Friday, March 15, 2024

How long can you keep a crafty gal down?

How long can you keep a crafty girl down?  

For me it's a month.  Give or take a day or two. 

The last time I wrote a post was Valentine's Day. 

Well, a few days after that my son came home sick, with what I think was the flu, and promptly shared it with me and his dad. 

I was sick with that virus for two weeks. I missed almost a whole week of work the first week. The second week I kind of limped along.  

When I was started to feel better I developed an infection that required two courses of different antibiotics because the first one didn't do the job.  

"Living purgatory" is what I think of when I think of the last couple of weeks. 

It was rough. 

Finally! I am on the mend and Wednesday, I think, was the first day I started feeling like my old self. Yay! 

You guys, I was so sick that I did not crafting of any kind for more than three weeks. 

Nothing.  Zero. Zilch. Nada. 

It wasn't until this past Sunday, maybe, that I picked up knitting needles and started working on my socks projects. 

 Then maybe on Tuesday I picked up cross stitch and stitched a small bit.  Wednesday night I sewed for the first time in ages. 

Soooo yeah ... 

My poor seedlings ... they've been neglected and I'm really hoping that I didn't do any permanent damage from neglect because I just wasn't up to it.  

I'm still trying to get myself organized and shake the discombobulation. 

Meanwhile, the weather switched up and was gorgeous out.  We were too sick to enjoy it. 

This is a few photos from today. The sun is making itself more known in our area.  It feels so good to be out in it. 


The sun over the garden area. 


The garden area.  See the lack of snow? Crazy for this time of year. 


The chickens making a mess in the back yard.

This may be my favorite photo of the day.  It's my Stumpy Girl. 


She was so curious about my phone.  She usually is. I tried taking a video of her and she tried to eat my fingers. 

In short, that's been my world for the last several weeks.  Illness, britbox tv, instagram and facebook reels, flosstube, knitting youtube, feeling like a lump and wondering if I'll ever get healthy.  Some people might not even realize anything was going on because I was sending them funny videos. Especially the second week. I think.  I didn't have much energy for doing anything other than what I had to do. But I did enjoy being entertained by funny internet videos. 

I suppose I better get back at it, so I have something to share on the blog and in a Youtube video. 

I will share a little something with you.  I started a new cross stitch project.  Well, actually two, but I had to rip one out and I haven't restarted it. These two projects were a whole other thing because my aida was so stiff it didn't want to play nice with my embroidery hoops.  I had to go find my q-snap and q-snap-style ones from Hobby Lobby.  

Well, the one I have from Hobby Lobby, one of the C clamps cracked on my right away. Not cool!  

Thankfully I have a real q-snap. I have a few more on order. 

My q-snap earning it's keep: 


The chart is a gift from a dear friend.  The stand is a Hope Stand.  I love this stand.  Back when I decided I wanted a stand I was deciding between this stand and a couple others.  I decided the Hope Stand was the one for me.  So far I have not been disappointed with it.  Unfortunately they are no longer made. The maker passed away.

Hopefully (fingers crossed) I'll be getting back into my regular routine (routine? What's a routine?!) and I will have time next week to record a video, and I can show off my Harvest Cardigan.  I know some are eager to see how it turned out. 

As my friend Becky would say, "Laters!" 


 






Wednesday, February 14, 2024

Happy Valentine's Day!

 Happy Valentine's to all. 



My husband and I celebrated with a meal at home.  He cooked filet mignon and I made a salad to go with it.  Homemade ice cream for dessert. 


My man can cook a great steak. 

In my Facebook memories for this day a photo of us from one of our first Valentine's Day dinners popped up.  

I know we went to a supper club that is well-known for it's prime rib. 

My mother-in-law took the photo and told us to have a good time. 


We were such wee babes.  

Here we are, 27 years later. 


We first met when I was working at Wendy's. I'd say it was love at first sight.  Though it probably didn't seem like it, at first. We exchanged phone numbers and talked on the phone for hours almost every night before we went out on first date. Our first date was memorable.  The engine on the old Monte Carlo caught on fire and we had to pull over, by Pattison Park, and pop the hood and throw sand on the block to extinguish the fire.  Yes, we did continue with the date and went to a pizza joint in a town I don't remember.  

