Monday's musings coming on Tuesday

I didn't get to the musings yesterday so here they are a day late!

This weekend...
We played board games, I did lots of dishes and knitting, the kids worked on cleaning their rooms. The grownups realized that mostly the problem really was too much stuff in too little space. We are going to have to work on this. We had a quiet and pleasant weekend.

Right now...
I am sitting with me leg up, I did a bunch, but not all of, errands this morning and am tired! My shoulder is hurting so no knitting right now. Soon I will make bread for dinner - we are having turkey - I just finished eating lunch. I made salmon pate and ate it on whole wheat crackers with pickled onions.

Plans, how last week went.
I knit on both the socks and the tank top and resisted the urge to cast on a Lillietind Hat. I did not cut out skirt fabric. I did darn Bunny's bunny socks. I did read the Handspinning Art & Techinques book and it is a slog! most of the info is out of date so reading it is really work. I did work on my German every day, but mostly really late at night. I did not do inventory or film a tutorial. I did work on the house, but not on the 4h stuff. I did not write in my book.

Plans...
I want to cruise on one or both knits so I can cast on the Hat soon! I want to spin the yarn for the hat - only about 75grams - I want to spin for a little bit each day to work up my endurance again. I think I should clean my studio before starting a sewing project. I need to decide if I am continuing to read this book or switching to another. I want to work on my German in the early afternoon so I can focus on it better. I think I will set up a time in the week for writing. I am going to remember that I am still healing and try to go for a walk each day and to be gentle with myself.

Prayers...
I am praying for calmness and strength this week. 

Yarn along

 Joining Ginny and the Yarn Along today.

I am knitting my Split Back Tank by Allison Griffith. It is coming along, but all this stockenette is a slog. I like the blues colorway and the drape of the fabric and think the white is just heavier enough to make the tank hang really nicely. This is part of the Year of the Garment KAL with Yarngasm.

I am also working on a pair of sock for the box of sox KAL though I doubt I will finish twelve pairs in a year.

I just finished read Yarnitexture by Jillian Moreno and it was awesome. I have lots of ideas and things I want to try now.

I am starting the Handspinning Art & Techniques By Allen Fannin this week. Both are reading towards my Certificate of Excellence in Handspinning.

Happy Knitting! ~Julia

Sheep and wool

what had to come home with me.

 Plying thread from Interlacements.

 This is Texcel wool, Mom and I are splitting a 8oz bag. She will be felting I will be spinning. Texcel is normally a meat breed, but I want to try all the things.

 One oz samplers from Hearthside Fibers Whitefaced Woodland Sheep, Shetland Sheep, Egyptian cotton, Baby Llama, Masham sheep, and  Swaledale Sheep

 Welsh Mountain Sheep, Perendale Sheep, Hemp, Rambouillet Sheep and Gotland

 This is one oz of Columbia wool from All American Mill

 5oz of Flax from the WoolGatherers

 Two 2oz braids of Nylon from Hello Purl

 A cute thing also from Hello Purl

Weld from Handspun by Stephania.
A tiny Shawl pin By Ingrid the Crafty
A Nalbining needle and a comb clamp from Mielke's

 A pair of knitting pins from Celestial Designs Fiber Art

 This cute shawl pattern

 These two old books from the Woolgatherers

And this signed copy from Jilliano Moreno.

I also got a Paula Simmons book on wool as a cottage industry. Most of this will be used in pursuit of my COE. Mom and I camp for the whole time and really enjoyed ourselves.

Monday Musings - May Eighth

Now...
The house is quiet, the washing machine is going. Jim is working in his office, Beaver is waiting for a ride to his field trip. The others are at school. I made bread yesterday and crunched on it in the car while I dropped the girls off. I finally have a cup of coffee, in my mug for my mother-in-law. The mug reminds me of something that I might be served in at the Green Dragon Inn. "it comes in PINTS?"  I am sitting here trying to organize my day.

