I have a couple new projects in the works right now. Some might be offered as free patterns, so stay tuned! The project pictured above is kind of at a standstill because I am not sure if I have enough yarn to do what I want. It is my own handspun, so I'll have to pick up some more roving and spin it up before I get any further on this design.

Over our family vacation I was working on these wristlets. The design is out of the Spin Off Winter 2007 issue, page 46. They work up pretty quickly, but I would definitely lengthen the cuff.

In fact I have another pair in progress for myself and I am doing that very thing. I only added an extra inch to the cuff, just because I want to make sure I have enough yardage to finish them both.

The yarn is Ramboulette wool that I dyed as roving and then spun into a fingering weight on my top whorl spindle. It is lovely, and very soft. It should make excellent wristlets.

Aren't these mittens so cute? They are the tiniest things ever, and whip up in no time. The only problem is this is the only size they come in. However they are a perfect gift for a newborn. I worked mine up in a soft, Cascade cotton, on size US7 needles. You can find the pattern "Baby Mitts" on Ravelry.

Well, I am spending a couple days with my sister-in-law. We are doing all kinds of fiber related things. She also did some sewing this week for the first time! We worked on a neat floor cushion and also a heart, accent pillow. She did an amazing job, I was pleased with the results.

I would love to hear what you are working on. Please feel free leave me a comment and let me know what knitting/spinning projects you have in the works, it's always fun to see & hear what other people are working on in the crafting world!

Have a lovely week my friends!!!!

A Bit Of Christmas Knitting

Recently we were able to go on a short, but lovely, family vacation. I'll have to share the photos with you some other time.

The place that we stayed was absolutely chock full of antiques and beautiful pieces of furniture, perfect for doing photo shoots. I was wishing I had brought a whole suitcase of knitted items to photograph! The area was a blogger's dream come true.

I also received a new camera for Christmas, which was wonderful! Now I can share a few projects with you and, Lord willing, keep things updated better.

I made this lovely little scarf as a Christmas gift for my Mother. It is made with handspun angora/merino yarn. In fact it is one of the earlier yarns that I ever spun. I was saving it for something special. Unfortunately I can't tell you where I got the pattern from, I don't even remember where it is from! It was a copy I had floating about in my pattern binders.

It's a VERY soft scarf, and I was quite pleased with the way it turned out.

I only have one picture of this shawl, and it's not a very good one at that. This pattern I found on ravelry. It is the "Age of Brass and Steam" Kerchief. I only used about 230yds worsted, handspun, merino yarn. It is a fairly simple shawl, it worked up in two days. Personally I wouldn't mind making this one for myself, but with twice as much yarn so it ended up a lot longer. This, however, was a perfect size for the little lady who received it. She had been dropping hints that this yarn would make a nice shawl for her.

I also made two more pairs of the "Sweet Fern Mitts" from the Knitter;s book of Wool. I didn't photograph the other. This pair here was for my Mother. I also made some lovely blue ones for my sister. I have several other gifts waiting for their photo shoot, originally I wasn't planning on doing a Christmas knitting post, it just kind of happened. And I wasn't completely prepared. Just hang in there, and one of these days I'll post the rest of my gift knitting.

I'm very excited, & pleased to introduce you to...... Jillian! She was by far the most fun gift to make, although I loved making them all. Jillian is the little rabbit out of the "Last Minute Knitted Gifts". I really wanted to make her, but was unsure what yarn to use for her body. So I had the slightly crazy idea of carding together alpaca & white angora rabbit fur, and then spinning it up on my top whorl drop spindle.

Yes.

Well, it was rather ambitious. But thankfully I had enough time to accomplish the spinning as well as the knitting before Christmas day. And she was well received by her new mommy. :)

Jillian is SO soft and fuzzy, and completely adorable. I want to make another rabbit just like her for myself. In fact, almost everyone who has seen her wants one! Her ears are made out of angora yarn. Her facial features are embroidered on with embroidery floss.

And I thought Jillian need accessories, so I made her several little shawls. Since then her wardrobe has been increased with both blankets and more shawls. She is quite the well dressed rabbit!

And I'll leave you with a close up of that sweet, little face!

Until next time, my friends!

New Free Pattern: Seaweed Stole/Scarf !!!

I'll have more pictures of this coming in a later post. Since I do not have the software to do a pdf file I'm going to keep pictures to a minimum for ease of printing.

The idea for this stole originated with a kayak trip. This past August my brother and I went for a 4 1/2 hr kayak trip. I didn't have a waterproof container for my camera so wasn't able to take it along, although later wished I had been able to. The scenery was stunning along the way! It was a beautiful day for kayaking; sunny, not too hot, and with a gentle breeze. While we were gliding down the river I noticed the seaweed (not sure what the technical term is, we'll just call it seaweed) that was streaming along with the river's current. It had tall, long-ish leaves, and all sorts of beautiful colors. Right away I thought it would be wonderful to dye some yarn in those colors. The main colors were shades of green, yellow, chartreuse, and a mauve-ish pink.

