Washi Shirt

March 21, 2015 by WoolyMama

Can I just say how much I love the Washi pattern from Made by Rae? LOVE. I’ve made several things with this pattern, both in woven cotton and in Jersey knits and I’ve had no misfires (knock on wood!!).

Today I’ll show you the shirt I made with some Amy Butler Lark fabric I’ve had waiting around for just such a project.

With the Washi pattern there is an option for the keyhole neck design or the scoop neck, and I prefer the scoop.

The front is pleated just under the empire waist.

Let me say this: I love empire waistlines. But, as a woman who is not shaped like a beanpole, it can be a challenge to wear them and not look pregnant. In fact, the last time I wore a high waisted blouse an older gentleman asked me how far along I was.

Yeah.

But with this pattern, this fabric, this comfort level, I don’t even care.

The back is gathered with elastic thread.

Unlike all of the other woven-cotton blouses I’ve made, this one sits comfortably. It doesn’t feel “off” in any way. I cut it out in the medium size and didn’t have to make a single sizing adjustment.

Neve was my photographer. When she takes your picture, she bounces around a lot and you never quite know where to look or when she’s going to snap away. Also, I have a bad habit of looking pissed off in pictures even though I’m not.

…….And then we were feeling a little silly.

You cant see it in the pictures, but the destination sign for the bus reads “Walt Disney World”. I was kind of hoping that would come through here, but not so much. You’ll just have to take my word for it.

Happy St. Paddy’s Day From The Flock!!!

March 17, 2015 by WoolyMama

Pre-Spring

March 11, 2015 by WoolyMama

I love this part of the year; the air smells fresh and cool and earthy. Full of the promise of things to grow. The rains are warmer now, and the first early bulbs are just starting to send their shoots up through the surface. Normally this also the time of year we look forward to lambs and kids, but we have taken the year off. Though I will miss the wee lamb noses and kid bleats, I’m relieved to have more time to devote to the garden and other farm projects that are sorely in need of attention.

I have gone through all my seeds and ordered the ones I needed; i’ll be starting my seeds in the mini greenhouse this week. Peas will be going directly into the ground in the next few days.

We did lose one bee hive over the winter. Not sure if it was the Varroa mites that did it or the cold; it was the smaller of the hives and not as strong as the swarm hive I started out with. I will be sterilizing the components of the hive and seeing if the swarm hive decides to produce another swarm this year. If it does, I’ll be ready for it. That hive is super strong. It went into winter with a bumper crop of honey. I decided not to harvest any because there wasn’t a large amount above what they needed for themselves, and I wanted to be cautious in my first year as a beekeeper. It seems to have paid off, because they still have a few frames of lovely honey left and I’m not really needing to feed them much extra.

The chickens are finally starting to lay with some reliability again, to my great relief.

You cant see the color really well in the picture, but that is a blue egg! I’m looking forward to being overloaded with eggs again; it’s it’s been far too long!

Little daffodils and crocuses poking up!

I’m hoping to be able to get out and work in the gardens a bit today and clean them up a bit in prep for planting. I am going to be trying the Deep Mulch method this year. I have so very much waste hay that we may as well put it to good use!

One of our lovely Silver-Laced Wyandottes, Penny. She likes to hang out on the porch.

We’ve been able to have the windows open during the day lately, and the cats are loooooooving it. I’m thinking this little one needs a perch next to the bird feeder so she can better stalk her prey.

All this springyness has got me wanting to get sewing a whole lot as well. New dresses and skirts!

I’ve been getting a bit done here and there, and I’ll reveal all soon. But I am excited about the newest Lonsdale dress I’ve made with some lovely Moda crepe:

This fabric reminds me so much of one of my favorite sewing bloggers – Lauren over at Lladybird.

For now I am excited to get outside and get the gardening started for real. What are you excited for this spring?

Tub Lamb

March 7, 2015 by WoolyMama

Just when all was starting to return to normal around here (and all of my seed catalogs were calling to me, reminding me I need to start my seeds), we got another snowstorm.

It was quite lovely. Of course, the town was in no way prepared for it. People were trying to drive home from work in it and there were abandoned cars everywhere on our road. Paul was out on the tractor clearing our neighborhood until pretty late, but thankfully neither of us had to be anywhere.

I love when it’s just snowed and all of the trees are heavy with it; it’s very Narniaesque!

Today it’s bright and sunny and in the upper 50’s, so everything is melting off and I am back to thinking we actually see spring soon.

It also means I can let our little Wembley outside to get some sun and fresh air.

Wembley, you see, has been living in my bathtub for the past week or so.

“I know there’s a cat there, but I am going to stare you down for more treats”.

Right before I got sick, we found her at evening feeding time laying in the hay with her head pinned back. Susan and I agreed that this looked exactly like a thiamine deficiency. But, not having any pure thiamine on hand, and out of an abundance of caution, a trip to the vet was in order.

