Saturday Sky and More

As of mid-afternoon Saturday, it still hasn't exactly cleared from solid greyness, but the sun is attempting some light through the cloud deck. At least there isn't any precipitation yet. Right now at 42 degrees, it would be rain. Rain turning to snow is predicted for tonight.

It is definitely handwarmer weather and I wanted to share this pair of sideways garter stitch fingerless mitts. Again, they are handspun heather jacob from 'the grrls'. These are a little longer than most of the pairs I've knit...long enough to cuff.

After grocery shopping this morning, DH and I were able to get some yardwork done. The rest of the garden was cleared, the compost pile spread onto the garden. The leaves are still falling in abundance, so they get spread on the garden then all of it tilled in for winter. The last two stages of the production are expected to occur over next weekend, our 5 day Thanksgiving weekend. Why five days? Here, the first day of (rifle, as opposed to archery) buck season is Monday and the schools always get the first day of buck season off.

Freezing (?) Flaky Friday

Waking this morning after hearing North by Northwest winds buffeting our bedroom all night, I expected to see the predicted inch of snow. I was pleased to see only flakes and 32 degrees. The sky looked halfway promising of the storm breaking up. Yesterday we had most every kind of weather -- clouds, wind, sun, rain, rain/sleet, sleet/hail, rain, sun and snow.

The very last Shasta daisy of the season is wilting. There are also Purple Coneflowers and Nearly Wild roses that believe the blooming season has been extended this year.

With the seasonal weather (as we expect snow around here the week before Thanksgiving), it was time to break out the winter 2005 "Homespun Poncho" crocheted from a "Crochet Fantasy" Oct. 2004 magazine pattern. Crocheted with handspun white heather Jacob from "the grrls", I have a fondness for it even though I haven't made the best of friends with its unflattering boxeyness.

It's Gonna Be Lookin' A Lot Like...

It's gonna be lookin' a lot like the holiday season here 'real soon' with predicted accumulation by morning;so, thought I'd share my Sheep Tree.(Click picture to enlarge in separate window.)

Sheep Tree stays up all year now on the gossip bench in the upstairs hallway.

It all started about 23 years ago when on a trip back East to visit family, I found a redware sheep (lower left on tree). Ever since, I grabbed up sheep ornaments anywhere I spied them, practically. A few have been given to me as gifts, like one big Suffolk from Sylvia when she visited the Shaker settlement in Kentucky. And Peta brought me Scottish sheep from Scotland. Dawn gave me the Santa bell with a sheep clanger for Christmas last year.

There's a ram as a tree topper from Mt. Rushmore and a blue spongeware one from Shipshewana, IN. The teal and terra cotta lamb was thrown by a New Mexico potter showing at Willcox' Apple Festival one year. One found at Fleet Farm in Wausaw, WI. Yes, there's even a sheep cookie cutter found in Kidron, OH.

There are more there...

I've had fun collecting these through the years and people remembering me in their travels...sometimes a card, sometimes yarn, sometimes an ornament, sometimes a stuffed sheep....

It's gonna be lookin' a lot like... Friendship.

Talkin' About Christmas Stockings...

In December 2005, Grandson Blake came up to visit right before Christmas. He hoped to see snow since that was something he'd only seen in pictures. There was a little snow while he was here. He even got to take pictures of it falling as well as to learn how to push and shovel the white stuff!

I was pretty excited to have a kid during the Christmas season, though sad that he wouldn't be here for Christmas itself. Even if a kid's a teenager and not believing in Santa, per se; still, it's fun! We decided we'd celebrate a Christmas for him right before he left to go back home, even down to the meals! And, presents! We had to have presents (all of which had to be able to pass through the xray at the airport). The most fun to unwrap are all the smaller things that go into a Christmas stocking, so I designed a stocking in his favorite colors and knit it up for him.

I had never knit a Christmas stocking, much less designed one. I used a 'wonky' letter design for his name and a standard block lettering for the "HOHOHO". Actually had all the yarn here in the yarn stash. So, that was really fun! The two pictures above are of the stocking on its own and filled with wrapped goodies leaning against the fireplace. It couldn't hang -- too many goodies!

