Amandas sweater from her sheeps wool!

The Yarn in hanks!

The packages have arrived!!!

Beautiful color!

Beautiful color and texture!

Wound a few skeins!

Finished sweater!!!  

This is the sweater that I have knit for Amanda.  She raises sheep and saved one of the shearings from one sheep and had it spun into hanks...this was a fun pattern to knit!!!  

I have the two fronts done...last night I started the back and have that done up to the arm decreases. I am liking this sweater pattern! I guess you can teach an old dog new tricks...reading the graft hasn't been all that bad. But I still prefer the written pattern any day. More to come as I complete the back, sleeves and then the hood. Hope my little guy likes his new sweater! KNIT ON!!

Hoodie Sweater for Ben

Last week I ordered a kit from Mary Maxim.  It came yesterday.  So last night I opened up the package and was thrilled until I saw that instead of a full skein of the red and white yarn I needed they sent yardage.  It was wrapped with an elastic band.  It took me over and hour and a half to untangle this mess!  If I had known they were going to send 30 or 70 yards of this yarn I would have told them to add a full skein and paid the difference.  Live and learn!

So last night I read the pattern (and I am so old that I just hate the charted patterns) I decided to make the two fronts at the same time...so off I go!!!!  Well, worrying I won't have enough red to do the sweater with I was trying not to leave any tails but had to....too old to figure out and too late at night what I should do.  So I got 8 rows done and said thats enough and put it up!

The pocket is different than any others I have done over my many years of knitting so I thought "here we go" and I will probably really screw this up good!  As you can see by the pictures I have now got the pocket added on and the knitting is going good! I will add more pics as I knit along...hope you enjoy the photos!

Bens Aran sweater!

Well I finally found a 4 inch zipper to finish the sweater with...now to do that...and it will be finished! I will post a finished picture after I sew in the zipper. I love this sweater pattern.


 KNIT ON!!

Ben's Sweater

The sleeves are now done. I have the front knit to where I have to divide it for the two pieces where the zipper will go. Love working with this yarn...wish Brunswick Yarns was still in business...they made some really wonderful yarns.

Ben's new aran sweater

I dug out an old pattern that I haven't used in years and some yarn I have hoarded for many years from my old yarn shop. Today I started the sleeves. I have the back done and decided to do the sleeves instead of the front next. I am using Heritage yarn that is 75% acrylic and 25% wool.

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Socks are finished!

They came out pretty good! I gifted them to a friend and he loved them!

Now I am knitting birdhouses...have 7 small ones knit and hoping to start a large one tonight. Just need to find some plastic canvas for the large one. Then to felt them and see how they look. If they come out good, I am going to knit up a lot of my leftover pieces of yarn and give them for gifts.


KNIT ON!!

Sock Progress

Well after having knit the gusset and part of the foot I decided I didn't like the looks of it. Tried the sock on Hubbys foot and it was just too wide. So tinked it back to the heel and decided to decreases 2 stitches across the top as i picked up the 15 stitches I needed for the gusset. I then decreased the gusset an extra stitch on each side so I have decreased 4 stitches for a total of 56 sts to make the foot.
Ahhhh it looks so much better and it fits so much better on hubbys foot! I then knit 40 rows to the toe decrease. I then decreased 4 stitches ever other row. row 1.(needle 1) knit to last three stitches...k 2 tog, k1, (needle 2) k1, s1, k1, psso, knit to last 3 stitches on this needle, k2 tog, k1 (needle 3), k1, s1, k1, peso, knit to end of 3rd needles. row 2, knit. Continue to decrease until you have 12 stitches left . put 6 sts on two needles and I have done the Kitchner Stitch to finish them off to have a smooth end for your toes.
I will try to rewrite this as I know that I do not come across very good when trying to explain how I am knitting these socks. And I think that is because I am a true lefty~ Ask my husband, he can tell you he has a hard time to understand me when I try to explain things to him because I do it from my point of view not his right handed point of view.

KNIT ON!

Sport Weight Socks..continued!

