Oh no!

A few days ago, I am knitting on this shawl, which I am just a row or 2 away from binding off. I am counting and was at 330 when I was pushing on what I had just done and the cable broke! Oh my goodness, I almost screamed. There were at least 30 dropped stitches, just hanging there, as I am trying not to go crazy. I got my glasses on real fast, but carefully, so I wouldn't lose it all together. Got all the stitches back on, with a few little mess ups that I hope to be able to fix. And I got the cable back in as far as I could. But there's still probably a 1/8" that should be inside the little metal thingy. It's rough. I can't do anything right now. So I will take this little mess to my little yarn store in Chattanooga this afternoon and see if they can fix it for me. It's the longest cable too, because I think there must be 1000 stitches on there. Geeze, it's going to take me a month just to bind this off!

                                              The owls look really worried, don't they? I am too.

And in other news, last night was my first pottery class! I was SO excited! There are 7 of us, all women. With a man instructor. He wanted us all to practice working with the clay, pounding out any air bubbles on the table. I tell you what, that first cut of the clay to get a bit off was amazing. I had seen people do it, but to do it myself, well, that was really cool. And the clay was so soft and smooth and felt so good on my hands too. Just a cool thing right there. I was amazed the whole night really.

So we went to our little wheels and plopped that cone of clay down in the middle and practiced centering it. That took awhile. And I'll tell you again, my left hand hurt! So got mine centered real good.

Then the fun part! Making a hole. I just really enjoyed every part of this experience. He wanted us to make a cylinder. Well, we were all over the place! Every one of us. We had bowls and plates and all kinds of shapes. But no cylinders. Mine was pretty much a wide cylinder, with the bottom way too small. I was going to keep it, but after getting it off the wheel and onto a board, the more it sat, the more wonky it got. By the time I was ready to leave, I went over and smashed it up.

I did get to practice on another piece. Did pretty good, but smashed it too. It's hard! I had no idea. But the instructor, he was whipping out bowls and cups and tall cylinder-like vases and cups. Then he'd cut them in half so we could see the way ours should look. Then he'd smash them up and start on another piece. Oh to be like him some day. But it will take SO much practice. They encourage us to come during the week to practice so believe me, I will be going! I really want to do this. I want to make yarn bowls.

So this is the ancient pottery wheel my friend Daryl gave me. It's heavy. And foot pedaled. What fun, right? We just have to figure out how to get it all together. And what is that half round piece of metal for? Can't figure that out and Daryl couldn't remember either. And it needs a seat. We can just make a seat out of plywood I think. And then I might can practice more on this.

I just hope we don't all float away from all the rain we've been getting here. I woke up early this morning and it was pouring. Thunder and lightening all around. And more rain to come! Yay! I guess this is a good thing. For ducks maybe. And rivers and streams and lakes. But I am sort of over it all, thank you. And I have got to get new boots. Plastic bags don't last very long.

Sold!

About an hour after I put the ad on CL I got a call from a guy from Dalton. He and his wife came up in their little 4 door hatchback about 12:45. We went ahead and got Oden loaded up in the back of the car. Then he saw the sheep and asked if I had any for sale. I told him I'd been thinking about selling Adele and her daughter Cassidy for awhile. Their wool is not really that good because Adele is half hair sheep. He said ok, let's get them caught and load 'em up. So just like that, he had 2 full grown wooly sheep and a big buck loaded in the back of his little car. With his wife in there too.

But it took about 30 minutes to catch those 2 crazy sheep. Adele has never let me touch her. Like ever. Cassidy is friendly. She's the one who always got in trouble. So I got all the sheep over in the North side and got most of them in the stall with the door. But not Adele. She went the other way. Then Cassidy did too. We got them around the back of the little barn and he caught Adele as she was flying over his head. Good catch! Got her loaded in the car. Then went back for Cassidy. She went in the stall and he caught her as she flew past him into the wire at the top of the wall. Another good catch! That poor guy was covered in mud.

Sheep are crazy when they are scared. But all was good. And they drove off down the driveway.  And all is well in the kingdom again.

Or will be tomorrow when my friends come to get that darn rooster.

Oden, the buck.

 Oh this buck. He's back. And he's a jumper. He's already jumped out of the back yard. Then I had the does in the back stall again for the night and this morning, he had to jump over that gate and got in with them. And he's a pig. He didn't like his bowl of feed, he wanted theirs. He's a mess, this buck.

He's been gone for about a month, visiting other does. He went straight from one farm to another one last Sunday. But they brought him back yesterday. I have been trying to call the butcher, to see if they had a spot open for me to bring him in tomorrow. But the phone's been busy all morning. So I put ads on Craig'd list and on FB.

Just had a call from a guy from Dalton. He's heading over right now to get him! I hope. Sometimes CL is not all it's cracked up to be. I hope he shows up. Because I have all the goats in the back stall, so I can catch the little bugger. I just do not need a buck around right now. The does are due in a month and I really don't want him around then. And he's just annoying.

This is the 1st skein of yarn from Buttercup. Isn't it beautiful? I so need to learn to dye now. I will. I have most everything to dye with. Just need that little push to actually do it. Then I think I will be hooked. I have another skein and am working on getting the rest spun and plyed. Then on to another fleece! I have SO many!

This is a fleece a friend gave me a few months ago. It's been in the milk room since. I had no idea what it was. The paper on the bag just said 'nice and soft" Patches 5-8 lbs. And the date from 2014. I laid it out on the skirting table to look at it closer. From what I can tell, and seeing pictures, I think it's Jacob. It's really pretty. So many variations in color too. I decided to wash half of it after skirting it.

And when I was done and ready to put it back on the screen to dry, I saw all these little dots of things. Like dandruff. I thought it could have been the Borax powder, but only used it on the 1st wash. So I threw it all out. It scared me. So it's out of the studio. Going to the dump now.

My brother is here visiting from Colorado. He's staying with mom, then he's going other places for work. So will be spending time with him this week before he has to leave.

And we are due for more rain this week. And BOTH my boots decide to get holes in them, at the same time! Right on the tops of each boot. The way I knew is that I had a boot full of mud after a few steps. UGH! So now, I have to put my feet in plastic bags. Isn't that so cool? And rednecky farmer? Til I can get some more, this is the way I shall have to wear those boots.