One of the things that I have really practiced this year is monogamy in my knitting.  I have found that if I only have one project on my knitting needles at a time and it gets all of my attention, I am more apt to get it finished and so far it really has been working.

So why then do you see 3 project bags?  Well, it's not that I fell off that monogamous wagon, but rather they were projects that needed to be worked on.  Up at the top is my Morning Coffee sweater (focus project).  Both sleeves are knit, so I took a little time to finish my Cactus Flower shawl before I set about starting the back, which I will start this weekend, after I block that shawl.

The blue socks made with my favorite Hayrick pattern was cast on for Fryeburg Fair to demonstrate lace knitting.  I know this pattern well enough that I "thought" I could knit and talk at the same time, but that really was a challenge that did not go well….a lot of ripping back happened each night when I got home, but they are great for car knitting and I really need a new pair of blue socks, so it's all good.

The third item is the Featherdown mitt pattern from my yarn club.  I'm not always good about getting yarn club projects knit mostly because my brain is pretty tired from it by the time it gets mailed out.  I really love these however and I know my daughters will probably want a pair in different colors too.  It's going to be a fast and easy knit that will not really take much time away from my sweater, so there you have it. 🙂

The pink ipad underneath the bags is for another post….tomorrow.

Happy knitting!!

So, today's Ten on Tuesday topic is Ten Favorite Books in Series.

Hmm….I am not a serial book reader at all.  I never jump on the band wagon of the latest trend in reading.  Nope, no Harry Potter here or Hunger Games.  I don't know why I have avoided them, but I have.  Maybe it's that attention span thing that I deal with all the time, but once I am finished with a book, I am ready to move on.  Having said that, what I do tend to do is read a lot of books by the same author, though not in a series.  Jodi Picoult is one of my favorites and I have read almost all of her books.  If I read a book that I just love, I will look to see what other books the author has written and will usually read them too.

However……when I was a child, I did love some serial books.  I think I owned and read every single Nancy Drew book along with the Bobbsey Twins.  Oh Pippi Longstocking, she was forever my awkward child hero, so much so that Hannah was almost named Annika instead of Hannah.

I've told you many times before that you could always find me with my nose in a book and the other thing you could find me with were my dolls, which was so contrary to my tom boy awkward ways.  I loved them and as my girls were growing up, I could never understand why they didn't love them too…but they truly did not.  Well maybe Stacey did, but the others just groaned when they got a doll.

So finally I just decided if there was to be any doll buying at all, it would be for me…ha!
When I discovered the world of Blythe dolls a few years ago it made me rediscover that love of dolls. Being able to combine these dolls with my love of color and art, I was hooked.  Having the ability to transfer a doll that is a bit creepy and shiny into a work of art in a different way is a nice challenge.  You would truly be amazed at the talent that is out there.
I did not make either of these dolls, but purchased them a few years ago as art inspirations in the hopes of learning how to carve a dolls face.  I am not completely there yet, but I'm getting there.

…and oh hey… these girls, really love to wear bunny knits as well!
(repurposed angora designed by the very talented Abi Monroe)

So there you have it….when I have to post daily, I am going to have to dig down deep…ha! 

After a week of rainy weather last week, it felt good to be back outside doing something positive and relatively pain free again.

The road that I usually walk on was going through major reconstruction including the sidewalks over the last month which made walking around everything a bit more challenging. Unfortunately it really kicked my never ending shin splints up a few notches.  After a week of resting them however and with the sun shining, it was time to get back out there with some tunes and enjoy the day.  It felt good!

Yes, it was definitely cold enough to wear those fluffy woolen rabbit mittens….brrr!  There's a winter chill in the air for sure, but it feels good when you are walking.
~
(full disclosure…I did not knit these mittens, I bought them from a fellow bunny knitter)
 

Sooo…..I am going to do something that I never ever would have done in the past, mostly because I knew I would fail, but I am in a different mindset right now, so I am going to join along with some of my friends in the NaBloPoMo challenge.  Basically what that means is that I will put up a post every day in the month of November.  I think it will be a good mind stretch for me and it will force me to get my camera out a lot more.

Speaking of pictures, I am a bit excited about this picture that I took last weekend when the sun finally came out.  It was for the Start2Finish class I have told you about previously.  The challenge was to use a piece of brown paper, chocolate and a kitchen utensil.

I liked the way it came out enough to submit it to Kim Klassen for a possible critique.  Kim chooses a few pictures to critique online in our class module and I was so excited when she chose this one for the most recent critique pictures.  Her comments were very favorable and very helpful.  I am so happy that I have managed to stay focused enough to keep up with the weekly sessions.  I have learned a ton about taking better pictures and post processing and hope to move forward with another class, when this one ends in a few short weeks.

