Flosstube podcast Ep. 28 - Growing the Flock

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Email: AmniconStudio at gmail.com 

Finished Objects (FOs)

Bedelia Bunny – The Artsy Housewife. This is a stitch along I'm doing with Kenzie at Mudpuppy Stitchery. 

Project name: Bedelia Bunny

Started: Jan. 10, 2025
Finished: April 12, 2025
Designer/Source: The Artsy Housewife, purchased at 123stitch.com
DMC floss: 732, 3025, 3829, 951, 300, 3773, 3771, 3865; Changed color of bunny to DMC 03 to match the color of my little Feffer's fur. I also used Classic Colorworks - Blackbird for the eye and the few other spots in the flowers
Fabric: Stash Hobby Lobby Lugana 28 count "Ivory" color
Needle Size: 26

New starts and completions 

Breathe 

Project name: Breathe

Started: April 22, 2025
Finished: April 23, 2025
Designer/Source: Barbie Lay of Twisted Willow Designs, Just Cross Stitch Summer 2025 issue.
DMC floss: 310
Fabric: Stash Aida 14 count
Needle Size: 26

Given as a gift.

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Emotional Support Chicken - cinnamon cedar yarn

Project Name: Emotional Support Chicken - Cinnamon Cedar
Started: April 19, 2025

Finished: April 21, 2025

Designer/Source: Knitting Tree L.A. 

Yarn: Hobby Lobby "I love this yarn" 

Colorway: Cinnamon Cedar

Colors: Autumn colors

Needle size: U.S. 5

Made to be a gift. I need to figure out a way to ship it. 

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Emotional Support Chicken - Zen yarn

Project Name: Emotional Support Chicken - Zen 
Started: April 24, 2025

Finished: April 27, 2025

Designer/Source: Knitting Tree L.A. 

Yarn: Lion Brand Mandala yarn

Colorway: Zen

Colors: Blue Greens, turqouise

Needle size: U.S. 5

Made to be a gift. I need to figure out a way to ship it. 

Haul

Two magazines 

Etsy store I ordered the needle minder from: https://www.etsy.com/shop/KraftyKatieVT

Chart from Patty Penn - Thank you!

Book series I'm listening to: "Gone" by Michael Grant

Currently watching, here and there: Dark Winds, Grey's Anatomy, Veronica Mars I received shoutouts from the fellow stitchers *Thank you!*

Denise ‪@BlackRibbonStitchStudio‬ Mair ‪@sincity_crossstitcher‬ Linda and Susie ‪@yarnoverwithus‬ Patty Penn ‪@StitchingWithMyKitties-xe8qz‬

Niecielynn ‪@niecielynn‬ 

Other channels mentioned:

Sarah ‪@SarahsStitchySpot‬

Kenzie ‪@mudpuppystitchery‬

Sarah ‪@Sarahthenorthwoodsstitcher‬ Sarah ‪@sarahsstitchery‬

Karen ‪@karencombsstudio‬ Leann ‪@leann.stitches‬ (Forbidden Fiber Co.) 

Other youtube channels I’ve watched recently and enjoyed 

Artie ‪@thevintagestitcher2022‬

Oline ‪@norwegianknitter‬ Barb Olivieri ‪@barbolivieri-soshesewsquil4867‬ Allison ‪@Mrs.AZfamilyzooStitches‬ Bernie ‪@BernStitches‬

Shelly ‪@antiqueneedleworkers‬ Annie ‪@theproperstitcher‬ Sian ‪@periwinklestitcher‬

The easiest ways you can support my channel: Subscribe Comment Give this video a thumbs up Share with a friend Thank you so much for being here. Happy crafting!

When false springs shows up and then Mother Nature changes her mind

 This post is a bit in the making so it may be a bit longer and full of nonsense. 

Just kidding. ... sort of. 

A few weeks ago we had subzero temperatures and I was sticking close to the wood stove. 

