Wed update

We've got the winter crud here. So not much exciting is happening. A lot of laying on the couch and staring at the TV. While the cold medicine was working yesterday I knit some. And! After 7 yrs of marriage, my husband has a PAIR of hand knit socks. Finally! :)

I knit them in Hazel Knits yarn in the Sassafras colorway. First time using this yarn, and I LOVE it! Very nice stitch definition, and super nice colors. Love. I shall be buying more. :)

 This is the best picture I have on them as of yet. It is one of me modeling them. What is super exciting is that I was able to get a size 13 pair of socks out of 1 skein of yarn! There is 16 grams of sock yarn left. whew!

So! That's a skein out!
Yarn Destash 0
Yarn Knitted 1
Yarn In 0

Total -14

I also joined a Mini skein swap.  I'm cutting up a skin of my bugga into 22 mini skeins. In return I'll get 22 different  bugga colors back.  I've never done of of these before, so I'm kind of excited to see what I get back. I'm thinking I want to make one of those cute ripple blankets, so we'll see. :) 

My husband.

He does comics.

He rocks.

And the St Cloud Times did a story on him. :)

Go HERE.

Blogging More.

Yup. I'm trying to blog more.  I get mad when my favorite bloggers don't have new posts, so I'm totally going to blog more.  Not that I really and truly believe and anyone out there is waiting for me to post more...but. Still.

Look! I made a hat.  It's a hat for a brand new baby. M's coworker and his wife expanded their family, and I love knitting tiny baby hats.So there is a new tiny baby hat. Yeah! I snapped the picture just before I stuffed it in the bag to give to them.

So, that's another skein of yarn out! :)

Yarn Destash 0
Yarn Knitted 1
Yarn bought from destash 1 (yarntin sock)

Yarn total -13

I also wanted to show off my big super spending just for me me ME! Gift to myself. :)
I did some commission work, and I counted these when I bought them in Jan. But here is my Vday Bon Bon set from Verdant Gryphon. And I am in love. :) It wasn't from budget money, and I destashed more out then in. So I can totally be guilt free about it, right? I feel like I don't deserve it. But really, what else would I have spent extra bonus money on?

Knitting, Knitting.

So last night was my first time teaching a class at work.  My BFF Rose was there to help me, and thank god for her! I has 7 students, and holy cow! It was a lot of work, but fun. I hope they all had fun too and learned! :)

Yarn Tally!

Yarn out destash - 5 skeins
Yarn out knitting - 2 skeins (really, 2.25 but I'm only going to count whole skeins)
Yarn in - 4 skeins (only a buck each at work. But still. Gotta count them all)

Total from last time -10

New Total =   -13

Not bad! Still more out then in! :)
I'm only counting the yarn as knitted out after the project is finished.  I've cast on 3 new projects this month, but finished only one. Counting when I'm done will hopefully keep me honest, and that way I don't count it as out, to end up frogging it later. :)

Fabric tally still sits at zero/zero.

And, just because I haven't shown any pictures in forever, here is my son modeling my new hat.  They yarn is a cheap-o mix from work.  A buck a skein! But it looked a little hand spun, and the colors sucked me in.

Less is More

So, this year I decided that I'm really and truly going to work on not having so much stash.  I've given myself some rules to follow, lets see how long they last. :)

First one would be "more out than in"  Which I actually did this month! Hooray!  I bought no fabric what so ever. And for yarn, I destashed 15 skeins of yarn, and bought 5.  Which brings me to the second rule, I can only buy with destash money.  Or 'free' money.  Not budget money.  Like I said, so far so good. I'm also trying to knit things up, so that counts as out as well.  So I might try and keep track at the end of each month, just to see how I'm doing. :)

Yarn  15 out   5 in   total -10
Fabric  0 out   0 in  total 0

Lets see, what else is going on...
I'm the new knitting instructor at Crafts Direct. Woo! My first class in Monday the 6th.  I'm pretty excited, and hope all goes well.   I'm also taking Wilton's Class 4 at Crafts Direct, and the first class is tonight, and I am not prepared at all.  They just got the kits in, and I haven't even looked at the sheet to see what I need. But I'm super excited to take it!  :)

Nothing  really exciting happening here I guess. Which I'll totally take, as when things get exciting, it's normally the bad exciting.

Meh.

My Cold is back.
Tiny Boy is suddenly 16 yrs old and being a little defiant.
I took some pictures of yarn and uploaded them into the stash to make me less crabby.
Now I just want to hid under a blanket and sit and knit. Too bad I didn't make it to the store today. (I was not taking crabby boy anywhere else) I have no pop or chocolate and I think that would make me feel a helluva lot better.

ugh. Okay. time to try and clean the house.

Dear 2012,

Please be kinder that 2011.  In case you forgot, here are some of the things thrown at us. So Bad. Some Good.

