Fear Not

This posting has been digesting in the back of my mind all week. Sometimes it takes a while before the Good Lord fully gets my attention. I guess I better post this so He will be happy and quit nudging me.

That said, i find that God talks ro me through hymns and music as often as the Bible. One of my favorite hymns is "How Firm a Foundation". That link is to one of many sites online that lists the lyrics. There are more verses on other sites, or if you have a hymnal at home, read through the words. I think the verse that has been with me all week is the one about going through deep waters, for he will be with you.

I don't want to commit any copyright violations, but I just hope that the one (or ones) that I am supposed to share this with will go to the link, or search a version for yourself online. Then read and inwardly digest the words.

And be not dismayed.

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Organization Happens

Some of my faithful readers may remember a while back, that I mentioned I wanted to organize my corner where leftover balls and skeins ended up.  I talked about it back last month here.
If you re-read that post, you will see that I have not only continued, although slowly, with the Sweet Pea Cardigan, but also wanted to do something with the pile of yarn pictured in that post.

The Sweet Pea Cardigan, still in progress.

Well, a few days later I did just that.  I just forgot to post about it.
On a trip to the neighborhood big box store, I purchased a pile of tubs and lids.  After spreading them out, I ended up with this:

I can finally see some bare floor! And from top to bottom, that is Fingering weight, DK weight, Bulky, Sport, and on the bottom, Worsted. And keep in mind this is all left over yarn, partial balls, and some skeins that were not needed for the project intended.  I can knit mittens for a long time out of that bottom tub.  And that is a very large tub.  I still have lots of regular stash besides that.  But now, I have a quick place to look for yarn for a quicky project that can use up this scrap yarn.  Thrummed mittens, scarves, striped anything.  The possibilities are endless.

Road Trip!

Sorry for the long absence.  I will try to do a marathon blogging session to schedule some delayed posting while life happened.
This past weekend, I made a road trip with my Sis-in-Law.  She is a bit of a nervous driver, and was worried about making the trip across the state alone to visit her son's family.  He had an afternoon wedding to be in so being on time was of prime importance.  So I had volunteered to ride shotgun.

So, with the gps system plugged in, we set off.  I have never really used a gps system.  I was trained in map reading.  In other words, on my childhood family trips, when my brother and I started in with "Are we there yet?" my dad would had us road maps (free at any gas station back then), and told us where we were and let us figure it out.  As a result, I am a pretty fair navigator for car trips, if I do say so myself.
The destination programmed in by my late brother suddenly quit, about a third of the way on our trip.  We later discovered that this was by design, as he had programmed it in segments, to avoid most of the expressway driving she dislikes.  I programmed in our final destination but also dug out my little tablet and opened Google Maps.  Armed with those, as well as a printout of the directions from Bing maps we continued on our merry way.
We managed to make it just fine, despite a parade in one town on our route, on our road!  But my Maps app guided us around with no problem, other than a few puddles on the car. (Not to mention an extremely nervous driver.)  (Clarification...the puddles were on the outside.)
A great couple days were had.  Nephew and wife made it the wedding, and the reception, on the shores of Lake St. Claire.

S-i-L and I played with the boys, walked around their pond and had a wonderful time.

We saw a deer grazing in the backyard in the morning, and enjoyed a birthday pie before heading back home.

And yes, I did get some knitting done.

Loving the Sweater

I am really enjoying  the sweater I am knitting with my Custom Fit pattern.  I have managed to get past all my back shaping for the waist and am within a couple rows from starting the arm shaping.
Lizzie graciously agreed to pose with it yesterday.

Or, in other words, she would not be budged from the foot stool when I wanted to take the picture! 

Don't be scared away from the Custom Fit pattern because of all the markers.  I always do that.  The middle and left markers are marking each decrease or increase on the right side.  The line on the far right (or bottom in the picture) are just to mark the number of rows.  I prefer the markers to counters for counting rows.  

I am looking forward to finishing the back in a couple days and starting on the fronts.  Although many people like to work them at the same time, I prefer to do one piece at a time.  

With lots of markers of course. 

Growing a Perfect Fit

I think I finally have gotten through most of my techy issues for a while.  Once again I hear that Google e-mails and passwords have been stolen, so once again I had to go through and change my password, as well as update it on my various tech devices.  Hmmm...maybe I am too involved in modern technology.
Or not.  Anyway, now that I have that all done, onward.
I am really enjoying my Custom Fit experience.  The pattern is long, (10 detailed pages) but with shaping on each piece, geared to fit my "fluffy" shape, it is to be expected.   I have only started the back, but I also have begun the back waist shaping.

