A Little Yarn On The Side

In the future I'm thinking it would be a good idea to either A) combine all my button stash into ONE container, or B) remember that my button stash actually is in several containers.  Not to get all "organized" or anything, but this does seem somewhat logical..... All of that aside, I found buttons! And I think they are perfect.....aside from the fact that they're sort of pointy and catch a bit on the yarn but isn't cuteness more important?  Especially when I'm not the person who will have to button them.......? After swearing loudly about how long the BSJ was taking and how I was tired of working on it, last night when I was ready to cuddle up under the covers with a book I discovered--horror of horrors--that I didn't have anything to knit while reading! Now this might be a tragedy in my life at any time, but in a year when I'm trying to complete an insane number of projects, this was just an impossible situation.  So, after a brief check t...

I didn't get to work on the table runner today either... It seems they're taking turns now. So instead, I finished the BSJ..YAY!!!!! I'm thinking navy blue buttons would look fabulous...which of course I don't have in my stash.  And, just to spite the cats, I made a towel today as well: The stabilizer still needs to be washed off, but I love how it turned out.  Unfortunately, the coffee cup is embroidered with REALLY long satin stitch, so I need to see if I can change that.  Otherwise, it's not a great design for a towel because it won't hold up to many washings.  Now, if I had ever read the instruction manual that came with the software, I would probably know exactly how to do it--and would possibly even know how to check what it will do BEFORE stitching it out.  As it is......I'll be lucky to find the manual.  At any rate..... 7 down - 93 to go!!!!!!!

There was sewing today!!!!!  Not that Theo cared--it was sunny today so he went out to find me a mouse--which was thankfully dead before I received it.  If I weren't a cat owner/staff member, dead animals in my house might freak me out.  As it is, it's more of a "Whoo hoo!  At least I don't have to catch it" sort of thing. Anyway, we can add 4 gift bags (which I'm counting as 2 projects because they don't feel like 4 projects and I'm not stupid enough to call them 1) to the "finished" tally: You've probably noticed there are only 3--the 4th had a tragic incident involving a cup of coffee, and has been rinsed and is hopefully drying safely in the bathroom (you never know with dry-clean-only fabrics).  I had intended to make lots more bags because I thought they would be really cute to put jars of jam in, but after wrestling with this very ravel-y fabric through 2 wine bags and 5 jam bags, I decided that making both the gift AND the gif...

Okay--I think this is my favorite BSJ ever! I don't know--maybe it's the color or the variation in stripes...or maybe because I've finished so few projects this year.....

I love the Baby Surprise Jacket! It is so clever and such a leap of faith. Who would ever believe that this: is actually a sweater? For those who are BSJ veterans, I'm on the 10-ridge insert, so I'm ALMOST done! I decided to shake up the stripe pattern just a little--which coincided nicely with the cast off for the neck shaping which would lead to the need to weave in ends for stripes (funny how these things work out)--but I picked up the stripes again in the inset. The great thing about the BSJ is you can pretty much do anything you want to with the stripes because it's automatically happening on both sides. You can just throw in a few stripes here or there, make an actual pattern--whatever. And babies aren't going to complain about stripes making their butt look big, so it's a win-win all the way around.

In the garage, I have a big Rubbermade tub where I stockpile knitted baby gifts. I used to try to go baby by baby, but then a few of my friends had TWINS, and that just destroyed that theory and put me behind for about 2 years. So, I started making them ahead of time--generally going with 2-year-old sweaters as it's too hard to figure out what size & at what time of year to intercept a baby. Sure the 3-month or 6-month sweaters are cute, but what if it's a big baby and instead of being the right size in the fall, that puts it into the right size smack in July? Occasionally I still do 12 month & 18 month sweaters, but rarely anything younger. My Grandmother called me to see if I had a sweater for an upcoming baby boy. She has been a crafter all her life, but now her eyesight has almost gone, so now she only quilts, but she loves homemade things and gifts, so for the price of the yarn, I can provide her with baby sweaters. Works great on both ends, and it's a rat...