Dr. Davis gave her an IV with thiamine and some glucose to keep her blood sugar up. She couldn’t find anything else wrong with her, so home we went, with instructions to keep her warm and keep her blood sugar levels up.

Into the tub she went, with some hay, food, and warm water mixed with molasses.

She’s been getting many, many shots of thiamine and plenty of attention. Her head is no longer pinned back to her side and her appetite is monstrous. She’s been in the tub awhile, though, and her limbs are a bit unused to holding her weight, so I’ve been taking her outside when I can and trying to get her to stand up. She tries all the time, but in the tub she cant get any traction to stand. Otherwise, she is the picture of health!

“Seriously, lady. Make with the treats.”

“Hello, cat. Do YOU have treats?”

I’m hoping her strength returns soon and she can be back out with the flock. Keeping a lamb in the tub is just as adorable – and disgusting – as you can imagine.

Distractify

February 28, 2015 by WoolyMama

Staying distracted and busy is the goal for today. That’s what happens when you’ve been hit with a nasty Norovirus and you have to miss your best friend’s baby shower.

Yeah.

I am so unhappy about that. Not only did I miss out on cake and fun and seeing Susan in all her giant belly glory, I missed seeing a whole lotta other friends I’ve been missing.

I guess I can take solace in the fact that the puking/diarrhea/fever train seems to have left the station. Now it’s just lingering hot flashes, dizziness, sensitive stomach. I can function, but who knows how contagious I might still be?

Maddie had the crud, too. It’s possible she gave it to me when we met at The Alley Light last Sunday for dinner with our old friend Kim. Or maybe I gave it to her. Either way.

Since the miserable sickness seems to be on its way out I can finally move around and eat, and sew. Because what else do you focus on when you’re wallowing in shower-missing sadness?

I re-threaded my serger, figuring I need to practice with it if I’m going to get serious about sewing apparel for myself. As much as I’ve enjoyed making things I’d still put my skill level at novice. There’s a lot I need to learn about finishing techniques. And putting together-y techniques.

You know what I mean.

I think my biggest obstacle is a total lack of decent fabric sources locally. I’d have to trek out to Richmond (okay, that’s not terrible, but I AM pretty lazy). Ordering online means taking a gamble if you’re not completely sure what you’re looking at. And trust me, good fabric makes aaaalllllll the difference. Especially if you’re sewing with standard-issue machines, as I am.

Anyway, I worked on a three-quarter sleeve tee shirt today.

I’m loving the clean edges with the serger. Unfortunately I can’t use it exclusively to sew the pieces together since I seem to be having a lot of tension issues with it. Maybe because I’ve got the cheapest serger on the market.

Whatever.

I love this Renfew shirt pattern from Sewaholic for its ease of use and how simple the dang neckline is! I’m pretty happy with how well it turned out, even though my stitching could be better. I thought for sure when I sat down today that I had a twin needle to work the hemlines, and as it turns out, I don’t. So…….I sewed one line, moved the fabric, and tried to make the next line as parallel as possible. It’s not bad, but it’s not fabulous, either.

See? This is the sleeve hem. Not bad, not great. (I did order a twin needle. It’s coming next week).

The one issue I have with the pattern is the banded bottom hem. I want just a simple, regular ol’ tee-shirt hem. Again, no twin needle. What I’ve ended up with is a hem that doesn’t look terrible, but there’s a stretch issue now that’s making it kind of ripply and weird. I’ll be revisiting the hem on this when the twin needle (and more stabilizer tape) arrives.

I did have a lot of success with Cake Pattern’s Espresso Leggings. They were super easy to assemble and I had fabric already that I knew would be perfect for leggings (just a standard Ponte de Roma knit from fabric.com).

I love that they have you put a looped ribbon in the back so you know which side is which. It looks a little more polished somehow!

They went together in less than an hour and fit perfectly.

No, you will get no pictures of them on me today, due to the previously mentioned illness. I’m not looking my best right now!

Next I think I want to try Papercut Pattern’s Ooh La La Leggins. They have more visual interest and look challenging in a very fun way.

Also, I should mention that THIS BOOK has helped me tons. It’s a great reference for sewing knits, and I need all the help I can get! If you’re new at sewing knits or, like me, need extra help, I seriously can’t recommend it enough!

First Snow!

February 17, 2015 by WoolyMama

Yesterday we finally got visited by Old Man Winter. When it was all said and done we ended up with at least six inches, though we were expecting up to twelve. The sheep have been enjoying the colder weather and when I went out for evening feeding there was a lot of sproinging and prancing, even with the snow!

Wembley

Alabama

Pretty McPhee

Orion can’t allow me to wander the field without being about 2 inches from my pockets, just in case I’ve brought treats out.

