Somehow, we missed Winter

In fact, I am not sure we will even have a Spring. It has been in the solid 80's for a week.

The official harborer of Spring was the arrival of the first month of my Nerd Girl Yarns fiber club subscription. Here she is, in all her glory. I am hoping she motivates me to finish plying the singles I have been staring at on my wheel for a month.

For the record, I really love Nerd Girl Yarns. Probably because I am a fairly nerdy girl.

The braid of fiber came with some stickers. They made me happy.

In other news, I planted my Spring garden last week. Sweet peas, kale, spinach, chard, greens, parsley, lettuces, broccoli, cauliflower, potatoes, and carrots. I also put in grapes and a few blueberries. It seems like every season I wage war on one creature or another. The cover over the garden was to protect the young plants from my enemies the wild rabbits. By wild, I mean completely habituated to humans to the point that my children can nearly pet them. What the netting does not protect the plants from is slugs. I have a series of beer traps set up, and I think Joe is getting a huge kick out of me going outside with a flashlight several times a night to hand pick them off. I am not sure who is winning yet. Probably them.

shawl neck baby cardigan

I have a very sweet, dear friend who is pregnant with her first child (another boy!). I went to graduate school with her, and she is just a wonderful lady. Her mother in law was, ironically enough, the person who first introduced me to weaving as something people could accomplish in their homes.

She and her husband are so special to us, that I wanted to knit her baby a sweater that would be easy-care and as sophisticated as I imagine her entire nursery will be.

Here is what I came up with:

Here is the pattern. It was a quick and easy knit. I did kfab's as the increases, and picked up a few extra stitches under the arms instead of seaming. On the second arm round I knit these extra stitches together with the stitch on either side. I used a cotton acrylic blend, for ease of washing in their household. I have already run it through the washer and dryer, and it came out beautifully with light blocking.

acquisitions

We went to a local maple syrup festival this past weekend, and I was unable to resist this:

What fiber is that, you wonder? Maple Cotton Candy. Delicious, but alas, not spin-able. I was sorely tempted to try.

I did run into the folks from Rooster's Run, who have started phasing out their Shetland sheep in favor of Finnsheep (a hornless breed, which will help prevent them from spending a fortune on fencing repairs). I purchased 4 oz of a finn-shetland cross to try. It has a medium staple, and is quite soft.

I also went ahead and bought 2.5 lbs of the Gotland I had been considering. Given that I spin about 2 oz a week, on average, this pile will take the better part of a year to spin. It sure is lovely though. Though the farm this came from isn't local (Shepherd's Lane in Oregon), her sister is, and raised the lovely Wensleydale I knit up last week. What a small world.

newborn longies

I was probably a little too excited when a friend asked me about cloth diapering. I cloth diapered both of our boys, primarily using fitted diapers with wool covers.

In my overexcitement, I made the expectant parents these:



I didn't have any good soft to the skin gender neutral yarn, so I dyed this (plant material dye, frozen from last year's garden) single ply Uruguay merino for this project. I used my friend Heather's pattern, making them shorts length for the summer due date, and added a little owl cable.

sometimes the yarn talks to me

I have days when a particular yarn in my stash calls out to me, and demands that I do something with it. Some yarns ask to live at another house. Others have a particular item they would like to be transformed into. I purchased a single skein of black (the sheep was black, the skein is more of a charcoal) Wensleydale at a fiber festival last May. It was lovely yarn, and Wensleys are still very rare, especially on this side of the pond. Rare=expensive. I believe I spend just under 40$ on this single skein of aran weight, 200 yds from a local woman (gwyneth something??). It was worth every penny. Two nights ago I heard it whispering to me. It hoped I would take a break from spinning (I have about 2 oz left of some lovely merino, which will hopefully get finished this week), and knit it into the Star Crossed Beret. I complied.

Voila! Hopefully, the little sheepy voices in my head are appeased.

fiber samples

I was given a few tiny samples of Gotland fiber, in 4 colors (ranging from mist grey to charcoal). For those of you that don't know, Gotland was the fiber used to make the cloaks in the Lord of the Rings movies. It is really soft, given it's durability, and the spun yarn has this lovely pewtery-silvery sheen. I quickly spun up some singles from the tufts of wool, and knit it into a headband. I think I might be sold on the medium grey. After shearing this spring, I hope to get enough to spin and knit a cloak hooded cardigan.

Who socks

JMCO, kfab increases, fleegle heel, 1" 2x2 ribbed cuff, EZ sewn bind off. For those of you who can decipher code.

Adventurous knitting

I made two newborn hats this weekend.

The first was more densely knitted, for a baby boy due in February (any time now).

The second will be for my cousin, whose second boy is due this summer. I knit it with larger needles, so his little head doesn't overheat.

