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!

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!

Catching up...

I've finally been able to make some good progress on my blankets that I started before Colorado, so I thought now would be a good time to post some photos.

The first blanket is a granny square like the lime and blue one from a couple months ago. The boys have been begging me for blankets since I started on it, so I am thrilled to have finished it. If you remember, this was from the batch of 6 skeins of JoAnn's Big Twist yarn I mentioned. The teal and purple go great with our new decor, and the navy fits in well. 

Big Twist yarn in navy, purple, teal with I hook

The other blanket is a ripple blanket using the same color scheme, but somehow I ran out of the navy before I wanted to be finished. It's a little shorter than I would like, but it should fit the baby for a few years.

Big Twist yarn in navy, teal, purple with H hook; I couldn't get him off it!

I had more purple leftover from both projects than I thought, so I made the cute little appliqué elephant (using this pattern), per my husband's suggestion. I still have lots of purple leftover, so I guess that will be added to my ugly square in the future.

The other project I've been working on lately is the hat for my nephew's dinosaur-themed birthday party this past weekend. 

Red Heart in green and orange with H hook

I found the pattern here, but it didn't make any sense when I started working on it, so I just made the beanie from a basic HDC pattern and made the spikes using her pattern.

I had no idea the tails were going to be party favors, and he just happened to pick the tail that matched *perfectly!* I think the whole ensemble turned out great :-) The best part is, I made all of these projects with yarn I already had on hand!

So that is what has been keeping me busy lately. Well, that, and twin 2-year-olds, sleeping whenever I can, and packing for our big move in July, because we just bought a house! More on that later. I hope your projects are coming along well. I've got a couple more small things in the works for the baby, then I'll have to focus on getting things packed, and unpacked, in time for him to arrive. Toodles for now!

April Showers!

I wish that the old saying were actually true, that April showers bring May flowers, but this year, it seems February drought brought all the March flowers! All of the trees have been flowering for weeks now, and many of them are already starting to turn green. Nonetheless, I figured it would be a great time for some spring cleaning and organizing, including taking inventory of my yarn and unfinished projects.

Going through my yarn was such an eye-opening experience! I now know exactly what colors and types I have, approximately how much of each kind, and can start planning my projects based on that. I am usually quite organized, but since we moved to our new apartment, I've not been as diligent about putting the yarns away when I'm finished with a project, or paying attention to how much is left. I've even started a project or two without realizing I didn't have enough yarn to finish, which has come back to bite me. I've got a whole queue now of projects that I already have yarn for, as well as the projects I have in the works and was already planning to make.

I love crocheting, and I love knitting, but sewing and weaving in ends and such has to be my least favorite part of any of my crafting. It's a great feeling to put the final touches on a project and send it away, give it away, or wear it, but sometimes I need a little push to get there, after it comes off the needles or hook. So I have several projects in my bag in need of that final TLC to get them ready to gift or use. 

One of the projects I've been working on is a granny square baby afghan that I've had since the boys were a few months old. I finished a beautiful elf hat at the time, and even made some adorable party hats out of the same yarn, and meant to even make a diaper cover with some of the leftover navy, but I just couldn't bring myself to finish all the little ends where the colors switch, which, in my defense, is every 2 rows. 

I hook and I Love This Yarn in navy, Red Heart with Love in iced aqua, Deborah Norville for the edging, and Vanna's Choice in radiant lime

I have finally managed to complete the project, and as much as my little men love their sleeping blankets, they LOVE this afghan! I wish I had finished it sooner, now that I see how much they love snuggling with this one. I will probably end up making another granny square (besides the ugly square) for them out of random skeins so they don't have to fight over it. 

Another project I finished up recently was this adorable little newborn hat, for our little one coming in August. This was the first project I started, literally the day after we found out we're expecting, and it's been in my bag for months now, waiting to be sewn together. I finally got out the darning needle and it took less than 10 minutes, and I think it turned out great. I can't wait to see it on our little lamb!

