A Little Yarn On The Side

Let's take a minute and refresh everyone's memories, shall we? Remember the ill-fated pajama top incident?  (For a refresher, see here , here , and here )  Remember how I had finally purchased some solid brown coordinating flannel to make a new top, and how I drew that bag for the Project of the Month for September? My trust sidekick and I decided we had better get cracking, so I cut out the back and the facing, then opened the material up to cut out the remaining pieces, only to discover...... I don't have enough material!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!   Can you believe it????  I think I got this material from Joanns (having not saved the info because I got as much material as the pattern said, so I assumed there was no reason and brown flannel is brown flannel), so I'm hoping to be able to match it and have a swatch stuffed in my purse for when I've calmed down enough to be reasonable and not come home with 14 bolts of the silly stuff.  Obviously, I w...

After a few days of rest, hot pads, hot tubbing, and serious humiliation, I have recovered from my recent fruit beating, and have finished one sock in the stretchy yarn which I think might actually work with this pattern.  I hope so--I have 4 more pairs of socks worth of this yarn.   Feeling thoroughly sorry for myself, I also started a new lace scarf which I like in theory, but will probably frog & restart because the pattern has a 1-stitch stockinette border on each side that I want to get rid of, and I think I'd like the scarf a bit thinner and with a little bit bigger bottom border.  I want it to be a little scarf to tie around my neck when I wear the new tan microsuede ensemble since the decorative stitching thing didn't work out, and I really can't wear tan without looking like some sort of faded banana.   Speaking of fruit, yesterday I was even able to successfully cut up 5 trays of apples to dehydrate without any apple arse-kicking, so later t...

You might have noticed there haven't been any posts recently.  Monday I decided it was time to use some of the apples we picked and make apple butter.  I think the last time I made it was about 7 years ago, so I had had sufficient time to forget the previous trauma. There are apple butter recipes that don't require you to core & peel the 6 pounds of apples--I know this now.  Unfortunately, I did NOT know this on Monday.  So I spent two hours standing at the sink peeling and coring apples.  I don't know if it's an age thing or the fact that I have never really used a paring knife for 2 hours nonstop, by the end of the day my hand was a claw.  I thought it would be a good idea to do some stretching, which strained my wrist.  Whether or not it was the stress of the claw, the wrist or the 6 hours of standing in the kitchen....but I then threw my back out.  Fingers aching, wrist throbbing, and now having to lay flat on my back...there has been NO...

Which is totally lacking the alliterative neatness of Finishing Friday, but some weeks I'll take what I can get.  What it is lacking in alliteration, however, it makes up for in productivity.  First up: The baby reefer jacket is done!!!!!!  Well, almost.  Those buttons aren't actually sewn on yet, but even though I can get distracted at almost any other point on a sweater, being distracted enough to not sew buttons on hasn't been a problem.  So, it is finished enough to make the list.  And secondly.... Now that the sewing room is overrun with machines, space is seriously at a premium, so I have decided to focus on space-saving projects for a while.  This is my first storage idea.  I think it will be a great place to store my seam rippers (notice the plural), embroidery scissors, screw drivers, and other things that I need to have on-hand while sewing.  It was really a quick project, too.  After measuring I decided I needed 2 pieces o...

.....that when I have very little crafting time, I get a wild urge to start new projects? With a party we're hosting tonight, salsa and pickles to can, and lots of apples to take care of, I have a mad desire to cast on a new lace scarf.  To placate myself, I dug out the ball winder and got this and this ready to be cast on, and so far that has placated me enough to return to this which is REALLY close to being finished.  I had made the two button bands a bit shorter than it called for because I was really concerned about running out of yarn, but I have finished the knitting and still have this much yarn left, so I'm adding the missing rows back on.  Then I just need to sew in the sleeves, add buttons, and weave in ends and it will be done!!!!!!!!!!!!  Which is good as it's a baby gift and the baby was born about a month ago.  Thankfully, it's for 12-18 months. I know better than to try to make anything for a "newborn."  That's just asking for one o...

After an 11 week absence , one is finally going to get their sewing machine back right at the time when one is too busy canning to be able to use it.

No more dog sitting! I have found the camera cord!  The new power cord for my laptop arrived! And yesterday was my 40th birthday (which explains why this update is coming today instead of yesterday) So.... I spent Sunday and yesterday crafting, and to show for it I have: a new bag for fall.  This was Jeeves's first project, and at first I thought he was having problems still, but it turns out the problems were being caused by the microsuede I used for the lining.  I added a little free-hand decorative stitching to the outside, and am really quite pleased with the results.  It's a bigger bag than I ever usually carry, but that does mean I could carry more knitting than usual, so it's really a win-win thing, don't you think? Then it was time for the true test for Jeeves, and he does seem to FINALLY be fixed.  Whoo hoo!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Someone is even happier to have Jeeves back than I am... And in another week, he might finally stop sleeping on top...

And when either: A) I'm no longer dog sitting and shuttling back and forth between two houses or  B) Myself, my camera, my camera cord, and the one laptop cord that we're now sharing are all in one location, I'll show you the bag that is my first finished project with the newly-returned Jeeves!

Not only because we finally have a picture of the socks, but also because I have figured out how to share a picture of the socks from my laptop.  This is very big news, because it means that A) the puppy has not chewed up a second cable, and B) I have figured out the Linux/Ubuntu methods of sharing pictures, which are different than the Windows/Microsoft software programs on my desktop computer.  In all other things, I really have learned to prefer Linux (especially on that money issue), but getting photos onto the blog has been a bit.....problematic.  I have been able to add them sideways or upside down, but tonight's right-side-up achievement is, perhaps, a first.  So....I will also show you the September Project of the Month which is the brown pajama top for Andy's coffee pjs, which wouldn't be quite as necessary now that I've found the missing pajama top.....except for the fact that now I can't find the extra material that I was going to piece together to ma...

What happened to the blog updates?  Well, I am dog & house sitting for friends, and in order to get ready for that, I spent Friday running errands and Saturday making salsa.  Then I wasn't here for 24 hours before one of the dogs chewed up my laptop cord, so as soon as my battery ran out, my laptop was done.  Andy ended up loaning me his cord until we can order a new one from Dell, so here I am.  Or at least as long as Andy's old laptop holds out. However, there has finally been some knitting, and the Sunshine Socks are done!!!!!!  They would be project 61, so 39 left to go and 117 days left to get there.  Theoretically, the part for Jeeves should have been shipped 13 days ago, and IF they couldn't find an even slower method of shipment than predicted, and IF the repair guy works this week and IF they bother to call me when Jeeves is actually ready and IF they actually fix the existing problems without creating any new ones, I could be embroidering i...

It's the first of September, and my totals for the year stand thus (don't you just love it when you can use an obscure old word like "thus?"): Finished projects:  60 Total skeins of yarn used:  39.1 Total yards of yarn used:  8673.5 Total yards of fabric used:  63.69 With 4 months to go, I need 40 projects, and I'm really hoping to hit 100 yards of fabric used for the year.  I would have sworn I have used up more than 39 skeins of yarn, but as there has been a lot of lace happening, that probably makes sense.  BUT..... could I at least reach 50 by the end of the year???????? And what am I doing working on a quilt????????????