YoP week 51

It seems like I have been away from my blog for longer than 2 weeks.  Life has been so crazy busy that I could have sworn it had been a month since I last posted.  I knew this would be the last week of regular posting for year 4, so I truly wanted to make sure I got to post today.

I loved my trip to Seattle area.  The weather was so nice (for me).  Never got above 83 and the nights were so nice and cool.  I had to wear a sweater almost the whole time I was up there.  My DIL's father is doing much better.  He has had 4 surgeries and hopefully the last one will be to take all the hardware out of his foot and leg.  He came home the 15th of this month and is pretty much confined to one room of the house.  My Grand Daughter is taking good care of him and making sure he follows Doctor's orders.  Being 9 years old, she is quite bossy too.  

I have to admit, that while in Seattle (Burien actually), I had to find a LYS.  Thank goodness for Google and smart phones.  I found one in downtown Burien called Town Square Fabric and Yarn and my DIL was gracious enough to take me to it.  I know I said I was not going to buy any yarn until the end or year 4.  But remember, I had not purchased any yarn since April of last year!  I also have a thing, that, when I travel, I always bring home some yarn from the place I am at.  Kind of like having a charm bracelet only in yarn.  

So here is what I bought while away from home:

Some lovely Saucon Sock yarn.  The best part, it was on sale at the shop I went too.  It was a lovely little shop with both yarn and fabric.  The ladies in there could not have been nicer too.  And if you love Cascade yarn.....................you need to go to the Seattle area.  Since that is where the plant is where they make it.  I about fainted when I saw that 90% of their shop was Cascade.  They even had some in there I had never heard of and I am BIG fan of that brand.

As promised, I did start my snoqualmie socks while in Seattle.  We were going to take a trip to the falls there, but time was not on our side.  DIL's father had 2 surgeries while I was there and I was only there 4.5 days!  So knitting was my best friend.  Here is how the new socks look as of today.

The color is really a lovely sea blue.  I am not taking photos outside right now as it is already well over 100 degrees and it is not even noon yet.  (that's over 37C for all my non USA friends)  So trying to capture color indoors is not always great.  Anyway, I love working on these sock and they will be a gift for someone this Christmas.  

And the other socks I was working on when I left?

They finally are completed.  I actually finished this on Thursday of this week.  These are also a gift for Christmas.

Remember, we are doing an all handmade Christmas this year.  So I am getting a head start on some of my gifts so I am not up until the wee hours of Christmas Day trying to bust a move to get everything done.

So what else am I planning on????

My future SIL has asked me to make him a pair of socks.  He works in a warehouse and said in the winter his feet are so cold and he can not find any socks that keep them warm. Of course my Daughter had to tell him how much warmer hand knit socks are, even if they don't have any wool in them.  So there I was at Hobby Lobby..................HEEHEE...........I saw this Premier Wool Free Sock yarn.  I have been wanting to try it for some time and figured, why not!  The color is Grand Canyon, which is perfect for those of us living in the Grand Canyon state.  I will probably do toe up on these socks.  The man has a size 10.5 foot and that is a might bit bigger than I normally knit.  I want to make sure I make them long enough in the foot and then will use what is left for the leg.  I am still not a fan of toe up, but there are times when it is the only way to make sure you don't run out of fiber.

So, another gift I am going to make for Christmas this year is this tea bag holder.  Here is the material for it.

I sent my hubby out to Walmart for some groceries and told him while he was there to pick up a couple of fat quarters for me.  The look on his face was priceless.  After explaining and showing him what a fat quarter was..............he was off.  It only took 2 phone calls and one photo for him to pick this out.  I will use the darker material for the outside and the bright material for the inside.  This is for my Daughter.  She has been taken off caffeine and I am the number one person to know all about that dilemma.  I have been caffeine free for over 30 years.  I am actually allergic to it.  So I will find some nice caffeine free tea bags and put them in there to make it a lovely gift.

Speaking of fat quarters......................

Here are a few that I got from my DIL's mother, while in Seattle.  My Grand Daughter wanted to buy some at the fabric and yarn store but they were $3 each!  So her Grammie told her they would go through her fabric box when we got back to the house.  These will become more bedding for her American Girl doll bed.  I made some a couple of months ago and now she has decided she needs extras for when she changes the bed.  Can you tell she loves pink?

Here is a project that has to be done by Halloween.  It has nothing to do with fiber but it is a craft that I am excited to do.

