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.