Short and sweet
Still feeling a bit under the weather, however I finished the back of the Bartók Tunik, and I am currently working on the armholes of the front!
Hopefully I will return to full health by tomorrow. Have a nice night folks!
Will I make my deadline?!
Yesterday I was feeling a tad under the weather, it should have been a sign to not work on my bartók tunik, however I went ahead and worked on it anyway…..and then proceeded to take everything I had worked on apart.
I have almost finished the heart, and am getting ready to complete the back piece, come hell or high water, I will have this finished by next weekend….and then I will probably put it on etsy.
We are going to be adding several more birds to our little barnyard, two ducks and some guinea fowl! They guineas will be a welcome addition as we are having issues with a fox. Guinea fowl are known to screech when predators come into the vicinity.
Have a great evening folks!
Getting there
Well friends, I have finally moved on to the next part of the bartók tunik. I never thought it would end, I dreamt of endless hours of knitting with no results.
I separated the stitches, moving the front to a stitch holder, and am now currently working on shaping the armholes. I am excited to start adding the design as well!
I’ve had one suggestion on how to get rid of woodchucks. Mothballs were suggested and I’m very eager to try it out, as we have just planted several more rows of veggies in attempts to steer clear from the grocery store.
Here’s hoping!
Have a nice day folks!
Veggie thief & Contest!!
So this is going to be a different entry, we have been having issues with woodchucks stealing our vegetables. Last year we got rid of three and it seemed that marigolds kept the rest at bay, however we planted several marigolds around our garden this year and no luck.
They are too smart for the havahart traps,we have lost all our peas and broccoli in the front garden.
I know some people may be thinking “so what, go to the grocery store and buy food”, well here is the deal,
1. There is nothing more satisfying then growing your own food, it actually tastes better when you yourself dug a garden, planted seeds, and took care of it.
2. Why should I spend money on food that comes from who knows where, is sprayed with who knows what, and who knows how those vegetables where handled from wherever they came from to the store.
3. It’s a great learning experience for my kids
4. I can spend $50 on heirloom seeds and what grows will feed my family for over a year and I can save seeds from the food I grow and plant those as well, the gift that keeps on giving I call it.
Anywho, I guess the only thing to do is to build a fence. Though if anyone else has had luck keeping woodchucks at bay(without the use of chemicals), please let me know! I will gladly knit you a scarf if it works (seriously, I’ll do it)
Cross your fingers that the rain stops soon folks so I can protect this years harvest!
Repetitive
I’m not sure how long I have been working on my bartók tunik, however it feels like I am never going to get closer to the next step.
It looks like I am close to the end doesn’t it?!
I get happy with the progress until I see this
And then this
I have a long way to go to get to the next step.
Unfortunately I suffered from a bit of carpal tunnel and had to put off knitting for a day. However it’s been raining and ugly here since Monday, hopefully I can get a big chunk of it done today while the rain pours down.
I have 17 days to have this finished, keep your fingers crossed for me.
Some little critter has been eating our garden, nibbling at the peas, chowing down on broccoli leaves. Our watermelon & squash plants have also taken a hit. I just need to suck it up and go build a fence to the the buggers away from our food.
Have a nice day folks
Fuzzy babies
The cold front has passed and we have been enjoying the warm sunshine. Catching frogs, singing with the birds, and running in the sprinklers. From sun up till dinner time, we enjoy the smells of wild spring flowers floating around the air, the green grass tickling our bare feet, and the sounds of nature all around.
Our new babies make very little noise compared to the last bunch we had in the house, it is hard to remember that we have them sometimes.
Our older babies like to visit us on the lazy afternoons, when we choose to lay on blankets and listen to audiobooks.
Our pup Moose likes to be lazy to, be it on the deck or over by the logs waiting to be cut.
Carrick enjoys the sunshine as well, though as he has become a little escape artist lately, he enjoys the sun from my arms until we can figure out how he escapes.
Our oldest baby, our cat, Ailey, has been running all over the place. Climbing rocks and trees and whatever else she wishes.
Yesterday I took my kiddos to the Sheep & Fiber festival and they enjoyed it…..ok they enjoyed jumping in the barn more but at least they had fun.
Yes, that is my girl watching the sheep sheering, we had gone to a motorcycle event that morning and she just had to put on the t-shirt her daddy got her.
And finally to leave you with my current progress of my bartók tunic
I am at 11″, 6.5″ more and I begin the next part woo!
Have a great day folks!
Cold front
For those new readers who want to catch up this is my old blog, I tried to pop over there this morning to let old readers know that I had moved, however the site is down again.
We seem to have a cold front these last couple of days, we have gone from low 80’s to mid 50’s tis a bit chilly out! Lucky the only thing we have planted outside right now are peas, carrots & lettuce (planted last year) are starting to pop up as well.
It’s funny that 50 was considered warm this past winter when it got down to below zero outside, now it feels like it is time to layer up!
