A Little Yarn On The Side

.....and don't think the thought of staying up until midnight hasn't crossed my mind.  But it's been a bad back week, and where willpower gives up, Valium takes over......... I'm not sure exactly what I did, but the therapist thought that after the last couple weeks plus the don't-sit-like-this episode on Saturday, I might just need to let things calm down a bit.  We had a busy weekend, then Monday I literally spent all day canning 18 pints of tomato soup.  After a late dinner party on Sunday involving a little too much sitting, this was probably a factor.  However, I felt pretty good when I woke up on Tuesday, ran a couple errands, then was at the very back of a huge store when my back suddenly just HURT.  Literally, out of nowhere I could barely move--it was like being mugged by my own backside.  And, of course, because walking is so important to my therapy and general health, I had parked my blasted car in the farthest space in the parking lot....

Jeeves is busy making icicle ornaments while I'm writing this, so I'm hoping to be at 298 ornaments any moment now and at 300 by the time I head downstairs to tackle the last of the tomato harvest. And not to get ahead of ourselves, meet ornaments 296 and 297,  which I just love.  The one on the right has a little too much stuffing so he's got a bit less neck than he should, but maybe he's a football-playing kitty ornament.  One of the "immediate need" things in those Joanns' boxes is some black embroidery floss, so on Friday they'll get hangers.  And sometime during that week, they'll probably get a few friends as I just love these little guys. I thought I would have another ornament done this weekend,  but I decided this still needs a little something in the center of that white--perhaps more stitching?  Right after getting this far, I discovered another item for the "never, ever do this again" list: sitting in a chair wi...

Last fall, I thought I was being quite clever by sorting all the yarn I thought I would use this year into one large bin, which looks like this as of today.  To be fair, I think it might be 5 or 6 balls of yarn lighter than it was at the beginning of the year, but obviously my optimism runneth over just as much as the bin does.  Of course, my favorite "preparation error" for the year is probably this: Last year, after getting so tired of using up an entire bag of stuffing per project, I finally decided to buy in bulk, and since it was on sale and I was going to make 365 ornaments, I bought THREE of them.  Now in my defense, I had no idea they more than doubled in size when the box is opened, but it's almost November and I haven't even used half of the first box.  Perhaps by this time next year..............?

"Finishing Friday" got scrapped this week for getting ready to have friends over last night--a very worthy cause indeed--but today I've got some crafting time before we go to a Halloween Seafood Boil tonight.  So, there are new mitten ornaments!  Can we tell how much I love the green and white mitten combo?  With these done, I have 70 ornaments left to go for the year.  Time for the sewing room! I'm still stuffing the cat ornaments, and have outlined a few more ornaments to work on,  so maybe I can get caught up today.  First thing though, during the whole 2-year back saga, I have spent an insane amount of time in pajamas, and my very favorite pajamas--homemade, even--developed a hole in the seat.  Do you mend things?  I've been getting better about it--especially when it's something I really like or will be really expensive to replace. I still had some scraps of fabric from making these, but as I didn't even attempt to make the r...

One week from today will be the last day of the spending ban--for this year at any rate.  Can you tell I'm just a wee bit excited? Actually, I'm probably more excited about the crafting vacation the following week, but they sort of go hand-in-hand.  I canned two rounds of crushed tomatoes this week, which cleared up a tiny bit of room in the freezer for the rest of the tomatoes as they ripen, and if I make a huge batch of tomato soup to can next week, I think I'll be sort of done with the canning for a bit.  I'd still like to can some roasted red peppers, but it isn't mandatory as I still have some left.  I should at least be able to take a week off from canning to CRAFT!!!!! I've been wimping around here with a cold the last two days, though Tuesday I still canned tomatoes because I'd gotten most things ready the night before and being around the steam actually helped, but yesterday I rested and, made it to 292 ornaments.  Since I'll run out of ...

....but I'm not going to discuss how long it took me to get the cats turned inside out: The tails had me a bit baffled until I finally consulted the directions and realized that they wrap around the cat from the back.  At first I just thought I had done it wrong.  I think they'll be quite cute when done, and so far they resemble the pictures in the book.  I'm not a huge fan of the "country" look, so I won't be making the goose anytime soon, but maybe the teddy bear or the rabbit.  I also dug up the cookie cutters again since the whole idea is that you trace the shape onto the back of the fabric, stitch that shape, reinforce it a bit with a small zig-zag right outside of the seam, THEN cut them out.  I can do that with most shapes, and I think it will be a great way to use up fabric scraps.  I was surprised that they didn't use Christmas fabrics, but when you see the ornaments, it doesn't really matter.  I am using a Christmas fabric scrap, but I...