Vanna's Choice in white, Red Heart in pink

The next project was one I didn't realize how much yarn I had available, and ended up having to change two-thirds of the way in. I can not find more yarn anywhere, and even though I'm 90% positive it came from Michael's, they don't carry anything like it anymore. It was supposed to be a knit knot bag that I found on Pinterest, but when I couldn't find the yarn to finish the handle, I decided to turn it in to a loose cowl. The wool is a little itchy for my taste (or it may just be sensitive skin due to pregnancy hormones), but I love the color and know it will keep someone's neck warm through a cold winter. I still plan to make the bag at some point, but I'll have to buy yarn to do that, and I have enough to keep busy with for now.

I'm still not done tying up loose ends (ha!), but the few projects I have left shouldn't take too much time, and then I'd like to focus solely on the boys' project. I've had all the materials to finish it for over a year, so I think it's time to get it off my plate and move on. I'll hopefully have the rest of my unfinished projects done over the next week or so, and then with an empty yarn bag, I can start posting photos of the big project. 

Do you have a hard time doing the finishing steps on your projects?

Knit Baby Pants: Completed!

I love the way these two items turned out! The pants are sooo adorable, I may have to make some for my sons for their birthday (I think they would look great with some knit or crochet suspenders!) in fun, complementary colors.

The hat is my own design, as I didn't have a pattern for the 2-strand mix. I think it's a little large for a newborn, but hopefully it'll fit my little cousin through the winter months (he's due in August). It fits my 8-month-old sons right now.

Pattern for hat: starting with size 15 needles and 2 strands of lighter color, cast on 40 stitches. Join and 1 x 1 rib knit for 4 rows. Drop one strand and pick up complementary color. Stockinette stitch for 5 inches. Next row, k6, then k2tog around. Knit 3 rows. Next row, k5, then k2tog around. Knit 3 rows. Continue until 10 stitches are left, then knit until desired length is reached (mine is about 11 inches). Decrease one more row and sew closed. Add pompom and weave in ends.

I love making pompoms with my fancy maker!! It's so easy; if I weren't using all my long scraps for my ugly square, I would definitely make poms all day with them!

Lion Brand Vanna's Choice in chocolate and silver blue; used every last bit of blue!

Next, I'll be working on my "Ponchopolooza," getting all 3 of them finished before summer's end.

My Ongoing Project

Since I started knitting and crocheting again right after Christmas over a year ago, I had been saving every tiny little scrap of yarn. There was not even an inch of yarn that went in the trash during that time.

Eventually, the bag I was keeping them in got full, so I decided to go through it and pick out all the pieces that were long enough to tie together. This was right after I had learned to make granny squares (an essential for any crocheter), so I wound up a ball of mismatched yarn and started working. There were several different colors and weights of yarn, but I just chose a large hook that could work all weights of yarn and started going in circles...er, squares.

I'll admit, the first 8 inches of it were pretty horrible. Since there were so many color changes, I decided to not even weave in the ends, so they stuck out all over. I affectionately called it my ugly square, and would proudly show it off to whomever came over, after showing them my latest projects in all their cuteness and beauty.

The inner square: the first 8 inches

 I was finally able to show my grandma, who taught me to knit and crochet so many years ago, and she said, "Yep, it's ugly. I've got some yarn you can add to that."

So she has started saving all of her little ends of balls and long strings for me. She had a huge project for Christmas this past year where she made socks for every single person in the family (about 26 pair!), so she has lots of ends for me she dropped off the other day. I'm so excited about adding them to my ugly square, I've put all other projects on hold until I run out of yarns (to be fair, I don't have any deadlines right now).

Here is just a sampling of the yarns she brought over, and a photo of my ugly square to date.

Some of the colors that make up the Ugly Square

While it's not my most challenging, pretty, or marketable project, I love looking at it and remembering working on the projects the yarns came from. My first scarf, the slippers I made my husband's family, my first knit bib where I learned to make short rows. This is a piece I hope my sons will snuggle under as they grow up and will fondly remember from their childhood, as I have so many memories of afghans from my grandma in our home, being made into blanket forts, warming up under on snow days, and covering me when I was sick. This is a creation that will be around for years to come.

The Ugly Square as of 2/27/2014