The Return of the Queen

Whew, three years! I can't believe what all has happened in the last three years. First of all, the world shut down and everyone lost their minds for a good long while. Many of them have drank the Kool-Aid and won't come back from that choice, but I feel like most people are coming out of the fog and realizing just how screwed-up everything was, and continues to be. I won't get political here, but I'm looking at life through a very different lens since all that happened.

Let's see...personally, we've had some big changes. Hubby and I have celebrated our 10th anniversary and my 40th birthday, we moved (twice) to be closer to his aging parents, and we've found a fantastic new church in our new town. We've taken up gardening and many aspects of living self-sufficiently, including making many of our own foods and raising chickens! They are precious and so dumb, but we love them. I can't wait to get a few more.

As far as my own interests go, I've been making so many different things. Here are a few of the more fun items I've made over the last couple years:

I love knitting for the ease of it, but I am getting back into crochet this year. I really enjoyed making the doll above (I actually made two with several costume changes!) and I have plans to make a few more stuffed animals before my boys get too big. 

Some of my goals for this new year are to finish all the projects I have knit over the last couple years. I'm great at knitting, but I am not so good at the weaving ends and blocking. I have an entire sweater that needs ends woven and blocked, as well as several shawls. 

I purchased a huge amount (44 skeins!) of HeatWave yarn a couple of winters ago at a major discount and have made and plan to make a hat, cowl and mittens for homeless folks here in town every month. I have several of the mittens knitted but they need ends woven as well. I'm also making dishcloths again for family, friends, and our new church family. I have at least 3 blankets that need worked on and finished. The Ugly Square is coming along nicely as I finish other projects. I may be at a stopping point some time this year, and will add a nice solid border. I am considering this the year I get things finished! Then, I might consider casting on one item at a time, until it's done! Or, at least only one of each type of project...a sweater, socks, a hat, a shawl... It's fun to think about!

Some other new skills I'm looking to start this year are rigid heddle loom weaving, drop-spindle spinning, dyeing fiber with home-grown natural dyes, soap-making, cheese-making, playing electric bass for church, and sewing some of my own clothes! I've got the loom set out and I need to go work on my sourdough right now, so I'll let this be it for today. Hopefully it won't be three years before I'm back again! Ha! Thanks for sticking through it and reading to the end. Now get out there and make something!

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!

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.

A new project

We finally have everything unpacked and now I'm just sitting around waiting for Blessing to make his move, so I thought I'd get started on a project I have been thinking about for quite a while. One of my Mom's cousins approached me last winter to ask if I would consider making a sweater for her, based on a garment she already owned. I told her I'd give it a shot.

We got together at a family function again this summer (we don't get together with all the distant cousins but a couple times a year) and she brought the sweater so I could get an idea what I was getting into. It's a really pretty vest-type piece, and instead of being a full sweater, it just has tabs on the side. Should be easy-peasy! 

I took it with me, and spent a few weeks looking up pattern ideas before I discovered I couldn't really find a pattern to match what she wanted exactly. She said she wanted "boxy," as this one is very straight, and she didn't mind having a different neckline. I suggested a boat neck, which should be fairly straightforward, because otherwise I would have to do some serious research to shape the shoulders like this sweater. I found a pattern I like, and the cable detail is beautiful for this! Unfortunately, I haven't been able to figure out how to purchase the pattern on Ravelry, as it's part of a collection or a book, but after studying the photo closely, I think I've discovered a way to emulate it without needing one. I noticed the neckline is basically a bind-off with an inch or two of stitches at each end, and then you just pick up the stitches on the other side. Since I won't be working in the round (because of the tabs on the sides), I'll just make it like a large rectangle with the neck hole. At least, that's my plan.

I then spent several more days looking for wool yarn that would give it the stiffness that she wants and the gauge that I want. After several texts and emails, we finally settled on Lion Brand Fisherman's Wool in Oatmeal.

It's a little bulkier than I would have preferred, but the other yarns we were discussing I would have had to order online without having an example of, and I really dislike doing that. And I got to use all my JoAnn's coupons to get this...

Hopefully it turns out beautifully, and just what she wants. I started on it the other night, but had to stop a few rows in until I decide exactly how I want to do the cable. I'll pick it up again tonight, after I do a little more scouting online for ideas.

I'll probably post photos as it comes along, so I can document what I did as much as show off. I hope to have it finished before Thanksgiving, but I'll probably have to get together with her a couple of times to check and make sure the fit is good. I would not be surprised if I had to take out the neckline a couple of times to get it right.

I like working with the Fisherman's Wool already, compared to the scratchy Alpaca I used for the purple cowl recently. Maybe I'll make my knot bag out of it...

Until next time!

Catching up--part deux

Getting out some of my projects of late from the boxes they've been packed in, I realized I needed to take some photos of my latest projects. I think this should complete the archiving post I started a few weeks ago, so from here on out, I should only be posting current creations.

