2 weeks

It has been two weeks since my mom left us after her longChristmas visit and flew back to Germany. While I so much enjoy having her around, I do not get a lot done during that time.

It is typical for me, that I get into this crazy clean up mode, not just for cleaning up but also to distract me because I miss her!

After putting away all the Christmas stuff I wanted to finish. Yep. FINISH. Something unfinished, UFO-ish. And I found this:

Would you believe it... front and back done, sewed together, neckline finished, one sleeve half done. What in the world happened here for me to abandon this, I have no clue. It took me just 2 days to finish the sleeves even though I had to do some unraveling and re-knitting to make the half done sleeve a bit wider. It also took me two tries to get the cap sleeve right and to make it a perfect fit. The biggest nuisance was that it was too short! you do not want a wool sweater to end at waist length, especially when you have plenty of yarn! 

So I opened the side seams up to where you see my pinky, took out one row of stitches, which gives you live stitches so you can knit the other way and add onto the lower part of the sweater.

And voila - "Wintersun" is finished! I wore it for the first time yesterday when our temperatures dropped and you needed wool. Perfect!

At the Taos Wool Festival last October I had purchased some black alpaca roving that I wanted to spin up with a very dark hand dyed mohair from Kai Ranch in Texas. I normally go for bright colors, so this was something new for me and I had even kept it out of the stash boxes to get to it soon. Well, soon turned into four months, but I did manage to fit some spinning into my finish-clean-up frenzy and it turned out real nice. This has a lot more luster than you can see on the picture.

Since I am not the only one who does some de-cluttering in January I ended up with some bags of lovely yarns that a friend gave me (thanks, Marcia!!). One of the large wool balls really gave me an itch... no, I did not turn allergic to wool! - The yarn was colorful, but pale, muddy and boring even though it had many different colors in it. It screamed for me to over-dye and that's what I did. Nothing of the former dull mud is left, that's what a bit of magenta and purple and a half hour in the oven can do! 

You have not seen this either, the cowl that I have knitted for our sweet piano teacher - can you tell how she loves it?

There was another UFO on my needles, this cardigan that I was working seamless to show off the beautiful graduating color changes. The yarn is Sol Degrade by Lang, a stretchy cotton ribbon.

I'm looking forward to warmer spring temperatures, when I can wear it!

An empty desk is achieved, which is always a good sign... just some more letters need to be written!

 See you soon!

2013

 This is a good number, don't you think? 13 has always been the family lucky number: got married on a Friday the 13th, Lewis was born on a 13th, so good things are sure to come.
The year started off with a nasty cold/flu though, that held us in its grip for 2 weeks, so life can only get better now!

But before this we ended 2012 real nice. Right after Christmas we left the kids with Oma and the husband took me and my Nikon D80 with a new badass lens to California.
Hollywood and Palm Springs, enjoy some of my favorite impressions.. just keep scrolling!

 I tell you I was NOT close to this bighorn sheep - thank you, fabulous lens!

 Joshua Tree National Park - truly enchanted!

 I do knit a lot when I travel and went well stocked with yarns, so I was able to work on this hat for Lewis.

 I finished this shorty shrug for Fiona.

 And I made this one for myself!

 Not bad for a six day vacation I dare say!

We got back on New Years Day. Since then the kids happily started school and we are all working on getting completely healthy. No resolutions have been made - I never do - however, I find myself digging out UFOs and finishing unfinished knitting projects. The power of the subconscious, right? 

I will show you more next time, stay tuned.

Be well friends and a happy and lucky 2013 to all of you!

Grateful

No, this post is not about Thanksgiving, ah well, maybe just a bit, but mainly I want to thank all my sweet, kind and wonderful friends! Your encouragement, your time and last but not least your support by shopping at the studio tour means so much to me! You blew me away - thank you from the bottom of my heart!

 The truth is that just a few days ago I have sold the last pair of my circle of fingerless gloves, would you believe that? And we are still two weeks away from Christmas! That's a first! 

And that is not all, because I will be busy until January with several fun custom orders, among them three adult cardigans!

For the Thanksgiving Holiday we went to Tucson, Arizona and that meant quite a drive and quite some knitting time. Fiona had asked for a new pair of fingerless gloves and since the hand dyed and hand spun alpaca yarn she had picked was so yummy and the color way so much fun, I used the rest for a pair for myself.

Back home I finished a third pair, similar color way... present for a friend, sssshhh! Don't tell!

Seeing the saguaros was amazing...

All together a great vacation!

I wish you all a very happy and very stress free holiday season, are you all on elves duty? 

I know I am still working on some Christmas presents. 

No peeking!

Woah!

Wow, another year has passed and I am participating for the third time in our community Studio Tour. Very excited about this, you may remember, it is one of my dreams come true.. *sigh*

Ah well. 

And have I been busy! 

I have dyed yarn.

I have been knitting.

 A lot.

There will be fingerless gloves galore, made from wool yarn, the above hand dyed alpaca yarn and for the first time a significant amount of  what I call "the Sheep's Finest"- those gloves, that are made from hand spun yarn from hand dyed fibers.

I have made a few shorty shrugs, since everyone seems to love them.

This one the tiniest version, possibly for a 3 year old.

You'll see vintage buttons, where they work, sometimes adding that perfect something to a piece.

Grown-up size shorty shrug and my personal favorite...

Have I ever mentioned that I love my button collection? Believe me, you have not seen the half of it!

For the makers themselves there will be hand spun yarns

and - even more basic - hand dyed roving for a discounted price at this one event.

Last but not least another crowd pleaser - zippered pouches!

 If you need more info, addresses and such, they are available on the community website.

 I sure hope I will see you on Saturday! Do stop by!

you and me

What a busy summer it was! It feels good to be getting back to normal life and to slow down!

School is in full swing, thank you very much, and after three years that I have not seen her, my dear friend Doris is visiting - yeah! 

 One highlight of her visit has been the hook-in of our guild in Belen.

A day spent with friends, meeting nice fiber folks who share the same passion, you get the picture...!

Doris even started working on a little hooking project, a heart, and did very well!

 I badly wanted a special project for this special day and finally started my large rug after drawings by my kids. Hopefully I will soon be able to show more.

I started with one of Fiona's butterflies.

 I so fell in love with this rug, pattern designed by Darlene, one of my local guild friends.

Bought the pattern, yeah!!