My Kind of Farmer's Market

In case I haven't mentioned it, I LOVE our new hometown.  It is wonderful on so many levels and I never expected we would be this happy here.

Today was another reason why I love our town - we have a farmer's market.  When we first moved here we went on a hot summer day and it wasn't quite up to the farmer's market standards we had back in CT.  However, today it blew the CT market out of the water!  Today and one day next month, they have fiber vendors at the market!  Lots of fiber vendors.

Check out this gorgeous array of handspun.

More handspun from the same vendor...
stunning but quite costly...these skeins were $65.

Check out this bag made from a wool jacket.

This one is embroidered...too cool.

Our daughter wanted to take one of these home...not happening.

I fell in love with this "tree" of skeins.

As you can see it was very busy.

Lovely colors but sadly a bit scratchy for me.

See the blue horse/unicorn one near the center?
I will be knitting up a pair for our daughter.

I only purchased a pattern this time - fortunately, a lot of the vendors will be back in February.  Now I can reflect on what yarns I saw and then plan a purchase.  What a fun morning we had at the farmer's market - my kind of farmer's market with YARN!

Can You Feel The Love?

Sometimes when I'm knitting something, I just can't feel the love.  Sometimes I realize it quickly and sometimes I realize it too slowly.  Best thing though is to realize it before you finish knitting the entire item.

Case and point - I was knitting Tinder by Jared Flood out of some Cascade 220.  I really dislike seaming (even though I think I'm good at it because I sewed before I learned to knit)...so I converted the pattern to knit in one piece.  I got as far as the underarms and put it down for weeks.  Part of the reason was that I needed to have quiet time (not during the holidays) to do the math to convert the sleeves to seamless.  When I picked it up, I realized part of the reason was I wasn't in love with it at all. The pattern is interesting but it wasn't something I loved.

So I frogged 17 1/2 inches of an entire sweater body - 3 skeins of Cascade 220.  That's a lot of knitting but better to love what you knit than just live with it.  So, for now the yarn is in a time out while I do some stalking of patterns.  I think I'll find something else in my stash to work on for a while.

One of These Things Is Not Like The Other

One of these things is not the same...got to love a Sesame Street Song, right?  Not when it applies to your knitting though.

I had been finishing up my Cotton Reel Mittens which I realized why I don't knit mittens - they are like socks.  You have to make two of them.  I went into finishing frenzy - stupidly during a really exciting playoff game between the Broncos and the Ravens.

I bound off the thumb, wove in the ends and put on the mitten.  It looked great, right!?

So then I got out the first mitten and put it on and realized something was wrong - one of these things is not like the other...see?

Too many stitches on the left hand mitten...grrr.  It went into timeout overnight and the next morning I got to work.

Painful but necessary.  After carefully paying attention to picking up the right number of stitches, I finished the second mitten.  Two of these things are the SAME!

And I'm done with mittens for a while!

For My Husband

My husband won't let me knit for him - I constantly offer sweaters and he keeps saying no.  So while I was knitting this Cascade Eco Plus blanket, the kids would say "who is that for".  Until I received my lovely friendship blanket, I would say "it is for me because you keep stealing my blanket".  

The other day our daughter asked again and I replied "this is for dad".  She must have forgotten because when she saw it blocking she said "I hope you're not giving this one away!"  I agree - it is lovely, it is warm and my husband loved/loves it.

I couldn't get the color right -see the last photo for the true color.

This is the truer color.

How To Make A Knitter Smile

It's simple, it's easy - wear their knits and let them know you love them.  Within 24 hours I received this email from my friend who asked me to knit some cowls for her for Christmas gifts:

My sister was a lucky recipient!

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Margaret
Date: Fri, Jan 11, 2013 at 11:16 AM
Subject: blue neck wrap
To: Sarah

I’m loving this!  This is the second time this week I’ve worn it. It’s great with anything V neck or ‘regular’ neck – i.e. without a turtleneck.  Thank you!

And then I received this photo:

That is how to make a knitter happy!

Ornament Organization

Every year I decorate our wreath (and tree) with handknit ornaments.  The wreath is exclusively hand knits.  I always take everything down before New Years Eve as I want to start the year fresh and with house that is back to normal.

So, when I took all my handknit ornaments down, I gave them their own little storage unit.  Doesn't this look wonderful?  They are all packed up and waiting til next December.

What A Year!

This has been a roller coaster year dealing with my 50th birthday, a new job (thank God) for my husband, a huge move in our lives, hurricane Sandy devastation at my husband's family summer home in New Jersey and of course, lots of knitting.

This year's knitmeter total:

It's down from last year where I hit over 20,000 yards - however, I think I'll chalk that up to the huge move.

My favorite knits of the year???  Let's see...I think these 3 are my favorites:

Interesting that they all are things I knit for someone else.

Also, I put my toe in the designing pond - while I won't be retiring on the sales of my Just One More Hat and Just One More Mitten patterns, they have done better than I expected.  Now I need to get my designing mojo back and get knitting again.

As I do every year around this time, I question whether or not to continue this blog.  There are so many other ways to stay in the knitting world with Ravelry, Facebook, Pinterest.  However, I do find this a therapeutic place for me at times.  I do pour my heart out here and find comfort in kind words and encouragement from you all.

I wish you a Happy New Year - 2012 is one that I don't care to repeat and I do hope the 2013 will be much kinder.  Happy New Year!

Now this is really MY Blanket

On Monday a package arrived from my friend Jennifer.  I emailed her to say I put it under the tree and told her I was very curious.  She then told me it was a gift from our knitting group in Connecticut.  So they arranged to Google+ hangout me into the weekly knitting group so I could open the gift with them.

Lo and behold, it was the most gorgeous blanket in my favorite blue.

