Yarn Snobs

I know that there are many types of yarns available. I know that they can fit into most budgets. However, I personally think it is just WRONG to judge people by the materials they knit with. Isn't the most important thing to carry on the craft, and not let it fall by the wayside? I am guilty of using acrylic yarn - for lots of things. I make no apologies for it. I make afghans and toys, and know that they are easy to care for and won't lose their shape after being washed 30 times because your child spilled juice on it. Again. I'm not worried about it tearing to shreds when it gets tossed into the dryer, and I'm not afraid that they will felt, shrink, or become suddenly unrecognizable. Does this mean I will always use acrylic? I hope not. Does it mean I use it because 1) it's durable, and 2) it's affordable and 3) it's readily available? Of course it does. If you can spend $100 or more on yarn to make an afghan, more power to you. But just because I can't, don't look down on me. It's not about the fiber you use; it's about the use of fiber.

That being said, I did go back to Starbucks and get a picture of the bird I saw on Friday. However, in all my cleverness, I forgot the cord for my digital camera. I started on it this weekend (yes, in acrylic-get over it) and am considering a whole flock, once I get the main body down. So far, it's not too bad. I'm thinking it might be better to start it like a sock, from the toe up, but once I get done with this one, I'll think about how to reconstruct it in the round. I think it's easier that way for me...I'm still figuring out how knitting really works. It's fun though.

Too much coffee

I stopped by Starbucks this morning, and had them brew me a French pot of Verona, my favorite coffee. I don't usually have caffeine in that large of an amount, so I've been kind of bouncing off the walls this morning. Before I knew it, it was noon. I had to re-do an entry THREE TIMES this morning because my fingers and brain weren't in sync. That's just ridiculous. Lesson learned - no Starbucks during close for me.

I have major ambitions this weekend. I have cookies to bake, diapers to wash, and knitting to finish. I hope to finish the body of Sheldon #2 and the cable swatch for the sweater soon-to-be-started for myself. I also saw something this morning at Starbucks that made me want to copy it, and see if I could re-create it, instead of spending $5 for it (I know...it's only $5, but hey, $5 is $5). I saw this cute folk-art type bird knitted (and there was one that was sewn as well) with glasses and it was utterly cute. I hate that I didn't have a camera with me; otherwise I'd have taken a picture and post it for you. It was blue, and the glasses were brown, with eyes in it (in true Muppet style), and I think the legs were brown as well. We'll see if I can re-create it.

Suddenly remembered...

I have a TON of clothes that I just don't wear. Some of them I think are just going to be donated to somewhere. Some of the others will either be reincarnated or scavenged for items. There's one jacket in particular I think I'm stealing the buttons from for a sweater. The buttons are really nice, heavy, silver leaves. I'm thinking a lovely cardi needs them. I may post a pic if I get around to taking pics tonight. I'm not sure if I'll get to it tonight or not; there's a bunch of work to be done this weekend.

Little by little

Well, the craft room didn't get done this weekend. I'm doing good to get laundry done again this week, but if I can get on top of a few items this week, we'll be better. I finished one square for my baby's Baby I.Q. Afghan, and then ran into problems with the black for my friend's. Go figure. I decided to cut the yarn and start with a new end. Fortunately, we're only talking acrylic here folks. I know...shoot me now. Acrylic is horrible, it's evil, but it's also cheap and easy to care for when you have several munchkins roaming the house. If juice gets spilled on it, or someone spits up (or throws up) it's a quick toss in the washer and dryer and it's all good. I created a clever plan for using it up though. I'm making our baby an afghan, and I think I'm going to do the Baby I. Q. Afghan in multiple colors. That's right, it won't be just red, black, and white. I'm going to do a few squares in red, a few in green, a few in blue...well, you get the idea. I haven't decided how many colors to do yet. There are 16 squares, so I could do 4 squares in 4 colors, or 8 squares in 2 colors, or 2 squares in 8 colors. Or, I could enlarge the afghan and do more squares in more colors.

Pictures also didn't get taken. I did virtually nothing like I thought I would last night. I spent quite a bit of time at work, and didn't get home until late, and then I sat and watched tennis while I wrestled with the big black yarn knot from Hades.

