How to knit a chain, lol.

I'm knitting a chain. I'm going to make three lengths of knit chain and make a silly scarf out of them. I may knit an anchor or padlock to go on the end too, haha!!

I decided to take pictures to show step by step what I am doing. Not that i expect anyone else to actually want to do something this silly, but if they do I have shared... lol...

Step 1: Long tail cast on, 32 st, size 9 needles, gauge totally and completely unimportant.



Step 2: put onto double pointed needles (circulars would work just as well, but since next weekend is our annual rendezvous and i will probably be working on this I need to only use tools historically accurate to pre-1840 fur trade era.)



Step 3: Slip previous link on from the end away from the tail of your cast on, and slide up next to your tail.



Step 4: join, being careful not to twist. Knit 4 rows moving the finished link around to keep it out of your way as required.



Step 5: Bind off.



Step 6: cut or break yarn.



Step 7: using some sort of needle finish bind off in whatever way you like.



Step 8: weave end into smooth side of knitting, doesn't need to be neat just needs to not show on rough side of knitting.



Step 9: after weaving in both ends turn inside out with edges facing the center of the link.



Step 10: enjoy your success and prepare for next link.



I tried knitting single rings then knitting connecting rings to hook them all together but on this scale trying to knit a link with two finished on the needles is just too much of a hassle.

and this is what you end up with:



I'll be making a length of chain in a muted green, and one in black, I think, and sort of braiding them together into the scarf. I thought this might be cute for a Halloween costume if you were going to be a ghost or maybe one of the pirates cursed to be on the Flying Dutchman or Black Pearl.

It's Indian hemp, close relative of Dogbane... and the scours are back.

yeah, pretty much everything in the title. Thanks to jen's suggestion of dogbane and a link provided by a facebook friend (and looking through about 300 pictures on that link) I found it was Indian Hemp, depending on the site you read it is either the same thing as dogbane OR is a close relative of dogbane. Anyway, Tsu saw the suggestion that it might be dogbane, looked it up and saw that it is toxic, and is now ready to go directly out there and destroy every sign of it. I did point out that it is a good source of cordage fiber, but i don't think he cares.

So, anyway, runny butt goat.... today Sage got a baking soda/molasses/yogurt mix and some water squirted directly into her mouth. She seems a little down, unlike how she was acting a few days ago. Temp is normal (man was that fun... NOT), colour of the inside of her eyelids is nice and red, she has enough spunk to fight me when I try to dose her with anything. I did a pinch test for hydration and she seems plenty hydrated. Her mouth was full of molasses so I didn't check her gums for capillary refill rates. I'll be picking her up some pepto and making sure she isn't low on fluids and letting her do her thing. All the other goats seem fine.

here is where I am torn... do I pull her out and keep her alone or do i risk the other goats by leaving her with them? The problem is that she FREAKS OUT if she is apart from ANY of the other goats, and I have no place to keep her away from them but close enough for her to not freak out. I fear that the stress of being separated from them would make her worse. I don't want to jump through hoops and breed myself a herd of goats with weak health, but i also don't want to do anything to make it worse for her. For now she is staying with the herd. i will re-evaluate frequently but I kinda feel like if she IS contagious they already have been exposed so I'll just keep a close eye on everyone and go from there.

This whole livestock thing isn't new to me, I raised rabbits many years ago to eat and was pretty brutal in my culling at that point, too. But it feels a little different when the animals are larger. Not sure why. Maybe because I have more money invested so the loss of even one of my foundation stock animals is a huge blow. maybe just because I like goats a lot better than I like rabbits.

Please help me identify this plant!

Tsu was out dragging the path out back with his quad and the harrow and i went back to see how it was looking. It will make taking the herd of goats out back much nicer, no more being filled with burrs because I can stay on the path while they explore. Anyway, I was on top of one of the hills and to one side I noticed these long skinny seed pods on this plant. I'd never seen anything like it before. The seed pods are very skinny and long and most are attached at the end. They had some kind of bugs on the ends of some branches. I found three of these plants then walked a good portion of the rest of trail and didn't find any more.














So, does anyone know what these are? Or have an idea of who I could ask to find out? I am super curious to find out.