small things. Mom wanted a minion from Despicable Me. When I finished hers, EVERYONE wanted one. *sigh* At least I already have the yarn. Right? My dad wants one that he can put potpourri in. He's strange.
sure others are covered first. Gonna make the kids some cute little stuffies, Nolan gets a lump of coal. He's been so difficult this year, but he is still my sunshine. Unfortunately, I wasn't sure what he'd like to have. It's not like they have a free pattern for a knit Iron Man lol.
Labels: Christmas, crochet, jewelry, knitting, Lady A, spinning
Time, that is. I know that one day I will look around and realize my children are all grown. But for now I cradle them close. I also enjoy anniversaries and birthdays. These days are meant to celebrate another year with someone you love, that's how I look at it anyways. Today I celebrate another year with something I love. Yarn. Yep, that's right, another knitversary!
I've logged 127 projects into Ravelry. This actually is excluding several projects, as there are a few I don't have photos of...or just don't remember making honestly. It also includes my WIPs, my UFOs, and items I've frogged. Either way, that's about a project a week. Lately I've noticed my crafting energy has died out a bit. Maybe I hit the gas too hard and too fast? Or maybe it's due to the stressful environment Chez Shad recently. First we were moving to California, now we're not. Oh, what, I didn't mention that? No, of course not. That's because part of me knew what happened would. Actually, I don't much feel like talking about it now. It's rather upsetting.
too. There is still some yarn left after all, why not? Apparently I haven't done a real update in over a month. Whoops. Originally I wanted to start updating every (other) week on my day off. That just didn't work though. On my day off I usually just want to sit around and do nothing. At any rate, I've made another MCCS Corporate Zombie (and finished the first one). The hair is done with some wool or another from Ashford, the color is Marigold though. I know that. Also, I just started another hoodie for Nolan. You all remember the first one, don't you? God, I love that sweater so much. Yes, present tense. It is still in great condition, although it needs washing. Unfortunately it is too small. This one should size up to be about a 4T when I'm done, at least that's the intent. I'm too cheap to buy the same pattern in a different size. If you already have the basics, all you need to do is crunch a few numbers. That's my philosophy anyway. The yarn I'm using is Plymouth Yarn Encore that I got in Wilmington for my birthday. Which I just realized I never posted about. :-/ There was a lot going on then. 
Labels: booties, bsj, crochet, knitting, sweater, tunic, zombies
So, I'm not going to lie, I just forget to post here some days. When I'm off work, I just want to be lazy. Yesterday was my day off, instead of posting or anything, I went to the store with Mr. Shad, played some WoW (yeah, that's returned), and did some knitting/crocheting. Today I had work at 0530...but last night the county school system sent out an automated call to let us know that schools would be closed today. Well, crap. That means the daycare will be closed too. My job is about 40 minutes away, nobody wants to drive 40 minutes to find out that they're closed. Especially in bad weather. So, I hunt down the phone number that is supposed to let us know if we're reporting to work in the event of inclement
weather (hurricane area, remember? we're prepped for this). It's a recording, oh well. Call it in the morning and hear that all non-emergency/non-essential personnel need not come in to work. How am I essential? A cashier. Psht, back to sleep. Get a call at 0540, oh, we ARE open. Whatever. After being cranky and doing things I'm not getting paid for, they finally call around 0930 and say everyone in my area should get home! Sweet! 
Grim Reaper and a few pairs of the Bijouterie earrings. This is really difficult/awkward, knitting with wire. Not to mention that the wire I bought is absolute crap. I'm considering ordering this Artistic Wire stuff off the internet. Yes, by the way, I've completely bypassed my resolutions. Haven't frogged anything. Though I did work on re-organizing my queue. So...kudos to me on that. lol Deleted a few things I never plan on making, or that my interest in has waned. Currently I have 6 WIPs though; one I mean to frog, two that could be finished if I'd just sit down and do it already, and one instant gratification project. Well, Mr. Shad is home. I'm going to see if he knows where the cable is. I'll finish this later.
