A Little Yarn On The Side

I had some free time yesterday AND DID NOT FEEL LIKE KNITTING.  Do you think I could possibly have caught some sort of rare jungle fever?  Or maybe it's the cross-stitching gods getting back at me for everything I have been saying about their art form? It was a very  frightening experience, especially since after finishing TWO projects on Friday my normal reaction would be to want to cast on 4-5 sweaters immediately.  Good heavens--you don't think I've been struck by moderation, do you??????

You may wish to sit down, as this might come as quite a shock.  Meet Finished Project number 19: which still needs buttons because I'm still debating about what sort of buttons to use.  I like the pinkish buttons, but I only have 6 of them and I need 8, and while I have enough of the rose-shaped buttons, I want to see if I can find something that matches better, using the roses as back-up if necessary. And.....seriously, are you sitting down yet?  Meet Finished Project number 20: Fleur is finally done!!!!!!  Forgive the lousy picture--three years at the bottom of the knitting basket gives sweaters a LOT of wrinkles, so it still needs to be washed and blocked, but after more than 3 years, the thing is finally done!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  See, I told you it would be quite a shock.  Let's be honest here--did you even think I would ever finish Fleur after all this time?  

Today, boys and girls, we're playing a new game called, "What the H*$# Was I Thinking?"  See this? Fourteen pattern pieces!  FOURTEEN just for some lousy jacket.  A jacket that is going to go into a closet that already contains at least 20 sweaters.  I can be warm without this silly thing.  And not just 14 pieces--14 pieces that have to be sewn together with THREE seams every single time, or even MORE seams when I make a mistake and have to redo a seam .  Even if each piece only needed to be joined in 2 places, that's eighty-four separate seams!!! Who has ever been THAT cold?????? Does anyone remember if there was a white chocolate martini or a big dose of Nyquil involved in picking out this project?????

So Valentine's Day is 5 days away, and Andy's robe is only partially cut out.  And what have I been doing? First I thought I'd start working on the pink jacket to get it off the project table and it probably gets the prize for being the slowest project ever.  Because of the edge stitching and top stitching, every seam must be done three times.  And, to make it even more fun, there are tons of them.  I like it so far, though I always struggle with smooth edge-stitching on pockets, and the fact that the stitching is so visible on this jacket doesn't help.  I can't decide whether or not to add some sort of embroidery to this, or just to leave it as-is.  The top-stitching might be enough decoration I suppose, but something in white on the right yoke perhaps? The material for the February Project of the Month has been washed and furred, and because there is nothing like a sewing deadline to make me want to knit,  a little hat for my niece's doll w...

Over the last two-three years, I have been adding my yarn stash to Ravelry in order to manage it a bit easier.  It obviously took quite a bit of time, but when I do get the urge to buy yarn, I can go online and browse my own stash, which does feel quite a bit like online shopping, and of course it helps to remind myself how much yarn I already have to knit with.  This is all good.  And when I use up yarn, I can move it to the "used up" tab, which means my stash is always current. Since I started doing the chemo caps, using one ball of Elann Esprit yarn for each cap, I've been moving a lot of formerly "in stash" yarn to the "all used up" tab.   Each time, it feels like an amazing accomplishment, and I'm now up to 30 items in my "used up" tab.  Being able to see my stash progress every day in such a quick and easy manner is pretty exciting.  Not all the yarn I've knitted up in the last 3 years was even on Ravelry, so it doesn't r...

But there has also been a lot of socializing, complete with still being sick, which explains the amount of knitting and the spectacular lack of blogging.  But I have  been catching up on my craft tv show viewing, and am ready to reenter the crafting world armed with all sorts of new information!  For example... *  When I use stabilizer for machine embroidery and it ends up unexpectedly puckering in the wash, I have added textural elements. *  Next time I snag a thread on a silky piece of material, I am creating an heirloom "pulled thread" look *  When I end up creating some article of clothing that I would not be caught dead wearing, I have created fun, wearable art *  Three months from now, even long after all the winter decorations are put away but somehow everything still has glitter on it no matter HOW much I dust and vacuum, I have added bling to our living space. I don't need to become better at crafting--I just need a better spin d...

If you ever get a wild idea to repair a bedspread or comforter, begin by taking a large, heavy object, then beat yourself on the head repeatedly until the urge passes. I am feeling better, but not 100% back to normal, so it seemed like a good day to tackle the bedspread problem.  After all, why ruin a perfectly good day?  I serged the remaining seams, then because I thought it best to reconstruct the thing in the same manner it had been put together (like a pillowcase around the batting), I sewed the edges together, and it was time to figure out how to attach the batting.  Luckily, I had a helper as usual.  Interestingly enough, the batting is several inches too wide in every direction, which had been dealt with by simply folding the batting over.  Okay.  The problem was that the manufacturer also had some sort of spray adhesive that is much more durable and firm than quilter's basting spray--which was no help whatsoever.  So, I decided the biggest ...