A Little Yarn On The Side

I have almost kicked the bronchitis, I think.  Aside from a little bit yesterday, my cough is almost gone.  I still have some chest congestion, so Tuesday I picked up a cold medicine supposedly for chest congestion.  I say "supposedly" because that third one is an outright lie.  I think it is supposed to be cherry flavor, but whatever cherries ever did to anyone to deserve such an insult is beyond me.  It's so awful that yesterday I was nauseous every time I took it.  Someone in the marketing department for these folks is just a sadist--that's all there is to it.  Tomorrow will be 5 weeks of this garbage, and I feel like I should have a lot more knitting to show for it.  I've been working on the Alice Starmore sweater--possibly because an oversized sweater in fingering weight yarn and a never-ending cough seem to go together--and I just finished up another ball of yarn, which makes almost 1300 yards of yarn in this baby already.  Thi...

Last weekend I really was over the bronchitis, but I made the mistake of stopping the nights of Nyquil as well.  After 3 weeks of the stuff, I seem to have been a little addicted to sleep aids, so for two nights in a row, I couldn't sleep.  Monday morning the darn but was back and I'm not over it yet.  Dang it. I am feeling slightly better today, so I thought I'd play a little catch-up.  In little bursts of feeling good this week I've been working on some shaping ideas for bowls.  I wanted to see how far one could curve the sides inward, which isn't that far unless the bowl is large, and there's a point where it goes from "possible" to "impossible" all at once.  Next I thought I'd try to curve the bowl down instead of up, which only goes to show you how far the month of cold medicine has addled my brain.  You cannot slant a bowl downward because there's a bottom of a sewing machine in the way.  So, I practiced my slanted-side...

Perhaps it's because I feel a bit better today, or perhaps it's because I have been spending soooooo much time knitting, but today I found the gumption to try a fabric & rope bowl. The book Andy gave me for my birthday, is written by a free-thinker after my own heart (when on cold medication, one can mix metaphors).  She says scraps of fabric work just fine, and it doesn't really matter how you cut them.  The book I bought says quite specifically that one MUST cut strips on the bias and they MUST be a very specific width.  I'm always suspicious of "musts," as they are so often wrong.  In chemistry, I believe "musts." In making baskets, I have my doubts.  So, this week while wallowing in self-pity, I cut fabric strips I just used pinking sheers and not a single one is perfectly straight, but again, the author said it wouldn't really matter.  I've only seen these baskets made with cotton fabrics, and being me, I wanted to see what ...

.......but I am tired of knitting.  There.  Hell hath perhaps frozen over, but it's 8:00 PM here, I'm in my pjs, I could be knitting, and I don't want to.  I have GOT to get over this bug before my brain snaps permanently. I had a better day today, though the bronchitis has teased me before.  Last week was mostly better, and I was feeling good enough one day to clean the master bath--albeit in small spurts that took the entire day.  I had to keep resting, but it went well........or until I got the brilliant idea to bleach the shower floor.  There are many things one can probably do to help with congestion, but nowhere on that list will one find "inhale cleaning fumes."  I'm an idiot, of course, but the shower floor is really, really clean. Today marks 3 weeks of this gunk, and I have had so many people tell me it lasts 3 weeks that I was really hoping to wake up today completely better.  I did wake up feeling a bit better, which I know could...

I am still sick and starting to feel a little sorry for myself and a LOT frustrated.  Normally, this is the time when I might start a little on-line shopping to cheer myself up, which is a little inconvenient when one is on a spending ban.  So far, I've been able to distract myself, and even worked on the side seams of the long-languishing March Madness Sweater: Maybe I can get it done by March of THIS year???? 

The Ravellenic Games are coming in February.  Formerly known as Ravelympics, in 2012, knitters worldwide were informed by the United States Olympic Committee informed us that we could not use even part of the word "olympic" because they have sole rights to even just part of the word so they can exploit it for money, and that we "denigrated" the athletes by presuming to model crafting events after Olympic events.  Strike 1 against the entire concept, but the renamed knitting games went on. THIS year the Russian stance on human rights bled over into the Ravellenic Games in spite of the games having technically nothing whatsoever to do with Russia or the Olympics, things don't seem to be handled as well as they could have been, things apparently got quite heated, finally resulting in the team of moderators (many of whom have led the games for the last 6 years) to resign en masse .  There will be a new group formed, but the whole episode--and I think most specifi...

Or, I suppose the statement of surprise should be, "I combined felt and glue without mishap!" More to the point, really and by FAR the biggest part of the surprise. I tried a few with craft glue and a few with Elmer's, and the craft glue worked best.  That would seem a rather silly statement to make, except that so often I've found that Elmer's Glue-All works best for the oddest things.  Today I made, the first of my 10 ornaments for the year.  I'm guessing there will probably be more than 10, and I haven't figured out exactly how to count them for my finished projects.  Maybe this should be half a project. Meanwhile, my usual sidekick  is having nothing to do with me tonight.  After 6 months, we have a bit of a ritual about Theo's supplements.  Only the ritual changes according to kitty whim, so in spite of the fact that I got the can out of the fridge early enough for it to warm up and in spite of not serving him this morning's l...

