Don't Feed Them after Midnight...

...and never, EVER, get them wet. That applies to suri alpacas as well as Gremlins. I just blocked this hat and OH MY GOD does it smell like a rutting beast! I'm praying, PRAYING, that the smell dissipates after it dries because I've spent a good amount of time working on this "Braid and Bobble Hat" (from Fiber Trends), and frankly, it has been a pain in my ass. While I'm quite pleased with the appearance of the cables and braids, I couldn't remember the repeats so I had to keep looking at the pattern, flipping it back and forth to remind myself the difference between Cr3R, Cr3L and C5B. I should have just written the abbreviations on a post-it so I didn't have to keep flipping the pattern over, but I got too lazy to take the time to save some time. This is going to be a present for someone who doesn't read this blog, so hopefully she'll never know the olfactory experience that is this hat (until she wears it in the rain...)

My Rogue hoodie is coming along very nicely and even more importantly, it fits! It's kind of a perfect fit and I was going for some ease, but I haven't blocked it yet and I'm pretty confident that it will stretch a little bit at that point. The cables look great but I found out that I'm really terrible at seaming -- I had to seam the shoulders and it really looks amateurish. I won't show you because I don't think I want to re-do them at this point so I'm just going to live with it -- anyway, what am I if not a amateur apprentice to the knitting gurus?

I think I'm going to get hooked on spinning pretty quickly. I spent several hours at Jessica's house on Sunday, spinning away on her Lendrum. It was my first wheel experience, and I really loved it. And I love Jess, who owns all the equipment one would need to march a flock of sheep in one door and a thousand skeins of yarn out the other -- including some innocent-sounding combs that have teeth big enough to scare a tiger. And she had a bag of fleece that was truly fresh from the sheep -- and smelled like it, too -- worse than the wet suri hat, but still strangely alluring. My spinning classes start in January!

Mooooooooo!

Yesterday I was lucky enough to be invited on a tour of an organic dairy farm. David and I donned out boots and old clothes and trekked through humongous pies of cow pies to get to a field of about 10 or 12 happily grazing cows. They were overjoyed (as much as cows can show overjoyment) to see the farmer, who took a few minutes to "move the cows" -- that is, enlarge their grazing field on one end by moving a wire out in a few places. This allows the cows access to new grazing land and gives the old pasture a chance to re-grow its grasses. He only moved them a few feet out, but this happens almost every day so the fields all get their chance to rest.

This weekend was also the last home game at ND stadium for 2006, and our last chance to "sit" in the student section. I'm kind of sad that this had to end, football season iss probably the best partabout coming back to ND. But our team kicked butt and we're onto the Trojans next week, fighting for some slight, miniscule, sub-atomic-sized chance at a National Title, or more accurately for the right to get our asses soundly whipped by Ohio State.

Help Dave's Man Crush

If you love Dave, please go to this web site and vote for Brady Quinn to win the Heisman (thanks to Gillaby for the link!)

Brady for Heisman!

Gratuitous Baby Bragging

Here are my cute niece, nephew and brother -- not necessarily in that order, but pretty close! Brady is sporting the Jester Hat from Knitting on the Net. I made him the One-Hour Baby Booties from SnB Nation, but I have to say, they were way too small. So was the pair I made for KGB. So maybe they are really meant for new new new newborns...but KGB is only 2 weeks old. In any case, the jester hats came out really cute.

KGB

I went to visit Eoin, Becca & Ryan in Chicago on Sunday and to meet the newest member of their family, KGB. Isn't his hat cute? Thanks to Knitting on the Net again -- except this time I didn't knot the "tendrils" so they kind of look like atennae -- which I felt was appropriate for a child in that family. By the way, this is a photo of the whole family -- see if you can find KGB.

Once Upon an Alpaca

David & I had so much fun this morning at Once Upon a Farm Alpacas, who were having an open house on the outskirts of town this morning. There was a pen full of moms and crias, and two of the babies were inseparable. They were twisting they legs and necks around each other, running around. So cute! I bought some more suri for a hat for me, and had a really nice chat with one of the proprietors, Randy Beck. Someday, we'll have our own little herd of misfit alpacas.

As promised, here is a Rogue update shot -- I'm really worried about the size but I do NOT have the heart to frog this until I get to the end. I just have to keep on going. Maybe it will be a gift if it doesn't fit me right. We'll see.

Go IRISH -- 2 hours to kick-off! We have to head out to a local bar to watch the game, since it's only being broadcast on a satellite sports channel. And David forbid me from bringing my knitting to the bar, which I thought was pretty rude. But I can forgive him because he gave me a really cool 5th Anniversary gift, which is traditionally wood. David bought me some trees fromThe National Arbor Day Foundation, which will be replanted in our National Forests. So cool! What a great gift, check it out here.

Brady's Booty

No, I'm not talking about David's man-crush, Brady Quinn -- I'm talking about my adorable nephew, who is going to get some booty(s) in the mail soon! Kerry if you see this post before you get the package, stop reading now! The booties are from SnB (I actually crocheted the straps, what is this world coming to?) and the hat is a pattern I found online from Knitting on the Net. Like the turtle buttons?

Sorry I haven't blogged in a while. I lost my USB cable for the camera and to me, posting without pics is like eating french fries without ketchup. It satisfies your hunger for food but is only a primitive shadow of what fine dining can be.

Rogue is getting BIG and therefore not so portable as she once was. I promise a pic soon. I finally tried her on and she fit, but I'm worried she's a little snug. I'm praying that's due to the fact that the front was still on the needles and that with a little bit of blocking, we'll be happy together.

Speaking of happy together, Happy Anniversary to Me & David! 5 years, holy crap!

Happy Birthday, Guru!

I predict a happy and exciting 32nd year, what with getting hitched and all!

Also, happy birthday to Jess's daughter!

*Picture found on Sheep in the City.