Yarn outdoors

You know, that thing when you find yourself volunteering to take on the knitters' guild newsletter. And then you find yourself doing a yarn photo shoot for said newsletter. No? Just me? Well, anyway, here's some yarn. On a stump. I like it. I hope the guild does too.

A farm report

Well, not really a "farm" report, but a little update on the goings on around here. 

Walter is loving kindergarten. He runs out to me after school with a big smile on his face and tells me he's "exhausted." And then continues to skip to the car and jabber on about this and that, filling me in on his day. I love picking him up from school. I love his energy. 

He's got soccer and swimming keeping him busy two nights a week, and those activities have given me a little extra knitting time. Knitting during chilly soccer nights is a great way to keep my lap warm. I've been working on a sweater and it's been slow going, but I finally feel like I'm getting somewhere. Just a couple of sleeves and a waistband to go!

The honey has been harvested and the bees have been put away for the winter. The harvest was smaller this year, only about 7.5 gallons, compared to last year's 10 gallons. Ramona was weak all summer long so we didn't take any honey from her. Both hives have plenty of honey left to keep them going through the winter. We'll see if they are strong enough to make it. Time will tell.

Molly is the same old Molly. Her hair has grown back from her summer cut and she's dropping tumbleweeds of fur all over the house again. 

The chickens are doing well. Black Licorice is finally off the nest – done being broody for now. We've got some molting and our egg production has been down a bit, but we hear that is all normal fall chicken activity. Susan, the owner of Cluck, the chicken store down the road, has been a great resource to us. We often go to her with our chicken questions and concerns. And she's taken a liking to Walter. She even let him name the new chicks she's been keeping at the store. "Friendly" and "Dorothy Vader" are pictured below. If you're in the area, visit Cluck! It's a really cute store selling all sorts of chicken supplies and chicken art, including some fun metal pieces made by the Billmeyer artists, Jim and Nate. 

We've already done a little pumpkin picking and carving, and since this pumpkin is already covered in mold, we plan to do some more this weekend too. Did you know that chickens love pumpkin guts? 

In the home improvement category, we can finally check the driveway off the list. Brand new asphalt makes for a fabulous biking surface. Nate's on the hunt for a new basketball hoop now that we have space and a flat surface.

And, I saved the most exciting news for last – Nate has qualified to run the Boston Marathon! Whoop! Whoop! Nate ran the St. George Marathon in Utah on Oct. 5 and finished with a time of 3:07:14. (To qualify for Boston he needed to finish in under 3:10.) He's been training hard for the last, um… well, a really long time, and managed to take 20 (TWENTY!) minutes off his previous marathon time. That's a LOT of hard work. We're excited to head to Boston in 2015. 

(Thanks for the photo, Jim!)

That's the news from our homestead. How's the fall been treating you?

Stash-busting for good

About a month ago I was looking for a knitting project and discovered that I had built up quite a large stash of yarn. Lots of odds and ends from past projects. So I grabbed a little ball of yarn and made a baby hat. It only took a couple of hours. One night, one baby hat, one less bit of yarn in the stash. So the next night I made another one. And then another and so on. I figured I'd eventually find a place to donate them, and today I did. My internet browsing led me to this site which is hosting a craftalong and accepting donations of handmade warm things for the victims of Hurricane Sandy. I'll be sending out my hats tomorrow. 

There is still plenty of yarn left in my stash and plenty more organizations accepting donations. I see many more hats in my future. If you're in the making/giving mood, here are some free patterns and organizations to get you started. 'Tis the season.

Patterns:

Baby hats

Scarves

Mittens

Chemo caps

Organizations:

Halos of Hope

Wool Works

Fall knitting

Funny how the weather gets a little cooler and I get the itch to knit and knit and knit some more. It started with a hat – a baby gift for a friend. The yarn for that hat was so lovely that I decided to use the rest of the skein to knit up a little something for me – a pair of fingerless gloves to keep my hands warm on Saturday mornings while I'm shivering on the sidelines of the soccer fields. The pattern is Blue Monday and they were a super quick knit. It helped that I had a day off and got in a little knitting time while Walter played in his treehouse.

Turns out that photographing gloves on my own hands is harder than knitting them. After several failed attempts with the timer and the tripod, I finally handed the camera over to Walter. He did a great job!


I don't have any photos of the baby hat because the baby decided to join us a few weeks earlier than scheduled. I handed over his hat before I got a chance to take pictures of it. But I've got some something even better. Welcome to the world, Parker! Isn't he a cutie?

A spring day

You guys! The high temp today was 62°! Beeeeeautiful! A perfect evening to play outside in a Mama-made sweater. It's Tuesday – he said he'd wear it on Tuesdays. 

I've been letting Walter take some pictures with my camera lately. It makes him more willing to have his photo taken. He's learning how to look through the viewfinder and aim the camera. He took this one of me today. I think he's getting the hang of it. 

Little Hoodlum

It's finished! Walter's sweater is done. Of course, he says he doesn't like it. It's the chance you take when you make things for kids. Or anyone for that matter. But he said he might wear it on Tuesdays. We shall see...


I had to bribe him with a prize to get him to put it on and pose for some photos. For every nice shot I got, I got about 16 silly ones. The pattern is Little Hoodlum by Julia Stanfield. Perfect name, I think.



One more down, one more WIP to go!

Snow!

It's January 12 and we've finally gotten our first measurable amount of snow for the winter. Walter was really, really excited... to shovel! He's been looking forward to shoveling for weeks. So he shoveled and shoveled and shoveled some more. Nate gave him a dollar for his efforts and he went right out and spent it on video games at the pizza place. It was his first paycheck. He should be allowed to spend it any way he wants.

