A Little Yarn On The Side

....but not as badly.  I guess that's progress.  And speaking of progress... I have half a table free now!!!!  We celebrate small victories around here....especially when there aren't any large ones. The bronchitis continues to hang on, so I have good and bad days still.  I have been working on my knitting WIPs, but I also started a toddler jacket for a young member of the family who didn't get a Christmas gift from us because I didn't get to it.  She's a distant connection, so we're outside the "mandatory" gift range and more in the "Gosh, wasn't that nice of them?" spot, which takes the pressure off.  I thought this would be a cute birthday gift, and in a size 3 I'm giving myself some wiggle room in case it needs to be a Christmas 2014 gift.  It can be hard to intersect children and knitting. After so much knitting time, my hands get tired, so I have a new sock as well.  It's a simple pattern that I can do while r...

Well, I may not have enjoyed great health so far this year, but it has been good for the 100-projects goal.  Last night I finished Mr. Flurry, except for his eyes, which he'll get when he gets stuffed.  I had intended for his scarf to get some fringe, but in less than one day the end of the yarn has frizzled completely, so we'll skip it.  He entirely took the last of my Red Heart white, and as I never count the Red Heart yarn in my stash used tally until it's totally gone, I got a great big 364-yard boost to my tally for the year, which was quite exciting.  So exciting, in fact, that I cast on a new, quick project immediately.  It's a basket-weave scarf using another acrylic yarn that I've had for some time.  I love the colors, but don't remember what the three skeins were intended to do, if anything.  I almost used them for a toddler jacket, but variegated yarns always pool so badly that I opted for a scarf instead.  Or maybe two, ...

I am not about to say that there is anything good about being sick, but at least it isn't a total loss.  Aside from needing buttons, the Baby Surprise Jacket is done, and project number 3 is on its way.  It's going to be a Mr. Flurry snowman like this one,  and will oddly enough use up my very last bit of white Red Heart acrylic yarn.  With all the yarn I have and the huge stash of acrylic yarn I've always had, there is one I will run out of and it will be the cheap stuff.  Weird.   I am feeling better, thankfully, and have been able to start taking down Christmas decorations today.  One tree is completely down and boxed, which is probably enough of a start for one day.  I had wanted to do some sewing today, but was in kind of a funk.  We gave several of the rope baskets away for Christmas, and while most people were quite thrilled with them, we also had people joking about them as fezzes.  I don't know, it may just be...

I have my first Finished Project of the year: which I technically could have finished before the end of the year, but a head-start can't hurt.  Especially when one has been sick for a week.  We're very lucky, however. We have had "His" and "Hers" get-well kitties.  Callisto kept Andy company in the back room,  while Theo has hung out with me in our room--here enjoying a pillow-fort Andy built for him: No, our cats aren't spoiled in the slightest. I thought I might even be showing you a second finished project today, but the Baby Surprise Jacket didn't get finished today.  It's moving right along however.  The turquoise yarn wasn't listed in my Ravelry stash, which is a bit disconcerting as I would have sworn that after moving everything out of and back INTO the sewing room I finally had all the yarn accounted for, but I guess I missed one.  I had discovered the error in time for yesterday's tally to be correct with this ...

Happy New Year! I started feeling better today--not great, but better--so I'm optimistic about everything right now.  Amazing what a little difference like sleeping through the night can make.  For the last week, when the Nyquil's 6 hours wore off, I woke up coughing immediately.  Last night I actually took it early because I was so miserable...and slept straight through until 6:00 this morning with no coughing.  Yay!!!!!! So on such a high note, I start the new year with: 928.08 balls of yarn 194,301.4 yards of yarn and an unbelievable amount of fabric, but we just aren't ready to start adding that just yet.  By the end of the year, however, I hope to have *  Finished 100 projects *  completed 12 threads on that cross stitch *  completed 12 threads on the needlework project  *  used 100 yards of fabric *  made 10 ornaments *  Finished 3 sewing WIPS *  Finished 3 knitting WIPS *  Buy no crafting su...

In the traditions-I'd-rather-end-immediately, I'm finishing up the holidays with bronchitis.  The good news is, at least this is the first time since the back injury and even the most severe coughing can no longer throw out my back.  The bad news is, three days of severe coughing hurts my back muscles anyway.  Today, at least, I have felt good enough to knit, though I started a Baby Surprise Jacket because I didn't think I was up for anything but garter stitch.  Still, that is progress.  I'm hoping to be improved enough tomorrow to be up and about some.  Fingers crossed!

Happy Holidays – finally! As you probably noticed, there was no 2012 holiday letter. So a brief recap on the last TWO years: In 2012, Andy took up the bass guitar, painted the sewing room and built some seriously beautiful shelves for me, and designed and built us a greenhouse. In August my father was hospitalized with an advanced staph infection, he spent 5 weeks in hospitals here in Boise while my mother lived with us, and he not only fully recovered from the infection—he survived Blue Cross of Idaho, which is even more remarkable. I began the year attempting to get my back/hip straightened out, joined a congressional campaign for a few months, spent 5 weeks trying to cope with my inability to cope with hospitals, due to all the stress ended up back in physical therapy as soon as my father was released, managed to sprain my back while doing physical therapy, and ended 2012 even less mobile than at the start. This year has continued to be dominated by my back prob...