2017: Year-in-Review

Obviously, I've not kept up as well as I'd like this year, but considering how the year started out, and how I felt after the sudden death of my father, I'd say I did fairly well on the creating aspect of my life. Unfortunately, I suffered from a pretty deep depression last winter and spring, and it took months to start breaking the ice. I am still pretty reclusive, I still feel anger and anxiety nearly every day, and I've put on a lot of weight since having Blessing, that I just can't seem to shake. I'm really hoping that having passed the first anniversary of losing him will help to keep the blues at bay and get through this winter without too much trouble.

I hate to start on a downer, but that really has a lot to do with how much I accomplished this year. The first few months of the year, I spent days in front of the computer, constantly trying to take my mind off things. I discovered Staci at Very Pink Knits, and immersed myself in tutorials and new projects. I shopped for "fancy" (wool) yarns and tried a few new things I'd been too scared to before. I made my first sweater, a little person vest for Blessing. I had to sew it together, which took forever (weaving in ends took even longer!), but it is all but done. I still have to block it, which I'm waiting to finish the pair of socks I'm on to block all my wools, but he can wear it, although it's still a little large for him. I felt good about that sweater, so I tried my hand at top-down raglan sweaters and completed 4 of those.

As I mentioned in my last post, I finished the blanket I started in August to send to SC for a housewarming. I also finished the C2C blanket earlier this year, and started on my Mandala quilt. That one will hopefully get some time next year, but for now, I've got one block completed and 7 more with a good start (out of 16).

Sweaters, socks, and the largest blanket I've ever made are just the beginning. I also passed the 50 orders (hooray!!) milestone on my Etsy shop. Here is an exhaustive list of all the yarn projects I made this year:

