Bloggers' block

I’m finding blogging very hard right now. More so than ever before. It used to be enjoyable, I’d write about fun things I’d done or cool things I made. It’s slowly become more of a show-and-tell than anything else. For now, it may have to remain that way, simply because I have things to show and tell, and because the things in my life that aren’t crafting and chickens are not in a place where I can talk about them.

Last time I posted was 30th May, and that means there’s lots to update you on for June, because it has been a busy month.

First up, we have two new chickens!


They are called Inara (with the ginger ruff) and Kaylee (with the white ruff). They’re a breed we hadn’t met before called magpie. I think they’re very pretty.

To go with the new chickens, my dad and husband built a fence so that the five chickens can be introduced and have some more space.



I love living out in the countryside, and that photo is a really nice example of why. It’s so beautiful and peaceful. I’m not sure I could go back to city life, even in a small city like York.

So, the new hens are starting to settle in. We had an escape yesterday, so we need to watch them and see how they managed that. Either they flew out, or they took a sneaky route round the shed that we need to block off (we need to do that anyway). If they flew out, the best option will be to move the house.

The good news is that they were rounded up by the neighbours (we have such nice neighbours!) and they’re perfectly fine. They were not happy about not being let out this morning though!

The day before yesterday Faith decided to eat the leaves of my potato plants. I’m pretty sure that’s not good for them, so I’ve netted those now. I was worried that Inara and Kaylee would dig up the courgettes or chard in the main garden, but they did not. I suspect it was lack of opportunity rather than lack of desire. I haven’t checked the peas – last year Faith, Buffy and Willow almost killed off the peas by eating the creeper shoots.

Here’s an up-to-date picture of the “old guard” as hubby keeps calling them.


I know they look a bit scruffy and scrawny, especially Buffy (the ginger one). I think this is because they’re recovering from an infection – they had worms. Yuck. Also, there’s been a lot of feather pecking going on, so they don’t have many full feathers – most of Buffy’s are very short. I’m hopeful that when we can give them more space they’ll be less bored, and so the feather pecking will cease. All being well we’ll get them looking just as healthy as their young counterparts soon. We’re also feeding them extra at the moment, with more mealworms, more pecking blocks, and more treats. I’m hoping to give them some cottage cheese and garlic mash soon.

I’m really enjoying having the new space for them. I hope that the weather is nice this weekend so that I can spend some time outside; just watching them is so much fun!

So, what else have I been up to? Well, tournament 8 of Nerd Wars has begun, and I’m on team Browncoat once again. I’ve actually been doing quite a lot of baby knitting since my sister is expecting her first child in November. She isn’t finding out the sex until it’s born, so I’m knitting (and crocheting) gender neutral things at the moment.


There’s going to be a hat to match these as well. I’m on the lookout for a ladybird patch and buttons, to make the sweater a bit less cricket-y and to finish the booties.

The baby sweater is the Seamless Baby Sweater (Ravelry link) by Sarah Stanfield. It was easy to follow and worked up nicely. My only adjustment has been to work the arms two-at-a-time, and I knitted a few less rounds on the yoke than I should have.

The bootees are Saartje’s Booties (on the right of this linked page) which I have made before. They are cute! I changed the pattern for these by adding a YO into the end of the straps for a buttonhole rather than using the yarn tails.

I’ve also made this square. I can’t tell you why just now, but hopefully later I can.



And I’ve cast on for another Clapotis.


I have been meaning to make another Clapotis for ages, and I have been meaning to make my Mum a scarf for ages. My Mum is allergic to wool, and so it had to be made of something else. This yarn is bourette silk – that’s the kind where the worms are allowed to hatch before the cocoons are harvested. It was dyed by Violet Green, one of my favourite indie dyers in the UK. These colours are amazing!

The Clapotis is part of a Newlyweds’ Clapotis-along that I’m taking part in on another Ravelry forum. The Newlyweds board is a source of much interesting information, support and general niceness. We’re also doing a swap, I have bought some nice goodies for my partner, but no yarn yet. I’m planning on getting that at Woolfest.

That’s right, we’re going to Woolfest again this year. I really like the event, it’s always interesting and there’s always lots to see and buy. I have lots of ideas of things I might like to get. Hubby will almost certainly try the ewes’ milk ice cream again!