Then the sun came out, the temperature rose and the snow started melting. 

Wonderful. 

You know who else enjoyed the nice weather? 

The ladies and roo have been demanding to go out as soon as they hear me step outside. They were  cooped up way too long, without feeling the sun on their feathers.  The colder weather included grey skies and no sun.  I figured there was no point in letting them out and suffer in the snow that was probably too deep for them. 

But now, as you can see, the snow was melting away. 

I took advantage of the first nice day and went out and cleaned out the coop. 

I had photos of the process, but really, who wants to see me dumping chicken bedding in to the compost pile?

There are photos of the fresh shavings in the coop and the chickens not knowing what to make of it.  Where did the frozen poop go? 

"This can't be *our* coop.  It's too clean! 

I thought I'd share what the outside looks like with the solar lights that I *originally* bought for my greenhouse. They need it more, so they can venture out in the late evening and have one last sip of water. Not too shabby for solar lights I ordered off Amazon. No idea if I'll ever get them back. If I decide to let the birds keep the lights I'll do something more pretty with them than just lump them over where the water dish is. 

While I'm talking about the evenings and those little darlings ... 

This is what I see now when i go out to close up the coop for the evening. 

At least two girls sitting out on the chute. Every single time.

They jump up there and when I go out I carry them to the run and set them down.  They go in for a drink and then venture into the coop for the night. 

And while the paths melted and weren't as icy, the birds made to make the pilgrimage to the front door again.  I told them they were too late for a flosstube cameo.  They seemed disappointed. 

While the weather was nice and the snow was disappearing the deer started hanging out in the front yard in the late afternoons. 

There's this one deer that I remember from last year.  How it is still going and surviving, I don't know, but it is. 

Can you see that bad leg? 

I see it hobbling and hopping along. It looks so painful. My guess is that it is a doe.  No way would it survive a tussle with another buck, I think. 

What else ... 

This past weekend my hubby and I took advantage of the nicer weather and got back to the wood splitting project. 

I split wood for about an hour, maybe.  I was worried I was going to be a bit too cold or that I would tired out quickly.  Not the case.  Then we switched and my hubby started splitting wood and I started tossing wood into the round stack. I tired out pretty quickly. It all goes back to what I've got going on with my body/health right now. Thankfully my son stepped in and helped finished the project. 

I recently recorded a flosstube podcast.  It had been a while since I last recorded and published one. If you are interested, here it is: 

Full show notes are here.

This was just a bit of the mess after recording. If you know, you know. When recording you inevitably make a mess. 

I did listen to an audio book over the course of the last couple of months. 

"I Cheerfully Refuse" is written by a local-ish author. A fellow flosstuber mentioned reading it. I was all about reading a book that had Lake Superior in the background. 

Yesterday while I was in town the fun weather started.  Rain. Ish. 

Then late afternoon the rain switched to snow.  The snow went all night and this morning I woke up to Narnia. 

It snowed throughout most of the day. It finally stopped around ... 5 p.m. 

The sun came out and this is what everything looked like. 

In other news, I started a new project yesterday. 

Also, I'm feeling a bit perky right now, which explains the burst of writing. I'm hoping it continues for at least a while. 

If we were having coffee ... The end of January

 This type of blog post is for when I have a lot of little things I want to share, or when I feel the need to catch up. 

So, grab your coffee/beverage of your choice and join me. I'm currently drinking a hot chocolate with cinnamon. 

If we were having coffee ... I'd marvel at how fast January has moved. I've been in my head a lot this past month. I thought after the holidays were over I'd be able to take a break, catch a breath.  No. I feel busy, busy, busy. I'm not exactly sure what it is making me feel this way. 

Anywho, I blinked at here we are, at the end of the month. 