A new job for my Husband
A rabies scare for my son.
A lay off from that new job.
A huge storm that damaged my son's new play center, our roof and siding.
Another New Job for my Husband.
2 stays in the hospital for my son. one 4 day and the other 5 days long.
A aneurysm for my Grandmother. Resulting in hospitalization and a move to a ground floor apartment.

Ups and Downs.  We got out of this year better than some. Here's hoping 2012 treats us all a little better.

Sick sick sick

J is sick with ick.

Well, actually pneumonia. It's back. We got the all clear on Wednesday, and on Thursday he had a cough. And slept. A lot. And popped a fever. Again.  So I brought him in on Friday. Xrays, blood work and a nebulizer. And we got sent home.  A recheck Saturday Am more Xrays, blood work and a swab of the nose, and here we are, at the hospital since 10:30 am, and we're here for an overnight stay.
He's got an iv, and he's been on oxygen since we got here. It's been turned down a bit, so that's good.  His cough is still bad, and his fever was 104 at 7 pm. It totally sucks to be here, but he needs to be, I know that.

Things I've been up to.
Baking, Knitting, Sewing (no pictures) and tending a sick boy with pneumonia(also no pictures).

Modern Swap Show off.

So I've been a bad bad partner.  I haven't properly thanks my awesome sauce partner ThreadedMess for the goodies I received.

A super keen wall hanging, that is already up on my wall in my sewing room.

check the quilting on this baby!

amazing. simply amazing. :)

Then I also was given the cutest cupcake oven mitts ever. EVER!

Plus some fabric. I was super spoiled by my partner.  Thank you so much! :)

Day off!

I'm into my second day off in a row, and it's bliss.  I worked 5 in a row, which I realize is what most working adults do every week, but it just SEEMS longer when you work over the weekend. I don't know. Maybe it's just me being a whiner. :)

Monday is my birthday. Woot!  I'm trying to come up with a give away again this year, but as now, I've got nothing.
I'm also trying to come up with birthday cupcakes to make for myself, and again, I'm at a loss.  I don't know what to make!  I want something different, that I haven't done in awhile, but I've been baking so much lately, that's a challenge. Hrm... I think I'm going to make a Mimosa Cupcake. And a Chocolate Mascarpone one. Because I can and because they sound lovely. :)

Kid is napping. Dishes are done. Thinking about doing more laundry. Or going and sewing on a baby blanket for a little one who is being born today.

Hello October!

I can't believe it's October already.  The last couple months have just flown by!

Good news! My husband has accepted a job offer! In town!  Super excited. :)  It mean I get to knock back my hours a little bit so I will be around more.  I picked up a ton of hours at work when her was laid off to help out. I am super thankful I was able to do that. And now cut them back a little but, so we can juggle Johnathan, not not have to track down day care.

Today is my Grandmothers (or momma's momma's momma to Johnathan) 88th birthday. We're heading to the cities to visit.  She is in the hospital after having a aneurysm on Friday. So far things are looking up, so here's hoping. My parents should be here in about an hour, and then we're driving on down.

Here's a poorly taken photo of my newest knitting.  Bakersfield in Three Irish Girls "Smoke and Mirrors"

So. that's my 5 second update. Now to try and catch up on my blogs! :)

Decisions!

Which yarn to pick?

Busy Days

This is what has been filling my days as of late.

Chocolate Cupcakes, with vanilla butter cream frosting. 100% vegan

 My Rentia. I've started the decreases!

 Vanilla Cupcakes, with Chocolate butter cream frosting.  Again, 100% vegan.

 3 dozen cupcakes, ready to go to a birthday party.

 Budgie, in Duet Yarns Army boy, for a special little dude who has a birthday coming up.

My final cake for my cake class.

Random....

Someone got a new toy.

Capin Merica!

Here I caught him mid "MEeeeerica"

Also, look at this! A chocolate cupcake, drizzled with homemade dulce de leche!

I did share one bite with my husband.  Just one.  Oh! And look at the leftovers!  yum!

I could have eaten the whole jar myself.

Seriously.


My SIL/Brother lent me a camera.  I may never give it back. Or, just bribe them with cupcakes to let me keep it forever. :)

I love lazy days off.

When you have no plans, no time frame, and even doing 3 loads of dishes and a few more of laundry are broken up by fun things, like filling the kiddie pool with water, or making crazy cupcakes.

They are Dulce de Leche cupcakes.  Filled with homemade dulce de leche.  Yum!  The cupcake itself was a little dry, and had a feel of cornmeal.  I have no idea what was up with that.  The frosting and filling were amazing.  I may have to play with the cupcake recipe a bit to make it more moist. And less cornmeal like.

I also sewed a tiny bit, and painted my fingernails.  I'm loving today.  The only plans are to take my son to fireworks tonight.

