A Few Sheep Shy of a Farm

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

So I’m a little behind on posting this . . . . partly because the Retreat was so overwhelming that I needed to digest it for a bit . . . and partly because lifes craziness returned full swing when I got home. . .

Friday morning I actually managed to leave on time . . . the toddler took my leaving remarkably well though I don’t think he really understood that I’d be away all weekend either.   I stopped at our favorite bakery and got 40 mini cannoli (YUM!) and can proudly say they actually all made it to the Retreat

Next stop was at South Station to pick up Lynn who was riding along with me.  Its a bit of a long ride and Lynn was great company and so we chatted away the whole ride out.  We did stop once along the way, partly because the trim on the edge of my windshield was loose (from the car wash).  Our first destination was Webs!

What can I say, the place really is as overwhelming as everyone says it will be.   We stayed pretty much in the front “shop” area and saved the full warehouse for next time . . .  didn’t want to burn out on yarn too early in the weekend!   Actually, I think I was fairly restrained all things considered . . . I picked up some more pink yarn, 8 skeins of Misti Alpaca

 

 . . . and 2 of the Dale of Norway baby books that had loads of cute patterns for both kids.  And the sizes on most of it go to 48 months so that was perfect. 

 

I also got cones of Harrisville Shetland, some of which I’m using for my New Beginning project from the Retreat and these are for the stash:

 

Back on the road for the rest of the drive to the Retreat. . .  We arrived at the Inn at about 3:30 or so and got checked in with both the Inn folks and Martha.  The goodie bags this year were amazing and further proof that Clara and KR have arrived since major companies are now offering stuff.  These bags are the knitters equivilant of the bags given to celebraties at award shows. 

 

Here are a few shots of the (in)famous Stash Lounge:

 

Dinner was fabulous and we spent the evening knitting and chatting and doing introductions.  My roommate is the one with the 2 Kauni Sweaters! which Clara showed in the KR report . . . Aren’t they beautiful! I may just have to try one after seeing hers!

Friday night after thing wound down in the ballroom we headed back to our room .  .  .  I mentioned that I got Harrisville Shetland for my New Beginnings project . . . well, its wonderful yarn and I’m loving it but the catch was that its unscoured and on cones! So out came the Niddy Noddy (yup, I actually brought it with me!) and I wound off the entire cone of yarn while chatting with Meg.   Then it need to be scoured . . .

 

Luckily for me the hotel bathroom had nice hot tapwater!  After its bath we (me and the yarn) went outside for a little fresh air . . . at 11 at night I was swinging a skein of yarn overhead to get the water out.  Fortunately, the other guests were knitters so if anyone did see me at least they didn’t call the desk to report a crazy person acting suspicious on the lawn!

Saturday morning we had our class after breakfast.  I took Pam Allen’s Lace class and found it really interesting.

 

She gave us charts and had us work up a series of swatches that showed the effects of decreases in lace patterning depending on angle and placement . . .  it really gave me something to think about from a design perspective.  We also had a lovely chat about lace in particular and knitting & the yarn industry in general.  All in all, a very nice class.

After lunch (again, really good food and such a treat to not cook or clean up)  we had a little break before the Market opened.  I managed to be one of the first in the door and got a couple of photos before it got picked over. . . .

 

 

 

That’s my roommate Meg in her rainbow Kauni!  There wasn’t nearly this much left by the time it was over but there were a lot of satisfied knitters  

I was again, remarkably restrained.  I got a copy of Clara’s book, a t-shirt, a few note cards and bookplates from Clara.  I also got some yarn and fiber from Sugar Maple Merinos (in the first photo above).   I got 2 skeins of bulky Merino, but by the time I wrote this they’d been knit into hats . . .

 

This photo shows the cables pretty well but not the color, which is more like this:

 

and 2 skeins of Mohair/Merino blend in Fingering weight which will be either small shawls or large scarves.  

 

And I got a lovely bag of silvery grey merino roving that is going to be a sweater at some point (really, it is!) and that was pretty much it for me and shopping.

Actually, what I worked on most was spinning some handpainted roving that I’m spinning up into yarn that will be for a baby surprise jacket for the little one . . . I got the second 2 oz packet of fiber spun and most of the 4 oz that are spun plied . . .  I’ve got another 4 oz that I’m going to spin before I knit the sweater.   I hadn’t done much spinning in a while (spinning wheels and 2 yo boys are a bad combo!) so it was nice to get so much done.  I’ve been interested in trying a BSJ for a while now and what better time than for my own little peanut!

Saturday evening Barbara from Foxfire Farm came and spoke to us about her experiences with raising sheep.  It was an interesting peek into what it takes to be a shepardess.

  

The rest of the evening was spent knitting and spinning and visiting . . . with a few glasses of wine (I had my 1 for the week with dinner, Dr approved thank you) and lots of cookies and treats as well.  It was a wonderful and relaxing evening.  Many of us stayed up for a while longer than we otherwise might have to enjoy a little knitting drama . . . One knitter was working hard to bind off a Mobius that she had been knitting.  Its made from her own handspun yarn . . . from the hair of her pet Samoyed Dog!  The drama was that she was running out of yarn and lacking more yarn or available fiber . . . she might have had to wait until spring (and the dog shed again) to have enough yarn to finish it!  She made it with mere inches to spare:

 

Talk about a knitting clif hanger!

Sunday morning I woke up with a bit of a migraine (theory is that perhaps it was because we were headed back to reality) and after we had a lovely breakfast together we headed back to the ballroom for some wrap-up and the New Beginnings projects.   Clara spoke about the Retreat and how its grown and evolved over the years and thanked us for coming.  We then gave her a “Standing O” for throwing such a fabulous party . . . . and we made her cry!

