Pictures for the Snow Birds

My grandparents head south for the winter. They call Florida their home for a majority of the year now. Smart people! It's cold up here at the Jersey Shore!!!

But when they are down south they miss their little great grandsons.

All 7 of them (soon to be 8) No girls....ho hum....

So here ya go Nan & GPop...some recent pictures of some of the boys!

Wade: 4 months SOOOOOOO Cute!!!!

 Buddies

Lots of smiles :)

Garrett is playing indoor soccer on Saturdays and he loves it! I'm a happy mom to be back at the soccer fields!!!!

Dalton accepting his certificate from the superintendent for his perfect NJASK scores in both math & science. This was at the board of ed meeting.

Hanging out with Chase

Wade again :) Trying to roll over, but his hand was in the way.

Half way over! He can go from back to front now.

CHEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEESE!

Early morning cheesy smiles

 Boys are strange

 Chase is going to a little mommy and me gymnastics class at Allaire Gymnastics in Manasquan.

He loves it! Crawls through the tunnel, jumps on trampolines and runs around like a maniac!

 This one likes his stickers and crayons. He even manages to not eat them...sometimes.

Okey dokey, there's a little snap shot into life these days with the kiddos.

Hope Florida is nice and warm!

Love, Lee

On the Needles

Right now is one of those weeks where I have multiple projects on the needles. 

I am making slow progress on my Leaves of Grass due to a little man. Charts/lace not friendly to those with little toddlers that think it's fun to just cause complete chaos in the home.

Hence the book I am reading. I am the book designer for this series and it's wonderful. I'm not just saying that because I'm paid to work on them. It really is a wonderful series and this book came out just in time!

Mommy MD Guide to The Toddler Years

The project itself is a pleasure to work on. It's just hard to sit down and work on it for a long chunk of time. 

I am knitting it with baby alpaca yarn. It's so soft and yummy. I see myself using this as a blanket rather than a shawl.

Ravelry Link: Leaves of Grass

An alpaca farmer friend asked me to custom knit a little cardigan for a friend's baby that is due now. The plan is for the baby to wear this for the christening in March. They don't know if it is a boy or a girl, so I picked this sweet little cardigan. 

Knitted in 100% Baby Alpaca yarn.

Ravelry Link: Christening Cardigan

Totally not related, but just thought I would share...

Said toddler that is causing the chaos now says CHEEEEEEEESE when he sees the camera.

It's darn cute.

My most worn and loved hand knit at the moment:

My Miss Babs Yarn Color Affection Shawl

And a beach shot.

Our boardwalk is being rebuilt. One board at a time.....summer here we come!

In your face Sandy.

Joining in with Ginny and the other great knitters out there.

Have a great week :)

Leanne

Saturday Evening

You know life has changed when this is practically a perfect Saturday evening.
A warm home, wine, knitting, healthy kids, a new Netflix movie.

Cheers!

Feeding Time

The Bean Queen and Fields & Gates guy are attending an alpaca auction in the wild wild west.

So that leaves us girls to take care of the farm.

I fed my crew, sat on the couch and then remembered...

IT'S MY TURN TO FEED THE HERD!!!!!!!!!

Bad Farm Girl!!! I bundled up and headed over.

I don't feed very often. My mom does this job.

Here's what I realized after feeding tonight.

There are A LOT more alpacas than there used to be!

Look how fuzzy they are now. Nice and warm :)

Due to the FREEZING COLD temperatures here at the shore, we will be 

CLOSED Friday the 25th. I don't think all the wood in the world would keep

us warm in the coop! 

See ya next week :)

Chilly Yarn Along

BRRRRRRRRRRRRR!

Winter is here. I can't complain. We've had it pretty easy this winter.

But seriously...it's cold! In other words, good knittin' weather.

I love knitting when it's cold out, frost on the windows and snow on the ground.

It just seems like the perfect thing to do.

Not good for my activity monitor I'm wearing right now. But oh well.

It's Wednesday, so joining in with the yarn along this week.

I'm knitting this beautiful, soft, heavenly cowl with our eco baby alpaca yarn.

It has gradual loose cables knitted in and it's worked tubular.

Ravelry link: January Cowl

I also joined in with the Leaves of Grass KAL

I started this yesterday. Well, let's say I started this five times until I got it right.

I find it sooooo hard to cast on with double pointed needles starting in the center.

But I did it!!! Once I got going, it's easy.

Ravelry link: Leaves of Grass

 And my book? Well, still reading By Blood but picked up this little journal.

It's called, Q&A • 5 Year Journal

It asks a question every day for five years. 

I love this idea. I know that life changes quickly and it will be fun

to look back and remember what was going on during that time.

