10 Already

It really, really disgusts me when I make a mistake like this. I've been knitting a gauge swatch so I can make this sweater for a little dog I know. I was knitting the gauge swatch on a couple of dpn's. Size 7's and size 5's. To be exact. Yeah. 7 AND 5. If you knit, you can see the problem. I kept thinking one row would feel tight and the next loose. I thought it was weird. Now I know why. And now I am reknitting the swatch with 2 size 7 dpn's. It should work out better this time.

A while back it rained. Actual, real rain. And then this showed up:

A Full Arch

A Pot of Gold

It was the brightest rainbow I've seen in a long time.  Part of the time you could see 2 full rainbows.  It was so beautiful!

This week is the culmination of 10 years' hard work around here. Knitter #2 is going to be 10 at the end of the week. I don't understand how my little baby got to be so big. And for someone who is turning 10, she is kind of tiny. When I wait for her afterschool, I always know when she comes out and heads down the hill. She is way smaller than any other kids. Just like I was. I have noticed lately that her pants are all getting too short. I think she is about to start the big sprout. When I was 10, I started to grow a lot. I was short when I was a little girl, but now I am average height. I expect the same will happen with my little knitter.

We all were sick over the weekend. Knitter #2 brought something home with her from school and shared it with everyone. So much for handwashing. Knitter #3 had to stay home from school today. We slept all morning while watching Scooby Doo. Scooby Doo NEVER gets old.

Knitting Thoughts

Knitting continental has gotten easier. In fact, now I would say it feels natural. I am working on the purple hat now. It will be done just in time for it to be way too hot for wearing hats. Some mornings now we still need them.

I'm trying to decide if I really want to finish the sweater vest I had been working on before I started the hats. I'm not sure right now if I really want to wear it. Lately, I've been wondering if I really want to be done with it and not deal with it anymore. I'm not sure how much I really want to wear it. It would be cozy and warm. We'll see. Now I'm thinking of doing a shawl. But I do have a lot of projects left on the needles, so maybe I should finish a couple up first.

I haven't been finding a lot of knitting time lately. I've had this horror of a cold hanging on for three weeks. First it took me down and kicked me a lot, and now I have this horrid cough that FINALLY seems to be leaving me. It has been ages since a cold made me so sick I had to just go to bed and sleep. A few weeks ago, I spent several mornings when I didn't have work in bed sleeping. I would get the kids off to school, maybe do my chores, and then come in and sleep for several more hours. And I am a morning person. I do most of my work in the mornings, so that was a trial. I am glad to finally start feeling like myself again.

Back in February, I started on a little adventure that I don't think I've posted about here yet. I decided to try going without gluten in my diet. Starting out, I really thought it would have no effect on me, and that I would probably find it a waste of time. Just a few days into it, I was totally sold on not eating gluten. I felt better. I didn't have gas every single day. In January, we had started doing this green smoothie every day thing. It definitely gave me more energy. Quitting gluten gave me a bit more. I flat out feel better on the days I have a green smoothie as part of my breakfast. Must be all those vitamins in the kale or spinach. I am really happiest over being gluten free, though. Sometimes I think I might want a cookie or something from the bakery, but when I'm there, I actually can't bring myself to buy one. I just really don't want to go back at all.

Go Away Winter!

I am getting tired of Winter. Really tired. It snowed on and off all day. I want spring! I have plants to put in the ground and more on the way. Hell, it's probably snowing right now as I type. But it is dark, so I really couldn't tell you for sure.

Knitting has been so so lately. I am starting decreases on the hat. I think I will be relieved when it is done so I can get back to knitting fast. My speed with continental is getting better, but it still isn't as natural as my own weird way of knitting. I like finishing projects rather than having them piling up around me. I feel like starting the hat was NOT the right thing to do at the time. I will knit on the vest for a while before doing the purple hat.

I thought I would share one of my new hobbies:

Freshly roasted, shiny coffee beans. This is a hobby that is actually less expensive than buying beans at the store. Win. I have a friend that tried to talking me into this a few years back. Probably more than a few, actually. I am enjoying it, for sure.

New Knitting

I've been quiet lately because I have been learning a new way to knit. It has slowed me down A LOT. But I am starting to get a little faster, now. For nearly 20 years I have been knitting in a strange style that I am not sure I can really name. Maybe it is what is called Eastern Uncrossed. Or not. Now I am learning continental in an effort to knit more quickly and do away with 'throwing'. I've been learning it on this hat for Knitter #2:

When I learned how to knit way back when, I started out knitting English style just like my mom's old how to book taught me. And somewhere in the middle of my second sweater, I started putting the needle in to knit from the wrong direction. I knit twisted for several years without knowing what was wrong with my knitting. Then I realized what was wrong and fixed it. But not by going back to the how to book and seeing where I'd gone wrong. I just learned to untwist the stitches. What this led to was hard times with patterns. When a pattern says 'k2tog' I might have to ssk to get it to look right. Some things in lace patterns can't be made to look right. It's a pain. I am hoping that my knitting gets faster soon, though. It is taking forever to knit a HAT, for crying out loud. My old, hard way of knitting lets me produce a hat in about 3 days.

