Socks!!!!

Okay, here we go. The sock on the left are the socks that D made for me for Christmas. He just finished them last week. As a knitter I certainly understand the time limits when knitting gifts for the holidays. I usually start in January but this year have not.

The socks on the right are my KAL socks. I tweaked the colors the best I could but you really can't appreciate the depth of the blue in the socks. I think the color is pretty good on the left sock. Anyway, the blue sock(s), for there are two of them, are 60% cashmere and the rest wool. I really enjoyed this pattern too.

These socks are very cool but the pattern has a couple built in issues. Please don't tell Darryl because it might hurt his feelings and, after all, I did pick the pattern. I find that the construction of this sock makes it pretty inelastic. The foot and leg of the sock is knitted around instead of from the top down or toe up. So this means you must pick up stitches for the toe, ribbing, and heel. So there is no heel gusset, which makes putting the sock on a chore because there's not much room there to pull it on. Then when you pick up the stitches for the toe, no matter how you do it there will be a seam. The same is true of the ribbing on the top. And when you pick up those stitches on the ribbing it's not very elastic and since my leg tapers larger as you go further up it, I am forced to fold the ribbing down. Now, I will probably wear these with Berkies to show them off. So I doubt any of this will be an issue. I don't remember if this is Socks that Rock yarn or if it's some that I dyed. But it's very pretty.

I think I should have rotated this photo. But I think you get the idea of the thing. I bought this yarn several years ago and it was very reasonably priced. This pattern was great fun to knit. I enjoyed the color work and I might just have to do a little more.

When you knit gifts for others and you have quite a few others to knit for, sometimes you don't have time to knit for yourself. I usually start my Christmas knitting in January and I haven't started yet. I had to give up knitting birthday gifts because it was just too many things to try to get done. If you have four sisters and one mother that's ten items right there. And if we decide on knitted gifts for Darryl's family add four more. That could be why Darryl knits socks for me. And I have received socks from my daughters. They know I don't usually knit much for myself. But I did finish one sweater for me last year. (Okay, it was on the needles for several years.) And I'm one sleeve short of another sweater for myself.

I am going to knit more stuff for myself this year. Darryl did knit two gifts last year and is willing to knit gifts this year. I'm just not sure what those gifts will be yet. I know what one is because I had a request. So if you read my blog and suspect you will be getting a knitted gift, you probably are. How about you let me know what you would like to have. I'm dipping into the stash and I'd like to have projects that are easy to carry around so your choices are, socks, gloves of some type, mittens, scarves, and hats. The choice of materials is mine, my friends. It's not just about giving stuff people like but stuff you like to knit. It's about the process.

It's Alive! It's Alive!

Here is the orchid I purchased before Thanksgiving. Yup, still alive. Yup, still blooming. But here's the surprising part. It's got new buds on it and they aren't falling off, they are opening. I really enjoy the orchids. You buy one plant for $20 or less and you have blooms in your house for months. I can even have the green plant around for a while before I manage to kill it. But this one likes it here. Maybe I'll get the hang of keeping them alive AND blooming eventually. So far my method is to take it in the kitchen and run water through the pot to give it a good soaking, then put it back where it was. I might venture a little orchid food now and then. Other than that, if it ain't broke...don't fix it.

We had a day or two of sunshine and D grabbed my camera. I'm not sure why mine is better, it's pretty much just like his, except it's red. Maybe red cameras work better. I suspect it's because mine is easy to find. In any case, he took these great close ups. Very spring like, I think.

Tiny green worlds. Maybe with tiny creatures living in them. They are very pretty pictures. And I enjoyed them so much I thought I'd share them with you.

Darryl is finally trailer training Johnny. It's a tricky business because the ground is still mushy and slippery. Normally he'd run Johnny like crazy if he didn't do what D wanted him to do. But he doesn't want to take a chance on Johnny falling and getting hurt so it's a slow trot. But Johnny is so out of shape he gets winded pretty easily.


At least we have established that he will fit in the trailer. He's a little short backed for his breed so he'll fit straight in. He will have to duck his head some but he tends to stand with his head down anyway. We do have a leather protector for him. It is supposed to keep him from getting hurt. We'll see how that works out after we get the entire horse in the trailer. So far just the front half has been in. If the weather holds the training will continue. Keep your fingers crossed that the remaining storms go around us.

Weather or Not?

A day or so ago Darryl came running in to the house to tell me to come outside and see the rainbow. He was pretty excited. He said he could see both ends. So he grabbed my camera and shot a jillion photos but these three are the only ones that came close enough for me to piece together. I apologize for the quality but I think you get the general idea. I think if you look at the far left side you can tell it's a double rainbow at that.

Then Darryl spotted this sight and snapped a dozen more pictures. Yup, the moon over the rainbow. Pretty neat.

This has been an eventful weather year for us. We had high winds. That isn't unusual here but we had them for a long time. Then we had snow in town. After that we had days and days of dank and fog. Then came the rain. I wonder what the spring and summer will bring in this year of extreme weather. I'm hoping for a riot of wild flowers.

And here she is Miss 2009. I just didn't get around to it. Some of you have asked about her. I'm sorry it took so long to print her picture.

Better late than never.

Mystery Sock Knit Along

Here how a Mystery Sock KAL (Knit ALong) works: You get a notice or you do a web search that one is going on. Shannon did a Mystery Shawl Kal that I'm hoping to do eventually. Then you sign up. And you get a list of material that you will need. This one takes two colors of yarn. The one I did before called for beads. Then clue #1 comes out and you knit that one. That is the picture above.

