Baby chicks in my house and a knitting project finished

It was down to 28 degrees overnight here so our week and a half old chicks were moved into my bathroom in a box for the night with a heat light pointed at them.  We got to listen to our kitten lurking around the closed door, poking her paws underneath it all night.

The chicks are just starting to get their wing and tail feathers in to replace their fluffy down and have doubled in size since we got them.

On another note, a while ago I ran across some free patterns from Tin Can Knits from their Simple Collection (which can be found here). They intend this collection to help those who want to learn a range beginner knitting techniques at the same time as have more to knit than just a scarf (although there is a scarf pattern in the collection).  Their patterns contain sizes from infant to adult.  I decided I wanted to make a cardigan for my new baby and decided to use a pattern that let me knit it seamlessly.  (I hate seaming my knitting as I'm not particularly good at it.)  Their cardigan pattern called Harvest was a perfect, unfussy and seamless pattern to use.  It didn’t take too much knitting time to complete and their instructions were easy to follow.  Plus, since I knit the 0-6 months size, it took less than a whole skein of Lion Brand Wool-Ease worsted weight yarn to make.  I used the rose heather colorway for this.

From past experience with knitting projects completed with this yarn, it machine washes and dries well with no shrinkage and gets softer with each wash.  It also fits my baby which is always a plus since I’m not always great with knitting things that are the size they are suppose to be when finished.  

I hope you are staying warm wherever you are.  Thanks for stopping by.

 

Adding to our flock.

We have been keeping a small backyard flock of 6 easter egger hens for almost 2 years.  We originally started with 7 hens but one got sick and had to be put down.  This year we have decided to expand the flock by adding six rhode island red chicks.  These are all suppose to be pullets.  They always come with a 90% accurate guarantee for what sex the chicks are.  It will become apparent later if there is a rooster.  Their feathers will come in differently, their temperment is different, they develop spurs on their legs, different combs, and, the biggest clue of all, will start to crow sometime by 6 months of age.  Our easter egger hens lay blue, green, and olive tone eggs almost one a day.  Rhode islands lay brown eggs and are suppose to be prolific producers.  I hope these little babies mix well with the rest of our girls when its time to integrate them into the flock.  We have them in their own enclosure separated from out adult birds for now.  They sure are cute right now, little poofs with legs...