A Little Yarn On The Side

Perhaps it's because I feel a bit better today, or perhaps it's because I have been spending soooooo much time knitting, but today I found the gumption to try a fabric & rope bowl. The book Andy gave me for my birthday, is written by a free-thinker after my own heart (when on cold medication, one can mix metaphors).  She says scraps of fabric work just fine, and it doesn't really matter how you cut them.  The book I bought says quite specifically that one MUST cut strips on the bias and they MUST be a very specific width.  I'm always suspicious of "musts," as they are so often wrong.  In chemistry, I believe "musts." In making baskets, I have my doubts.  So, this week while wallowing in self-pity, I cut fabric strips I just used pinking sheers and not a single one is perfectly straight, but again, the author said it wouldn't really matter.  I've only seen these baskets made with cotton fabrics, and being me, I wanted to see what ...

.......but I am tired of knitting.  There.  Hell hath perhaps frozen over, but it's 8:00 PM here, I'm in my pjs, I could be knitting, and I don't want to.  I have GOT to get over this bug before my brain snaps permanently. I had a better day today, though the bronchitis has teased me before.  Last week was mostly better, and I was feeling good enough one day to clean the master bath--albeit in small spurts that took the entire day.  I had to keep resting, but it went well........or until I got the brilliant idea to bleach the shower floor.  There are many things one can probably do to help with congestion, but nowhere on that list will one find "inhale cleaning fumes."  I'm an idiot, of course, but the shower floor is really, really clean. Today marks 3 weeks of this gunk, and I have had so many people tell me it lasts 3 weeks that I was really hoping to wake up today completely better.  I did wake up feeling a bit better, which I know could...

I am still sick and starting to feel a little sorry for myself and a LOT frustrated.  Normally, this is the time when I might start a little on-line shopping to cheer myself up, which is a little inconvenient when one is on a spending ban.  So far, I've been able to distract myself, and even worked on the side seams of the long-languishing March Madness Sweater: Maybe I can get it done by March of THIS year???? 

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...