How am I supposed to get anything done?

snoozing baby Evan

After coffee this morning (and lots of playing King of Mount Mindy-Mom) little Evan curled up on my lap for a snooze. Really, how in the world was I gonna get up and do chores during that? (more later- they were really cute this morning, but I do need to do some things)

chore procrastination

More cuteness (no surprise there) and some actual spinning (gasp)

My sweet baby goaties are growing. They’re racing each other all over the field, and just being beyond cute. I really enjoy having coffee with them in the morning. I noticed when I downloaded my pictures that most of them this time are of little Renesmee- guess she was more cooperative. So the past few mornings she’s been all curious while I’ve been having my coffee. (and my camera is back- yay).

Evan and Renesmee seeing what's going on

Renesmee "Does this robe make milk?"

Renesmee "Uhhh, nothings happening"

Hey- I have some spinning I can show you- cuz I know you have to be sick of the babies. So here is the first ply of Chimera’s Rocky Road:

Rocky Road

Hoping to have the 2nd ply done in a day or 2, and have it plied by the end of the week. I’d really like to start finishing 2 skeins a week, so I’m going to make sure spinning happens just as much as knitting, instead of merely in addition to. Now I want to show you both skeins of Black Bunny Fibers Good ‘n’ Fruity. The first skein is 2-ply, letting the brilliant colors fall where they will.

2 ply

The 2nd skein I Navajo-plied- chain ply is another name for it. You make a 3 ply out of 1 single by plying the yarn onto itself by making chains. This method insures that your color changes stay together.

3 ply

I had thought that I would like the navajo plied yarn better- with the bright colors and all the white space on this roving. But I think I prefer the 2-ply.

both

What do you guys think? Now I’m thinking the navajo plying might be better with a more subtly colored roving. So I think when I finish the Rocky Road, I may have to do Chimera’s Bittersweet, navajo ply it just to see if that theory works.

Bittersweet

But before we leave the Good ‘n’ Fruity- look what I found my camera (my camera!) can do:

we're in the yarn

I can zoom in in macro mode. Cool, huh?

Now we have some stash enhancement- from my favorite pusher oops, I mean dealer oops, I mean my favorite on-line fiber source. These are both installments from Black Bunny Fibers fiber clubs. This gorgeous skein of yarn is from the sock club

Ribbon II sock yarn

It’s a gorgeous blend of 70 wool/15 silk/15 bamboo. I can’t wait til it tells me what it wants to be.

Next is this gorgeous roving

Mud Puddle

It’s a fluffy cormo-corriedale cross colored “Mud Puddle” and its just dying to get on one of my wheels. Soon, my pretty. Soon.

Thank you, everyone, for your kind words about my brother. Talking about him, and remembering his birthday (and death day) keep him alive in my memory- so he’ll be mentioned often. As a matter of fact, I think I will actually venture back to Boston this spring to do the AIDS walk. I did that walk with him the last spring he was alive. Miss Mad for Knit has gently persuaded me that I can do this (I had swore I would never set foot in Boston again after his memorial- but yes, I think I can do this). So, more on this later.

Miss Mad for Knit had also wondered if I had started the babies on coffee or wine yet? What kind of mother do you think I am??????

Renesmee as I drank my coffee

Hey- whats this?

Mmmm, this smells good

Oh, yea!

All this cuteness is hindering knitting and spinning progress

Justine likes the sun

But what can I do when faced with all this cuteness?

Bin of book-ends Justine and Jonesy

At coffee this morning they were so ready to play.

we're in mommy's chair!

Look- a new toy

Hey- we can bounce on Mom!

Coffee is getting more fun every morning. Those were all Justine and Jonesy- Evan and Renesmee like to sleep in.

Evan and Renesmee- resting up to be cute later

Little Miss Renesmee

Look at that face!

Their little eyes are still blueish gray, but they’re starting to change to brownish gold. I can’t believe its been a week already- wow.

They were going full tilt later in the afternoon, but I missed all the best shots. Renesmee was chasing a guinea! They all 4 hop up and down, and before now the sets of twins had been staying seperate, but now they’re all starting to play together.

