Life

1st Robin, It’s Spring! + Drop Stitch Shawl KAL

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Soooo happy!!!  I have been waiting to see the Robins return, and I saw my first Robin today!!  Welcome Spring!!!  Sorry the color in the picture is not very good :(.

I follow a blog Muddling Through Life and she is having a KAL, (knit-a-long for my non knitting friends.)  It looks so pretty, so I dug out some very deep (meaning I’ve had it a very long time :P) stash.  The above picture shows the yarn, it is a synthetic yarn unfortunately, but it is a fingering weight.  It is some my mom sent me from South Korea when she was working for the Air Force as a non military personnel civil Service employee, years ago.  It is a large skein at 8 oz, it is a beautiful light lavender even tho it shows up like a grey in the picture.  I did have to go buy some new needles because I didn’t have any 40″ needles.  I now have a pair of ChiaoGoo size 7 red lace circulars. 🙂  The pattern calls for a size 8 but I have to go down a size to get gauge because I am a little bit of a loose knitter.  I wanted some ChiaoGoo bamboo needles (my needles of choice) but they were out and I wanted to get this started so I settled for the stainless steel.

I have also started the Welcome New Born Socks , from a previous post, now using the new sock weight yarn (rather than the baby weight) and they are definitely smaller :).  I’ll post a picture of my progress in a couple of days and we should see the answer to my one of my questions about how much of the repeatable colors you can get in a little sock :P.

FO!

/ LDSVenus

I finished the socks I was knitting for an infant I am watching for a few months.  Altho’ these went pretty fast (because they are small :P), they really were not small enough to be newborn, they would probably fit more like a 12 to 18 month old.  But maybe it’s because I used a baby yarn that is a bit thicker than a sock yarn.

So, to give this pattern the benefit of the doubt, I picked up a sock yarn from Hobby Lobby (they were having a 30% off all their yarn sale this week :)).  It is Premier Yarns, color Vegas Lights and is acrylic, so her mom can just throw it in the washer and dryer.  I will give this another try before I move on to another pattern.  I’m interested to see how the colors work up in a very small pair of socks.  Wondering if I can even get all the colors in one little sock or if I will have to do yarn management to get them to turn out more or less the same.  Otherwise she can be like the teens and have mismatched socks, which have been the rage for more than several years.

I haven’t seen the robins yet, but maybe I just missed them?  I usually see the males staking out small territories they then defend from other males so they can try to lure a female Robin to their area. The females show up  2 weeks after the males.  I expect to see the male Robins very soon, we have been having upper 40’s and lower 50’s days , it is so wonderful!!  I love Spring!

HFO Object and Happy St. Patrick’s Day!

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I started this “newborn” sock on Friday evening, so much for it being newborn tho’.  I used some (very) deep stash, Red Heart Pompadour yarn, and size 0 double pointed needles (because it’s too small for my 9 inch circs), but honestly this is not a newborn size, this would fit a 12 to 18 month old :(.  It was a different kind of heel so that was interesting, but this won’t fit the little one I knit it for for several months out :P.  I did start the 2nd sock so I won’t have 2nd sock syndrome 🙂 and it’s all sock practice, right?  They are a pretty quick knit, because they are so small :P.  I’d rather not go down to 00 size needles, so maybe finding a finer yarn would be best for my next try.  Still a nice sock tho’.

I can’t give you the pattern info because I forgot where I got it, ugh!  I looked but couldn’t not find the source, I did post the first page so if you feel inclined to search farther than I did on Ravelry and the internet (and I did search), you can do that.  The copy-write says 2013.

I woke up to about 2 inches of fluffy snow this morning.  It was starting to melt by the time I went to Church and was blowing off the trees because it was a very light powder snow.  I was so excited by the warmer weather I forgot we can get snow here through April.  On Friday, I also saw some geese, the Robins can’t be far behind :).

Project Done!

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My project was my Little Lace Cat’s Paw Scarf design with my hand spun yarn.  I’ve knit this little scarf several times and still enjoy it.  The colors on the scarf are blown out, it really is a medium teal color instead of the lighter color that shows.

I am working on spinning on my Rick Reeves spinning wheel, but the tension is a bit finicky (it’s a double band drive tensioned wheel and I’m use to scotch tension).  I won’t give up, I’ll get it eventually, it’s the only wheel I have at the moment that does not need some repairs, so learn on it I must :P.  I’ve got quite a bit of practice fiber, so I will keep working on it and save my nice fiber for after I have the learning curve down :).

Our weather has gotten much better, rain instead of snow and we have been in the 30’s, 40’s, and today and tomorrow lower 50’s!!  WOOT Spring is almost here, we will be back in the 30’s and 40’s after today.  I say almost because we can still get snow through April.  But I will be keeping an eye open now for the Robins, who are my true signal that Spring is finally here :).  I love Spring!

Still More Snow! Working on a Project

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More snow mid Feb 2019

Yes more snow!  It’s been snowing since sometime last night and they say will continue until sometime tonight.  We are expected to get between 4 to 6 inches.  I left this picture a little bigger than normal, so you could see the snow flakes, I could have made the picture bigger but you can still see all the white dots in the picture :).  I can’t believe I actually got a picture of the snow falling!  But, you know there is always a but, it’s because they are huge flakes :P.  I took this a littler earlier around 1 pm.  Also it looks like more snow this coming week and next Sunday, sigh.

