Blue Dog Acres

Monday, February 15, 2016

We got our baby chicks on Wednesday this week. They came in the mail and I picked them up at the post office. Boy their chirping got loud in the car!

We ordered 25 Red Rangers (a dual purpose bird) and they added a rare breed chick. It was easy to spot the rare breed as there was only one black one in with all the other yellow chicks.

Here they are in their mailing box. As soon as I opened the lid, their little heads popped up and they wanted to get out. Not bad for having hatched 48 hours earlier.

After dipping each one's beak in the water until they drank, they were raring to go in the hen house!

Boot Socks

Here is a pair of heavy wool socks I made for the Man this winter. They are wool with 15% mohair which I think means they will wear longer before developing holes or thin spots.

It also means they need to be hand washed and laid flat to dry so that they don't felt. That's okay though, my outlook changed on hand washing when I realized washing and rinsing a pair of socks takes about 30 seconds. A little longer if I have to wait for the water to heat up.

Since the yarn is heavy weight, I was able to get them done in about three days. Quick!

And perfect for wearing inside his unlined rubber boots when it's cold outside.

Monday, January 4, 2016

Mending

So Aidan asked me the other day if I'd be able to mend some of his jeans. I said sure so he brought two pairs over.

I noted that I'd already done some mending on each one. This pair was pretty straight forward although I couldn't get the leg in under the sewing machine needle.

Oh well, I thought, I'll just do it by hand. I found a bright scrap of fabric to use in behind the hole, whip-stitched around the outside edges, then did a blanket stitch around the edge of the hole using a cotton pearl thread that's heavier than the usual sewing thread. Almost more like an embroidery thread.