2013 wrapped up

Happy 2014!

I think I had 29 projects completed in 2013.

My Ravelry project page for 2013

I'm still trying to get some projects finished up before I start anything new.

I'll try to get back on the blogging wagon, too!

Downton Abbey Mystery Knit Along

I must (sadly) admit that I have finally succumbed to the mystery knit along phenomenon.  I've resisted oh-so-many years.  This one finally nabbed my attention.

The Downton Abbey Mystery Knit Along

It appears it is going to be some type of gauntlet.  I came too late to the party to obtain the specially dyed Lorna's Laces yarn, so I'm using some stash Lorna's Laces in the Forest colorway.

And I actually knit this while watching Downton Abbey last night!

Now, just eagerly awaiting the clue for next weeks episode.

Aran Sandal Socks

Aran Sandal Socks 

     from Socks, Socks, Socks

I started with 2 balls of stash yarn (Dale of Norway Falk) but I'm rapidly knitting it up.  Looks like I'll have to pick up another ball...

Happy New Year

Last year

• Completion of three long term Dale of Norway sweater projects

This year

• Fear less, hope more; Eat less, chew more;  Whine less, breathe more;  Talk less, say more;  Love more, and all good things will be yours.

I had all kinds of fancy ideas for resolutions, but yeah, that pretty much covers it. 

 

Last night of our spring break weekend

There's still some snow left up here.  High temps remain under 40˚.

The mouth of the Temperance river as it enters Lake Superior is still blocked with ice.

We hiked, following the Temperance River upstream.

I've done some knitting in front of the fire.  

Even managed to crochet a steek, readying to make this into a cardigan.

The full moon is tonight, and it was gorgeous rising into the clouds.

Wouldn't you know?

You know that knitting I was going to put off til after the holidays?

The one I just knitted a few rows? Just to try it out?






Can you see the problem?














How about now?








There - the blue row. Only one checkerboard row?









Serves me right. Should have been doing more holiday gift knitting.

Surgery Knitting

My dad had back surgery in Rochester on Monday.

Yes, at the world famous Mayo.

He needed to report at 7:15 am. They finally took him to surgery at 11:45.

I waited with Mom. We had lots of nice visiting, and knitting, time.

He returned to his room at 7:00 pm. He's doing well, and we all look forward to his back feeling much better in the near future.


I finished a baby sweater.

It's one of my favorite baby patterns to knit - the Babies and Bears Sweater by Cottage Creations. It's a very quick, fun knit.

I like to use Plymouth Encore, 75% Acrylic and 25% Wool. It's a good washable yarn for babies. The pattern uses a bit more than one skein of Encore (200 yds per skein).


I still need to pick some buttons.



I started a sweater for Paul.

This will be Retrofit, from the most recent edition of Knitty.

The pattern called for knitting it in pieces. As I hate seaming sweaters, I'm knitting it in one piece, to the division for the arms.

I've also knitted the hem together, rather than sewing it up later.




The baby sweater goes into the "just in case" pile.



It will replace this little sweater going out to a work friend with a new baby girl.

Final camping this year?

We made it out of town with the camper, perhaps the last time this year.

It was MEA weekend in Minnesota. Girl of the House had no classes Thursday and Friday. Paul and I took off work on Friday so we could all fully enjoy the weekend.

We headed for Fort Ridgely State Park. We had spent a weekend there earlier this year, and thought it would be just right for fall camping.

Fort Ridgely has so many things going for it.

The campground itself is tucked into a little valley along a pretty creek.

On top of the hill, to the west, is Fort Ridgely. It was used in the 1850s, and has some great landmarks and postings describing it in detail.

There's a horse camp on the north end of the park.

Our campsite was on the water, and we could watch the horses crossing the river. It was a great weekend for riding.












Fort Ridgely also has a freshly renovated 9 hole golf course, seen here peeking out among the trees.

Someday, we'll come and golf.








Our morning coffee spot, right on the edge of the campsite. We could sit in our own comfy chairs.

Of course, it was 28 degrees when we woke on Saturday. So we were pretty bundled up...






We did some hiking.














We played lots of cards.

GotH is the RAGE champion!












We had some sweet campfires.













I even got some knitting done.













And when we came home, we had a surprise!

Ben's home for a short fall break.

When we pulled in, he was chopping wood.

And clothed very interestingly, wouldn't you say?
This is what he spent his birthday money on - a Utilikilt. He loves it!
I haven't seen him in anything but the kilt, yet.

Now, he says he needs some mom-knitted kilt hose. Guess I'll check out some patterns...

Knitters look TOUGH

We're tough alright...

Continuing Education Knitting

I had an all day continuing education class today. Don't you hate it when you have to get up earlier on Saturday than you do the rest of the week?!

My class was an hour away. It was a good opportunity to catch up on a few podcasts. Sound Opinions and This American Life. Someday, I'll be all caught up on my podcasts. But for now, I catch 'em whenever I can. My commute to work takes less than 10 minutes, so there's no podcast listening during the drive.

It was an all day class. I managed to get lots of knitting done on the Alpaca Sox. The first one is almost complete. (those veg are getting a workout holding up socks, aren't they? Really, we've been eating them, too!)











Look what met me on the sidewalk when I came home on Friday.








Two pounds of CVM (California Variegated Mutant), already made into batts, ready for spinning.

I love the sound of that - Mutant Sheep - welcome to the future!



This is my consolation for not getting into SOAR this year.

I, and several of my friends, were waitlisted. Not a one made it off the list.

