getting my money's worth

from my knitting lately. seems like all my projects get knit, then frogged at least twice, if not three times :-)



these green autumn (druid) mittens were started on the way up to pensacola for christmas.
i knit both the cuffs on 2.25 knitpicks harmony dpns. but the chart for the hand was not the best choice for vacation knitting...

last week i picked them up again. tried on a cuff, it fit me fine, but i knew they would be too tight for my daughter rebecca, who has very large hands and wrists.

rip rip, start over with 2.5. knit knit knit, hmm, the hand would still be too tight for rebecca.

rip rip, keep the cuff, but reknit the hand with 2.75s. purrfect width, but the hand is too short.

so i knit almost an extra repeat of the pattern, starting the decreases on the line that would be the extra row 69. i ended up with 11 sts before starting the saddle.

what a clever way to close up the saddle! that jared flood writes an excellent pattern.

for the thumb i only needed to add 2 extra rows before starting the decreases.


another present tucked away for christmas :-)

all that was left of 2 skeins of jamieson's spindrift was 14 inches!

when i knit the dusk pullover for tom, i had tons of leftover skeins, 3 each of dusk and midnight.

the mittens only used 2 skeins, the pattern calls for 3.

i'll knit a pair of midnight for natalie.

shimmo and madaket waiting for the tennis ball.

lucky lucky lucky me!

a few weeks ago, kim of the woolen rabbit wrote about her new van eaton potpourri wheel.

i knew mr. van eaton had retired from wheel making, the last time i spoke to him it was his 87th birthday!

after seeing kim's wheel i thought i'd ask mr. van eaton if he would make me a few extra bobbins. yes, he could make a couple of bobbins, then he said he had a potpourri traditional wheel that a lady had ordered and had never picked up. he said i could buy it if i'd like.

are you kidding? happy happy dance :-)

the wheel has all different woods, apricot, apple, walnut, mesquite, cherry, bubinga and teak.

my friend terri shea wrote a wonderful story about mr. van eaton on her blog-

it's truly an honor to have his wheels.

we have 11 new calves

aren't they sweet?

i love their colors :-)

daddy bull is on the right. blossom is the black and white cow on the left.

it hasn't rained here in central florida for so long that we've had to feed the cows twice a week. normally by now all they eat is grass.

the tree in the middle is our mulberry tree. the larger one behind it is a camphor tree.

when we planted the mulberry tree about 11 years ago it was 5 or 6 feet tall ;-)

now it's twice as tall as the garage!

happy spinning!

the long and winding row

miles and miles and miles of binding off
at least it seemed like miles

but let me start at the very beginning


with these absolutely gorgeous skeins of worsted superwash merino from tanis fiber arts-

12 different colors, greens, blues and purples.

the colors are so saturated and the yarn is super soft and squishy.

excellent customer service!

it all started with a little log cabin square, ala januay one, thanks cara :-)

true potato chip knitting.

after the log cabin strips were all knit up, i picked up all the stitches on knitpicks harmony tips using 2 tips and 5 cables.

added a narrow border of jewel and a wide border of mallard just like a sewn quilt.

exactly what i was hoping for, a huge super-soft comfy balnket, big enough for two.

details in my ravelry notebook.

in our lake placid backyard we have a mulberry tree. when we planted it the tree was about 6 feet tall. now it is huge!

tom and i put on our rattiest clothes, and picked a bowl full of berries.

i baked a pie. yum yum yum




madaket and shimmo waiting for the tennis ball.

rajah says "stupid dogs, they could be napping."