Happy Birthday, Papa Ken!
My darling husband, Ken, had a birthday this past week. (Our wedding anniversary was this week also, but that’s another story.)
When he’s not working on the farm, he’s working in an office in Dallas to pay for the farm! His office has a tendency to be cold, but he can’t wear gloves at work because he has to use a computer all day.
Enter, Papa Ken’s birthday present from me: Fingerless mitts!
These are made of fingering weight superwash sock yarn. I made them on my 72-slot cylinder circular sock machine.
Rather than having just a slit for the thumb (thumbs get cold, too!), these have a gusset and knitted thumb that was also done on the CSM.
I did add the thumb ribbing by hand, though (28 stitches on a size 2 knitting needle using Magic Loop).
With these finished, it’s Happy Birthday, Papa Ken! I hope these mitts make your working environment just a little more pleasant.
Much love,
ZuZu
Happy Grandmothering, Peggy!
Everyone knows that becoming a mother is a life-changing experience. I remember the days my daughters were born as if each were yesterday, and since both births were eventful for different reasons, I’ll happily tell the stories to anyone who will listen.
Kay's pretty petit four cakes for the new baby girl
But as special as motherhood is, there is nothing greater (at least in my experience to this point), than becoming a GRANDmother! It is a mix of joy and sweetness and love for the new baby, and something akin to a thunderbolt of reality to realize that your own baby is all grown up and now a mother herself! Where did that child go? It was only yesterday that I was holding her for the first time, wasn’t it??? It brings tears to my eyes even today.
My long-time spinning and circular sock knitting friend, Peggy, is about to become a grandmother. Peggy’s daughter, Carol, is expecting a baby girl early in December. Carol is a bit older than most of today’s first-time mothers, which makes Peggy a bit older than today’s first-time grandmothers. In my view, anyway, this makes this baby an even more special event!
So today, my Wednesday spinning group held a surprise Grandmother Shower for Peggy. Despite the fact that I planned the shower, I was not able to attend in person. Thank you, Kay, for sending me pictures. They brought a smile to my face for sure! Peggy is about to embark on a most wondrous new adventure and lose her heart to a little baby girl all over again.
In addition to gifts, we gave Peggy a money tree to help her outfit her house with grandmother necessities!
Junior Dye Day at the Farm
Yesterday was a “Junior Dye Day” around here. Each of the GrandGirls wanted to dye their own roving, so out came all of the dyeing stuff.
They followed the protocol just like the adults do:
Measuring out their roving…
Soaking it in warm water with a bit of Synthropol in it…
Choosing their colors, laying their roving out, and applying their dye with big syringes,
and squirting it with vinegar and wrapping it up.
Zuzu took care of putting it in and taking it out of the hot steamer. I also rinsed it out for them, but then they…
Laid it out on the drying racks…
This morning, it was dry and everyone was really happy with their colorful roving! (Can you tell which one of the GrandGirls is currently in love with BLUE??? More on that later; she is currently spinning her own roving on one of my drop spindles!)
(Left to Right) Ally (age 8), Lizzie (age 10), and Georgia (age 6)
Child Labor: It’s a Good Thing
I used to tell my girls that the reason I had kids was so they could do the work around the house. You know — laundry, house cleaning, cooking, normal “house” stuff.
Even back before cell phones (yes, there WAS a world before cell phones), once they started driving, they were tasked with errand running. My errands, not theirs.
Now that my children are grown, having kids has gotten even BETTER. They have spouses or significant others or men folk in their lives that can come WITH them to Mom’s house to do the chores! Life is REALLY good!
And so it was that today I was graced with the presence of DD#1 and her DH who pitched in their time and power tool know-how to get rid of the unsightly lumber junk pile that was created when we tore our some wierdness left by the prior owner!
Mandy wields a mean crowbar (notice unsightly pile at bottom of picture, and small pile of wood in back of picture – we’ll come back to this.)
Bo was the steady hand on the circular saw. The saw was a birthday gift to me from The Welder, but I haven’t been properly trained on it yet, so it was necessary to bring in an expert.
And in the end, there was a much smaller pile of remnants that I need to get rid of, and a wonderfully tall pile of useable wood!
Child labor — it’s a good thing!
Workin’ and Playin’ on Easter Weekend
Daniel & James
You can work all day every day on a farm. I’m sure of it! But sometimes you need to just STOP and smell the wild onion grass, or whatever happens to be growing in your yard. There has to be both work and play, and that was the story at Fancy Fibers Farm this weekend.
Daniel and brother James (home from Texas A & M for the holiday weekend) spent a good part of Friday and Saturday with us, and got quite a bit of work accomplished. They loaded up a bunch of junk and took it to the dump for us. Some of the junk was ours, but a big part of it was the last (yippee!) of what the prior owner had left for us to clean up!
They also hung the screen door on the Bunny Barn back door which will be wonderful on these cool spring nights, and re-hung our chicken nest boxes, adding extra supports to keep them firmly attached to the walls even when some of the smaller goats decide to play on them!
The Welder impersonated a plumber for one more day to put the final fix on the persistent water leak at the border between our backyard and the small pasture. Ken was SO happy to have this fixed because this meant the water to the barns could be turned back on and he could quit carrying buckets out to the animals!
Bear supervised from the main barn. I plyed some yarn, and took advantage of the south wind to dry it.
This afternoon, DD#1 and her family, and The Prindles came to visit, eat, play with the animals and …. you know it …. ride on the golf cart!
The GrandGirls always go straight for the baby bunnies. These little guys are only 5 weeks old. Look how big they are! We got the bright idea of using some pen panels to make them a play area inside the Bunny Barn, but quickly found out they could squeeze their bunny bodies through the 2×2″ square holes with no problem! We had to give chase, get them all rounded up again, and the girls got in the pen with them and guarded the edges with outstretched legs!
Mandy cooked us a delicious dinner which we all enjoyed on the back porch in the cool breeze.
Lizzie put down her bunny long enough to collect the eggs, and Papa Ken gave The Prindles the nickel tour of the farm.
Bo helped me give the alpacas their annual booster shot, and every time we looked for the kids they were driving the golf cart. Look for the video in our next blog post!
Some work, some play, visiting with friends and family. It was a great 3-day weekend at Fancy Fibers Farm!