Rain!

The monsoon rains began almost two weeks ago. It's so exciting! The plants are loving it. It's great to have green grass again.

I know most of the pictures I post of my sheep show them on dirt. They really do get to graze sometimes. Below are pictures to prove it.

When the first lush grass sprouts, I can allow the sheep to graze for only 10 minutes or so. Then I put them back in their enclosure and give them some fairly dry alfalfa hay. If sheep get a lot of rich grass or alfalfa suddenly, it can lead to gastrointestinal problems and actually kill them. So right now my sheep get to graze briefly each afternoon. I'll extend their yummy-grass time a little each day, until their bodies get used to the richer feed. Then they can graze for much longer periods.

Knitting Books

I came across this website, http://www/cooperativepress.com/, today.

They publish some interesting-looking knitting books, such as River Ganseys, Subversive Socks, Hitch: Patterns Inspired by the Films of Alfred Hitchcock, and Librarian-Inspired Knits. Check them out.

Washing Wool

A friend and I washed most of three Cotswold fleeces yesterday. We ran out of soap before we were quite finished, so we had to stop. A single Cotswold fleece often weighs about 15 pounds; that's a lot of wool.

Below are pictures of some of the drying wool.

And here are pictures of the sheep whose fleece we washed (plus the other sheep just because).

Sierra

Sierra

Thaddius

All the sheep but one.

Petra and a couple lambs

Thaddius

Knitting Needles are NOT Chew Toys

As I said in my previous post, I adopted a new dog, Logan, recently. He's very sweet. He's also very different from Dierdre in many ways. She was about five or six years old when I found her. I had her for almost five years. Logan is two. Untrained. Exuberantly still a puppy. And will chew almost anything he can get his large, furry paws on.

That's where my partially-knitted socks come into the story.

You'll notice the toe of the one on the right is unfinished, yet there are no knitting needles holding the stitches. That's because Logan pulled them out. And then he chewed one to pieces.

These happen to be Crystal Palace bamboo needles. (I usually don't knit with bamboo needles; I find it slows me down. I prefer Addi Turbos.) Anyhow, luckily they come five needles to a package, and I knit with only four double-pointed needles, so I can still finish the socks without buying another set.

This little tale, though, is only the tip of the iceberg. Logan has been busy. And, yes, that is my dining room table that he's lounging on, using it as a vantage point to look out the window. No guilt at all.