So much time, so little time...

I can not believe that the last time I blogs the puppies were little wiggly worms, and now they are tiny dogs. When did this happen?

In the weeks since they have joined us, B and I have been very busy creating. We had a table at the first ever Hand-to-Hand Market in Greensboro NC. We had a very successful day, and by we I mean I was at work and B was manning the table. Take a look at some of the things we had on the table.



I also have come in possession of an old school knitting machine. I am a little bit in love. It slices, it dices, it knits stuff really, really fast. So I have been coming up with new products I can make on it. The new big thing for me is the U-Sock. I want to make 100 of them to protect the paint jobs of every bike in town.



I Built That got a big shout out here. Congrats baby, do it big!

We have been adding to the family. If you live within a 5 mile radius of me, I may be forcing eggs on you real soon.

Sheep Lights!

I really need you to watch this...

Sheep Lights Video.

And Discuss...

Because its really hard to type when you are covered in sleeping puppies.

These are our three two week old foster puppies.

They have to be bottle fed every 2-4 hours.

My life as I know it revolves around puppies 24/7 now.

But look how cute...

Sheep Shearing 2011!

Every year I try to make an effort to travel the short distance from our city to visit Rising Meadow Farm in Liberty NC. Every spring the owners of this vast rolling farm open their barns and home to visitors from all over North Carolina for the yearly shearing of their flock of sheep. This is one of my favorite events of the year, and I took off special from work to attend with my friend Kate. All of the buildings on Rising Meadow are rustic and artfully made. Here is a view of the barn they use each year for the shearing.

The shearers use the traditional hand shears, which look like really big scissors, instead of the more modern electric shears. The shearer sits the sheep up on its rump which has a calming affect on the animal.

Here, Kate is skirting the freshly shorn fleece. Skirting a fleece involves removing the locks of the fleece that are very short, or have vegetable or fecal matter in them.

This ewe was not feeling very well today.

Two 10 day old lambs.

Just waiting for her turn.

After a long afternoon of skirting fleeces and talking shop, it was time to relax a little on pounds and pounds of freshly shorn wool in the sun.

The Mystical, Magical Exploding Cowl!!!

More green, plenty more green. Once again it seems I can only work in greens.

One morning I woke and thought, "I need a cowl". This thought stuck with me for quite awhile before I finally broke down and set about knitting my cowl. But any old cowl would not do. I wanted a cowl with a very soft hand, serious texture, and the ability to cover most of my face. It seems that the harder it is to see face of the wearer, then the more desirable the cowl. I wanted a neck covering so hip that it would impede my ability drive. So I began by spinning 8oz of single ply bulky thick and thin merino yarn. Being that the yarn was mostly thick, this did not take very long on my spinning wheel. Then I kettle dyed the newly spun yarn in a bright mossy green sort of color. After processing the wool in the dye-bath at 170 degrees, I brought it out to cool. I had decided I wanted some color varieation in the yarn, so I took the mostly cooled, still wet yarn and streaked it with a dark grey dye, and then squeezed it around a bunch to create the variation I was looking for. Then I wrapped it in plastic wrap and processed it in the oven for 45 min.
Tada!!!!! I knitted this up on size 10 1/2 needles in the round in simple seed stitch till I ran out of yarn.

I must say, I screwed my math up on this project. I did a gauge sample so that I could count how many stitches I would have to the inch, and then cast on and started knitting. Then I ripped it back out, us knitters call this frogging, and started over on a smaller size needle, but instead of doing a new sample I worked out some crazy proportion which made the cowl much to big. Oh well. I like it anyway. Photos of me in my cowl were taken by my cubicule wall mate on our one brake a week that is at the same it. Thanks Blair!