Friday, March 5, 2010

Boys and Girls

It was a hard-fought battle. The Army men landed by helicopter at the water's edge and waded to shore.
One of the men didn't make it. He lay there, bleeding profusely into the shallows just at land's edge.
Once they got to dry land, one of them began to build a fire to dry themselves out.
 They were exhausted.
General Isaac was very pleased with the performance of his mighty men.
Back at home, lovely Ellie needed a change. She had been campaigning for months for a haircut. Here is her new "short" hair.
Miss Ellie is very pleased!

Wednesday, March 3, 2010

Spring!

It's a wonderful thing to see in March. I refer to the dripping from the roof. The sunshine is strong and warm and Minnesotans are filled with energy and excitement in anticipation of Spring.
I finished a wrap for my Mother-In-Law. It is a shawl that can also be used as a lap throw. Just in time for Spring. [insert wry facial expression here.] I hope she can use it, and it doesn't just take up space. Space is so limited where she is. I know she likes pretty things, so I'm hoping it will bring her pleasure.
I'm busy knitting up something else too. It's a Birthday surprise.
The yarn is my homespun which was an especially difficult batch. I made just about every kind of error on this yarn a person could make. I bought the fiber on the cheap, sight unseen, and the wool was poor quality. Short, full of second cuts, yellowing, and manure. It was good for making mistakes on, though. I had to wash like crazy, and took out more of the lanolin that I would have liked. Then I over-did it with the dye, and "cooked" it in the dye bath, so I ended up with fibers which were a bit crispy. Then I did not yet have my new wool carders, and was using some fragile antique ones which made it very difficult to get a good result. (Plus me being a n00b!) The resulting yarn is rough to the touch, uneven, and very color saturated.

And actually, in spite of all that, I think it's kind of cute for the right application.
I'll post an "after" shot later - unless it's perfectly dreadful, in which case we'll all ignore it. Okay?