I've shown a scarf for Beth and there were two other scarves that year, one for sister and one for Blake's dad...hold your breath for those in another post!

Sugar and Sweetheart socks

When we lived in Southeastern Arizona I was very fortunate to have raised sheep. My first two were twins, Sugar and Sweetheart. They were Jacob x Cormo. I do still have some of their fleece to process and I just love the white heather yarn I spin from their white sections.

The second pair of handspun socks I knit (about 1999, I think) was a Judy Sumners pattern from the web in handspun white heather jacob. They have held up pretty well, and get worn every year. They have felted some, but that's probably a washing problem! (As always, click on picture to "embiggen" and you can see the detail in the socks!)

The fleece from 'my girls' is just luscious. The white heather acts like cormo but almost feels like cotton! Soft. Comfy. I'll be posting more projects from 'my girls' in future posts.

Oh, and as a follow-up to yesterday's post -- today is a warm, Spring-like 50 degrees on the way to 60 or so. It's been lightly cloudy all morning, but there's a clearing line to the north and west!

Rainy Days and Mondays....

It's Day #3 of grey skies, dampness and yuck! So thought I'd post my STR Rare Gems socks finished last March.

I always take two projects to knit when we're traveling. This was the sock pair I used as traveling knitting to Texas last Spring. The second sock became a FO outside Austin while visiting daughter Beth and family. They're photographed in Blake's blooming pear tree the first week of March. Beth really liked the pair, so they were gifted to her.

The STR Rare Gems colorway is not really a colorway....Rare Gems are the BMFA's 'mistakes', so no two skeins are necessarily alike. I knit a 2x2 rib at the top, the legs are knit 4 purl 2 rib all on 0 dpn's.

We'll just skip over yucky winter weather and go straight to Spring happy dances, OK?

Cuddle into warmth

The sky doesn't look any better today than it did yesterday and it's in the low 40's. At least the fog cleared, even if not too high!

Nikki's idea of cuddling under a handspun/handknit thrums scarf is a very good idea. The thrums were won on eBay in 2004 and I spun them 2 ply. Pretty, but there seemed to be some mohair in the thrums. Still, I used some of the yarn for this scarf as a project in Liz Lovick's online Shetland Lace Workshop in 2005. Beth was gifted the scarf for Christmas that year.

Think I'll go cuddle under an afghan and knit....

Saturday Sky

Saturday sky, taken a few moments ago. 38 degrees and heading nowhere fast...

Maybe I can get some knitting in, though...

Doggie Day

The first collie DH and I had was a fella who just didn't want to grow up named Windy Valley Winchester or Chess (because he was the color of Southern Chess Pie) or Chester. We'd gotten him on a trip to the Valley of the Sun when my DH was delivering a studio tape to be cut into a 45. We lived in the Sulphur Springs Valley (about 210 miles from where Chess was born) and one of the mountain ranges was the Winchesters. That was about 6 years before I learned to spin.

The second year I was spinning, there was this collie fur getting blended in with my yarn..."Self," says I, "why not spin Chess?" And from there on out, Chess was harvested for wonderful spinning fiber! And although Chess was "pet quality", he won a blue ribbon on everything made from his fur!

Our current collie, Tawny, is modeling my "Chess hat". DH was very helpful in arranging this photoshoot...goodness knows Tawny is too curious to wear a hat for too long (like a nanosecond!) The second picture shows the hat in a closeup with only a ceramic collie behind! But, no! The hat does not smell like a dog. Ever.

The collie fur hat is 2 ply collie fur knit on #7 and #9 circs and is based upon a hat in "Homespun, Handknit", edited by Linda Ligon.

Taz Time

Or, "This is for Linda"!

A couple days ago on the msknittingcamp list, Linda said she hadn't seen Taz on my blog. True. I said he hadn't made that guest appearance yet. Today's his day!

At Meg's Knitting Retreat 2.75, there is a theme around which those campers who want to participate create contest entries. Each entry is explained and then they're all put out to vote on. Votes are counted and then since all entries are winners, everyone wins something! This past year's theme was "The Devil Wears Zimmermann". (Think: the movie "The Devil Wears Prada".)