I managed to finish my scarf just in time for the snow. The pattern is the Rick Rack Scarf, which was featured on the Purl Bee back in November. It's nice and cozy. And now I can move on to finishing another wip. Knitting is such a good activity for a snowy evening.

Works in progress

Much of my free time these days is being consumed by knitting. My works in progress (that's "wip" in knitting speak) are piling up. If only I could finish something! That skirt I started WAY back in October is almost done. It just needs a little lace edging and a waistband. This scarf, a tedious little pattern to work, has been tying up my evenings for almost two months now. But I only have about 10 more inches to go! 

And the sweater that Walter asked me to knit, and even picked out the yarn himself? Well, that's still all balled up. But it's next on my list, I swear! I'm going to finish these wips, and I've given myself a little incentive. This morning I stopped at my local coffee shop, which also happens to be my local yarn shop (that's "lys" in knitting speak), and found this hank of deliciously wonderful, hand-dyed yarn. I scooped it up right away and then made a promise to myself not to touch it until all my other knitting projects are finished. Enough of this blogging nonsense. I have knitting to do!

Happenings

Oh goodness. It's been a long time, hasn't it? There's been so much going on. 
- I'm back to running! The achilles tendinitis is gone, but I'm still trying to take things a little easy. One body part or another seems to need ice on a daily basis. But I'm getting my strength back. Marathon, here I come!
- It's squash season! Are these not the cutest little pie pumpkins you've ever seen? Also, if you're looking for an acorn squash recipe, I highly recommend this one.

- I've been doing some sewing. Just a tiny bit. New pillows for the bench seating in the kitchen.

- Walter has become the most inquisitive kid EVER. And his questions just keep getting harder. "Where does water go when it goes down the drain?" "How do you make walls?" "How does an owie heal?" I'm running out of answers. I think we need more trips to the library. Although, he came home with a new book today and decided it would work better as a hat.


- This cool fall weather has gotten me back into the knitting mood. Mama's getting a new skirt.

- Walter has been practicing his writing by making his Christmas wish list. He's getting pretty good. I can't tell you how many times I've heard, "How do you spell train?" 
So, that's a little of what's been keeping us busy. What's happening with you?

Market bag

That blue thing you saw me knitting a couple of posts ago? That is this:

My sister knit a market bag and I just had to copy her. It's like, the law, that when your sister has something, you need to have that something too. So I made my own market bag, following the pattern Kristin chose and using her modifications to that pattern. Because it's also the law, that you should let your sister do the work and then cheat off of her. It's a great, lightweight bag, that expands, expands, expands to fit all your market goodies. The pattern and mods can be seen on Ravelry.

Weekend with Mama

While Nate worked, Walter and I had the weekend to ourselves, so we did all the things that Mama likes best. Shopping at the Farmer's Market, visiting with friends, planting, baking, watching movies and knitting. Lucky for me, these are the things that Walter likes best too. Of course, if he listed off what we did this weekend, he'd say we ate cookies at the Farmer's Market, played with friends, dug in the dirt, made monster cookies and watched Toy Story 3 while getting his legs tangled in Mama's yarn.

Knitting therapy

This is our dining room. 

Clearly, we are still trying to get organized. Nate has been hard at work, building shelves and installing things. (I can't wait to show you what he's been doing!) While I wait for those things to be finished up so I can put some things away, I've been knitting. And knitting. And knitting some more. It's something to focus on and take my mind away from the chaos that is crowding our dining room and so many other areas of the house. And look how productive I've been! 

Many dishcloths, in many patterns, have been stashed in the kitchen. And I've finally started on this project, that I bought supplies for so many months ago. 

It feels good to get something done. I know our mess won't last forever. In the meantime, I'll just keep on knitting.

Feeling knitty

What is it about the change of seasons that makes me want to knit? I took a summer-long break, but I'm ready to get back at it. Since we are so busy with house stuff, I haven't had a chance to get out to shop for yarn and patterns. So, I'm using the magic of the internet to satisfy my craving. The makings for the Staghorn Cabled Tunic (who names these things?) are on their way to my front door. 

I'm so excited to get started! I found lots of fun patterns while searching. I might have to cast on a little something for Walter soon, too. The boy could use a new sweater or two.

My husband is awesome

My sister and I have been trying to figure out how to wind a nice, neat, center-pull ball of yarn, without spending all kinds of money on equipment. Typical ball-winding requires a ball winder (duh) and a swift. The two of these things together can cost around $100. Not an outrageous amount, considering these are things we can share, but we like to do things on the cheap when we can. Lucky us – we were able to borrow a ball winder from our mom and Nate built us a swift! Yup, there’s the part where he’s awesome. He followed some plans that Kristin had found and, viola! A swift that helped turn this giant mass of wool:

into a neatly wound ball in just a few minutes.

Thanks Nate! You’re the best! It’s so great to have a handy husband who supports my hobbies.

I’m planning to get this yarn on the needles soon. No mysteries this time. I’m going to give the Shalom Cardigan a try, with a few modifications – more buttons, maybe some sleeves. Something like what SouleMama did here. I don’t know how much knitting I’ll be doing over the summer. Playing in the sunshine will be my top priority. (Walter’s too!) But, with any luck, I’ll have a sweater by the time fall arrives.

Ta-da!

Here it is. The big reveal. The mystery project is... (cue drumroll) the Razor Cami – pattern by Katie Marcus of OhMyStars Craft!

This was my first attempt at knitting adult-sized apparel (hats don’t count) and I’m really happy with how it turned out.

The pattern was very easy to follow. I made a few modifications that slowed me down a little. Who knew knitting involved so much math? But I figured it out and I have a fun new top just in time for spring. Hooray!

Almost done!

The mystery project is almost done. I'm blocking it now and I'm hoping for some nice weather this week so we can get outside and take some pictures. Yippee! A finished project is such a good feeling!