Back in the swing of things...

We made it through the Bermuda Triangle and home again! It was a lovely trip, and we enjoyed it so much, we've booked another cruise for next year! We didn't get to take all of our children, and weren't planning to take any of them, but we couldn't find someone to watch our littlest for 11 days, so he got to go with us.

Our shipmates

Beach knitting!

Sunset on Sunset Cove, Key Largo

I was able to take 4 projects on our trip, and ended up working on all of them at some point, but I finished one that has been in the works for 2 years. It was a MKAL from 2021 that got too hard when I got to the lace, so I put it in a bag and stuffed it in the closet. Since I'm trying to finish my WIP's this year, I pulled it out and got to work. I finally finished it the last night of our cruise and blocked it when I got home.

Loving the Shetland lace sections!

Beads are so much fun!

Long wingspan

I love how the lace turned out! I had to make an Excel chart of the repeats to finish it, and counted after every. single. row. It was tedious but I really like it.

I also finished a set of cotton dishcloths and pot holders in February. The rest of the month I spent working on the shawl. They are Chiefs' colors and my family are big Chiefs' fans, so I already know where they're going.

February's Christmas gifts

Up next are some precious little hearts I made with leftover yarn for Valentine's Day. We didn't do anything special for our kids or each other, since we were planning our cruise, but my little Blessing got me at bedtime that night. I was putting him to bed and he asked if we were going to go out and get something for them while they were sleeping. He said, “Not candy, but a card or something.” My heart broke and I said there would be something for him when he woke up.

When your sweet little snaggle-toothed baby flat out asks you for a valentine, of course you stay up two hours past your bedtime crocheting him and his brothers something!!

For my sweet valentines

While we were in Florida, I found a GREAT yarn shop that I wish was in my town. I was looking for something local. I had already ordered sock yarn from String Theory Colorworks that was amazing, and she gave me the best customer service experience! I thought it would be fun to find something from Miami and we had some time to kill before our AirBnB was available, so we went to Sheep Thrills. I found this awesome yarn from Circulo there and bought 4 skeins of it and had it hand-crocheted up the first night we got home. I'm keeping my WIP's in it in the living room. My little shipmate also picked out a cute stegosaurus amigurumi kit that I've been working on since we got home. 

Circulo Jumbo XL

I also had another pair of the Candyman socks on my needles. I'm ready to do the heels on them but haven't had a lot of time to work on them since we got home. I also took a hat to start with some yarn I got in Vicksburg last summer, and some yarns I got in Colorado Springs a couple of summers ago and started a crocheted cowl. I finished the hat but don't have the pom-pom on it yet, so I don't have any photos of it. I am about halfway done with the cowl. 

Other than these things, I've been working on my homeless sets for March and April, and I have finished March's Christmas gifts and started April's. I also have a cowl on my loom that I've been weaving on occasionally. Oh, and my new knitting best friend showed me how to sew project bags, so I've got one of those I need to photograph. I'm making them for all the kids for Christmas. 

Silk Ella Rae yarn from our Arkansas trip last fall

It is garden season and along with a new cruise to plan for, we bought a shed for the backyard. It should be installed by the end of April, so we'll be filling it with garden supplies and yard equipment. We'll be cleaning out our sunroom and garage, so I might not have as much time to craft this month. Also, we'll be planting annuals and our veggies. The daffodils and hyacinths waited until we just got home to bloom, so I'll leave you with some sunny flowers!

Dream knitting...

Okay, now to show off the fun stuff. I mentioned in my last post how I don't like that this server limits the number of labels I can add, so I can't make my posts as easy to search as I'd like. I'm sure I could get some fancy website that allows me to put as many as I want, but honestly, as sporadically (I'm being honest, right?) as I update, I don't want to hassle with it. If I would just post more often, instead of once every 6 months, I could use them the way I'd like, for individual projects, instead of doing a massive post with 20 different projects. Anyway, I digress...

This post is to share some of what I would like to do next, and what I'd like to do it with. I may have to break this up too, as it's getting late and I have a long list.