2017 Finished products:

Knit Marissa messy bun hat-leftover Vanna's Choice

Crochet Eric train conductor hat-dark blue cotton

Crochet bow ties x 4-Red heart bits

Knit hair bow-leftover bits

Crochet Cheryl black hat w/ red/tan flower-bought all 3 colors

Crochet pink elephant for baby shower-RH pink

Crochet brown beard with leftover RH/ILTY balls for Etsy

Crochet light brown beard-leftover ILTY for Etsy

Crochet light brown beard-purchased ILTY for Etsy

Crochet C2C blanket in Cherry Twist-purchased 7 skeins

Knit Blessing sweater-Sue baby yarns

Knit Blessing merino wool sweater-purchased Cleckheaton

Knit girl sweater-Sue baby yarns

Crochet monster truck hat for Peyton-leftover Simply Soft

Crochet elephant for Blessing-denim twist leftovers

Crochet light gray Viking hat w/ black beard for Etsy-leftovers w/ new white

Crochet teal shawl-purchased Yarn Bee sugarwheel

Knit teal/purple/brown RH socks-purchased sock yarn & reinforcement thread

Crochet cow hat x 3-leftover white, black, and light brown ILTY

Crochet monster hat-leftover RH orange, teal, white, black

Crochet red beard-purchased ILTY terra cotta

Crochet brown beard-purchased ILTY brown

Crochet yellow beard-leftover ILTY yellow

Knit pink/teal/navy cloudborn socks w/ aqua heel-purchased colored and aqua

Crochet baby viking hat in blue-Caron blue pound from Grandma

Crochet child viking hat in blue-Caron blue pound from Grandma

Crochet adult viking hat in blue-Caron blue pound from Grandma

Crochet child beard-purchased ILTY yellow

Crochet child braids-purchased ILTY yellow

Crochet adult viking hat-purchased gray ILTY

Crochet adult viking hat w/sand horns-leftover ILTY

Crochet brown beard-leftover ILTY

Crochet dark brown beard-purchased ILTY

Crochet dragon shawl-Centaur Mandala

Crochet purple viking hat-ILTY purple, scraps

Crochet purple XL viking hat-ILTY purple, scraps

Knit Bl'aig green sweater-Sue baby yarns, purchased green

Knit L'aig blue sweater-Sue baby yarns, purchased all colors

Crochet Susan beach blanket-purchased ILTY-9 1/2 skeins

Don't know if you're counting, but there were also 10 beards and 7 viking hats nestled in there! That's 41 completed yarn projects, and I'm still working on a couple. And this doesn't even take into consideration all the quiet books, quilting (even though I didn't get too far, I still started one), and the Soft I made Blessing. I still have grand plans for quilting 6 placemats, making my own knitting project bags and DPN holders, and even a DPN roll, but I'll have to dust off the sewing machine and get really comfortable with it before then. I need to lose a ton of weight (well, not literally a ton, but a LOT), and I'd like to look into making some dresses and skirts in my new size.

I have pledged to my hubby that I will not buy more yarn (except for Etsy orders) until I have used up at least half my stash. With my Mandala craze earlier this year, I have enough yarn to make many, MANY projects without even setting foot in a retailer (or online; no more shopping!). I have sock yarn to use up, an intricate lacy shawl's worth of yarn, plenty to make lots of stuffed animals with (and some super-cute patterns to try out!), a beautiful and difficult scarf pattern to try, some Fair Isle patterns to work on, mittens, hats, and numerous novelty items to make. I'm pretty excited, and I can't wait to share them with you, as they come up. 

I also have so much Cricut material to use, gifts to make, and felt to cut. I still want to make fun felt board Montessori-inspired manipulatives for the kids to play with, and I just need to do it. As a preview, here's a list of some of the items you'll hopefully be seeing in the near future:

Knit teal/stripe short socks

Knit hubby gray/red socks

Knit 2017 Patterson Christmas ball ornament

Crochet dish scrubbies for gifts

Crochet NICU octopus

Crochet sky blanket

Knit wool slippers

Knit stuffed cat x 2

Knit Blessing dog

Knit fox paws scarf

Crochet bear

Knit bento box quilt

Knit hippo

Crochet ugly square

I'm sure some other items will sneak in there before these are finished, but the great thing is, I have all the yarn to make every single one of these projects! I think that's a good thing...

Anyway, until next time, merry Christmas and happy New Year! God bless you in 2018 even more than 2017.

Blankets, and socks, and sweaters, oh my!

It is never my intention to go months without updating, let alone 6 months, but that is what happened this year. I have been keeping busy with my crafting (well, crocheting mostly), but I haven't done a great job of keeping up my blog along the way. I have taken loads of photos of everything, and even kept a detailed list of all the projects I completed this year!

I'll start with the last thing I finished, a very time-consuming project that has kept me busy for months! This summer, we were blessed to get to go see my aunt and uncle in South Carolina, and they have always lived near water. Either the ocean, a huge pond on their ranch, swimming pools in their backyards, lakes that are actually drained in the winter, or Lake Murray, where they currently live, and have just finished building a beautiful new home. They have always been very generous people and let us stay with them, borrow their vehicles, provide everything we need for our stay, and never ask for anything in return. They always send gifts for my children's birthdays and Christmas, when we don't really do that for the rest of the family.

I found a project on Ravelry this summer while we were visiting them that inspired me, and I knew as soon as I saw it that I needed to make a similar project and gift it to my relatives. It is based on Planet June's Turtle Beach blanket, and I used colors I found from Hobby Lobby. When I picked them out, I had the "sand" colors in the reverse order, so it looked differently than the final project turned out. I am not completely satisfied with how the sand turned out, but it's too late to take it out, as it has to go on an airplane with my mom in a few days. I really like how crocheting through the back loop (for the whole blanket!) gives the ripple effect more definition, and I think it really adds to the project.

My gauge must have been completely off, because I was planning to make it 52" x 60", and it turned out to be 46" x 75". I also had over 4 skeins of yarn leftover, so my math must have been off as well. At least I use Hobby Lobby yarn a lot, so it won't go to waste!

This blanket is what I've been working on since the beginning of August, to the exclusion of nearly everything else. I started a baby blanket just before then using some of the Mandala yarn in Phoenix and a no-pill yarn from Hobby Lobby. I've only been able to get about a third of it finished (I think?), so I'll be working on it more after my next projects.

