Yarn Along

Happy Wednesday.

It's yarn along day again and I'm joining in with Ginny at Small Things.

I just started reading Cutting for Stone. It was recommended to me and I chose it for my book club.

I've been a busy bee knitting for our upcoming busy season at the farm.

I am enjoying mindless knitting. It's fun to just knit what ever you like, regardless of who it is for, girl, boy, adult, baby...just fun.

So here goes....my most recent knits.

A sweet baby bonnet. 

This is clearly for a smaller baby than Chase and probably much more suited for a girl. Wouldn't it be adorable on a chubby cheeked little girl? Knitted with Cascade Alpaca. So soft.

Ravelry notes here

 He's not a fan of hats...AT ALL. So I tried my best to take some quick shots of him.

 I think I insulted him by making him wear a  "baby" hat.

Another little baby hat, more for a 6 month old. Knitted with yarn from our alpacas.

 And it's off.....

Baby hat knitted with eco baby alpaca yarn. Casted on 66

Would fit a 6-9 month old well.

 This one is off too....

My very pregnant sister, Liz, requested a soft little baby alpaca hat for her baby boy.

I made this same hat for Chase but in different yarn. It's a simple 5 cable hat. 

Ravelry notes here

Now onto a little girl sweater. With a house full of boys and all little nephews, I don't get to knit many sweet girl things. So I'm making this cap sleeve cardigan to sell at the farm. I'll add my own details to make it my own. LOVE it.

Ravelry Notes here

That's it for now.

Happy Knitting!

-Leanne

Just Keep Knitting....

I have been knitting non-stop. Simple patterns, easy projects, mindless knitting to stock the showroom. It's been fun. Just cast on, with no one in mind and create. I wanted to make a basic hat for a boy. I am a fan of natural colors. Nothing crazy, not a lot of fussiness for boy's hats. I feel like once they hit the age of 5 or 6, you can't do too much or they look dorky.

So, here's my warm, cozy, "cool guy" alpaca hat.

Knitted with double strands of our All Natural Eco Baby Alpaca yarn.

Garrett was my model. He's not a fan of getting his picture taken, so this was a rare occurrence. 

In fact, I had to pay him a dollar to let me take the pictures. Worth every cent.

This is our last week of summer.

Boys are headed off to school next Wednesday.

I'm really not looking forward to it.

These guys are good company (most of the time)!!

Bingo!

Last night I was sitting on my couch, sick baby in my arms, knitting a hat and I got a text message from my mom.

Mom: Andee won an alpaca!

Me: What? How?

Mom: Playing BINGO at the alpaca auction!

Time to make some room on the farm.

A Grey Boy is on his way to Arrow Acres!

If you would like to watch the live alpaca auction that my parents and Andee are at today,

click here and it will take you to the site.

Chase is sick with the virus that Garrett had earlier in the week, so I'll be home cleaning, doing laundry, knitting and now watching the alpaca auction. Exciting, I know....

Show and Tell

Remember when you were little and you had show and tell in school? 

Well, I thought I would do it today with some recent knitted projects. 

I was having a dry spell with my knitting over the summer, but I'm making up for it these past two weeks. Must be the crisper night time air and the soon arrival of fall. 

I've been enjoying knitting small projects that we can sell to people that visit our farm.

Here goes...

A simple hat made with our farm blend yarn.

Ravelry notes here

(Dalton is modeling here)

 Apparently we must have the same size head.

Graham Slouch Hat

I made this with our eco baby natural alpaca yarn. 

I wasn't sure how it would turn out, but I think it's cute.

Ravelry notes here

The pattern is worked on the wrong side, so it's a nice surprise to flip it inside out for the final result.

White Baby Alpaca Bandana Cowl

This is my second time making this cowl. I love it.

It's super fast, really warm and soft and since I am a cowgirl at heart, 

a knitted bandana is just my thing.

Ravelry notes here.

Dalton took the pictures of me. I think we have a natural on our hands.

So that's my show and tell.

Happy knitting

Leanne

Wednesday Yarn Along

Hi all. Happy Wednesday. It's knitting day :)

 

(Do you see that little piece of hay in the yarn? Right there, to the right? 

I love finding hay in my yarn.)

I've been a knitting fool lately. Trying to get great little projects done to sell on the farm. We have our annual National Alpaca Farm Day coming up in September and if we're lucky enough to have a cool day we sell lots of goodies. 

 

 

I made another bandana cowl this time out of white alpaca yarn.

 I haven't had a chance to photograph it yet, but I will. 

I also made a baby hat and a large men's hat or girl's slouchy hat out of our farm blend yarn. 

 

 

My shoulder is creaking and hurting. Silly knitting. So hard on the body.

 

The hat I've been showing here is the Graham hat.

 

It's a clever little hat and I'm really enjoying making it. It's worked in the round, but the pattern shows up on the wrong side. When the hat is complete, you flip it inside out and wear it that way. It will be a nice hat for a small adult or older kid. It can be worn as a slouch hat, or a tighter fit. It's very cute, soft and I'm excited about it.

When I knit this much, I don't get the chance to read as much as I want.

I'm still half way through Rules of Civility. It's a book that can be read in 2 days, and I just haven't been able to get to it. I'm afraid it's not going to happen. I have so many books that I want to get to.

I had my book club last night. What a great group of girls. Love them. We laugh so much and we "kinda" talk about the book. We just read Gone Girl and it was a book that almost everyone actually read! It was a great book. Everyone enjoyed it. No talk of the next book yet, but Cutting For Stone is on my personal list of what to read. Quinn just read it and recommended it to me.

If you have any book suggestions, please send me a comment!

Also, if you have any small nice projects let me know. Always looking for something nice to make and sell at the farm.

