February has crept in.....Where did January go??

Well the month of January is gone and February has crept in and with it some warmer weather, they are saying the Groundhog did not see his shadow....and we are supposed to get an early spring.We have been getting beautiful sunsets this winter so thought I would share the picture I had taken a couple days ago. I have been busy but at what?? Have not got much accomplished, did get another pair of socks knit and like the color of them, the color is lighter than in the picture, was not happy with the sock wool I used for the other pair but I have been wearing them and they are great, nice and warm.

We have been busy putting the flooring on the floor downstairs all week and almost finished, what a job with all the stuff we have down there, boxes that have been packed since we moved and all my fibre stuff in plastic bins, I have cabinets that are in storage that we can move in and I can get everything sorted out and know where things are, did not want to move them in before we got the floor finished. We had to move everything all to one side, do that portion of flooring then move it over and finish the rest of the floor but it is going to be sooo nice when it is all finished. Have been trying to take a bit of a break from knitting but is so hard to sit without knitting so have been knitting a few fingerless gloves. Should really get at all the UFO's that are lurking around here and there, came across a scarf I had started with some of my handspun....now what can I do....I was knitting it on a round needle, it was a needle with exchangeable tips...and I must have needed that size for another item, usually I pin a note to the item when I do that...but can not find any note...plus I remembered I did not like the way the pattern I was using was turning out...so I made up a pattern...and can not remember what it was..also can not find any info about that...note to self..smarten up..do not ever do that again, am hoping if I rip back a few rows I will remember. I have quite a bit knit on it. So on it goes....

Knitting and Feeding the Birds

Sister Jeannie gave me the red bird feeder for Christmas, I had mentioned one day that the trees were so pretty with all the snow and I took a picture through the kitchen window and it would have made a great Christmas card, all it needed was a red bird feeder...and here it is just as I imagined, picture is not that clear as I am taking it through a window with a screen on it. What little piggies the birds are, the males are up on the feeder fighting over their own space and tossing the seeds they do not want onto the ground below where the females eat (or that is what it seems), they go through a feeder of seed a day, we only fill it every other day and make them clean up the seed on the ground. Then there are days the birds are not here...hmmmm....wonder if the neighbors have feeders out and they do the rounds.

My Aunt made this little dress ornament and sent it to me for Christmas, it is made from some wool she had spun, I love it!! Could not put it away with all the Christmas things, have put it in the china cabinet so I can see it every day, I made her a couple of knit mice ornaments, I bought the book of Alice Starmore's Fair Isle knitting a while ago and this was the first chance I had to knit some of the patterns, the great thing about the patterns are they are all different rows....it has a pattern that says for six rows...or seven rows etc. so you can pick a pattern for what space you will have for pattern, I knit the pattern on the back of the mice and of course did not take a picture before I mailed them off to her, want to make myself a couple so will remember to take pictures. Finally got all the knitting orders finished and on their way to the customers and now have been knitting some socks for myself, finished a pair last night and am wearing them. Not really excited about the yarn but it was on sale and it will do, have started on another pair as I really need socks, have bad feet and the seam on socks you buy hurt my toes, I see they have socks for sale for Diabetics.....and they have seams on the toe too, most of my sock sales are for people who are diabetic.

We had such cold temperatures with lots of snow over the holidays and now our famous Chinook has blown in with temperatures in the plus numbers and everything is so icy, went up to the shed where I have my gardening things stored for the winter and what a time walking...thought I should have taken my cell phone with me just in case I went down on the ice. The wind blowing so hard and everything covered with ice!! not good!! RH is off to a meeting tonight so I am off to my knitting chair, if I am quiet hopefully the cats will not hear me.

New Year Here We Come!!

Christmas over and a new year beginning! Finally getting all the Christmas decorations down and put away for another year. Here are the resident cats having their last nap on Mr and Mrs Santa's lap.

Have to make a note to make the Santa's new clothes for next year, poor old things...they are twenty-seven years old and still wearing the same clothes, guess it is about time. We had a great Christmas, youngest son gave his friend K her engagement ring Christmas Day so it was pretty exciting, K has two young girls who made our Christmas, so great to have young children around at Christmas with all their excitement. Oldest son and daughter-in law were with us for Christmas Day too with our youngest Grandson who is fifteen, he also enjoyed the company of the girls, the girls kept him so busy he did not have a minute to be bored.

They even got him to lay under the tree with them to get their pictures taken! We were so busy with Christmas markets before Christmas and all my items would sell out at the market and then it was back to the knitting needles working steady to get a few things for the next market, good thing I could fill the tables with my Alpaca yarn, and I sold so much yarn I have to get busy sorting fleeces to take to the mill so I will get it back in time for this coming years markets. I just finished all the back orders from before Christmas and can take a bit of a rest....knitting myself a pair of socks...then get at the fleece sorting. I have a few fleeces already washed up and ready to run through the carder, have to decide whether I want to dye some fleece and then card it or spin it and dye it later...maybe do a bit of each, will be great to get back to spinning again.

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.....