A red letter day: I started the knit-addicted stash-stowing task. I finally decided I'd better look at everything I own and categorize it by yarn type. I am soooo embarrassed. I have stuff I forgot about, totally. I found a pair of 3/4s done mittens on the needle still. And one finished mitten out of some of my handspun, with the ribbing cuff of the second on a needle. And....If I knit a pair of socks a week, I'll use up the sock yarn I already have in, oh, a matter of years or so! (That won't stop me from lusting after new sock yarns.)

After much cogitation, I settled on the following categories for yarn: superwash wools, feltable wools, sock yarn, alpaca, silks or silk blends, and novelty (ribbons, mostly). I have an excess of fuschia in all fibers, which I vaguely recall collecting for a specific project whose characteristics escape me now. I know it was for someone else, not myself. Hmmm.

Naturally, the impetus for doing all this....looking for two specific yarns I NEED to finish two pairs of socks....led to disappointment. I found every type of yarn BUT the ones I was looking for. I can visualize them in bags with other yarns, but those specific two bags are nowhere to be found. I might be making "fraternal" twins for the second socks, and hope nobody looks too closely.

Ron sent me home with an orphan, sick little lamb two days ago. I've been bottle feeding him regularly and giving him antibiotics and supportive nutrients. He seems less "hot" (temperature going down) but remains very stiff and doesn't move around much. This morning I gave him tetanus antitoxin in addition to antibiotic shots, and a few hours later he tried to follow the other sheep out to the field. He couldn't keep up and made it out of the barn but then started bleating pitifully. I carried him out to the pasture and put him down in the clean grass. I'm a proponent of fresh air and sunshine! At least he's brighter eyed and trying to move around.

I'm also feeding one of a set of triplets, who is now a real pet, running up to me, following me around, talking to me. In a pen in the barn, I have a ewe with mastitis and her twins, who also drink a bottle twice a day. I gave the ewe a big dose of penicillin this morning. She eats well and is hale and hearty even though she's 10 years old. I hope the antibiotic helps. I'd hate to think it's her last year here.

All these "bottle babies" must be payback for my bragging that I don't get pet lambs from my good ewes! I normally don't keep anything that can't raise its lambs, and that way have reached the point where I usually don't have "bummer" lambs that need bottle feeding. This year is payback, I guess!

I want to start the sweater for my nephew, out of hand spun yarn from "his" sheep (born the same day he was). With all the books and patterns I've searched, I still haven't settled on a design. I'd like something with simple cables or something to make it less generic. I know he'd like a hood! He loves hats of all kinds.

It's been beautifully warm and sunny during the days, but at 6 a.m. I need a jacket. Yesterday morning, I even wore the great hat made from Rowen super chunky wool that my SP sent to me...Thanks, Pal!!