Taz was my entry this year. (Linda's was "George Dubbya" and won the contest!)

I was so thrilled to be included in this year's 2.75 and even though I definitely was far from healed from my flight/crash-and-burn, 2.75 felt like a good fit to me. And, yes, I am so anticipating being back for the anniversary summer 2008, 50 years of Schoolhouse Press and 35 years of Knitting Camp!

So...my Happy Dance acceptance to Retreat arrived and then I just had to come up with a contest entry. I thought and thought...devil...hmmm..really don't want to do anything with the traditional devil. A neighboring school district has a Blue Devil as its mascot. Nah... I know! The Tasmanian devil! Love that cartoon character! I googled Tazmanian Devil and found that there were stuffed animals of both the real creature and the cartoon character. eBay to the rescue. I found and won a stuffed animal....and there was a Chicago Bears patch (no Steeler patch with him on; or, I would have bid on that one!)

Now these arrived...the patch can be put on a lanyard as his knitting camp name tag. I had my 'devil' and now he had to wear Zimmermann! I found Chicago Bear colors in my yarn stash. I double checked for EZ patterns, coming up with the Snail or Dairy Queen hat, a miniature baby bear (double entendre on bear)ribwarmer, lumber jack socks, came up with one way of making an EZ pennant (Taz is, after all, 'totally EZ'), and had Taz knitting a mitten. I had no knitting needles that small and toothpicks would be too small...I know! Bamboo skewers....found at my local grocery store! Wonderful DH got out his trusty pocket knife and whittled me doublepoint needles!

How did I decide upon needle size and how to adapt a larger pattern to Taz's size? I choose my bamboo needles that felt comfortable with the yarn (#4's, I think) and knitted a bit to see what kind of gauge I had...then measured around whatever part of Taz I was making the piece of clothing for, translated # of stitches per inch to number of inches of 'critter' and just merrily knit away!

...and I present (da-da-da-DA!) Taz!

Whatever happened with Hopeful?

This blog started out with a post that Jenna Adorno's pattern for "Hopeful" had not been finished...and "Hopeful" was indeed finished in June 2006 and shown as a show-and-tell at Meg's Knitting Camp 2 in 2006. I'd also found a lace shawl pattern from "Katie Knits" blog (Melbourne, Australia, posted August 22, 2005) that works really well with the shiny cotton yarn (Classic Elite Provence) because it glistens in the stitches' shadows. The pattern for "Snakes and Ladders Stole" that Katie posted was one of those apparitions when I needed it!

I did make the neckline somewhat higher than Jenna's original pattern, though it's still low-cut. The neckline and the tie are really nice, though, to knit. I can't say the same for the yarn...I was very unhappy with it because it was splitty, splitty, splitty!

The "set" is really nice to wear in summer and works with jeans or slacks...probably would work with a skirt...i don't wear many of those so I can't say....

Color play

Here are color selections for the fair isle vest I've been playing around with designing in J&S 2 ply Shetland. The swatch has color attempts both usable and unusable. The decisions of the physical scene, the cartoon colors and the actual yarn shades provided an intriguing education.

Last June when I could do nothing but sometimes walk...sometimes sit...barely lie down or sleep after my flight down the stairs breaking my collarbone into three pieces with much soreness everywhere but the collarbone, I stood on the back porch absorbing the crystal sharpness of early morning sunshine in the back yard. The colors, both sharp and muted, cried out to become a fair isle vest. Not much was speaking to me then in my fog. I drew up a cartoon. At Retreat 2.75 in July, Janine wanted to see my Fair Isle notebook, so she perused the notebook and the cartoon. We were both pleased with the extension of the original design and looked forward to color swatching. One week this early Fall I worked on the swatch...everything's been waiting for me since then.

If we do get snow showers this afternoon, it might be a good time to work with June colors!

Update Monday

Update time!

Thought I'd better take advantage of the sun before it hides this week for rain today and chance of snow the rest of the week, per the National Weather Service!

