Woolybuns

Turning A Dreary Day Into A Comfort Day

Sunday started with no cream, not even milk, for my tea, and a touch of torrential type rain as I made that discovery.  It would be a chilly gray day (March in New England, so no surprise there) and I was out of sorts, feeling alone, ignored and more than a bit taken for granted on a number of fronts.  Preparing for the tae kwon do test took a lot of time (there is a verbal part to the test as well as the physical techniques) so I hadn't done anything fiber, not even a single knit stitch, since Thursday.  Well, ok.  I tended rabbits.  But that's as close to fiber work as I got.  I had plans for Sunday but they got drowned out with the rain.  So I decided it was time to fiber.  I want to make some more progress on socks, but it's been a very long time since I've felted anything and I "met" Chad Alice Hagen on facebook a couple days ago and how can you not feel like felting under her influence?  I met her in person at SAFF a few years ago, have a couple of her books, and so very much want to take a workshop with her.  She is inspiring.

I intended to push my felting skills, experiment with some of the ideas ping ponging through the neurons.  But an ADD personality digging through the fiber clutter stash?  Yeah, focus: ooo, wouldn't that  be... oh, wait, imagine that... yes!  that's... mmmmm, love ... sigh.  Lack of focus... which possibly led  to slicing open my thumb while looking for the right rotary cutter for the project in mind.  I ended up with the comfort of simple, fast felt instead of the excitement of exploration.  And a sore thumb which I convinced to not bleed on the project.

Don't Eat Your Belt

Today was my second tae kwon do test.  Yeah, baby!  Orange belt. 

Whoa! I feel good, I knew that I would, now
I feel good, I knew that I would
So good, so good, I got you
So good, so good, I got you
So good, so good, I got you
HEY!!

We had a large test group today, probably about 30 of us, ages ranging from impossibly adorable 5 year olds who have to be admonished about eating their belts to the inspiring 71 year  old who put in such effort he sweat puddles on the floor.  His daughter also tested today.  And her son is a student with us too.  I love test day.  Sure, there's test anxiety but this school is all about the thundering velvet hand of sculpting martial artists.  The master - Sir - is intimidating, demands nothing but your best effort, with a look that can scare the fleas off your dog.  But when you give that honest best effort, mistakes are forgiven, egos tended.  And all the students support each other with enthusiastic applause and such helpful comments as "kick like you kick the cat!"  Two of the youngest kids are both green belts.  One of them looks and acts like a mini marine.  He ran through one of his forms with such intensity that Sir, not so intimidating with that big silly grin plastered on his face, told the kid's father "go ahead, I know you want to yell."  A very proud whoop it was.  One young probably 20 something woman going for an advanced belt (I'm still in rank beginner status) was giving me advice before I tested.  I've never met her before.  Damn!  She's good. Turns out she's been sick for a few days now, but with the strength of her test, no one knew it.  When she sparred, Sir paired her with a honkin' big guy who sports a black belt, she's that good.   And I want to be just like her when I grow up.  I'm now at a level where I need to order sparring equipment.  Yeah.  Bring. It. On.

Looking For A Sheep and Wool Festival?

Connecticut's is first (? or one of the first anyway).  And the organizers have changed their website address.  A bit inconvenient timing for anyone looking for when, where, who info but there you have it.  Since I like to tell people where to go I have border collie tendencies (except for housecleaning of course), I tracked down the missing info.  Connecticut Sheep and Wool Festival info is here.  And it's the 100th anniversary of the event, so let's all go and make it special!  Yeah, I'll be there, demonstrating angora bunny care and grooming.  Hope to see you there!

Babies Startin' To Cuten

The little bits are now 11 days old, ears starting to stand up, color evolving, no longer looking like gummy bears.  I pulled them out of their nest to get better photos so in the they are all scrambling for warmth and cover.  They are still blind at this point, with eyes opening over the next couple days.  In another week, they will look like little hoppers.  There are 6 survivors (8 were born).  Four of them are the smoke pearl color I bred for.  The two white ones appear to be pointed whites.  This is the first time I've seen either of these colors in the nest box.  I'm starting to get giddy in anticipation of the giggly cuteness ahead.

WIP Me Wednesday 3-25-09 with a bit of HTF???

First the socks.  With the really modest goals I set, I did manage to meet both of them.  Peppermint Lace sock 2 now has a heel flap, a turned heel, and the beginning of a gusset.  Much more progress than I expected, actually.  On Ribby Blues sock 1, I'm nearing the end of the gusset.  Goal for both of these socks: since last week's goals were so modest, let's go for ambitious this week and aim for finishing each sock. 

And then there is Montana Tunic.  The knitting progresses well so there are more inches.  But you notice she's sitting there on top of the lovely new bag.  Seems MT formed an attachment to the bag.   In the embiggen version of the pic, you can see the yarn runs through the zipper.  Not the zipped teeth, the part that does the zipping.  When I first saw that, I was dashing out and wanted a take along project.  I gave it a quick look and HTF did that happen??  Looked like I'd have to break the yarn since one end is the project and the other is a ball of yarn.  I put it aside until I had time to study.  This morning, after I took the pic, I studied.  With no end to have wound it's way through, there had to be a way to work it loose without breaking the yarn.  And there was.  With some gentle persistent persuasion, the yarn slid back out.  Intact.  Not that it would be a major disaster to break the yarn.  It's just two more ends to weave in.  But who wants to tolerate such impish misbehavior?    Goal for next week?  Keep on knitting.