He said when he drove me back home I jumped out of the car so fast he thought he'd never see me again.  I remember being so excited that I couldn't wait to get on the phone and call one of my girlfriends to tell her how the date went. 

Happy Valentine's to my soulmate, and that we have many, many more. 

I can say soulmate because we've been together *forever.*

In other news ... I've been feeling a bit low the last several days so I haven't been writing or posting the #fiberuarychallenge posts over on Instagram. The recent weather kinda blows and I think the barometric pressure is sapping my energy.  Then last night I didn't get a good nights rest. 

And since I can't sit still unless I'm sick in bed, I've been working on my quilt blocks. 

The next set of my Dancing Stars quilt blocks


 The next block in my Sandpiper quilt


I also started my Emotional Support Chicken.


Project Name: Emotional Support Chicken
Started: Feb. 13, 2024
Finished: 
Designer/Source: Knitting Tree LA
Yarn: Scrap yarns in my stash and Red Heart
Colors: Brown and Saffrom
Needle Size: US #7, 4.5 mm
Made For: myself. 

I also finished my Harvest Cardigan.  I'm saving it for the next podcast I record.  You will just have to wait to see it. 

Spinning fiber also happened.  Not as much as I would have liked. I'm falling behind! 

Oh! I did have some fun mail today.  I ordered a floor lamp for my spot in the living room. I think it's going to work out. It's nice and bright and it is positioned such that it's not blinding anyone else in the room. The price is also very reasonable.  Less than $40. 


Earlier today I went to town, to pick up mail at the office and take care of one thing.  I swung up to Harbor Freight and picked up a generator. 


Guess you could say it's a Valentine's Day gift for the man of the house. 


Tuesday, February 6, 2024

Experiencing setbacks and setting this week's goals

 Sunday afternoon I started working on the second sleeve of my Harvest cardigan. 

I knit and knit, and knit and knit. I may have knit almost all the way to bedtime, with a small break for playing Animal Crossing with some of my friends. 

So ... no finishing my cardigan by the end of the weekend.  That's okay.  No biggie, right. 

Yesterday, after dinner, I settled in my chair and knit some more ... I was tempted to push through and knit the last five inches so all I would have to do today was binding off and attaching the button. 

This morning I finished the last decrease repeat and measured the arm.  It was at the correct length so I just needed to switch needle size and knit the cuff. 

I opened my needle case and the slot for the needles I needed was empty. 


I knit almost the entire sleeve with the wrong size needles.  

That has been my crafting life since the new year started.  I don't even get it.  When I'm crafting I don't  feel stressed, or really any pressure to get the project done. Why do I keep having these issues? 

So at 6 a.m. I ripped back 16 inches worth of sleeve. I did compare the two sleeves and there was an obvious difference in gauge.  I know I would have never been happy with it as it was. 

Tonite, after dinner, I picked up the stitches and knit a few rounds.  I decided to call it for the night. Give myself a break from it. 


 Sooooo .... my goals for this week is to reknit the second sleeve and finish spinning the fiber that I didn't finish spinning in January. 

I'm going to take a bit of a break from most everything tonite, though.  


Tonite, I'm going to toss on "Community" and sew together the leftoever squares from my daydream wall quilt.  


I'm short two white squares.  I have no idea how I wound up with extra half-square triangles.  They will be ripped apart and pieced together to make full white blocks.  I'm thinking mug rug? Small pillow? Still deciding.

In other news for the day I had to make a run to town and the office.  I made the rounds to the stores and found the yarn I wanted for making the emotional support chicken. 


These two colors are probably the closest I will find for Furby's colors. I can start knitting the emotional support chicken at any time. 

I also picked up a string of fairy lights for the she shed. 


They need to be adjusted still. I'm sort of wishing I had picked up a longer string.  Oh well.  It is a nice pop of color and sparkle. 

One of the ladies at my work building called me about noon today.  There was some excitement after I had left. 

