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.

The snow has started falling and it remains to be seen if the predicted blizzard develops as they promised. We are set to outlast it with our knitting projects lined up. I’m working on an Easter basket from one of the Fiber Trends patterns, alternating that with the shrug and vest. Gotta keep a lot of them in the works. And to lift our spirits considerably, the winter jasmine we brought in last week has opened up along with the pussy willow and red bud. The red bud looked absolutely dead and took a day or two to start swelling but now we see color. But the jasmine has been gorgeous. So, perk up, spring is coming!

Socks for Soldiers needs washcloths.

They need hand knit or crocheted washcloths made of 100% cotton. If you could make a few and send them off directly to them or to us and we will forward them on to SFS. Thanks!

or where did my needle go???

Have you ever been traveling along, minding your own business, knitting away, and all of a sudden your knitting needle slips out of your knitting and disappears into the underworld between the seats? The question is…does it end up under the seat, in the engine, on the road or just into a land occupied by lose change , emory boards and anything else that slips from your fingers? On that occasion I am happy to report that Dan swerved to the side of the road (in response to my screech) and rooted the neeedle out before it had joined all the other debris. Happiness prevailed.

And now I am looking forward, not really, to a trip back to Charlottesville for a heel doctor’s appointment for Dan. Looking forward to it because he is able to drive a little now so I can once again blissfully knit the miles away. You can’t imagine how the last few months have cut into my knitting time because I have had to do all the driving. Not nice. But we are almost at the point where, when I ask, “want me to drive” he says, “no, you’re knitting, that’s fine.” Oh happy day!

Or Dairy Queen hats, an Elizabeth Zimmermann innovation.

Melissa and I were looking through Elizabeth Zimmermann’s, The Opinionated Knitter, the other day and we came across her spiral hat pattern. What a cool idea, knitted with 3 or 5 spirals in a bulky yarn. YEAH, a fast to finish project with one skein of yarn (Melissa actually used two strands of a worsted weight yarn knitted together for her hats.)  Melissa was so enthralled with it, that husband Mark got the 5 spiral hat.

Who doesn’t like to give hand knitted gifts at Christmas? But there’s only those 24 hours in a day and some of those you really do need to sleep. So a quick knit project is the thing. I of course have a stash of yarn (how about a whole shop full!!) and actually had a single skein of Mountain Colors Bearfoot yarn that I wanted to use. Next, what to do, what to do? Wristers seemed to catch my attention, so I worked out the pattern by trial and error. The errors were getting to Dan because he rips them out for me. But I finally completed these wristers with a little picot edge. Very simple and quick to make. So, here’s the pattern for the Carodan Farm Wristers:

CO 36 sts, size 4 needles. Join. (I worked these on Magic Loop, or you can use double points.) Work 4 rows stockinette stitch. Next row is to make picot edging. (yo, k2tog) across the row. Knit in stockinette stitch 4 rows. Begin ribbed pattern: (k2, p2) across the row. Repeat this row for 20 rows. Knit 4 rows in stockinette stitch. Repeat the picot edging row of (yo, k2tog), and then 4 more rows of stockinette stitch. Bind off. Turn under the 4 rows of stockinette stitch on each edge and hem in place so that picot edge shows nicely. This fits my hand and wrist snugly and I have small hands. For larger hands, CO extra stitches in 4 stitch increments. I knit ones with a 44 st CO and it was really, really loose on me so if you are looking for a larger fit, I would go with that. And of course you can make the whole thing longer for a gauntlet look. They are really nice for working at the computer, or dress them up with beads for a lovely addition to an evening outfit. FUN!

Happy New Year!!!