First up, I'm going to be making Christmas gifts. I am giving a dish cloth (or 2) to all of my kids' teachers, Bible study leaders, our neighbors, the mail lady; all those people you wish you had gotten something to show them you appreciate them, but maybe waited too late. I think a handmade dish cloth and a wooden spoon and maybe even a jar of yummy jam and a nice note is a great gift for someone you don't know terribly well, but want to acknowledge. I have plenty of cotton yarn, since Michael's had a sale recently and I stocked up.

Michael's sale haul

All the cotton

I just ordered some beautiful yarn from Lolodidit that is going to be a Christmas gift. It's in a tonal pinky-burgundy, and it'll become a lovely Gable cap. I can't wait to see this one completed.

Since I crocheted Bl'aig a stingray for his new room, I'm planning to make a Roxie the Hippo for L'aig's room and a super-cute stuffed train for Blessing's room. I'll be using existing Red Heart yarns for each of these. The idea is to have them complete before Christmas.


Speaking of Christmas, I sing with the local symphony chorus, which is pretty amazing and led by a world-renowned Grammy Award-winning choral director. Each holiday season, we put on an amazing weekend of Handel's Messiah, and then the following weekend, we perform a Christmas Festival, which is usually a blend of beautiful seasonal carols as well as traditional secular favorites, like Sleigh Ride, a Santa sing-along, and fun Christmas standards. For the less-formal fun second act, the Chorus is allowed to wear whatever crazy Christmas headgear they like along with their uniform, so last year I knitted (the week of!) a green and red striped Santa hat. I will have to dig out a photo of it. Many of the singers had different accessories for each of 7 performances, so I decided to try to have a little variety this year. I found some really great patterns on Ravelry, now I just have to find time to make them. I'd like to try for 4 new hats, as I won't be singing in all the performances this year.

More gift knits this year: the thrummed mittens I shared about back in March will be a companion set for my hubby and me. I will probably give him the purple ones, as that is his favorite color. Oh well... Also, more Christmas ball ornaments to come. I plan to make those for the immediate family each year, changing the number and the pattern each year. I might even do different colors eventually.

Last, but not least (at least for the knits with a deadline), is a sweater for my Grandma. Grandma is the one that taught me how to crochet so many years ago. She knits, she hand-quilts, she sews, she bakes, she cans sweet pickles, makes the best chicken & noodles I've ever had, and as a 3-time cancer survivor, she is an inspiration to me. At 89 (she just celebrated another birthday last week!), she has crocheted over 150 hats for charity and over 100 double-layered twiddle muffs for Alzheimer's patients, in one year.

People have heard about her endeavor and have started donating yarn, and some of it is quite nice! We visit her every week, and nearly every time, she tells me to go through her yarn pile and pick out anything I like. I have picked up several skeins of sock yarn (she only like working with DK and worsted acrylic and cotton) and eyelash yarns from her, as well as a few random discontinued skeins of varying wools. Someone donated a brand new sweater's quantity of Classic Elite Provence cotton in a lovely pink shade, so I asked Grandma if she was going to use it. She said she had no idea what to do with it (it's DK weight), so I asked if she wanted to pick out a sweater for me to make for her with it. She picked out this beautiful textured sweater, so I will start on it shortly after Christmas. I told Grandma I'd try to have it finished by Mothers' Day for her.

Those are my immediate pieces. I'm sure I will end up making others before it's all said and done. I might have another Etsy order sneak in there, or a Christmas gift or something. I also need to finish up the blankets I started, make my other Christmas ideas, do some sewing, and get ready to homeschool my twins next year. I think that should be enough for a while.

This will probably be the last of my frantic, must-post-while-I'm-in-the-mood phase. I'll post some photos of the boys' rooms soon, but other than that, it'll be slow and steady on these big projects. Thanks for sticking with me and reading all this. Until next time...

FO's, UFO's & WIP's

For those of you new to the knitting/crocheting world (as I was unaware of until I started watching podcasts), the title of this post stands for Finished Objects (FO's), Unfinished Objects (UFO's), and Works In Progress (WIP's). I figured it would be best if I posted my progress on the projects listed, instead of just waiting for them to be complete, as that may be a while yet for some. And, in my Etsy shop, I tell viewers to check out my blog to see what I'm currently working on, not what I finished 6 months ago and just haven't updated for a really long time.

