Thanksgiving Post

It's the day after Thanksgiving. We had a quiet day at home watching a cold front blow in! It was 75 in the morning and got steadily cooler and grayer as the day wore on. Today is only the high 40's. Too bad! I was enjoying the warm weather!



I have been knitting quite busily - finished several Christmas gifts and have another on the needles.




Here's my WIP as a teaser! Pics of the rest are on the blog - www.neverbluefarm.com/knitting.html

On the horse front, I moved Shadow to a farm with an indoor arena for the winter. He is settling in nicely - he is just the cutest thing on the planet and they all love him there!

I posted an update about his ride with the resident trainer in his journal. I plan to get some updated pics as we work throughout the winter. Maybe we will even get into the show ring next year as this one was a total bust!

November 4th

Had a fun ride on Shad the other day. Rode him bareback in a halter and tried to "Think" our way into and around things. Not highly successful, but very entertaining none-the-less! LOL

On the knitting front. Finished my Silkie socks - very yummy. They are a Christmas prezzie for one of my sistahs.

Off to the drag the ring and get in my Sunday rides!

End of October update

Finally finished Peg's vest. I am very pleased with how it came out!



Updated the web page with finished pics of the Entrelac scarf. I wish I were a better photographer - it's simply beautiful and the pics don't do it justice.

Also have some WIP snaps up - socks and a hat.

http://www.neverbluefarm.com/knitting.html

On the pony front - the rain (welcome as it is!) has sorta put a kabosh on much riding. They are in now, getting dry and munching hay. I will put them out a bit later as the sun is now peeking through.

Had a bit of an adventure this am. Biz, one of our boarders, got cast. What this means is that she rolled and got stuck against the side of the stall. So now we have a 1200 lb horse squished up against the stall and unable to get any purchase to push herself up and away. It's a bad situation and dangerous for horse and human alike. Fortunately she was pretty calm - would struggle now and again to push herself up, then would lay still and look at me "Lady - I need a little help here!"

I went to get Henry because I knew I couldn't move her myself. While I was waiting for him to dress and come out, I pushed a bale of hay in next to her front legs, hoping she could use it to gain a little purchase and push herself up. Instead of using it to get up, she started eating it! Horses just crack me up!


Once Henry came out, we were able to pull her over by her front legs - I had to push her head over because she was a little stuck against the stall doorway and then helped push her knees over and she was able to scramble to her feet. I was afraid that she would squish Henry, but she was pretty careful of him. Adrenalin moment for the morning!

October Update

I am focusing more on my web page and less on the blog, but will try to put up teasers now and again! LOL

Here's my October WIP. An Entrelac scarf in Sea Silk.

For more details - click on my knitting page www.neverbluefarm.com/knitting.html

My horsey journals and pictures are scattered about the rest of the website. Feel free to browse to your heart's content.

Boy - Have I been remiss!

It's been a very busy summer and I just haven't gotten around to posting. (Where is that round tuit? LOL)

So FO's -

Finally finished the Baltic Sea Stole. What a lengthy undertaking that was - but it turned out beautiful!

The yarn is Schaefer's Andrea - it's a threadlike lace weight silk. As you can see, the colors are fabulous, but the yarn is VERY VERY fine. This project was started over a year ago. Granted, I haven't worked on it steadily and then there was the time I had to frog about 2 inches worth, which delayed me a lot - both the frogging and the overcoming the reluctance to do so!

But doesn't it capture the pattern beautifully? It will go to a Florida sister. I would like to do the Baltic Sea Stole again, but I don't think I will do it in lace weight this time!

Next is the Moebius Lacy Wrap from Cat Bordhi's first Moebius book. I did this in Ella Rae Shibu. This is a really nice yarn! Not expensive, 90% silk, gorgeous colors and boy does it feel spiffy when it's washed and blocked. This one is also going to Florida - for my mom.

On the needles - a pair of socks in STR silkie. Totally love this yarn - it's majorly soft and feels ummmmm!

I also have an entrelac scarf in sea silk in the works, but no pics yet. Another sis (I have four!) just sent me some yarn to do a little scarf for her - looks like it will be fun.

