Not a creature was stirring, except Mom who was frantically running around like a crazy woman. None the less, a short update. I am debabting finishing Elizabeth’s tam, because she says she doesn’t like the yarn. She would rather have different yarn. Hmm, but Teresa likes it, so perhaps I should just finish it up for her, and give Elizabeth a skein of yarn to dye herself however she likes. I think I can finish the tam today, it’s almost done.

I have about a million more cookies to bake today, and of course all the other Christmas stuff to get done. Presents to finish wrapping, and shoes to put out for St Nicolas. The tradition of Santa Claus began with the Bishop, St Nicolas. He was known to be a very generous man, and when some poor girls were without a dowery (required in those days) he apparently slipped the appropriate amount into their stockings that were hanging to dry in front of the fire. Anyway, children being the enterprising souls that they are, because hanging stockings, and laying their shoes out too, so as to give St Nicolas plenty of space to distribute goodies.

I am pretty sure that Beau is on the naughty list this year, and it’s quite possible that William is as well. A lady asked me if Santa would be visiting the baby (now 14 months) and I told her I was pretty sure he was on the naughty list instead of the nice list. However, Santa usually gives some consideration for age. Overall though, William is pretty naughty. For example, you remember way back when I published the yarn pillager? He was 6 months old. He’s had 8 months of nos, scolding, punishment, and he clearly KNOWS he should not pilliage my yarn. Yet, as soon as a bag is left unattended, and Mom is out of the room…. Yesterday in fact he strung a ball of handspun angora (about 30 feet worth) all over the house. On the plus side, the incidents are getting fewer. The kids have all been pretty good, what with the idea of Santa watching all of the sudden. I’m sure William will get something nice, even if he is more naughty than nice, he’s certainly got cute appeal.

Finally, another cute Christmas video, since I have no pictures.

It all goes together, really. This is from the new Knitty, and I have made one, so now I am making my own pattern, as of course I found a few ways to improve upon this one. I also want to try one with a repeat of 12, I think that would be really cool. The tam, much to my middle girls annoyance, it was too big for her.

She was very unhappy when I told her it was for one of our friend’s girls. All the girls in that family are extremely excited about learning to knit now, because they all fell in love with that hat! So I have gifted them with some nice white yarn, a few spare needles, and a bunch of kool-aid, so they are going to town. Which brings me to ask, if any of you have way to much surplus leftovers, or small skeins, would anyone consider donating it to these four little girls? Money is tight for them, and I shudder to think they will have to use cheap, crappy, acrylic. So I thought, well I can ask and see if anyone would help out and sponser one with a small yarn gift. It can be anything, but worsted weight wool would be easiest for them to work with right now, any color is also fine. Let me know if you might have anything you want rid of. As you know a new knitter can find it difficult to get everything they need all at once, and to top it off, these are just kids, aged 7 - 12. So if you can help us out, let me know. I have given them lots of roving, and they are learning to spin, but they are more interested in knitting at this point, and they are quickly running out. Besides, if you donate some yarn to some of these girls, then you will deserve a reward trip to the yarn store. Just a thought

I have been dyeing up roving. I MEANT to put it all in the shop, while I was getting a little extra traffic from Knitty, but oh well. I got so discusted, I needed a fix, so I took one peice for myself and spun this up, and it is just lovely. I really like the colorway, but I think I will make the color changes a little more obvious, and also a little darker for just a little more contrast, but it is just beautiful as it is. I know it’s pink and purple, but I do have a 3 and 5 year old daughter I would like to point out, both of which are slobbering over this… Really it is lovely. I’m thinking of making a seamless yoke sweater by EZ. This will be for the yoke design, and the body will be light gray. Gray is wonderful for children.

I have also been experimenting with the drum carder and blended batts. I am finally getting the hang of it. I have this pretty little batt for the shop, it has the sparkle stuff added in. I don’t know what brand this sparkle is, but its like Christmas tree tinsel only very tiny. I have white, and green right now, to experiment with. I am contemplating maybe doing a batt of the month club, as those are so popular and fun to do. I need to get some more specialty fibers so that I can make up something really fun for them and then we’ll see what happens.

