This is what was waiting for me when I went to lock up the hens last night! Isn’t it a colorful array of eggs? There had actually been 4 in the morning as well for a total of 13 eggs yesterday . . . we’re averaging about a dozen a day lately!

Knitting

I’ve been doing some knitting lately . . . not as much as I’d like but general house stuff was getting in the way for a few days . . . darned housework!  I had hoped to finish the Minimalist Cardigan by this past Monday and actually wear it to knitting on Monday night but that just didn’t happen.  I’m now 11 inches into the sleeves and have about 1.5 inches to go before the decreases begin . . . from there I think it will move along but its driving me nuts – I just want it done!

I did take about 24 hours out of knitting on the sweater to do a quick Chemo cap for a friend of ours.  I had made her a hat last spring but it turned out that it was a bit too big and she asked if I could fix it . . . I offered to knit another instead and that is what I’ve done.  I just have to sew the hem and weave the ends and it will be ready for delivery.  I’ll try to remember to take a picture of it before I give it to her.

I had finished the KP socks I was doing – originally started in July of ‘06 – but I only just got around to taking a picture . . . There is a post on the finished socks a few posts ago which now includes the photo . . . if you look closely you’ll notice that one of the socks has a different colored toe – that is because I ran out of yarn entirely before I could finish the 2nd sock.  I realize that the pattern I did was a bit of a yarn hog, esp. with the length of the leg – but I’m still dissappointed that there wasn’t enough yarn in the 2 skeins.  I don’t think they even make that particular yarn anymore but if they did, I wouldn’t be buying any more of it!

Baby

Things are moving along nicely with the new little one.  She moves and twitches and kicks  all the time now – and I do mean all the time.  She esp. likes to start dancing after I finally get her big brother to bed and am able to sit down to rest and knit – figures, right?

I realized the other day that we had 14 weeks until our due date – and that since they plan to induce me a week early we really had 13 weeks (and now its closer to 12) and the funny part was that my main “panic” is that I haven’t finished the knitting I want to have done before she arrives!   We’re basically ready for her – we have a ton of clothes from the first one and from my neices – she is sharing a room with her big brother (at least for a few years) so that is done – I have the cloth diapers etc all ready to go with perhaps just a wash to get any dust out – the only things we really need to do are pick up a few small odd and ends, put together the crib and get a bureau for her clothes. 

However – I’m figuring with a new baby in the house my spring, summer and perhaps fall Knitting will be limited to small things – most likely what the kids need and perhaps a few socks for variety.  So before we reach that point I’d really like to finish the Minimalist Cardigan, knit myself a Fair Isle Yoke sweater as a cardigan and pehaps finish one or two of the other larger projects that are already started . . . oh and I haven’t knit any baby stuff yet!

Isn’t he cute?

This is the little guy wearing the Fair Isle Vest that his Godmother knit for him along with some “Harry Potter” glasses – isn’t he cute? He was headed to Church – one of the few places he can safely wear something as nice as this vest . . . though I did make him leave the glasses home

Chemo Cap
started February 4th, 2008, finished February 6th, 2008
Pattern: my own top-down plan
Yarn: GGH Cumba

KP Ribbed Socks, started July 15th, 2006, finished January 30th, 2008
Pattern: Adapted from Vinatge Socks
Yarn: KP Sock Garden
Needles: Size 1 Bamboo DPN
Dimensions: Women’s medium
Pattern Notes: Ran out of yarn a few yards shy of enough to finish the 2nd toe!
Would I knit it again?  Yes, I like the pattern but wasn’t thrilled with the yarn.

Mimmo and I had planned to go to playgroup today.  Unfortunately, they planned a meeting about 30 minutes away and with the weather and all I just didn’t have it in me to dress him up, pack him up, fight to get him into the car without the appearance of a drowned rat from puddle stomping and deal with driving up there . . . then scrambling to do something for lunch . . . etc.  Just not happening today.

That has meant a day of being trapped in the house together (Dom’s working a double shift!) and with him bored.  And did I mention that he didn’t take his nap today? Yeah, we’re having tons of fun.

 We did try the Creme Caramel last night.  It turned out pretty well . . . there were 1 or 2 minor changes I’d make for next time but they really are minor tweeks to what I did.  I’ve got 2 more dishes of it in the fridge but I’ve been asked not to feed any to the little guy until his father is home tomorrow – he wants to see him eat it!

Today was a slow day in the chicken coop, only 5 more eggs . . . but 2 of them are blue! They really are neat to find in the nest box.  We’ve been giving away 1/2 dozen size cartons to a few friends lately and we’ve started including 1 blue egg in each box as a kind of novelty. 

