Hanging out in the Window

Well, my little teeny-tiny sweaters were hanging out in the front window
today catching a few rays.

You all know that I live in Minnesota, right? And of course you believe that Minnesota is a vast and frozen wasteland where it is never warm ever-including summer and all that.(which truly is not that case we get our share of 90-100 degree days with plenty of humidity to go around as well) Okay, so today, JANUARY 26TH!!!, it was nearly 40 degrees outside. What little snow we have gotten this year is nearly gone. Get this though-tomorrow and the rest of this weekend it will be down to 0 at different times of the day. I've lived here all of my life-I'm used to wild swings in temperature, but we've been on a roller coaster this year. Let me tell you-I like snow-I like to ski-I like being forced to stay at home because the weather is too dangerous to be outside on occasion. 0 degrees is not conducive to snow and neither is 40, but somewhere in the middle works great for snow. (I'm not a meteorologist (I'm sure I am boring you, so go ahead and just look at the pictures while I finish this mini rant), but I believe that when temperatures get really low the moisture is sucked out of the air, so that no precipitation can come down even if there was a giant snow storm coming overhead it would skip us and move itself below us or around us or whatever. Then, obviously, when temperatures are above freezing-it doesn't snow.)

I still must say that today was a beautiful day with the sun shining and warm-so the teeny-tiny sweaters got a big kick out of hanging out in the window!

And with their friend the headless/toga clothed lady. She has a very sad story. She's not really supposed to be headless (come think of it the Greek and Roman sculptures really aren't supposed to be headless either-and she's based off of one of them-they had very similar things happen to them to make them headless as a matter of fact-hmmm) This young lady used to spend her days outside the gallery in the great out of doors. (In the winter she was given a nice warm hat and scarf) Sadly, one day this past summer young vandals came in the middle of the night and broke off her head. They did much other damage around town that same night and have since been caught and convicted. We can at least be thankful that they didn't throw her head through anyone's window :0)
Have a good weekend everyone!

Elizabeth Zimmermann and Israel!

Okay, I just realized in the other day's post I spelled Elizabeth Zimmermann's name wrong. I'm sorry-I often write without any reference information in front of me. Well, anyway, I am definitely going to make make the bi-color Norwegian mittens from her book the Knitter's Almanac.
Of course, now that I think about it maybe I should convert the mitten to a little bit more of a Swedish pattern because I don't have any Norwegian blood in me. Maybe I could use a Swedish Horse Motif or something like that. Hmmm .... Just when you think I have it all figured out I decide to throw a wrench into the middle of it all. Well, that's just the way life works.
I haven't done any knitting since my last post. Monday evening I had my guitar lesson and didn't feel like doing anything after it and last night I had a church council meeting and didn't feel like doing anything constructive after it either. I just looked through the Almanac to get ideas.
During this past week, I have been trying to get a trip together for my husband and myself to go on at the end of March. I am excited to say that the last week of March we are going on a tour of Israel. Our airline tickets are bought, the payments are all in, and our passports should be here in a couple weeks.
My husband's boss gave him a big bonus to go on a trip to wherever we want to go because Dan has been working at his job for 10 years this year and is also a very good employee. (It's a small business with about 5 employees, so this isn't something that has ever happened before)
Sorry about no pictures this post. I promise I'll do better, at some point :0)

A new FO!

Well, I finished that purple-y/lilac-y hat with the ruffles. I've tried it on and it isn't exactly my style, but I think that it would suit others well. Maybe a college student or someone like that would like it. It probably would have suited me my freshman year of college. This picture does not do the hat justice, but I didn't have time to set it up really nice, so I just scanned it in the scanner.