Over the weekend...
 Jim came home from his business trip on Friday and we spent the evening with old friends. Our hostess made these yummy plantain chips and now I want more. We get together roughly every two weeks to play pathfinder and we had a good time. Most of the weekend was taken up with cuddling, we cuddled Jim because he was home, we cuddled Bunny because she wasn't feeling well (better now) and we cuddled Badger because she didn't want to be left out and her sister was getting all the cuddles. Mouse had homework, he is struggling with the workload required by placing him in classes at his readiness level - three grade ahead in Math - it is not the work itself, just the change from low to no homework to work every night. He has been reading a ton, but not recording it for his teachers, this weekend was a lot of digging out books at his reading level and convincing him to pick one, write it down and start reading it. Once he picked, he sat down and read hundred pages - he is starting the Dragonriders of Pern series - with out problem and enjoyed the book. I re-arranged part of one bookshelf with books I think he will be interested in.

Plans...
Tonight is the girl's violin concert! I have some video work to do for the video I an putting out this week and some for the next one. I am making a new dress for my interpretation work at Garfield Farm Museum. I am working on increasing consistency and record keeping in my spinning for my COE work and trying new techinques. This week oiling wool. I would really like to finish my sweater this week, but it would take a miracle. I would like to get to the gym.

Spare Time...
work on sweater and watch videos, thankfully I can do both at once!

Prayerful intentions...
I will be praying for my dad, who was much healthier before he retired. I will be praying for my friend's dad, who is in hospital while they figure out what is wrong with him. I will be praying for another friend's step-dad, who's grief is destroying him as a man.

~Julia

Yarn along 5 - Sweaters are scary

I have been focusing on this sweater and it is really coming along. The title of this post is two-fold, one I have been focusing on this one as the color-work in the other sweater is scary and I don't want to screw it up and rip it out again, and two the armhole row of this sweater was terrifying! It made no sense. I eventually, knit a sample and went for it. It worked but I will think long and hard about knitting from a pattern by this designer again. It works and it is lovely, buut the pattern is confusing and now help ore clarification is available and while looking I found lots of people got stuck exactly where I did. I have four balls left and more to go, so I am hoping the yarn holds out! Until I tried it on I was thinking if necessary I could skip the sleeves but I think it needs them, so fingers crossed. After all the stress of the armhole rows and all the double twisted rib, getting to stockinette for a while is great. Photos by the girls.

I am still reading Aiden Amos' Big Book of Handspinning. I also have broken with not reading fiction and am re-reading the Sign of Seven Trilogy by Nora Roberts.

I finished my second video, this one shows me dyeing, preparing, spinning and ply wool into yarn.

Joining Ginny and the other Creative Ladies of the Yarn Along! ~ Julia

Yarn along 4 - Socks! a bit late.

I am a bit late! I finished my socks! and got through the decrease row on Mouse's sweater, So I will have pictures that are more interesting than endless stockinette in blue next week. I am pausing the book Bloody Old Britain as I have read about two pages since last week. Hoping that leaving it on the nightstand will prompt slow progress but a book about a breakthrough in the way archaeology was conducted through aerial photography should have more photography and less flowery turns of phrase. I am re-reading or perhaps reading as a novel instead of a reference book, Aiden Amos' Handbook Of Handspinning, working towards my COE.

I did this too.  (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xscHYIi-5ts&t=8s)


I started a podcast on crafty- fiber-y goodness where I talk about what I am working on and challenge myself to stretch, there will be more working videos & tutorials in the future. 

Joining in on the yarn along a bit late week! ~ Julia

Yarn Along 3 - Heels!

Yes ladies I have turned the heel. German Short Row with a small heel flap. I have one weird stitch on the first on I did the first row, I thought it looked wrong and tried to back up, quickly consulted the pattern video and decided it was alright. Backing up however had screwed it up a bit. I am really excited with how these are turning out and can't wait to cast on the next pair!

I have made progress on Mouse's sweater but four inches of plain stockinette are remarkably uninteresting. I have also made small amounts of progress on my sweater but my focus was on the other two projects.

I also haven't made much progress reading. A few more chapters with the girls in Anne of Green Gables, this is not my copy and the person who - I am sure typed in not the correct word but it works - it was not very careful, the book is bound prettily by there are lots of words missing or changed from my edition. I have also made slow progress in Treasure Island since I am reading it at the gym and with my husband out of town their have been less opportunities to spend time there.

