Gobblin' Good Thanksgiving and The Mother of All Beehives

     We're all so sad that the Thanksgiving weekend is over and that we have to return to our school routines today.  The holiday was incredibly fun and filled with lots of knitting, holiday decorating, wine tasting and the removal of "the mother of all beehives" from under our house.
      OK, so a lot of you have inquired about purchasing my hats. I still have some available from the Atlanta show but I'm waiting for my sister to ship them back to Oregon.  They should be here by the end of the week. Of course I'm always working on new ones too! I will post pictures of all the available hats as soon as I get them. You can contact me through my profile on the right side of the blog.

     Here are a few of the hats I finished recently.

This one is made of wool and angora and incredibly soft.  It's plain
with no buttons or bobbles and would look really sweet on a wee boy
or girl with blonde hair.

This one is bigger and would fit an older child or an adult.
It is made with a very fine strand of mohair and silk and the heavier yarn
is wool that was hand-spun by me.  It has a button on the top that is the same
shade of reddish-purple as the mohair/silk strand.

This one is made with a cashmere/wool/microfiber blend.
It is striped all around and, of course, has a really cool metal skier
button on the top.  It is really stretchy and could fit a child or adult.

     On the way to the barn to visit our horse on Saturday, we came across numerous signs for wine-tasting, one of them at a farm that we have always wanted to visit.  I will say that we've always wanted to visit the farm for its beautiful white fences and its HORSES, not its wines.  We didn't even know it was a vineyard!!! 

      I must say that I know nothing about wine, nor do I even like wine, and it showed.  The tasting was in this incredible indoor arena where the owner would normally be training her Dutch Warmbloods.  I decided to try a little bit of the wine so I didn't look too out of place.  Of course, I happened to accidentally go to the dessert wine first (I didn't even know there was such a thing).  The guy looked at me like I was nuts and said, "you start over there."  OOPS!!!

    Anyway, we got some wine in our glasses so that it "appeared" like we knew what we were doing and we went to check out the horses and the barn. Here's the website if you're interested in the wines or the horses. www.quailhurstwines.com   Here are our pix from the farm.

Each stall had a Christmas wreath.

Luckily the sun was shining or this trip wouldn't have been nearly as much fun.

The farm had this magnificent dressage arena.

Dutch Warmblood

Wine tasting in the indoor arena.

     Finally, my husband removed "the mother of all beehives" from under our house.  We knew it was there but didn't do anything about it until it was the size of a Volkswagen Beetle and the bees were coming in the house.  He safely removed it without getting stung. You can see that the bees were true architects.

Notice the different "floors"  of the nest all made from chewed up wood from our house.

Yep, that's chewed up wood from our house to create their house.

      If you ever decide that cooking a turkey for Thanksgiving is WAY too much work, you need to try a Greenberg Smoked Turkey from Tyler, Texas.  We get one every year.  It arrives at your door ready to eat and is the BEST turkey you'll ever taste "without the work." www.gobblegobble.com/

     Like my blog? Want to know about a certain type of yarn?  Let me know or leave me a comment.
Come back soon!!!

                                                         Happy Monday!

                                                                 Anna

Happy Thanksgiving!

     Happy Thanksgiving to all!!!  I'm about to start working on my apple pie.  The key to a nice TART apple pie is the apple.  McIntosh!!!  I won't make a pie with any other type of apple, it HAS to be McIntosh.

I made this one last week.

Yesterday's sunrise.
The colors got better after I took this picture.
The sky was bright orange.

                                           I'll have pictures of my newest project next time.

                                                                         Anna

It Snowed!!! No School!!!

     It snowed last night (just a little bit) and it's was 31 degrees this morning.  This little girl or guy was on my deck looking for a drink of water that wasn't frozen.  At first, I thought her feet were stuck in the ice on my red vase (this is actually supposed to hold a votive candle, but I fill it with water and the birds drink from it) or that she was sick since she let me get so close to her, but she eventually flew over to the play structure. I think she was just very thirsty. I filled it up and added bird seed to the feeder so all is well now.

Mourning Dove on my deck.

     The roads are icy so that means NO SCHOOL!!!  This is our chance to start baking Christmas cookies.  Chocolate Hearts are my very favorite cookies that I make only at Christmas time so that's what we started with.  Here they are!!!

Warm Christmas Hearts

     The other night I decided to felt a VERY LARGE hat that I knitted ages ago. When I knitted it I used my leftover yarn pieces.  Holy cow!  it's the perfect hat for someone with dreadlocks (plenty of peeps in the Northwest have those AND TATTOOS).   Contact me if you would like to purchase this hat to keep you and your dreads warm.

"Dreadlock warmer"

                                                                   Happy Tuesday!

