A Little Yarn On The Side

I am sort of tempted to tell you that I cleaned the sewing room today, but since that seems to imply that either the sewing room should look at least somewhat cleaner OR, as is usually the case in my world, that I have just misplaced a bunch of things that I will spend hours looking for in about 6 months, that would (hopefully) be inaccurate.  Maybe the appropriate thing to say is that I have achieved a new level of personal growth, because I am donating crafting books and magazines to the library. When you have recovered from the shock, let me say that it started with this: I had gone into the sewing room to look for a book, and ran across the Christmas quilting book, which is the misguided source of the disastrous folded-ornament attempt to make the ornaments on the cover of the book.  I am generally a very big fan of books and usually find them quite friendly, but there are a few bad apples in every society, and this one insists on taunting me with the cover picture ...

Thanks to everyone for your well-wishes.  Apparently, they worked, because I was feeling better by Wednesday.  And, I was able to put my time on Tuesday to good use--finishing a beaded scarf.  I'm blocking it with a few others today: Theo is sulking because I won't let him lay on them, and snatched this out from under him before he could fur it up.  I liked the look of the table runner as it is so much that I decided to not quilt and bind it, so I just sewed a backing on with the right sides together, turned it right side out, and then edge-stitched it with the gold thread I used for the lower leaf.  I am REALLY pleased with how it turned out--in fact, I think I need to make at least one more so we get to keep one. The cold is hanging on,   and these have been hanging off the roof for a week on the north side of the house.  I think it was finally supposed to get above freezing today, but they're predicting freezing rain tonight and m...

Boise has been setting records for low temperatures this week, which isn't quite as bad as it sounds.  Most of the windows in our house are covered with really nice blinds, and any doubts I had about them keeping the house slightly warmer have been dispelled by: frost on the inside of the windows with drawn blinds.  This is good to know, because in a few years I am going to have to address the fact that no matter how expensive or well made blinds might be, the strings that operate them are all cheap pieces of junk with the sole purpose of getting twisted and breaking.  I don't know if they can be restrung or if I'll have to buy new blinds entirely--I thought I'd save looking into those fun options for when I absolutely have to.  In the meantime, I am keeping the blinds drawn against the balmy 15 degrees we're enjoying now, and the record-breaking 3 degrees overnight. On the one hand, as a knitter, this sort of weather really makes my obsession hobby look re...

Did I mention we were picking tomatoes as late as Sunday?  We finally planted the garlic last weekend because it just hadn't been cold enough any earlier.  Our historical frost date is October 10, but with rising temperatures, it's been getting later and later, but this was definitely the latest.  Then Thursday and Friday, we received Idaho's new record snowfall for November. Pretty, but Theo was really sulky: He and Calisto have been hunting voles in the backyard every day, and in spite of being a long-haired cat with hair between his toes specifically FOR walking in the snow, he has absolutely no intention of going near the stuff.  Instead, he decided to "help" me embroider a lace ornament.  Luckily I got the machine stopped before a cat laying on the embroidery hoop messed it up, and it did free up my crating table, so in a desperate attempt to grab some fabric yardage before the year is up because Christmas is coming soon, I took the 4 yards of...

Or probably 100.5 Because it had been hanging around for a few years, I thought it would be nice to finish the mitten garland for project number 100, and depending on how one wants to look at it, it was.  All the mittens are attached to the garland,  but I'm going to need some more mittens: The intent was there, but I don't think it really counts as "finished" yet, since "finished" usually means "not requiring any more effort." So, that left it until today for, a finished table runner!!!!!  As I ended up using the second piece as the backing, there's not going to be a second one right now.   I'm a bit tired of ribbon right now: Theo, on the other hand, is not: Winter arrived here yesterday, which is also known around here as "humans entertaining the kitties" season.  Tonight after helping me with the ribbon, he tried helping me with the blog,  then moved on to "helping" me with the leaf table r...

But it was a close thing--believe me.  As I'm taking a break from Cold Sheeping, there really isn't a reason for me NOT to buy yarn.......well, except for the really, really, REALLY massive yarn stash that is why I started Cold Sheeping in the first place.  And the fact that I literally have no more room in the craft room.  Two tubs are outside the door right now so I can get at some of my other stuff, and using up 52 balls of yarn and 46 yards of fabric just hasn't freed up as much space as I had hoped.  (To be fair, the 22 yards for pajamas was fabric I purchased at the end of last year's spending ban and making 4 sets of pajamas meant I didn't ever have to find a place FOR that 22 yards of fabric, and 11 of the balls of yarn have been bought and used since I stepped off my sheep in September, but that's another story......) Yesterday I received an email about discounted sock yarn.  Discounted. Sock. Yarn.  And I'm off the sheep........But I resisted...

So, one of the reasons I have been working on gifts is obviously that Christmas is coming, and in the past one of my favorite parts of the holidays is a girl's Secret Santa exchange.  We get assigned names, have two get-togethers where we bring gifts for our person, and then on the second night, the person tries to guess.  Many of these ladies are good friends, and I love either making things I think they will like or finding little things to buy them.  All fun, right? Think again. A few years ago, one of the ladies had suggested that we try exchanging things we already had.  I thought this sounded fine in theory, but when it came down to it, I didn't think it actually worked, and rather than giving someone something that I didn't want, I made gifts for my person because it was someone I really wanted to do something special for.  I think most of us shared my view, and we went back to just using the $15 spending limit last year. The email went out last we...

 Having reached 99 projects with just under 2 months to go, last night seemed like the perfect time to start a really time-consuming project, so I have started a new set of Christmas pillowcases--for next year, obviously.  I'm stupidly optimistic, but not completely insane.  There is still this  which is progressing, but since most of it is outlining, it gets a bit boring.  Today I got to the sewing room early, but not as early as some, and for a while, we were doing fine.  When I cut out the fabric for the two ribbon bags, I actually cut enough fabric for FOUR, but thought the other two pieces could become table runners.  Starting with the green organza, I got quite a bit done and stopped to decide if maybe I should just leave it as it is.  Theo votes yes, though his taste is often as questionable as his views on "helping:" So I think the white ribbon is out.  And someone is sulking now that what's left of the...

Meet finished project number 99: which is my new favorite project.  THIS time I used organza ribbon for the first stripes, then it made sense to tie it in on the handles as well. I promise this one really is going into the gift bin, honest.  Even if it WOULD make a wonderful project bag for knitting...........

.....but self-patterning sock yarn could be the candy sprinkles on top. So, as soon as the second pair of socks was finished,  there I was, casting on for the final pair. Apparently I've missed self-patterning yarn in stockinette more than I thought I had.  And this has certainly solved my guilt problems over the new sock yarn, as this will be the end of the impulse yarn I grabbed at Joanns.  Or, at least, for now.....