It is hard to believe that February is almost gone. Spring is around the corner (or that is what I keep telling myself). I have been busy with my knitting. I started the Irish Hiking Scarf, out of some yarn I had in my stash. I also started a felted vest for my sister for Christmas. It is progressing well. I finally finished my daughters poncho. I did not think that I would ever get that done. Now I will have to get a pic of her wearing it.
The 3 fleeces that I sent to Wooly Knob are done and in the mail. I am hoping that they come today. I am anxious to see how they turned out. I already have plans for the Mohair. I hope I can get it spun in time to make a Christmas present with it. My DH thinks I have lost my mind. I am excited about getting the fiber and making plans for it and he is thinking " Where the hell is she going to put that!" That was after I told him that we needed a companion for the horse, when she comes home. I am still trying to decide what it is that I want. Sheep or Angora goat. It is a hard choice. I don't think that I can get away with getting both. Seeing that I already told him that we are getting 25 pheasants to raise and release from 4H and I am getting Turkeys to raise.
Two weeks ago I tried to teach the girls in my 4H club how to knit. They all attempted to knit. Some had better luck than others. It was hard for me to teach them. I knit contennital style. That is the way my grandmother taught me. I have tried the English style and was unable. I hope that they went home and practiced. Tonight we are going to make knitting needles. I think that will be alot of fun. I have some great ideas for them. It might even make a great secret pal gift. It is funny how many things can be used for knitting needles when you start looking around.
Winter vacation starts next week for my kids. My DH and I are taking the kids snowmobiling for the week. Each of us has snowmobiles, it is about the only family thing that we do. My DH is a carpentar and works all summer so winter is our time to have fun. We are going to the Tughill Plateau. Just off of Lake Onterio. They get lots of lake effect snow. Hopefully I will remember to pack my camera and have pics for you to see. I am off to pack. Talk to you next week.

Knitting like crazy

Since my last note, my needles have been very busy. My first felting project was a sucess to some extent. The pattern was from Knit One, Felt Two. I used grey Patons classic wool yarn and stripes in maroon. I even used needles larger than the pattern called for. Finished the knitting and threw it in the washer 'just like the directions said". If any one knows of someone with a head the size of a large grapefruit let me know, I have a beautiful grey felted hat for them. LOL. My kids were very supportive and laughed there fool heads off. DH asked if I was going to give that to the cat to wear. My thoughts are atleast it looks like a hat.
My other project that I started was a Christmas present for my sister. I found a felted vest pattern in Felted Knits book. Made a big order to Elanns for the yarn. Decided that I am going to make them for my mother and sister in law as well as one for myself. 45 skeins of Highland yarn came the other day. I have the vest started. Sometimes you are apprehensive about trying something that you order online. I am one of those people who really likes to feel what they are buying, but I had heard so many good things about this yarn on the blogs that I tried. It is wonderful yarn. I am very pleased.
Still plugging away on my daughters poncho. It is not all that exciting and I am having a hard time working on it. Pictures to come in a day or 2 of my projects.

Never Rains ...........
DH went snowmobiling last weekend. I was looking forward to a quite weekend. I knew that Saturday was going to be crazy but not Sunday. I was hoping Sunday just loungeing around in my pj's drinking coffee, watching movies with the kids and knitting. NOT. I returned from taking my oldest to work to discover the dog chain in the middle of the road and the ducks gone.
Dog was in the shed were he was hiding. He had been injured, I believe by a car, and the ducks after looking for them half the day finally came around late morning. The dog is much improved but he had me worried Sunday morning. Hopeful he has learned his lesson that those ducks are not to be messed with. I also lost 2 of my rabbits because something scared them. DH came home earlier because his riding buddy was sick. My point to all of this is NO knitting was accomplished.

Today it is snowing like crazy, I keep expecting to see the school bus come down the road,but not yet. Well I am off to make a cup of tea and do some spinning.

WOW.... it's February!!!!

