Tag Archives: Knitting

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More Knitting Completed (for once)

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My needles have been on fire!

Well.

Not in the Caroline Fryar sense of “on fire”.  Seriously, that girl can knit. Not only that, but she is quite the up – and – coming designer.  I’m ridiculously proud that my Emily got to model some of Caroline’s garments for the JMF spring books, because before long that girl’s name will be all over the place.

Anyway.

I have been keeping my head down and zooming through some projects I’ve had going for awhile.  I’ve still got at least 5others  going on needles now, but that’s a story for another day.

I finished a hat for myself while Paul was in surgery – I wanted a slouchy but simple thing to keep my head warm around the house (and possibly in bed) while the cold winter settled over us.

Unfortunately the cold winter never materialized, so the broken upstairs heat pump has been not much of an issue.

And I haven’t really gotten to wear my hat at all.

I got the pattern HERE.

The yarn is Debbie Bliss “Baby Cashmerino”.  It’s light, it’s soft, it’s a perfect icy, wintery blue.  If only it were really winter instead of fake spring.

The other finished thing was actually finished for quite awhile now but awaiting blocking.  It’s a good thing I finally managed to get it done because it’s a very belated Christmas gift for my grandmother.

It’s another “Far Away, So Close” shawl, this time knitted in Malabrigo.  I don’t remember which Malabrigo or even the colorway because I lost the tag.

Surprise grandma! I’ll have it in the mail ASAP.

It’s super – soft and warm, and Emily is upset that once again she was asked to model a shawl that she does not get to keep.  Yes, I get the hint.

It’ll be nice and cozy with my grandmother, who lives not far from Buffalo, where it’s much colder than it is here.

Usually.

Just not this year.

 

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The Long – Finished Sweater

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I finished a sweater.  Back in November.  I actually wore it to Fall Shearing.  Where I got baby goat poop all over one newly minted arm of it.  But I digress.

It has taken me this long to get it nicely blocked and to photograph it so I can show it off.  None of these things have stopped me from wearing  it, but I realized I really needed to get it posted here before it didn’t look so nice and new anymore.

The pattern is Fair Enough by Wendy Bernard.  The yarn is Fine Cormo wool from Juniper Moon Farm.  And the model who was making a weird face that she wouldn’t have loved me posting for the world to see is Maddie.

I love the colors – I picked them out because they all looked so lovely together.  I didn’t realize that the blue and pink in the fair isle portion would blend in so well.   They were supposed to “pop” a bit more.  But now that I’ve worn it and gotten used to ti I quite like the subtlety.  It’s actually better this way because the main color has a lot of green and pink hues in it that look almost variegated in spots.

Also I got to use brighter – colored buttons (thank you Susan!) than I otherwise would have done.

Now if it would only stay cold enough for me to wear it!

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Settling “Back” In

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It’s been a hectic, eventful couple of days for us here.

Yesterday morning Paul underwent his neck surgery at our beautiful new  local hospital while I waited it out in the hospital lounge.  I brought my knitting (and finished a hat for myself) as well as plenty of reading materials and the time flew by.  It helped that my lovely friend Sallie brought me lunch and offered a friendly face amid the sea of waiting and worried strangers. Staying connected to the outside world via social media was a great help and I am ridiculously grateful to everyone who wished Paul well.

Maddie stayed with the girls and they got her hopelessly hooked on “Dr. Who”.  In fact, they stayed up ALL NIGHT watching it (and eating ice cream).

I got to spend time with Paul as he recovered from the anesthesia and adjusted to having a neck full of staples (seriously – staples.  They come out next week, thank GOD).  I spent a lot of that time helping him in and out of bed for potty breaks and fluffing his pillows, switching out ice packs and holding a straw to his mouth so he could have water.   He does fairly well on his own now for short bursts during the day, but it’s going to be a long couple of weeks for me helping him manage.   So, if the winter gods would just smile on me and dump a bunch of snow right now, we’d all be pretty happy since we can’t go anywhere anyway!

I’m doing my best to enjoy the temporary quiet that has fallen around the house as the girls are reading by the fireplace, and Gully is curled up in his new dog Snuggie on my lap.  I think it might even be time for a cup of Harney & Sons tea.

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These Days

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There’s a reason I love winter.  Winter is made for comfort.  Winter is made for cozying up next to the fireplace with your tea and toasted cinnamon bread, with your knitting, with your book (or with back episodes of the Doctor).  It’s made for snuggling up with your pets and your kids and watching the snow fall out the window (well, it would be if the weather would cooperate).

