Of Socks and Snowshoes

Totally hooked on this snowshoeing thing, Francis and I drove back up to Park Rapids his birthday weekend to "shoe" somemore. We drove out to the hunting property owned by his brothers and snowshoed back into the shack. This time I toted along a back pack with a thermos of coffee and some snacks as well as knitting. We both discovered our bliss for that day! (click on pictures to embiggen)

His:

Mine:

Oh, and in case you're wondering, I only fell once this time and that was when I turned to take the first picture in this post. Totally worth it......

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!

The Retreat

I spent four blissful days at the farm doing only what I wanted to. Heaven. Saturday morning, after a farewell breakfast with the family, I drove up to Park Rapids, stopped at the grocery store to pick up a few things and then, since I only had a van full of dyed fleece, a drum carder, spinning wheel, and 5 different knitting projects for four days, I stopped at Monika's to pick up some "just in case I run out of things to do" yarn. Don't waggle your finger at me, I know I have fiber issues... (click on pictures to bigify)

Sunday and Monday were spent, carding, blending and spinning the "Socks and Mittens" wool I dyed last summer. I had no particular goal in mind, other than to end up with some sock yarn. I used Suffolk fleece from Francis's brother-in-law Dean. I love this fleece for socks and mittens as it does not felt easily, and is very springy and sturdy. In fact, when machine washed and dried, it fulls slightly and makes a nice "cushy" sock.

Tuesday I drove the backroads to Perham to visit a shop called At Loose Ends. This is a cozy little yarn shop in a house that is over a hundred years old and has all those neat little rooms. The proprieter is Lil McRae and she was so warm and helpful! She carries everything for knitting, spinning, weaving, felting, and any other type of fiber art you may want to try. And if she doesn't carry it, she'll find it for you.

Wednesday I sadly packed the van and headed home. I'll miss the farm but I do feel wonderfully refreshed and ready to dive back into work!

Toe Up!

I love to knit socks. I have always knit them top down, meaning from cuff to the toe. I found a cute little pattern for anklets knit toe up in Vogue Knitting, The Ultimate Sock Book and am LOVING it! You only need to cast on 8 stitches to begin. Top down you cast on 64 stitches or so to begin. Casting on is not my favorite part of knitting as I always seem to under-estimate the length of the "tail" I need for the long-tail cast on. I am, however, a wee bit nervous about the cast off of these toe up socks as I tend to cast of tightly. Any thoughts or suggestions?

The yarn I'm using for these socks is Brown Sheep Wildfoote Luxury Sock in the Sonatina Colorway. I like the way it knits.

Last time we were at the Farm I knit my first Moebius using Cat Bordhi's A Second Treasury of Magical Knitting. This was totally fun. I also learned how to do an applied I-cord which gives this scarf a very professional finish! It was so fast and so much fun that I'm going to knit one for each my Mom and Sister for our December tea!

This moebius scarf was knit using Mushisi from Plymouth Yarn. It's a wool silk blend. Wonderful to work with and drapes beautifully. This is the Shrimp colorway.

On another note, I'm leaving this weekend for a personal retreat at the Farm. Just me, myself and I. Much spinning, knitting, and quiet personal reflection will be had and I can't wait. I've also loaded up on the first 5 seasons of House and the first 2 seasons of Bones just in case I get tired of myself .......

The fruits of our labor

We decided to build a couple of raised beds at 3800 Hayes this spring and try our hand at little gardening. After much debate about what to grow and how to grow it we ended up with tomatoes, cucumbers, green peppers, zucchini, onions, eggplant (one plant, not for me, not after the eggplant parmesan dinner that turned into pizza night), green beans, peas, radishes, beets, carrots, spinach, lettuce, dill, cilantro, parsley, sage, rosemary and of course thyme.

In the beginning....

And now, see the tomatoes in the pots against the house and the bean pole, which is also where we planted peas and nasturtiums, and the totally filled raised beds mmmmmmmm.....

I am so pleased! This is what we picked from our garden last night! After sharing some with the kids we have enough left for a couple of salads...lunch will be good tomorrow!

Not there yet...

We don't live at the farm just yet. This is to be our retirement home. When we bought it in 2007 we thought, "Ok, in 3 to 4 years Francis can take early retirement, I'll find a job in Park Rapids, Bemidji, Detroit Lakes, where ever and we'll move up here!" Well, due to the economic down turn, the falling prices of real estate and the hit we've taken on our pensions, we probably won't be moving for 5 to 6 years. Let's pray for a turn around soon!

In the meantime we spend as much time as we can at the farm, fixing up and painting the house, removing dead trees, mowing (there's lots to mow), watching the deer in the pasture. And of course driving the tractor! (Oh yes, that is a RED tractor you see! and yes there is a GREEN one but it's just not as pretty and not practical for hay rides....)

The rest of our time is spent in the Cities keeping up with work and home and church.