It is also that time of year when people who pretend to garden start thinking about what they are going to be planting. I am going to plant some of my friends in the cabbage family this afternoon in this planting tray:

I am excited for spring to come so I can grow things in my garden. I'm hoping my husband will stay on board with this. He seems to be on about saving money and growing our own things. We used to have a great garden and the past few years he has really been negative about stuff like this. Last year when the time came for him to help out with the rototiller, he flat out refused. I had plants waiting to go in the ground and I can't operate our rototiller. It is too big for me to really control. And I am a strong woman. I am not exactly sure what I am going to do if he gets in one of those moods again. Maybe cry. Sick the kids on him. Who knows.

Knit, Bake, Dye

My knitting has been suffering. I was not as far along with my Bonsai Vest as I thought I was. So I had to take a good look at the vest and figure out where I was and what I needed to be doing. If you have guessed that this gave my knitting mojo a huge blow, you guessed well. I finally sat down with it today and got going again. I haven't taken any pictures of it lately. Maybe tomorrow or Friday I will have something to show.

Today I made these beautiful loaves of bread today:

They were so pretty, I had to take before and after pictures. I love a pretty loaf of bread. It just amazes me what patting out some bread and rolling it up does for it. Amazing.

I also dyed some yarn today:

I will take a vest knitting break this weekend and make hats for the kids. I promised them new hats a month or so ago. They deserve warm, hand knit hats to wear. I think I am going to get out my Elsebeth Lavold book for some inspiration. I thought about designing something special for each one. Then I thought about plain rolled brim. Simplicity. Now I am thinking semi-designed simplicity. We'll see what happens.

Hay for Antlers, Indeed

It appears I may have to eat my words of January 2:

There is this big, good looking buck who likes to bring some of his best lady friends and their children along for the haystack buffet. If I thought he might drop his antlers right next to the stack, I might feel a bit more forgiving. But I am pretty sure he won't. No free antler hair sticks for me, no free hay for him. 

I found this item this morning:

It's partner was buried in some hay. A matched set. NICE. Thanks Mr. Buck. Brent thinks these antlers may not belong to the buck we had been seeing there. He thinks that buck was bigger. Maybe. Or maybe his eyes had big buck fever and enlarged the antlers by 10 in his mind. I don't care, they are pretty nice looking antlers. And they're mine. I am convinced Cernunnos is involved in all this.

On to knitting. What should I cast on next? Something to think on. I have some socks for me on the needles, so it won't be socks. And I don't think it will be a sweater. Not until the vest is done, anyway. Maybe some kind of accessory. I need to go study my Ravelry Queue. There's tons of stuff there that I actually want to make.

Dread Wraps and Head Scarves

Today we will have a hair post. I've just finished the 'bun hat'. It is so new, there are not even pictures.

I have some pictures of how I wore my hair last Thursday:

I am wearing a tichel braided in with my hair and a purple dread wrap on the front. I also have this wrap around thing I made with yarn and ribbon knotted together. It wouldn't hold anything in place, but it looks pretty.

Since it has been so cold and my hair hasn't exactly been looking its best with the new experimental conditioners, I've been wearing my head scarves. I really should have gotten pictures yesterday of my lime green pashmina and my red sparkly scarf. The head scarves definitely keep my head warmer. Tomorrow I am planning to wear my tie dye head scarf I made last spring with one of my rainbow dread wraps. Hopefully, it will look awesome.

I am getting really tired of the cold we've been having. Yesterday morning it was 3 degrees. This morning 1 degree. Tonight at supper it was already down to 7, so I expect negative numbers by morning. I have to pack hot water every morning to the sheep, goats, and birds. And if the chicken eggs are not very fresh, I have to toss them out because they are frozen and cracked like the one a few posts back.

I am actually starting to feel a bit bad for the deer eating my hay. I have seen the same fawn nibbling hay down where I feed the ram and the wethers. I hope it has a mama to see it through the winter. The Fish and Game officer brought the roll of deer fence by today. We will wrap the stack and he will come back for the rest of the roll. I suspect part of the stack will collapse because so much has been eaten out of the bottom.