Were did January go? I am glad that it is gone. The weather has warmed up. In the mid 30's yesterday and the same for the rest of the week. The sun was shinning. I was getting alittle bit of spring fever. I am hoping to open some windows and let the house air out alittle today. Everyone was sick last month and maybe some fresh air will help clean the bugs out. LOL.
Joshuas socks are done. He wanted them for school today. He is having standardize testing and they can wear slippers, he took his socks. I am still working on my pi shawl. It is progressing slowly. Some frogging will have to take place later. My pattern is just not matching up. In the mail last week I received a ROAK from Maggie. 2 knitting magazines with some cool patterns in them. Thank you Maggie. Yesterdays mail brought my "Love Ewe" exchange. Some beautiful red Romney and Alpaca blend fiber and two heart shaped sachets from Rita in Maine. I not sure what it wants to be yet I will have to think on it.
SP4 starts today. I received my pal on Sunday. My thoughts all weekend have been on the list of questions. Here it goes.
1. Are you a yarn snob. Not really. I prefer to use wool or a blend, but if I need to use acrylic I will.
2. Do you spin? Yes I do and I love it. I am always looking for new fibers to try. My favorites are Blue Faced Liecester, Alpaca and Mohair. I don't ccochet.
3. Do you have allergies. No allergies.
4. How long have you been knitting? My grandmother taught me to knit when I was 8 and I have been knitting ever since.
5. Do you have an Amazon wish list? No I don't.
6. What's your favorite scent? Hydrangea is my favorite, but I like them all.
7. Do you have a sweet tooth? Yes, Dark chocolate is my favorite.
8. What other crafts do you like to do? I also do some decorative painting, sewing and gardening.
9. What kind of music do you like? My favorite is Celtic, next is baroque ( Classical) , as well as classic rock and country. My computer can play CD's. I am not sure about MP3's.
10. What's your favorite color? I like almost any color. I am not fond of neon or really bright colors.
11. What is your family situation? Do you have pets? I am married, and have 3 kids. 2 boys and a girl. We have lots of pets, a horse, dog, cat, 25 rabbits, 15 ducks and 2 pheasants at the present time anyway.
12. What are your life dreams? This is the question that gave me alittle trouble. What I would like most I think is to have a fiber shop. Selling fiber, wheels, yarn and have classes. I want it also to be a place where people can come and spend the morning, afternoon, or evening working on a knitting project or spinning and just having a good time.
13. What is your favorite yarn to work with? One of my favorites is Alpaca, the other is Merino, but I like most.
14. What fibers do you absolutely not like? The new designer yarns. The eyelash especially.
15. What is your current knitting obsession? I quess that would be socks. The work up quickly and they are easy to take with you.
16. What is you favorite item to knit? I enjoy knitting most anything. Smaller items are nice because they go faster.
17. What are you knitting right now? Currently I am working on a baby blanket, Pi shawl and a poncho for my daughter.
18. What do you think about ponchos? They are ok. I am not overly fond of them.
19. Do you prefer straight or circular needles? I am comfortable with both.
20. Bamboo, aluminum or plastic? I really like the wood needles, I have a set of DP Brittany's that I love. Aluminum is next.
21. Are you a sock knitter? Most definitly!
22. How did you learn to knit? My grandmother taught me. I knit continnetial.
23. How old is your oldest UFO? 3 months. Only because I need to spin more fiber for it.
24. What is your favorite animated character or a favorite animal/bird? My favorite bird is a Bluebird.
25. What is your favorite holiday? I quess that would be Christmas. I really go all out for it.
26. Is there anything that you collect? Santas, blue and white dishes and drop spindles.
Now I am off to start my frogging on my shawl. Keep knitting.

What great fun computers are!!!!!!!!!!!!

Well the vacation is over. I took my computer to be fixed. The gentleman fixing it, plugged it in and doesn't everything come up the way it is suppose too. I felt like such an idoit. So now I am back on line and the computer is working great.
I started a pair of socks for my youngest son made from Sizzle sock yarn. He also wanted a hat so I have that started too. I know, I have two projects started at once, and yes it is driving me crazy. I don't normally do that. As Melissa says I am very "anal" about having more than one project going at the same time. I have my self geared to finish than start another.
My spinning wheel is diffently not feeling left out. I have been spinning like a mad woman. Hopfully I will get aleast one skein done to start my Pi shawl. Then I will have 3 projects going. OH NO!!!!!!!!
I want to send out a Thank you to Mande for the certificate to Adiago Teas. I have some of there Roobios tea and it is wonderful.
Secreat Pals 4 starts soon, the deadline for sign up ends the 21. She is up to 300 people. I just have to figure out now how to put the button on my blog.
Have a great day. It is good to be able to be back on line again.

I am disabled for now

Just a quick note to let everyone know that I will be off line for a while. My computer decided that it need a vacation and had the nerve not to ask me. Melissa was good enough to let me use hers, so that I could let everyone know that I won't be around.
I should have lots of news when I come back.
Talk to you all soon.

