YoP

I am so sorry that I do not have any pictures for you to view.  But check back during the week as I normally do more posting during the week than on the weekends.

Any how.....................I did go to my cuff down sock class this past Saturday.  Loved it.  I have to have the sock ready for the heel flap by next Saturday.  I chose to do it in Bernat Sock with a size 3 needle.  I am not too happy with it.  They had me cast on 64 and I thought nothing of it until I got about 4 inches down on the leg.  The thing is HUGE!!!!!!!!!!  I have already decreased it to 56 and am thinking of going even lower than that.  This might just have to be a practice sock and I will frog it once we get it finished or I will just toss it away.  I love going cuff down at this point but will let you all know how much I like it after doing the heel and foot.

I have not progressed on my Peace Socks much since I am working like crazy to get to the heel on the class sock.  Nothing else has been finished or started since the last post last week (You can find it in the archives).

On a more personal level....................it has been a very trying week.  Hubby left Wednesday morning to go and visit his mom.  Wednesday night DD came over and did her taxes and I made a wonderful Thai dish for us.  It was sweet and spicy both and we loved it and were glad there was enough leftover for each of us to have another meal out of it.

Thursday I took my Mom to Best Buy to finish up her new computer order.  Her other one was 10 years old and she had really nursed that thing.  But it was so slow. 

Friday I hooked up Mom's new computer and it was fantastic.  Then my BFF and I went out to dinner.  We were going to do Souper Salad but no tables were available.  Then we headed to Sweet Tomato's...............same story there.  We ended up at a Mexican Food restaurant and I was surprised and glad to find out I could make my tacos into lettuce wraps with steamed veggies on the side! 

Saturday I had my sock class and of course I had to go shopping for some yummy yarn.  (I will get pictures up here this week, I promise)  Then I headed home and got my flannel sheets off the bed and got the cotton ones back on it.  Being 90 degrees in the day means the flannels are gone for another year.  I straightened up part of our 'back room' which is suppose to be the hubby's shop but seems to be more of a storage area than anything else.  Finally go to sit down and do a few rows on the sock class sock.  Had to run to the airport and pick up my son and his lovely family.  Got them home and hung out for about 20 minutes with them and then headed home remembering that I had not eaten yet.  Stopped at the store for salad and a Smart One meal.

The evening rounded out with my dear friend calling me to inform me her brother in law had taken his own life.  I was devastated.  She was so hurt and it is so hard for me know what to say at times like that.  So I just let her talk and cry and talk and cry.  I did promise prayers for the family though per her request.

Sunday I went to Mass and then out to lunch with some good friends.  Went to a new 'hole in the wall' place and it was really good food. I did manage to get two loads of laundry done too. In the afternoon Mom and I went to the Casino and spent several hours there having a blast.  We had dinner there too and I was able to be home around 6:30.  I emptied the dishwasher, got my food ready for Monday at the office, played with my dogs, put my feet up and realized I only had an hour for knitting, but knitting I did do!

So as you can see this morning I did a weight in and am so close.........................19 pounds evicted!  One more pound and I will be doing a happy dance and singing.  (Don't worry, I won't video it or anything crazy like that)

Happy Crafting

Just checking in

 Seems funny that I can check in throughout the week but have a horrible time doing my YoP update on Sundays.

Any who.........................I am working on my socks and must say I love the pattern I choose peace socks by Wendy Johnson.  The pattern is just enough to keep my attention but not so bad that I can not enjoy anything else.  I am almost to the heel and I think I am going to try the heel she has in the instructions.  I normally a couple of other heels my favorite being the Sweet Tomato Heel by Cat Borghi. It is easy and fool proof.

I still can not decide what sock yarn I want to take to class on Saturday.  I have some lovely yarn that I got to do a pair of socks for my hubby but I really don't want to 'practice' on it.  I do have lots of Panda Cotton but it splits so easily (I am using that stuff now).  I have some Noro but it seems so rough to the touch.  I will probably just take some of my comfort sock yarn and use that.  I have plenty of it and each skein is large enough to do a pair of crew socks.

