Enjoying Summer

We took a bike ride to the park the other day.



The kids enjoyed running the bases.

Playing on the slide.




Spinning on this.

We are heading home here, you can see how far we went. At the end of the road in this picture is our road to turn onto. The kids did great!

This is my latest project likely to become some socks I set aside half done. I have not gotten many pairs done for a while.

I have done some dyeing recently and now am feeling the mojo again. Hope to get some updates in the shop soon.

Until next time.

Works in Progress

Starting off with the knitting, this is my seamless sweater which has fairly flown off the needles. I am at the exciting sleeve and color work part but have not had any free time to sit and knit on it lately:(
You will see my Mother's day present on top of the sweater, it is a new Blackberry Storm. Very cool and unexpected. I am in love with all the gadgets, plus now I can post to the blog even if I'm not home! This work in progress is the bunnies we got at the local Chicken Swap. A Chicken Swap is like a flea market with animals. We now have one Holland Lop which is the black and white bunny, Oreo. The other is a Jersey Woolly which is the grey fluffy one Miss M named her Fluffy, of course.KD is very proud of the bunnies and has been pretty good about checking on them along with Miss M. I made the cage last week while B was out of town for work. It isn't the prettiest thing but it does the job.

I also dyed yarn like a mad woman last week and have a load going to Yarn Harbor as well as a bunch to snap photos of and post on Etsy.

The ones above go in the shop, the ones below are going to YH.
Last but not least my 3 most important WIP, KD, Miss M and Noley.

So sorry for disappearing on you all. We had a busy week last week and it ended yesterday with Miss M's 7th Birthday. I can't believe I am old enough to have a 7 year old child but she doesn't lie and she definitely knows how old she is. I am very proud her in every way and think she is the most beautiful child anyone could have. But I am her mother and that goes without saying. She is smart, sweet, sensitive, moody, loving, quick tempered (um I think that comes from me) and growing too fast for her momma. I am blessed in so many ways but this child has always challenged and taught me so much. I love you sweetie I hope your birthday was a good one.

I won't bore you with all the craziness around here with work stuff and trips out of town but want to tell you about knitting progress and plans for good crafty things to come.

Today is clean house day along with dye yarn day. I am woefully behind on an order for Yarn Harbor and must work on that today, also the Etsy shop has been neglected lately. I need to play with colors and come up with some new colorways. I am bringing back the DK weight Peace Fleece because I feel the Worsted is sometimes a bit bulky for some projects. So I should get some of that dyed as well. This means I better get off here and get working.

Noley is coughing up a storm today and has a slight fever so I will juggle keeping him in the house and occupied with all that. Plus the drapes have had no work done lately since I packed it all away for a Pampered Chef party the other week and haven't pulled it out again. So my week off of work sounds like it has its work cut out for it already. Off to get it all done!

Bright and Cheery Socks

My new WIP makes me smile even on the greyest December day.

My knitting bag matches them too.

These are Jaywalkers in Knit Me Now yarn, Sock Love. Color is Fire and Ice, I love that they are striping the way I had hoped!

Oh and the last post had a picture of my son's bag he was taking to Grandpa and Grandma's. I forgot to mention in case you couldn't see that he packed his knitting and half way there asked me if he could knit:)

I love that!

Finn Fest And Other Fun Stuff

2 Weekends to blog about.



The other weekend my little sis came to see me. She is knitting a sock here.


My folks came over to go the Finn Fest 2008 in Duluth. Here are the little boys with Papa.
Our first stop was in the flax spinning room. Very cool demo. This woman is cracking off the hulls for the finer fiber underneath.
These ladies are spinning the flax into linen.
We went down to the Marketplace and suddenly there was a bunch of Secret Service guys all over the place. The President of Finland was there! I didn't get close enough to shake her hand but here she is. She is the lady with the reddish hair to the right.

Obviously I am a Finn, so it was fun to go see the stuff and people watch. I never knew there were so many suomalianen in the area. I kept thinking I knew everyone because most everyone looked familiar.

Sunday we went out with the family on B's new boat to fish and swim. Noley was in seventh heaven. He loves fish and the water.

Here is a shot of KD before he was upset about not catching as many fish as the rest of us.Miss M caught this big Northern. She was so proud!

B went to the Quetico last week and here are a few of his pics. I love this picture.

My Brother with his big Northern.B is home again tired and grubby but he had fun camping.While he was gone I dyed these. I will get them in the shop soon.Plus I went and picked these!Happy knitting and enjoy the rest of the summer.

In the Garden

In the garden there grew... Forget Me Not's and Bleeding Hearts.
A cowl of lace and wool.


Despite the fact that it is June, it has felt like April here for too long. I still felt like knitting winter things last week so I whipped up this cowl. Of course I am a total follower since everyone and their mother has knit one of these. Oh well it was fun and quick.

Specs:
My pattern using a stitch pattern from an old pamphlet of my grandma's.
Yarn is mine also, Knit Me Now Yarn - Warm Woolly in Choke Cherry.
Size 10 1/2 circular needles used.

I am thinking of making up some fingerless mitts too since I have about 1/2 a skein of yarn left over. We will see. I love how this turned out and it was a skein I just couldn't let go.

Up next a birthday gift for my dad and a market bag for shopping. Hope you are all having warmer weather than me! Knit On!

Finally Summer!

May is a big birthday month for us. So the little bit of blogging will get blamed on doing stuff for that. Here is Miss M's big day. KD's party.
Yesterday was finally a nice day and we had a sleep over for KD's Bday. Somehow that turned into this.
The kids had a super great time!

I tried my hand at crock pot dyeing too. That was pretty fun but I will have to go for some other colors, these are not my personal favorites.
I am trying to get some spring cleaning and a few stash busting projects done so hopefully I will have some knitting to post soon. Get out and enjoy the warm weather if you have some! Maybe take a drive.

Contest Winner and Stuff

First things first the contest winner. By way of the totally high tech drawing from a hat, the winner is Ikkinlala. Congratulations! Send me an email with your info and this lovely is all yours. Plus a few surprises!

Here is my family having breakfast last Sunday. Look at Noley hamming it up:)





Here is me having breakfast last Sunday. Yeah I fed them first then I got to sit and drink my coffee, read a bit and just relax.


Outside it looked like this. Hoarfrost all over. See this post for a great explanation of what that is. Notice how one side of the trees is frosted but not the other? Cool.
OK I'm not the best photo taker but you get the idea, and I did take those last 2 while stopped at a light.


As promised here is the start of my Asymmetrical Cardigan, finally. I love, love , love this. Malabrigo yarn in Vaa is so squishy and soft.

These are half done, by which I mean one sock is done and the other is started. I will probably not make my February deadline for A Year In Socks:(


Last, KD went skiing with BDiddy and did great! They went about 4 miles they said. He's such a cutie, KD wants to go skiing everyday now.

Thanks for playing the contest! Knit On!