I got a spinning wheel!! It was supposed to be a trade, but once it was in the mail, the lady that had it, told me it was a Christmas present! I'm so lucky to have friends like that. :) It is a used Babe's Pinkie, but nice and I'm having fun learning how to use it.

We have most of the snowflakes blocked. Now to get them all hung in the livingroom. Working on mini stockings to put gift cards/lottery tickets/money in, they are white, but each is a different stitch pattern and will have a band of thread crochet at the top, each a different color of thread.

I cast on a pair of socks for me, in the forest green colorway of B&L Durasport, with a band of colorwork in the oatmeal colorway. I'm down to the heel flap already and having fun working on them.

Well, finally got all the snowflakes and bells made, still have to get them blocked. Didn't get the thread tree skirt done, but that is ok, as we didn't get the small tree. Jenny almost has the angel done, she just has to finish the skirt for it.

The gray B&L socks are still on the needles, I have 2 more repeats and the toe left to do, then Jenny will have them to wear. Billy's second glove is above the thumb gusset, still have about another inch on the hand, then I can start the fingers.

Bob got me yarn to make each of the kids a handknit item and his mother a hat for their stockings. The girls got scarves made out of Lion Brand's Moonlight Mohair and Billy got a hat made out of Lion Brand's Wool-Ease Bulky. His mother's hat is out of Brown Sheep's Lamb's Pride Superwash, so it will be soft and warm for her, but easy to wash. I got the all made, so now just have to wait for Christmas to see what they think and to make sure the hats fit.

The man who owns the rest of the land in the subdivision, was nice to us and mowed part of the north section of the yard. He was worried about the dry weeds being a fire hazard and the fact that I wasn't able to get them all cleared way. He was out mowing along the roads, so that they were clear, just incase.

Well, I'm almost done with the leg of the second sock out of the gray B&L, but got sidetracked by Billy wanting a pair of fingerless gloves to wear while playing on the computer or gamecube. I had some handspun yarn that called out to be made into them, then I had to find a pattern that would work with the yarn. Found that and I'm almost to the fingers on the first glove :) I'm hoping to get them done quickly as he really wants them. He has never asked me to knit him something before, so these are special.

From Finished Proj...

On the Christmas ornament front, I have 4 more bells to make, a thread tree skirt for the small tree that will go on the dinigroom table and I need to cut out the pieces for the plastic canvas angel, so Jenny can start stitching it up. Jenny has less than 4 rows left on the main tree skirt. So it looks like we will make our deadline of having everything ready for Thanksgiving weekend.

Got the main part of the front weeded, there are some small weeds still, but everything has been weeded at least once since I started after the rains slowed down. I got the newest bed filled in and planted 20 canna lilies in it, they wil be the backdrop for what ever we decide to plant in there in the spring. They should get nice and tall here, since we are far enough south so that I can leave them in the ground all year. I still have 10 more to find a place for, so have to work on that this week.

I got the first sock done, it turned out to long in the foot, but fits Jenny, so she gets this pair. They fit everywhere else, so I will follow the same stitch/row gauge for the next pair, but make the foot shorter. She is working on a pair that is to tight around for her, but fits me, so I get them. They are short summer socks, so will have to put them away for now.

Billy and I got the driveway cleared! Here are pics of the driveway. The first one is looking north along it, the second is looking south along it. The white building is our well house.
Jenny has been helping me on the flowerbed, it is almost done. Then I have to plant the 30 canna lilies I got from a friend. They will be spread out through all 4 of the main beds and I might have to put some up in one of the beds by the house.

I'm still working on Christmas decorations, 71 thread snowflakes, 5 yarn snowflakes and 8 bells done. Still have at least 10 more bells and more yarn snowflakes to do, maybe more thread snowflakes as well. Thinking about some origami cranes to go on the tree, have to talk to Bob about that.

I have finished the leg, heel flap, turned the heel, picked up and decreased the gussets and now on the foot of the first sock of this pair. It is going really fast and looks great. I'm hoping to get sock one done and the second sock on the needles this week. I REALLY need this pair as the leg is longer than my other socks and the weather is getting chilly in the mornings.

