A Little Catching Up

Dear Mary,

Since Mom and I got back from our visit to Germany, I have been trying to catch up around here, with questionable success.  I can't figure out why I am so unorganized at home?  At work I was the poster child for neat, organized and efficient.  At home, I'm lucky if I can remember to brush my teeth!    Sigh.

Anyway, we had a wonderful trip. Becky's farm is as charming as I remember.  We were there over Easter, here is a picture of Mom and Peter hunting Easter eggs in the front yard.

 

I boiled and colored 40 eggs, and we ate them all!  Yum,  farm fresh eggs.  There really is a difference.  More on the farm later...

When we got back, my TKGA box was waiting for me on the table.  So, jet lag and middle of the night notwithstanding, I opened it up.  I was very happy with the overall reception of my knitting.  The re-work needed wasn't too bad at all.  The most embarrassing part was that I used the wrong yarn for the mitten and color work swatch.  Oh, I know better.  Anyway, I got a lot of the corrections done right away, and then hit a wall.  I've been trying to figure out why, and I think it was the yarn.  I did fine until I started working with that yellow yarn, and then it was like pulling teeth.  I will try to remember that when I have to work with yarn I don't like in the future.  But I pushed through and got the box sent back Friday.  Now it's a waiting game again.

I have been keeping up with my sock program.

April's Socks.  So I tried to work on these in Germany.  I got a few inches done in airports and a few more inches done in the evenings at the kitchen table, but mostly sock knitting wasn't working.  At least sock knitting with a fussy pattern.  I finished these after we got home.

 May's Socks.  I liked these very much.  I learned a new cast on that is REALLY  stretchy.  Finally, I can get them on over my heel without straining myself!  :)  Plus, I liked the lace work, though I kept making mistakes and having to fix them.  Much better than the picky-ness of the April socks.

June's Socks.  Ah, this seems like cheating!  Stockings are so much quicker than socks.  :)  But they are done and they are socks.  Even if I can't wear them.

 I have more than finished items to show off, but I'll not bore you any more today.  It's time to go outside and rescue the eggs that the chickens have decided to lay in the compost pile.  Silly girls.

Something Special

My birthday was last month.  I am old enough that birthday's aren't such a big deal anymore, and I really can't remember the last time my dad gave me a birthday gift.  So imagine my total surprise when he showed up with a gift.  And not only a gift, but something that I have been wanting for two years.  And not only something that I've been wanting, but a hand made and lovely version.

Ta Da, a wine rack!  Yesterday I finally got caught up and got the rest of last year's crop bottled.  So here is dandelion, strawberry, peach, and mead.  I tried to bottle the blueberry this week, too, but it needed to be racked and settle.  So I will have to finish after the trip, but not bad so far.

On the knitting front, I have been working on my new sweater.  I am working on the body now, and each row seems So Long.  I have to keep reminding myself that each row is the front, the back and the seaming in one fell swoop - in the long run it's a bargain.  :)

The question is, can I get it done before the trip?

Isaac

Dear Mary,

Yes, I have a new finished project, but let me show you Isaac first!

I got to stay with his big sister while he and his parents were in the hospital, so I was very lucky.  Though it seemed like we spent most of our time driving back and forth to the hospital!  That's okay, you don't have babies every week.

And now on to a more mundane finished object.  February socks, I am still behind.  And I'll have you know, I did do my homework for March's sock class - and had to undo it.  The yarn wasn't a good choice for the pattern.  So much for trying to be prepared!

 I like these.  I'm going to wear them to the dentist's today.

A Little More Book Learning...

Last summer when I started going to sock club, one of the other knitters mentioned a Master Knitters' Program.  I was intrigued.  Mom is a Master Gardener.  If she could do it with flowers, I think I can do it with yarn.  So I checked it out and ordered Level 1 (there are 3) last October.  I didn't really do much with it before Christmas, but started getting serious in the new year.

Of course I thought I'd be knitting, and there is some in level 1.  But there is more research and paperwork than actual knitting.  I had to knit a bunch of swatches showing basic stitches and techniques and a mitten, but for each swatch I had to locate and cite written sources that described that technique. Then I had to answer questions about the swatches, with more references cited.  I had to answer questions about the mitten too, but thank goodness they weren't the kind that required references.  And then there was a paper to write.  Really?  I would rather do calculus than write a paper, people.  Sigh.

I think the actual knitting took less than 10% of the time involved, while my bibliography is 6 pages long. One really nice thing is that you can use sources from the internet.  Thank you Knitty and YouTube!

And today it is done.  Well, stage one is done.  I'm sure revisions and corrections will be required.  But I took photos of the swatches and got the project up on Ravelry and am going to the post office to ship Draft One off this afternoon.

one of 17 swatches

Now I am going to relax half a minute before tomorrow's sock class.  No, my homework isn't done, but I think they'll forgive me.

PS.  I found a sock group on Ravelry and joined it last month.  I think the general idea is to knit 12 pairs in a year, with challenges and lots of show and tell to help motivate. I entered the February challenge and actually won a prize!  I will be getting some pretty purple sock yarn in the mail sometime soon. 

