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!

It's Been a While...

And boy, have I been busy! I don't think I could summarize all the projects I've completed over the last year, but I will do my best to post pictures of everything over the next few months. I kind of fell out of the blogging world for a while, so please excuse any faux pas.

The twins are getting so big and keeping Mommy and Daddy very busy. We go on outings, play games, sing songs, play music, read books, cook and bake, color, play with bubbles, and anything else that active 22 month olds like to do. I am working on a huge birthday gift for them, which I'll talk about more later, but for now, let's see some pictures!!

These are some of my favorite creations! The first jellyfish was a gift I made for my 2 year old nephew for Christmas last year, and he turned out so cute, I wanted to make one for my boys! I loved learning how to make the curlicues, and the bright colors helped use up some of my Red Heart Super Saver stash. I love making the unique faces on them as well, and the purple one has so many loooong tentacles. I do not let the boys play with this one unattended, as the tentacles could get wrapped up around their little necks, but they do love pulling on them all the time.

First jellyfish in Red Heart Super Saver yarn

Boys' jellyfish with Red Heart Super Saver yarn

The little turtle friend is one of my most prized creations; it is a completely original design and it could not have turned out better! I realized through making the others that the simple dome-shaped bodies could easily be turned into many other creatures. So, I started on him and I love everything about him. I wish he could stand up on his tiny legs like the octopus, but I'm not going to change anything unless I make another.

Turtle friend with Red Heart Super Saver yarn

The octopus was something that I saw on Pinterest, and thought, "I could make that, easy!" I used every last scrap of red yarn and even had to take some stitches out of a few legs so they would all be the same length. He is so huggable and the boys love dragging him around by his legs.

Octopus in Red Heart Super Saver Red

I hope this puts any doubts as to my commitment to yarn crafts to rest. While I haven't been posting, I have been working still. I've even got ideas for other neat sea creatures to create. There will be more catch-up posts to come, as well as posts about my current projects. All of these creatures will be posted to my Etsy site for purchase shortly. I also have been doing some updating and housecleaning there. Check it out, and leave me comments if you like any of these stuffed friends. 

What have you been working on the last month?