A Little Yarn On The Side

The desktop computer in the sewing room runs on Windows, but my laptop is a Unix machine, so usually if I have problems with something on one of them, the other can usually make it work.  But lately Blogger is not uploading pictures, and whatever the problem is, it crosses both machines.  So, what you are NOT seeing pictures of today: *  The March Madness sweater, which now has a completed back and maybe 2/3 of a front?  What would make the picture even MORE amazing is that I love this project so much that I'm being a monogamous knitter without forcing myself.  I know--this is such a rare occasion that it would be nice to have photographic proof.  But..... *  Some in-progress felt gift bags.  They're not very far along, but I'd gotten out the blue felt to make the "blue-work" ornaments last week, and realized I didn't have any gift bags made from the blue felt, so I cut out a few while I had it out. *  The lovely spring day, which is wh...

I made 71 ornaments in April!!!!!  To be fair, all but 24 were machine embroidered lace ornaments, but I was behind at the start of April and now I am slightly ahead of schedule!!! This is such a rare occurrence in my life that you'll have to excuse me while I savor this moment...............

Is it just me or can everyone else on Pinterest tell the difference between pinners who were alive during the 1970s and those who weren't?  I'm not being critical--there was a crafting optimism in the 1970s that was rather inspiring.  Since I'm in Idaho and we're always a bit behind the times, it might have started in the 1960, but I wasn't alive then so I don't know.  What I do remember from my childhood is that it was a time when one could add pom poms and fringe to any project with wild abandon.  Color schemes were daring--often glaring--and pants were flaring.  (Sorry, couldn't resist that one)  If you could make it, you did it--damn the consequences or the "rules" of taste.  Beer can crocheted hats , ponchos in earth tones made with acrylic petroleum-based Red Heart yarn, dogs crocheted around soap, dolls crocheted around toilet paper , and macramé plant hangers in front of every window.  As anyone who remembers the 70's love affair wit...

Remember the redwork ornament idea I was toying with? It gets the award for Problem Ornament Thus Far.  The issue is to get everything stitched down without anything shifting or pulling.  In the above ornament, I tried pinning.  It's close, but it's a bit wonky. From a safe distance, Theo watched me make two more slightly wonky ornaments, and basically prove that my fabric glue stick didn't really work either.  Next up was a regular glue stick, then finally, being completely desperate, I broke out the hot glue gun.  Anyone who knows my track record with the hot glue gun will recognize this for the sign of desperation that it was.  Shockingly, that worked much better, but in trying a new approach for sewing the second piece of blue on for the backing on the ornament on the right, I made it exceptionally hard to cut out  (Note to self: remember the ribbon hanger might make it awfully hard to cut an ornament out after the fact).  So, o...

I'd like to be showing you a spotless, fully-organized sewing room right about now, but 1.  I've never actually seen one 2.  I certainly don't have one and 3.  I can't get Blogger to upload anything anyway The sewing room sort of looks like it did last time anyway.  Tuesday my back was finally feeling good enough to run a few errands, then I had an eye appointment.  It is proof of how much I hate eye appointments when I tell you that, while I am willing to see the dentist twice a year and even undergo the dratted female "wellness" exams yearly, it's been 5 years since I've been near the place.  I am very near-sighted, so since the age of 6 or 7, our annual school shopping trip involved FIRST a stop at the eye doctor, who for reasons best known to himself never had patients pick out frames prior to getting their eyes dilated, and instead waited until they couldn't see a darn thing, and I would get to spend the rest of the entire day wearing...

One of the flowers to earn in the spring flower dash is the Cosmo, which is earned by spending one hour cleaning or organizing one's stash.  (You might have guessed that I pick these things according to what I desperately need to do).  My back was feeling pretty good yesterday, so yesterday without getting too crazy and after notifying Andy to come find me if I didn't surface again by evening, I dived in: One of the things I've noticed while doing the 365 ornament challenge is that I have several boxes containing the same things.  I like these plastic boxes for specific projects--so the winter mitten ornament garland has a project box, as do some quilts or other projects until they're finished.  But there were several different containers containing Christmas ornament stuff, so after emptying a larger container that had been in our back room, I started combining.  In reality, much of what I am doing right now is specific only to this year, but that's okay....

...but I'm not sure what.  I know I can chalk a big chunk of the day up to physical therapy.  I'm trying to do the exercises to strengthen my hip without irritating my back, and tried adding back in a couple exercises today.  Just in case, I rested on the heating pad between them, so I'm hoping I won't be paying for that tomorrow, though the thing most likely to make the current pain worse is for my hip to move and have to be moved back into place, so if the trade off is small pain versus large pain, it's a pretty easy choice.  There was a bit of knitting today, and the back for the "March Madness" sweater is almost done.  Apparently I didn't specify March of which year.  But I am loving this sweater. I had a new idea for ornaments today, which involves embroidering squares of felt, then sewing them onto larger squares of fabric as sort of a frame.  So I spent some time finding designs and loading them on the card, then doing a few squares, but...