A Little Yarn On The Side

My paternal grandmother, who had once been a "professional crafter" died today at 91.  She'd been hospitalized 2 weeks ago with pneumonia, had a heart attack last week.  For a while, it looked like she might recover from both, but as she desperately wanted to not have to be in a care center but could never have gone back home, we're grateful she was able to go fairly peacefully. Both my grandmothers were crafters, but this was the "professional."  She and my grandfather used to travel around the west selling Grandma's "tin-can crafts," which I will have to post pictures of as soon as I dig mine out.  It used to be quite popular in the 1960s and 1970s, but I can't even find pictures on the internet (this is as close as I can find ).  My parents have a big peacock that she made using different colored tin soda cans for the feathers.  My sister and I each have the miniatures--a little couch from (I think) a Band-aid box, rocking chairs made ...

To reach the possibly crazy goal of 365 ornaments by the end of the year, averaging an ornament a day is obviously the goal (see how nicely that works?)  So, to be on track I need to have 59 ornaments by the end of February.  Right about now is when I start wishing I had purchased a bit more embroidery thread for those lace ornaments............. I have another completed ball ornament, which I'm not overly pleased with. This is the first one I've made with the two-colors on every row of the center, and the colors get muddled.  Oh well.  I have two trees to decorate, which means I also have two backs of trees to decorate.  Looks like we'll be keeping two categories of ornaments this year:  my favorites and the ugly ones.  THAT should make an interesting decor scheme...... Having a ball turn out badly--or perhaps having made so many already--I've grown a bit bored with the improvised balls, so it was time to look for a new ornament pattern id...

I'm recovering from the fall fast enough to know I didn't do anything serious, but it still hurts enough to have stopped any real sewing for a few days.  I felt pretty good Friday morning, so we made a quick dash to a library book sale then stopped for lunch, and that seems to have been the limit for my back for the day.  So, no sewing projects, but...... remember these?   Tada!!!  One is now empty!!!!!!!!!!!  The bigger pieces have been sorted out and added to the stash, and the smaller cotton ones, have been ironed and are now being cut into backs for the quilted ornaments AND 3-inch squares to attempt a patchwork quilt.   I've never done one before, but I keep hanging onto scrap fabric, and it's time to either use it or throw most of it out (one always needs scraps for serger testing and that sort of thing).  I think this will be a fun experiment, and I am hoping the results will be some colorful baby blankets.  I tend to fav...

It would be hard to say whether the hour in the pool turned out to be good or bad, because yesterday morning while doing leg squats propped against my exercise ball against the closed bathroom door, the door swung open on the 10th one and I fell.   Right on my ego.  Apparently even Theo can recognize a cry of surprise, because Andy only beat him to the hallway by a few seconds.  Tonight I'm feeling good enough to know that I didn't do any serious damage, but yesterday was really, REALLY painful, and I spent the day on full medications and the heating pad.  So, if I was at all sore from the pool, it was pretty much covered up from being sore from a losing battle with a door.  Thank heavens THAT didn't have to go on my medical record.  The turkey incident was bad enough........... There was some very simple knitting, starting with finishing the green ball, then stripes when the drugs were at their strongest,  then getting a bit trickier as they...

The original plan was to maybe finish up the shirt for Andy's Valentine's ensemble today.  However, I was feeling pretty good and excited about spring, so I went to the gym and walked in the pool for an hour!  Okay, it felt better mentally than it did physically, quite frankly, and it has meant spending the rest of the afternoon on the heating pad, but it's the first time I've been able to do it since November, so it's sort of worth it.  Spring is in the air, and this knitter's fancy is turning to thoughts of getting out of the house occasionally...............

I've had three really good "back days" in a row, so yesterday I felt good enough to kick off Finishing Friday with a blanket repair job that I've been meaning to get to: The original satin edging had ripped across the top and formed a very strange string, so I had ripped it out one day while doing back stretches, and raided my stash to find a new satin binding for it.  Ivory would have looked better, but I didn't have that, and it's for the guest bedroom, which I assume no one checks for exact color matches.   It's always sort of a risk to start my day with a repair that I haven't done before, because if the repair goes badly, nothing else happens, but I did it on the first try, and was still feeling good enough to lay out the rest of the fabric for Andy's ensemble on the floor and finish getting it all cut out.  My back didn't last long enough to finish anything, but one of my Ravelry groups is having a virtual "sew-in" toda...