FO's:

Finnja shawl in Malabrigo Rios

Beautiful cable detail

Harlow hat in Brooklyn Tweed Loft and sock yarn from Grandma

Inside-out

These items have all been washed and blocked, and have all the ends woven in. Basically, they are ready to wear. I'll start with the shawl.

I don't recall which podcast I heard about this shawl from, or maybe it was the designer, and I just loved the shawl in her patterns, but I fell in love with the large cables and the vertical lines. I went to my local yarn store and picked out not just one yarn to make it, but two. I'm so glad I did. I made the first with this Malabrigo in a very tonal dark gray, and the next one I make (I will be making it again!) will be in Cascade 220 in a dark blue. I love how soft this yarn is, and it was very fun to knit. I enjoyed it a lot, which may not always be said of shawls.

The next item is a new(-ish) hat pattern from Andrea Mowry called Harlow. I was going to try to finish it in 4 days like her KAL just after she published the pattern, but that was about the time I decided I didn't have to complete every KAL and just knit the things I want in my own time. It is knit in brioche stitch in the round, which are 2 things I'd never done before. I didn't think it was that difficult, as she posted great video tutorials online, and I love the effect of the variegated yarn on the inside, and the fact that it is reversible. I might make this again in lighter colors next time. It blocked a little larger than I would like, but my husband should be able to wear it, no problem.

I have another FO, but I took its photo with a couple of UFO's that are similar, so I will talk about it when I get there. I love washing my yarns in Eucalan Jasmine wool wash. It was a little overpowering at first, but now that they have sat in a bag in the closet for a few months, it is subtle and very nice.

UFO's:

#29 or 30; haven't counted for a while...

Stingray with Red Heart leftovers

Patons Wool Roving

(Un)Felted Moccasins in Fisherman's Wool

Knit Picks March Evergreen socks in Lolodidit Hippo for Christmas and Lucky mini

Blueberry Waffles sock toe-up with Sockmatician's recipe in Cloudborn

Gridiron Hat in Berroco Ultra Chunky Alpaca

Shower loofah in cotton

Lizard shawl in Mandala Warlock?

Helgoland shawl in Yarn Bee Tricycle Time, Airplane, and teal

I am considering UFO's to be anything where the knitting/crocheting is complete, but the ends are not woven in or there is other finishing work to be completed. As we all know how much I love sewing, there are quite a few of these...

The top photo is one of many dish cloths that still need ends woven in. I have done an i-cord loop at the top corner of all of them, but they just need to be knotted and woven in to be done. I'm making many more of these for Christmas this year, so I'll try to get them all done in one fell swoop.

The next photo is another Christmas gift, for my little Bl'aig. He has an under the sea room, which I'll try to post photos of soon, and so I asked him to pick from a few patterns I have available, and he liked the Manta Ray. There was a pretty cool hammerhead shark too, but he has a huge stuffed shark we found, so I thought another sea creature would be neat. I doubled every dimension in the pattern because I wanted something he could hug, not an amigurumi sized animal. It just needs some large safety eyes and a little pink tongue, and stuffing and sewing ends. One Christmas gift done! I'm making stuffed animals for all the boys this year, more on that later...

The Patons Wool Roving was on clearance (most of it) from JoAnn's, so I thought it would make nice wool dryer balls. They are supposedly going to cut drying time nearly in half, and they make your clothes fluffy without damaging them, and they're pretty colors. I need to wash them so they will felt together, instead of unraveling in the dryer. One or more of them, I discovered too late, is made from a wool/acrylic blend (Bernat Roving), so that will probably be a bust, but the others should work out well.

Speaking of felting, I started this project over a year ago, and just haven't gotten around to completing it. I saw The Yarn Hoarder's podcast over these felted slippers last year, and fell in love with them. I loved them so much, I decided to immediately go out and buy enough yarn to make them for all of the family. Fourteen people!! I was nuts. My hubby talked some sense into me, and told me to just make one pair and see how they went. I started on one, finally finished knitting it, sewed it together, then took over a year to even start the next one. I took almost all the yarn back to the store. All but enough for my slippers. So I finally finished the second one, although I don't think I made them the exact same size. I couldn't remember which size I made the original, so we'll see how they felt up. When I felt them. It'll be before Christmas, because I want to wear them this year, and I need to felt the dryer balls at the same time. I'm a little scared that they will not fit, but I won't know until I try. I have huge feet, so if they don't fit me, I can shrink them for someone else in the family...

