A Little Yarn On The Side

Our house has these lovely hardwood floors, which I sort of have a love/hate relationship with.  They are beautiful, and I love how look.  I am sure they're technically cleaner than carpet, but with carpet one rarely sees tufts of cat-fur blowing through the room like tumbleweeds.  And this floor has even broken Pyrex, which I have dropped on linoleum without breaking, and my favorite Christmas ornament became festive smithereens our very first Christmas here, so the floor is just a tad bit unforgiving.  It also scratches like crazy.  When we first moved into the house, we were really good about being vigilant about people taking their shoes off, but between parties when people just walk in and guests who are carrying food in and can't take their shoes off while their hands are full (and the occasional person who doesn't really care anyway and are on their way to being dropped from invitations anyway), we've grown a bit lax and our floor has just taken a b...

As I've mentioned, every month Andy and I get a personal allowance which we can spend in any way we choose.  We started this about a year after we got married, and aside from the initial difficulties of finding a way for it to work (did you know you can't carry a positive balance on a credit card?), it's worked really well.  And it's this account which is on my spending ban--not our life in general.  It's just over 6 months now, and aside from haircuts, occasional lunches out, and the Great Decisions group, I haven't spent anything and have quite a tidy sum in my account.  Enough to sort of make me feel stupid that I must spend about this amount every year without really noticing.  I haven't knit all the yarn from my last purchase, read the books from my last purchase, or sewn up the fabric from my last purchase.  I just keep buying more.  No wonder my sewing room is so crowded.  It contains a small fortune............ Ahem...........I'm think...

 Finally!  Blogger is uploading pictures again!  So, this  is the first finished piece of the March Madness Sweater, and this is the progress on the front piece.  Isn't this just a marvelous sweater?  Love, love, love it--even if it is now May and the idea was to finish it in March.  Of course, if reality and I were well acquainted, I wouldn't have 64,000 yards of lace yarn....... We had a busy weekend with hosting a dinner party here on Friday and attending a Kentucky Derby party on Saturday, so I didn't have a Finishing Friday, but I have finished a new ornament today, which gives me 132 ornaments, and  I'm making some progress on the blue gift bags.  I would like to get a new summer dress cut out this week, but with all the socializing--and a whole lot of gardening--I'm a bit sore and am resting a fair bit today.  Maybe this Friday, though...............?

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...