I Tvaandsstickned when I should have....

With my co-worker's baby due in less than 3 weeks and me only half way through the baby afghan I'm knitting in dk weight (what was I thinking???) I decided this would be a good time to try a new knitting technique called Tvaandsstickning which is Swedish for two-ended knitting. Here in the good ol USA, where we have no idea how to pronounce this word and are not even going to try, call it twined knitting. I found the book Twined Knitting by Birgitta Dandanell at my local library (this book is out of print now and quite pricy on Amazon.com). The gorgeous mittens inside the book could not wait for a baby afghan to be completed. So I dove in and with a little help from YouTube learned to cast on and started my first mitten!


By knitting from both ends of the skein or with two skeins, it's similar to two color knitting only using one color. You twist the strands between each stitch creating a dense fabric that will keep your hands warm and toasty!

Snowshoeing...not just for the graceful

We drove to Park Rapids last weekend to make sure everything was okay at the farm and to try a little snowshoeing. What fun it would be to go back into the thicket where I dare not tread when the ground is swampy, the brush so thick and enough mosquitos to carry you away. I won't go into the wood ticks.. ewww.....

And it was fun. The day was beautiful, a balmy 13 degrees with bright sunshine and no wind. Perfect for outdoor recreation. (Click on the pictures to bigify)

All went well... for a while... then this happened:

Help! I've fallen and I can't get up. What's the first thing my loving husband does when he see's my predicament? Pull out the camera. Thanks honey...

Back on my feet, (below is proof that I did spend part/most of my time upright) we snowshoed through the thicket for about an hour, walking the property line and ending back at the pasture.

Then we drove a couple miles up the road to where the Zilka boys have some land with a hunting shack. Francis wanted to drop off a salt block to see if it would deter the porcupine that's been eating the wood and tar paper off of the shack and outhouse.

I felt like I was shoeing (would that be what you would call it? sort of like calling snowmobiling sledding?) through a magical forest.. maybe I was. The ice storm from the previous weeked left the trees with a brilliant sheen of ice that sparkled in the sun. It was so crisp and clean and fresh. With Francis doing the work of breaking the path, I could have gone on for miles!

This was a spectacular day and we hope to find another free weekend to get back up there and do some more shoeing!