Purple Sheep Heid

Kate Davies designed this lovely Sheep Heid Tam. What horrified me to knit it, were the floats, and a million ends to be woven in, in the end. I really loved the sheep chart though, and I wanted to use them somehow.
I still had to knit my December socks. So this is what I did:



My sheep are really purple, but it's hard to see.


The right sock was the first one. I was making them up as I knit. With the second sock I did some minor changes, and if I would knit them again, there would be a few other changes as well, but they are O.K.
The amazing thing is, that 84 people made these a favorite. I would not have thought that!



I thought they were O.K. , since I didn't enjoy knitting them very much. I was so relieved when I wove in the ends. The sheep chart has longish floats. I don't like that at all. The other thing which made it hard to like them was the yarn. It's the cheap, now discontinued Elann Sock It To Me 4ply, a harsh yarn. Oh well, have to use stash from time to time.



I've knit a Kate Davies design before. The Owls sweater for DD Hannah. And have you seen her latest sweater design? It's called Boreal. I really like it. Well, actually, I like ALL her designs!

Maybe one day, I'll knit the tam too, but not with that many different colors, maybe just with two gradient colors, to save me the trouble of all those ends. It's supposed to be fun, right?

Baking!

This weekend I started Christmas cookies baking. On Saturday I prepared the dough. I did double the recipe for two kinds of cookies. I've only taken pictures of one though. I got tired, and wanted to get it over with asap. The pups hung around for a while, not knowing what was going on. When I started to pound the next dough, before rolling it out, Maggie fled the scene.



These simple sugar cookies are my favorite ones. I have many different cooky cutters, but I love stars, and hearts the most.



Since this took a while, the boys got bored, and very sleepy.



Denny of course was underfoot, as always, hoping that something would fall off the counter.



Well, they did get some left over cooky dough, and they loved it. Even Happy went in search for more, with his nose up sniffing around in the kitchen. Maybe he just liked the smell of fresh baked cookies.



Here they are cooling off, before they go into the cooky bin. I was good, only tasted one, or two.



I used to bake a dozen different kinds of cookies, but I don't have the patience for it anymore. Nevertheless, I'm thinking of doing another couple in the next few days. So far I have three kinds, that should be enough then.

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Oh, and a big Thank YOU! for those who took the time and voted for my Dangan shawl. I won in the Accessories category. I don't know what I've won yet, but apparently it's on its way to the winners. :o) Carol Feller the Author of this book blogged about it here.

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Handspun Friday - Brussel Sprouts

I dyed this fiber back in Spring/early Summer. I had an 8oz pack of Merino/Bamboo/Nylon blend to play with. I wanted the fiber more uniformly green, but that's the way they blend took up the colors. As soon as I saw it, I had to think of Brussel Sprouts, and that's the name that stuck, looking at the finished yarn.



I spun it thick, and even though I had four skeins in the end, the total amount was only 304yds.
Somehow I don't feel the love for bamboo blended fibers, so in the future I'll avoid them if possible.

Well, enough talk, here are the pictures.









O.K. that's enough veggie's for one day!

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Hope you are having a wonderful weekend! We've got snow flurries right now. It's more like snow dust.
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The Carrot Thief

I had a big bag of carrots standing in the kitchen. I heard rustling, while putting away groceries, and looking up saw Denny with a carrot hightailing it out on the deck (he had to open the bag first before he could grab one). I grabbed my camera and this is what transpired:

I've got a carrot!!! Come and get it, if you dare!


A really tasty carrot!


You want a piece of my carrot?


Hell NO!!!! What carrot? Didn't see no carrot!


What about you, Maggie? YOU want a piece of my carrot?


Uh-uh! Not me! No thanks!


Are you sure? Because I'm NOT SHARING!


What are YOU looking at? MY CARROT?


I think I better eat my carrot now!


Nom-nom-nom!








And that was the end of the carrot.

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Dangan

(out in my front yard; we had rain yesterday, but it turned into heavy, sticky snow in the evening; there was still some left this morning)

I've signed up for 11 shawls in 2011 (on raverly) at the beginning of the year. You can knit as many shawls as you like during the year, but only enter 11 shawls for the draw. I didn't enter anything in February, and still have to enter my 11th shawl for December, but I can tell you already, that I've WON twice so far!
The unbelievable thing about that is, that it was from the same sponsor! What are the odds of that?

There are always hundreds of entries, and many different, generous sponsors, so that was surprising to me.

I'm quite happy though, because Asa Tricosa (here's the rav link to her design page has lovely patterns to choose from.

First time I won, I choose Io-fliptop fingerless mitts and this time I choose the Zenaura shawl. It was a hard choice to make.
Maybe I'll win a third time for my December entry? That would be a hoot!