My other book- Bloody Old Britain by Kitty Hauser is kind of dull. I had not heard of the man that it is effectively a biography of, before picking up the book. It seemed like more of a discussion of the history of Aerial Photography in British Archaeology, which it is kind of. She crafts beautiful sentences. However, she is trying to describe pictures and could have used more photographs in this book about photography. It is interesting but not compellingly so, or gripping. She tells the story of the archaeologist/photographer and discusses his work without focusing fully on either. I am not enjoying this book, and it doesn't help that as Jim is off on business again this week I am knitting until very late, then still unable to sleep, picking up this book.

Joining Ginny at Small Things with the Yarn Along today.

Yarn along - socks and sweaters #2

Joining Ginny at Small Things and the other creative ladies in the Yarn Along! I am really looking forward to seeing what is in everyone's work baskets!

 It is knitting before reading here! The Pikachu sweater is coming along. I want another 2-3 inches before I do the decrease and begin the color-work. I am thinking I should have made it a little looser on him and plan to add a few inches around to the girls' sweaters when it is their turns. My husband and daughter designed Bunny's next sweater during dinner the other day. It will feature a large bunny playing a violin (my daughters both play) in the center body of the sweater and have a circle of carrots decorating the yoke. Thankfully, my husband is actually interested in this, so as soon as I decide on yarn and can give him the gauge he is going to design the bunny/violin section's chart. Also this weird thing happened Monday night, I ran out of the ball of yarn I was using on this sweater, no worries I have four more, but they were all down in my studio and I was tired, so I switched to my socks.

 My socks are coming along, I am about where I want the heel to start. So Monday night after I switched to this project I am knitting along and that's it I am out of the yarn. I am knitting up stash yarn and started this with only one ball. I went to Joann's and managed to get a ball of the same yarn but it is a bit brighter on the ball, I knit five more rows and can't really tell. I am doing the heels and toes in a grey.

My husband is away this week for business and I never sleep well when he is gone. Which is why when I ran out of yarn on Monday for both of the above projects I did not go to bed like a sane woman, I pulled out my very sleeping Milk fiber sweater, this is the Gyre pattern and is for me. After awhile I realized two things 1) twisted rib is easier continental 2) I was going to run out of my ball of yarn soon. I have never had that happen where three projects all needed joining on the same day. I took it as a sign and went to bed!

Reading-wise, I have been fitting my reading in around things and not finishing much.

I did finish Libations of the Eighteenth Century last night. I enjoyed it and will likely try some of the brewing and punch recipes, I might try some of the coffee replacement ones while camping. I do wish the author had looked into the herbs he suggested a bit more thoroughly, in other aspects he mentions things used or methods used that are not considered safe practice anymore, he points that  out but give the historic mention for information. I dislike that pennyroyal and comfrey are listed as flavoring for beer and tea without warnings. The first is traditionally used as an abortificant and the second is strongly linked to cancer and not considered same for ingestion anymore.

I am finding Bloody Old Britain to be slow.

I started reading Treasure Island - never have before - as my treadmill book, I read 70 pages the first day but haven't managed the treadmill since!

Bunny and I are re-reading Anne of Green Cables as a bedtime book. We read through to the third book before but didn't finish and Bunny wanted to restart for continuing on.

Yarn along - socks #1

Inspired by listening to podcasts over break I cast on socks on Friday the 30th. Like most of us, I am hoping to use up some stash this year, the yarn for these socks is in keeping with that goal. The downside is that I don't exactly know what the yarn is. I believe it is Paton Kroy. I also think this is a full skein. But I am not sure. If someone recognizes it let me know! These are for me and I know I won't have enough yarn, later today I am going to go find a coordinating yarn. I love socks.

I am hoping to read more than 200 books this year, my Goodreads 2017 challenge is made. I also want to leave my favorite fiction style on the shelves. My husband made a comment about idealized views and I wonder if reading romance novels and books involving other topics but including people who are falling in love is perhaps harmful. I don't believe or want all roses and sunshine, but I know that I am susceptible to desiring what others think I should want in place or in addition to what actually makes me happy. So for awhile at least I will be reading more non-fiction and classic fiction. As to the challenge, I have two done already.

