Sorry for the late "next post"! I've been busy with what they call "life"! We delivered some of the sheep to the slaughterhouse nearly two weeks ago, and it took some time to mark them and prepare them for sending off. Last weekend I also had a date with hubby, he flew in to Oslo on Thursday night, I took the bus down and arrived Friday morning, and we spent the weekend on a hotel, including a spa-treatment (ouch- I HATE the massage, it hurts! Hubby of course loved it!) We went to a show Friday night- Ylvis 3- two young brothers who had a great show), and out for dinner. On Saturday we did a little shopping and spent the evening listening to a singer/songwriter in the hotellobby (she was really good! She has a webpage that I haven't checked out yet, you'll find it here.
I took the bus down, as I said, and tried to knit some. The Koiguhat, the beanie, is too small, but I haven't decided whether to rip it all out(beanies are not my type of hat...) or just reknit the top of it, since I really like the band around the head. Anyway, I decided to make another one, more slouchy, still using Cassie's Loksins! pattern. With my own twist, that is.
I also need more angels...these are knitted in Mor Åse- yarn,on 4mm dpn's, and will be felted. I found the pattern in Familiens Juleideer 2007.
On the bus from Oslo last Sunday, I finally started Ripples, the Novemberpattern of Sockamania. This is how far I got (the busride is 12 hours...), but after a few hours I kept dozing off, losing both stitches and needles, so I stopped knitting- and haven't picked it up again...
Mr.Black is trying his best to help me with the writing, he lies in my lap with his feet up, trying not to fall off.We've also sheared the sheep, so they all look neat before winter!
I also had to make an unpleasant, complaining phonecall this morning. As I said, we delivered the sheep to the slaughterhouse a week and a half ago. We are not allowed to slaughter at home and sell the meat, and almost everything goes through cooperations. Well, I had a few sheep, a decent number of lambs, and a few castrates. We often castrate the male lambs in the fall if they are too small to deliver. Then they get an extra year up in the mountains to gain weight. I had 10 to deliver, and they looked good. I also had three that I slaughtered at home on Saturday to keep myself. Anyway, I got the payment for these on Friday... The castrated ones had been classified as rams, and we got NOK 1,71 per kilo... That is not much... To make it even more confusing- two of the castrates were classified "lamb", which is good, and being paid NOK 31,05 and 35,77 per kilo...a third was classified "young sheep"( which would have been correct for all of them) and paid NOK 24,91 per kilo.... And to top it off- we delivered all of the sheep as ecological, but it turns out the wildsheep should NOT have been marked with the "eco"label...the prizes would have been better if delivered as "wildsheep"!!! Confusing??? I'm mad! And disappointed. The prizes are too low, there are too many "if's" and "but's" and "maybe's", so I've been a nasty lady on the phone today...Sorry!!! This is supposed to be a knittingblog-LOL- but sometimes this socalled life interfere with my knitting:-)
I've just salted 5 sheepskin that will be "garvet" sometime in the future...but I doubt if I do it myself, I'm more likely to send it off to a garveri ( for those of you reading Norwegian...but there are pictures,so all of you will see what I mean- unfortunately I STILL haven't bought a book of translations between Norwegian and English!)
Enough of that. It turns out to be a great day here on the westcoast, the sun is up, and it is not too cold. Have a beautiful day!
14 comments:
Så pes med slakteriet, da! SKjønner at du blir frustrert.
Lykke til med de salta skinnene. Regner med vi får se litt av dem etterhvert???
OG skulle du finne på å garve selv, så tar jeg av meg hatten for deg. DET hadde jeg ikke orket å begi meg utpå. Jeg har en kusine som garvet skinn til meg da hun gikk på folkehøyskole. Bare beskrivelsen av prosessen og lukta ga meg avsmak. Heldigvis har jeg ikke noe sted å holde på med sånt, så jeg slipper uansett å vurdere det.
Marit, I hope you get it all worked out. I find all the farming stuff fascinating, but I understand how it gets in the way of the knitting. . .
Oh, my what a frustrating time...Hope everything works out ok. So glad to see you posted...and with knitting too--lovely. Glad you had a weekend break with hubby--such fun. Good there are such moments in between "life"!! Happy Days to you & yours ((HUGS))
How frustrating! My friends who are dairy farmers tell me there are many of the same issues here with the classification "organic". Is a garveri a tannery? It looks like those skins have turned into rugs and such.
Gorgeous knitting, as always! I usually fall asleep too quickly on bus trips to get much done.
Have a lovely day! It is so beautiful there...
garving = tanning
garveri = tannery
Og visste du at det var mannen min du linket til der ;-)
The hats are really nice, Marit! I love the color.
Date night - wow. . . haven't had one of those in a long time, but then, my hubby isn't away on the North Sea!!
Love the socks!
Hi Marit
Thanks for visiting my blog! I just had to come on over and see what you are up to. I've never seen so much knitting and all so beautiful too!
I've just shown my husband the picture of your farm and asked him if we can move to Norway - now!!
love Lesley xx
As I've said before, just when I start romanticizing your farm too much, you remind us that it's a bunch of work!! It's still beautiful though.
Nice that you got to have a little holiday too!
Sounds like you had a nice 'date' time in Oslo. 12 hour bus ride? Wow! That's a lot of knitting time! I hope the sheep thing all gets worked out. Sounds like a lot of variables to consider!!! Your knitting all looks great! I love the hats!
Du har det visst travelt, ja.. Godt det ikkje er berre sauer og jobb, men litt kos innimellom òg :)
Huene dine er kjempefine, synd at den eine vart for lita. Trur nok eg ville ha prøvd å rekke opp og strikka på nytt. Ser ut som det er verdt det!! :)
Marit, you are such a help to me, your comment reflected exactly how I feel. I do need to do something for myself and I am considering the educational options. All of this is not helped by being an expat wife either.
I will post about my knitting - boring beige languishing in bottom of bag needing to be sewn up - maybe a job for mum!
Take care
Min
The hat is lovely, but everything you make is lovley.
I'm so glad you had some "quality time" with hubby. I'm sure it did both of you a world of good.
Way back when we had a small herd of sheep, we had similar problems selling our fleece. I felt we were being robbed, but I gather they just don't pay well for US fleece. If we had raised the sheep just for what we earned in fleece and meat, we would never had raised them for so long. But they were so wonderful to be around, just enjoying them made it all worth the work and effort of keeping them. Have a great day. :)
Så nydelige luer du holder på med. Skikkelig flott farge og mønster.
Oj, den baskern där var ju helt underbar... var hittas den? ljuvlig... :p
Änglarna där var ju verkligen häftiga också - tovade sedan vad jag kunde förstå... hm... läste bara lite hastigt, på väg mot kudden och sova inför morgondagen nämligen... Kunde bara inte låta bli att titta in ;)
Och blå Ripples Socks... mina är färdiga, men inte blå... Men, frågan är om jag ska behålla dem, eller om jag har något med mikroskopiskt mindre fötter än mig... och ev lite högre vrist, hm... får fundera över om jag har någon sådan, hihihi...
Må så gott... värmländskan... kramis och sticka lugnt... ngn som redan längtar till nytt mönster - dock stickas andra sockar via Ravelry... och sjal och - och - och ... nä, ;)
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