March's Block

Here it is! March's block all finished. I really love this block! It's makes me smile everytime I see it. In fact, all the finished blocks make me smile whenever I see them. This is going to be a great quilt once it is done. Very cheery. :.)

I haven't started on April's block yet. Hopefully sometime this weekend.....if I ever finish up that darn second sock. This pair of socks has been going rather slowly. Don't know why though. The yarn has been really nice to use. Lovely color.....and the color changes have been fun to watch. The pattern has been relatively easy to knit. Maybe it's just due to lack of time......something that will hopefully change once shearing is done.

Shearing is going well. Or at least as well as the weather will permit. We actually woke up to it snowing the other morning. Snowed real hard for most of the morning. The ground and trees were all covered with a blanket of white. Not something you want to see in the middle of April, that's for sure! By the afternoon it had warmed up so much that all the snow melted. There was ice on the sheep's water bucket yesterday morning.....and a light frost on the car windows this morning. But the days have been really nice. Yesterday we were out shearing in t-shirts. Got four sheep done. That leaves us with 7 (out of 21) left to do. Yea!! Out of the 14 sheep already sheared we only had two that were a bit jumpy on the stand. One that actually sat down and didn't want to get back up. Took a bit of persuading to get him to finally stand up so we could finish shearing. And we did have one that figured out how to get out of the head piece and decided to run around the backyard for a bit half sheared. Once we caught him and he was back on the stand, he was great. Very loving and sweet. Had to be coaxed down off the stand once he was done. Guess he just felt he needed a bit of exercise half-way through shearing. :.) All in all, it's been a very uneventful shearing so far this year.....which is a good thing. :.)

And my spinning wheels haven't been sitting idle....unbelieveable as that may sound. I actually managed to finish up two skeins of yarn this past week. One is a skein of polypay-x that my youngest hand-painted the summer before last. I spun it up and then navajo plyed it. Looks really pretty. Unfortunately the skein is about 250 yards. I was hoping for a bit more. I want to make socks for her from it. Thankfully she has tiny feet (size 5) and if I do ankle socks I should have enough yarn. I will play around with a pattern once things quiet down a bit more around here. The other skein is a superwash merino/mystery fiber/icicle top blend. That turned out to be a very pretty 2-ply yarn. It's about 330 yards. Hopefully enough for a pair of socks for myself. I really need to learn to spin my singles just a bit finer if I expect to get a bit more yardage per skein. I'm guessing that both of these skeins are about a dk weight (#2). I am pleased with how they both turned out though. :.) I will be sure to share pictures once both skeins are dry (set the twist on them yesterday).