Lyra

Sabine and Lucy

We removed the sides of the shelter after the high winds the last few days did some damage, but it’s still enough shelter to keep the hay snow-free.

The chickens had ZERO interest in going out in the snow.

The goats don’t much like getting wet, either.

Yeardley

The sun is out and it is very, very bright today.

Lucy’s been enjoying playing in the snow with the kids.

And now I’ll leave you with pictures of Samantha and Roquefort’s nightly post-feeding frolic.

Sort Of Snow Days

January 27, 2015 by WoolyMama

We have had a “sort of” snow day. We had a dusting overnight and we’ve been enjoying watching the fluffy, light flurries we have been seeing off and on all day. Though the snow has long since melted into the mud, we’ve been slow to start today, and slow to accomplish much. That’s what “sort of” snow days are about; things like enjoying that the Paperwhites finally bloomed.

And that Mr. Cini is snoozing happily by my feet.

I’ve also been enjoying my new little llama ornament I got for Christmas. I have a fierce ache where Jerry belongs, and I love having this little guy as a reminder of him. One day we will bring home another llama, I promise. Until then my task is keeping this one safe from the kitten, who likes to climb onto the fireplace mantle where he lives and secret him away to chew on him.

Lastly, days like today are perfect for getting some serious knitting done.

My Shepherd sweater. Still stuck on the sleeves. Or as my friend Tanya says, “stuck on sleeve island”. I feel like I’ve been working on this one sleeve forever and ever and ever. It’s killing me. I want to be done so I can wear it. And start THIS year’s Shepherd Sweater!

Chore Day!

January 19, 2015 by WoolyMama

I don’t usually sing the praises of warm weather in January; mostly because it’s enough of a tease that it makes those bone-chilling February days seem cruel after the fact. Today, though, we were lucky enough that it was both a holiday AND the weather was nice enough that we could tackle some more important farm work with Paul home. And BONUS: I had my phone with me so you can see some sweet sheepy noses!

One of our lambs, Finchley, has been scouring (he has diarrhea), and since they can get super dehydrated, super fast, I’ve been giving him a supplemental bottle of lamb milk. The dogs absolutely LOVE it. Here’s Orzo having a bit after Finchley’s evening dose.

I’ve also discovered that I can’t mix this stuff up in the kitchen if the kitten is around or she will tear me to bits trying to get at it.

Lamb congregation. They were expecting me to produce their evening food.

Yeardley and Wimbledon seem to be having a conversation.

Mabel got moved to the back coop.

Fairfax is looking sassy.

Get my good side.

Fresh bale, delivered into the new shelter……

….which hopefully can withstand Caramel.

Check out Perivale’s spotted ears!!!!

Staunton.

Perivale.

Wembley still likes to get all up in your business.

Suspicious Wimbledon is suspicious.

We also finally got our Christmas tree out to them, and they dove right in.

Hannah loooooooves the taste of pine!

We also got some fresh bedding into the prison coop and discovered an egg had been laid. Fingers crossed this means we will start seeing some production out of these girls at last! (We’ve been threatening them with the stewpot but they’ve been unphased.)

Now that we’ve had this lovely mid-50’s weather I wonder how long before I’ll be posting super snow pictures!

Winter Work

January 13, 2015 by WoolyMama

Now that we’ve finally started seeing some winter-appropriate temperatures we finally ventured out for the weekend motivated to achieve some important farm progress.

It was apparent after last winter that having our water lines partially buried out to the back field was not a great idea; the above ground portions would thaw out in the sun and allow water to flow in the warmest portions of the day, whereas underground saw no benefit whatever from those warm rays. Not wanting a repeat of that this year we dug up the buried hoses and moved them into a different field along with the water troughs. After a long year of wet weather the troughs had begun to sink into the mud, which never seemed to dry or freeze completely. I was sick of the mess, the sheep were sick of the mess, and we were hoping by moving the water we could keep them out of the muddy areas altogether.

After that we decided it was time to install a better shelter against the possibility of freezing rain AND take back the chicken coop that we’d been using as a makeshift lamb shelter.

There’s plenty of room under there for everyone when they want to get out of the weather – it’s about the same size inside as the run in shelter on Susie’s old barn. I even put their feed troughs in there. Not that it made any difference at all in yesterday’s monsoon; they would have zero to do with it. I will probably put their next bale of hay inside both to encourage them to go in and also to help pad the ground a bit with the waste hay.

We started putting hens from the coop out front into the back one now that it isn’t overrun with goats (there is fencing in front now to keep said goats out!).

Look at all the room for chicken-related activities! (One of which better be laying eggs, because I’m tired of this egg drought we’ve been having).

Obviously we will still have to knock off any heavy snow that might come our way, but the pitch of the roof on this shelter will make that far easier than the flat-topped ghetto shelter of years past. Our biggest concern was simply a wind/sun/rain break for them, and I think this will accomplish it marvelously.