Good-bye Summer!

Even though it is sooooo HOT right now, summer is officially over. Let's just review some of the goals...

1. Blog every week. I did manage to blog 7 times, though only two and a half were truly on task about knitting.

2. Finished knitting included a hat and a scarf. Progress was made on the shrug, though there is still some left to go. Many projects left in the queue...

3. Viola d'amore goals were met! I finished learning and performing 4 pieces for the Congress in Evanston, IL, in June! And I have begun work on additional pieces and am experimenting with A=415 tuning.

A sink full of plums:


4. The vegetable garden was a complete failure. A handful of tomatoes and three tiny peppers from over a dozen tomato plants and 5 pepper plants was pretty anti-climatic. I did notice that there are a few watermelons still trying to make it. They are the size of tennis balls right now! However, several flower areas did well and looked great. Finding fruit trees on the property just as fruit was ripening was fun as well. I did not get to can as much as I would have liked, but it is comforting to know that we have some established trees ready for next year.

Little deer love apples and choke cherries!


5. Bike-riding was also a disappointment. After just two rides, my right knee no longer wanted to cooperate. I rested it and had a successful 10-mile ride a few weeks ago. Taking it easy is the key here!

Of course additional items such as alpaca fever and the start of school in early August put a partial stop to some of the activity. In all, it was a lovely summer and I have no regrets about slacking too much. And the good news is that with Autumn here, we will presumably get cooler temperatures soon which will inspire the KNITTING! Bring on the wooly yarn!

Happy Fall Knitting!

Farm Update

Summer is definitely bringing forth the beauty of the earth this year! Here are a few reprises of flowers that I showed you a little over a month ago.







There were also happy surprises that involved finding a PLETHORA of fruit trees on the property. At least 3 crab apple (nice size fruit), three regular apples that are yellow and red, and a mini plum tree that features very sour fruit. There is plenty of applesauce up in this tree! The pie I already made was delicious!



There are also several wild spots on the property that need addressing. Very pretty, but not very functional.





So we went to the Small Engine Warehouse to rent this tough guy: Billy Goat (Gruff)!



At times, we were hoping the Billy Goat would be tougher... That brush was super high after a rainy summer.



The Result:





And now why would we be clearing all this land? Someone has a new hobby desire: raising a few alpacas. As as fiber enthusiast, I could not be more thrilled with my husband's choice! Here are a few pictures of the Suri breed at an alpaca farm we visited last Saturday.



How can you resist something so CUTE!!!



Happy Knitting, alpaca style! (Hummmmmm!)

State Fair 2010

Last Saturday, I had the opportunity to visit the 2010 Indiana State Fair, where I entered several items for judging. I am pleased to report that the peacock shawl that I knit for my sister-in-law's wedding last September won a blue ribbon! She is a wonderful person to let me borrow this from her.



My sister-in-law makes the most exquisite quilted wall hangings from prize ribbons. If you have a lot of ribbons that you have won in competition and wish to have them made into a quilt, make sure to visit her website: www.showthrow.com. She would be happy to take your order! It's going to take me a long time to amass enough for a showpiece like she makes!

The shawl amidst its competitors.


Here is a proper picture of the shawl over a wedding dress.


I also entered two antiques which won some ribbons, while some strawberry jam and a photo did not win anything. All in all, a Very successful year at the fair for me! Thanks to my good friend P.O. for inspiring me to enter some items.

Till next time, Happy Knitting! (Maybe I'll have something finished for a change!)

Alpaca Farm Visit

It's true vacation time: road trip, family time, a rented house on a lake, kayaking, and best of all, a field trip to a working alpaca farm. This morning we visited the Blue Bell Farm Alpacas in Grantville, MD. (www.bluebellfarmalpacas.com)

We got to feed the female alpacas grain out of our hand. They let us go into the barn and onto the pasture with the animals.





The gentlemen alpacas were a little more rowdy.





Look at those teeth. Perfect for fighting.



The poor little 7 month old black alpaca at the bottom of this heap was recently introduced to the male pen and is being dominated. If he were to fight back and spit a little, the others would start leaving him alone. Hopefully he will figure that one out soon.