HAPPY ST PATRICKS DAY TO EVERYONE!!!!!






The cuff and heel.


I have knit 80 rows of knit one purl one ribbing for the cuff I like to use the K1, P1 ribbing as I feel it helps to keep the socks up on the leg.
I divided the sock into 30 sts for the heel and then divide the other 30 sts on the other 2 needles.
The heel has 30 rows...row 1: Slip one, knit one across the thirty stitches....the second row is slip the first stitch and purl to the end. I did this for 30 rows.
Now to do the turning of the heel...hmmm. I will post when I get that done! I do not have a pattern for these socks, so I am winging it as i go...I will post the rows as I go along. And hopefully more pictures as the sock evolves!
Picture of the heel.
Turning the heel, I S1, purled 15 sts, P2tog, p1, turn, (11 unworked stitches on your needle) then I s1, k3, k2tog, k1, turn (11 sts unworked) s1, P4, p2tog, s1, turn, s1, k5, k2tog, s1, turn. Continue to decrease 1 st each row till you have 1 unworked st...next row...Row 11...S1, P12, P2tog, P1, turn, Row 12: S1, K13, K2tog, K1, turn (1 unworked st) Row 13: S1 P 14 K2tog, turn, Row 14: S1, K14, K2tog...Now you pick up 15sts for the gusset!
I will have to go over this and make sure Ive written it correct and in the last post on the socks I will do the whole pattern so you and I can understand it. I am so left handed! But I knit right. I just see it in my head differently then a righty does. I drive my husband crazy when I try to explain things to him. lol Oh well.

You cal always check out Rays yarns at his site too. www.knitivity.com I have placed many orders with Ray and have not been disappointed yet! He is also on Facebook if you want to check out is BRS specials he posts there.



















How do you like the size of the wooly nylon I am using! I bought this online from a company in Canada for $30.00 This is half the size from when I bought it a year or so ago. I have saved a ton of money buying this huge spool! The little tiny spools I bought at Jo-Anns many years ago were selling for $5.99. Now I wished I had kept track of how many socks Ive knit using this spool! I tell everyone that I bet I won't live long enough to use it all, but the way Ive been knitting wool socks I bet I do! Just in case I do, I ordered another one for that "just in case" time! I use this on the heels and toes. It does help to save the sock from wearing out quickly.
Back to knitting and watching "Sweet Home Alabama!" I love this movie...Reese Witherspoon and Patrick Dempsey...love love love them!

KNIT ON!!

New socks started!

Well I've finally gotten around to winding the four skeins of yarn I bought last March from Knitivity. I am using a size 3 needle and have cast on 60 sts and am using a knit 1 purl 1 ribbing. Since I am a knitter who counts rows, I will add to the post when I get the cuff done and let you know how many rows I have used. I only have a single skein and I am hoping to make a pair of long cuffed socks. I am debating whether to start the second sock from the end skein to see how far I can get. If I can't finish both pair, I will take another skein (of a different color) and finish then that way. My family doesn't care about color, just care that they get socks!
Knit On!

Spring is coming to the Katahdin Region!

Sunset at the Marina off route 11. Mount Katahdin and the 5 Lakes Lodge.

Deer at the Gateway Inn in Medway. So much fun to watch them eating.

Blue Jays filling up on an old hard roll!

Maine Winter 2012

All I can say is that this winter has been a good one for sure. We have spent this one at camp, have not burned one stick of hard wood, no big snow storms so far and love being here. I have wanted to live here year round since the first year we bought the place, 1997, but because of work and the fact we have to plow 5 1/2 miles to get to the highway, we have always gone back to town and spent the winters there. This winter has been a dream come true. I feared being snowed in and not being able to get back to the highway for weeks at a time! Not this year. We have not had any big snow storms to date but we have had rain. Lots of ice. I think the ice is scarier than the snow now that we have lived here. We waited 3 days for the men to get in touch with the people who do the winging back and sanding. Then they only sanded very lightly. We now have ice again due to the melting and refreezing the past 4 days. Predicting a heavy wet snow for Friday/Saturday. Hoping the men get off their butts and make the call so its sanded tomorrow. We will not be able to move the snow if there is no sand underneath. And thankful that we have studded snow tires on both vehicles! It has helped a lot on the ice when traveling to and from town for food. I also think that being a retired person now I fear a lot of things that 20 years ago would have just been a new adventure! I am so glad we took this adventure this winter!!!!! (I need to clarify that there are many people staying here year round now and we all have pickup trucks with plows...I made it sound like we are alone up here and we are not! We all work at the plowing each storm. )