On the food front....................I am back on tract as of yesterday.  The last weekend with Holy Week and Easter were a disaster for me.  We were so busy with Church that all I would do is grab the quickest and easiest thing there was to eat and stuff it in my mouth.  On Easter we ordered from a wonderful Italian restaurant and ate like kings. (fat kings mind you)  Monday was not much better as there was quite a bit of stress going on in my life and so I grabbed my go to for stress................chocolate........................and ate that until I thought I was going to be sick.  (Wish I would have)  So Tuesday I was back on track for the most part and Wednesday I was 100% back on.  I need that ticker to go down the slippery slope.  I have a couple of goals in mind and hopefully I will make them.

Goal one.................I need to be 7 pounds lighter by the first of May
Goal Two................I want to be solidly between 8 and 10 pounds lighter (than now) by the end of May.
Goal Three..............I want to be 10-15 pounds lighter (than now) by the end of June.

I don't think that is such a hard goal to achieve.  I just have to stick with it and look at the small goals instead of the BIG picture and my total goal.  I have lots of support around me so it should be ok.  I could actually do more than I have for my goal three but I don't want to push it.  I know there is going to be a plateau in there somewhere. 

I am finally into all of the clothes in my closet.  In fact I have had to get rid of a lot of clothing.  Fortunately for me my daughter is doing this too and she has been more than happy to take my too big clothes off my hands.  Hopefully before the end of June I will need to make a bit of a shopping trip to add to the dwindling wardrobe.  I already had to go out and buy smaller underwear (both upper and lower!)

I will try really hard to post this Sunday.  Hubby is out of town until Monday night so I should have time to take photos and post on the blog.

Happy Crafting!

Nothing big

I just thought I would check in with everyone on here.  I have been so busy with my personal life that I have really not done much crafting at all this past week.  I did finish DD dress and got her headband adorned also to match the dress.  I cut out a dress for me and have only sewn a couple of steps on it.  I am not in the mood to sew right now and not even really in the mood to knit/crochet.

WHAT????????????  I know, that is a shocking statement to me as it is to you.

Let me try and explain.................After finishing the main sewing for DD Easter dress I started working on my oldest Grand Daughters scarf to match her hat.  We all know how long it takes to make a scarf and how boring it can get even if it has a pattern to it.  So I worked on that for about 4 days and finally just had enough of it.  I put it away with the intentions of working on some other WIP.  Went to look at my WIP's and could not even get up any interest in any of them.  By that time it was the weekend and my weekend was booked full with Church doings.  I had an all day women's retreat on Saturday followed by Mass.  On Sunday DH and I facilitated RCIA until around noon.  Then I had to go to the grocery store to make sure there was healthy food in the house for the next week. As you can tell by my weight ticker I have not been eating the healthiest this past week.  By the time I was done at the grocery store it was time to make dinner.  After dinner I cut out a dress for me and then I was spent.  I was in bed by 9pm that evening.

Ok, so Monday comes and I really don't want to work on my dress.  I really, really, really have been jonesing to work on a pair of socks.  So off to the craftroom I go to find my sock yarn (like that is hard with over 30 skeins of the stuff) and a pair of needles to do the magic loop with.  SUCCESS!  I have it all together....................but it has been too long since I made my last pair so I have to bring out my notebook on how to do the cast on for toe up and how many stitches to use and how to increase and how..........................well you get the picture.

So I cast on a pair of socks last night and I am in heaven.  I have decided that my true love is knitting socks.  In fact I am taking another magic loop sock class this month.  I am going to learn how to do cuff down socks and I am so excited.  Now I won't have to invert the patterns for my socks!  I only hope I can do two at a time cuff down.  I guess I will find that out come the 14th of this month.

I do want to wish each of you a blessed Easter season and for my Jewish friends a Happy Pesach.