This year I will be reading Elizabeth Zimmermann's Knitter's Almanac. I will only read the month's chapter at a time, and am not currently committing to knitting along with her, but I might.

I am also reading Bloody Old Britain - OGS Crawford and the Archaeology of Modern Life by Kitty Hauser. This is slow to get into but I am enjoying the insight it seems to offer on current thought. "What seems to look backwards in time might in fact be attempting to mould the future."(Hauser, 12.)

My sister got me Libations of the Eighteenth Century by David Allen Woolsey, I am not too far in yet but am very excited to read and perhaps try some of these recipes.

In other knitting news I knit in and then ripped out all eight Pikachu faces in my Mouse's Christmas sweater. Six colors is too many for me to work in strands and pulled in too tight, I could no longer get the sweater on him. SAD doesn't cover it. so out came 30 rows. I think I will 1) set them a bit higher in the sweater - not around the shoulders 2) have a few less as that will put them after the decrease 3) set the faces into the body intarisa style but do stranded colorwork within each face to put in the cheeks, eyes, and tongue.

 This should have been sitting inches lower on him. Every row I did he would hug me. Now he is sad and doesn't want to talk about his sweater. I need another day or two away from it before diving back in.

Linking up with Ginny of Small Things for the Yarn Along.

New year - old thoughts

A few years ago I decided that instead of making a resolutions list, I would come up with a thematic word for my intentions for the new year. I rededicate myself to that idea.

I would like to work on being a HAVEN for my life.

My mind and body a haven for me. I have set a goal of reading 200 books - and I would like few of them to be pulp fiction. I would like to put into practice more of my ideals of how we should live our lives and less living practically. By which I mean faster and easier not actual practicality. I would like to make my body healthier and stronger. To camp and hike more.

I would like for my company to be a haven for my family and my friends, that they can take comfort and rest in my love. For them to know that I am always there for them, but I also mean that I want to make my life such that dropping everything for a friend in need does not put my family into a tailspin that I must scramble to keep ahead of. I want to focus on showing love to my family and my friends.

I want my house to keep my home a Haven for all who enter, but especially for my family. I want them to feel special and comfortable in a house that is ready for use not one that needs frantic tending before we can let anyone in.

I want to use my resources more responsibly, to focus on our family's goal and dreams rather than on ease for the moment. I don't want this to be a strict diet destined for failure, but rather a change in outlook.

I want to grow as a business owner and writer and to make certain that the choices I make in those spheres of my life enhance the rest of my life.

I would like to do all the things. Make to family cookbook, finish the projects, use what I have, write more, cook more, be more present. Fingers crossed.

Thanksgiving Desert Table - Pumpkin pie

I decided to make a series of posts on the recipes we use for our Thanksgiving feast! We are in charge of deserts this year, while my sister is handling the rest of the meal. The girls helped me with all of this.









Pumpkin Pie
Before you start you need to bake the pumpkins. Cut them in half, scoop out the seeds (bake these later to munch on) and place the pumpkins cut side down on a cookie sheet and bake at 350 until they are nice and soft - about an hour. Let them cool, scoop out the flesh, and run through a food processor or squish up with a potato masher.




This recipe is from the Doubleday Cookbook Volume two. This is a go to book for me. I don't know if you can get it still, but whenever I see a copy of either volume, I grab them and give them away. So if you see one at a rummage sale grab it.




I modify nearly everything that comes across my hands.

One pie crust, unbaked
3 eggs lightly beaten
1.5 cups pumpkin
1 can evaporated milk
1 T Whiskey (recipe calls for brandy)
1 T molasses (we used extra as I am using white sugar - this is because I am out of brown)
2/3 cup packed brown sugar




1 teaspoon cinnamon (this is double the original recipe)
1/2 teaspoon ginger (this is double the original recipe)
1/4 teaspoon allspice
1/4 teaspoon cloves










mix all ingredients together pour into pie crust bake at 450 for ten minutes, reduce temp to 325 and bake 45-50 minutes until filling is set (knife into center should come out clean)






Also I make my pumpkin seeds by cleaning all the pumpkin off, soaking them in salt water for a few hours, then marinating them in Worcester sauce, soy sauce, and a bit of hot sauce for a few hours. Bake them at 300 stirring frequently, watch this as burnt seeds smell bad and taste worse!