This is 60% cashmere and 40% merino wool. The contrasting yarn is some out of my sock scraps bag. The contrast yarn is wool. I don't know what kind but the weight is similar and I love the color changes in it. It really pops against the blue. It's much nicer in person than in the photos and monitors vary so you'll just have to trust me on this one.

I use two sets of of five double pointed needles. I work clue #1 of the first sock and then clue #1 for the second sock. That way when I'm done, I'm done. Naturally sock #2 looks better. The picture above is for clue #2. This is really, really fun color work. You only use one color per row. If it's an orange row I slip the blue stitches. If it's a blue row I just slip the orange stitches. Really easy and quick. This yarn, which screams Shannon is some that I bought in a booth at Stitches years ago. I think it's almost a lace weight but the pattern calls for casting on 72 stitches so it'll be just fine.


This is the end of clue #3. I finished the first sock but haven't started this clue for the second sock. The only thing I don't like about this store that does this sock is that they come out with the clues before they are scheduled to. So I'm thinking I have a week before the next clue comes out and they come out with it days and days early because people bug them to do so. I'm saying some of us have stuff besides knitting to do and you should have a little sympathy for us. Stick to your schedule! I realize I don't have to have clue #3 finished before clue #4 comes out but I feel a little pressured to finish before it does. What the heck is the point of publishing dates if you don't stick to them? I also suspect that those that are nagging for the next clue are only knitting one sock and will go back and knit the second when all the clues are out.

This sock is fun to knit and not too fiddly. So...what do you think?

So I Was at Tractor Supply the Other Day....

and they had a book bin. This is strange because the only books they sell are about horses, goats, chickens, and that sort of thing.

I found a knitting book. And there were other craft books. And novels. So I snapped up the knitting book (Knit 2 Together by Tracy Ullman & Mel Clark). Yes, that Tracy Ullman and you know you've seen the book in knitting stores because it's the one with two women wearing a sweater made for two people to wear at once. Guess I should have posted a picture of the cover.

In any case, they have this leg warmer pattern in them. I hear leg warmers are popular again. But these have half of a foot. At first I thought that was really strange and why would I want that. Then I thought of how often I kick off my slippers at night because my feet are too warm. I wear mules so I can kick them off and on easily. How nice would these be? And just look...they look kinda cute with sandals. Or am I just wacky enough to look for an excuse to make a pair?

And there's a pattern for theses felted slippers. Made on size 13 needles! Talk about a quick knit! Yes, you'd have to felt them after you knitted them. But they are sorta cute.


And I've been looking for a hooded scarf and wadda ya know there is one in this book. I think I'd change the shape of the hood part though. Not sure about that. Maybe hold a novelty yarn with the smooth yarn in the ribbing around the face? It needs something but I'm not sure what yet.

What did I pay for this book? I thought you would ask. $5. I guess you just never know what you will find in a farm supply store these days.

Why I Hate Rainstorm After Rainstorm

I have one word that explains my hatred (and I do mean hatred) of lots of rainstorms one after another. Adobe. We live on a nice big piece of adobe soil. There's a reason you can make bricks from it and have the structures remaining 200 years later. It doesn't like water. Water sits on top of it.

Let's say we had 80 degree weather for the next two weeks. That very same swamp you see above would be cracked. Why? Because the water sits on top of it and doesn't absorb into the ground very easily. Before the farmers started messing with it, the land sloped to the river behind us. It still does a little bit. So the rain would run off and clean out the river. It will absorb eventually.

In the meantime it takes me twice as long to feed the horses. It seems like the weather clears in the afternoon just long enough to feed the horses and make me hopeful that it won't come again tonight. This is one of the options I have for getting out to the stalls to feed the horses. I have to suit up with waterproof shoes, rubber bands to keep my pants out of the water and mud. Boots don't stay on my feet tightly enough not to just get sucked off so I have to lace up.

Sugar, Stormy, and Johnny have been in their stalls for a couple days. So today I let them out before I fed the horses. Of course they are fresh after being cooped up and started running around as soon as I opened the gates. Which of course splashed me with mud. Oh well.

This is another option for getting out to the horses. I think I'll get Darryl to dump some gravel here if we have any left after tuning up the stalls.

All that work of hauling, dumping and spreading gravel has paid off. The stalls are wet but not soggy. Much better for the horses feet. Their feet get black fungus junky stuff on the bottom from standing in water too much. And we trim the hair off the draft horses feet to keep the fungus from the outside of the hoof.

And wiener dogs don't like water. So I actually set a timer so that when I get busy I don't forget to throw them outside to potty every couple hours whether they like it or not. They don't always ask when it's raining. But they have been better this year than ever before. Once I got Sassy housebroken she rarely makes a mistake. So when she asks to go out I throw them all out. Sometimes they try to hide in their crates but I just drag them out and put them outside.

I'm not the only one that hates big rainstorms.

Two Pictures I Didn't Get

This is a rainy Sunday morning at our house. Here's Ringo snugged in one of the dog beds. I just finished straightening up the kitchen and making necessary plans for what to do about dinner tonight.

This is Sassy huddled in a blanket on the couch. I just finished putting a load of laundry in the washer.


And of course, Vinnie, who could hardly find a place to get comfortable. I had just finished making the bed and vacuuming the bedroom and hall.

Picture one that I missed: Darryl asleep in the chair with an icepack on his head because he had a headache. I just finished answering my email.

Picture two that I missed: Patches asleep in her bed at the foot of my bed. I just finished moving the laundry hamper and some boots to a more usable space.

So...what's wrong with this picture?