Next day I had the opportunity to over-dye a skein of my handspun yarn in the exact colors. I was so pleased with the results that I decided to design a pattern that went with my seaweed theme. This pattern is perfect because the waves in the design reflect not only the movement of water, but also the graceful motion of the seaweed as it ripples in the water.

I hope you enjoy knitting this as much as I did!

Yarn: Approx 300 yards of light-worsted or DK weight yarn

Needles: Size US#7 straights

Measurements:

Before blocking, 39"x9 1/2'

After blocking, (pinned measurements) 59" x 11"

Abbreviations:

k=knit

p=purl

k2tog= knit two stitches together as one.

yo= yarn over needle

Notes: Pattern repeat is worked over a multiple of 18 stitches, plus 1 selvage stitch on each edge.

Stole can be made wider by adding more stitch repeats.

Seaweed Stole/Scarf:

Cast on 56 stitches.

Row 1: Knit

Row 2: Purl

Row 3: Knit 1*, k2tog, three times, (yo, knit 1) six times, k2tog, three times. Repeat from * to one stitch before end, knit 1.

Row 4: Knit

Repeat these 4 rows until stole measure approximately 39" long, or until you have just enough yarn to bind off.

Bind off.

Wet block stole according to finished measurements.

Enjoy!

I would love to hear your comments, and also see any photos of your finished Seaweed Stole!

If you have questions please leave a comment below.

Knitting Updates!

All the projects I am working on currently are Christmas gifts, so I shall have to fall back on some old projects to show you. Actually the above roving is still in the same state as you see, although this picture was taken around the end of October. Because of my health issues throughout the month of November I am further behind in things than I had hoped to be by this time of the year.

I still have much to before Christmas. My, it is only a week away from this coming Saturday! However the last five days or so I have been able to complete many of the gifts I am working on. That has set my mind somewhat at ease. I love to give handcrafted gifts, but it always seems like when Christmas rolls around I am madly scrambling to finish things.

This scarf is the Art Schooled pattern, it can be found on Ravelry. I'm making it for my sister-in-law. She purchased some yarn a year ago and I offered to knit it up into something for her. We browsed through ravelry and she found this neat ruffly scarf pattern. Well, I copied it off and got started on it. But meanwhile, during the process of knitting it my sister-in-law learned how to knit! So now she is making the exact same scarf, only in teal and gray stripes. Such fun! I was so excited when she learned how to knit! She is definitely going to town on it, and doing a fine job.

I finished my Sweet Fern Mitts a while back. The pattern is from "The Knitter's Book of Wool". They are made with Knit Picks "City Tweed". It is a heavy-worsted weight, which made my mitts a little bigger than I would have liked. (The pattern calls for worsted weight yarn.)

I still love the way they turned out, despite the fact that they are a little big. These mitts are SO comfortable and warm!

Well, I should sign off for now. Hope you are having a blessed Christmas season!

Cheerio my friends!

Holiday Baking

Yesterday a friend and I decorated all these sugar cookies. We had fun mixing colors and planning it all out. We had a mix of chocolate and plain sugar cookies, colored and chocolate frosting. There were some interesting cookie combinations going on!

I'm not sure how many cookies we decorated, but it was a lot! We enjoyed ourselves though. It's a nice time to chat and just enjoying being together as friends.

How about you? Have you been baking any special treats for the holidays? If so, I'd love to hear about it!

Baby Knits

Seems like a lot of people I know are expecting babies, or just recently had a baby. Ive been trying to do a little bit of knitting for certain select people and their new little ones. This project here is a snuggle sack. I can't remember who designed it, but I found it on Ravelry.

It has these cute little owls at the top! I think I'll embroider them some eyes....

I knit it in a worsted weight wool, but for the middle I double stranded a thin strand of handspun angora. It's SO soft and luxutrious feeling, I wish I could keep it!

And meet my model! :) The bear has no name, sorry, I just snatched him off my Aunt's bed and used him in liue of a real baby.

Also knit up thisl ittle sweater awhile ago. It's from Susan B. Andersons "Itty Bitty Baby" book.

Its a real quick sweater to whip up, just garter stitch squares.

The booty pattern is from "The Knitter's Bible". I only have one done so far, they whip up real quick as well.

Bear kindly agreed to model for the sweater, even though it was too big in the arms. I suggested we roll them up and he thought that a fine plan.

I do have other things to show you, but am pressed for time at the moment so it will have to wait.

This month I have not done a whole lot of knitting because I have been struggling with appendicitis for the last 2 1/2 weeks. It's been a long, frustrating haul, I'm praying I'll be completely well soon. It's hard to do much when laying on one's back on the couch!