Scattershot

Remember when I said I wanted to knit something, but didn't know what? That nothing looked right? Yeah, well, that time has passed. I now have so many projects going, I don't know what to work on next. Here's what I'm working on:

• Sheldon for a friend (for baby #1)
• Baby I.Q. Afghan for a friend (for baby #3-crochet)
• Hoover blanket (yes, this thing is still around...for my baby)
• Baby sweater (but I don't know that I'm happy with it, so it might get frogged but it's for my baby as well)
• Baby I.Q. Afghan (for my baby-crochet)
• Frog for a friend (to go with the first Baby I.Q. Afghan)
• Sweater for me

Think that's enough projects? I'm trying to use up yarn. Can you tell? I just hope I don't burn out on knitting. But then, if I get tired of it, there's always cross-stitch stuff waiting in the wings. I have so many projects to finish; at the rate I'm going, I'll never die. :) Oh well, at least I keep occupied and I'm not bored. I'm hoping to finish several projects before year end, and then finish more projects next year. I'm trying to decide if I should add in some socks for Christmas. If I do, that would be 4-6 more projects. We'll see what time allows.

Busy, busy.

I am working on the Sheldon, and it's coming along nicely. I keep thinking about making a sweater for my son, and I might crochet one, since I did find a nice pattern in a book I checked out from the library. There weren't many selections for knitting books there, but then it was a small branch, but the closest one to home. Hopefully tomorrow I'll post some pictures of what I've worked on this weekend. It's been a nice relaxing one and I'm thrilled that we got to see Diana Gabaldon. Live. In person. No, really. We did. I should have pictures of that soon as well. She signed our hardbacks, and we're looking forward to her seventh and eighth (yes, there is to be an eighth in the series) books. Not to mention the graphic novel, Master Raymond, and Lord John stories that will hopefully flow from her brain onto paper. I don't know that she could turn them out fast enough. If she had one book published each year, I don't think it would be enough. However, half the fun is anticipation. :)

Knitting Ideas

Ok, so here's the thought. I'm thinking of using the yarn from a sweater I already frogged for a new sweater. It'll be a lovely shade of lavender, and I'm thinking of a long v-neck cable sweater. I know it sounds easy and simple, but it's going to be one of the fall fashions, and hey, why can't I be fashionable?! So, I think that's what I'm going to start on this weekend. It's going to take some design work, since I don't have a pattern and even if I did, I doubt it would go up to the size I need. I'm going to customize it for me, so it should fit well. Basically, I'm going to measure the majority of my upper body, create a swatch, and pray it all works out.

I started working on Sheldon for my friend's little girl to be born later this month. I lost count of my rows, and need to start over again. At least I have a pattern for that one. I think I'm going to re-print it twice, once for a notebook and once as a working pattern. Then hopefully I can keep track of where I am. I'll keep you posted.

Ever have the feeling...

that you wanted to knit something, but nothing was what you wanted to knit? I'm there. I want to start a new project, really I do. I just can't figure out WHAT I want to start. The items I want to knit I don't have the yarn for, and the yarn I have I don't have a pattern for. I keep hoping that I'll run across an idea for an afghan that will use up all my extra yarn, giving me the perfect excuse to buy more.



I've been working on a Christmas program for children's choir. That's right...Christmas already. It won't take long and it'll be here. Presents must be started now, and I have no idea what to get/make some people. I'm just trying to figure out when I can get stuff unpacked. I need a weekend with nothing planned. This weekend isn't it, because there's a book festival in Decatur, and one of our favorite authors will be there. That's right, we get to see Diana Gabaldon in the flesh. We're loving it.

On a Quest...

So, the baby shower went well. The knitted booties were warmly received, and the mother-to-be is excited about the baby sling and knitted toy (she chose a Sheldon from Knitty for her little girl).

My latest obsession in finding a knitted soaker pattern. Of course, there are TONS out there. I don't know that I've found a knitted one with Velcro (C) though. Here's the back story on that one. We're cutting costs, due to just flat out needing to. I am over apologizing for not having money. We just don't. It happens when you only have one income. So, in order to save a little cash, we started using cloth diapers. They're much easier than expected, even with a nasty dirty diaper in the mix. My 'rents have helped out with buying a diaper pail, diaper covers, and some deodorant stuff for the pail. We had the cloth diapers and pins already, mostly given to us by request or bought with gift cards. I never knew there was so much to learn about cloth diapers, more than I knew existed. I figured with pre-folded ones, that was just it. When you don't do it on a real child, you don't know. The only experience I ever had with it before was on dolls, and you know they don't wiggle or actually wet, so it's a whole new experience for us. We got them on Sebastian, and they were ok. I found out there are at least 4 ways to fold the diaper, which is prefolded (I figured there was no need to fold it again since it was "prefolded"). That shows my ignorance. I have since educated myself about this. The easiest one I think will be the Angel Fold (at least the website I visited called it that). If you'd like to see what I'm talking about, you can go here. In any case, now I'm on to soakers/covers. We have a bunch of "plastic pants" for him, but 1) they're a 12 month size which means he'll grow out of them, and 2) they're plastic. They don't breathe and are noisy. I'm sure he's not thrilled with them, not to mention trying to get his feet through something at this age is a pain. I figure if I can make a cover that closes around him instead of pulling one on, it might be a little easier. So, now I'm on a quest. So far, it looks like I'm going to make one, or at least attempt to make one. If I get it together, I'll post it.

