A Little Yarn On The Side

The Ravellenic Games are coming in February.  Formerly known as Ravelympics, in 2012, knitters worldwide were informed by the United States Olympic Committee informed us that we could not use even part of the word "olympic" because they have sole rights to even just part of the word so they can exploit it for money, and that we "denigrated" the athletes by presuming to model crafting events after Olympic events.  Strike 1 against the entire concept, but the renamed knitting games went on. THIS year the Russian stance on human rights bled over into the Ravellenic Games in spite of the games having technically nothing whatsoever to do with Russia or the Olympics, things don't seem to be handled as well as they could have been, things apparently got quite heated, finally resulting in the team of moderators (many of whom have led the games for the last 6 years) to resign en masse .  There will be a new group formed, but the whole episode--and I think most specifi...

Or, I suppose the statement of surprise should be, "I combined felt and glue without mishap!" More to the point, really and by FAR the biggest part of the surprise. I tried a few with craft glue and a few with Elmer's, and the craft glue worked best.  That would seem a rather silly statement to make, except that so often I've found that Elmer's Glue-All works best for the oddest things.  Today I made, the first of my 10 ornaments for the year.  I'm guessing there will probably be more than 10, and I haven't figured out exactly how to count them for my finished projects.  Maybe this should be half a project. Meanwhile, my usual sidekick  is having nothing to do with me tonight.  After 6 months, we have a bit of a ritual about Theo's supplements.  Only the ritual changes according to kitty whim, so in spite of the fact that I got the can out of the fridge early enough for it to warm up and in spite of not serving him this morning's l...

I'm waiting for the glue to dry, but I think I have successfully made felt fortune cookies today: It's a pattern from Martha Stewart , which makes me a bit nervous. Martha and her staff might be able to get felt and glue to work for them, but that's no guarantee that it will turn out well for me.  We're having friends over for dinner on Valentine's Day, and I thought these would be fun.  If they work, I'll put a fortune and maybe some chocolates in them.  Fingers crossed.......

....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 ...