Friday, December 25, 2015

Advent-A-Long ~ Finale

And we come to the end of the Advent mitten knitting ~ well, save for the thumb on the second mitten!  Somehow, I managed to mix up the stripes towards the end (now how did I do that?!?) but its okay.  And they fit me, so I'm going to get to keep them for myself.



I adored doing this project, it made me happy the entire way and I'll have such special memories of each time I wear them.  I'm still working on one small gift knitting project that needs to be finished before Sunday, as well as a larger crochet project that's also a gift but in the meantime I want to pick up and finish the Outlander themed sock I began one year ago (can you believe it, it's taken me an entire year and I'm still only half way finished!)  Its a great pattern but a bit fiddly and in black yarn so it's not a carry along project.  Do you remember them, my Black Selkie socks? I know I'll love them when they're finished and I certainly don't want to wait till next Christmas to wear them.

  Merry Christmas to all and any who might be reading this ~ are you already dreaming of what to be knitting, spinning or crochet-ing in 2016? I'd love to hear!  In the coming days, we'll be separating the rams and ewes, the rams will go back to their bachelor quarters and after a few days of tussle they won't mind a bit.  We'll put coats back on them, do our best to keep hay and chaff out of the growing fleeces.  It's been a mild winter here but the fleeces seem very plush to me.

God's love and blessings to you, and if I haven't said it often enough I really appreciate each of you who takes time to read and especially to leave a note! Seems like so many are leaving blogs behind but its still my favorite way to connect.

P.S. To my friend Kate who reads the blog, if you see this post, would you email me Kate?  I've been wanting to ask you about something and know I don't have your email (or its probably changed, lol)  You can reach me at serenityfarmswool @ yahoo dot com Hope to hear from you!

Monday, December 21, 2015

Advent Day 20 and 21

There has been Advent Knitting, just not Advent Blogging! A few of you have asked so I thought I'd better update today ~ it won't be long and this project will be finished.

Here we go


The tea kettle holds my ball of yarn, to keep it from rolling around.  A poor woman's yarn bowl if you will ;)  You can see that one mitten is finished.  The thumb looks pointy in the picture but it actually isn't.  I might mention again, that I love an after thought thumb!


I'm happy to say that the mitten fits me perfectly...I was a bit nervous it was going to be to small, but its fine.  And although I love a finished project as much as the next person, I'm going to be sad to see this one done, its been so enjoyable!  

Sunday, December 06, 2015

Advent Knitting Day 5 and 6

On Day 5 (Saturday), my BBAdventalong knitting went for a walk in the woods with me.  It's unbelievable that in the first week of December we've got no snow on the ground and it's nearly 50 degrees!


My husband has been doing an exceptional job of chosing the yarn parcels each morning, and having fun as well.  He chooses and then I knit while he's eating breakfast.  It only takes about five minutes to knit the few rows on each mitten.


I thought these two small logs had interesting  lichen on them, a nice backdrop for the mitten.

What I've been doing is knitting three rows with the colored yarn, and two rows of the main color charcoal.  I don't have a picture from today (Sunday's) knitting, the color yarn is purple. I also took the opportunity to weave in the ends of the colors I've used so far, keeping things neat.  It won't be very long and I'll put in the placement for the afterthought thumb.

Friday, December 04, 2015

Advent-a-Long Day 2 and 3

My husband, bless his heart, is doing a fantastic job of choosing which bag to open each morning - so far we have glittery green, red and then a jeweled blue.  I didn't get a photo of Thursday's blue, but here is the red and green along with the second stitch marker that I made ~


We're having a lot of fun opening the package of surprise yarn and knitting over coffee in the morning.  I'm loving the way these are coming together with the charcoal grey...I kind of wish I'd done socks now, it seems like they'd be a fun pair to wear through the winter.

Since I didn't get a snapshot of Thursday's blue, I thought instead I'd share a picture of my little yarns gathered together waiting for coffee to finish!


I'm off to a Christmas lunch today, celebrating the Joy it means to us with a small group of friends.  That isn't something I usually do, but I'll admit to looking forward to the time away.  I'll be back with some new pictures later today or else tomorrow.  Did any of you decide to do some Advent along knitting?

Wednesday, December 02, 2015

Wool, Mittens and an Advent-a-Long

(This was meant to be shared yesterday, the first of December ~ sigh.  I always seem to be behind these days!)



I might have shared before my love of knitting podcasts...you know, little snippets of the lives of other obsessive knitters and lovers of fibers?  There are so many really great ones that I find myself having to do a forced cut-back of my time on YouTube ;)  That said, there are three, well four now, that I never allow myself to miss.  My friend Sarah at Fiber Trek, because its all about fiber, knitting, spinning and (mostly) grey wool!  One day I hope to be able to sit down with Sarah in the wilds of Maine, or here at the midwest farm house, I think we could talk for days! The elegant and always inspirational Isabelle at Fluffy Fibers - oh my goodness, I just feel so happy after watching and listening to Isabelle!  And she has a very sweet and devoted house kitty who often makes an appearance on the podcast.  I've recently discovered FO and Dye with Dave and Elly, who are so much fun to watch - their podcast is usually short but sweet, they are adorable and I always finish watching them with a smile (one of these days I'm going to treat myself to some of Elly's lovely dyed yarns)  And Elly has beautiful hair ;)

But there is one podcast that is truly an Event, an epic event at that, and that is Dan and Kay of The Bakery Bears Podcast.  Funny, sweet, smart, down to earth, dreamers, visionary, generous, kind, talented...there just aren't enough words to describe this husband and wife team and their darling little girl!  I get the feeling that there aren't enough hours in the day for all that goes on in the creative minds of the Jones' ;)  Really - treat yourself and stop reading my blog right now and go check them out, LOL!  I'll be right here when you're done...

Anyway, the most recent brainstorm from Kay and Dan has been an "Advent Along" for knitters.  If you're a member of Ravelry, you can find the details here.  I decided to participate by knitting a pair of mittens using random bits of mostly hand spun wool.  I've placed my yarns in some of the little drawstring bags I have that my Mom made for me several years ago.  This makes the project extra special - its been five years now since we lost Mom, and I can think of her each day when I open one up to knit from.  I decided to make myself some stitch markers as well and you can see those below ~





I think the little bead looks like a Christmas ornament!  Anyway, I put all my yarns in a basket (you see them in the first picture above) and Bill is helping me by choosing which bag I'll use every morning.  So far, excitingly enough, the yarn has been first green with some bits of gold angelina and then red - can you imagine?!?  My main color is charcoal grey wool and mohair, so I'm alternating three rows of the "surprise" colored yarn minis with two rows of the main color charcoal.  Knitting top down (my favorite way, now, of making mittens) It really only takes about five minutes of knitting time - it's actually most difficult to put them away and not keep knitting!  I'm going to attempt to post just a little update each day and to cheerfully say hello, so be sure to check back.  And I really don't think its to late for you to join along for a few minutes of "stash-down" knitting between now and Christmas if you wanted to.  I'll probably share a few other knitting podcasts that I don't usually miss.

And finally, during this season of Advent ~


"The Lord GOD will wipe away
the tears from all faces;
The reproach of his people he will remove
from the whole earth; for the LORD has spoken" Isaiah 25


Note: I didn't post links with the podcasts because my laptop is being funny about it.  If you search for any of them by name on YouTube they should be easy to find.