My blood pressure was elevated halfway through the second hat. Here is how much yarn was left after I cast off:

Ladies and Gentlemen, that is a hair less than one yard.

they insist on having boys

Little boys are wonderful creatures. I liked my first so much, I had another. Apparently, nearly everyone else in my life has the same idea. All of my cousins have had boys thus far, one is pregnant with her second. A friend is having her second boy. Both of these babies need hats. Here is the yarn I quickly spun up for them, over the past 2 days:

The base is BFL superwash, I spun it aran weight (more or less) for quick knitting. I received the roving in a gift exchange.

Happy Imbolc!

Today is the halfway point between the winter solstice, and the spring equinox. It has been a special day in many cultures with long winters, who call it Imbolc, St. Brigid's day (the Catholics attempted to civilize the old custom), Candlemas, Groundhog Day, and others.

It's traditional to open the windows during the day (to let in more light), keep the lights on all night, and bring fresh flowers into the home. Ironically, we have daffodils sprouting in our backyard at the moment. Jack Frost had a poor run this year.

We hung our white ribbon on our door, for St. Brigid to bless last night. Today the boys and I will be folding dodecandron star lanterns (well, I will be), and we'll be reciting the classic rhymes.

If candlemas day be fair and bright

winter will have another fight

If candlemas day brings cloud and rain,

winter won't come again

If candlemas day be dry and fair

the half of the winter's to come and mair

If candlemas day be wet and foul

the half o the winter's gane at yule.

fairytale wigs

Here are the pictures of the finished wigs. The base hat was crocheted using the divine hat pattern by Sarah Arnold. It is such a quick and easy hat to make, if you crochet, I highly recommend it. I then looped long strands through the cast off edge, making slip knots, and braided.

Here are a few pictures of my boys modeling them. Yes, it is the afternoon, and they are wearing pajamas. No, my older son was not thrilled to have me take his picture in the blond wig. Apparently, he wanted to be a redhead. The fact that my younger son possessed something his brother wanted tickled him.

What I have been up to...

Well, the truth of the matter is I have been sticking my fingers in too many pots. I have too many projects going, and with work and the children, very little is getting accomplished. The boys and I went on a lovely vacation to Washington DC to visit with some good friends. My friend Vanessa gave me some stunning fiber from Australia, that I cannot wait to start to spin. It is practically calling my name.

I have all but finished 2 crochet hats, for some darling children of a friend. They are sure to be featured soon, because they are hilarious.

My loom is warped with more cloths, I need to sit down and finish them. I also need to warp the big loom for towels.

I started some socks, toe-up. I have only ever knit socks top down, so this has been exciting. I rather like it. I used Judy Becker's 'magic' cast on (it was absolutely magical), and just started the Fleegle heel. The yarn is Knitpicks, bought entirely because it is roughly the same colors as the Doctor's scarf, minus the olive green (and then, naturally, I had to buy other things in order to reach the minimum for free shipping). I considered adding the green in, but decided against it. The yarn isn't special enough to warrant extra effort, and the dye colors have bled into the cream color, which is vexing.

I have been working on an Elizabeth Zimmerman cardigan (also known as the February Lady Sweater). For whatever reason, gull lace is my cryptonite. I have knit and frogged the lace 4 times. FOUR!! This project has been placed in time out until I feel less like attacking it with scissors. The yarn is Mosaic Moon 'copper patina' on an organic merino base. I coveted this colorway for years, so I think it will be gorgeous once I finish it.

I also just finished spinning this fiber. It was dyed and given to me by my friend Lamar (of ...a time to dye). This is one of the first rovings she dyed, and she did an excellent job. Given that it's a merino/superwash blend, and merino felts if you look at it funny, I was extremely impressed. The finished yarn is a 2-ply, roughly worsted weight. It is going to live with a dear friend of mine, Nicole.

King's Day

"All this was a long time ago, I remember,
And I would do it again, but set down
This set down
This: were we lead all that way for
Birth or Death? There was a Birth, certainly,
We had evidence and no doubt. I have seen birth and death,
But had thought they were different; this Birth was
Hard and bitter agony for us, like Death, our death.
We returned to our places, these Kingdoms,
But no longer at ease here, in the old dispensation,
With an alien people clutching their gods.
I should be glad of another death." ~ TS Eliot, excerpt from The Journey of the Magi

Here is James with his little knitting Nancy that he received as a king's gift today.

He worked intently for about an hour before scampering off to keep busy in other ways. An hour!

James was less enthused than I had hoped over the gift I made him for the holidays, but here is picture of Eliot wearing his:

It was actually snowing when I took this picture. By snowing, I mean spitting slushy precipitation that we pretended was snow because Winter has been so mild this year. I love Winter, so this has been very disappointing for me.

I made this cutting out diamonds of fleece, and sewing the center of them in a line up the spine of the sweatshirt. Once this was done, I sewed the sides of the diamonds together into triangle ridges.