on my needles...

You may remember these little beauties I made from last year, maybe not. Due to the very uncomfortable heat and humidity for the past several days I've spent a lot of time inside avoiding it, it's miserable! In doing so I figured I'd better be doing something so I decided to get a jump on winter knitting to avoid months of chiropractic care and a neck and shoulder packed in ice for weeks! I posted these on our facebook page yesterday and said I'm making these again today only with fiber from my boys and got lots of compliments but I got a great idea to make these little beauties even better....

how? you ask....

let me show you...

...they are being lined with roving that will eventually felt into the mitten and make them softer and ever warmer. It's like sticking your hands into our llama without the work of having to care for him or shear him. These were even more popular, I've got three orders to fill already!

hot off my needles!

I have no idea why the quality of this photo is so grainy but who cares about that when the excitement is this high!!! WOOHOO!!! This lovely headband was grown by Jonathan and Ramsey and handmade by me! I'm so excited about this, in case you couldn't tell. ;-)

What do y'all think?!

I think these belong to Mrs. Claus...

....don't you?

my knitting needles

I'm thankful for my collection of knitting needles, the ones handed down from my great grandmother, the ones given to me by my grandmother the ones purchased at goodwill and thrift stores and the few that I purchased. I'm thankful that I can create beautiful things with them and that those beautiful things are helping make ends meet.

hot off my needles!

These little beauties are looking for a new home! Maybe yours? Contact me for details!

I love these crazy half mitten things!

right hand done!

currently on my needles

about half of one in a pair I'm currently working on. So pleased with how they are turning out, this is only my second time cabling!

my first attempt

A surgical patient doped up on who knows what for medication does not make a great conversationalist, (unless said patient is also sleep deprived and starts conversations with folks in the next bed about pit bulls while in varying stages of sleep. ahem! A side effect that some might call conversational touretts, we won't go there! ;-) he he he!) Since it was comforting to Ron to have me at the hospital I spent a lot of time at the hospital sitting in the quiet, (I had do do something or that quiet and things we are facing were going to drive me to the edge.) so I knit. I spent the time I was alone while Ron was in the hospital trying to keep my mind from wandering into some of those scary places it shouldn't go, knit two, purl two, knit two... oh wait, what did you say we're facing?! knit two, color change, cancer?! what? knit two, color change. please explain this to me again, my mind cannot comprehend all this, my husband is not just a number attached to your paycheck! purl this row.

I knit. A lot!

I mentioned I'm not good at sitting and doing nothing and in this case other than being in the room, getting ice water, asking questions, trying to keep things and doctors straight, fluffing the bedding or pillows or feeding ice chips there was not a damn thing I could to! Talk about a feeling of complete and utter uselessness, frustration and helplessness!!! Then it donned on me! If I cannot help my husband's pain and cannot take it away I can knit up a storm with the hopes of selling the items to help bridge the gap and meet expenses! I can do that! I felt empowered in a situation I had no control over and no say in the outcome. The knitting needles have been smokin' hot!

This was my first attempt at wrist warmers/fingerless gloves/call them what you will. I've made mittens before and those have come out ok, but seeing these are so crazy popular I figured I'd have a go at making these. I used the same pattern as the mittens, but modified it slightly - I took it from 2 needles to 4, to get rid of the seam and altered the top and thumb to be fingerless.
I need to finish up the mate, but was so excited about how this came out I wanted to show y'all! It's got a hat that matches as well!
...and an actual pair of mittens.

Next to finish up is a pair of either fingerless thing-y's (for goodness sake what are these called?!) or a pair of mittens to go with the beige-ish oatmeal-y hat I also knit. When I finish up that I'm going to finish up and stuff the three teddy bears I made while there as well. I told you the knitting needles were smokin' hot!

Thanks for checking in on us here while we're going through all this. I am so touched by the kind words, prayers and genuine concern for my family from what some would consider strangers but whom I consider friends. Thank you so much. Though difficult at times,this journey has also been a blessing.

my first hand spun and hand knit hat!!!

I just finished this hat tonight and I couldn't be more excited about it! It's been a while in the process, because I spun all the yarn from roving I purchased this summer and started knitting it last night. It's a 50/50 combo of mohair and lambs wool and as soft as can be, and it's for sale!

a fun process!

my family has warm feet

These are just a few of the socks I have knit, but these are special, they belong to my family. Lots of love and prayer went into these socks; and if I'm being honest, a cuss word or two!