They really are tons of fun, and I’m so glad they’re here. I’m not getting a whole lot else done. House desperately needs some cleaning, haven’t been able to concentrate on any major knitting or spinning. I did finish up a pair of socks, and a hat for a service project. Oh! I got a call from BestBuy’s Geek Squad today- my camera is ready to be picked up. (sorry, Carol not trying to rub it in (her camera broke today)). So I’ll have MY camera tomorrow- yippee. Not that there is anything wrong with my nephew’s camera, and I have been very grateful to have it- but I didn’t want to try to learn all of its tricks for a week or 2, only to have to switch back to my camera’s tricks. Anyway- I’ll have some yarn and some socks  and hats to show you soon.

Tomorrow would have been my brother’s 48th birthday. Not a day goes by when he doesn’t cross my mind. I remember being worried that naming my son after him would be a heavy burden on a little baby, or that he might not be able to form an identity seperate- those were needless worries, and we’ve all managed to seperate the 2 boys with the same name. But my brother is never, ever forgotten. I wish he could be here to eat the cake I will bake for him- my sister and I often play the game of what he would say/think about what’s going on in our lives. I just wish…I’d love to talk to him now.

For subliminalrabbit- a brand new picture of Stuff.

Sweet Stuff

Central Virginia Fiber Mill

The mill is up and running. The new website is  www.centralvirginiafibermill.com.

phone- 434-985-3669.

More cuteness by the day

I took my coffee back down to the field this morning (and the camera) and the little ones were climbing in and out of their pens, into each others’ pens, and exploring the shed. The sound of little goatie hooves hopping around on the shed floor was just too much. So much cute! And here is some of it- both from this morning’s coffee, then this afternoon’s when they went out into the wide, wide world of the field.

Evan- resting up for maximum cuteness

Cuteness is exhausting- Jonesy and Justine

wow its big out here

That’s Rosie and her pair. Rosie is super-protective newborn mom. These guys won’t be out of her sight for a week or 2. Genevieve, on the other hand, is more laid back. She’s off at the hay feeder while Jonesy is resting in the sun.

Cuteness in a bin

It’ll be like this for a bit (if it goes anything like last year) but then when the bouncing around gets to be too much for Rosie, the kids will mostly be watched by laid-back Genevieve. It wasn’t unusual to see Genevieve with both Jewel and Griffin most of the time, but not until Rosie is sure the babies are good and strong.

Renesmee

Rosie with Evan

Happy sighs! So full of bliss I can’t even blog about knitting and spinning. Tomorrow I will check in w/ the Geek Squad at Bestbuy for status of my camera, and will give you another installment of cuteness.

Growing

Quickie baby goatie update. Moved Genevieve and her crew back out to the shed yesterday. (I kinda miss having them in the kitchen). Everyone seems to be doing fine. After all the worry, Genevieve’s babies seem much bigger than Rosie’s. I took my coffee out there this morning (sorry, forgot the camera- plus its my nephew’s and I don’t want to hurt it). Little Justine was already climbing through the rails of her pen- she played around for 3 or 4 minutes, climbed back in, curled up beside Jonesy and went to sleep (everybody say “awwwww”).

not sure whose

I think that’s Justine and Jonesy. My daughter and her friend have an assignment today. They are in charge of taking pictures, but they have to make sure we can tell who is who. I do happen to know this one is one of Rosie’s:

Gotta rest up from being so cute

More and better pictures tomorrow. And just wait til I get my camera back- then it will be nonstop goatie pix.

A close call, but all is well

Last night, I thought everything would be okay with Genevieve and her new babies. But at 4 o’clock this morning, I discovered that they hadn’t nursed at all, and they were cold. I woke poor Dr. Melinda up at about 5:00 (Melinda- love you to pieces!) after trying to get milk in their mouths using a syringe and milk I had milked from Genny. We decided I should take them in the house and warm them up. So wrapped in towels, into the house we go.

advice from Pat or Dr. Melinda

Between talking to Melinda and Pat (Kid Hollow) we decided the best thing to do would be to bring Genevieve up too, and keep them in the kitchen today and tonight. I kept holding the babies (and rocking them, too- old habits die hard) until they were nice and warm.

we're so very cold

Then, once Genevieve was given a “pen” in the kitchen, I slowly unwrapped them. Warm, they were now ready to cry for momma and learn how to nurse.  Between us, we’ve figured what happened is this- Genevieve wouldn’t do much “mothering” until she had passed her placenta (sorry, all you squeamish people)- and while they were waiting for that, they got too cold to care. It was a close call that ended well. They are nice and warm and drinking and sleeping just fine now. In a moment I will invade their space to make spaghetti sauce.

