Toes feel so delightful

The weather outside if frightful 

Toes are so delightful…..

A little bit of snow came yesterday it just fell so quiet 

Today it is -19 F and the wind is blowing it doesn’t look bad in town but in the country it looks like a ground blizzard and white out conditions.

This storm is named Elliott the last one was Daisy what ridiculous names for a winter storm. Who is going to heed a weatherman’s warning when he is talking about a Daisy?

It’s cold and windy outside and I’m safe and snug inside.

My little duffers are felted. I did it the easy way by throwing them in the washer with my jeans 36 minutes on medium then into the dryer on medium. They were still kinda big so into the washer again. They looked perfect well maybe like raisins so I tugged and pulled then let them air dry. Christmas is coming. Ann

 

On the Needles

The slipper clogs for son are knit and felted he said "they are perfect, Thanks Mom" His birthday was Sunday,  had we realized 28 years ago that he was born on the anniversary of the Beatles first appearance on American television we would have named him.....Ringo! He lucked out there.

Before they were felted with the over felted now child size slippers just for scale. Felt slowly in the washer on medium temp then into the dryer and repeat until they fit.

 

The colors in this yarn is pooling now. Much more interesting. I like the flashes of color. The yarn is German Schoppel Wolle it is 2 strands of yarn wound on a spool and dyed on the spool so my color changes are getting shorter as the spool gets smaller.

 This hand painted yarn has even color changes which have not stacked up into interesting color patterns just texture that is until I did the gusset increase.  The orange and brown made a little grouping of color and the pink and yellow made a sideways V. Turning the heel I got a nice repeat of stripes. I like stripes. Did anyone notice the person knitting the first night of competition? Just before one of the last snowboarders went down the hill you could see a person with calm nerves standing knitting a white scarf? It looked like the yarn was coming out of an opening in his jacket.
I'm finally feeling better after 5 days of the flu, I have just hurt all over with chills and a runny nose. I would get up because it hurt to lay in bed then sit in my chair and nap and knit a little then nap some more then knit. Next year I'm getting a flu shot. Check out the knitting at Judy's On the Needles. --Ann--

on the needles and the heartbreak of over felting

I got both these pairs of slippers finished and was so proud of myself and thought (since in the past not that much felting happened in the washer) that I could felt things a little faster in the washing machine with hotter water. Front load machines do not let you check the progress so when I took them out of the wash my mouth dropped...they were child size. Note to self DON'T Do that again. I guess I'll list them on etsy. The inside of the the red are 6 1/2 inches and the brown are 7 1/2 inches. On top is my size 8 store bought felted clog just for scale.......so what could I do????

 Something colorful, something fun, something easy.  Start a new pair of socks of course!
New yarn is on the way. --Ann--

On and off the needles

Change of travel plans for the weekend, it is cold and windy here and where we were going has new snow so anything not securely fastened is going to be blowing across the road so I am getting an On The Needles posted.
I'm ready to turn the heel on the blue and grey socks. I started more clogs, the brown for son's birthday next month and the victorian red/pink for me. These have knit much faster than the pair I knit before Christmas, I'm not counting stitches every other row. I still have the bottom sole to knit then into the hot water.

Link for the clogs Fiber Trends
I finished the bunny hop footies with leftover yarn the short row heel has 60 rows so is almost a half circle and they do stay up unlike all my store bought footies that slide down in my shoe.
Also finished the navy 4x4 basket weave socks. Its going to be a great weekend to sit by the fire and knit then go to my sewing room for a while. Stay warm--Ann-- link to PatchworkTimes above.

On the needles

The slippers are felted and more stockings are started. Its always nice to have a couple little to go projects that get done row by row. --Ann-- Linking to Judy's On the Needles with hugs and prayers.

On the needles Finish it Friday

Over the weekend I knit a pair of felt clogs pattern from Fiber Trends. They were monsterous in size but once through the washer and extra cycles in the dryer with bath towels they are close to the right size. They might be just right, they might get soaked and go in the dryer after Christmas then they can be shaped to the owners feet. My name brand clogs are in the picture to provide scale. I will defiantly be knitting more clogs.