We had made this same friendship blanket for another member of our group, Lisa, when she moved away.  It was so fun to receive a gift that I knew what it means to knit.  When you knit for someone you think about them and when I helped knit Lisa's blanket, I thought of her.  I now have a blanket that our group made while thinking of me.  It is beyond special and it is MY blanket.  I have already informed the whole family that only I get to use it.

Just this morning I was snuggling under it sipping my coffee.  I had to giggle as only Jennifer knows how cold our house is in the winter (we keep it at 56 during the day) so this blanket will be used a lot!
Here's her post on my opening the gift - had I known my gym clothes would have been on the blogosphere, I probably would have showered and looked a little nicer.

Today I'm off to my new knitting group - I miss my CT group every time I'm with this group.  Maybe one day they will grow to be as special as our CT group is...I kind of think the CT group is irreplaceable.

New Pattern For Little Hands

Presenting my newest pattern called Just One More Mitten.  After knitting the Just One More Hat pattern several times I realized that matching mittens would be wonderful.  So I devised a pattern for little hands just in time for some quick holiday knitting.  I will eventually add more sizes but I wanted to get this one out quickly.

If you do order it now, I will be sure to send you an updated pattern when I add more sizes (thank you Ravelry for that wonderful feature).

I Think I'm Done Now

As you've seen in past posts, I've made quite a few snowmen ornaments.  As of late I've cranked out another mini army of them.  Part of the reason is they are an easy go to pattern for me - I have memorized how to make them so I can just grab the needles and get started.  The other part of the reason is I needed some for Christmas gifties - perfect to take for small hostess gifts etc.  So here's my army of snowmen - I'm done now - at least for this year.

Stay tuned as I'm releasing a new pattern later today or tomorrow!

I Love Buttons - Just Not Sewing Them On

I finished this cardigan 2 weeks ago...it took me that long to put on the button band backing and 5 little buttons.  It's the Playful Stripes Cardigan by Alana Dakos - I love how this looks and hope to gift it to my great niece on Thanksgiving.  I just don't know if it will be too small for her or not...

Cari's Caps

When I posted my new hat pattern on Facebook, an old friend who I haven't seen in 16 years asked about the hat and if it was itchy.  She was asking because she has breast cancer and is undergoing chemo.  If you knew Cari and I said her name, the first thing that would come to mind is her gorgeous red hair.  She buzzed it down last week and and was thinking she needs hats to keep her head warm this winter.

So, I told her to pick out yarn colors which she did and I whipped up 3 hats for her....she texted me a picture of herself in the green one and she looked lovely.  She asked what she owed me and I told her absolutely nothing...just wear them in good health!

BTW - I used Knit Picks Brava Bulky for all 3 hats as they are washable and surprisingly soft for acrylic.

Just One More Hat

Slouchy Beehive Hat

The Republic Hat

Sunday Drive Designs

Every now and then one of those little sidebar ads on Ravelry catches my attention.  I was in need of tags for my hand knits and saw an ad for Sunday Drive Designs.  So I ordered some baby related tags and some more generic tags.  They arrived very quickly and the thing I love most about Etsy is the careful and personal packaging...sometimes even a bonus gift!

Go check out Sunday Drive Designs - Becky Morrette is the vendor.  Lovely products, nice packaging, and a personal touch of a hand-written thank you - what more can you ask for?

Here are the tags - I love the care instructions inside.

This is the personal touch that makes Etsy so nice.
A handwritten note and sample cards.

Just One More Hat

You might have noticed a new item on my sidebar.  I designed a new hat pattern, put it out to test in child sizes and then wrote it for adult sizes.  That too has been tested and I published it today - originally I called it Herringbone Hat but there were too many of that name and it really isn't a herringbone pattern.  So I named it "Just One More Hat" - you can never have too many and you might need just one more!

Check it out on Ravelry - it's a fast knit in bulky yarn.  One hat took me 4 1/2 hours.  Perfect for holiday gifts!

10 on Tuesday - 10 Things on My Mind Right Now

When I first saw this theme I thought there can't be 10 things on my mind but then I got to thinking and there definitely are 10 (or more) things.

1.  My husband's family home in New Jersey - we still haven't seen the interior damage yet.  I'm fearful everything on the first floor is trashed and we'll have to put everything curbside.

2.  Our home in CT - it is still without power and I worry for the family that is renting it.  When Irene hit, we lost power for 10 days but it wasn't freezing out like it is now.  Tomorrow will be day 10 - I hope they are using the fireplace and keeping warm enough.  I'm also worried about the tree damage and how the property looks now

3. The election - enough said.

4. A job interview I went on - I'm still waiting to see if I made the next cut.  I made the first cut and gave them references the day after Hurricane Sandy.  God bless all the people I contacted who responded in spite of power outages, etc.  It's a great opportunity and I'll tell more about it when I hear one way or another.

5. My husband and his jaw pain - he has trigeminal neuralgia - look it up.  It sucks and he's in terrible pain right now.  He's had it for 15+ years and it comes and goes.  Sadly, he's in a really bad bout.

6. What to bring to knit in the car this weekend while driving to NJ to see the damage to our home.

7. Our dog's trip to the vet tomorrow - she has this cyst on her side which isn't going away.  I hate taking her to the vet as she is very protective of herself and sometimes we have to sedate her to get anything done.

8. Collecting items to take to NJ for those in need - I've started bags of canned goods, blankets, toothpaste, toothbrushes, etc.

9. Choir practice - my new friend here in MA has convinced me to sing in the choir for the Christmas season.  I haven't sung in a choir since I was a teenager.  I'm nervous, wondering what I was thinking, but a little excited too.

10. This pattern which I've put out to test knit...wondering what price I should put on it - any suggestions?