I am working on a project with the yarn I spun from the rolags, but won’t comment on it yet.  When it’s done and safely in the mail, I will post a picture.

Hope if anyone else is getting snow from this rather large storm, that you are safe and warm :).

More Snow and Basia Hat Finished

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More Snow Feb 2019  We got 2 inches of snow on Sunday morning/afternoon, and from yesterday evening until this morning when I took the picture we got a little over 3 more inches of snow.  So the ground is once more white with snow, and more snow is on the way on Thursday or Friday, sigh.  I just keep saying Spring is right around the corner, Spring is right around the corner, Spring is right around the corner…..

Jennettes Basia hat1

I finished the Basia hat, and gave it to the intended recipient.  She was very pleased.  I knit this on size 4, 16 inch circular needle for the ribbing and changing to size 6, 16 inch circular needles and (at the end when it got to small around for the 16 inch needles) size 6 double pointed needles for the crown,  instead of going up a needle size for the slighter heavier wt yarn, causing it to be a bit denser and heavier.  I used the sport/DK wt Polypay, which dyed up a lighter brown, and a dark brown alpaca, which I hand spun as heavy fingering wt.  These two yarns used together was a heavier weight close to, but maybe a little heavier than the worsted wt called for and oh my it will be so warm.  I had promised my family member that I would hand spin alpaca for her hat, but since the Basia hat she chose calls for worsted wt and I truly did not want to want to have to do the math for the lighter wt yarn (I’m not a math person :P), I added the Sport/DK wt wool I had on hand which made it a little heavier than a worsted wt.  She is happy with the hat, and with the sub zero weather we have been having I’m sure it will be a welcome addition to her winter wear :).  I think you can see better the lighter and darker browns together and how they play well with each other :).  I forgot to get a picture before she left, she was kind enough to send me one for my blog ;).

Mid-Winter Thaw and Basia Hat Progress

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1st picture is what happens to 19 inches of snow when the weather is warm for 2 days,  We generally have a mid-winter thaw in the middle of January so it’s a little late but at least we have one.  The temps were 38 on Saturday, 43 yesterday and suppose to be 45 today but a cold front will be here later today so tomorrow we will be back in the 20’s during the day, but that is still much better than the sub zero temps we had last week.  If the ground hog is wrong about there only being 6 more weeks of winter, I’m going to make a big ground hog stew and invite you all over :P.

As you can see I didn’t get the Basia hat done, but I did work on it yesterday and only have 2 inches left before I start decreasing for the crown area, so it should be done tonight, yea!  My daughter will appreciate it now that the cold weather is back.  I really like the marled effect using the two colors of brown, adds a lot of visual to it.  I’ll try to catch that better when I get a picture of the finished hat :).

Hope you all are having a great first part of Feb, SPRING IS COMING!!!

An Ollivander’s Wand!!

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Ollivander Wand  Oh My Goodness!!  My son and his spouse went to Disney World and Universal Studio’s to celebrate their birthdays (2 days apart).  I asked if they would bring me a souvenir postcard from Harry Potter World at Universal Studios (I am a huge Harry Potter fan.)  Never in my dizziest daydreams did I anticipate this!  I’m beyond excited!!  My son didn’t know what Harry Potter character it might have been from, but they told him it was a healing wand.  I’m still grinning like a Cheshire cat!  He said they had some of the Butterbeer (for non Harry Potter fans, it is a non alcoholic drink served to the students at Hogsmeade in the Harry Potter Movies, the Butterbeer in the books might have had alcohol in it.)  He said that is was really good, smooth and creamy with a butterscotchy flavor. 🙂

I’m about half finished with my daughter’s hat, I forgot to take a picture to put in my blog, but I will get one when I have it finished, which hopefully should be today or tomorrow.  I really love the Basia pattern, easy and very visual, it is a paid for pattern.

 

Cold Temps and Another Hat

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jan2019snows This is a picture of the back yard of a friends house so you can see all the snow we have had this Jan.  We also got another 2 inches today, that would make about 19 inches this month, sigh.

We also had some pretty low temps the past 3 days.  Tuesday night got down to about 25 below zero Fahrenheit and with wind chills was about 40 to 45 below zero.  Last night we broke a record with a low of -30 below zero and with wind chills it got down to about 55 below zero.  Our daytime temps were in the lower 20’s below zero  and with wind chills close to 40 below (that is in the day time!), On Wed the post office actually closed and said no postal deliveries.  We got up to -1 today!  Tomorrow should be 18 above and by Sunday we should be around 40 above, a heatwave!!!!

Another Basia Hat

The hat my daughter chose for me to knit from the alpaca I hand spun (a fingering weight) for her was the Basia hat, unfortunately it calls for sport weight, so I added my last skein of the polypay yarn (a sport weight) from the last fleece I sent in a couple of years ago.  I died it brown and tho it is much lighter than the alpaca (I knit them together) it is a very pretty marled color.  I think she will be pleased.  She could have used it this week :P, but it will be done hopefully by the week end.