It is getting there

Ok, I have gotten rid of the Homespun yarn.  I took it to a friend of mine's house and she was thrilled.  I still have to get rid of the Red Heart yarn.  I have tried to call the church where I want to donate it but have not been able to get thru so far.  I don't have any updated pictures of the yarn stash but here is what it looked like before the cleansing took place.

  In the top picture the 2 top right cubbies are empty and the middle right cubby also is empty.

In the middle picture, all of the top cubbies are empty and the 2 left middle ones are empty too.  If I can donate the red heart than all of the rest of the cubbies will be cleaned out!

The bottom picture is not very good.  I mean you can see it fine but since that was taken I have added LOTS of sock, and DK yarn to it.  All of the cubbies are overflowing now and I need to clean it up and put some of it in the empty places in the other shelving units.  I have even had to remove my beading supplies from the bottom cubbies and put it elsewhere because the yarn monster came and attacked me.

As I was going thru the stash the other day I also discovered about 8 bags that had projects in them.  All of which are WIP (works in progress).  Guess I have quite a bit of work to do yet.  But that will keep me busy and happy.

But that is all for now.

Happy crafting!

A Day Off

I have a day off from work and thought it would be a great time to do some things I normally put off doing.

So far I have cleaned out our kitchen pantry, organized our butcher block rolling cart and started and frogged my scarf 3 times.  I have called a friend to come over and pick up all the homespun that she would like to use and have also put a call into a local church with a large prayer shawl ministry to see if they would like a bunch of red heart and the rest of the homespun.  I will get my stash down one way or the other!

Last night I gave several skeins of the "fancy" yarns to my Daughter in Law who is making some really cute fashion scarves with it.  I also gave her several skeins of some polar fleece yarn for her to figure out what she would like to do with it as well as some ribbon yarn that will be fun for her.  I have cleaned out 3 cubbies of my yarn stash and if I can give the homespun and red heart a new home that will open up about 10 more cubbies.  WOOHOO!  But that still means that I have 14 cubbies CRAMMED full of yarn still.  So I have a lot of knitting/crocheting to do this year to get rid of it so I can buy more.

I will keep you updated on my progress.

The weather today makes me not want to be inside.  It is going to be in the high 70's today and we will probably hit 80 tomorrow.  I love the weather like this but it is WAY too early for this temperature.  I don't want summer to come too early.  I am no way ready for the 100+ temps that we get here.  But at least we don't have to dig out of snow and ice here.

Not much else going on here so will close and get back to my knitting and cleaning.

Happy crafting!

January

I hope all of you had a wonderful Christmas and a very Happy New Year.  I know we did and I am trying to hold onto that feeling of peace and joy daily.  ( I said TRYING!)

So in my last post I told you all how I would love to have a home made Christmas next year.  I have a great start on it.  I have completed a 2 piece set for someone special already!  It was suppose to be for this year but life got in the way and so I didn't make my dead line.  But it is done now and put away for next year. (as long as I can remember where I put it)

Right now I am working on a pair of mittens for ME!  I completed the hat about a couple of weeks ago and now am frantically trying to get the mittens done.  I have one done and half done with the second one.  Then I have a scarf to make too.  I was not going to worry about it but..........  all of a sudden we got a really really cold snap here and I don't have a hat, mittens or scarf!  I still have my socks on needles too but I have other socks so they can wait.

I am also going to try and not buy anymore yarn this year until my stash goes down considerably.  I have way too much yarn and not enough time to use it all.  I could probably make enough socks for my whole family (and I mean the whole one including cousins, second cousins, third cousins................you get my drift!)

I have lots of Homespun yarn too and that is probably my least favorite to work with.  So I think I might donate that to a local church that makes lots of prayer shawls.  I will never make that many shawl in my entire life.  So that might be one way of getting it out of my yarn shelves.

I think most of the rest of it I will have no problem finding a use for it.  Oh did I mention I also have a sweater on the needles for ME?  But I am afraid it will be a while before I get that one completed.  Plus I may have to make a different size (smaller) than what I started it out at.  We will see and keep our fingers crossed that that will happen.

The past two weekends we have been busy with guests at our house.  They did not stay with us but they were there for football parties.  It was so nice to see our friends from Vegas again and they make great company.  So this weekend will be quiet for a change. At least at this point it looks that way.

I would really like to take some more knitting classes but I think with the knowledge I have at this moment I will be able to do several projects without taking classes.  Plus I have discovered that U-Tube does wonderful videos of things that I might have a question on.  That is how I still do my Kitchner stitch even though I have done it several times already.  I also use it to do cables.  (not really good at those yet)

Other than that not much else crafty going on at my house.  I have put beading aside for a while.  Making all those sets for the craft sale kind of burned me out.  Plus I can not do that while sitting in my "comfy" chair and watching TV.  Now knitting and crocheting on the other hand can be done anywhere and everywhere.  Must be why I keep falling back on to my love of fiber.

Craft on!

Almost There

This is the last week before Christmas.  The last week of advent as we prepare for the birth for our Lord, Jesus Christ.  This is the last few days that we have to prepare our hearts and minds for this joyous event.  This is the time of year that I love.  It is so joyful being filled with friends, family, festivities and FOOD!