Gloomy

It's been gloomy around here lately.  Gloomy stupid rainy weather.  Also, my husband got laid off from work last week. Gloomy gloomy gloomy.

I'm trying to counteract all the gloomy, by working on something lovely.

It's the Renita shawl, knit in Sanguine Gryphon Skinny Bugga, in Milkweed Beetle. My camera battery was dead, so I've got a cell phone picture to show you.  It doesn't do justice to the colors. They're so rich and saturated.  At first it looks like a deep beautiful teal.  But there are shades of green and blue in there.  Plus it's so soft and squishy!  I love it.   The pattern is a fairly easy knit, I like that it's knit sideways.  Knit until half your yarn is used up, then start decreasing.  That way you use up all you yarn. Love it! :)   This is going to be for me! I have a pea coat, and need something to fill up the v-neck.   I thought this would be wonderful and bright in winter.

Other than that, not much happening.  I've got a couple quilts in the works, but nothing to show yet. I"m pulling together some fabric for a baby quilt, and I think I've got that together, so if the sun ever comes out, maybe there will be pictures of that for you to ogle.

A quickie

I whipped this up last night after work.

A sweet little padded case for the ipad.  We finally bought one, and it goes EVERYWHERE with us.  Mostly because Johnathan LOVES it and we can keep him busy while waiting at the doctors office, or waiting for food while we're out to eat...ect.  Dudes. It's the best thing ever.  He'll grab it, sit on someones lap, and play "Angy Birds".

Velcro, because buttons on a case scare me. Lined with fuzzy soft flannel.

All closed up and ready to go.

I love that I was able to use up some batting and flannel scraps.  I bought the pac man fabric wanting to make something for my hubby, and this fit the bill.  It's not super thick. I think if you dropped it from a very high height, it wouldn't protect the best, but for tossing in my purse and going around town, I think it'll be perfect.  I loved making this, it was so fun, I'm thinking of whipping up a few more for my etsy shop.

Three Thousand

Three Thousand Dollars.

That will but you about 120 skeins of hand painted sock yarn.
300 yards of cotton quilting fabric.
One series of rabies shots for a tiny boy you're found of.

He's lucky he's cute.

Also, he turned THREE on Friday. There were balloons and cupcakes and presents that require putting together.  It's been a crazy fun three years!

Circle String Block

Hello Bee Peeps!  First off, thank you so much for doing this block for me! I think it's going to be a easy and fun quilt.  I've been tossing this idea around in my head for awhile, and I'm excited it's finally my month. :)

I've sent a bunch of pink strings, and a 14.5 inch Kona Charcoal Grey block.  Grab something circular that's laying around.  It can be any size you'd like, as long as you leave me a half inch or so of sewing space.

I grabbed a plate and a piece of notebook paper, because that's what I could find.  Trace out a circle.
Flip that paper over like you would if you were paper piecing, so the traced out circle is on the BACKSIDE.  Sew the strings down on the top, plain side.  Please keep the strings no larger then 2 1/2 inch or so finished size. Feel free to add any pink that you have. I love variety. :)

Lay the first string right side up.  Lay the next string right side down, matching edges.  Sew.  Flip, finger press. Repeat until you have 1/2 the circle finished.

Repeat for the other side of circle.

Flip the whole shebang over and trim the block to the circle you traced.

Once you've cut it down, pull all the paper off the back.

 Trim all those silly little threads. 

Take the circle and place it somewhere on the grey block.  Please keep it out of where the blocks will be sewn together, so about 1/2 an inch from the edge.

I pinned mine down, but you could try some spray baste spray if you like. I may try that on my next block. Don't worry about doing a fusible web or anything like that.  It takes too many steps. :)

I used a zip zag stitch, about a 2 long on my machine and a 4 width.  Do what looks good to you. Please for this step, use any shade of pink thread you have, or a grey that matches. It can be any thread, it doesn't have to be 100% cotton quilting thread. I used good old coats and clark. I went around the circle two times.

  All done! And dudes, don't worry if there are little wiggles on the block like I have. I'm not going to worry about it, I think when it's quilted and washed up, no one will know.

I think I'll need about 30 blocks, if I've done my math right. I'm only sending out enough grey fabric to do one block. If you want to make  more circles I'll take them and add them to fabric I have.  I'm using this for 2 different months, so I should have plenty of blocks by the end of July. :)  If you want to get creative and make them wonky,  or improved a little, go for it.  If you want to put 4 tiny little ones on one block, go for it!  I can't wait to see what your creative folks come up with! :)

Also, please keep any pink fabric you have left over.  I think I sent more than enough!  And like I said, feel free to add any little scrapes you have. I'd love if each block were completely different. :)
Any questions? Let me know.

And, sorry for the not so good pictures. It was raining and overcast today, and I wanted to get this done asap. :)