Nature

Spring is finally upon us.  They weren't kidding when they
said April showers. We've had enough for a long time....

 I am getting close to being done with the 2nd mitten.
Obviously for fall, not spring. But knitters are prepared.
Notice the ladders...the yarn has a lot of silk, and I think
that is the problem. I am really hoping a lot of that will
block out.

Started a sock with the koolaid dyed yarn. For Joey
so I only work on it when  he's not around. I did all of this
in a week!

Pattern is K2, Slip One, 2nd row, Knit all the way around.

I'm not a huge fan of the colors, but it was a learning
experience for me. Joey loved it. Yes, the foot is lighter
than the top.

Dug out the Sophie sweater I worked on in the fall.
Blocked it. I have to finish up the sleeves. You can't tell
from the pic, but the yarn has a lot of cotton and shows
every little error.

Also, finished up the Giant size 13 socks.
Yea!

Notice the taper at the top? That is on purpose.
9" leg, so made the ribbing a little wider.  Since Mark is 6'3"
I figured he could use a little extra length.

Ruth is coming along on her sweater - and her
fun socks!

Martha is working on her cowl...
her words:
 Here's my cowl, designed by Ann Hanson. The color transfer at the bottom doesn't make me happy. It's too rag looking. I might rip it... Now that I finally figured out the decoration it's easier to think of ripping it.  This yarn is from dyed in the wool, colorway is Nostalgia

It is very springy this week...green! and the flowers are so
bright and pretty. Everything in nature is popping.

The tulips are almost done.

The flowering cherry is blooming...somewhat...

We have seen deer out back in the field.....
Ruth has a "friendly" fox she sees often, and deer in her
front yard. But Martha beats us all...she has a BEAR!

Have a fun safe knitting week dear blog readers. Enjoy
the wonders of nature before the summer heat takes over.

Inspiration

I'm short on knitting inspiration this week.
Have had a super busy week, and just don't have the
time or energy to do a proper post...sorry to Ruth and
Martha who sent their updates.

Joe and I spent the weekend celebrating our
34th wedding anniversary. We were such kids
when we got married....LOL  Had some fun times
this weekend, as we always seem to.

The fun was tainted with this.
We had to have our darling KeeLee
put to sleep on  Friday. It tore both of us
apart.
She has been such a big happy part of our
life for the last year of her 14 years.
We will dearly miss her.

Sorry that's all I've got today.
More knitting news next week.

Nice

What a NICE day today. Happy  Easter....
just below 80 here...but breezy  phew.. the wind.

I finished up the first mitten (I'll do both thumbs
at the same time).  I like it!  NICE!  Except for the ladders.
You can see in the 2nd picture how it all looks wonky.
I'm really hoping most of that will block out.
Fingers crossed!  It's all helical two colors, except the ribbing
bottom, and the purple top where the decreases started.
It's hard to tell in some of the colors.

 Just have the ribbing done on mitten #2.

Ruth is just about done with arm decreases on first
sweater front.  What a lot of cables...NICE!

Martha is cruising down the foot of her NICE Old Joe 2nd sock
in Happy  Feet yarn.

 In other news....

Tiffany's mother in law got KeeLee a beautiful
EASTER outfit, with her name on the collar.
So NICE of her.

KeeLee was not impressed...but did pose.
This pic is more of the actual color...
very pink!

I made Joe and the kids a little Easter basket....not much
but just enough.

I'm super tired this weekend for some reason. Heading out for
a little walk, then Knitting! 
Have a great week dear blog readers...

The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly

I'm happy to say I finished up the Helical mitts this week.

The Good!

I don't really need them, so will put them away for Christmas or
whatever...

Very fun knit.

And tada...also finished up the scarf. 

Another good!

I love the way it blocked out.

Colors are much more vibrant than in these pics.
On the last row, I knit one row of purple, so it would look
better when I kitchnered it together.

It is very long...very long...but it twists up nice on the neck.
I have enough yarn left to make some mitts...maybe helical again.
I measured each ball, then split it in two, mostly even balls.
Then I measured again, and put in two rows, so a little bigger
one next to a little smaller one.
Then remeasured and each half weighed almost exactly the same.

 We'll see what I come up with. (I have already ripped twice).

While I was finishing the scarf..half way thru the last color
this happened.
The Bad!

The needle snapped...see the wood split?
I had to get out the gray needle and put the stitches on there.
I had to kind of wrestle three stitches together and it snapped
way below...makes me mad because they were not that old.

 Ruth is working along on her first sweater front and ran
into pattern difficulties.  This is not the first time this has happened
to her in the last several months...poorly written pattern. She is a very
talented sweater knitter, so it's not her.  She is going to try and figure it
out..wishing her luck...

Martha has a good start on her 2nd sock:
Old Joe pattern by Yarn Harlot....

In other news:
The UGLY!

Quite the snow storm here on Friday.  It melted pretty quick,
but made a huge mess after all of the rain we got on
Thursday.

 Yesterday and today have  been quite lovely!

Mom and dad came for lunch today. Joe made fish dinner.

Totally delish!

Have a great week dear knitters...
Happy Spring!

Medatative

As the name of the blog implies, knitting is very medatative
to me (knitting medatation - knitatation)
I worked on a couple of projects this week that were
very medatative to me.

 The Hyacinthus arm warmer.  Technique is helical stripes.
I'm a little surprised at how dominant the blue is.

 Koigu ppm multi color, and Loopy Ewe solids.
Size 1.5 needle

Just starting the thumb on the 2nd one.

Really hoping I have enough of the Koigu to finish up

Also worked a little on the custom scarf this week.
The last three colors are not that different.
Look close to see the color change

 I like all of the colors together  very relaxing to  knit

I did not work on the giant sock at all...maybe this
week.

Ruth is moving along on her sweater!

 Harrisville yarn. Granite State pattern.
She'll be done with the back in no time.

Martha finished up her first Old Joe sock...and had
very little yarn left!

In other news:
the boys went fishing today.  Unusual for Joey to
go with Joe..they caught tons of fish!

Took them forever to clean them...we will have
fish for a long time...yea!

Glad they had fun

Ruth asked about the color of our house since it was sided
so I took a picture

Definitely needs landscaping done!
That may be a 2-year project

Made pizza on Friday
yummmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm

and finally, can I just say, it's about time:

Have a great week dear blog readers,
sounds like more April showers to bring on the flowers!