Some knit's and a couple of "Thank you's"

First of all i want to thank everybody for commenting here or e-mailing me with their thoughts on Star's passing. I really appreciate the kind words.

The first week was quite bad , i caught myself looking out the window several times checking on her until a split second later it hit me : not there anymore :(

It's better now , i think it finally sunk in. I never thought i would miss her so much, especially since i haven't actually used her in the last five years and she was just a front lawn ornament.

Now to other things.

My dear Mom send me another goodie box with lot's of knitted baby socks:

and some German chocolate (best in the world) but i didn't get a pic of that, ate it all :)

...and myself , i knitted these socks for my Daughter in laws mom for her help with putting Star to rest:

and these fingerless texting gloves for my step daughter in law for her birthday this last Wednesday:

I already started another pair of patchwork socks and after that i will make a pair of thick socks for my daughter in laws grandad for letting me bury Star on his beautiful pasture.

At long last, progress !!!

 I've finished a couple more socks and a pair of DK weight fingerless gloves (they're called 'texting gloves ' now), and I'm almost done with redoing all of my shop pics.

I'm suffering from insomnia for the last 8-9 days. i think i hadn't had more than 10 hours of sleep in that time. I walk around like a zombie all day , so very tired, but if i try to take a nap i can't sleep!! and am wide awake at night. it is now midnight and i am bouncing off the walls. what is wrong with me??

oh, look at this:

aren't they cute?! I looked up out of the window this morning and there they where, Bib half asleep and Jack watching over her with his paw wrapped around her, like he's saying : " your save , i'll look out for you ".

Disclaimer: No beer was consumed during moving of building and no animals or humans where hurt in said move.

Just a little knitting...

I have spend pretty much the last week and this one revamping my etsy shop, from banner to descriptions to pictures.Even at less than 30 items that is very time consuming and a lot of work, especially if you're on dial up. I try to get the pictures down in size as much as possible without loosing quality but it still takes several minutes per pic to upload.I think i took about 300 new pictures in all.

But now i'm almost done, i think i've got a couple items left to redo.

But i got a little knitting in.After all the black socks i knitted a pair of patchwork socks which i promptly sold and got a custom order for another pair.

After that i got a custom order for these cute fingerless gloves:

and then i made these and put them in the shop today:

and i already started on another pair, this time a DK weight, they should be done in a couple of days.

Updates...

This is just a short post , no pics.I 'd just like to update on a couple of things that have impacted my life in the past weeks and thank everybody ( here and in the homeland ) for their well wishes.

First my old mare: she has fully recovered from what I'm sure of now was a snake bite.She has lost quite a bit of weight during the first 4-5 days because she didn't eat. It takes many pounds of feed a day to keep a horse looking good. If they don't eat for several days they loose weight fast. Sometimes a hundred pounds or more in a few days.(boy, wish i could do that !!!)

But, she is back to eating everything i put in front

of her and asking for more.

So, hopefully I'll have her a little while longer.

Next, my ankles.

They are almost good as new. Well, not really. Both are weak and i wear braces on both of them ,especially when I'm outside wandering in the yard. I'm very careful where and how i step.I've always had weak ankles and unfortunately always will, I'll just have to be careful.

On the knitting side : I finished another pair of ( black!!) socks for a customer in Washington state, must be getting cold there :)

Also still trying to figure out how to get those holes centered in those beautiful beads.Any help or suggestion is greatly appreciated. Just be reminded that they are lentil shaped and do not lay down flat.
I started on another pair of patchwork socks last night. They should be ready to go in the shop by about Sunday.
I will put a picture in here after all. It has nothing to do with above story's.
These are my mother in laws African Violets that i inherited from her.

She had them for many years and tended to them with lots of love. They bloomed all the time and every time we visited her i admired the pretty little flowers.
So when i brought them home i got all the info on how to keep them off the Internet( i remember my mom had one for years and remember that hers was very fickle especially about the light it got) . I re potted them with new soil and tried to find them a good spot by a window, but after a couple of weeks decided there wasn't enough light and moved them to another spot and that's when the miracle happened:Blooms!!!