Speaking of huge feet, I got to make myself 2 pair of socks earlier this year. I wanted to make some Christmas socks using my Lolodidit Hippo for Christmas, but I didn't want to make boring vanilla socks. I found this lacy pattern for free from Knit Picks (it comes in a set of 12 toe-up socks, one for each month!) with neat evergreen trees, so I thought that would be a nice pair. The pattern was pretty easy to memorize after the first couple of X's, but I had to look at each row for the trees. I like how they turned out, the yarn was so soft and beautiful, but they don't fit exactly like I hoped. They are a little tight, as the stitch count was lower than I'm used to, but with the lace chart, I wasn't sure how to adjust. I have a large (arthritic) ankle that swells often, so it is hard to get them over that. I can endure it for one day a year, though.

Next up are my Blueberry Waffle socks. As I mentioned, I have huge feet, so I want to make sure I have enough yarn to finish the length of my socks. This pattern is written for top-down socks, so I started them toe-up. I heard about Sockmatician's Toe-up sock recipe, so I combined these 2 to make this pair. I like the colors, I like the heel, I just wish I had made the foot a little shorter. These seemed to take forever, as I was trying to make them one at a time on my 9" circular needle. Once I switched to magic loop after the heel, they went much faster. I don't know if I'm a huge fan of the 9" circulars. I need to try them with a plain vanilla sock, instead of a patterned one. I think that might help. The Christmas socks seemed to fly off the needles, they went so quickly. I knit them magic loop the whole way. I was happy to have them done.

These Gridiron hats are all done, and one is even blocked! The red one is ready to wear, and this yarn blocked gives such nice stitch definition, even for being bulky. This is the yarn I let Blessing pick out at the Yarn Barn in Kansas, when I bought all kinds of beautiful new-to-me yarns and fibers this spring. I like the way they turned out, they went fast, and they should fit the boys for several winters. And they're so soft! Alpaca blend, I love it! More Christmas presents!

Next is a little test that I made, also in the hopes of making for Christmas. It is a little cotton loofah (I don't remember where the pattern came from), but I think I'll just buy them for $1 from Dollar Tree, instead of going to all the work to make one. It was a nice idea, just not for me.

Next up is a little something I made last year, but still need to block. I was inspired from a lady in the Mandala yarn Facebook group, and I had the same yarn, but it didn't turn out quite like I'd hoped. Still needs blocking. It was a lot smaller than I thought it would be, maybe that will change a bit once it's blocked. It is acrylic, though, so I'm not sure how much it will stretch. Anyway, it's lightweight and pretty for fall. Maybe next fall...

Last for the UFO's is this amazingly soft number. I spent what felt like months working on this shawl (so many repeats of the big section of color), as it was hard for me to memorize at first, and it was tricky if I messed up. If I were to make this over again, I would definitely run proactive lifelines, as there were 1 or two places where I had to tink back and didn't get it right. This is the gorgeous Helgoland shawl by Melanie Berg. I saw this on the Grocery Girls podcast, and it was lovely then, and still is. It is humongous. It took most of 3 skeins of yarn, big skeins of Yarn Bee (the same as what I used on the boys' sweaters), and it is so soft. I love the colors together, although if I knit it in wool, I think I would use 3 solid colors. It just needs ends woven in, and a light blocking. I don't want it to grow any more, it's already huge. I bought 4 of her patterns, as there was a discount, so I'm looking forward to trying out more of them in the future.

That's it for the UFO's. Wow, this is a long post. I think I'll leave WIP's for the next post. Maybe next week some time. Goodness, 3 posts in 2 weeks? It must be Christmas. Anyway, I have to get some sleep before work tomorrow (I am reffing a big volleyball tournament), so I should wrap this up. Have fun making!

