You don't have to be a fast knitter ...

 You just need to be dedicated and knit a LOT. 

Last night I had two inches of the mitten cuff.  

This morning I got up, wiped the bleariness from my eyes and had a cup of coffee.  

Then I started knitting.  

Don't remember how long I knit.  The day had to be started. And I was hungry. 

Then we ran to town. 

I didn't have to drive, so I brought the mitten. 

I knit on the way to town, and on the way home. 

When I got home, I did house-y things, like cleaning up the kitchen and ... I don't remember what else. 

Then I took a nap. 

Then I got up and got ready for hunting. 

Another time of it being so quiet out there that my ears were ringing. 

The temperature this afternoon ... unreal. I saw bugs flying around.  BUGS! on Dec. 23. 

I had immediate regrets that I didn't bring the mitten with me.  I could have knit and not have worried about my hands getting cold. 

And ... unfortunately my hunting time was cut short. 

Someone decided to empty a magazine of something that was not .22 ammo a little too close for comfort.  

I was reading a book on my kindle app when I heard "bang, bang, bang, bang ... etc.," and it felt stupidly close to where I was sitting.  My hubby said it sounded like it was right by him. 

So ... if anything might have been coming our way, it obviously took off and left the area. 

We came back to the house and had supper. 

Then ... I started knitting.  I knit and I knit. And I knit. 

And now I am done!

Just in time. 

Vacation time!

 Today was a good work day.  Wrapped up the paper on time, and I was able to take care of a few other things before I signed off for no work for the rest of the year.  

Funny how long that sounds until you think of what the date is and how close we are til the end of the year. 

My hubby has a long weekend and I don't kow what my son's work schedule is for next week. I've taken vacation time next week. 

I hopped on to the library Overdrive to find an audiobook to listen to. The few that I were interested in are checked out.  Others I can't remember the name of, or the author.  It doesn't help that I'm not sure what genre I want to listen to.  Anyone have any recommendations? 

This afternoon I went out hunting for a few hours. The weather today included fog, mist and touch of rain. 

Can you see how misty it is out there?  There was enough moisture in the air that it was dripping off the trees. 

It was also so quiet out there that my ears were ringing. Figure that one out. 

There was a weird incident when I was walking out to my blind. My husband heard it too, and neither one of us can quite figure it out.  It sounded like a drone flying overhead but we couldn't see it.  So bizarre. 

Anywho, I got myself all bundled up for going out there, even though it's probably the warmest it's been out there since September. 

I had my hot water bottle tucked into my coat and I even had my handknit mittens. 

My electric handwarmers were tucked in.  Those things were worth purchasing.. 

Alas, nothing came to my area.  Either the weather had them huddled down or they could sense I was there. Boo!  

This evening I finished the first mitten. It fits my husband perfectly. 

The second mitten has been cast on and about two inches of the cuff have be worked. I need to remember that I need to knit the convertible piece on the other side for this second mitten. 

I don't know what tomorrow will be, but we will have a small family dinner on both Sunday and Monday. Which means I'll be busy in the kitchen. 

My friend Becky mentioned watching a few of the Christmas movies.  I realized I haven't watched any Christmas movies yet. 

This morning the links to three movies came across my view. Maybe I'll watch them this weekend? 

I don't know how to insert a dailymotion video into a blog post. 

https://www.dailymotion.com/video/x57fkhi?fbclid=IwAR1lGDRAGhLDdMT73gIOvdLhIhNWfOezswm7_EOFae3hwikUjNBQFQs8NrY

Happy winter solstice

 The first day of winter.  It kind of did not disappoint in terms of darkness in the morning and how quickly it got dark in the evening. 

I've been seeing some pretty images on Facebook today, noting the day. 

The daytime part, however, was decidedly *not* winter-like. At one point the temperatures were in the upper 30s Fahrenheit.  And it's so brown out there.  I think I may be missing the snow. It's been decades since we last had a winter with no snow.

It was kind of a meh day, with a bit of craziness thrown in. Tomorrow is an early publishing day and we were scrambling to get stuff done today so there's an easy day tomorrow. 

I did work on my mitten tonite, while watching Alone: UK.  Those guys swear A LOT. Like, way more than necessary. 

I'm working on the convertible part of the mitten now.  