The sock hasn't been worked on for a few days, but the heel is turned and am working on the just-round-and-round foot part for about 3 1/2 inches before the toe. It's pictured on the empty strawberry pot that has made its way to one of the back porch picnic tables on its way to the basment so it won't crack over the winter.

Meg's KAL Christmas stocking is almost ready for the name part and I have to chart that. I think I'm going to knit "God Jul" with the omlauts over the O since that basically means Merry Christmas in Swedish and the stocking isn't for anyone in particular. I am fond of the Swedish half of my heritage!

Yarn Run and Reading

The last twenty-four hours have brought the newest Cast On and Interweave Knits magazines to my mailbox. That, of course, meant that last night was spent in perusing the magazines rather than knitting.

And then I've been concerned that my Christmas reds and greens wouldn't be enough to finish the stocking or any other possible projects. So, after church we stopped at Jo-Ann's. DH wanted to get black velvet to back his "Mr. DJ USA" medal from years ago. No problem with the black velvet. But holiday yarn choices were slim. The personnel were very helpful, and very concerned because they're afraid that store is not getting their holiday yarns this year since they haven't come in yet. The rest of the store is decked out with fabrics and decorations and silk plants, etc. all in the holiday spirit. The two skeins shown above were my only choices. At least I had a choice!

Christmas knitting looks mighty good for Tuesday...The National Weather Service is predicting "Chance of Snow" for Election Day and Chance of rain every other day this week.

Saturday sky

It's almost noon and almost 40 degrees. Just amazing how many clear blue sky days we've had this year here in the land of clouds. Wonderful! Tonight we turn back the clocks. Only in the land of human endeavor, of course...the rest of the physical universe continues its chronometer in 'real time'....

Knitting Around DVD arrives!!!

Knitting Around -- the book -- seems to be the Elizabeth Zimmermann book I use the most. And I love her "Digressions". Now, today, the 3 DVD set arrived in the mail! Just released with the "Digressions" read by Elizabeth and accompanied by pictures, some never released publicly before!

We know what I'm going to do....

November calendar for chappysmom

Happy Birthday Month, Chappysmom!

Deb, over at Chappysmom, is having a contest during this, her birthday month, to celebrate wonderful November calendar pictures since she remembers only dull ones for her birthday month when she was a child!

This year my calendar is from Nancy at Bluff Country Shetlands called "REAL sheep wear SHETLAND wool..." And to Nancy's ewe "Dreamer" -- sorry, Dreamer, I'd have loved to send your picture to Deb;but, you weren't the calendar grrl this month!

All Saints' Day...time for Christmas

November 1st already! Definitely the 'holiday season' is upon us. To be honest, advertising wants us to believe that every day is preparing for shopping for more presents for more holidays. Heard my first Christmas ad on the radio yesterday.

But it's All Saints' Day and I want to share how far I've gotten on Meg's KAL for a Christmas stocking. She's using J&S shetland 2 ply jumperweight. I'm using worsted on 24" #4 circular. Mine will be humungous, I suspect. But that's OK. DH has a stocking and I have one and none of DH's grandkids with us this holiday. Two years ago Blake came up right before Christmas from Austin and I designed and made him a Christmas stocking and he even got to see his very first snow!

All Hallow's Eve

The frost is on the pumpkin this All Hallow's Eve. And on the decorative corn. And on the Spruce mittens inspired by Elizabeth Zimmermann's Knitting Around "Mittful of Mittens" chapter.

The mittens were knit in Brown Sheep Lamb's Pride Superwash (gospel green, which looks like teal) and Lion Brand Alpaka (natural and light brown) on Susan Bates aluminum size 8 dpn's.

They were great fun to knit; and, as always in my projects, I had a learning curve. I had never knit a pair of mittens before! The stranded work was fun and the afterthought thumb idea is ingenious!

It's Here!

What have we here?



Look what came in yesterday's mail! Meg Swansen's and Joyce Williams' Armenian Knitting! At Meg's Knitting Camps the last three years we've seen garments from the book and were treated to two patterns to try the technique. You can see a start on the cat pattern. And, yes, the picture is on purpose fuzzy....

