Busy Hands Homestead

I turned the pages of every knitting book I own. I looked through half a dozen knitting books from the library. I scrolled through pages of free patterns on the internet. I wasted time. Ivory had picked out purple grey yarn weeks before at the store.  I was planning to knit her socks. "Mama can you knit me legwarmers?"  She asked one evening. Of course.  Legwarmers made perfect sense. They would span the distance between the ends of all those size four leggings that fit her waist but come nowhere close to her ankles. No pattern for legwarmers. No more wasting time. I just started knitting: guessing here and there and finally coming up with a pattern that features a scallop on the top edge, super stretchy ribbing on the leg and a super stretch (new to me) bind off. I didn't get them done for Christmas, but I did get them done for the first day back to school. Materials: 1 Skein Premier Yarns, Serenity Sock Weight, 50% Superwash Merino  wool, 25...

As I wrap blue yarn with hints of pink and green and purple around my knitting needle and pull one stitch through the other an ocean grows. The sky is dark and the water is reflecting the stars, the moon, the whole universe. There are shimmers of light on gentle ocean swells. The swells rising and falling and swirling. Cradled in the middle of it all is a baby. A tiny speck in the vastness of everything - gently rocked, safe and snug and warm. Materials: 3 Skeins Lion Brand Yarns Wool-Ease, Blue Mist    (the gauge listed on label is 18 stitches by 24 rows to make a 4" square on size 8 needles) size 10 needles short note on yarn choice: I chose this yarn because it is machine washable and dryable and contains 20% wool.  I prefer to work with yarns that are composed of natural fibers, but since this is a gift for a young mom and her first child I figured that utility, affordability and appearance was allowed to over ride my yarn snobbery. (And my favori...

This took me 10 months to finish... and it is all wrong - wrong yarn, wrong gauge, wrong size. I knew it was all wrong just a few rows into the project. I finished it anyway. I learned new skills. Next time I attempt this, I will splurge for nice yarn, the correct gauge and make two that are a reasonable size. Now that I know what I am doing. This one I am giving to a friend to use as a display for toys in a shop window.

I was hoping to post these Sunday night... Whole Wheat Oat Bread and Cherry Poppy Seed Danishes in the making. Christmas Stockings for Adam and I Story Time A few snap shots of our day.

Our world is winter white and cold. The high today is 13 degrees Fahrenheit. I am somewhere between washing the dishes, folding 4 loads of clean laundry, sorting all the things that have collected on the bathroom shelves back into their spots and sledding. Sylvan is napping.  Ivory has, not one or two, but four puzzles spread out on the dining room floor.  Two and a half puzzles are completed.  Adam is trouble shooting the waste oil furnace in the shop.  It shut down yesterday for no apparent reason. I spent Saturday and Sunday cleaning.  Moving furniture and mopping everything from wall to wall. (When I say mopping picture this: crawling on hands and knees scrubbing the floor with a rag.  I don't actually own a mop.) Adam sealed up house envelope gaps here and there that were pointed out to us during our Energy Audit last week. We winterized a few windows (in our unheated back room - our washer froze.  That was a first.) In the past few wee...

I finished knitting Adam's present yesterday morning, but didn't manage to tie up all the loose ends until just now.  In between icing the Almond Star Cookies and pulling tonight's pot pie out of the oven, I sat down for a few minutes and now the gift is completely done! FINALLY! I based the hat on a free pattern that I found online. I made a few changes.  The most obvious is that I added the curled edge to the hat to make it more hat like.  I also permanently attached this mustache rather than making a few different exchangeable staches. Well, dinner is ready and Adam just came inside. The pot pie smells fantastic!