Way out in the Middle of Nowhere

30 day writing challenge? Screw that. It wasn't near as much fun as I thought. I'll just go back to normal here: Knitting and birds...with a bit of class thrown in. So I'm finished 98% wise on a request from friends of mine to make booties and a hat for their upcoming baby.   I chose the baby UGGS and a pumpkin hat. The hat just got dyed orange so it's not available for photos. The Uggs turned out decently but the pattern needs tweaking if I ever do it again. These are going to be too big for a newborn. It was worth a shot, though. I got in a pissy mood the other day and it got so bad that I couldn't even stand myself, so I took time off the internet and started knitting something  It's the start of a pattern called a heelhead scarf with a bit of change to the pattern. Link to the pattern:  IT'S A FREE PATTERN! YAY! Right now, It is about 2' long, but before I start increasing for the hood part, I will make it another foot, then start. The...

Today we will be accepting the delivery of a pair of new recliners to replace that old busted up part of a sectional sofa/recliner that has been my rest for over 6 years. I'm excited! I'll be able to sit closer to my hubby, watch tv and take good naps. On the knitting front, I've been going through the spare bedroom where my sewing/craft excess is stored. I found a few more projects and will think about whether to frog or finish. In an effort to puzzle out a pattern I saw online of a cute little fox hood for a kid, I tried to create a semblence of it in an adult size, without the ears and with a pattern to the hood. My effort was interesting. At first, I made the hood part too short. Which made it just insane to try to wear. This is when I added another 2" to the whole thing.  All of the yarn in this hood was handspun, two ply. I held 3 strands together and worked on size 11 needles to give it a ton of warmth. I casted on 90 stitches on circular needles. Then ...

oh Hey! that's George saying hi to me. He and Fred like to come up and chew on me a bit while I'm outside. I've been inside now for a few days struggling with a nasty cold. First day was the clogged yet drippy sinuses, Yesterday was the migration to the asthmatic lungs. Today is just meh.  really really meh. I'm tired and glad to be going nowhere. Last weekend was the Sheep and Wool festival in Jefferson, WI. As Dave found a cooking partner this year for his task of cooking the roasts for the Church's Harvest Festival, I got to go! I finally got my hands on one of Adam Mielke 's spindles. I've wanted one since he started making them. I understand he's stopped, but a few can be had. I started spinning with some nice red merino roving in it from the Fairy Yarn Mother. . Susan is a good friend of mine that I enjoy talking with at the fair each time. She has the most wonderful shades of roving around.  It's the one roving I am most trustworthy ...

Classes start again at the end of the month. I'm using the time to rest . Usually that would mean not doing much, but in my case it means doing what I want to do instead of have to do. So....I'm knitting, spinning and sewing. The first up is the baby quilt fresh off the sewing machine. It's a zig-zag pattern that is inspired by something I saw on Pinterest. No, really! I actually DID something I saw on Pinterest! The pattern is a bugger though. In order to get the zig-zag lines to come out right, you need to put a solid color between the patterned pieces and keep the same solid color throughout. I sewed a top last Saturday that was just tragic because the lighter stripes were not consistent. The gray thing is a sweater. It's from the book Men's Knits: 20 New Classics  . It's the one called the Tweed Cabled Sweater.    It is one sleeve short of completion. I was knitting this for any male in my house, but a preliminary pre-blocking fit test showed that I...

Nope, I'm not dead.  I bought a wool fleece off a farmer on Ebay.  Four pounds of wooly goodness.  I've been washing and spinning up bits of it all week.  About 500 yards of fingering weight cream colored wool has come off my spindle. I happen to go off in my own little world with a fleece.  I totally immerse myself in the process of washing, drying, carding and spinning.  I find it very calming. In fact, you know in the Harry Potter movies, where Harry is being taught how to produce a Patronus charm and he must remember a very happy moment? This is one of mine. The other one involves snuggling with my honey on the couch watching the Packers. At the time I had sprained both my ankles and could not go anywhere.  My ass was planted on that couch whenever I was home for like,  4 months.  When there's no where you can go, and nothing you can do...you accept it. Dave sat near me while I had both ankles under ice packs watching the Packers pla...

