Marley

The Lion Baby has nearly gown out of his winter hat.  With still two months of winter here left to go, I needed to make sure his adorable head was going to be covered.

 The pattern is Rainbow Marley from Itty-Bitty Hats by Susan B. Anderson

 The Yarn is Cascade 220 Superwash (Blue) and Nature's Choice Organic Cotton. I know it's a strange choice to mix wool and cotton in color work, and I may regret it, but it's just stripes, and honestly, I've never machine washed any of the kids hats, only spot treated them, so I'm not too worried about it.

Modifications: The pattern calls for every other (in this case) green stripe to be in seed stitch instead of garter stitch.  I liked the cohesive look of garter each time, though.  I also did more of the curly toppers than the pattern calls for and varied their lengths.

Super cute on my chubby baby, and it's big enough that it should (fingers crossed) fit him next winter as well!

The Duke's Quilt - at long last

It took me nearly two years, but last night I finally finished the quilt for the Duke. 

The pattern is from Tricia Cribbs' Turning Twenty Just Got Better. 

 I love this idea.  You can make a twin quilt (70" x 86") with only 20 fat quarters and fabric for the back.  You use almost every bit of the fabric.

Featured on Remodelaholic

Wow, WoW, WOW!!!


Sarah's Stone Soup Garden has been featured on one of my favorite blogs, Remodelaholic!

Where is Yarnnation?

Well, friends, this my first blog and my baby has been neglected for some time now.  I even missed her birthday.  In October my little blog turned five.  Yes, I have been blogging for five years.  A lot has changed in my life over the course of those five year.
 
I became increasingly passionate about knitting and my obsessive nature kicked into overdrive.  Over the course of about three years I knit hundreds of pieces and became quite an advanced knitter.  I also learned to spin my own yarn and dye my own fiber.

My current WIP, a doubled headband in wool/cashmere/silk.

I went back to school to get my masters degree.  Knitting got me through that.  I knit in class.  I knit to keep myself sane.   I knit to relax and to challenge my mind in a way other than business.

I got pregnant and had my first child.  Now, we can really talk about knitting to maintain sanity.

Little Sir, a few days after birth.

My knitting time decreased as I navigated the parenting learning curve and embarked on a new adventure, adoption.  Another passion to add to my all ready overwhelmed life.  It's just how I do things.  I live and love with passion.  I became a mother for the second time through the miracle of adoption.

Lion Baby a few days after birth.

My knitting time dwindled a little bit more with the demands of two children.

There was one constant through all of this change.  Our home.  Our bright beautiful townhouse in Seattle.  The first house and home that the Duke and I purchased together, loved and lived in.  The house that, pre-blogging and pre-children we completely renovated.  It is where I knit, where I learned to spin, where I brought my children home.  I love that house.

The dining area of our eat in kitchen in our Seattle home.

Now my life is big mess of boys, a log house remodel, and adjusting to a new place and a new way of life.  Only my yarn and my spinning wheels (which fit in so well here) remain to remind me of the physical growth of Yarnnation.

My life does not revolve around yarn anymore.  While I would love more time to knit and spin, I go days between knitting time, and I am fine.  Previously I felt I had been cheated if I didn't get to knit at least a little bit each day.  I know that as my children grow, as my house comes together, and as I adjust to rural living I will find more time for my woolly love.

However, over the past month I have realized that while this blog has remained my home base and my personal blog for all things other than adoption (which would have taken over everything else had I hosted that obsession here) that along with our physical move to the country, I need to make a virtual move. Our home in Seattle was also the home of Yarnnation, and while the heart of Yarnnation is within me, I no longer live in the physical place we called Yarnnation.  Much of what made our house Yarnnation was the vast amount of yarn that lived there with us in such a small place.  Here, in this big log house, all of the yarn happily lives in one room.  There is no need for it to be stuffed into strange places.

