Hand Dyed Roving

My roving is dry and Beautiful this morning. I have braided the roving, so that you can get a better look at the colors. I used Jacquard Acid dyes to dye this roving. The colors that I choose for this piece are Turquoise, and Hot Fuchsia. I alternated stripes when I was dying the roving, Turquoise, then Fuchsia, and continued over the whole roving like that. I used 64 count Merino Top roving, that started out as Ecru undyed. This roving is sooooooo very, very soft. I love the softness of this roving. The end result for coloring that I got looks like cotton candy, and is a soft and fluffy as cotton candy. This roving is blue, green, purple, and pink. I can hardly wait to get this on my wheel!!!!!!

Hand dying roving

First of all let me tell you that hand dying roving is messy!!! I have practically dyed my whole kitchen this color!! LOLThe roving is on my clothes line right now drying. I will braid it up and show you the finished product as soon as it is dry. I have no idea how long it takes roving to dry!!!

Hand spun yarn

I spun this yarn form 100% Soft Corriedale Roving, in the Colorway Grapevines. It was 3.8 oz that I bought from a lady in Maine. This is 2 plyed, and came out to 220 yards. I love the way this yarn looks and feels. I have no idea yet what I will knit with this Beautiful yarn.

Casey

My Beautiful granddaughter Casey is having a tea Party at Grandma's house. She is my Sweetheart, and my Sunshine. The little bear that she is having the Tea Party with, is Harry the Bear. I knit him for her a year or 2 ago, and she still drags him around. Casey stayed with me this weekend, and we had a wonderful time!!

Love Folk Mitten

I have designed another Fair Isle Folk mitten. I named this Folk Mitten Love, because the word Love is on the palm of the mitten. This pattern has two thumb charts because the thumb is a little bit different on each hand, because of the lettering. The yarn that I used for this mitten is Knit Picks Wool of the Andes, in the colors Fairy Tale,( purple) and Avocado(green). I really love this color combination. the contrast between the two colors really stands out. Because of the way Fair Isle Mittens are knit, this will be a very warm mitten. This pattern can be found at Folk Mittens

Matt got a Bird

Matt went pheasant hunting this evening. He got a bird. Guess what is for supper at our house tomorrow night!

Soap

My Dear, Dear knitting friend Ariel, (some times I refer to her as my Knitting angel, because she has answered so many, many of my knitting questions.) introduced my to soaping last year, or maybe the year before last I don't remember for sure. Any way this is melt and pour soap, so very easy. So many colors and scents can be added to the soap. And a little bar of soap is all ways a nice little add in, to any gift. I usually wrap my soap in hand made paper, that I buy at craft stores. Well today it was time to wrap my soap, and I was out of hand made paper, so I decided to wrap my soap with ribbon instead. I think that my soap is soooo much prettier wrapped in ribbon, that I may continue to wrap with ribbon. What do you think?

My New Spinning Wheel!!!

My new Spinning Wheel came yesterday!!! It is a Kromski Minstrel. It is a very Beautiful spinning wheel. Now I am going to have to teach myself how to use it. I started spinning with a drop spindle, then I bought a kick wheel, after I learned to spin with my spindles, I decided that it was time to get a wheel. I am so very glad that I did. I am sure that I will spend most of the day today getting acquainted with my wheel.

Plain Truth a novel by Jodi Picoult

Plain Truth a novel by Jodi Picoult is one of the most amazing books that I have ever read. It is a story about an Amish girl, in Lancaster County, that had a baby out of wedlock. The baby did not survive. This is an exciting, suspenseful read. You do not find out how the baby really died until the 2nd to the last page of the book. but don't you dare turn to that page to find out how, or why the baby dies. It would ruin the story for you!! Jodi is an Amazing storyteller, and I plan on reading many more of her books. I must say that she is my very Favorite author!!!