Oh, remember yesterday my mentioning "Speaker for the Dead?" I got the idea to request the audiobook from the library. There's a 16-week wait on it.  I couldn't believe it! When did it suddenly get so popular? 

Tree song

 Yesterday I was walking in the back 20. You guessed it - I was getting the SD cards from the game cams. 

It was a gorgeous time out there. I was walking along the path and I heard a few sounds coming from one of the trees. 

There were noises coming from all over the woods.  Leaves blowing in the wind or rubbing up against branches. 

This one was like a knocking, but not.  I didn't see any critters up in the tree.  Then I heard a rapid noise so I looked around the tree. 

Nothing.  Not even a sound of scurrying. Then the noise stopped. 

Have you ever heard of tree songs?  That may not be what they are called, but it's the trees talking, or singing. 

I took this video about four years ago. 

The more recent moment got me thinking about an audio book I listened to several years ago.  Actually, I never finished it.  The time ran out on it. 

Have you ever heard of "Speaker for the Dead?" Most likely you haven't, unless you are a scifi fan. I'm sure you've heard of "Ender's Game."  "Speaker for the Dead" is sometimes considered the sequel to Ender's Game. 

Anywho, the long and short of it is the species in the book has a relationship with the trees. Or, a religion if you want. 

When I'm out in the back 20 and I hear the trees making noises I often talk back. 

After a full day of work and house stuff I started the first mitten. 

I knit while watching "House" I know the show is from a whole other time.  I'm running out of shows and this one is enough to entertain me but I don't have to have my full attention on it. 

Taking it easy

 Today was a not very exciting day. 

Yup.  Totally low-key and quiet. 

I spent the morning cleaning. Then an afternoon catnap. 

Late afternoon I sat down to work on the mitten I had started on Friday.  I messed something up and ending up ripping the mitten out. 

So then I made another ornament. 

This one went so quick. It was 200 stitches. 

I checked out a few books from the library.  A couple books written by Lisa Mason Ziegler. 

A quiet start to the weekend

 It's been a quiet day here on the homestead. No sun.  The weather forecast person was not on the mark with this one. 

And since it was a quiet day with not a lot going on, I don't have a lot to write about today. 

I did finish the ornament. 

Ta da! 

I also decided to break out my chiaogood bamboo interchangeable needles and start a new pair of mittens. 

The longer nylon cords that I ordered for doing magic loop had too much energy in them.  One of my knitsibs said the red cords should work with all of the chiaogoos so I tried them on the bamboos and they do work.  They are SO much better for magic loop. 

I have a feeling I'm going to cruise along on this pair. 

Adventures and reclaiming yarn

 We got our smattering of snow overnight. 

Total was maybe an inch. 

It made a nice back drop for the Christmas tree. 

This morning, before work, I was scrolling a bit on Facebook and saw something that got the wheels churning and I did an online search for convertible mittens. 

I found a video that is a modification to the Tin Can Knits mitten I just made.  Hooray! 

Then I had an even better idea! 

Several years ago I knit some Mosey leg warmers. I hated them from the moment I finished them. So they've been put away until now. 

I decided to unravel the yarn. Reclaim it, and knit it into some convertible mittens. 

Great idea, right? Sounds easy, right? 

*sigh*

I learned that I'm *way* too good at weaving in my ends. 

This is what I thought was the end, after about five minutes of searching.

It was not. 

I gave up and snipped the yarn. That didn't work so well. 

I wound up with a hole. 

I kept undoing the yarn and pulling it out of loop after loop. 

Eventually I wound up with this thing. 

Honestly, no idea what was going on with it, so I cut it off. Then kept undoing the yarn.  Loop by loop. Twist by twist. 

Eventually I got it to where I could just unravel the yarn. 

One leg warmer is all skeined up.  I just now realized I forgot to take a photo. 

Here's my little pile of short yarns. 

I'm working on the second legwarmer.  I found the end on this one and I'm slowly, agonizingly, undoing it, in the hopes I don't have the mess I did with the first one. 

This evening my hubby and I went out on a little adventure. 

Tromping out in the wilderness and being amazed at how beautiful the night time sky was.  We were hoping to see northern lights in all their glory.  There was clouds. So many stupid clouds. 

Photos were still cool. 

It was a lot of fun. 

After supper and clean up I sat down and started working on the next ornament. 

Bet you can't guess what it is! 

Some good news about the chickens!