I also STILL have to do the border on Peg's vest and I have the Red Gansey languishing since last spring. So lot's to do! Will try to get pics of these projects as I move them along.

On the equine front, baby Callas is doing beautifully - sadly she is for sale and I have several people scheduled to come and look at her. But I am pleased she is doing so well and hope one of those folks just flat falls in love with her. She's a cutie pie in nature and totally gorgeous in appearance!

Also shooting cowboy off of Shadow - he still needs to get better about being acclimated to gunfire, but he is trying hard. What a good boy!

Well - that's it for today!

The more things change....

Just a quickie to post some pics.

Here is a felted vase that I made for my sis as a visit present. I haven't felted much before so many lessons learned here, one of which is use the same base yarn for felted object so it felts a bit more evenly! LOL But it's cute anyhow and has spawned a bunch of ideas that I want to start working up. Felting is cool.

The other pic is the start of some I-cord binding that's going to go on a quilt for friend. It's in a bit of koigu that I had left over from another project. I love the colors - they are going to go great with the quilt blocks and I like the notion of the thread that binds us all together being something that is so changeable and varied.

I guess I am in a very transformational mood!

STR Socks with yarn #1 are done!

I joined the STR Sock Club this year, but have had so much stuff to catch up on that I am way behind on knitting the socks. The first yarn is their medium weight in a crazy variegated green with tan and cream and a purply gray (Monsoon). I didn't care for it much at first, but once I started knitting with it, I liked it more and more. It's very subtle and beautiful and VERY hard to photograph nicely! I couldn't make gauge for the included pattern, so swatched around a bit and made these socks up. They are based on a toe-up sock out of Sensational Socks, but I used a japanese short row toe.

They are a little goofy - pattern (a patterned rib from BW) doesn't start until 3 inches up the foot because I was just going to do stockinette, but got bored. Then I forgot to carry the heel stitches all the way up the heel once I started the gusset - see the standing pic - oops!. I am having trouble getting a good pic of them, but they are really cute in person.















Did another repeat or so on the Baltic Sea Stole. Looks the same only about 1 1/2 inches longer - when this thing is finished, I want a MEDAL!
















Swatched the second yarn the other night - it's Silkie in colorway Walk on the Wild Tide. It is scrumptious yarn, both in feel and color. It's a teeny bit splitty to knit up due to how it's plied, but well worth the trouble. I am tempted to order some more and just make a top out of it! I am not so sure I like the second sock pattern, so maybe I will do the first one in this yarn. I guess I like to mix stuff up!

Still have to finish up the edging for Peg's vest. I am still wrestling with what I want to do - regular ribbing around the bottom with the diagonal rib on the front and neck? Diagonal rib all the way around? Regular rib all the way around. And if I do diagonal rib on the front, do I do the bottom ribbing first and carry the diagonal rib all the way to the bottom? Or do I do the front/neck band first and finish off the entire bottom with ribbing? SO many options. Maybe I will drag it over to the knitting shop and get some live input.

I am still looking for the designer of this sweater. A couple of people have suggested Alice Starmore, but I don't think it's her work - more likely an Alice knockoff.

For Stashalong, I am so golden, although I have to admit I was SOOOOO tempted the other day - someone posted about Koigu on sale for under $7/skein. Never mind the fact that I have about 15 skeins of Koigu sitting around waiting for me to do something with them, I wanted more! But I resisted, and am very proud of myself! So finished one skein of STR this week.

Quick update

Working away on my Socks That Rock yarn. (First batch) Couldn't make gauge on the pattern, so fudged around and made up my own. The yarn is kind of a funky color, but it's growing on me and I love the way it knits up. Just have to finish up the cuffs and ribbing - another day or two I would guess.

Need to finish up the border portions of Peg's vest. That needs to be done by June 23.

And plugging away very slowly on the Baltic Sea Stole.

On a more serious note, check out http://www.knitspot.com/ Anne is encouraging folks to sponsor a gal who is riding for MS. (and offering great prizes for those who help!) I have pitched in to sponsor Claudia and am also throwing in two balls of yarn - Filatura Multicolor - a mohair blend in purples/blues/greens. Go to Anne's page for more details.

