Yarn Along

~ Two of my favorite things are knitting and reading, and the evidence of this often shows up in my photographs. I love seeing what other people are knitting and reading as well. So, what are you knitting or crocheting right now? What are you reading? Take a photo and share it either on your blog or on Flickr. Leave a link below to share your photo with the rest of us! ~

Finally finished the gloves for my cousin. Now I just need to mail them out to her. The brown blob is the bottom half of a cow from Susan B Anderson's book "Spud and Chloe at the Farm". The cow was supposed to be a Valentines gift for Stomper, but you can see how well I did with that. I am now hoping to give it to him around Easter. I cast on for the head on Tuesday and I'm hoping to have it done by the end of the week. Not sure how well I'll do since I should be doing homework not knitting.

Right now this book  and this magazine are being passed around the family. We are all taking turns reading all that we get our hands on concerning chickens since we just ordered 15 chicks and 4 ducks that are due to arrive in May. I really like how this book is written. The woman who writes it is very frank. She writes stuff like: "put it in the stew pot" referring to chickens that are past their prime. I know this book is just the tip of the iceberg concerning all we need to know, but I think it's a good start.

I am still pecking away at Wicked, the story is starting to pick up. I still find all the strange jargon very jarring and unless this book ends with a "wow" I won't be reading the second in the series or recommending it to anyone. I do recommend "Barnyard in your Backyard" for a quick intro to animal farming though.

Around the House

:: Enjoying a gift from a friend. These are "fresh" apples out of her root cellar. She gave them to us as a thank you for lending her some baby equipment for her grandson during Christmas time. We made some apple crisp and the rest will be made into fresh apple sauce. What a treat!

:: Little man just keeps getting bigger and bigger. He can now climb up on things like chairs, couches, and even the stool from his work bench. 

:: The barn cats are enjoying giving Vinnie a hard time. He has to be hitched because he likes to cross the street to visit the trailer park. Now when he goes outside the cats get to rub on him and love him, in stead of him just running after them.

:: Dad had a birthday. We gave him a bunch of change so he could get some chickens or a camera. He choose chickens.

Saturday Morning

After playing hooky from my class due to illness, I woke up to snow on the ground, and some time to take a few photos. Other people have echoed this statement, but what a weird winter we are having. I was remarking to a friends husband at church last week, "I keep waiting for winter. I want just one big, real storm, I don't think that's too much to ask." He shook his head and replied, "You and my wife. I'm glad it hasn't snowed, I don't like moving it."

I'm going to enjoy the bit of winter we get this year, no matter how short and fickle it is.

{This Moment}

{This Moment} A single photo - no words - capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor, and remember.

~via SouleMama

It has begun

These are the testing buckets. As in "I'm just gonna tap this one tree to see if the sap is running."

This Week We Are..

:: Teething :: Second Year molars this time (making the count 16.25) . He teethes all right. Not eating like usual, not sleeping like usual, but otherwise playing fine.

::Knitting:: Made a few things for a friend for her shower. I really like how I did the feet this time. He looks like he's swimming.

::Growing:: He is now wearing 24months clothes. They are a bit roomy, but at least all of his leg fit in them, not just the top 90% of them. Heard a great quote from Veggie Tales, "They are pants if you are short and shorts if you are  tall." His pants aren't that extreme, but close!

:: Reading:: His attention span is growing. He will now sit with books. He likes it when the daycare kiddos read to him.

::Thankful:: We are so happy that have family who took us in when our "house broke". We will be moving in shortly. Looks like Monday maybe.

:: Happy for Valentines:: I did not finish the thing I am knitting for Stomper, but he did open up something. Mimi got him some yummy animal cookies. We shared these frosted ones with the daycare kids because they were pink and white, perfect for Valentines.

:: Surprised:: Jason got all the women in the house a little gift of chocolate and flowers for Valentines. My Dad was a bit upset and muttered something along the lines of, "Going to have to talk to him about showing me up."

:: Sad:: A loved family pet became ill and was sent to Jesus today. She will be greatly missed.

:: Wondering:: When he gets a haircut, will the curls come back?