Happy crafting

Busy and productive

I have been busy and productive the past two weeks.  I didn't post last week as I spent most of the week with my brother, sister in law and her mother.  We had a wonderful visit and I was sorry to see them leave.  So knitting and all other craftiness got put on hold for the whole week.  But I made up for it this week.  Have a look.

This is one of the hats I made that will be given away at Christmas.  This is for my oldest Grand Daughter.  She is very petite so I had to go down a needle size to get the right measurements so this would fit her.  She lives in Kansas and I didn't want to see it blow off her head in their daily 35 MPH winds.

This is the same hat but I didn't like the way it looked on my iron.  (I really need to buy a head to display my hats on)  It is on my hand and I think it is really cute.

Here is the scarf that will go with the hat.  I am trying to decide if I want to do a full scarf or put a button on this and make it a cowl type thingy.  It is done in the faggot stitch and is so easy to do.  But it has big enough 'holes' in it that I could easily put a button on it and make it more of a cowl.  What do you all think?

But the majority of my time was taken up doing this:

This is my Daughter's Easter dress.  I really enjoyed sewing again but I forgot how much time it takes to do things the RIGHT way.  I want to show you a close up of the bottom.

My Daughter is not very tall (5'1") but this dress hit her above her knee.  She told me that she wanted it to be the middle or below the knee as she is no longer 6 years old (not by a looooong shot) so I told her to go and find some trim to put on the bottom.  She found both of these at Hobby Lobby.  We have enough of both to do her a headband also to match the dress if she so chooses.

I can not believe we are at the end of March and this blog a long will be ending in a few months.  I did ask the administrators if we could do it again for another year.  I have been so much better at blogging this past year and my projects are actually getting done.  They said that there didn't seem to any reason why we could not do another one next year too!  I hope they meant it.  I have met some very talented people on this group and have gotten inspired by many of you.  Your comments have helped me make some decisions that I otherwise would not have made.

Anyway, that being said, here is how my list looks now:

3 Log cabin squares (when ever) Knitted  (in progress)
Hexipuff (one a day for as long as it takes) Crochet (on hold for the moment)
Mittens for Jenn .  Knitted (have the yarn)
LaLas prayer shawl (when ever) Knitted ( in progress) For Christmas 2012
Cancer Ribbon Shawl (when ever) Crochet ( in progress)
Alpaca/Silk Prayer Shawl Crochet (in Progress for Christmas 2012)

4 blooming pillows (Have the yarn) Crochet for Christmas 2012

4 – 8 pairs of socks (Have the yarn) Knit for Christmas 2012

2 hats and 3 scarves for men.  (Have the Yarn) (one set in progress) Knit or Crochet for Christmas 2012

17 dishcloths (in progress) Knit for Christmas 2012

Mittens and Scarf (have the yarn and scarf in progress) Christmas 2012

 Here is the list of things that are finished:

****Finished******
Hat and Scarf (November gift)  Knitted (finished July 2011)

 Scarf for Jadin (by October 10th) Knitted  (finished October 2011)

Wedding Ring Afghan (finished in October 2011)

 Bedsock (Christmas) Crochet or knitted, haven't decided (Finished October 2011)                

 Hat for Josie (Finished October 2011)

wedding ring afghan (Christmas) Crochet (Finished in December 2011)

Bedsock(Christmas)  (Finished November 201

Scarf for Jenn (Finished December 23^rd!!  2011)

Scarf for Josie (Finished December 26^th 2011)

One man’s hat (Finished January 2012)

5 dishcloths (Finished February 2012)

1 log cabin block done (Finished February 2012)

Comfort Shawl (Finished March 2012)  Christmas 2012/ Crochet

1 dishcloth (finished March 2012)

Hat (finished March 2012)

Happy Crafting!

It is finished!

I have finished projects to show this week.  WOOHOO!  About time, huh?

Here is the picture of the finished shawl for DD for Christmas.  (She is standing over my shoulder looking at this)  Like she doesn't know what it is going to look like since she is the one that bought the pattern and yarn.