 

She had us write letters to ourselves and handed out letters to those who attended last year . . . and then we began our projects.  The idea is basically to start something for yourself (that you finish before the next retreat) and then to have others that you have connected with over the weekend knit a stitch or a few stitches on your project.  The project I chose is to knit a Shetland Hap Shawl based on the patterns in Sharon Miller’s book and using the Harrisville Shetland I picked up at Webs. 

 

 

I’ve got 5 different colors in shades of brown and I’m really looking forward to seeing how it turns out. 

After lunch we packed our things and managed to stuff everything back into the car and headed out.  Lynn and I stopped off at Webs again on the way home to exchange a cone of yarn I got with the wrong dyelot.  The impressive thing was that neither of us actually purchased anything else!

MIL called me on the cellphone when I was about 20 minutes out and said she was making dinner, bless her!  When I did get home the little guy seemed happy to see me and then was up to his usual tricks within minutes.  By all reports he was something of an angel all weekend and saved up the trouble until I got home.  Figures.

Monday and Tuesday I did battle with my old friend migraine.  And I manged to realize that I’ve gone from morning sickness to this weird thing where I can’t eat if I’m the one doing the cooking . . . and after being gone for 3 days and sick for 2 thing kinda piled up around here so I haven’t been online much while I try to catch up again.

I have done a little knitting; I made Father & Son cabled hats from the Sugar Maple Merino for the guys. I’m planning to add the pattern as a Free Pattern on my site.  I’m also done with the Irish Hiking scarf and have worked on the Hap shawl.

for the emails and comments wishing us well!

Yes, baby #2 is due to arrive around May 9th 2008.  We’re very excited as well as a bit nervous; this will be a big change and starting over with all the feedings and middle of the night stuff . . .  but very exciting and we think Mimmo is really going to enjoy being a big brother (once he gets used to the idea anyway). 

This is also the main reason I haven’t been doing a whole lot of knitting lately.  I’ve been feeling quite sick this time around and very tired so I have been having a hard time keeping up with the general day to day stuff let alone doing much of anything for knitting.   Its starting to get a little better but I’m still taking a nap with the little guy most days and very tired by the time he goes to bed at night.

I’ve also been fighting off a case of “startitis”! I’d really like to start a sweater for myself but I’m afraid to knit something that I’ll only be able to wear this year, like a maternity sweater, and don’t see the point of knitting something that isn’t going to fit until next year . . . which is why “Fern” is on hold yet again . . . not a lot of point since there is no possible way it would fit this year!  Besides it isn’t like I don’t have plenty of other things to be knitting on .  . . the toddler is going to need more winter socks and perhaps another sweater or two and maybe even a new hat and mittens (we haven’t tried on last years yet) and there is the new baby to knit for as well . . . .

Speaking of which, I think the Prairie Blanket is now going to be made regular baby blanket size and given to the new baby.  Mimmo recently got a twin sized bed and new blankets that fit it and doesn’t really need another blanket right now . . . and I’d like the new baby to have a couple of handknit blankets of their own rather than just big brothers  . . . 

I’m also about 70% or so finished with the Lacy Prairie Shawl.  I’ve been working on it again after it was suggested that shawls might make more sense than sweaters for now since they will fit whether or not I’m pregnant . . . I’m hoping to be able to steal enough knitting time to finish it this next week or at least by the end of the month so I can wear it as things really start cooling off.   Trouble is, because its from some early, very uneven handspun, it really isn’t something I plan to wear anywhere . . . its more of an around the house shawl.   That could change once its blocked but somehow I doubt it.  I’ve been amazed as I’ve been knitting with this yarn at just how much my spinning has changed in the past few years (and I dare say, improved . . .

Okay, gotta run, little guy is getting antsy . . . I’m hoping to move the shawl to waste yarn and take a photo of it sometime soon so once I do I’ll post a new picture . . . .

My grandmother passed away this past weekend. She was 86 yrs old. This is her almost 2 years ago with our son when he was only a few days old. She loved this little guy so much! And we all loved her. She was such a constant in my life; she was the third parent in the house when I was a kid; I just can’t quite grasp that she’s gone. Seems so strange that I won’t be able to call her next time I want to make her fish chowder recipe. I never did get it straight, though I’m sure I have it written down somewhere. It just became habit to call her and have her talk me through it when I made it.

The wake isn’t until Thursday and the funeral is Friday morning. Feels like we’re all kind of in a “holding pattern” until then, just flying in circles and trying not to crash. I didn’t post this sooner because I just couldn’t. We’ve known for months that this was coming but somehow that hasn’t really made it any easier. Gram is the first person we’ve lost in 18 years, since my cousin died of cancer when I was a kid.

I’m coping by doing the things that just have to get done around here. Thank goodness my MIL is doing most of the cooking, since in this mode I tend to burn more than is edible. Yesterday I spent a chunk of the day spinning. I was going for mindless and something involving a sense of touch, but I picked the Merino/Angora blend and had to focus a bit more than I planned on. I think I did about 2 oz. I’m planning to ply it today and once I get a chance dye it up in a semi-soild burgandy color. Its going to be a Christmas gift scarf for someone special, won’t say who in case they read this at some point . . .

I’m off to do another load of laundry (funny how the laundry pile doesn’t care what else is happening and gets to a point it demands attention) and then take the baby out in the yard for a while. Perhaps the fresh air and sun shine will do us both some good.