A Few Sheep Shy of a Farm

More FO’s to report!

I’ve finished the Red Hat that I started for the Afghans for Afghans campaign and I decided to make one out of some of my handpainted stash for Mimmo. I finished that this morning while we were in the waiting room at the Doctors (routine, he’s fine) except that I promised him I’d put a Pom pom on top. I put one on the red hat and he nearly twitched out of his skin he wanted it so badly so I told him I’d make a great big one for his hat.

I’ve also cast on for another hat which will go in the hat box for later, the first addition to the now empty box to begin filling it for next winter.

I also have a confession. I bought yarn. Not a lot, not for stash but still I bought yarn. Elann recently ran a special with “just the right yarn” for the sweater I’ve been wanting to make for myself for a couple of years now. Its a Starmore; Fern from the Stillwater for those familar. I didn’ t have any Aran weight yarn to use for this and I really wanted to take a try at doing just one Starmore this year so I went ahead and bought the yarn. It didn’t hurt that I loved the color or that it cost about $100 less than Ms. Starmore’s yarn would have cost for the same sweater.

I knit the swatch for it on Saturday night and I’m getting it pretty much on gauge, at least with the swatch very lightly blocked, so I’m going to go for it. I cast on the front and back together yesterday. I’m planning to work both at the same time since they are identical until you get to the neck shaping. That way they might actually turn out identical instead of it just being a theory. I tend to do the same thing with the sleeves. Always a nice thing when those match, know what I mean?

I’ve also been trying to work on the website. I’m about 2/3 done with the redesign and hope to finish it in the next couple of days. May have to grab Nonna for some toddler time and just crank it out. I got the kit in the mail today from Yankee Knitter Designs. I’m going to be carrying her patterns from now on and so I ordered the intro kit with copies of all the patterns. Some fun stuff, esp. for the little ones and I’m already picturing a reindeer sweater for the little guy for next Christmas, and if I feel really into it I might do one for each of my brother’s girls as well. Wouldn’t that be a cute Christmas picture, all three kids in matching sweaters? Perhaps red for the girls and green for him? We’ll see.

Okay, his “puppy movie” just ended (Lady and the Tramp) so I’d better go entertain again. Photos of every thing soon, possibly tomorrow if things go well.

Not a whole lot of knitting lately.

I’ve been working on the red patons classic hat for the Afghans for Afghans drive but that is about it. I’m at the point where that is just knitting around and around so its pretty mindless . . . I really need to work on DH’s scarf some more. I had hoped to finish the scarf before the end of the month but its looking less and less likely.

I have been working on the Inspirations Yarn website. Things got a bit sticky and the whole site was actually down over the weekend but I have it back up and sort of running with a whole new look. I’ve added about 40 more of the Fiber Trends patterns which should arrive any day now. And I’m adding the entire line of patterns from Yankee Knitter Designs! I’m very excited about the new pattern line. They aren’t the most “trendy” patterns but they are great basic patterns to have on hand and work well with a large variety of yarns so I think they will be a good fit with several of the yarns I have at the moment.

I’m working now on building the page that will have the new patterns so look for that to be up in the next couple of days. I’m also looking around for some other pattern lines to add over the next few months so if you have some favorites that would be good to add please do let me know!

I’m also working toward the goal of carrying the entire Fiber Trends library. I’m nearly 1/2 way there but since they have over 200 patterns plus all the new “Naturally” patterns they recently added its a big investment . . . so one chunk at a time on those.

Gotta run, I hear crashing sounds coming from the other room and that is never a good sign around here!

Spinning around like a top . . .

or make that a spindle I’ve managed to get the internet portion of our systems up and running again . . . just don’t try to connect our VOIP phone and we’re fine. They are sending us new equipment for the phone, should have it early next week.

Interestingly, we seem to have had a rush on Fiber Trends patterns at IY while I was offline. I’m working through the list on a first-come, first served basis and will be ordering additional copies of several patterns on Monday to fill the remaining orders. I’m also looking through their list for other patterns to add . . . should be able to tack on a bunch more.

I’m also working on a major renovation over at IY. Actually took the site down and am replacing it with a whole new look. I’m still working my way through it so not all the pages are active as yet, but hopefully in the next few days I’ll get it all back up and running again.