The month has been fairly mild, weather-wise, and I really appreciate that.  Just a handful of very cold days. I started writing this post on Friday evening, Jan. 29, I'm not sure when I'm going to finish it.  So, as of this paragraph I think I can safely say we are supposed to get snow this weekend. There hasn't been much snow this year, compared to last year.  Oh my gosh, I don't even want to think about last year.  It was daily snow movings and plowings. So. Much. Snow. Ugh. 

If we were having coffee ... I'd mention our wood splitting project.  We have knocked the pile down pretty good. I believe my husband said we have 30-some logs left. We aren't going as quickly as we did at the beginning. In fact, we still need to think of a place to put the last bit. It's not easy to scope out a spot now that snow is on the ground. 

Here I am in front of the wood stacks. I'm in awe of how much wood we've moved in the time since we got the load. 

I don't have any current photos of what is left to cut and split.  Saturday my husband cut up 17 logs, or so, and we have about that many left needing to be cut. 

If we were having coffee ... I'd talk reading, or the mostly lack thereof. I'm sort of mad at myself.  I said "Self, you are going to start up with books again." Very little reading has happened in the last year. And even less listening to audiobooks. Last week I picked out an audio book for my hubby and I (I think. I'm not actually sure who picked it out.) Defiance by C.J. Redwine

Dystopian book about a girl who's super brave, tough, can take care of herself, yadda, yadda.  More to it than that, of course.  The main character, Rachel, really bugs me with her "I'm so smart and clever and capable." Yet she gets herself in to bad situations. It's a type that just bugs me to bits. Not very clever, but thinks they are super smart. 

I'm at the tail end of the audiobook.  It finally got to where her behavior didn't bother me. Then I discovered the library doesn't have the rest of the trilogy in audiobooks.  I hate when that happens! 

I'm thinking I'll listen to "Revived" next. 

It sounds interesting. 

If we were having coffee ... I'd talk crafting.  Another thing that has not had much attention. My head is just not in the game, lately.  It wasn't until the end of the month that I started feeling the urge to do anything. 

At the end of last year I participated in the "Cozy Things" quilt along hosted by Pat Sloan.  I have the quilt top done and sandwiched.  Thursday I started cross hatching it. I don't know what took me so long to get going on it. I'm not ready to share a photo of it yet. 

I've been slowly working on my Halloween cross stitch. 

I was so happy when I finished the house.  Then I printed out the next part of the clue and was surprised that I wasn't done with the house.  I forgot there was a first floor.  I'm slowly chipping away at this project. 

I have a sock on the needles.  I started it so I'd have something to work on in the car. I haven't been going to many places, much less be a passenger. 

 I'm currently working on the heel.  The leg is a 1 x 1 ribbing. 

I did dust off my rigid heddle loom, and made myself some towels out of peaches and cream dishcloth cotton. 

This one was a mix of colorways. I think they look fun!

I made of the green ones two different sizes, by mistake.  I'm still learning tricks to measure the fabric as I go along.  

If we were having coffee ... I'd share that I've been daydreaming about springtime, gardening and seed starting.  I've been hitting the homestead and gardening youtube videos pretty hard. For as many videos I watched last year, I'm still learning things. With so many people getting into gardening this past year, I think that's driving the Youtube content to expand a little bit.  I've organized my seeds, saw what I had from last year, and I already purchased the seeds I want for this year.  I've also put my first order in to Baker Creek for Ghost and and Carolina Reaper pepper seeds. I'm super stoked to give those a try.  I'm debating on when I should seed start for them.  Maybe try one seed each and see what happens. 

I've got a calendar printed out and all my seed starting dates noted. As soon as I wrap up the quilt, I think I'll say farewell to the sewing machine for a bit and set up one of my seed starting stations.  Last year I started out sharing the whole seed starting journey and I went off the tracks.  Unexpected life things happening.  I'm thinking about giving it a try again. I realized I enjoy looking back at the photos and videos for the plants from last year. 

