Having a Snow Day!!

It had warmed up and most of the snow was gone, we woke up to this softly falling snow this morning and it is very soft looking out there. The knitting is slowly winding down, decided I would not knit a stitch yesterday and it was very hard not to pick up the needles last night but I managed...kept falling asleep.

This how I knit!! I keep telling her she is going to lose an eye one day because of the needles but it does not worry her!! Well off to get at the day, today will be a baking day and then putting up the Christmas tree...and of course a bit of knitting.

What happened to November!!

Well what happened to November!! Can not believe it is December already and I better start believing and start looking at the calender and get my act together and put the knitting needles down...if I can...think they are stuck to my fingers. Last Christmas market this weekend and am on my last knitting order for a customer. So glad it is the last market for the year, the markets have been so good this year we are selling out of most of our items, then have to knit like mad to have something for the next market. Friend Gabie and I have been knitting ourselves sick...and we are so far gone with the knitting addiction we can not stop, last market when I called and asked if she was knitting as everything was gone again she said she was done!! no more knitting...I said I am done...no more knitting for markets this year! Well that lasted at least fifteen minutes...she even ran out of yarn and we had to get some to her....she sent a bag of items she knit, I had back orders for four pair of socks and three pair of slippers but I did get ten headband/cowls knit up, thank-goodness I have yarn so something is on the table. Plus..Plus....my sister had this great idea for the grand and great grandchildren for Christmas...our mother had passed away in Feb. and she thought it would be great to knit these angel ornaments and put a piece of my mothers jewelry on each one and give the angels to the grandchildren for Christmas....I remember her handing these kits to me and our younger sister in the summer and we said o.k. and tucked them away...me actually forgetting about them..and then finding the kit a few weeks ago and thinking I better get started on these angels...looked at the pattern and thought you got to be kidding...just the body has thirty-one rows and they are all different...and the kit is for nine angels....I e-mailed the sisters and said are you girls working on the angels? Sister who had this great idea and had got the kits for us...said she had tried one and it is not too bad....younger sister..who can plain knit...a bit..said she would get at hers but could not remember how to purl...I said get some scrap yarn and your needles and get in front of the computer and hook into youtube and get started... thinking..you got to be kidding! Well I started an angel...what a complicated pattern....could not get past row five..always had the wrong amount of stitches left...but I got it figured out finally and worked away... got the nine body parts done and knit the the wings...eighteen wings...thinking..how is younger sister ever going to get this done. Finally got my nine knit and the kit did not have enough pipe cleaners to finish the nine angels...hmmm...where had I stashed this kit..maybe some fell out. So went looking around...guess what I found..another kit for nine more angels!! You have to be kidding...when I talked to sister who's great idea this was..she said yes..her and I had two kits to knit up and younger sister had one kit...o.k..started knit angels again...e-mailed younger sister..said to her... remember when I said not to use bad language while knitting the angels...I take that back! Finally sister whose great idea this was..who had got the angel kits...and who told us to suck it up and get knitting when we complained...was not doing so well with her angels either...she e-mailed me and said if she ever has a great idea like this again..... So got my eighteen angels knit and put together and tucked in a box and mailed to the sister (she is working non-stop on her angels this weekend) sister who could not figure out how to purl who has been watching youtube knitting video's non-stop and still has not got past the fifth row...she has this idea that she will just knit something and then is going to glue feathers all over it.....I think between other sister and I there will be enough angels. I might do a couple for myself..once they are knit and together they are nice.

Just talked to younger sister yesterday...I said we would have enough without her nine angels...but I did suggest....that the one she was working on...with all the glued feathers and whatever.....to cover her knitting mistakes...would make a great Christmas gift...for our sister.....Better go get at my knitting.....

Well here it is almost the middle of October...where did the summer go. I have been having a terrible time with blogger and the computers I had almost given up trying to write a post, did not have time to waste fighting with them, for me about the only uninterrupted time I have is at night after everyone else has gone to bed and for some reason since we have moved down here that is the time the internet is half asleep and sometimes I can not even open up the blogger site to do anything. Last post I had planted the garden etc. etc. and now the garden is being put to bed for the winter. It was so hot with next to no rain this summer so spent most of my time watering which is not the same for the plants, did get a few peas and beans and they were so good but the heat and no humidity the flowers dried up on the tomatoes and finally not even the peas and beans were producing anymore. The gladiolus had blooms come out but they did not open either, just dried up. I just dug the bulbs up, I was worried whether they would have survived...but they are large and healthy.