I also blended some of the sparklie stuff with some turquise roving I had. It is quite lovely. Very shiny and bright. I haven’t spun any yet, I need to try some, but the batts are so pretty that I don’t want to muss them to spin a sample.

Finally God willing, I have finally taken a picture of the learn to spin kits we sell at fiber fairs. We sell these for $7 with 2 ounces of fiber, so it’s a pretty darn good deal if you ask me. We sell them with a variety of colors, and if a customer chooses one, I can usually accommodate their desires. I sell tons of these at festivals, mostly to little kids, who want to try. I give them to kids for less, $5, which covers my cost. So if you order one of these for a child under 14, let me know and I will discount them. I have taught children as young as 4 with great success, and the kids learn it so fast.

Lastly, we went to the local 5 and dime, and low and behold they had knitting needles! for 70% off!!!!!!!! I bought all the double points for myself (I love Susan Bates double points) and Dominic bought himself his own set of straight needles. Nothing fancy, just colorful aluminum needles, but he likes them, and hey, they were like 80 cents each…. I still don’t know why he wants to use straights (I’m a total circular fan) but hey, to each his own right?

But now, about Internet Idiocy. Supposedly, our internet doesn’t work because of excessive cold. (It’s 13 degrees right now) so that doesn’t really explain why it didn’t work in 26 degrees last week. The support policies of the company we use are so stupid as to border on imbecilic. What happened was we had a little trouble with connectivity (remember) and we got that fixed, they told us that if we upgraded to a new modem, that it would improve. So we upgraded (remember that the old modem was working perfectly) and then it wouldn’t work at all. The would NOT downgrade us back to the old modem under any circumstances. So we were basically told that we had to do without internet until a technician gets around to coming out and looking it over. They even tried to charge us for it, but didn’t have a leg to stand on, so we finally pried the fee out of them under the warranty. GRRRR. They have been fortunate enough that Beau has dealt with them thus far, and he is so patient. They better do something, less I unleash fiery red-headed death down upon them. I am getting close to the point of really needing to bite someone’s head off, and really let them know exactly how I feel about their company policies. I’m trying to remain calm.

Hi everyone - just a little note to tell you we’re not ignoring you, it’s just the time of year for ice storms in Missouri.  Consequently, we have no power, no internet connection, and no phone at our house.  We’re staying warm with a kerosene heater, but other than that things are pretty primitive around our house just now.  We should be back online in a few days.

Stay warm!  Unless your in the Southern hemisphere, in which case, um…stay cool I guess

I just wanted to let everyone know how proud I am of Allena. She wrote a FANTASTIC article on dyeing with food color that got published on knitty.com. Go check it out if you haven’t seen it already.

You may have noticed this

I don’t have much to say about it, except that this is the caliber that all my stuff should be.  I have a lot to do.

Now that I am famous and important however, I need to really address where I am going with this site, and my “career” (snort).  Ahem, really I started this with the idea that I would really like a place to put all my blog posts in one place.  Then it evolved into the possibility of making a small amount of money on the side, while staying home.  Now I seem to be contemplating the notion of professional author.

So I have that article published, and another from a smaller magazine accepted, (I’ll let y’all know when it publishes).  I am considering submitting to Spin Off and some other places.  So anyhow, you might be seeing my name pop up in the near future.

I also started a Tam from the pattern in the new Knitty.  I love these, and wanted to make one for each of the girls for Christmas.  So I am making Tam C for a test tam, and then of course I’ll veer off on my own and do it entirely different lol.  I got poor grades for “following instructions” in Kindergarten, and nothing much has changed since then.  I am forcing myself to do it just like the pattern says for this first hat, because for one thing, I need to learn how to do it first, and 2 I am kind of enjoying just following along and not thinking about it too much.

I also have another scarf stitch pattern I have been tinkering with.  It is a combination of chevron with the dropped stitch to make a really interesting effect.  I got the idea from looking at a seafoam pattern.  Anyhow this is what it looks like, and it knits pretty fast, so i can post that chart for you soon, if anyone is interested in trying it out.

