A Little Yarn On The Side

Whew!  Here it is, the last day of the year, and I haven't committed to any completely idiotic crafting goals yet.  Eke! Ideally, I'd say "use up 100 yards of fabric," but in case it has escaped your notice, the only year I have managed to do that was when it wasn't a goal.  So, it ISN'T a goal this year.  Nope, not at all.  Totally Not A Goal.  But if I do manage to use up that much fabric as a pure, unrelated coincidence , that would be really, really great.  Aside from finishing 100 projects and the usual "read or listen to 100 books," I didn't do very well on my goals this year.  I did 3 threads on the never-ending cross stitch project instead of 12, none at all on the needlework project, finished 1 sewing WIP instead of 3, finished 1 knitting WIP instead of 3, and unless I manage the sewing day of all sewing days today, am going to have used up about 56 yards of fabric for the year. I'll have also knit about 55 balls of yarn, so I...

Wow!  THAT was a busy holiday season!  We had friends over for dinner Christmas Eve, an open house Christmas night, and would have had our holiday party Sunday night had I not picked up a very nasty little bug that forced us to cancel it.  BUT, I didn't miss anything because of my back, which is very exciting.  Hope you all had a great holiday season as well!

Happy Holidays from Château Sutton-Goar! 2014 was a big year here at the Château as Andy turned 50 in July and celebrated by running a marathon in June.  While this disqualifies him as a professional party-planner, it was his longest run ever and involved several months of training.  And blisters. Because there should also be fun associated with a birthday, we had friends over for a big birthday bash in July, and in August went to Victoria, British Columbia for a week.  We had originally planned to take a train trip across Canada, but decided that once the novelty of the train wore off, it was really going to be a week of mostly sitting.  Victoria, on the other hand, is a city built for walking and with some newly acquired mobility(Toni, not Andy), we did just that.  This was our first trip together that involved staying in one place for the entire week, so we found a nice family-owned hotel with a kitchenette facing the beach, which I thought ...

At least I'll still get some crafting done when my fingers need to rest.....

I must have been just a teensy bit smug about the fusible interfacing yesterday, because when I got a chance to finish the table runners up today, the two new ones were STILL wonky where I had embroidered them.  One of them doesn't even really flat.  But, they're done.  And we'll keep one of them.  In time, I might even forget the stress and trauma involved in making the darn things.  It just isn't right now...... Andy and I had a wild date night last night:  Costco!  During the holidays.  Yep, it might actually be the bravest date we were ever on.  We're having friends over for dinner Christmas Eve and I want to serve baked ham (it was my grandmother's tradition), and they have really nice hams.  We also needed a new iron.  The old one has been acting up for a while, but by Friday it had progressed all the way to shutting off every time one tried to iron things but NOT shutting off even when I was trying to shut it off. Sou...

I'm not wrapping anything and will only be sending Christmas cards if I need some time on the heating pad today (which is probable as I had physical therapy yesterday).  This morning, I am crafting!!!!!!!!! Melodye had a great suggestion for the problem table runners--either doubling the stabilizer or using tissue paper.  I always forget how useful tissue paper can be in the sewing room--apparently I prefer to struggle with things.  But having a PLAN prompted me to stitch up the remaining little monsters strips this morning, which is when I discovered that the problem was in the tan fabric itself.  It's a quilters cotton I bought from Hancock Fabrics, and it is bizarrely stretchy for cotton.  All woven cotton stretches on the bias and a bit in the crosswise direction, but I struggled to even get the strips sewn onto the darn stuff.  I'm not a good quilter, but usually even I can manage straight seems on square pieces.  At least this explains the pro...

Is everyone else having this sort of December?  The remaining packages were shipped off last night, and with that, most of the wrapping is done as well.  Or at least it feels like it as I can dawdle a bit on the gifts we can hand-deliver.  Christmas cards are in-progress and I think I only have 2 parties to attend this week--so far at least.  Ho! Ho! Ho! This morning that darn cat Theo woke me up at 2:00 AM because he was feeling lonely and in need of a cuddle, and I couldn't get back to sleep.  I have never been able to nap, but Theo, after a busy night of keeping the humans awake, slept most of the day--in spite of me waking him up regularly just to retaliate.  (I might be a little cranky when I only get 4 hours of sleep.......)  Such days are not the days for high-mental-function projects, so there are two new mitten ornaments.  I haven't made many of these this year.  But we've given away almost all the wooden ornaments Andy made,...