Welcome, Cherise!

Friday, May 20 greeted us like this:

We weren’t expecting a cria this soon (late August, early September was the earliest), and we were caught unprepared. No scale, no solution to wash the belly button, no emergency colostrum, no bottles.

Peggy-O had “abandoned” her first cria, so we were on high alert. The little one was quick to get up, but did not want to nurse. We were worried that Peggy-O didn’t have enough milk, or some other problems. At any rate, the cria was not getting the colostrum it needed to start its immune system.

After spending most of the day stressed, we headed for the Purdue Farm Hospital. Alas, none of our neighbors  had a truck and trailer for us to borrow, so we loaded the crew into the back of the Impreza! I had to babysit in the back - the little cria was constantly nosediving into the space between the front seats and where the back seats folded down. 

Finally, we settled in for a little nap to make the ride go faster and with less stress…

The Farm Hospital was brand new, and the duo got to spend four nights getting care. It turns out that Peggy-O had plenty of milk and was amenable to nursing after all. The cria probably had a rough birth with too many minutes of oxygen deprivation which led to “dummy foal” syndrome. Apparently horses have this problem regularly. She got plasma infusions to get the antibodies that she missed from the colostrum and was carefully coached to start nursing. We think this probably also happened to Peggy-O’s first cria, and the farm she lived on was just far better prepared and started bottle feeding right away.

On Tuesday the 24th we picked them up again in the Subaru. Peggy-O had a lot less patience this time, but we made it work.

We finally felt like we could name the cria. The Farmer picked out Cherise, from the Grateful Dead song Rubin and Cherise. It means dear one or darling, which is spot on! We are thankful for the positive outcome and delight in Cherise’s antics and scampering about.

 

Till soon, friends! More good news is imminent…

PS If you were wondering why the baby cria was so early, apparently Peggy-O had been bred last May, and again in August. We’re not sure why she didn’t reject the second breeding. Glad Cherise is here with us now, and we don’t have to wait till August.

Two More Egg Hats

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Turns out I wanted some egg hats as well. Purple and orange to represent our current favorite colors around here.

Some bonus Mayapple and Trillium coming up in the woods. So happy to see native plants out there after spending several hours yesterday cutting down invasive honeysuckle and autumn olive. There is a pair of barred owls hooting in the woods. Awesome!

Happy Spring!

Eggsy Hats

What does one give to a generous friend who has everything and eats a specific diet that includes no special “fun” foods? Especially since she delivered a few dozen cascarones for good times?

Well, turns out she also likes to eat eggs, and it is Easter, so egg hats it is!

Here’s to green eggs and fake ham! It looks like I don’t have egg cups, a big oversight… But that cute cordial glass is a pretty good stand in.

The pattern is Eggsy Hats by Rosemary Hill. I used the electric kettle to steam the fabric to block the knitting. I used some left over Malabrigo yarn from the Multnomah shawl I made about 10 years ago.

I packaged the hats in an old egg carton, covering some plastic eggs with the hats and adding some clementine treats.

 Happy Easter and Happy Spring holidays to you!

Striped Flax

My first finished object of 2022 fell off off the needles on March 16! I’ve eyed the Flax pattern for a while and was scared to make the adjustments for DK weight yarn. One day I just started knitting the third smallest size and then kept increasing the raglan seams until the yoke was long enough for me to start sleeves. 

In addition, I added the garter stitch panels on the ribs to match the garter stripe on the top of the sleeves. I made decreases for the waist and a few increases for hips at the very end.

The sleeves show where I started running out of different colors as the knitting neared the bottom of the sweater. I wisely decided to start knitting the sleeves as I completed stripe sets on the body. It was nice to not get bored on sleeves at the end also. Noted, for future top-down sweaters…

Over 23,000 Flax sweaters are listed on the Ravelry project page. It’s a very basic pattern that you can “play” with easily. I might make another some day as well.

At the very end, these were my leftovers. I think I did pretty well on the stash busting!

And right on cue for a cozy sweater finish, we have Spring. Picture was taken on March 20. Of course we had bone chilling 18* on Monday and a balmy 75* today, so who knows if these flowers will still be nice for the beginning of April.

Striped Wonder

I’m nearing the finish line on my Flax sweater. So far I love it! I’m running out of yarn and making decisions about colors at the finish are increasingly tricky. I already purchased an additional ball of the teal color to have a smoother finish, which will be my bottom color.

Four school days separate me from Spring Break, so hopefully I’ll be finished next weekend. Unless I take extra time to think or rip back…

Happy Knitting!

The Heart Wants What It Wants

Emily Dickenson nailed that quote, I'd say. My life feels like it is in the middle of a big stall. I have plenty to do, many responsibilities to take care of, and time actually does exists to accomplish the tasks at hand. Yet somehow I find myself frittering away the time in the most inconsequential ways. So naturally, it appears that I need to start a new project. Because a striped sweater with remnant yarn from the Painted Bricks Cowl was something I dreamed of for the last year. The Flax sweater has been in my Ravelry queue since last January. But I felt so guilty starting yet another big project when there were so many other things to do, starting with four unfinished knits. 

So I decided to test the theory and lined up my yarn in the order I wanted to knit it, very mindful that I might be trading one time-frittering strategy for another. The colors remind me of a sweater I had on my Sears catalog wish list in the 80's. Retro-chic for the win.  And then Friday night I cast on...

Saturday was spent mostly knitting, and I got a decent chunk of the yoke finished. It is a DELIGHT to sit and churn through these rows! Let's not forget that I like to knit while my husband watches TV that I don't really care about. The pattern offers just enough to keep me interested, but also lets me drift into another sphere of attention if there is a good commercial on. Looks like the heart wanted a sweater, and it is now getting that new sweater. 

And... I have "help"... HAHA! China Cat is mostly interested in sitting on my lap sleeping, but we did enjoy some "recreation" while I was measuring the progress. 

Today I made a concerted effort to knit AND do some of things on the to-do list. But I flipped that list idea. Instead of making a to-do list, I made a DONE list as I was finishing each item. I have two big things to finish this evening/tomorrow morning, but there are 11 items on the DONE list. Listening to my heart may have just broken the spell on my procrastination. I'll keep you posted.

Stay safe, friends! Go do something that your heart wishes you would.  :-)

Happy New Year Visit

Fun little visit for New Years weekend!

Introductions…

Are you trustworthy?

 

The alpacas enjoyed sniffing someone else’s hand and cell phone for a change.

A former student who goes to university nearby finally was able to stop by to meet the alpacas. After feeding them grain, she had definitely charmed Moonstar.

 Hope you got a kiss this amazing for your new year, too! All the best for 2022. Mwah!