So these days, in between cleaning and dentist visits and getting school plans back in order, we are enjoying the cozy.  What are you doing to stay cozy?

Pioneer Woman’s Cinnamon Bread

Harney & Sons “Hot Cinnamon Sunset” tea – my absolute favorite.

Local Kitchen‘s version of Jamie Oliver’s Chicken in (Butter)Milk

Quick knitting project: a light hat I can wear around the house when I feel chilly.

 

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Wrapping Up 2011

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I’ve been trying to think of a clever post to end the year and welcome the new one, but I can’t seem to rally any real creativity this week.  I worked myself pretty thin leading up to Christmas and since then I’ve basically been couch – bound, resting up and relaxing and enjoying the lack of a deadline.  It also doesn’t help that we have finally caught on to the “Dr. Who” craze, and have been watching it every night (starting with the 2005 season).  The kids are obsessed and I couldn’t be happier.

So instead of something witty or profound, I will use this chance to catch up on a few things.

I’ll start with bread.

One of my early Christmas gifts this year (and Susan got me a second one in a different size!) was an enameled cast iron dutch oven pot.  I’d been wanting one for quite awhile, after seeing this book about baking artisan bread in a pot rather than on a peel.  I tried some when Zac made it at the farm and was in love with the results.

You pre-heat the empty pot in the oven and throw your risen dough into it.  Once you place the lid on, the  water in the dough creates the steam needed to properly bake and finish the bread.  The crust in crispier without being too chewy or dense and the crumb is more reliably cooked through this way.  Plus the pot is such a pretty green!

Thing number two I need to show off is the lovely ornament my friend Amy found for me.

I just love her!  I love the creamy white colors, I love that it’s a shepherd with her sheep, and I love the vintage look about it (in fact, it just may BE vintage: Amy has quite a knack for finding amazing vintage and estate items for a steal).  It’s so hard to find sheep – related trinkets that aren’t totally tacky.  I don’t know where she found this, but I am thrilled she did!

Speaking of all things sheep-ish, I finished one of my super – secret holiday knitting projects in time to gift it!

A Sluggy Bonnett for my mother!  I can’t even believe how fast this knit up – it only took me 2 days!  I should have started earlier and made Sluggy Bonnetts for everyone!  I still have 1 super secret project on the needles, but it’s just about done.  I’ll be sending it off to its intended recipient just after the new year.  But here’s a sneak peek of the yearn sitting on my new swift:

Today and tomorrow will be spent cleaning up the holiday clutter and making room for 2012. The girls and I are headed to a get – together this evening (after which I’ll have to talk them out of staying up until dawn watching Dr. Who) and then we’ll spend the first cold months of 2012 doing a lot of what we do best:

Reading!  The girls all got Kindles for Christmas (mostly for school, but when you enjoy reading as much as we do……..).

Enjoy the rest of 2011 and I’ll see you all on the other side!

 

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Surprise! The Amazing Win I Never Saw Coming

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Waaay back in the beginning of November I got hooked on a site / idea called “Wovember”.  The basic idea was to raise “wool awareness”; that real wool comes from sheep.  Behind every wool product you buy is a real animal and the shepherd who raised it.  There’s a whole farm economy and lifestyle in there that many people don’t even think about when picking out their woolens (or worse, their synthetics).

The fun part of “Wovember” for many of us was the challenge to wear  100% wool all month long.  Hand – knit socks from pure fine wool? Check.  Hand knit sweater from Juniper Moon Farm yarn? Check.  A commitment to only buy 100% non – synthetic wool products? Check.  You get the idea.

Then my friend Anna convinced me to enter a photo into the Wovember photo contest.  It was a photo of her holding a JMF sheep she had sheared this fall.  So I thought, why stop there?  I searched out a few other photos I had taken at the farm and submitted a few of my favorites, never dreaming anything would come of it.  I mean, the other entries in the contest were jaw – droppingly stunning, super adorable and very woolly.

So imagine my surprise when I got an email from >Kate Davies.  I won first prize in the Sheep Photos category with this photo of Neve:


I am honored,  excited, and most of all, stunned.  Sheep and wool are near and dear to my heart and I am thrilled to have taken part in this!

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More Super Secret Baby Knitting

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I have finished a second set of Super Secret Baby Socks.

