Can You Say A Little Crazy?

 Finally, the Legislature is done for the year! Yeah. Now life can get back on an even keel. I have been working on three knitting projects. One for me, one for my little guy, and one for the new baby. It's fun rotating between them. Basically, I'm doing a section on one, and then moving to the next one. I finished a skein of yarn on the sweater for me, so I moved to the sweater for the new baby. I picked up stitches for the sleeve. Then I couldn't figure out if I had the right needles at work, so moved back to my sweater since it's just mindless knitting. The seed stitch band at the bottom keeps folding up, hopefully blocking will take care of that.

I wanted to make myself a sweater.  I've attempted to do this at least twice and never succeeded.  I wanted it to have some cables, but not be too complicated.  This sweater will have cables up the fronts and down the sleeves, but the back is  plain.  I hope it turns out!  I love the hollyberry color.

 

 This is a sweater for the new baby.  It's supposed to be a six months size, but I'm not sure.  It looks a little big, but I guess he can grow into it.  I love the peapods all around the front edge.

The brown sweater is for Malachi to replace the teal one that shrunk.  It isn't turning out quite as nice as the first sweater, but he won't mind.  :)  He'll just like the fact that Grandma made it for him.

Last is a picture of the diapers I'm sewing.  I've finished four new large ones and have these five left to finish.  Then I'm cutting out seven more from plain white.  That will give them 18 larges.  Hopefully that will be enough.



~Jane



Spring!

Regular Session is over, but unfortunately we went right into Special Session, since they can't decide on a budget.  Mainly the way Special Session affects me is that we aren't allowed to take time off, so that kind of limits life right now.  On a positive note though, I've finished one of the two strings of bandana pennants I'm making for the Little Guy's birthday and the pennants just need to be added to the hanging tape at the top on the second string.  Bias tape from my mother's stash is coming in handy here.  I used two navy and two red packages.  :)

It suddenly hit me last week that soon I'll have two little guys to knit for.  I immediately cast on a sweater for the new baby.  I fell in love with this little Sweet Pea Cardigan from 60 Quick Baby Knits.  I'm knitting it in Peapod Green Comfy Worsted cotton from Knitpicks.  I'm making the hem and edges without the picots since I want it to look a little more boyish and leaving off the ribbon trim and squiggles on the hood.  It is working up really cute.  I absolutely love the peapods knit into the design. 


 I have very poor circulation in my feet and I've been trying to keep my feet nice and warm.  This is the first winter I've noticed cold really hurting my feet.  At night, I have a rice bag that I warm up and tuck into the foot of the bed, but it doesn't seem to hold the heat for very long.  I read a book by Rachael Herron that talked about "hotties."  Basically hot water bottles with a cover.  I got rather inspired.  I started looking for hot water bottles to buy and couldn't really find any around town.  Looking online, I found lots of negative comments about the most available ones that are made in China.  Not really wanting one of these with their questionable materials and odors, I finally located some sold by the Vermont Country Store that are made in Germany with brass fittings in the neck to prevent leaks.  I've ordered two.  I've also knit a hot water bottle cover from some stash - Rachael's ISBN Cabled Hot Water Bottle Cozy by Yarnagogo, and I bought some Cascade 220 to knit one more.

Since I also have the Little Guy's second hoodie sweater on the needles, to replace the one that shrunk, I have lots of projects to work on.  The pictures here are from Ravelry.  I'll post pictures of my finished projects when I get them done.

~Jane

Busy, Busy

I realized today that it's almost been a couple of weeks since I posted a new entry.  I've been busy working on projects and not so much on the computer.  When I am using the computer, I'm watching old TV series on it, since the computer is in my sewing room and I watch it while ironing and sewing.

One of my daughter's friends had a new baby and I promised her a baby quilt.  She has a jungle theme going for her nursery, so I found a cute flannel print with jungle animals on it and have been piecing the quilt.  The top is together now, just need to sandwich it together with the backing and batting and tie it. 

Halloween is approaching and I'm sewing my little guy a pirate costume to wear.  I have the striped pants and the hat finished with just the jacket to go.  This is a priority project since the holiday is only a week away.

The cold weather has hit and I've been busy working on knitting the little guy some warm mittens.  I've made him a couple pairs now, a brown striped pair and this green pair with brown squirrels on them.  They turned out really cute.  They're a little big, so I thought I'd make one more pair a little smaller with a train engine on one, and the caboose on the other.  It's a good project for work, easy to pick up and put down as the case may be.

