Category: Life

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Kentucky Sheep and Fiber Fest

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MikeBunny

MikePetunia
Last weekend, Mike and I took a trip to the Kentucky Sheep and Fiber Festival. This was the first year that I either was in town, not working, or had money to really enjoy it. We got up nice and early on Saturday and arrived at about 9:30 to get a jump on the crowd. We browsed and talked to vendors our first pass around. I wanted to make sure to see everything and not buy something for the sake of buying it. We found it was very easy to get overwhelmed quickly.

One of my goals for the day was to check out the Fiber Optics booth. I fell down and ended up with a few quality items. She’s got such wonderful colors and I’m looking forward to knitting up the yarn I bought. I’ve already started on one project but more on that later in the week.

My other goal was to find a fleece and we did from Sara at Equinox Farm. I’ve been reading her blog for years and met her a few times. I went out to her farm for Hug a Sheep Day once and I was excited to get the opportunity to buy one of her fleeces at the fiber fest. I ended up with a gorgeous Jacob fleece from a ewe named Casper Belly. This is my first fleece and after talking with Sara I’m going to go ahead and process it myself. I was torn between Petunia (the cute brown sheep up above) and Casper Belly, both were really nice quality fleeces but I know I made the right choice. I still have about 8 oz. from a wether she lost last summer that I need to spin up but I’ve been waiting until I was good enough to spin it evenly.

I spent a long time talking with Laura from The Unique Sheep. She’s got a farm in Lexington and we talked about raising sheep and our plan for the future which will hopefully involve sheep. I ended up purchasing some sock yarn from her and I think I’m going to make another linen stitch scarf out of it. At some point I’m going to have to buy the yarn for Now in a Minute from her.

On Sunday, we spent the late afternoon at the Bluegrass Stockdog Trials. It was interesting to watch the dogs at work and the partnership they have with their owners. It’s impressive when you think about the amount of work that goes into building a team like that.

It was a great weekend and I’m already counting the days until next May. My ultimate goal is to spin/knit all of the yarn/fiber that was purchased this weekend before then but we’ll see. Thanks to the folks who put it on once again and the great vendors that came out. This wasn’t around when I first started knitting and I’m going to try to catch it every year that we live here in Lexington.

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Knitting Up a Storm

I have been knitting and spinning up a storm in 2013. Also school, yes lots of school – but I am trying to get as much knitting and spinning in as humanely possible.

Spinning

This is one bobbin of a merino/silk blend by Tempted Yarns that I bought from The Loopy Ewe years ago. I’m determined to spin down a lot of my fiber stash before the Kentucky Sheep and Wool fest so I can buy more guilt free.

BloominSocks

I’ve also been working on getting my stash down. This is part of the January Stashdown Challenge sock on Ravelry. It’s Bloomin’ by Jeannie Cartmel. I’m knitting it out of some Trekking XXL I picked up driving through Maryland a few years ago. (ignore Mad Men in the background, I was too lazy to get up and take another photo of it.)

MomsSwissCheese

A couple of years ago, my mom visited me and lost her beautiful Swiss Cheese scarf so I’m making her a new one out of Classic Elite Silk Alpaca lace. So.much.knitting.

progress

And finally… it’s been awhile but I guess I should officially go through with getting my married name huh? My wormhead hat in the foreground out of Cherry Tree Hill Possum Sock.

This week I’m pondering putting together a pom-pom garland to brighten up our computer room. We’ll see… Also Happy Birthday to my awesome Dad!

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Constantly Knitting

Lately I’ve been knitting in every second of my spare time. My mom has requested some knit headbands for a couple of her antique shows this holiday season to put antique buttons and pins on, so I’ve been hard at work with those. Also a couple of my co-workers have asked me to make a few custom items for them. I really love making those small things. Instant gratification and then often I get to see the knitwear in use which means me happy. I’ve got so many knitting plans and a sweater to finish and *cough* secret gifts to make *cough* so when I’m not working or studying it’s been full on knitting mode.

I was browsing the Knitpicks website and I think I’ll be making one or two of these tiny little sweaters for our tree this year.

They’re way too cute and will add a nice personal touch to our tree. We were in Target a few weeks ago and saw some wreaths wrapped in yarn. I figured I could do one myself instead of paying $20 for one. Looks like I’m not the only one with this idea! I LOVE this one from The Pleated Poppy even though it’s not wrapped in yarn, it speaks to me. I’m going to have to plan out what I want to do and make it this week. Maybe one for Thanksgiving and another for Christmas. All of them are just gorgeous. I’m thinking we’re going to have a very yarn covered Christmas…

 

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Pumpkin Patch


I had this sitting as a draft for a bit too long which was not my original intention.

A few weeks ago, we enjoyed a wonderful trip to one of the many local pumpkin patches – Boyd’s Orchards. I’ve been there a couple of times since I’ve lived here but it was our first trip together. We had an amazing time exploring the corn maze, the hay ride, petting the farm animals and picking out our pumpkins! We chose two very nice looking pumpkins, which were not directly off the branch but close to it! We ended up bringing home two large pumpkins, some apple cider donuts, and some pumpkin butter. I still can’t get over how amazing the pumpkin butter was. We still have a jar left that we’re hanging on to.

