2012 June 12 — Patchwork Times by Judy Laquidara

June 12, 2012 · by JudyL

Last night Sheri announced the details of Project 2 for Camp Loopy. Basically, the project has to have at lest one color from your country’s flag and it has to use at least 800 yards.

How long do you think it took me to figure out what to knit? Too long! What do you think I decided to knit? I’m still not sure! Do you think everything red or blue or white or gold (or even close to those colors) in my favorite yarns might be sold out within seconds of the details being posted? Yes! How many times do you think I said “forget it . . I’m not even doing Project 2!”? At least three times and it’s only been about 12 hours since the details were posted.

Here are some of the factors contributing to my dilemma.

I could make a sweater but I’ve never made a sweater so I can’t convince myself to try that when I have a month to get the whole project done and a garden and produce to take care of also.
I could make a large shawl but I made several last year and never once used any of them.
It never gets hot here!

I searched Ravelry and I searched my knitting magazines and I read the posts about what others were making. I printed free patterns. I printed saved patterns from my computer. I bought new patterns. I was kinda leaning towards a cape type project. I do not like long sleeves . . ever! Since we hardly ever use heat, it’s sometimes a bit chilly in the house in the winter so I thought a cape might be comfortable. My arms would be free. It isn’t like a shawl that I’m feeling like I have to hang onto. I could see us sitting out on that big old front porch on the cool fall evenings, sipping a glass of wine, ~~planning my new kitchen~~, talking about life and keeping snuggly warm with my cape.

With each “almost decision”, I had to choose yarn. There had to be enough yarn to make that project. I put yarn in my cart and then changed my mind about the project and took all that yarn out and added more yarn. This went on and on . . I think I filled my cart and dumped it three times. Good thing I wasn’t at a real shop or they would probably have asked me to leave.

Finally, after hours and hours, the decision was made – The Cranberry Capelet. I love everything about this except that turtleneck and I think I’ve read enough about it that I can chance it and not have the turtleneck.

This is my real cart . . I probably have the needles and I do have a set of interchangeable needles but I didn’t want to get everything here and not have the needles so I bought more. Since I’m not real sure about what I’m doing with the collar, I got one of the least expensive yarns and it’s superwash – into the washer and dryer they say. If I like it, I’ll probably wear it almost every day this winter. That’s how I am with clothes. This year I found shorts I like at Sam’s Club. I always shop at those high priced, exclusive type shops! Smile I loved them and ordered more so every day, I have on the same thing. Doesn’t bother me one bit and so far, only the cows, chickens and Speck see me and they haven’t complained one bit.

With the decision made for Camp Loopy Project 2, and the morning wasted, I vacuumed and got a roast in the oven. Now it’s time for Vince to be home for lunch and when he leaves, I’ll go to the sewing room and spend the afternoon there . . I hope!

Bertha Crows!

June 12, 2012 · by JudyL

Remember Big Bertha, our huge hen? We thought she might have been a he when we first got them. She was a lot bigger than the other little chicks. The more we read about the variety we thought we had, the more we thought Bertha might have been a rooster but after the little black roosters and the little Bantam roosters, who were about 3 or 4 weeks younger than the first batch of chickens began crowing over a month ago, we assumed Bertha was a hen.

See how much bigger she is than the other chickens?

Yesterday morning just as it was getting daylight, I staggered outside to let the chickens out. It was halfway dark, I was halfway asleep and the cicadas were so darned noisy, I couldn’t hear myself think. Just as I got to the big girls’ coop, I thought I heard a crow. There are 14 hens in that coop . . no roosters! Couldn’t have been a crow. I decided I just wasn’t awake enough, the cicadas were so loud that it was coming from the Dominique/Bantam coop. The chickens were let out, and I set about working in the garden.

In just a few minutes, I heard the loudest crow! There was no way that was coming from the far coop with the Dominiques/Bantams. I looked and there stood Bertha . . proud as could be . . standing on the ramp crowing ~~her~~ his little heart out. Those other 13 chickens were scared to death! They were jumping and flying into the fence and in a general panic. Bertha stood up there and crowed and crowed.

The other chickens must have figured out the noise was coming from one of their own because they quickly calmed down. I didn’t hear any more crowing the rest of the day. He must’ve worn himself out.

This messed up my elaborate plan of moving some of the roosters here and some there, and moving a hen from this coop to that coop. I need to spread some of the Dominique roosters around but with Big Bertha being large and in charge in Hen House #1, I don’t think I need to try to put another rooster in there. I’m afraid we’re going to have to find a new home for one Dominique rooster and one Bantam rooster.

Who would have thought Bertha would wait til she was over 3 months old before she’d start crowing!