There's a fall festival at a local elementary school, and you can get a booth for $25 and sell stuff. I don't know how that will work. I don't really have any original creations, so I'd have to use purchased patterns for something and sell it, rather than using the free stuff (which is most of my patterns). The other possibility if I decide to get a booth is make a few items and then do the rest as a contract. I think it'd be too much to deal with now.

Speaking of dealing with things, I'm not sure about work. When I leave work recently, I ahve the urge to get a drink...and I'm not talking about sweet tea. I resist the urge as much as possible, but let's face it - that's not healthy. I think it's either because I'm sick of work and need to find a new job, or I'm coming off the stress that's been pretty constant in my life for the past year or so. At any rate, I'm going to be looking and we'll see what happens in the next week or two.

I'm bored

I'm so bored today at work, I have nothing better to do than sit here and post again. I did finish the first bootie, and even started the second at lunch. It took me about 20 minutes to get the ribbing on the second one done. I hope to get the rest of it done tonight, and maybe the edging as well. I'm heading to the library to see if they have Nicky Epstein's book Knitting on the Edge and perhaps I'll do something more interesting than just a regular picot edging. We'll see what I can find and whip up in an hour or so. So far, I'm looking at a total of 5 hours for both booties, plus whatever it takes for the edge. If I can't find anything I like in the book, I'll just stick with the picot edging, and pack it up with the clothes and certificates. I am giving her a certificate for a handmade toy (and taking the patterns I have for her to choose from) and also a certificate for a baby sling. I found some patterns online for free, and want to make one for me, and I can make one for her as well. It just requires some measurements. There is only one seam, but you sew it twice (a French seam) and it's done. I like it being that easy.

I hate Kitchener stitches.

Look what I did last night:

I whipped this baby up in about 2 hours. I think it took me that long because 1) I was distracted by the TV, 2) I was following a new pattern and 3) I was thinking about doing something special to the top. I was enticed by these to make it something cuter than it is. I'll probably add some picot edging to the top. Then they'll be adorable. I'm working on #2 tonight. I was going to try and be industrious and do them at the same time, but I only had one skein of the pink. It's a baby-palooza again, so more baby projects to come.

Oh, and I found my camera again! Woot! Here's a picture of my sweet baby, just because he's the cutest in the whole world (of course, I could be biased).

Sorry for the red eye. He's still adorable. Oh, and here's a pic of my latest FO:

It's the best picture I could get on the floor in my son's room. It was dark, and the flash is the only real light. Pretty cute, huh? I'll take pics of the booties when they're done.

MUST FIND CAMERA!!!!

I have to find my camera. I have no idea where it went in the move, but I will hopefully find it this week. In the meantime, I will hopefully be motivated to update some links around here and change some things around. Perhaps there will be lots of changes in the house, all of which I can document, provided I find the digital camera! I'm going to start the search tonight. If I find it, you will know. :)

It's done...but no pictures

I finished the project last night. Here's what it looks like from the pattern at Knitty:

Please note this is NOT my picture. This is from the Knitty website. My Sheldon looks very similar, but not quite this good (I'm sure the pattern designer had time to perfect her Sheldon whereas I did it just for the first time and it turned out not too differently). The pattern can be found here. I have so many other projects to complete. A friend of mine is pregnant with their third(!) child, another boy (their first was a girl, then a boy, and now another boy on the way). That means a green Baby IQ afghan, and another toy. I might do a Sheldon for him, or another toy that I have a pattern for. I love the free toy patterns. If you know of any others, please let me know. I have a couple of crochet toy patterns, and some knitted ones as well. A friend bought me a book of knitted toys a few years ago, and I have to sheepishly (no pun intended) admit that I've only knitted one toy out of it. That might soon change. Christmas is coming, and we really don't have much money. There's a credit card (not much, but enough to eat away at any extra we might have), mortgage, food, gas, electricity, and other monthly bills to pay. Christmas is just around the corner and will be here before you know it.

So close I can taste it...

I only have to sew a few things together to finish the latest project! Woot! However, that requires some careful placement, and time. I almost had half of the sewing done, when I realized it didn't quite look right...and took it out. After I'm done with this project, I think I'm going to try this pattern for my baby. Or else this one. Then, I have some cross-stitch patterns to work up; one of them I want to do for my brother and his wife. I think they'll really appreciate it for Christmas. It's a trellis with flowers and the center section has names and the date. I was going to do it AGES ago for a friend, and never finished it. Maybe I can finish it for Christmas for them. I also have pictures to get framed and matted for Christmas, provided I can get them developed. There is a lot to do between now and then, presents and cleaning and unpacking. Hopefully I will be able to find my digital camera soon and post pictures of the new FO, when it's finished.