I had a pretty good back day yesterday, so last night I felt like sewing.  At first I thought I'd whip up a few produce bags from this mesh fabric I bought a while ago, but I was using a white chocolate martini to get a break from the drugs (weird, but it works once in a while), and this fabric is NOT one to be tried when consuming anything stronger than water.  It's the sort of thing that DRIVES one to drink.  So, this will be a future project.  Like when I'm having a bad day and don't think it could possibly get any worse. Andy and I usually make each other Valentine's gifts, and ever since I made myself a set of summer clothes from this fabric:  Andy has wanted some as well, so I started cutting out these last night: His will be the shirt with the collar and short sleeves (why do men insist on that collar?), and the long pants.  Obviously, we'll never appear in public in this sort of dreadfully-cutesy matching attire, and mine are at least cr...

So I'm thinking that a smart person might have decided to take it a bit easy if one was trying to get off pain pills.  MY approach, however, generated some pretty serious pain by evening, and of course by the time I was in pain AND tensed which generated even MORE pain, I ended up taking full drug doses last night and needing a rest today.  The GOOD news is that resting today gave me time to make two new ornaments today: and I think I'm smart enough to try half doses next time.  These are improvised ornaments with worsted weight acrylic yarns, so they're much bigger balls than the color-work ones, but I am very pleased with them.  They're both made with sparkly yarns and look very festive.  The acrylic isn't nearly as easy to work with as the wool fingering, but it's still fun and it didn't require using any charts.  ALWAYS a consideration when back on pain meds...........

The Christmas socks are done, and came very, VERY close to sending me back to mostly toe-up socks.  Out of a 100-gram ball with 458 yards of yarn, I finished with this: I have no idea what I actually would have done had they required any more yarn, since I don't have any more of this AND it's been discontinued, but I do love knitting on the edge.  Not that I'm not making a note in my project book to make the legs slightly shorter for this particular recipient.  Once is fine, but I don't want to press my luck too much.  I try to save THAT sort of behavior for lace. Lately I've been feeling nauseous almost constantly instead of just afternoons as I had been, so I have decided to try going off the pain pills entirely.  The spine specialist said to take them for 2 weeks after my back stopped hurting, but I don't think I'm going to get better if I can't exercise, and I can't exercise when I'm nauseous, so today is my first pill-free day in ...

We woke up to snow again today, but the sort that melts off quickly, and as it's the first sunny day in a bit, it actually feels a bit like spring.  So, I have finished the summer dress for Finishing Friday.  This gives me almost 18 yards of fabric used for the year so far, and I'd like to say that it makes a noticeable difference in my stash, but.........It does however make a noticeable addition to my wardrobe.  I wore the new dress last night, and I've worn the micro-suede pants and collarless shirt already.  The summer dress might be just a tad bit early, but it will be fun to have a new summer dress.  I haven't forgotten my ornament goal, and made 3 new ivory icicle ornaments today: Looks like there aren't going to be too many ivory ornaments either: though I have one spool left, so I think I can get 6 more.  I adore these icicle ornaments.  All 6 are very, very different, and if I could be persuaded to part with any, could make re...

One of my nieces has taken up knitting--mostly finger knitting as she's pretty young,  but she has a birthday coming up and we thought this: would be a good gift.  It's a cute little kit, but it only comes with 2 balls of yarn, which, for a relative of mine, will NEVER do.  I am sending all the remnants of novelty yarn I have, but decided to risk Joann Fabrics to get another ball of yarn for her, and s this is ALL the yarn I came home with!!!  I did buy some spring flowers to put in Andy's office, but that doesn't break my rules since that's household money rather than mine.  I even looked at fabric but didn't feel tempted!  Of course, that might have something to do with "looking at" meant "walking really quickly down the aisles and refusing to make eye contact with any fabric looking too tempting," but I judged the entire enterprise a HUGE success! I did have my one exception for the year: which sort of only vaguely counts anyway...

Last night I cut out the fabric for the summer dress AND a matching hat.  I haven't started sewing them yet, but as laying out the pattern and cutting it is my very least favorite part of sewing, I was rather amazed with myself.  I've already used up more fabric so far this year than I did during the entire year last year, and I think if I even sew a little bit most days, I really could use up a fair bit of fabric this year.  It might even be easy to move around in the sewing room by this time next year!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I need to go lay down--I think the shock is too much for me right now...............

After much wrangling, trying every option I could think of, and ripping out more seams than an entire wardrobe would require, I finally finished the wrap skirt, and have officially used up another 5.875 yards of early fabric stash.  I was so mad at the skirt that I didn't think to get a picture of it (or the pants) before it went into the wash, but I did take a picture of the shirts, which, even after SAYING that the one with the collar would have short sleeves and the other would get the long sleeves, I managed to mix up.  Obviously, there might be a reason I usually knit at night instead of sew.  The mix up isn't tragic, so I decided to leave them.  As I really like the shirt pattern, there's a possibility I'll make more of them AND get them correct, so these are now known as "variations" rather than "stupid flippin' mistakes." Sometimes even hobbies need spin doctors. I still need to add the accent buttons to the collar (which ended up on...