This plant has been blooming for about 3 weeks now.

I have one more plant and four cuttings. I hope they will bloom too once matured.

I wish i could tell mom-in-law but due to her advanced stage of Alzheimer's she won't understand :(

Well, this was not that short of a post after all and pictures too !!

Hoorayyy...

Yes !! Finally with Dave's help i got this comment situation straightened out. Thank you Dave !!!

So, comment anytime about anything :)

Otherwise not much new around here. I finally finished the order of black socks going to Germany. I know they will be appreciated once winter rolls around there.

It's been some what cooler here this last week ( only in the upper eighty's , lower ninety's), which one of my friends in Germany just thought funny that i would describe those temps as "cooler". But if one has endured months of 100+ degrees it feels cool .As a matter of fact it has been down right beautiful the last three days. Upper 50's in the morning, cool enough for a long sleeve shirt, haven't worn one of those since end of April.

On another subject: i acquired some beautiful chop sticks on e-bay a couple of days ago .

I've got very special plans for them.

 i will post on the finished project at a later date.

Here on the home front the Goats are finally getting along much better.

Lulubelle still sometimes gets a good lick in to Clyde but at least now she doesn't actively chase him any more.
Also, here is a new pic of Tom , Bib's kitten.
He has grown tremendously  ( bigger than Bib now) and speculating on the size of his feet he will be a huge cat.They are twice the size of his mama's .
After no less than 11 tries to take a picture of his face i got this.

 At least one can see his face on this one , the other eleven are either of his butt, back, side or top, no face.I don't know how Dave takes all these beautiful pictures of his cats. they are very well behaved. Tom is just camera shy. i even tried to hold his head while taking a picture and all i got was the back of it since he twisted it around just at the moment the camera went of.I love the little white moustache , he looks like one of those " Got Milk ?" ads.

This afternoon i will try to hook my sewing machine to my carder in a try to motorize it. I have probably about 150 pounds of fleece accumulated . I need to get to processing it but i really don't want to crank that carder handle by hand.If successful, post on that will follow.

I also will post on my new addiction ( and boy, am i hooked and just after one try!!) sometime next week when i have some pics to go with it.Thank goodness it's not illegal :), and No,it's not fiber related at all :O

Jelly,Heat and Lace

Out of desperation to break up the monotony (and avert crawling up the walls ) caused by this relentless heat we are having, I've decided to make some jelly with the elderberries growing here in abundance.I made some years ago and it was delicious.

I picked a big bucked of berries:

washed them:

de-stemmed them:



cooked them,drained the juice ,and voila:

about 1 2/3 gallons of elderberry juice.

Adding the rest of the ingredients ( added 12 oz of grape juice too) i sealed the jars

and ended up with 15 -8 oz glasses of delicious jelly,

(first batch of 12):

or so i thought....

Unfortunately it didn't set. Apparently elderberries are notorious for not setting.

So, i will have to pour all of it back in the pot, add some more pectin and hope for the best.

We did use some of it on our ice cream last night like syrup. Oh, it is truly yummy!

I do have about 20 oz of juice left over that i will make into syrup. great over pancakes or -ice cream.

Still no movement on the Studio relocation.It's been 100+ every day. I'm literally house bound. I'm still working on the order of black socks. Finished the fourth pair yesterday. It's really slow going with this batch, luckily the customer is in no hurry.

I started on the lace shawl but found out that i don't like this kind of knitting at all.Too loose.

Slow, but its progress!

While I'm waiting for a yarn order for a custom sock order to arrive, i started on another pair of lace socks with one of the skeins i dyed last week.

The pattern looks like itty bitty shells.

Very easy pattern, only one of five rows has some yo and knit together's, the rest is just knit.

They will be added to the store when done.

Ugh, this heat!

Well, another weekend gone by, it was sooo hot and humid.

Summer is definitely on its way, yesterday it hit 93 degrees with at least 80% humidity, HOT !!

Apart from that we had a pretty good weekend, John's shoulder is getting better little by little. Now if i could just make him rest it more it would heal even faster.