Any Words Of Wisdom You Care To Share About Web Hosts?

I have a domain name even though there is no website to go with it.  Someday I'll get around to making that website, but for now, I want to retain the domain, because my email runs through that.  And it's time to pay again.  I have it registered with Network Solutions and hosted by Dreamhost.  NS is expensive.  DH is not.  My impression is that DH has some reliability issues, but I don't know enough to know if that's accurate.  I am so not geek (remember yesterday?  Yeah, Dork is me).  I could use some advice by people who speak geek.  I value reliability, so am willing to go with a higher price if I get reliability, but of course I'd like to at least nod to my budget.  So any thoughts on who's a good host?

Hey! I Have A Chicken Living On My Deck

She's not the least bit inclined to leave the safety of the dog crate so I can properly photograph her and show you how pretty a chicken she is.  I don't blame her.  Soon after she hatched however many years ago, she and a bunch of others just like her - Light Brahma - were shipped to my mother, who adores chickens and has raised many breeds over the years.  This flock turned out to be sort of a doomed bunch though.  Caution: graphic details of what happened.  If you don't want to read the realities of farm life, skip the next paragraph.

 Soon after arrival, a matter of a few weeks, I think, something - probably weasel - dug it's way into the the chicken house and bit the heads off all but three of the chicks.  When Mum found the carnage, she scooped up the three living chicks and housed them in a rabbit hutch while she added additional security to her chicken pen.  The three grew up without further mishap and thrived, providing Mum and occasionally me with a nice supply of fresh eggs.  A couple months ago, the three chickens now aged past useful egg production, something else broke through the barn defenses.  We think this time it was a fox.  Whatever it was killed two of the three old chickens.

So this chicken is the last of that flock.  Mum decided for the chicken's safety, she needed a new home.  While I'd be happy to have chickens, I'm smack in the middle of suburbia, with my back yard property line shared with the town's police chief.  Not quite where you want to chance hiding farm animals not allowed by zoning laws.  At Spa, idle chit chat led to my sharing this chicken's story, apparently to the right person.  She has a number of pet chickens, all hens acquired in various rescue type endeavors.  The woman described her chicken coop.  Lap. Of. Luxury.  Chicken heaven on earth.  Clearly the Right Spot for this chicken.  Mum lives in Maine.  This woman lives in Connecticut.  I agreed to transport.  Yeah.  Well layed plans.  Our plot hatching got as far as me picking up the chicken over the weekend.  I would have liked to deliver the chicken to her new digs on my way home, but that's hasn't worked out.  So now I have a chicken living on my deck.  In a dog crate.  Here's hoping that's a very short term situation.  Cause ya know - she's a very sweet chicken.  I can't keep her.  No.  Really.  I can't.

Why, yes.  I am a dork.  A sap, even.  And proud of it. 

Before and After

I dedicated this morning to catching up on bunny stuff.  Since I'm not so crazy about digging out under hutches in the rain, I pulled Elke in for a haircut.  I love the coat she produced!  She was pretty cooperative - ok, more like resigned.  And now she looks like this. 

Ooooo, For Me!

Another nice prize package in the mail!  This one came from Marcia cause sometimes I have good timing.  And am apparently good at pushing people over the edge top.  Heh.  Of course I've leafed through the book from cover to cover already.  It's being very siren songish but evolving spring gives the assorted bunny chores a much more demanding voice, so I'm being good and resisting.  Picking a pattern will be a reward for work accomplished.  Thank you, Marcia!!  I love the book!

WIP Me Wednesday 3-18-09

There has been progress in knitting.  Not all of it forward but progress none-the-less.  I did get the heel flap knit on Ribby Blues sock 1 and that's where she sits at the moment.  Goal for next week: get gusset stitches picked up and start knitting them.  Nice modest goal.  Montana Tunic is a few inches longer so goal achieved there, also.  No photo because a few extra inches doesn't make for amazing photos, now does it?  (Go ahead, snicker - I know you want to.) 

Most of my knitting since last week has been on Peppermint Lace Rib sock 2.  Doesn't look like it, though,  right?    That would be where the lots of progress but not all of it forward comes in.  Yeah.  Apparently, I pissed off the Knitting Goddess and she has been spanking me ever since.  Perhaps I was supposed to kitchner toe of sock 1 before moving on to sock 2.  Or knit more of Ribby Blues.  Or how about Pay. Attention. to the lace and not just blithely knit on as if I were an accomplished lace knitter as sock 1 seduced me into believing.  So the real picture includes that lump of knit tink knit tink knit tink yarn.  The progress?  My tinking skills.  Next week's goal: knit without tink.