This is the first year since the late 70's that we have not burned wood! The cost is so much more then expected, but the baseboard heat is worth every penny of it. We have been toasty warm and the temp is controlled in each room....nothing like at home with burning wood daily. Hubbys back injury has been the reason for the new furnace here at camp. I am pleased with it to say the least! At home we would burn about 5/6 cord of hard wood plus a 100 gallons of oil for the hot water tank. Here we are burning less than 90 gallons of propane every two weeks. The insulation has done its work too! We have what some call a crawl space under the camp, but it is a particle foundation on a floating slab. We had that heavily insulated this fall so this has helped with keeping the heating costs down. Since we have our water pipes and tanks underneath we had to heat it. (I am scared of the heat tape most people use on their pipes on trailers) So baseboard there with its own thermostat has really worked out wonderfully. No complaints in that department!

I have done a lot of knitting this winter, but not like I did years ago. My hands hurt now due to old age and I find my attention span on knitting is not like it was either. I love to knit but I find that I want to do something else a lot now. I have been good about finishing up each project before I start another one...no more 50+ WIPs laying around any more. LOL (Is that my old age telling me to make sure its done cause at this stage of the game I may not wake up to finish it?) LOL I do have a lot of yarn and patterns all bagged up and ready for me to knit. I like that part! I buy the yarn and pattern, photocopy the pattern so I can write on it as I knit the project, put it in a zippered bag that I have saved from purchases of sheets or something that is big enough to hold all the stuff and put it in my big covered plastic container! When did I become organized? I do not know! Hoping to start my DIL sweater soon. It will probable be a summer project...one when the black flies are out and I can't stand them and will spend the days inside till the heat kills them off!! Oh and fishing season this summer will take away from my knitting too. I love to take out my little row boat and row around the lake. And last year we bought kayaks...so that will be something that will take away from my knitting time too! Cant wait to head out with my girlfriends and paddle the rivers and lakes with them...and I might even invite Hubby to come with me! We shall see. He isn't a long distance paddler due to his back injury so we just go around the cove here..but when the girls call, I am off and paddling like I love to! Summer hurry up and get here please!

Hopefully I will post some pics in the next few days of my last pair of finished wool socks and the snowmen Hubby and I made while out on our daily walks! We even took one day to color them all with a spray bottle and food coloring! Life is good at Cedar Lake!

KNIT ON!

Knitting project

Well, I am knitting more wool socks. I am finally starting to see the end of my Bartlettyarns I have had for about 20 years. Leftovers from my yarn shop days. I will probably never use up all the rest of the yarns out there in the building. I try not to buy more, but as a knitter who is a yarnaholic I don't see that ever stopping. WIPs are many, but I have finished up quite a few being in the woods all winter this year. I do want to knit the sweater I purchased last summer when we went to Portland. Stopped at a lovely yarn shop in Freeport, Grace Robinsons, and purchased a pattern book that I had wanted to buy from that shop 3 years earlier but they wouldn't sell it to me unless I bought the yarn that the book used. Well this time they were very happy to sell me the book. It was the last one and was the display one. They sold it to me for half price! I did buy yarn from them but not the one the book called for. I got one that was one sale for 50% off! Made it in my price range.

