The fingerless mitts are finished and I’ll show you them in a minute but here’s what I started after stash diving a few days ago.
I am just making a plain old pair of ribbed socks with some sock yarn I had marinating in the stash for who knows how long. I still feel a sweater coming but this will tide me over until I make a decision on that. I have a few ideas for some stash yarn. You’ll be the first to know about it when I decide.
Here’s something else I started messing around with today.
I made this blanket for my husband years ago, but he has been saying he would prefer it to be smaller. So I am finally ripping it all out. It was knit with Cascade 220 double stranded. Once I get all the seaming ripped out I will need to rip out the squares and separate the strands into separate balls. Then I need to skein them up so I can give it all a good wash and dry to get the kinks out. I have an idea for what I will be doing out of this too. More on that next time.
Here’s a peek at what Jerry is working on for the time being.
These should be ready in time for the virtual festivals coming up soon.
And last but not least, here are the finished mitts. I’m sorry for the boring picture but it’s impossible to take a picture of both of your hands without a tripod. :-) No pattern at the moment but maybe in the next month or so.
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. :-)
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 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? :-)
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!
Where to start? Since my last post I have made some small progress on my cowl/infinity scarf design, but not as much as I would have liked there to be.
It’s about 4” wide at this point and I didn’t have any definite width in mind before I started. I just figured I would knit it until it seemed like a good size, but probably at least 6-7” and possibly more.
My poor Boneyard Shawl hasn’t seen any action since I started the above cowl, but it did get to pose in one of our lovely new Yarn Bowls soon to be available on our brand new website. :-) We are tentatively planning for a Feb. 9 launch and I am so excited about it!
We are holding off several new products and some other cool stuff for a grand opening. Here’s some sneak previews of just a small sampling of the new Shawl pin Rings we are making.
Y’all they are truly amazing if I do say so myself, and I think I am entitled since I am not even bragging on myself here. My talented daughter Meredith who also makes the Shawl Pins, Nostepinnes, and Darning Eggs, is the genius behind these as well. If you have been to our booth at festivals, you have probably seen or met her. She is always with me.
Remember her?
Here’s some more to whet your appetite, LOL!
See? Fabulous, no?
Anyway I will give you all more details once we are sure it’s a go. We have had quite a few glitches lately but it’s all coming together and I am optimistic that all will be ready in time. Oh, you can also sign up for my Newsletter if you would like to get updates in email. It’s up near the top in the sidebar right under my Find me on Ravelry button. :-)
I haven’t given any reading updates lately. Let’s see, in December and the first half of January I was reading The Brothers Karamazov. My reaction to it was sort of underwhelming. I expected to be more impressed honestly. It is such a highly regarded work that I was left wondering what I was missing. I was not alone however in the Goodreads group I was reading it with. Many were left with the same feeling of “what is all the fuss about”? Have any of you read it? Can you educate me on what I missed? I would truly like to know what it is that made you love the book. I mean don’t get me wrong, I am glad I read it and there were some parts I found very interesting and thought provoking, like the part’s where Ivan is telling the story of The Inquisitor and his conversation with The Devil, but overall I was glad to be done and don’t see myself re-reading it.
I possibly impatient with it towards the end because I was badly wanting to start my re-read of The Hobbit and then The Lord of the Rings books. I just adore these and am immensely enjoying the new unabridged Audible versions along with my Nook copies. I like to immersion read sometimes and I am savoring every minute of these books. I read The Hobbit in 5 days and started The Fellowship this weekend. My only hang up so far was that when I started up The Fellowship, to my horror I realized that they didn’t start with The Prologue: Concerning Hobbits. To me an unabridged version should have included that. It is not optional to me. So I just read that part and started the audiobook when I reached the first chapter. I am currently at the point where Sam, Frodo and Pippin have reached Crickhollow and Merry and Fatty Bolger are preparing their second supper, LOL! I just love these opening chapters where the adventure is just beginning. It’s kind of like that time in a knitting project where it’s all shiny and new and full of promise.
Okay well that’s it for now I suppose. Keep you fingers crossed for the website launch!
