All knitting

I like posts that are all knitting. Things have been insane with The Escaped Goats, so the knitting has been slow. However, I finished Gramps.

Now to think about blocking and buttons. But not any time soon. 

Next my plan is to finally finish Monica.

And I intend to knit my new favorite socks. I am so in love with these already. 

I am super close to the knitting monogamy I always strive for. Now I can plan all of the things I plan to cast on to ruin the monogamy. 

The socks? Yeah, they are done

I finally finished the socks I started in Vegas in January. They turned out OK. Don't tell the recipient, but if they were for me I may have had to seriously think of starting over. I had to decrease on the leg, and I don't like the way it looks... But in reality, I probably wouldn't have fixed them.

 My baby decided they should be his. The intended recipient disagrees.

The long ribbing cuff.

And in other miraculous news, Jacob sat and read parts of a book. This is huge. A true miracle.

And then, I fed the pigs

Home steading is such a spiral.  Justification is taken to a whole new level here, people.

So let's talk about my journey. It started with a horse, for whom we rented a pasture. Why waste money on renting a pasture when we could buy land and have equity? No reason. Buy land. Sister wife who is not actually my husband's wife says "look at all this land! Can I get just one little goat? Just one." We get the goat. The goat seller (Hi Amy, goat dealer) says " goats need a companion, they don't do well alone. ". Which worked out rather well for me since I had fallen in love with a little goat. Get second goat. Pick up milk for little goats, fall in love with a doe in milk. The baby goats need milk, let's save money and buy a goat in milk. Buy goat in milk. Fall deeply in love with Polly, the doe in milk. Decide I must have another doe in milk. Hi, Kandy!!
This is where things get a little fuzzy. I don't know all the details, certain parts are black (probably from so much bliss)  in my mind.  But suddenly 15 goats in milk. And some sheep. And alpacas.  Well it would seem that the only logical thing here is to get a buck. The girls need to be bred. Logical. Well then, it only makes sense that if we need a buck to breed the does, we need a ram to breed the ewes. Enter ram stage left.
Things are good. Very good. I love my life, and all of my girls and the milking, and the goat sex. Well heck, if I can milk goats I can surely milk a cow, right?? We NEED a cow.

Enter cow. Hi, Bessibelle! Bessie creates another cow. Enter cow two. Hello, Salisbury. Discover that Bessie is a milk cow. Literally. She gives a lot of milk. A lot. We bocome the zucchini people of the dairy world, begging others to take milk, leaving it in cars in the church parking lot, and on doorsteps at midnight.  Too much milk. Logically there really is only one thing to do.

Pigs. The only logical thing is pigs.

Meet Hillshire and Johnson. 

Do I dare

Title this "It is way past my bedtime, but.... . That is the first Torrie that popped into my slept brain, but blogs have time stamps, and this one would say " 9:30 PM" and then I would look really old and lame.

But for realz, it is way past my bedtime.

I am blogging, because happiness demands to be shared, and happiness abounds.

In the form of sugar cane. Lots and lots of sugar cane. It was originally supposed to be the last 59 skeins my lys had, but she found a few more hiding, and in the end I ended up with 65 lovely skeins of self patterning sugar cane.

I haven't a clue what to do with it. I have no project ideas at all, but it was on sale and I am very in love with this yarn. Very in love indeed. Note it is mine. All mine, and no one else's. I can be generous in other areas, but maybe not with yarn. OK, maybe if someone was in great need, and I loved them more than the yarn.  That is saying a lot.

Racing the battery

I have mere minutes before my phone battery dies, but I had to post something so entirely creepy that it is keeping me up at night. If I am up at night, I want good company. You are good company.

In preparation for my wonderful brother and his family to arrive, I swept the hall. And I found this:

I have never seen it before. I have no idea how she got in my house. I am pretty sure she couldn't walk. Not with that leg anyway, right??  If her nails were bloody I would assume she dragged herself here from some Chucky set.

In other news, all those chicks previously mentioned?? 

I put twenty of them here. (Or made the oldest put them there) and put a few under another hen.

Next I intend to put some here:

That is true lazy chicken farming. Yes, indeed.

Also, did I mention that my big brother just arrived and will now be living here with his family??? I am so very giddy. My brother and I are very close. Peas in a pod. He knows me well enough that he came bearing gifts. 

Yum!!! Seriously, about my fav thing.

And for my second baby

April, two babies. Five years apart. Jacob's birthday was yesterday. He had some friends over, and those wild kids had a blast!  We told Jacob he could do whatever he wanted. We were thinking iJump, laser tag, bowling etc. Nope. His one wish was to have his friends here for a marshmallow war. I was giddy inside. Simple, cheap. What more could a mom ask for? So we got a bag of mini marshmallows for each child, and sent them outside. Hours. They spent hours out there planning battle strategies, and hunting each other down. Best birthday ever! We got these guns from my parents for Christmas. At first I was a little puzzled, but they have been an invaluable gift. For real. My parents don't know I have a blog, and they can't actually turn on a computer, so they don't read my blog. In fact if I mentioned to them that i have a blog, they would probably try to have me medicated for the illness. So, these guns really are great!! I am not just saying that.

We finally had to force the children in to open gifts.

He was well pleased.

And I was once again awed by the simple joy. He appreciated everything to the fullest.

He got a kindle and skylanders from us. He is sure that life doesn't get much better than this.

His sister used one of her many, many talents to make him a gluten free, skylanders cake. It was SO good!!!

Of course here we have the traditional candle picture, which I make my kids pose for. Notice the bottom right hand? The sneak blower, on the prowl.

Yes!!! Got them all!!  Again, can't help point out that sneak blower is celebrating a little too much to be considered innocent. Thankfully Jacob didn't care that he had a bit of help. 

We also made ice cream from Bessie's milk for the big party. 

 Because this is a very special day, this also happened.  A whole herd of chicks hatched, just to honor the birthday boy.

Speaking of honoring. Here is to the true neglector.  Neglecting knitting (OK, blocking) daily.

Side note: only soaked for four hours. I just couldn't do it. It is cold outside. I need my sweaters... Preferably dry.

April is a lovely month

One that brought me two wonderful babies.  Yesterday my baby turned five. We spoiled him all day long, and he ate it up!

We went through the drive thru at McDonalds for lunch. With our eating style, this is a huge deal. A very rare treat.... If you can consider food that can kill you a treat anyway.  He was so happy all day, and just loved opening gifts. It was hilarious. He would open underwear, or something of the like, and scream at the top of his lungs "look!!!! Underwear!!!" With pure joy, as though it was the best gift in the world. I adore this simple joy. Love it entirely.

It is super hard to get a picture of his excitement when he is jumping and shouting.

Super hard.

But the general cuteness come through. 

He chose this toy, which is hilarious. It attaches to your hands and feet, and stretches. It came with a work out video. I thought it was the dumbest thing I had ever seen, until I watched him with it. He loves it!  Just like everything else on his magical day.

And the cake??? More magic. 

He had such a twinkle in his eye. He LOVES to blow out candles, even when they are not his.

So we, being the awesome parents that we are, we both instantly covered his best candle blow. 

But he still had plenty of umph left.

And he was very pleased indeed.