I had an Elvis incident today

I had an Elvis incident today. My sister, my daughter and I went to this huge Autumn Festival craft show. There was crafts, food and entertainment there. It costs 6 bucks to get into the place and finding a parking space is tuff. Any way we get into the place pay our $6.00, and start looking around as to where we will start shopping. There are 2 separate areas to shop in. So we pick the one farthest away from us, and decide we will work our way back to the entrance area. We get into the part where we want to shop. I hear singing. Some one is singing an ELVIS song. I am so very excited and delighted. I yell out someone is singing Elvis. So I start heading toward the sound of the music. It is way in the back of the building. This place is just packed. the guy really, really sounds like Elvis. I am so very excited to get a look at this guy. In my minds eye, I am seeing a very handsome, very cool, very suave Las Vegas style Elvis. So I head to the back of the building where I am hoping this way cool Elvis impersonator is. I start to jog a bit, with my sister and daughter trailing behind me trying to keep up. I am shoving ladies with babies , and strollers out of my way. I am pushing people in wheel chairs out of my way. Because you see I am looking for Elvis. I get all the way to the entertainment area, in the back of the building, and to my complete and total surprise, their is a big, fat balding,gray haired guy with a beard and a cowboy hat singing an Elvis song. You can not believe how disappointed I am. I just could not believe that a man could sound so much like Elvis, and look like Roy Clark. Needless to say I was disappointed.By the way I really didn't shove any one out of my way. I just added that in there to show you what a hurry I was in to see Elvis. but I did yell some one is singing and Elvis song. That is my story and I am sticking to it!!!

Knitting

I made my own Lazy Kate

I needed a Lazy Kate to use with my Little Meggie kick wheel. So I looked at my book spin to knit by Shannon Okey. Sure enough on page 25 of that book it had instructions on how to make a Lazy Kate for spindles. So today I went to the craft store and bought an 8 x 8 circle pine plaque, some nails, and some cup holders. When I got home I hand to hunt down a hammer. That meant going out to the garage, and hunt, and hunt, and hunt!!!!! But finally I did find a hammer. I made this Lazy Kate in about 3 minutes, after I found the hammer. Finding the hammer was the hardest part of this project! Now I can ply yarn to my hearts content!!!

This yarn

This yarn,I plyed this afternoon. Then I put it on my Niddy Noddy, soaked it in warm water, and set it outside on my South porch to dry and set the twist! I used my ball winder and made it into a center pull ball. Now it is ready to knit. I amost have enough yarn for a hat!! I LOVE it!!!!

My Handspun Yarn

This is some of my handspun yarn. I spun white Norwegian roving on my Little Meggie kick wheel!!!!
I am pretty happy with the way this yarn turned out!!!

Basic Ribbed Socks

Finally I have finished my Ribbed socks. This is a very basic , very easy sock pattern to knit. My favorite kind of sock pattern is EASY. The pattern for this sock can be found here http://wisehilda.blogspot.com/2007/12/by-popular-demand-basic-ribbed-sock.html
This is the best fitting sock. They are nice and snug, and the leg does not slip down at all. Really a perfect fit for me. The toe part of this sock is different then most sock patterns. It is 23 rows for the toe, you end up with 8 stitches left on your needles. You just cut your yarn and draw it through the 8 final stitches. So very easy.
I used Lion Brand Sock-Ease for these socks in the color Cotton Candy. It is a very pretty pink with purple, lime green, and white strips in the yarn. This yarn is 75% wool and 25% nylon finished with Aloe Vera.
Other exciting knitting news- My ball winder came in the mail today!!!! You know what I am going to be doing this afternoon! Winding skeins of yarn into balls!!!!! :)

Swedish Apple Pie

This is my husbands favorite apple pie. I made it for him this morning!!! I am just the best wife!!! LOL. I would like to thank my MIL for the apples. Thanks so much Marie. This recipe came from her church cookbook.

Swedish Apple Pie

Fill a 9 inch frozen pie shell with peeled and sliced apples, mixed with 2 tablespoons sugar, and 1 teaspoon cinnamon.

Mix:
1 beaten egg
1 stick margarine
3/4 cup sugar
1 cup flour
1/4 tsp. salt
1/2 cup chopped nuts

Drop this batter over the apples, and spread out with a knife, ( I use a spoon). Bake at 350 for 40 minutes or until golden brown. I baked mine for 1 hour.