a little crafty nest

woolly goodness

Winter is a wonderful time for wool!  I might add that, in my humble opinion, any time of year is a wonderful time for wool!  But when the cookstove is chugging away, trying to warm all the corners of our home, we are nestled within arm's reach of each other, with wool in our hands.  Sunshine, at age 7, has picked up her doll she began two years ago.  She has completed three of the seven squares and is getting more excited with her progress.

On my wheel right now is wool from one of my very first sheep, a Shetland we named Luna.  Smaller than the Merinos and Romneys, Luna was a clever girl who behaved more like a dog than a sheep.  If I sat in the pasture with my knitting, she'd come and lay at my feet!  We all fell in love with Luna, despite her fleece being absolutely wretched.  It was not a spinner's fleece at all.  Knowing I wanted to limit myself with the size of my flock, I decided to give her to my sister's farm up the road from us to make way for higher quality fleece sheep.  Oh, was this ever a hard decision for all of us, most especially for Forrest.  He adores Luna.  He agreed to letting her go on the condition that I knit him something from her fleece.  Fast forward and I have a bag full of coarse and wiry locks that would make a better scrubbie for the dishes than a garment for my ten year old.  However, I plied the first singles I spun with some store bought Shetland wool, and while it isn't too pretty, it is now much better for knitting.  And Forrest loves it!!!  He will be so happy when he visits Luna wearing the vest I'm working on.

In the meantime, Forrest requested a slouchy hat from me ~ two requests for knitted mama goods made my heart beam!.  He'll wear what I knit, but he just isn't that interested in anything in particular.  Until Luna.  And until he went to ski day with the local school kids.  He came home that first day and asked me if I'd make him a slouchy hat!  This boy has some serious style emerging...and I was eager to cast on.

I used some leftover stash from years ago...Sublime Yarns Cashmere Merino Silk blend.  Decadent yarn and ultra soft, though it has pilled up a bit already.  It was a straightforward knit, but it seemed a little endless as you garter stitch for nine inches before tapering it off.  Oh my.  I realize I like a little more pattern or colour in my knitting.

Ahhhh, my boy.  At ten years old, he is such a kind, gentle guy who attracts friends wherever he goes.  I am trying so hard to let him fly off from the nest a bit, when all I want to do is wrap my arms around him and hold him like I did when he was still in my arms.  This mama journey is full of aches, isn't it?  A good ache to be sure, but it has the ability to take my breath away unexpectedly with the pure rawness of all that mama-love!  So when he asks for a hipster hat, how can this mama refuse?  Yes, I think I'm always happy to cast on for anyone who asks so kindly...or who I love so dearly!

*ravelry notes here

*joining Ginny here

 

holiday knits

This post ought to really be called Holiday Hats, because that is what I knit and knit and knit for 6 weeks straight leading up to the gift-giving days.  And knitting 6 hats in 6 weeks is a little, um, tedious...at least for me.  But the end result was worth it for everyone likes their hats, arriving just in time for the cold, snowy winter we are having here.  Warm noggins makes for happy loved ones!

And without further ado...the holiday hats...

Frannie's Butterfly Hat

another Butterfly Hat for my sister-in-law

my old stand-by Ribby Hat by Soulemama...I've made at least a dozen of these over the years

Forrest was very particular about his choice of yarns...he spent a good while sorting through my stash for the right greens and greys.

Sunshine loves her surprise Odessa Hat...in a shade I wasn't expecting to come out so bright!  Good thing my girl loves it!

Huckley loved his Ribby Soule hat, but sadly, I made it with some stash yarn that turned out to have a lot of alpaca fibre in it.  The hat stretched out to sit like a loose helmut on his little head, and has since been appropriated by his papa.

These hats were a great way to stash bust a few old skeins of yarn, leaving a little room in the bin to fill with some new yarn.  The Ribby hats really lend themselves to this as you can create various stripes from an assortment of odds n' ends.

I can't help but exhale a little now that my hat making marathon is over, though, truth be told, there is one last hat on the needles yet!  More on that next week!

*joining Ginny here

*Butterfly Hat ravelry notes here and here

*Ribby Soule Hat ravelry notes here and here and here

*Odessa Hat ravelry notes here

chores, baking, and hand-making

All the usual December things have been happening around here...chores, baking, and hand-making...

 

I have finished 5 of the 6 hats I began in the middle of November for gift-giving.  I didn't give myself very much time, but I'm working through them all.  The last one is for my husband who is up in the mountains right now, doing guide's training for the season ahead. This makes it much easier to pull out my knitting at any time of day without needing to hide it from inquiring eyes.  This was hat number four that I sent off to my sister-in-law last week ~ the butterfly pattern...ravelry notes found here.

And oh my, these children of mine have inherited their mama's curiosity...karma, perhaps.  I am running out of hiding places and have been known to store things at the neighbour's or in my husband's shop.  And now, they also are squirreling away their own handmade gifts...doors must be knocked upon before entering, with telltale shuffling noises from within.  

We have just had a tremendous dumping of snow these past few days and the world has been magically transformed into the holiday season.  It is amazing how fresh snow can bring such festive cheer.  We hope it lasts until New Year's when we have our annual outdoor sledding party.