Dashing pattern forever. When Sunne sent me some beautiful Olive colored cashmere in the PRGE awhile back, I knew that it'd be perfect for that pattern. The yarn was put aside for later, and I added Dashing to my Ravelry queue. Now...if you clicked on that link to my post about this, you may have noticed that I received this yarn over a year ago. That was back before I even had a "to use soon bag"; which is, by the way, now a box. Still, I kept the cashmere close, knowing I'd use it soon. So, when I finished the handspun bag and the tam and I was left with nothing to knit, I knew that it was time. I started them on Friday with TS Hanna looking over my shoulder. Having something soft and soothing to knit really helped me out that night. They came in really useful as therapy (despite the fact that I kept making stupid mistakes and having to rip back) again when I made Mr. Shad take Nolan to the hospital Sunday night. I finished the second glove while waiting for them to return home. Don't worry, he just has croup. It's the first time I've dealt with that and 
it really freaked me out. He was struggling to breathe and having intercostal retractions. Which, if you've never seen that before, can be frightening for a mother. He's running around like a madman today and trying to break everything though.
Tons of green wool yarn, but not acrylic. Went to my bag of random acrylics and found several colors, I asked Kyran which one he wanted and he said "I want black with red feet". Uh...sure, I can do that. At first I was cursing his color choice (stupid black yarn, can't see what I'm doing, hard to photograph *insert mumbling under breath*), but when I went to sew it all together I was really glad. Because you can't see the random stitches either. Also, it came in handy for the spine, which is actually knitted. Didn't really like the big fat spines, plus Tinky (that's what Kyran named him) is a rather smallish dragon. So I made like I was doing the starting triangles for entrelac, but bound off each triangle as I went. They get progressively smaller too. Because I can do that. The wings were modded slightly from this dragon pattern. Which kinda looks like eeyore with wings, you can thank Mouse for that astute insight. She's right though, it does.... Go to my Ravelry page on Tinky if you want to know what I did for the wings. They are a little different than the ones in that pattern. Really, a very little. I think that's all really. Oh, I positioned Tinky with his thumb in his mouth, I thought it was kinda funny considering Ky is a thumb sucker.
Labels: crochet, Dashing, dragon, fingerless gloves
Sorry about basically disappearing for the last week. Or so. I am totally spacing right now. My brain isn't working to full capacity. So this will be another picture-full post with few words.
Labels: blah, costume, crochet, family, Halloween, hat, knitting, sewing, socks, Tree Jacket
and her daughter came to visit with us! If you don't already, go read her blog. She's totally awesome and I am impressed by her strength of character. Seriously. Anyways, she got here early Friday morning (like 6am!), the both of us got a total of four hours of sleep between Thursday morning and Friday night. lol Still, we didn't let that stop us from having a blast! (Sorry about the exclamation points, but it rocked) Friday I let Heather stay home from school to hang out with Sym, and we went out to get some food and pick up some cleaning supplies that I needed. When we got to Wal-mart Heather decided to prove me right, see, I had been telling Lesley how clumsy and accident prone my daughter is. First thing Heather does is run to the stand of flowers in the front. She just 
wanted to smell them!! Instead she tripped over a carpet that was probably only a half an inch off the floor, and faceplanted on the stand holding the flowers! The employees were quick to come to our aid (can't risk being sued, right?), Heather's nose was bloody and swelling. Poor girl! She will be alright, it got the tip where all that cartilage is, but right now she looks like someone beat her about the face. It even extended to her eye, she doesn't even notice it much anymore.
little ice cream/coffee shop. The kids played a bit and Lesley and I ate some delicious brownies! Nolan found a chair that was just his size, and climbed right in! It was too cute. Then he decided he would have more fun pushing it around, he's really close to walking now. I'll have to buy him one of those little walking toys. Of course, as I was talking about how Ty and I never actually call each other, we just text, he texts me! What did he want? For me to bring him food. Peanut butter sandwiches. Just peanut butter, no jelly. I knew there was a reason I liked this kid! I don't like jelly either. lol So I make a few sandwiches, we throw the kids in the car and drive out there. Now, just so you know, he works on LeJeune, which is further away than the Air Station (Mr. Shad's duty station). It's only about 10-20 minutes extra, still that makes a 30-40 min trip each way. But we had nothing else planned really, we were just gonna hang out. I've NEVER seen anyone have so much fun in an empty barracks room! Too much! The kids played catch with Ty, while Nolan flirted with his own reflection, and Lesley and I tried to keep Heather from falling and hurting herself even more. lol
decent time and mostly just relaxed for awhile, knitting. At around noon we decided that we were hungry and it was time to venture out. I was in a Sonic mood, so it was off to Sonic! Lunch was great, the kids managed to play without being hurt or getting sand in their eyes. Since we didn't have any real plan, we went to the mall to walk off some of that food/energy. Mostly we just walked around aimlessly, looking at everything, buying nothing. lol On the way back I realized that we had an hour left before The Tail Spinner closed, and we just had to pop in, even if just for a bit. Plus, I knew that most people would be gone for the day and the kids wouldn't be in the way as much. I bought a lot of yarn. Well, for me it was. Even though most of it will become gifts for others. We hung, knit, watched tv, and had a good time. That night we decided to celebrate/say goodbye with a couple of drinks. Maybe a couple too many. lol Still, it was great!! Being able to talk to anyone over the age of five, especially another female was just fantastic! I really had the best time ever.
