Good Karma in Maine

Yesterday marked the first official day of our Maine vacation. The guy and I flew in late Monday night and met with my Dad and step-mom at the airport. We awoke yesterday to a beautiful, crisp Maine morning. I have been wanting to visit Good Karma Farms for about a year now, since I first felt their fiber at a Knitty Yarn Tasting at the Purple Purl in Toronto. When I read the label and found out they were located in Belfast, Maine, about two hours away from my Dad's, I knew I needed to go. 

And go we did. The small family owned farm was in full operation, and Josh and owner Jim were more than happy to give us a tour and lesson in how their yarn goes from fluff to fantastic fibre. After seeing the machines in action, Jim took us out to the fields to meet the animals: chickens, alpacas, 2 llamas and a one-eyed cat. It was freezing cold, but the time flew by as Jim answered all of our questions and the alpacas put on a show for us. Below are some of my photos, be warned there are a gratuitous number of alpaca photos. They are so cute, I couldn't help myself! After the tour I bought a bunch of their awesome hand dyed and spun yarns and a needle felting kit to take home. It was truly an experience I won't soon forget!

Loved the vintage look of the signs out front. Taken with Vintage Cam.

First stop on the tour was seeing the raw fibre. After it is washed it is put through a machine that removes all of the burrs and other vegetation. Then it goes through the drum carder which removes the shorter fibres and aligns the fibres nicely. 

After running through the drum carder, the result is undyed roving. 

Good Karma Farms does and additional step and runs their roving through this machine which further removes short fibres so it will be less likely to pill and felt.

Yarn is then spun by this machine. We saw it in action making yarn for a blanket company.

This little guy was very curious about what we were up to. 

Out in the alpaca fields with the female alpacas and the babies. This sweetie was Phillipe, born in May this year. He was no so interested in a kiss from this other alpaca because he was very curious about the lady approaching him with the camera. 

Phillipe is unsure about me. 

But he warmed up eventually. 

The girls were aloof at first but as I got closer they were more curious about my presence. 

This is Dolly, one of the two llamas. She galloped over to say hello. 

After visiting the girls we went to the next field to visit the boys. They were much more curious, friendly and boisterous.

These two brothers put on quite the show, jumping and wrestling in the late afternoon light. 

Being stared at by alpacas.

I love their fuzzy, sweet faces. 

I may have bought some yarn. So gorgeous!

msi. 

New Technology, Vintage Look

The guy and I both got new ipod touches for Christmas, and we got to unwrap them early so we can have them during the upcoming Christmas travel and festivities. I had an older generation itouch that I bought used a while back and I loved it. The most exciting thing about the new one is the built in camera. I have already downloaded instagram, vintage cam and hipstomatic. I love that these programs allow you to make photos that look and feel vintage. You can follow me on instagram (nervousknitter) but here are a few of the pictures I took of this lazy Sunday.

Tiny and Large - my two most recent finished knits, A bulky cowl out of Malabrigo Rasta and a delicate fingerless mitten out of Tanis Fiber Arts merino cashmere fingering weight.

Yesterday during my last shopping attempt I bought this ball at Romni Wool. The staff made over 50 balls from the new book 50 Christmas Balls to Knit and sold them for charity. All of the proceeds from these balls go to POGO (Paediatric Oncology Group Ontario). I though the squirrel motif went perfectly with our woodland themed tree. 

Our beautiful handmade ornament laden tree.

Gorgeous flowers, a holiday gift from my dear friend Lindsay

Taken on my Nikon, I couldn't resist showing a close up on the lusciousness that is the Malabrigo cowl. 

Lola just had to get in on the photo shoot action. 

'til next time,


msi.

Vacation Starts!

Tonight marks the beginning of two weeks of vacation. I'm so thankful to have this break - the winter holidays are one of my favourite times of year - spending time with family, knitting to take the chill off, Christmas music and twinkly lights. It has been an immensely complicated year with amazing moments and  profoundly sad ones. Life marches on, but I am glad at this time of year to take a rare second to pause and reflect.


That said I'm not going to sit here for hours thinking of something interesting to say, but will leave you with a short story and these photos of our Christmas tree. It is not "real" as I had planned, and it is much smaller than I wanted, but I love it all the same.


