Have Yarn, Will Knit

Rusty Orange, Worsted Hand Dyes, lovely.

Soon to be a Drops Jacket of my very own.

Working at a looser gauge than I usually do with this yarn will give me what I hope to be the perfect spring and early summer sweater. Warm enough to ward off that bit of chill on a cool day (I am a total cold wimp, despit being a permanent resident of Minnesota) yet breathable enough to wear without melting.

I wound my 1st skein, cast on, and knit several inches of the back Monday night. If I can master any kind of project focus, this should knit up fairly fast. I'm loving it so far.

Our greenhouse trip was fun. It was cold and blustery outside and a balmy 74 degrees inside the greenhouses. The kids got a kick out of watching the 'dirt machine' fill the flats with potting mixture, okay, the moms got a kick out of it too. It's just cool that somebody made a big ol' machine to do that. Then they all got to transplant a pack of tiny marigolds, which, if we can keep them alive, will come in handy as companion plants in our summer garden. The highlight of the trip, for all of the little girls, was getting to keep handfuls of blooms that needed to be picked off the plants to keep them growing now, the time for full blooms will come later.

My teenager doesn't think it's right to be having a winter storm on the last day of March, no matter how many times I explain the March in Minnesota phenomenon. I'm just hoping the snowplow doesn't make off with our mailbox again... we just got that thing back up!

Thinking sunny thoughts, thinking sunny thoughts, thinking sunny thoughts... :-)

Happy knitting-

ali

Holiday Yarn Winners

I know, I said Monday. I'm going with the 'I have a 6 week old nursing baby' excuse. It's a good excuse. Procrastination being my middle name (not to mention being very easily distractable), not such a good excuse, but also very much a reason for many a thing coming in a wee bit post deadline in my life... My 10th grade Biology teacher, once obviously impressed with my 15 yr old intellect, eloquence, charm, & charisma, told me I could be the first female President some day if I'd just stop procrastinating- I turned in more than one perfect paper late- I told him I'd get right on that, starting tomorow, or maybe the day after...

I realized I couldn't just pick the best sounding recipe, as a couple dear friends entered this time, and I didn't know if I could be trusted to remain impartial, and I can't just go around funneling yarn to my friends... so I had my 7 year old pick numbers, that was easy.

Our first winner, of the Cranberry Worsted, is AuntiEm, and coming in second, for the Sweet Potato Pie Brushed Suri, is Turtle. Congrats, gals! Send your snail mail address to ali@skeinsherway.com, and I'll get those packages together and try to get them out the door this weekend.

Thanks for all the recipe ideas- I've definitely got some cooking with cranberries to be doing in the next few weeks, and I honestly do plan to try some sweet potato recipes soon too. I'll try to remember to work on my food pics and post my success stories, or if I'm feeling real brave, maybe even my flops- like the classic 8 hour bread, that was a good one... What? You've never heard of 8 hour bread? Well, maybe you will...

Back to the knitting-

happily,

ali

A Little Thanksgiving Recipe Contest

I got to thinking all things cranberry when it occurred to me that Blue Sky Alpacas has some yummy tasting, I mean sounding, yarns. More specifically, one named Cranberry! Then I got to thinking that it might be fun to have a little contest, and because I have a connection with BSA, I have managed to wrangle up 2 hanks of their wonderful Worsted in Cranberry (with a copy of their Reversible Hat Set pattern, I do believe) and, for a second prize, 1 hank of their Brushed Suri in Sweet Potato Pie (perfect for the free Keyhole Scarf pattern on their website!) Don't they sound like perfect additions to holiday meals?

This will be easy (especially for you foodies), just post a favorite recipe with cranberries or sweet potatoes on your blog, with a link back here (don't forget to stop back here to let me know about your post), by midnight Black Friday (the day after Thanksgiving) and I'll either pick 2 random winners, or I'll pick by the best sounding recipe- I haven't decided yet! (Winners to be announced the following Monday.) Now bring on the recipes, I'm needing some culinary inspiration...

Happy knitting-

ali

eta: the blogless can leave a recipe (or link) right here!

PS- On a sad side note, we lost our dog Thursday night. It broke my heart to see how devastated the kids were. I never really considered myself a dog person, but I do believe I will miss her just as much as the kids. Abby was part Newfoundland and part Husky, which made for a large and lovely mix. I think she got her beautiful face from her Husky side and her bear-like size from her 'Newfie' side. She was huge, she ate a lot, she shed a lot, and occasionally knocked over small children, but we loved her, and we'll all miss her, a lot.

Loving My Loppem

When Norah Gaughan, vol. 3 came out- I knew right away that I wanted to make a Loppem, a Calvert, and an Eastlake, and they moved into positions 1, 2, & 3 in my Ravelry Queue... With short sleeves and a worsted weight gauge, I figured I'd start off with a lovely little Loppem. I was thinking a dark green or brown but then got to thinking about how some splashes of color can do a wardrobe good, and how I had 5 skeins of Blue Sky Alpacas Worsted Hand Dyes in a lovely blue sitting in my stash (I'm normally not one to knit in the color I see in the pattern, but hey, with my pale skin, I wear blue well, and it's not black or brown...)

The pattern calls for six 50 gr balls of Berroco Palace, with each 50 gr ball having approx 103 yards of yarn. Well, I had five 100 gr hanks of yarn- more than enough, or so my non-thinking brain thought that day. 50 gr vs. 100 gr. No contest, surely I'd have extra yarn. Um, maybe, except for the fact that my 100 gr hanks of Blue Sky Worsted had about 100 yds each!!! (Can we say density? Blue Sky's Worsted is a meaty kind of yarn! It feels so good on, trust me on this one, it's like wrapping in a blanket.)

I started getting nervous as I neared the end of the second skein and my sweater looked about 1/3 done... um, that was because it was about 1/3 done- I was gonna need 6 hanks.

I also need to mention that I was using yarn from a very old dye-lot, one I couldn't get my hands on anymore. Hmmm, what to do? Send out a desparate cry for help on Ravelry? It almost came to that... when I remembered a long forgotten pair of socks, unfinished worsted socks, unfinished because they weren't going to fit, gauge was too tight. I frogged about 10 inches of old knitting (knee highs...) and rewound my sweater-saving 6th ball of blue, of which I probably used less than half. What am I going to do with about 60 yds of blue worsted? It will probably end up a stripe in something, or maybe some cat's cradle play for several young people I know... That doesn't matter- what matters now is that I get to wear my Loppem!

(pic from last week, 37 week baby belly)

*** lesson learned- check yardage! ***

Our weather is just starting to turn cool enough to want and even need a layer of woolly, alpaca-y, warmthness, and I am definitely going to enjoy this knit in the next many weeks and months- I do live in Minneosota, remember?

Are you knitting something special for this next season? I hope so.

Happy knitting-

ali

PS-Baby Countdown Details

• 'due' in 14 days
• low back and hips feeling it today
• new car seat is in
• still need a new crib
• cleaning room & organizing baby clothes this weekend
• gathered relaxing music for labor
• slowly easing back on coffee...