Well, it's Thanksgiving Day here in the USA. To all my fellow Americans, have a wonderful and blessed Thanksgiving Day!!!

Visiting A New Yarn Shop

I was out doing errands with my sister-in-law and her Mom this morning. I am making my sister-in-law a scarf and am running out of yarn. So we thought we would swing y a yarn shop and see if we could grab a couple more skeins. She bought her yarn last year so we are trying to match the color. They didn't have any Cascade 220 Heather, so we didn't purchase anything. But we did have a quick browse around.

It is an adorable little shop, very quaint and antique. I really liked it, it was a first time visit there for me.

They had all these neat, built-in shelves throughout the whole store. A lot of them were floor to ceiling, and all over-flowing with yarn.

This tall cabinet that held the buttons was very neat. If one were to look at just the furnishings of the yarn shop, one would think they were in an antique store.

Every kind of knitting book imaginable in the built-in bookshelves.

Definitely a little shop that needs to be re-visited in the near future. :)

Yarn And Spinning

The above yarn is a merino/silk blend that we picked up at a fiber fest. I am trying to spin it SUPER thin, or at least as thin as I can without a lace spindle. I am trying to see how many yards I can get out of mine.

And finally, the yarn I hand painted while still a roving. This was supposed to be very vibrant, but I am still learning how my Greener Shades Dyes work. I like the yarn, but not enough to make something for myself out of it. A couple people in my family like it so I'll probably use it to make them something. The yarn is 100% merino, I only bought 8 ounces of it, I wish I had bough more! I love to hand paint roving.


This is the other merino I hand painted. This one is my favorite by far! I will definitely use it to make myself something. The colors are lovely. :) It make me happy to look at the yarn. When hand spinning, each skein of yarn is a work of art itself, so much time is invested into it. It takes me awhile to feel like I can actually use it for a knitted project. I normally leave it in a bowl as decoration. Then eventually I am ready to use it, so go to ravelry or my knitting books/magazines to find a project.

So this is my spinning over the last month or so.....Very autumn-y, don't you think? :)

Seaweed Scarf/Stole

Sneak peek of a project I have been working on. It's made with my Seaweed yarn. Stay tuned for more information concerning this project in the future.....

Glimpses Of Fall

Leaves pressed in wax paper.

The table, set for dinner.



Fall Decor

And.....some spinning!!!! I'm so glad I can finally share some photos of my projects with you! This is the brown/orange merino I bought about a month ago at a fiber festival. It spun up beautifully, and I absolutely love the colors. Not sure yet what I am going to do with it, but I'll keep you posted. In fact, I was hoping to wind it into a center-pull ball tonight and figure out what I am going to do with it.

This yarn is a worsted-weight, I think it's around 250 yards. Spun on my top-whorl drop spindle. I am trying to keep better records of my spinning projects in case I want to duplicate a certain yarn, color etc. Also it is a big help if I don't use the yarn right away! I have a few skeins that I am not 100% sure how many yards they are because I forgot to write it done.

I have more spinning to share with you, maybe tomorrow. It promises to be a busy day, but I'll try and blog if I get a chance. I took more photos today, but the lighting wasn't quite right and I wasn't happy with the way the pictures looked.

So.....hoping to be back with you soon! Enjoy your day!

I'm Back!!!

Hello Everyone! I know it's been a long time. I am starting to get very anxious to show you some pictures of all that I have been working on this last month or so! I didn't realize how much I used my camera until it broke. Just this morning I had two gorgeous scenes I would have loved to snap photos of. The first one I was standing at the kitchen sink. It was just getting light and down in the field there was a think blanket of mist shifting about. It hung in all the little dips and hollow and was very beautiful, in a mysterious sort of way. :)

The second photo opportunity was as I was driving to pick up my Grandma for an appointment. I drove over the river and there was a lovely view of a clump of trees down the river that were at the peak in color change. The sun was rising and it came through the trees and shone on a slice of the river and that clump of trees. Mist was gently rising off the river and it was breath-takingly beautiful!

But on to other things....

Yesterday I set the twist on some yarn I spun up this past week. It is a brown/orange colorway, merino wool. It spun up beautifully. I think I kept it a pretty consistent worsted weight, it's about 225.5 yards. I don't know what I am going to make with it yet, although I have a few ideas. :)

I thought I'd share some more old pictures with you. This is a bouquet that we picked this summer. They are so pretty! That is one thing I will miss this winter, fresh flowers from the garden.

Well, I have a lot of other project's going on. Many of them are for Christmas gifts though, so I will not talk about them right now. :)

I also have another knitting design on the drawing board. It will be a free pattern as well, so stay posted sometime in the next month or so. I won't post it until I can put up some pictures with it.

Time is limited today, I need to run for now. You all take care, and have a blessed week!

I'll be back with you soon, Lord willing.