Yarn Along

Hello! Hope you all had a nice holiday. I was very happy to have a few days off work and that meant lots of knitting time. My sore elbow and shoulder might not be happy, but I am!

I made a ton of progress on my Rose and Cross Pullover.

I modified this pattern with the help of my sister, Andee. The original pattern is very big and loose and I prefer a more fitting sweater. I added some of the mods on my raverly project page.

I'm on the bottom rib and then I need to knit the sleeves.

I'm reading My Grandmother Asked Me to Tell You She's Sorry.

So far it's quick and quirky and I'm liking it.

Here are some photos of the past week...

Happy Knitting!

Joining in with Ginny at Small Things.

Are you ready for Christmas?

Are you ready for Christmas?

It's that question that gets multiple reactions. 

Yes? No? I guess so? I have to be? 

I recently started working a full time job. My hours are 8:30-5. I get an hour for lunch and thankfully I live closely to where I work. For 13 years I was blessed to work from home and take care of my kids when they were little and balance working when I had free moments. This allowed for a lot of flexibility in my days. Now...that's not to say I was sitting on the couch doing nothing! I was always busy, never able to keep up with everything. Feeling scatter brained more than half the time. It's not very glamorous but I did love being home.

So now I'm here, at my desk (don't tell my boss that I occasionally blog during the day) thinking about the upcoming holiday. As a mom, a lot of the shopping, thinking, list making, wrapping, etc falls on us. And I'm happy to do it all. But finding the TIME to do it all is a challenge. I know you're nodding your head up and down. Yup...we all know the feeling. 

So, on my lunch hours and thanks to Amazon Prime (seriously how did my mom do it without Amazon prime??!!!) I think I'm "ready" for Christmas. The gifts are bought. I'm really excited about a few things for my older boys. We focused more on "doing things" with them and having experiences to last a lifetime than "things" for them. Of course Chase asked for toys and little kid toys are so much fun to buy. His "big gift request" was a mailbox for inside the house and a sign for his store that he can flip letting people know if it's Open or Closed. He's a funny one. He has a little store set up in the house with a cash register and items for "sale".

Ideally, I would only have hand made gifts for everyone. I would take the Kiltcher approach from Alaska Last Frontier and make something cool out of recycled items and hand knits. BUT...that didn't happen. I knitted all summer long with Christmas in mind but those items ended up going for sale in the Coop. There's always next year....

So, in the spirit of Christmas, I wish you a very Merry Christmas and I hope you're "ready" or not for the holiday. It's not all about gifts...I know that, but when you have little boys looking forward to Christmas morning, you don't want to disappoint. It's one of the only times that my kids get to feel spoiled and it's one of my favorite days of the year.

Merry Christmas!

Smoke!

Liz discovered a new app, Superphoto. 

It applies some pretty cool filters and this is a result of the Paint filter.

This is Smoke and Blue in the snow (clearly last year!!!) with the paint filter. Beautiful!

Boys

Sharing a picture of our boys.
My sisters and I all have little boys...some not so little anymore!
Ranging in age from 13-1 1/2.

Thank you to Tracey Cunningham for the beautiful photos you took or our families.

Merry almost Christmas!

'Tis the Season to Be Thankful

I was enjoying a glass of wine last night after everyone in my house went to sleep. The wine wasn't just any glass of wine. It was a gift from one of my knitters. Her name is Joan. Her husband, Rich  makes wine and she gifted me two bottles. Now....home made wine could go one of two ways. You know what I mean. It's either wonderful or tastes like an old juice box that got left under a seat in your car for months. Well...lucky for me, Joan's husband's wine does NOT taste like an old juice box. Both bottles were delicious. 

So...where am I going with this? Well, I was sitting in my quiet house, next to my Christmas tree, knitting my fair isle sweater, watching Home Alone (best Christmas movie) and enjoying the wine and I started thinking about things. I started knitting 7 years ago. I started because I had always loved to create things with my hands and at that time I was a quilter. It wasn't until my kids started school and I found myself sitting in the car at the bus stop or preschool line that I wanted to have something more portable to work on. Lugging a quilt around was a bit cumbersome and didn't really work for my lifestyle. So, I tried knitting. I am mostly a self-taught knitter. A quick lesson with a friend and hours and hours of You Tube videos, lots of mistakes and successes and I am a knitter. 

I love to teach and once I felt comfortable with my knitting and my understanding of the craft, I felt like it was time to teach others. I remember being SO nervous teaching my first "real" class. I had a group of women that were willing to pay me to learn. What if I couldn't teach them? After all, knitting isn't easy at first. It's like tying your shoes for the first time when you're a little kid. It's tricky, but then you "get" it and it's smooth sailing. 

