stitches in time

Well, today is the day that I get my new herd!

I have sold all but a few of my goats (the rest go today) and I am buying seven bred registered Nubian does today.

Here’s a picture of one of our new does. Her name is Charlene.

I’m kinda nervous, but VERY excited. It will be the next step in my farming journey.

Olivia and I have decided on a farm name: Swan-S Grove Farms. We are going to register with the American Dairy Goat Association and all the kids that are born this year will be registered because they are full-bred Nubians.

We’re so excited! Wish us luck.

Well, I just got my invitation to Ravelry and worked on my profile a bit.

My username is locumdo so come for a visit if you like.

I can see that Ravelry is going to be just as addicting as blogging!  YIKES!

I’m plugging away at my pioneer braid border:

I’m making four of them at a time, and when they get long enough, I’ll cut them and put them on.

There will be quite a bit of little bits of material which I’m going to try and make up into crumb blocks right away so they don’t sit in my scrap bin.

…and I’ve been knitting in the evenings. I’ve finished another couple of dishrags. One I got off a row, so part of it is right side and part is wrong side, one is lop-sided, and one we can’t find, LOL.

Here’s the heart one that I goofed up the rows:

It’s fun and they’re easy to finish. I feel like I’ve accomplished something and I get to try different stitches.

I even modified the border of the one I finished last night because the bottom border didn’t match the top border and I wanted them to look the same. Unfortunately, my tension was wonky, so it doesn’t look the best, but the middle is cabling which I hadn’t tried before, so I got that out of the way.

My back has REALLY been sore the last couple of days, so I’m going to ice it today. Hopefully that will help.

Thanks everyone who has commented in the last few days. You’ve all given me encouragement about my quilt-a-long quilt. I can’t wait to get the last border on and get it basted.

On Friday, I’m going to get some new goats. Olivia and I are soooo excited. One of them is due to kid on the 28th, so that will be fun. We have had a few kids born on our farm, but since we didn’t know the due dates, we missed them all. These goats we’ll be getting all have specific due dates, so we should be able to actually see the kids being born.

Hope everyone has a wonderful Wednesday.

OK, Ladies…and Gents!

Here are the pictures of my Quilt-a-Long quilt. I’m so excited. I’m thinking that I’m going to use a pioneer braid border and REALLY BUST SOME STASH!

Here’s the middle section:

Here are come close ups:

What do you think about the orange border? I thought that the most dominant color is orange so I would use that, plus I LOVE orange, and I needed a way to separate the middle from the pioneer braid border.

Be honest, LOL. Lots of people don’t like orange, so I’m curious.

I told you that I was going to get photos of my Quilt-a-Long quilt up yesterday, but I didn’t get it done!

I’m having a hard time photographing big quilts. Does anyone have ideas? I have a ranch style home. What I wouldn’t give for a cool balcony! It’s too cold and snowy outside, or I would take it outside to photograph.

Plus, whenever I take pictures inside, the colors are icky!

How do you all get your quilts photographed for your blogs?

OK! Today, I promise I’ll post some pictures of my Quilt-a-Long quilt. I would really like to get the top finished today.

It’s turning into a queen-sized quilt, LOL!

Also, I finished another dishcloth. They’re so fun and addicting. I’ve been knitting a row here and there throughout the day and then in the evenings while listening to the boob tube.

I blocked the three that I’ve finished. Here’s a picture of the last two. They look much better after blocking. The yellow one was still a bit lop-sided before blocking, but I’m sure it will get better.

I got my Peaches & Cream yarn for the monthly dishcloth knit-a-longs. Some of the colors are quite cute, I can’t wait to see what’s in store. A new one is starting today, so I’m excited about that.

I changed my by-line because now I’m knitting in addition to my quilting…in the middle of nowhere!

And, here’s a gratuitous picture of my little Mariah. She loves this rocking chair and lays with her chest in the seat and rocks herself to sleep. None of the other kids can sit in the chair without her two-year-old-princess screeches, “MY CHAAAIII!” (because she can’t say her “r”s yet).

OK! I’m off to milk the goats and get some breakfast for the two-legged kids. Can’t wait to get started quilting today and this evening, I’ll have a new dishcloth to work on, LOL. Of course, there are a few that I am behind on since I didn’t start with this dishcloth group until a week ago, so I’ll be casting on and catching up for a few days now that my yarn is here.

It’s not square, LOL!

It’s a good thing that I don’t get stressed out about things like this.

I suppose it’s a tension issue as there were no extra stitches anywhere. I’ve read that it’s easy to accidentally increase, but every row worked out correctly, so I know that can’t be it.

I hope that as I keep knitting, I’ll get better and better.

I thought the variegation was interesting and I wonder if it would look differently if I had started it in a different spot in the variegation.

I actually liked this pattern and I went ahead and bought another variegated yarn yesterday and started the same pattern. I’m almost finished with it and I’ll post a picture when it’s done. Maybe it will be square!

Did everyone have a nice Valentine’s Day?

We went to Bismarck as a family and my hubby got me a BIG basket of Bath & Body Works stuff.

I also picked up a few things at Target and I got a few more skeins of cotton yarn for dishcloths.  I finished one yesterday and got another one started.  They’re addicting!

Last night, I worked on a block from the Quilt-a-Long quilt.  I am working on finishing the main part of the quilt, then, I think I’m going to put a strip of orange around, then a pioneer braid border.  So, there’s still a bit of work to do, but I am doing some MAJOR stash busting!

I got my CD for the Civil War Diary quilt and I’m getting ready to load it onto my EQ5.  That way, I won’t have to draft each pattern before I start it.  I’m really excited.

Anyway, I am going to go downstairs and quilt for a while and I’ll post some pictures later.

Hope you all had a great Valentine’s Day!

Well, you may remember that I took up knitting.

My husband sometimes gives me little barbs and I have to “prove” to him that I’m not what he says, LOL. So, I finished a dishcloth yesterday because he said that I was knitting a lot and not finishing anything.

I belong to a Yahoo!Group called Monthly Dishcloths. They do two knit-a-longs per month, and I just ordered some yarn so I can begin following along. I’m really excited.

I got this link for this free pattern for this Daisy Dishcloth from that group. I worked it up and I think it turned out really nice.

I had made a dishcloth before, but it was before I knew what I was doing and I made it out of acrylic yarn. I don’t think it will work to wash dishes with, LOL.

Today is Saturday.  I was supposed to be going to quilt guild, but we have deadly wind chills here, so no one is venturing out if they don’t have to.

Of course, the baby goat have to be fed and the mommas have to be milked and the chickens have to be fed and watered and the eggs must be gathered and and and and…

So, I’ll be venturing out with my oldest, Olivia, who is the WONDERFUL daughter who helps me outside with her kid…four-legged kids, that is, LOL.

We don’t allow movie watching except on week-ends, so Saturday at our house is called Movie and Muffin Day!  It’s the day that we gorge on movies and muffins.  Today, however, we’ll be having cinnamon rolls, but you get the idea.

We’ve also declared a Pajama day because I’m pouting and everyone else realizes we’re stuck home with the weather.

Hope you all have a good day.  I’m going to try and get some serious quilting done today.