February? Are you Serious?

Oh well. January was a flash of wasted time it seems! Punctuated by a couple weeks of serious back pain, finding a puppy and getting back to school work after our first ever complete two week long Christmas break free and clear!!

Oh and snow. But here in Northeast Ohio.. that’s a given.

February… looking forward to getting the puppy home, getting some projects done and other things!

But mostly I want to try to get back to blogging so look out!! Here I come!

I had the crazy idea of 52 projects in 52 weeks small projects to get me going and I might just start it!! Might be a month later than I expected but hey that’s ok.. there are still 52 weeks ahead of me right?!

When I went to the Rhinebeck Sheep and Wool Festival a couple years back I had a little conversation with Stephanie Pearl McPhee about my love hate relationship with wool. I liked the way it knit up but I often was bothered by the itchyness! she said simply that I hadn’t used the right wool and that I needed to try some different varieties!

I did and I found out that she was right!  Merino was one of the wools that I tried and loved.. and the Morehouse Merino farms yarns are a great!!

In the fall an oldie but goodie Morehouse Farm Merino Knits: More than 40 Farm-Fresh Designs came out in Paperback!! I hadn’t seen it before so I jumped at the chance when offered a copy!

It’s a great book with some cute patterns! I mean how can a mom of boys not be drawn to this:

Luckily my middle son LOVES sweaters! So I really need to knit him up one of these!!

All the patterns in this book just scream out warmth and comfort and home! All the things you would expect and more. They have something for everyone.. even the family cat!! So if you are looking for some great patterns to work with some GREAT wool.. this book is for you!

She is sharing it with us!!

I love  Whenlen Chia’ a.k.a. Twinkle’s knitting patterns. If there is one of her patterns in a knitting mag, I am there.. case in point the last two issues of Vogue Knitting that didn’t last 5 minutes on the shelf because I was there to rescue them!

If you love her sense of style you probably also like her line of ready to wear clothing! Then on the other hand, if you are like me, you can’t even touch one of the lowest price pieces in her line with a ten foot pole.. sigh..

Well turn that frown upside down, because Twinkle has decided to share some of her patterns for sewing with us as well!!

 Twinkle Sews: 25 Handmade Fashions from the Runway to Your Wardrobe is a great book full of 25 sewing patterns by Whenlan. Super cool!!

The best thing is that there is a disc included with the patterns on pdf format! Oh do I wish my knitting pattern books came with that.. at least just a digital copy of the charts!!

A great book full of fun styles overall!!

Disclaimer: A review copy was provided by the publisher.

Lion Brand is having a knit along for the Inishturk Sweater. I happen to have yarn in my stash that will do nicely.. so I think I might just jump in and tackle this.

It will be good practice for the ‘real’ husband sweater, and pick me up out of the knitting doldrums.