But with all the hot dry weather we got the decks built at the front and back of the house, my pots I filled with plants for the deck got to sit on the deck for a short bit before the frost arrived, am going to try to keep the geraniums over the winter in the shed, have a heat lamp in there right now but have to get a better heat source when it really gets cold. We have had a couple of wet days and now are having some more warm weather so are getting the landscaping finished around the front deck.

Was also busy knitting fingerless gloves for the market table and got my dye pots out a couple of times to dye up some yarn. Now the regular weekly markets are finished for the year but the Christmas markets are coming up so when I am not knitting I am sorting washing and carding Alpaca fibre. am working on a white baby fleece right now...it was so full of vim when I started, it was a lot of work but it is clean and sooo soft, am carding a little bit of merino and silk in it and it is so beautiful!! I really want to keep it for myself...have to stop myself from running to the spinning wheel with it right now!! Well better get back to the carding...carding...carding

Sorting Alpaca Fleeces and Planting the Garden

What have I been up to?? Not Blogging that is for sure, too much to do!! I have been sorting alpaca fleeces, washing the fleeces..picking the fleece...carding the fleece and pulling it into rovings...white fleece!! Thought I would never get it clean, but after picking crud out of it and washing it and putting it through the picker and carder it was so beautiful (thank-goodness!!) I had not used a picker before and was talked into buying a Patrick Green picker by Paula Simmons when I bought the triple carder, then we moved shortly after and the picker was still in the box and I kept hearing how dangerous a picker was....I went on youtube and watched some videos of people using a picker and them talking about how dangerous it was....thinking why did I get this thing!! But here I was with this soft and fine white fleece with all the crud in it...and Paula had said it was used for Alpaca...O.K. I thought...I will try it and I got it out of the box...read the instructions....took a handfull of fleece and slowly pushed the picker back and forth....wow!! I was getting all this fluff and most of the debris was falling out!! So there I was picking then carding and it was turning out so beautiful. I had an order for two pounds of roving...so that was a lot of carding and pulling into roving but got it finished and delivered, really hated it go...but there are more fleeces to process. So I worked on processing fleece when I could not work outside as we were getting rain and when we could work outside we got some raised beds built, filled with dirt and I got my vegetables planted and strawberries planted in a small raised bed, we put hoops of pvc pipe over the beds and put some garden mesh over them to keep the birds and deer from getting in the beds. I checked today and the lettuce, beets, carrots and spinach is coming up, RH had planted potatoes a while ago in the ground and they have been up for a bit. Then I got all the flowerpots planted for..........the imaginary deck....it is not built yet but I am ready!! We finally got the landscaper to come and push the big pile of dirt up around the house and now all the llamas and alpacas have been sheared and it drys up we we can get at the deck building..meanwhile here are the pots of flowers waiting. I also got carried away and bought some rose bushes, started some dahlia, lily and gladiolus bulbs...to go around the imaginary deck...so have planted them in the ground in behind the raised beds and will move them later...plus...my Aunt sent me some tomato seeds which I started under lights and they will be ready to plant outside soon...where...I have not decided yet...and so it goes.....

A Naked Alpaca...finally!!

The weather has been very warm the last few days so the shearing has started, actually it has been so hot in the afternoons shearing has only been done in the mornings, so it is not going that fast but has started...and now they are saying rain and snow the end of the week. Here is our little Belle...all naked and feeling great...she is so black! her mother and sister and brother are sheared also.

I have been trying for two days to get a post written!! I just get it started and write a couple of sentences and then blogger will not not let me continue do anything, now tonight it let me put Belle's picture up...and will not let me post anymore pictures! Am frustrated!! But so far is letting me write words so I will write. HB sheared all day today and has only one female llama left...she refused to come out of the pasture and we have our three large male llamas left to shear, they will be done if the weather holds good the next few days but that is a bit iffy so we will see. Went on Sat and picked up some alpaca fleeces from a friend, needed some light colors and as we did a calm period this morning I got out the sorting table and sorted for a bit outside, so have been washing alpaca fibre all day, wind came up so moved the table downstairs and now have fibre drying, just came up from fluffing it a bit to help it dry. Hopefully it will be dry enough tomorrow to start carding. Started picking and sorting another white alpaca fleece but it is so fine it is full of a lot of debris so it is slow going. Well off to bed and hope I am allowed to post this!! Hopefully tomorrow will be a better posting day!!

NOOOOO!!!! Not snow again!!

