Bartering!

So who needs money? So far I've traded two containers of jam and one of honey for a freezer from friends, a jar of honey for organic dog treats from the guy who changes our oil, and a container of honey for a jar of yummy jam from Michelle at http://pdxknitterati.com. 

Rhinebeck

 

What a beautiful warm day!  Almost too warm for a sweater. 

Silver

25 years ago today I married my very best friend. 

Hey Honey!

I keep bees, as if spinning and knitting wasn't weird enough. September for us is always time to harvest the honey. Or as we say steal it from the bees. Mr. Truck gets the full frames out of the hives and brushes off the bees then I dash in the house with them. There were 12 mostly full frames. Then we cut off the caps if wax with the hot knife and spin it out in the centrifuge. The wax is strained out and we end up with about 60 pounds of honey. It's a sticky mess but the bees clean up most of it. 

Wishing

Poor Phantom can only dream of going outside. 

Spring has sprung!

Finally!

It's beach time

At the beach Dunkin walks himself while Dougal goes swimming, at least as far as Mr. Truck will let him, and I search for sea glass.

What I Learned After Almost 13 Days Without Power

Get a generator and learn how to hook up your furnace to it.
Boiling pots of water on your stove does heat up your house.
Fill up you car and your gas cans. Have lots of gas cans.
Get a smart phone.
Get a car charger for your smart phone.
Sign up for twitter & Facebook. Follow your town, power company, local radio station. Social media is faster and more accurate than anything I heard on the radio.
Have a battery radio and batteries.
Flashlights are lifesavers in the bathroom.
Help your neighbors.
Call your power company every day. Sometimes they think you have power when you don't. (I'm talking about you PSE&G)
Texting works even when the phone doesn't.
Fill your freezer with anything you can fill up with water: Tupperware
and containers from the recycling bin work great and keep the door shut.
You can vacuum, watch DVD's and charge your nook with a generator.
Have lots of candles and not all scented. Vanilla, pumpkin,cranberry, apple, cookie dough all at the same time is bad.
And you can knit in the dark.

Days 4- 8

We're in Delaware for a bit of a vacation but I'm still spinning. It's a beautiful merino from a vendor I found at the NJ Sheep & Fiber Festival last year. She didn't have her cards with her so I took a picture of her sign. Sadly, this sheep is no longer with us but if all her fiber is like this I'll definitely be looking for her again.

Tour de Fleece Day 1 & 2

Tour de Fleece Day 1

Last year I did a whole fleece. Never again! My goal this time is much more modest: 4 ounces of this beautiful super wash BFL from Zarzuela's Fibers. So my wheel is cleaned and oiled and I'm ready to go.

Have I Shown You My Grandchildren Lately?

It's Hot and I'm knitting dish cloths

Too hot to touch wool so cotton it is. But the Tour de Fleece starts Saturday so it will be wool then. I can't wait.

We have twins!

After 38 weeks and one day BDE did the best job ever. Two perfect little ones.

Jude Ryan, 5 pounds 13 ounces


Leighton Elizabeth, 6 pounds 5 ounces.



They go home tomorrow and then the fun begins!

When It's This Cold Outside. It's Time to

bake bread!

Rye, this time, yum.

My Own Damn Pattern

As I put on this sweater this morning, I realized that I've never talked about it and it's one of my favorites. It started out on my first trip to Rhinebeck in 2008. I fell in love with the yarn from Briar Rose Fibers. And although it was pretty pricey I bought it anyway. And it couldn't be just any sweater, it had to be a special sweater. So I found a pattern I loved and knit away. But it was awful. Wrong pattern for my special yarn. So I frogged it and knit another pattern. But it was huge, really huge. So I frogged it.



And I decided to knit my own damn pattern. I got out my The Knitter's Book Handy Book of Sweater Patterns and figured it out. I wanted a simple cardigan with some ribbing like on a sweater I owned, not too long, with a little shaping.



And I needed a button band that would hold up the buttons I bought.





And when I was done, I had a sweater I loved and I wear it a lot.


I wore it to Stitches East the next year when I took a class with Lily Chin. She pointed to people one at a time and had them talk about the sweaters they were wearing but she skipped me. The look on my face must have given me away though because she came back to me and said, "You didn't make that sweater." Best compliment ever.

2011

It was the best of times it was the worst of times, no wait, someone wrote that already. But it's true. We lost Duffy. Of all the dogs, he was such a special one and we were so sad.



Especially Dunkin, dogs do mourn. So we got Dougal. And he has brought us a lot of laughter.

But best of all, Piper came into our lives in November.


And BDE is having twins next month!


So there has been a lot of knitting going on here in our house.

Merry Merry Christmas!

I've been very quiet this year but that's going to change because I have so much to tell you! Merry Christmas and I'll see you next year.

House Guest

Almost a year ago, Stamps came to visit. He was a wonderful guest, so we decided to invite another. Wandering Woolemina is on her way around America and maybe beyond but I had not idea when she would arrive. As luck had it, she came just as we were going to Delaware for the weekend. So we packed her up in the car with only just enough time to introduce ourselves


and admire the wonderful hostess gifts she brought.


The next morning, our first stop was my favorite LYS, Kitschy Stitch in Rehoboth Beach.

Woolemina met a friend and

wallowed in some wool.




Then we did some shopping. First a stop for her next hostess's gift.



And a stop at Lowe's for something for our new bathroom. (Woolemina was a good sport about that.)



And on to the outlets where we found some really good sales and she gave me advice on what to buy.



Then we took a rest on the patio, the weather was so nice. Woolemina really enjoyed reading the new Interweave Knits.



And finally out for dinner.



On Sunday, we drove home. Woolemina was very happy seeing the signs of spring. The trees are starting to show some color and we saw forsythia in bloom. We went grocery shopping.


and ended the evening knitting on Woolemina's scarf, which is very colorful.

Tomorrow we have to write in her journal and send her off to Wisconsin. She has been a wonderful guest and we'll be sorry to see her go. (Even Mr. Truck who was somewhat embarrassed by all the pictures we took.)