Let’s backtrack. So, at 9:30 I went down to check on Rosie and her babies, Renesmee and Evan. The surprise when I opened the door was this:

brand new babies, slime included (euwwww)

So we dried them off, and weighed them.

the weigh in

They were both over 4.5 lbs (cuz my scale errors at 4.5). Their names are Jonesy (C picked that- character from 6-teen on cartoon network)  and Justine. Notice how they both work w/ Genevieve? Also, Sunday the kids and I took my Mom to Friday’s for her birthday (Happy Birthday Mom- sorry I didn’t post about it) and our wonderful waitress was Justine- and since that name was in the running anyway, that cinched it.

Evan and Renesmee

either Evan or Renesmee

C and the nursery

So, Rosie’s twins are doing well, nursing and looking cute. They’ll stay in the pen in the shed tonight. I’m gonna leave Genevieve and hers in just to make sure.

Baby Justine

Baby Jonesy

They are absolutely adorable, and now I think they all will be fine. By about the time my camera comes back, they should be cavorting all over the place and being all sorts of silly

The human kids are ecstatic. I’m exhausted. But the babies are here now, safe and sound. Very happy! (and I will be asleep about 10 minutes after spaghetti).

And then it was Genevieve’s turn

So. Went down to check on things around 9- and there were 2 new babies in Genevieve’s pen!! Another boy and girl. They both weighed over 4.5 lbs. We helped dry them off (C. and I- she was thrilled). They are just now looking to nurse- but I let reason take over. Genevieve, like Rosie, is a fantastic mom who raised a fantastic kid last year. They are in a deep, warm bed of straw- and mommas have and nurse babies all the time. I’m exhausted, so was C, and the girls will do just fine without me there watching every breath those 4(!!!!!!!!) babies take. (ok, i will fret all night, but I really am beat).

Pictures tomorrow. I need to faint, now.

Look what Rosie did!!

Twins!

One little boy, named Evan. One little girl, named Renesmee. Will definintely get you better pictures soon, but today has been kind of a whirlwind. Renesmee’s name came from book 4 of the Twilight series- and you’ll get no more details out of me than that (just in case you’ll read the books). Evan’s name came from the nice technical support guy at AT&T that I spent almost 2 hours on the phone with last night over my internet not working. It ended up being a network thing that resolved sometime this afternoon, but he was very nice, so I said if I had any boy goats, I’d name one Evan.

Renesmee weighs 4 lbs 6 oz, and Evan errored out the scale, which means he’s at least 4 lbs 8 oz.

Happy sighs.

Here was Rosie early on in labor.

Please make this go quickly...

When I left the shed 1/2 hour ago, they were all cuddled up together. More tomorrow…

Just how overdue can they get????

Well, Dr. Melinda said not to worry for another week, so I guess I’m not worrying. (yea, right)

As far as what to spin next, you all chose the RockyRoad by Chimera, and 2 ply won out. So I’ll get on that sometime soon. I like having you guys choose what I’ll spin, so when my other wheel is ready for something new, I’ll give you 2 more options. Currently on that wheel is this:

Beyond Beautiful

It’s a merino/tencel blend by BlackBunny Fibers and it is gorgeous. It was the Dec. installment for the fiber club. I reckon I should head over to QueerJoe’s and rattle his cage about it- he thought his shipment was the most beautiful- but we all know better… I would like to see if he’s started spinning it yet. Head over there- he’s celebrating his 1,000 post.

That’s about it here. The mill is so close to being ready to accept fibers. I’m working tonight, and we’re finishing up a run of 100% mohair roving. I brought some of it home to “test spin” over the weekend and its great. It was my goat Lucky’s fleece, and I dyed the locks with koolaid before we ran it through the carder- will get you pictures next post. In the meantime, here is a picture or 2 of Lucky shortly after he came home. He was a bottle baby, born on St. Patrick’s day 2006. (I was looking for more Stuff when I came across these, thought you might enjoy)

Inspection by the alpa-goat (Morph)

Inspection by the alpha child

look what I got

He did eventually grow into those ears.

Ok everyone- please do a goat labor dance for my poor does!