The book is beautifully photographed as only Meg can do. And the technique is so curious since as knitters working stranded knitting we purposely try not to have the blips show;but, in this technique, the color blips are an essential element!

And I 'hear tell' that the Knitting Around DVD came in early and will be shipping out ASAP!

Frosted Monday

Yes, the frost came last night as it stayed at 30 degrees for hours and hours. At 10:47 it's 37 degrees and still frosty in shaded areas. The frost is just now burning off the roof tops, looking like smoke. Here, it's fog rising off the garage roof.

Look what's available today! The secular Christmas stamps are knitted images this year!

Knitting over the weekend a little on the mitten and some on the sock, but nothing finished.

Sunday before first frost...maybe

It's to be 28 tonight so first frost is imminent. Pretty well stripped garden this afternoon, just in case.

This morning it was totally clear and 40 but by 12:30 it'd really clouded up and, then by 2, I had a chance to shoot more yarn stash pics for my Ravelry account. Sheba the miniature schnauzer, who needs another haircut, was helping me...

Saturday Sky

Saturday windy, between-storms sky toward the northwest and the northeast.

Beside the fact that we got a few minutes of sunshine and 30 mph winds this morning, I took a grocery sack of yarn outside to photograph for ravelry.

Yes, just too much fun.

From the beginning to Yarn Elf

On the left is my very first knitting! And to the right, meet Yarn Elf!

I'd learned to crochet potholders from my mother when I was three. My Great Aunt Maude taught me to filet crochet when I was five. But no one in the family was admitting to knitting. (Much later I realized my baby booties from my Aunt Elsa, the master embroiderer, were knit.)

In junior high in the 60's tennis sweaters became very popular, but they couldn't be bought here. They had to be hand knit. Mom said that I could knit my own, but we had to take lessons.

Mom had a friend who agreed to teach both of us to knit. But, I couldn't start out with a sweater. Joyce had me start out with squares. In Red Heart wool. On straight needles. She showed me how to hold them, got me going, then went to help Mom...and I changed how I was holding the straights and never have gone back to the "proper" American way. (Ends up, I hold my straights Shetland/Scandinavian style...must be genetic!)

I just couldn't bear to knit an afghan in blocks all the same color or all the same pattern. So I got coordinating earthtones and a learn-to-knit booklet and knit. And knit. And knit. Seemingly forever. But I finished it! I even did all the seaming and crocheted the edging. That Red Heart wool definitely wears like iron...but doesn't pill or rust!

The tennis sweater never did come to fruition. My next project was designing a jumper with buttons on the shoulders for my Barbie doll. Maybe that'll be next Friday's photo!

Mom started in on a stockinette coat in blocks, but it remained a UFO.

I do want to share a pic of my Yarn Elf I mentioned earlier. Thanks to LH for the picture. He's looking elf-like here as, unbeknownst to me, the yarn he's holding is some that he's about to ship to me. I had the picture six days before the yarn!

Mr. Postman

AH, yes, Mr. Postman was very good yesterday to bring these two packages to fill up the mailbox! I love packages!

On the left is from my ex-LYS who has proclaimed himself "Yarn Elf". It's difficult to say World Wide Hobbies in Willcox, AZ is my Local Yarn Store since I moved 2100 miles away! But Kevin knows my colors are earthtones and naturals and blue/greens, so has shared a skein of forest green Misti Alpaca (100% baby alpaca) and a skein of Skacel Merino Lace, really the same color. He sent along a "Knitscene" magazine for ideas...

Maybe I don't need to be prodded in the idea department since they're dancing like sugarplums in my head.... maybe the alpaca could be a dickey that would be so cuddly on February days...mmmmm. Maybe the Merino Lace could be the Fibertrends sheep shawl I'd purchased the pattern for so long ago. mmmm. ...just thinkin'....

The picture on the right is the Socks That Rock club packet. The pattern is by the Yarn Harlot, Stephanie Pearl-McPhee, and looks terrific. I'd taken one look at the yarn color and I'd been disgusted. Purple. Then I picked up the pattern later and saw Stephanie said the yarn was black (Well, it is called 'Lenore', based upon the Poe poem...). I looked at my skein again in two different lights. Mine's purple with a little black and a little red-purple (see above). Love the little spiders that came with!