One of the guys had just returned from the post office.  He came through the front door and a moment later there was a terrific crash of glass breaking.  Some lady was going through the area and smashing windows of businesses and houses.  She's been arrested.  That is all I know. 

Someone from my work building posted a photo online. I was able to see the damage. 


It's not the first time there has been "excitement in my work building neighborhood.  I'm sure it won't be the last. 





Sunday, February 4, 2024

Podcast Ep. 17 - January 2024 progress


Hello!  I'm back for episode 17. Shownotes below.  Thanks for visiting with me.  If you like my videos, please tell a friend. 

 Current WIPs.

My knitting ... 




Project Name: Harvest Cardigan
Started: Nov. 12, 2023
Finished: 
Designer/Source: Tin Can Knits 
Yarn: Hobby Lobby "I love this yarn"
Colors: Cinnamon Cedar
Needle Size: US #6 / 4mm & US #8 / 5mm
Made For: myself. 

What it looked like the last time I shared. 


**************************



Project Name: Vanilla sock
Started: Nov. 13, 2023
Finished: 
Yarn: Patons Kroy sock yarn
Colorway: Amythest stripes
Colors: dark purples.
Needle size: U.S. 1, 2.5 mm
Made For: myself. 

Last time I shared. 



***********************************




Project Name: Vanilla sock
Started: Nov. 18, 2023
Finished: 
Yarn: Patons Kroy sock yarn
Colorway: Coastal stripes
Colors: variations of blue and some white or grey.
Needle size: U.S. 1, 2.5 mm
Made For: myself. 

What it looked like the last time I shared.


My cross stitch ....





Project Name: 12 Days of Stitchy Ornaments
Started: Dec. 3, 2023
Finished: 
Designer/Source: Erica Made Designs
Fabric: Aida cloth 14 county Hobby Lobby Zweigart, with the sparkly threads running through it.  Opalescent? 
DMC in called for colors: 3862, 498, 470, 472, 598, 761, 745, 844, B5200

*************************************





Project Name: Quilted Christmas
Started: Late November 15, 2023
Finished: 
Designer/Source: Emily Call
Fabric: Charles Craft 18 count Aida cloth
DMC in called for Colors: DMC Blanc, 168, 469, 3712, 3045, 816, 310


The last time I shared it. 


*********************************************

A few finished objects

My crochet ...

The crochet cat plush I made for my son.  

Crochet Plush Cat pattern ordered from Etsy. 


Project Name:  Crochet plush cat for my son
Started: Jan. 15, 2024
Finished: Jan. 29, 2024 (or thereabouts)
Designer/Source: Crochet Plush Cat pattern ordered from Etsy. 
Yarn: Hobby Lobby Baby Bee Adore-A-Ball
Color: Flannel

*******************************************

Charity Stitch year-long project

Hat and blanket sets for Make Bundles for Babies

Set #1 - Made in pink acryllic yarn I had in stash. 


******************************


Other things I mentioned ... 

I would like to start this cross stitch in February. 



A friend sent it to me a few years ago.  It will live in my new WIP bag. 


I mentioned the new Just Cross Stitch magazine. 

The first shipment in Lindy Stitches Endangered Species club arrived.  I LOVE it. 

I'm going to knit an Emotional Support Chicken. Join me! Share your progress with the #emotionalsupportchickenKAL hashtag on Instagram. 

The Fiberuary challenge. 

A few of the Youtuber Podcasters/Flosstubers I watch. Please share some of the Youtube channels you watch. I love seeing new people and their projects. 








Friday, February 2, 2024

In order to have success, you must read the instructions

 The saga of my quilt squares ... I tell ya, I'm smarter than this, except for when I'm not. 


I've come to the determination that this Dancing Stars pattern is deceptive. Based on the shape of the cut pieces and how you sew them together, you'd think they should together one way. However, after you cut out the diamond-like shapes you sew three of them together, and then you trim them down into square pieces, and then sew those pieces together with the angles going a different way. 


Clear, as mud, right? 

The other night I ripped apart the pieces of block because I sewed the pieces together incorrectly.  I had 3 sets of four when I should have had 4 sets of three pieces sewn together.  