Actually, Dom took some to work and gave them to one of the managers.  Someone up them in a fridge and then someone in the kitchen actually used them to make  souffle for a customer! How funny is that?  The chef asked him not to leave any more boxes with the funny blue eggs in the fridge

Knitting wise I’ve been working on the Minimalist Cardigan and the KP socks on and off as I can in between other things.  I’ve got about 3 inches left on the back of the sweater which I hope to finish tonight.  I had planned to take a photo to show you my progress but the lighting situation, due to the weather, has been terrible so it will have to wait.  I’ve pulled out 2 skeins of yarn to start the fronts with . . . I’m planning to knit them both at the same time . . . better shot that they will be the same length that way, know what I mean?

The KP sock is coming along very slowly . . . I’m finding it rather boring but I really, really want to get it done and off the list so I try to do a few rounds here and there just to keep it moving.

A certain little someone keeps asking if I’m making his sock or his sweater . . . and he’s very disappointed that neither project is for him.  I think I’m going to have to start another pair of socks for him soon.  He doesn’t really need me to knit him another sweater as his Godmother just knit him 2 (Thank you, Mari!) and that brings the total in his drawer to 9 if I remove the one that is getting a little snug.  Socks on the other hand, he actually can use a few more pairs of . . .

Speaking of socks; Emma asked in comments about how I darn socks. I’ve been using directions that I found here:

http://www.hjsstudio.com/darn.html

I’ve found them to be good directions and I’ve darned 8 socks so far with at least 4 more that currently need darning – thank you very much sucky nylon area rugs!

Time to go lock up the chickens . . . .

I remember exactly why I put them down for what was suppose to be just a bit too! The KP yarn I’m using was annoying me, specifically the fact that I bound off the toe with something like a yard or two of yarn left! I really don’t like cutting it that close and felt kinda gipped that there was only “just” enough yarn.  I spent some time late yesterday trying to piece together from my notes and close examination of the finished sock exactly what I had been doing and think I’ve got it figured out.  Perhaps I’ll have another finished pair over the weekend . . .

I also did cast on something “small” last night.  Using Clara’s Feather and Fan scarf pattern from KR and the Kimono Angora yarn I bought a while back I’ve started a simple scarf.  Actually, restarted.  I had been doing small Granny Squares intending to sew them gether into a scarf with this yarn . . . I’ve rethought that plan and will be doing something rather different.  I’m going to take the two whole skeins I have and by starting a new section with each of them so it works up from the ends toward the middle  . . . then I’ll take the 3rd skein that I’ve been making squares with and finish off however many there are and sew them into a piece that will then have the two lace ends sewn to it.  Does that make sense?  I think it will be interesting when finished.

Eggs

This morning when I went to let the birds out I noticed that one of the “Easter Egg” hens was in the nest box.   She stayed there while I replaced their water and took the scratch feed outside and so I hung around for a few minutes to see if she left anything.

We got our very first blue egg today!  I hadn’t actually brought the camera down to the coop so I “recreated” what I found in the nest box by putting some straw into my egg basket . . .  but as you can see we have several shades of brown, including one that almost looks pink, and our very first blue/green egg!  We have 4 hens that will lay some similar shade so combined with the browns and pinks we’ll have a very colorful basket indeed!

Tofutsies Socks, started August 12th, 2007, finished January 3rd, 2008
Pattern: Basic Socks
Yarn: Tofutisies
Needles: Size 1 DPN
Dimensions: Women’s Medium
Pattern Notes: Need to space leg shaping decreases a bit further apart next time.
Would I knit it again? Yes, this is basically the sock pattern I knit most often.

We’ve had a terrific holiday season – the little guy has really enjoyed the festivities this year. 

A few days before Christmas he and I made cookies together.  He has really come to love cooking and baking and had a great time with each step of the process.

and we had the perfect weather for doing a little baking

We waited until just before Christmas to put up the tree, getting it the Friday before and then letting it just sit in the room and open up on Saturday.  Sunday it got lights and then Christmas Eve, while my family was here, we all decorated it together. 

We had a special Christmas visit from Uncle Anthony who came all the way from Tuscon AZ.  Mimmo hadn’t met him and they had a great time together.  The little guy is going to be really bummed when he realized that Uncle A. has returned to AZ! We hope he’ll come back soon!

We’ve had one of the snowiest Decembers on record here as you can see from the looks of the back yard.

Much of that snow is gone now but there is still snow cover over most of the yard and I’m betting it won’t be long before we have more. 

