Photo a Day--Something that makes you sad

I find it sad to find these old barns in various stages of decay.  It's an awful reminder about the losses that small farms have had to endure with the rise of modern agribusiness.  This barn disappeared not long after this photo was taken...I can only hope that they salvaged as much as they could.

Photo a Day--Circle

My poor sad wall hanging, I wonder if I will ever finish it?

Photo a Day--1 PM

the Ponderer with the girls....

Photo a Day--Bottle

April 21 make up pic....

My friend D--kindly let me share a pic of her fabulous etching!

Photo a Day--Somewhere you went

Day 3 of chicken tractor building at Sr's house...note approaching thunderstorm...

Photo a Day--Black+White

the Ponderer with his dad

Chooks!

Sooo, we finally got our little flock of chicks!  I am so excited, I can hardly contain my happy dance!

We had to put them on newspaper, until we could get to the store and get some shavings.  the store where we got our birds was out.

Anyways, our girls:

Violet, an Ameraucana pullet

Lilly, another Ameraucana pullet

Iris, a Rhode Island Red pullet

Rose, another Rhode Island Red pullet

We're guessing that they're about a week old.  I look forward to learning who these girls are.

Photo a Day--Looking Down

Crane fly (tipula spp) emerging from it's pupal shell.

Photo a Day--Something your grateful for

My mom with her brother circa 1945 maybe.

Photo a Day--Vegetable

Yummy spinach from a friend's garden

Earth Day!

So, I've been thinking of the things that the Ponderer and I do to help Our Mother...

We have in the past:

composted our food waste

drove an economical car

did some recycling

bought used, when we could

picked up trash along the road

contributed monies to help the planet

planted trees

grew our garden organically

not watered the lawn


Which seems like a good place to start, but I feel that we can do sooo much more than what we do now.

What changes do you plan to make this year to help our planet and it's creatures?

I think we'll start with sorting out the recyclables better, and actually see them to the proper pick up place.  Then I plan to sew some shopping bags to keep in the car and my knitting bag.  Sew napkins.  Remember to turn off the &#&$ing light! Remember to carry a take out dish to the restaurant for left overs.

And I must try to remember that frugalness only has the stigma that I place on it....I do not need to buy,buy,buy.  Which can be very hard, when pretty yarns just beg to come home...

Photo a Day--The last thing you bought

Mmmmmmilk!

Ick

No photo of the day, as I feel very tired and puny.....:(

Photo a Day--Something you drew

'Cause I got nuthin'

More orange-y possibilities

I'm actually going to try my hand at stranded knitting--I can't wait.  It will be a pair of these.
I don't think I will be doing the lace cuff, though, I'll cobble together something else...

I've chosen  Malabrigo Sock in 802 "Terracota" for the seahorse, and Oceanwind Knits Sock in "Ahoy" for the main color.

Photo a Day--Orange

Savor the orange-y goodness!

Photo a Day--Hair

Not my pic, but isn't he pretty!  Makes me really pine to have a goat again!

Photo a Day--Something you don't like

Thankfully, I did not take this picture.

I am not a fan of violence anyways, but when it happens to friends, I dislike it even less.

Winder-up!

Here is my super technical ball winding system--LOL!

First, you misappropriate your mom's quilting stand.  Then, you find a bottle of tacky glue.  Then arrange yarn on stand, and wind.  And wind.  And wind.  No, not whine, wind.  

No having to beg relatives, friends, or even strangers to hold your hanks of yarn.  It's free, gets the job done, and leaves you with more $$$$ to spend on yarns and patterns.

Photo a Day--Flower

I am in love (again)

So I finished Willoughby a few days ago...I sooooo loved how it turned out.  I am truly kicking myself for not finishing it when it was cool enough to wear.

Her final size is right around 13 inches by 74 inches.

I used up all but about 3 yards of the yarn...I was really beginning to wonder if I had enough towards the end.  I'll save the remainder for repairs (I hope I never need to).  

Except for me obsessing over the jog created from the cast on, this was such a great knit. I plan to knit another in the future.  The pattern was easy for me to memorize, and soo pretty.

Photo a Day--Sunset

Almost one year ago today, I snapped this one about 15 minutes before we were hammered by quarter sized hail!

Photo a Day--How you feel today

Pinned

Since I can't stick a fork in her, I'll put in plenty of pins instead...

all pinned out

I finished Willoughby late thursday night, only to discover that I had joined the edging wrong--I ssk instead of knitting together the live edge stitches--D'Oh!

