I've put my knitting aside so I could try handpainting. If I'm going to get more sheep, I need to spin up the roving I have stuck away in the closet. After looking at the beautiful handpainted yarns, I thought I should see what I could do with a little dye. I had some dye on hand, just enought to dye about 1 pound of wool. I used the handpaint method described on Gleason's Fine Woolies website. Truthfully, I don't follow directions very well, I tend to do things my own way. Since I didn't have a turkey baster or syringe I had to pour the dyes on the roving. When I was done with that step, I really didn't think I 'd like the final product, but I'm delighted with the way it turned out.

The colors are a lot richer looking in person.

The next attempt didn't turn out quite as well. Yuck!



So, I decided to overdye it with navy blue. I was hoping to keep some of the yellow, but I used way too much blue. I like it anyway. I hope it dries fast so I can spin it.

See my driveway.


It doesn't look quite so daunting in the daylight, but when you have to walk 1/4 mile, through the snow drifts, in the dark, into a 15 mph bitter cold wind, (up hill both ways) it's a challenge. One of the pleasures of rural living.

My son's girlfriend from Chile sent us a bottle of wine and a desk calendar with photos of the Chilean landscape, very thoughtful.

Work is really cutting into my knitting time, I don't know how those of you who work full time, year round, finish anything. Maybe that's why so many people have numerous unfinished items; I can see how you would get bored with knitting the same thing for months. I am somewhat bored with the cabled turtleneck, but I want to wear it, so I keep knitting, even though it might be just a couple of rows each day. I think I'll be bringing some work home this weekend, but my goal is to finish the front and start the second sleeve.

Can I complain about the weather for a moment? Maybe I just need to spend the winter in a warmer, snowless climate. Or maybe I need a job where I can work from home. It seems that ever since the tax season started I've been driving on snowy, icy roads. I'm a big wimp in that department. Today, we have freezing drizzle and will have 5-8 inches of snow before the day is over. My husband has volunteered to be my chauffeur.

One advantage of being driven to work is that I can knit. In fact, I have to knit so as not to look at the road icy roads. If all of my clients cancel their appointments today I can just sit at my desk and knit. Hey, things are looking up.

Yay an FO!


It looks pretty boring doesn't it? Every project is a learning experience, since this was the second time I made this hat, I did a better job of grafting the garter stitch seam. I washed it and have it blocking next to the woodstove.

I received an e-mail from the shepherd and she said they expect to start lambing in a couple of weeks and will have lambs available. She might have some ewes too, but I think I would rather have lambs. Usually when a farm is selling their adult sheep, (unless they are just reducing their flock) they have had some kind of problem, poor mother, lambs singles, difficult pregnancy, age etc.

Of course starting a flock with lambs means we probably wouldn't be able to have them bred until Fall 2005. But just think of the beautiful lamb's wool I'll have.

Today I sent an e-mail to inquire about purchasing some ewes or ewe lambs from a shepherd in Mid-Michigan. I'm still waiting to hear back from her. In the meantime, I've been knitting my son's hat, which should be done tomorrow. I usually don't knit the same pattern more than once, but for him I made the exception; that's probably why it's going so fast. I started it Monday night and have been knitting a little bit every night after work.

One of the reasons I knit is because I like the challenge of trying something new. I don't like repetition in anything. My husband is famous for repeating the same story, so when he starts telling me something I've heard before, I just say, repeat and that's the signal for him to stop talking.

I've been on a spending spree. In addition to the yarn for my son's hat, I bought some 100% alpaca Peruvian Collection from elann It is so soft, I've never knit anything with alpaca before. Then I bought Nursery Rhyme Knits from overstock I still have to get my cabled turtleneck done, but it's awfully tempting to start a nursery rhyme hat.

Only a few years ago I had a beautiful flock of Romney sheep; in many respects they were like pets. Because of my work schedule I decided to sell them, and have regretted it many times over. So, my DH and I were discussing starting another flock this spring.

One of life's simplest pleasures is watching the lambs spring about the pasture.

I think I've recovered from the weekend's knitting error. I am almost knitted to the cap again. Progress is slow during the week.

I received new KnitPicks and Herrshnerrs catalogs in the mail. I've never ordered from either of them. I've been looking through past issues of Knitter's and found a vest that I want to make but I haven't been able to find the yarn colors I want. It's hard to choose colors from the catalogs because the colors aren't true. (another reason I should open my own yarn shop)

I picked up the new issue of Vogue Knitting yesterday--a lot of scarf patterns. I have to admit that I am interested in a couple of them, BUT do I really want to spend $30.00 on yarn for a scarf??

Trust yourself!

After spending a little time each day on my sleeve, I was almost to the cap when I found a big mistake in the center cable. I think it was part of today's knitting progress(?), where it seemed I was ripping back almost as much as I was knitting.

I think the photo is too dark but at just over the half way point, I apparently missed a row because my cables were supposed to cross, but they aren't. I thought something was amiss when I noticed my small cables crossing on the first row rather than the third. Rather than really scrutinize my knitting I continued working. Good thing my personal deadline for this sweater is Valentine's Day.

Now I can actually start whining about not having any knitting time. I think it's time to get the book by Barbara Winter, Making a Living Without a Job, Winning Ways for Creating Work that you Love. I'm seeing a new job in my future.

Have you seen the front cover of Vogue Knitting? On the bookstand January 17th



I haven't gotten into the scarf craze. I don't wear fluffy scarves and I don't know anyone else who does, but I do like the scarf on the cover.

Yay! my yarn order came from Bemidji. Unfortunately, they didn't have the yarn I needed to make my son's hat. So, I'm putting together another order this time from Patternworks. Feeling a little guilty about this, not that I have a yarn stash to really speak of, but I think my yarn fund is almost dry, which means I'll be taking some cash out of the general fund. Good thing I take care of the finances in this househould; I've already given my approval for the expenditure.

I also should mention that I've started the Knitting Guild of America's master knitting program--level 1. I'm not going to post a picture of every swatch, but I will keep track of my progress here. I'm part of the TKGA knit along hosted by Sarah

I hadn't joined the guild until I decided I wanted to be a part of the knit along. Being a self-taught knitter, this experience should really help be improve my knitting and give me more confidence about my knitting skills.

I'm making terrific progress on my Vogue sweater.


This is the back and as you can see it's a raglan sweater. I found one error on the cable chart and luckily I only had to rip back four rows on that section of the chart. For future reference it would be wise to look up errata before starting a project. I'm sure all of the knitting magazines have them listed on their websites. The first sleeve has been started. If I didn't have to work all week I would really be able to zip along--maybe even finish it in one week. Of course I'm dreaming, because I do have to work all week and knitting time will be greatly reduced for the next four months.

Since my yarn order hasn't come yet, I thought yesterday would be a good day to make a run to Elaine's yarn shop in Davison

She has a nicely landscaped lot, too.


I didn't buy too much, just 7 skeins of Plymouth Encore to make a sweater from Vogue Winter 01/02. Do you find yourself buying the same colors? I suppose it's because a person knows which colors she looks good in. I navigate to purples and greens, but yesterday I bought a deep red. I don't think I've ever bought any clothing in this color.

The sweater I'm making is a figure fitting cabled turtleneck. I thought I would make a figure flattering sweater rather than a looser fitting one for a change, especially after seeing this Vittadini sweater modeled by Kerstin

I love that sweater! Maybe I'll stick to my healthy eating while I'm working on my sweater.