Yarn Along

Well it is a my picture is upside down kind of day.

On the needles: is my Christmas Sweater for Mouse. It is  Elizabeth Zimmerman's percentage system, with one inch 2-2 rib on all the cuffs. On size 4 needles, the Key is 162 stitches and the gauge is 5 stitches to the inch. The yarn is a German company's sport weight, 100%wool, which has been hiding in my stash for years after I picked it up thrifting, I think it was 99 cents a ball. I am sure you will never see it but the yarn is navy but up close there are fibers of gold, purple, and green within that blue. I want to do a colorwork yoke in some geeky pattern but have 8 more inches and two sleeves to figure out what one.

Books:
I have been slowly reading Sir Winston Churchill's The Birth of Britain Volume 0ne. Slowly because while it is interesting and his writing is everything you might guess it would be, I kept it on my nightstand. I am breaking that trend this week and hauling it around. William the Conqueror just died - to let you know where I am. 
The COE Handbook. Which is a awesome and intimidating look into all the work I will have to do to get my Certificate of Excellence in Handspinning.
Spinning for Softness and Speed by Paula Simmons, which is one of four pages of suggested reading for the course and interesting. I plan to work on learning the technique - which in involves only using the palm, ring, and little fingers of one hand to spin and she claims completely eliminates over-spinning and you can do without looking after you learn (hoping that claim holds up.)

Joining along with Ginny and everyone at the Yarn Along.

Monday Morning Musing - Nov 7

Good Morning, Welcome to Breakfast!

Now... I am sitting at the kitchen table enjoying a soft boiled egg in one of the lovely egg cups the family got me for my birthday, I cracked it with the gizmo they got me for that purpose. I have almost got a handle on how to use it! I have coffee - first time in nearly a week - and a little fruit salad. I have the radio going and my dishes are not done, but the laundry is started and I am oxycleaning my dish towels in hopes of brightening them up.

This Weekend... Was recovery. We got the plague, or maybe it was only a stomach flu or two. Jim and Beaver never succumbed but the rest of us were out for the count! Truthfully Jim looked a bit green at gills at times and Beaver was working too much to be here to get it. But we are up and everyone is on to there tasks. I spent a bit of time worrying about how I would get everything that I had planned to do in two weeks done in one before my show on Saturday, the answer is of course that I won't.

Plans for this Week... Finish bleaching the house! Lysol the house! seriously this bug sucked and we don't want it again. Finish making stock for the holiday craft show in Elkhorn this weekend, tag all the stock I have not yet, list it on Esty and Square, make or buy table clothes and a little tree for our booth, Dye more. Plan Christmas Presents and next week's 4H Meeting.

Plans... Flip through the Certificate of Excellence in Hand Spinning  bibliography to determine what I have to read. Yes, I buried the lead I am going to try for my Certificate. It is a ton of work and just completing all the work is not enough. I want it to be really well done.  I will likely be testing in 2019 and I plan to post here about the work and my progress. I ordered the handbook to see if it was possible to make the next testing date - September 2017 - and I just don't think there is. have until February to make this decision so I think I will say that if I have read 3/4 of the reading listing, answered all the written work and finished - excellently - half the required skeins and corresponding swatches, I may decide to go for it.

If I have free time... I won't.

I am grateful for... Everyone feeling good today. A sick little Bunny last week, curled into my side with me reading her Agatha Christie Mysteries. A tiny Badger who needed Mom to be right next to her the whole while she was sick and figured the reverse was also true, she woke  at 3 am one morning when I crawled back into the bed too sick and exhausted to even pull the blanket back over me, she tucked it gently around me and held my hand. The not so little Mouse who terrifies me with his stoic nature and independence. And for my great big boy, Beaver, who turned 18 this past week.