Winter this year has not been a real Maine Winter. We had no -30F weeks at all this year. Very little snow too. Lots of rain and ice. Mud season will be early for sure this spring! This week has been very nice...sun, sun and more sun! We had some rain on Thursday, so on Friday, Saturday and Sunday when we went for our afternoon walk we made snowmen on the banks along the road. Sunday we sprayed them with colored water. LOL Green and purple snowmen! Life is good in the Maine woods!

KNIT ON!

Finished knitting the new foot on the cuffs tonight. As you can see, I didn't have enough of the burgundy color yarn to make them match! LOL Hubby thinks they are great. Nice to be able to reuse and save me the time of knitting cuffs too!

It took me an hour or so to cut back and get each sock on the needles. The socks had been washed many, many times over the last 5 or so years so they were a little felted. One sock was wore up a few rows higher than the other. Glad to be done with this project. Now to start something new. I know it will be another pair of socks, but I also want to knit something for my DIL. Have the pattern and yarn, now to stay of the computer and Facebook and I might get something done!

KNIT ON!

Wool Sock Project

Last night I decided to try and save a pair of wool socks that I had knit for my husband about 7 years ago. He had worn the heels out and was still wearing them and driving me nuts every time I saw his heels sticking out from them! lol So I cut the foot off and then worked it back to the ribbed cuff. I decided to add some rows to the cuff to make them longer, as over the years he has decided he likes them high! I kept thinking I should have just thrown them in the trash and started a brand new pair, but I really hate knitting the cuffs. (They seem to take the longest when knitting a pair of socks to me anyway!) As I worked to get the cuff to a place where the yarn was still thick I kept thinking, "Throw this away! Its going to take more time to do this then to knit them from scratch!" So after an hour or so I finally got all the needles on and the stitches counted and I found that it wasn't as bad as I thought! I am using Bartlettyarns wool that is leftover from a pair I just finished yesterday. These were knit from all leftover yarns when I was knitting the felted hats that were the rage years back. Well, I was knitting the heel and put them up for the night. This morning I noticed that my wooly nylon strand was not there...Dang cat chewed it off again..but she left the wool alone. What am I going to do with this cat? She has eaten all the strings off my blinds, so now we have cheap pull down shades. She gets into my sewing threads and eats those too! I have them in a case and she works at the cover till she gets it off and then eats the thread! lol

Hope you enjoy the photo of the socks. One is still "hole" lol

Hoping to finish up the first one tonight and starting the second one tomorrow. Weather is supposed to be very, very cold here in Maine for a few days so I am staying in and enjoying the heat in my home!

Camp For Sale At Cedar Lake, Maine

We have our camp for sale at Cedar Lake, which is located outside of the town of Millinocket in Maine. We are near Baxter State Park and Mount Katahdin.

In the past year we have added a lot of things, including a drilled well, a filtration system for it, a new metal roof, a new bedroom, a new state of the art computerized furnace (baseboard heat!)( and a new addition for the furnace), a new hot water system, new gas stove, hard wood floor, more insulation and other things. If you are interested in buying our home, you can contact me at 207.447.5794 or beaulierla@gmail.com

Asking price is $299,000.00. The camp sits on 1.75 acre of own land, 275 feet of shoreline with a beautiful sand beach. We have made this into a year round home. With the other landowners here, we plow the 7 miles of road to our camps. We have two bedrooms, a loft, a full bath, kitchen and living room, septic system, and our lake does not have the water level dropped as the others in the area do. The lake has white perch, salmon, trout, splake and other types of fish. We also have a backup generator installed for those days when the power is out so there is no lose of power here at all. It is a Generact system. We also have internet and phone service here now. It is a little piece of heaven. If you are looking for a beautiful place to rest and relax, this is the home for you! There is a huge deck on three sides of the camp too. We enjoy many afternoons on the deck watching the birds and animals or eating our BBQed lunches.

The master bedroom is 16' X 18', the second one is 16' X 10'. The building is 40' X 28', built in 1997. As I get the chance I will add more pictures for your viewing enjoyment! Oh, the lake is one mile by two miles...spring fed and very clear!

I will be adding more pictures as the seasons change.