First Quarter 2017 Catch Up

I've been writing here with so much more regularity than you can tell.  I've wrote first about Thanksgiving and Christmas.  The nice long and relaxed break we took at the beginning of the new year, and then the preparation for a very special birthday.  In my head, these ideas for blog posts float around.  Just waiting for me to sit down and put them onto "paper."

Sous chef and royal taster

Amores cake... graham cracker cake,
chocolate filling and marshmallow-y frosting

Things are very good in these parts.  Our holidays were filled with wonderful visits from family and friends.  Good food.  Down time spent at home.  Good books.  And creativity.  Winter was a series of starts and stops.  The temperature rose and fells, and there was almost no snow to speak of... and thankfully, just one short lived ice storm (which I may or may not have been trapped on the interstate in).

There were a few hand made gifts.  Socks for both of my parents, and a little trousseau of doll clothes for the dolls that I made the girls a couple years ago.  They were wild about them... and have spent several long hours since, playing and changing the outfits of their "Kanga" and "Foxie".  They also have grown quite attached to the Wes Anderson movie (based on the Roald Dahl story) The Fantastic Mr. Fox.  It really is good, for both kiddos and grown ups.  The fox doll, which was an Alicia Paulson pattern bears a strong resemblance to the "puppet" that plays Mr. Fox in the movie.

Holiday Socks for my dear dad.

I've been spinning and knitting a bit.  I turned that handspun Merino Silk into a doubly long cowl.  I knit it in a really simple stockinette band so that the color shifts would be clear and distinct.  I am very happy with the result.

Nest fiber - Merino Silk "Amanar"

Handspun cowl

I spun up some blue and brown wool that was probably the finest that I had ever managed.  And the I tried to turn them into a pair of fingerless mitts.  I promptly frogged them because they were gigantic and I didn't love the striping that was going on.  But the spinning was really really fun.

"Emerald Pools" Roving from Nest Fiber

Pretty single ply

Navajo or chain plied finished product

And I started over knitting a sweater that I had started (literally) years ago.  It's a Rowan wool blend yarn that was too pretty to give up on.  I downloaded the Charlie cardigan from the Make.Wear.Love website and was pretty diligent about finishing the project.

It fits really well, maybe even on the big side.  And through the fantastic community that is Revelry, I was able to find enough extra yarn to keep it from being short sleeved.  (I'm not so good at calculating yardage, it seems.)

Sweater back in progress

Finished Cardigan... fits well.

I've got so much more to record... between then and now.  I've been gone longer than I intended and I'm missing the habit of capturing not only the projects that are always ongoing, but also the little details that fill our days here.  So hang with me if you'd like... I am going to take a run at reinstating the blogging habit.