On the 29th I’m taking part in my village’s Open Studios event. There are a number of talented artisans in the village, and hopefully hubby and I can be counted among them. I’ll be spinning in the Village hall, I don’t know if hubby will bring anything to do, or whether he’s going to leave me to it and head off to the ceramics studio, or something else! I’m very excited about it anyway.

A Week Off!

I was off work last week; I was on holiday!

Hubby and I had a lovely week, we visited his folks, my friend, and the Quaker Tapestry. We also did a little shopping. My parents visited my house and helped us to extend the chicken run.



One of the chickens, we think it was Willow, laid a massive egg



It was a whopping 96g! The normal size egg on the left is just under 50g, so 96g was amazing. When I cracked it to make scrambled eggs for breakfast, it turned out to be a double yolker! Yum!

I bought some fab new boots (I’ll try to remember to post a picture later) in the Kurt Geiger sale, and we managed to find some shoes for my mum to wear to my sister’s wedding in April. Phew.

And amongst all that, I even managed to get some knitting done!
I’m competing in Nerd Wars again, so I should be completing plenty of knits, crochets, and maybe even some spinning.

First, I made this tiny shrug.



Pattern: Improvised raglan with lace panel on sleeves
Yarn: Louisa Harding Kimono Angora
Needles: 4mm
Modifications: n/a
Verdict: Love it! It’s cute and perfect for keeping shoulders warm. I knitted it for a friend of mine who was in hospital at the time.

Then, I made this super cute baby jacket



Pattern: Ribbed Baby Jacket by Debbie Bliss
Yarn: Stylecraft Life Aran
Needles: 5mm
Modifications: None!
Verdict: This was a nice pattern to knit, not too difficult at all. However, I wouldn’t knit it this way again. I found seaming it to be quite frustrating. The bottom of the jacket curls badly, and I don’t think blocking will fix it. This irritates me. The cuffs also curl. I do like the ribbed front, but the nature of ribbing is that it pulls in, so in hindsight I would make the first and last ribs 4 stitches wide rather than 2. I would probably also slip the stitches on the collar section to make the edge a bit neater. Of course, if I make all the changes that I’m currently thinking I would make, it wouldn’t actually be this jacket pattern at all! Maybe I’ll create a new pattern, and then write it up.

There are a few projects still in the works! Not least, I plan to make Tirrold finally. It’s my Nerd Wars dissertation this round! So I need to cast that on too.

Darn! I think I need some more time off to get all this knitting done! (I wish it was the case that I got more knitting done on holiday, but I’m not sure that I do!

Just keep knitting

Well I’ve completed very little over the past fortnight in the Nerd Wars hiatus. I knew this would be the case, but it still makes me a little sad.
I’m continuing to work on hubby’s scarf, which was intended as a Christmas gift, but alas it’s almost late enough for a birthday gift. He’s not getting a knitted thing for his birthday – or it’s very unlikely anyway! There are some things in my Nerd Wars queue that might fit… but probably not.

The chickens are doing very well; we’re getting between two and three eggs a day at the moment. They’re not as different in colour as we had hoped, but they are different. This means that we have lots of fun trying to work out which chicken laid which egg!
We’ve discovered that they love melon, banana (the softer the better it seems) and mashed potato. When I give them mashed potato, I add a little cod-liver oil, which is meant to be good for them. They also get vinegar water once a week.
We let them out into the garden a little while ago when it was quite mild. They seemed to like it, though Buffy wanted to know what goes on inside the kitchen. Silly Chicky.



I hope to have some nice knitting to show you guys soon, and some spinning (I got some lovely things from the knitters for my birthday).

Knitting owls, and Chickens.

Well, I'm still knitting! I've had a nice week so far, though the weight loss isn't really on track right now everything else is going well!

So, Still being inspired by Nerd Wars, I have two items for you today (and when I get the pictures uploaded I'll have some more!)

The first is this cute little stuffed toy



Pattern: Owl Puffs by Jenna Krupar (Rav link)
Yarn: Random Leftovers
Needles: 4mm
Modifications: Used buttons for eyes
Verdict: Cute! Ideally I would have used a firmer gauge. Also, it's quite small, so perhaps extra increases and extra rows for a bigger owl. But still, cute!

And the second is this lovely tie which I knitted for my hubby while watching the Buffy season 1 and 2 box sets.



Pattern: Knit Necktie by Lion Brand Yarn
Yarn: Pure North Ronaldsay Wool (from woolfest a couple of years ago)
Needles: 5mm
Modifications: cast on less stitches for a skinnier tie. Also, cast on an odd number so all rows begin k1, p1... makes the moss stitch easier!
Verdict: Great! I'm really pleased with how it looks, and hubby likes it too!