I am currently working on a pair of socks (yes, socks!) that will probably have to be a gift for my sister-in-law, that I plan to finish up in the next week or so. I have limited yarn leftover to finish them from another pair of socks, so I don't think I'll be able to make socks big enough for my feet. These will be the 3rd pair of socks I've made since I wrote last! I'm following a sock knit-along with the Yarn Hoarder lady on Youtube, so I decided to try my hand at knitting socks. I don't mind it too much, I just don't think I can make the exact same pair over and over like some people. I've tried 3 different things with each pair: a German short row heel, an afterthought heel, and currently, just a short row heel with a pattern on top, and I have enjoyed each pair. I still don't think I can allow myself to spend upwards of $30 on yarn for socks, but I think the novelty of pretty yarns for socks is an interesting notion.

Here is the 1st pair (technically, the 2nd pair I've ever made):

Red Heart sock yarn, German short row heel

Here's the 2nd pair:

Cloudborn sock yarn, afterthought heel

The current pair I'm working on is with the Cloudborn yarn, with the aqua as the main color and the stripes for the toe and heels (hopefully). If I run out, I'll figure out something else to do with the yarn, but it was too much to just put into my ugly square.

Other than the projects listed above, I've been involved in a craft fair at my alma mater, so I made viking hats, braids, and beards in infant, child, and adult sizes using my school colors (blue and gold). They were a lot of fun to wear to our Homecoming football game (we were even on the local news!), and have gotten a lot of traffic on my Etsy site. I am putting them out as "team spirit" products, and they can be made in any school's colors. I have my Etsy shop on vacation until after the holidays, but they'll be available after that for any team.

I have been busy the last 6 months, finishing up large projects and starting new ones. I finished all of the boys' striped sweaters during that time. I'll include photos of these at the bottom. I also planned 2 birthday parties, 2 vacations, reffed a LOT of volleyball matches, and joined the local symphony chorus. Blessing is walking, so he keeps me busy during the day, and we volunteer at our church a couple of times a month. We are planning a large Christmas party this month, and I still take the boys to see my grandparents at least once a week. My grandpa passed away early in October, so we are very eager to spend as much time as possible with Grandma.

I hope to keep updating more often, especially after the holidays. I will post a year-in-review shortly to go over all the things I was able to complete this year, which is great for me to see. A lot of times I feel like I can't get anything done, but then I check that list and see that I've done a lot more than I realize. Until then, happy crafting and merry Christmas if I don't get to post before then.

DK sweater for Bl'aig

DK sweater for L'aig

DK cardigan for Blessing

Lately

I've been busy knitting so many things lately, I haven't taken the time to take proper photos. I have been working on the sweaters for the boys, plus a blanket, making beards like crazy, weaving in ends on projects I've had off the hooks forever, and making gifts with the Cricut.

The boys' sweaters are finally coming along nicely. I finished weaving in all the ends on little Blessing's brown cardigan this week, although I still need to sew on the 5 buttons. Once I get that finished, I'll take a pic to post. The blue striped pullover now has 1 sleeve finished (as of yesterday!), and I'm about ready to finish the second sleeve soon. I still have ends to weave on that one. I also started a green sweater in the same style, using the same colors as the brown one. I'm about two-thirds done with the body, and will post photos as it gets closer to finished.

I found a home for the little purple striped sweater and wove in all the ends on it. My best friend had a little girl in March, so I gave it to her as a gift this weekend when she was in town from Tennessee. It will look great on this little cutie this winter!

I wove in the ends on my big maroon crochet C2C blanket today and let the boys finally lay under it during movie night tonight. They love how soft, large, and warm it is. They didn't say so, but the hubby spoke for them.

I have made 2 more dwarf beards since I wrote last, both in a color I had not done before. I took photos of my handsome hubby in it, so I would have a photo of a male wearing my beards with no helmet of any kind.

Beard in light brown Hobby Lobby I Love This Yarn

Surprise! I have a beard!