I still need to block it yet.  It is only 30% mohair so all I am worried about are the points on the end of each side.  Do you think it will block being only 30% wool and 70% acrylic?

Here is another shot of it.  Please excuse the mess in the background but this is MY craft room.

I also completed some dishcloths as I told you about last week.  Here are the completed ones.

Here is a picture of the one that is in progress.

I love this pattern.  It is called Double Bump and you can find it on Ravelry.  Super easy and fast to do and makes for a great scrubbing cloth.

So today is almost half over.  I have bathed both of the dogs, done 2 loads of laundry and am getting ready to make Spanish Rice for a family dinner tomorrow night.  Then DD and I are going to JoAnn's to pick out material for our Easter dresses.  I am also going to look for some T-pins to use for blocking.  My LYS was out of them!  I could hardly believe it.

My brother, sister in law and her mother are coming into town today for the week.  They will be staying at the apartment complex where my mom lives.  I don't know how much crafting I will get done this week as I do want to spend time with them.  But what I do get to I will tell you about next week.

Happy Crafting!

one fourth

I just realized that I am 1/4 of the way to my goal in my new healthy life.  Not too bad for it only being 5 weeks into it.  My pants are getting looser and looser and I am now into the smallest pants and blouses I have in my closet.  Can you say Shopping Trip?  I am stoked about it too.

This has been the week from H E double toothpicks!  Let me fill you in on what has been going on.

Saturday hubby and I took our two adorable, sweet, cute doggies to get their nails clipped.  He held them on the way there (they were not very good for him).  On the way back he told me he was going to drive so I got into the car and was getting Dog #1 on my lap and was holding onto Dog #2 when Dog #2 decided he didn't want to be there so he jumped out of my arms and in the process scratched the snot out of my upper arm.  By the time we got home (5 minutes later) my arm was bruised and there were wonderful little claw marks on it.  Hurt like a bear too!

Sunday arrives as a bright beautiful day.  It is going to be in the 80's so we pull the cover off our shade awning so we can open it up and keep part of the yard shaded so we can sit outside and enjoy the fresh air and sunshine.  Hubby is so sweet and offers to go to the grocery store for me (I have already been twice and kept forgetting stuff).  So while he is gone I decide to get the table outside all cleaned off and set up for the family that is coming over for the day.  I walk from end of the yard to the other, totally forgetting that the awning has these loooooong legs on it that stick out, and my toe catches on the end of one of the legs.  Phones go flying, as well as everything else that I was carrying at the time.  I land full weight on my left knee, put my hands down to brace my fall and slide on the cool decking and land up about 2 feet into the grass.  (I guess I was speeding a bit)  I am in a panic because there is no one home.  So I think I will call my Daughter to have her come and help me.  So I grab my cell phone ( I am still laying on the ground afraid to move ).  I look at my cell phone and realize that my daughter is in Mass.  DRAT!  So there is no one else that I can think of to come and help me up.  I decide to start wiggling parts to see if anything is totally damaged.  Everything moves............I touch my knee..............owie.  But I have to get up.  So I manage to get up and hobble into the house and grab my Grand Daughter's Boo Boo bag and slap in on my knee.  Then I look down and see that my hands are bleeding where they scraped along the cool decking.  (Not the smoothest surface to slide on)  So now I hobble into the bathroom to wash them ............owie..........and pour peroxide on them.  How I love to watch that stuff bubble up.  Then I realize that our peroxide is about 10 years old.  So I call hubby and ask him to pick up a new bottle.

The day goes on as normal with me sitting with boo boo bags on my knee but it really was not all that sore then.  The next morning................................OWIE OWIE OWIE.....................now I am worried that I might have broken something in there and the base of my right thumb is on fire.  So off I go to the urgent care for xrays.  Thank the Lord.................nothing broken and the Doctor told me that for a person with Rheumatoid Arthritis I have wonderful joints.