I have also completed a small bag, a bowtie and I've cast on for the re-knit of the Klingon sweater. All being well it will be more successful this time.
I also hope to complete hubby's Christmas present and some spinning I have on the wheel. I've no idea what I'll knit after that though!

January will be a month off in Nerd Wars, so I'm free to knit whatever I like! Not that I haven't knitted things I've wanted to knit over the past few months, but...

In other news, the chickens are well.



Buffy, the older of the three, laid her first egg on December 9th. She's laid 4 days out of 5 since then, so lots of lovely eggs now starting to be available. We had a lovely flan type thingy made with the first four eggs yesterday for lunch and it was very nice. Looking forward to my Christmas Morning eggs and bacon.
They all seem quite happy too. We let them out in the garden for the first time at the end of November



They seemed to really like it! We let them out for an hour last Sunday too, and they all spent the full hour hiding behing the shed. While this made me quite nervous that they would either accidentally get into the paddock out the back or else into next door through the hedge, they didn't bother about that! They all came back to the house for bedtime like good little hens. I'm getting more relaxed about letting them out in the garden to free range, though probably only when we're in. I'm looking forward to the summer when we'll be able to let them out after work for a few hours!

Well, that's all for now. I'll show you my other crafting when the photos are up!

Chickens!

A few days ago I posted about our new chicken run which we assembled in the garden.

On Friday we visited a nice couple who had quite a lot of chickens. They had quite a few breeds there, and they were all interested, perky and generally fun.
I wanted to have three chickens (the house could probably take four large hens, but I don't want to test that right now!) so we were considering which three breeds to go for.

The most friendly and docile chickens were the Gingernut Rangers. These are a cross breed of chicken, the product of a Rhode Island Red and a Light Sussex. They're chickens which look like chickens. The one we picked - well, she picked us. She was scratching around and pecking my wellies, and hubby picked her up easily.



We've called her Buffy, she seems to be in charge (even though she's the smaller of the three - she is also the oldest)

A close second were the light Sussex hens. They were a bit more wary of us, but the owners were able to pick up our favourite quite quickly.



This one is Willow. She's a bit nervous of the camera noise that my iPhone was making! She settled into the run quite quickly. She doesn't seem to be the brightest of the three chickens though!

Finally we were originally thinking about getting an amber star. However, while we were there I fell in love with the Maran X that they had. We think they were Maran x Rhode Island, so she should be a similar temperament to Buffy, but maybe a bit more flightly. She's a beautiful colour, grey-blue, with a black hood.



And the perfect name for this one: Faith.
I'm sorry about the picture quality of Faith, she wasn't keen on having her photo taken, and so she's a bit blurry. She's also so dark coloured that the iPhone couldn't cope with her in those light levels!

We had put fresh newspaper and sawdust down for them on Friday, which we found they had made a right mess of, so we put fresh bedding down for them today. I think this is probably because they've been cooped up (quite literally) in the coop. Now that they have the run to wander in, they shouldn't mess the coop up quite so much.

While hubby was making lunch, I took them the end and innards from the pepper we had. They went absolutely mad for it! They also loved the mealworms we gave them to encourage them out of the coop!

I'm really excited to have chickens. It's been a dream of mine for a while. Hopefully when we get a bit more used to them we might be able to consider getting some rescue hens.
First things first though, we need to build them an extra run.

Chicken Run!

At the weekend we built the chicken run.
It's from Steve Fisher Woodworking near Selby. Not the most communicative, but great quality as far as I can see!



I've ordered feeders, drinkers, food, grit, treats and the like.
It's all very exciting.

We're going to view some chickens on Friday, all being well. Also near Selby. (Who knew that Selby would be the Chicken Capital of the East Riding!?) We're hoping to get three different breeds because being able to tell the difference in the eggs means we'll know if one of them is not pulling her weight unwell. I've got an idea for names for them too, but I'll share that when I'm sure that they look like their names.

-o0o-

On the knitting front, the buttons arrived and I finished all the knitting. I just have to weave in the ends and then sew on the buttons. Last night I didn't fancy weaving in the ends...



so I left it for this evening.
I'm not sure it's going to help.
But I can't wear it without weaving in the ends. And I can't submit it for Nerd Wars either.