Snow has returned, so it seems like the perfect day for the big reveal of the secret knitting. Beginning with two skeins of our Bertha yarn (that had so many imperfections that they were not salable) here are the perfect lambing accessories. Our love and admiration of Bertha is knit in to each and every stitch, along with the love and admiration I have for my Sister Shepherdess as I knit a set for her as a surprise gift.
The hand-warmers are the Lambing Mitts from the Tolt Yarn and Wool blog. The garter band can be worn up to keep our fingers warm during the late night pasture checks, then rolled down when we need to attend to those newborn lambs. Blue stripes on my sister’s and green stripes on mine so we will be able to sort them out when we lay them down in the barn.
Bertha’s yarn and scraps of our single-flock yarn make these extra special barn-life accessories.
The headband is mash-up of several different patterns knit in a Bertha yarn-dyeing experiment that was inspired by lichen growing on an Adirondack chair. I think there will be more of this to come after lambing, as both shepherdesses are delighted with the result. I added a little bit of hand embroidery to match the stripes on our hand-warmers.
An ode to Bertha and a surprise for my Sister Shepherdess – perfect for a snowy, April day.