I'm still working on washing up Frio's fleece, there is a lot of it and it is VERY dirty, mainly dirt and some VM. It is taking up to 4 washes to get all the dirt out, so this is going to be a long process. I'll be glad when it is all washed, then I can decide what to do with it. I know Bob wants a pair of socks out of the mohair, but with about 6 pounds between the two wethers, I should have enough to make the socks plus something else.

The goats are working their way to the back fence, I get a kick out of watching them browse on the weeds. They nibble here, then nibble there, then back to the first spot for a bit, then they come up by the house to lay down and chew their cud. The backyard should be cleared out by Christmas at the rate they are eating. Then will come the fun of getting fencing so that I can move them to a new area to browse. We still have the whole north lot to fence, so they can have it to clear.

Billy and I have just about finished the first side of the driveway and will start back at the southend on the other side, this week. At least we can get into and out of the driveway now, back when I started on it, there was barely enough room for a SMALL car to drive on it and no place to get out of the car! Two of the flower beds are weeded and I'm working on the area where my lilacs are. I lost two of the ones in front and still can't find the one in the backyard, so probably lost that one too. :( They were my Mother's Day gift from Bob and the kids.

When we start working on the southeast side of the driveway, we will also be working on finding the third big flower bed. The fourth one is still pretty clear, and we are still working on filling it up with dirt, humus, peat moss and gypsum (to soften the ground). We have one end filled up and planted two Purple Fountian Grasses in it. I'm hoping the grasses survive the winter, this will be our second time trying it, but we were told what to do to help it survive.

I finished Bob's sock finally! Now I have one cast on for me out of Briggs & Little Durasport yarn. This is a Canadian yarn and I love it. This will be my second pair out of it. I'm using a pattern called Basket Weave Ribbing out of "Sensational Socks." The yarn is a medium gray with darker and lighter spots and is turning out really nice. I have 4" done already and need to try it on, to check length and fit around my leg.

I started washing up Frio's fiber the other day. I weighed it before I started and had 3 pounds of raw, unwashed fiber. I'll see how much I have when I'm done washing it. His fiber is dirtier than his brother's was. So it is taking more to get it clean. I was planning on washing more today, but it is damp and rainy, so probalby won't get any done.

I have 71 snowflakes done! I was originally planning on doing 4 a day, but life just wouldn't let me do that. I'm hoping to at least get 99 done before Christmas. I have done 3 bells and have to make more of them, plus make some snowflakes out of yarn instead of thread for hanging on the light fixtures. I finished the Christmas stocking out of Holly yarn, it turned out nice.

Let's see, I have been so busy this past week, that I haven't had time to update my blog. I got Frio sheared on Tuesday, about 3 pounds of raw fiber. I'll work on washing it this week, as I didn't get time to last week. Didn't do much crafting this past week or weekend. I did get some Red Heart Holly yarn to make a Christmas stocking with and got it cast on and two rows done, while we were driving to Las Cruces.

Bob brought home fencing, but no posts and we wanted a gate for the new fence. It is around our grapes and I need to be able to take care of them. We went to Las Cruces to look for a weld wire gate kit, this is a tublar frame for you to attach welded wire to and comes with hinges and a latch that are designed to fasten to metal T-posts. The one place that carried them was out :( So for now I'm using a sheet of particle board across the opening to the grapes. With them fenced in, we moved the cross fence back to where we had it originally at the back of the yard, to protect the pine trees we have back there. The fenced in area is about 60' wide x 105' long, so the goats have a lot more space and weeds to eat.

Bob got the supplies and made me a mineral feeder for the goats out of pvc pipe. It works great and the goats seem to prefer the loose minerals over the block we started out with. We attached it to the outer fence near their water tank. We picked up the feeding trough this weekend and put it in the same general area of the yard. The trough will hold a flake of hay, that has been fluffed up, so they are wasting a lot less hay with it.

We found a local farmer who grows hay, a blend of alfalfa and Bermuda grass. They had equipment break down while haying and had some field where the hay grew taller than normally allowed. They call that hay "mature hay" and were selling it for $3/bale compared to $5/bale for regular hay in the field or $6/bale for hay in the barn. We bought 30 bales of the mature hay. That should get me through most of the winter. Bob was just going to get 4 bales of hay from the feed store, but they wanted $14/bale! I'll see what the goats think of the new hay when I'm almost finished with the two bales of pure alfalfa that I got when we bought the goats.

