…. inside….. and

…..out………… 

Have a safe and warm Friday!

Well, I left Aidan's hat alone for a few days to cogitate on it a little.  I really didn't want to knit the same hat all over again, but I did contemplate the suggestion to pull it back and start the decreases a bit sooner or pull it back and add some stripes.

The postman made my decision for me. :)  The little fleece  was delivered the other day and the red that I was using was not even close to the red in the fleece.  The red flannel is a blue red and the fleece was definitely an orange red.  So…..I dug deep into my pile and found some left over Harmony sock yarn in just the right shade of red.  Doubled that with some handspun black angora/merino and completely switched patterns and reduced the stitch count.  I have knit this hat enough times to know that I will be able to get the entire hat finished.  I may however throw in a couple of stripes for good luck.

I am off to hopefully finish this little hat tonight watching Grays Anatomy 🙂

I was sitting here trying to figure out what today's post would be when I picked up a little bottle of Bath and Body's stress relief pulse point therapy.

Daily posting has been a bit stressful for me as a fiber person this month mostly because I do not have much knitting to post about.  I have been insanely busy trying to make sure that everyone else will have something nice to knit with over the Holidays.   Mind you, I am not complaining…it's been fun!

My days have been filled to the brim with my daily real job work and making sure that all of the yarn that I dye makes it to it's proper place under the Christmas Tree.   It's been so much fun having husbands and sons calling me about presents for Wives and Mom's, what to get them….what do they already have….fun!

To keep up with the Christmas orders,  I have been working a gazillion hours to make sure that no Mom or wife is disappointed, which has left very little time for personal knitting….and blog fodder.

As I sat here smelling this delicious aromatherapy, it quickly made me think of from  where it came.  My very dear friend, Barb, who bred my very, very dear Cleo sent it to me.  Over the last 2 Christmases, Barb has put together a 12 days of Christmas package for me, which I can tell you is hugely fun.  A big box arrives with 12 little presents, one to be opened each on the date, 12 days before Christmas…. SO much fun!  The little bottle of aromatherapy was in this year's box of pressies. 🙂

More important than the physical gifts is the gift of friendship, that I will cherish forever!

PS….see that cavalier sitting on Santa's lap….that is Cleo's mother, Wish. 🙂

See that big Courtney smile……..it's there for a reason.  We recovered her board…and what an adventure it was!

This is how it began…….
Early this morning my son, Miles, im'd me on AOL.  He had read that Courtney's board had been stolen and was feeling really bad for her.  (Miles was a competitive boarder growing up here in the mountains.)  He told me that he wanted to help get Courtney a new board and was going to sell all of his snow boarding equipment to help pay for it, now that ice fishing has become his winter passion.

As a mom, I was hugely touched by his generous offer.  He has certainly matured into a very kind adult.  There were times in his life I had serious doubts that I would allow him to live long enough to become an adult, but that's another story…grin.

At first he was going to bring his stuff to a second hand sports store, but then decided that he would get a little more for it on Craig's list.  Hmmm……..Craig's list.  I was all set to purchase a board for Courtney on Ebay as a surprise gift from Miles and I when I decided that I would check Craig's list to see if I could get a similar board for her locally in time for Christmas.

When I went to Craig's list, while still chatting with Miles and did a search for a board similar to the one we lost, one just like Courtney's came up for a pretty good price.  "Just like new..hardly used..blah, blah, blah.  As I was reading the description I commented to my son………what are the odds this could be hers?  It was listed the day after hers was stolen and was located in NH.

He took it from there.  He contacted the people with a cash offer and they agreed to meet him here in town.  While he made the trek up here from where he lives, I contacted the local detectives about our suspicions.  The detective set up across from where Miles was meeting the kids selling the board.  After the transaction was made they sent Miles home with the board and told him they would contact us later.

About 1/2 hour later we got a call from the detective telling us that the girl had confessed to stealing the board from the mountain.  This means that Courtney should get her board back in a week or so after the court date and I should get my money back too…. hopefully the young girl who stole the board will have learned a valuable life lesson.

Sometimes the good guy gets to win 🙂

You know how the old saying goes……."Trouble comes in Threes".  Yesterday was definitely one of those days here.  I will start with the smallest problem…

 
As you can see, I am almost finished with Aidan's little hat.  Almost is the key word, as I ran short on the black yarn :(.  I decided to use the left over red flannel yarn from my poinsettia as it is machine washable.  I figured that the angora blend while soft and warm, would probably get felted eventually living with a 5 year old.

Sooo……..here is where I am at.  I am worried that the hat is going to be a bit too big for him, so I can rip it all out and start again (uggh), I can pull it back to the middle and add a few stripes and hope it fits…or I can trek down to Patternworks.  Dilema, dilema…..this was Sunday morning.