In character

Side shot; it's not too small, he just has a very large head...

My hubby has always worn glasses and rarely has an opportunity to see himself without them (unless he's 4 inches from the mirror), so he was pleased to see himself in a photo without his favorite accessory.

I also made some projects with the Cricut for Mothers' Day, but had some technical difficulties, so I haven't yet had an opportunity to give the mothers their belated gifts. I will be doing that soon, so I can share some of the fun things I've been doing with that piece of equipment. I have a lot of iron-on and a lot of the regular vinyl, so I will be on the lookout for opportunities to use both of those for gifts and for around the house in the coming months and years.

One of the last things I've been working on is a beautiful knitted quilt, by Very Pink Knits. I am making it with Lion Brand Mandala yarn. Yes, I have hopped on the Mandala bandwagon and I've fallen completely down the rabbit hole. I fell in love with this yarn after I saw this cowl on Pinterest:

I found out it was unavailable ("Out of Stock" on LionBrand.com) online and only available in certain WalMarts, so I tried to look on Ebay, but it was quite pricey there. I don't live near any of the WalMarts on their map, but I realized that my mom was visiting her sister in South Carolina, and they had it there! I begged her to pick up some for me in the above color, as well as two others. She sent home a huge box of 15 cakes for me! Then, a couple of weeks later, we were visiting family in Springfield, Missouri, and the yarn was at a WalMart just over the Arkansas state line, so I begged the hubby to go there with me, and I was able to get my hands on all the other colors (there are 16 total). So now I have more yarn than I will ever be able to use for a long time, but it's unique and a little hard to get a hold of.

I am using one of the colors (Wood Nymph) to make the quilt. I have one block (out of 16) done, and the small squares for 8 more completed.

The pattern calls for bulky weight yarn and the Mandala is DK, so I just made the first squares to the correct measurements instead of following the number of rows. I ended up with 23 garter rows, or 46 stitches, after the first squares were finished. The other 8 blocks will have the cream in the center and the outside, with the purples in the middle section. I can't wait to see it put together!

I am feeling a bit dizzy, probably from staring at the computer screen all night instead of knitting, so I should wrap this up. Hope you are having fun with your projects!

Here we go again!

So many new things going on in my craft-mind, it feels like the last several posts have just been exploding with projects. I feel like I can't make up my mind about what exactly I want to do, so I'm just doing everything.

One of the reasons for this is a new podcast I've been watching: The Yarn Hoarder. This gal is so busy, with so many different plates spinning at once, I don't know how she has time to do everything, and podcast, and keep up with her Ravelry group, and find new patterns and yarns to share. Her self-control issues alarmed me at first (they made me have issues too!), but once I got over wanting to have everything she talks about, I realized it is just inspirational to see so many new things I can do with yarn. She has inspired me to just try knitting socks and not be intimidated by them, to finish my sweaters, and her crochet blanket make-a-long inspired me to make (and finish!) my C2C blanket.

She has a wall of (what I consider to be very expensive) wool yarn behind her, plus thousands of dollars worth of needles, hooks, notions, and many other craft projects, which is what I think draws people to her, but she also runs many giveaways and shares ideas for patterns and yarns to try. She shared a felted slipper pattern before Christmas, and I have bought all the items needed to make a pair. I have never felted before, so I am excited and a little bit scared.

All of that to say, I have been branching out too. One thing I forgot to mention: she always talks about her "project bags." I didn't know this was a thing until she mentioned them. They are always cute fabric prints with lots of details, so she shows all the different things about them and where you can buy them. These ladies (and some men) on Etsy are charging outrageous amounts for a project bag, which is basically a cosmetics bag with a cute print and a couple of extra pockets. So I decided I could make that.

I'm not what I would consider a skilled sewer, but my mom did teach me when I was young to use a sewing machine. I have owned one for most of my life (either Mom's or hand-me-downs when I moved out), but for the most part, it sits in its lonely case in the closet. I am trying, though. I watched several YouTube videos (what would we do without it? Learn by apprenticeship?) and realized that the sewing machine is not as scary as I thought, it's not rocket science, and with a little practice, I can probably figure out how to make some of these bags myself.

