My table is completed!

So excited that the table is finished. It came in way ahead of Steve's projected due date. I love it. It's made of oak and matches the china hutch perfectly. I can't wait for the next knitting group meet up. The table will sit up to ten people.  Eight fit comfortably. No more card tables. Yay!



 I hadn't realized that it also matches our floor until I watched the video.  Check out Steve's blog to see the rest of the pictures.

Wordless Wednesday

And this is why sock monkey for toddlers was a disaster. You just can't knit around a one year old. (No, she does not have the pointy end poking in her eye and yes, I did take them away from her... eventually when she let me.)

At the Etsy Store

For a cloudy, overcast, cold, somewhat rainy day, I got a heck of a lot done. The pictures were taken for the Etsy store. I took a gazillion pictures of Alicia wearing the Scott Pilgrim hat. She's as bad as Evelyn in that she is always on the move. Ninety percent of her pictures came out blurry. I got at least a few. Then I made Joey model. I only had to take three pictures. Each one came out perfect.  He was finished in under two minutes.

I also got the pictures taken for the latest vases that Steve has made and they are now listed as is the jewelry box.

Last but not least I listed the sock monkey hat. It is for a large head, but it actually did fit Evelyn too. I would have loved to have taken her picture with the hat, but she was to shy and ran from the camera.

Had a great time with the women at the spinning group yesterday, but there was one thing that was mentioned that bothered me a little. It has to do with stashes. So much money is spent on fabric stashes, yarn stashes, bead stashes, etc.

I really don't want that in my house. I am making a resolution that I will no longer buy yarn or fabric unless I have a specific project in mind. I don't care if the items are on sale. The money I save on not buying supplies I'm not ever going to use will more than make up for paying full price.

Today I cleaned out the trunk that I was storing yarn and a few stashes of fabric and UFO projects. I took my lovely brown sweater that everyone disliked because I had poof sleeves and popped it in the trash. I had cut the sleeves but I just couldn't get it unwound. Same as a strap I had knitted. It kept knotting at the ends when I tried to unravel it. There will be no recycling this time around.

I still have a lot of unused yarn, so no more new yarn for awhile. No more pattern books either. I have three new books not to mention all the older books that I've knitted a single thing from.

Here's the knitting plan:

1. Finish knitting Scott Pilgrim Hat.
2. Knit a smaller gray sock monkey hat.
3. Knit the sweater from neck down pattern.
4. Knit Bolo for friend.

That should keep me busy for a while along with writing the novel, reading books, and chasing babies. 

New table is coming along.

We've had our dining room table for thirty years. We were lucky to find one that was exactly what we wanted at the time. Of course, as the years have passed, the kids have gotten bigger and our family size has increased. Currently we just throw up a card table at the end of the table to accommodate the extra guests. It works, but its kinda crummy as the card table is not at all solid.

I've been shopping for  years now for a new table and I haven't liked anything I saw. The answer was obvious. I just needed to tell Steve what it was that I wanted. He took the  suggestions and improved it to be even better.  And so it begins.

Here's a brace. (I think that's what he said.)

Pounding on something. (Glad it's not me.)

Coming together.

Hot diggity. It's a table!

But this isn't the end of it.  Soon, somehow (I have no idea how) there will be a scissor leaf added and the table length will double in size. I'm very excited about that. Almost as excited as I am about the new chairs he will build to go with it.

Wordless Wednesday

My Wood Bowl

I spent the late afternoon creating a new blog for the husband and then found out I couldn't switch the new blog to the domain name. I remember a time when I lived on the computer and knew all about html and code. Those days are over which is actually a good thing, but now that I have a little more time, I'm at least figuring out a few things.  The big one was giving my self to permission to post blog entries on his blog from my dashboard here. Sweet. Also something I knew I could do except I forgot about it.

The good news is that I cleaned it up a bit. I did really like the wood background that it had previously but the bottom line is that it distracted from the pictures and I added the jewelry box he made last month. It is so pretty.

It is made with mahogany  and poplar. Tomorrow I'll add it to his Etsy store. If you would like to see more pictures of this jewelry box along with the other he made, you can go to his website at mywoodbowl.com

Sock Monkey Hat is Complete!

