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.

Mid Feb update

How time flies when you are having fun!

After I do this will run out and chop away at some of the frozen snow coating the place. No pics at present of our frozen acres! Needless to say, not much happening on the riding front. Shad's leg is still healing, but is moving along nicely.

On the knitting front, I guess the cold weather is good for something!

Red sweater - almost completed first pattern row. Looking VERY spiff!

Hank's socks - if you look at the pic, you will realize that we have regressed. Wound up frogging the whole thing & redoing the toes with Japanese short rows. Highly recommended, much neater and tighter than wrapped short rows. I also decided to just use stockinette for the socks. He doesn't care about the fancy stitches and I am trying to teach myself how to do toe-up gussets, so the simpler the better this time around. I actually knitted quite a bit more after this pic. Am up to the gusset start on one sock and have about an inch or so of the blue on the second sock.

Baltic Sea stole - HURRAY! Have finally tinked back to the error. You may be able to see the lifeline sitting there. I just hope I calculated correctly as to where I was in the pattern because of course, I didn't count back on the rows I was tinking - DOH! So now I can start moving forward on this one again. If I EVER EVER EVER suggest doing anything in lace weight silk in future, please just put me out of my misery before I start.

Blue/variegated scarf is done, but I am very disappointed in it. Knitted it with Lisa Souza's sock yarn. The yarn is lovely, but unfortunately, the colors from one end of the skein to the other are quite variable and I don't think it does anything for this scarf. Might frog it and redo as a moebius - the color variation would work more as a feature there and less as a bug. Tried to get a pic of it, but the photo doesn't show how huge the change is. That's the good and the bad side of hand-dyed yarns - amazing variation - sometimes it works for you, sometimes not.

Peg's vest is on the back burner for a bit. Need to frog that too and rethink the design. Once I get going though, I think it will go pretty fast.

Now off to shovel (or pickaxe!)

Busy Bee!

Haven't been riding much. Hank was away for the week and it's fierce trying to run the place by oneself, especially in the winter!

But I have been knitting! and unknitting :(

Baltic Sea Stole - still haven't gotten all the way back to the mistake. This is so slow and painstaking. Once we start going forward again on this, definitely will be dropping a lifeline on this one for the next little while.

Hub's socks. Started them in all blue, but miscalculated the gauge and they were HUGE! So I frogged them and restarted with nifty hidden colored toes. I used short row toes to start, but have been trying to find gusseted heels because I think they will be a bit sturdier for him - just found this site on knittyboard - http://mysite.verizon.net/vze8mnnp/toesheels.html So I think that will help enormously!

My red gansey is coming along. Partly through the first pattern section. I am quite pleased so far. Almost done with the first ball - panicked at first when I reached the end of the ball because I only got 5 skeins, then remembered it's circular and that's the front and back done to this point (DOH!)

And started a little quick scarf out of some of the Lisa Souza. It's a simple twin rib pattern, but really shows the yarn off IMO.

I also helped a pal transfer her old computer to her new computer and went to a camera class this weekend. Gosh, it's no wonder that I am tired when I go back to work on Monday! LOL

Late January

Rode Pro in a "ride-a-test". You ride in an informal competition, get judged, then work with the judge to fine-tune/clean up problem areas. Sometimes you then go ride the test a second time, but we didn't. We had a horrible school on Saturday, so I was not very enthused and almost bugged out, but we wound up having a really fun ride Sunday and learned a few nice nuggets - pretty cool for a 30 minute ride. Here he is on the lawn after his post-ride roll in the dirt!

Shad's leg is still slowly slowly healing. I said I wouldn't post any more pics, but I fibbed! Here he is, 26 days post injury. Still very nasty looking, but granulation tissue is filling in. He is still on very limited turnout so that he doesn't break it open more and on antibiotics.

On the knitting front, bad news first :( I dropped another stitch on the Baltic Sea Stole and I am gonna have to tink back and fix it - the other error I just fudged and basically tied into place, but this one breaks the flow for sure. I guess I could leave it there and call it a big rock on the beach! LOL

Made nice progress on my sweater for the Red Sweater KAL. It's the "white gansey" from Beth Brown-Reinsel's book. I am doing it in sport weight from Lisa Souza, color garnet. I think it's gonna look fabbo.

Started some socks for Hub, but no pics - it's just the toe.

Peg's vest is on hold for a bit, I think I am going to change lanes in how I do the stripes, so have to think that through a bit.

I have been trying to teach myself continental knitting and am improving a lot on the knitting part. Haven't quite scoped out the purl part yet, so will have to do that next.

