Now What Did I Do?

January 10, 2026Leave a comment

I joined Sock Squad 2026.

Yes, the name on the yarn label is who started this whole ordeal or shall I say year of yarny adventures. Each month we will receive a skein of yarn and we can do whatever we want with it as long as our finished project contains a minimum of 75% of the Farmers Daughter Yarn. Not a problem if you knit a pair of socks. I’m taking the easy route for January.

Do you read much?

I read at least something almost every day. Each year I sign myself up for the Goodreads challenge by adding one more book to the previous year’s challenge which, silly enough, coincides with the last two numbers of the year we’re in. This year I’m going for 26 books. I read beyond my pledge last year which was easy once I got myself hooked on the short history books with lots of photos. Hey, they count, right?

The books that I’m currently reading are mostly carry-overs from last year. The Kindle app is on my laptop, my phone, my tablet then I have three Kindles with an ongoing book on each one. It’s almost like having several WIPs going in knitting. I read while I knit. Some watch TV. I read. Yes, I will watch TV or listen to it while knitting especially if it’s one of those romcoms that my husband seems to enjoy around the holidays. You know the movies. The girl and boy crash into each other somehow in a setting usually in a small town where it’s snowing. They don’t like each other, then they flirt for about an hour and then live happily ever after. Me? I prefer crime or mystery movies. I think I can blame those old black and white films for that obsession. They were my favorite back when I was a kid.

I’ve also discovered PixelCreate on my Pixel 10 Pro

From Itchy to Ideal: Yarn Upcycling for Charity

January 7, 2026Leave a comment

Yes, I’m still knitting. Are you surprised? Probably not.

I can honestly say that there is more yarn here around me than there was the last time I was here. When I go to my in-person knitting/crochet group at a local center there’s often someone else’s discards there staring at me saying “take me home”. So, I do. The yarns that my co-members leave for me are the fuzzy mohair and the wool. They all think they’re too itchy or they just don’t know what to do with them.

So they now live here.

I’ve got plans for them. They will become items that I will put in the gift shop with 100% of the proceeds going to the center so we can still keep our space there.

What else is going on?

It’s Michigan. Over the weekend it was cold then it was snowing then it was freezing then it was warmer then it was colder then it was warmer and raining and today it’s not quite sure what it wants to be. At the moment it’s warmer.

Life In The Mitten

So Much Yarn

October 23, 2025Leave a comment

So much yarn has followed me home, landed in the mailbox, on the front porch and carried home by me from fiber festivals.

Someone has to adopt it or foster it, right?

Usually, I’m in a quiet competition with knitters around the world on Ravelry, myself and my dear friend Suzanne who is my sister from another country. She’s winning. She is using more yarn this year than she’s bringing home. Normally, it’s the other way around.

It’s a sad (not really ahahahahah) situation here at my house. I can’t knit that fast.

So why is it happening? Not sure. There are several theories about why we hoard yarn or other things. I’m not that worried. If I start to feel like I can no longer knit I’ll just start yarn bombing other knitters or have a yarn sale.

Racing & Knitting

December 30, 2024Leave a comment

Racing against the clock. Will this pair of socks be finished by midnight 12/31/2024? I need to deduct yarn yards used for the Stashdown 2024. So far, my Yards In are looking rather scary.

Come back for the answer to the big question. Now, I gotta get back to knitting that second sock.

Christmas Eve

December 24, 2024Leave a comment

I’m knitting.

Today it’s a sock.

Yesterday I finished a gnome and got back to working on the gnome that I started back in October or was it November? I think it was October. I had most of the parts knitted and I set it aside on my desk and there she sat.

Gnana is a bit perplexed about the big green blob that is Gnatty and is in serious needs of some parts. When I got back to it I realized that I had knitted the majority of the parts and she just needed some assembly and a pair of socks.

Even if you don’t have gnomes wandering around your house have a great holiday if you celebrate.

WordPress Class?

December 9, 2024Leave a comment

Yes, that’s what I typed. WordPress Class. Over the past few years I’ve been taking online courses conducted by Gale Education (I think that’s their name but I’m sure it’s Gale at least). The courses are available using a library card and a local community college. It’s been quite a while since I’ve signed up and taken one of their 6-week courses so I went for a perusal session on my classroom site and found this one.

I have WordPress and have been using it for a few years. Right. Really, I have even if it doesn’t look like it. The instructor recommends that we all subscribe to a paid plan using the .org version. I’m not sure I’m going to but we’ll see how the class goes then maybe I will. I’m not seeing a big difference other than the upload process.