Knitting & even Spinning!

I managed to finish the modified Fan and Feather Triangle in time for “Nonna” to have it for Christmas . . .well, okay, so it still had ends that needed to be woven but it was cast-off and blocked in time and in my book that counts as close enough

I’ve been working on the Prairie Blanket – its now about 11 inches past the 1/2 mark and finally getting to a point where the rows actually feel like they are getting shorter!  I’d like to do a couple of similar, largish projects for Caterina before she arrives so I’m hoping to finish this up in the next few weeks.

The past few days I’ve been working again on the Tofutisies Socks that I started back in August.  I had finished the first one relatively quickly and then put the project aside in favor of other things (surprise!) and sometime this past fall I picked it up long enough to cast on the 2nd sock and done a few rounds and the had put it down again.  I’m now 22 rounds into the 48 rounds of the foot and intend to finish it in the next few days.  And the timing is good since I could really use another pair of socks as several pairs have found their way into the mending pile recently . . . .

I also took some time the other night to sort and pick some raw wool – a Finn/Ramboilett Cross that I have a large amount of – to try a new technique with.  I scoured it and the dyed it immediately – minimizing the water exposure as this particular fiber loves to felt up.  I dried it the next day and even managed to card up one of the two colors that I had dyed.  The handling method seems to have worked as a brief spinning sessions showed the fiber to be soft and quite spinable.  The one down side to this particular batch of wool is that it is quite full of VM.  Like small furry things could live the winter on the hay in this stuff.  A sizable amount of what I brought in was declared unfit and sent to the compost pile while the rest was picked carefully of the largest pieces and much more came out during the scouring, repicking and carding processes.   The plus side is that I got the wool for $1/lb which makes it a great wool for experiementing with and for quick mittens & hats for the kids. 

New Year’s Resolutions

There is a new poll to the right in the margin – I’m curious how many have knitting related resolutions?

I didn’t make any formal resolutions this year, knitting or otherwise. 

The ususal ones about loosing weight and getting organized just aren’t in order this year . . .  I’m currently almost 22 weeks pregnant and have been told that I should gain about a lb a week right now.  Yeah, later in the year I’ll be working on some weight loss, but its more a long term plan than a resolution and not something I’ll be doing anything about for a number of months to come.  And I am trying to declutter our limted space and get us more organized before the baby arrives – but realistically, a lot of the extra stuff that is around is going to be used for the new baby and won’t be going away until after she has finished with it.

Knitting wise I’ve had to realize that my time is likely to be rather sparse this next year and that most of it will likely be spent making things for the kids – mine and my nieces.   I do plan to try to finish up a number of the projects that are already on the needles before I start a bunch of new things but that is more out of annoyance with the number of projects “weighing” on me right now than a formal resolution . . . not to mention, it would be rather handy to free up a few sets of needles!

Farm Report

Things have started to pick up with the chickens.  Yesterday we started off the new year with 3 eggs in the morning and 1 more in the afternoon and today we had 1 in the am and 2 more this afternoon.  They are also starting to get bigger . . . more a medium/large egg than the little ones we started with.  We had some for breakfast this morning and not only are they good and fresh but the shells are very thick – it takes a lot more to crack one of these than the store variety!

We learned that the white chickens we have actually lay brown eggs – who knew! And so far we haven’t had any of the lovely Blue/Green eggs that we are expecting so far but I’ll keep you posted

Modified Fan and Feather Triangle, started November 20th, 2007, finished December 24th, 2007
Pattern: Feather and Fan Triangle from Folk Shawls
Yarn: Sugar Maple Merinos – Kid Mohair/Merino
Needles: Size 5 Addi Turbo Lace Needles
Pattern Notes: I knit this at a smaller gauge and with a few less repeats in both the main triangle and in the lace edge.  I made it as a small shawl/large scarf for my MIL to wear over her coat. 
Would I knit it again?  Yes, I will likely make another for myself in a different yarn since I liked it so much.

Father & Son Chunky Cable Hats, started November 12th, 2007, finished November 30th?

Pattern: My own, will be online soon 
Yarn: Sugar Maple Merino’s Bulky Natural Brown
Needles:
Dimensions: Small is for 20 – 21 inch head; Large is for approx. 23 inch head
Would I knit it again? Definately!

and a closeup

Irish Hiking Scarf, started October 18th, 2007, finished November 19th, 2007
Pattern: Irish Hiking Scarf
Yarn:Classic Elite Inca Alpaca
Needles: US size 6
Would I knit it again? Absolutely!