Which got me thinking about when I tried video podcasting and then almost right away Covid hit and I no longer had quiet time at home.  I can't remember what brought it up a while ago, but my son said something about my videos and I said I don't have anywhere to do it, and he said "You can close the door to your craft room." Yes, I suppose I could. ... I'm still thinking about it.  It took a lot for me to record that first video a few years ago.  Speaking of podcast videos.  Well, flosstube, my friend Leann started a flosstube and she's fun to listen to.  She gets so much done on her projects.

Okay, I realize I just blended to subjects together. 

If we were having coffee ... I'd let you know that all the animals are doing just fine.  Especially Miss Furby.  

She spends her days close to me, and she is so spoiled that when I'm not watching television, I leave it on for her, so she doesn't feel alone.  I feel bad that I still haven't told Furby's story, like I did Porkie's but I want her to have her own entry. Did I mention Furby lays an egg almost every day? She does!

The ladiess are starting to really crank out the eggs, which is great! We are starting to fill up the incubator so we can have chicks in about a month. 

Thor and Loki, and Shadow and Feffer are all doing well, too.  They are enjoying this mild weather. A little too much, maybe? Ha ha ha! 

Speaking of Porkie, I have some news that may bum some people out.  Some one took one of my Facebook posts about Porkie and sent it to the DNR. I got a talking to and was informed about what can and can't be done.  I'm hurt and upset that someone would do that, specially if it was someone on my Facebook friend  list.  Most likely it was someone in the "What do you see from your window" group. I keep reading the rules on feeding wildlife and know what I can and can't do.  Suffice to say, I won't post about Porkie on my social media anymore, unless it's like general update, like "he's still alive." It's a bummer because so many people enjoyed seeing his updates. Many people have contacted me and said seeing Porkie updates was a bright spot in the pandemic. I wrote a post to the group, to let his fans know why there would be no more updates and as of 1 p.m. Saturday, Jan. 30, it hasn't been approved.  My guess is the post will sit in limbo because someone taking groups posts outside of the group is probably against he spirit of the group and people would be more reluctant to share. I know I feel like my trust has been violated and I'll be even more wary about what I share on Facebook in general. 

The law is hard, but it is the law. I will respect it.  

If we were having coffee ... Thank you

This type of blog post is for when I have a lot of little things I want to share, or when I feel the need to catch up. 

So, grab your coffee/beverage of your choice and join me. 

If we were having coffee ... I would say thank you. After my last blog post, writing about the predator attack, so many reached out to me and offered their sympathies.  Thank you. It's not my first predator attack. After the first one I sort of fell apart afterwards and was determined to wage war against all the predators.  I eventually calmed down. 

I'm still in awe that the one chicken lost it's life so close to the front of the house, and I never saw anything. 

The incident reminded me of something that happened to The Chicken Chick a few years back.  She was out in the yard, filming and taking a video of her birds.  A predator snuck in and snatched a hen that was within feet of her.  The rooster went after them, but was too late.  So them rotten buggers are daring enough to come within reaching distance of humans. 

Meanwhile, the chickens have been "in quarantine" since the attack.  I've kept Feffer in there, too, for good measure.  He's not too happy about it.  He's a free and wild bun, what happened? Don't I love him anymore? 

Yes, I do Feffer.  That's why you are in there. 

I'd rather they all be safe, for now. 

"Girl!  Look at you, keeping us safe!"

Roo says "I could have kept them safe.  I just prefer to leave them wanting more." 

So yesterday, or the day before (the days all blend together now) I was prepping for supper and looked out the window.  I spotted something that puzzled me at first.  I could tell something was back by the coop, but it had the coloring of a golden retriever or something.  I could only see the top of it's back. 

Then it popped up all the way and walked closer to the coop. 

I couldn't believe my eyes!  I called for my son and he came to see.  I grabbed my phone, for the camera. 

And then, just as quick as can be, it was gone. It went trotting down the trail that is to the left of the coop. 