I'm waiting for the glue to dry, but I think I have successfully made felt fortune cookies today: It's a pattern from Martha Stewart , which makes me a bit nervous. Martha and her staff might be able to get felt and glue to work for them, but that's no guarantee that it will turn out well for me.  We're having friends over for dinner on Valentine's Day, and I thought these would be fun.  If they work, I'll put a fortune and maybe some chocolates in them.  Fingers crossed.......

....but not as badly.  I guess that's progress.  And speaking of progress... I have half a table free now!!!!  We celebrate small victories around here....especially when there aren't any large ones. The bronchitis continues to hang on, so I have good and bad days still.  I have been working on my knitting WIPs, but I also started a toddler jacket for a young member of the family who didn't get a Christmas gift from us because I didn't get to it.  She's a distant connection, so we're outside the "mandatory" gift range and more in the "Gosh, wasn't that nice of them?" spot, which takes the pressure off.  I thought this would be a cute birthday gift, and in a size 3 I'm giving myself some wiggle room in case it needs to be a Christmas 2014 gift.  It can be hard to intersect children and knitting. After so much knitting time, my hands get tired, so I have a new sock as well.  It's a simple pattern that I can do while r...

Well, I may not have enjoyed great health so far this year, but it has been good for the 100-projects goal.  Last night I finished Mr. Flurry, except for his eyes, which he'll get when he gets stuffed.  I had intended for his scarf to get some fringe, but in less than one day the end of the yarn has frizzled completely, so we'll skip it.  He entirely took the last of my Red Heart white, and as I never count the Red Heart yarn in my stash used tally until it's totally gone, I got a great big 364-yard boost to my tally for the year, which was quite exciting.  So exciting, in fact, that I cast on a new, quick project immediately.  It's a basket-weave scarf using another acrylic yarn that I've had for some time.  I love the colors, but don't remember what the three skeins were intended to do, if anything.  I almost used them for a toddler jacket, but variegated yarns always pool so badly that I opted for a scarf instead.  Or maybe two, ...

I am not about to say that there is anything good about being sick, but at least it isn't a total loss.  Aside from needing buttons, the Baby Surprise Jacket is done, and project number 3 is on its way.  It's going to be a Mr. Flurry snowman like this one,  and will oddly enough use up my very last bit of white Red Heart acrylic yarn.  With all the yarn I have and the huge stash of acrylic yarn I've always had, there is one I will run out of and it will be the cheap stuff.  Weird.   I am feeling better, thankfully, and have been able to start taking down Christmas decorations today.  One tree is completely down and boxed, which is probably enough of a start for one day.  I had wanted to do some sewing today, but was in kind of a funk.  We gave several of the rope baskets away for Christmas, and while most people were quite thrilled with them, we also had people joking about them as fezzes.  I don't know, it may just be...

I have my first Finished Project of the year: which I technically could have finished before the end of the year, but a head-start can't hurt.  Especially when one has been sick for a week.  We're very lucky, however. We have had "His" and "Hers" get-well kitties.  Callisto kept Andy company in the back room,  while Theo has hung out with me in our room--here enjoying a pillow-fort Andy built for him: No, our cats aren't spoiled in the slightest. I thought I might even be showing you a second finished project today, but the Baby Surprise Jacket didn't get finished today.  It's moving right along however.  The turquoise yarn wasn't listed in my Ravelry stash, which is a bit disconcerting as I would have sworn that after moving everything out of and back INTO the sewing room I finally had all the yarn accounted for, but I guess I missed one.  I had discovered the error in time for yesterday's tally to be correct with this ...

Happy New Year! I started feeling better today--not great, but better--so I'm optimistic about everything right now.  Amazing what a little difference like sleeping through the night can make.  For the last week, when the Nyquil's 6 hours wore off, I woke up coughing immediately.  Last night I actually took it early because I was so miserable...and slept straight through until 6:00 this morning with no coughing.  Yay!!!!!! So on such a high note, I start the new year with: 928.08 balls of yarn 194,301.4 yards of yarn and an unbelievable amount of fabric, but we just aren't ready to start adding that just yet.  By the end of the year, however, I hope to have *  Finished 100 projects *  completed 12 threads on that cross stitch *  completed 12 threads on the needlework project  *  used 100 yards of fabric *  made 10 ornaments *  Finished 3 sewing WIPS *  Finished 3 knitting WIPS *  Buy no crafting su...