Fiona

Fiona had her first night in the barn last night. Dear fixed her a pen and put Princess and Mary, our two gentlest merinos, in with her so she would not be lonely. She is a little confused and wants to hang out with her "real" flock but this is better for her. She needs to learn how to be a sheep. Mary and Princess are being pretty nice to her. Mary is the ewe who let any lamb nurse from her, a great ewe to have.

Knitting

Wisteria is reworking nicely and it looks plenty roomy. I am using hand spun from my sheep.
After making one of these for a niece, Amanda said she wanted one. I am doing hers on larger needles so I will get a larger shawl. I may also do another few repeats in the pattern so it is large enough.
This yarn is a hand spun that I made from Ashland Bay 100% merino top in cranberry.
I had a load of Moda Dea Tweedle Dee Acrylic and wool yarn. I do not really like using acrylic, it hurts my hands, but I wanted to use this up. I decided to turn it all into scarves. I learned how to block acrylic in the process which was very cool. I have a few more to go. I am making one fat and one skinny version of each color. I like the way the scarves turned out and I may sell them on etsy, not sure. I would probably list them for $18-$25.


This one is my favorite.
A niece is having a birthday soon, so I decide to make her a sleeveless, mini dress version in Blue Sky Alpaca's organic cotton. This is very soft stuff and has a lovely sheen, but I think cotton is a lot more tender of a yarn than wool.
I may have to knit up a little purse to match, I'm not sure yet, though. I got a pale pink in the same yarn in case I wanted to make an accessory.

Gossip

Mildred, the church gossip and self-appointed monitor of the church's morals, kept sticking her nose into other people's business. Several members did not approve of her extracurricular activities, but feared her enough to maintain their silence.

She made a mistake, however, when she accused Elmer, a new member, of being an alcoholic after she saw his old pickup parked in front of the town's only bar one afternoon. She emphatically told Elmer (and several others) that everyone seeing it there would know exactly what he was doing!

Elmer, a man of few words, stared at her for a moment and just turned and walked away. He didn't explain, defend, or deny... he said nothing.

Later that evening, Elmer quietly parked his pickup in front of Mildred's house... walked home... and left it there all night.

Fiona

Fiona is still in the house. We tried bringing her outside, but #27 wantedher dead, so, in the kitchen she will stay, for a little bit longer.

She has graduated to doing barn chores every day. She goes out with us while we water, grain, and feed the sheep hay. She seems to enjoy it, but, when she is done, she knows exactly where she is supposed to be and follow us back to the house, bouncing along. By the time she gets back inside, she is a little hungry and a lot tuckered out.

More lambs

#27, AKA Amanda, had two girls tonight while we were at Taekwondo and Pilates. Dear returned home, went to water the sheep and found the lambs. Last year 27 rejected one of her lambs, Buddy, and this year she did the same. Dear found Fiona by the waterer, unlicked, and alive. She is a strong little thing. The other girl is hanging close by her mom and 27 is taking great care of her. Dear held 27 while I held a foot and let Fiona nurse. The first few days of milk are very important for lambs, just as they are for humans. They need the first milk, colostrum from their mom. Fiona got a good feeding in and is now asleep in a laundry basket in our house. Dear has to build a pen for 27 and Fiona can not be left to roam the barn alone with no other bottle lambs to snuggle, not the first few nights. Our kind neighbor, Dan is stopping by to lend us some milk, lamb milk, since the stores are closed. We also have 2 Norwegian soldiers comming to stay with us this weekend. We are not sure what they will be thinking about all of this.



This is the best photo I could take of her. It is difficult to take a decent photo of an all black lamb.