I did send off an email to Blue Moon Fiber Arts last night and Tina responded this morning, saying the purple-eggplant was only where the colors converged. There was an awfully lot of converging on my skein. Sigh. I LOVE STR and the people who work at and are Blue Moon Fiber Arts. Great, caring people. But I intensely dislike purple. Not their fault.

I've really tried to overcome this dislike for me and purple. I've even included purple in my June fair isle vest I'm working on designing because of the phlox that were blooming (more on that in more posts). I know there are those who luv, luv, luv purple. And they look good in it. And I love them for their passion. I think purple sends me right into the Addams family.... Give me Orange! Give me Yellow! Give me Browns! Give me Teal! Give me Blues! ...just don't give me poiple (sp on poipose!) or pink!

Great news from the website of Schoolhouse Press www.schoolhousepress.com -- the Armenian Knitting book is being shipped....AND...Meg is doing a KAL on designing and knitting a Christmas stocking!!! Now, how cool is that? Love it!

Lucy Sox

Meet Lucy STR colorway socks in the Broadripple pattern.

Lucy is Wendy Johnson's Ragdoll kitty and the Blue Moon Fiber Arts ladies developed a colorway in Lucy's honor.

The Broadripple pattern is one that Rob from Threadbear developed at the Broadripple Festival in Indianapolis and was published on Knitty.

This summer the first Lucy sock was one I'd started for take-along knitting on the Wisconsin knitting retreat trek and I finished both of them in September! August, September and October have been good finishing months this year!

Growing up, my first pet that was entirely "mine" was my first Siamese cat named Ming Toy. I was two. So, thought that Lucy was entirely appropriate. Plus, my mother had made the Siamese on plastic canvas in the background of the picture that has a brick in the bottom to be used as a doorstop.

It is very, very grey today and dark no matter whether inside or outside, so will have to tease here... the mail brought packages. One is yummy from my self-proclaimed Yarn Elf and the other is the STR package. Sigh. Basically purple again. Sigh. (I do NOT like purple.)

(And, I have links in this post, but I don't think they're coming through...)

Rainy Days and Tuesdays...

Oh, OK, so the song is "Rainy Days and Mondays";but, it was a beautiful day yesterday and raining today!

Today I'm sharing the pin cushion and pillowtop (now a pillow!) I made this past year from Liz Lovick's online gansey workshop last Fall.

Liz created a wonderful course that included history, technique, designs, how to design a gansey, lots of pictures and pictures of her own work. She included several projects for learning the technique, two of which were the pin cushion and the pillowtop.

The pin cushion I made first and I am totally amazed that I use it constantly! I have never hardly ever used a pin cushion before this! I use it for my yarn needles and doublepounts that are on time out!

Pillowtop was on time out for months while bigger knitting projects were created or brought to FO status. Finally, September 30th it was finished!

Monday, Monday

It's current project time! Taken yesterday, this is Trekking XXL. Sock #1 is being knit on zero-sized dpn's for ribbing and 1 1/2's for leg in stockinette. I'm getting 12 rows to the inch! Yikes!

I just love how the jeweltone nasturtiums have bloomed this year. They were a very good choice for some of the flowers around the pond. Also in the sock pic is an African daisy. I do like them, too, even though they don't spread. Unfortunately, there is some yard creature that likes to eat them for late night snack. Maybe the crazy bunnies who like to nest under the cinnamon ferns and then lose their young to Tawny's snacking forays.... That's him up there --- innocent looking handsome fella, is he not?

Last night late I got my invitation to www.ravelry.com and am 'fibernating'. Now, if I can just get my portrait pic up....

Anglo Autumn 74 degree Sunday

We are blessed to have such a glorious late October day.