car had broken and down, could I break into their house and get something for them? lol Well, I didn't always have such good taste in men, and one of my previous boyfriends had been of questionable caliber. At leat he taught me how to break into a house! :) It came in pretty handy, after probably 5-6 minutes of fiddling with the door, I popped the lock. And with minimal damage. I thought my filing system was a mess! Just a box of papers, which also contained broken glass, Sully, you're weird. What an interesting thing to do on your last day on vacation, right Lesley? After a few more hours of procrastinating, Lesley and Sym packed their things into the car. Kyran cried, he wanted to go too, poor guy. Sym cried, she wanted to stay, just one more day? Heather kept asking if 
Sym could come back tomorrow. I think Lesley and I wanted to cry too, we are both on our own for the time being and it was just too much fun havinig a friend around. Lesley gave me a gift, a little can for needles, notions, or whatever I want, that she decorated just for me!! We added a little memento from our time together, it's kind of like an inside joke. hehe What a great way to spend the weekend. The rest of the day I just kind of moped around the house. But at least Dexter was on, so I had something to look forward to. 
see something cute that is crocheted I curse. Then Mouse made this. If you remember correctly, my learning to knit was spurred by just one handknit hat that I fell in love with. That's all it takes to motivate me. There are a few crochet hooks I've picked up for making chains and picking up stitches (though I hardly use them for the latter), so I figured sure why not. I'll start out slow. The night Lesley was driving, I was practicing single crochet. After that I figured, well, I should make something. But...what? A granny square, sure. That's like a scarf, only a heck of a lot smaller. It's totally wonky, but that's okay. I tried.
is. I think, well, there has to be a crochet mouse pattern somewhere, she won't know the difference and I need to practice. Yay Ravelry! I found a simple pattern (I verified that with Mouse) and grabbed my hook and some black yarn. Heather then makes it clear that her mouse should be pink. Pink? Yes, pink. Do I have any pink yarn, I wonder? It's not exactly my favorite color, so I buy it very rarely. But yes, I do have some, it was purchased to make baby booties that I never made. It's acrylic too, so not a big waste of my money. Perfect. Of course, I have to put the project in Ravelry. Can't neglect that, I mean, I did find the pattern there. Project name...well gee, she'll probably name her mouse. 
Labels: accidents, blogging, crochet, friends, funny, granny square, hanging out, kids, Lesley, mouse, rambling, updating, weekend
and even has a crocheted edging. I packaged it up and will mail it out tomorrow. I am so excited! And very proud of my seam job. It's the first time I've ever used the mattress stitch thing...you know, the way you are supposed to seam. I don't even know why it was so hard for me to figure out! Not only was it simple, but every time I cinched the stitches tight, it was like magic! Seriously, I made Mr. Shad pause his video game to watch me do it. lol Oh, if you want to see the picture closer up you'll have to click it. Not sure it will be any clearer though.
Not sure exactly how I feel about it, although I really like the way it made my slip stitch edge around the armhole into eyelets.
until I finish Eiffel.
Eiffel is a pretty easy pattern and all. But knitting with the hemp is like...well knitting with twine. lol It doesn't feel good on my hands, which means it's hard for me to really enjoy the process. I did get the sleeves joined, plus an inch. Next I start decreasing for the yoke. Hopefully I will have enough yarn. I think that I will, but there is always that chance. Right? I'm itching to swatch for Goddess now, so I will probably be finished with Eiffel before I know it.
Labels: Baccarat Player, baking, cookies, crochet, Eiffel, Fancy Silk Sock, finished object, knitting, project spectrum, socks
Kitty's Story
On My
PRGE Questionnaire (the third?)
8 in 2007/0 in 2008