 First all, thank you to those who expressed their condolences about the predator attack last night. They may be "just chickens" to some, but they are my ladies. 

This morning, my hubby and I were still feeling down about what happened.  Then we got to talking about something and I opened the front door, to take a peek outside, and someone heard his voice and a moment later we heard a hen calling her "Where are you?" call.  My hubby and I were SO excited!  

It was one of the barred rocks.  

She must have ran to the front of the house and hid behind one of my flower pots when the predator attacked.

My hubby went out and guided her back to the coop and got her safely in. 

Woo hoo! 

Then, a short time later, when he was outside, my husband watched another barred rock come walk out of the patch of trees that is behind the coop. 

TWO of our barred rocks are still with us!  

That one was also guided in to the coop run and our barred rock roo managed to slither out.  That brat ended up spending the whole day outside, crowing up a storm. 

We have one barred rock still missing.  She could still reappear if she's alive, but in shock right now. 

So, one loss, for sure. This is SO much better than what we had last night. 

And *that* made it a beautiful day. 

We stuck close to home today.  Sometime in the mid-morning we decided to go talk a walk out on the public land near us.  The land has been harvested in the last several years, so not very pretty and there's debris every where.  

It was nice to be out in the sun, though. 

I got to take my new mittens and handwarmers out for their maiden voyage. They are a winning combo! 

On the walk I saw a couple things I thought might make for neat pictures.  

Frost on a fallen tree that no longer had bark. 

The different textures of the oak leaves, the patch of snow and the oak log that has been in the elements long enough to be weather and grey. 

The sky behind those trees.  It was so beautiful and blue. 

This afternoon I went out hunting for a few hours. I only saw a fat boi squirrel. 

Oh my gosh, he was such a chunker. 

He, or she, appears to be a very smart squirrel.  I don't think I've seen a fatter one. 

The squirrel was the only animal I saw while I was out there. 

After supper I decided to finally start some cross stitch ornaments I've been wanting to start for weeks. 

I bought this PDF from Fat Quarter Shop last year. 

I thought I had kitted it up.  Nope.  I'll need to remedy that very soon. 

In the meantime, I did have the floss all ready to go for another set of Christmas ornaments I purchased last year. 

White Christmas 2022 ornaments

Started: Dec. 2, 2023

Finished: 

Designer/Source: Primrose Cottage stitches

Fabric: 14 count aida opalescent

DMC floss in called for colors

B5200, 310, 321, 435, 562, 722, 728, 761, 818, 898, 954, 3841

Needle Size: 26

Made For: Myself. 

My progress so far. 

My thoughts, yesterday, about blogmas inspired my friend, Becky, to give blogmas a go on her blog. She writes more frequently than I do.  We've both had our blogs for around the same amount of time, and we both have the same belief that blogs should make a comeback.  If you don't already follow her, go check her out! 

Is there a blogmas?

 This morning I opened up Youtube and hit play.  A few of the channels I follow have started posting vlogmas and flossmas videos.  I remembered these from last year and thought how fun it would be to participate. 

Alas, I have a few things working against me.  Time and introvertedness being the main two. 

Then, thinking I was all clever, I thought "Is there such a thing as "blogmas". 

Yup! 

Naturally, blogmas has to be so much MORE than just writing and sharing.  You got to have a plan. Or, you could just wing it.  A quick search on Instagram about blogmas hashtags doesn't bring up much, unless you are looking for people using the hashtags as marketing tools. 

Which kind of brings me to something else. 

This morning I came across an article/write up about Neil Gaiman's radical vision for the future of the internet.  It was pretty interesting to me.  I always keep coming back to the blog and blogging.  There's definitly more sense of community and connectedness when you read someone's blog.  But, yeah, getting your writing out in front of the people you want to connect to.  It's tough. Social media was supposed to connect everyone and I feel so disconnected and disenchanted with it all. 

So I learned something new today. I reckon. 

Blogging is supposed to be fun for me.  That's the approach I've always taken with it. 

In other news, I have some good news and some bad news. 

The good news is that I finished my mitten today!

I'm so pleased with them!

I was telling a friend today that light can make or break a photo.  I think that's what's going on in this photo.  One mitten looks brighter than the other, and with how they are laying, one looks bigger than the other.  In real life they are both the same size. 

I will say that working this yarn on a smaller than called for needle size was not easy on my hands. I may have to give them a rest. 

