February sweater in March, and allyear outdoor sheep

Pattern: February Baby Sweater aka Baby Sweater on two needles, from Elizabeth Zimmermann’s Knitter’s Almanac

Yarn: A Piece of Vermont Fingering superwash, 75/25 wool/nylon. I believe the colour is Sangria but I won’t trust my brain on that one. I do trust my scale though, and it says I used 65 g.

Needles: Most likely 3 mm. The jacket measures about 50 cm/19 inches around the chest. As Mrs.Zimmermann says, babies come in many sizes so t will most likely fit one at some stage. She says a lot of other things as well making her books worth reading, I can understand why they are such classics. She isn’t spoon-feeding the knitter with instructions so the patterns might be a challenge until you get used to the style, but I think they are worth it.

Modifications: Knit the collar and hems in seed st instead of garter and kept the upper portion in stockinette.

In spite of being involved in an almost-disaster, the whole thing took a lot less yarn than I thought so I knit a pair of booties to match.

Pattern: Stay-on babybooties

Needles: 2 mm bamboo dpns

I’ve knit so many of these I know the pattern by heart now, and the feedback I get from parents say that they really live up to the name and do stay on.  A very simple and cute project, thanks to Ullent Eventyr for sharing!

In other news I had a very nice weekend going home visiting my family. On Sunday the weather was nice and my mother and I had a great day walking along the shore sitting down here and there just taking in the scenery, spotting bird tracks and otter tracks and other tracks. You often see tracks from when the sea otters have been sliding on their bellies in the snow, the fastest way back into the sea!

The highlight of the walk was saying hello to these guys:

Very curious, but with their instincts all in place they gather in a circle when threatened. And they are fast!! Wild sheep, stone age sheep or viking sheep are some of the names, this breed is smaller than the now common sheep breeds in Norway and therefore went almost extinct at one point. Now it is regaining popularity, they can live outside all year in coastal climates feeding on bark and seaweed and some additional hay. Extremely tough and hardy. And cute!

The wool is shed once a year and the old fleece loosens from the body as the new grows out, so at one point the whole fleece can be pulled from the body without shearing, giving the fibres no cut-off ends. This gorgeous brownish-grey heathered ewe looks like she is ready to loose the coat soon. Couldn’t get anywhere near her though, and the handsome and well-armed ram in the background was always keeping an eye on us.

Not a guy I’d argue with!