A few new projects

It has been over 6 months since I wrote, again. I promise, I don't do this on purpose. I would just rather spend any time I have to myself creating, instead of writing. I have had a little more time to get other projects done lately as well, now that my older boys are in preschool and my youngest is big enough for Mothers' Day Out. It's only a couple of hours a week, but it's so nice to be able to be out and see the people, or get outdoor projects done during daylight and not have to worry about entertaining 3 little people at the same time.

In the 6 months since I last updated, we have had a flurry of activity around our house. We had a tree cut down in the front yard that was dead. We didn't want to pay for it to be ground (it would have been an arm and a leg), so we left a waist-high stump. My hubby added some mulch and stones around it last year, so we wanted to keep something there. I hope to plant some phlox and sweet potato vines around it/on it next year to make it look nice.

We also had an ordeal with our furnace flu, and ended up paying a pretty penny to get new duct work and flashing done there. I had to call the gas company twice and was afraid of the house exploding, but luckily it all worked out. We are up to code and haven't had any issues since.

My hubby's economical car's a/c blew up at the beginning of the summer, and with it just being a couple of weeks in, instead of paying more than the car was worth to fix it, we opted to buy a newer used car from my in-laws. This depleted our savings significantly, but we're steadily building it back up.

My clothes dryer stopped working on the 4th of July with a wet load in it, and a wet load in the washer, so we ordered a brand new one to be delivered a few days later. I bought that dryer 2nd hand over 10 years ago, so we felt it was okay to replace after many loads of faithful service.

We decided the boys each needed their own rooms, since the twins have basically shared a bed since birth. Our house has 2 bedrooms on the main floor and a 3rd in the basement, which we had to strip the carpet out of last summer when the basement flooded while we were on vacation. With 3 little boys, we always assumed the twins would be fine sharing a room downstairs (once they're a little older) and the baby would take the other upstairs room. This was all fine until the twins started getting upset at each other for every little thing, so we decided it best to try to split them up. Our utility room downstairs is larger than we probably need (we don't need to have it full of stuff, that's for sure!), so I thought it would be cool to have one of the boys move in the far end and partition it off.

We spent nearly all of July and most of August figuring out, painting, collecting items, and decorating the spaces to entice the little people to want to spend time in their new rooms. We moved them in a week before my goal, Blessing's birthday, and they were thrilled. It doesn't always work out the way we planned, but I think we are all much happier now that everyone has his own space. I will try to post a tour of the spaces after this week, which is jam-packed with projects while my hubby is on vacation.

Somehow, with all these unexpected expenses, you would think I wouldn't have had a dime left to buy yarn, but somehow I managed to do just that. I have been making Etsy orders, teaching lessons, and saving my fun money each month to buy more yarn and pretty patterns off Ravelry. I have been so busy trying to stay caught up that I've only finished a few projects this year, but the ones I have finished have been mostly big projects. Many of them have ends to weave in and need to be blocked, so I don't have official finished photos yet, but I will list the ones I do have photos of here:

Knit 29 dishcloths (not all are pictured here...)

 

Knit Cascade Heritage striped teal socks for hubby

Crochet brown beard for Etsy
Knit Gruffalo for Blessing's birthday

Oh help! Oh no! It's a Gruffalo!

Purple prickles!

Crochet viking hat w/ beard for Etsy x 2

I have a huge queue to complete before the end of the year (hopefully), so I will wrap up with a great big end-of-the-year post again this year to show them all. Some of them are gifts, so I don't want to spoil the surprise.

I reread several of my "recent" posts and noticed how I kept saying I didn't need more yarn. Well, I bought tons more yarn. I still have yarn coming that I ordered this weekend. I don't know if I'll be done buying yarn now (I should be), but I'm not going to make any more promises like that. If I buy yarn, I buy yarn. I'm not going to feel bad about it. My grandma keeps giving me donated yarn every time I visit her, so that's not helping with my goals, and pretty yarn keeps popping up on podcasts and sales, so I will not feel guilty for getting something beautiful that I like and will use to make myself a nice piece, or a gift for someone I love. That is all I'll say about that.