My first project was not a bag, though. My little Blessing loves to chew on things, anything he can get his 2 little teeth on, especially tags, so I made him a little taggie blanket (we call them "Softs" in our house). I did my best, and pinned everything just so, and sewed it all together, did a top-stitch around the edge (I learned what top-stitching is from YouTube!), and I'm so proud of that little thing!

I have enough fabric leftover that I might just make another one, for when he throws up yellow all over it and it's in the wash. It took forever (I'm still new to this), but hopefully I'll be able to do the next one quicker.


I also bought a ton of fabric from my local Joann's to start making bags with. I've also found some tutorials on making rolled knitting needle cases and DPN cozies. Now I just need to find time to work on them...

After we finished the quiet books a few weeks ago, I told my awesome old-school Grandma that I wanted to learn to quilt like her the old-fashioned way: by hand. She churned out more than 16 twin-size quilts in one year for all the great-grandkids, and she did it all by hand. She's amazing! I didn't want to start something I couldn't finish, so I told her I'd like to make placemats. I'm making each one different, using a traditional quilting pattern. None of this silly machine quilting in a day for me: I'm taking a month to make a placemat! 😊 I've been looking up patterns, and consulting Grandma's advice, and I think we've found some winners.

The first one I'm making is one of my favorites: a tumbling block. It's just a bunch of diamonds, which if you arrange them differently, end up looking like a star. But if you put them in just the right configuration, it comes across looking like an endless stack of blocks. I've always loved this pattern and can't wait to get it finished. Here's the layout:

After hand-sewing all the blocks on the bottom two rows together, I realized it's going to be a bit short, so I still need to cut out pieces for an extra top and side row of blocks. I really like the fun prints and am excited to quilt this one. The plan is to use complementary colors/fabrics for all 8 placemats, so they coordinate, but don't match.

The last big thing I've done recently is purchase a Cricut. I still don't have all the ins and outs of using the software, but I think it'll be amazing for making gifts for friends and family, and using up all my extra felt (and all the felt I bought when it was on sale a few weeks ago...). I would like to make a felt board for the boys that uses some of the more complicated and involved quiet book pages I found, but didn't want to make 3 of. The Cricut will be a huge help in cutting those pieces out, if I can figure out how to get the template in the Design Space to cut them.

Here is a photo of my recently updated craft space:

I got a ton of Cricut supplies with my machine and they were having a pretty good sale on their website as well, so I stocked up on all the vinyl and other supplies I could think of. I also purchased some necessary knitting/crocheting supplies (we got a rather sizable tax return, so I got a little bit of extra spending money) including a digital scale, some foam blockers (so I can finally not use my children's toys to block!), sock blockers, and the most useful so far, a ball winder.

If I didn't already have enough going on with all my knitting and crochet projects, I definitely have enough to keep me busy now. I have so much fabric to start sewing, plus the Cricut to start labeling everything, and more felt than I can probably ever use in a lifetime.

So much to post!!

I have a ridiculous number of projects and things to talk about, so I need to just get it out there. I've been very busy spending time with my kiddos, being outdoors, watering flowers and plants in our new yard, finding fun things to do this summer, and I was housesitting my mom's place for a month while she spent time with her sister. In my "free time," I have been working on quite a few large projects, as well as lots of little things. Add to that, a very needy little boy who likes to be held every waking moment, and still refuses to sleep through the night, I've been very busy!

One of the cutest reasons to not post

First, I should wrap up about some projects I hinted at a couple of months ago. My mother-in-law loved the brown and navy flower beanie I made for her in January, so for her birthday, she requested a solid black hat, with removable flowers in red and tan. I had a hard time finding the right tan, so it is more of a yellowy cream than a tan, but she liked it. I just sewed the flowers to a barrette clip, and it worked out beautifully. She can wear both together, either color separately, or just the black hat. If I'd had that yarn in white, I probably would have made a white flower as well, but those were the only colors I bought.

