Knitting Zeal

Baa baa said the festival sheep

I went to the Maryland Sheep and Wool Festival on Sunday with a few of my knitting group buddies.  We had a blast!  The weather was beautiful and the festival was not crowded!  I had never gone on a Sunday before, but I think this may be the day I go in the future.  We saw lots of sheep, alpaca, and even some bunnies.  There was tons of yarn and fiber everywhere.  I really didn't need any more yarn, so I limited my purchases to one skien of lace weight alpaca yarn from Tess' Designer Yarns in a pretty saphire blue and one mini skein of super wash merino in purple for my bee keepers quilt. I also found a really pretty shawl pin.  My son wants to join me next year to see the sheep and eat fair food.  We'll see....

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Spring has sprung with fun!

Hexipuff

See that little hexagon of yarn? That is the first of many hexipuffs that I'll be knitting for the next two years or so. In assessing the quantity of beautiful sock yarns that I've stashed (hoarded) I realized that I'll never have time to use all of them. I also have some sock yarn leftovers that needed a purpose.

I discovered the beekeeper's quilt a few months ago when another knitter from our group started working on it. The idea of using all of that beautiful yarn up kept pestering me to want to try knitting it. Since I already have the yarn it is not an expensive project. So, for my birthday I bought the pattern and went to work.

When I finish it the quilt will be wonderful. I imagine it will be great to use in the winter when I'm really old! It might take me that long to finish!

Teacher's knitted gifts

For Christmas, I decided to knit up some very simple washcloths to pair with awesome bars of goatsmilk soap that I bought at the Lititz Farmer's Market in apple cinnamon scent. I wanted to give a knitted gift to my kid's three preschool teachers, but didn't have time to do anything elaborate.   Wrapped up with a pretty bow, I think they turned out nicely.  I also gave each teacher a gift box from Penzey's that included two spices and a mini cookbook.  

I figured that the teachers did not need junk sitting around their homes, so useable and consumable items would be appreciated.  About two weeks before Christmas we received a message from two classmate moms asking for contributions to the "group gift" for the teachers!  Not being familiar with preschool protocol, I debated what to do.  In the end I contributed the money, which wasn't much, but I think I will have to rethink what I do next year.  

This past week we received two thank you notes from two of the teachers.  One thanked me for the potholder.  Seriously.  I haven't corrected her yet.  I guess it could be used as a potholder?  It's cotton, so it won't melt.  I did tie it to a bar of soap, but I guess that wasn't a good clue.  C'est la vie!

Candy Corn that won't give you a cavity

My son recently enjoyed his first candy corn.  It's one of those Halloween treats that I personally can't eat more than a few before the sugar high explodes and I feel like my teeth are rotting, it is so sweet!  I love how they look, though, and they remind me of my childhood.  My grandmother used to give us candy corn and pumpkin creme candy.  I discovered on Ravelry that there are hundreds of candy corn knitting and crochet patterns.  I decided to try out my crochet skills and see if I could manage to make a few of these little candy corns, pattern from Lion Brand Yarn Company.  I am not great at crocheting, yet, but I've now made five little candy corns.  The first one is the larger one in the photo.  It's bigger because what I thought was a single crochet stitch was actually not!  Once I figured out the sc stitch, the candy corns shrunk to their original 3 inch size!  

My son wants me to sew faces on the candy corns. Some he wants to have one eye, others get two eyes.  At first he requested that I make him five.  Today that total went up to 22 and then 100.  I think I may stick to the five!

Happy Halloween!

Current knitting news

While on vacation I worked on the Lavender Summit shaw/scarf that will never be finished!  This is a project that I love, but just am not fast enough and do not have enough time to dedicate to finish.  Someday, it will look smashing! 

While we were away, my dear friend was being a new mama to her third baby girl.  Since she didn't know it was going to be another girl baby, I knit a basic cardigan in bright orange and a pumpkin hat for her.  It turned out very sweet and I love the little fishy buttons.  

Coffee bear completed, almost

I finished the monkey boy's coffee bear last night.  It took four tries to get the nose to look right. I ended up using DMC embroidery floss to make it look good.  The differnt yarns I tried looked just awful.  I like the gloss of the floss!  My clever boy decided to give the coffee bear a second name, Andrew.  So creative!  He spent much of today talking to coffee bear and introducing him to his first bear and curious George. He even took the photo above!  He wouldn't pose with bear though.  My ravelry link is here.

Tonight when my clever child was getting ready for bed he asked if I could give both bears mouths, "so that they can talk to each other."  The pattern didn't call for a mouth, which is why I left it off.  Now to figure out what will look good!

I have to say, I really liked using this yarn, Lion Brand Nature's Choice Organic Cotton.  The texture is great for the bear and it is very soft.  I don't always enjoy knitting with cotton, but this yarn did not hurt my hands and it did not split while knitting.  I will be looking for it to do the next bear, the cinnamon one!  (I only wish there was slightly more yardage in a skein, since I only used a few yards of the third skein!)  I hope the bear wears well!  The first one is looking shabby, and that was knit with the uber expensive yarn from the snotty yarn shop!  (I'm having issues with my local yarn shop.  I'm not going to shop there anymore!  I'm sick of the snotty attitude!)  