Then I tried sewing all the pieces together and had weird circular wrinkles going on.  I thought "Oh, that's not going to get fixed if I redo this square." and moved on. 

Then I had an instance of sewing pieces together  and realizing they didn't match the first square I pulled together.  It was a moment in which I was SO frustrated.  I ended up ripping apart that first square and moving the pieces around so everything was the same. 

All the pieces were sewn together. ... 

And wrinkles. ... 


By this time I was like, "What the heck?" I'm obviously doing something wrong. 

I dug out the instructions, looked them over, and mentally slapped myself on the head. 

Well, for one thing, I'm not supposed to sew all those pieces together. 

Each 3-piece quarter is trimmed down to a square.  Then you sew all those pieces together.  Only not in the direction you'd think.  I was thinking I had to sew all the pieces together, and *then* trim the entire thing down. 

In this photo it shows what the pieces look like before and after you trim them. 


I trimmed them so the center piece is as even as possible.  Then when you sew the 4 square pieces together, the larger part of the center piece faces the center of the finished square. 


The finished piece looks a LOT different than what I was originally trying to do. 


I've been fighting with this for way too long.  It could have been completely avoided if I had just sat down and looked at the instructions, and actually READ what it said, instead of half-glancing at it all. 

Once I started sewing and trimming the pieces the way they were supposed to, everything fell into place and came together really quickly. I finished these blocks last night at 9:59 p.m. 

I think there are eight more sets to go. Now that my brain has worked it all out, I'm really hoping the rest is a cake walk. 



Tuesday, January 30, 2024

"Stagnation of the lungs"

 Do *you* know what show that line is from? 

When I sat down to start writing this blog post, that was the first thing that came to mind, for some reason.  Maybe because that is how January has felt?  Stagnating? 

Maybe it's appropriate that my friend sent this gem through to me. 

Then, suddenly, it will be February in just a few days, and I will be thinking "Wow, that last little bit sure went fast!" 

The last time I wrote was just over a week ago.  Last week didn't feel that interesting as I was living it.  No sun.  Temperature's not as forecasted.  I was working towards a publishing day. Blerg. ... 

Tuesday I went to the dentist for a cleaning.  My hygienist is a really sweet gal, and we usually end up talking crafty things. Well, as much as we can while she's rooting around in my mouth, making sure everything is as it should be. 

When we were done, I got up and had pulled out my phone to show her something knitting-related and she saw the photo of Furby as my lock screen.  She enthused over how pretty Furby was and I had a hard time talking about Furby. 

Not in the way you might think. I wanted to tell her SO much about what kind of girl my Furby was that I got a bit stuck and didn't know what to say first.  She was my favorite girl and she is missed. 

It's been at least six months and I still get a bit teary-eyed and choked up at times when I think about her. 

*ahem* 

My son has been begging me to make eggrolls. Ever since the mom of one of his friends made eggrolls and he brought some home, he's pleaded with me to make them.  

I said I would if I found a good recipe.  Everything online calls for 100 ingredients.  I asked my mom's group if anyone had a good recipe. My friend E came through and gave me the recipe her mom used. 


Eggrolls were a big, fat hit! I even figured out a way to make them low carb, using low carb wraps.  

Another day I took advantage of the slowly thawing temperatures and cleaned out the chicken coop before work.  Yeah, I was out in the coop at 7 a.m., mucking it out. 

These two thought it was WAY too early for those type of shenanigans. 



The pine shavings were SO heavy from all the moisture. Then trying to move the wheelbarrow through the soft snow.  I thought I was gonna die! 

One of my hens was a bit miffed because she wanted to lay an egg and I kept messing about, and then I emptied the shavings out of the nesting boxes. 


Oh yeah ... when I first went out there I was looking at the tracks in the snow. 

Pretty sure this is a raccoon track. I am not fond of raccoons. 



Cleaning out took me about an hour.  I know I clean out my chicken coop more frequently than others probably do.  I want my birds to be happy. 


They are. 


I shot a quick video and my one hen had to come check out what I was doing.  This is my Stumpy Girl. 



Quilting ... 