This is what we woke up to this morning! It must have started about five o'clock as I heard the birds outside carrying on, they have been working on building their nests forever and here came the snow again. Last night it got so cold I finally went out around midnight and put all my potted plants in the shed, thank-goodness! It has not been that warm at all and everything is so slow coming up and the leaves on the trees are barely out. RH got the garden area beside the raised beds tilled up so the moisture was good for that, the sun did finally come out and the snow disappeared but it was windy and cold. The tulips have buds on them but they do not want to open up when it is so cold out. Well off to bed, RH was off to a meeting tonight, just got home and resident dog barfed everything he ate today all over the carpet so had to get out the rug shampooer and get to work, it was bad enough the dog barfed but got worse when RH had to step in it. Spent the afternoon cleaning the carder and trying to get my stuff organized again, thought I had some dark brown alpaca and was going to card it...well guess that was another thing I put in a safe place as I could not find it or it could be that RH had moved all my stuff around again...I am trying to stay sane....why does everything have to be a treasure hunt!! Tomorrow is another day...hope it is a warm sunny one!!

We are slowly getting there!!

We have a had a few nice sunny days although today was so windy, farmers field around us was being planted so lots of dust. RH rented a roto tiller and dug up a large area beside the raised beds he built, we are still waiting for the landscaper to arrive, we scrounged around and found some soil to put in the bottom half of the raised beds and there was an old manure pile out in the barnyard and he uncovered it and dug into the center of the pile with the bobcat and got some nice compost, now we just need some good dirt for the top of the beds. A person does not realize how much soil the beds take. Thank-goodness for the little bobcat as at our ages we can not do much shoveling and carrying anymore. Had an appointment with the eye doctor earlier in the week and all the business's have their plants...it was like Christmas!! I had to contain myself, bought two rose bushes, three iris plants different from what I already have, love this one, it wasn't blooming when I brought it home but look what it did yesterday!!

Also bought a couple lilies and a small geranium, forgot to take my camera out and take a picture of the little Geranium plants in the window of the shed, so nice to see all the bright color. Am not getting many pictures as the little camera that I can tuck in my pocket is having an issue and will not take pictures. Not much on the fibre front as we have not shorn our llamas and alpacas yet and now on the news tonight it sounds like we could get some more rain, hopefully they are wrong but it has really turned cold tonight. Good news is our Alpaca friends did manage to get their Alpacas shorn on the weekend, as we only have black Alpacas I usually get the other colors of fibre from them. So we will go get the fibre this Sat. and then I will be busy...can not wait!!

It looks like spring could be here! shhh! I am whispering this....

After the terrible rain snow wind etc day we had on Saturday and I was ready to run away and live in someones greenhouse...or go stark raving mad, the sun came out on Sunday, it was not that warm but looking out the window you could pretend, water everywhere. Now today the sun was out again and it was a bit warmer and it is drying up, I had an appointment with the eye Dr. today so we were off to town...and ohhhh... the temptations....they have all their garden plants out...made my day...bought a couple of Rose bushes.....a couple of new Iris plants...a Lily plant and another geranium. At the other place I had this beautiful pink rose bush and I was sure I had kept the sticker off the pot so I could get another one like it....I can not find the sticker!!! Am sooo upset!! I have a lot of pictures of that Rose bush, will print out some pictures and do the tour of the greenhouses...meanwhile I bought another pink Rose and a Red Rose bush. Oh Mr. Landscaper man please come and push the dirt around so we can get at flowerbeds! RH said he would go rent a roto-tiller tomorrow and get the garden dug up, it is going to take some work as it is over grown with grass. And we better start fitting some llama and alpaca shearing in too. The farmers around us are out getting their fields planted today. Remember this sweater I knit...it has been a year ago since I finished it, just before we moved...well I finally found where it had been packed away! I want to get it washed and blocked and then can measure it up for a zipper and that will be another UFO finished.

Tomorrow is supposed to be a nice warm day, hope the weatherman is right about that and we can get some outside work done up. It is such a frenzie out in the yard, birds hurrying here and there with nest building materials in their little beaks. there was a real commotion in the yard when a large hawk arrived and here were the Magpies chasing it away. I do not like the Magpies as they eat the little baby birds but they did good today chasing the hawk off. Well am off to bed, dog is fed and in his bed, cats just finished their snack and are ready to settle down, guess we can call it a day!!

Are we ever going to get spring???

