Ducks

We now have 11 ducks. One, Woody, won't stay in the duck yard and is currently residing under the van. Last night he wanted to join the layers in their house. They were not pleased and put up quite a fuss. He went back under the van. I hope I can herd him back down the hill to the duck yard. Our two ducks have been trained to a whistle and now I must try and train the other 9. I can't until we have a proper duck house. Just going out and whistling to them won't do a darned thing. Two of the new ducks have discovered the wee duck pond, though they're staying in the shallow end.

The cotton blanket is off the loom. Now I need to decide how I will put the panels together. It's much easier with wool, in that the seam is more forgiving and has the tendency, usually, to disappear after lightly fulling. Joining panels has been a topic recently on one of the weaving lists. I may try the crochet method; sc1 on one side, sc1 on the other side. I think I can handle that. I suppose the trick will be deciding what size hook to use. I have a fair amount of small, steel hooks around, so hopefully one of them will be appropriate for the job.

Next on the loom will be chenille, for someone else. I think the warp is 15 yards. All plain weave. I'll need to get a "talking book" so I can plow through this.

One of my sons wants a blanket so I'm playing the design game in my head. We'll see what I come up with. I rather like the recent blanket Bonnie wove, well, is actually still weaving. I like her ikat panels and think that Patrick would like something very similar. The men in my family think wild and crazy colors are shades of gray. My Father, on the other hand, loved wild and crazy colors and frequently reminded me of a walking color wheel after he retired. I suppose this change in him was 32 years wearing Army uniforms and moving to Sun City, AZ. It didn't help that he was color blind. And his colors were often blinding.

I've continued knitting the pullover, knowing that winter will arrive at some point. I'm loving the weather lately. I can still wear shorts and light weight t-shirts and not get bundled up to do chores. But soon it'll be freezing out and the different flocks will need the water carried out to them. Not fun.

I am anxious to dye something while the weather is still warm. Perhaps I'll wind some warp for Patrick's blanket. It's more interesting than what is on today's "to do" list....like shovel sh*t.