What Santa brought!

Yesterday we played a lot with the new toys, and with the little snow we had left. But it was fun.



Well, over night we've got some more snow, even though it was not in the forcast. Ha! We love it. We'll be outside, right after I finish this blog post.

Maggie's big nose.


She looks so guilty, and I know why! She's found Denny's bone, a bone she's not supposed to have, because she gets tummy trouble from it. I told her to leave it.




She does not take shit from Denny. Get away from me!



About the new toys they've got for Christmas. This was Christmas Eve. The White ones were downstairs, enjoying peace and quiet for a while, while Denny, never far away from me, gave us an ear full of the new squeaky pin.



I soon was down on the floor playing with him. He was so excited.





And this is how he looks when my daughter is here, and she pets him.



Draw your own conclusion. :o)

So far all three bears are still almost whole. One lost an ear to Denny. The other two are safely tucked away in Maggie's crate, where she brought them, and guards them. Happy liked the pins much better anyway. Who needs a soft toy anyway?

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Finally, Dad's Christmas mittens!

As promised here are Dad's Christmas mittens! The forth time is the charm. Even though the yarn turned out variegated, I still like the cable stitch pattern with it.





I spun the yarn from Corgi Hill Farm fiber, 5oz Polwarth.






The pattern is Wood Hollow mittens by Kirsten Kapur. I liked this pattern so much, that I immediately cast on for a second pair, also knit from handspun for my Sister.





The fiber was Greenwoodfiberworks, Downton Abbey, Polwarth, 4oz. I've added 2oz of semi solids from Southern Cross Fiber to stretch it.





O.K. two Christmas gifts down, a few more to go. Stay tuned! :o)

And before you know it, it's over!

Since I started early with Christmas decorations etc. I'm kind of glad Christmas is over. We still have the tree up and the decorations, but I can't listen to Christmas music anymore, and I think I've watched every Christmas movie they had on TV.
We had a lovely dinner on Christmas Eve. I made a couple of dishes I saw on Jamie Olivers Christmas show. There were the Brussel Sprouts: in his show he cooks them outside, in his garden on a gas stove. They really great.



Then there were his baked potatoes, very crispy and good.



Those dark leaves on top of them are Sage leaves. They were delicious! They are not burnt, but crispy as well.

Since it was only the three of us, we had a roast chicken. I stuffed some herbed butter under the skin, for extra yummyness, and crispyness.



For desert we had Tiramisu. Haven't made that one in a long time. We all love it. It got really messy with all the cocoa powder!



Hmmm, I didn't intend to do a food post. I was going to show you the knit gifts I made. Ah well, next time!

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Merry Christmas!

Wishing you all a very Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays!

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Hopeful Happy!

I hope you all are not running in circles by now, with Christmas preparations going on. I hope you have a minute to stop, and sit, and have a smile, when you see my sweet Happy being cute. Here we go.

Looks to me like he's smiling.


And not a 100% certain, of the tree being harmless.


What's in this bag?



And in that one?


What's that?


And that?



Could that one be for me?



NOTHING FOR ME?



Pssssst! Don't tell him yet!



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Jingle Bells!

We've got snow! A little, and it's melting fast, but hey, it's snow!

Handspun Friday - SCF Parrot and others

I've got myself some Parrot at an Southern Cross Fiber update some time ago. The color is right up my alley.

(put on your sun glasses!)



This is a Falkland/Alpaca blend. Haven't seen that blend around much, so I had to give it a try. It spun up beautifully, and since it's only 20% Alpaca, it's not too hairy either.



I've got 183yds, 2-ply out of 4oz. It's fat yarn, and I love it.



The reason why I mention this yarn now is, that the first yarn I spun for my fathers mittens was dismissed, because I want to pair it with this Parrot yarn for something, anything. As soon as I saw them together, I knew they belong into one project.

My first choice for my fathers mittens was a Merino/Yak/Silk blend. Only the best for him. I loved spinning it, and I like how the finished yarn looked.

Here you go. The fiber:


Two gorgeous skeins, with a total of 372yds, 2-ply yarn.





Another reason why this yarn didn't make it as mitten yarn is, that it's 2-ply, and I knew I wanted to do some cables. I like chain plied, or 3-ply yarn for that much better. Here they are togehter (night time, bad light, picture)



So, even though I think it's gorgeous yarn, I dismissed it, and spun my third yarn (I've shown you the second yarn in an earlier post)  for dad's mittens.

The fiber was not as special, but still wonderful soft. BFL/Silk nevertheless, undyed , and - boring! I did get 259yds, chain plied out of 4.1oz. I've put it in my handspun yarn stash for the moment. I've got more of this fiber, so I might spin up more for a bigger project, or change my mind a hundred times.



After it was done, I didn't think it was special enough, and kept digging into my fiber stash, slightly desperate to get the yarn done, and then the knitting. Next time I'll show you the winner!

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Even more smittens ....

For my birthday, I've got a surprise gift from Ginny FatCatKnits. It was a Batt Pack for carding.



A couple of days ago, I was a bit bored with what I had on the needles, and with what I had planned to spin next (probably too many options). So I grabbed my hand carders and got out the batt pack to play with.

I loaded up the carders like that, and made rolags. The pack contained Mohair locks, green sparkly Firestar, Merino/Tencel, Tussah Silk, and Corriedale fleece.



I didn't add the same amount of everything on each carder, so the rolags looked different. The only thing on every go around, was the Firestar.



I was a bit uncomfortable for a while, because I thought I was being watched, until I spied Rudolph!

I spun semi woolen again, and chain plied it. It turned out a little bit overtwisted, but I had not trouble knitting with the finished yarn.
 

The real colors are somewhere between these two pictures.



Here's the yarn cake, ready to be knit into even more smittens!





I've got ~ 140yds, and made seven mittens, with just a little bit left over. So I guess you'll need about 20yds for one mitten, on 3.75mm needles.

I guess I was not quite done with smittens, but now I think I've got them out of my system.
 








Alright, that's it. They are hanging on the Christmas tree, and I can dust off my hands, and move on to my next project.

We are still waiting for snow by the way, and even frozen ground would be appreciated. The pups don't care either way, but I do.


Happy is in heaven, hiding his chew toys,



while Denny is spoiling his fun.



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