Yarn Along: Chaos

~ Two of my favorite things are knitting and reading, and the evidence of this often shows up in my photographs. I love seeing what other people are knitting and reading as well. So, what are you knitting or crocheting right now? What are you reading? Take a photo and share it either on your blog or on Flickr. Leave a link below to share your photo with the rest of us! ~

I think chaos best describes my mind and my knitting over the past few weeks. What I want to be knitting is a pattern out of the book Spud and Chloe at the Farm or the pattern from the mystery KAL that its one week old yesterday. What I am knitting is a gift for a baby shower (I'll show you a picture of it after the shower), what I also should be knitting is my sisters gauntlet. What I want to be reading is Wicked or fiddling around with my Sims. What I am reading and studying is my course work for TCE Level 1. 

I am finding it hard to stay focused on one thing. However, I did mange to sit down and work on my course work for a half hour today, witch is 30 mins more than I did yesterday. The course is Teaching Children Effectively and it is the model Good News Club uses. I am a Sunday School Teacher and I've known for sometime that I needed more training. The course is going to be very helpful. I have already learned (not memorized) the Wordless Book and I believe that if I had to use it with a child in the next minute that I could use it effectively.

The yarn pile best describes my knitting right now, a mess. The bigger green ball of yarn you might recognize from the Eleanor Cardigan from the last Yarn Along. I needed some green yarn and since the cardigan wasn't truly finished correctly I hacked it up and re-balled. it. The gray yarn is for a future baby shower gift (gotta keep it a secret sorry!), and the small blue square is from my KAL. The goal for this week: Baby Shower Gift #1. If I finish that then I will start on Stompers Cow from the farm book (it's his Valentines Gift..nothing like cutting it close), then move on to Baby Shower Gift #2. It is not looking like I am going to finish the gloves for my cousin, but I will finish them and get them to her before spring is over, I hope.

Evelyn Cardigan::Free Pattern

I knit this little sweater for a friends shower. I didn't have a pattern only an idea of what I wanted it to look like. I knew that I wanted to have little to no seeming, a little bit of lace, maybe a button or two, and for it to be fast because I had very little time. I pulled out some books and looked at some websites and made a few decisions.

I decided on top-down because I had recently knit another sweater that way and it was familiar. I choose raglan sleeves because that would mean no seaming and only a few stitches to pick up when I started the sleeves. I thumbed through some books and scrolled through some websites and found two simple lace patterns that I could modify for my purposes.

I picked out some worsted weight yarn out of my stash, knit a gauge swatch, found some basic sweater measurements in a book I had, did a bit of math, and started. After I finished the increases for the sleeves and had them on waste yarn I decided that it was time to start the lace.

Presto, Change-O, Al-a-Kazam and I had knit a sweater. It went rather quickly and I am glad to be able to share it with you. In the coming months I hope to re-gauge it for a lighter weight yarn, test knit Eleanor, and release it all to you for a small fee. In the meantime, Evelyn is free.

Happy Knitting!

November 2012:
I have removed this pattern from Ravelry as quite a few mistakes have been pointed out to me and I do not have time at the moment to correct them. I hope to have the pattern up and running again sometime in February of 2013. Many thanks to all the knitters who found the mistakes!

June 2013:
Unfortunately I have not returned to pattern writing. I haven't rewritten this pattern, I'm sorry for the inconvenience this may have caused you. 

Year in Review Part 2: Knitting

My knitting over the past year has improved in quantity and quality. I have been designing more and stretching my knitting knowledge. A friend recently gave me an awesome compliment "Delia, my knitting professional friend, can you help me?" I don't know if I'd call my self a professional only proficient. I look over the past few year of knitting and I see feats and failures. Feats in designing a hat and failures in making things too large or too small, despite repeated swatching. I see promised projects never finished and customers I have disappointed. But I also see an abundance of knitted dolls, clothes, hats, toys, a giant sleep sack, a Christmas stocking, and Easter presents (four bears!) that I was able to see through to the end.