This n That

No stash busting this week as I finished up the Clapotis for Peg. She bought the yarn so it never came out of my stash. Dang! Now need to buckle down and design the edging for her vest.

Clapotis is from 2 skeins of Brooks Farm Riata from the MD Sheep & Wool festival. I have been working on so many lengthy projects, I just wanted to do something fast and pretty! And it sure is!

First pic is draped over some hosta, second pic is laid on our little bridge - like a purple carpet!

How about this peony??? This is Bartzella - an intersectional hybrid (crossed with a tree peony). I got this from swensonfarms.com They are really nice folks and the plants I got from them (Bartzella and Americana - a red one with a scent like wine! didn't get pics-bad me!) were very healthy - came up like gangbusters this spring. Both of them had 8+ buds, but I clipped back most of them even though it was VERY difficult!

I am looking for a book

And in this book are some beautiful sweater patterns, including the one below. I would love to remember who wrote this book and what it was called so I can try to get another copy, but alas, my memory... The front is ballon cables surrounding an interlaced cable and the sleeves and back are all lattice. It's really spiff! I think it was a British designer and I think it was a hardback.













Took some farm pics this am -too totally beautiful!













And just for fun - Oriental poppy! That's the definition of orange in my book.

Life on the Farm

Not quite summertime, and the livin' isn't all that easy LOL - work, work, working away on the gardens, but what better way to spend one's time (except knitting, of course, and I have some of that too!)

Here is my wonderful tractor - New Holland 33 HP. Hub mowed one field yesterday and I mowed one today. I will let hub mow the steep & scary one!
















This is a "Before" pic - lots of weeds and no mulch.



















This is how it will look after I get my hands on it! LOL One lone tulip left - some bluebells, peonies about to pop, some hosta. Weeded and mulched! Yippee!














This is Rowdy - he has been rolling around in the buttercups and has a faceful of yellow pollen. Too funny! I think he is annoyed that I am laughing at him.




















This the progress so far on the clapotis for my friend Peg. It's in the Riata from S&W. Unfortunately, it's not stashbusting as Peg bought it for me to knit, but I wanted to knit something fast and easy since I still have so many WIPs on the needle! There are actually two drops, but I was a lazy photographer and didn't stretch them out. You will see more later.

The Riata is knitting up beautifully and the colors are even better than in the pic - sort of raspberry sherbert. Ummmm!

Post MD Sheep & Wool Update

Well - I gave myself a limit of $100 for S&W and I stuck with it! I actually went over by $7, but the friend who was with me said - "you're not over, I am buying y0ur lunch!" So I accepted! LOL

I bought some basil and lavender (here's the basi freshly planted) , an ice cream cone, lunch (subtracted!) and a bit of yarn.







We started out at Brooks Farm where I bought some variegated rust Acero - superwash, viscose, silk blend. It's yummy. Then we cruised down to the main auditorium and went through that, then we watched a sheepdog demo, then we worked our way back up through the buildings.





My friend bought some gorgeous furniture from a wood worker there, so we went and got our cars and brought them around to pick up the furniture.



By now it was almost closing time and the crowd had thinned out considerably, so I cruised back past Brooks Farm and bought some more Acero - this time a gorgeous teal. It's single colored, but the various fibers take the yarn differently, so it has a heathered appearance. Nice stuff. It's sort of heavy fingering weight.

Peg also bought some yarn from Brooks Farm -Riata. I am going to make her a clapotis out of it. Should be astoundingly beautiful!



















I also spent a little time just hanging around on the farm taking pictures today. Some of my faves...





Self explantory - it's a bleeding heart!








And here is Gunner, the giant Corgi with tulips!














Finally, here's some knitting -

Peg's vest. It fits her great. Now all I need to do is add the frontband & neckband and add the hem edging. I think I will try making the front band in the same diagonal motif as the front detail. Hem will probably just be ribbing or seed stitch.

A Knitting update!

Finally took some knitting pics!