Here's the first one:

I Love This Yarn, size 9 needles

This is a project I made over a year ago, but due to my lack of enthusiasm for finishing projects, I had it sitting around waiting for the buttons to finish it up for months. I finally finished it over the winter, but I put it in a place I rarely visit and forgot about it, until I unpacked it last week. It was a fun experiment in knitting short rows, and the variegated yarn really makes the pattern stand out well. It is a loose cowl, and I think it'll look nice this winter. I've got 2 more skeins of this yarn, so I will probably end up knitting a hat and some mittens to match at some point.

Red Heart yarn, size 9 needles

This is a hat I knitted recently for Isaac, whose fair isle hat with the same colors is going to be too small this winter. This one is super-stretchy, so it should fit him for a couple of winters (I hope!).

Purl Bee yarn in Shale, size 9 needles

This is an adorable hat I made for Blessing using this pattern. I had to adjust for gauge since my yarn wasn't as thick as the yarn she uses, but it is also very stretchy and will hopefully fit him for the first couple of winters.

This is the previous hat with a keyhole scarf made of the same Shale Purl Bee yarn. I still have quite a bit of both of these yarns left, so I made the following hat as well, to hopefully use up some of the navy, but there's almost a whole skein of it left. 

I love the way this hat turned out, and I tried to use the jogless stripes technique, but I'm still not convinced that makes a difference. The pom makes this hat!

This slouchy hat is the reason I had so much of the shale leftover. I got about two-thirds of the way finished with it, when I ran out. I had to start a new skein and hardly used any of it to finish. I actually didn't plan to make it quite so slouchy, but by the time I finally finished it, I wasn't going to take it out and redo it. Maybe someday I'll have a ton of hair to pile up inside it like a hairnet...

As I mentioned at the top, anything else I post from here on out should be all-new. I've got a cute little stuffed elephant in the works for Blessing that needs a lot of sewing, and hopefully after some trial and error, will turn out to be adorable. I've also got some hats and sweaters I'd like to use up some yarn for, and some household projects to figure out. I don't know how long it will take to get some of these things going, so it might be a while before I have anything worth posting. I'll probably have some adorable pics of my new little dude in his cute little hats, so keep your eyes peeled for those soon :-)

I'm due 2 weeks from today, if I am able to make it that long, so if I don't post before then, I'm probably quite busy getting use to our new life as a family of 5. Take care and see you on the flip side!

Nothing new...

I really wish I had something neat and exciting to post here, but with the Big Move and unpacking over the last few weeks, I just really haven't had time or the energy to make anything. Most of my yarn is packed up in boxes still, waiting to be unpacked in my new craft area, which also needs some work.

I did manage to get some good work in on my ugly square, using up all the yarns my Grandma has given me over the last year or so, and all the scraps I've been collecting as well. It is getting bigger, but I think I'll keep going until it's about a king size comforter. I've got quite a way to go, and I'm not sure if you can notice a difference from the last time I took photos of it.

My days have been filled with taking care of the twins, unpacking, organizing, and preparing for the baby. Hopefully he'll wait a few more weeks to make his debut, so I can be completely unpacked, get all our pictures and shelves hung, and start working on some other, more aesthetic projects around the house. If I do, I'll be sure to post some photos. Otherwise, it may be a while before I get another post up, as I'll be nursing a little human round the clock and trying to stay awake for the twins as well. It'll be tricky, until we get in a rhythm.

Hope to write again soon, with more to say and show you! Until then, we appreciate your prayers for a short labor and healthy baby boy. Take care and God bless!

Archives

As part of my projects for moving, I set a goal to go through all of my old photos, at least for the last several months. I try to stay on the ball for making photo books for Christmas, but this year I have gotten REALLY behind! As a result, I came across oodles of photos of projects I've never posted or haven't listed on my Etsy shop. I will try to archive some of these projects for you today. Be prepared for LOTS of photos...

 

These fun hats were the original project I started with this yarn, that soon turned into an elf hat as well as a granny square afghan. I saw this cute post on Pinterest and had to make them for my boys' 1st birthday (and all subsequent birthdays in the family, so far...). They are tiny hats, and I didn't line them with any cardboard or anything, but they do the job. If the boys would only sit still, they would stay on just fine... ;-)

The next project is a baby blanket for one of those ethereal "girls" everyone keeps talking about ;-) My good friend from church had a precious little gal named Evelyn, so I thought I would use up some of the more feminine yarns I was given by another friend to make this, based on another pattern I saw on Pinterest. This blanket took AGES to complete, based on the fact it was in stockinette and the yarn was SO tiny to knit with. I would be proud of myself for completing 4 rows while I pumped breastmilk overnight for my boys. I also wanted to personalize it a little for her, hence the tiny "E" in the corner. Overall, I think it turned out beautifully, but I don't know if I would want to tackle a project like this again for a while. I still have plenty of this yarn leftover, and many different colors, so I might knit a tiny sweater or two at some point, but I may have to do them in garter stitch...

