April 30, 2008
Eggs-tra Lame Post
Yes, I have been knitting, and this is still a knitting blog, but lately I’ve been easily distracted by other things which end up squeezing their way uninvited onto these pages, things like, oh, I don’t know….say, eggs?
These cackleberries come from local knitter Ginger’s hens, and were brought to the Saturday knit-in at Village Yarn and Tea to be passed on to one of the other knitters. There was just something about these beautiful, fresh eggs, especially the speckled one. And if you want to see something that will make you slam your legs together and wince in pain, ladies, take a gander (there’s a domestic-fowl pun in there somewhere) at the pictures on Ginger’s Flickr account of the monstrosities that her hens have been laying lately and of the amazing “one-egg omelet.”
TMK has been making noises lately (well, maybe not “lately” but for the last year or so, ever since she saw a picture about how commercial laying hens are really treated and had an immediate, swift, and probably painfully extreme, consciousness-raising) about wanting to get chickens. Which is all well and fine, except she is terrified of birds. You see where I’m going with this. That, and I would immediately decide they were pets and would name them and pet them and carry one everywhere with me and bring them in the house. And probably dress them up. And this would not help with The Troubles.
Speaking of eggs and the things that come out of them, I stumbled across a wonderful FalconCam today. I say “wonderful” because I’m a big fan of “animalcams” but most of them are not “cams” at all but images that are refreshed every few minutes, or are a rerun of something that happened two years ago, or the animal actually left the location and no one bothered to notice, or the cam doesn’t actually work at all. So, also being a big fan of falcons, this site makes me a very happy “cam”per. The truth be told, mostly this is for Cuzzin “Birdman” Tom.*
So, the knitting. Right now I’m working on a bulky sweater for a three-year-old who is tall and big. It’s made from outrageously bright blue, yellow and red yarns but both the child and the mom love them some outrageously bright, so I’m good with it, even though I wince a bit every time I haul it out of the bag, and other knitters say "That's pretty.," although you know and they know they don't mean it. And a ball of Trekking in a grayish-greenish-purplish colorway (with no splotches, thank you) accidentally fell into my possession on Saturday, and I accidentally traded some dollar bills for it, and it accidentally got cast on, and accidentally is turning into a pair of socks.
*The third chick hatched today. While I was at lunch. The universe hates me.
I love chickens too. Have you seen What Housework? http://www.whathousework.typepad.com She has quite a collection of fowl. However, I have yet to figure out how to minimize the stench of said yardbirds and so we buy our eggs from the store.
Posted by: Carrie on April 30, 2008 01:02 PMI say get the chickens. You can both work on conquering your, uh, phobias. There's nothing like eggs from chickens that have been eating what chickens are supposed to eat rather than antibiotic laced corn byproduct crap. And it's fine to name them. My college roommate grew up with a few laying hens that had names and were lovingly kept. On one visit her mother embarrased her by telling me the story about she came outside one day to find my roommate (age six) applying her (the mother's) makeup to the hens. Imagine carefully lipsticked beaks and blue and green eyeshadow accents. If you go that far we may have to talk. ;) Now, TMK, the fact that the hens put up with this should tell you how nice and tame they can be.
Now I just have to continue the bird theme. My university has a pair of falcons roosting on the tallest building. We also have a falcon cam: http://www.aviary.org/csrv/webcam_cath.php
I was asleep when the first chick hatched this AM.
At least they're being polite about it. I'm knitting an afghan as a wedding gift in different shades of brown (I asked--their couch is red, so they asked for brown because it'll go with anything) and muggles keep looking at me like I'm crazy. The knitters, they understand that we knit something that will please the recipient and not us.
Posted by: jennu on April 30, 2008 02:29 PMI have a friend who has various chickens and chicken-like creatures and who really does treat them as pets! She says they're more entertaining than TV!
Go for it!
Posted by: MaryB in Richmond on April 30, 2008 02:31 PMI hate it when yarn falls into my knitting bag, but was actually traded for some dollars! Well, I hate it in the same way that I hate a warm soft pair of socks in the evening with a glass of good wine by the fire... see what I mean?
Posted by: Diana on April 30, 2008 02:35 PMI still need the address to send the washcloth. Thanks.
Posted by: Petrified on April 30, 2008 02:37 PMWhew! Thank goodness the deadline is so far away. I've been completely bad about remembering to put my washcloth in the mail!
Posted by: Seanna Lea on April 30, 2008 02:57 PMChickens! I would love to have a small flock of free roamers someday, when I'm retired and living in a more rural setting. The July 2006 issue of Seattle magazine has a neat article on "Urban Chickens" if you or TMK want to look it up.
P.S. Thanks, Carrie, for posting the link to What Housework? I can't stop reading it! How she manages to do all that farm work and blog about it too is a mystery to me. (My Mom, who grew up on a farm, thinks I wouldn't last a week -- sigh.)
I was going to say, I like my Stalker Rooster and all the hens that have learned to take the stairs and follow me down to my apartment when I get home. A few of the hens have gotten brave enough to take a little something from my hand. All in all, they're actually pretty great! These are free range though, and I'm pretty sure collecting the eggs isn't actually done by anyone who lives here. But there always manages to be a new batch of peeps every few weeks....
Posted by: moiraeknittoo on April 30, 2008 05:35 PMHere is another falcon cam for you, and it's on your coast: http://www2.ucsc.edu/scpbrg/falconcameraSJ.htm
It's Mom, Dad and the three kids. Great fun.
We have chickens at work, and we all love them. The oldest will let us carry her around, and she likes the attention. There is something comforting about watching chickens scratching in the yard.
Posted by: annmarie on April 30, 2008 07:01 PMWhat would be wrong with naming them? Ours have names, they get carried around a LOT by the kids, and Gimpy will dash into the house whenever we (ha, the kids, not we) forget and leave the back door open.
There has been talk of adding a Ryan-dotte to the flock as well. ;)
Posted by: Ginger on April 30, 2008 07:24 PMSock yarn has been known to follow me home, after extracting money from my checking account, too. Odd that, isn't it?
Posted by: DianeS on April 30, 2008 09:03 PMThe kid's sweater? It's ugly.
There. Now you know I love you.
We all just said it was pretty because we know you're emotionally fragile and didn't want to deal with mopping up the mess.
Or being punched.
Posted by: Rabbitch on April 30, 2008 09:15 PMIf you have trouble with the San Jose link from AnnMarie, try this one: http://sanjose.granicus.com/MediaPlayer.php?publish_id=91
Posted by: Kathy in San Jose on April 30, 2008 10:16 PM