One of the things I really want to do, which will be a bit of work, is to take actual photos of each batch of yarn, each colorway in each yarn that is, rather than relying on one colorway photo for a yarn like I’ve been doing. That means I’ll be putting that page back together rather slowly as I managed to get all the pictures taken and edited. I do think the results will be worth it though.

On a personal fiber front I’ve been bouncing around from one thing to the next again with no real direction. I had finished the gloves (no photo yet, he keeps leaving them in the car) and so that means all 5 of my UFOs for this month are done and I’ve finished 7 things so far. I have 2 things on the needles in the work basket but I haven’t worked on them for a few days. DH’s cable scarf and the handspun shawl.

I have been doing a bit of spinning, on the Joy wheel since its in the house and I’ve got a bobbin full of colorful blendy stuff. I’m getting bored with it though so I’m going to ply it up and be done with it. I’ve got a bit of the fiber left; its really just some odds and ends that I blended when I had M’s drum carder for a while. Guess I’ll put it aside for a while.

I’ve also started spinning some of the white Romney stash fiber. I’m planning to try making it into a true 3-ply yarn to see how that turns out. One of my goals has been to get good at 3-ply and to start using that, hopefully at around DK weight, as my main handspun yarn for things. . . yeah, so that is a long term goal

Yesterday was spent packaging things to be mailed, including sending out a beautiful Merino fleece and some fun corrie & romney to be processed at Zeilingers. The merino is only being washed as I hope to work on my combing technique; at least that was what I bought it for. The Corrie & Romney are going in one batch for roving. I also dug out 2 pretty grey fleeces that I’m washing myself to preserve all the pretty shading in them. I’ve got them sorted by color and I washed about 1/3 of the darker one yesterday. Once that is dry (and therefore my drying space is free) I’ll go ahead and work on the next batch of it.

I had started playing with the idea of spinning up some of it but I’m going to attempt to exercise some self restraint (attempt) and hold off until I’ve finished trying the 3-ply. Besides, I’m not sure yet if I want to card this wool or spin from the locks and I might want to use the big wheel rather than the Joy . . .

So it looks like the next couple of things are going to be the baby sweater for a friend who is having a little girl next month. I’ve washed the yarn and need to wind it and pick a stitch pattern so I can get started. And earlier today I got a note from Afghans for Afghans that they are doing a special hat drive for an educational circus. They are looking for hats knit from a single primary color and out of wool. I know I’ve got some red leftover from a sweater and I think I’ve got some other brights out in the barn so I think perhaps the next thing I cast on will be a hat or two to send in. Afterall, it isn’t like I don’t have plenty of fiber and I’ve finished lots of things off my list so far; it feels like time to do something helpful for just a little bit.

And on that note, I’m off to the barn to dig out that yarn if I can find it.

PS. Becky please send me your email address. I couldn’t get your info through the profile for some reason!

I might be back . . .

Looks like the home connection is working for the moment . . . not sure it will last but who knows.

I’ve a lot of catching up to do so I doubt I’ll get much knitting done. I’ve got a stack of customer orders that I’m going to work on putting together today with the hopes of mailing tomorrow when I have the car again . . . so if your waiting, really, its on its way!

Not much knitting to report, I’ve spent a lot of time the past 2 days working on trying to get this computer stuff running again. We had the whole cable thing rewired over the weekend as the first step and I’ve reset, reconnected, rewired etc for the past few days. It isn’t finished, the phone still isn’t working, but I’m gettting closer at least.

Well, off to fix lunch, then packaging order . . .

Sorry for the delay . . .

We are having major problems with our system and I haven’t been able to log in since last Friday, I was 1/2 way through writing a post when the system went down.

I’m still trying to get it all resolved, we’ve had the cable rewired inside the house and I’ve been told our modem works so we don’t know what the problem actually is. I’m writing from the library and on borrowed time so this will be brief

The long awaited answer to the # of yards is 449 so everyone was over (including me, I thought it would be about 700 - 750) so the closest was Becky . . . once I get this all sorted out and can get on line from home I’ll be in touch to arrange to ship your prize.

I’ve finished another UFO, Dom’s gloves are done and he wore them for the first time today. I’m working on his scarf and shawl so when I can post again I’ll hopefully have pictures of those and the finished gloves.

Gotta run, few more things to do and the timer on the computer is ticking away . . .