Front view (knit stitch)

Back view (purl stitch)

 

The next project is a pair of cute Santa hats I made for the boys' 2nd Christmas. Luckily, they still fit this year, although I think I forgot to get them out, since we had a fairly mild winter. I used leftover Christmas tree skirt yarn and did one in stripes and 1 solid. 

Oh, that's right! This is why they didn't wear them this year: I made them new hats! That is one problem with being a crafter, there is always something new to make and try. My sister-in-law found these hats online, and thought they would be cute on the cousins, so I ended up making all 3 of these the week of Christmas this year, on a whim. I think they turned out super-cute though. My 2 kiddos are in blue and green, below.

 

Speaking of Christmas, as I may have mentioned in an earlier post, I barely had time to get the gifts finished I had planned on, with the addition of the cute hats above. I ended up sewing these cute booties together first thing Christmas morning for my sister-in-law, who ordered up a pair for her coworker last year. The cuffs are a little different, and these are a soft acrylic (she doesn't wear wool), but I think they turned out great, and she loved the red I picked for her.

  

Since I made the booties for her, I didn't have to worry about knitting up anything else except for these fun little scarves I found a pattern for at JoAnn's. They are call keyhole scarves, and I love that they don't come off easily! They are so quick and easy to make too. Everything is knit, and I just changed colors every other row. I had to buy some new Vanna's Choice to make good color combinations, but I've already been able to use much of it up with the projects I've done this year.

  

I made 2 scarves a fair bit shorter, so they would fit my little guys. These are perfect for those cold winter days when we're the only ones looking at the polar bear at the zoo!

  

I made Teeny's scarf out of 1 solid color to match his Denim Twist yarn slouchy hat. I've had this yarn forever, and just didn't know what to make with it. I finally decided to make him a cute little hat that should fit for at least a couple of seasons, a scarf, and, after buying another skein online, will have enough leftover to make a cute project for the baby. 

 

Bulldog is sporting a hat I intended to make for my hubby. It was my first attempt at Fair Isle knitting, and it turned out much smaller than I had hoped. Luckily, it fit him just fine. I used leftover Red Heart yarns from a couple of beards. I did end up making another one for my hubby, that fits much better.

 

I don't know about you, but I don't like to spend money on patterns that I can usually figure out myself, but sometimes you come across something that is just too good to pass up. These next 2 hats I actually paid for the pattern because I couldn't find anything that even came close online, and was in a bit of a crunch to get them done in time. The boys are OBSESSED with trains, and I found this cute little park in North Kansas City that runs an old KC Zoo train for pennies. It was just before the boys' 2nd birthday, and the theme was, of course, trains, so we hauled them all the way up there on a Sunday afternoon and rode the train for an hour on $5.00! I wanted to get some cute photos of the boys in their overalls and hats to put on their birthday invitations, and these hats turned out perfectly. Totally worth the money!

The next item is an all-white viking beard someone ordered from Etsy. Just wanted to share the variation.

The next project was part of our Halloween costume nearly 2 years ago, so I'm amazed I hadn't posted anything about it yet! These were "scoodies" I found on Pinterest and adapted to fit my little guys. We were Star Wars characters, if you couldn't tell. The tiny ears on the scoodies helped them look like Ewoks.

The next item is a bit nebulous. I had a fair bit of bulky wool leftover from my cap and scarf, and saw a cute newborn cocoon I wanted to try. I didn't think I would ever have a chance to use it (my hubby was pretty against growing our family any more), but I suppose now I can use it for the new dude.

 

The next item is actually the oldest project I have on this list. I made these before the twins were even born, maybe even before we planned to have kiddos. It's been a while. They are a set of 8 nesting bowls I found, again, on Pinterest. I've always intended to make little balls to use of the rest of yarn, and for the little people to toss into the bowls, but just haven't gotten around to it. Maybe by the time Blessing is old enough to use them...

 

The last of the "new" projects is this pair of mittens I made, using the Homespun I made my nephew's poncho out of. They turned out great, but it wasn't quite cold enough this winter to use them a whole lot. They are REALLY warm!

And what post isn't complete without a beautiful Scandinavian boy twirling in a beard and viking helmet his Mommy made? I love the joy on his face here. 

I still have several projects completed, or mostly completed, that I need to photograph, but I figured this was long enough for one post. Stick around to see photos of our new home transformation over the coming weeks! I'll be busy packing, moving, unpacking, and nesting, but I'll try to get some of the new stuff up too. Thanks for sticking with it all the way to the end!