Heart dishcloth 

Diagonal scarf 

Another week gone

I can't believe how fast the week has gone. It seems like it was yesterday when I last posted. Well the boys are finally happy. We got SNOW. The snowmobiles came out of hiding and they went riding this weekend. Unfortunately the snow will not last long. The temps for today are going up to almost 60. That will take care of the snow. They did have a snow day yesterday due to the ice that came through during the day.
Thanks for the comments. I did finally get my dishwasher working. After last week, it was worse than when I called them to fix the leak. I also had to call them on my new dryer. Just a week old and I turned it on Monday evening and I had sparks and smoke come out from the bottom of it. I was too the point of tears. I was so frustrated with all of the appliances and with DH he was not making the situation any better. All are working well now.
The baby blanket is coming along. Since my last post I have 1 1/2 strips done. I also made my daughter a garter stitch scarf from purple velour yarn. She won't take it off long enough for me to get a picture. It was done on size 13 needles, and was done in 1/2 an hour. Real quick.
Yesterday was a goof off day. With the kids home not much in the way of house work got done. I did get some knitting done. A diagonal scarf made from Trendsetter yarns by Dune.
Not sure what I am going to do with it but I have some things in mind. I also made a heart shaped dish cloth for the" Love Ewe" exchange that I joined. What a lot of fun that was to make.
One bobbin full for the Pi shawl. On to the next. I keep thinking that maybe I should just go buy some yarn but I don't know. I don't have anything made out of yarn that I have spun. My goal was to have spun and knitted a shawl and have it done to wear to Rhinebeck in the fall. Yeah right!
The best news of the week was that I was accepted into the secrete pals 4. I am looking forward to checking out my new pal. I have some great ideas for stuff to send. Well I am off to chop some ice off the walk.

Attempting to snow

I am so glad that yesterday is over. As I mentioned yesterday, the repairman came to fix my dishwasher. Well, it needed a new valve and a new motor and then he shorted out a wire and popped the braker. Went to turn it back on and had sparks and smoke. Now it needs to have new wiring from the braker to the machine. When he came to the door, I smashed my foot in to the leg of the couch and I think that I broke one of my toes. It is now purple and aches like a tooth ache. How ever I did manage to get some spinning done yesterday. I did not realize that it took so long to fill a bobbin when spinning something as fine as I am doing.
The weather is dark and gloomy here today. Snow showers, but the best is yet to come. I would not mind so much if it was just snow. Snow would make everyone happy here. We have 6 snowmobiles and do alot of family riding. Snow is better than Christmas here.LOL.
I hope to get another section on the baby blanket done today. I forgot to mention that it is a shell design. The pattern is calledHeirloom Knit Baby Blanket. It was on a free web site. Very simple and seems to be working up fast.

The Mode Dea socks, not sewn together yet. 

The start of my brothers baby afgahan 

Washed red Mohair. 

Christmas break actitives

Since my daughter was sick. I had some time to play. My brother and his wife are expecting there first child in May. I started an afgahan for them out of some Blue Faced Liecester. It was fiber that I purchased this summer and spun. I loved spinning it and like working with it even better. It is perfect for this blanket, it has a beautiful luster and is very soft. I have pictures following. The blanket is done in strips and then sewn together and then an edging is sewn on three sides. I have 2 and 1/2 strips out of 7 done.
The Mode Dea socks are done kindaof they are not sown together yet but that will get done. I really like the yarn. The pattern was easy to follow as well. I am not quite sure who the socks will go to yet. I might even keep them for myself.
One of the other pictures that I posted was of some Mohair that I washed over the weekend. One of my new years resolutions was to learn how to wash some of the fiber that I purchase. This was one of the 4 fleeces that Melissa and I bought at Rhinebeck. It was suppose to go to Wooly Knob with the others but the box was just not big enough. So I put it in the washer. After 6 rinses I think it is going to be alright.
To Gracie and Amie, Anytime you want to come and play you are welcom. Thanks for reading.
Time to go, the repair is suppose to be coming to fix the dishwasher soon (I hope) LOL

Pi shawl wool. 

Welcom to the New Year........