With Papa away earlier last week for the first stretch of mountain training, the kids were anxious to get our tree.  Every year we go into the woods to find a tree, usually under the power lines.  The wait for Papa seemed intolerable so Huckley and Sunshine created their own "trees", complete with presents for their dolls...right in the middle of the living room area.  They stayed there until we went to bring our own tree home.  

Every year, our tree is not the symmetrical post-card perfect tree from my childhood.  The trees we bring home tend to suffer from too few branches, and once we discovered an abandoned bird's nest clinging to the trunk.  Our trees are usually skinny, gangly, and reminiscent of Charlie Brown movies, so I've been told.  But once the children hang their decorations upon its bony frame, the tree transforms.  My kids bring out all the ornaments they have crafted over the years...for 95% of our decorations are hand-made...and delight in remembering their own handwork.  

Out in the woods, this tree looked full and big.  Amazing what happens when you get it indoors...

angel by Sunshine, age 5

needle-felted St. Nick by Sunshine, age 7

needle-felted bear by Huckley, age 5

St. Nick by Forrest, age 8

All the ornaments are too heavy for the little branches and our tree has a weighed down look!

Our tree may not be worthy of gracing magazine pages, but we find its beauty lights up our home with magic and the spirit of the season.

just in time

We caught the golden light of autumn evening just before it dipped behind the mountains to capture Sunshine's new sweater...

I finished this little Puddleduck ~ with several modifications ~ as Autumn began to bite the air with a crispness, early in the morning and later in the evening.  Sunshine has been wearing her big brother's outgrown sweaters these last few weeks ~ I'm happy she now has her purple Puddleduck made especially for her.

Though it seems this sweater may not fit my sweet girl for more than a season ~ maybe two.  There's always a little bittersweetness when I realize I made something a little too snug after a few months of knitting.  Then again, another reason to cast on again sooner than later, yes?

I found two balls of Berroco ultra alpaca in my stash and asked my mom to bring me another few skeins when she visited in September.  You can see the colour variation if you look hard...but it isn't very obvious in person.  And nevermind...Miss Sunshine loves loves loves this sweater.  Perhaps it is her favourite shade of purple?  Or the cable column of hearts?  Or even the way it hangs and swooshes a bit as she turns around?

I opted to forego the pockets of the Puddleduck, thinking they may get stretched way out with all the eggs, crystals, and apples this girl likes to pick up on her outdoor meanderings around the farm.  I also made several increases along the sides to make the sweater swing out a bit...it makes for good twirling!

Sunshine could hardly wait to wear her Puddleduck when I cast off...she is so easy to knit for, honestly! And now, with idle fingers, I am searching for the right winter hat to knit up for her holiday stocking...any ideas?

 ravelry notes here

joining Ginny and knit-lovers here

summer knitting

The yarnaholics out there would most likely appreciate the book I've recently read (for the second time, that is)...Barbara Parry's Adentures in Yarn Farming.  Such a wonderfully engaging read by another sheep lover like myself.  Her passion for growing her wool inspired me so much with how to manage my own little flock, and has even given me the confidence to try my own hand at marketing the fleece I grow.

The shawl above has been my ongoing summer knitting...something mindless to pick up and work on a row or two.  It is the Danish Tie Wrap Shawl in double stranded sport weight.  It will be a cozy, thick shawl just perfect for winter.

I also managed to make myself an adult version of the milo as well as a short sleeved cable sweater, the Slanted Gretel Tee.  I have some finishing to do on that one, however, so I don't have any photos available just yet.

I am currently working on a sweater for my daughter, hot on the tails of this pullover for my oldest son.  He requested a simple sweater with no stripes, no gradiated colour scheme, no anything.  Just dark green, please and thank you.  

And as he grows in leaps and bounds right now, it seemed to take me forever to finish this sweater!  But I eventually did, and just in time for the cool weather to descend.  Let's hope he wears it more than last year's sweater!

ravelry notes here

joining Ginny and knitters here

queen bee

Last month, late at night, I was searching ravelry for a pair of legwarmers to knit for my daughter to keep her muscles warm in ballet class.  No luck.  Then, by happenstance, I came across a request for test knitters for Luna Grey's new legwarmer pattern, Queen Bee.

Miss Sunshine selected a skein of  --- sport yarn, the melon colourway...yum!  A very straightforward knit with just enough pattern to keep it interesting, but not distracting.  And squishy is a good way to describe the yarn because there is indeed a lot of bounce to it.

The legwarmers fit perfectly well and Sunshine is looking forward to dance class tomorrow to try them out.

As for reading, I have two books that have captivated me at bedtime for a few weeks now.  Richard Harvell's novel, "The Bells" was beautifully written and a wonderful tale.  Absolutely highly recommend this book if you like history, opera, and an engaging story.  The second book was a gift from Diane Morriss who owns Sono Nis Press publishing.  "Who We Are" by Elizabeth May, chronicles her life in politics, as a babe in the arms of her activist mother to becoming the leader of Canada's Green Party.   As she writes, "This is a book about how we (Canadians) got where we are today - a decent country of immense potential, suddenly on the wrong side of history."

joining in with Ginny and friends here

link to  ravelry notes here