Oogyknitter

What I failed to mention in my earlier post is that we're going to be making yarn dyeing an annual event!  I'm already looking forward to next year!! During her visit, Neuro got me hooked on steel cut oats and fat raisins: I'm very excited to add this combo to my breakfast rotation.  The cooking time also gives me some opportunity for morning knitting: Yes, those are the Mercury Socks that you see on the table: Off to the left, the orchid has gone crazy: I cast on for the FM cuff, with plans to finish the knitting this weekend so it can be blocked and presented in a week!! It's possible that one of the goaties has a baby; it's hard to tell, even with binoculars, if it's just a small goat or a wee one.  Also - Neuro saw a bunch of osprey nests about a mile or so from here, so it's also possible that my bald eagle was an osprey; either way, I haven't seen any birds of prey lately.  The place is filled with red-winged blackbirds and ...

It's still pretty cloudy today so far, but I wanted to show you some of the things from this past weekend's activities before they start to take other forms! The three yarns that I dyed (well, Neuro and LW did most of the work while I was fussing in the kitchen!) all involved  Capretta : I was initially hoping to get two of them to contrast boldly enough for a cool two-colored shawl/scarf, but it seems like they are all amazing just on their own.  They are each 460 yards, so there are still lots of options for individual items! MONKEYSOCK #1 is ready for toe kitchenering, and amazingly enough I ended up about a yard ahead of where I started the colorway pattern - so the second sock can match the first: I started my dad's slippers - these are always a hot mess until they're felted: Much to my delight, the recipient of the Zigzagular Socks requested more socks.  For some reason I have more Hawthorne hanging around: Right now I'm thinking MONKE...

What a weekend!!!  Neuro described it perfectly!  So many fun projects, so many more possibilities!! I'll add some updated pictures of yarn and other ideas in the coming days.  Today is dark and dreary so far - it's perfect weather for drinking tea and being cozy indoors, but not so much for providing nice light for photos!

So after that long winter of watching the deer wander around in the woods out my window, the leaves have now grown in enough for me to realize that I'm not going to be able to see much past the edge of the forest!  I don't know what that will do for the wildlife sightings, but we will have to see!  There still plenty of birds around, however! In the meantime - this afternoon, I noticed that one of the deer in our herd has a little one!  I don't have a photo, and all I saw was a little brown something following the adult deer through the long grass/hay.  I assumed it was a fawn, and not a friendly fox!  The goaties did not seem concerned. In a frenzy of "I hate knitting these finicky puff stitch things" on April Hat, I finished the knitting today.  Just the finishing and a pom remain.  I made it through all the finicky puffed things, but I did not enjoy them one bit! May Hat is all about cables - at least that keeps things a little interesting!...

We had the perfect weather today - sunny, 60ish, light breeze, warm in the sun.  This weather makes me so happy I just can't stop smiling! And of course I spent some time on the deck this afternoon.  Ever since I've hung out the hummer feeder, I've been sitting at the other end - the last thing I want is to freak them out (if you squint you can see the little glass feeder at the end of the bench there, looking like it's resting on the top of the railing): I put fresh sugarwater out yesterday and there have been many visits by at least two birds that I can tell.  One visits the southmost-facing "flower" and remains hovering whilst drinking, and another perches on the edge of the feeder and drinks from the easternmost flower.  I'm sure there's all kinds of things that happen when I'm not watching! And I spent some time working through the fidgety loop things on April Hat (there are bobbles, too, but I conquered those with January - twi...

Yesterday afternoon I managed to spend some more time out on the deck in the late afternoon.  I was working on MONKEYSOCKS and of course had an adult beverage.  We don't have any furniture out there yet, so I just had everything set on the bench in front of me (and had to make sure my printed instructions didn't blow away!).  Oogyhubby sent me a text, and as I went to read it I heard the faint sound of a leaf crackling below where I was sitting.  I didn't think anything of it until I picked my knitting back up and saw that I had four Karbonz, not five, and one stitch just hanging there that had just been worked.  It was one of the Karbonz that had taken a nose dive off of the deck! I tried not to panic, although I've lost a few DPNs forever underneath the deck at the cottage (I expect that someday, someone will be doing work under there and wonder where all the small, straight sticks came from!).  I first looked around on the deck, just to be thorough I ...

This morning, a lone deer was grazing around on the grass: (Yet another terrible wildlife picture, I know!) At one point, the goaties were racing around in their pasture again (which is off to the left of what you see in the above photo), and the deer was either puzzled or slightly alarmed by this.  Either way - these ungulates are representing the mammals very well today, but they are still vastly outnumbered by their feathered friends. Speaking of which - as I was driving up the driveway this afternoon, I saw one of our hawks being pursued, in flight, by a small group of much smaller birds.  There must be eggs at stake!! The bare  Capretta arrived today!  And somehow our mail carrier managed to stuff the whole thing into our mailbox!!  (She did that with my dad's slipper yarn as well, but that was a slightly smaller bundle I think.)

It's been raining here nearly every day for the better part of a week, but today was a quick break inbetween weather systems.  I took advantage and spent a few minutes outside in the late afternoon: (From left to right - MONKEYSOCK, new baby mitts, blue water bottle, Manhattan) Our Big Lake is only 3 inches lower than its extreme flood level from 2017, and we are expecting winds out of the north tomorrow night, which push the water onto the land and make an absolute mess.  We used to have a little place up on the water and let me tell you - when that lake gets going, it is terrifying.  There were a couple of times we just packed up and left, the water was hitting the sea wall and splashing OVER the cottage.  I miss that place, but I don't miss the anxieties!!  It's wet enough here as it is! The yarn for my dad's slippers arrived yesterday, so those are on the list to get to in the near-term.  I still have FM sock cuff to finish as well.  No wo...

