heather: we have 130 chickens!

It is the Teeny, Tiny Preemie Hats, by Cheryl Andrews, over at Ravelry. I just received an email from the recipients of the hat. He's in the largest of the three, and the 2 other hats were gifted to other babies in the NICU. Warms my heart!

cool!

Amy, I think I taught myself from an old book, too, probably close to 20 years ago now. I have a couple of darning eggs but for this one I used a spent light bulb that I unscrewed from a light fixture at our Tuesday night knitting group at the local bar! I think the light bulb works better, stretches the fabric just right, where the repairs need to happen. These holes were so big I divided and conquered a section at a time.

let's see: yesterday alone, it was 2 loaves of bread (one first thing in the morning, the other after 11 pm), 9-grain oatmeal for breakfast, then 2 huckleberry pies (one w/butter, one w/a dairy free coconut oil crust), homemade vanilla ice cream, open face grilled cheeses w/the first loaf of bread (delivered with hot cocoa made with real milk to 5 kids who played ALL day out in the woods-barely even saw them-had to go check to make sure they were OK a couple of times) popcorn, black beans in the pressure cooker & wheat tortillas from scratch. Fortunately a couple of friends just happened by around dinner time to help us eat some of this. Good timing on their part. Also this week our kitchen has seen 3 big batches of kimchi. I'm hooked. One of those mixed blessings, too, but pretty easy to make, really. Looks like next year I'll be planting more napa cabbage, and daikon radish, too!

ALL so wonderfully unique! That's one ambitious goal but I've no doubt you can do it. I was just finishing the machine quilting on the boys quilts that I started, oh...2+ years ago, and they too are covered in animal hair, dust, and such by now. Yesterday E asked me whether they'd be done in the Fall or next Spring. I was hoping for something more like this week...but I'm not making any promises! It's a bit of a joke around here, too, the failed vests that have been in the works for Chris for quite literally 15 years now.