Friday the day started with sunshine and the day was beautiful, we worked outside all day and the ground was drying up. RH cleaned the yard of some of the broken tree limbs from when they took some of the trees out to move the old house out and the new house in and the bad winds we had last fall and winter, the landscaper was supposed to come and move the dirt pile around for us but it was still too wet. I found all the pieces for my little greenhouse thing and got it all together and ready to go, so was a good day. Then we woke up Sat morning to rain and it was worse as the day went on, even had a few snow flakes and the wind was so cold. Glad we did not get all the snow they got north of us...snow in the month of May!! It would have been better to have it in the winter! Now it does not seem to bother the Robins....they just keep on doing Robin stuff but the poor Love birds are sitting there looking so cold. I am so worried about a pair of ducks that are wondering around the yard...there is a slough in the male llamas pasture that has water in it and back in the farmers field there is a pond with nice trees around it.....are they being chased out of the ponds...did something get their eggs...are they not supposed to be sitting on eggs right now......so many questions...I know...I have to get a life!! And I would..if I could be out in the yard planting things!! I had some yarn left over from knitting the blue sweater so made myself a hat, being acrylic yarn and very light weight I thought it would make a great spring hat and it is, can hardly feel I have a hat on. it was a quick knit so think I will make a few more, for some reason I am really into knitting cables at the moment.

Now I hope the day is nicer tomorrow or I think I am going to have to go hang out in what greenhouses are open to reassure myself that spring is going to be here one day. My little tomato plants are not growing like they should under the light downstairs..either it is too cold or they are getting too much light...which it could be too much light as I have not found the automatic timer to turn the lights on and off and I keep forgetting to turn them off. Tomorrow is another day...Hope it is a good day...Sun...no snow... no rain.......

Rain and Snow = mud...mud...mud

It rained all day yesterday and at one point we had a bit of snow but thank goodness not as much snow as they had just southwest of us, their road was packed with snow. There will not be any landscaping done around here for a while!! You can see the slippery mud near the house, farther back the grass is green and in the distant is our raised beds waiting to be filled with soil so I can get them planted.Woke up this morning to fog and frost on the grass, it is finally disappearing and the sun is out, hope it stays. Finally put my grow light in the storage room downstairs as it was just too cold to put it out in the shed, now my little plants have light and a safe place from the cats, just have to remember where I put the timer I used before...searching...always searching.

Here is a picture of one of the Doves in the tree just outside of the window in the computer room. There has been a real fight going on in that tree...a Robin family wants to build their nest in there and the Doves have claimed it for themselves and my goodness those Robins are feisty, There was such a fight going on the other day I could not even see who was fighting with who but it looks as if the Doves taken the tree...I mean...it is not like there is only one tree in the yard. the Robins are so busy gathering nesting materials they almost walk over your feet. We are keeping Batman well fed and so far there have not been any bird casualties.

I have been knitting a pair of fingerless gloves for myself out of the pewter grey yarn I spun from the alpaca/wool roving, had started knitting my the reg pattern I usually use and decided to put a cable st. down the front, what a job trying to get the cable centered and the thumb in the correct spot. Finally got it all sorted out. am getting tired of knitting with grey, keep saying I have to get the dye pots out but it hasn't happened!! Am off to do some baking...good day for it!

A Crochet Alpaca, she is so cute!!

Well the post I sent yesterday actually was posted to will try again, have not had time to smack the laptop around yet. I found this little cutie online, I can not remember the name of the book...I downloaded the book but only printed off the instructions for the Alpaca. It was a boy Alpaca named Sherwin but when I finished him I decided it looked like a her...but have to think of a name for her. She was my riding in the car project but finally decided to finish her last night. She wanted a crochet flower but all I could find was this little red flower and she wanted a red ribbon but had to be happy with a white one as that was all I could find, still do not have my cabinets moved downstairs so I can get all my stuff sorted out. All the time I was crocheting her I kept thinking ...no way this is going to look like an Alpaca...kept calling it a hedgehog. But when all stuffed and sewn together.....it does look like a chubby little alpaca. Took her picture sitting in a plant last night and here she is.

O.K. I just went and checked and the name of the book is Crochet Softies and is written by Stacy Troch, I downloaded it as a e-book from Martingale. of course I thought she was going to be a little softie but she ended up about twelve inches...now...was this because I did not stop and read before I picked up the yarn and hook...do not know..will have to go back and check...might try the pattern in finer yarn.
    Well do not think the landscaping guy will be arriving anytime soon as it rained all night and there are puddles in the driveway...and  our house sits in a sea of clay......busy washing doggie paws. And after fighting with this computer and thinking bad thoughts about what I was going to do about it all of a sudden last night most of the problems disappeared...hmmm...maybe it was because of the hammer I sat on the counter beside the computer...usually my rule is not to have a hammer in the same room as a computer. Well am off to put the grow light up for the seeds I planted...not going to see the sun for a few days the weatherman says.............