Happy weekend!

 

half of a beary friend

My son was watching me go through a pile of knitting patterns that I was sorting and putting into a binder.  Most of them were ones I had already completed and had been rescued from various knitting bags.  A handful were ones that are on my "to-knit" list.  He found the Baby Bobbi Bear pattern I used when he was an infant and requested a second and third bear.  He sleeps with his Baby Bobbi Bear nightly, and just calls him "Bear."  The first one was knit with undyed organic cotton yarn by Blue Sky Alpaca.  The current two requests are for a chocolate bear and a cinnamon bear.  (I called the first one Vanilla because it was creamy white.)  We picked out this Lion Brand Organic Cotton yarn at AC Moore because I had a good coupon and got it discounted.  It is comparable to the original yarn I used in texture and was significantly less expensive.  He picked out a dark brown yarn that we called chocolate, but the name of the color is espresso, so this bear has been nicknamed the coffee bear.  I am almost at the halfway point, having knit the body and legs.  I recall the head taking a longer time to knit, so I need to get moving on this.  I hope to give it to him for Valentine's Day.  The cinnamon bear may have to wait a bit longer!

Wordless Wednesday

Three sheep to the wind...

On Saturday part of my knitting group ventured to the 2010 Maryland Sheep and Wool Festival in West Friendship, Maryland for the day.  We arrived just before noon and it was so busy we had to park in a farmers field across the street from the Howard County Fairgrounds.  There were tractor and wagon rides over to the festival, but we hiked it over there ourselves.  (The ride back on the wagon was great, though!)  The festival was crowded but not as bad as some years I had been there.  The last time I had gone was when I was pregnant in 2007 because I remember buying yarn and patterns for a baby sweater.  I had purchased blue and pink yarn because it wasn't for another week until I found out we were having a boy. 

This year the weather was dry and very hot.  The sun was blazing but there was a breeze.  My sun hat helped and lots of sunscreen, so I managed to not get burned this year. I did dehydrate and kept buying more water when I ran out of what I had brought.  Despite the heat it was lots of fun.  

We saw many different breeds of sheep and got to pet a few and listen to them baa.  We saw lots of yarn!  I only purchased one skein of yarn from Tess' Designer Yarns...a light purple shade of raw silk to make Summit.  It was hard to resist, but I just kept thinking about all the yarn that lives in my house already... 

Here are a few photos from the day:

 

Word(less) Wednesday

No photo today as I forgot and didn't get a chance to upload the photo I wanted to use.  However, here is a linky for the latest request from the toddler.  He wants a bulldozer.  He found one last night at the Little Treehouse for sale, but I told him no.  It is really cool, though, right?  Maybe for his birthday...

We went to the Little Treehouse for dinner and playtime last night because it was just two of us and we needed to get out.  They do not charge for playtime in the evening if you order food, so it was a good value.  Toddler refused to stop playing to eat.  I managed to get him to eat two apple slices and a handful of blueberries.  Let's just say he had a blast and didn't want to go home.  We will definitely have to go back at that time again since it was practically empty.  The last time we were there it was the morning/mid-day and was so crowded kids were arguing over toys.  This time the monkey was able to play with whatever he wanted.  It was very pleasant. 

Today we had a house full of kids and moms for playgroup.  The toddler LOVED having his friends over to play and didn't want them to leave.  It was fun and he even helped clean up all of the toys that were everywhere by the afternoon.  He took a great nap, as he was exhausted.  He woke up to discover that the lawn guy was here.  This completely rattled him.  He was mixed with fascination and fear.  He loves yard tools--mowers, weed wackers, leaf blowers.  He is almost obsessed and has turned some of his toys into those tools (the popper is a weed wacker, the digger is his mower, the wagon is his snow blower, an old cell phone charger cord is his leaf blower.)  He ran from window to door to window watching Gardener Drew, as we nicknamed him, work on the lawn.  When lawn guy got too close to the house, the toddler would become frightened and would run to get me to watch with him.  He finally agreed to let me make dinner as long as he could sit at the kitchen table to draw.  He was curious as to why Gardener Drew's weed wacker did not have a cord but Daddy's has a cord.  I didn't try to explain gas vs. electric powered tools...He also wanted to know where Gardener Drew's barn was.  We have a two story shed in our yard that we call the barn, which is another toddler obsession: Daddy's barn.  Toddler's barn is a pop up tent that he stores way too many toys in for fun.  What an exciting afternoon for a two year old!

This weekend is the Maryland Sheep and Wool Festival.  Four of us from my knitting group are traveling together for the day on Saturday.  The weather forecast is good, even looking like it might be hot out (upper 80s!)  I am excited!  I only need sock blockers, and am not planning to buy much, but I can't wait to see the sheep and all kinds of yarn.  Tess' will be there so I need to fondle her yarn.  I have to remember my camera so I can take lots of photos!