Time Flies

Time has flown by around here, in more ways than one. I took a little break over Thanksgiving. We left last Wednesday to visit family and didn't return home until Sunday. My plan was to decorate the house for Christmas before we left, but that of course didn't happen. Instead I just dug out all the Christmas stuff and didn't finish anything and came home to a disaster. Such fun. My parents are coming to stay tonight so you can guess what I've been up to. But the house is decorated and sort of clean and I can really buckle down and focus on gift making.

This is one little decoration I made for myself - a vase cozy I guess? It just makes everything look warm and cozy I think. The yarn is possum that my MIL got me a couple years ago in Australia. It is extremely soft (if not a little strange!)

Time has flown by in another way too. Two years ago today I started this blog. Two years ago today, I found a way to connect with some amazing people from the confines oops I mean comfort of my own home. Thank you all for reading, commenting and just being my friend. To those of you from my "real life" (Rachel, Wendy, Sara, Stacy, Becky, Mom) it means so much to me that you read this and care what is going on in my day to day life. To all of you out there that I have yet to meet in person, connecting with you through this blog has been a wonderful experience. Thank you all very much.

So, I'm off to clean my craft room so my mom and I can work on some projects while she's here. While I'm doing that, I will be thinking about some giveaway ideas for my blogiversary! Check back tomorrow and I'll let you know what I came up with!!

Couple things...

Couple things on my mind today that I wanted to share with you all.

Picked up this amazing magazine last night at JoAnns. I had read some reviews on other blogs and thought it looked interesting, but wow, it is good. I'll admit, as an avid blog reader I am rather picky when it comes to magazines. Sometimes it seems like there isn't much out there that hasn't been done already 16 different ways, and how could a printed publication keep up with it all. But this magazine has done it. Check it out!

Those of you running the 2007 version of Microsoft - have you checked out OneNote?? I am loving it!! A great way to catalog all sorts of things, from shopping lists to recipes to knitting patterns. I'll have to share some shots from my notebooks in there some day. Anybody ever use Google Notebook? Its like that only on your own computer and ten times better. I'm sure Microsoft has some boring instructions somewhere, but I could write up a little demonstration on how I use it if anyone is interested. Let me know!

Sydney and I spent the morning organizing her craft & art supplies. I finally gave in and boxed up all the china out of the lower portion of my china cabinet. It is now craft central. Sydney was surprising helpful when we sorted out all of her supplies. We re-used a dozen or so old containers - sequins in an old spice container, pom poms in an old peanut butter jar, paper clips in a baby food jar, etc. Recycling all that plastic is so inefficient, I try my hardest to find a way to reuse it instead. Anyway, it's all cleaned up and ready for business now.

*A funny story for you...yesterday afternoon Sydney spent at least an hour gluing things together while I worked on some origami patterns I've been wanting to try. Last night her dad put her to bed while I was out running errands. Her bedtime prayer included "and thank you for a very wonderful crafting day." Ha!*

Hope you all have some fun plans for the weekend! I hope to finish lots of Christmas presents. We'll see!

Take care.

Change of Season Pillows

It seems with every season change I make new pillows for our sofa. Nothing as spectacular at this of course, but it works. The pillow in the back is made from leftover curtain fabric. The front pillow is part of a felted sweater. I didn't have much left so it is pieced together. The back is the same curtain fabric, the buttons hide an unmatched seam! More cozy-ing up to come! It is getting down right cold around here.

Pickle Mittens

So obviously I've been spending way too much time on Ravelry. LYS means local yarn shop. Which in my case is 6 blocks from my house. I ventured in there a while back and actually controlled myself. I bought two skeins of yarn - the aqua from yesterday and this amazing green which is an organic cotton also by Blue Sky Alpacas. I used pretty much every last inch of the green (called Pickle!) to create these mittens.

Even with Ravelry and all the amazing wonders it contains, I couldn't find a mitten pattern that I liked. Everything looked so big and puffy. I was looking for extra long (of course) and slim and sleek. So, with what I learned on Fetching, I forged ahead on my own.

This teeny little pile of scraps is what I had left. I refuse to buy more yarn just to knit a thumb!! I actually ended up taking an inch off the bottom of each mitten to make this work. Ridiculous I know.

DIY DPN

A couple of weeks ago Sydney and I spent the weekend with my family. I took the opportunity to use my Dad's fancy power tools (and his assistance) to make myself some double pointed knitting needles. I was getting sick of picking patterns based on the size needles I already had on hand. So for a little over $2 I made three sets of needles (5 per set).

To make these I took a needle gauge with me to the hardware store and compared the dowels to standard needle sizes. If you plan to try this, figure out how long you want your needles to be before you go. Then with some quick math at the store you'll know how many of each dowels to purchase. The dowels I found were 4 feet long so I was able to get five 9 inch needles from each one.

Next, we cut them accordingly and sanded away on my Dad's very large stand alone belt sander. Once I got home I spent a while hand sanding them. Then I sprayed them with lacquer, sanded again, sprayed again and sanded again. I used them to finish the hat I posted about yesterday and actually ended up sanding them again after I was done with the hat. It's hard to notice the very small imperfections until you start to really knit. But, once they are smooth they work like a gem! Plus, I love using things I made myself!

P.S. The yarn in the photo is Blue Sky Alpacas sport weight in Pale Aqua (514). I keep carrying it around and touching it trying to decided what to make with it. Any ideas?

Getting cabled away

The cables have sucked me in! (Even though they take me forever.) I think I may have finally finished a hat that actually fits me. I used some clearance Lion Brand Jiffy yarn. I have more of it and plan to make some sort of scarf to coordinate with it. The pattern is from this book that I checked out from my local library. The hat was really short on me the first go around so I ended up taking out the top decreased section in order to go back and add more length. Gotta cover those ears you know!!

Crunch Time...

Busy working on a couple of deadlines lately. I am a constant procrastinator. How does one get rid of this horrible habit?

Anyway, here is a tiny sneak peek at one of my projects. I don't want to spill the beans yet, afraid I might just jinx it.

Happy Wednesday!