Here is a few of my favorite knits (with links) from this past year:


Flannel Hat -first pattern I wrote and sold
Love Monster -first toy pattern I wrote
Four Bears -crazy Easter knitting for my Sunday School class
Sweet Sheep -quick knit for a first birthday

Sparkling Cider Cozy's -designed and knit these up for my sister in laws Aug wedding

Evelyn Cardigan -baby sweater for my friends baby

Co-Habitation

I have been working at my Mom's in-home daycare a few days a week and Jason has been working five minutes way from where my lives, so we have been staying at my Mom's house a few nights a week. Saturday, January 21 we all came over in the evening to spend the night, so I could take Jason to work in order to take his truck to church in the morning (did I mention the car is broken--again?). In the meantime I got in contact of the teenage who sometimes does a bit of cleaning for me to see if should could get over to the house to do my dishes before we got back Tuesday afternoon.

Tuesday morning she calls me, "Uh, I can't turn the water on. I can't even move the faucet. It's really cold in here, maybe the pipes are frozen?" I called my father-in-law to see if he could stop by on his way to work to check to see if the furnace was on. That afternoon he called, "Well, I got the furnace running again." I answered, "Thanks, I'll send Jason over when he gets out of work."

Jason got home and I delivered the bad news. My Dad and Jason went over to the house to see what was going on. The furnace was off again, due to a broken pipe flooding it with water. Over the next few trips over they would fix some pipes, thaw some toilets, fiddle with the furnace, find more broken parts of the furnace, and become increasingly frustrated. We are now to the point where we are ordering a part to fix the furnace and repairing just a few more pipes.

In the meantime we have been living at my parents (hence the baking). Every morning (when there is daycare) I fold up our bedding, put up our mattress, and erase our presence from the daycare "napping room". Stomper and I spend a few moments to ourselves in the living room (apart from the daycare) knitting, reading, and playing. Then we join daycare for breakfast and some playtime. I help my Mom with lunch and childcare while Stomper takes his morning nap. During daycare nap Stomper eats lunch and plays, then naps when the daycare kiddos wake from their naps. Late afternoon I might do some baking with my sister or supper prep. If there are a lot of kids around in the afternoon we head back to the living room for a bit while we wait for Papa and Grandfather to get home. Evenings go quickly for Stomper and before I know it Jason is dragging our mattress out and making our bed.

I wasn't sure if six adults and one toddler could share space, but apparently we can. The only thing I miss about my home, is my room. I don't even mind sharing my bedroom with a toddler. And really, what I miss is my evening snuggle time in front of the TV with my hubby. I also lament not having a second vehicle. Stomper hasn't seen much of his other set of grandparents in over a week, but he is spending the week-end over there so he should get quite a bit of time with them.

Other than that I could live like this for quite awhile. It's nice sharing responsibilities. It's nice not planning every meal on my own, making the meal, and then cleaning up from the meal (not that Jason doesn't help, because he does). It's nice having more than one pair of eyes on Stomper, especially now that he's mobile and climbing on everything. It's also nice getting to know my sister a little more.

Yarn Along

~ Two of my favorite things are knitting and reading, and the evidence of this often shows up in my photographs.  I love seeing what other people are knitting and reading as well. So, what are you knitting or crocheting right now? What are you reading? Take a photo and share it either on your blog or on Flickr. Leave a link below to share your photo with the rest of us! ~ via Ginny 

I am sad to report that I set aside my sisters gauntlet for the week. However, I did make progress on my Evelyn Cardigan and her sister Eleanor (Eleanor is pictured above) that I am writing. Evelyn will be ready for a free download sometime this week and the one pictured above by the end of the winter. I have lofty goals of knitting them in a lighter weight yarn as well and seeing how they turn out, but more on them later. The glove is the second of a pair, as you can see I have one finger finished. This morning I set to work on the second, but Stomper had other plans for me. I really like the feel of this glove when I put it on, it's nice and tight. 

I don't know what to do with my Christmas Present to Myself. I like the pattern, but the yarn I an using doesn't do it justice. There is a nice mock cable and with the yarn I can't really see it. Not sure what to do. Do I cut and frog the current glove in order to save the nice (and expensive) yarn or do I keep going?  

No reading happening here, just a lot of baking. In the past week my sister and I have made Pretzel Rolls, 12 dozen Baby Food Muffins (pumpkin and banana), chocolate chip cookies, butterscotch oatmeal cookies, bread-pudding, pumpkin pie (the pumpkin was puree that my mom and I made), Whacky Cake, two chicken pot-pies (the crust was store-bought) and Chocolate Pudding Cake all from scratch. To quote my Dad: "You two need to stop baking or you will make us all fat".