I have a swap project I'm working on that was due last week.  I accidentally left it at my daughter's on Friday night and spent a couple days looking for it before she mentioned it was there.  Hopefully I can get it back tonight and get it finished up and sent by Thursday.

I've been doing a lot of sewing, so I've also been doing a lot of Netflix watching.  Currently I'm hooked on "Lie to Me."  It's a pretty fascinating fictional TV series about deception experts who read a person's body language and facial expressions to determine whether they're telling the truth. 

~Jane

Catching Up

This hasn't been the most productive week for me.  I'm fighting a cold and right now the cold is winning.  Yesterday and today I stayed home from work.  For me that is unusual.  But I just didn't seem to have enough energy to even try going in.  Yesterday I spent most of the day watching a documentary, Edwardian Farm .  This follows another documentary I watched on a Victorian Farm from the same place.  Really well done and interesting.  While watching it, I drank tea and knit.  To show just how foggy my brain was though, I ripped a mitten out three times before it actually started to work out.  I managed to  get the laundry folded, the kitchen counters bleached, and baked a batch of cookies for my husband.  Then I crashed for the rest of the evening.  Today has been even worse.  I finished the documentary and the mitten and then holed up on the couch watching old CSI's and quilting on my quilt.  My nose is not cooperating and my head hurts.  Hopefully, I can go into work tomorrow.  I want to go over and work at my mother's house tomorrow night and my work ethic says if I can't go to work, I can't go anywhere else either.  So here's hoping I make it to work tomorrow and the end of this cold. 

~Jane

Vacation

I am your ultimate homebody.  I love being at home.  I also like visiting other places, but I have a tough time leaving when it's for more than a day trip.  I don't know exactly why that is.  My family is very used to this.  I will drag my feet about getting ready, leave my packing until the last minute, and then stay up late the night before and get everything done.  Before I can leave the house the next day, I have to check every heater, window, door, unplug everything, and then finally leave after making my husband double check everything.  Once I actually get in the car and we drive off, I am fine.  Once on the road, I am up for anything, but oh the struggle to get me out of the house.

Another thing about going on vacation is that I can't leave without some little sewing project, a knitting project, and a book.  Many times I never get a chance to even look at any of them, but they are my security blanket and I can't leave home without them.  This drives my husband nuts as they take up valuable cargo space!  I guess I want to be prepared if we have car problems and have to sit somewhere for a while.  This actually did happen to us once, so maybe that's where my adversion to not having a project to work on comes from. 

We were on vacation a number of years ago, when our car broke down in the middle of nowhere, in the middle of a bunch of mountains.  We managed to get to a little restaurant, but had to wait several hours, as they shared a phone line with another business and you could only use the phone when it was their allotted hours.  Then the tow truck had to drive 40 miles up the mountain to get us and drive us 40 miles back to town.  The little auto shop had to order a part so we had to wait until the next day to get our car fixed and back on our trip.  It was a very boring wait! 

We're going to be heading out for a five-day adventure soon.  I'll have all my favorite people with me:  husband, daughter, and grandson.  It can't help but be fun.  :)

~Jane

A Single Thread

If you've ever looked at my book lists for the years, you can tell that I read alot and I read quite a variety of books.  I have to say though that I am partial to books that include my hobbies, as in the Blossom Street books that center around a knitting store.  So I was happy to discover a new author to me, Marie Bostwick, who writes a series of books centering around a quilt store.  The first book in the quilt store series is A Single Thread.  It details how the main character comes to own a quilt store.  Along the way she also faces some health challenges.  And there is lots of drama with the secondary characters.  I really liked this book.  At one point I realized I was crying along with one of the characters.  I can tell you that I NEVER do that!  :)

Because I'm checking these out from the library, I didn't have the second one to read, so I skipped to the third.  It's proving very interesting also.  If you would like to read some good, clean novels in the vein of the Blossom Street books, give these a try.

~Jane

Saturday - Catching Up

This has been a productive week, although I never seem to get as much done as I want to.  Work has been slow, so I've had a chance to work on my Tasha Tudor counted cross-stitch.  I finished the gray goose this week.  One of my co-workers said there is a vodka by the name of Gray Goose and it sounded like I'd finished the bottle when I announced I had finally finished the gray goose.  Guys!