I got Sabino's fiber washed, ended up with about 3 pounds of it. Now to start spinning it up, I know that Bob wants socks from some...I'll see what else gets made out of it. I still have Frio to do, that will be tomorrow.

I'm still working on Bob's second sock of the chained ribbed pair, on the foot finally. Still working on crocheted snowflakes, 67 done and a lot more to go. I'm also working on crocheted bells, 3 done on them. I want enough of the bells done to hang from the ceiling fan in the livingroom and light fixture in the diningroom. Jenny is making a tree skirt and crocheted bells out of worsted weight yarn. I'm using crochet thread for mine, so we will end up with two sized of them. I will also make some worsted weight snowflakes.

I got Sabino sheared on Saturday, it took me 3-4 hours to do it! He had a lot of fiber! Almost a full standard pillowcase full :) My back didn't like me bending over for that long, so I spent Sunday on pain meds. Now I still have to get Frio sheared and it looks like the weather is going to change and start raining again :(

I have washed all of Strawberry's, all of Peaches and half of Sabino's fiber. Now all I have to do is card and spin it all up. I'm trying to decide what to do, use it as part of a throw for my MIL or make socks for Bob out of it. He has always wanted some mohair socks...so that might be what I make out of some of it.

I'm slowly getting the yard weeded. I have to finish getting the newest flower bed filled in, so I can plant some ornamental grass. This will be the second time we have bought some purple fountian grass, it made it through the summer but died during the winter the first time. I'm hoping that it will survive the winter this time. The sound of the wind in it is so nice and relaxing and the purple color is a nice contrast to the other plants.

Today I finished clipping Strawberry, got the two legs I couldn't finish yesterday done and then did Peaches. I will try to get the boys tomorrow, weather allowing. I still need to do hooves...that will be a chore.

I told Bob about wanting to use the fiber I'm clipping for his mother's Christmas present and he likes the idea. I will probably have to use some of the other fiber I have, as well to make enough for a nice throw. It will be a lot of work, but worth it. I KNOW she will love and take care of something like this.

Well, it has been two weeks since I got my little herd. The weather turned nice, so I finally got to start shearing. I did Strawberry today, she looks a little funny as my back and hands gave out before I finished her legs. Otherwise I think I did a fairly decent job, being my first time to shear and doing it by hand, not with electric shears. I'll post pics of the goats when I finish shearing.

I'm thinking about using the fiber and some other fiber I have for my MIL's Christmas present. I'm wanting to make her a knitted throw to use in the evenings when it is cool. She is in her mid-80's and she loves handmade items.

It has been a week, since I got my goats. They have settled in and enjoying the weeds. They are making progress in clearing out the area that I have them in. They had lots of weeds to eat in that small area. Here is a pic of the herd. As you can see, they will need to be clipped soon. I have to wait for the weather to settle, and the rain to stop, so that their coats will be dry, before I clip them. I will be posting pics of them after clipping as soon as I can get them done.

I haven't posted for a while, as I couldn't. I lost internet in June and just got it back. A lot has happened in that time. I knitted two pairs of socks, got the first sock done and the second started on a third pair and have done some crocheted snowflakes.

All my crafts got put on hold after the rains came. I have spent all morning each day weeding the yard and have barely kept the driveway clear. The walks disappeared in the weeds along with the flower beds and everything else. For the past two weeks we haven't had much rain, so I have managed to find the walks and clotheslines. To help with the weed control we decided to get goats.

We decided on angora goats as they will supply me with fiber to spin as well as eat the weeds. I got 4, 2 does and 2 wethers. The lady I bought them from has agreed to breed the does for me this fall. The does are Strawberry, a faded red, and Peaches, a brown and white nigerian dwarf/angora crossbreed. The wethers are Sabino and Frio, sons of Strawberry, both faded reds. They arrived today and are settling in nicely.

