A Little Yarn On The Side

Almost a month ago now, Andy and I set our for a walk bright and early on a Sunday morning, only to find a frightened little kitten hiding behind a garbage can on the greenbelt.  It was amazing that we even found her as there is a hawk family right in that area, and they'd eat a kitten in a flash.  We caught her and started knocking doors along the houses closest to where she was, but while we met some really great people--including one lovely woman who let us borrow her cat carrier to save on being scratched--NO one was missing a kitten.  We finally brought her home and took some pictures for posters for the neighborhood, but she had other ideaS-- like staying .  "BUT WE ALREADY HAVE 3 CATS," we told her.  She responded with even more cuteness: Not to be deterred, we put up posters, posted on Facebook, and took her to a vet to check for a microchip (and receive her first shots).  Nothing.  She continued her campaign to stay, taking up an inte...

I got up early yesterday and finished the jacket from last weekend,  and to add the buttons to the flannel shirt,  so now my fabric tally is just over 60 yards of fabric for the year.  The thing I love about using up fabric--besides generally getting clothing out of it--is that it makes a faster dent in the sewing room.  Had I not been on a few fabric benders since we moved, I might well have decreased the overall stash by now.... Ahem.  I believe both of these are from fabrics I bought since we moved here, which would be surprising to someone who didn't know me after heaving box after box of fabric up and down stairs in the move, but there was a fabric store close to my old office that I could visit on my lunch break.  That is NOT a recommended practice, and besides just being a dreadful job, I've saved myself some money by changing jobs.  :) This morning, I'll be cutting out the next project.  I started to cut it out yesterday, but derai...

So I was feeling pretty good about finishing a pair of socks over the weekend--having taken just under 2 months--when I saw this today: https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-7210117/Grandmothers-Caston-Norfolk-knit-life-sized-woollen-model-Queen-60-others.html They knit the Queen of England as she appeared on her coronation day in 1953.  PLUS 60 villagers to recreate scenes of the times.  I truly hope a museum snaps these up and they go on display forever.  AND that they include how much knitting time it took, because that's my first question.  Do you think they started the day after?

I've had a 5-day weekend, which would be more impressive had my boss not bothered the sales staff repeatedly with unimportant emails to remind us we needed to sell things and if we hadn't worked insane hours the weekend before last and STILL had to show up on the following Monday at 8--which not even the stupidest charity in the world would expect.  And the extra days were NOT charity--we won them in a sales contest.  Next time we'll know to request a break from the sales manager as well.... I've spent much of my mini-vacation crafting.  Wednesday I made Andy's birthday gift, finishing it even a bit early , which is kind of amazing.  I debated about the next project, then remembering that the sewing room is still pretty much a crazy mess, and decided that the next project would be something I could find.  So, flannel in July: Sure, it's crazy-hot now, but this will be a lovely shirt for winter--as soon as I figure out which buttons. I thought the blac...

I DESTASHED 7,146 YARDS--OVER 4 MILES --OF YARN YESTERDAY! And I loved none of it.  Like this one:     I enjoy knitting cotton washcloths, but after purchasing this cone , I knit a few balls of this colorway, and as soon as this yarn gets wet, the colors bleed together, so it looks like some sad, half-melted Christmas mint found at the bottom of a purse somewhere.  I don't like how it turns out, so I was never going to knit with it.  Ditto this:   In December of 2007 when I was gearing up for my first year without buying yarn--I hadn't even come up with the term "cold-sheeping" yet--and I allowed myself one "last hurrah" purchase , and bought Knit Picks' Shine in both worsted weight and this sport weight.  The worsted was easily the worst yarn I've ever used--it sheds, every single ball (and they were less than 100 yards each) had terrible splices that look like they'd been done with an egg beater, and the sweater looked ratty and ol...

Sorry, should I have warned you?  I know it's such a rare occurrence that the shock might be too much here, so sit down for these next bits: I am donating an entire (overflowing) box of yarn. I have admitted that 3 old sewing WIPS are truly irreparable and have tossed them. I am donating Christmas crafting books.   I am even donating one of those huge Rubbermaid totes BECAUSE IT'S NOW EMPTY AND I DON'T NEED IT! I know, right?????????????????????????????????????? This is even a visible dent in the craft room!  To be fair, none of the yarn was good stuff--I even found Fun Fur lurking in the bottom of the tote (which might be breeding as I swear I purged all this stuff before moving), but I still struggled a bit to part with this, which is crazy.  I believe I bought this for a sweater for my sister's first child, and he's now in high school.  In my defense, he did get something like 8 sweaters, but this has been in my possession for at leas...

Friday when I got home from work, I found a family of quail in our front yard, and as I was trying in my COMPLETELY unstealthy way to not frighten them, I frightened them into the bushes.  Wildlife photographers everywhere remain completely unthreatened by my prowess.  I spent a fair bit of Friday afternoon out watching to see if they'd decide to come back out--doing some weeding as a cover, just in case my neighbors would worry about shrub-watching as a new hobby or something--but I haven't seen them again. But they were adorable.   Yesterday was surprisingly chilly, so aside from some yardwork and a few chores, Venus and I worked on the quilt: Thanks to a thread-cutting button, I'm sewing rows of stitching on the larger dragonfly print blocks in long rows, and I'm just over half done on the second row of blocks--there are a total of 8.  So it's a long process, but it's a good after-work project as it's just the same thing over and over.  Slow is ...