Week 38 Update With an Important Question at the End!!!!!

Hello and may your Saint Patrick's Day be filled with joy, laughter, family and many blessings.  Hubby is going to smoke a corned beef brisket today and I am making Irish soda bread (with raisins) to celebrate the day.  I do know, corned beef is not a traditional Irish meal on this day, but here in the US, it is customary to have it.  Plus, it was on sale and super cheap LOL!  

But we are here to talk about the week of crafting.  I had a blast this week.  My sewing machine was used and I made a teenager happy.

A bag for the local Grand.  She has dreams of going to Paris someday.  Her entire bedroom and bathroom are done with French decor.

Another 'French" bag for her.  I found these materials at WalMart of all places.  This bag has a little something extra added.

These little charms.  They were so darn cute and I knew she would fall in love with a little 'bling' on the bag.

I bought a yard of each of these fabrics so had plenty to also make these:

A couple of throw pillows for her to use in her reading nook.  I had never done pillow covers before.  There was a wonderful You Tube video I found that explained it perfectly.  Of course, I can not find that particular video now to link it for you.  Anyway, it was so much fun to make these items.  The pillow covers are removable as they have an overlapping part in the back where the pillow form can be put in or taken out.  Sewing was my jam all day Thursday.  

There was crocheting this week as well.

A new To The Point shawl has been started.  There are still about 10 rows left to complete it.  This is my 'relaxing' project.  Since I have made so many of them, I barely need the instructions anymore.

Hubby's socks got some love this week as well.

The progress keepers show where I was last week with them.  The Hermione's Everyday Sock pattern is perfect for this yarn.  It does not detract from the stripes and yet adds just a little interest in an otherwise plain sock.

The Summer Flies shawl also got a bit of love.

Once again the progress keeper shows where I was 2 weeks ago.  This is one item I can not do while watching TV.  The count is super important.  There are MANY mistakes in this shawl, yet, the patterns on this shawl are so busy, no one will ever notice them.  I have 7 rows left in this section.  There is one more section after this.  I am a bit worried I will be playing yarn chicken with the last section.  Fingers crossed I have enough.  I bought this yarn in California 5 or 6 years ago.  There is no way I could get a proper dye lot match now.  Not to mention this was a very expensive yarn!

Other than all those things, my week consisted of taking care of my son's fish and cat while he and his family went to California for spring break.  They have friends with a condo on the beach in Encininas.  So they went to relax and I got to do this:

Meet Howie the cat.  He is 16 years old and still going strong.  He was so happy to have me there to rub on.  I gave him lots of love everyday with plenty of rubbings and chin scratches.  His other favorite thing to do to me is this:

He rubs all over my hair and then just before he stops, he will lick it and try and eat it.  He has done this since he was a kitten.  We all just tolerate it.

Last night, after Mass, hubby and I were watching movies on TV.  I looked over and was so happy to see this:

Yup, he loves his homemade socks best.  He keeps a watchful eye out every time I start a new pair of socks.  The above socks are almost a year old and he wears them weekly.  I machine wash and dry them and they still look brand new.  Diversity Yarn by Plymouth Yarn Company is the bomb for socks!!!!!

Question time.............have any of you ever gone on a knitting/crocheting retreat?  I am contemplating going to one this year and was wondering what your take on them is.  Please respond in the comment section.

That is all for me this week

Until Next Time.................Happy Crafting!!!!!!