I'm catching up!  Even if it is with Jeeves's help.  Red is pretty much the only machine embroidery thread I have left in any quantity, so there are three new red icicle ornaments.  Theoretically, I could have done 6 more and gotten caught up, but my back is still pretty fragile after jury duty, and these were the limits of my sewing room time.  It's healing, but obviously I won't be pushing it for a while.  It is making progress, and they still think I'll be able to do most things.........just maybe not race-walking or sitting for long periods, especially not on hard benches. While Jeeves was working, I dug out the ornament shapes I'd cut out earlier, which has been sort of counter-productive.  The whole idea of setting a goal to do a crazy number of ornaments was to give myself the freedom to try new things.  For unknown reasons, cutting out a stack of shapes all at once has made me less inclined to use any of them for experimental ideas....

My jury term is over!  Admittedly, I wouldn't have really minded were it not for the "no knitting" rule and two and a half hours on a hard bench.  No one can be enthusiastic about civic duty when it requires one of THOSE physical therapy appointments that leaves one with a very tender backside.  Luckily, I can now make mitten ornaments while on Valium.  280 down, 85 to go! And..........   The year-long spending ban ends two weeks from today!!!!!!!!!!!!! There have been a couple exceptions, but none involving the big stuff--yarn, fabric, thread, notions.  I don't know if I'm more amazed or proud, but shocked would have to be in there as well. My crafting vacation begins in 2 weeks and 2 days, and there are a few things I need for my crafting spree.  The problem is, after a full year, I'm just not ready to be released in a fabric store on my own.  I don't think it would be pretty.  BUT I want to embroider some new ornaments, make mo...

One more day for jury duty and I'm in the clear for a bit.  I don't know what the time frame is on these things--I was called only once before, and it was about 10 years ago.  Andy has only been called once ever, but there were people on the jury panel who had served two or three times.  Let's hope for another 10 years at least.  My back is a bit better, but I'm still VERY thankful I have physical therapy today.  It's probably going to be one of those painful sessions, but I usually feel better the next day, and if I do have to go in on Friday, I'll be taking a cushion and a note from the therapist. Blogger is FINALLY fixed, and I have ornament number 278, leaving me TWELVE ornaments behind.  Not great, but I was 14 behind last week, so I'm at least catching up.  And I still have a lot of ornament shapes to be sewn together, and.................. A REAL crafting vacation in two weeks! As you know, my planned "crafting vacation" at th...

....and I don't have jury duty!  The jury system is a great thing, it's even an interesting process, but it still doesn't mean I want to be there. I did have to go in yesterday, and I have to say that I was impressed with my fellow jurors.  No one WANTS to be there, but aside from two people who sounded like they were trying to get removed, during the questioning everyone really did take the process very seriously.  I was lucky enough to be at the end of the line for my particular panel--which meant that for me to be impaneled as a juror would have required the dismissal of 41 other jurors, which I think might have resulted in a mistrial--so I got to watch the process without really being involved.  Unfortunately, it meant two hours of sitting on the hard benches in the back, but at least I was saved from two additional hours on that bench by some sort of hiccup in the trial while we were on break, and we were sent home shortly before noon, and I spent the rest of...

Blogger is still broken, but after an afternoon of crafting, I now have two new felt ornaments.  Amazingly, I had put the beads on a sugar cookie ornament but had never sewn it together, so that was a nice find.  They're such cute ornaments. I also finished yet another mitten ornament, and even finished color-work ornament number 10: which is a jumping skier if you can't tell.  I still don't think I'll get all 55 done this year, but just a few weeks ago, I wasn't sure if I'd even get to TEN, so that's exciting. I've even started number 11!  This will only be the second one I've done in red, which is sort of funny as I did a blue-Christmas theme in the main room last year so won't be decorating with blue this year, even with all the cool new ornaments.  We have a huge entryway in the house, and we now have a big 9-foot tree to go in there in addition to the regular tree I put in the living room, and someday I'd like to decorat...

