Pixie’s Cousin

… or I should say “Original Pixie”, since she is a blondie like Claire Garland’s original pattern, for my tow-headed niece. I was more than a little obsessed with the hair for this doll. I started with the same Drops Lima that I used on Mae’s Pixie, but in beige. However, I didn’t order enough, and I decided that I wanted to try a different yarn, something softer, but still with alpaca content. So I bought a different, alpaca/bamboo yarn at my local yarn store. It was much thinner, which I thought might be nice as well, to make the head less heavy, but it ended up looking too lacy. I tried doubling it, which worked pretty well, but then I realized I would have to buy more… yet again. I finally found this gorgeous yarn, Cascade Eco Highland Duo (70% Undyed Baby Alpaca / 30% Undyed Merino Wool) which is very soft and has a beautiful variegated undyed color to it. It’s also single-ply, which I’ve never worked with before, so that was a fun experience. I’m IN LOVE with it. It’s so incredibly soft, I just want to bury my face in it whenever I’m working with Pixie.

I also had fun creating some of Claire Garland’s other Pixie clothes from her Bumper Pixie Wardrobe Package. The tank dress with the embroidered hearts was my absolute favorite. And it was super easy to make, so I would recommend it for any newbie knitter who wants to try making Pixie. With this Pixie’s lighter skin and hair color, and her bright turquoise eyes, she really needed a different color palette than Mae’s Pixie. So I used lot’s of pinks, greys, & blues that seemed to suit her well.

I can’t wait to give her to my niece next month!!! She seemed pretty interested in Mae’s doll at her birthday party, so I think she’ll like it. Mae’s friend Erica, on the right, is also getting a Pixie made for her by her Mom:

For now, she’s having fun hanging out with her Pixie cousin:

Mae is having fun playing with both dolls:

And so is Jonah:

But their favorite is still Mae’s Pixie (also because I’m not REALLY letting them play with Chloe’s):    

Jonah would prefer that this picture doesn’t get widespread exposure among his peers… note sure why… boys shouldn’t get guff for playing with dolls too, methinks!

Happy Belated Birthday to my Chickens

In all of the excitement of Mae’s birthday, I realized that I had forgotten to mention the birthday (or should I say hatching day?) of my hens on May 9th. Just over a year ago, they were hatched at my kids’ school as a science project, and on probably the biggest whim of our lives, we brought them home for Mae’s birthday 2 days later.

They were the best, most fun, educational, exciting and life-changing birthday present she had ever been given, and the last year has been a really amazing adventure for all of our family as we’ve raised them, enjoyed them, and learned from them.

Many of my readers may not have had the chance to go back to the beginning of my blog to follow our adventures from the start, so I wanted to present the opportunity: if you are interested, if you have nothing better to do this weekend (Hah!), if you are new to chicken keeping or considering embarking on this adventure yourself (perhaps you can learn something from our experiences), or if you just want to watch a lot of cute videos of baby chicks (I was a bit video-happy back then), this is where our story began, and you can click the “next” buttons at the top of the page to read the posts chronologically:

https://vuchickens.wordpress.com/2012/05/15/birthday-chickens-2-days-old/

Happy Birthday Cleo & Gloria!!! You have enriched our lives with your presence, and our meals with your incredibly rich and delicious free-range eggs, and we are so very glad you came into this world and into our home!

Pixie Doll Pattern is on Sale this Week – Join the Fun!

PIXIE EVENT SPECIAL OFFER FOR THIS WEEK ONLY – 17th to 24th MAY 25% OFF

Anyone interested in knitting Pixie? Claire Garland’s pattern is 25% off this week on Etsy (only $4.20)! I’ve been helping my friend start knitting her, and she’s been surprised at how easy it is. I’ve just finished my second doll for my niece, and will be posting about her as soon as I finish some of her gorgeous clothes!

Pixie – a New Knitted Doll

nesting drama : part 4 : series finale

This is what I came home to tonight. 2 eggs in the coop nesting box. Our mini-series has a happy ending!

nesting drama : part 3

Last evening I went to collect Gloria’s egg from the “nesting shelf” and found that it had been cracked again. So I decided to block off the shelf completely. If they are going to fight over a nesting place anyway, it should be in their coop; the eggs are much safer there.

