Tag: nostepinnes

More Test Knitting

I’m knitting as fast as I can to finish the test knit I started right before my last post. It is going very quick which is good because I am itching to start my small size test knit of my Vintage Diamonds Cardigan. More on that next time I hope.

I am on the last section which is all lace. It is a wider band than the first three. I may have to improvise on the last 4-6 rows if my calculations are correct on yardage. I thought I had enough but we’ll see. I can always dye a bit more but I may just use a left over of the lighter gray instead.

In other news, we have a new batch of Nostepinnes and Darning Eggs up on the website this week. We had some Spalted Maple from a tree we cut down in our yard last year that was finally ready to turn. These are limited quantities, so if you want a really special and unique gift or treat for yourself, don’t miss out. 😉 Carpe diem.

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Shop Work

I have made some progress on my afghan recycling project but am saving that for my next post when I have a chance to get a decent picture . Today I thought I would share what we have been working on in the wood shop.

Naked nostepinnes :-)

These are some new Nostepinnes we finished up over the weekend.

Cherry Nostepinnes
Walnut Nostepinnes

What a difference adding that finish makes, huh? It’s kind of like blocking your knitting. :-)

We even found a bit of Mahogany laying around from quite a few years ago. These are all on the Website for $25.

So today we started working through some wood that needed to be roughed out into blanks for turning. These will probably end up being mostly more Darning Eggs and Nostepinnes, but you never know. This is from various trees around the property that needed cut down or trimmed. I think it’s a mix of Cherry, Maple, and maybe some fruit trees.

Okay that’s it for today. I’ll be back later this week with a knitting post.

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This Week’s Progress

I am getting sooooo close to the finish on this project. I am about halfway through with the final side. I got a fair bit of this knitting done last weekend when Jerry and I took a short overnight trip to visit my mother-in-law. It’s the most knitting time I have had in awhile, which explains the slow progress I guess.

On our trip home after an overnight in Evansville, we took a slight detour and spent about half a day checking out the Land Between the Lakes park. Jerry has wanted to try some off road trail driving in his truck and we discovered that they have some there. We tried that out and while it was a fun adventure we weren’t too impressed with their trail markings and didn’t want to get lost in there, so we didn’t go very far in. LOL! It was a fun experiment though. I got only one picture of the Bison. There are also Elk but we didn’t go on the drive where you can see them. I think it was still closed anyway.

Since we are on the subject of nature; here’s our yucca plant in full bloom this week. :-)

On the business side; I got all the Nostepinnes and Darning Eggs added to the website last week, and since I told you I would update you on that, consider yourself updated. :-)

  • Walnut Darning Eggs $25
  • Cherry Darning Eggs $25
  • Purple Heart Darning Eggs $35
  • Walnut Nostepinnes $25
  • Cherry Nostepinnes $25
  • Cherry Nostepinnes $25
  • Purple Heart Nostepinnes $35

We are working on a few ideas for new products at the moment that we are getting very excited about. More on that when I have something to show you. :-)

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This Week’s Progress

I am finally nearing the finish line on my fingering weight re-knit and re-write of my Honeydew Lace Square pattern. It has been a long haul but it has been quicker than the first time when I was knitting the original in lace weight yarn. I have reached the third corner of the border which means I have knit 3/4 of the edging! I hope the yarn holds out and I don’t need to start a fifth skein when I am this close to the end.

I received and dyed a big order of alpaca from New Era Fiber last week. I needed to get my yarn labeled that I dyed last week (those six new colors I told you about; more on this next time) before I started work on the mill order. I got the fiber dyed the first half of this week. This was 45 lbs. of a huge lot. There will be eight colors in all and this was the first three.

So after that was out of the way I had a couple days free to get the Nostepinnes and Darning Eggs finished. This is not all of them. There are a lot more eggs that Jerry was still sanding while I did this. I do now have them all done.

I spent the afternoon with my photo equipment and new products so I can get all this stuff loaded on the website. I photographed all the new yarn plus the Nostepinnes and Darning Eggs. I have the yarn listed but the color pictures are not up yet. I need to do some editing. The tools will be listed as soon as I can.

It’s looking like my sub-contract work and our website sales may have to get us through this year so I am trying to make sure there is plenty on there. :-) I am sad so many festivals are still canceling. Sigh. I am trying to not let it discourage me too much. Things have to start improving at some point right? As my precious great grandmother Mamie was fond of saying “all things come to an end…both the good and the bad”. Well, it’s high time for the bad to move along, right? :-)

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Wood Bowls Now Instock

Small sampling of the available wood bowls on the website

I spent a couple days last week getting the wood bowls added to the website. We have a lot of different sizes at the moment. They range from larger ones at the $55 price point which are big enough for holding a full ball of yarn down to some mini bowls ($20) which are perfect for holding small items like beads, stitch markers, coins, etc.

We will soon be bringing back some other wood tools we have not had in stock for quite a few years. Jerry had some big logs of walnut and cherry that he hadn’t had time to process. Well we have time now, so he started working on that this week after we returned from a little trip to the Smokies for Mother’s Day weekend. I’ll tell you more about that next post. :-)

After trimming up to turn-able size pieces
Nostepinnes in progress

He is making some Nostepinnes at the moment and some of this will also be Darning Eggs.

So while this is keeping Jerry busy, I am planning some new yarn colors for 2020. I have decided to add six new colors to my palette. Here is a sneak preview.

I have made some more progress on the Honeydew Lace Square in Superwash Sock Yarn.

I have added the 4th skein and hope it will be enough to finish. I am almost to the halfway point on the edging.

See the stitch markers in the top right corner? That is the half way point. When did I start this thing anyway? Oh, wow. Ravelry says Jan. 06, 2020. Sigh. Perseverance is a virtue right? :-)

Okay more on our mini vacation next time. :-)

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Wood Bowls are Making a Comeback

It’s about time for another blog post, don’t you think? So, what’s up at your house? Hope spring is in full force and you are well. We are fine here and ready for some changes. Are you with me?

For the time being, and maybe permanently for all we know, my husband is home and working on the business full time with me. His job in the food distribution industry, serving restaurants, schools, hotels, etc. took a double whammy when the Nashville tornado and then the quarantine caused him to be laid off for at least a year or more. So, when you have lemons you might as well make lemonade right? He is keeping busy making product.

Once upon a time, a few years ago anyway, we used to make wood bowls. They are fine for plopping your yarn in but also great for lots of other uses. We had a lot of blanks glued up already that he hadn’t gotten around to when we started making the bowls in 2017. It seemed like the time was right to put them on the lathe and make some more.

These are waiting a new outboard tool rest which will make it much easier to carve out the inside. It arrived yesterday and it is installed and ready to go so they should be finished soon.

And here it is in action. Who knows, there may even be some darning eggs and nostepinnes coming up? Would there be any interest in us bringing those back? We would love some feedback on that.

See you soon with some other knitting and pattern news!

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