But I was able to teach them. And they all learned. And they all knitted a square. And then a scarf. And then a hat....and a sweater...and fair isle....and I started to have my own little knitting circle.

Women of all ages and backgrounds came into my life. They entered the farm and my knitting classes as strangers and have turned into friends and family.

Just this week, I received  messages from my knitters just saying hi, updating me on their health and a dream that gave them hope, one attended my band concert and I always get kind messages on my knitting posts. It means the world to me.

I feel so lucky and blessed at this time to have so many wonderful people in my life that all stem from knitting. I always say, knitters are the nicest people. Thank you to everyone that visits our farm and enters our lives. I know I'm not just speaking for myself in my family when I say this. 

You all know who you are...we are thankful for you! 

Wishing everyone a happy and HEALTHY holiday season!

Cheers!

-Leanne

Yarn Along

Hello! oops...haven't posted since last Wednesday (tis the holiday season to be scatter brained!)

I am joining in with the yarn along today to show you a new sweater that I started over the weekend.

My sister, Andee and I have decided to knit the same sweater but with two different styles. She's making hers a turtleneck and I'm doing a more traditional wide yoke. I am knitting mine with the Cormo yarn I purchased from Foxhill Farm on my trip to Rhinebeck. It was a huge treat to myself and it's knitting up beautifully.

I am using three shades of HiKoo Kenzie yarn for the fair isle motifs. Andee is knitting hers up in natural tones of alpacas from the farm. Her version is farther along than mine and looking beautiful.

The pattern is from the book, My Grandmother's Knitting by Larissa Brown.

It's the sweater on the cover. It's meant to be very oversized but I'm not a fan of huge sweaters so Andee is helping me adjust the pattern to create a more fitted version.

I had a request for a newborn football hat. I knitted this up quickly with some alpaca yarn. I love how it came out! So cute! No pattern, just CO 56, K1,P1 rib, white stripes at the bottom and top and voila...a football hat. I put the stitches in after I was done with an embroidery needle. Easy peasy.

I want to say thank you to my family members and friends that were able to come out to my concert last night. I am a member of the Greater Shore Concert Band, a community band made up of 75 people that play for the love of music. We practice once a week for 2 hours and perform holiday concerts and again in the spring. I am so thankful to have an opportunity to be a part of something like this. In May 2017 we will be celebrating our 50th anniversary of the band by performing a concert at Carnegie Hall in New York City. I still can't wrap my brain around the fact that I will have a chance to sit on that stage and play music. Amazing.

Ok...so that's it for today. I don't have a book going. Too much knitting going on I suppose!

Have a wonderful week and remember, our farm is open Friday 12-4, Saturday 10-4 and Sunday 12-4 now through Christmas! We have lots of beautiful gifts and of course...YARN!

Happy knitting,

Leanne

Revelry Link to sweater project page: Click here

Joining in with Ginny at Small Things.

Yarn Along and Happy December

Hello! Happy Wednesday, Happy December and Happy Yarn Along Day.

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving and a busy farm weekend. Hope you all had a nice weekend and holiday too.

Sharing in the yarn along and a few pictures from the past few days....

I am almost done with the body of Rick's sweater. It's the Rift sweater from Brooklyn Tweed.

Isn't it a funny thing with knitting...for a while it seems like it's going to take forever and you get a bit bored and the project gets a bit neglected. Then you get towards the end and you can't stop. It's like that last 100 yards in a long run. You get all your adrenaline back and let's you finish!

I'm hoping to finish up the body this week and then get the sleeves done and assembled in time for Christmas.

I also knitted up a bunch of hats over the past week to sell in the Coop.

Fun, quick hats using alpaca yarn. I forget to take pictures of them all and then they sell and are out the door. I did get a chance to take a photo of a cutie pie that bought one of my hats.

 Do you like Chase's parking lot spaces for his tractors?



Here are a few Thanksgiving shots. Chase was a big helper in the kitchen. He made the pineapple stuffing all by himself! All I did was cut up the bread for him. Other than that, it was all him. And it was delicious.

Manasquan didn't win the big Thanksgiving match up against Wall but we still had a good time.

Alpacas in the mist early this morning...

Joining in with Ginny at Small Things for the Yarn Along.

I don't have a book going right now!!!! Any suggestions????

P.S. I do have three boys but two of those boys do NOT like having their picture taken. I realize that most of my posts look like I only have 1!!!