Sarah Jane Humke

I don’t do New Year’s resolutions.  Quite honestly, it’s such a nasty time of the year weather-wise here in my little patch of heaven, that it just seems a tad masochistic to try to suddenly “get in shape” or “lose ten pounds” or “declutter entire life”.  I feel like these types of goals are best set at some other time of the year, perhaps the summer solstice when the daylight feels never-ending.

However, I do like to get my planner in order at the beginning of January.  This year I made a few changes in that area.  First, I bought a larger planner.

I think that this is going to be a very busy year for me thus the increase in planning space.  In addition to my usual duties as the Instruction Coordinator (I just made that title up) for the Iowa Sheep and Wool Festival, I’m also now the Vice Chairperson for the Iowa Sheep Industry Association (that title is legit).

I have plans in place to ramp-up my little woolly business.  I’m not breeding this year, so no fun photos of newborn lambs this spring I’m afraid.  But I am planning on a few new products to sell and, as always, lots of raw fleeces.

I’m going to be traveling a fair amount this year.  There are going to be a lot of weekend trips and at least one long and involved one.  I’m not going into details now, but lets just say June is going to be hectic and October is going to be exciting:-)

I have done some things that I haven’t shared on here.  One was that I made new feeder for the sheep.  It divides the pen into two so I can have the lambs on one side (where I can keep an eye on them a little better) and the adults on the other.  This also ensures that the little ones aren’t getting pushed out of the food by their larger mamas and older siblings.  It’s not perfect, but it works okay for what I need.

I also did some knitting….

The hat is from some mystery yarn that I purchased at Heartland Fiber Co. at their Halloween party and the mitts are from that mystery wool yarn and a green mystery wool yarn from the deepest stash.  The hat pattern is Barley by Tin Can Knits and the mitts are loosely based on this pattern.  Yes the mitts are a bit… off.  Personally I feel that this adds to their charm.  Also, I used up both the yarns leftovers making these.  I lost a little at yarn chicken and as a result the thumb of one hand is a tad smaller than the other.  However, they get daily wear and, quite frankly, it’s not like they are going to be walking the catwalk in Paris or anything like that.  It’s far more likely that they will get pooped-on by a chicken!

Currently I am working on an infinity scarf for my oldest niece.  I let her pick out the yarn.  We made an evening out of it.  I took her to Hobby Lobby, JoAnn’s, and Micheal’s in order to pick out the one that she wanted.  We also went to Chick-Fil-A for supper and hit up Culver’s afterwards for dessert.  She had gotten to wear a scarf that I made her mommy last year for Christmas and really wanted one of her own.  This one is going to be a smidge more washable than her mama’s.

Yeah, she’s definitely my niece!