Wow! It's been a while, folks. I've missed you. Things have been busy around here, and I haven't been in the place of taking pictures and writing things down. But I think I'm back now. I guess time will tell.
What has happened...
I got all my Christmas Crafting done. Knitting: Shawl for mom, Sweater and a face cloth with the Charlie Brown Christmas tree for Christopher, Sweater, socks and hot water bottle covers for the girls. Sewing: Topsy Turvy dolls for the girls, potholders for my cousin. We had a lovely holiday season. Every year I think of 10 new things I want to add as traditions, and realize they must be added NEXT year. But the tradition we have of the advent is lovely, and still perfect for our family. We did add the celebration of Saint Nicholas day this year, and I'm so thrilled we did. We don't do the typical Santa thing around here, but there is nothing wrong with Santa. He's a lovely, jolly ole' fellow, and his roots are so dear. Adding the celebration is perfect. Ewoyn had great fun being in on the game with all the rest of us, pretending that Santa left gifts for us, and getting excited. I loved it.
The barnyard is doing great. We have done all the processing for the year! The ducks were a whole day with some lovely friends who came and made very light work of what could have been a daunting project. It was great! Christopher and I had a babysitter come Friday so we could process all the "of age" rabbits, save 3. One buck who will find a new home, the next town over, with Natalie. Two Does who may find homes with a couple other folks who want to start raising the Creme D'Argent on their homesteads!
The breeding poultry are settled into their homes for the winter, and the Does are all bred, with babies due in February! That is if they all took. You never know with rabbits. So you'll have to check back around Valentine's Day for baby bunny pics!
I'm knitting like a woman on a mission, lately. I am done the body, and working on the sleeves of a simple black pullover, for myself, as well as a great scarf that uses up scraps. These projects are both worked on small needles and I'm looking forward to them being done. See, I went to the LYS year end sale, and broke the bank! I have beautiful, colorfully, yummy yarn busting out of bags, begging to take the place of this simple black (kind of boring to knit) sweater. The scarf is fun to knit, but it's done with leftover sock yarn, so it's SLOW moving, since one row is 480 stitches long! Crazy. But wait till you see it, it's worth it, I swear.
The Skunk Zoo is selling, and has found it's way into a few more local shops, and Husband and the girls are going to be making the rounds to a few more shops and book stores. It's exciting!
I have not made the lemon curd, but I did juice the lemons and collected the zest so that I didn't have to worry about the lemons going bad. The zest is in the freezer and the juice is in the refrigerator. I anticipate making curd with Jessica, as we are going to have a day long Jelly/Jam/Curd day this month. I have Autumn Olives, Elderberries, Strawberries, Peaches, Black Raspberries, Blueberries and Grapes, all in the freezer, waiting for the slow, calm days of January!
Okay, hoping to be back with pictures and daily musings! I hope the last couple months have been good to you, and your celebrations were special!
Happy New Year to you too! I'm so glad you're back. Somehow during this move I've been looking to some of my favorite blogs to keep me feeling normal. I can't wait for the jams and jellys post. I'm really excited about getting to have some of that Elderberry jam. Today as I put strawberry jelly on a peice of toast I looked at Ben and said, "I can't wait to have elderberry jam".
Can't wait to see the scarf- I might have to make one for my nieces in Alaska once all my yarn gets here- what size needles and how long is it with 480 stitches?
Jenn
Posted by: jenn | January 10, 2011 at 02:35 AM
Hi Jenn!
I hope the move went well. Yes, Elderberry Jam. I'm very excited and hope it comes out good. The scarf can be done in any yarn on any needles. I decided to do it with leftover sock yarn on sock needles...can't remember the size. 480 stitches will make it 60". I'll show it tonight with instructions on how I did it...it's not done, but it's done enough to show it, and give instructions!
Posted by: Amy Ouellette | January 10, 2011 at 10:03 AM