Back to homework

Our farm share now includes cream cheese and we decided to make cheese blintzes for breakfast. I found a low(er) calorie recipe online at MyRecipes.com. They were a smashing success. I’m pretty proud of the presentation as well.

I finished this lovely Na Craga sweater after we got home from sailing. I knit both sleeves while on the boat. It’s been assembled, blocked and the collar was modified a little bit. Instead of a rolled funnel collar, I made a crew neck. I fear it may be too big. So I will hand deliver it and figure out what alterations need to be made. My gauge was correct but my son wanted it longer and now I could wear it as a dress (and I don’t like showing my knees). It’s also the first time I made a drop shoulder sweater and didn’t really account for the part of the sweater that was part of the sleeve, so the sleeves double as hand warmers for me. We’ll see. At least I know I have the means to alter it and make it smaller if I have to. Much better than having to make it bigger. It took 21(!) skeins of Knitpicks Wool of the Andes.

I’m working on a pair of socks for a Friend’s birthday. I am using the embossed leaves pattern from Favorite socks. I made a pair for myself in the summer of 2008, while at Seguin Lighthouse, and I still wear them at least weekly. They are one of my nicest pairs and I thought the pattern goes really well with this yarn, Melody by Jojoland.

Since the sweater is complete I am ready to tackle a quilt for my daughter. I’m using beautiful batik blues and greens from Hoffman fabrics. It seems one of the good things about batiks are you can’t tell the front from the back. I think this will piece together pretty quickly and may even try to bring the top to her next week so we can pick out a border and backing. I may be too ambitious but it’s supposed to rain and/or snow all next week.

A study in blues and greys

Blue jays and a female hairy woodpecker ate like birds at our feeders today. The blue jays are especially crafty. One pecks from above and makes a mess while another cleans up below. A pair of chickadees were flitting around and we only saw the tail end of a new arrival with a white belly and long tail. ID to follow if we ever see its head. It was hidden behind one of the feeders and ate for about 5 minutes. Even though we awoke to snow this morning, spring is definitely in the air. Just to prove it, we lose an hour of sleep tonight. It was too cloudy last night to see the Aurora Borealis but maybe today? I’m forever hopeful.

img 2108

img 2109

img 2110

Below is a recent weaving disaster. I had problems when I “dressed” the loom. So bad and the weaving was so unpleasant that I employed a desperate measure. Rather than waiting to weave the whole mess off the loom, I “undressed” it. What would have been four placemats became a mat for under one of the cat bowls.

In better progress is the Na Craga sweater for my son. He asked me to lengthen it so I frogged back the neck and shoulder decreases and lengthened the front and back. Now the front will become the back because there is a minor flaw in what would have been the front. I’m sure only I will see it, but it’s all I will see. Not even a flaw, just one stitch which looks looser and may block out. But just in case.