     

Catching Up in Class

I have finished January's socks, finally, and just started February's last night.  Maybe by the next class I might be caught up.  Maybe.

Of course I keep making mistakes.  Each pair seems to be something different.  On these the heels are a bit short.  Nothing to rip out and start over, but still, I'd like to start getting them right!  Liked the fair isle work, even on four needles.  I can't wait to do a sweater.  :)

Three Socks for the Pair

I just finished the socks from December's sock class.  It would have been done much earlier except that I had to make three socks.  The first one I knit continental style and did okay.  I wanted to hurry and finish so I knit the second with yarn in the right hand.  Big mistake.  They didn't match at all.  So I ripped out the first one and re-knit.  And I have a finished product.  Pattern:  Holiday & House Socks by TrampledbyGeese.  Yarn:  Warm Fuzzy Yarn in Hemoglobin.

just another week

Hi Mary,

Wednesday morning I drove to Sutton's Bay to visit mom where she is house sitting.  She is taking care of the kitties and playing in the garden and doing a little housework.

We dug up some raspberry suckers, and a few other flowers/herbs growing in the wrong places for me to take home to see if I can't expand my gardens a little - and to copy the ones up there.  They are very nice, and I do enjoy them.  It was a quick visit, but fun.  It was a hoot watching her feed the chipmunks - they are very tame and will practically eat from her hand.

I have been working on my sweater, and doing pretty good with it.  That is despite the fact that I had to rip out the back portion that I had finished last week - I have to admit that I forgot to switch to my larger needles after the ribbing.  Sheesh.  But I recovered and finished the back and then fixed the oops I found on the sleeve.  Picture here of progress so far.  I went to the Fair office and entered it for exhibition for the end of July, so I better keep on making good progress!!  I also made a couple of summer dresses this week, so I have been productive.

I got my framed cross stitch picture back from JoAnn's.  I am more impressed now that it's framed.  It

looks a lot more complex and advanced now that it's all neat and tidy.  Or it could be that now that I've spent $175 for framing (over $400 quoted before coupons and sales - really???) I have to admire it more just to make the expense justifiable.  Or something.  $175 just seems like a lot.  How am I ever going to get my four Celtic ladies framed?  Oh my.

So the garden is growing apace.  I look at it and am happy that it's finally in and showing growth, but then get frustrated because it's so far behind.  It seems like everybody else's is doing better and they are getting something out of them already, even if it's only lettuces and radishes.  Sigh.  Considering the wet weather I am lucky it's in the ground.  I just need to be patient.  And get out there and weed once it drys out a bit.

Front garden - starting to see green through the fence

Back Garden - asparagus, raspberries, corn and rhubarb

Out of Jail

Ta Da, here it is.  Well most of it, anyway.  The fence is up around the garden and the girls are free to roam again.

So okay, the garden still just looks like plowed up dirt from this vantage, but really there is A Lot of growth going on in there.  The beans, onion and peas are shooting out of the ground and everything else is following at an appropriate rate.  I can't believe it, but next weekend I will be putting in my second planting of corn already!  And look at my fence!!

But we did have a bad day last Thursday.  The fence wasn't finished yet (Did I tell you I put in all those posts all by myself?  I was so proud!)  and the big girls were confined to their run.  Which they hate.  I let the little girls out to roam since they are too frightened yet to go far and too little yet to do any damage if they did.  When it was time to put everybody up for the night, we found two dead chickens in the run, a big girl and one of the babies.  At first we were very confused, how could the baby be killed inside the run?  The best we can figure is that the big girl died of natural causes (they are such heavy layers, they tend to have internal problems) and that her sisters were upset because their pecking order was disturbed.  When the baby got in through the wires, with or without 'help', the sisters pecked her to death.  Of course this is all supposition, we are not chicken experts and we didn't see anything.  But it makes sense to us.  I buried them by the raspberries.  

So I wanted to replace the baby, and Bob said we should get two new babies, to get back to our original number.  No Problem.  But when we closed the lid on the box there were four babies in there.  So now we have 11 chickens.  What am I going to do with six-ish dozen eggs a week?

When I took my cross stitch map in for framing, I bumped into some yarn that said 'take me home.'

 What could I do?  Besides, I'd already spent an arm and a leg on the framing (story later), what's a little bit more, right?   I was a good girl and did a swatch, but what ever for? The gauge was way off, not even close.  Sigh.  I was matching the recommendations on the band, so I am just going for it.  I love the pattern and if it's even close to fitting I'll just block the dickens out of it.  It's not fitted, it's like a sweatshirt, it should be fine.  (I just keep telling myself that.)  And yes, Eagle Eye, there is a mistake in the sleeve.  I just noticed it myself, so I will fix that before the next photo shoot.

Babysitting was too fun on Saturday.  She decided that she liked grandma and never cried once.  And she took her first steps - to me!  What a nice day.