Knit's brood

She's up to seven and there are two more eggs that could possibly hatch, though I doubt they will, there has not been any peeping or tapping from them. Well, heck, I honestly didn't think any of these would hatch as I figured they'd gotten way too cold during the cold snap, huh guess that will teach me! I think it's really neat that she's got some that are mostly black, as she's all black and is not biologically related to these and the other hen has mostly spotted chicks and is a spotted hen! Chance or forethought? Since this hen isn't the hen that I originally thought would set on the nest I don't believe it's chance. But that's just me!

Baaa Baaa

My niece loves sheep, something that I understand, though oddly enough I don't have any... yet. She also has a birthday coming up shortly so I decided to make this sheep toy for her, I hope she likes it!

A Creative Break

I enjoy knitting socks, most of the time. Now I'm a practical woman, I figure nobody but me, (or you if I made them for you.) will actually see these so I don't spend time making them all fancy, no cables, twisted stitches, (although one day I might make myself a pair of those, just for namesake.) argyles etc. So I make them stockinette, well knitting in the round, it's just knitting and mind numbingly boring! I'm currently working on a pair for Ron when I just had to stop, I could not take one more stitch! I needed to take a break and do something creative and different, like the hats, needle roll or this:
I found this pattern and fell in love with it but wasn't sure my knitting skills were up to the task, after all the pattern said it was for intermediate knitters, and it looked intimidating. I have a couple nieces who are all girl and play with their babies all the time so I figured I could make this in a much smaller size to see if I could knit it or stand doing it and if it worked out give it to one of them for their doll. Turns out it was not nearly as bad as I figured and totally manageable. Now to find a yarn that I love as much as the pattern will be another thing, I'm considering Dakotas wool I've got.... That would be so neat!

Two more hats!

I've been rather busy this week/weekend, I finished two more hats, I just love the style and cannot help myself. I need to buy some warmer fiber to work with or actually get my llama fiber to the spinning mill and then I'll have a ton to work with. But like I said I'm using what I have on hand and using that up first. So here's a spruce-y green number and I 'girled' it up a bit with some sparkly buttons.
This brim is called mistake stitch ribbing and I made it because I loved the name. What a hoot and it comes out like this?! Now that's a mistake I can make again and feel good about! I feel like this one need a deeper purple button or two, I'll have to check out my stash and see what I've got. What do you think?

Something finished this way comes!!

Yesterday I posted the beginning of this project, this hat. Like I said yesterday, I've been trying out some new skills and knitting techniques learned be reading knitting for dummies. One of them was the moss stitch, when I did it in the practice swatch I thought, "This would look nice as the brim of a hat." So I made one. I'd already made a rolled brim hat from a pattern that my grandmother had given me and modified it slightly into the button flap hat you see below.

This was my first attempt with circular needles, interesting, I think I'd like it with a bit more practice.

the finished product!!

Faith modeling the hat, not too bad.

*It's not as warm as I'd like, it's acrylic, but for this it's ok and I used what I had on hand.

Power Outage

We had a humdinger of a storm last night and lost power, again. Actually we're very used to it at this point, if there is a slight chance that somebody in the state might lose power, ours automatically goes out, last night was no exception. I was surprised that it didn't go out earlier than it did and came back on as soon as it did, it was a wicked storm! The kids and I sat at the table and while they played a board game I knitted. It made me think of the pioneers, they really must have wanted freedom, (in various senses of the word) to have stayed here. I actually don't mind power outages, at least temporary ones, I wouldn't want to live that way for long, I like my electricity. Though not having the tv blaring is nice, I'd miss the internet if it was off for too long.

The kids had a blast, I don't think they mind outages either, once we get a candle lit...

something warm this way comes...

I'm not a knitter, my grandmother is and I think she secretly wishes I was one, but alas, I'm not. That is not to say that I cannot knit, I can and I do, sort of. I've been flipping through the book knitting for dummies and decided to try the moss stitch pattern. Not being happy just doing that I decided to create something with that pattern. It's not done yet, but I'll post it when it is, the good the bad and the ugly of it.