Nuyaka Creek Winery Pine Tree

My pine tree. I used to climb it when I was a kid out in the country in North Carolina. It was tall and had the best limbs for doing a vertical climb. I loved climbing way up into the top of it and looking down on my house. It made me feel as if I were a giant, and a great big free spirit.

See you there … go toThe Knitting Blog now.

It is time for me to write and maintain a separate blog dedicated to knitting specifically. I will continue to post the original I Live on a Farm blog at the scrumptiousliving.wordpress.com blog address, but my knitting readers will find more fulfilling knitting content here at the dedicated knitting blog.

Plunging right in …

I have a few new knitting projects that are complete, but that I have not blogged about or published patterns for. What I will have to do is post blogs or those items as I get the patterns prepared for sale. Meanwhile, I can tell what I currently have going on the needles.

I’m using a stitch pattern that represents little birds on the body of the hat and the sweater, because Sweet Pea already reminds me of the sweetest little birds singing brightly on a spring or summer day. The hat will be embellished with a needle felted violet centered on a four leaf clover, because Sweet Pea’s signature color is violet (of any shade) and she is due on St. Patrick’s Day.

I needle felted this embellishment myself, which is a new thing I got into over the Christmas holidays. Notice the little mouse checking out the yarn and flower? That is one of the needle felted blog mascots I made over the past couple of weeks using beautiful roving and fleece I purchased primarily from a dear Etsy seller named Marie who I have enjoyed making a couple of purchases from.

The first batch of fleece I ordered from her included one ball that was a perfect match for the beautiful taupe color of our dog Blu’s coat. When I ordered a selection of colors from her, I didn’t realize that color was among them. When I opened the package up I was delighted to see Blu’s taupe because the main thing I was interested in being able to make using needle felting was a mini-Blu as an ornament for our Christmas tree or as a mascot for the blog.

I was so happy with the color I offered to buy up whatever more she had in that color, so now I have several ounces on hand and can make a few more or my mini Blu dogs. Marie has been great to work with, and I am certain I will do more business with her in the future.

Back to knitting, the other project currently on the needles is an afghan being made as a gift for a man using a chunky Italian yarn called Calipso iby Laines Du Nord in the “Blues/Grey” colorway. This is a 60/40 wool and acrylic blend yarn; somehow I missed the acrylic content on the label when I was shopping or I would not have made this particular purchase. However, after handling it and feeling how soft and easy to work with it is, I am happy afterall. It makes big, lofty cables that look like large waves on a northern sea on a winter day. Using size U.S. 15 Addi Turbo needles makes this afghan a quick, relaxing knit.

Coming soon, some sweet little green items for Sweet Pea made especially to celebrate both her Irish heritage and the predicted day of her birth. Seen here, clockwise from lower left hand corner are a deliciously soft Noro silk and wool blend, Berroco’s Ultra Alpaca in a soft, muted green and a little hank of alpaca I picked up on a visit to Knox Fiber Farm on a visit there this past autumn.

I am also excited because I have pre-ordered a set of the new Addi Click Interchangeable Needles. It will be great to have them on hand and to test drive them. My daughter is knitting with me much more these days, and we are both looking forward to having the extra needles on hand as well as being excited about the technology of these needles in particular. Hopefully they will live up to the talk that is out there about them.

Until next week … here’s to our mutual creative spirits!

~firefly