A Few Sheep Shy of a Farm

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.

I haven’t  been posting as much as I’d like . . . partly because my computer has become rather difficult to type on since a certain someone ran off with several keys from the keyboard; and its a laptop so not that easy to fix . . .

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!