Mittens and reading mittens are also finished, the reading mitts look like teapots without a lid. And another pair of felted slippers. The front load washing machine don't agitate the  slipper enough to  felt the wool (faint red line in photo above shows how much the clogs felted in the wash) the most shrinkage happened in the dryer so I soaked the clogs again in the sink and squeezed out as much water as I could then back into the dryer for a couple more cycles, which is how I plan to felt everything in the future. Before I soaked the slippers and scoured with soap and agitated in the sink and rinsed and scoured some more until my hands were all pruney.

Check out the knitting at Judy's On the Needles.  Happy knitting! --Ann--

on and off the needles

 On the needles and fresh snow! Is there anything better than knitting and watching the snow come down? This is a spool of matching striping yarn, the lady in the store said to separate the yarn and wind it into two balls. I started to wind balls and decided it had the potential to become a tremendous tangle so I inserted long knitting needles for an axle and it sits a little wonky on my basket as it unrolls as I knit.

 Snowblower mitts for hubby dearest. They were about 16 inches long before felting finished they are 12 1/2 inches long. This last snow was not heavy enough to require the snowblower. Maybe next week.

 Sport weight yarn for boot socks on 2.75mm needles. If I'm going to knit on a solid I'm going to learn a pattern, this one is from Socks from the Toe Up by Wendy D. Johnson. I missed a couple yarn overs so I slid the left sock onto another cable while I unknit and then I will re knit to the same point on the repeat then I'll get both socks back on the same cable.

 Son was pleased with felted slippers, they were 18 inches long before felting. I shrank them down to 12 inches in length. I did not trace around them each time through the wash. And I neglected to take a picture of the finished slippers. They are at his house where they belong now. He thought the toes were too pointy so I turned them inside out and sewed a seam and cut the end off. They fit much better now and he doesn't look like an over sized elf.
I foolishly left my first pair of hand knit socks in the heavy duty cycle while felting these. The socks still fit but are anklets instead of crew length so everyone who got hand knit or smart wool socks for Christmas also got a lingerie bag for socks in their Christmas sock.   link to Judy's  on the needles






  Glory to God in the highest heaven, 
Who unto man His Son hath given; 
While angels sing with tender mirth, 
A glad new year to all the earth. --Martin Luther  
Happy New Year and Happy New Projects  --Ann--

 

On the Needles

Soctober    I was browsing through knitting patterns and found a really simple pattern for felted slippers  Drops Design 104-4 from Garn Studios. And to purposely shrink something to make it fit looked like a lot of fun. Half way through knitting the first slipper I decided to knit a sample to see how it would felt, I got it wet and not much happened then I squirted some dish soap on it and agitated it in hot water and suddenly it was smaller I repeated a couple times until it was much smaller and thick! I finished the first sock in no time and couldn't knit the second one fast enough. Finally they were off the needles and seams stitched so into the washing machine with towels and hot water. Not much happened in the washing machine maybe I didn't have the water hot enough, maybe I needed more soap, maybe I need to keep a pair of glasses down there to read all the buttons. So back to the kitchen sink and dish soap and rubber gloves I knew it would take a while to reduce these to fit my feet. They shrank considerably more in width than length in fact they were 2 inches too long so after repeated washing I gave up and machine stitched a new seam in the heel so now they fit sorta at least they stay on my feet;  they are soft and warm and easy to slip into and kick off. I intend to knit another pair and leave off the last 5 stitch increases on the heel. In the mean time I read a column in Quilting Arts  magazine about felting and the writers anguish over buying a new washing machine because our new energy efficient machines do not felt wool very good. Mystery solved.  I did not use the brand of yarn recommended by the pattern, I used some that I had that was intended for mittens but it was recommended for felting.   Ann   link to Judy's on the needles.