A Little Yarn On The Side

 Or mostly, if we don't count switching back and forth between quilting and knitting.   In spite of help from the kitties, mostly Charlie, I have been working steadily on a new quilt project. The project instructions said "simple," so it only took me a solid two months, which included ripping out some of my free motion quilting once I got so far off that I had huge puckers: I am still very much learning, but the quilt sandwiching is one of the places I struggle most, and I did pretty well this time, AND didn't discover that my borders were suddenly too full of ease to ever work.  And, drum roll please, the finished quilt is in the dryer.  That's right, I used the term "finished quilt" and I wasn't referring to someone else's blog. YAY!

 Why is it that working from home makes for longer hours?   It seems I finished the purple socks AND sent them to their recipient without getting a picture, but I did finish them.  There has been quite a bit of sewing.  Back when I bought my first house, I made several sets of placemats using a fan pattern with doilies.  At the time, I never made more than 6 for a set because my table only had room for 6 people, there wasn't room in the house for a bigger table, and nothing in life ever changes, right?  A marriage and two houses later, I did find the remaining fabric and apparently the only remaining doily that will match the others, and made two additional placemats.  An in-progress shot: Not realizing I had the material or doily to make them, last fall I'd ordered fabric to make a new set, this time TWELVE with 15 matching napkins, because what isn't fun about hemming? (besides all of it).  Sometime in the last 18 years the original doilie...

I didn't make my goal of 50 projects for the year, but I did squeak in a last project for the year with fleece pajamas for Andy, and a last pair of socks, which are almost twins! Considering how many knots were in this skein of yarn, I'm calling it a Christmas miracle.  Of course, I immediately cast on for a new pair: because there might be some sock yarn that found its way into my stash this year.  Actually, a LOT of yarn might have joined me this year.  While under normal circumstances, I would feel bad about it, anything short of alcoholism to cope with the stress of 2020 seems like a "win."   I'm working tons and tons of hours at my new job, but I think I'm still going to try for 50 finished projects this year.  It's my turn to make gifts, so there will be some smaller projects--maybe fabric bowls?  More table runners?  How many table runners do people who don't sew use?  It's a lot, right? Let's hope 2021 is a MUCH better year than 2020....

  It’s hard to know what to say about a year so dominated by “pivoting” and toilet paper.  Two normal  months and bam,  I can’t stop touching my face, we all learned we weren’t washing our hands  correctly, and suddenly the hot tip of the day is which store currently has supplies of cleaning  products,  rice, and flour.  I had a “source” for hand sanitizer when it could not be obtained, but not one  for thin elastic for sewing masks for healthcare workers.  We went from, “ OMG, THAT WAS AN  EARTHQUAKE” at the end of March to “eh, I don’t think that aftershock was even a 4.2” later in the   summer.  And it really felt like a FAST change--in mid-March I accepted a new job and bought a new  pair of shoes to celebrate, and by the time I started just two weeks later, pants were pretty much  optional, let alone shoes.     We have been very lucky this year:  Andy is still working for a health in...

I am finally taking a whole week off! YAY!  I'm so burnt out by the new job, and by 2020 in general, so it's nice to get a break. We get to have a Christmas tree this year!  We had to make a few Charlie-adjustments, like clip-on lights instead of light strings, no breakable ornaments, and the tree skirt may or may not be found under the tree.  But at least the tree has ornaments this year--that's progress! Because it is just not safe or responsible to be around people outside our home, we had a pretty low-key Thanksgiving.  I roasted a turkey on Sunday so we'd have leftovers, and we went for a long walk today, wrapped gifts, and I finished part of Andy's Christmas gift: I used my favorite shirt pattern: but no matter WHAT the envelope says, this is not a three-hour shirt.  It took me four days.  And now, with just over one month to go in the year, I have eight projects to go. I did finish the front of the current sweater project, and have cast on the back, ...

What a ghastly year.  Besides the fires, hurricanes, earthquakes, and the pandemic, I am truly and utterly appalled by the realization that there are people who just don't care about others.  I just don't know what to say to people who are okay with those dying of coronavirus if they have "underlying conditions."  When did people become this awful?  215,000 deaths in the US now and I miss my "normal" life as much as anyone, but other people's lives matter.  I can't even believe this is debatable. The new job REALLY keeps me busy, and for a few weeks I was was so stressed out that even with drugs, I could only sleep about 4 hours a night, but it's gotten better.  Hopefully.  I work a lot of hours--sometimes 12-14 hour days, so some days off I just rest, but there has been some sewing.  We have new, "fun" masks, I have met the worst fabric ever made, which will hopefully become shirts for both of us without killing me.  The drape is truly...

Work is crazy-busy, but I did get a break yesterday and was able to finish a shirt I've been working on for me  I'm really excited about this one, because it's the first time I've done more for a shirt than embroider a pocket.  My old machine just made too many mistakes to risk more, but since I had extra fabric in case I had issues, I decided to add embroidery to the yoke and the cuffs: I know it's customary for the embroidery to be right-side up on the cuffs, but then my hummingbirds would be upside down to ME, so I decided as I would be the one seeing them most and it's MY shirt, they're upside down so they're right side up when I view the cuffs.  AND THE EMBROIDERY TURNED OUT PERFECTLY!!!  I'm so excited.  If it weren't crazy-hot, I'd wear this shirt today. I'm also making the same shirt for Andy, with just a bit of approved embroidery on the pocket.  I staggered the shirt steps just a bit between the two sizes so I would...