Nothing makes you feel warmer on a cold day though, like a nice cup of tea or coffee or cocoa, or whatever floats your boat, I don’t know what you drink so feel free to replace those drinks with whatever you want. Anyway I digress, as I was starting to say, nothing makes you (or me anyway) feel warmer then a hot beverage and working on a project that involves warm yarn
Here are how my projects are coming along
Linen work apron
I’m only on row 5 right now and unfortunately I think I made the wrong stitch somewhere but it doesn’t look bad (right now anyway, I’m not very far)
It’s really hard to tell against the picture from the magazine. So far, I’m happy with it.
An aran for Fredrick
Ok, if you are just tuning in and do not want to wait for blog.com to start working again, here is the backstory behind this sweater.
Last year my husband bet me that I couldn’t knit him a sweater before he built an apple cider press, my friend Kaytee said it sounded like an “Amish bet” and it just kinda of stuck. I’ve had so many issues with this sweater before finally (after showing fifteen million people the pattern), contacting the author Kathleen Dames, who from states away, was able to tell me exactly what I was doing wrong (actually, if it weren’t for her, ‘knitting my way through Jane Austen‘ would not be possibly because I didn’t truly know how to read a chart).
Anywho, my husband hasn’t even drawn up plans for the cider press and well, this is how far I’ve come on the sweater.
Bartók Tunik
I am 10.5″ away from being able to move on the next step. With this cold front I should get a lot more done and hopefully have this sweater finished by my June 7th deadline. I need to “haul ass” on it.
So long folks!
Meet Jellybean….errrr Carrick
We live on a small little 8 acre farm, we have several gardens, a cat, a dog, 19 feathered friends, and my beautiful french english angora rabbit (for those who didn’t already know)
I got my little bunny Jellybean almost a month ago
See isn’t she just cute!!! She was an early Mother’s day present for me,..I also suspect that she was a present for my husbands wallet as well that I would now be spinning my own yarn to knit, instead of hurting the credit card at Joann Fabrics (Well I mean, I will still have to for fabric).
Yesterday I took Jelly bean to these two twins that live a few minutes away, they have raised rabbits for 12 years and I had found them on craigslist when I went searching for a mate for Jelly Bean. Anywho, I contacted them and they told me to go ahead and bring her over. As it turns out, Jelly Bean is actually a boy (not that it matters much, actually we wont need to rush to find a mate for him now, at least not as fast).
Also, they informed me that he was English angora, not french as I had previously been told, still I am A OK with that, their wool is easier to spin.
My six year old daughter informed that Jelly Bean was simply NOT a name for boys and that his name had to be changed post haste. I reminded her that I got the name from an Easter book where the male Easter bunny’s name was in fact Jelly Bean. Still she wouldn’t be budged about the name, so I renamed Jelly Bean what I would have named him had I known he was a male all along….Carrick, after the lead singer of the band Everybody Else.
So my friends, let me re-introduce you to Carrick (after his first haircut. it was 85 degrees and I didn’t want the poor thing to suffer)
Have a nice night folks!
Moving on up
Hey there folks, after many annoying one sided arguments with blog.com (well of course it is only going to be one sided when you are just swearing at your screen), I decided to hightail it out of there a move my blog.
Now don’t get me wrong, I didn’t want to move, however when the site is down half the time I want to write….well there is really no good reason to stick around.
If you are just joining me, well then, Hello! Welcome to my little corner of the World Wide Web.
My blog started off as me wanting to spend an entire year making my own clothes….I made a couple dresses and some Halloween costumes, worked on a few sweaters and made some wrist warmers.
This year, I am doing something a bit different. You see, I have three Jane Austen knits magazines and a crochet book, my goal is to knit my way through these books.
Don’t expect me to finish these patterns this year, I still have a few other projects, but hey it’s a good goal right?!
I am also making a Jane Austen dress for my Jane Austen themed birthday party, which is a year from last week 🙂
Come along on the journey….or don’t either way I’ll still be blogging about it 😛
Right now I am working on a Bartók tunik and a lace apron, which happens to be the first pattern in the first Jane Austen knits magazine. I will leave you with pictures of those projects.
Happy Mother’s Day folks!
Tunik
Only on row three of the apron
Moving on up
Hey there folks, after many annoying one sided arguments with blog.com (well of course it is only going to be one sided when you are just swearing at your screen), I decided to hightail it out of there a move my blog.
Now don’t get me wrong, I didn’t want to move, however when the site is down half the time I want to write….well there is really no good reason to stick around.
If you are just joining me, well then, Hello! Welcome to my little corner of the World Wide Web.
My blog started off as me wanting to spend an entire year making my own clothes….I made a couple dresses and some Halloween costumes, worked on a few sweaters and made some wrist warmers.
This year, I am doing something a bit different. You see, I have three Jane Austen knits magazines and a crochet book, my goal is to knit my way through these books.
Don’t expect me to finish these patterns this year, I still have a few other projects, but hey it’s a good goal right?!
I am also making a Jane Austen dress for my Jane Austen themed birthday party, which is a year from last week 🙂
Come along on the journey….or don’t either way I’ll still be blogging about it 😛
Right now I am working on a Bartók tunik and a lace apron, which happens to be the first pattern in the first Jane Austen knits magazine. I will leave you with pictures of those projects.
Happy Mother’s Day folks!
Tunik
Only on row three of the apron
Check out this beautiful wrap from Patternworks!
theyearimademyownclothes.com 