Don’t tell anyone, okay?

My friend Theresa got a pair just like this in green, along with a striped hat.  This pair will go to my friend Laura, along with another striped hat.

Now that the pre – Christmas  super secret baby knitting is more or less done (more to do in January) I can work on some holiday knitting.

On the needles now?  A shawl out of luscious Malabrigo for my grandmother. I have visions of warm mittens, socks and Sluggy Bonnets in my head, too, but I doubt I’ll even get close to all that.

If only the weather would cooperate so I didn’t feel like a lump sitting on the couch buried in wool drinking coffee.  Alas, the 60 degree – plus sunny weather is killing me in that regard.  It’s hard to feel all Christmas-y, and I’m sweating under the wool.

But it’s okay.  Maddie put a reindeer bell on the dog.

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The Tooth of the Matter

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Have I ever mentioned that all of my front top teeth are fake?  I’m sure I must have.  They are all crowns, put in the year before Oona was born, both to make my smile nicer and also because my real teeth are pathetically soft and prone to problems.

When I was pregnant with Oona I had that awful condition where you want to vomit for nine months straight.  For the first trimester I lived with it, considering that with the first two kids the nausea subsided by about the fourth month.  But, after three months or so of constant sickness I had lost enough weight that my doctor became concerned and had me take a wonderful anti – nausea drug so that I could actually keep down food and water for myself and the baby.  The vomiting stopped, but the acid reflux and the nausea never quite went away.  You can imagine what none full months of stomach acid swimming around your mouth does to your teeth.  Especially when the taste of toothpaste makes you nauseous.

This is all to say that I wound up with cracks all along the back of the newly installed crowns.  They held up admirably the last few years, waiting to be patched and fixed and replaced as can be afforded (and let’s face it: who has enough money in this economy to be constantly dropping thousands of dollars at the dentist?).

This week one of my front crowns decided it had had enough, and while eating a mouthful of spaghetti, it cracked and fell right out.  Crown, tooth and all.  I was horrified.  I’ve had nightmares like this.  And here it was, fully realized.  I refused to let anyone see for more than a quick flash to prove what had happened, and was thrilled when I got an appointment first thing the next morning for a quick fix.  Fortunately there is enough tooth left in the gum that the crown can be saved (he used temporary cement to glue it back on for now)  and I don’t have to go for an implant.  UNfortunately, I have only the temporary save until the new molds and posts and whatnot can be done and so I have to be very, very careful while eating, lest I knock it back out.  Thanksgiving isn’t going to be easy. I have been very paranoid about it falling out again before my next appointment for the permanent replacement.

Teeth and dental issues are one of those things that make me unreasonably angry and fired up.  With all of the talk in the news about health insurance, where’s the push for better dental insurance?  Let’s face it, almost everyone I know has put off dental work because of the expense.  People sacrifice their teeth as long as they can before having them fixed. It’s not like teeth are unimportant to our health, either.  Wouldn’t it be nice if we got 3 sets of teeth?  The baby teeth, the set we grow as children, and another set in our 30’s?

When I haven’t been hiding my hillbilly-esque smile from the world this week I’ve been busy with some super – secret knitting.

Between the holidays coming up and friends with new babies and friends expecting babies I am busier than ever.  I can’t imagine where I’ll find the time to get it all done; and I haven’t been over ambitious this year, either.

We’re also enjoying cozy season by bubbling large pots of chicken carcases to make stock.  I love the way the whole house smells after a day of slow – boiling the chicken with herbs and vegetables, and it’s most enjoyable to sit by the fire and knit all day while it simmers and sizzles on the stove.

Oona likes cozy – season food as much as I do.  Soups, stews, pies.  Tonight I am making a chicken pot pie and she is more thrilled than you could believe a four year old would be for such a thing.

These are definitely the days I live for.   But with better teeth.

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Cute Place Holder

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I’ve been feeling increasingly crummy the past few days and woke up today with a full – blown head cold.  So although there is stuff going on (pies! knitting! school!) I am too tired to upload pics and share just yet.

For now, enjoy these sweet pictures I took last week at the farm of Caroline and one of my new babies (I’m pretty sure it’s Adelaide – she’s a tad curlier than Sophie.  Or it may be the other way around.  I’ll have to ask Caroline what I decided. My brain’s toast).

Also – how awesome is that hand-knit sweater vest she’s wearing?  She’s mad talented.