This may not be a terrible thing. It appears that they don't have enough hotel rooms available for all the participants. Nice - book a large gathering at a place without enough lodging for everyone.

Bitter? Who, me?!

Hah! I bet no-one at SOAR has two whole pounds of CVM! Take that, Interweave and SOAR!! Hah!

Clockwerk asked about a certain warm sweater I began the past winter. January, actually.

It, too, has been picked up and put down multiple times. It has not traveled from state to state, as it is a bit more complicated.

It seems I last left it in a state of partial neckline completion. The right side has the edging knitted.

The left was, seemingly, abandoned.




Perhaps, as Clockwerk is about to have a major birthday, I will get on it and get the poor, armless
thing completed.

After the neckline is done, it's only the seaming up that is left. Shame to leave it so close to finished, for so long.






I've been doing some sampling of the finn fleece.

I've got a small skein of worsted weight and a small skein of lace weight.

I like 'em both.





Every morning, on my way to work, I pass this alpaca farm.

They're multiplying! See the little bitty white one?

This coming weekend is the Alpaca Farm Tour in Minnesota. Be sure to check it out, if you're in the state! There are farms all over Minnesota.









Clockwerk probably won't read this post this far down, will he?

Girl of the House is baking some special SPO (student post office) birthday love, to be posted in the mail tomorrow.

The six state sweater

If you recall, I started Rogue in February of this year. It's been picked up, knitted, put down, picked up and knitted, put down, etc, etc, etc.

This sweater has been knitted in Minnesota, Iowa, Nebraska, Colorado, Kansas and Massachusetts. In fact, it's been to Iowa several times, most recently this past weekend.

I have finally reached the hood. I think I'm coming down the home stretch. (Of course, that will leave the seaming up...)




I spun up an ounce of the pretty roving while we were camping this weekend.

Camping always makes me want to get out the spindle.






Last, but not least, my carry around sock.
This is Alpaca Sox yarn, and I'm almost to the heel.

It's good to have a sock to knit while you're sitting in a choir concert. You can knit in the dark.

It's been raining here since I returned home from work. Brightest room in the house is the kitchen - thus the sock is keeping the garden veg warm.

Morning coffee spot

Here's our coffee spot from this Saturday morning.

Anyone guess?








Here's Sunday morning. Does this help?










We went to Temperance River State Park for the weekend.

It's on the shore of Lake Superior. We reserved our favorite campsite, months ago.

We planned to be on the shore, awaiting the rising of the (almost) full moon over the great lake.

Unfortunately, we arrived after 9 pm on Friday. The moon was risen, and beautiful, over the lake. We looked forward to seeing it Saturday evening. But it began to rain late Saturday afternoon, with the attendant clouds. No moon at all to be seen through the clouds.

And yet, we had a great time. When we couldn't be outside, we played cards and listened to the iPod. We played cribbage, we played RAGE. I am the RAGE champion. Three out of three games. (We won't discuss cribbage...)

It was my birthday this weekend.

Look at the gift from the Girl of House gave:

DISHES!!

She did dishes all weekend. Now, really, that is a gift!




We did some hiking before the rain began.
We found the State Park geocache, after a few geocaching challenges. Perhaps reading a map is not one of my strong suits - especially now that I'm another year older!

There is so much to see in this park, beyond the Lake.






There were tons of people at the beginning of the trails, but they thinned out the farther we went from the road.









I started and finished another hat from handspun while on the drive. (Temperance is 275 miles from home.)

Recognize this yarn?

It's the spindled yarn from our Colorado trip.

Another hat?

We're canning today. Girl of the House has gone to the Defeat of Jesse James Days, Northfield's annual big festival, for the afternoon.

We've made 31 pints of Salsa and 20 pints of canned tomatoes.














It would have been 22 pints of tomatoes, but two jars broke during processing








Yay, salsa!












I finished this hat from handspun earlier this week.


I really don't know who's going to wear all these hats.

But it's good to use up some of these little skeins.





A sample skein. I have a coopworth lamb fleece, aging in my stash. I added some scraps from the recent hats, and carded them up together.

Makes a pretty, slubby, yarn.









By the way, our little dog is a pervert.

This is one of last year's (male) kittens.


I know, it's just not right...

Colorado knitting

I had lots of road knitting time as we drove to Colorado.

Hats are great road knitting.

Around and around and around.

I finished two hats and started a third.

This is the purple from sundyeing earlier this summer.

Girl of the House was having fun being a silly model.





Hat number two has already been stolen by Ben. It was knit from some of the finn fleece I washed and carded this summer. I can't find it in his mess of a room. I'll have to catch him when he's home.

Hat number three, also from the sundyeing earlier this summer.











I worked on Rogue. The back is complete, and I'm coming up the fronts. I knitted up the yarn I brought. (See, you CAN'T ever bring enough yarn! It IS possible to run out!)

I love the cabling on this sweater.






I spindled up the four ounces of the last batch of sundyed fiber. Remember the stuff that sat on the deck forever?

I didn't get it plied, though.








I'll have to post actual trip pictures soon. I'm going through them all, slowly.

We drove through Friday night, stopping to nap in the camper for a few hours, just east of Grand Island, NE. When the sun came up, we cut off the highway at Kearney, NE, and took local highways to Denver. It's always more fun to take the backroads.

There's so much to see.

But it was HOT! 104 degrees. See, I took a picture to prove it!

Ooh, I forgot these signs cycle temp and time. And I didn't check my photo til I got home...

Well, you'll have to take my word for it. It was hot!






At last: a cooling view of the Rockies!