A Little Yarn On The Side

Today is the first of the month, so it's time for a Project of the Month bag.  This month we have...... socks! Specifically, Monkey sock s.  I'm hoping the pattern helps cope with the stretchiness of the yarn.  It's 7% elastic, which in the sock world means that sock & foot are likely to part company after a few hours of wear.  Apparently no one else had better luck with this yarn as it has now been discontinued, but I think there are still 4 more skeins of the stuff in my stash after this.  If this sock pattern doesn't  help, I'll use the remaining skeins for baby hats, since even if the hats are just as obnoxious as the socks, babies aren't going to complain--or at least not to me. My little sidekick was a bit sulky when I first came back from my trip, but since he forgave me, we've been inseparable.  Yesterday we cut out more mittens and while 10 finished mittens maybe isn't that impressive, we have quite a stack now cut out Now a SMART pe...

Okay--there was a fabric "incident" a few days ago.  Actually, two separate fabric "incidents."  The good news is, I'm already using one of the new fabric acquisitions.  The bad news is, I don't think using up a whopping 1/4 yard of fabric really impacts the significantly more than 1/4 yards of fabric I purchased.  BUT I DIDN'T BUY MORE YARN!!!  That's something at least. On the positive note, what I actually used up in April amounts to: Yards of yarn used:  1289 skeins of yarn used: 4 yards of fabric used:  5 (I'm not ready to discuss fabric additions) So, the stash totals for the year so far are: Yards of yarn used:  4663.5 skeins of yarn used:  29.75 yards of fabric used:  21.155 Projects finished so far this year:  32

The 4th month is ending and to be PERFECTLY on track to finish 100 projects, I needed to have completed 33.33333333 projects.  With all my WIPs, I think I might have the 0.33333333 part covered, and just finished redoing the 6 inches of ribbing on the striped top giving me 32 finished projects.  (picture tomorrow) Ha!  I am close!!!!   Which for me is almost as good as actually BEING on schedule--and maybe better, because if I was actually ON schedule the shock might have been too much for me.  As it is, I am really pleased.  Even with my crazy decisions lately (working on a quilt, doing a mitten garland that is going to require a LOT of little mittens, working on ANYTHING smaller than size 8 needles), I could actually finish 100 projects this year!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! And if I do, doesn't it just make you wonder what sort of craziness I'll come up with for 2011????????

For a number of reasons--being really busy over the last few months, garden season about to hit, and the fact that I cannot seem to rest my injured arm while I'm here--I decided to "get away from it all" for a few days.  Since I was taking my computer & camera, I thought I'd be updating my blog while on the road--not realizing quite how "away from it all" I was getting.  I had picked an historic hote l that specifically said "no phones" and why that didn't translate into "probably means no internet either" for me is anyone's guess.  BUT, even with all the driving I did get some quality crafting time in.  Mr. Flurry now has a body and part of a hat The neck of the old cotton sweater is at 2 1/2 inches of the 6 needed and the mitten collection is progressing nicely: I'll be making a run to the craft store to get some blue thread for the white mitten up at the top.  I'm thinking royal blue stitching around the outs...

Okay, to make a quilt with 35 blocks, I need to make it through 840 triangles.  I have 162 to go.  I know I'm on the downhill side, and REALLY have comparatively few to go......but I need a break.  So..... It's new project time!!!!!!!!!!!!  (Really, you seriously didn't think I was going to be all responsible & pull something out of the WIP pile, did you?) Actually, I wanted to get started on this while I still had the idea in my mind.  I'm making a mitten garland--or at least that is the plan.  I have 4 colors of felt to use--3 blues & a white--and since only one side of each mitten will be visible, I think it will be a great time to experiment with some ideas & techniques. Theo, of course, is thrilled and did his very best yesterday to make cutting out the mittens as difficult as possible: I couldn't even distract him with a little scarf blocking so I think I have my very first furless scarves EVER.  I'm still in shock.  In s...

Drum roll please................... The cowl neck sweater is DONE!!!!!!!!! It should have been finished quite some time ago, but this stopped me.  Nope--it is NOT a ribbon loin cloth, in spite of what it looks like.  It is the original cowl neck. which I think looked pretty dopey.  It was possible to stretch & stretch the neck into being a bit more rounded, and I seriously debated about making myself go through the hassle of mangling it every time I wanted to wear it, or to grow a spine and just fix the darn thing.  Since the sweater has been languishing in the WIP pile for quite some time, you can see what a difficult debate this was.  Blame it on the short rows--which in general I think are just darn clever.  Tinking them, however, is about as much fun as elective root canal without anesthesia.  I decided to watch some old sewing television shows I had taped (back before the digital conversion stopped me from even knowing how to operate n...

I made the mistake of doing all the large triangles first, so now I'm slogging though the 24 little triangles needed for every single block.  I have been doing a few at a time so that I have blocks moving forward in stages so I can at least see them--and so I don't find myself banging my head on the table (which would of course be cushioned by a pile of triangles) Of course, I have my sidekick with me.... and has lost a little fur here & there to the rotary cutter, but otherwise  Yesterday I thought I was getting close to being done, and decided to figure out how many more triangles I needed before I cut out the next strips.  Now, there are SOME points when doing the math is a good idea.  I don't think this was one of them.  After carefully counting the blocks & figuring out how many more I needed, I discovered I still needed one hundred and eighty-six squares , which would need 372 more triangles.  Oh my. I think I have met the fabric e...