I’m hoping we can make it a tradition to go to the pumpkin patch every year together. It was such a memorable afternoon.

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Halloween and Upcoming Weekend Excitement

Hello! I hope you all had a wonderful Halloween. We kept it low key since I was working until late so we stayed home watching The Walking Dead and carving pumpkins. As usual – no trick-or-treaters here so it was nice and quiet.

As for the sweater? It’s really progressing nicely. I’m starting on the front and I’m hoping by Monday I’ll be blocking it. A sweater in two weeks? Yes, please!

This weekend we’ll be checking out the North American Livestock Expo in Louisville so I can finish the rough draft for my term paper. I’m making Mike get up early with me so we can see the alpaca and llama class first thing in the morning and then the Jersey sale later in the day. I’ve only been to horse expos so I think this will be a lot of fun! Have a great weekend!

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Cat Shaming

After seeing Dog-Shaming.com the other night, I couldn’t resist this. This is our year old ginger tabby named Autumn who is constantly surprising us. Almost every morning I come down to all of the bottom cabinet doors open. 

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The Lost Ball of Yarn

I’ve spent the past two weeks trying to find a lost ball of yarn. I know I have a lot of yarn but really? It’s just a simple ball of Kroy Sock Yarn I purchased a long time ago in very Halloween like colors. For years it sat in my sock yarn bins and at one point last winter I cast on for a pair of socks and was going to play around with making my own pattern. For some reason or another I ripped back to the toe and threw it in a bag. I failed however to throw that ball’s mate into the same bag and about three weeks ago when I pulled it out and decided to use it to knit up a pair of socks for Mike, I figured the other ball would turn up before I was done. Flash forward about two days when I started working on the cuff and figured I’d take a peek around. Not sock in my bins, not in my WIP bags, just nothing.

I just spent the past 45 minutes digging through every corner of my townhouse that has yarn, nothing. I wanted to finish the pair by Halloween but it doesn’t look like it’s going to happen any time soon.

However, the dig through the sock yarn bin has pulled up some beauties I’d forgotten about that will now be closer to the front of the line to knit. I’ve got another pair I’m working on for Mike so don’t feel too bad. He picked out the yarn for this particular pair right after he first moved in and that was almost a year ago so at least I’ll have those done for him before the year marker!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We took a nice late afternoon walk today (as nice as I could on my lunch break). It was nice and we enjoyed the sites and sounds of fall. I think we’re going to venture out to one of the haunted houses this weekend. Already mid-October. This season is going too quickly!

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Happy Canadian Thanksgiving!

Happy Thanksgiving! Especially to my better half who is Canadian. After class he helped me change the huge lights in the kitchen which was a huge task in itself especially after I dropped one of them taking out and it shattered on the floor, nearly taking out my poor Pumpkin who is never far away.

Later on, I made him an apple pie! It turned out lovely and we’re going to eat a slice in a few minutes.

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Yesterday we went out to the pumpkin patch and had a lot of fun doing the corn maze and picking out our pumpkins.

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I love this time of year and the time we’re getting to spend doing autumn type stuff when I have a day off. Next up – the trail of terror! Now off to enjoy some pie!

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Rain and Little Women

Today is a very rainy day here in Kentucky. I had class this morning and spent a couple of wet hours out at the dairy barn learning about raising heifers which included bottle feeding an adorable little calf who also wanted to chew on my knuckles. It’s my only class this semester and I’m really enjoying it. I love all of my animal science classes, (shocker, huh?) especially the production classes. I did the sheep production class two years ago and it was heaven getting to study sheep and it’s been one of my favorite classes to date. I also really liked the meat science class. I never expected to enjoy learning about meat processing and how to take a steer/hog/lamb from animal to plate but I learned a lot.

After all of that rain this afternoon and the running around earlier this morning to take Mike downtown to a job interview, the only thing I wanted to do was come home and knit and watch a movie. So I’m enjoying Little Women, making the Amy March slippers and watching the rain outside. I’m going to continue to enjoy the day, I hope you do the same!

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What’s In My Queue – September

I’m so excited that fall is almost here! Fall is hands down my favorite season and I want to try to make the most of it this year. From Keeneland, to Boyd’s Orchards, to trails of terror, I want to enjoy it! Best part of fall is the cooler weather which means I can bring my hand knits back out and wear wool socks again without dying of heat stroke. There are a couple of things I would like to knit this season and calling them out on here is going to make me more accountable to actually DO them.

First off is the Gaptastic cowl by Jen Geigly, I’ve got some green Cascade Eco+ that has been in my stash for a long long time and would be perfect for this.

I’m loving this cozy shawl from Jared Flood, it may be more winter than fall but I could see myself using it for almost three seasons inside the house. I’ve also been dying for an excuse to try his new Loft yarn.

 The geek comes out! I love Doctor Who and this Bigger on the Inside shawl by Kate Atherley looks like so much fun. I have the perfect skein of blue Wollmeise that is a cross between Tardis and UK blue and is something I would love to wear this fall. It may have to move to the #1 spot on my Ravelry queue, especially with the new season that just came out.

Other patterns I’m considering making this fall: Afternoon Tea, Shetland Triangle, and since I already bought the yarn for it, Big Herringbone Cowl