Wednesday, September 30, 2009

S is for

Socks of course! These are Sunshine, my third from the Cookie A. book. Nice, easy to memorize pattern but they run BIG. Really big in the ankle. If you knit them you might want to leave out a repeat, or two. Just saying.







I used Classic Elite's Summer Sox and while it was pretty nice for a cotton blend, one of the two skeins had three knots, not good. Also this pattern used almost the entire skein for each sock, almost nothing left over. Which may or may not be a good thing.








S is also for Susan, that's me. With my Daddy. A very long time ago at Grandma's house which I just realized has almost the same floor plan as my house now. But not the wallpaper.



Sunday, September 27, 2009

This weekend was National Alpaca Open Farm Days and Reese and Evan and I, and Reese's mommy, went to Alma Park in Jackson, NJ. Which is really funny because it's just down the street from the High School I went to. And it's also really funny because I have no picture of Evan, he didn't stand still long enough.


Reese had seen an alpaca on Saturday and was very excited to see more of them with Grammy.
I was much more interested in the yarn and fiber.


I bought some Huacaya and silk and it is so soft.


The alpacas are so cute but even better there were chickens and kittens. Reese loved the chickens and Evan spent a lot of time petting the kitties and eating munchkins. There were also emus which Reese has been calling Elmo.




Rose and her brother were delightful and I had a lot of fun talking about spinning, dyeing, and knitting and petting all the fiber. I would have petted the alpacas but it was raining and a bit muddy and they were pretty wet.




This cutie is Maggie May and she almost got close enough to touch.




And on the way home there was a rainbow. Which I found is really hard to take a picture of while you're driving. By the time I stopped at a red light, it was already fading, but it looked like it was right over my house..


Monday, September 21, 2009

R is for

I was going to do R is for ripping out. A whole sweater. Wrong fit, wrong pattern, just wrong.



I thought about recycling, something I really believe in.




But then I realized R is for Ravelry. Something that in the last two years has become such an important part of my life. And something that has enriched my life in so many ways. I've learned so much, laughed a lot, cried a bit and met some wonderful friends.



Rhinebeck 2008

Friday, September 11, 2009

Where did those chickens go?

We spent Labor Day weekend with Reese. She's really talking now and what she talks about a lot is chickens. Obsessively. She and her mommy saw some Guinea hens wandering around town one day and now all Reese wants to do is find the chickens. "Where they go?" So I decided to knit her one.




She seemed to like it. And every time she saw me knitting she asked if it was a chicken.





But it was a little shrug and hat for a new baby I know.



Friday, September 4, 2009

Kool Aid, it's not just for drinking

I bought this pound of undyed superwash merino to practice my spinning. (If you spin, you might want to check this place out.) I found out that I don't like to spin worsted weight so I ended up with this bit of yarn. It's about 100 yards or so and it's not bad but it's just not what I want to spin, I think I like it thinner. So I decided to have a little experiment.





I bought a bunch of this.




And put the yarn in the crockpot.




And I got this. I was aiming for a kettle dyed look. Not too bad. Kind of a salmon pink. All Mr. Truck had to say was, " Now you're cooking yarn?"


If you're looking for instructions, I found them here.