Yarn: Rowan 4-ply soft 1 and 1/4 balls of (I believe this is the real number of the shade, but I forget numbers easily) shade 378
Needles: Metal dpns Size 3
Pattern: My own (that I might not ever remember) based on gauge found in Ann Budd's book and a ruffle from a vintage learn to knit book's baby bonnet. (You probably don't want me to try and remember how I finally got this sucker off of the needles because it wasn't real pretty. I had something in mind that didn't quite work, but maybe if I had done something else at a way earlier time it could have worked)

Anyway, I think the hat is really cute. It could probably fit a kid in late elementary school or middle school and be cute as well. Oh well, I think I will put it in the bag to be sold at the Hutchinson Arts and Crafts Festival.
Yesterday, I was looking at the yarn for the mittens and being puzzled, but it is definite now that the yarn would be far too thick to make a nice anemoi mitten. Now, I have to think of a good pattern maybe I should look in my Elizabeth Zimmerman book about patterns for a year. I think that there is a nice mitten pattern in it, but I can't remember.
Anyway, in my confusion I started another tiny sweater from Last Minute Knitted Gifts out of some extra cotton Sugar 'n Cream. I'll probably finish it tonight.

Pictures that have nothing to do with the Post

(a gallery pic)
Last night we had our monthly meeting of knitters at the local coffee shop, Latté Da. The coffee shop is owned by sisters-Diana, Sandy, and Judy-who enjoy knitting. We don't have any yarn stores really close by, so this is where we go for knitting. (We have a Ben Franklin about ten minutes from our town that has a nice selection of standard yarns and then there is a JoAnn Fabrics about 20 minutes away, but the closest full yarn store is 45 minutes away)
I worked more on my lilac ruffled hat, but it looks about the same as it did last week. Scroll down to check it out if you like. It has a few more rows and is close to being finished, but from most people's perspective-its the same.

(two of my drawings)
The wool I got from our local spinner (which is sold at the coffee shop) is still in ball form. I am trying to figure out exactly what kind of mittens to make with it. Isela asked if I was going to make Eunny's Anemoi mittens from it, but I'm not sure I would be able to figure out gauge very well. The yarn is pretty thick. I love those mittens, though. My eye looks at those mittens longingly wishing for a pair of my own. My other thought on the pattern I would use is making one up based off of other things I have seen. Maybe using the brown to make fair isle snowflakes, or something like that. Maybe I could even make a felted mitten with a snowflake pattern in it. There is soooooo much to think about sometimes.
Okay, I believe that I just put in my first links ever with this post-I'm pumped ;0)

Shetlands

Now, I don't know if you all know this, but I grew up with sheep and goats. None of them were the variety that had anything beautiful that could be spun. The goats were dairy goats and the sheep were the kind where you sent the males (or, actually the used to be males) to the "shipping yard." I still think about getting sheep again sometimes and this time getting some that we could use their wool, but that would mean re-fencing and also our property has issues with burdock (or so called "vegetable matter." I always laugh a little when I see the words vegetable matter, as though the sheep got a little too close to the carrots and broccoli in the garden. They were in the weeds-the burdock and other sticky stuff-or at least ours were). When I have worked with handspun, which has only been a little bit, I am amazed how clean those sheep were kept and applaud the sheep farmers for their wonderfully mostly weed free farms!
Here's a pic of some of our sheep (The one in the sort of middle with a really white face is Ewe-nice. Not pictured are some more of my favorites like: Nose, Killer, Aretha, and Mouth)

So, anyway, why is this post called Shetlands? I just got some local handspun shetland wool with which I am going to make some mittens. Here are the little balls of wool lounging in the gallery window.

And why am I mentioning the names of some of my old sheep? Well, when you take a little closer look at this in-its-natural-state-wool, you will notice that they each have some pretty special names:)

I look forward to making some double-colored Posey, Molly and Shona mittens and will make sure to show my finished product to their proud human mother!

ATTN: NO KNITTING CONTENT AVAILABLE

In order to distract you from the fact that I didn't do any knitting this weekend, I am giving you a beautiful picture of my husband and me in Rocky Mountain National Park this past summer!
I am tired out and I ache.
My weekend including not a stitch of knitting time (pun intended) and now I am sore. It's my husband's birthday today and Saturday was his dad's birthday, so we had a birthday party at our house last night.
So, earlier in the week (or earlier in the month) Dan decided that we should really fix up our basement-nasty old boxes of junk sitting in the corners, cardboard boxes on a bed and you name it. It has all been sitting like this for about three years. Plus, he does leatherworking and the area where he has had his bench is right next to the furnace and is a too cramped.