Work on my mom's estate has been slow through session.  I had some paperwork to file with the IRS that I was stressing over.  When I actually took the time to check what it was, it turned out to be a lot of nothing at the moment.  Just signing a form and saying there was no activity yet.  There won't be any reportable activity until we actually sell the house.  A lot of stress, a visit to the local IRS office, and an hour spent on a call to the IRS to figure all that out.  But the ladies at the local office and on the phone were very helpful, pleasant, and informative and I really appreciated their help.

I had my husband bring the bench for the weight machine down from the attic.  I am  getting closer to actually having to start exercising.  I want to try to figure out how to adapt my routine from the gym to the exercise equipment I have at home.  That will take a little bit of research.

I sewed the buttons on my new nightgown and the Little Guy's sweater.  He's coming to spend the night tonight, so I'll get a picture of him wearing it.  I found the perfect flannel print for a baby quilt I need to make for one of Elsie's friends.  I did some minor mending on items to sell.  I knit some on the snowflake fingerless gloves I started a while back.  I have all the yarn now to make myself a pair, but want to finish this pair first. 

I need to get some things done before the Little Guy comes over this afternoon so I should get busy.  I'm in the middle of ironing a bunch of small luncheon cloths for the Etsy shop.  So, if you need small tablecloths that are really nice for table centers, check out Elsie's Etsy shop over the next week to see the new additions.  She'll also be adding some new aprons.

~Jane

Life Cycles

With 50 years of living behind me, I find it interesting how your interests change over the years.  When I was a child, books and dolls were my primary interests.  My mother taught me to knit scarves and I had a spool knitter which I used to make yards and yards of cord.  Gradually I started sewing little dresses for my dolls.  I learned to cross-stitch and embroider.

When I was 10, my mother showed me how to use her little Singer featherweight sewing machine.  The garments I made for my dolls became more refined.  I learned to crochet doilies using fine hooks and thread.  I learned to needlepoint.  I began making miniature items, and making my own dolls.  I started studying old dolls and trying to recreate their garments.

Entering my teens, I started sewing my own clothes.  I acquired reproductions of old china head dolls and dressed them.  I developed an interest in Japan and created a Japanese doll house and dolls using ideas from the Rumer Godden book, Miss Happiness and Miss Flower.  By this time my needlework skills were pretty advanced, and I could sew just about anything I wanted.  My interest in old dolls was increasing.

For graduation, I received a large bisque-headed German doll.  This was my first introduction to actually owning a genuine antique.  She needed a lot of tender loving care, but sparked the collector in me.  Over the next few years, I acquired a small collection of antique dolls and studied the appropriate clothing for them.  I learned how to make my own porcelain dolls using purchased molds, bought a kiln, and made a small business of making and dressing small dolls. 

In my 20s, I became a mom and sewed most of my own and my daughter's clothes, with a little bit of knitting sweaters, hats, and mittens for her on the side.  I designed and sewed costumes for our local ballet company and studied the construction of tutus.  My focus on dolls shifted from all kinds of antique dolls to French fashion dolls, specifically from about the 1850s to 1890s, and small all-bisque dolls.  I purchased a couple of reproduction French fashions and started a lifetime project of creating wardrobes for them.  I discovered Tasha Tudor and A is for Annabelle.  I purchased a doll I could use for my Annabelle and added her wardrobe to the lifetime project list.  These interests continued unabated through the next decade.  Somewhere along the way I added in quilting.

Entering my 40s, I added decorative painting to my crafting interests and, for a while, the painting overshadowed the sewing and everything else.  Then, coinciding with a return to working full-time, came an all-encompassing passion in knitting socks.  I became reinterested in my dolls, and started sewing new garments for the French fashions and Annabelle. 

Now in my mid-50s, I have a multitude of wonderful hobbies to choose from at any given time.  I sew, knit, paint, quilt, cross-stitch and am dressing my dolls.  I've researched  and sewed the modern diapers for my little grandson.  I'm not sure I'll ever go back to making porcelain dolls.  The molds sit in a box under my bed and the kiln is in the garage.  I'm not sure I'll ever crochet the fine thread doilies again.  But I love knitting sweaters and socks and mittens, dressing my dolls, doing the odd painting project, counted cross-stitch, and both hand and machine sewing.  I'd like to work on my drawing if I get time or keep a nature journal.  The best part of all my hobbies is that I've managed to pass on the doing of them to my daughter and I am continually amazed at how her creative life is developing.  It is all just so much fun.

