Procrastination & STILL . . . WAITING FOR SNOW! Photos--lots!

Here I sit in November which for your non-knitting folks is the month of "Wovember"   and all things wooly are just wonderful.  The world would be even more wonderful if I looked out my window and there was glistening snow covering everything.  There is no snow at all . . . well, I take that back we have had a few flakes after our original snows in October.  All of that snow melted, left, and is GONE!  This weekend we had just a bit of snow, not even a dusting just flakes of snow.  This whole global warming and lack of snow really pisses me off! I wish we would return to a mini-ice age!

Let's start with PROCRASTINATION or should I put this off a bit more hehe Eee!

I am an amazingly great procrastinator!  I have this trait down to a science and I am very productive when I procrastinate.  The project I am procrastinating over is the crochet button band on the sweater posted below.

The girls are ready to head out on the tundra.  You can see something one might try to call snow on the ground.  The village isn't very pretty at this time of the year. Two adults also fit on the MG convertible as I am starting to call the 4-wheeler.

Saturday's walk.  If you look close you will see the stick flying through the air that Tally is in hot pursuit of said stick.

The southern hills in a light blanket of snow.

At about +20ºF and no snow.

Snow in the distance over by the villages of St. Michael's and Stebbins.

Last weekends almond flour orange poppy seed scone---dang good I will add!

One of my procrastination projects.  Christmas stocking for my nephew Giovanni.

Last weekend's beach walk on a stellar day.

Tally a little bummed as she does not have a moose nose to chew on like Sadie!

Nothing like a moose nose for a snack so yummy!

Really, can I take this home, Please!

Another procrastination project--#2!  A functional but ugly dishcloth.  Our dish clothes are in varying degrees of old and worn out.  I am trying to use up stash, more on this later!

This sweater is for my grand niece and I need to get to the button band!  I loved the pocket design as well as the sweater. This, of course, is a Kate Davies design:  Bláithín 

A steek for me is far easier than a button band!

Where's the button band?

I grabbed this off of twitter and I didn't get the site.  I never thought about how the fall equinox is about half from summer to winter.  I knew this but really like this schematic.

Procrastination project # 3.  I have wanted to knit this felted slipper pattern for years.  The button band pushed me right to knitting up a pair of slippers!  It is a very simple design with a bit of engineering tossed into the mix. 

My DH suggested that I use masking tape to label the sections.  This made the construction so easy!

All sections labeled and ready to be sewn together.

Before the washer . . .

Drying away

Don't you just love this one!  Thank goodness for sheep, shepherds, wool, designers, yarn shops, oh the lists goes on . . . Do support your local yarn shops and wool producers!

I will leave you all with this little quote from the Washington Post!  Soon this crazy election will be over!  I know my candidate won't win but will be paving the way for third parties in the future!

I started this post pre-election and am just getting back to it now Nov. 18th.  I certainly don't need to have a tantrum about the election but I would like all of us to make sure that we each fight for what is near and dear to your hearts.  Hold the elected officials accountable . . . for me it is the environment, healthy organic foods, and health care.

Be kind to yourself and others, be a role model in making our world a better place for all!  

Fall Knitting

"I wonder why we battle with our knitting——a baby sweater should be easy to knit and fingerless mitts should fly off ones' needles .  .  .  but NO!  Amazing how many mistakes and challenges 2 sticks and some string can be——even more amazing is how knitting ever got invented—early knitting must have looked frightful!"

Above is a little piece that I wrote to a friend of mine back in September about our knitting.   There always seems to be an endless supply of knitting mistakes a knitter can make.  I have been knitting over 20 years now and I still mess up and I still find new ways of messing up.

I was knitting a hat and fingerless mitts for a trade.  My niece has a friend who makes wonderful goat's milk soap and has fantastic honey.  This friend also likes my knitting and thus a perfect match for a trade.  I knitted her a Crown Jewel hat which happens to be #6 for the year!  I will say knitting this hat is addictive, fun, and with enough little design features to keep a knitter interested in the project.

Crown Jewel #6 in Noro Silk Garden from the Knit 'n Needle my FLY shoppe in Montana.

Knitting mistake #5,106 these mistakes seem endless if you have been knitting for years.  No, I don't keep track of my mistakes but I do joke about them!  One always needs to remember humor when knitting or you might just have a full head of grey hair.  I had knitted one fingerless mitt and it was done other than the cast-off and cast-on tails needed to be weaved in and trimmed.  I was on the second mitt and had picked up the sts around the thumb.   As I was knitting in the pattern with the Whiskey Spring color (which I love and I am not even a brown person)  the other mitt kept getting closer to me and I kept pushing it away.  One would think, I would have stopped and looked at what was going on but, NO I just kept knitting.  I am knitting away on my thumb and getting excited that "I am almost done!"  First mistake to think one would be done soon!  The curse of an over confident knitter about to be humbled once again!  I am knitting around on my thumb and SUDDENLY!  I realize the reason the other mitt is closing in on me is because the cast-off tail of mitt #1 is what I am knitting with on thumb #2!  WHAT THE HECK!  Yes, I really did pickup the tail of mitt #1 and I am knitting with that on mitt #2.  I thought for a minute I would frog the thumb back but then I stopped!  "Just cut the yarn tail and weave those tails in!"  Take mitt#1 and set it on the other side of the living room and grab the ball of Whiskey Spring and knit-on!  I have to admit I wanted a bottle of whiskey and not a ball of yarn at this point  .  .  . 

Knitting mistake  # 5,106!

The two yarns I used for these fingerless mitts are PDS Whiskey Spring and Ptarmigan.

Done! With no "Idiot String" between the thumbs!

A rather long term project was completed in early October!  This project lingered far to long on my needles.  Finally, I went to retrieve it out of its storage bag only to realize all ends had been woven in and it was even blocked.  All I needed to do was sew on the buttons!  What have I been waiting for who knows!?  

Kate Davies Bláithín sweater is off my needles and joins the DONE pile!  This is a wonderful design full of all kinds of finishing techniques I have never applied before.  The most challenging part was the sandwich steek.  I have used steeking often but have never heard of or used a sandwich steek.  This is with out a doubt is a very fussy bit of finish work that is well worth all the fuss.  At one point, I must of had about 6 circular needles on this sweater doing various important jobs.  The other part I found a bit daunting was the icord trim which was also the button band.   This part of the design brought be to a grinding halt.  I really procrastinate over button bands as I don't like frogging out those suckers more than I have to.  I really had to make sure, several times over that, I had all the math correct for the button placement.  There was no way I would be frogging out an icord button band that was also the trim for the whole sweater! 

I used one of my favorite American yarns for this design.  Harrisville Design yarn Highland which is worsted weight yarn.  Purchased at Knit 'n Needle.

The back ground in these photos is what life looks like in a rural Alaskan Village.  The palettes we use for snow fences to help us make ski trails so the ski team kids do in fact have snow to ski on!  It is a bit of a story. I will write more about trying to run a cross-country ski program out here.

I still have a sleeve of Tomten #2 to finish and I have 2 more Tomtens to knit!  I love knitting the Tomtens as that is another great EZ design.  

Next project I just casted-on is a Shetland Chunky weight vest.  The theory behind this vest is it will be close fitting and used as a layer for skiing and hiking.  I am thinking I might do some embroidery on the vest just to jazz it up a bit.  I am planning on a zipper front.  It will be knit int he round and steeked.

The beginnings of a swatch.