Blue Sweater is Finished

I have been having so much trouble with my computer do not know whether this will post. Thought I would use the big computer but something has been going on with it too, the program I download pictures on has decided it does not live there anymore so here I am back to the laptop which is letting me download pictures but the program must have upgraded itself so have to try to figure out how everything works again...why...why!! To make me crazy I think!!
   Anyway not a lot being accomplish in the fibre business, we are going to start shearing when the weather warms up, we are getting much needed moisture but now it is enough...too dark and dreary today and supposed to last all week. Planted a few seeds in the house but it is nerve wracking trying to keep them safe from Sheba, have them shut in the bedroom but they need more light, am going to put the grow light up in the room off the garage, wish it had heat in it as it is not that warm these days. We have three large raised beds built in the space we are going to have the garden, now have to get some loam trucked in. Guy is supposed to be here the end of the week to do some landscaping so will have him bring us some loam. Plants we moved down from the other farm and the ones we moved from the house here before they moved it off are all growing, when we moved the plants from here I did not notice tulips but here they are, growing big and healthy. The ground was so hard in the flowerbeds here HB took the bobcat and got under the plants and moved the whole bed over to a safe area so now am finding out what plants were there, now to get the landscaping done and the front deck built so I can move all the plants to their new area.
   I did get the Blue Sweater finished and washed but then have found a few mistakes which I did not notice until it was sewn up but it is going to stay the way it is, it was a kit and the only way I could get the pattern was to order the kit but why oh why did I use the yarn they sent with it...it is a soft loose spun acrylic so does not hold its shape very well. It did not have a chart for the patterns and it had every pattern in the sweater printed separately and one was repeated ten times and another four times and another.....was so hard to keep track of....plus the sleeves are too long...so will have to cut them off and reknit the cuffs.Here she is...

I keep thinking I should reknit it in another yarn, a natural fibre with some body to it and knit it when I am not moving and will revamp the pattern so it is not so confusing!

I carded up some of the pewter grey alpaca with some nylon and spun a skein, the nylon is called fake cashmere and it is so soft. Will knit myself a pair of socks out of it. The  customer that bought all the alpaca rovings from me has just e-mailed me and said he is almost finished spinning everything and how soon could I have some white alpaca ready for him so better phone friends I get the white fibre from and see if they have sheared yet. Well here goes hoping this gets posted, pictures will not go where I want them and the size of the font has decreased in size as I wrote, am off to work on the computer again!!!!

Shades of Pewter Alpaca yarn

Have the grey Alpaca/merino yarn spun up, I spun a fine tight twist as I am thinking of making myself a pair of fingerless gloves, I have knit many pairs for gifts and sales but never a pair for myself, I am thinking of something with cables and thought a tighter twist in the yarn would make the cables stand out, so we will see. I have it washed and drying. I carded up the rest of the grey Alpaca and tomorrow will put it through the carder another time and pull it off in roving. Then will card the rest of the gingerspice, then on to the brown alpaca fibre...have not decided what to mix with it although I found a bag of rainbo dyed silk in the gold shades that might look good, will do a small skein first and see how it looks. I had been spinning on my lendrum wheel but have some knee problems so unpacked my electric Roberta and got it set up...went to spin...I need a new driveband...which I do have a spare...but where is it packed?? Just sent a help!! help!! to Laura at Legacy Studio and she already has it in the mail, thank-you Laura! Will be so glad to get everything unpacked one of these days!
   Still slowly working on the blue sweater, have the buttonhole band knit on and one sleeve almost sewn in, too many interruptions in my days lately but did finish another sock, have to do a count and see how many I have, can always knit socks no matter what....specially when you have one or two cats on your lap...some days I feel like a cat slave...or a cat pillow. They are so needy in their old age.
   Weather is getting warmer these days and all the little birds are flying around...signs of spring are in the air, bring on the green...am so waiting for green!!

Still Carding Alpaca Fibre

First have to get the cute cat picture in, could not find her one morning after RH and Maxx were off to the hardware store to get whatever.....with all the building downstairs there is always something....when I went into the bedroom here she was.....in Maxx's bed...doesn't she look comfy. Sheba always looks so cute when she sleeps.

Have had to neglect the blue sweater while I am carding alpaca fibre. Only have to pick up the stitches and knit the button band and then sew the sleeves in and there it sits. Have got the alpaca roving ready to go for my customer so maybe can get at the sweater tomorrow. I carded the alpaca fibre I call Gingerspice with a little fine wool, always like to mix in around 10% wool in my alpaca and it turned out so nice, I spun up a skein just to see how it spun. I find with alpaca or llama to get a nice tight twist I have to put a lot of twist in the singles and the the ply as it has so much life in it. It was a dream to spin, have to get some more carded for me to spin.        