I got the second sock of the cabled pair cast on and have the ribbing done. I'm hoping to have time to work on it today. I also have a pair on the needles for me, the leg of one is done and on the other, I am working on turning the heel. I worked on them a lot while running back and forth from here to Las Cruces and El Paso, sitting at the DVM waiting on Bob and running other errands.

I'm working on reworking a top pattern to use a different type of yarn than what it calls for. The top is the Sonata Print Lace-Up Tank, by Elann. It is a free pattern using their Sonata Print yarn. It is mitered squares knitted with worsted weight yarn, I am planning on doing it in fingering weight sock yarn. I have lots of small balls of left overs from making socks and think that they will make a pretty top.

Didn't get much time to work on the yard this week. :( I still need to work on the new flower bed and dry creek areas. I won't be able to do as much right now on the new flower bed as I wanted to, but I will at least get the area around the one tree and my jasmine plant.

I finished sock one of the all-over cable pair for Bob!!! I will be casting on sock two today and seeing how far I can get, but first I need to get some weeding done. I also started to cast on for a gauge swatch for me, with the Fortissima Colori Disco I bought last summer. I'm hoping that I can get a nice gauge with this set of needles, then I can knit both at one time.

We have decided that we need to make a flower garden around all the trees, the one that we did that too earlier this spring is doing better than the other one of the same type, that we put in at the same time. So one of my chores right now is to design the new bed around that old tree and some other plants that we have in the area. We are also working on digging out the dry creek and redoing it, so have to finish hauling off the dirt from that.

Well, I'm still trying to get that first sock done. Maybe now that the temps are in the 90's during the day I can get more knitting time again. Can'tdo much outside between 8am and 8pm, as it is to hot to be outside. We haven't finished the veggie garden, probably won't get anything planted this year now.

Bob got me 6 lilac bushes for Mother's Day from him and the kids. We put 5 up front along the dividing line between the two acres and the other one in the backyard. There are two single pinks, two double purples and two double whites. I'm looking forward to them growing and blooming. According to the information on them, I will have to wait two to three years for blooms, but it should be worth it.

The new flooring looks nice. The walls in the livingroom and hall are a creamy yellow, in the diningroom they are a medium blue on the bottom and the yellow on top. We choose a melony orange for the accent color. The rooms look very inviting and cheerful.

I'm still working on Bob's cabled socks. I'm on the foot of the first one, and still have about 2" to go before starting the toe decreases. I haven't had much time to knit with spring here and yard work to do.

I'll be having even less for a while as we are getting new flooring on May 15th! We are having laminate flooring put in the diningroom, hall and entry area and new carpet put in the livingroom. So I'm trying to get everything ready to be moved out of that part of the house and make sure that all the touch up is done on the walls, doors and anything else that needs to be painted first.

We put in grapes this spring, now to see how they will do. This area does have vineyards, so I know that grapes do grow here. We got both Thompson seedless and Flame seedless, 3 of each kind. We are also working on putting in a raised bed for a veggie garden, have the sides about done, just have to add the soil. Then comes the fun of buying and planting the veggies we want in it.

I'm working on another pair of cabled socks for Bob, since he liked the way the Knitting Olympic pair fit. I'm planning on using Serpentine Cables from Barbara Walker's _A Treasury of Knitting Patterns_, the first treasury book. It is an all over cable, so I am having to swatch it in the round to see how to handle the cable crossings that occur at the joining of the rounds. I'm not using the yarn that the socks are going to be made out of, as I already had the ribbing done for the first sock, before I realized that I may have problems with the all over cable pattern. So, I am using some Katia Mississippi 3 that I was given and have fallen in love with it. I didn't think that I would like a cotton/acrylic blend yarn as much as I do this, but it has a nice stitch definition and is easy to work with. I would love enough to make a top out of.

I have a design for a summer top that I am working on, it would be a short sleeve lace top to wear over a camisole. I will be posting more on it when I get further along on the design. I just started to come up with it yesterday while working on the cable swatch.