Caron Simply Soft black, red, tan

 

The next project I hinted about was the pink elephant. I wanted to make it for our youth minister's new daughter, and since I never get to make girly things, I immediately found my pink stash. I planned to give it to them at their shower, but that was the week Blessing cut his first teeth, stopped sleeping through the night, and rolled over, so he was very high-maintenance that week. I didn't get it completely finished by the following week when I gave it to them, either. I should have sewed toes, eyebrows, a smile, and crocheted a chain tail. I also misread the pattern on a couple of points. It had different wording for crocheting in the back loop, so I did the opposite. Oops. They won't be able to tell, but I fixed this for the next one I made (still needing to be sewn and stuffed for Blessing...).
 

Old Red Heart yarn from Grandma

I am all but finished with 3 sweaters, and have made amazing progress on another one, and just cast on the last one yesterday. The first one is the first sweater I've made for an infant, and it is for Blessing. I believe I mentioned it in a previous post, about the outrageous cost of the yarn and the care of this sweater. I still haven't blocked it, but I think it turned out beautifully. I should have just enough yarn leftover to make myself some ankle socks as well. The yarn is so squishy.

Cleckheaton merino wool in Truffle and Cream, size 6 needles, per pattern

The second sweater is the one I made for Blessing with the leftover yarn from a gift several years ago. I still need to weave in the ends on one sleeve and sew on the buttons, but I think it turned out beautifully.

Yarn Bee yarn from Sue

I had a bunch of girl colors (purple, pastels) that I didn't know what else to do with, so I started a sweater for a little girl in the same style as Blessing's sweater. I wanted to try to steek it, but realized since it was acrylic, that wouldn't work as well as it would if it were wool, so I just just finished it in the round. Of course, it also needs the ends woven in...

Yarn Bee yarn from Sue

The fourth sweater is for one of the twins. I just finished the bottom ribbing Sunday, and obviously still need the sleeves. I should have woven the ends in as I went, but I'll just have to take a day or two to finish that when it's completed. It is going so much faster because it's all in the round, instead of the cardigan, which was all stockinette.

Yarn Bee from Hobby Lobby; Lion Brand Baby Soft in blue and yellow

The last sweater I just started is going to be just like the blue sweater, except the main color will be green. I hoped to have them done by Easter, but that didn't happen, with all the other projects I've had.

I also heard about this thing called a "corner to corner" (or C2C) crochet blanket. I have always liked the Sweet Rolls at Joann's when I went, but never had a use for them, so I ignored them. They had them on sale for 3 for $10 a few weeks ago, which I thought was reasonable, so I bought 4 in two different colors. I let my hubby pick which one he liked better, and he liked the Cherry Twist. I decided to make one of those blankets, but I didn't know how much yarn I would need. I ended up going back to buy 3 more skeins of the yarn, and it still isn't huge, but it is bigger now that I got the other 3. The yarn is warm and fairly soft (although I think Hobby Lobby's "I Love This Yarn" is softer), and the colors are beautiful. It doesn't match anything in our home, but we like it. Once again, I still need to weave in the ends. I entered it in a crochet-a-long on Ravelry, so I might be able to win something for completing it.

 

Sweet Roll in Cherry Twist; H hook, 7 skeins

I also sold my first beard since my Etsy site came back from vacation! I only had leftovers, but I had just enough of 3 different browns to make a full beard. I think this is actually the most realistic and beautiful beard I've ever made. I really like how the different yarns made it look like highlights and lowlights. I probably won't ever make another one like it (unless I have only remnants left), but it turned out wonderfully. I hope the gentleman likes it.

I have so much more I want to post about, but this is getting quite long. I'll try to finish up with a pair of flip flip socks I made a couple of years ago. These are the only socks I ever made, and I hope to be making several more this year. I made them with wool I received as a gift, and I barely knew how to knit at the time, let alone, what a gusset or heel flap were. Yet, I finished them both, even though my gauge was way off.

Wool from Cheryl