A Little Yarn On The Side

Was anyone else relieved to find out that everyone else is pretty well addicted to Pinterest or getting over an addiction to Pinterest?  I know I was.  :) We've been on vacation this week to Victoria, British Columbia.  Besides being one of the most beautiful cities one could ever visit, their August weather heat wave almost hit 80 degrees, so we thought it a fantastic place to go to escape the heat.  The trip was to celebrate Andy's 50th birthday, so we really wanted to do something special, and the best thing for my back would be short flights and lots and lots of walking, so Victoria fit perfectly.  We found a family-owned motel right on the water, which was sort of our back up plan because we both assumed that I would need to rest my hip/back....and eventually I did, but aside from the pain from the completely uncomfortable seats on Horizon Air, I didn't really hurt until the last night, and we walked EVERYWHERE.  Our hotel was a mile from downtow...

I have stopped hanging out on Ravelry so much, just in time to be sucked into Pinterest.  Have you checked it out yet?  On the one hand, I'm glad to have someplace to queue non-knitting projects , because while there are dozens of sewing and quilting Ravelry-wannabees, none of them are as good.  On the other hand, do I really need any more projects to make???????????  Didn't I have a big enough list without anyone helpng me?  Especially now that so much of my time is taken up by physical therapy and exercise--I have SO much less crafting time, and yet I can always kill 15-20 minutes browsing new projects I don't have time to make.  What is wrong with me????????????

and pickling and gardening and exercise and socializing which is why there hasn't been a lot of blogging.  It's so hot here that if I'm walking, I have to get up early to get my loop in--which it turns out is 4 miles rather than the 3.5 that I've been thinking for all these months, so I've not been slow and poky like I thought.  If I'm going to the pool, I go in the afternoon when it's crazy-hot because it's a perfect way too cool off, but that tends to mean I'm exhausted and ready to collapse by 4 every day.  If I could nap, I would have taken one every day this week.  As it is, I was only NOT in bed by 5 today by the great strength of willpower and the fact that with the windows open I didn't want the neighbors to see me in my jammies at 5:00 pm.  Like I'm probably NOT considered the crazy neighbor lady by everyone already--and they haven't even seen my stash!  Speaking of which, this is my new portable knitting project, and ...

It's been 21 months since I bought yarn!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I wish that translated into a really noticeable dent in the stash, but last year's ornament challenge wasn't exactly a yardage burner, and I finished up my 27th ball of yarn for the year yesterday, but at least it hasn't grown in almost two years. 

Back in 2008 , I made Andy some summer clothes in dark blue--his favorite color.  Having obviously just developed a love-affair with decorative stitching, I decided that what he would really LOVE was white decorative stitching details: because what grown man, aside from Popeye and perhaps members of the Village People, wouldn't want to appear in public in a sailor suit?  Not even when I took this picture did I realize what a dippy outfit I had made for him.  To his credit, he has worn it around the house a lot , but not in public.  I don't blame him at all--but last week I decided that it was a shame to have gone to so much work for something that would get him beat up if he ever had to appear in public in, so I have finally ripped out all of the decorative stitching except for just the collar and bottom, which looks rather nice together.  Since it took some serious time and effort, I have counted this as one of my Finished Projects for the year, and Andy...

Thanks everyone for your kind words.  I am really pleased with the table runner, and there are no puckers on the back!!!!!!!!!!!!!  Inspired by this amazing FIRST in my quilting, I have started the next one: I didn't notice until uploading the picture that the right side was folded over, but the actual table runner has all the stripes in the same order.  I think I prefer the first version better, but as I already have enough strip blocks done for two table runners like this, I'll stick with this version for two and the next one will go back to the alternating yellow pattern.  I just love the colors, and one of the best ways to learn crafting for me is to make the same project over and over and get a little bit better each time.  While I got the first one quilted without puckers, I still had trouble with the binding, so I'm hoping that these will help me with that. Now if I could just get all of them done by the 31st........................:)

I have finished something!!!! Sorry, didn't mean to shock anyone. I know what a surprise a Finished Project is around here.......