Happy Birthday Dad!

I'm going to make up for the lack of pictures in my last several entries. First of all, I'd like to introduce the most wonderful father in the whole world: my Dad.

The tractor I am sitting on is one of his favorite toys -- a genuine John Deere with a front loader. It's an awful lot of fun to drive around on this big green machine -- especially when you've got 10 acres of land to cruise around on. Here's a picture of Mom & Dad's backyard:

In case you wanted a better shot of the tractor, here's a pic of John getting some quality time in with "J.D." (as Dad occasionally refers to the tractor).

Lest you think that this tractor has no relationship to the knitting content of this blog, I'd like to present this shot:

These tire treads screamed out to me that there should be a stitch pattern for them. I'm thinking it might be cute on a pair of socks or as panels down the front and back of a sweater for Dad.

Speaking of socks... I did finish the first of Mom's Koigu socks today. Now I can get to work on the second of the pair. I had a reasonable amount left over from the skein. So, if I had wanted to, I could have added a couple of inches to the sock top (this one is only 6" from ribbing to top of heel).

While I was working on the sock, Mom was working magick with her sewing machine to create two circular needle sorters. I did a little of the grunt work for these, but she did all the sewing and decorating. The one one the left was the first one we did and we kept the embellishments to a minumum because I wanted the fabric and pretty bead fringe and hanging cord to stand out. The one on the right was the second one, and Mom decided that she wanted to spice it up so that it would be more fun to make.

This project was definitely a family production. It's hard to see, but the cords are tied into a lovely piece of walnut that my Dad cut and prepared. The idea for this came from a simple canvas version that I saw in a Patternworks catalog. Since I have been collecting quite a few circular needles these days, it seemed like it would be quite a useful thing. However, I wanted something more attractive than the one in the catalog. So these are the result.

She doesn't know it yet (wink, wink) but the green one with the leaf-motif will be going to visit (and hopefully stay!) with Julie as a little thank you for her help with making those stitch markers a while back.