Counting Down

I am looking forward to a nice quiet New Year if I can. Gus has been continuing with his problems off and on again. I wish I could figure out what it is about this time of year... other than old age that is.

Just to make myself feel better I put in a picture of a sheep I saw this summer. Is it just me or do sheep with dreadlocks just look more awesome?

I started and finished up doing my socks to leg warmer conversion for my Mother in Law. I was amazed to find it only took me a day or two. Now I just need to get them washed up, measured and sent off. I don't think they will be a miracle cure, but I bet they will make her legs just a bit warmer.

I am happy to tell you that I achieved some goals this year. I try to knit at least 12 pairs of socks a year, this year my final two pairs were underneath the Christmas tree. D and I both got new socks to wear on Christmas. Mom got a pair delivered to her, D got six pairs and my little tootsies got five pairs. I think that is the first time D got more socks than me. We may have to move him into a bigger sock drawer if this continues. 

My sock count was down because I knit myself three sweaters. I know! And they were all different styles too. Once I figured out how I needed to read the patterns in Ann Budd's Top Down Sweater book, my knitting took off. Well that and that I could really do short row shaping and come out with good sleeve caps, there was nothing to hold me back. 

I knit my Christmas tree four sweaters out of my hand spun yarn. Now I don't have to avoid D's eyes when we talk about hand spun yarn. My mind is mulling over some cowl patterns for some of my other hand spun. Plans for the new year, I am making them.

Over on Goodreads I challenged myself to read 35 books this year. I exceeded that goal with 53 books, I may even finish one more before the night is over. 23 of those I read with my eyes and the rest were audiobooks. No I don't listen to the same song playing on the radio anymore, I get immersed in stories instead. I've even been know to listen at work when no one else is around. 

I took some of my bonus from work and donated it to charity and some I gave myself permission to spend on me. I have such a hard time buying fun stuff for me without suffering guilt and angst. My stash of yarn would say otherwise but I really do have a hard time. I guess yarn is Ok because I turn it into something useable. This year I thought long and hard about what I really wanted and finally place the orders last night. It feels good. 

My feet have suffered through just shy of 560 miles of exercise this year. I know! I am pretty darn proud of myself!

All in all it was a pretty good year. I hope I feel this good next year at this time.

A woman with a plan

And I hope my plan works. Remember how I was going to make leg warmers for my MIL? But there were a few problems, no problems is too strong, let's go with issues.

I've never made leg warmers, I did not know what to ask for to get measurements and other things.

Back when I first started knitting I did what all newbies do. I knit without experience to guide me. I made knee high socks out of worsted weight wool on too small of needles. Working with that combo made my hands hurt so it was a really long time between the first sock and the second sock.

I think I wore them once for ten minutes before I realized how wrong they are. Fast forward a few years and I have half done leg warmers for my MIL. I am going to rip back the foot and reknit some ribbing, then BAM starter leg warmers!

This way she will have something this winter and not next winter, and we have a starting point to find out what works and what needs to change, without all that effort of a test pair. I'm going to take measurements once they're fiddled with and let D's Mom test them out. Actually it works out ok that one is wider than the other we will get a true test of which fits better. 

Now that I do have experience let me pass on something to a new knitter if they happen to read this. If you go into a bona fide yarn store and ask if the yarn in your hand would make good socks, assume no if the owner says "I've never had anyone ask me that about that yarn before."

It means a whole lot of other knitters with way more experience than you passed that project by, so should you. Ask the very helpful owner what yarn does make good socks instead. 

You'll save yourself some heartbreak and hand cramps. On the other hand you will not have half made leg warmers for your MIL, I let you decide which is better and which is just making the best of an inexperienced knitter situation. 

Little Sweaters on my tree

Yeah, the sweater ornament knitting bug bit me hard. I used up a skein of hand spun making sweaters. Three and a half sweaters, all different but still nifty. Good thing I have another skein of hand spun to finish one more.

Hand spun yarn has a different feel than commercial yarns. I had places that the yarn was spun so tight that it was like knitting with thread. Other places it was unspun fluff. Luckily these areas seemed to match up most of the time and even things out.

I've taken some time off from little sweaters in order to finish some regular socks. I was hoping to knit at least 12 pairs this year and I just made it. Normally it is not even a contest but sweaters interrupted socks this year. In the most pleasant way possible.

I now have five sweaters to keep me toasty at work. Thanks to some summer and fall time knitting. That is up from a meager two last winter. Once you can knit your own woolies the store bought cotton just don't hold a candle.

And speaking of decorating the Christmas tree, Gus has claimed his rightful place of honor. For he is the greatest gift of all, at least according to him.

We had a bought of vomiting last weekend that made us all nervous. Luckily he responded well to the medication. D jokes that his name at the vet's office is "Christmas Bonus." He likes to sleep under the tree till the lights go off then he comes to bed and announces loudly that he has arrived. Who knew my boy was such a drama llama?

Ugly sweater

Yep, I knit an ugly sweater on purpose. I finally figured out what to knit with some of my hand spun yarn. Yes that little confession at Rhinebeck telling Hubby that I have not knit anything with my hand spun yarn kicked me in the butt. 