The picture shows the fibre and yarn lighter than what it really is, I carded the grey alpaca with some pewter colored fine merino roving and it turned out so nice, have called it shades of pewter.  Just starting spinning a bit of it so have no pictures yet. Then I went searching in my containers as I thought there had to be some more fibre already carded and I found it plus some more washed and ready to card, was so excited to find some of my lost yarn and fibre, was a good day!! It has been nine months since I have seen all my stash, it was just like Christmas. It is so good to be working with the fibre and spinning again. Actually it is after midnight and I should be going to bed...but....I keep thinking...I could spin just a bit. RH and Maxx are off to bed...cats just ate their midnight snack to hold them over......I am going to go spin for just a bit.........the wheel and fibre are calling to me.

The Blue Sweater is coming out of Time out...so I will too!!

This is Sheba...she does not care if I just make her into the bed....she just lays there making a lump...until I dig her out...she thinks that as she is getting attention all is good in her world.
   Well the blue Sweater is out of time out and almost finished!! Only have a few rows on the cap of the sleeve and then can start sewing it up. It has been so hard to not start something new...even though I am knitting I can not stop thinking about what I would like to knit next......and it isn't something that needs finishing...that is the sad part. I had this great idea....which is still popping up occasionally...as I am knitting the blue sweater......that this sweater would
look great knit up out of the llama/merino/soy silk.....that is still roving in bags that needs to be spun...I really need help!!
   For the last few weeks I have been wanting to get the carder going and get some alpaca fibre carded and into roving for a customer, first I had to find the alpaca fibre in the seacan storage container in the yard, so after rummaging around for a bit, it was found and then it was get the carder set up downstairs where RH has been finishing the basement....I keep saying I need some space to get my stuff set up...he says he still has to do some filling....then he is painting...then he is putting the ceiling tile up...stuff is all over the place...finally I went down and said this is going to be my corner and I have the carder set up and going while he is putting ceiling tile up practically over my head, but I have a pound of roving already packaged into roving and some more carded. he is now finished the corner by the closets...yahoo!! Now I can move over to that area. We did get all the shelving up in the storage room and filled them with boxes, shelving in the closets up...and filled them with my containers of fibre/yarn etc....and there are still boxes sitting around. But I was so happy to have the carder going, now am going to get the spinning wheels out. will we ever get things organized.
   We had Mr Fixit man from the place we bought the house live with us for a couple days doing repairs caused when the house was moved...cracks in the walls etc...so that is finished and we can get some pictures hung and I really need to decide on the window coverings one of these days, it is going to get pretty warm in here when summer arrives. Did not want to put anything up until all the building downstairs is finished as there is dust all over the place.
    Was so windy again today, we have had hardly any snow all winter so it is so dry outside and it does not help that we have nothing but dirt around the house, I so need to see some green!! I will even take a good dump of wet snow as long as we get some moisture, am hoping the plants I moved down here have survived the bad winds and no moisture. have been thinking about getting the hoses out and watering them down. Well am off to bed...it is already tomorrow...March 17th...Happy St. Patricks Day everyone!!

Snow Day!!

Well we have a snow day today! Why are we surprised? It is the end of Feb and we have had such a mild winter...I should be whispering this...we could still get a lot more snow days. What shows the feeling about snow days than this picture.
     Am still working on the blue sweater...have finished the fronts and am now working on one of the sleeves...thought about working both sleeves at once but then thought it could be tempting fate...although...if there was a mistake in my knitting......they would be matching...right? Anyway am only knitting one at a time and was doing sooo well...making sure I marked what row I finished before I put my knitting down...then I had not been able to work on it for a couple of days...today I thought I would knit a few rows while I had a cup of tea...found I had not marked what row I ended with,  thought I knew which row I was on and four rows knit found out it was not right so by the time I ripped back the rows I just knit and knit them again...only got an inch knit!! Now I have put it in time out...actually I guess I am in time out...what am I going to do in time out...see if I can find something chocolate...hmmm....might have to bake something...made some gluten free chocolate chip squares the other day... they were so good...but of course they are all eaten.... and can not get them off my mind.......

