There May Have Been A Few Victory Laps......

Washed, stretched (because it turns out that among its many other bizarre qualities is a tendency to pucker right after being washed), ironed, and de-furred, the finished bridesmaid's quilt:

So far I have even managed to keep the cats off of it and only laid it out for pictures when I knew they were both snoozing in another room.  

I'm thrilled to have finally finished the thing, and I love the colors.....and my friend is going to be totally and completely surprised when she receives it, being three and a half years later and everything....but I can't say that I'm overly pleased with it.  I made the border too large--even with the embroidery, the back is a different shade of blue than the front because I didn't write down what I bought in the first place and "looks like the same color" is not the same thing as "IS the same color," and the embroidery pattern looped a bit in the back even though the design is one I bought from the sewing machine's manufacturer and for the price should be @*$&% perfect, and now that whole pucker thing.....

---but I am choosing to move on.  Get over it.  Rejoice in its "doneness."  Embrace the 9 yards added to the fabric tally for the year.  Celebrate the dedication that it takes to work on something for THREE AND A HALF YEARS.  Recognize the personal growth that can only be gained through an AFLO (another f------g learning opportunity).  Enjoy that second glass of wine.  Possibly enjoy the third if I don't let it go......

Crafting Marathon - Day Two

THE QUILT IS DONE!!!!!

THE QUILT IS DONE!!!!!!!

THE QUILT IS DONE!!!!!!!!!!!

If I knew how to make it do it, my blog would be playing the theme from "Rocky" right now.......

Crafting Marathon - Day One

I have 5 days, so after dropping Andy off at the airport and running a few errands to make sure I actually had some food this week, my sidekick and I settled down to some serious crafting.

First, we flattened out the cool home-decorating material

though getting the pattern cut out proved a bit more difficult than I had planned....

I did manage to work around Theo without cutting his tail, but a small amount of fur was lost....

though as his winter coat is truly in now, it's pretty hard to tell.  Mercifully, Theo decided to leave the room while I spray-basted the pieces and the batting together

but he was back for the sewing

Honestly, if he could ever learn to operate the sewing machine without me, I think my status as Most Favorite Human would be in jeopardy.

What are we making, you might ask?

Cornucopias!

I still want to add braid or trim to the openings of each one, and I'm pretty pleased with the small braid here

but I'm thinking some sort of black decorative cord would look pretty sharp on one or two. 

Overall, I'm so pleased with these that I honestly wish I had done 10 instead of 5, but this will get us through our immediate fall gift needs.  I'll have to check a couple craft stores to see what sort of things they have to put in the mouths of the cornucopias, but overall, I'm VERY pleased and......

2 yards of material go up on the fabric tally!

Let The Crafting Marathon Begin!

Tomorrow Andy leaves for a week for business, and I will be embarking on a crafting marathon (and obviously a week of peanut butter & jelly sandwiches as cooking is no part of my plan).  I have some gifts to finish, but I am really, really, REALLY hoping to finish both the quilt AND the kimono shawl while he's gone.  And, of course, I'm also hoping that the cats don't think I have been abandoned and feel the need to shower me with vermin gifts as they usually do when Andy is gone.  It's really cold here now, so even if they have the intention to do so, I'm hoping all the potential "gifts" have either flown south for the winter or are hibernating.  We haven't decided exactly what this says about the cats' interpretation of what Andy does around here.  Do they think he normally keeps me supplied with mice & birds, or are they trying to bribe me to let him come back or to keep him away?  Theo sulks if I'm gone for any length of time, but he doesn't bring Andy anything.  Being "Most Favorite Human" is not always a perk, but hopefully I can distract Theo with some major sewing this week.....

Finishing Friday & Embracing a Technicality

After much debate and hoping everyone else would think the same way, I decided that the yarn for Andy's sweater is actually overdue from my allotted purchases from January 1, 2009 and had already been "allowed" so it wouldn't be cheating.  So.......THERE IS YARN ON ITS WAY TO MY HOUSE!!!!

Being no fool--or at least not one right at that moment, I was flying through Elann's ordering process before I could be seduced by any other yarns so quickly that I didn't double-check the address and had to email them after I placed the order to explain that the address they had on file was no longer correct.  (And having a post office box where yarn can be sent so your husband won't see is a bad, bad idea....that isn't why I had one, but it's a bad idea nonetheless) I did allow a set of blocking wires, but I had been looking for a set so that was a little less of an impulse buy than one might think.  AND THERE IS YARN ON ITS WAY TO MY HOUSE!!!!

Since I am 4 WIPs away from being able to cast on the new yarn, the kimono shawl and I spent some time together first thing yesterday morning

which Theo only sort-of found acceptable.  But when the bridesmaid quilt came out

he was all over it.  I'm glad he likes sewing and everything, but I do have fantasies about giving gifts that are totally free from cat hair just once in my life.

I got 2 more sides embroidered, some of the binding sewn on, and

this morning I have the last side in the embroidery machine.  I still have some of the binding to stitch down, and then I have to do something about the open ends that the embroidery design has left on each side, but I think it could actually be done next week!!!  Watch for 9 yards (my estimate, of course, but I think it's probably close) being added to the "fabric used up" tally.  Technically, I think I should get another 50 yards just for finishing a 3 1/2 year old quilting project, but I don't want to get too smug.  I still have one more to do.

AND THERE IS YARN ON IT'S WAY TO MY HOUSE!!!!!

That Was Not Funny

So, remember last January 1 when the yarn Andy had picked out for his next sweater and which I was going to order on that day, had sold out?  Remember yesterday when I said I had resolved not to buy any yarn until January 1, 2011?

Guess what?

For the first time ALL YEAR Elann has their Highland Donegal in Licorice--the color Andy wants.

THE VERY NEXT DAY!!!!! 

Guess this proves those knitting gods DO have a sense of humor--albeit a very sadistic one.

Perspective

After time, mature reflection, and a white chocolate martini, I have decided that checking the size of my stash was a GOOD thing (so you guys are totally off the hook).  If I buy NO MORE YARN and knit furiously for the next 13 months, I could perhaps be below 100,000 yards of yarn in my stash by 2011.

This is exciting.

Granted, 28,000 yards of yarn would be a lot to knit in one year, but my Ravelry account doesn't reflect yarn as being "used up" until the project is actually finished.  So, if I finish up a couple more WIPS by the end of the year--and several more next year--I may knock 4,000 yards off that total pretty quickly.  So....

I am NOT buying yarn at the end of the year.  I will, however, be picking out some sort of reward/bribe for myself, though I haven't decided what exactly.  It needs to be something good--maybe something I wouldn't normally buy for myself.....

In the meantime, the kimono shawl is "zipping" along as much as lace ever "zips" and I just finished the 20th repeat and have 6 left....and not quite 3 weeks left in the month.  Even if it wasn't the designated project this month, the fact that it's going to knock about 1200 yards of laceweight off my tally makes me positively quiver with excitement!  Or is that the white chocolate martini.....?