What I am working on -

Red Gansey - no pics. No progress since last time I posted about it. Can we say "stalled"?

Baltic Sea Stole - It's now at 32". This pic shows a nickel on the fabric with the yarn draped across it. I tried to get a pic of the whole thing, but the pic looked ugly. I need to figure out how to get an accurate photo of this stole because it is freaking beautiful! However, I still have about another 32" of stole left to knit. Maybe by the summer...

Optimum socks. These are the Daylily socks in Optimum DK. The pattern is pretty, but I don't think I will do it again. Lots of K3 tog which I find to be a big PITA. I am also not too thrilled with the Optimum. Like the angora I worked with last year, it's just TOO soft, not enough body. I am finding I like a yarn with a little bit of beef and boing!

Peg's vest is a variation on the Navaho vest out of "Folk Vests". It's knit side to side and I think that it is showing off the hand painted yarn really nicely. I am doing it in straight stockinette, but stuck a pattern panel in there to break things up a bit. I am a little worried about sizing, but the back is started with provisional cast on, so I can add a bit there if necessary.

Anyway - now off to go for a trailride!

Quiet Sunday

Have ridden quite a bit this month, but no pics. And am knitting away, but no pics of that either. Maybe I will try to grab some this afternoon. No FO's - just work in progress - the same work that has been in progress for a while, except I started some Dayflower socks for my neice in bubblegum pink Optimum! I made them ankle socks because I don't think I have enough yarn for "normal" socks, but I think they will be cute and hopefully I will have enough to finish the feet!

Just going through the camera and found this. We had a cold misty night last month. So cold that the mist frosted everything. Too amazing! Here are some pics from that morning.



Here's Rowdy - greeting the morning! He's such a showboat!



Some cedar branches - love how the frost and the cedar are so congruent.




Even inanimate objects had BIG frost.
















I love this view of the frozen pond behind the trees and frosted pasture weeds.

April Update

I have been a BAD blogger - not keeping stuff up to date.





No knitting OR riding pics today. Just some pics I snapped that I like. Spring is sprung!

The folks we bought our place from were avid gardeners. We have umpty bazillion daffodils of all kinds. This is what I call a plain old daffodil! LOL They come out early, don't have much scent, but they are perky and beautiful and cheer me up every time I look at them.

This is the scene out the back pasture. It really is magnificent to wake up to this every morning as I feed and tend the horses.

Visiting Callas

Went up to PA today to visit Callas. My goodness, she was an awesome gal! Behaved beautifully and was spiffed up for photo op purposes. Here she is in a conformation photo and with the trainer riding her. What a cutie pie!

Fashion Forward

Okay, so I haven't bought new shoes in forever! Just bought these from Zappos and am trying to decide if I want to keep them. They are $$$. They are even more beautiful in person than in the pic too.

The dorky thing is that I sprained my wrist putting them on as they are quite slender through the ankle. I would definitely need to go get a shoe horn, so that I don't injure myself! LOL

Not been riding much - in fact, haven't sat on a horse since Jan 28.

Here's our riding ring - I dragged it yesterday to break up the snow and ice - just hopin' that it will dry out sooner if I keep grooming it. But not quite ready to be ridden on! :(

And a chilly farm view. Beautiful, but COLD!

On the knitting front, making good progress on my projects.

Red Gansey - Completed first pattern row and about 2" into the next one. Another inch or so and I will start the underarm gussets.
Baltic Sea Stole. Added about 2" - Please note the yarn weight on this. Just for comparison, the pale blue life line is fingering weight koigu. ACK!
Hank's Socks. Made good progress. Stopped at my LYS (Eleganza in Frederick) to get some help figuring out the directions on the heel turn and gusset. She cleared me up! Decided to try to complete them doing the two socks together on two needles, but it was too hard to turn the heel that way. So one heel turned, the other ready to go. Then the gusset and whoosh up the calf - maybe done by next weekend. (BTW, Eleganza is carrying Bearfoot now -yummm)

Peg's Vest - Haven't touched it but have been thinking about how I want to do it and I think I have a plan. Once Hank's socks are done, I will get back to the vest.