I've decided my mama brain cannot handle as much as I'm throwing at it, especially in my knitting. I'm a pretty experienced and capable knitter, usually. Lately, things have been going a bit awry. I told you about the big one, but I started Buttercup, and have already made a few mistakes. Grrr. Okay, step back, and take a deep breath. Time for a knitting cleanse. I don't want to stop knitting, as I love doing it, and it's so portable and fun to do. Besides it makes me a more patient person when I'm out and about having to wait in line, or for an appointment to start, and a less jumpy passenger in the car. So, instead I'm going back to knitting 101 projects. Small, Fast, Simple, Obvious Construction. No brainer type projects.
My first, this fabulous wash cloth. I love knitted wash cloths, but I don't love how bulk they can be. I stumbled across a blog where the author shared that same opinion, and had a solution. The Not Your Ordinary Knitted Dishcloth pattern was perfect, for my cleanse, and the finished product is just the kind of cloth I'm looking for. I used some Baby Yellow Filatura Di Crosa Dolce Amore that I had sitting around, instead of buying crochet cotton. It's so soft and delicate. It would make a marvelous baby washcloth. But I'm keeping this one for myself, for my face. I'm sure I'll knit more of these. They work up fast even though they are on small needles.
For when I'm over my cleanse and onto bigger projects again, this adorable Knitting E-zine has some great projects. They are all free! They look adorable. Mostly little girl patterns, but they do have a little boy vest, a great knitted lobster and a mama messenger bag.
Chicken update: The Buff Orpington's are on their way from Mt. Healthy Hatchery, and should be here tomorrow. The Dorkings are doing well, have full wing feathers. I moved them and a couple guineas, to the big brooder pen I made a couple days ago. The Guineas all look good today.
I made a brooder pen in my garage, instead of doing a brooding house. I wanted to find a way to do this without spending any money, and I wanted to be able to do something with it when I was done. This is what I came up with. I had 2 boards, one plywood, another pressboard, both 4×8. The pressboard is the back, the plywood I cut in half and used to make the ends. I had another used piece of pressboard, that was big enough for a low front. I divided the pen in half to separate my breeding stock birds (dorkings) from my meat birds (orpingtons). I will have to add some height to the divider as they grow, and the front will have chicken wire across it when that time comes too, but for now, the 20" height is enough to contain them. No money spent on construction!
Don't they look happy!?
What will it be when I'm done? I'm going to cut the back in half, and add (this I may need to buy) ends to create 2 3 sided square structures. I'll put a pallet covered with chicken wire in the bottom of each, and chicken wire on the front, and use them to hold chicken manure/shavings/compost pile. The wood will face the road, I'll paint them and all that will give me a nice clean, pretty yard, with easily accessible manure piles. I have so many painting projects I want to do this summer. We'll see if I actually get to them.
Thanks for the info on the wash clothes. I bought a bunch of crochet yarn last year when our walmart clearanced out all their fabric section, (they did away will all their yarn too except the cheap Red Heart stuff) they were something like $.50 so I couldn’t pass it up but I haven’t had a clue as to what I was going to use it for. Now I’m going to make up a bunch of white wash clothes.
I bet that stuff would be great, doubled up, to make the market bag I started (and sadly haven’t finished). http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/elisas-nest-tote Great price! That’s fabulous.