I got to finish one sock that i started knitting on Friday. It's a pattern out of the new "Socks from the Toe up" book:

I love this pattern, and it's not complicated at all:

The yarn is a hand dyed with amethyst and then over dyed with blue that i did a few weeks ago. The colors came out in supple shades of Lavender, very pretty.Should be finished with them by the end of the week, they will be available on etsy( hint, hint, nudge, nudge, wink , wink ).

And last but not least here is a new pic from Jack:

He sure has grown into a beautiful little dog, still can't hear squat, but is very smart and is starting to pick up on hand signs.

So, all is well, so far....

More socks...

I finished another custom order of 9 pair of socks.I love it when they're all done and i put them together like this and every pair is different and colorful and i know somebody is going to wear them and keep their feet warm and happy.

Quick kitten update: the baby's are doing great and are rapidly growing. Their little eyes are starting to open and they move around a lot more.We try not to handle them a lot yet( which is pretty hard to do, they are sooo cute), even though Bib doesn't seem to mind.But she has been trying to move them behind the sofa and under my computer desk where its dark.I caught her several times and put the baby's back in the basket, so this morning i moved the basket into a darker corner in the kitchen, maybe that will work better for her.

Other than that nothing much else going on .I already have two more custom orders for socks ,so I'll be starting on them today.I'm also getting ready for my studio to be moved in a few weeks. I am so excited about that.Finally!!! It'll be a lot of work finishing it and organizing it to how i want it but once its done I'll be.. ( well , i just had to intercept Bib again trying to hide a kitten)..set up for some serious dyeing, spinning and weaving.

Of puppies,kittens and a whole bunch of sox

Still not much going on here.We're just plucking along from day to day, awaiting spring .We had two very nice days the beginning of the week ( 74 as a high on the second day) . Got a couple of hours horseback riding in and just enjoyed to be outside. Now its raining again and drab, yuck!!

Well, enough with the weather report.

Here is a pic of Bib, as you can see she is a wee bit big around the middle.

When we got her i was under the impression that she had been spayed. Well, apparently not. That belly is not from over eating, there's kittens in there!

I expect her to have them within the next 8 days or so.

I already been asking around and might have two placed to good homes already . 

Jack has grown quite a bit but we found out that he is totally deaf.

So now i have to train him a little different ,which is no big deal but we'll have to keep him on a leash at all times unless he's behind a fence cause he can't hear whats coming . One good thing : he really pays attention to you and makes constant eye contact.

I think he tries to read our facial expressions since that is the only way for him to know whats going on. One of his little ears has flopped over which gives him a feisty look which fits his personality.

He sure is a sweet little guy. He loves to be picked up and he will sit on my lap all proud .

I haven't weight him lately but i estimate hes got about 4-5 pounds now.

The bucket you see on this pic is a two gallon small bucket and he is about that size.

He has a ongoing feud with the Turkey but he gets along fine with Skimpy ( they actually started playing a little ) and he loves the cat. They are living in the studio now and will be my working buddies once i get started in earnest.

 What I'm working on right now: another big order of socks .

Nine pair in all ,going to Canada.I've finished two pair ,working on the second sock of the third pair.

More Socks...

Still busy with orders for handknitted socks.

Here are two pair size 12 Patchwork Socks going to keep a jung man's feet warm in Toronto , Canada.

Aaarrrghhh....

This is a picture of a pair of my patchwork socks inside out, before i weave in all the little yarn tails and yes, there are just as many on the other side.

It takes me about 45-60 minutes per sock to weave all the tails in. This is my least favorite part of making these kind of socks , but then there they are in all there glory .Pretty , aren't they ?

These are some of my favorites ,with the camouflage pair my mostest.

and these are still waiting to be finished.

There are 11 pair in all and they are all going to a good home wayyyy up north to Canada.

another pair...

Just showing off another pair of patchwork socks i just finished. I already listed them in the shop.

I love to make these even though the sewing in of all the loose ends is really a pain.