Productive week on both riding and knitting fronts!

Pro

FORCED myself to ride while I could even though it was cold cold cold. With snow forecast, (and it's snowing now), I wanted to get a ride in. And I weenied out yesterday with all the wind.

Anyway - here's the old man. Not bad for 24!

Knitting update - Jan 20

Ascot scarf finished. It turned out great! Made from 5 skeins of E. Lavold Silky Cashmere. It's warm and snuggly and oh so soft!

The entrelac scarf & hat set are also complete and boy I am glad to be done with that Angora! Never again! LOL I think I used 3 skeins each of the green and the yellow. It did come out very cute. The hat works like a little beret, but I poofed it out for the photo, so that you could see the entrelac. The change out of the entrelac back to straight knitting was a bit rough, but it's well disguised by the fuzzy yarn.





Both of the above were self designed.






The Baltic Sea Stole dropped stitch has been rescued and I have gone back to work on it. Now at 20 inches. Boy this is gonna take forever!




Started Peg's vest, but the picture turned out horrible, so will post on that later. I have about 1/2 of the right back done.

Hank's socks will go on the needles soon and then will be working these three for a while.

So for January so far, three FO's of approx 1100 yards , and about 500 total sq inches of knitting. Not so shabby!

This is a painting of Shadow that a friend did. The frame shop has this nifty tool to show how the final frame job will look.

It's a distressed wood frame with touches of gold, green suede textured mat with a distressed wood/gold filet and a pale green undermat. Very classy looking.

The software washes out the image quite a bit, it more than holds its own against the framing.

Shad's leg is still pretty ooky, but slowly slowly mending.

Is it spring?

Gorgeous, foggy morning today. Took some farm pics, but couldn't post them - gotta check my firewall settings.

Shad is improving. I will spare you all any more ooky leg shots!

Made good progress on the silk/cashmere ascot scarf. With any luck will finish up tonight.

The entrelac scarf is done and the hat is about half-way done. Since I am making it up as I go along, keep your fingers crossed that it turns out okay!

Did nothing on the Baltic Sea Stole - cogitating on how to fix the dropped stitch.

Once I wrap up the ascot, will put a vest for a friend on the needles. Some gorgeous worsted weight wool from MDS&W - black, shot with purples, teals, forest greens - very yummy. Swatched it earlier this year - it would be a good thing if I can remember what size needles I used!

Then when I wrap up the entrelac ensemble, will start some socks for hub.

And I need to start something for the Red Sweater KAL...

Shadow Update + farm pic

It's a bit of gray morning, rain coming in later today, but still beautiful IMO.










Shad's leg is not improving. Vet will be here in an hour or so.

January Update

Just catching up. To start with, morning on the farm...












Then on to knitting projects -


1. Baltic Sea Stole. This is a belated B-day present for my sister. It's in laceweight silk and is quite a project. It's at 17" now and I am hoping to get at least 48" out of the yarn I have. I just found a dropped stitch and am not quite sure what I am going to do to fix it.












2) Entrelac Scarf. I finished the scarf after I took this pic - at 48" for a short friend LOL. I had asked her if she wanted a long scarf or a short scarf and a hat and she picked the second option, so now I am working on an entrelac hat in the round - making it up as I go. Kinda "interesting"!









3) This will be an interlaced ascot type scarf for my neice. It's in Lavold Silky Cashmere and is TOTALLY yummy. I am using the Twin Rib stitch and will split the scarf into 5 sections and interlace them ala Teva Durham's laced scarves, but this will be a shorter scarf. If it doesn't work, I will just make an ascot type slide.















And on the horse front, Shadow sliced his leg open. It's totally a mess, he's on stall rest and antibiotics - ooky picture follows...

Man - I have been busy!!!

I have been too busy to blog!

Lotsa knitting. A fair amount of riding. Lots of socializing!

Will try to update with current project pics this weekend.

In the meantime - here's the farm in the morning mist.

Casino is finished!

What a beautiful and fun knit!

This is the Casino shawl from Anne Hanson (www.knitspot.com).

I did the petite version using two skeins of Handmaiden Sea Silk in the Ebony colorway. This is a beautiful black with smokey brown and dark silvery gray. Yummy! Used #5 needles for the body and that was about right. Had a bit left over, but not much.

Started it in mid October, finished knitting Tuesday, blocked it Wednesday and wore it to work today!
Casino blocking. Thank goodness for blocking wires! LOL










Here is a closeup of the blocked shawl.













The black on black looked great, but didn't photograph so well. Hub is not Avedon!

And I cut my own head off - I repeat - hub is NOT a fashion photographer!