Flying in the Face of Reality

(mmmmmmm......lamp+couch=nap...mmmm)

Here follows a lesson about what happens when you have too much self confidence.

Let me start this with a bit of a preface. I finished the shawl for Mom. (Hopefully she is still unaware of it's existence.) It's safely tucked away in the closet where a certain furry kitty can't claim it for her own. When I set the goal of knitting it for Christmas, I gave myself the back up date of her birthday, just in case. That bought me another month to finish it and surprisingly I didn't need it. I completed it, I blocked it, I stashed it. All done, finito. No problem.

Where the problem starts is in the next project I decided to do. Our guild is having our annual holiday party this month with a pot luck dinner and a round robin gift exchange. I've participated in the past few years and it's lots of fun. This time I thought I'd take in a hand made item to put in the gift pile. After knitting the shawl, crochet sounded like a great change as I haven't done any in awhile and I decided to make a set of snowflake ornaments.

I've been wanting to make some of these for years and just never got around to it. I was even feeling confident when I had completed a set of six various sizes a week before the party. (I should have know there was going to be a problem right there.) I followed all the written instructions about making copies of the blocking pattern, covering it with plastic wrap, soaking the snowflakes in a zip lock bag overnight, etc. I even stayed up late one night pinning the darling things out until my fingers hurt just so they would have plenty of time to dry. When I awoke in the morning, after grabbing a cup of coffee, I went in to the craft area to check on them and wanted to cry. (Instead I swore like a sailor. Trust me, I was crying on the inside.)

See them in their glory? Not bad handwork, if I do say so myself. Too bad I didn't check and make sure that the pins I was using to block them were correct for this type of work. The two smallest ones (not pictured here) were fine. I used nice new blocking pins for those. Unfortunately I decided after doing those two that I wouldn't have enough pins and therefore dug out some older pins I had in my sewing supplies. All five of these have rust stains on them. Yep. Rust. Stains. (Still makes me want to swear!) I've spent several evenings using Iron Out in a crazy high concentration to get them clean. I had to admit defeat on four of these five and have since shelved them to be salvaged later, remembering that the goal is to have a hand crafted gift for Tuesday night.

Sunday found me crocheting four small snowflakes to make a set of 6 ornaments. It's not what I originally planned, but hey, at least it's handmade. (sorry for the crappy picture. I can't take a pic today to save my life.) So now I'm off to attach monofil for a hanger and plop them in a gift box. Hopefully guild won't be canceled tomorrow due to bad weather. (grin)

All that Jazz!

Whew! It's been a busy time and I've been away from the computer at home for a bit. I've been trying to get some stuff done around here that resembles cleaning, but really, you can't tell at all. It's that "organizational" cleaning that usually means one area looks great and the rest of the house looks like a pit as we wait to take stuff to the thrift shop. It's a lucky thing I'm not planning on decorating for the holidays this year. heheheh.

After frogging my jaywalker sock for the third or fourth time (I've lost count!) I'm going to try it out another way. I evidently can not count, can not measure and am not knitting to gauge even when I think I am. Oh I'm not giving up by any stretch of the imagination, have no fear. I'll get this one eventually. It baffles me completely as to how I could have screwed this up so bad so far. Evidently I have monstrously large feet as I am using needles larger than called for, with yarn that meets the requirements, yet I've knit the largest size written in the "larger sizes" addendum to the pattern and can not get it comfortably over my heel. So! I'm gonna try the toe up version and see if maybe that helps. I'll keep ya posted. (Maybe.lol)

In between fits of knitting and frogging Jaywalker I ran across the yarn to complete my lap-gahn. You may remember it from about this time last year. Yep, that's when I completed the main portion of the darling little thing. At that point I couldn't find the rest of the yarn to complete the border around it. Well in on of those cleaning/organizing fits a week or so ago I found said yarn and decided to finish her off before I lost the yarn again. So here it is. In all it's glory! Only 4 or 5 years late! heheheh

Today I spent a major portion of the day picking a black Alpaca fleece and prepping it for the good ole washing machine. (What a huge pleasure that is! Little VM, no poopies and ooooh so soft!) It's spent most of the rest of the day and evening being soaked or spun out in the washer. I've a couple of more rinses left before we're done for the night. It spins out so well in the washer that it should be dry in about a day and a half, tops!

OK I'm off to make dinner for tonight and lunches for tomorrow. It's an early morning for us tomorrow. If you don't hear from me until after Christmas, don't be surprised. hehe And if that's the case, y'all have a wonderful holiday, k?!

General Chit Chat

Yesterday while Tucker was having his surgery, I had to kill about 4 hours before I could pick him up. So I figured I would bum around a few stores and catch lunch with a friend before going back to the vets office. Let me confess to you that I'm horrible at "shopping" and I'm not one that enjoys "shopping" just to kill time. That would probably explain why I gave in so readily when my brain said, "Hey, let's go to your fav bookstore. There's probably something there you want." So off I went...rather quickly too. (I'm such a geek.) And what did I find? "Hands On Spinning" by Lee Raven...in new condition for $4.95. (It's a used bookstore...hence being my favorite.) The spinners in this area hold onto their books. It's absolutely rare to fine one and to do so you have to hand sort through all the weaving, macrame, crochet and knitting books, pamphlets and mags. It's time consuming and oh, so relaxing. This was a major score for me and helped make a difficult morning so much better. I also scored two pattern pamphlets (copyrighted 1949) for floral doilies. I have a weakness for these older types of pattern pamphlets and had to have them as well. I will be trying out some of these patterns as the flowers are 3-d and I can already think of a few things I'd like to do with them.

