Odd Ducks...

Well, no ducks, really. Yet. But definitely Odd Poultry.

This is Leelu. She's a Narragansett Turkey, about 2 months old.


She hatched with 4 other viable turkey chicks, but she's the only one who survived a raccoon assault shortly after they were born. Leelu has been doing just fine and is a tough little turk. She's basically on her own now as her mom has wandered off into the tall grass, presumably to sit on a new nest. More on that in a future post. Narragansett turkeys are fun but they are the biggest troublemakers on the farm.


This Dark Cornish Chicken was a victim of the same raccoon. He was attacked when the birds were still sleeping on ground and we think the raccoon reached through a tiny gap between the coop and the ground and grabbed his leg.


He was pretty well beat up, but has recovered nicely - though he did loose the leg. He gets out and about with the other chickens, is growing well and even makes it up to the perch at night. We have named him Hawkbait.


Finally, we have Jesus (with the Latino pronunciation). We were out of town last weekend, and when we came back, Jesus was waiting for us outside the chicken pen. He was born, seemingly a week early and took it upon himself to wander away from his brooding mama - still incubating his brothers and sisters - and explore his world.


At first, Bill attributed his birth to immaculate conception (I'm not really sure how that works in chickens? Maybe I could buy-in to immaculate hatching though), but has recently changed his theory.... Earlier this spring we had two clutches of chicks hatch - 13 babies in total. When they were about a week old, one of the wyandottes (like Jesus) disappeared without a trace, leaving us with 12.

Bill has decided a wormhole opened up in the chicken pen and Jesus stumbled into it and was transported a few months into the future - thus showing up in our pen last week.

The baby chicken is certainly a mystery. Chicken eggs incubate for 21 days. Given when the hens started setting, we weren't expecting any chicks until this weekend. Jesus' first clutch-mate was born this morning, actually.


Pretty odd stuff!

Things, finished

A large coral colored shawl to wear with a tan dress to my sister-in-law's wedding. I am told that this color combo is so in right now. Being the intensely fashionable person that I am, did you think I'd wear anything else??

The pattern is Damask in the largest size. Super fun to knit.

The yarn is Knitting Notions Classic Merino Bamboo. So yummy. The warm sunset light makes it look much brighter than it is. The color is actually much more earthy and subdued. My shawl doesn't really glow in the dark.

And some spinning. IT LOOKS LIKE REAL YARN!!

It needs a good soak. It's a bit energetic and super twisty right now. This is about 110 yards, sport weight, Navajo-plied. There is another bobbin resting that I'll ply tomorrow and then, I think they'll become some Albina Armwarmers.

Around the farm tonight...

Sock, Shawl, Spinning

...in that order. Hey, Mom! Look at all the COLORS!

The shawl is blocking now...it's going to look way different in a few days. Stand by!

Black, white, gray

Today I sampled some of my spinning from yesterday. I plied together the colored roving with three different undyed fibers - black, white and gray.

The grey is my favorite in a yarn, but the white isn't too bad either.

The only way to really know how I'd like these as a sweater is to knit them up!

I think I'm going with the white:

Sampling is awesome.

Tour de Fleece - Day One

So, there's a bunch of dudes racing bikes in France right now? Did you know there are also thousands of spinners making yarn right now too???

This year marks the sixth Tour de Fleece in which spinners celebrate the wonder of making yarn all around the world. The general idea is that folks set individual goals and then spin every day the Tour de France guys ride. (Ok - it's really weird to type "Tour de France." It just looks wrong. Don't they mean "Fleece?".) There are even prizes - prizes beyond spending time spinning and creating lovely yarn.

The whole event takes place on Ravelry where there are 4,000 spinners participating on over 200 teams. As I write this, 350 people have already checked in and posted photos of what they spun today. Here's what I did:

It's a BFL roving from Dancing Leaf Farm. I have 8 oz and am hoping to ply it with a naturally colored roving and love it enough to make a sweater quantity...maybe a short sleeved sweater? I don't have enough experience to know how much yarn I'm going to get.

Vive la Fleece!