A few weeks ago my Grand Daughter helped me and my mom make Mom's famous party mix.  She was a big help stirring all of that stuff and taste testing it to let us know if it was good enough or not.  Here is a shot of her helping.

 

This past Thursday our Grand Daughter had her Advent program at Church and it was wonderful.  What a joy to watch all the children from her school perform some very special songs in preparation for the coming of our Lord.  Here is a shot of some of her Classmates during their song.

And here is a shot of her doing some of the sign language during the song.  (actually they all did sign language during the song)

Last night was her Dance recital but unfortunately we are not allowed to take photos during the performance but just trust me when I tell you she did a wonderful job.  In fact the other girls in her troop were watching her to make sure they were getting it right.

We have all the presents bought, wrapped and most of them delivered.  My hubby was a big help this year with some of the shopping and with the wrapping.  We were up until 2AM wrapping last night and had a wonderful time listening to Christmas music and enjoying each others company.

I think next year I will start the first of the year getting gifts for Christmas.  I love giving.  It gives me so much joy to watch the faces of others as they get a gift that is heartfelt.  I would love to have a homemade Christmas next year.  So if that is going to happen I truly need to start in January to get everything made that I would like to give to others.  So the list will begin very soon and will have much thought put into it.

I hope all of you have a Blessed Christmas and a safe and Happy New Year.

Craft on!

New Stuff

Thought I should probably get into here and show you all that I have some "new stuff" to show you.

We have a new member in our family.  This is Luna.  She is a rescued dog from Mixed up Mutts and Shephards Too.  They think she is about 4 years old and if you look closely you can see her back right paw is black.  That is from skin grafts she had to have.  They don't know how she damaged it but she is lucky as they almost had to amputate it.  She is a Chihauhau Minature Pinscher mix.  What a love too!  I was originally looking to get a Doxie for my Mother in Law but fell in love with this little bit of a thing and couldn't resist her.  She has a great personality and has made her way into our hearts in a very short time.  She has been with us now for two weeks!

Here is a scarf that I am knitting for someone very special to me.  I have never done somthing that will come out rectangular that is knitted on the "bias".  It makes the striping really kind of cool.

I am still beading too.  I have lots of stuff ready for the craft sale on the 20th.  Now I only hope that we have lots of people attend so I don't have to bring it all home and then decide what I am going to do with all of it.  Here are just a few pictures of what I have ready to go.  This is not even half of them and I am still working on more these next two weeks.

 And last but not least is some photos of my Grand Daughter who decided that it would be kind of fun to try out ice hockey.  I have a whole new respect for hockey players.  After watching her get her gear on I was exhausted.  And all I did was watch.  Of course she told us that she couldn't play hockey because she has all of her teeth!  She got 4 free lessons and we are taking bets on how many of them she will actually go to.  Last night she was already saying she didn't want to go anymore.  (she has only been once.)  So we will see.

 



So that is about all for now.  Some day I will figure out this blogger thing.  It took me over an hour just to get this all posted and aligned and I am still not happy with it.  Oh well, maybe when I have more than a couple of hours in a day free I will be able to do that.

Have a great week all and Craft On!

FO'S

As promised I did take pictures of the 'winter wear' that I made.

This is from a Chemo hat pattern.  My niece wanted a skull cap and this was so feminine that I just couldn't resist it.  I love the lace on the bottom of it.  It is made with Lorna's Laces and the color is Huck's Room.

These are called Peek-a-boo mittens.  They are really clever in the fact you can just pop your four fingers out of the mitten without the help of either hand or your mouth.  You can also pop them back in without any assistance.  It is nice when you have your hands full of children, purse, grocery sacks, etc and need to have some extra dexterity for something like your keys.

Finally is the scarf.  It is called Column of Leaves and was the first lace project that I had attemped on anykind of a large scale.  I loved doing it and will probably do more scarve in this pattern.

That is all for now.

Have a great crafty day.

FO's

I have some FO's.  For those of you that do not craft in any way shape or form...........FO stands for...............Finished Objects.  I have lots of FO's actually.

I finished the hat, mittens and scarf for my niece/God Daughter in Wisconsin.  Now I just need to get it in the mail so she can be nice and toasty warm this winter.

I finished 2 sets (necklace, earrings, braclet) of beading for the craft show/sale.  I have another set on the beading board and I just finished a chunky chain necklace and have another one that needs a clasp put on it and that will be done!

Amazing what a person can do when they get an extra day off on the weekend.  Especially if you tell everyone that you are not doing anything that day but working on your UFO's!!!!! 

I even got to work on MY socks a bit last night.  They have been sitting there for about 4 months now waiting for me to notice them again.  It felt good to get a lot of stuff finished up and be able to work on what I wanted with out any guilt.

I will try and take some pictures to post on here of some of the FO's.  I am so bad about taking pictures and I carry a camera in my purse all the time.  Go figure.  But I really want you all to see the winter set I made as well as some of the jewelry that I have designed and made.

Ok, well that is about all for now.  TTYL