Some of Dan's leatherwork (spur straps he made for his brother)
So . . . we cleaned and cleaned and cleaned. Saturday, after I got home from work, we sorted through boxes, threw things away, and organized everything. Oh My. I scrubbed the walls and the floor. It was yucky and spider-y. Anyway, we were done about 1 am and we were tired.
On Sunday, after church we got home (still things to clean up a bit in the basement) and had to make sure the rest of the house was clean and baby-proofed. (Dan's sister has five-going on six kids ranging in age from 1 to 10). So we were home about 12:45 and everyone was coming at 6:30. It all got done and things went well-plus five loads of laundry, but boy I am tired. The kids loved running around in the basement and now are all asking about when they can come have a sleep over.

I Have Comments!!!!!

Hi, there people!
This is so exciting I have people who have commented and everything and all that. Thank you guys soooo much much coming over and seeing me!
Okay, I thought I would start by showing you all something on the needles at this very moment. The metal at the top of the picture is a foot from one of my dad's sculptures that is in the front of the gallery. If you want to see a picture of the whole sculpture, you can find the info at www.wildestudios.com.

This is a hat I am working on. I am kind of figuring out a pattern as I go, so I am hoping it will fit me when it gets done. We shall see.....it is a bit of this and that being put together. The little ruffles along the edges are from a baby bonnet in a Learn to Knit book from the 40's or 50's that was my grandmother's and I figured out gauge by looking at one of Ann Budd's books with all sorts of basic start out kind of patterns in it. I'm making it with size 3 metal double pointed needles-no idea what kind specifically-another of my grandmother's things. Oh, the yarn I am using is Rowan 4-ply soft in (I believe) shade 384. It's a pretty lilac-y, light purple-y color.
Here's a little ruffle detail and such. I'm not sure how it will look on me totally yet-maybe just a little too girly-girl, but I'm a girl and it just might work anyway. If it doesn't, we have a coffee shop in town that sells handknitted items and other craftiness.
I thought I would end the day by showing you a little funny something.
That blob in the middle is our puppy (our 1 and 1/2 year old puppy), Dakota hauling hay. My husband had a big square bail of hay that he had been feeding the horses with and she thought it looked like fun. Of course, what would be really helpful is if she would actually bring the hay to the horses rather than walking away from them, but she can only do so much!
Hope it gives you a little laugh. See you Monday!

Okay, I think I have this blogging thing under control. Let me hope at least.
Hello everyone, it's me. Let me start by welcome to anyone who is coming to see this blog. I started it a while back, but I get confused easily and stopped doing anything with it. Now I am going to try it again.
I'm a knitter, an artist, and a musician, but I'm not earning much money at that, so I work in an art gallery with my dad framing pictures and making prints for artists. We're in a small town, so it's a small business. We've only been doing this for a little while and business has been picking up, so keep your fingers crossed that I can keep doing what I do.




















Here's my Print 0' the Wave by eunny yang! It was done with Blackberry Ridge Woolen Mill 100% wool fingering weight in Irish Moss.
This is to be gifted to my sister-in-law in Idaho as a late Christmas present.
(Behind me is our beautiful upstairs in our old farm house. we bought the house from my parents who moved into it in the seventies. The upstairs was never fully finished. Being as how in the 1800's farmers didn't have much access to sheet rock and other things that keep bugs out. We are slowly, but surely getting things done. Maybe someday I will live in a finished home!)













These little mites are the stocking and sweater from Last Minute Knitted Gifts. I've been making bunches of them for the next Christmas season while I am still in the mood to do so. I think that I made the one on the left while watching 'It's a Wonderful Life'. I just make these out of little scraps of yarn, but I don have to say using worsted weight yarn on size zero's is painful for my hands. It makes such a pretty little stocking though. Oh, the red, white and green ones are made out of a cheap Red Heart Yarn that I can't find anywhere anymore. I would really like some, so if anyone knows how to find it let me know.

Here are some pictures of my place out in the country. Some from this summer when we were redoing our roof and one of our barn and horses.













Our house being re-roofed this summer .

















Barney liked going onto the roof to help .












The horses eating hay behind the barn and other buildings. (The barn isn't as old as the rest of the place-it was built in 1918)
Well, not all of the picures line up exactly as I would like them to, but I'll figure it out at some point. I fixed it woo hoo!!!! See ya!