A treasure in the mail.

I went to the post office late yesterday afternoon...actually it was evening...and I was met with a very pleasant surprise. A package!

I thought of taking pictures as I went along opening it but I couldn't wait to see what was inside so I just ripped into it.  I put it all back together this morning and did the photo shoot...err...maybe not photo shoot so much as snap shots.

Please excuse the quality.

Prettiness!  I was excited already.

Even the tissue paper is cute.

 

 

 

But what was inside that cute tissue paper was gorgeous!  What a wonderful color!  I love it!!

 

My first thought was "What a wonderful shawl that will make!".  (I even said it out loud and it was only me and the cat at home.  I was pretty excited!) 

 

I've never knit with this before so it'll be fun to try it out.

 

And how did this wonderful yarn happen to get into my mailbox, you ask??  Well, Karen had a contest on her blog and I WON!!  Thank you SO MUCH, Karen!

 

Of course, you know, that as soon as I saw that yarn and knew it had to be a shawl, I got on Ravelry and spent a couple hours, I mean a few minutes, looking at patterns.  I might have narrowed it down to two.  Sweet Tantalate or Semele.  Time will tell if one of these wins or if I spend a couple more hours minutes on Ravelry!

 

A little update on the tulips...

 

 

They did all bloom!  And I had no clue what colors I had planted so it was a pleasant surprise when they opened up.  :)

Actually the daffodils bloomed too.  How did I miss getting them in the picture? 

Even the grape hyacinths are doing their thing!

Thanks again, for the awesome yarn, Karen!

On the knitting front

There is knitting happening/about to happen. 

DH gave me this sweet book for Christmas.  There were two patterns I immediately fell in love with and had to order the yarn right away.

All of the patterns in the book use Brown Sheep yarns.  This is what I got for the apron. 

Everyone asks what I'm going to do with an apron, and I say about the same as the shawls I knit.  Enjoy the knitting and then put it in the drawer.  I just love the idea of a knit apron!

This yarn is slated for the table runner.  And this won't just be knit and put in the drawer but actually used.  I have a dining room table just waiting for some pretty laciness. 

Strokkur is what I am currently knitting on.  The yarn is Patons Classic Wool. 

I haven't knit with this type of yoke construction so it'll be interesting when I get that far...

Yellow really isn't a very good color for me, so I'm changing out to plum instead.  Of course!

I just had to add another shot of Teddy.  The chair is new and guess who has been in it more than anyone else in the house?  Yea...you guessed right.  Teddy.

At least we ordered it to match whatever hair he leaves behind...

A new shawl and checking in with the kitties

The yarn is a Christmas gift from 2nd DS & DDIL. It's Misty Alpaca Hand Paint Sock yarn. I have to say it is durable...I've started 2 other patterns and ripped them out and it has withstood all that abuse. Seriously though, it seems soft and aren't the colors pretty?

I searched and searched for a pattern to make me happy. I think I've spent enough on patterns that I could have bought another skein of yarn instead but sometimes it's part of the process.

What I came up with is TGV*. Just what I was looking for. Garter stitch so I don't have to really think much and actually as busy as the yarn is I didn't want any lace. So this is perfect...except for the little fact that I don't really like ribbing. But I'll have to deal with that later.

And I just had to share the kitties. They have their moments when they are growling and rolling on the floor in an all out fight but look at this. They love each other too. Oh, so sweet!

If you can tell where one starts and the other stops, you are better than me! It's just a mess of kitty!

*I can't get the linkie thing to work. It's a Susan Ashcroft pattern if you want to look it up on Ravelry.

It's pretty huge....

I'm improvising on this. The idea for the braided edge came from the Northman mittens. The Nordic star is from Basic Lined Hat Pattern. And the stitch count and needle size are from Frolicking Deer Two Sided Hat. The stripes are from my own imagination and the need to make the yarn go as far as possible. I still had to order more.

We measured a current hat that he's wearing and it measured 25" around and 12" high.

This is going to be very close to that size. If I can decide correctly how much further to knit before I start the crown decreases.

But it's looking like it's going to be a huge hat.

Thank goodness he didn't have a big head like that when he was born. Yikes!

It's heeerrreee!

The yarn arrived. Yay!

Black & White for stranded mittens for 2nd DDIL. The lining yarn is on backorder but it's the same color as my mittens...chili pepper. Gonna use the same pattern as mine.

A stranded hat for 1st DS. He requested something a bit out of the ordinary but I found a couple patterns, here and here, that I'll combine to get what he wants. Plain on the outside with a brim that can be folded up with the design on that. My only fear is that I didn't get enough yarn...

Yeah, I won't be knitting the naughty design for him. Just the snowflakes...

For 2nd DS this is the same stranded mittens and also a stranded hat similar to 1st DS's. There is more yarn, I just didn't get it in the picture.

And yeah, no frolicking deer for him either. I'm a killjoy!

Something else that arrived that isn't exactly fun but I've been waiting for it also...cold weather and wind. I get to try out my hand ovens! Yippee!

Wanna join in?

There is a KAL going on. Would you like to add a bit more craziness to December? If you do then check this out!

Addicting!

The Northman Mittens are totally addicting.

The braided cuff.

The design on the wrist.

The back.

The palm and gusset increases.

Addicting, I tell you, like M & Ms or potato chips... Oh...umm...ok. Maybe I'll do just one more row.

I'm like a kid at Christmas!

