Sweater weather has arrived!

A couple of Sundays ago Ellie taught a basket class at AFW.  The class almost didn't go until I snapped a photo and Teresa posted it on Facebook.  The class had a waiting list.  It was great fun and we were happy with our baskets.  I will eventually stain mine.  The round oak handles are unusual and were not difficult to add.

It's official, we had our first snowfall.  Good thing it snowed before the new shed was built.  The concrete cured and on Halloween the he-shed was installed.  Now the little camper will have a home. The weather turned cold quickly and I didn't take the time to change out the warm weather clothes for the cold weather clothes, yet.

Big change in the back yard landscape.

I took the opportunity to walk when the snow was falling and the wind was blowing.  The chill felt good and there were interesting things to see along the way.  It was obvious the wind was blowing from the north!

Mother Nature iced the cake.

A cold wind was blowing from the north.

One does not always have to look up to see interesting color and pattern.

The hydrangea is prettiest in autumn.  I think this would be a lovely color story for a project.

Spring has sprung!

At last the recent snowfall has retreated and I do believe spring is here.  Sadly my little pine trees did not make it, although where there is green there may be hope--never say die!

The last snowfall--I believe we are now done with winter.

Jim and I went to the Twins game on Friday.  It was cold, but we had a great time...and the Twins won!  We took the train to the ballpark and it was a nice ride.  I think about the hours I spent riding trains in Europe and it brings back fond memories.  My little cap kept my noggin warm.  It is the one I made for Stitch and Pitch in 2009 and then was published last year in 60 Quick Knits from America's Yarn Shops as a child's hat.

It was a treat to see real grass!  It was a record cold day for a game.

We managed to find snow in the stands.

Toward the last innings the clouds cleared and there was a beautiful blue sky.

MiniD and bunny.

Little bunny found a spot in the wood pile.

Found on my run.  The seed pod is a lovely brown and the seeds are green.  I love the color combination.

The bands and collar are removed.  I will secure and cut off the bottom band extensions.  The quality of the photo is not up to par, as I took it with my phone.  Time to charge the better camera!

Soaking the yarn to relax it and allow it to bloom.

Outside of knitting and spinning, I have been busy with Grey Wolf NYLT (National Youth Leadership Training).  Our last development weekend was this month.  The staff is on target with their presentations and it is fun to watch them fine tune their processionals and songs.

Yesterday was a beautiful day for Easter.  Ben came up at lunchtime.  I am blessed to have a wonderful family.  Jim and Ben took a bike ride and I went for a long walk.  It is now time to run with the weather getting warmer.  I need to get used to the heat and train for the Philmont trek.

Classes at Amazing Threads are going well and I enjoy the students.  There is always something to learn!  Tonight is the Monkey Jacobus class, our third session.  The Dacite class went well.  Everyone chose the Kenzie yarn in lovely colors.  It will be fun to watch their progress.  Samples in the works are Fjord wrist warmers, Pigment, illusion circle, Koigu beaded hat, and double knitting.  I am particularly excited to meet Sally Melville this weekend.  I hope she brings the Little Black Vest, as I will have that as an upcoming class.  Next on the agenda is to get a class or two at Anoka Fiber Works.  I have an idea for a polymer clay project and I have to work up a successful sample--make it work!

Let it snow...

...might as well snow.  The winters we have experienced over the last two years are what I expected when we moved here in 1999.  We got about 5-inches through the night and this morning.  Right now it is sunny and 17-degrees, which is much warmer than it has been lately!

Knitting

Currently I am working on Dacite, designed by Carol Feller.  I tried on the trunk show sample at the shop and fell in love with the simple design and lovely fit of the cardigan.  The sample was worked in Soft Donegal Tweed--in moss green--LOVE!  The sample for the shop is in HiKoo Kenzie, colorway, Pavlova.  The color happens to be the color of the iconic Tooth of Time peak at Philmont Scout Ranch in New Mexico.  It is an igneous intrusion of dacite porphyry.  I hope we climb it on our trek this summer!

That aside, the sweater is coming along nicely.  The garter stitch collar has short rows in the back.  The fronts are garter stitch and raglan sleeves and back are stockinette stitch.  I am just about finished with the raglan increases and will work the body soon.  The built-in I-cord on the front edges is a nice finish.

Dacite collar and raglan shaping.

 Spinning

Some handspun Shetland plied with the rest of my silk noil thread from Wollenworks.

I had some silk noil thread left from  Woolenworks (where I learned to spin).  I spun the single on my Moosie, Bullwinkle, and then plied it with the thread ending up with 1.2 ounces/72 yards of sport weight yarn.  Not a lot, but maybe I can add it to something else.  