Almost done...

I have all the pieces done now; it's just a matter of putting them all together. I'm hoping that tomorrow I can do that. I'm off to pick up the remaining furniture from my Grandmother's house that sold in December. There are a few pieces still at the consignment/antique store, and if we don't get them, they're going to auction and we won't see a dime. There are a couple of pieces that we wanted anyway, and didn't have space for. Now we get them. The men who run the shop are idiots; anyone with half a brain would have sold them already. I'm glad they didn't though. I'd hate to see the dry sink my grandfather built destroyed. It will look lovely in our kitchen though. Hopefully I'll have pictures soon to post regarding this mystery project. I might even post some with its recipient. Happy weekend, as I'm off tomorrow.

Success at last

I finished the body of the project I've been working on. I have one more piece to knit, and then it's time to put it all together!!!! It's exciting. I'll have to find the digital camera and take pictures of Sebastian's gift with him. Oh, I don't think I mentioned it last time, but HE'S CRAWLING!!!!! It's a fun time, and we have to clean the floors before we just let him go, but he can crawl now. It's very exciting. He's also pulling up on EVERYTHING known to man...furniture, people, thin air...or at least he's trying to. I'm as happy as can be about it. He's too cute.

Knitting News...

is slow. I did however, get some things done around the house this weekend. I didn't get as much done as I would have liked, but something's better than nothing, right?

I'm also working on children's choir things, which makes any crafting progress slow. I think I'm going to sit down tonight and work on the knitting project I have currently going. I've been thinking of what to do with some yarn, and I haven't quite gotten a full picture yet, but I'm hoping sometime soon I'll know more about what to do with it. I have a whole bag of Debbie Bliss Cashmerino Aran, in a lovely shade of 605, I think. It's a periwinkle color, and is lovely. I think I might see what other colors I can get to go with it this fall. I'd love to have a beautiful cashmerino sweater. We'll see what happens.

Here's to hoping once again, I can post a little here and there for the rest of the year.

Changes all the time

Well, here's the past 2-3 weeks for us: trying to unpack, a church music conference where I got re-acquainted with my children's choir director, my grandfather passing, and my brother and sisterin-love moving to New Orleans. This is, of course, nothing compared with other tragedies happening around: the collapsed bridge, the collapsed mine. Things are just falling apart.

In brighter news, I have worked a little on a knitting project: I still haven't told you what I'm making. It's a surprise. I will tell you it has to be stuffed, and I finally found my stuffing. Unpacking is slow. This weekend promises to get at least one room situtated with furniture (only to have more coming in - another long story). I have to do a few things around the house this weekend, since we're having company next weekend. I'm not talking major company, just some friends for lunch on Saturday. I have so much to do!

I have also started working on a cross-stitch project. It was going to go to a friend about 4-5 years ago (yikes!) and I think now if I can finish it, I'll personalize it for my brother and his wife.

Isn't he adorable?! This was Sunday as we were helping my brother and his wife pack and load the truck. That's his uncle's hat. I LOVE IT!!!! Hopefully I can post more soon.

So much to catch up on...

I'm actually swamped at work, although this is the first week I've had a breather.

Knitting is not progressing, but hopefully this weekend it will, since we're taking a road-trip, and if I can get my hubby to drive at least part of the way, then maybe I can knit a little. I miss it, and hopefully tonight after I get the baby's bag packed, I can sit down and knit a little.

I've recently gotten hooked on Sudoku. I'm not really much of a numbers person, although I do work as an accountant. I'm not usually a number puzzle kind of person; I prefer word puzzles (give me a cryptogram anytime!). However, I'm slowly working through a book given to us by type-A people right after I came home with our "perfect" son (the doctor's words, not mine!). I'm now addicted.

Has it really been a month?!

I guess it's really been over a month, hasn't it?! Well, SOOOOO much has gone on, but hopefully life will slow down and get into a rhythm again. Here's the latest: we bought a house in Woodstock, and moved yesterday (and yet I'm at work today...). It's a lovely home, with a nice yard and plenty of space (for now). I get my own craft room, so expect lots of pictures. I have several of before we moved in, when the house was open to the public. I'll try and post them a little along. Here's the front yard:

There's yard work to be done, and starting in the fall, I'm sure I'll be outside digging. In front of the tree (you can't see them) are BLUEBERRY bushes. I'm all excited!!! Fresh blueberries for baking, cooking and eating! I don't have to buy any. I think the bushes need some cultivating, but they produce wonderfully.

Back to knitting...the craft room should hopefully provide me with space to utilize regularly and get all kinds of crafty-goodness done. Enjoy the beautiful day!