If you look closely, there are two decreases to the left of the green marker.  There are matching ones on the right side.  And in a few rows there will also be some in  The rows go faster because of each section being knit separately.  Sure, I will have seaming at the end,but I can block the pieces to shape as written better when I have just one layer to measure at a time.
I am enjoying this experience.  The only thing is when I start my next sweater, I will make sure to dry the swatch first.  The yardage estimated came out way high.  That is because I entered the "damp" weight of the swatch into the pattern wizard.  As a result, the wizard said I needed 12 skeins.  After using a bit of math to adjust the yardage to the actual dry weight of my swatch, I should have enough left over for mittens or a hat or two.   Next time I will be a bit more patient.

My Knitting Adventure

Such fun.  The Farm All Jacket is completely off the needles.  It still needs the ends woven in and the seams stitched.  But even so, the transformation from a red and black blob

 to a precious sweater is pretty amazing.

The knitting continues on the Sweet Pea cardigan for my grandbaby, Lil' Farmer, as well.  I finally started the garter stitch edging and after that it will be sleeves and button bands.

But my big knitting news is that I finally purchased my first Custom Fit pattern from Amy Herzog Designs and will be starting a new cardigan for me.  The link above is to the Custom Fit website.  It is a intriguing notion.  You measure yourself very thoroughly and enter into the website.  Then knit a substantial swatch, and calculate the number of inches over a number of stitches you mark off.

That swatch, using Brown Sheep Yarn's Lamb's Pride wool/mohair blend is about 12 inches long.  And after counting the number of stitches and rows in that area, you measure the length and depth of the marked off area.  Then Custom Fit will generate a pattern to fit your gauge.  And you get to pick the type of pattern you want,  Pullover, cardigan, vest, short sleeve, vee-neck, scoop neck, etc.  The pattern wizard generates your pattern, to your gauge, and your measurements.  After paying the fee ($9.99) you can get your pdf and start knitting.

That is nearly 9 skeins of Blue Blood Red waiting for my needles.  So, if you will excuse me.  I will be starting a new project now.

There Is a Reason Its a Classic

About two years ago, I knit a Baby Surprise Jacket for a friend at church who was having a baby. I had fun with the stripes as I knit it and it was received happily.

The final edition of the sweater shown above had some snappy yellow buttons. It was rather large, having been knit in worsted weight. And, being garter, it has abundant stretchiness.
I was greeted today by the mother telling me how much she still loves that sweater. He is still fitting into that sweater.
Long lasting. A fun knit. Loved by mothers. No wonder the Baby Surprise Jacket by Elizabeth Zimmermann is such an enduring classic pattern.
The future bodes well for the Farmall Jacket. As well as the other BSJ has been waiting a year in my wool room for a baby.

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The Farmall Jacket Grows

I have manged to spend some time this week on Little Farmer's Farmall sweater, using the classic Baby Surprise Jacket pattern.

I have about an inch or so more on the last black stripe and will be switching to red for most of the rest ofthe sweater, if not all.
And just to prove to the doubters, that yes indeed this is a sweater:

I love this crazy pattern.  The yarn is Cascade 220 superwash, sport-weight.
I also have worked on the Sweet Pea Cardigan, and am just an inch or two from the bottom band, to be followed by the sleeves.  No recent picture right now though.

A Farmer Takes A Wife

I mentioned that I would post about Older Son's wedding, sometime after the funeral of my brother.  I think I have finally caught up with some of my sleep now. And while I did post some pictures on Facebook, I thought I would try to post something on here, for my non-Facebook friends.  So here is the wedding, from August 23, 2014.
Older son and his best bud (and Best Man) waited in front of the old horse hitch that hung on the whitewashed side of the shed, waiting for the shindig to start.

My farmer son's cowgirl made a lovely bride, as she walked down the aisle.

The wedding was delightful, even if a bit warm.  Lil' Farm Gal was quite excited by the whole wedding thing.

It was a casual and informal country wedding.  Good thing, because after getting down the aisle, it was realized that the rings were on the desk in the house. Good thing the wedding was at home.  A bridesmaid was dispatched to fetch the rings.  The bride's ordained friend (in green tank top) reminded her that it was no big deal, as we waited for the rings.

Of course once the two ring boxes were brought out, we still had to wait.  Cow Girl's finger had swollen, and both those rings were for her. A few minutes brought the farmer's ring.

And yes, as discussed previously on Facebook, he did have his "chew" in one pocket and his wallet in the other, as well as his hat in place, with the sunglasses on top of that.  He is a farmer after all.  He always has his hat on.

The happy family, and yes, he is happy.

Trust me, for him, that is happy.  And when he was told that was the last of the posed pictures, he was very happy.

The cake, made by the bride, couldn't have been more perfect for the two of them.

And they danced the night away.

The Farmer and his Cow Girl.

For some reason, Younger Son didn't think we needed him for pictures, even tho he had been told before hand he would be required.  But we got one of the rest of the family.

Even though the wedding started with a bang, as there was an accident in front of the drive just before time to start, it went off just fine.  Of course there was the beep, beep, beep of the tow trucks, taking the car and truck away as the service started, but other than that, all was well.  After all, that helped make it even more memorable.