Lilac leaves

Oh, yes, it's Saturday of Rhinebeck but I'm not there. The thermometer reads 60 yet the wind is blowing after the storm fronts passed through so it feels cold outside.
The 20 foot tall lilacs on the North are rustling against windows. They're just getting tingled with dull maroon. Not as pretty as they are in the Spring when they're brimming with lavender blooms.
I finally finished my Lilac Leaf socks that I'd started as one of my take-along projects for Meg's Knitting Camp this past summer. The leg pattern is called Lilac Leaves from Jeanie Townsend. STR sock yarn "Monsoon" from one of this year's club offerings knit on 0 dpn's make them what they are.
I'm not all that fond of the color of this yarn. I'm really not a purple person. So many of the STR Socks That Rock Club offerings have purple in them that I really don't think I'll join again next year. Plus...my project wish list is more along the lines of handspun and alpaca and ... and... and...

76 Mittens

Since I've been teasing about the mittens, it must be time for a mitten picture.

These are (mostly) Elizabeth Zimmermann mittens from Knitting Around. The icord start is a teal Wool Ease 56 rowlet i-cord. The patterning is Alpaka (spelled correctly!) which is a wool, alpaca, acrylic mix yarn. (The teal came from a swap last year and the Alpaka from a gracious Enabler -- Hi, Kevin!) It's very soft and fun to knit. Yesterday morning as the storm front was coming in, I was able to get the last bit of sunshine and borrow the neighbor's tree to photograph EZ's spruce pattern on the top of the mitten.

I know, I need more practice on making perfect mittens... and I have joined the Selbuvotter KAL, hosted by Terri Shea who's researched the mittens and published a wonderful little book. It is available from her and from many other shops. My collection of Scandinavian knitting materials grows....

Before I forget

What we have here is my "dressing" Apache Mimbres vest sans buttons, original work from Meg Swansen. It is particularly sweet to me in the woven tale of its conception. The basic story has been told on Linda's blog http://knitaddict.pahdoco.com. It is worked in quebecoise yarn from http://www.schoolhousepress.com and is originally published in the Interweave Press (soon to be out of print) book, Meg Swansen's Knitting, available from Schoolhouse Press. Although my "Apache Mimbres" was started in March of 2006 and finished September 16, 2007, there were many projects which intervened. WIP's have be abounding. Since Camp, though, almost everything has been a WIP (or the 1st of a pair) to be finished.

Sigh....just 1238 invites before me to Ravelry. No, I just don't see me photographing each and every skein of yarn. There's waayyy too much handspun lurking about. (Maybe I shouldn't photograph it at all or Dolores and Harry will be arriving from Chicago to roll around in its lusciousness!) To the right is my handspun 'Petroglyph' yarn I handspun last month from some of Lisa Souza's http://lisaknit.com handpainted merino roving. The backdrop in the picture is some golden rod mixed in with some of the Rose of Sharon bushes.



Didn't work on the Trekking sock last night, but did knit on the mitten (yes, I will post pics...) from EZ's Knitting Around. That is my very favorite EZ book. I can hardly wait till the DVD arrives in November (hopefully)! And Meg and Joyce Williams' Armenian Knitting should be arriving shortly. Oh boy, oh boy!

Move On Over

Overseer Nikki is guarding the FO gansey beginning this tome!

I had been wanting to knit a gansey when Liz Lovick taught a gansey course online through a knitting list. And then I went back through my many magazines to find this one by Priscilla Gibson Roberts in an early Knitter's Magazine. I ordered the red Wendy Guernsey yarn and took off.... but the several other projects rose like cream to the top of the knitting queue. Gansey didn't become a FO until after Meg's Knitting Retreat 2.75 this year. (See www.schoolhousepress.com for camp details)

OK, so you-all keep asking me when I am going to have a blog. Please note that this was created in 2005! By accident! In 2005 I didn't have a digital camera. Well, my DH gave me a digital camera for Christmas in 2005 but I still hadn't posted. Oh, yes, I posted on Zimmermania and on Knit Addict (Hey, Linda!) and lots upon lots of blog comments.

Just never jumped in here.

Long ago when I first started identifying myself, I used 'fibernation' and talked about 'fibernating'. So, a logical progression has been to name this blog 'Fibernating'.

And many more details to come.