Sweaters

I now have 9 sweaters in my queu at ravelry. I am also working on wisteria by Kate Gilbert. I am about 45% along on this sweater. I have made the decision that I will complete at least 6 of these sweaters by this time next year. I tried to add a few things that I have never done and also vary the plain knit with the cables and lace and color work instead of doing it all together. I also tried to choose different styles. I will also have to get a few other projects done in additon to these. Daughter 2 wants a skirt, Daughter 1 wants a cape, and son wants a fur hat. I know that with all I have to do, this seems a little ambitious, but I really am in need of sweaters. I only have a couple and either they are too old, don't fit, or I just don't like them anymore.

Diamond lace scarf

This scarf took me FOREVER!!! First I spun lace weight singles and then I knit right from the bobbin. I love it, though. It is for sale in my etsy shop.

Etsy

I just added items to my new Etsy shop. Some of them are on the side bar.

I was procrastinating about it, but a lady from town asked me to bring some of my hand spun to her home last weekend because she was participating in the town wide craft / boutique fair. Well, I had to get everything labeled and in a hurry. Procrastination, over. I will add new items in a few days, but I am testing the waters right now.

Etsy has pretty fair listing policies. You pay $0.20 for each item listed and when it sells you pay a percentage of the sale to them. If it does not sell, you owe them nothing. Let me know what you think.

New combed top!

I sent off 4 of my girls' fleece to Zwool to be turned into combed top. I chose Zwool mainly because they do top. I have a spinning order at Spinderellas as well.

Flower Identification Needed

I found this flower while going to feed the animals and I do not know what it is. It has an orchid-like quality to it.
Here is the leaf:
front:

Side:

Thanks to Ravelry and the DNR, the answer is: Impatiens pallida, pale touch-me-not or jewelweed. This is the yellow version, the orange one is Impantiens capensis.

Some Pigs

Since I posted last we have had a lot happen. Our sheep were sheared and we are in the process of skirting our last 2 fleece. We skirted and shipped out all of our white merino fleece. There was a lot of illness. I lost feeling in my pinky and ring finger for a few months, my pinky is still numb. My mom and her husband both had heart issues, one of them major, and the other somewhat serious. So, sorry I have not kept up here.

One Thing we did accomplish was a home for our pigs. We get rejects from the hog "factories" about once a year and this year we wanted to give them a better home. So we set to building an enclosure that we hoped would contain them.


We chose this location for a few reasons: it gets a lot of shade so the pigs will not get sunburned, it is shaded by oak trees and pigs love acorns, it does not get a lot of grass so it will not take valuable pasture from the sheep, and it is not going to stink up the house or yard (not that they are really al that stinky when they are outside.)

We had to dig a lot of holes for the posts and then tamp them in carefully. We also put a line of barbed wire about 1" from the ground to discourage them from digging under the fence. Dear liked to give them a large mud puddle (it is sunscrean for them and keeps the flies off of them).

But, a nice storm, like we had yesterday, turns the whole thing into a mud puddle. It will be dry in a day, so the pigs better have their fun now. They loved the storm.

We throw them apples, cabbages, tomatoes, weeds from the garden, and watermelons. They love it all. We only have 2 weeds that are dangerous for pigs and we all know what they look like. The pigs are pretty happy and dirty, but at least they are muddy dirty, not poopy dirty.