Well, it's almost time to start the Tour de Fleece and I really can't wait. I thought I'd flash a pic of the stash pre-Tour and hopefully will have a picture of a much reduced stash at the end of the month. Remember, my goal is to spin up my "ready to use" stash. Stuff that's been sitting in the wings ready to go. So along with the two unimpressive photos, I give you a list of what these pics contain. I don't have weights on all of them, but will of course list weights at the time of completion of skeins.

These are listed as they came out of the baskets, not in order of preferred spinning.

1) 13 oz White Lincoln,2) dark green silk/merino,3) Teal mystery wool, 4) "dragon mountain" wool, 5) 8 oz Brown/gray Lincoln, 6)Natural Brown-Soft n Silky, 7)Shetland, 8)Tropical Corrie locks, 9) Unpleasant Frizzy brown (which hopefully will become pleasant not so frizzy brown after some gentle carding. I have my doubts.) 10) Joaquin-The Alpaca! 11) The Jacob fleece (in the purple bucket) There is also some dark green/olive green silk/merino, some Tan cotton and some chiengora stashed in there, but those three are excluded from the Tour unless I complete all 11 on the list. I, by no means, think I will get half of these done as that is a lot of spinning, and I'm striving for quality, not just quantity. Nevertheless, it's fun to see them all in print. Some still need some carding done, but I'll work through what I've got and card a bit here and there as necessary. I did get the Alpaca carded today, so work can start on that soon. I'm looking forward to that. I'm aiming for a true lace weight with that skein. ;)

Other than that stuff, there's been work in the yard/garden as the weather allows. It's tough sometimes as it seems it's either too wet and cold or to darn hot to be out there. I prefer weeding in the rain over temps in the 80's though. I was able to finish weeding the edging beds and was able to get the corner bed done. I'll be able to add some more plants to it as I find them on sale. Next year it should look really good. That leaves the long driveway bed and the rose bed (once again). They both should be quick as they were mulched with bark and the weeds are more large, than thick.

Work on the crochet shawl is moving along. I do suspect that I have too many increases though as it's pretty ruffly at this stage. I'm not sure though so I'll plow onward and hope for the best. Hubsters sock is about 3 inches away from the ribbing and cast of. (I know, Gasp! lol) I work on either the sock or the shawl depending on the mood, but I'm much faster at the crochet so it's progressing much quicker. (I'm fighting the urge to start a pansy doily from the new to me pamphlets. Must. Stay. Strong. Focus. On. The. Tour!)

Well time to close this out for tonight. The fireworks are increasing as the sun goes down, and it's time to console the children (dogs/cats). I hope every one's Independence Day was safe but fun!

Beaded Crochet

One of the things I've always wanted to do is beaded crochet. Last weekend I sat down with a pattern happily supplied from a member on the Spindlers yahoo list and started my first project.
The pattern for the Beaded Amulet Bag can be found here. http://host83.ipowerweb.com/~knitting/crochet/beaded-amulet-bags.htm. I don't know exactly what I was thinking when I started this project. I've been wanting a smallish bag to hang on my wheel for holding my container of oil, a screwdriver and an extra drive band. So why did I think that this was going to even come close when I finished the bottom and started the sides?!! I didn't. I didn't even think about it. lol I was so entranced with making sure the beads were slid up in time that I didn't even think about how small this is. I constructed this one out of embroidery floss divided down to three strands and size 11 seed beads. The embroidery floss gives you great color options, but can be a bit of a pain to crochet with as the lengths are not really that long. This little bag used just over a skein of floss, so that's not bad. I'm sure I'll be making more of these up though as they are quick projects and everyone I've shown them to loves them! I'm currently working on a proper sized bag for the wheel...that will be done soon.

The End Has Come

Ah well, I knew it would happen eventually. Yes. It's over. My vacation that is.....I'm back to work tomorrow. For someone who is not used to having two days off in a row, the last 11 days have been great! I do like my job though so I'm not all together opposed to going back to work. I do have some projects lined up for work that I want to get moving on so going back is not a bad thing. (Not like the last job.lol) It's just amazing to me that the vacation thing is over already. lol

For some reason, this time I do not have the "back to work panic" that I used to have. I guess that is because I spent a lot of time crafting this vacation...and I do mean a lot of time. lol. I've finished a few skeins of yarns. One of which is posted at left. I apologize for the pic in advance as it's showing the yarn at a much deeper pink color than it is in real life. We can't have good lighting for pictures all the time I guess. lol. It just amazes me that this is the same fiber that was so grotesque in the carding process. I guess that's a lesson in "not judging, ect, ect..." It's still a bit too "pink" for me, so I'll find an away from home project for it. lol

There was much time spent relaxing. In fact, this was the most relaxing time I've had in ages! Believe me, it's been needed. Don and I spent some quality hours in our favorite 2nd hand bookstore---after a fabulous lunch---and I walked out with these beauties. Yes I know that I've pledged to craft out of my stash for this year. Yes I know there are some books on crafts that I have no stash to go with yet, and yes....I remember that I am NOT going to start another craft until at least 2008. But really, when you run across books at the used bookshop that fit your interests...you just have to snap them up! They may not be there in a year! And they won't do any harm on the bookshelf.

One of the things I did complete was the center piece of my lap afghan. I just completed it this morning and wove in all the loose ends. It's now ready to reclaim it's spot in the bottom corner of the craft closet awaiting it's border crochete for the next two years. ;) (Hopefully not in all truthfullness...but I am trying to be more realistic this year. lol) I did not work on Don's socks, nor did I work on my sweater. I'll pick them back up again probably this weekend. It's time to get that sweater moving again!

Well, I'm off to bed to read for a bit before crashing. Today was the first day in 11 that I woke up at a normal time, and tomorrow morning it's for real.....with breakfast to cook and lunches to make, ect. lol.