Hooray! The sock monkey is complete. It is huge and I love it! Granted that it looks like it overwhelms my little wig head but it isn't that bad. It fits comfortably on an adult. The ears are not according to the pattern but I like them this way just fine. The ears were a booger to knit. The hardest part of the whole hat. I'm not use to knitting with only three double pointed needles.

I gotta say it turned out a lot better than I thought it would.

Now I need to decide if I want to keep it or put it up for sale at the Etsy store. Anyone interested in it?

 I'm currently knitting the Scott Pilgrim hat but as soon as it is finished, I'll make another sock monkey hat in a smaller size using a different color. I think maybe I'll try it with the darker brown (?)

I'm so glad I learned to knit. Thank you Stephanie for teaching me!

Success with the block of the month

This was my first attempt at the asterisk pattern for January's block of the month class. It was surprisingly easy and I did enjoy it.

The second block was called the wobbly which I very much did not enjoy. I don't know if it was the fabric I chose or just that I was no longer focused on it. I ripped out seam after seam after seam and when it was done, it looked bleah.

I was quite fed up with it and put everything away for the night, but it nagged at me. It nagged a lot. I knew I couldn't use this square as it stood and that it would need to be redone. So after a night's sleep, (I'd like to say it was good, but that would be a lie) and waking up to a caffeine withdrawal headache, I took some ibuprofen and got back to work on this block.

It was easy as pie, almost as calming as knitting. I made two mistakes and I can live with both of them. The first mistake was I used the same fabric as the first block. Oops. I can live with that as I simply won't put the two blocks next to each other (Or maybe I will)  The second mistake was the last step.

The blocks are to be trimmed at 12 1/2" and I trimmed them to 12". Again, I can live with that. 

Here's is my second attempt at the wobbly pattern. It isn't very wobbly and again, I am quite good with that. The off balance wobbly just makes my eyes cross. 

I'm looking forward to having a new quilt at the end of the year. It's been decades since I made my last one. My sister-in-law Jan sews  beautiful quilts. She has the talent to be extremely precise in her seams and has a good eye for fabric pattern choices.  There are times I wish I could sew like she does, but that would take more effort than I'm willing to give. I just don't have the eye for detail as she does. 

That doesn't stop me from trying though. I can't wait to see what the new blocks for February will be. 

It's not to late for you to join the class too. Leave me a note in the comment section below and I'd love to see what your blocks look like. 

One other thing, there seems to be a problem with being able to download the patterns at the website. I have a PDF copy. Just drop me an email if you would like a copy. 

Happy sewing, knitting, embroidering,  or whatever it is that is keeping your mind at peace and your hands busy. 

Just crazy! Crazy I tell ya!

What if those are regular knitting needles and she just happens to be a teeny tiny miniature person living in a tiny doll house?

In retrospect, I should keep this in mind. If I find that I can't spin worth a dime, I'll have to find a use for the roving that I have.

2012, What challenge are you accepting this year?

I was tossing and turning last night. The year 2012 is upon us and I had no idea what new challenge I would take on. Last year was the big one with learning how to spin yarn. Mind you, I have a lot to learn and even more need to practice before I become decent with it but I do know how to do it now.

Then somewhere at sometime today, I found a link about a class for quilting a block a month. I gotta say that off hand, I think this will be the ugliest scrap quilt I have ever seen although I have only seen two blocks of it so far. But Hey! That's not the point.

The point is that you learn these different techniques. Two blocks a month for ten months. Months eleven and twelve are for putting it all together, batting, binding, etc.  Plus the bonus is that it's FREE!

I've already watched the first video class and yes I did learn new techniques. I'm excited to learn more. Tomorrow I'll hit my office, find my scrap fabric, and get my supplies together. It'll be fun. Come join me.

It's at craftsy.com  and you can see some samples of the class.

Meanwhile, I'm still loving my knitting group and my book club. I'm still trudging through the second draft of my novel but I really picked up speed with today's work. I'm still knitting away on my hats and I'm ready to perhaps start knitting something other than the Scott Pilgrim hats.

Although I will say that the Scott Pilgrim hats are a pleasure to knit. I swear I get a little on the mean side when I've been away from them to long, but they do take an awful long time for me to knit. I'd love to be able to do a hat in a few days.  I'll think about that later.