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Oh, and by the way, if you want to be generous, you could vote for my project here. It's Dangan the blanket, which didn't make it on my blog yet. (No better time then the present, pictures to follow.)

And if you feel really generous, you could go and vote for Kelly's darling T in her Rossbeg sweater here. All you have to do is click the LOVE button. Vote is open until Friday.

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Dangan by Carol Feller: such a lovely design! It started out to be a large size blanket, but I got incredible bored knitting it, so I cut the edging short. It's coffee table sized now. I hated knitting with this yarn. To my total surprise, this is the first yarn, which really softened beautifully after washing, and the smell was gone too. I wish it were a little bigger, but I didn't want to be miserable knitting it any longer. So that's it.



It's 44 inches square. I fudged at the ends of the cables in the corners, because I didn't have the right amount of stitches, since I aborted the project early.





Another surprise was, when I folded it in half, the triangle left the cable as a lovely edge.



yarn: Lion Brand Fishermen's Wool, 1.25 skeins = 582yds; (loose twisted yarn, smelly, but what a surprise after washing)
needle: 4.5mm circs
size after blocking: 44" x 44"

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Candles in the Wind

Lore asked me if I wanted to test knit this scarf/cowl, after I've left a comment on her ravalry project page. Of course I wanted to do that! Seeing her photos of the finished cowl, I liked it.








pattern: Candles in the Wind by Loredana Gianferri

yarn: Wandering Cat Yarns Fluffy Cat Lite, colorway Steel. That's just wonderful yarn to work with, and to have next to skein. It's got a lovely drape as well. I'm glad I have more of it in my stash. I needed the whole skein, well with a few yards left over.

needles: 4mm

modifications: I did the double-start long tail cast on by Nancy Bush; because I was afraid of running out of yarn, I did three rounds less, one each for the candle, and on purl round in the middle; I didn't like the slip stitch "wick" of the candle, so I made it twisted stitches on the second half of the cowl.

Well, there you have it!

I'M NOT GOING TO SAY ANYTHING ABOUT THE WEATHER! I'M NOT!

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Look what I've just discovered the other day! My giant peace lily in our dining room:



will have a lovely flower soon! First time since I've got it!



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Handspun Friday - Alpaca

A while ago I've got this lovely 100% Alpaca fiber from Bea.



I spun it right away, but didn't get to show it until now. I decided to spin some thicker singles, and ply with some commercial yarn. I found some anthracite colored lace yarn in my stash, and I think it worked out wonderfully.



This yarn has weight, it has wonderful drape, and I've got 368yds of it. I'm thinking some kind of infinity scarf/cowl thingy would be nice.



Thanks again, Bea! I haven't spun 100% alpaca before this, and it was fun.

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Wishing you all a wonderful weekend!
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Just a little bit ....

... of public whining, and what do you get? SNOW!



In the morning I didn't believe my eyes, when I saw the first flurries. I let the dogs out on the deck, and they started to play immediately.



There was a lot of licking going on, and sliding too.



My favorite shot of the day:


And this one too. This is the way Happy looks, when Denny is up to no good.


Snow flakes on Happy's head.



In the afternoon, there was a little bit more snow, and the sun came through too.


Maggie leaned a little. Denny yelled at her.

All that yelling made him thirsty. Nom, nom, nom, snow is soooo good!


Well, as grumpy we were yesterday, we were happy today. It wont last, of course, but there will be more of it (grumpiness, happiness, snow).

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Give me a Break!!!

Can you believe it? It's the end of November and our backyard looks like this.



It's been raining all day, heavily, so much so that when I took the dogs outside, they let their heads hang, and looked at me as if to say, "are you kidding me?", and went right back inside. I didn't blame them. Out front it's the same. Plus, another bonus for this time of year (not), it gets dark early, and I have to go find their poop with a flashlight, in the rain, on a dark ground. Give me a break!

If there would be snow, I would find everything without a flash light, the dogs would be wet, but not dirty. O.K. end of rant. It doesn't help, but I don't want to suffer in silence.

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It didn't look good for my November spinning early in the month, but then I decided on a big spinning project, where I'm spinning undyed variegated BFL fiber, and that goes really fast. I still have a lot more to go, but it's fun spinning. The four finished skeins have not had a bath yet. I'm waiting to finish it all, and then they'll hop into a dye bath.



I had to rest my right wrist the last few days, too much spinning, and the day before yesterday I knit a hat in a few hours, that didn't help either (but was totally worth it). More about that soon (as soon as the hat is dry, and I can take pictures, which also depends on the weather, nothing but grey here).

How am I supposed to write a cheerful blog post, when all I want to do is cry like a baby in a wet diaper?
Well the D-man is always good for a laugh!



Whenever we bring home a bone this big, it's naturally his. He chews it through the middle, and after it's divided the others may have a go at one part of it as well.

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