As for Prayers... I intent to pray for our nation this week. I love my country. I hope that this country can move into something more civil, more encompassing, more loving, and more rational. I believe that words have power, that if we say often enough that our government is broken, or our country needs to be made great again, or our neighbors are horrible hateful people we make it so. We internalize these messages and make them true. I intend to pray for forgiveness to enter my heart for those who are making choices I feel have the power to destroy us. I pray I never have to hide anyone in my attic, but there is room if you need it. I love you, I am interested in your life, I hope it only gets better.

~Julia

Yarn along ish

Joining Ginny and the ladies of the yarn along.

Two yarns I spun. The green is Targhee wool in pickle relish colorway, the other is the first self-striping yarn I have made.

No knitting. I have worked on Seal's prayer shawl, but despite it being easy, progress is show. My thumbs are hurting quite a lot and I am only able to do about three rows at a time (the rows are only 75 stitches). It is not going away, even with a full break so maybe this is the new normal. sigh.

Reading-wise, I stopped into my local library for a bunch of books you lovely ladies recommended and they had none. Not a single book I was looking for. In a few cases they had other titles by the same author, but mostly I struck out. Plenty of other books around but...

They had a table display to theme mysteries. You know the type a shop owner with other things to do happens across a murder and ends up solving it. I decided to grab a few different authors - people I had not before read but whose characters were interested in something I am. I pick a few duds, some I didn't even bother finishing (I used to view that as terrible but I got over it) and some I really enjoyed.

I have read and recommend for a enjoyable read - this is not heavy stuff in any way - Amanda Lee's Embroidery Mysteries (link) and Carol Ann Martin's Weaving Mysteries (link).

Amanda Lee inspired me for my own business. Want to see what I am working on? Check it out at MoonBound ArtisanShip.

~Julia

Trust mommie

When my great big son Beaver was still my tiny baby boy, I used to say that as I washed his hair. He was afraid to get water in his eyes. So as I tipped him backwards to rinse his hair I repeated "trust mommie." over and over. It actually is older than that, I used to help wash my sister's hair and tried to teach her to float. She is 5 years younger than me and Julia was hard. So she called me "E." Back then it was "trust E."

At bedtime we always read a chapter of some book. Lately, Jim has been getting the girls, each one reading a chapter of her own book to him. Well Badger forgot her book at school, we were eating very late, it was already after bedtime and Mouse was refusing his salad. The rest of us were done. Mouse has been getting harder and harder to convince to eat veggies at all, green ones especially. Jim had had enough and decided to sit with him and encourage the eating of the rest of the dreaded green stuff. I offered to read Badger a story of my choosing. Doubt. Trust Mommie. I got Little House on the Prairie out. "I don't want to read that." Ok you can just cuddle and not listen while I read you the chapter. So down we snuggled on the couch, with the dresses quilt I made her and Goldie the tiger cat stuffie on her lap. I read the first chapter, she did not wiggle the whole time. We were done, but Mouse wasn't. Butterfly had curled up reading her own book waiting for Daddy. And a little voice from my lap said "Mommie, would you read another chapter." Trust Mommie, she knew you would like it.

When Mouse finally gave in and ate the lettuce - he caved on the broccoli much earlier as he actually likes it just not green - it was his turn for a story. We had just finished Magnus Chase and Gods of Asgard  The Sword of Summer so he was lobbing to re-read Biggles Learns to Fly. Nope. Trust Mommie. (Biggles btw is a great read set in WWI England and France.)

I got out Interesting Times. He grumbled. Plain red cover, boring title, what is Mommie thinking?! Well after he got over the sudden location shifts in the story, he was smiles and chuckles. Then I noticed it did not actually have chapters per se. He said "I guess we have to read the whole thing tonight." Trust Mommie, she knew you would like it. We settled on twenty pages each night - unless we are in an exciting part.

Hoping you get to enjoy and maybe even share a good book today!
~Julia

Yarn along - it's still Wednesday, right?

Swamped and hurting here - I slipped and fell and everything is hurting. The snow was prettier before I left the house.

Joining with Ginny and the other ladies of the Yarn Along.

