Early morning...

...pictures of the blanket of snow in that blue light of early morning. Enjoy!

Still snowing....

.....24 hrs later. Big fluffy flakes that are a result of a storm that originated in Texas. Snowman snow! And of course the kids will be hoping for another snow day.
   It's mild outside ~ right at 0. I went for a bit of a walk, just enjoying the stillness. I stopped under the corner light and admired the beauty of snow laden trees. The neighbours cars with their "whipped cream topping"  :) And the quiet. We're far enough from the main road that at this time of the morning (5:30am), we hear few cars. I could hear the sound of the snowflakes falling and in the not too far distance, the sound of the water rushing over the dam. Love these sounds. Love taking time to enjoy the snowfall before the munchkins awake, bringing the regular sounds of daytime with them. :)

Enjoy!

On the needles today....

Working on a children's hat & am using up the hand-dyed worsted weight leftovers from the baby sets. It's superwash merino and very soft; so perfect for children. Hoping to post it on Etsy; as long as I can keep it out of the clutches of one of my girls. :)
It's knitting up fast - I cast on the stitches last evening and am working on it while enjoying the curling. Bronze medal game is getting ready to start.

Keep knitting!

Recently completed...

....are these bed socks. I had a request to knit a pair of socks for someone who has chronically cold feet. As well, they have sensitive skin, so these socks have to be soft.
I used two yarns - both hand-dyed fingering weight. One is a merino-silk blend and the other is a baby alpaca/silk/cashmere blend. I knit them at 6 sts/inch. The resulting fabric was firm but not stiff and was still very soft to touch. Short legs in rib on larger needles means that they won't constrict. I'm pleased with how they turned out and I think I'd like a pair for myself for next winter.

Today is curling day in our house.  We're cheering for Rachel Homan and her team from Ontario!

Lots of knitting time :-)

Keep knitting!

A Knitting Day...

...ended up with no littles today. Between holidays, days off & not feeling well, all my littles were absent. Which meant after I had put the schoolkids on the bus, I had the day to myself. :) Always a nice treat. I puttered a bit & had to go out for about an hour to run some errands. And then I spent the rest of the day knitting!
   Right now I'm working on some infant barn socks. After a couple of experimental starts, I think I have it. These are going to be so cute!

   Fran picked up the two sweaters that I had knit for her. She was thrilled with them, which is always my biggest worry. And on top of leaving me the leftover yarn ( more than enough to do a sweater for myself), she gifted me with a beautiful sheepskin. An icelandic cross ~ and so, so wooly & warm. :) She tanned it herself and did a fantastic job. It's living on my rocking chair and I used it under my feet today. Ah, heaven. Thank you Fran!

   I finished up the wool socks for my nephew. I've washed them up and put them on the register to dry. :) Just two small balls of yarn left. These socks weigh nearly 200g! Hoping he enjoys them and gets lots of use out of them. Knit with Briggs & Little Tuffy in "granite" at 6 sts/inch.

   Whew! I think I'll do a couple of other projects before I start the pair for Papa Bear. :) My daughter wants a cocoon for the new baby and I'd like to knit a sweater for the baby as well.
    A busy weekend coming up ~ tomorrow we have tickets to the first draw at the  Scotties Tournament of Hearts. Papa Bear & I are big curling fans and watch it on TV whenever we can. It will be interesting to see it in real life. These tickets were a Christmas gift from our son & his girlfriend and granddaughter Reese.
   Sunday ~ a baby shower for our daughter. I love seeing all the wee clothes & neat things that people choose to gift a new mom.
   Monday~ here in Canada, it's Family day! And we're hoping to travel to Ottawa to go skating on the canal. Let's hope the weather co-operates.
  
   Enjoy the weekend & keep knitting. :)

Pictures from the big snow...

Clearing took quite awhile. There was so much snow, that our middle kidlet was carting it away in the wheelbarrow. Treking out to the chickens involved slogging through drifts that were over my knees. And now the weather has turned warm and the snow is quickly melting.