I have this plan to "stockpile" baby clothes and blankets for grandbabies and anyone else who is expecting. I've been doing a lot of advanced searching on Ravelry to find extra special things.

This book is just one such find. But do you see where it came from??

Here is a closer look...

England! It came all the way from England. And it got here in a week! I've waited longer for things from right here in the U.S.

Isn't it a cute book? I was so excited when I opened it.

This is the blanket pattern that originally got me to order the book. I didn't really know what else was in it...there wasn't a whole lot of info about it.

But look at what else is in there. A christening gown and bonnet that matches the blanket.

And these darling things!

And these! And many other things that are just as darling. :D

And this is the wonderful company that I ordered it from.

I'm in baby knitting heaven!

All better

Things are looking up here.

The lilacs are finally starting to look alive. Cute little leaves!

We have sunshine! And warmer temperatures! It is actually already 60F. I won't discuss what it should be. I'm just happy with what it is. :)

I started a new shawl. Eliina. This is the yarn that I bought at Joan's stash busting sale. I LOVE it. Doesn't it just make you think of strawberry ice cream? I'm always hungry while I'm knitting on it. Maybe that's NOT a good thing...

The only downer is I've got a yarn barf. Too much yarn came off the ball at once. I'm going to give it another try but it might come down to cutting it and doing a russian join. No worries. The sun is shining!

He's a sweetie!

I wanted to knit something for our youngest grandbaby. I kept thinking cardigan and had the perfect pattern....but she grew too fast and it wasn't a big enough pattern. :(

I don't really know what made me think of a teddy bear. Probably during one of my wanderings through Ravelry's pattern search. I love that thing. Especially since it's been updated. How did we survive without it?? I don't have a project page for him on Ravelry yet but this is the pattern.

Since this fellow knit so quickly and was fairly easy to put together, I'm going to make a bear for each grandkid. This guy is for our grandson.





Isn't he cute?

(Yes, it's snowing here....see it in the background of this picture? It's cold too.)











I can tell he's going to be a "bear" to photograph! ;) It's going to have to be a sunny day when I take pics again...


















This is going to be his bib overalls.
















And this is the other 2 bears in their embryonic stage. :)

Things learned

I learned several knitting things over the weekend.

• I CAN knit from a chart.
• I still don't particularily like to. Written is so much more understandable for me. So I've written out the body chart. Knitting is supposed to be fun and easy right? Written makes it that way for me.
• I'm a bit fickle. I was SO excited to knit the Norwegian Woods Shawl and the baby cardigan. I ordered yarn and a size 2 circular for the cardigan and yarn for the shawl. I bought the patterns and printed them out. I was all ready to go and then BAM! The Fountain Pen Shawl bug bit me hard. And I had the yarn leftover from the Upstairs Shawl and I thought now is a good time to try chart reading and I was off! Knitting something completely off my radar.

I've got 3.3 repeats done. I'm starting to learn the pattern and read the knitting. From what I've read on Ravelry, if you do it like the pattern says, it'll be huge. I'll see if I have enough yarn to do that. And enough patience and endurance to go the full size! :)

"What the Heck?!?"

Little robin red breast seems to be saying, 'What the heck is going on?'. Yup, we've had more snow and it isn't leaving. It should. Nobody wants it. It isn't welcome. But it just keeps staying. It's like the visitor that doesn't realize it's time to go.

We've got soybeans, pintos and black beans, and corn to harvest. The corn can be done with snow in it but the beans grow too close to the ground to get harvested with snow laying in them. It is getting to be freak out time in this part of the country.




















As soon as I finished the Upstairs Shawl on Sunday I started these socks for DH. I knit him a pair before but they are pretty big on him....he likes his socks on the tight side...anyway he asked for a pair that go higher up the leg too. So the only way to do that and not have to worry about how much yarn you have left is to do a toe up. Something new to learn!

This is a different cast on than what is usually done I think. I didn't have any size 2 circular needles for the Turkish cast on so I kept hunting for something different. This one is, cast on 12 stitches, knit a row and then pick up 12 stitches on the other side. It's a bit ridged but I had DH try them on and he said they didn't feel bad. And these will be house socks and not worn in shoes. So far so good!

The yarn is Jitterbug and I have 2 skeins so I should be able to get those socks quite aways up his leg. His foot does measure 11.5" from toe to heel though, so the foot will take up a fair amount of yarn too....

Dangerous Things

So, just this morning I discovered that reading blogs is a very dangerous thing. I was here and just reading and clicking along when I came to this. Augh! Another sweater that I HAVE to knit. At least the pattern isn't available yet so I can't jump from what I'm doing now and start that but I just know I'll have to knit it. And what really clinches it is that it's top down. Love it. Hope I figure out sizing by then so it'll fit right. Uff.

I have Christmas knitting to do. Sweater for DGS. I'm going to do Cameron (Ravelry link) for him. I'm omitting the stripes and doing it in a blue/green marble. He's just a little bit of a thing so it'll only need to be a size 2 but I really need to start on it.

For 2nd DS I made these. They are Fuzzy Feet (Ravelry link). And I didn't much like knitting them because they kept wanting to slip off the ends of the dpns and I had to use point protectors to keep them on the needles. I originally said no more but I've felted them now and they are way cool. I KNOW 1st DS and 3rd DS would also like a pair of them. They are all three slipper guys. Do I really want to add to my list of knitting?? I want to finish the Everday Sweater too. I could get it all done if I focus. I feel another headache coming on! ;)

Gray again today.