A Little Yarn On The Side

Ok, as anyone who is remotely good with numbers can tell you: 1. In order to reach my goals for the year, I need to knit 2,083 yards of yarn and sew 12.5 yards of fabric each month 2. I am not even CLOSE to that right now. So....did I work on the quilt today? Nope. Not one stitch. Instead, anyone remember this: In July of 2008 I cut out a dress and a skirt from this wonderful cotton fabric. I finished the skirt sometime after the weather made it totally impractical (I'm thinking November, but that's just a guess). Today I decided to finish the dress. It's from McCalls 4444: and I'm making the green option. Now the problem with setting aside a sewing project is that one doesn't really "set it aside." One just doesn't get back to it. If one did "set it aside," one might be able to find the dang second page of instructions.... Out of sheer frustration, I did get much of it figured out--and was quite pleased with myself to figure out th...

OK, so there hasn't been blogging in a couple days, but there has been knitting, sewing, and quilting. I know--how shocking is that? I haven't been that productive in quite some time, but if you look at the side tab you might notice that the goals are pretty high but the actual accomplishment is fairly low, so I thought I needed to pick up the pace a little. So, I finished the edging on another fleece blanket, assembled the Christmas quilt top which is actually pretty small--30 by 36 inches. I do have strips cut out that could make the quilt larger, but if I use this size I can actually make two quilts instead of one, which would give me two gifts for Christmas instead of one. So, I'm thinking of doing a larger border, maybe a narrow strip of green which I can do some sort of decorative stitching in gold on, then a wider red stripe What do you think? If I did about 5 inches on each side, the quilt would be 40 by 46 inches, which is still a small lap quilt, but not AS ...

OK, I came really, really, REALLY close to falling off the yarn wagon this week, thanks to this . The picture on the left shows the marvelous brown colorway that almost did it...BUT, luckily other knitters snapped it all up, leaving none to tempt me. I am trying to be a big person who is happy for those knitters who are possibly even now casting on....... Remember step 12 .........remember step 12............remember step 12...............remember step 12...

This morning while Theo took one of his naps, I finished Ice Queen . It's the first of the Project of the Month bags, and even though it's actually a fairly small project, I was afraid I'd be rushing to finish it on the last day of the month. Not that I don't like the pattern, but beading is a bit fussy, and the edging was very fussy, so it got a little tedious at times. I'd make it again--and in fact, I think there's another one in one of the remaining project bags--but it won't ever be a true favorite pattern. I have enough quilt blocks done to see how the pattern is going to look and I'd say it's okay. Not my favorite, but I wanted something fast that I could finish early in the year. Originally I was going to use a white solid along with the red and green solids, but once I had all the strips cut and laid out I thought the solid white made it look a little too much like an Italian restaurant. Not that that's a bad look or anything, but I...

Thanks to Herrschners, I'm back to work on the blanket for my niece, and I think it will be done in time to send off for her birthday in the first week of March. (And STILL no box from Joanns.com, by the way) My little sidekick is getting very bored with the indoor life, so we worked on a Christmas gift quilt which seemed to please him immensely I'm not doing the best job on this quilt, and some of the blocks aren't even lining up, and yet it's really not bothering me much--which is surprising to say the least. Usually I'd have to redo it--especially since it's a gift--but I guess 8 weeks of kitty sitting has taken its toll on me as well. Theo is back to kitty therapy tomorrow--and they have PROMISED to get pictures this time. He's walking on the leg almost without a limp, and it looks a little less chickeny every day! And the moss scarf has gotten more attention than it should have, because I'm enjoying how this stitch variation is looking. And of c...

Step 1. Admit that you have more yarn than you can knit within the next 6 months, unless you can learn to knit in your sleep. Step 2. Admit that sheep, llamas, and alpacas have produced fleece for hundreds of years, and they will probably continue to do so Step 3. Admit that some yarn in your stash you have never truly intended to knit–you just wanted to own it. Step 4. Admit that just because it’s 50% off, bad yarn is still bad yarn Step 5. Admit that, try as you might, there will always be a limit to how fast you can knit Step 6. Admit that other family members have rights to closet space, too. Step 7. Admit that visiting a LYS daily is probably not a good idea Step 8. Admit...

Remember this which has been languishing since December because I needed 2 more skeins of this in order to finish it? Do you also remember that 10 DAYS after placing the order with Joanns.com, they finally shipped my order (after three separate attempts to contact them on my part), but without the yarn or the fusible thread because it was now out of stock? On the same day--after driving to several different stores looking for the darn stuff--I placed an order with Herrschners . On the following Monday, the 12th, I received an email from Herrschners informing me my order had been shipped, and giving me a tracking number that actually worked. Today, it arrived!!!! And the order from Joanns.com that I placed on January 1 and was supposedly shipped before I even placed the Herrschners order???? No flipping idea--the tracking information hasn't been updated since it was shipped. A big kudos to Herrschners, who were quite quick to answer questions and take care of an address i...