A Few Sheep Shy of a Farm

Happy St. Patrick’s Day!!!

Now where did I put that “Kiss Me, I’m Irish” button . . .

I’m happy to report that the knitting on “Liv” is basically finished (I do still have the remainder of the neck band but it isn’t much) and I’m going to start blocking the pieces this afternoon!

I’ve (finally) picked up the “Leaf Lace” shawl again! I managed to figure out where I left off (no, I didn’t take any notes! )and I’m back on track to getting it finished. I had thought I had one more repeat and the lace edge to go, but it looks rather small (or is it just because I’ve gotten larger?) so I’m going to do several more repeats before I finish it off. Afterall, I’ve got plenty of yarn left so why not make it a more generous size? Besides, as I’m quickly outgrowing my cardigans, I will likely actually use this shawl over the course of the spring!

Speaking of outgrowing things:

that’s “us” at 23 weeks! We should have another “baby photo” in 2 weeks when we go back to the Dr. I can tell you this kid is getting big!

I’m also excited to tell you that M has finished the “Spirit of the Southwest” shawl that she had been knitting in one of my colorways. I should have it in a few days and as soon as I can I’ll have photos up on the site so you can see it!

I’ve added a few more things on the Inspirations Yarn site over the past few days, including an additional spring color (and I have another one, I just have to get a picture) Oh, and we have another new book, on dyeing your own self-striping yarns, which I hope to have the page up for later today!

Okay, lots to do this afternoon, so I’ll leave you with this shot of Cricket!

Knitting progress!

It isn’t done yet, but I am making progress on finishing up Liv! I’m down to the sleeve caps on both sleeves and then we just have some blocking and sewing to do! Of course, there is one little problem . . . my belly has gotten large enough that I seriously doubt I’ll even be able to try on the finished sweater until Fall! Isn’t that Ironic? Finally finish a sweater for myself and won’t be able to wear it!

May be side tracked. . .

I’ve been seeing (mostly on tv) these cute little sweaters, like this one from Old Navy, all over the place and I really want to try my hand at designing one for Inspirations Yarn! I’ll keep you posted on how that goes . . .

I ordered more Fiber Trends patterns for the site today, including the one that a friend from my Monday night knitting group was looking for . . . I may even try it myself I also ordered some of the Needle Felting starter kits, could be fun to learn to be able to add embellisments to other projects if nothing else. Look for those to be added in about a week. Oh, and sock blockers! I ordered several sets in all 3 sizes so I can use some for taking photos and so there will be some on the site. . . .

I’m looking at perhaps adding a few more “Solo” colorways in the next week or so and I’ve got ideas for some additional regular colorways.

Looking for your help

I’m curious, what other things would you like to see at Inspirations Yarn? Seriously, I’m open to suggestion.

Take a day off tomorrow

Tomorrow (the 16th) is our 3rd Wedding Anniversary! Since we plan to spend the day together, I’ll basically be taking the day off from working . . . I may still check a little email, but not much else for the day. One of the things we might end up doing with part of our day together is to go and register for baby things. We weren’t going to, but several friends and a number of family members really seem to want us to register . . . and it might be a nice thing to spend part of the day thinking about our new little family

Sorry to be away so long!

Things have been a bit nuts around here! First things first. I’d like to Thank my Secret Pal for the lovely note and the stitch markers! They are beautiful! I can’t wait to start something new so I can use them!

As for my two projects . . .

Inspirations Yarn now has 10 new colorways listed and we are having a sale on the 8 oz. hanks of them (20% off!) while we test out the colors to see what everyone likes! We’ve also started a new feature, a Monthly book/yarn special. Each month we will feature a book that if purchased with the yarn for a specific project, a discount of up to 25% will be given on the yarn! We are kicking things off by offering “Scarf Style” with a choice of Regular, Decaf or Cream yarns for the Ruffles Scarf.

My other little project is growing fast! I feel like I’m getting bigger every day! And this kid is getting much stronger! Yesterday and today I’ve spent a lot of time on the computer and therefore basically sitting still so there has been a lot of kicking going on!

