managers.  Someone up them in a fridge and then someone in the kitchen actually used them to make  souffle for a customer! How funny is that?  The chef asked him not to leave any more boxes with the funny blue eggs in the fridge

Knitting wise I’ve been working on the Minimalist Cardigan and the KP socks on and off as I can in between other things.  I’ve got about 3 inches left on the back of the sweater which I hope to finish tonight.  I had planned to take a photo to show you my progress but the lighting situation, due to the weather, has been terrible so it will have to wait.  I’ve pulled out 2 skeins of yarn to start the fronts with . . . I’m planning to knit them both at the same time . . . better shot that they will be the same length that way, know what I mean?

The KP sock is coming along very slowly . . . I’m finding it rather boring but I really, really want to get it done and off the list so I try to do a few rounds here and there just to keep it moving.

A certain little someone keeps asking if I’m making his sock or his sweater . . . and he’s very disappointed that neither project is for him.  I think I’m going to have to start another pair of socks for him soon.  He doesn’t really need me to knit him another sweater as his Godmother just knit him 2 (Thank you, Mari!) and that brings the total in his drawer to 9 if I remove the one that is getting a little snug.  Socks on the other hand, he actually can use a few more pairs of . . .

Speaking of socks; Emma asked in comments about how I darn socks. I’ve been using directions that I found here:

http://www.hjsstudio.com/darn.html

I’ve found them to be good directions and I’ve darned 8 socks so far with at least 4 more that currently need darning – thank you very much sucky nylon area rugs!

Time to go lock up the chickens . . . .

I’ve been working on the sweater as much as I could today . . . I’ve done the armhole decreases and I’m still working on the remainder of the back . . . I’d say I’ve got about another 7 inches to go but at least its narrower than it was.

A good chunk of my day has been spent on the laundry pile.  It never ceases to amaze me just how fast the laundry can pile up! And to think, in a few more months there will be a 4th person’s laundry to do.  Between the baby clothes and the cloth diapers I expect another 5 loads a week to be added to the rotation.  Since yesterday I’ve done 6 loads; okay so abot 1/2 of that is waiting to be folded but clean is wearable so that counts, right?  There are still a couple more loads waiting to be done but they may have to wait a few days . . . What I’m really hoping is that the bathroom gets finished enough for the washer to be installed before my belly gets to big to be carrying laundry baskets up and down the back stairs!  It really will be nice to have it where I can reach it easily as I expect I’ll have to do 2 loads a day, 6 days a week to keep up by spring.  Sounds like fun, huh?

I”ve also been doing a bit of cooking today.  I’ve made a Creme Caramel.  It was the first time I’ve made something like this and the first thing I learned is that its a dish best made the day before you plan to serve it . . . it took a long time to cook and I’m currently waiting for it to cool the rest of the way.  Tune in tomorrow to hear how it turned out

Part of the reason I made custard was that thing seemed to have picked up in the egg production department.  Yesterday we had 7 eggs (one blue!) and this morning there were 3 in the nest (again, one blue) but this afternoon there were 6 eggs (2 blue) waiting for me in the nest! That’s 16 eggs in 2 days!!! Got any good egg recipes to share?

A bunch of us from the Monday night knitting group are doing the Minimalist Cardigan together.  There is also a group for it on Ravelry where we are tracking our progress.

 We cast on as a group this past Monday night and for the most part got several inches done during the meeting.  I ran into a slight snag.  I really wanted to knit this from stash, but if you can believe it (Dom couldn’t) I really didn’t have much in the stash, in solid colors in the right size and amount to knit a sweater for myself! Imagine that?

I decided to knit it from some Steadfast Fibers Wonderful Wool in Denim that I’ve had in the stash for ages.  I managed to get my swatch finished and wet just before I left for knitting that night but didn’t get to check the gauge until I was at knitting.  Turns out the blocked gauge for the yarn was 4 st/inch, not teh 5 st/inch that the pattern calls for.  I could have dropped a couple of needle sizes and gotten gauge but I think if I did I loose the nice texture the fabric had; it would have been tight and stiff insteatd of drapey.  So instead I’m attempting to work the pattern by refiguring my stitches to fit the new gauge while still making the 39.5 inch version of the sweater.  As long as my finished pieces actually behave the way my swatch did when washed and blocked I should be just fine . . . though that is a decent size IF to have floating over a sweater project.

I’ve got about 7.5 inches of the back knit so far:

Chickens & Eggs

We’re getting about 5 eggs per day on average now (yesterday was 7!) and for the past 3 days there has been 1 blue egg each day.  Dom took a 1/2 dozen to work for the manager yesterday (including the day’s blue egg) and got to show them around to everyone.  Afterall, they’ve been listening to him talk about chickens for nearly 7 months and without the benefit of the photos like you get here

Thank you for the comments and emails on the socks.  I’m just glad to finally have them finished! I picked up the next “pair” in the pile last night, the KP socks listed in the progress bars, and it turns out I actually cast on the first one back in July 2006! 

I remember exactly why I put them down for what was suppose to be just a bit too! The KP yarn I’m using was annoying me, specifically the fact that I bound off the toe with something like a yard or two of yarn left! I really don’t like cutting it that close and felt kinda gipped that there was only “just” enough yarn.  I spent some time late yesterday trying to piece together from my notes and close examination of the finished sock exactly what I had been doing and think I’ve got it figured out.  Perhaps I’ll have another finished pair over the weekend . . .

I also did cast on something “small” last night.  Using Clara’s Feather and Fan scarf pattern from KR and the Kimono Angora yarn I bought a while back I’ve started a simple scarf.  Actually, restarted.  I had been doing small Granny Squares intending to sew them gether into a scarf with this yarn . . . I’ve rethought that plan and will be doing something rather different.  I’m going to take the two whole skeins I have and by starting a new section with each of them so it works up from the ends toward the middle  . . . then I’ll take the 3rd skein that I’ve been making squares with and finish off however many there are and sew them into a piece that will then have the two lace ends sewn to it.  Does that make sense?  I think it will be interesting when finished.

Eggs

This morning when I went to let the birds out I noticed that one of the “Easter Egg” hens was in the nest box.   She stayed there while I replaced their water and took the scratch feed outside and so I hung around for a few minutes to see if she left anything.

We got our very first blue egg today!  I hadn’t actually brought the camera down to the coop so I “recreated” what I found in the nest box by putting some straw into my egg basket . . .  but as you can see we have several shades of brown, including one that almost looks pink, and our very first blue/green egg!  We have 4 hens that will lay some similar shade so combined with the browns and pinks we’ll have a very colorful basket indeed!