Now, lest anyone think I am going to let Yarnnation die, (heaven forbid!) stick with me here.  I am simply moving my personal musings, my children, my cooking, my photography, the non-fiber aspects of my life to my new virtual home that matched my new physical home.

applehouserevival.blogspot.com

Apple House Revival I have all ready started posting there about life in the midst of an apple orchard in rural Washington.  I will continue to post my knitting, spinning, dying, sewing, quilting, weaving and other fiber related posts here.  I just hope that you will also join me in my move to the Apple House as well.

I hope that one day in the perhaps near and perhaps distant future to have a real home base where all of my passions can live happily together (ala Pioneer Woman.)

until then. . .

Much love and thanks to everyone who takes the time to journey with me through my blogs.

Megan - Duchess

Yarn and Fiber and Dyes

Yes, they do still exist here in Yarnnation!

This was over dyed from yarn that was left over from yarn I dyed a couple of years ago that my Mom knit into a Wonderfy Wallaby for Little Sir.

 

 Now the Lion Baby wear that Wonderful Wallaby, but I thought that he should have his own as well.  What do you say, Grandma?  You up for knitting another one?  Actually I think i may take this one, as I am needing some simple, just follow the pattern and don't think, type of knitting.

Some Superwash Merino that I though I'd throw in while I was at it.  I love how it turned out.  I don't really have a project in mind for it.

This is kind of a strange one.  I've never dyed anything black before, but it was a very dark purple color that I didn't care for.  I was hoping for a "raven" like look, but you can hardly see the purple at all.  It really just looks black.  Oh well, it will be useful for a hat or something.

And last, this was a big bundle of Cooriadale that I half submerged in order to exhaust the dye.  You can see there was still a lot of dye left in the pat.  I love spinning fibers that have a lot of white in them along side a dark color.  I can't wait to see how it spins up. 

And there you go.  Proof that, despite a creative recession, fiber is still of great importance in our house.  (Just ask the poor guys/gals that end up having to move my yarn stash. - Although, probably better that than all of our books.)

Pumpkins

We won't be in our current house for Halloween.  Hopefully we'll still find something fun for Little Sir to do on the other side of the state (hopefully we aren't so exhausted from the move that we don't feign a complete lack of knowledge of the holiday.)

Before we knew we were going to be moving so soon I had started a makeover on my small nod to fall.  I finished it up today (as I'm trying to finish all of my in-progress projects before we pack up our lives.)

Little Sir LOVES pumpkins.  In fact his very first outing ever was to a pumpkin patch.

This is him at just over a year.

 And last year.

I'm betting that there will be a fun place near Omak to find pumpkins this year, but in the mean time, we can enjoy some that won't spoil if I forget to unpack them!

The biggest one was at Target, must have been left over from last year, as it was in their clearance section for a dollar.  I just dusted it with a little gold spray paint.
   

 The middle one I found at Ross.  It was kind of country-ish colors so I spray painted it copper and then dusted it with gold as well.
 

The small one came from Joanne's.  It was your typical orange resin decorative pumpkin.  Not my style, so it got a couple of coats of cream paint, then a dusting of copper, and finally some glaze.

With the delightful enthusiasm of a three year old, Little Sir thinks they are wonderful.  I kind of like them myself.

Seattle to Omak

Yesterday the Duke officially accepted a job offer in Omak, WA.


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I've known for several months that this move was coming.  As I go about my day to day life I find myself thinking about all the things in Seattle that I am going to miss.

Target (how will I live without a target down the street?)

I am a city girl, and I happen to love this city in particular.


I could write an entire and LENGTHY post about all of the things I am going to miss miss miss about my beloved Seattle.  Tonight, however, the Duke and I were talking about a few things that I am looking forward too.

 I've never been to a rodeo.  How did I grow up in rural Utah and have never attended a rodeo?  I don't know.  I look forward to small town parades and raising my own chickens.  I am looking forward to having a place for my boys to run to their hearts content without worrying about cars.  I'm looking forward to having more time with the Duke.  I miss him.

AND. . . I am looking forward to having my friends come visit me OFTEN!!!