This morning, I let them out and went for my usual walk, hoping to find Cleo nesting in the coop when I returned. Instead I came home to this:

She had flown to the top shelf! I figured it would be too high up there, and not roomy enough to lay, but she didn’t care. She wasn’t comfy enough to nest though, so I brought her down, and filled in the shelf more. Apparently not well enough, because a few minutes later I heard a crash. She had knocked some things off the shelf, and was up there again, even though there was only a tiny space now. So I brought her down once again, and completely filled the space with heavy buckets. I then scattered some food in front of their coop and waited for a few minutes watching them. Eventually, she went upstairs in the coop. I assumed she went up to nest, and went inside to take a shower. I was about to step into the shower when I heard Gloria squawking loudly. Not too unusual while Cleo is laying, but then Cleo started squawking back, which she never does while she’s laying. When I got out of the shower, I saw them both pecking in the yard again, and went out to the coop to check for an egg. There was none. After a bit, she went up again, but came down after a few more minutes… still no egg. Maybe she thought she was going to miss out on something; that Gloria would be nesting on the shelf in her absence. Then, right before I left for work, I saw her trying to fly up on the shelf again. The whole family watched out the window this time, somewhat amused at her attempts to balance up there on the edge of a box, flapping her wings. Eventually she had to give up and fly back down.

I REALLY hope that’s the end of it, and that I find 2 eggs safely in their coop tonight. Otherwise, I may have to take drastic measures and lock them in their coop tomorrow. I know this is all my fault for letting them nest on the shelf yesterday, and I take full blame for my part in this drama, but I just want things to go back to normal!

nesting drama : part 2

As I feared, this is becoming a mini-series.

This morning I came back from my walk to find that Cleo had taken over Gloria’s makeshift nesting box:

Needless to say, Gloria was not pleased. I’m not sure that having an additional nesting place is going to be worth the drama of them fighting over it. Not to mention the fact that this does nothing to contribute to my husband’s desire to keep them from pooping on the patio. Perhaps we should nip this in the bud now.

nesting drama

We recently rearranged our back patio, and had moved a shelf that had previously been unused. On Mother’s Day I was out having coffee with my Mom and a friend, and my husband texted me this photo, with the caption “interesting.”

Later, when I checked the shelf, I discovered that Gloria had laid an egg. Since there is nothing soft up there, it had gotten cracked. I didn’t want to encourage this behavior, so I filled in the shelf with some other items. We only have one nesting box in our little coop, but usually it’s not an issue, because Cleo lays in the morning, and Gloria lays in the afternoon.

This morning, I let Gloria out of the coop and Cleo was still up laying her egg as usual. Oftentimes, Gloria will squawk a bit until Cleo comes down to join her, but today she started a real ruckus, way louder and more insistent than usual, even when I went out to try to comfort and quiet her (everyone else was still asleep, and I myself was hoping for a few more minutes). Then I remembered that she hadn’t laid an egg yesterday, and I wondered if she was REALLY feeling the need to lay, and trying to tell Cleo to hurry up. Cleo was, of course, taking her sweet time, so I felt sorry for Gloria, and was also afraid that she was going to wake my kids… let alone the entire neighborhood, so I went over to the shelf where she had laid on Sunday to see if we could make a temporary nest for her. As soon as I started clearing it, she hopped right up, so I quickly put down some paper towels. She promptly started scratching these out of the way, so I added some straw, and a couple of bricks to keep her from scratching that off, and she settled in.

Meanwhile, Cleo finished laying, and came out squawking, presumably to tell Gloria she was finished, but Gloria was content where she was. Now Cleo wouldn’t shut up. There was no going back to bed for me, and it was time to wake everyone else anyway, so we all started getting ready for our day. Eventually Cleo had quieted, so I went outside to confirm that all was well, and to collect the eggs. This is what I found:

Now they were both on the shelf. Poor Gloria couldn’t get any privacy! But at least they seemed content, so I went back inside. As we were finishing breakfast, both of the hens started squawking. Now what? I went to the window, where the cats were enjoying the soap opera, and saw this:

Both were up there craning their necks and squawking away. What the heck was the problem? My daughter suggested that the shelf is too high, and they were afraid to come down. Really? They had no problem with this before. But I went out to help them down anyway. Perhaps Cleo wouldn’t get down because Gloria was still up there, and Gloria couldn’t get down because Cleo was in the way? Finally, all was quiet on the backyard front again. And indeed, Gloria had laid her egg, despite all of the chaos. Sheesh!