I'm slowly running out of leftover yarn though ,so i probably will be able to make maybe one or two more pair and then I'll be out. I really don't know how to get more leftover yarn in bigger quantities in a hurry.Most of the yarn I've been using has been collected over the past three years. Any ideas anyone?

I'm washing fleece right now ,a big bag of rather dirty merino i bought last year and had forgot about.Run across it this morning looking for something else. So i hauled it in the house and washing it in little laundry bags by the hand full. It cleans up rather nice though and is sooo soft and... no vm at all,just dirt!!

Must be about two pounds or so.I think I'll mix it with the Cormo i have to make a really soft,lofty spinning fiber,they have the same staple length,about 4 inches. That would make a great bobble yarn, all squishy and soft.I just wish i could get around to put a little motor on my carder,that would speed up the whole process considerably (and save my poor arm!).

I also found some BL lamb locks i bought several month ago.They are already washed and i think I'll dye them the way they are. The locks are just gorgeous and soft.These i will also put in the store.

I've carried my loom out into the 'studio/hold all' building.I'm going to start weaving again soon, just right now i want to work with the fleece/fiber and spin.I also haven't found a low table yet to set the loom on and it's really killing my back when i have to stand to weave.

sock order finished...on to new project

I finally finished this huge sock order i've been working on for several weeks.
This is just half of it...


now i will try to finish the towels on the loom ( i hope my arm will be ok) and i already have picked out another set of towels using hand dyed 8/2 cotton yarn.
i also want to play with the little diy inkle loom i made a couple of weeks ago.
Plus i need to dye some yarn and card some fiber to stock up my store. and i need to wash all these pounds of raw fleece i have stashed away since last year plus i want to spin some too... so much to play with sooo little time...
i guess i start with the towels and get them off the loom first.
i got an appointment at the bone and joint clinic wednesday ,so i'll stress my arm a little the next couple of days and see if it flares up again, if it does i'll see what the bone doc has to say about it...

And so it beginns...

Well, I finally did it,I joined the masses and jumped in the blog pool!

I'm probably not going to be very good at this,at least to start with,but maybe as time goes on I'll get better(hope is eternal ).So if you will bear with me i"ll give it a shot.

Mainly i started this blog to share tips, tricks, links and information on anything i found helpful or might be helpful for someone knitting, spinning, dyeing and fiber preparation .

Also i will use this blog to rant and rave about the cancer monkey riding my back and last but not least to promote my little online shop at http://www.skimpysmom.etsy.com/ where i sell my handmade wares.Well you didn't think i did all this just for selfless reasons ,did you?

So, before we go on I'd like to introduce SKIMPY since i get asked a lot who skimpy is and how in the hell that poor child ended up with a name like that.

Behold "SKIMPY" also known as "SKIMPMAN", "SKIMPERS", SKIMPYDOODLE" and some other names i really don't want to put down here(never know when kids might look in).

I started knitting when i was about 6 years old. My mother ,who is a crafty lady( in more ways than one), also taught me sewing and needlepoint/cross stitching.

I got away from needle arts in my early thirty's, until i got reacquainted with knitting during my radiation treatment for breast cancer (more about this black time in my live later). Starting with scarves(about 25), sweaters(4)i finally got hung up on socks.
Of course that branched out after awhile into dyeing my own yarn into spinning my own yarn into preparing fiber from scratch(fleeces, mostly raw) so i can spin and knit it . Of course that involved a spinning wheel, a drum carder,lots of wool and... nowhere to put it. Our little house started busting out of its seams. Wool,yarn,needles,dyestuff covered every flat surface in the house.One memorable afternoon when my poor suffering husband almost sat on a pair of dpn's we decided its time to get a "STUDIO" for my stuff (not the word my husband used).So we acquired a 12x24 ready made cabin and had it set next to our house. It's a diamond in the rough yet,it still needs to be insulated,wired and piped but...it's my little heaven where i spend most of my time until hubster gets home or it gets too freaking hot in here (no air conditioner yet either)

I got all my "stuff" in here now,except my dye things,since i have no water in here yet.
Speaking of dyeing, i better get to it.More later....