This will be the card box for my Daughter's wedding day.  I obtained sand paper, stain, lettering, flowers and paint to make it into something they will treasure for years to come.  I am also going to line it with some special material to make them chuckle every time they open it.  I am going to use, My Little Pony material.  Found out my future SIL likes to watch that show.  I am sure that everyone at the wedding will think I have lost my mind, but those two will totally understand the reasoning behind it.


Do you know how hard it is to take a photo of your arm?  Well, I tried.  See the pretty bracelet with the purple stone in it?  This was my retirement present from the owner of my company.  It is a Tiffany bracelet!  Yup, that's right..............Tiffany.  I even have the robins egg blue box to prove it.  It is called Amethyst with Olive branch.  I love it.  Purple is my favorite color and the Olive Branch has a lot of meaning for me and my faith.  I was totally blown away when I received it.  How very thoughtful and nice of him to do this for me.

 

Retirement is a very busy thing to do.  I have not had a real day off since I retired.  There is something I need to get done everyday.  I am not complaining, just wondering when it slows down a bit.  I was warned by all that had retired before me that, there is no way you will be sitting at home all day crafting.  DARN................they were right!

Today is Father's day here in the USA.  We will be having our family, that is in town, coming over for swimming and food.  Hubby is going to watch the final round of the US open while the rest of us leave him alone and spend time soaking up the sunshine (and heat).

My son leaves tomorrow for Seattle and will be bringing home our Grand Daughter next Saturday.  She is excited to be coming home as I have tickets to our Elevate Music Festival for Sunday.  One of the Doctors I worked for has a suite there and I was able to get 4 tickets.  So my BFF, her hubby, my Grand and myself will all be heading up to the mountains next Sunday for some lovely Christian music.  You can read about it here.  This will be her first concert and what better than to let her rock out to Christian music.

I am working on my YoP 5 list at the moment and have so many things I want to make.....I just don't know how much of them I will be able to finish in a years time.  I may not get the list up next Sunday, but it will be up before the end of next week.  I also may put items on the list that are not knitting/crochet related.  I have some sewing I need to do in the coming year as well as some beading.  So those things will probably be on the list too.

Here is how my list looks as of today:

YoP 4 List

New items to do

Sweater for me

Started 12/21/14

DIDN'T TOUCH IT 

WIP's to complete

Log Cabin Blanket

(This has been in my WIP pile for about 3 years now.  It needs to leave it)

DIDN'T TOUCH IT

Yearly projects I do anyway

Socks

( I love doing them and can not say how many pairs I will complete but need to do some)

STARTED A NEW PAIR 

6/9/15

Things to increase my skills

JOIN A CAL OR KAL

STARTED 1/8/15 TO BE COMPLETED BY DECEMBER 2015

3 SQUARES DONE 6/21/15

I HAVE TOTALLY FALLEN BEHIND ON THIS

Personal Goal

Use only the yarn from my stash for all the above projects.

( I am truly going to try NOT to purchase any more yarn this year.  I have already gone 4 months without buying any yarn and I figure I can continue that trend for at least another 12 months.)

NO YARN BOUGHT AS OF 06/10/15

It is fair to say that I have not started any new projects with the recently acquired yarn purchases though.

Take photos of ALL items when done.

(I have a habit of gifting items and never photographing them for my blog)

YUP, SO FAR AS OF 06/21/15

OOPS, DIDN'T TAKE PHOTOS OF THE SCARVES I MADE AND SOLD 12-19-14

COMPLETED ITEMS

Lapghan for my mom

(I started on this on July 1st since this is when the official YoP 4 started)

FINISHED 7/6/14

2-3 Doll Clothes

(I really want to get this done this year......I really do)

ALL FINISHED BY 7/22/14

1 fingerless mitt

( This is for a Christmas gift this year so it WILL be done soon)

FINISHED 8/12/14

4 pair of socks

COMPLETED 6/18/15

Be Loving

Unplanned project but did it for love

COMPLETED 10/19/14

Slippers

(These make the best Christmas gifts and my entire family said they need new ones)

8 PAIR COMPLETED 11/09/14

12 dishcloths 

( These also make such nice Christmas gifts and are quick and fun to do)

THIRTEEN COMPLETED 11/16/14

5 RUFFLED SCARVES

12/19/14

BOOT CUFFS FOR DIL

3 COMPLETED 01/25/15

NEW PRAYER SHAWL FOR MOM

COMPLETED 1/6/15

1 test knits/crochet

COMPLETED 2/19/15