So I picked it apart, and reknitted.  I just had to, it was bugging me. Really.

Then I washed it, as the yarn was old and I figured it might be dirty.

sorry for bad lighting...look at the dirty water!

Then a rinse with some Lavender essential oil, mostly for fragrance as the yarn specified that it was permanently moth-proofed.

Still sorry for bad lighting...

Then a quick spin in the washer to remove the excess water.  Having learned my lesson with delicate yarn, I turned down the speed of the rotation so I wouldn't full it.  And then I began to pin. And pin.  Did I mention that there was pinning?  

I used almost all the T pins I had...pic is really dark from the very grey skies

The first pic shows how I pinned the ends; I sewed a length of kitchen string through the stitches that join the edge to the stole body.  Then I pulled the string taut, and placed a few more pins to support it.  It ended up being about 13 inches x 75 inches.  Now I wait to release it  and see how much it relaxes.

Photo a Day--Something you found

Thanks to my dear friend for intuiting where to find these...I've been looking for these for a year now!  And they're my fave pair!

Lost Hill ramble

The Ponderer and I took a nice stroll over at Lost Hill Natural Resource Area.  Not many people were out as it was so cool and kept looking like rain, which didn't really break my heart.  LOL. Sometimes I enjoy having the trails to myself to explore.

Sadly, these caves aren't open to exploration due to the white nose syndrome that's moving this way from New England.  I'm not sure if these have been colonized by the fungus yet,  or they're trying to prevent it, but I'd rather respect the signs posted, than risk losing any more bats.

There's a wet weather creek that runs beside the trail for a lot of the way, and I took the opportunity to walk through it.  The P-man thought it looked like what he imagines the lunar surface to be like.

aesculus glabra, or ohio buckeye

Not sure, but I think it might be black locust, or robinia pseudoacacia

podophyllum peltatum, or mayapple

There were lots of flowers to look at, and it was a good birding day, too.  I saw bluebirds, scissortail flycatchers, titmice, chickadees, goldfinches, cardinals, a kingfisher, heard woodpeckers, saw a great blue heron, vultures....whew!

Glad he stayed around long enough for me to snap a few pics!

And on the knitting front, I should finish Willoughby tomorrow, or late tonight.  Yay!

Photo a Day--Stairs

Photo a Day--Where you ate breakfast

Photo a Day--Cold

These have been especially cold lately...Brrrrrrr!

Grow 'lil celery

So I'd read the other day that if you save the bottom (the whorl where the stalks come from) of celery stalks, you can replant them to grow a new plant.  I decided to try it out and see...

Cut and put in warm water.

I cut the whorl off and put it in a saucer of water.  I think I kept it in the house for a good week, before I put it out in the garden.

Here he is after 3 days in the soil.

I hope that we do have some success with this, because we do eat a lot of celery.

Photo a Day--Younger you

I loved my uncle's kit car!  

Photo a Day--Inside your wallet

Since I don't have a wallet, all you get is a pic of my utility bag.

Photo a Day--Shadow

A mere shadow of her former self

Where have you been?

So I know yesterday I rather gushed about the latest issue of Knitty, which I totally DO love, and makes me want to abandon everything else...but I do have some neat stuff on the needles that I feel I should finish first.

This is Willoughby by Jared Flood, from the book Made in Brooklyn.  I was gifted this great yarn a while back, which I am pretty sure is discontinued.  It's Vivant by Brunswick yarns, and is a wool/mohair blend.

Specifically 75% Australian Zephyr Virgin Wool, and 25 % Texas Kid Mohair.  Color is listed as Lt Grey Heather #2061 Lot # 4 833.  It is really wispy and light, soft to the hand, but just a little bit prickly to the neck. This yarn was tricky for me to wind, as the fibers had already begun to full together some.  So this yarn would have been great for felting.  I handle it pretty carefully, because of that, and also how delicate it looks. 

I'm kind of kicking myself some for putting this stole down…I've finished a few crochet projects and made some jewelry instead, and now it's been soo unreasonably warm, that I'll have to put it away for next year.  I've kinda been avoiding finishing, because there is an ever-so-slight jog at the center.  This stole is knitted from the center out, and the provisional cast on moves the picked up side over by 1/2 a stitch, which is maddening for me.  Ummm, I dunno what OCD is, why do you ask? LOL.  But I'm going to just suck it up and finish it, already.  Because I have some stash diving to do...