The first knitted monster I ever made was a Rebecca Danger's Dot the Dress-up monster. Once he was finished I had him proudly displayed on the sofa where Lola and him would cuddle up for naps. Then my mom came for a visit. Within 30 seconds she had scooped the monster off the sofa and didn’t put him down all day. I relented and told her she could have him. Completely enamoured and excited by her new knitted prize mom went off to show my grandmother. When she came back upstairs empty handed it wasn’t hard to imagine what had happened. My Nan had also fallen in love with this little monster, had immediately named him Sheldon Sinclair, the Avocado Monster and found a place for him in her home. Mom didn’t have the heart to take him away. So she came back to tell me that I not only needed to knit myself another monster, but she wanted one too. So for Christmas I made her this Dot, With Stripes! who is waiting patiently under the tree for her new mommy to come and take him home.

Chilling with the Nutcracker my grandfather made me when I was a little girl,

This picture is several years old, from Lola's first Christmas, when mom bought her the dorkiest elf costume. She was forever immortalized in this photo as the Grinch! It makes me laugh every year

Back to holiday knitting!


msi

Countdown to the Holidays

I have been keeping very busy over the past few weeks working on my Christmas Knit List. I've been sick with a respiratory infection so have had a few days at home to get a bit of knitting done. Despite progress I still have a long way to go! I have at least three pairs of half finished socks and three half finished pairs of mittens and gloves. I don't have attention span issues at all :P It doesn't help that I have also fallen in love with all sorts of knitted ornament patterns and have been making some of those as well.

Speaking of ornaments, here are some of the handmade ornaments I have made over the past few weeks.

Pompom owls 

Yarn covered mini-wreaths

A tiny gnome (about 3 inches tall) and...

his tiny reindeer friend! Both patterns are from Teeny Tiny Mochimochi by Anna Hrachovec 

I am well on my way to getting enough to decorate the tree, but I'm finding ornament making addictive and the more I make the more I want!

Another project that I finished up was my monster swap on the Danger Crafts board on Ravelry. I made this sweet mini monster for another participant in the swap and she has made her way to her new home in Nova Scotia.

Meet mini-Ivy and her friend Chuck, the snowball. 

I was inspired by this blog to make a tree decoration for the table using a paper mache cone and some Christmas papers. Unlike the person who made the original I don't have the little paper press thingy, so this involved lots of paper cutting while watching TV.

My table top paper tree

Lastly, I made a great wreath for our door using styrofoam balls and some white, grey and gold yarns. I got the idea from this blog. A few balls were also wrapped in jute and I accented the balls with tiny spiky pom poms and sparkly snowflakes. This wreath was so easy to make: essentially I bought a bunch of Vanna's choice yarn on sale at Michael's and wrapped three sizes of styrofoam balls. Then I used a pie plate to arrange the larger balls in a circle of the right size. I probably should have affixed them to a wreath frame, but instead the guy made me one out of some jewelry wire and felt.What a handy guy he is! I glued the large balls together, attached the frame and then added the smaller balls and embellishments with hot glue.

Wrapping lots and lots of styrofoam balls

Making the wreath base

Finished with embellishments!

Now that it is December 1st I am going to allow myself to hang this beauty on the door.

Well, back to the needles!

msi

Celebrating Movember with Chicken Pot Pie and Fingerstaches

Tonight I made my very first chicken pot pie. This is quite the achievement for me because I usually avoid anything to do with baking or pastry. Other than cupcakes, baking and I do not really get along. I once set a blueberry pound cake on fire in the oven and the experience scarred me (emotionally) for life.   That said, Chicken Pot Pie is one of the guy's favourite foods so I decided it was high time I figured out how to make it. The recipe I used is based off this one that I found on foodgawker. If you haven't discovered the gawkerverse sites, they are some of my favourite time-waster sites (right up there with Ravelry, Pinterest & Etsy - the trifecta of procrastination perfection).