I finished the second sock of my Knitting Olympic pair last night. We have been having high winds most of the week, so have had more time to knit. The winds have been steady at 35 mph and gusting up to 50 mph. We are expecting more of the same today. :(

On Tuesday, my daughter, Jenny, and I dug up and redid the daylily bed. This was the first bed that we planted and never got any thing added to the soil to help make it rich. We dug all the plants out, except for the two roses and the Dutch iris. Then we added six bags of topsoil, one bag of composted mulch and a cubic foot of peat moss and tilled it all in. Then we added some large rocks as decoration, to add shade and act as wind breaks for some of the small plants. We then replanted all the plants back into the bed. It looks real nice and I'm hoping that everything survives, since the temps dropped and the winds came up after that.

I am still working on sock two of my Knitting Olympic pair. :( I have the leg done, the heel is turned and the gusset decreases are done, so now it is just working my way down the foot. I had a family emergency come up the last week of them, so didn't have time to knit. I will continue working on this sock during my free time, but spring has come and the yard is calling.

This past week we designed and made another bed. It was supposed to be for wildflowers and plants to attract the birds, humming birds and butterflies...but ended up with roses in it instead. Now we are in the process of designing two more beds, hopefully one of them will end up being for the birds and wildlife.

I got the first sock done of the Knitting Olympic pair done, the cables turned out really nice. My DH loves them and is looking forward to me getting the pair done for him. The second pair is about to visit the frog pond, I'm not happy with the fabric, it seems to soft and open to me and I don't think it will wear well. Since this pair is for my son, and he doesn't seem to mind waiting, I would rather make them where they will last than just continue on with them like they are.

I got the yarn for my granddaughter's skirt, it is Red Heart Plush in Wine. This is a velour type yarn, so I will choose a simple stitch pattern for it. The color is kind of a purplish red, but is real pretty and I think she will like it. I haven't swatched yet, but the label calls for a size 8 needle! I think I might end up using a size 4 as the yarn seems to be more a sport weight than worsted weight. I will definitely swatch to find the right size.

I actually have TWO pairs of socks on the needles at one time!!! I have my Knitting Olympic socks on one set and a pair for my son out of Lion Brand Magic Stripes on another pair. This is a first for me, as I have only had enough needles to do one pair at a time, but that gift of needles from my friend will let me have 5 pairs going at once...don't think I'm ready for that yet. :) I will get there some time. Just remembering what I'm doing on each of the ones on the needles right now is hard.

The Knitting Olympic socks are down past the heel turn and 5" into the foot, which has to be 9" before the toe decreases, so the first one is going along nicely. I'm usually just at the heel at this time on a sock. The other pair is still on the leg, but I mainly knit on those in the evening when it is to dark to work on the other pair, since they are a basic stockinette stitch sock.

When I finish these two pairs, I will have enough yarn to make Bob one more pair and me two more pairs. Then I will either have to spin or go buy more yarn. It is amazing that I'm almost out of yarn after 3 years of having more than I thought I would ever get knitted up. I would like to get some solid colors to go with what is left of the Brown Sheep Wildfoote Rock and Roll yarn that I have. Then I would do me a pair with color work on the cuff, but that is if I can find some that will go with it.

I found out that my granddaughter wants a RED skirt, so I will have to get some yarn for that. I might get some other colors as well, depending on what I can find that I like and think would look good on her.

I'm so bad at keeping my blog up to date. So lets see...

The socks for Bob are done and two more pairs besides. I ran out of yarn on the toe of the second sock of the first pair, so had to finish that with a different color. He doesn't care, they fit and keep his feet warm. To keep that from happening, I made the leg of the sock 7.5" instead of 8". That gives me a bit of extra yarn for mending, if needed. I have enough yarn for two more pairs for him. One is my project for the Knitting Olympics, I'm on Team DPN. They are going to be out of Opal yarn, in blue with flecks of purple and lime green, with cables.

My granddaughter has decided that her poncho works better as a skirt...So now I need to make her more of them, according to Bob. So we will see, what yarn I can come up with for another one for her.

I got a package in the mail today from a friend. She sent me 3 sets of size 0 needles, 10 needles per set, and 2 sets of 4 size 1 needles. She also sent me two 50 gram skeins of Katia Mississippi 3, a 60% cotton/40% acrylic blend in a lime green and a 100 gram skein of Fortissima Colori 1000 in a gray colorway. The needles were in homemade needle holders, they are cloth with a flap top and tie with ribbon. Each holder can hold up to 3 sets of needles.