Cramming

If my blog posts seem to be rather erratic these days, it's because they are.

Christmas will be nine days away come tomorrow, and I am frantically trying to finish up the last orders for knitted goats!! I think I have to make two more, and then finish two up before I'm done... I made two goats today, and seeing as each goat takes three hours to make, that means I sat on my duff for six solid hours on this fine day with needles and yarn in my hands.

 It was nice. ;)

Yesterday morning was gloriously spent at the town library, as the family dropped me off and went to do errands. The fines on my library card were a testament to how much time has lapsed since I was last there, but I paid those pesky things with a smile. I got to go to the library!! Whoohoo! And not only did I get to explore endless aisles of books, but I even got to take my own sweet time. If I'm rushed, I can get in and out of that library in 45 minutes. Don't ask how long I was there yesterday... Just know that my "book crate on wheels" was groaning precariously, and I did have to kick the bottom back together twice. But I did it out of sight from the librarians, so they wouldn't know who was doing the horrendous banging. I checked out my boat load of books and started on down to historic 3rd Street. 

Admittedly, I did feel a little conspicuous traveling down the street with a black, plastic crate on wheels that looked like it might fall apart at any moment, but I wasn't going too far, so I didn't worry about it too much. My destination after the library was the 'Knitting Basket'. My favorite yarn store. And oh did I shop... It's always more fun to shop when you're not spending your own money, as was my case that day. I received a check in the mail to pay for the supplies to make 50-100 knitted goats, and I was now buying those supplies.

 I was like a kid in a candy store. 

After much hunting around, and petting of skeins, I settled on my choices and un-gracefully plopped my purchases onto the store counter. They really should look into getting baskets there.... True to typical fashion, I always find more things after I've paid. So I had to get back in line again. But what I got was worth it... I've unashamedly lusted after these for over a year now, so I told myself "Merry Christmas", and bought myself a present.

Square, Rosewood knitting needles.

Fellow knitters, please swoon.

Non-knitters, please raise an eyebrow and give me an indulgent smile.

Thank you.

I'll have to get a picture of my treasure sometime tomorrow, but I am head over heels in love with these new needles. I mean, come on, how often do you see square knitting needles? And Rosewood ones? Shucks, here's the debit card lady, please put the needles in my bag. Eighty percent of my reason for getting them is pure novelty. I wanted to try them out! The other 20% of my reasoning was I wanted to see if they helped my wrists at all. The packaging of course claims that it's better for your hands and cuts down on muscle fatigue, and blah, blah, blah, but doesn't everything say that? Okay maybe not everything, but it's close. Back to the original subject though: My left wrist doesn't function properly, ever since I broke it in a horse accident three years ago. The bone wasn't set properly, so it causes a lot of pain these days. I wasn't expecting these needles to be a magic solution, but I figured I could pay ten bucks and see if the hype was true or not.

I haven't used my new needles enough to know if they do what is said they will do, but at this point I don't care. I love 'em. :)

So yes, I am cramming my days with knitted goats. I'm stressing because I still need to get this month's CSA yarn shipment off, I need to make more soap out of that lard, and I have things to do outside. I'm trying not to stress, but it still creeps up on me at odd moments throughout the day.

Other than the six hours working on goats, I got to hop over to a friend's house to see their new Nubian goats, and help them milk their new gal. I guess I shouldn't say "new" goats, seeing as one is Shilling, who was mine, and the other is a doe from a fellow breeder. But hey, they're new to my friends, so therefore they are new to me. And boy howdy do I like that older doe of theirs... Her name is Lily, and wow. What. A. Looker. I told my friends that if she has two doelings (they plan on keeping one) I dibs the second. I need want a doeling from this gal. She's chocolate brown in color, and absolutely huge. She is thick, heavyset, massive... Are those all synonyms? Eh, if they are, I'm using them as if they weren't. She's a big girl. You can't think the word "petite" around her without laughing. My Saanen/La Mancha doe, Heidi, is almost 200 lbs. and I can handle her pretty well. I grabbed Lily's collar to take her to the milk stand, and she started walking in the opposite direction and dragged me with her! I actually fell over and slid across the straw as she nonchalantly walked away. Stubborn. Powerful. Interesting mix. 

Here's a pic of her majesty:

Picture courtesy of Royal Cedar's Nubians

Do you see now why I want one of her daughters?

I also sold my young rabbits this evening. Four young bucks, and two does. I was going to butcher the males, but decided that I need some money right now more than I need rabbit meat. I kept one male out of that litter. The biggest one of them all, and he's blue! I'm a sucker for blues. It was an interesting evening. I've been raising rabbits for eight years now, but that gentleman made me feel like I know absolutely nothing. I think it was the way he talked down to me... I felt like a 10 year old again standing there with my rabbits. Or maybe it was that he said my buck (Basil Stag Hare, my massive fella') was nothing special. It certainly didn't help matters that when I'm trying to get him to realize that I'm not some dumb kid raising rabbits as a hobby, my New Zealand doe, 'Rosie Cotton' comes hopping into the barn. 45 feet from the rabbitry. 

That was embarrassing.

I assured the man that this was the first escapee I've ever had, and his answer was simply, "Somehow I don't think it will be your last."

Humph.

But he bought my youngters, and left. I should be content, not disgruntled. Maybe I'm a little bit of both.

And now that I have hopelessly rambled this way and that, I really should sign off and go do my evening chores. And then go start knitting again...

Toodle pip and cheerio, dear readers! I can't tell you how much I appreciate knowing that people actually stop by this little place to read my rambles. Makes this country girl smile. :)