Housecleaning & Embrace the Camera

..or rather blog cleaning? Updating? Not sure what the proper wording would be, but here it is.

1. I have removed the Evelyn Cardigan until further notice. I have high hope that I will get all the bugs cleaned up by February, depending on how my Christmas Knitting List ends (right now it's not looking too good)

2. I will have a real Year of Projects post some time in the new year.

3. The chickens are laying like crazy! Praise God! It looks like we at least got that bit right!

4. I must return to my knitting now. Here are some cute photos of the little guy during the first storm (sometime early November). I took him outside in his pj's. He of course choose this day to sleep in!

P.S. In the second photo he is throwing snow for that ball of fluff I call a dog

(Thanks Grandma for taking such cute photos!)

Linking up the with Anderson Crew today!

Bacon

I love bacon.
It is a common sentiment in the family.
However, I do not love how bacon slides off the bread when eating it.
Solution? Well, until pinterest I would have said no.
Enter the mighty pinterest.
Does it work?
Why yes it does.

Observe ...

It takes a little time, but it is so worth it!

Here is how you do it.

1. Cut the bacon in half

2. Weave four half strips together like you are closing up the top of a moving box.

3. Place on top of tinfoil in a cookie sheet

4. Bake @350 until nice and crispy about 15-20 mins

5. Eat in a BLT and have bacon in every bite.

You can thank me later.

:)

Duplicating Her Mistakes

Recently I was commissioned to re-create a Christmas Stocking. It had really got me thinking about the legacy of a knitter and their knits. This stocking has outlived both the knitter and the pattern. It has survived twenty-two Christmas's with out one repair. The stitches are firm, maybe not as crisp, and holding tight after all these years. It has gotten me thinking about the quality of my own knitting. I have been working on an advent calendar for my son and as I make each ornament I keep in the back of my mind: I want this to last for years. Each stitch may not be perfect, but must be knit well. I can imagine that the woman who knit this stocking was thinking much of the same.

I charted out most of the stocking and while I was charting it out and studying the stocking I noticed an oddity. The number of cast on stitches was rapidly decreased after the name had been knitted by 10 stitches.  I began to wonder: Am I re-knitting her mistakes? Twenty-two years later am I looking at a beautiful finished product and planning on remaking her mistakes? I think about my own knitting and how I will make a mistake, but keep going as long as it doesn't alter the overall product. Will someone, someday, go back and re-create my mistakes and wonder: Why did she decrease like that?

 

The knitting is slow, as the needles too small for the yarn, and I recently had to rip back several rows to correct some of my color work. I hope that even with my small mistakes, it will become as well loved and cherished as the original. I am nearly done (I am working the gusset right now) and when it is complete I will breathe a sigh of relief. I will have accomplished at least one Christmas wish this year.

Happy Thanksgiving

I have posts to write. Lots of ideas.

Sadly they are all locked in my brain.

Right now my hands are busy cooking and knitting.

I hope to post something on Friday!

Project Report

In my absence there has been knitting. I think I have three projects on the needles right now (a scarf, a cowl, and a sock), and some flying off!

I finished the Christmas Bell a while ago. I think I'll add a bell before I declare it 100% finished. The goal is to have two more ornaments knit before December 1st!

I started the Sock for Jason for the second time. This time not in secret. I had him try it on, and it fits! Cue the music! I have turned the heel and now I am started the foot. The plan it to knit just the one at first while I work on other projects. 

I knit a farmer for my son for Christmas, I've named him Charlie. The pattern is from Spud and Chloe at the Farm by Susan B Anderson. I like the pattern, all by the legs. You can find my notes on Rav.

Unfortunately all my Christmas knitting has been put on pause until I can finish a paying gig. A relative of someone at my church is paying me to duplicate a Christmas Stocking. I spent an hour or so creating a chart to match and now I need to buy yarn. It should be an interesting knit. 

I've been thinking about my own Christmas Stocking and I'm not sure how to proceed. I'll be looking through some patterns to find one, but I'm leading towards this one wouldn't that be awesome looking with presents stuffed inside it?

I think after the holidays are over I will need to re-evaluate my list and add to it. If I get done what I plan to before Christmas most of my list will be done!

Charlie

I recently knit up the doll "Chloe" from Spud and Chloe at the Farm. I am a huge Susan B Anderson fan, she has never knit or created anything that I haven't immediately loved. This doll is not the first toy I have knit from her patterns. I have knit "Tuck" quite a few times and the cow from the farm book.  I like the ease of the construction and how quickly s/he came together. It is knit in the round, as most of her toys are, and once you are done all that is left is to assemble. All that being said, I am not in love with this doll.

I don't like the legs.

I am debating taking them off and knitting them again, but I probably won't.

The legs, they are like toothpicks. They sort of just stick out looking uncomfortable and unnatural. Maybe it's because I made her into a boy? I will be making a face for him, but I will do that the week before Christmas so that I am not tempted to give it to him before then. Once his face is on he will have some real personality.

I used the stitch from the sheep (in the book) to make the hair and it came out super cute. I knit a wig and then attached it, I will be doing that from now on when I make a doll. Making hair that way is so much easier, why didn't I do that before?!?!

I knit his overalls with out a pattern and didn't do too bad. Next time I won't start with so man stitches because by the time I got up to the waist it was too big. Not sure if I should make some more clothes for him or not. If I was knitting this for a girl I'd make a bunch of clothes, but a boy won't be as interested in getting it dress and re-dressed, I think. I may make a sweater or pj's or something so that he can change it if he wants to.

I had to hide him from Stomper because every time he saw the farmer he shouted, "Baby!" and scooped him up. Gwendolyn got a new dress too. I was going to make her a little shrug, but it's turning into a scarf for an adult instead, unless I get tired of it, then it may become a shrug after all!

I am so excited for Christmas!