Work continues on the socks and I was playing with the dyepots again, today.

Keep on knitting.

Rainy Day Blues :)

Gina Ritchie (@warmwoolie) tweeted at 10:40 AM on Mon, Feb 11, 2013: skeining hand-dyed yarns today. worsted weight and fingering in blues. http://t.co/R2v1jmyi

The big snow....

...You've got a lot of shoveling to do, Lucy!  :)

A winter wonderland.

Keep knitting!

Projects...

....two on the needles. And both are socks. The first is a pair of heavy boot socks for our nephew. I'm using Briggs & Little Tuffy for these. They should last, as I'm knitting them at quite a firm gauge. Nearly finished the first sock as well as the first skein of yarn. It'll be close.

   The second project is a request from a friend. She's asked for a pair of "barn socks" for her youngest grand-daughter, born in November. I used the smallest size from my "book of patterns", and they're cute but I think I'll do another set on fewer stitches and a shorter foot. More baby-size as opposed to small child-sized.

  These are knit in SandnesGarn's Sisu - an 80%superwash wool/20%nylon blend. And I used 2mm needles to get about 8 1/2 sts/inch.
  The snow has stopped falling here. It snowed all day and was still coming down when we went to bed last evening. And the wind was blowing fiercely. We've got some big drifts out there! I'll take some pics when it's a bit brighter outdoors. But being stuck inside was a good thing. I had some time to do more dyeing. This time I used up the skeins of superwash wool in worsted weight. And I have four beautiful blue skeins hanging to dry. :)

  Once they're dry, I'll skein them up and take another pic. I'm thinking it's time to start posting yarns on my Etsy page again. It's been ignored for quite some time and I'd like to give it another shot.

Til later ~ keep knitting!

Next project....

The materials for the next project. I'll rotate this with the socks for my nephew.

Still waiting for the big snow. :)

Waiting...

   for the big storm to hit. We're under a warning for 25-30cm of snow. It's supposed to start sometime late this afternoon and snow heavily throughout the evening and into the night. Of course the munchkins are all hoping for a snow day! We'll see. It seems the more fuss and warnings, the less severe the actual event. :)
   Just one little here today. He's a happy guy and quite content to play while checking in with me every so often. Makes for a fairly quiet day.

   A great day for dyeing! I'm working on some superwash wool/nylon in a fingering weight. This is perfect for lightweight socks as well as mittens, hats & baby wear. Today's colours are all geared towards the male preferences.
   Still knitting on the socks for my nephew. I'm working these out of Tuffy from Briggs & Little. And doing them with this densely spun yarn at 6sts/inch is slow going. It's hard on the hands and I'm going to start another project to work on during breaks from this. They'll be tough wearing socks though. Doing the men's large and I'm thinking I'm going to have to buy another skein. Each sock is going to use just over 100g! I'm thankful that Papa Bear needs a smaller size as he would like a couple of pairs like them.

Keep safe & keep knitting!

Wonderful weekend....

   It was one of those rare weekends with nothing on the agenda. No errands to be run, (other than a quick trip to the grocery store), no-one to be delivered somewhere, nothing.
   It snowed most of the weekend but didn't amount to very much. 

Unlike some places. Communities closer to Lake Ontario were dumped on. 20-30cm. Wow!
   Papa Bear used his time to go fishing and to cut & split wood. 

   A big fish. Caught on Friday evening and is swimming in the lake again. It was longer than allowed and as such had to be put back. But we've got the picture to back up the story. :)
   Me - I knit. I did some dishes and I knit. A few loads of laundry & knitting. A good book (one of the Anne Perry Victorian murder mysteries) & knitting. A lot of time spent knitting. Which I love.

   I knit a hat & mitten set for each of the two babies that were born last week. I finished up the sweaters for Fran and have washed them. They are now drying on the bed of one of my girls. And I started a pair of wool socks that were promised to my nephew.

   All in all, a pleasant weekend and hopefully one that will be repeated again before too long.

Enjoy the sunshine & keep knitting!