                                                                            Anna

Tis the Season to Knit Christmas Stockings Part II

     I just finished felting my Leigh Radford Christmas stocking and, holy cow, is it ever so cute. Turned upside down, it looks like a Dr. Seuss hat.  My daughter had the idea to make a smaller version with ties so that it could be used as a birthday hat.  I think I'll do that!
     Before I felted it, it was 50 inches long and looked like this,

Isn't this cool?

     I was really quite nervous about putting it in the washing machine because I was afraid that I might find a huge pile of knotted yarn when I opened the door after the machine stopped.  I was so surprised that the felting process worked.  I only had to run the machine one full cycle.  I also had an old pair of jeans in the machine with the stocking to help the process.  Here it is!  Isn't it awesome???

I'm off to The knitting Bee www.theknittingbee.com/  to get some new yarn.

If you are in Atlanta, stop by the St. Pius X Holiday Marketplace http://spx.org/marketplace

tomorrow for some great Christmas shopping.  My sister will be selling my hats at the show.

Anna

Tis The Season to Knit Christmas Stockings

     Tis the season to knit a really funky Christmas stocking!!!  I've chosen a pattern from Leigh Radford's book,  Alterknits Felt.  

Here's a picture of the book.
It's beautiful and full of awesome patterns.

  The stocking isn't a traditional Christmas stocking.  It's very brightly colored and cone-shaped.  I feel like it's going to be about 7 feet long once I'm finished with the knitting part, but I will then throw it in the washing machine in order to felt it.  If the felting process works in my front-loading washer (this can be challenging since you can't open the machine during the felting process to check on the progress), I should be able to shrink it down to a perfect size that will fit by my fireplace.

Here's what it looks like now but it's going to get A LOT longer.

     I should have it finished by the end of this week so you can look forward to pictures of the finished product in my next post.

     The weather has been downright nasty this past week.  I took a few pix of it so you can see what our part of Oregon is like for about 9 months a year.  Yep, that's right, 9 months of the year it looks like this.  OUCH!!!!

Hope your weather is better than mine!

Anna

       
  

     

   

  

Sunny Pictures and a New Malabrigo Hat

Blueberry bushes in Sherwood, OR

     It's 44 degrees and pouring rain outside.  I guess Fall is definitely here!  Since last week was so beautiful and since I most definitely prefer warm weather, I wanted to show you a few more pictures that I took last week.  

This barn is near our house and surrounded by cabbage fields that are being
 harvested right now.  In summer, strawberries are being harvested and you can
smell the incredibly fragrant berries if you drive by the fields with the
car windows down.

Plowing the fields.

     I just finished a hat last night for a friend of mine who needs a baby gift.  The main part of the hat is knit with Malabrigo worsted in a fuchsia color.  www.malabrigoyarn.com   The confetti around the ribbing was a remnant that I had so I can't tell you who made that because the label is long gone.  I also needle felted on the body of the hat to give it more of a confetti look.  The ribbing on the hat is rolled up to create a smaller size.  If you roll the ribbing down it still looks very cute but will also fit an older child.  Here it is!

Malabrigo Confetti hat.

  Happy Tuesday!

  Anna

  


  

  

  

Zaol Toki80

     Check out my newest hat made with Zaol Toki80.  I love this yarn!!!  It is fabulously soft and PERFECT for hats, scarves and gloves. It is a blend of 80% angora and 20% nylon and comes from Seoul, Korea.  The company's website is in Korean so here's the site for the really cool yarn store in Beaverton, OR where I bought it.   www.foryarnssake.com/

     Yesterday's open house went well.  I sold a few more hats,  chatted with some old friends and met a whole lot of new friends.  As of this coming Monday, my hats will be on their way to Atlanta, GA for the St. Pius X Marketplace. There will be 175 artists at the show so if you are in Atlanta be sure to stop by  to see my sister and niece who will be there selling my hats.  http://spx.org/Marketplace

     We had three incredibly beautiful days this week with temperatures in the 70's so I'll leave you with some photos I took during those days.

Mt. Hood

Mount Saint Helens

I should know the name of this one but I'm not sure.  Maybe
Rainier, Adams, Baker!  It's in Washington!

Succulents on my deck.

More Fall foliage!

Lux

     Happy weekend!

          Anna

    

      

 

     

    

    

    



  
  

Fall Foliage!

    I'll have a picture of my newest hat in my next post, but for now I wanted to show you these incredibly colorful leaves in my front yard.  These colors are a great inspiration in designing my hats. Textile designer, Sasha Kagan  is also a great inspiration.  I've taken a workshop from her and you should definitely check out her site and the knits she's designed.  www.sashakagan.co.uk/

My front yard is covered with these awesome colors.

I love this bright red bush in the neighbor's yard.