Three of the four things I want to tell you about today involve Neuro in some way, and all are very welcome in light of the dark, rainy, and cold weather we've been having here in the Northeast US for the past several days. 1) Neuro has just updated her blog for the first time in a while - and with pics from a visit to the spinning mecca of Green Mountain Spinnery !  It looks like she and her crew had a great time touring the facilities and not getting eaten by the giant pickers and carders.  We had an amazing visit there many years ago now, when at one point they were lobbing cones of Mountain Mohair down from the attic (sorry if I've already told you this story, but it's one of my favorites!). 2) MONKEYSOCK!! It looks like the Hocus Pocus color pattern is just starting to repeat.  I'll probably do another 2 pattern repeats before I start thinking about turning the heel.  The Karbonz are beside themselves with joy. 3)  First skein of Only On...

The good news is that my mom continues to be thrilled with her new slippers; she keeps saying that wearing them is like walking on a cloud! However - evidently one of two things has now happened:  1) my dad would also like to walk around on a cloud; or 2) my mom would like my dad to wear wool slippers instead of his leather ones; I guess the wool ones act as dustmops, where his leather ones somehow leave smudges on the floor?  Either way, it looks like I'm going to be making another pair of these pretty soon.  Father's Day, perhaps? (I'm going to need to figure out what colors and how much yardage I will need, and then I will be off to the Webs web site for some shopping.  I might need another cone of Franklin pretty soon too - we'll see how much damage happens.) Not to inundate you with book reports, but I have another one to keep you entertained inbetween knitting and unknown flora/fauna pictures: The second to the last book that I have finished reading i...

The first inch of Monkey Socks!!  (they look a little bluer in this pic than they actually are, probably because my blue water bottle is just behind them in the light!) I saw another mystery bird yesterday, but by the time I got out my binoculars he was gone.  He was bright blue, smaller than a robin, definitely not a blue jay and probably not a bluebird.  One theory is that he's an indigo bunting.  I've been keeping an eye out for him again so I can get a better look. At one point earlier today I was looking out the west window and a bright yellow bird zoomed by.  Thinking that was a goldfinch? I am also trying to figure out what types of trees, bushes, and plants we have here.  I'm told we have cherry trees, so that's my guess for these: There are a couple of these bushes (shrubs?) right next to the house, the chickadees like to hang out in them - no idea what they are though: I know what these are, and they are EVERYWHERE: I....

I thought I'd tell you about a couple of different things today! Firstly - I've been obsessively spinning this week, and I finally have something to show for it: The bobbin on the left has been plied; the one on the right contains a single ply that needs to marinate for a day or so before I wind it up and ply from both ends of the ball (my favorite 2-ply method to make sure all of the handspun singles are used!). What is all of this, you might ask?  The story is - several years ago now, I received this gorgeous dyed roving from - Neuro!!! (I'm going to have to start referring to her as Neurodyer!!!).  She dyed the Corriedale roving to match the colors in the Georgia O'Keeffe painting, "Only One" (seen in the postcard there). You might next ask - why did I wait so long to do this?  Well - I really wanted to do something super special with this amazing roving, and I have to admit that I was pretty intimidated by that aspect of it, as well as the fact ...

We had just a lovely spring day today - sunny and crisply cool.  The grass is greener than green, and there are birds everywhere.  Including one that I can't, for the life of me, identify through its song!  (What color is it, the search engines ask.  Well, if I knew what it looked like, that would be much easier!) I cast on for April Hat this morning (yes, I know it's May, and that May Hat will be appearing just around the corner as well!  I still have plenty of lovely Northampton wool, so bring them on!): And, Hocus Pocus: The Karbonz are dancing with joy! I put my mom's slippers in the mail on Monday, and not only did they arrive today but evidently they are on her feet as well!

It will probably take me all summer to get a pic, but I put the hummingbird feeder out yesterday afternoon, and we noticed a busy visitor this afternoon!!!  The hummer very carefully visited each of the four "flowers" on the feeder, one at a time, clockwise; they returned a few minutes later, but that was all we saw.  I'm very excited - I don't think the former owner had a feeder out there, so this is a great discovery! I'm a little late, but I also put up two bluebird houses within view from the indoors.  We'll have to keep an eye on those as well!

Along with all of the daffodils, mystery trees, and other outdoor green wonders, we inherited some orchids from the previous owner.  In spite of my overall orchid ignorance and general inability to remember to water my indoor plants with any sort of regularity, I now have this: One big blossom, with maybe 5-6 others nearly ready to go as well!  (You can also see the hummer feeder in the background - it's going out today, just as soon as I boil me some sugar-water!) With it being so cold this past week, and attending a few events where I wanted to look passable, I found myself wearing Ily , which I had made some time ago: Neuro had dyed and given me the yarns; you can see a bit more in the closeup below where she has brown and purples together, and some lovely gradients of the brick color: I think I actually ran out of yarn when making this (I wanted to be sure to use them all up!!), and had to amend the pattern somewhat - of course I can't tell that now. ...

Oogyhubby sent me this pic last night as he was out walking the (still pretty muddy) property - it's a close-up of the pileated woodchipping work I've been telling you about: Pretty crazy huh! In knitting news - after failing to follow written directions for a second time, I've finished the knitting for JH #2; it is awaiting some finishing, blocking, and a modest pom (definitely not one of the big furry ones I've been using on these thus far!).  Mom's slippers are still drying (I had them stuffed with plastic bags until last night); baby mitts are progressing; and although FM sock #2 has been on hold for a couple of days, I'm still feeling pretty good about that project as a whole.  I'll have a stream of finished projects all in a row, but just not yet!