My only modifications were that I skipped the wine and used a bit more chicken stock. Omitted the mushrooms and swapped frozen corn for the peas simply because I didn't have any in the freezer. I used frozen pie crust (sorry mom!) so that if disaster struck I wouldn't take it so personally. I needn't have worried though because it turned out delicious. Amazingly creamy (even without milk or cream) and chock full of veggies which makes it even better.

Not a great photo, but had to share the achievement

I have been immersed in holiday knitting over the past few weeks. This means that all other crafting endeavors, like my handmade Christmas ornaments project, have been put on hold for the time being. In addition to my family gifts, I am participating in my first swap on Ravelry. It is from the Rebecca Danger Crafts group. Essentially, you make a mini-version of one of Rebecca Danger's patterns, pair it with some Christmas goodies and send it off to your assigned swap partner, who will in turn do the same for you. I have really enjoyed the process so far and I have my mini about 2/3 of the way completed. I won't post pictures until it is all done and sent because I don't want to ruin any surprises! All I can say is it may have been a mistake to make a tiny striped scarf. I did not consider the fact that I would need to weave in 58 tiny ends of yarn.

Other things that have me excited this week include season 4 of The Big Bang Theory - the guy and I have been catching up with this show and laughing hysterically. The addition of the Amy Farah Fowler character is brilliant. Who knew Blossom was secretly a genius? Also, when we went to the Halloween Stag and Doe we won a Keurig Coffee Maker and we are loving several flavours of tea and hot chocolate, while our guests enjoy freshly brewed coffee.

Tonight, I took a break from holiday knitting to make these fingerstaches for the guy and I to celebrate Movember. I vetoed him actually growing a mustache (not a fan of facial hair), so I figured this would be an acceptable substitute.

Rock on Movember. Rock on. 

'til next time,

msi.

The Shiny Green Monster, or The Sweater Project

Earlier this year I began feeling confident enough in my knitting skills that I wanted to make my first sweater. I decided that this sweater would be a mother's day gift for my Mom. This was my first mistake. Many knitters have written about how your first sweater should be a project for you; for one you will be more motivated to work through it so you have a finished garment, and two you will be able to live with its imperfections as a testament to your "learning curve". I ignored good knitterly advice. Something one will always regret later.

For my mom I choose a pattern called the Spring Staple Sweater from Knitting Today magazine. The woman in the picture looked so happy; I was totally swayed by her happiness.

The Spring Staple Sweater from Knitting Today Magazine,  April/May 2011. Pattern by Jill Draper. 

Once I had the pattern in hand I headed to one of my LYS's (local yarn shops) to buy the yarn. It just so happened that they had the recommended yarn on sale in selected colours. Now, just in case any one is under any illusions that making a sweater or any knitted garment is less expensive than buying one from the store, let me put that delusion to rest. Yarn is expensive, plus labour, this finished garment is worth a small fortune. Even on sale the raw materials for the sweater cost about $80. A friend and I perused the colours that they had on sale and we decided on a green shade called Scuba, since green is my mom's favourite colour. Now this yarn is mercerized cotton. I'd never worked with, or even heard of this before so I didn't think too much about it. At this point, I still didn't know a lot about fiber, so I just figured that $80 was a lot of money, therefore the yarn must be great. This was my second mistake. I left the store with a bag full of yarn and a smile on my face, ready to get started and conquer this sweater. I had a little over a month until Mother's Day. Lot's of time for an accomplished and confident knitter such as myself.

When I got home, I wound the first skein eager to get going. I cast on the first sleeve and started knitting. About an inch in I was no longer excited. This yarn is shiny. The colour is not attractive. The yarn is slick. Later I would learn that the mercerization of the cotton is what makes it so "lustrous". Oh boy. So now I was in quite the pickle. I hated the yarn, I was about an inch in. The yarn was not returnable since it was on sale and I had a lot of it. I kept knitting. Another inch. I felt ill. The shininess of the yarn was nauseating. Determined, I knit another inch. When the first sleeve was completed a day or so later, I convinced myself that I deserved a break. The migraines were really getting to me, and there was a hat pattern I was dying to knit. Just one hat and then I would get right back to the sweater. I shoved the materials in a bag to to try and contain their reflective sheen.