No new pictures today though, it is gloomy, rainy with a chance of snow in the air for tonight….let's hope they're wrong about the last part!

Thank you Carole for the tiny push I needed to do this.  I am looking forward to joining along with you girls!

For the last 4 years I have run a Woolen Rabbit Yarn Club.
  The first year was a trial process for me testing the waters and I had fun.  The second year I decided to have a focused theme and introduced the Roaring Twenties scheme that was completely designer driven. I gave the designers that I have been so fortunate to work with full reign to come up with a design that inspired them based on the theme.  They would give me a color idea for their design and then I would fire up the dyepots and come up with a colorway that would compliment their thought process.

  I have had GREAT fun with it and I think that the subscribers enjoyed it as well. 

After 2 years of the Roaring Twenties, I thought it was time to change it up a bit.
  I loved watching the "Once Upon A Time" series on tv, so I thought..hmmm, maybe Fairy Tales would be a nice new theme with such a huge resource to draw from.

When Alicia Plummer who I was very happy to have join along told us told me that her Fairy Tale was going to be "The Ugly Duckling", I really anticipated seeing not only what her design was going to be, but also what her inspiration was. 
One of the things that I do ask from all of the designers is to send me a little blurb about what inspired their design for the newsletter.

Alicia's inspriation story sounded much like a page from my childhood book of awkwardness and I am sure that many of you probably have felt this way at one point or another as you grew up and even maybe still as an adult as I frequently still experience. 

Most of my childhood friends went off on summer vacations, so many of my summer hours were spent reading books in my favorite tree or at the air conditioned library. One of my most favorite memorable books that was read over and over was the book "The Tales of Hans Christian Andersen". I never tired from the stories woven by Hans Christian Andersen.

Once I know what the designer's inspiration is, I start researching content for the newsletter that contains the pattern which is something thing that I truly enjoy doing because I always end up learning so many new things.

When researching Hans Christian Andersen, I came across the album that my brother, sister and I listened to many times over as children, by Danny Kaye.  I can still see this album cover in my mind.  Danny Kaye on one side and Tubby the Tuba on the flip side.  
Such an innocent time for us back then.  I feel a bit sad that children today will never experience a world that does not include the internet and cell phones…a world that is a bit more of a challenge to just use your imagination and only your imagination.

This sweet picture was the inspiration for the colorway that you see in the mitts.
When I finish a yarn club and the story, the colorway, the gift and the special card all come together in a way that this one did, it makes me very thankful that I am so fortunate to do something that I love for work.

Thank you Alicia for your beautiful design and your beautiful inspiration story!

When there is a lot going on and things get stressful I think it’s really important to focus on the good. To look at the small things you do regularly that are positive. To treat yourself like you would treat a friend. And so, today for Ten on Tuesday, the topic is 10 Things You Feel Good About Right Now.

This is how Carole started off her Ten on Tuesday post and because life has been pretty full and busy, it seems like the perfect post for today.  So here goes, these are the things I am feeling pretty good about right now.

1.  Getting completely caught up on my dyeing.  Big yarn club mailing is all dyed and drying and ready to mail, as are the regular orders as well.

2.  Finishing the yarn club newsletter.  This is the one part of the yarn club I love most.  Researching and creating hopefully a visually motivating and informative newsletter for the members.

3.  Reading, I have been able to continue my summer reading into the fall.  Not quite at the same pace without being enticed by daily soaks in my ghetto pool, but still, the books are open and I am reading!

4.  Enjoying the very last part of early fall here in the mountains.  While most of the leaves have come down, there are still the beautiful brown and golden colors of the mighty oaks still smiling down on us.

5 Smelling the woodstoves at night when I put the dogs out for their last run.  It makes me smile.

6.  Completely and totally loving the photography and processing classes I am taking.  So much so that I am not only caught up, but anxiously awaiting each new class.  (so not like me!)

7.  Knitting.  I am working on 3 projects right now and all 3 are getting quality time.

8. Having time to enjoy my grandchildren.  When the older two were born, life with all of the kid still at home and work that kept us so darn busy made making quality time with them such a challenge.  Now.. with a few extra years under our belts and no kids living at home, Ken and I are really enjoying what ever time we can with all 5 of the grandchildren. They are great kids!

9.  Walking without much pain.  I try to get out most days for a good solid walk unless it is raining and for the most part the pain that barks in my back and hip have been pretty quiet.