Chocolate Cake

On Tuesday evening we had a meeting for Grey Wolf.  Ben was waiting for us and we took a quick trip to Mort's Delicatessen for supper.  I had the toasted cheese with chips (crisps) and Jim ordered me a piece of the chocolate cake to take home.  I called it six layers of chocolate awesome and it took a couple of days to finish.  This morning I confess it was my breakfast and it was delicious!

Mmmm...Mort's!

Snow

The first two photos are of the blowing snow early in the week.  (I was stopped and not driving when I took the photos!)  The sunset was just beautiful on the way to our meeting.  

We had more snow overnight and this morning.  The sun was trying hard to shine through the clouds.

Fibrrrrr fun!

The group from Anoka Fiber Works with our goodies.

On Sunday Anoka Fiber Works had their first field trip to Woolen Meadows Farm in Delano.  Sue Ross was wonderful and we spent time bonding with the friendly flock of sheep and shopped in the studio.  The adult sheep were naked, but the new lambs were adorable.  The black lamb with a tuft of curly white locks on its forehead was my favorite.  I bought some washed white fleece (6 pounds), a small bag of white cashmere, and Sue gave me a bag of color bits and bobs from previous felting projects. The weather was cloudy and chilly.  On the way home we stopped at a nice coffee shop to warm up and have a snack--thankfully the rain held off until we were on our way back to AFW.

The kitty liked being around all the action.

Sue and her daughter show off one of the lambs.

This lamb was my favorite!

Pretty kitty.

Cute lambs.  All the sheep were very friendly.

Yesterday we had some more snow.  It looked so pretty this morning.  I do believe this may be the last of the snow because warmer temperatures are on the way.  The other day the robins and squirrels were out and about, but I have not seen them today.  It must be very confusing for them!

The early morning light was beautiful.

Before the melt.

Sample finished!

I like the curves toward the center.

I finished the Upcycled Elegance scarf this morning.  It was a challenge to get all the pieces to stick to the scarf, but I did it!  I didn't like the original idea of just having the pieces on the ends and wanted it to be more organic-looking.  To make sure all the ribbon, metallic, and wool pieces stayed on I spun a single of warm brown Shetland wool and plied it with some leftover mohair from the vertical lace scarf.  It was just enough to felt on top of the other bits and bobs.  Now to see if this can become a class...

Detail of the scarf.  The needle-felting also adds texture with the needle's barbs
catching the scarf fabric and pulling on the threads. 

The Silken Straw sweater is progressing and I am on the first sets of decreases and second hank of yarn.  Making my way from the bottom to the top.

It has been snowing quite a bit.  We said, "The heck with it," and turned on the Christmas lights outside for the past couple of evenings.  When spring finally comes to Minnesota, it will be lovely.  I do not worry too much about it, as the mosquito season will be shorter this year.

I am hoping the snow cover provides some much-needed moisture for the yard.

Ice is nice.

A while ago...I got a great surprise yesterday!  Jim took me along to the Minnesota Wild Hockey game.  Watching the game on TV just is not the same as going to the Excel Center in St. Paul.  Even better?  We were in one of the suites complete with food, great seats, and a pre-game tour behind the scenes.

Goalie

With Jim overlooking the ice,

I am very happy that my It's Your Choice class is a go tonight!  How fun to take knitting students forward with their knitting skills.

Yesterday at knitting group, I frogged my Nessie back to the spot (and beyond) where the bobbles are placed.  Now to get back on the short row track and see if  I can make a better bobble with the sock yarn using Sarah

18.03.2013  We are having another snowfall today.  The wind is supposed to kick up this afternoon.  Because of my two spin-outs on the way to work (I was driving Ben's Jeep with 4WD, too), I will start out earlier than normal.  The temperatures are going to tank for a few days.  Jim and I will have to strap on the snowshoes and take advantage of the deep snow before it melts!

Needs no caption!

It was a busy weekend.  We had our first development weekend for Wood Badge.  I am on the Quartermaster staff, which means cooking!  The development weekends are for the staff to meet and build our team so we can present a great program for the participants of the fall course.

I have one hat for the book almost finished, and started the second one.  There were quick adjustments to the math for the ribbing and crown shaping.  I downloaded the Craft Yarn Council of America's standards and abbreviations, which is what Sixth and Spring wants designers to use for patterns.  The Cascade Superwash wool is really nice, and I was very happy the blue they sent was the exact color I used for the original hat.  I have to work out the decorative stitching, and will rely on my embroidery books for that.

