The Farm Box

Long-time readers (both of you) know that my aunt runs a non-profit farm in Connecticut that does animal rescue and animal-assisted therapy.  On years when I either have my act together so I knit a lot, or years when I am a complete mess so I don't do anything but eat/sleep/knit, I send her a box of my stuff to sell at her annual fundraiser.  Last year was largely OK but not great, so nothing.  This year I started out with my act together and have ended up a complete mess* so I have stuff to donate.  My aunt sent me a box of yarn spun from wool from some of the animals, as I documented here,** and I finally have some output.

*  I have overestimated my ability to deal with a certain set of frustrations at work.  I thought the problem was solved at a powwow a few weeks ago, but maybe I just heard what I wanted to hear.  I finally ran out of patience this week and said something I really really really really should not have said.  I have only myself to blame.  I could feel my patience running out, but I didn't have the courage to Deal With It during the powwow.  The Day of Reckoning is Tuesday (or maybe Monday) and I expect to be in a constant state of anxiety until then.  You know, the daily vomiting, the constant feeling of butterflies in the stomach, the ceaseless repetition of my apology speech running on a loop in my head, the headaches, the disrupted sleep, and the constant having to remind myself that it doesn't matter that I was right (except I still shouldn't have said that) because I knew I was susceptible to this and I knew a blow-up was imminent if I didn't do something, so I could have avoided it altogether, and that makes it my own fault that I feel this way.

**Wow.  It feels like I've had the farm yarn for years, but it only came in 2010.  Hm.

It took forever to decide what to do with it, but I finally came up with a plan and, well, here is the farm box stuff:

I made a sample blanket from the cream wool.  I understand that the wool came from Walter....

Hi Walter!

...and from some miniature Cheviot Sheep.  I don't have pictures of the actual donors, but Google tells me that they look like this:

...and how that is different from Walter, who is not a MCS, I do not know.  By the way, Google also told me that I am not the only person with a pile of farm yarn.

So back to the blanket.  It's made of 20 squares each in a different pattern and then sewn together and given a crochet edging.  There were times when it was in progress that I thought that the yarn was too rough and rustic for this project.  What do you think?

It really is true.  Blocking hides all sorts of problems.

Not bad at all.

I may be obnoxious at work (especially when there's a problem and I see a solution but am not allowed to fix things),***  but I can still do this knitting thing.

*** I am dying to spew forth with the whole sordid story but you'd be bored and I'd only be feeding the recriminations machine in my head, plus risk getting dooced,  so I'll shut up about it now.

Hey!  It's the dining room table!  We haven't seen this for a while.  The dining room table is where I used to dump all my yarn-related stuff--well, not all of it obviously--just the stuff that isn't put away.  Mr. D has taken to occupying the table with all his stupid Mr. D stuff, which is totally different from me dumping my stuff there.  He also works there, but he doesn't clear much of a space--he just puts his laptop and papers down.  Someday, he was going to ruin something with one of his Mr. D Accidents, so I don't keep things there any more.  But today, just for you, I laid out *BRB....looking up verb "to lay"*

HA!  NAILED IT!

...um I laid out all the farm box stuff.  Geez.  What were we talking about?

Ah yes.  There on top is the llama shawl.  Say hello to Tiki.

Don't worry.  Kirby is there too.


Oh yeah.  Llama

So that was from the farm***** and I only used about half of it.  I have no clue what to do with the rest.  Llama is way too rough for garments worn next to the skin, like mittens or shawls  or hats.  *thinking*  Yeah.  So that's a problem for another day.

*****Mr. D:  "That looks almost like lace!"  DB:  "It is lace you dingbat!"  I despair.

When we remove the llama shawl, we can see most of the rest of the stuff.

So there we have the pink cable hoodie and the turquoise cardigan

And under that is a Baby Surprise Jacket, a plain black garter stitch scarf, and a stripey scarf from some delicious Manos del Uruguay.****

****There's more to Uruguay than hunky Diegos and smokin' hot long-haired fullbacks with perfect cheekbones.

And under that is hats, socks, and the dune scarf.

And if you wrap it all up in tissue so the pieces don't shed on each other, it just fits in a 16x16x12 box.  Tomorrow, we go to the post office (but not between 2-3 because that's when the crazy e-Bay lady likes to show up with 150 packages and monopolize the window clerks for 30 minutes).


I was hoping to make three blankets from the Cheviot but it's not going to happen:

1. Increasing supply will drive down the price they can get at auction.
2. TOO MUCH FARM YARN KNITTING AT ONE TIME!  *sob sob*
3. One blanket weighs about 1500g.  I have 2000g left.  

I can, however, make one more for next year, and I have some grey Jacob wool for a different kind of blanket and some alpaca that might make an awesome garter stitch jacket.  For now, however, it's back to nice soft commercial yarn with no twigs stuck in it.