Now I know who the enemy is. It's another fox. Again. 

After the last attack, however many years ago it was, I was lucky enough to see the fox laying on the road a few days later.  So I didn't have to worry about it coming back. This time I doubt I will be that lucky.  Time to do some research. 

In the meantime, my birds will stay in the coop.  Lucky for them, the coop is huge. 

If we were having coffee ... I'd mention that Shadow had her babies. I can't even remember which day last week she had them.  My son was looking her over one evening and said she looked like she was ready to give birth.  We brought her into the house that night.  The next morning we had babies!  

Maybe it was Thursday she had them. ... In any case, I forgot how quickly they grow. 

They still feel like velveteen. It's hard to get a clear photo because they still don't have full control of their limbs, so they bounce around a lot. 

So stinking precious!

Shadow is in uber protective mamma mode.  She's also as hungry as a bear that just woke up from hibernation. 


If we were having coffee ... The chicks we decided to keep are doing well. They are starting to look even more like awkward teenagers. 

They also look like they are shooting lasers out of their eyes. 

Oh, but the feathers on some of their feet.  It's fabulous!

If we were having coffee ... I'd tell you about Thor and Loki.  Loki is constantly hiding, so I rarely see her now.  She'll come out for scritches once in a while, if you have treats.  Thor is wondering when they can go back and dig in the garden. They are good buns. 

If we were having coffee ... I'd give a quick update on the garden stuff. 

Seedlings I started back on March 22.  I'm staring to worry (obsess) that they aren't growing fast enough.  Are they?  The first set of leaves are starting to pop out on these seedlings.  These are mostly hot pepper plants. 

Plants I started back in February.  

Lots of tomato plants.  They could probably be up-potted now.  All of them have their first sets of leaves and are getting the second set. 

Lettuces and some broccoli. 

I'm still learning a lot from starting these seeds.  I have a better idea of when I should be starting them indoors and transitioning them to outside.  It's still just a bit too cold for any of the older plants to be outside overnight, even if they are in my greenhouse. 

Speaking of starting seeds ... 

Yesterday I started seeds for cabbage, cauliflower and iceberg lettuce.  I'm going to keep these ones outside in the shelf greenhouse but bring them in overnight, rather than start them on a heat mat. Another experiment.  

I also threw some seeds in the ground. I turned the soil by shovel and shoved the seeds in to the ground. 

A small patch of spinach. 

About 10 feet of sugar snap peas.  Peas how I missed you!

I laid down some T5 posts so the seeds don't accidentally get rototilled up, when the time comes. 

It feels good to get something in the ground. It's another experiment.  The seed packets said to sow as early as possible.  Fingers crossed. If they don't come up, I still have seeds to plant. I wonder if I should have some frost fabric, or whatever it's called. 

If we were having coffee ... I'd tell you that no knitting of crafting has happened. My brain is too all over the place to sit down to knit.  I had just picked up to start knitting one of the arms of my February Lady Sweater when the predator attack happened.  My heart hasn't been in the knitting just yet. 

If we were having coffee ...  I'd mention that I did start reading a little book of knitting essays that I got as a Christmas gift years ago from my mother-in-law. It's called "Beyond Stitch and Bitch: Reflections on Knitting and Life." 

It's a nice little book. I pick it up every other year or so.  I'm reminded of how "simple" and tame the knitting community used to be. Well, at least that's how it seemed when I first taught myself to knit.  

If we were having coffee ... I sort of lost track on the daily photo challenge. I allowed myself some time to go off kilter what happened with the birds last week.  I'll be getting back to it and posting the photos.  I'll need to do a mass photo share. Honestly, things have gone catty wampus these last several days. Odd things have happened, like random people showing up at my house, and sad family news.

But ... I do have something bright and happy going on. Look what started this morning. 

This one passed out like a little rock star in the chicken dad's hands this evening. 

Thank you for visiting with me today. Stay healthy!