Moving On

Well I am almost a month post surgery and so far none of my household goods are Italy bound (that will occur the week of March 11) and I have managed 36 stitches in the Continental style of knitting.  My surgeon says with luck I may be able to drink a glass of water with my right arm by the end of March … it’s the little things you miss …LOL! I seem to be spending most of my time dreaming up new colourways for the shop and new stranded knitting projects to work on once I am legal to knit again. So far I have a lace scarf in mind in a thistle pattern, a pair of Nordic mittens, and the ubiquitous socks that all have to come along with me in my luggage. We fly out on the 16th of March which means if all goes well my first full day in Italy will also be my birthday!!

JennietheDog  has been busily defending the homestead from a vicious onslaught of tumbleweeds … wonder what she will try to herd when we get to our new home?

The wrens all bathe here

In the dust around my gate

So many footprints.

Well Italy is looming on the horizon as is my arm surgery. One I am looking forward to and the other ... not so much. We will probably start the shipping our household out in mid February so now comes the time of deciding which knittting projects are "Have to Have's" and which can be mailed and which I can wait upon. I suspect the return to knitting to be slow but I think it will actually help in my recovery.
We have started the Italian House Hunting Project ... and they seem pretty good. Some even have kitchens in them already. What you say? Yes , it is not uncommon to rent a house that has nothing but the walls in it. No sinks, no counters, no nothing. So, we will look for something wioth some land for JennietheDog to run on and maybe I will get a few chickens. I few people we know have actually bought homes there ... and I cannot rule that out. I just hope we have a "view".

This is my view now. So I think the bar is a bit high. LOL

JennietheDog is missing her sheep ... and when most of the chickens go I imagine that will be traumatic as well. She did a brilliant job defending them today from a large and hungry hawk.

If anyone needs any of the yarn in my etsy shop please let me know ASAP as it will be Italy bound in another week. I have a few colours of the wool/silk blend not listed ... if you want to know what they are please ask. More to come I am sure.

On cat's paws ... the fog

Gray and floating, softly creeps

Curling 'round my feet

And Then There Were None …

Ahhh … moving. The sheep left today and the chickens are going next week and we will be without livestock for the first time since we moved here. It seems quite barren and very quiet. JennietheDog seems lost without her sheep … she didn’t even perk up when I took her on a walk.
The move to Italy is still in limbo, date wise, and so in the interim I am having shoulder surgery. Major rebuilding they think although they will not know till they get in there and look around … not exactly what I wanted to hear. Nor that I will be unable to knit for several weeks.

Odd thing ... blog writer in Windows7 seems to publish my posts now ... maybe because there were no pictures yet ... not sure. This is a gratuitous lamb photo ... I miss the little guys.

The sound of the wind

In the forest behind me

A raven flies off.

How to Panic Effectively ...or

How I live my life from day to day.
I dislike change … and not just a little. And yet, I have managed to live a life that is constantly full of change, most of which is totally out of my control. I think I might have issues. A few days ago I found out that we were probably moving … again … overseas …. again. This is no small task although I could do it in my sleep … what makes this daunting is that I have to accomplish this in 8 weeks. I have to liquidate my livestock now that I have a flock of award winning sheep and sell my vehicles and separate out my household goods into storage, to be packed, and to be sent off to the kids. I have to figure out what JennietheDog needs to do to get there ok and introduce her to “the kennel”. I have a business that I need to figure out how to make work from there and a new venture that I will be learning from long distance.
The up-side you may ask? Well that is the part where I will be living at the foot of the Italian Alps. So I guess you can expect lots of pictures of Italy and lots of recipes for northern Italian food. Not so shabby huh? LOL

Traveling along

Down this road … even here I

Cannot see the moon

A Very Merry Christmas

As the end of the year approaches I have much to be thankful for … great friends, a wonderful family, and time well spent with all of you. Life is definitely good I would say. I wish the very best for everyone of you. And JennietheDog says Merry Christmas too!

The little sparrows
Are my only guests today
Hiding from the storm.

Let the Fun Begin

Well the Daughter has arrived home for Christmas after a horrible two day process of blizzards and flight delays … coast to coast travel and an overnight in Phoenix. So … now I am making Christmas Dinner and tomorrow we will decorate the tree and on Sunday we will open some of the Christmas presents. In October, when I was preparing to head off to Rhinebeck, I decided that I needed a hat. I make myself a fair isle hat using natural coloured wool from my sheep. So, when I decided that I would make a pair of Nordic mittens for the Daughter for Christmas I thought that this would be quick and easy. Neither turned out to be true … but I loved knitting them and am already planning a pair using my wool/silk blend with an angora lining. Here they are:

I can hardly wait to start another pair. The very small bit of blue yarn is all that was left … a cause of much concern while I was finishing up.
All the cows are gone now … Jack the Pirate King comes home tonight in his new paper and vacuum wrap. Thank goodness, because we have had an extremely cold week and I hated going out to feed and bucket water to the sheep … the cows would have been a mess. As it is, the eggs all froze in the hen house within a hour of being laid so I was able to pick up only two good ones in the last two days.
I think I’ll stay home
This snow fall is too perfect
For me to walk on.

Are We There Yet?

Winter and I have a love/hate relationship. I detest the cold and love the fact that I can finally spin and knit to my hearts content because it's too cold to do much else outside. I still try to knock out a few miles a day with JennietheDog but there are days when the wind chill makes that risky so we just stay home. And we have wolves down here by us currently and a dog is a wolf magnet ... so I have to be careful when it is just the two of us out.

So, in the last month, I went to Rhinebeck, New York for their Sheep and Wool festival. I met tons of people who knit with my yarn and that was fun and exciting! I saw some Wensleydales that were cute and I met my daughter's boyfriend ... he was cute too ... and very nice. I did not take the camera as I packed the night before in a total frenzy and forgot it. I will email the Daughter and see if she has any ... I do have a gratuitous photo of some wonderful socks knit in my Rainy Day Colourway that Marty sent me. Marty also writes that : "The Ravelry group is “2-at-a-time socks”, and we work with Melissa Morgan-Oakes’ book of that title" Amazing! And maybe I would not have such a problem with knitting the second sock ... LOL. I finished my Rainy Day socks finally and will try to get some pictures taken as soon as I write up the pattern. Also in October I had the shearer come and shear the sheep so they have gone from large and fluffy to slim and slick. Check out the Feb 27,2007 entry for before and after photos. The ram is in with most of them now but the shearer thinks that at least one of them might already be pregnant (he escaped twice this summer ... the ram not the shearer LOL) so I may be having January lambs ... yuck! This is Gabriella and Walker in their new shorter coats. Now, the mountains are covered with snow but it was still decent weather back in October. I have started my Christmas knitting but most of it is still a secret so for now ... I guess that is all the news that is fit to print! No haiku today as I cannot get Blogger to make paragraphs now ... geesh!

This years maple leaves

Fall, still green, no reds to warm

The snow laden wind.

Hah! I, SO tricked it!