10.  Football and Hockey!!

I still talk in my sleep.
I still dream.
How can there be perfect stillness
When my brain is so noisy?
Deng Ming~Dao

Ken and I had a fabulous impromptu getaway last weekend and I took some pictures of the little remaining foliage, but did I get my post up on Monday…of course not.  I will however do a short post on Friday before the new weekend and share some of the fun things that we did.

Today I will share with you some of the work I have done over the last week.  I finished the first sleeve of Morning Coffee and am well into the second sleeve…so far I am loving it.  Not one stitch was knit on my Cactus Flower shawl as I found the mindless stockinette so soothing, but once I finish this sleeve, I will move back to the shawl and finish it.

Those little leaves that you see are this week's color inspiration.  I will be bringing in a couple of new sport weight yarns and I thought a new color would be a fun way to introduce them. 

I also finished up the hounds-tooth scarf that I wove on my rigid heddle loom.  It will be a gift for someone this Christmas.  Normally there is no knitting or weaving for Christmas, because I don't like to put that pressure on myself, but now that this is finished, well, there is no pressure. 🙂

I have also been very good about staying on task with my online photography class, which is the one thing that I am most happy about.  As we know, staying on task is not always my strongest suit, but I really have made an extra effort to keep up with and participate in this class and feel as though I am finally getting a teensy bit more comfortable with Lightroom and Photoshop.  So much more to learn, but it's a good start.

How has your week been?

Now that I have finally reached the part in my Lightroom class where I have learned how to create a download jpg preset from my raw file that would not be huge, I can start getting pictures up again.  I want to keep everything in Lightroom from here forward, so I resisted using my go to iPhoto editing program.

What you see above is the beginning of my Morning Coffee sweater.  I decided to start with the sleeve to see if the pattern that the Custom Fit software created for me is going to be the right size.  I had my measurements taken at the retreat a few weekends ago and noticed quickly when I went to create a pattern that my forearm measurement seemed off by quite a bit, so with some changes, hopefully this will be the only bump in the road. 

The yarn I am using is Frolic in the Chocolate Chambord colorway and so far I am very happy with how it is knitting up.

Also on my needles is the beautiful Cactus Flower Shawl created by Romi Hill.  I won't lie, I HATED the nupps in the beginning portion of the pattern, but once I got beyond them, the rest of the knit has been very enjoyable.  The bottom lace panels are knit sideways and there are 18 of them, so the knitting is slow, but as I said enjoyable even with more nupps in them.  For some reason I found the nupps in the panels much easier to knit thankfully.  I only have a few more panels to go, so this should be off the needles soon.

There has been some weaving as well, but I will wait until it's been washed and fulled before I show it to you.  Maybe next Wednesday. 🙂

I've been pretty quiet so I thought I would jump in on Carole's Ten On Tuesday, with some of the things that have kept me busy.  The topic this week is
10 Things I Did This Weekend.

1.  I spent a lot of time watching and practicing with Kim Klassen's Lightroom Begin class.  With a notebook and pen in hand, I felt like I was back in school again.  My brain is definitely being stretched.

2. Keeping the class in mind, I did get out to shoot some pictures on Sunday.  It was a beautiful sunny day and probably the last weekend of real foliage here as the trees are dropping their leaves quickly now.  Hopefully I will be processing some of these soon in Lightroom.

3.  Put the vegetable and perennial gardens to bed.  Not an easy task with the strawberry bed that I never clipped back.  Note to self…..next year cut those plants back as soon as the picking is finished

4. Watched Madelyn van der Hoogt's Warping Your Loom video…more brain stretching.

5. Put the studio/shop back in order after the last few weekends of shows.  Nice to be able to move around in there again without tripping over something

6.  Lots of knitting.  Worked a few panels of lace on the never ending Cactus Flower Shawl.  I love the shawl and I love knitting it, but I'm ready to be finished.  Only a few more panels now.

7.  More knitting…started a new sweater, Morning Coffee.  Nice mindless knitting.  Pictures of both coming soon.

8.  Took Ken out to celebrate his birthday Saturday evening.  Ey yi yi, we both forgot that it was the big foliage weekend that involves so.much.traffic.  Very thankful that we know all of the back roads around "the strip".

9.  Celebrated Ken's birthday on Sunday with family and his favorite meal, homemade Chicken Pot Pie and an apple praline cake. Yah, no calories were consumed here on Sunday.. 😉

10.  We or should I say Ken with my input started the bathroom demolition…w00t!!  After 18 years of waiting, I am ecstatic!!

What did you do this weekend?