Remember back when you could build webpages using Yahoo? I had one of those. I had one that I built using Go Daddy and one other – Google. All of them should have disappeared from view although it’s been a long time since I’ve looked for them.

The class starts on December 18th. Just hope that I don’t subject everyone to some wacko coursework assignments here.

I am still knitting. Currently, I’m participating in the Gnana’s Visit gnome MKAL with Imagined Landscapes. I finished Clue 4 this morning and really need to get myself going on blocking the finished piece of Clue 3.

My other project is just a simple hat where you knit something that looks like a bolster pillow cover when it’s really a double-thick hat. That is the name of the pattern. Double Thick Hat and it can be found on Ravelry. This is my third one. It’s excellent for using up those left over fingering weight yarns.

Genealogy has been another obsession that’s been taking up some of my time and lots of my money over the past two years. I’m finding that I have ancestral ties that go way back almost to prehistoric times in both Canada/France and Scotland. Not that far. I am back into the 9th generation before now. Would that be BN – Before Now?

Obligatory Photo Time

It’s been a really long time since I’ve purchased yarn from Periwinkle Sheep. One day, an e-mail arrived in my inbox and I opened it instead of deleting it. Why I subscribe to every Indie Yarn dyer in the United States is still baffling me, but, every now and then I do make a purchase. Karin had mystery yarns as an option. I bought these. Aren’t they gorgeous? I think so.

Go enjoy your Monday!

I Didn’t Forget

November 20, 2024Leave a comment

I’m just always knitting.

Not really. There is a lot of knitting going on around here along with other activities like constantly being bossed around by CarLotta Spots the Rat Terrier. They say dogs keep us active and young. If you seriously need to move around a lot get a busy dog. Mine is always on the hunt for rodents and there are a lot of them out there. My Garmin app now has the option to show a map of our walks and they are interesting.

Simple Something

The pattern is by Ankestrick and it’s so easy. When I first saw the pattern on Ravelry I really liked it bought thought I didn’t need to purchase another pattern since I have similar options already in my library. Then I thought that Ankestrick’s patterns are so well written and the finished projects always turn out so well that I’d buy it. I did. The best part is that is uses double strands of fingering weight yarn which works perfectly for those of us who are in the red in our 2024 Stashdown numbers. After I do the math on this one I might be close.

There were two fiber festivals in Michigan this past fall and I might have bought some yarns………

It’s A Wednesday in Michigan

February 21, 2024Leave a comment

It looks like spring but for those of us who live here or are very familiar with how Mother Nature treats our Mitten, it could be winter any moment.

Yes, I’m still here. I’ve been knitting and actually sold a couple items. Neither one was a recent finished object. They were both holdovers from an Arts & Crafts show that I participated in several years ago. It’s encouraging if I do say so myself.

This year hasn’t been a year of sweaters so far. Most of my finished objects are socks, doll clothes, hats, and reworking a cardigan that I knitted a decade ago and never wore. There is one sweater that I made for my mom. She had shoulder surgery and wanted something to wear like a poncho but what she and my youngest sister described was not a poncho. Then, one day while I was at her house as her Support Person of the Day we were watching a show where twin sisters who are real estate agents in Oregon or Washington were showing the owners of a house around their newly renovated house. One was wearing a short sleeve sorta jacket with elbow length wide sleeves. More like a kimono.

So, when I went home I did another pattern search and found one called Not Quite a Cape on Ravelry for $7.50 and bought it and started over for the second time. The sweater is almost done. I just need to knit some loops for the buttons and sew them and the buttons on and it’s done.

Mom and L’il Sis seem to think that I could whip up that sweater in a weekend. They called me on a Friday with the request and I was there on Sunday as my turn. Mom wanted to know if the sweater was done yet.

Huh? Seriously Mom? You’re the one who taught me how to knit when I was 8 years old.

Time for a walk with my doggo. It’s a sorta nice and warm day here so we should take advantage of it. I’ll even take my cute little JBL speaker and entertain the birds and squirrels in our woods.

Take care all of you out there and come back soon!

Snow, Rain, Ice

January 22, 2024Leave a comment

Just another typical January day here in the Mitten State. You would think we’d all be knitting mittens. I can’t remember the last time I knitted a pair of mittens. I have knitted fingerless gloves. Do they count?