I'd like for it to not be six months before my next update, but it may be a month or more, with Christmas gifts, being in the middle of volleyball season (I referee), and the twins' birthday coming. I have many cool ideas to share with you, but they'll have to wait, because it's late and I have lots to accomplish this week. I'll try to take pics of the boys' rooms as I complete them over the next couple of weeks, so I can put in a tour of all the neat touches we did.

Until next time, have fun and be crafty!

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

A "snow day" update...

It's not a school day, in fact, it's even a long weekend, but we are having an ice storm here in KC right now, so everything's closed. So I thought it would be a good time to update with some more of my current projects.

I just put the finishing touches on another feminine beanie, for my mother-in-law, in some new colors. I thankfully had the navy in my stash, but the brown I had to purchase. I have been so immersed in knitting, it was nice to crochet something again.

Caron Simply Soft in chocolate and navy, per pattern; adult L/XL size

I really like the flower for this piece, although each one I make looks slightly different. She loves it, and almost wore it to bed last night. Another satisfied customer!

I went through my stash again this week, and am working vigorously to find projects to use my yarn on. I have a ton of baby yarn that was given to me after the twins were born that I've just been hanging on to. I am dying to make a sweater, after watching so many tutorials on YouTube that make it look so simple, so I decided to try making one with all the baby yarns. So far, it's been a breeze, and I think the colors look great together. It's coming together so quickly, I think I might even make 2 more, for the older boys as well. I will have to buy more yarn, since they are growing like weeds (3 years old wearing 5T already!), but at least I have a purpose for it. Here's my progress so far:

Yarn Bee in various colors; size 7 needles

I think it will be perfect on little Sam, although I have no idea how old he'll be when he gets to wear it. I'm making size 18 months, so hopefully he can wear it next fall for some nice photos with the older boys. He's growing so much faster than they did. I attribute it to him being almost 10 lbs. at birth, but he'll probably always be a big baby. He's so cute though...

I made an investment in my knitting this week, although I may be returning them shortly. I got a few gift cards for Christmas and was looking into getting an interchangeable knitting needle set, and found this one on Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00O99S9UQ/ref=od_aui_detailpages00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

It's over $50, so it's a bit of an investment, but I love that I will always have the needles I need on hand. I went to my local JoAnn's the other day, though, and found this set: http://www.joann.com/boye-needlemaster-kit-200/7984818.html#q=boye%2Bknitting%2Bneedles&simplesearch=Go&start=4

The Boye needles were $70, but I had a 50% off coupon, so I went ahead and got them. They have tons of tips! I like them well enough, except I'm using the longest cord and it's difficult to make a full circle, because the tips are so long. I went ahead and ordered the Knitter's Pride set, and will try them both for a couple of weeks before I decide which kit to keep. I'm really excited about having one of these sets, though! 

The other project I've finished is one of the infamous messy bun hats that are all over Pinterest. I can't find the pattern that I used for this one, but I could easily have just used a knit beanie pattern and bound off early, which is exactly what I did. My cousin (actual 1st cousin--one of the few girls!) is finishing her Bachelor's at UCM in Warrensburg, and she's a cheerleader, so she wears lots of ponytails. I was pleased she asked me to do it, but I wanted to use up some of my "girl" colors in my stash. Pink, confetti, dark purple, and light purple it was, and I attempted to do the jogless stripes technique again (although slightly different this time), and it still turned out a little wonky. You can definitely see the seam where the stitch was pulled from the previous row and bunched up. I don't know if this is worse or better than having jogs. I will have to figure this out before I make striped sweaters for my boys.

All Vanna's Choice yarn leftovers; jogless stripe technique

Front view

I've got several other items in the works, like a stuffed elephant for Sam, socks (I'm waiting on special reinforcing thread to arrive), sweaters for the older boys, the stuffed animals, and a knit shawl I've got lots of yarn for. I also need to make a large tree skirt for Christmas next year. My parents have a 6' tree that we are taking, so my little tree skirt won't do anymore. I also have some fun ideas for Christmas next year, that involve a lot of knitting, wool, and ongoing projects, that I'll post about as I am able to work on them.

Stay warm this cold day, and hopefully I'll have a couple of baby sweaters to post about in the next week.