The quilting has slowed down a small bit. Now that a few of the small sewing projects have been wrapped up I've not been quite as quick to run to the craft room in the evenings.  I'm still in there, though. 

I don't remember which night it was that I decided I was going to start working on squares for the Dancing Stars quilt. 

I thought I'd be so clever about it, too, and not look at the instructions. 


I have no idea what month this color set is. 

I sewed the pieces together in groups of two.  Then grouped two groups together. 

Like, I said ... I was being so clever. 


Three groups of four. 

I don't remember it being three groups of four ... Or the pieces needing to be sewn up into a Y seam. 

Drat!

It was supposed to be four groups of three colors.  

The first quilt square went in to timeout while I mentally kicked myself.  Then the next day I ripped seams and re-did the first square. 


Sewn back together as best as I could do.  There is some weird circular wrinkling going on. 


I know if I ripped everything apart and sewed it all back together, those wrinkles would likely not go away. So they will stay. Close enough. Not to mention 12 fabrics meeting in the same spot.  I doubt they would have come together again as nice as they currently are. 

Last night I ripped the remaining quilt squares apart, ironed and they are all ready to go. 


I have a goal of completing this set of squares by the end of the week, along with one square from the other quilt I'm working on.  Wish me luck!

And in the midst of the week I was out in the she shed and spotted a bag of DMC floss.  I was like "What chart is this for?'


I have no idea what project I picked these up for. *Eeks* It was nice to look at all those colors together.  So bright and pretty. 

About half of the fiber I weight out for January has been spun up. I have some kind of hang up about spinning.  It's all *right there* ready to go. 


When I have spun it's been wonderful. 

Saturday I finally did it! What did I do? I started some seeds!

I've been waiting for this moment. Then when it finally got here, I was like "What should I start?"  

Celery, onions and lettuce, duh! I also started a few herbs.  

My first set of mini soilblocks.  Aren't they adorable?

All the room in the house to work and plant seeds, and where do I go?  The kitchen table. 


Sometimes I really amaze myself with what I'm able to do in a tiny space I allow myself to work in. 

After I planted the seeds and dropped some vermiculite on it all. 


I decided to try something different this year.  No plant tags tucked between the soil blocks.  I have tape with numbers on them, and I have a notebook where I listed everything I planted.  Last year I had trouble with the plant labels sliding out of place. 

This weekend I'm going to plant some peppers, and ... I don't know what else yet.  A lot of perennial seeds were purchased and I'd like to set some of those started.  Just need to settle on how I'm going to start the seeds: Winter sowing, in seed cups, soil blocks ... I have a few ideas.  The mild winter is helping, too. Maybe plant a few small cups of seeds and set them out in the greenhouse? Or, I could use the material we got last year and make a low tunnel? 

My office chair out in the she shed got a makeover.  This chair is at least 12 years old.  Maybe 15? It's still in great shape but for the material.  The material is pleather and it's starting to split. 

It now matches MUCH better, I think. 


On Sunday the sun came out. 

Seriously ... My hubby and I were outside and when the sun broke through the clouds I went and stood in a sun patch. 


Our snow melted a LOT over the weekend. 

Yesterday was publishing day. 'Nuff said. It's publishing day!

Today was catch up day. 

When I was out in the coop this morning, before work, our barred rock roo decided to act up a bit with me.  I'm sure I did something he didn't like, such as sweeping away pine shavings so I can close the door. 

I grabbed him and held him for a bit and talked to him. Then he leaned his head over and nipped my hand.  Through the glove he managed to bruise me. 


The brat. I didn't hand raise him from a chick.  He was a rescue. There hasn't been any attitude until late last summer.  He would try to sneak attack me and I don't put up with it, so he's had his fair share of being held by me while I tell him he's a naughty boy. I thought we were making headway when he finally would take food I offered him.  Nope. 

The rest of this week ... I have Thursday and Friday off.  The last little bit of my paid time off before my work anniversary. My plan is to record a podcast one of these days.  

Soooo ... I guess that's all the news from Lake Woebegone ... 

Oh, and if you didn't know where the quote in the title is from, it's a line from the original "All Creatures, Great and Small."