As for knitting, I haven’t done much of it the past few days . . . I’m about 1 1/2″ away from the sleeve caps on “Liv” and then it will just need to be blocked and sewn . . . I’ve still got a few buttons to sew on Mira’s cardigan, but it will be a few more days before I get to see her so . . . And I’m about to start one for Josh, our newest nephew . . . I don’t think it will take me very long to knit up so hopefully I’ll have it in the mail in a few more weeks. . . And someday I really am going to finish the Leaf Lace shawl! Really, I am!

Well, I have a few packages to prep for mailing in the morning so I’d best be off . . .

Dyeing Days

Yesterday, I finally got some dyeing done! I started off very ambitiously with a rather large pile of yarns I intended to get done . . . . unfortunately, my back had other ideas and I only got about 1/2 of it done . . . . so I’m going to try to finish it today.

I’m also working on ideas for a number of new colorways, the “Spring line”, so to speak I’ll be playing around with some combinations once I get the “work” done.

KR Secret Pal 3

I heard from my pal today! Got a note in my email telling me to watch my mailbox! I love getting things in the mail! Especially surprises! So much fun!

Thank you

Speaking of surprises! Thank you Renee for the Card, stickies and stitch markers! What a lovely surprise!

Baby Report

Today we are at 23 weeks, the start of month number 6! That means we have approx. 17 weeks to go before the peanut arrives! Somehow that doesn’t seem like very much longer!

Actually, the peanut was rather quiet yesterday, probably because I was so busy all day with everything I was trying to get done. Days like that where I’m on my feet a lot I don’t hear from him/her as much. When I did take breaks to put my feet up, I could feel the little one shifting around and even kicking some.

Barn Update

We now have electricity in the barn!!!! Finally! Something is wrong with the lights in one room. And, of course, its the room that needs to be worked on now! The “high tech” heating system DH picked out seems to be working. He was able to go out the other day and work on the walls of the storage room, something to do with tape and joint compound . . . once that gets done he will be able to paint it and once that is done we can move a lot of the stuff that belongs in that room into it. That will include most of the yarn for the business, pretty much my entire personal stash of fiber and yarn and all the other stuff that is currently piled in the room that will be the nursery!

Honestly, I’ve been getting a bit worried that we won’t be ready when the baby does arrive. Things had been going so slowly and the electrician was being such a pain about coming back to finish the job that I was really starting to worry! Now that we can make some progress, even though it is slow, I’m a little less worried. When the storage room is ready and we can move stuff there are a couple of guys that are going to come to move all the boxes, all I have to do is say “this pile goes on this end, that pile goes over there” etc. After everything is out of the Baby’s room, my Mom and Aunt (and probably 2-3 cousins) will be coming to help get the room cleaned up, washing walls, floors etc. Then we have someone who will come to fix the walls, which are textured and we are going to have them made flat. Then, finally, we can paint, or rather DH can paint while I go out for the day to avoid the fumes!

I’m hoping by the end of April to have the walls fixed and painted, the furniture refinished, the rug down on the floor and a few other odds and ends done so that we can spend May doing finishing touches like window treatments, washing and putting away baby clothes etc. That way I can spend June knowing we are ready and not worrying about what is left to do!

Wish me luck, you all know how plans tend to work out around here!

And we have yarn!

I just finished loading two more giant tubs worth of yarn onto the website. I still ahve a bit more that is dyed up and will be posted, but it needs to be reskeined first . . . so hopefully over the next couple of days . . .

I didn’t sleep particularly well last night, my back/hip have been hurting a bit. Might have something to do with the weight I’ve gained . . . since I now officially weigh at least 5 lbs more than I have ever weighed, ever in my whole life! Good thing there are really 2 of us to account for all this Still, if I’m this sore now, how bad might it be in a few more months?

Since I didn’t sleep well, and since the electrician woke us at 7:30 am when we ususally sleep to 8:30 or 9:00 (REMEMBER: DH WORKS MOSTLY NIGHTS SO WE ARE UP LATE) I decided to postpone my planned dye day to tomorrow, when he will be leaving for work in the afternoon and not having a kitchen at dinner time won’t be a hassle and hopefully I’ll be a bit “peppier” to boot. So instead I worked on loading up the site and now I may try to finish up a stray UFO or two . . . though I’m also seriously considering a nap

Have a great day!