Project Name: Simplest Mittens
Started: Nov. 27, 2023

Finished: Dec. 1, 2023

Designer/Source: Tin Can Knits

Yarn: Lion Brand Wool Ease Thick and Quick

Colorway: Hudson Bay

Needle size: U.S. 5 (3.75 mm) and U.S 8 (5.0 mm)

Made For: myself

The bad news is that we had a predator attack this evening and we lost some of the hens. 

This evening I saw someone local-to-me post that the northern lights were going on. I got dressed to go outside and see if I could see anything.  I figured I'd go tuck the girls in while I was out there.  

I stuck the flashlight over towards the coop and saw one of the barred rocks hanging out in a spot that they don't normally hang out in. I said "What's wrong, girl?" 

A predator attack. We lost three of our barred rocks and the lone australorp hen was laying outside the coop with her head gone.  I looked in the coop and tried to do a count and saw a couple of our orpingtons were gone, too and my Stumpy Girl was nowhere to be seen.  She's the one I'd miss the most. She's the little one of the coop and she suffered frost bite last year, hence the name "Stumpy." 

 I came in to the house, told my husband what happened.  He got dressed and came out with me and I saw some of the orpingtons. They must have been hiding under the coop.  As soon as I saw one I said "Stumpy girl! Is that you?"  She came walking towards me and I snatched her up and cooed at her a bit. She's another one who likes to talk to me. 

The birds won't be let out for the rest of the season/winter. We are going to assume it was a fox that got them. They are going to be so mad when they realize they won't be able to free-range.  Did you know that we have two roosters.  TWO! Naturally they were both fine. ... 

Well, I suppose that is it for now. 

It's only *felt* like a long week, so far

 The week after a vacation is usually a tough one.  Trying to catch up at work and wishing you could still be on holiday.  At least that is how it is for me. 

For whatever reason this week after Thanksgiving I fee like it's been a longer than usual week and I'm desperately trying to play catch up. 

Catching up on what? I have no idea.  

Monday I hiked it out in to the back twenty to get the SD cards from the game cams.  It was the coldest day of this week.  

It was a beautiful sky that morning. 

I spent the day catching up on work things, and feeling like I was spinning my wheels. 

Tuesday there was an Advent retreat for work. It was a lovely day and gave a lot of food for thought. 

After the retreat, when I got home, I made myself a quick cup of tea and enjoyed the quiet time for a few moments before starting supper. 

I don't remember where I got this cup from.  It was either given to me or I picked it up somewhere.  Then it eventually made it to my MIL's cupboard.  When she passed away I took it back.  

Wednesday was a busy day, again, and I feel like I didn't get much accomplished.  

Last weekend, when I was sitting out in the hunting blind, I was thinking a lot of thoughts. Some of them including the wish for electric handwarmers and why didn't I order them way back when, cause I'd have them right now.  

The desire for electric handwarmers grew into a fantasy (if you will) of having handwarmers in handknit mittens. 

So, the cardigan I started last week was put aside and I started working on a pair of mittens on Monday night. 

Last night I finished the first one. 

The pattern is from Tin Can Knits. I took the time to measure my hand and I adjusted down one of the needle sizes.  The mitten is bigger than I anticipated it to be, so I will likely run short and need to pick up some more Lion Brand Wool-Ease thick and quick from the Walmart. 

I LOVE this mitten and can't wait to complete the second one.  I'll be working on it all my spare time and hopefully I will be able to wear them when I go out hunting this weekend. 

Funny thing ... or, interesting thing, if you want to go that way.  I'm starting to find myself going back to the same patterns.  This mitten pattern I'm planning to print out and have it in my binder for the next time I want to make mittens. I love how they took the time to have mittens in all sizes and yarn weights.  I love Harvest cardigan they put out, as I'm making another one right now. 

I have all these knitting patterns, stored digitally somewhere, and I find myself going back to ones that I feel are tried and true. There are so many patterns out there it's overwhelming a lot of times when you want to make something to give as a gift. 

Anywho, just had to get that out there. 

Oh! in other news, last week I cut up ALL the fabric for the two quilts I'm working on.  I buckled down, got brave about stacking fabrics and got it ALL cut and ready to go.  I thought I'd be in the craft room this weeking, working on blocks.  Nope.  Those mittens have me smitten and I must finish them before I do anything else.