"THE SWEATER"

Every year I have made a sweater for a family member using the wool from my brother's farm I always  thought this would be a great thing to have as a keepsake.My sister-in-law is a spinner and probably the closest person to Tasha Tudor that I know. This being year #4 they are starting to get the whole idea of what I'm doing and my youngest actually chose a pattern for her sweater. In previous years I just made a simple sweater that I thought I could handle.

THIS IS the pattern that she choose. After reading the instructions for 3 days,I hear you chuckling out there, I finally felt confident enough to give it a try. The rectangle above shows the complete pattern that is repeated on the front and back of the sweater.

                                                               Here you see the back. Tadah!

                                                                   and this would be the front

It was quite the learning experience and mistakes were made, you think? I'm glad I pushed the envelope and got it done.Actually I think the hardest part was the blocking. I need to work on that......
.but, all in all it was a successful journey................said the Hobbit

Look what the girls are doing

How adorable is this? Not everyone in our group is addicted to knitting socks.


These cute boxes were made by Sue T. for Easter treats. She YaYa are really into this kind of needlework.

and I was the lucky recipient of these all occasion cards made just for me by YaYa. It's always nice to be remembered even when I insist that I don't want any one to make a fuss. I guess that's what friends are for.

This little piece of artwork was done by Aaron. He even made the buttons!!! It's a scarf that appears to have a pocket for storage,and........................

when you want to put it away for the winter it stores into the pocket. Such a creative guy! I guess we'll be keeping him around a little longer to see what he can come up with.

Now I have to tell you about Cynthia. She has created a new felting tool that you can see here.Wanting to have something that her customers could felt on and get the feel of the tool, she made this adorable little scene with sheep and gnome. Not bad for her first felting attempt. However she didn't leave much room for practice felting by others. We'll have to find her another piece of wool so everyone can play.......................said the hobbit

Ornament swap

Yeah IT'S HERE. One of my favorite things to do at Christmas is the ornament swap.This will be my 3rd year and it's quite exciting. I have so many beautiful ornaments on my tree,all hand made of course by various artist around the world. This tradition was introduced to me by Sarah
At first I was a little stress about being able to meet the standards of the exchange ,however that's my nature and I soon realized it's all about the bonding. It's a great way to get in the spirit of giving and I now look forward to it every year. Although I must say last year was a little stressful because we had an ice storm that left us without power for 8 long days. As you might have guess this was about the time I had to send out my ornaments.Even our post office was closed making it impossible to get them out on time. Anyhow it all worked out and now it's that time of year again.

So here are my little pullovers all ready and waiting to be decorated and sent off to who knows where.I signed up for the swap here. If anyone wants to join in the fun, sign-ups are for 1 week only.Nov 1-Nov.7 Just log on and get the details from them. Wouldn't it be great if one of you would be on my swap team?



Red and white is my favorite Christmas combination and every year that's what I work with.
The sweaters seemed to need something after I was done ( I'm never done) so out came the embroidery floss and I stitched a little something on them.What do you think?

I know I know

I know I said I'd be right back.I can't believe how quickly the time goes.I think I'm having a problem with my organizational skills.

This is the shibori scarf we all worked on this fall.The pattern was simple enough and the design was made by sewing 2 ridges together then skipping one.I picked up one purl on either side of the ridge and just pulled the yarn thru.

Picture is a little fuzzy and color seems to be off.When all was said and done

this was the final results.I had to put it up to the light so you could see the strips that are visible.

After working on this project we all agreed that it's sort of like smocking with yarn. Not very earth shattering but,good to know................said the hobbit

Tuesday night Stitch&Bitch

Well thank goodness stitch&bitch is still alive and well.The pace has been so busy ,busy around here that we need it to keep our sanity. When we started meeting almost two years ago, the main reason was that Donna wanted to learn to knit. We taught her the basic knit and purl stitches and she went to town on scarves. Two maybe three of them and she kept them four to five inches wide.Since then we have talked of moving on to a more difficult project.This is her perusing a knitting book,looking for the just right hat as her next project.In her defense I must say she has had a few interruptions. There have been surgeries ,storms,family celebrations not to mention the family cat that was determined to eat every ball of really good yarn she invested in.

Donna would like to do a hat because she has watched us knit on four and five needles while doing our socks and she feels she is ready for this.Here she is casting on her stitches on a pair of #four circular needles.This is another first for her.The pattern asked for 91 stitches which I thought sounded a little tight for circulars.Sooo while she was casting I checked the pattern and
discovered that it was written for 2 straight needles. Donna always says "that's ok honey we'll work around it".I explained there would no longer be a ws as she was now working rs only.She said I can remember that. Then asked "What is ws and rs.?"Once past that lesson we took a break for a well deserved scone with butter mmm.She left for home and told me she'd have progress to show next time we met. I love her,such a positive attitude.I think I'll put a pair of #four straight needles in my bag.Just in case she might need them.One should always be prepared to help a friend.

Here is Sharlene's latest sock.A few of the girls have been using the self designing yarns.I just love this color combination,it always amazes me to see how varied the patterns are.This pale pink ,off white and forest green is one of my favorites.

Sarah is getting ready for a move so she has taken up the jumbo needles and is making soft comfy scarves with all the leftover yarns that would not otherwise be used.Waste not want not.Way to go girls.................................said the hobbit.

coming up for air

Wow, I can't believe how time consuming this project has been.All I seem to do is check the pantry check my mental recipes go back to the pantry.It's one big circle but, I'm not giving up I plan on keeping track of my food expenses for the year so there are bound to be ups and downs. Today however, I am taking a break and stepping away from the pantry.I need to talk about something else,food is swirling in my brain, so, today we are avoiding that subject.


See these little rattles? They are helping me keep my sanity when I'm not stressing about food. I found the pattern on Purl Bee
They're a great little shop in New York City.Going there doesn't happen too often but I manage to go to their website for inspiration on a regular basis. These rattles are surprisingly easy to make,I think I'll try to keep them on hand for the baby boom that is coming.
This is a shawl I'm working on with local wool.The pattern is lacy and I'll have better pictures soon. This yarn was done by hand and was uneven in texture and color. It was a new venture by my friend Liz. I recently made a similar shawl for Sarah
and thought I'd do another while I have the pattern in my head. The yarn went to stitch and bitch on Tuesday evening because you need about six hands to wind a ball. It has those little fuzzes that love to bond with other fuzzes they met so it took a little patience to get it all wound up .As you can see we won the battle.

Before I go I must show you what I see outside my window at work. Picture isn't the greatest,I was so excited to see these cardinals. There were six males in all and I couldn't get them to squeeze in for a group picture so,this is the best I could do. Aren't they one of life's little pleasures?
Hope you enjoy them as I did.....................said the hobbit