~Jane

Finally Feeling Better

I haven't been posting much because I've basically been out of commission for the past 10 days.  I managed to drag myself through Thanksgiving Day successfully and Elsie and I negotiated the holiday crowds on Black Friday, although we didn't get up too early, but did manage to get the camera we went out for.  I hate having her know what her present is, but her husband made the mistake of buying a camera last year that wasn't what she wanted and she took it back.  I didn't want that happening this year.  I wanted her input.  I had my husband on Thanksgiving Day going through the camera ads and comparing all the cameras on sale to Consumer Reports until he found what we both thought was the best combination of what she wanted and what we were willing to pay.  Ultimately, I know she wants a digital SLR camera, but Santa's pockets aren't that deep this year and she is perfectly fine with a smaller point-and-shoot.  I have to keep those adorable pictures of the Little Guy coming!

I was too sick to work over at my mom's last week.  I'll have to get over there some time this week.  We have been posting new aprons on Little Sprout Basics, so go there if you're looking for aprons.  If you have a specific color you're looking for - email with Elsie.  I have about 50 aprons I've yet to iron.  We might have one that will work.

View from my front window

Last week we had a nasty winter storm.  Of course, since I was sick I didn't get to enjoy much of it, but I discovered the Little Guy needs wool socks.  So I'm knitting a pair for him right now.  Aren't these cute?  I'm going to make him another pair of mittens also, although the ones from last year still fit.  Then, another pair of socks.  We all keep our houses pretty cool, so warm socks are a must.  Well, I'm off to make myself a cup of tea and knit on the Little Guy's socks.

~Jane

Craft Time

Despite the feeling that I am spending all my non-work hours working on my mom's stuff, which I am, I did manage to finish my knit market bag on Sunday.  It was a kit from www.knitpicks.com which, sadly, is sold out.  But it was fun to do and I started knitting the leftover yarn into a dish cloth, since its a nice linen/cotton yarn.

Then I got motivated tonight and tried a new diaper pattern my daughter wanted me to make for the little guy and I think it turned out pretty good for a first attempt.  It's supposed to fit trimmer than some of the others.  I guess we'll see when we try it on him tomorrow.  It was fun to try a different pattern, since all of his other diapers I sewed from a pattern I made up myself.  I have to say I think my homemade diapers have worked beautifully.  I did a lot of research and purchased the same fabrics the commercial diapers use.  I estimated I spent about $4-5 a diaper, compared to $16-17 for the commercial ones.  Since we needed a couple dozen of each size, it saved a lot of money and once I got the hang of them, they sewed up pretty fast.  Of course, before I could sew anything tonight it took me two hours to organize the sewing counter and find the snaps and snap pliers.

~Jane  

Life Unraveled

My mother passed away this spring after a seven-month battle with colon cancer.  Spending hours in hospital waiting rooms gave me lots of time to think about her life and my life and where it's at.  Don't get me wrong - I've had it pretty good up to this point.  I had good parents and a nice childhood.  I have a wonderful husband, daughter, son-in-law, and grandson.  I love my job.  I have friends.  But there are aspects of my life that just kind of happened and I've been wondering why I tolerate them.  I've decided that some of my life hasn't been lived very intentionally.  I've been content to go with the flow.

I love to knit.  I like to knit almost as much as I like to read.  I've been knitting long enough that I can knit almost anything I want to if I give it a little thought.  Recently I had the thought that life can be a lot like knitting.  Some times I jump into a project without a lot of thought.  I see a pattern I want to try or a neat yarn and there you go.  Sometimes I plan and plan, matching yarn to beads and buttons, comparing colors, and swatching to make sure everything is perfect.  Once in a while, despite my best intentions, a project just doesn't work out.  The size is wrong or the yarn is splitty or I didn't buy enough.  At that point, I start unraveling and begin again.

Lately I've been seeing there are some areas of my life that I want to start changing.  Like with my knitting, I'm going to start unraveling some of the less-than-perfect areas in my life and start remaking myself - one stitch at a time.