Lockdown is a term used to indicate the last 2-3 days of incubation on a poultry egg.  The eggs are not rotated any more but left in the position ideal for hatching.  The humidity is raised to help thin the shell and the warmth stays the same.  This week, we have 10 duck eggs due to hatch.  The first 4 are seen here.  I see internal pipping with the top left one.  That means that the duck has started making a hole to the outside. They all rock back and forth from time to time. It's getting crowded in those shells, and they want out!  We stand there watching for movement, excited when we see them rock back and forth even a little bit. BUT, onto Knitting and Spinning. This is the start of the Tree Roots Scarf by Kristi Holaas.  The yarn is the real story on this scarf so far. In search of yarn/fiber to become my Easter present, I happened on these skeins of Martha Stewart Wool Roving at JoAnn fabrics on clearance for a buck.  Now, I took a...

I seem to have lost my ability to write a coherent thought and extrapolate on it, so I'll do random thoughts today. 1. New Years' goals: Work out for one hour with our new Wii every day.  So far, so good.  Even Dave was bowling and doing archery on it yesterday. The tennis part is kicking my butt, but I've got plenty of time to perfect my swing. 2. Another goal: Pay attention to serving sizes on food.  For instance, this is one serving of cereal.  I've been serving myself way too much of everything.  Time to get into the habit of looking at serving sizes. 3. Our Son has made a decision about the military. More when I get concrete proof this is the real deal. 4. Every Morning since it's been so cold, I schlepp out to the animals 3 gallons of water in the morning and in the evening. Odd thing is that I think they prefer that water to stuff from the faucet. They don't get let out of their pens until the thermometer reaches 10 degrees Farenheit.  Tod...

Usually I don't throw down the pre-Christmas rant until closer to the actual day, but what the Hell.  According to the Mayans we'll be dead by then. In 2007, I made all my Christmas gifts.   In fact I spun and knit two of them from soft wool and gave them to my Mother and Mother-In-Law.  So lets roll on some photos, shall we? This one actually was taken before I washed it. The color changes were actually *dirt*. It came out snowy white with green glass beads on it.  I gave it to m Mother In Law. She folded it, put it away and I've never seen it again.  She said it would make a lovely table runner.  *facepalm* it's a STOLE! Onto #2: My Mother's shawl, Mystic Waters I think it was called.  Also spun from Targhee, with no beads. My Mom doesn't do that frou frou.  She opened it, Dad said, "Oh look, it's an old lady shawl!" and that was it. Mom keeps it on the back of her chair in the sewing room.  Hey, at least SHE didn't throw it out...

If I could have any KIP Bag at my disposal, which one would I pick? Well, it's a good question.  I've got about 6 of them rambling about with one project or another in them.  One of my favorites: I'm very fond of Lilies of the Valley; their smell, delicate flowers and how they proliferate around shady areas.  When I was a young girl, there was this old lady that had a house a block from us with these growing by the porch.  Each day I'd steal one of the stems and spend the remaining 5 blocks walking to school sniffing that great smell. Right now it's keeping my Bee Fields Shawl in stasis.  That shawl is 100% handspun silk in hues of gold.  I just lost interest in it during the 2nd motif.  Of course, being the one that sews the bag means mine is lined in black with pockets of green. Since there's a few more bags running around, perhaps I'll show off another one and it's component project next week. 

The weekend before last was the WI Sheep and Wool festival. This is the one day a year where I go just absolute bonkers for anything fibery. This year, I snagged a fleece from WhataviewFarm in Phelps, WI that is a Polypay/East Friesian/Dorset cross. It's got a great crimp with about a 3" staple. I confess to enjoying the process of turning fleece to yarn, so this was a great thing to find such a nice fleece to work with. For the last few weeks I've been washing, carding and spinning up yarn in the hopes to get enough to knit a sweater. So on to pictures! This is the fleece drying after a wash in hot soapy water with a hot water rinse. The washed and dry fleece in a paper bag waiting to be carded. Now I usually just use that pet brush to open up locks to spin with my most beloved spindle; the mini-Bosworth. This is the spindle that I want with me at all times. I estimate that I can get about 125 yards on a spindle before taking it off. After ...