Over the weekend, we had our first hard frost of the winter. It turned the garden completely white. Feels like winter now! Yeh! (Smile!) We had a brief flurry of snow a month ago, but since then it has most definitely been mud season. This means that I spend most of my outside time in welly boots that gradually become twice as wide from all the mud. Skirt hems grow heavy with mud and trousers cannot escape the evidence of a muddy walk.
So frost is a light relief to me. Forgoing my first coffee of the day on Saturday, I charged out to muck out the hens and move the henhouse from its muddy corner of the garden. So much easier to move the house, when the ground is frozen. No more slipping around or muddy boots when I shut them up at night. It really was worth missing my coffee! (Smile!) The hens did reward me with two eggs. I’m sure they won’t miss the mud either.
Second reason to smile. A basket full of colourful mittens. Just in time for some colder weather (I do know that those of you in colder climates are probably rolling your eyes, but it is all relative!)
Having three children, means that anything I knit, I am under considerable pressure to knit three versions. Fortunately the mittens/fingerless gloves, that I’m churning out, take about three evenings per pair to knit. I’ve finished two pairs and start the last set tonight. I love seeing them in this basket. So colourful and warm. Part of me wishes that I could keep them in the basket for the rest of winter, but I have already relented. It was frosty and nippy walking to school today, so I did let TF wear his pair.
I might need him to put them back in the basket when he comes back. Just for the woolley warm look of seeing them all in the basket. Sigh…
The woolly mittens are a perfect cosy picture nestling in their basket………….shame they have to worn, lol.
I now have visions of you in your mudcaked wellies lifting and moving a whole henhouse……..were the hens still in there too!……………….I bet they enjoyed the ride.
Hee hee! No, I let the chickens out before I started moving it. I’m not that strong really. I can’t even lift the hen house. I have to walk it from side to side to its new position. It didn’t stop the hens from trying to climb back in or just standing directly in my path.
They’re fabulous! Love the mixed up bright colors…. and I know what you mean about just looking at the basket of woolen goodness. I just want to put them in the middle of the table and call them a centerpiece!
Blessings, Debbie
Oh that would be so wonderful. Although non-wool fanatics may not understand the significance.I just know any family members visiting would be puzzled by it!!!!
oohhh i love those fingerless gloves and so would my little lad even though he is 11.Those colours are fab and warm and snug looking indeed. Its great working with wool at this time of year it does warm you up. dee x
The colours are really cheerful. Its using up the odd little bits of wool that I have in my stash. Not much of a dent in the stash yet! I see more projects like this to follow.
Lovely, I love to see knitted things together in baskets too!
Knitting some fingerless mitts/hand/wristwarmers here today too for my daughter who admires mine I knitted last year – 1 down, 1 to go … only have to do one pair though.
One pair. Sounds good to me. Hope she is pleased with her new pair of mittens.
Just loving those woolly gloves in the basket, lovely delicious stripey colours. Mud….wellies….chooks…..such a lovely mix of country life. I’m sure your ladies appreciated a new spot to scratch over.
Have a lovely day,
Anne xx
I’m sure they are happier. Although they headed straight back to the old area at dusk, even though they had laid eggs in the house in the new spot. Hens! One cockerel even roosted up inside one of our cars, rather than going into the hen house. Not the brightest specimens of the poultry world!
They look lovely, warm and cheerful at the same time. Are they the clever flip top mittens ?
Love the description of flip top mittens! Yes, they are. I’ve always thought that they would be fiddly and complicated to knit, but they are far easier to knit than I thought. They also took less time to knit than I imagined.
I took advantage of frost to clean out my hens today…I know what you mean about all that mud! Love the mittens, I have never knitted gloves or mittens, I keep meaning to but always decide they look too hard..three evenings sound good though, which pattern did you use? 😀
Glad to know that I’m not the only one who looks out on a frosty morning and thinks that its a great day for mucking out! I don’t think you would have any problem with knitting gloves or mittens. The pattern I used is so simple that I could knit it while fielding all the distractions that the children can throw at me. A sign of a good pattern to me. The pattern is from the Just for Fun: 20 projects to knit stitch and craft.