This is day 4 post fall and I am still sore and now my ribs are hurting.  Well of course they hurt........I have been walking funny for 4 days and plus I landed pretty hard on my hands I am sure I jarred all the muscles in my upper body.  Lucky for me.................I can still knit and crochet.  HEHEHE!

Yesterday was a great day for me though.  I was able to pick up my new car that I ordered 3 weeks ago.  We thought it was going to be a month or two before it would come in.  So I am the owner of a 2012 Hyundai Elantra Limited in Sky Blue Metalic.  I love it.  It has all sorts of bells and whistles on it.  I am going to have to read the manual tonight to figure out how to work everything on it.

On a crafty note......................i have finished the body of DD Christmas Shawl and all I need to do now is the edging and then block it.  Another thing will be off my YoP list soon.  YEA!

Happy Crafting.

Dish clothes

Here is how my list looks now.

3 Log cabin squares (when ever) Knitted  (in progress)
Hexipuff (one a day for as long as it takes) Crochet (on hold for the moment)
Mittens for Jenn .  Knitted (have the yarn)
LaLas prayer shawl (when ever) Knitted ( in progress) For Christmas 2012
Cancer Ribbon Shawl (when ever) Crochet ( in progress)
Alpaca/Silk Prayer Shawl Crochet (in Progress for Christmas 2012)

4 blooming pillows (Have the yarn) Crochet for Christmas 2012

4 – 8 pairs of socks (Have the yarn) Knit for Christmas 2012

2 hats and 3 scarves for men.  (Have the Yarn) (one set in progress) Knit or Crochet for Christmas 2012

Comfort Shawl (in progress)  Christmas 2012/ Crochet

19 dishclothes (in progress) Knit for Christmas 2012

Hat, Mittens and Scarf (have the yarn) Christmas 2012

 Here is the list of things that are finished:

****Finished******
Hat and Scarf (November gift)  Knitted (finished July 2011)

 Scarf for Jadin (by October 10th) Knitted  (finished October 2011)

Wedding Ring Afghan (finished in October 2011)

 Bedsock (Christmas) Crochet or knitted, haven't decided (Finished October 2011)                

 Hat for Josie (Finished October 2011)

wedding ring afghan (Christmas) Crochet (Finished in December 2011)

Bedsock(Christmas)  (Finished November 201

Scarf for Jenn (Finished December 23^rd!!  2011)

Scarf for Josie (Finished December 26^th 2011)

One man’s hat (Finished January 2012)

5 dishclothes (Finished February 2012)

1 log cabin block done (Finished February 2012)

The only thing I have accomplished this past week was completing 2 dishclothes.  I won't bore you with pictures of them since they are the same patterns that I have been doing in the past.

I wish I had completed more fibery goodness in the past week.  Unfortunately I was busy every night this past week and only had about one hour per evening to do any type of crafting.  Hence the reason I only got 2 dish clothes done.

Hopefully this week will be a bit slower paced but it starts out with a bang.  I need to take my youngest chi-weenie to the vet right after work on Monday for his early check up and shots.  His vet is about 20-25 minutes away from our home.  By the time I get home it will be close to 7 and that doesn't leave much time for dinner and crafting.  So lets hope the rest of the week doesn't fill up as quickly as last week did.  I really want to CRAFT!

Family day is today.  We are doing it at my house.  We are going to BBQ hamburgers/ hotdogs and I am making home made macaroni and cheese (low fat/low calorie) and I made a no bake cheesecake for desert.  Also low fat/ low calorie.  I am still doing well on my weight reduction.  To reach my goal will probably take up to 7 months.  But it took me 10 years to gain all this fat so I figure 7 months to get rid of it is not so bad.  Even my hubby said that his pants are starting to get a bit loose on him.  He is not overweight but it wouldn't hurt for him to loose a few pounds too.  My mom and Daughter are also doing well.  We use My Fitness Plan and love it.  All three of us have dumped 10 pounds a piece.  WOOHOO

Happy Crafting!