Of course we had to take advantage of the gift shop to purchase prepared fleece for spinning. This is the most high quality fleece off of an alpaca named April Snow.



And then some finished yarn for some hand warmers or mitts. This yarn was made with fleece from an alpaca named Smokey.



You can see Smokey, the only gray alpaca on this 45 animal farm, in the middle of this picture, chewing some hay. His exquisite gray coloring did not come out well on this photo, but he has won awards for the quality of his fleece. Unfortunately, he had a heart murmur and was gelded as to not pass on his line of genes. However, he would have been a champion breeder for fleece animals had he been more healthy. I can't wait to knit up some wrist warmers with the yarn from his fleece!



Happy Knitting!

Flowers

Since the last post, I have knit exactly two rows on my lace shrug. Auntie E's Knits is on slow-going mode, in spite of stated goals. I have, however, made a road trip to my hometown to meet up with friends, read "The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo," taught one of two weeks of music camp, and been busy sorting through old boxes of memories. The gardens, especially the flower gardens, are looking like it is summer finally. Here are a few pictures for your amusement.

Quincy

Finishing the Colt's scarf two days ago inspired me to take a look at a few other projects that are almost finished. On this hat I only had to finish the top section and was worried about two things: 1.) Running out of yarn and 2.) Figuring out the best way to "hide" the kitchener stitched join that was clearly in two different points of the yarn's color variegation. In the end, I opted for following the directions on the pattern, thus not hiding the join at all. It took me several tries (and consequent ripping and re-knitting) before I read the pattern correctly. The blame for this behavior goes to lack of sleep due to my attendance at the midnight opening of the movie "Eclipse" in the wee hours of June 30th. I have no regrets! (...about attending the movie or my decision to keep working on the hat...) See for yourself:



The Details:
Pattern: Quincy, by Jared Flood from his booklet "Made in Brooklyn"
Yarn: Marks and Kattens Sarek - 2 skeins
Needles: 10.5 Bamboo
Colorway: Party (though it is a pretty gray party, I would say!)
Started: November 7, 2009
Finished: June 30, 2010

The yarn was very special to me. I found it in the very last minutes of shopping in the lovely town of Banff last summer. The yarn shop "Jen by the Fjord" is located at the end of an alley near a parking garage. They had a lovely assortment of yarns that I had not heard of before, including this one. The proprietress was such a great lady and had lots of information and also questions. It's fun to have my souvenir yarn transformed into a hat to remind me of a fun hiking vacation.

This picture shows the obvious join. The join does not look as terrible as I thought, but next time I make this hat, I will either plan ahead and purchase more variegated yarn to make a better match, or make it in one color.



And yes, I did run out of yarn. My stash supplied a similar yarn to finish the last few rows. I like how the darker color brings out the star pattern on the top. And I also appreciate the little "halo" that came from the lightening of the old yarn before the change.



Here is a memory this hat will inspire.



Happy Vacation and Happy Knitting!

Finished: One Colt's Scarf

I am not sure why I was dragging my heels, but I did finally put the fringes onto this scarf to be able to add it to the finished project pile.



The Details:
Pattern: House Scarves, by Lauren Kent (From "Charmed Knits" book.)
Yarn: Plymouth Yarn Galway Worsted - 2 skeins of blue and 2 skeins of white
Needles: Size 8 (16" length. This pattern is knit in the round to produce a thick and warm product... and easy knitting!)
Colorway: Bright Blue & White
Started: March 19, 2010 - My mindless knitting while supervising a competition
Finished: June 29, 2010
As mentioned previously, this scarf is part of a city-wide service project. When Indianapolis hosts the Super Bowl in 2012, it wants to reward its thousands of volunteers with hand-knit scarves. I might volunteer myself to get this scarf back! Or I could just knit another.

In other summer goal news, the viola d'amore congress went very well! All the practicing definitely paid off. The garden is less full of veggies than I anticipated, but that is OK for the first summer of living here. It is also drowning from the vast amounts of rain that has been pouring down for the last few weeks. I also got a couple bike rides in last weekend, but most unfortunately put my right knee out of commission - OW! So while my goals are hobbling along, I am enjoying the summer none the less!

Happy Knitting!