the call

Picture paperdag, all warm and cozy in a comfy chair, while it's cold and not cozy at all outside. 

I was happily working on this new sweater and I can hardly put it down, cause this yarn is just so soft and lovely to work with and the fabric I'm creating feels so yummy and looks so pretty.

All is well and then it happened. The call. 

I resisted until today, when I opened the teak chest which holds this. Tosh Merino from NYC.

Sigh.

Right next to it the Araucania from Eureka, which I had almost forgotten. Almost. 

Another sigh.

Some touching and petting and contemplating happened. Before I could take a closer look at the gorgeous ball of alpaca in the lower left corner I closed the chest (can you see it? Pink and purple!). 

Now I wonder how long it will take until I give in and cast on with the Tosh Merino. Or maybe the Araucania after all? Oh wait, or will it be the super soft alpaca?

Life is tough. 

On knitting. Again

While finishing the Drifting cardigan this loveliness was already calling me.

I had purchased five of these generous skeins, dyed by Plain&Fancy Sheep&Wool Co. at the Taos Wool Festival in 2012, plenty for a sweater. 

I decided to go without a pattern and to make this up, copying the fitting of a favorite shirt of mine.

There was swatching, measuring, calculating, sketching, more calculating. Then I re-calculated  (*sigh*, yes, way too much math, if you ask me), I cast on and voila!

 I hope that it will all come together, because this sure looks pretty! New Mexico colors, I think!

 As I went through my pictures I stumbled upon these from Christmas. There are always some hand knitted gifts like the dark blue and purple cowl that I made for my mom using some supersoft Malabrigo merino yarn from a yarn store in Hawaii. 

While it sure looks lovely, never mind me and my knits, cause I'm an old pro - here comes the exciting part...

What really means the world is a gift that my daughter gave her Oma. Because this girl started knitting just last year! 

It was really for the longest time just a piece of knitted fabric, that she kept working on to practice her new skill until just a week before Christmas. That's when she decided that she had to turn this thing into a Cowl/Neckwarmer/Miniscarf - capitalized, yes! - for Oma. With the obsession of a determined mind she went to work and finished the second half of the scarf just in time and she did it all by herself, even casting off! I only contributed by sewing on the button for closure - the girl had to sleep at some point!

That she chose to give her first ever knitted piece to her Oma meant so much to me, because, you know, that's where it comes from! The art, the knowledge, the wisdom of the working hands, it comes from the generations before us, from the women, who preserved it for us, the daughters and grand daughters.

Oma was a lucky woman this Christmas, but in fact we all are.

On Knitting and such

Time flies when you're having fun, gulp. I will try to ignore the date on the last post and pretend I've kept you up with the happenings in the sheep's studio. Shall we?!

Now that this is settled I want to wish you all a Happy New Year! Yes, that is still okay, after all it's not February. Yet. Maybe I'll look back just a tiny bit into the past year, too.

2013 held a lot of knitting. I had a love-hate relationship with this cardigan, such fine yarn, so soft, such a perfect color for me, but sooo many stitches that tested my patience. I just finished it, sigh.

I made stuff for friends, f.ex. this alpaca cowl that went to my dear friend Ulrike in Virginia.

As usual I bought too much yarn. 

I got this lovely cotton ribbon yarn in a tiny store in the town where I was born in Germany. I loved working with it so much and the gradual color changes look so pretty, that I bought another color way: pink-orange! I'll keep you posted.

Then there was Christmas knitting and I made two of these hats for my nieces in Germany.

I have sewed pencil pouches. Lots of them. Sixty maybe or even more. Seriously! 

They are real popular in my daughter's grade and she has sold quite a bunch right out of her backpack!

One of my personal highlights was the first time ever participation in a Fiber Festival! In November I went to Silver City, NM with two friends, where we sold as ZiaWoolz! Lots of dyed wools, yarns, knitted garments and materials for rug hookers and we had a blast!

We as a family ended the year with a family trip and took my mom who was visiting. 

Death Valley, ghost towns and New Year's in Las Vegas with lots of yummy food, it was great!

 Now Oma is back in Germany, we are back to school and normal life. 

A year with many unknown adventures lies ahead of us. 

I am looking forward to more knitting, spinning, rug hooking, dyeing, traveling and never boring family times!  And I can't wait to find out about your adventures, too!