I’m not happy that this is here again. You’d think the government would take the hint since I keep posting about this, but I guess they just don’t listen :P. I want my hour back, NOW!! 😛
Life
Is it Spring yet? Apparently NOT!
I thought spring would be coming soon (tho’ it’s IA and yes we do have snow sometimes into May, tho usually March or April is normal) I was hoping. But nope, we had another snow storm today. I tried installing a Spring App but no go :P,
I did buy a couple of things for myself last month. One arrived the middle of Feb, the other I received today! From Canada I purchased some stitch markers from Yarn Candy Studio, lovely markers! She also sent a great herbal tea, chocolate and orange! And some safety pin markers! So excited. And I purchased some Harry Potter progress keeper from Gretel Creations, in the UK, love them! She also sent a beautiful colored bird progress keeper. These were both great purchases, they make me happy :).
Happy Valentines Day :)
I received this beautiful orchid from two little family members. It is so beautiful, it is my Valentines Day gift. How lucky am I :), I haven’t received Valentines Day flowers in a long time.
Hope you have lots of Chocolate!!!
Year of Spinning
This year in the Fiber Pusher Podcast on Ravelry we are working on spinning. This month it’s getting things finished that are on our wheels. I had finished the first spool of singles last year, and had started the 2nd spool so am now working on finished that 2nd spool. I’m excited to see this 2nd spool finished and plyed with the 1st spool because I know it will be a beautiful yarn. My yarn usually ends up being a light sport weight. You can see the rolags I am spinning from, here. I’m trying to commit to at least 20 min of spinning a day, but at the very least 3 or 4 times a week. That way I won’t feel bad if I miss a day or two because of odds and ends unplanned things that happen in life. Would love it if things never happened unexpectedly however…. :). I haven’t decided what I want to make from it yet.
I will still be working on the mitts, but I have decided that rather than chance I will fail at the yarn chicken game (made me nervous to see the ball going down faster than I had hoped) and I really did not want to have to frog two mitts to redo them with another color yarn, so, I am going to insert one of the other colors where the design is so it will be a two tone mitt and better match her 3 color cowl :). I’ll post a picture when I have passed that design point and you can see it better.
I have also promised that I would finish the socks I am working on for someone for their birthday (next month) and I need to make two hats for two little ones as we are in the throes or a polar express here :). We were at -21 yesterday (New Years Day and this bitterly cold weather started with the early afternoon on New Years Eve) with wind chills dipping from -30’s to -42 and it was still very cold earlier today, tho now, late afternoon, it’s only -2 with a wind chill of -14. woo hoo, a warm up :P. So I should have a very busy next few weeks with spinning and knitting :).
UGH Happy Late Father’s Day
I’m sorry Dad!! So much going on lately, I got that card out to you on time, but didn’t get this on my blog. I have a wonderful Dad, who has always been there, has always provided for his family and was always there in the middle of the night when we were sick, holding us as we threw up on him (what a great dad it takes to do that :P.) Love you Dad!!
Happy Mother’s Day – Mom, Missing You
Missing you mom!
May the 4th Be With You!!
I couldn’t resist, love it :).
I bought some knitting accessories for myself (don’t do that very often) and I will get pictures and put up soon. Been sick with yet another cold and laryngitis again so I haven’t felt like doing much :(. Also as soon as my back is better (yes I threw it out again) I need to skirt the fleece I have and send it off to be processed into yarn. I’ll talk more about that when it happens 😛
ROBINS!!!!
On my way home, I saw that the first of the male Robins have arrived!!! I didn’t get to take a picture because I couldn’t stop, there were vehicles behind me :(. I will take a picture and put it in here tomorrow. 🙂 The females will follow in about 2 weeks which means SPRING is on the way!!!!
This is how The Heat Advisory Shawl is coming along. I have about 8 more rows before I start the lace work. It is a very enjoyable knit 🙂 I’ll post more when I get some on the lace work done. 🙂
*UPDATE – Ugh I have not been able to get a picture of the male Robbins, but I’ll keep trying. I was not able to catch those beautiful robins, will try again next year – I’ll be prepared next year :P.
UGH! Daylight Savings Time Again
I’m not happy that this is here again. You’d think the government would take the hint since I keep posting about this, but I guess they just don’t listen :P. I want my hour back, NOW!! 😛
Only good thing about this time of year is it’s SPRING!!! Altho’ you might not know it since we are suppose to get about 6″ of snow tonight and tomorrow. Sigh, but that is life in the mid-west!
I am working on the shawl, and am getting close to starting the lace section, I’ll try to get a picture of it in the next day or two and post it. It’s a really nice pattern. 🙂
Bad Day Socks Done, Shawl Started and More Stash :)
I finished my socks with The Lemonade Shop yarn Bad Day. It’s a beautiful yarn 438 yards, 100 gms, 75/20/5 Superwash Merino/Nylon/Stelliana, and I love it. The pattern was a personal vanilla sock pattern from a friend from the Fiber Pusher Podcast on Ravelry. I still need, tho, to either go down another size needle or maybe cast on 60 instead of 64 stitches, I’ll figure it out.
These socks were fun to knit but I took way to long to get them done, my fault – I had to stop to do some Christmas knitting and then finish a blanket for a friend’s son who had asked. Unfortunately I forgot to get a picture of the blanket. I just used the Tara Shawl pattern from Lion Brand Yarns, changing the number of cast on from 60 to 90 so that I had a shorter wider end project instead of the longer shawl shape. It’s a very easy mindless knit that takes 3 skeins of Homespun yarn from Lion Brand Yarns.
I have started a shawl for comfort for my oldest son’s fiancee, who lost her mother 
recently. I chose the Heat Advisory Shawl by Maura Clement because it looked beautiful and didn’t look like it would take a year to knit :). This is a paid pattern. I thought I would use the new yarn that I mentioned in my previous post, but it is a sock weight and the pattern calls for a dk weight, so I went stash diving. Fortunately a friend from my church was preparing for a move and de-stashed her yarn to me, woot woot, I had beautiful dk weight yarn I could use :). You can see the yarn in the picture, it is called Ardilla Bouquet and is from Spain. It is 69% acrilic/21% wool/10% mohair 50 g, 105 m. I have started the shawl, and it seems very easy and at this point is an enjoyable to knit. The yarn, like most mohair, sheds and is fuzzy, but I think it will be a beautiful shawl. 🙂 I have 10 skeins of this yarn and have wound off into balls, 2 skeins to start with, I’m sure it will take about 3 or 4 skeins.
I’m comfortable at this time with just one project going. I am not one of those knitters who have tons of projects going at the same time. I might have 2 or 3 projects at the same time but any more than that is stressful to me. I intend to do this shawl pattern again after finishing this project, for a gift for a little one’s teacher for the end of the year. She has had both him and his sister and has been a wonderful teacher. I’m sure pleasant surprises after a year of teaching little ones is nice ;). For his sister’s teacher I’m thinking of pretty pair fingerless mitts, those are always nice to have in our winter months :). *UPDATE* Ran out of time and did fingerless mitts for both teachers.
We have had an absolutely gorgeous Feb this year. Yesterday we had a record high of 67. More like our April temps, tho we have had blizzards in April too, lol. The temps are going back down into the 40’s today and colder than that on Friday and beyond, but I certainly enjoyed the brief warmer weather and it gave me an emotional pick me up from the drudgery of winter :).