I used some of the more outrageous colored yarn to knit up a wee ugly Christmas sweater for the tree. Odd thing is now, I really don't think it is that ugly. I would not want to wear it myself but truly ugly? Nope. It was super fun to knit once I figured out how to wrap my brain around the pattern. Sometimes you just have to think of what the pattern is telling you and change it into the way my brain thinks. It was not hard just not written the way I thought it would be.

I can see knitting more of these out of more hand spun, or I could knit my tree some mini mittens to go along with the sweater. Or better yet, I could finish a couple of second socks for the human feet in the family.

You see the choices us knitters have to make?

I make this look good

I've lost another shawl to Gus.

Well, it is not lost, just on permanent loan to the Big G-man.

What? It looks better on me anyways!

With Gus' illness and age he gets just about anything he wants around here. I even put up a Christmas tree for him today. OK fine I love Christmas trees too. 

Just a reminder to love our furry ones as long as we can. I was reminded of that this weekend. Just know the Yarnkettle household has been sending out sympathy vibes all weekend. Peace and healing. 

Tea Tour

While we were camping at Rhinebeck we took the opportunity to visit our favorite tea shop. Harney and Sons Fine Tea in Millerton. They are the people that wooed D over to becoming a tea drinker. You know I should probably send them a thank you note.

I came up with the wild idea to visit their tea shop over ten years ago. D went with me for the ride and studied the catalog to find his other true love Lapsong Souchong. I've converted a few people over to the Harney side of tea, although no one loves Lappy like D does. 

This time we had a nice lady refill a couple of tins and we tried a few new ones. We got to chatting and it turned out she was a knitter too. A sock knitter too, although she knits toe up and magic loop. She even laughed knowingly when I told her how I knew a car belonged to a knitter at the grocery store in Rhinebeck. Its license plate was K2 TOG, meaning knit two together in the world of knitting. Poor Hubby and another lady looked like we had started speaking German. We may not have developed a secret hand shake but we know how to read each other's plates.

We talked of Ravelry, sock knitting, knitting in bed and what her proxies were bringing her from Rhinebeck. She had to work the weekend but good knitting friends never leave a knitter yarnless.

D asked her about the big Harney and Sons building we had passed on our way into town. And get this, she asked us if we wanted a tour!? Yes Please! We happily made our purchases and headed back down the road.

Sadly the man who started it all passed away this year.

We were buzzed in and shown by the call center/customer service area. So now if I have to call I can envision what that room looks like. It looked comfortable and had a quite few teapots decorating the area. 

Then it was on to the warehouse where all the orders are packed. Oh the smell! The enchanting smell of so much tea! I am fairly certain Heaven smells like Harney and Sons. OK my heaven would smell slightly of warm kitty fur too, but your's may not.

We walked past the blending tanks. It is true that the cinnamon tea has its own blending pot. I don't remember what they were blending but I know it was not cinnamon.

This is their tea bag packing machine. The big roll on top was the bag material and the lower roll was the tag material. On the bottom you can see the outer wrapping paper in red. We were given a sample of Mint Verbena teabags.

Another view with the tea bags made an wrapped.

A warehouse full of tea!

These machines were making White Christmas tea sachets. Only a few of the machines were in operation because Fridays are off days usually. A kind gentleman chased us down and gave us a sachet samples too. It smells wonderful. My sister will most likely be getting some of this kind this Christmas.

The loose leaf tea is still hand packed. All of these barrels? Loose leaf tea! Barrels and barrels of tea.

I told you it was Heaven.

See isn't quality control at a tea shop just so much classier?

D said I needed to wear the hair net for my picture. See even I-only-brought-camping-clothes Yarnkettle was let into the classiest tea warehouse.

It was the highlight of our weekend. An unexpected tour is so much fun!

Camping

We finally made the decision to camp for Rhinebeck and it could not have worked out better. Which is still a bit of a surprise for us. We're from South Dakota where you never count on outdoor activities unless it is in June, July, August and maybe September. Our snow likes to surprise us. 

Anyways back to beautiful fall in New York state. Our mornings were spent sitting under some beautiful fall foliage. 

Leaves rained down on us from time to time.

And in keeping with Yarnkettle camping tradition we had rain lots of rain our first night out. It was great because it took away the heat. Then it was mostly the temperature D and I like best.

I went to a Ravelry meet up on Friday night but felt a tinge guilty leaving D alone with some of our new RV neighbors. He was perfectly happy talking to someone that hiked NY's high peaks. A nice cold beer and a fire is what he likes best about camping.

On our last night there I pulled out my trusty cast iron dutch oven and put it on a campfire for the first time. I had visions of true campfire cooking since I recieve it so many years ago. We had some lentil stew I'd made a while ago. We fired up an old sauce pan D's Mom had given him and made rice for the first time that way.

I overheard a kid walking by say me food smelled soooooooo good. That is right, my vegetarian cooking is now random kid approved. It tasted as good as it smelled. Lentil stew over rice is mighty fine campfire food. A little Chipotle sauce did not hurt either.

D is now thinking spring and fall camping is our goal. I liked fall camping because I got to toss a few leaves in the fire to light up the evening. Plus there were way less bugs and I put some of my knit items to good cool weather use.

I do so love camping just not as much when the air mattress goes flat on the first night. Good thing our sleeping bag is so squishy and soft. My bones did lodge a "we're not 16 anymore" complaint.