Feed and Fleece

Button is a colored merino with a very fine fleece. From the top of the photo down you can see the results of different feeds and minerals. At the top she was getting a grass hay from Colorado and I am not sure what minerals she received. When she arrived at our farm she was placed on pasture that has a higher legumes and she was given a mineral block. We did not like the block as much so we switched to a mineral that comes in a tub and has molasses mixed in. When we bred her we moved her to a different pasture that is mostly grass. As winter set in Button was moved to the barn and fed an alfalfa hay and given the same mineral tub. When the tub was emptied and she was ready for grain, we fed her a grain mix that is fortified with minerals and also has molasses added to it because the sheep really like molasses. All of the changes, although gradual, had a huge effect on her fleece color and it is heavily banded. My mother said it looks like tree rings and I have to agree.
I have begun to be careful about what I put into my body. I buy organic dairy now because I do not want the growth hormones in my food. But, all of this makes me wonder. Button's fleece shows clearly what happened to her feed throughout the year. It is a good, strong fleece, but you can see the color variations. If switching feed like that causes those changes on the outside, what is going on inside? What is the food I eat doing inside of me? We have problems with obesity, we have much higher cancer rates, more acne, and other odd illnesses. We have salmonella poisoning in our food and come to find out that many of our grains and seed have salmonella at the DNA level of the seed. Who put it there? Monsanto is probably the largest contributor to the genetic modification of our feeds and seed. Unfortunately they are allowed to continue to play with our food and sue anyone who has their seed even though the Monsanto poison seed actually infected the other person's crop through natural pollination. Now Monsanto wants to plant seed that has a "termination" gene in it. It would grow one season and all seed produced from it would be sterile. They said we don't have to worry about that seed crossing with other seed, but is that really true? Would this planet go through a massive famine because the Monsanto seed crossed with other seed? So far our government has allowed Monsanto to sue farmers and backed Monsanto's "right" to patent their seed. Something needs to be done. Imagine if Monsanto patented a grass seed and your neighbor, 10 miles down the road, planted that seed. When your grass was ready to be pollinated, wind and animals carried the tainted seed pollen to your grass. Now you have Monsanto genetics in your yard. Those genetics are patented and they can sue you for patent infringement. That is exactly what is happening in the farming community.

Asparagus

Asparagus is my favorite vegetable. Fresh, pickled, canned, or frozen, it is always my favorite choice.

There are a few things to keep in mind when preparing this vegi. First, in order to have the best you have to grow it or buy it from a local farmer who hand picks it. Asparagus should always be hand picked. When you snap it, it breaks at the woody point. Store-bought asparagus is most often cut by machine under the soil. Because of this people recommend pealing the ends or cutting them, but even that is not good enough. The best method is to break it off. The problem with doing this on store bought asparagus is it is very expensive and you can lose as much as 2/3 of the stem because they did not pick it properly. It is very easy to grow asparagus and the roots are inexpensive if purchased from a place like Indiana Berry Company. The other thing to keep in mind when cooking asparagus is that the base and the tips cook at different rates, so an asparagus pot is the best method to cook it. Asparagus should be cooked until it turns that beautiful bright green and is al dente.

I have seen famous chefs say to pick the thin asparagus because it is more tender....wrong wrong wrong!!! Do they even eat the stuff? Asparagus should not be picked if it is thinner than a pencil and it is most tasty when it is nice and meaty. The moderately thick asparagus is the best (another reason not to get it in the store, store asparagus all seems to be on the thin side). Asparagus should also have a very tight and smooth head. You should not see any "sprouting" of the head.

I grow 2 different kinds of asparagus, purple and green. Purple asparagus has a higher sugar content and is better raw than green asparagus. It cooks up green and does not taste a whole lot different from plain old green asparagus.

This photo shows a huge asparagus spear (it is more than 1" in diameter) and another spear that is a little too thin and starting to sprout.
About 10 minutes of picking yielded me this:

How do they get white asparagus? White asparagus is just normal asparagus that is kept from light. Occasionally we get a spear that was hidden under the leaves and is white, but, I find white asparagus to be a little bitter.

Asparagus also grow wild in a lot of places. Look for tall fern like plants on the sides of the road, make note of where they are and then in May go back to the spot. If it is along the ditch of a person's home, ask permission to pick it. I have had people wander 30 feet into my property to pick my wild asparagus and I would prefer they asked. I have my own plantings and do not need the wild stuff, but I like to be asked.

I will most likely eat all of that asparagus and can some for eating this winter.

Brown Eggs vs White Eggs

From the top left corner going clockwise: brown egg dyed blue, white egg dyed blue, brown egg dyed blue and then red

Left: white egg dyed yellow, brown egg dyed yellow

I prefer the brown eggs. The red dyed eggs were red instead of pink when using a brown egg.