 

 Chase thought that climbing onto the stool was a fun thing to do while I took pictures.

That little stool was handmade for me when I was his age by my Uncle Mayo.

Have a great Wednesday....Happy Knitting :)

-Leanne

How Do You Get to the Top of the Hay Stack?

This is how we get to the top of the hay stack, Arrow Acres Farm style.

That's my dad giving Ricky Boy a lift up the hay stack. Awesome.

Make A Wish

We grew up wishing on every hay truck that passed by. I don't know why. 

We were just told to so we did it. A silly thing that makes me happy.

Hopefully many wishes were made and granted because of this load of hay my dad hauled across NJ.

Hay Day

Today is hay day at the farm.

We'll be lugging, tossing, throwing and stacking the hay up in the barn later this afternoon. 

(ok, I use the term "we" loosely. The menfolk will be doing most of this. My dad, Rick, Sean and Nick)

I'm sure I will have some pictures to share, but for now....

a little trip down memory lane

This was a lovely photo taken of me and Chase this time last year. 

Sadly, I believe I'm still making that face at him. He's a stinker this one.

Sunflowers

Happy Friday

A cowl fit for a cowgirl

Check it out...

It's alpaca, it's a bandana, it's a cowl.

And I love it!

Ravelry notes here.

Since the camera was out I took some photos of a few more things.

Not sure if I ever shared, so here's some more.

Rose Grey Loop

Ravelry notes here

I'm the only one in the family that doesn't spin. So I can admire the yarn.

Check out this skein made by my mom.

I would love to knit something with it.

I casted on to make a white bandana cowl last night. Such a nice quick project. I'm hooked!

I'm still reading Rules of Civility. I should have had it finished weeks ago, but just haven't had time to sit and read straight through.

Don't forget to check out all the other great knitting projects going on over at 

Ginny's Yarn Along link.

Happy Knitting!

Preparing

Mid August. Still summery and hot, but autumn will be here soon. 

Crisp air, cute clothes and knitted wears.

I refocused my knitting as I usually do at this time. 

It's time to stock the showroom with hand knit goodies.

I started a bandana cowl over the weekend.

I am holding two strands of our baby alpaca yarn together to create a bulky warm cowl.

Let the knitting kick into full time gear!

 

I'm also starting to think about fall baby crias, new nephew to be and Rhinebeck...

oh and the kiddies heading to school.......

Happy Knitting

Scavenger Hunt Sunday

Not sure how well I did this week, but here goes...

1. Mobile Phone Photo & 2. Hanging By A Thread

So, this is my sad cell phone. Chase has destroyed it. I have to make it until September 13th for my upgrade. (also Lizzie's due date!)Due to the sad state of my cell phone, I can not take pictures right now. And it's literally hanging by a thread.

3. Collage

Does a fruit pizza that Lizzie made count? Sure!

4. Always Look On the Bright Side

This is Reno. He is our little cria that had a mom that wouldn't let him nurse, needed a plasma transfusion, had to spend time at the vet hospital and now is awesome. So always looking on the bright side, he's great. (and very funny)

5. Home

My mom and dad, prego Lizzie and her husband Nick in the home where I grew up.

Somewhat wacky this week, but that's my take on the prompts!

Joining in with Ramblings & Photos

August 10 on 10

I am participating in the 10 on 10 project again this month.

The idea is, once a month on the tenth taking a photo an hour for ten consecutive hours. 

Finding much life and beauty among the ordinary things of our day.

For more information, see here. 

Here Goes....

8am

The only way to start your day at the beach.

Pork roll and cheese sandwich on a hardroll with ketchup from Sea Breeze Deli. Heaven on earth right there. (also to blame for my extra few pounds)

 

 

9am

Having some fun at Spring Lake Park.

 

 

10 am 

Time to leave the park. This is Garrett's tactic on how to control his baby brother.

 

11 am

RAIN. boo. My friend just started reading Jodi Picoult. I have read so many of these and I offered to take a few books I had on my shelf. So we stopped by and it started to POUR so we ended up staying and hanging out for a bit. Chase thought it was a good idea to empty her cookbook shelf in the kitchen. Well, he pulled this book out and we laughed so hard. It was given to her as a joke gift years ago and it was hysterical. Oh, and that blue knitted hat in the background? Well, that was knitted by her 11 year old daughter (whom I love). It was her first ever hat. It was supposed to be for the babies in the hospital, but it fit me. I think I'll be giving her a lesson :) Here are some excerpts from this stellar book. 

Heehee

 I'm assuming a cooter is a turtle. See the instructions about when he sticks his head out? Just grab it and wack it off!

Make sure you have a drink with your "another kiss me not sandwich"

12 pm

Back home...Still raining

 1 pm

More rain, but look?! Grass is growing over the tree stump.

 2pm

Tara brought these two skeins over the other night. She doesn't want them.

So I got out the One Skein book and planned a project.

Perfect! How about this tote? I've never made a felted bag, so this would be perfect.

 

3pm

"trying to work"

 4pm

The BEST local ice cream shop. Ice cream break at Hoffman's.

And it's still raining....

  5pm

A very very very tired and cranky 10 year old.

Had too much fun the night before at Six Flags.

 6pm

Heading to football practice

It stopped raining just in time for practice.

7pm

A little boy can find any puddle. Having fun while Gman practices.

8 pm

Football jersey handout.

And yes, I do realize that I just posted more than 1 picture for more than 10 hours, but hey, this was my day. 

This is blurry, but I love it. Garrett is so lucky to have a great coach that makes it so much fun. He played in the pros for the Giants and he encourages the kids to work hard and have fun.

So here's my little #32.

 

Next month, the boys will be in school. Wow!