ending the year

joan invited a bunch of fiber gals to her home for lunch and ... fiber. there was knitting..

spinning....

even beading!i have not had much time to sit at my wheel and spin. anything. i fell in love again with my wooly addiction. i quickly spun several bobbins and came home eager to spin more. as i looked over my resolutions for last year, and one of them was to try different fibers. any kind of different fibers. i was moderately successful in making that happen. falkland, romney lamb, and even milk. i have several more to try next year. i also want to revisit some that i haven't spun in a while. try my hand at doing them with the skills that i have under my belt. so, onward to the new year.

holiday knitting

yes, i know christmas was yesterday. thankfully my family does not celebrate until into the new year. with all the family and their families, it's easier and less chaotic to pick a weekend in january to claim as ours. we ladies draw names and present the lucky recipient with a hand-crafted gift. the caveat is that your hands don't have to craft it, just that someone does.

i've still had a bee in my bonnet to do another fair-isle project, so i chose to make spotted fair isle mittens from the '60 quick knits book'. i'm using stone edge fibers handpaint and black classic wool by patons. i'm having issues (of course, no project can be easy) with the copied chart. it was all the same muddy color. sooooo, i copied it on graph paper (which was a tedious task) and now i knit on!

gingerbread

as if the holiday's weren't crazy enough, i make gingerbread houses. not the kind from the store sold in packs, but the real deal. i make the gingerbread from scratch ( betty crocker recipe is the best ) then i make each piece from a template i created. i can make 5 complete houses from a batch of dough.

then i assemble each house onto a cake board using homemade royal icing.

then the rest of the herd gets in on the action. i purchase lots of candy ( the good kind, m&m's, kisses, bells ) and we go to town making them up! delivery will be this week. each house is completely edible and the longer it lasts the more it tastes like a ginger snap. great with tea and just too much fun!

gifting

i have truly been gifted with the most generous of friends. i could not even begin to list all of the wonderful qualities that they possess, but i will share that they bring untold joy to my life.
they also have exceptional gift-giving abilities.
stitch markers from joan. a not-so-much knitter, joan enlisted the help of her daughter to craft these. glass beads and felted balls in 'my colors' work great. they are currently on a christmas gift that i was comissioned to make in time for santa to bring.









amythefibergoddess surprised me with this amazing project bag. hand made by a fellow spinner, amy chose the fabric with me in mind. the batic fabric changes in color from the handles to pockets and the purple interior matches the one that she had made for herself. so we have semi-matching bags. i. love. it! now to fill it with a project, or maybe carry as a purse, or maybe just admire it!

done!

i finished it! this was such a fun project, (here i go...) i'd love to do another! the steeking went extremely well. i chose to follow the pattern, (surprise) so i stitched in the button-bands first, the cut the center. i was once given great advice for steeking, add lots of stitches. i had 10 in the center, so when i was all done, i was able to trim off the excess.

i put the buttons in place and ran out the door to the guild meeting. such a great place to wear hand crafted goods! it was oohed and ahhed over, touched and admired. i was extremely relived that it fit (not that i didn't have plenty of takers if it hadn't) the only change i might make was to have it shorter. i'm not a real over-the-hip sweater person, but this one works. yeah!!

a close one

yesterday i pulled out the cardigan to finish it. i started attaching the button bands, but had to stop mid-project to go to work. i left it on the kitchen counter to finish. well, when i arrived home late last night, i found my sweater on the floor, the yarn in tangles and two canines looking very guilty. i quickly scooped it up checking frantically for any tears, rips, chew spots. all seemed well, but i was less than pleased.
this morning i decided to get this done and give it a thorough look to make sure it had not been damaged. amazingly there was not a stitch out of place, but this is the one needle that was left. it has been gnawed on and it's two mates are missing.
so, lesson learned... never, ever leave knitting attached to wooden needles in the puppies reach!
i'm on to finish this.

hatapalooza

winter has arrived here. lots of white fluffy stuff falling, lots of shoveling and now that we have a snow blower, well... a new snow moving toy.

as i got wrapped up yesterday in the dark, early hours, i reached for a hat. searched my cubby, no hat. i had to snatch one from another cubby. when i came back in, i went through the closet only to discover that i had no hat. no. hat. me, who always has some knitted project going has never made herself a hat. i decided to use handspun and this is gayle's art in the crayon box colorway. i spun it this summer after msw, and i love it. it is equally lovely to knit with.

i finished the adult jest hat for my honey. he has yet to make good on his promise to wear it, but here it is. this is such fun to make, that i might just do a few more! now i just need heads to put them on....