On to Sunday afternoon……………


Courtney works for Cranmore mountain at the tubing park.  One of the perks is a season's pass for herself and a family member.  This year Hannah thought that she might like to try snowboarding, so she got the extra pass.  As you can see her first day out with one of her friends was not a good one.  She took a nasty spill and broke her wrist.  She's been a good trooper about it, but I can tell it hurts.  😦

and then late Sunday afternoon…………

Courtney came home sobbing….(this girl NEVER cries).  It appears that someone stole her brand new snowboard…. grrr.  Courtney worked a gazillion hours last February vacation to pay for the snowboard that she bought in April.  She had only taken it out 5 times. :(.  We filed a police report, but the probability of it ever being recovered is very slim.  Needless to say she was devastated. 😦

Hopefully that is the end of our bad luck……..good that it all happened in one day…bad that it happened at all.

I'm sure that many of you have heard about the nasty ice storm that hit parts of New Hampshire and Massachusetts by now.  Fortunately we escaped much of the nastiness here in Northern NH, although we did get a bit of icing.  Hopefully those who are still without their power, 3 days now will get it back soon!

Yesterday was our annual find a Christmas tree trek.  It's no secret around here that I LOVE to decorate for Christmas so finding that perfect tree is always high on my list come this time of year.

Many years ago when Ken and I were first dating, and I was working two jobs, I was actually too busy to find a tree so I left the task to him.  I guess I didn't stress to him what kind of tree we usually had, as what he came home with could only be described as a "Charlie Brown" tree….LOL. 

I didn't say much as I didn't want to hurt his feelings, but the kids……..oh my…haha!  We still joke about that first tree.

Imagine my surprise when we went to our usual Christmas tree spot to see that they actually had a section dedicated to "Charlie Brown" trees.  I can not begin to tell you just how tempted I was to purchase one of those sweet trees, but Hannah would not stand for it… 🙂

Once home again, we set up the tree, put out all of the decorations and I finally opened up a box that came earlier in the week.  (It's been insanely busy here)

I sat down and sighed………..this felted tweed is incredibly beeutiful yarn!  Back in October when I went to Rhinebeck and saw all of the beautiful Tangled Yoke sweaters made with Rowan Felted Tweed, I knew I had to make this sweater.  Over the last few months, I resisted purchasing this yarn, but when Webs had a free shipping sale on top of the 20% off I gave in to the temptation.

I have a few items to finish up for Christmas and then it will be sweater knitting time.  I am seeing a sweater kind of winter here. 🙂

Hannah and I had a nice Christmasy afternoon today that I was going to share with you.  It was a wee bit picture heavy, but it was one I thought you would enjoy, but sadly it will not be today.

As typepad would have it, I can not for the life of me get a picture up tonight…grrrr.  I have to admit, I am just too darn tired tonight to play tackle with typepad, so I think I will go knit instead. 🙂

I will try again tomorrow :)………..

It's beginning to feel a lot like Christmas!

While I was working on the Seaman hat for Jean, it got me to thinking how this would be a nice hat for my grandson as well.

Aidan is a mischievous little boy, who reminds me SO much of my son, Miles, when he was that age.  There is that little bit of pathetic sweetness that makes them so hard to resist.  It certainly has helped my son along the way for sure!

Whenever Aidan comes to my house he will tell me how much he loves my yarn…how soft it is….and how he would so love a blankey knit with these yarns.  Given that he will be turning 5 on Christmas Day, I though that a hat would probably be more appropriate than a blankey… :).  

One of the things that I got for his birthday is a little red Spyder fleece so I'm thinking that a seaman cap knit with a blend of my handspun angora/merino yarn and some black merino would be a nice accessory to match his little fleece.  The soft angora will go on his little forehead.  I think it will make him smile. 🙂

I did manage to get a swatch of my seasilk finished before I left for Nashville as well.  As I suspected, it is a tad lightweight for these mitts, so I will go back to my original plan and use my Bambino blend.

I am very pleased with the way this yarn knits up though.  It will have a beautiful drape.  While I was knitting up this swatch, I kept thinking how much I would love a sweater made with this yarn, but a sweater knit on size ones, is waaaay too much of an undertaking for this slow knitter. 
Hmmmm…………I still have that knitting machine from my production days in the barn…….

Remember that I told you that I was working on a secret project?  Well…………I can finally share. 🙂

Late this summer, Anne asked if I wanted to work with her on a small project for the winter issue of Knitty.  It was going to be a neck warmer and Anne was looking for a lighter colorway so that the pattern of the neck warmer would be visible.

The yarn that Anne wanted to use was my Opulence, which I have to admit is my favorite yarn here.  The colorway that I sent to her was Rose Quartz, which I love as it reminds me of the quartz that can be readily found here and there in the White Mountains of New Hampshire.

Wanting to test knit this pretty pattern for myself, I chose the colorway Red Flannel.  My new everyday winter jacket is a deep red, so I thought that this would be a good choice for me.  I'm thinking now that a hat to match would be really nice too. 🙂

A few weeks ago the folks at Knitty contacted me to see if I wanted to do an advertisement for the Poinsettia pattern page.  I was flattered and challenged all at the same time.  So much of this is new to me and definitely interesting..:)  

This is such a fun pattern to knit!  Typical of Anne's patterns in that it is very easy to follow along and has enough change every few inches to keep it interesting.