I kept journals while I was pregnant with all the boys.

I love going back and reading them.

Today's question? Do you need a break? From what?

A: YES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! As much as I adore my littlest guy, I'm exhausted.
I need a whole night's sleep and a break from his constant activity!!!!

In five years, I'll look back and be sad that he's not a baby. I will remind myself of that today.

I also knitted this men's hat for a customer this week. It's for Olivia's dad. Olivia is probably the cutest two year old girl I've ever met. She and her mom have started to visit our farm on Fridays.

Hope her dad likes this!

It's a personal pattern

CO 88, K2 P2 for 3"

Decrease every 11 once piece hits 4" from brim.

Have a great Wednesday. Stay warm :)

Joining with Ginny.

Leaves of Grass KAL

Ahhh!!! I'm joining my first ever KAL!!!!

Andee has been doing it and it is sooooo beautiful that I couldn't resist.

For more info, check it out here. 

Leaves of Grass KAL

If you don't hear from me in a while, I'll be knitting to make up ground. I'm very late to join!!!

Here goes.....

 

All the Cool Kids are Doing It

This week I was cooking dinner and I received a text from my friend...

"Fun fact, did you know Ryan Gosling knits?"

She was watching The Talk on dvr and they were talking about people that knit.

So I got to thinking....who else knits? I know there are celebs that knit on set.

Did a little research and check it out!

Here's a handful of celebrities knitters. Wonder if there are more closet knitters?

I betcha there are!!!

Ryan Gosling

Ozzy Osbourne

Aisha Tyler

Felicity Huffman

David Arquette

Katherine Heigl

Kristin Davis

Sarah Jessica Parker

Dakota Fanning

Julia Roberts

Cameron Diaz

With their gigantic paychecks, can you imagine what their stash yarn looks like?

Probably the best yarn shop ever.

On another note, I've started to exercise again. Oh my.

I did a dvd workout and when they asked me to do arm circles to warm up my body,

the creaking and cracking that came from my right shoulder was ridiculous.

Knitting has turned me into a decrepit 34 year old woman. So pathetic.

So I'm up and moving again, stretching during my knitting marathons and hoping

to take off 10 pounds. Woo hoo!

Happy Saturday :)

 

Friday

It's coop day!

Stop by the farm today, Friday January 18th from 10-4 and you'll find us there.

We will be spinning, knitting, crocheting, chatting, hanging out with the alpacas

and of course our store will be open.

Swing by and say hi!

Happy Friday.

My Suki

After admiring a friend's Suki Shawl, I knitted my own.

A pleasure to knit. And loving wearing it. Hoping to get someone to take my picture with it on.

Ravelry notes here: Suki in Red

I'm still reading By Blood by Ellen Ullman. Hoping to finish it up this week.

I'm joining in with Ginny at Small Things and the other yarn alongs.
Stop by there to be inspired!

I also want to give a shout out to my sister, Andee.
Her gorgeous Cambridge shawl was featured on the pattern page
for Carol Sunday. She knitted it with yarn from Ox, one of the alpacas here
on the farm. Here's the ravelry link: Cambridge Pattern by Carol Sunday
Andee's ravelry id is AndeeKF. Congrats Andee! Beautiful!!!!

Happy Knitting!
Leanne

January Ten on Ten

Yesterday was ten on ten day.

If you would like to read more about the ten on ten link up, click here.

In a nutshell:

Take one picture every hour for 10 hours today on this 10th day of the month.

Capture the beauty in every day life :)

 

Here goes...

 

This was a snap shot of my day.

 

 8:00 squeezing in a bit of work, wound yarn

9:00 Coffee and breakfast with my mom friends

10:00 taking down the Christmas wreaths....boo

11:00 Mobile nap time. Yes, this is bad. Yes, kids should sleep in their cribs. Yes, I failed miserably at this AGAIN. My kid likes to nap in the car.

12:00 Cleaning up. Hand knits now have their own basket.

 1:00 hanging on the couch with the little man

 2:00 Sneaking in some knitting and last night's Top Chef episode

 Still 2:00 Chase is obsessed with my yarn bowl and it's contents

 

3:00 Free Cookie!!!!!! Is there anything better when you're a one year old?

I picked up some wine, cheese and breadsticks for tonight.

Friends coming over to laugh and enjoy some quality time together.

Love happy hour.

  

4:00 Boys are home from school.

This is my middle boy, so tired when he gets home.

 

 4:00 Dada home early!

Wrestling with Chase on the bed...their new favorite afternoon fun.

5:00 Dinner

 

6:00 New message of the day 

 Catch you next month for ten on ten :)