Yarn Along

Happy Yarn Along Day! I recently finished my new barn sweater out of Cascade Lana D'Oro. It's nice alpaca/wool blend yarn that we sell at the farm. I added in some awesome purple yarn that I bought from Sweitzer's Fiber Mill at Maryland Sheep & Wool Festival. I love it. I need buttons. The hunt is on.....

Joining in with Ginny at Small Things.

Yarn Along

Hello! Happy Yarn Along Day.

I'm in a knitting funk. Grrrr. I knit every day but I'm not excited about my knits right now.

I love how everything is looking, but I'm not loving the knitting. I need something a little more challenging, but my life is too busy right now for challenging knits. In fact, I have a beautiful sweater on the needles but the next step is so confusing and I'm a bit stumped! Been a while since I've been utterly confused with knitting. Hoping my sister Andee can help me.

Anyway....here's what I'm knitting and reading right now.

Taproot magazine and a new Barn Sweater by Carrie Bostick Hoge.

I am knitting this along with a knitting student. I made this sweater in the winter using Shelter yarn. I wear it every day. It's a great sweater but I'm wearing it to death. Even I am sick of seeing myself in it. But it fits great, super comfy and I like it. So making a new one made sense.

This time, I changed it up a bit. I am knitting it with an alpaca wool blend that we sell at the farm in an oatmeal color. I picked up some awesome purple yarn at Maryland Sheep & Wool and I thought it would be fun garter edge for the bottom, pocket linings and sleeves. Love it.

I was knitting at the baseball game and Chase was picking some leaves off of bushes and brought over a fun lime green leaf, put it on my sweater and I thought it looked so fun! So I think I"m going to look for some lime green buttons to finish it off.

Here are some in progress pics.

The half done sweater keeping us warm at Dalton's ballgame.

Joining in with Ginny at Small Things for the weekly yarn along.

What are you knitting and reading?

Yarn Along • Last one of 2014

It's New Years !!!!!! My favorite two days of the year. We have a tradition that now goes back 70 years. We celebrate with my mom's side of the family...distant relatives that we don't always get to see get together on New Years Eve and then gather together for breakfast day on New Years Day and we go until dinner. Games, food, laughing, pots and pans, silver bells, etc. It's all good fun and I can't wait! 

Before we ring in 2015 I thought I would share some knitting and recent pics from the past few days.

The weather has been getting colder by the day, but we have tried to get outside as much as we can.

I took Garrett and Chase up to Belmar beach late afternoon and they had some fun running around while I knitted a few rows of my sweater.

I'm wearing my Bray Cap in the photo above.

A few of us got together last night for knitting night. It had been way too long, so we through together a very casual (it's always casual) last minute get together.

We met up at Liz's house and had fun.

Quinn did some yoga party tricks for us.

Chase being silly wearing my "readers"

Tara cleaned out closets and brought her old beauty supplies that she didn't want anymore. 

We all gave them new homes.

And my knitting....

This is the Barn Sweater by Carrie Bostick Hoge

I am knitting it with Brooklyn Tweed Shelter in Fossil colorway.

I prefer the look of the traditional stockinette stitch (it calls for the reverse sts). So I'm switching it inside out. I am sooo happy knitting an easy no fuss cardigan. I started on Christmas Day and haven't stopped.

Wishing everyone a very happy 2015!!!!!!
See you all soon! Happy Knitting.
Joining in with Ginny's Yarn Along. Hop over to see lots of great knitting going on!

Holiday Break

Christmas is wrapped up and we're enjoying the slower pace of the holiday break. 

If you also celebrate Christmas I hope you had a great one! We sure did.

It was one of the best ones I can remember. Our older boys were a lot of fun helping continue the Santa magic with our youngest son. Santa fit that blue tractor like Grandpop's in his sleigh. It was the hit of the day. We also had a few very mild temperature days that made being outside enjoyable. 

We went for a nice hike, opened the farm on Saturday and I've been knitting like crazy.

Thought I would share some photos from the past few days. They're all off my phone.

I've been bad about carrying my real camera around. The iPhones make it too easy to take lots of pictures. 

Ok...so here are some pics.

My friend moved to Germany for work this year and she sent us some goodies for Christmas.

In the package, two little tin houses (incense burners) were the hit. Smoke comes out the chimney.

Chase and Jeter waiting patiently for Christmas Eve.

A block print by my son, Garrett.

Ahhh....selfish knitting. The Bray Cap by Brooklyn Tweed. Knitted in Elsawool Cormo yarn.

 

Merry Christmas to me. A basket full of Shelter. Knitting it up into the Barn Sweater. 

I made my grandmother's apple pie for Christmas Eve. It's a tried and true recipe that dates back to World War II. My grandfather was stationed on the Arizona and it was the recipe of the chef on board. Thankfully my grandfather was in California the day of Pearl Harbor and survived. I don't know about the chef, but his recipe lives on.

Christmas Eve church.

Dinner at Mom and Dad's

My family :) Wouldn't want it any other way.

 Waiting for Santa....

Finished hat preblocking.

 

Winding yarn, drinking beer. Happy Xmas Day!

 Tuckered out from Christmas. Wrapped up in my Leaves of Grass alpaca blanket.

New farm hours...

Weekend knitting.

Soaking, blocking my Bray Cap

The perfect Jersey breakfast. Pork roll and cheese on a hard roll.

More progress on my barn sweater.

9 hours of Sunday knitting is all my hands could handle.

And my blocked hat.

That's it for today...

Hope you are enjoying your break! I'll be back later today or tomorrow with the new Winter Knitting lesson schedule. Stay tuned.