Odds & Ends

Just some boring old updates here.....

I'm nearly finished with the Spring Things Shawl. I've just got to do the cast off. I've been leaving it for a few days hoping to find a time to do it when I wasn't feeling brain dead. Fat chance, eh? But I didn't knit that whole thing just to screw it up now! There was only one minor burp which merely proved to me that, yes, I do indeed need my glasses so that I can actually see the symbols on the pattern. (Sorry Susan!) Other than that - loved knitting it & will be buying more Sea Silk post haste.

Little blue chick is doing really well. I'm pretty sure he's past the toughest stages of being a baby. Nowadays he/she is doing a great job of begging his foster Mama and Daddy for food, even though he is also eating on his own.

I also bought some new nest boxes with a different design that I think will aid greatly in preventing the dreaded chick tossing. I can't wait til they get here in the mail so I can try them out. Well, actually I think I'll let the birds try them out. :)

Ron and Rosmerta's eggs never hatched and I took away their nest box for now. They did a great job trying to brood the eggs but I think they couldn't maintain an even enough temperature because Ron did a very poor job of building his nest. The eggs were pretty much sitting on the bottom of the nest box with very little insulation underneath them. Oh well - they are a young couple and that was Ron's first try at nest building. I'm sure he will get the hang of it.

I also started knitting Seraphim - the shawl by Mim of Mim Knits. I can't finish one shawl without having another one to jump right into. I think I'm having a "shawl phase" right now. Anyhow, as you probably know, there is a very large portion of stockinette in that shawl. I knit the whole thing on size four needles in only three days, got to the part where I needed to start the lace pattern and discovered I was missing one stitch. I missed a yarnover on the edging way, way down by the bottom. If you were knitting - Monday night, about 10 pm my time, you probably felt the huge disturbance in the force as I realized my mistake and resisted the urge to pull all my hair out. Instead I frogged furiously and cast on and knit about ten rows before I even allowed myself to think about it. Sometimes you really really need some knitting denial. :)

Since you read this far here's a little photo for you of how Henry spent Earth Day.



Don't worry, he's not dead! Just found a sunny spot in the yard and made the most of it. :) He was filthy by the time he came back inside.

The rest of us spent Earth Day on a tour of "Countryside Artisans". But that's a blog entry for another day......