 Two books I am reading right now, the novel is a fast read and the guide may end up living in my bag all the time.

 Butterfly's sweater is coming along.The body is done, now on to the sleeves. I am hoping to find a two color fair isle pattern flowers. I am really starting to like the yarn again.

The weather blanket. The safety pin marks the end of January.

Yarn along - keep knitting along

Joining Ginny and the other ladies of the Yarn Along today.

 I am still working on my slightly dizzying sweater for Butterfly. She loves it. I am finding it hurts my eyes to work on for too long. The yarn is soft and well balance but the color just is not fun for me. Naturally, that makes progress slow.

 Still reading Wild Color and playing in this Yummy cookbook. We had homemade ravioli this week and for lunch the next day I pan fried the leftovers, two days of amazing. 

A good chunk of my time has gone into this I am thinking I will end up with three skeins of what I am calling Tree Butter, acorn dyed yarn. The kids had Friday and Monday off of school and we had lots of cuddles and fun.

What's in your workbasket?
~Julia

Yarn along - a sprinkles the sweater

Joining with Ginny and the Ladies of the Yarn Along today, combining our love of reading and knitting. Check it out and get some creative ideas and book suggestions.

 I started this sweater for Butterfly. This picture is very dull, I am blaming the lack of sunlight. I made the yarn, it is a three ply of hot pink mixed breed wool, teal merino, and chocolate alpaca. It is very soft with a WPI of 10. It is bright and busy. Maybe too busy for me but she loves it. The sweater is based on Elizabeth Zimmerman's percentage system but as I found her sleeve ratios problematic with Badger's sweater I am expecting to have to radically increase the % in the arms. Her key number is 112 and the gauge is 4 stitches to the inch on sevens. My mother in law made the yarn bowl for me.

 My weather blanket continues nicely, do you see that grey stripe, today I have to add another. Grey is 0-4 degrees. I really like the blanket, the weather not so much, but it warmed up enough to snow briefly today. A very lovely, picture book kind of snow.

 The bottom one is a magazine, Where Women Create Business, but it is so sturdy it feels like a book. It is focusing on different women and the businesses they founded. There are some tips and advice but a lot of how they got there, and what their business is about. I am really enjoying it. The other is a Dyeing book, I have only glanced at it so far, but it is very pretty. One of my favorite fiber-y things to do is natural dyeing, and the gathering of the dyestuff, with family.

Inside of the magazine and my nightstand reading. I really like the way she builds her characters, they feel like actual people and she includes lots of local history for whatever area she sets her story in. Dead on the Dance Floor by Heather Graham.

Hope your projects are going well and your book is hard to put down.
~Julia

Yarn along - fingerless magic and the weather

Joining Ginny and the other ladies at the Yarn Along!

 I am doing a Weather blanket this year, so is a friend so we have a little crochet along going on. I am using the high temp for the day so I add yesterday's temp each day. I am assigning my own color choices to each five degree block, Peacock is 25-29 degrees and Violet is 30-34. This picture is not as bright as the yarn is in person.

The week before Christmas I decided to cast on a sweater for Badger. The Monday after I finished it. It is my first Fair Isle. She loves it! It is Elizabeth Zimmerman's Seamless Fair Isle Yoke Sweater.

As I was frantically trying to get that sweater done before Christmas, my Butterfly looked at me and asked for finger-less gloves for Christmas. She was completely serious. I told her I didn't think I would get her sister's sweater done in time. She replied with complete faith, "you can do it, you always make everything." I was nearly in tears at having to dissuade my daughter from her belief that her mom could do anything. She took it completely in stride, but really wants the second glove in time for her doctor's appointment tomorrow when she get her brace off from breaking her arm. I think I can do that!

My parents got this for me for Christmas. The History of the English Speaking Peoples, The Birth of Britain by Winston Churchill, KG. Dad pointed out there are four volumes so he may have a plan... It is a very entertaining read so far. Very British, well written, arrogant, pro-civilization, and a well researched (circa 1930 though the war got in the way of him publishing until the 50's)


looking forward to seeing what is in your workbasket,
~Julia