Today brings a flurry of activity at our home as the annual high school Sweets and Sounds event takes place tomorrow.  In the past both of my teens have been involved either in the show choir or jazz band. It is a fun evening where as a parent you can see how the hours of practice all come together.  One of my favorite volunteer activities is baking sweet finger foods that will be served during the event.  I begin searching for new ideas as soon as the most recent creations have been consumed.  On this years menu are brownie bites (I used a small biscuit cutter to make polka dot-like brownies) and red velvet mini cupcakes http://www.kraftrecipes.com/recipes/red-velvet-cupcakes-114532.aspx .

 
This week in knitting I have finished one new Patons Kroy sock.

Next week I hope to start the second. I have seen some beautiful pictures of drawers of hand knit socks recently and  I thought I would take a picture of most of my collection.

Sock knitting appeals to me as they are easily portable and there is a vast amount of beautiful sock yarn available. Are you knitting a sock for your sock drawer?

Well so much for the milder weather of my last post.  Today barely into the teens and tonight -25F with wind chill.  I have added pictures of the feed sack tote and my second project bag with crocuses blooming.  The project bags with hold all the yarn, needles, pattern etc for a sweater project.
 I added a knit meter to the blog today.  I am interested to have an idea of how many yards of yarn I use in a year.

Life on the farm is quiet this time of year with feeding and watering the poultry and goats.  We raise Nubian dairy goats and Angora goats.  The fiber goats came along after I fell in love with spinning and curly locks.   I am looking forward to this years baby goat crop in early March.  The dairy goats will have spots and splashes and the angoras were bred to a new charcoal colored buck for a multicolored kid crop.

I am the type that does like to set yearly goals.  I try to meet them although my success varies. One goal I am hoping to reach is during the Olympic Games finishing the fleece I started spinning during Tour De Fleece last summer.  This particular fleece is actually CVM and is a light gray. Also knit at least 2 sweaters, spin up enough fiber to make a full sweater.   I also would like to attend a new- to- me fiber/yarn event.  Last goal is start an audio podcast.  I may be overly ambitous- time will tell.  What are your goals for 2014?

Today is the kind of day you look forward in Iowa in January-above normal temps and abundant sunshine.  Since deciding to knit sweaters it has come to my attention that I need bigger project bags.  A year or so ago I made some using this tutorial on youtube .  I have found this pattern to be easily understandable since I a not much of a seamstress and can be sized smaller for your project bag needs.  My only changes include no drawstring to tighten.  Instead adding loops of 2 sizes for a closure.  I have one more bag in the works I will try to post when it is done.

My next inspiration is to make feed sack totes.  This struck a chord with me as we live on a farm and have a selection of feed sacks.  These could be reusable shopping bags, they could be used at the pool etc.  http://www.instructables.com/id/Feed-Bag-Tote-Bag/.
I have decided the next sweater to knit http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/shalom-cardigan.  I am using Cascade 128 in the Blue Velvet colorway.  Let me know what you are crafting.

Hello and welcome to my blog.  It is a typically cold winter day in Iowa with snow flurries and wind.  On the bright side I finished my first open front vest the pattern is called Practically by Kelly Herdrich.  I am now looking to start another sweater project.  2014 is the year of the sweater for me and I hope to knit a few.  Any suggestions anyone?