The spending ban is almost over (October 31 at midnight, but who's counting?), and it's actually getting a bit harder.  I am SO close that it almost just seems silly that in two weeks it will be okay but it isn't now.  Yesterday we met a friend to go prowl antique and thrift stores, and I ran across I don't know if you've examined sewing books at any length, but the more recent ones aren't really very helpful.  I suppose they might be if you're a beginner, or sew very simple things, but I sew clothes.  While I would not dare to call myself an expert or even an intermediate, I have run into issues and questions that are just more advanced than I can find.  The sewing book--which helpfully is even a three ring binder that will stay open --was published in 1961 originally and updated in 1970, so it's for an era when people made more of their clothing.  I had placed 3 books on my wishlist on Amazon to order on November 1 to hopefully find this informatio...

The fact that I could misplace my camera for several days can be explained by two words: canning season This is the time of a year when large boxes of tomatoes in the living room and canning jars in the entryway aren't even remarkable enough to be explained.  It's also the time of year when Finishing Friday gets usurped by 15 pints of salsa and 12 pints of crushed tomatoes.  But at least it's followed by a season of eating well , even if I am a little sick of tomatoes at that point. First, to prove that there were indeed two new mitten ornaments, and to remind myself that Bernat's red holiday yarn is a little too bright for my taste, though perhaps it will actually glow on the Christmas tree. I can now also show you my latest rope basket experiment,  which was much harder than I thought it would be.  I had a lot more trouble getting the oblong basket started than I expected, and ended up with a tiny gap in the bottom of the basket.  It was ...

......but to be fair, there's not much to photograph either.  I did make another mitten ornament yesterday, but it looks just like all the others anyway.  It gets me to 269 ornaments, which sounds like a crazy number until realizing I'm now 12 ornaments behind.  Eke! I could show you the 12 pints of olive and herb tomato sauce I canned yesterday, which might actually BE photo-worthy as the recipe said I would have about SIX pints and there might have been a bit of cursing going on, but I have been canning for too long now to have not been at least a little bit prepared for such a thing.  10 pounds of tomatoes going into 6 jars just seemed unlikely--at least in my world--so I did have extra jars cleaned and prepared.  It might have taken me a few years to learn that one, but I do eventually catch on to these things......... I do have a plan on the ornament front.  I still have one ornament design set that I haven't tried as I was a bit nervous about tr...

Finally, there was actually some crafting during my crafting "vacation."  Not a lot, but there are now three more ornaments, and if I could find my actual camera, you might be able to see my attempt at stippling on the felt heart.  I can't, and haven't yet figured out how to do much with the camera on my phone, so you'll have to take my word for it.  These still leave me quite a bit behind, but at least there are new ornaments. My big goal for this weekend was to get some LONG overdue birthday presents done.  I'm not as positive what Theo's goal was,  except to "help" by laying on everything in turns and shedding over everything.  It's a very important step in all my crafting projects.   With the house overflowing with fresh-picked produce, I spent the morning drying some sweet peppers and roasting, peeling, and freezing 3 dozen poblano peppers, but I still had time to finish these up this afternoon. Both birthdays were over the su...

An unexpected frost warning tonight combined with high winds meant the garden couldn't be covered, so after physical therapy, I harvested what was left.  Even after our friend picking on Tuesday and me picking yesterday, there were still an amazing number of ripe tomatoes, which are just sprawled all over the counters or in the freezer now.  I swear I am really, REALLY on vacation now.....................

Colorwork ornament number SEVEN is done: which leads me to think that the plan needs to be altered to "complete all 55 ornaments at some point in my lifetime."  I'm now aiming for 10 this year.  And this morning, I finally finished the blue bowl.  I canned a double-batch of carrot salsa AND a batch of chunky basil pasta sauce yesterday, so I am taking an extended weekend as a crafting vacation.  Ideally, I'll end up with either ornaments or finished WIPs (or both), but besides being fun, the bowl was on my sewing machine and the easiest way to get it OFF my sewing machine was to finish it.  It was supposed to be rather oval shaped, but it seems one must start with a more dramatic oblong than I did, because mine managed to flatten out into a "mostly round" shape.  This is why I'm learning with colored rope rather than covering plain rope with fabric--I can only manage one variable at a time.  Next up.................ornaments?