When the blue sweater or I am in timeout I knit socks, have all the orders knit and delivered so am trying to knit up as many as I can to stash away, although when orders come in it always happens I do not have the size or color they want. But I will be ahead for the farmers markets coming up in the spring. Just got my yarn order back from the mill this week, I had sent my alpaca fibre in about a year ago and it finally was finished, you know I had forgotten the color of the alpaca fibre I had sent...thought I had sent a mixture of colors but it must have been black fibre as the yarn came back a beautiful black. Have almost finished a pair of socks out of it and I love it. Just got the socks I have finished soaking in their bath and will get them  out to dry in a minute.

Also wanted to dye some of the grey alpaca/merino yarn to knit some pattern into the grey socks and give them some zazz. RH is off to a Llama club meeting today so I should get the socks blocked out to dry and get the dye pot on the stove while I have no interruptions...and of course...after I find some chocolate........

This sweater will never be finished!!

They look like angels when they are asleep but now it is our bedtime they are having tussles all over the house leaving hair all over, sometimes it is play but then turns into fights.
   The hydro saga was not over, they came early yesterday morning and said they were coming back sometime in the afternoon and replace all the hydro wires so we were without power for most of the afternoon but now we do not have to worry we should be good for years.
   Now onto the blue sweater ......I have been working steady on the right front dreaming of getting to the sleeves and had a good third of it knit....then discovered I should have reversed the cables on this side......so it is ripped out and I have started again, am going to try to get one pattern repeat finished before I go to bed. It did go through my mind...however briefly...that maybe I could just have pattern on the left front...and knit the right front plain...but no...better do it right. I am not going to tuck this away again...I am going to finish it.
   We had a bit of winter weather today, a bit of snow and colder but is supposed to be back to warm weather by Sunday. I am so waiting for spring, just had a seed catalogue arrive in the mail today. Well off to knit and then off to bed.

I AM BACK!!! HOPEFULLY!!

 View of the hills from the kitchen window.

Well Blogger is finally recognizing me again, I hope!! Haven't tried to post anything yet!! When I tried to write a post I was told I did not have a blog with them?? They were after me to try the new and improved and now I have been forced to be new and improved, will see how it goes. Can not believe the month of January is gone and I had only posted once. Our lives have been nothing but stress lately, keep saying this time next year we should be settled. First of all we have had such terrible wind storms, house had been barely here and we were losing shingles off the roof and as the shingles that were put on are only guaranteed for 120 and the wind was over that we were on our own, guy came and replaced shingles then four days later more wind and away went the shingles again so RH went and bought shingles and a lot of glue and fixed it himself, no one knows how to do the job properly anymore, when we have done it ourselves we have never lost a shingle...so am hoping that stress is done. Then lately we have been losing the power to part of the house on and off and these new smoke detectors go off with horrid shrieks which almost pierce your ear drums, specially when it happens in the night, electrician came out and found some wires burned a bit in the electrical box in the house....not a good thing...so he replaced them and away he went...that night same thing...so they thought it was something else so replaced that......that night the same thing...by that time I was ready to move out, I had such a headache from the alarms going off, I said to RH what else is on that breaker... he said only the basement lights and the bathroom fans and the smoke detectors.....I said turn the bloody thing off and go get the smoke detector from the trailer and we will put that up and that is what we did, next morning we phoned the company we got the house from and talked to the people that had installed the electrical in the house and they said to phone the hydro company and have them come out and check everything. The guy arrived after dark, our main hydro shut off is way off by the old barnyard site so off he went over there and when he checked that the hydro box was sizzling...not a good sign!! wires were burning off there too!! They replaced the main switch and so far o.k. hope that problem is solved. This is a old farm site so we are slowly finding all the glitches in things.
   I am still living out of boxes as we have not got any shelving up yet, RH has all the basement walls finished right up to the drywall on them and we have a large storage room ready for shelving, he is picking up the shelving today and as soon as we get that up I can start sorting things out, all my fibre is in bins and that wasn't bad when I had the bins sorted so I knew where things were but as the walls were being put up the bins were moved from here to there and I lost track so it was a real treasure hunt when I needed something. I had finally knitted up all the sock orders and got them delivered and thought I would get out all my unfinished articles.....well maybe not all of them...that would be too confusing...o.k. I got out a couple of them.....then the problem was to figure out where I left off in the pattern........remember this sweater, back was finished and I had started on the left front.......with all the pattern. Could not figure out where I was