19.03.2013  The first participant in the Summer Wood Badge Eagle Patrol is finished with his tickets!  I am so happy for him and look forward to his beading ceremony in the near future.

24.02.2013  Back to another weekend already!  The hats should be at Soho Publishing and I hope that they will be included in the book.  I was happy they chose the same blue as the original.

Yesterday was Spin-In at Anoka Fiber Works.  I got the first Three Feet of Sheep spun and thankfully it fit on Louie's bobbin.  The other three feet are split and ready to spin.  Now to decide how I want to ply it...to ply with a solid, ply the color singles together opposite, or ply the colors for a color run?  Decisions, decisions!

Six feet of sheep.  Colorway--Tourmaline

The temperatures are going to be in the 30s and then in the low 40s later in the week.  The Easter Bunny will be hiding eggs in the snow piles next Sunday.

It's snow wonder...

Last week the squirrels were busy gathering acorns and even whole apples!  I was not quick enough to capture a photo of a large squirrel climbing the pine tree with an apple bigger than his head, but I managed to see him sitting up in the tree enjoying a snack.  Today MiniD and Jojo just could not resist going outside to make snow angels.  I want the snow to get a bit deeper before I make one.

You have to look closely to find Mr. Squirrel.

MiniD and Jojo making snow angels. 

Two little angels.

Knitting...I am making progress on Eala Bhan.  I made it past row 21 and once I am on the second chart, the knitting will be smoother.  A baby cardigan is in progress.  I bought another skein of the Bernat Mosaic.  The color-way will be nice for  a boy.
Ben is presenting and defending his senior thesis tomorrow.  Naturally he is a bit nervous, but he will survive this busy week filled with classes, more papers, swim practices, student government, and leading study sessions...and I think I am busy?  He will be home in two weeks, which makes us very happy.  This last year of college is speeding along.
Time to get back to work re-organizing my office.

Ho ho ho, I'm looking at snow!

The holiday season has started and it is the countdown to Christmas.  I finished a fingerless mitt for the shop.  I did only one so they could put it on display for the open house last weekend.  It was good to catch up with friends and I took a bit of time to knit a couple of rows of the Eala Bhan.  This afternoon (Sunday) Jim and I will go over to Mom's and decorate her tree.  We put up some decorations yesterday and found that she needs new lights--we had plenty here and they are the really bright ones, so her tree really sparkles!
I have a few small projects to finish and get in the mail, and then it will be time to work on Christmas cards.

I stepped outside to take a photo of the snow.

Jim brought these home from work.
The marshmallow had chocolate in the middle.
The packaging is very cute.

Baby vest 2.  

Über pom pom

It's a cute hat--I made the smallest size.

Today I made a shop sample (in under two hours, even with the gigantic pom pom) using some oddments of super-bulky yarn.  I went a bit overboard with the pom pom maker.  I thought it was a bit much, but Kathy liked it and she had me secure a button on the inside to stabilize the pom pom.  It looks cute on the shelf at the shop.  After finishing the baby sweater, I made three crowns for the older sisters.  Very cute in bright colors.  I do not have much pink in the stash.  Last week I whipped up another baby sweater.  This one is plain, and was a quick and fun project to knit.
Eala Bhan is coming along at a slow pace.  Right now I am on row 19 (again) and hope to make it past row 21, which is where I mucked it up last time.

Boing!

Eevee's paths disappeared.

Spring sprung, and then it SNOWED!  Jim told me to take the Jeep on Wednesday.  I drove my car to the gym.  Bad idea.  I made it to yoga, but did not make it up the driveway when I got home.  I started to shovel, and then decided to start the snowplow.  The shovel worked, not the snowplow.  I got back in the car and tried to back up--nope.  I tried to go forward--nope.  In all my years of driving, I have never been stuck...I was stuck.  A couple of neighbors pushed the car while I revved it and finally got unstuck.  One of the fellows started the snowplow and cleared a path for me to pull into the garage.  I made two loops around the block because I was afraid to stop and get stuck again.  Once I got the car back into the garage, I got ready for work.  It took over 30 minutes to get to work and I was happy to drive the Jeep!

Bowl before felting

I finally have the entrelac bowl finished and it is ready to felt.  I believe I will adapt the pattern and put in better instructions.  The Quant is my next small project and then I can schedule a class for an introduction to entrelac.  Entrelac is not my favorite technique, but now I am happy to have finished the bowl.  Maybe once it is felted I will like it a bit more.  My Baktus scarf is on the second half of the skein.  

Heavy March snowfall.