I have many hopes and expectations for the new year, hopefully it will start better than the year ended. Vacation week was busy. Along with it being busy my daughter had the flu (or that is what I think it was). She nearly passed out on Wednesday when she was at riding lessons. Her instructor thought that maybe she just did not want to ride,but I reassured her that was not the case. I week is programed around lessons. We count down the days until we have lessons. Now that we have a horse it is even worse. She is feeling much better today and even made it to school. I have the whole house to myself( the silence is deafening, but nice).
While Jen was laid up on the couch it gave me time to do some things. I join theEZasPi KAL. I even talked my friend Melissa into it. I ordered 2 books because I knew that I could get her to do it. I started spinning what I am going to make the shawl out of. Last fall, Melissa and I purchased fleece from Mary Pratt. A local sheperdess and neighbor. One of the fleeces was a Corriedale cross that is dark grey. When we sent it to be processed we also had some silver colored alpaca that we had blended with it. It spins so nice and I have lots of it.

Time to start anew.

Hope that everyone had a very Merry Christmas. I have been very busy with Christmas activities and have not had the time to blog. I am here now and hope to get up to speed. I have been busy making more socks. They are so much fun to make. I found this great sock yarn at Micheals while Christmas shopping. Moda Dea. The colors are great and it knits wonderfully. I have a pair of socks started. One done and the 2nd on the needles. My youngest son, for christmas gave me a skien of Moda Dea Dream in light blue. It is so soft. Another cool thing that I recieved as a gift was Knitting Pattern a day Calander. What a neat gift. It has so many nice patterns in it. I want to try them all. Not just yet, I have a sock to finish and a baby blanket to finish.
If I start anything more I might get confused or lost. I have this thing about having to many projects started at once. I really like to finish one before I start another. It is driving me nuts having to projects going at once now. My poor wheel, I think she feels abandoned. She was placed in the corner for Christmas and she just stares at me all the time. Soon she will be out of the corner. My fleeces from Wooly Knob Fibermill will be ready and I will want to try spinning all that I sent out. I really can't wait.
Well I need to go do some house work so that I can spend sometime with the kids this afternoon with there new board games. I am hoping that the snow that we are getting continues. Everyone here wants to go snowmobiling. It would be nice to have them all gone for a while. That would give me the oppurtunity to research what type of fiber animal that I am going to be getting this spring. See my DH and I purchased a horse for our daughter. The horse comes home in the spring and she is going to need company. I just need to decide what would be the best thing to keep her company. Any one have any ideas? They would be greatly appreciatied.

Let it snow, Let it snow, Let it Rain

Yeah I know that is not how the song goes but yesterday it snowed like crazy, and now it is pouring rain. Which I suppose is alright seeing that I have been spinning like a wild woman to get this skein done for a woman in Florida who order it for a Christmas present. The weather decreases my desire(not) to go out shopping. It was so nice yesterday to have a cup of tea and to be able to sit at my wheel and just watch the world around me become white. It is just the best thing. Now it is all going to turn to mud.
Last year on days like yesterday I could look out the window, watch the snow come down on my nieghbors sheep will I was spinning some of her wonderful wool. Unfortuantly they are not in that pasture yet.

My progress on the scraf for my mother is coming along nicely. Hopefully I can have that finished this week. Then I think that I can start the baby afgahn for my brother and his wife. It may take me awhile to finish it.

Well I need to go back to plying. Break is over and it is still raining.

Uuuugggggghhhhhhhh

What a week it has been. It started on Sunday night when I realized that the Patches of Berries scarf that I am working on was not right. The diagonal was going in the wrong direction. I ripped out about 12 inches of work. This is to be done for Christmas. So started my week.

I just could not keep track of the days. Monday I made a trip to a tack shop that is an hour away for one of the few gifts that my daughter asked for. She wants the Breyer Horse Hildago. They had just sold the last one, but they could order it. Now it means another trip back there. Tuesday and Wednesday I went christmas shopping. I just can not get in the mood for christmas. What to buy? I have no clue. My oldest is 14, he just wants money. He also has a birthday on the 28th of Dec. So it means I have to come up with a birthday gift too.

I do have some brighter notes though. I sold 2 skiens of yarn to a woman in Florida. One of the skiens needs to be spun but that is not a problem. My wheel has been giving me the evil eye anyway. Ithink she is feeling a little left out. I have been busy knitting and not spinning. I did spend time this morning spinning, so maybe the dirty looks will stop.

I have gotten about 15 inches done on the scarf and everything is going in the right direction. YEAH!!!!!!!
Now if I could just get my fairy godmother to finish my xmas shopping for me, it would be terrific. Well a new week and a new list of things to do. Will I get it all done? Man I hope so.

My newest stash additives 

Socks that I made for my sister for Christmas.