A Little Yarn On The Side

Here it is, the last day of April, and I haven't finished anything else.  I have, however, done a lot of gardening, been to see "Wicked" with my mother and Andy, been for my longest walk yet, and entered Middle Age: I actually wear contact lenses, but because mine are gas-permeable (rigid) rather than soft, I need time without them every day, and last week the ophthalmologist told me I would need to switch to bifocals by next year and my glasses were really in need of upgrading THIS year because they were 7 years old and the coating was peeling off and the lenses were in sad shape and no longer the right prescription, so I did it this year.  EEEEEK! Since I wear them so little, my frames were still in great shape, so I just left them there to have the lenses changed, and have spent the week with blurry mornings and evenings.  Unfortunately, when I'm really busy, the blurry times and time available for crafting coincided, which explains why this is still not fi...

I am getting closer! Meet Finished Project #25: and Finished Project #26:   which will actually be a lovely lace scarf once it has been blocked.  I've already been to the gym today, but will spend the afternoon with pajamas!  It's cold and rainy and will be for the rest of the weekend, so there isn't anything I even could be doing out in the garden, so there will be some weekend crafting as well.  YAY! Especially since the next ornament kit has arrived, and I haven't yet finished even one ornament from the first kit.  Oops.  This is fun, but I think they need a quarterly plan, or maybe I need to step up the pace.  There are 5 in this kit, and I'm quite excited about that cupcake, so maybe I'll get the sequined cross finished today as well so I can start on the cupcake....while wearing new snowflake pajamas, right?

Last night I ironed the red flannel to be ready for a morning of sewing.  As forecast, it is raining, which is a perfect time to make flannel pajamas.  It is also, however, the perfect time for a snooze on flannel.  Undeterred, I decided to start the day with some icicle ornaments. Though I've decided to not count any more of them for my 100 projects goal because the main goal this year is to clear up space and thread doesn't really take up any, I do love the icicles and love how they look on the tree.  Then it seemed a good idea to put away the ones I have just washed and dried, which Theo thought was a terrific idea as well--3 seconds after this picture was taken, he was chewing on the black one.  I did save the ornament, and after some armpit scritches, Theo had recovered from the shock of a screaming woman lunging at him. Some days it is awfully difficult to be a kitty. While he was safely snoozing, I washed more lace ornaments, including,...

Funnily enough, I had thought of the 6 gold/6 silver idea because I was more confident of my gold thread than of the silver, but after seeing the first one, I really like the silver, and thank to everyone's unanimous input, I went with all in silver and finished the last one just a few minutes ago, making Finished Project number 24.  YAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Which leaves me..............behind.  Am I ever anything else?  To reach 100 projects, I should be at 33-34 at the end of April.  I am, by nature, completely delusional an optimist, but finishing 9 projects in 9 days sounds a wee bit daunting, even to me.  Tomorrow it's supposed to rain, so I won't be gardening and can spend the morning sewing, but in the afternoon I have an eye appointment, and after the dilate my eyes, I'm guessing all crafting will be over for the day because I'm never able to focus on anything after they do that.  You know, I really loathe the "women's annual wellness exam," b...

Meet Finished Project #23: Underneath the stabilizer is a towel for some friends of ours who host a Kentucky Derby party every year.  It's a terrific party, and after last year's party, I laid this all out in the embroidery software so I'd be sure to have it ready for this year's party.  This morning I did a bit of gardening--including my latest experiment: strawberry plants in the holes of cinder blocks.  I saw the idea on Pinterest , but there is only one cinder block because, as most of us have found out the hard way, people post a lot of things on Pinterest that don't actually work.  So, we got one block and two strawberry plants.  Wish them luck.  Guessing that shoveling probably counts as "a thing one should rest after doing," I thought it was the perfect time to embroider the towel as the party is in two weeks.  Double-checking the spelling of their last name, I hooped the towel, picked out the colors, and had gotten to the letteri...

The penguin pajamas are done!  And, while I might be getting a wee bit tired of flannel, it's supposed to be rainy today, so I've decided to go ahead and cut out the next set while I know how to work the pattern.  It will also finish off the 22 yards of flannel I bought after the spending ban ended in November, which will make me feel good.  Buying fabric that was used up quickly is much different than buying fabric that expanded the stash. And part of me is just a wee bit superstitious.  I've spent a LOT of the last 3 years in pajamas, and part of me sort of feels like if I were prepared to spend a lot of time in pajamas, then maybe I won't actually spend all that time in pajamas.  It's a very nonsensical theory, but the size of my stash doesn't exactly make a lot of sense either, so it works for me.  If I get them done this weekend, I'll have used up 22.5 yards of fabric this month, which DOES free up space in the sewing room and brings me much...

So my idea for getting the pajama sleeves cut out didn't work, so  after Theo gave the project and I some well-needed time apart, I ended up sewing the selvedge edges together on the side that hadn't been cut,  and the sleeves have a great big seam down the center.  This is not a trick for an OCD person, because the dot to line up with the shoulder sleeve is slightly to the front, so the seams can't match.  I'm not even OCD, but that almost killed me.  However, the pajamas are done, I'm currently wearing them, and another 5.5 yards of fabric, which takes up this  amount of space, is used up from the fabric stash.  Of course, the snowflake and penguin prints were purchased at the same time as the others, so it was all stash acquired this fall and not deep stash , but at least it isn't on it's way to BEING deep stash.  I washed the snowflake and penguin prints, and decided to try the version of these pajamas with the shorter shirt with ...