Above and Beyond

I have so many projects that I already have underway and want to complete by the end of the year! How am I ever going to make time and get them all done?! Well, one of the first things I'm trying to do is become a regular at my LYS knit night. I've been going to The Whole Nine Yarns in downtown Woodstock for 2 weeks, and so far so good. Even if I only stay an hour, it's time away from home where I can focus on knitting. Next, I'm trying to get as many errands done during the week on my way home as possible, so I don't have to do them on the weekends. This means hopefully I can focus more on crafting then as well. I'm going to bring my sewing machine upstairs so I can use it (it's a little too cold right now to be sitting downstairs with no heat!) and hopefully I can even put Little Man in there with me and let him play while Mommy sews. I have figured out a pattern for a quilt...although I'll still be fine-tuning it. I think it will work out nicely, and if I am smart about when I buy the fabric, it shouldn't be that expensive either. I'm trying to base it off of one fat quarter I have that I really want to showcase. Unfortunately, I only have one, and I don't know if I can find the fabric again. Oh well...back to day-dreaming!

The room with a view

I finally got some progress in the craft room. I know how I want it set up, and all I need is to get the stuff out of there that doesn't belong and put the rest of the stuff away. I moved some of the furniture (the sewing table, the cutting table and the file-cabinet-o-patterns) and decided what needs to go in the rest of the space. I can even relinquish some of the space for a half bath later. Once we get the money (probably in a few years, but hey, it's our house...we can take our time with getting it the way we want it), we can refinish the basement the way it needs to be done (read: the way it should have been done in the first place). It looks like someone quickly slapped a few walls up here and there in order to add square footage to it. On the bright side, it gave us a good idea of the potential. On the down side, there is stuff that needs to be ripped out and replaced. there's also some vermin issues that we will deal with as we progress. I'm hoping to get to some knitting tonight...or crochet. I seem to have craft ADHD recently. I even picked up some cross-stitch last night and started on that...again. Maybe I'll pick one project and work on getting it completed this weekend. We're skipping church tomorrow morning, to have some family time. That means no rushing around tonight and no hurried morning. I can stay up a little later and work on something. I've been busy today, and yesterday I got one box of patterns organized. There are several others, but one is a step in the right direction. I'm hoping to get more boxes organized as the weeks progress. Work is really slow, so I'm hoping that between that and the upcoming holidays I can make some headway.

Friday Pictures

Remember this?

Now it looks like this:

Here's a close up of one of the squares.

In case you wanted to know the progress of the swatch for the Cromarty, I took a picture of that too.

I'm not thrilled with the way the swatch is turning out. The cable isn't looking so hot. Has anyone else had this issue? It's either the pattern or me...and I don't think it's the pattern. I could be wrong. This weekend promises to have some serious knitting time. We're heading to a farmer's market about 2 hours away, and since hubby knows the way (we're taking back roads) he gets to drive. That means I'll be free to knit!!! Woot!

I still have to finish up the Sheldon for a friend who delivered on Sunday, and several other projects waiting in the wings. I started moving stuff in my craft room, but more will be done once all the electric work is done. That will hopefully be done next week. I'll take progress pictures tonight, and maybe if there's time this weekend (not likely, but possibly) I'll post them. Otherwise, you have to wait until next week.

There are issues with the blanket that I don't think you can see in the picture above, but I did some close-ups:

The holes are easily fixed, and I'll probably do that tonight. No worries for that issue. I have a a couple of squares of two other blankets started, and I'll finish those up hopefully before the year ends. I'm hoping to have a lot of FOs this year, even though it is late in the year. It's just a matter of finishing the projects already started.