Sunday, November 27, 2011

A Wonderful Thanksgiving..............

Another amazing Thanksgiving has come and gone all too quickly.  My daughter, son-in-law, his brother and our three grandsons all came here to Tehachapi for the feast! There's just something special about going to grandma and grandpa's house AND of course the mountains!  And the day was so delightful that we even managed a nice walk.  Up here, kids can throw rocks all they want and they definitely wanted to!

Because my daughter and her husband both work retail, they had to be in their stores by 9 p.m. that night, so I rode home with them to stay with the boys.  It is remarkable how busy eleven, eight and two year olds can be!  Yikes, did I have a hard time keeping up!

The next morning my husband drove down to get me.  Here he is with our youngest grandson, Carter.

I'm still plugging along on the fingerless mitts - almost done.  Tomorrow the yarn for the magazine project is due to arrive.  Once that's published, I will definitely let you know all the details.
 
Have a great week ahead!

Monday, November 21, 2011

Our Sock Winner is...........................

Congratulations to Sandra (Sandrada on Ravelry) for winning our Malabrigo socks!  She's from the U.K., so this pair has a bit of a journey to reach her.  Sandra, I sent you a message via Ravelry or you can write me at tehachapisockcompany@gmail.com with your mailing address.  Hope we made your day!

And thank you to all for your kind comments on these socks.  I read each and every comment and appreciate you visiting our blog.

Late yesterday afternoon our mountains got a dusting of light snow and we had a few flurries here on our property.

Early this morning before the sun came up, it looked like this!

I've passed the half way mark on the fingerless mitts order and just accepted a design offer from a knitting magazine with a deadline of Dec. 9th!  Who needs sleep, right?

If I don't get back to do another post before Thanksgiving, my deepest wishes to you all for a most blessed and wonderful day.

Tuesday, November 15, 2011

Malabrigo Slouch Sock Giveaway!

I made this pair of Malabrigo socks for our Etsy shop, but decided that the yarn was just too fine for our sock machine.  I think most of our customers would prefer the ribbing to be much tighter.  So, with that, I decided to give them away!  The colors in this fiber are simply amazing and so vibrant.  When worn, I have a feeling they will become more of a slouch sock and that's perfectly fine - they'll be nice and comfy for around the house.
They measure approximately 9 1/2 inches from heel to toe, so I give them a women's size M rating!

If you'd like a chance to win this pair of Malabrigo socks, just leave a comment on this post between now and Sunday, November 20th.  On Monday (11/21/11), I'll randomly select one lucky name to win this pair of socks.  Be sure to leave contact info (like Ravelry, etc) to make it easy for me.

Good luck and have a great week ahead.  Now I'm back to the fingerless mitts order................

Friday, November 11, 2011

Hand Cranked Mitts?

Yes!  You actually can make mittens or fingerless mitts on an antique sock machine.  I made one with just a simple slit and then made this one with more of a thumb gussett.  This style had much more "curb appeal."  I know it looks a bit strange, but when worn, the thumb has total movement and it looks wonderful.

As much fun as these are, I really prefer socks because these mitts are downright labor intensive and I have an order for 30 pair!!!!  I can do it................I can do it..............

If you're wondering...................the mechanic came back up to work on our generator and increased the preheat and crank cycles to give it a better chance of turning over.  Plus we tied a huge tarp across the opening where the generator is housed and so far, it's been coming on during the night in the extreme cold.  We still may have to replace the glo-plugs in it, but for now we'll just keep our fingers and toes crossed that we can make it through to the new year. 

Back to the mitts....................

Monday, November 7, 2011

Not Again!

Can you believe it.............the lights went out again Saturday evening.  Seems it's the same problem with the generator.  It's doing its best to crank over, but just can't quite make it.  Yesterday my husband pulled the battery out and ran a trickle charge to it, but it didn't help.  So, bright and early this morning he made a call to the company that came up last time.  They're due to call back later this morning to schedule a call out time.

Fortunately, we're getting rather good at improvising and even managed to get the pellet stove up and running with the help of our portable mid-size generator.  If I can heat the house up with that, then turn it off, I can do some stove top cooking.  The 2 small portable generators are each hooked to extension cords running through our bedroom window (the gap is sealed with tape because it's so cold now) and I can run our two floor heaters with those to keep the bedrooms warm.  I can even connect one to our washing machine and do a load of clothes - which I'll do in a bit.

I know this sounds so crazy, but for me, one of the reasons moving up here was to actually have to "work" for my existence.  My husband keeps reminding me that I got my wish!  At times like this it can be a harsh way of living, but honestly I wouldn't trade it for my old life!  We're in such a situation now, that we absolutely have to look up and that's THE best position to be in.

As far as knitting goes, I've been working on the above socks.  These still have the waste yarn all in place and I hope to finish them up later this afternoon.

Since my power is limited today, I better end this post and will get back to all of you as soon as I can.  Take care and keep warm!

Saturday, November 5, 2011

Christmas Socks

Now how fun is this sock yarn!  It's Heart & Sole with Aloe from Red Heart.  It went through our sock machine wonderfully well and I'm quite impressed with it.

I also started a pair with Sock Ease and will post those as soon as they're finished.  I really thought by now that this addiction to making socks might end for me - it hasn't!

Have a great weekend.

Thursday, November 3, 2011

Our Winner is..................

Congratulations to CGuard on Ravelry!  Please email me at Tehachapisockcompany@gmail.com with a mailing address and we'll get this right off to you.  Hope that brought a smile to your day.  I think that I enjoy this more than all of you!

We got our Christmas sock yarn in the mail yesterday and I hope to get a pair made up today.  There should be a new post tomorrow with pictures!

Have a great and safe day.