It looks much better blocked, obviously.  I ripped this all out, because I was doing a space dye experiment on it, to make the dropped stitches very light blue, with dark blue for the other areas.  It didn’t work for me, but I used that yarn for something else anyway.  Still, the patten is quite pretty, or so I think.

So I am taking a break from the gloves to knit this hat (which is going to a local family) and then I will be spinning some beautiful merino that I have literally been sitting on for over a year to find just the right project for….I love the colors so much (it is what I used for the beaded yarn tutorial) that I want to try and make a similar colorway before I use it up.  So I will spin that up for the color section of the girls hats.  YEAH!  I also dyed some dark mulberry roving, and a batch of St Bernadette, because I got some orders.  I am trying darker colors, and looking for some new colorways.  You guys got any color combos you really like?

As always, remember that each month, a comment is chosen for a nice prize.  I am not posting this last packets contents, until she gets it, but it was some really fun stuff.  So COMMENT for crying out loud!!!

Poor Em, she’s waited so patiently. Now in my defense she didn’t exactly make it easy for me, since she makes her own spindles, so not much point to sending her one of mine eh?

I am assembling her package tonight though, and I think I have gotten something nice together for her.

I’ve been a little busy, as you know I submitted an article to Knitty, and it would seem that it is to appear in the Winter Issue which should publish soon. I am very excited about that, because it really is one of my better articles. I’m pretty proud of it.

The month has turned and I also need to choose a new prize winner. And THIS months blog contest looks like this, we had a total of 49 comments from 7 posts for an average of 7 comments per post. I really didn’t post much this month, but the good news is, that we beat the last months average of 4.7 comments per post. THANKS GUYS!!!! It really means a lot to me to hear back from you, and connect with you here on the blog.

So this months winner is:

Comment #45

Michelle

I knew goat milk had that nice, simple, much-easier-to-digest protein but had no idea that sheep milk was constructed the same way. I think I’d rather milk a goat, though. Bigger teats, less fiber….

No I didn’t pick this one because it contained the word “teats” lol. How I choose is I have Dominic pick a number between 1 and 49 in this case. So Congratulations Michelle, you are this months winner!!! And Em will be getting her packet soon, as I am feeling a bit better now.

On to important news. I finished one of the fingertip-less gloves for Christlyn. She is really a dear person, and was VERY excited about the possibility of not freezing her hands on wrecks this January.

So this pair, knitting with 100% alpaca in about a worsted weight, is luscious to say the least. I mean they are a REAL treat on your hands. So soft, silky, almost naughty feeling lol. They feel so good it almost seems like you must be doing something bad, but nope, nothing wrong with wearing luxury gloves. Not the best pictures in the world, but it gets dark so early now…

I have gotten some feedback, they are just a smidge thick for the right hand, which she uses to start IVs, so this one she thinks will work just fine for the left hand. Which in a way was a real bummer, cause I was thinking I could keep this one, and just make one like it for me…

Christmas is coming, of course I have scads of mittens to make before then. Elizabeth and Teresa both need mittens, and they have to be colorful and all. I dyed yarn for two pairs for a friend’s children who happen to be about the same size, coincidence, uh NO. So here is the first one:

So colorful, hand-dyed yarn knitted up into two adorable mittens, does it get better than that? Can I suggest that you all take some scraps and knit a few of these this year and give them to the local homeless shelter, battered ’s home, or other charity that hands out warm things to children in need? These knit up over a movie (well each mitten for me) and they don’t use much yarn. I will be publishing the glove and mitten pattern for all of you to use freely as soon as I can. I also took some pictures so there will be a tutorial too.  I really want to encourage everyone to make a few of these and give them out.

So, happy mitten knitting, and congratulations Michelle.

I really love making mittens. I always just make the thumbs stick out the sides, because well, thumbs just sort of stick out the side, and I find these more comfortable than the strange thumbs out of the palm mittens. I hang my head in shame, but that’s how I feel about it.