Thursday, March 22, 2007

Farm News

I know it's not fiber related, but I thought I'd show our newest acquisitions:

Adam has spent the last week or so going over all of the fences, fixing the watering tank, and getting ready for some cattle. A day at the livestock auction yesterday, and these two guys came home with us. We'll be getting 4-5 more in the next couple of weeks, and then hopefully they will all happily spend the summer eating down the pastures before they go back to the auction in the fall, a lot bigger.

We also bought some new fruit trees to fill in the orchard, both the physical spaces as well as the fruit varieties. Adam was tempted into getting one of the "magic" trees that have 4 different varieties of plums grafted onto one rootstock. Hmmmm..., we'll have to see how this one does.
The big trees in the back are some of the pear trees. We have about 15 pear trees, and all are mature and provide a lot of pears, so we won't be planting any of those. The other new ones are a peach, and apricot, and, unpictured, a cherry and a male kiwi. Our old male kiwi vine died about 2 years ago, so even though the female is large and healthy, no kiwis for us. Hopefully we'll get some this year now that we've made a match for her.
Knittingwise, no real things to show as I've been working on some designs on paper and haven't put the needles to work yet. This is a sweater that I made for Adam's birthday in January, adapted from a pattern in Simply Beautiful Sweaters for Men, and made of Rowanspun Aran. The detailing doesn't show well, but the ribs are done in seed stitch (making the sweater a true labor of love!).
He likes it, it is blue, comfy, with long sleeves that he can turn up, and roomy enough to wear over shirts and turtlenecks. His only disappointment is that he can't toss it in the washer. "The washer".... this is Rowan yarn! I don't think he fully appreciates how nice the yarn and the sweater are. At least I put the fear of God into him about what the result would be if he threw it in the washer and dryer. Maybe I'll make his next sweater out of squeaky acrylic so he can appreciate the difference.