A Little Yarn On The Side

When one has been making Christmas decorations for 11 months, it's kind of a strange realization that Christmas is actually coming soon.  All year it's been a very distant sort of idea, and BAM!  Here it is--the week the trees actually go up! So, since there is really nothing I won't put off until the last minute, I have been soaking and drying the rather large stack of free-standing lace ornaments.  The gold stockings and treble clefs are actually left over from LAST year--guess I didn't feel like washing and drying them last year either. I've been wrapping gifts, as well as trying to make some.  Theo hasn't been interested in sewing for a while, but  there wasn't rope to lay on previously.  It seems to be right up there with laying on patterns and fabrics a human is trying to cut out.  Needless to say, there isn't a finished bowl just yet. And speaking of unfinished projects, I worked on another WIP yesterday.  I'm closing in o...

It turns out none of us really like Mondays around here, but at least it's a holiday week - and in my experience the week that almost all real work in America stops until January.  I don't think it's a coincidence that Cyber Monday--THE biggest online shopping day of the year--occurs on a work day.  Of course, when you're getting ready for the holidays, healing from a back injury, and not in possession of a "real" job, one day can be pretty much like all the others.  Of course, my back does a nice job of keeping things fresh and new.  I was a bit sore today, so there was extra knitting time, and NO ORNAMENTS.  Instead, I finished Andy's socks!!!!  That's WIP number 4!  Okay, that still leaves 18 knitting WIPs to go, but at least it's progress!

Today while working out our Christmas gift list, I decided to do full sets of lace icicle ornaments for two people instead of just one, which strangely enough meant, more lace icicles.  Most of the white ones I made were from last year and have already been used to decorate trees here, so I need to do the other 3 tomorrow for the second set of six.  These three brought me to 364, then I finished two more dog ornaments this evening, which makes 366!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  And scratches one full gift off my to-do list.  I even started my new ornament idea for an engagement gift.  I'll frame this on red felt, which will hopefully be finished up tomorrow so it can go out in the mail.  Then I can get on with some of the slower projects........... Of course, I'm still not actually "done" as I want to make 3 more terrorized gingerbread men for my youngest niece and nephews and can't use the existing ones as they all have to be slightly differen...

 I need five more ornaments!!!!!!!!!!!  You read that right--FIVE.  If I hadn't had an incident with the accidental mating of two ornaments, for which there are simply NO clean jokes, I would only need four.  Words simply fail me--which is best as any attempt to describe this is going to get me on some VERY unfortunate searches on Google.  I did manage to make a second G-rated Santa,  as well as these, for friends who recently lost a dog and my cousin who adopted one this year.  There is a third in the works, and will be a fourth when I get another piece cut out.  Jeeves is now busy on blue icicles, which cannot possibly achieve an R- or even a PG-rating, and I have been doing nice, wholesome things like washing the starch out of the pile of lace ornaments: Believe it or not, this has taken a rather elaborate trial-and-error method, resulting in: They can't dry on fabric, because the starch sticks.  If left to their o...

While I continue to make great strides with ornaments with 3 new mittens for the Holiday music dash,  and two new french horn ornaments, you might have noticed a spectacular lack of progress on my WIP-marathon.  I have actually been working on my WIPs, but most are still a very, very long way from completion.  I just turned the heel of Andy's second sock today, so I have high hopes for a finished WIP by the end of the month, but the project has reached a snag: Our oldest niece just got engaged, and I bought this yarn last year "just in case" I would have need to make an engagement shawl.  In general, I'm not a big fan in marriage under the age of 25-28, but they've been together for 3 years and were friends before that and everyone really likes her fiance, so it's a good snag. Andy will make wooden wine goblets for their actual wedding gift, but I thought a lace shawl would make a great shower gift and be something special.  And mercifully the pattern...

“FILL YOUR HOLIDAYS WITH MUSIC” STASHDASH Your holiday mission, should you choose to accept it: Find a cute holiday-ish basket that will inspire you to fill it with yarny-goodness Between November 15 and midnight of January 30 , fill it with any combination of the following:   A. Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas - knit something small (less than 6 inches or thereabout) B. Frosty the Snowman - knit a snowman of some sort or something with a snowman on it C. Toyland - make the toy of your choice D. My Favorite Things - make “warm woolen mittens” in your choice of yarn and size. Mini mittens do count E. Here Comes Santa Claus - knit a Santa or something with Santa on it F. A Marshmallow World - spin the fiber of your choice G. Silver Bells - make a bell or something with a bell motif H. Jingle Bells - make something (such as an ornament or stocking or whatever) that can have jingle bells attached to it I. Blue Christmas - make something blue J. White Christmas - ...

