Sheared!

This past Saturday our goats were professionally sheared by Emily, who came by on her way home from Juniper Moon Farm. I have to admit, I’m such a huge fan of Juniper Moon Farm that I’m a little star-struck to have secured the services of their shearer. Small world! Unfortunately, Lucas and I were out of town for a wedding reception, so we didn’t get to see (and photo-document) the shearing – but I do have some before and after pictures:

Admittedly not a well composed shot, but it shows off their coats. It was taken about 1 month ago (the phantom hand is Lucas). It was so funny to watch them run around with all that wool attached – very floppy!

They’re so tiny now! And so leggy. And now I have two very large boxes with a fleece in each. I spent some time looking at Ivan’s (the larger one) fiber while it was still attached. There’s a high percentage of coarse, thick guard hair  – which isn’t great for spinning yarn – so I think I might just toss that fiber (though I hate to do it). But his sweet personality more than makes up for not getting to use his fiber. As for Hamlet (with the horns), I think I’ll have to spend some time picking through his fleece for areas that aren’t heavily laden with vegetable matter – this goat has a serious bramble addiction. Sigh.

This additional fiber is a nice kick in the pants for me – I need to sit down and process BOTH this fiber AND the fiber I harvested from Hamlet last Fall (which I’ve stored in cedar chips). Wish me luck!

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Not Meant to Be

I brought my remaining balls of yarn and the portion I had knit to the lab today and weighed everything. As a side note, weighing yarn in my lab is much like a game of hot lava in a playground; the yarn can only touch the paper towel-lined surface of the balance, anything else is certain death in lab stocked with chemicals (okay, I’m being dramatic – but still). Anyhow, the portion I had knit weighed 143 g, while the remaining yarn totaled 280 g. Given that I’ve knit approximately 1/4 of the garment, I don’t have quite enough yarn to finish. Bummer!

Alas, my Vine Yoke Cardigan is not meant to be – at least not with this yarn. That said, I still LOVE the pattern and want to knit one someday.Thanks to each of you who commented on Yesterday’s post for your helpful / thoughtful / encouraging words!

Now to choose another project for this yarn…

Worries

I fell in love with the Vine Yoke Cardigan by Ysolda Teague several months ago and have been searching for just the right yarn. I decided to take a page from Meghan(Allergic to Wool)’s book and unravel an old sweater to reuse the wool. The sweater I chose was an OLD one of mine from back in high school – I love the color, but the style is all wrong.

I believe the yarn is aran weight, though the vine yoke pattern calls for worsted – Mistake #1. I also didn’t bother measuring the yardage I harvested, figuring that if I started with enough yarn for a hooded sweater, I would certainly have enough for a not hooded one – Mistake #2.

I’ve knitted the front right and part of the right sleeve of the Vine Yoke cardi and while I love the yoke and edging patterns, I do not like the serious amount of puckering at the neckline. People on Ravelry mentioned this was a problem with the pattern and I think the aran weight yarn only exacerbates it:

(For some reason, this color is difficult for me to photograph properly; the first picture in this post shows the true color.)

I am also SERIOUSLY worried about running out of yarn. The balls next to the sweater in the photo are all I have left – and I still need to finish this sleeve, knit the entire back and left front, as well as a second sleeve. What do you think, folks? Should I call it quits? I hate to rip out so much work, but I’m also not willing to waste more time on a sinking ship…

In other (happier) news, I’m still working on the Hexacomb Cardigan. Just another inch or two of body before I work the sleeves.

1 yr old and still an April fool

March 30 was the 1 yr anniversary of this blog – I can’t believe it’s already been a year! And incidentally, one of my first posts was about April Fools Day and how I always get fooled. This year I was legitimately “had” by Franklin Habit of The Panopticon, who is one of my very favorite knitting bloggers. He posts once every two weeks or so, less frequently than most craft bloggers – I literally squeal every time my Google Reader registers a new item from him. Anyhow, he tricked me with this post yesterday. I was SO excited for a Scorsese flick about Elizabeth Zimmerman. Totally believable, right???

Second, did anyone notice the red button that showed up in the bottom left corner of Ravelry yesterday???

It was just asking to be pushed – so naturally, I did. And then it jumped to the top of the page and appeared with a kitten?!:

And then I pushed it again to see what would happen (clearly) – and everything from the page began to fold up and disappear:

And I was left with a tiled screen full of angry bunnies!!!! What on earth?!

Oh, Ravelry, you’re so silly! Hope you all had a nice (dupe-free) April Fools Day!