in the pattern so it was rip back until I could see where I was........now I know why I dropped this project and started something else.......there are three different patterns in the fronts and you do not work from a chart...you do this row from the lace pattern...then this row from the cable pattern etc...if a person could just sit and finish the whole front without interruption you would be o.k. but even with me marking down where I left off in the pattern it was a chore, so have finished the left front...well almost finished... the last few inches is in time out... until I get the right front to that point and I can do them to match up. Then I only have the sleeves to knit. The only way to get this pattern was to buy the whole kit and it was acrylic yarn in the kit, at the time I thought I would knit the pattern up in the yarn in the kit and then knit it in a natural fibre, well when you get used to using natural fibres it is hard to knit in synthetic yarns. will carry on and finish it. Had just started working on the sweater and had a order come in for two more pair of alpaca socks, got them knit up and phoned to deliver them, lady had bought a pair at one of the Christmas markets for her husband  and he loved them so much he had not taken them off and wanted more......well when I called her she asked if I could reinforce the toes as on these socks as the toes on the pair he had were getting thin.......now.....this would have been so much easier to do before I finished the socks...right!! O.K. ripped back the toes of the socks and found a fine nylon yarn to knit in with the alpaca yarn and almost have them finished...again. Have to get the spinning wheel going and spin up a fine alpaca/nylon yarn to use for reinforcement on socks in the future.

Now this is the other unfinished article I got out to finish, why would I get two out to finish that had so much pattern in it...to make myself crazier!! This is my first really fine yarn shawl and pattern is not too bad when you work on it steady but have the same problem of trying to figure out where I left off......the dumb thing is I did spend time ripping back until I could see where I was....made notes on a piece of scrap paper...which has now disappeared.....I had had a good talk to myself about writing things on odd pieces of paper but guess I better give myself the talk again, my solution to this was to have a note book and everything is written in that, not as easy to misplace. As looking at the shawl and the sweater both laying there was stressing me I decided to tuck the shawl away until the sweater is finished.
   So that is what I have been up to lately besides stressing over blogger disowning me, having to vacuum everyday because of cat and dog hair and dust from the building downstairs all over everything........now if blogger does not let me post........I will not be happy. Now the good thing...we have to have a good thing in this post...right?........son Tom came out and got the router up and working so we can use the computers, the ipads and the printer where ever in the house!!
  

Happy New Year 2012

Here  goes, hoping between blogger and my laptop I will be able to post, We have had such warm weather and that means wind and more wind, we had a couple bad days with the wind over 140 klm, lost some shingles on the new house and half of a large evergreen broke off. The shingles are only covered on insurance if the wind is under 120 klm. We had quite a strong wind last night but did not hear any shingles taking off so am hoping the guy tarred them down. now are supposed to get bad wind again tomorrow. It is getting so warm am worried about my perennials I brought from the other place. the people that lived here before us had planted trees all around the house but left an opening to the west because of the view and that is where the wind has been coming from.
   I was so busy with Christmas markets and knitting orders of socks it was taking ages to get the house straightened out and we seemed to be living out of boxes, and knitting had to get finished before Christmas as they were gifts, plus my mother has been has been in the hospital which is over two hours away from where we live, managed to get down and see her a couple of times. Then the friday before Christmas I woke up with a bad tooth ache, managed to get a dentist appointment and had an abscessed back tooth so was on meds and could not chew anything, am now scheduled next week for a root canal. RH had put the tree up. last year we had bought an artificial tree so he just had to take it out of the box and it was a tree the lights were on, so there it sat until Christmas eve, we finally dug out a few boxes with ornaments in them and we had a decorated tree for Christmas day, the bottom was a bit scarce on decorations but next year all the boxes should be sorted out and I will know where things are. Keep saying to myself....this time next year....things will be better. Here was our tree.

Don't know whether I have ever posted the pictures of some of the needle felted items my daughter M.J. had made and gifted to me, they are beautiful. Am always afraid the cats will think they were made for them.

 

Blogger is trying my patience, it is only letting me download one picture at a time and does not want me to move them around, am giving up and leaving them where they are. Son T is coming out tomorrow to help sort out our computers and routers etc. so hopefully things will go better after that. Slowly am getting the furniture in it's place, this house is so much smaller so is a challenge fitting things in, once we get one of the bedrooms organized for a computer T.V. room things will start to get into shape, one thing about having the tree up and it seeming so crowded, when I took it down it looked like we had more room. This time next year....this is what I keep telling myself......Now this picture is not an ornament...it is Sheba supervising the taking down of the tree....do you see the halo around her head.....she did not take anything off the tree this year and destroy it......I hope she is not thinking....,next year at this time....I will have more energy.....

Hope everyone had a great Christmas and wishing everyone a healthy New Year!! And here is hoping blogger will be nice and let me post this........