We have deer

The week between Christmas and New Year's my DH made a deer feeder and we hauled it out to the land. These are a few images that were caught on the camera.

A momma and a bambi.

One of them spotted the camera and was checking it out.

We have noticed that there is a consistent group of three. The ones that are pictured above. I'm a bit impressed because it looks like it could be a dad, mom and baby. DH has been doing a bit of research and found out that the bucks are loners.

The weather has been very nice the last several days. It's been so warm that our area has actually broken some temperature records. I think yesterday hit 50, maybe even 60 degrees. For January this is some crazy, warm weather.

At this time last year there was no way we could have been out at the land. The snow was a couple feet deep at least.

First granny square

The project I was working on as the new year was starting.

There are a few flubs. I worked this as I was following a stitch-along on the DVD. I still can't read a crochet pattern. I'm wondering if that will come with time.

A heavenly week ...

This past week the whole family was on vacation. I greatly enjoyed it. I'm a homebody so I love just being at home. Having the whole family home was wonderful. We all slowed down, no looking at the clock, no rush to be anywhere ... That is one of my ideas of heaven.

Ideally I would have liked to do more knitting or spinning. ... but I didn't, and it's totally fine.

I did start spinning another braid of fiber that I've had sitting in my stash for a while.

Tinkerbell colorway for forbiddenwoolery.etsy.com (photo from Forbidden Woolery)

It is a treat to spin. I predrafted it and it's spinning up pretty finely. I do believe it's BFL

On the knitting front, I'm still working on a vanilla sock. Nothing very remarkable there.

I did start teaching myself how to crochet. Wow, is about all I can say. Many years ago I tried teaching myself how to crochet out of a book. I was doing crochet very, very wrong.

I'm currently working on dishcloths to learn and get familiar with the single, double and treble crochet stitches.

Single crochet through the back of the chain. (Not sure if that bit is important to know)

Double Crochet (through the back of the chain)

I mentioned to someone that this was like potato chip knitting. It really was so quick to make up these dishclothes. Two hours tops. It's almost compulsive.

Now I just need to learn how to read a crochet pattern.

Because there was not much snow yet this winter we spent a decent amount of time out at the land this week. DS received a football for Christmas so him and DH have been tossing the ball.

DH also built a deer feeder. The property next to us was logged out this past summer. The critters made a move over to our property. We were a bit concerned about the critters since they lost a major food source. We are also hoping to keep some deer in the area for next hunting season.

Last night and part of this morning there was a snowfall so I don't think we will be spending too much more time out at the land. We do have a couple sets of snow shoes so we will be able to get in and keep filling the feeder the rest of the season. There is a trail cam set up and we hope to get some good shots of the critters that are coming to the feeder.

This is a shot of a baby Norway Pine (I think) that was growing along the side of the trail.

Happy New Year!

I made it to midnight!

Now what?

My knitting mojo has slowly returned. I picked up a vanilla sock that I started back in May. Over the weekend I turned the heel and gusset and I'm in the home stretch.

I also have one thing I'm knitting for Christmas. I'm knitting an invincibility star for my son. Last night I joined one side of it together and am currently decreasing down. I am really kicking myself for not getting it going sooner.


Then last week I heard of the Shalom cardigan. Oh wow, I really like it. In my stash I have no yarn for it. However, I do have one pound of a nice brown BFL.

Call me crazy, but I think when the new year starts I'm going to start spinning for this cardigan.

The pattern calls for a bulky yarn. I've always spun as thin as I could go. This will be quiet the challenge for me.

Not only that, the pattern needs to be adjusted because I'm bigger than the pattern. This should be fun.

Christmas ornament swap 2011

This year I participated in the ornament swap that my online knitting group does. A couple days ago my package came in the mail.

I love it all. My partner did a wonderful job picking out goodies for me and the ornaments are adorable and sweet.

She picked this one with a 'spinner' in mind. I thought the bell was a very sweet touch.

This is a tatted Christmas ornament. OMGoodness. I am so amazed at this piece. I have no idea how tatting goes. To me this is so elegant and intricate. I tip my hat to those who can do this.

To my swappee L, thank you! I will treasure these ornaments for many years to come.

Why yes, I am still around

I think this is the longest I have gone on a blog break. The above photo was taken the last weekend we stayed out at the happy place. I'm missing the place something awful.

There is no good excuse for being so quiet except that life got crazy. School started, work got hectic, I was canning up a storm and my knitting and spinnng mojo dried up. It all got to be too much and in some ways I shut down. Not posting on the blog was one of them.

Things are not as busy as they were but still busy enough.