SoXperience is ready!

All the workshops are lined up, the Island Motor Inn on Chincoteague Island is ready for us, and boy are we ready for spring after this last blizzard. Thankfully we did not lose power this time. Our grandaughter Jaina’s school did have the roof collapse on part of it. Wonder what they will do? All schools in the area are closed until Tuesday of next week and there is a state of emergency issued so no one is to be on the roads. The size of the equipment that is being used to clear the roads keeps getting bigger and bigger. Dan said the last plow which went through must have been from the forest service for pulling logs. Gigantic! that was two days ago and the roads are closed once again.  Soooo…. Looking forward to the Spring Garden & Flower show in April which will be the same weekend in April as our SoXperience. To find all the information about SoXperience just go to that link on our website.

Or, what the ER can do to your knitting.

These little socks out of Step yarn that I was knitting for my grandson went with me to the emergency room when Dan fell off the ladder and then to the orthopedic offices and through surgery waiting rooms. So, needless to say, it was some mindless knitting. So I finally focused on it one day and thought, what in the world did I do?!!!  AWK! Forgot to continue the rib down on the foot. So I got these little socks that look like balloons. BLAH!  The thought of ripping out the heels made me hold my head. But all is not lost. Sooooo…I dropped the stitches back and reworked them as purl stitches. Working the two socks at once on Addi Turbos is great and it did not take long to rework them and I am much happier not ripping out. Here they are finished on his feet, 5 seconds before, “thanks Grandma” and they are ripped off his feet as he heads to play somewhere else. That kind of ripping is acceptable, almost. Oh yeah, fraternal socks don’t bother me at all.

Grandbabies are perfect to knit for.

Love those small projects and when they like what you knitted…what a bonus! This little hat with its knitted embellishment of a flower just called to me as I thumbed through the Louisa Harding book, Enchanted Garden. There was that little flower and I just had to give it a try. So, chose Panda Cotton in two very bright colors which when I got going in it, I wondered if it was too much for a little baby girl. The little bit of elastic in the yarn was a bonus to help it fit an unknown size head except by choosing the age in the pattern. The picot edge was different, you began with it as the cast on edge, not adding it after you finished your knitting. And the flower was so simple that you wanted to knit a couple dozen just to stick on your other projects. Cool!

Here she is, baby Caroline with her new duds. Sarah, her mom, says she alternated pulling it on her head and tucking it under her chin and “wearing” it there. What fun!

Have you tried the new Addi Turbo Lace Needles. Not being a lace knitter, I didn’t think I would have any interest in using them. But AHA! Had the opportunity to try them when knitting the Swirl Shawl with Melody yarn and found that I like the long points. Wonder how they would work for sock knitting…well they’re great for that too. That extra pointy tip is really good for the fingering weight yarn used in socks also. Picking up stitches along the gusset, not a snap, but a little easier.

(more…)

Summer, now you see it, now you don’t. Knitting projects that have been languishing for months, waiting for summer and all its free time. What happened? There’s the shrug out of Grace yarn started, embarrassingly, last summer for a quick project. And then there is the moebius out of Interlacements Toasty Toes yarn, the Swirl Shawl out of Melody, the socks out of everything it seems. Someone asked me when I joined Ravelry whether I was going to put my stash on. Well, that could mean the shop. It is thoroughly decadent to have a yarn shop at your disposal and perfectly understandable why I have so many ongoing projects. The actual size of this “works in progress” is clear when everything has to be gathered up into a VERY large bag (make that TWO bags) and stored away when the grandchildren come. You definitely don’t want them skewered by a knitting needle while leaping from the couch. (Yes, sorry, Sarah, Melissa and Christian, your children do do that when they are here.)

Back to projects, I dearly love to knit two socks at one time. When you’re finished, you’re finished. No second sock to knit! The last ones finished were out of Tofutsies yarn for baby Caroline. A little pressure there because her Mom says her feet are growing faster than she is and they might not fit. Picked out this lovely girly color (#785) for the grandbaby and off we go. I used the Addi Turbo 40″ size 3 (probably would have used a size 2 for adult socks, but the baby is not gonna be walking in these) and the Ann Norling pattern Baby & Kids Socks (#26).

For the cast on, cast on half the stitches of
sock #1(which would be 20) and all the stitches of sock #2 (40 sts).  

 

 

Slide all the stitches onto the cable of the needle.On sock #2, the one that you cast on all the stitches, count off half the stitches (that would be 20) and pull the cable through these stitches making sure you don’t crimp the cable.

So now you have half the stitches of sock #2 on one needle and the other half of #2 plus half the first sock on the other needle.

  Now cast on the rest of your stitches for sock #1 on the needle. This is the awkward part. Now you have your needles set up with half of sock #1, half of sock #2 on one needle and the other half of each on the other needle.

 

 

That’s enough to absorb for today. Check back for the next installment.

in the meantime use our coupon and save a $1.00 on each ball of Tofutsies yarn. Just enter blog1 in the coupon box on your order form. This coupon expires on August 26th. The fine print says this is not in addition to any other sale that you might be taking advantage of. Thanks!

Hello everyone! Welcome to the Carodan Farm Blog.

We have so much information to share on knitting tips, techniques, yarns, not to mention our sheep and farm, that we decided to start our very own blog. We plan to include all that, plus the projects we are working on - knitting projects from our daughters, Sarah and Melissa, and myself, Caroline, as well as from our knitting buddies Michelle, Debbie and Gerry. You’ll see them all here along with our comments, suggestions.

New yarns and books are arriving all the time, and you’ll get news of them here before they even hit the store. Featured products will make you aware of different aspects of our store. And of course there’ll be the special coupons just for our blog audience. And last but not least, your input will round it out to perfection. We learn from each other the best. So, here we go into this new phase of Carodan Farm knitting! Hope to see you here!