Okay--more like snow/sleet/rain Saturday, but we did wake up to actual snow.  Needless to say, those last couple rows of garlic didn't get planted today.  Instead, there are two new lace ornaments, and more cross stitch!  For the " Fall Back Into Love" Stashdash , one of the categories was 6 rows on your most frustrating WIP.  I was originally thinking the mohair sweater, but every time I thought the word "frustrating" I thought of the 7+ year cross stitch progress.  There are actually far more than 6 new rows now, but I thought I might as well do the thing right and have done another 3 square inches today. Incidentally, I found this yesterday: I don't know if you can see this exactly, but in the first row of yellow/gold stitching there is something wonky with one of the stitches--making it more of a star than a cross.  I know I'm not doing this exactly right as a real purist would have ALL the stitches going the same direction with all the to...

It's 3:00 PM here and so far, no one has needed to go to any sort of doctor or vet--we're making progress!  We're not great, of course, and I don't think I've been forgiven for yesterday's trip to the vet just yet, but after being pulverized by the physical therapist yesterday, I felt good enough this morning to go for a walk around our subdivision today.  Not a long one, but I think I could have.  Because of all the issues in the last few weeks, it's more important than ever that I don't hurt myself because it just winds everything back up and undoes all the progress I've made the last 4 months.  So I'm trying very, very, VERY hard to do nothing to upset my back, so a small walk that I can do is 1000-times better than a longer walk that I can't do.  Of course, yesterday after physical therapy I wasn't feeling nearly as good, so I've had a bit of a crafting marathon.  Being so close to my ornament goal, I decided to dig out t...

I thought I'd do a quick update. Andy: Cold mostly gone, still some coughing Calisto: seems to be doing better, no more horrible things happening in the bathtub, has only drawn blood during two doses of antibiotics Theo:  able to pee in small doses this morning but yowling a great deal.  Most likely an actual urinary tract infection and would mean two cats on antibiotics simultaneously Toni: totally flattened by a back relapse Monday and Tuesday, feeling good enough today to be flirting with the idea of running away from home............. We're a sad lot around here, needless to say.  I am going to be even sadder if I have to medicate both cats.  But at least I'm up and around today and have Jeeves making new ornaments, which is a nice change after the last few days.  I'd like to say I know what I did, but I don't.  The only thing I do know is that doing my stretches Monday night to help "fix" the problem made it much, much worse, and I spent th...

As it's the weekend, it's hard to really say whether I'm still on vacation or not--especially considering how much kitty-care has been happening during my "vacation," but there was some ornament progress yesterday, and I am only 29 ornaments away from my goal!  I'm going to can some tomatoes this morning, but the jars and lids are already cleaned so it should be a pretty quick project, so I'll have some time for crafting this afternoon, so maybe there will be two more cat ornaments by the end of the day.  That little mass of fabric in the center is an attempt at a candy cane ornament from a cookie cutter, and is being such a pain to turn inside-out that it may never get past this stage.  I had hoped to finish a bunch of sewing projects this past week, but next time I'll know to check with the cats to see what their schedule is going to be.  Theo seems to resent the attention Calisto is getting, and is refusing to eat his supplement-enriched foo...

So I was going to wait until January 1 for the sake of simplicity, but after a second visit to Joann's yesterday, I'm not setting foot in that place again for the next 2 months anyway, so Crafting Buying Ban #2 kicks off today.  This year I will make one exception up front:  I didn't get another embroidery card for Jeeves, and the dealer I use is a 4-hour round trip drive away which I won't be able to do for a while yet, so if I need one next year, I can go get one.  Otherwise, no new crafting anything until November 9, 2014.   Andy's plane was arriving yesterday, so I decided to run to Joann's for the black fabric and the grocery store for chicken soup before heading to the airport.  I do not say this lightly, but the grocery store was WAY more fun than Joanns.  For those of you who don't have Joann's Fabrics , it's a big chain store that depends on volume, not loyalty.  They closed two smaller stores here a few years ago to implement a "Supe...

I have been to a fabric store WITHOUT going crazy!  Actually, I've been to two.  The morning started with tracking down Calisto and dropping her off at the vet's on my way to physical therapy.  I was worried she might have worms, and decided that even I have limits on my vacation, so thought she was best in the hands of professionals.  I grew up on a cattle ranch and have wormed horses and done all sorts of bizarre things, but Calisto has never been given medication of any sort outside her normal shots, and before risking life and limb to do it, I wanted to make sure it was necessary.  And I have been rewarded for my sins with 10 days of antibiotics to give her twice a day.  Because what's more fun than medicating one cat--why, medicating TWO cats. Not surprisingly, my back was was pretty wound up for therapy, so the massage was painful, but I finished up just when the stores were opening at 9:00, and decided to take the plunge anyway.  I had a "25...