Fast forward two months. Mother's day is but a distant memory. I think I gave my mom a pair of socks. I am cleaning our spare bedroom when I come across "it". Still in it's bag, one sleeve completed. I pull it out and start knitting the other sleeve. "This isn't so bad", I think to myself. When I get to the shaping rows, I wander to my stash to find the magazine with the pattern and come away with needles and some sock yarn. I'm easily distracted.

Three more months pass. I am at the knitting store and the gal that works there asks me, "So how did your sweater turn out?". I mumble something indiscriminate and hastily pay for my purchases, lest I be judged. When I get home I search for "it". I pull it out of its bag. The sun glints off the shiny surface. I twitch and say "I will conquer you". I pull out the swift and wind three more balls. Instead of finishing the sleeve, I cast on for the body. I think that the lace pattern will keep me interested, it will after all leave some gaps in the shine. This time I have a good run at it. I knit about 4 inches of the body over the next weeks. I leave the project out in the living room so I have no choice but to guiltily pick it up.

My mom sees it in progress and get's excited. I ask, "Don't you think it's a bit shiny?" The truth is I want her to turn away from it in disgust. To gag a little and tell me that she would never wear this so I can be put out of my misery and just call "it" a loss.  But what does she say (gotta love her)? "If you are making it for me, I will love it. Besides its not that shiny". Not that shiny? I swallow my real opinion, which is if she was to wear this monstrosity she would looks like a mermaid. A mermaid in a bad colour.

I knew it was too good to last, and the sweater got moved back into it's bag before long. Just for a "short" break. I've told my mom that with all the Christmas knitting I have to do I will pick it back up in the New Year. Next year for her birthday, or mother's day maybe. I told her sweater's just really aren't my thing. They take so long, I like quick knits. I'm just not a sweater knitter.

But I have a secret. I bought some yarn and I have a pattern for another sweater. I've swatched for it in secret and am ready to start knitting. A sweater out of merino wool. Not shiny. Not green. A sweater for me. And I can't wait to cast on.

msi

Quick Knitting and Halloween Update

It's been a long time since my last post. Has been a busy fall so far around here and last week I caught the horrible cold that is going around. Spent lots of time curled up with Lola in bed knitting and reading. I finally got some of the Yarn Harlot's books from the library and she has had me in hysterics all week. She also writes a wonderful blog which is great for knitter's and non-knitter's alike (link above). After reading her chapters about her yarn stash I was inspired to do a organization of my stash which at least felt like a productive thing to do while I was at home with this nasty cold. I'm also happy to report that my stash has not yet grown so large that I am hiding knitting projects down the sleeves of my jackets. Matt says it is only a matter of time. I also finished a few pieces of knitting that have been on the needles for a while.

Lola loved this bulky cowl I was making out of baby alpaca. This is supposed to be a Christmas present but I have been wearing it all week. I'm just test driving it... yeah that's it... test driving. 

Another cowl I have made with a simple eyelet pattern and gorgeous Waterloo Wools. 

The Kaie Beanie, a diagonal slip stitch hat out of bright orange. This photo doesn't do it justice, this colourway from Waterloo Wools is gorgeous.  

A Forest Queen Hat out of super soft Malabrigo. See the tiny trees and bobbles?

My 5-hour baby sweater, that took a bit longer than 5 hours. Don't know who this sweet cardi is destined for yet but it is made of yummy Dream in Colour Classy in a fantastic colourway called "Flamingo Pie". 

Over the past few weeks I also had the opportunities to take 2 knitting classes, one to learn toe-up socks and another to make gloves. Toe-up socks were a breeze and I love not having to graft or pick up stitches. Gloves on the other hand were a bit trickier; knitting all of those finger's can be a bit fiddly.

So far I have made one toe-up sock and this toe-up slipper which I love. I don't have a case of second sock/slipper syndrome at all...

Lastly, the guy and I went to friend's Stag and Doe last night. It was a Halloween party, and we came up with an awesome costume. We lucked out and won some great prizes including a Keurig coffee machine!

My guy and me as a swiffer duster and a piece of dirt. 

Starting a list of Christmas knitting, so will try to update soon on more WIPs and FOs. Also, a new ornament tutorial next weekend which is super cute!

msi.