Ahhh Friday....

Kind of a miscellaneous week. A little bit of walking, a little bit of knitting, a little bit of skate boarding and making plans for the summer.

Last week after taking stock of the stash I started on a stashbusting project or two:



A felted bag made from leftovers of my handspun. It needs a strap. That will just have to wait.



A hat that was going to be a bag. The bling is not a part of the hat but I couldn't resist taking a picture with them still on it. The "jewels" are stitch markers. Maybe I can start a new trend?



I finally started the heel on my socks.

I know it does look like it but I really, really have.



Since temperatures are rising I finished the last square I will knit for a while on my Crazy Blanket. 67 squares so far. So I got quite a bit done. The photo below shows where I was on May 12th.



Remember my Iris Dyeing?



I used some of the iris dye liquor to overdye some onion skin yarn. That the bit on the left that's the lovely olive green. The stuff on the right was only iris liquor. The one in the middle was sort only iris dye liquor. It was meant to be only irises. It's a toned down color because the pink ties I used were dyed and it leached into the iris dye bath. I just harvested the last of my irises and out them in the freezer. There is something about freezing the flowers that helps bring out more of a blue. I'll let you y'all know.

The original plan today was to go harvest some food from a local farm but the kids, one of them balked. When they realized that we were going to actaully get out an do things this summer discussions ensued. We have 13.5 waking ours in the summer maybe more we need to take advantage of it. This does not mean screen time. It mean get out of the house and do stuff!


So on our list to do this summer is Letterboxing. We now have most of the supplies gathered. We still need some log books. Soon, very soon. First I need a beer.


Yes that is bottled beer from Free State Beer! Yum!

Toad

In the jungle of our backyard I found a toad:



The boy kid was able to catch it:

Taking Stock of the Stash

Off to the left you can't see some of the handspun yarn very well I have a few skeins and small bits that need to find a project. You can see it a better better in the photo below.




Sad things is after sorting it all out I only have ideas for about half of the yarn and fiber. I have a small to med-bag of yarn leftovers. Some of it I could make into something but some of it I like to keep around just in case for sweater repair. The left over sock yarn might go in blanket but might not. I can't decide. Maybe a market bag?

I inherited the acrylic stash from a friend thinking I would make some toy veggies but I'm not in the mood. I'm tempted to use in a ripple blanket but then I would need more yarn. I'm not sure I want to start another blanket project.

I'm really tempted to pass the misc stuff on to someone who would enjoy stitching it up into something fun. Because I do have about 3 shawls I'm working on, a crazy blanket, socks, and some yarn I need to finish spinning.

I need to make room for about 3 pounds of fiber to spin up yarn for a sweater. I don't need all the fiber for the sweater but I want plenty for practice. I need to make room to start the Central Park Hoodie. I'm dying to get some of the new felici sock colors.



It has to fit in my fiber dresser. So some yarn has got to go....

Knitting and Crochet Blog Week, Day 5

Where do you like to indulge in your craft?

My living room is my studio. Sometimes it looks kind of like this or it did when we still had the couch in there and when the stash was over flowing.





Now it looks a little more like this if I keep things more orderly.



My glider is the chair you will find me in most often knitting or crocheting while listening to a good audiobook.



Sometimes I like to spin next to the window. All my yarn and fiber stash is stored in the dresser. I have been busy washing up the sweaters to get put away for next winter.

I do love to knit in public. I yarn when I'm at the skate park and sometime I bring my wheel along. I especially like hang out with my fiber friends on Saturdays and on Tuesdays.

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Knitting and Crochet Blog Week, Day 4

A New Skill

I really want to learn to weave.



Where do I find the time? When I also...

Garden


Spin



Knit


Crochet


Dye


Cook and Eat


Spend time My Husband


and take care of the zombies Kids.


and sometimes I just need to chill with a glass of wine!


Help!

knitcroblo4

Knitting and Crochet Blog Week, Day 3

Crafter I admire?

I really enjoy Lucy from Attic24 blog. She uses such beautiful colors in all her projects. She was the one who inspired my flock of birdie bookmarks with her Birdie Decoration pattern.



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Knitting and Crochet Blog Week, Day 2

What do I aspire to do? Good question.

Honestly that's hard to say. I want to learn it all yet at the same time I knit and crochet for pleasure. So I'm torn. My next big project will be my first sewn knit sweater with cables because I really would liked a cabled sweater. The pattern I'm itching to do is the ubiquitous Central Park Hoodie but without the hood.

I'm also interested in a colorwork sweater. That could be my first colorwork yoke sweater. I also want to spin all the yarn for sweater. I'd also like to do more lace yarn work like tackle an EZ pi shawl.

I'd like to write up some some patterns but writing patterns make my head hurt. Remember I like knitting to be fun.

So what do I do? I'll go spin:



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Knitting and Crochet Blog Week, Day 1

Since I have been at a loss for something to say. Since a local knitter shared on her blog about the Knit and Crochet Week. I thought I would participate too.

How and when did you begin knitting/crocheting?

I learned to crochet when I was 10 years old or maybe younger. I have always known how to double and single crochet. For some reason I never did anything with it as a child or young adult, not even a granny square. Then in 2001 I brushed up on my skills again and just had a blast with my hook.

I fell in love with doilies:



And Amigurumi:


I kind of miss these guys. Then I learned to sort of spin then got sidetracked with knitting. I made this:


Was it a skill passed down through generations of your family, or something you learned from Knitting For Dummies?

My dad crochets and my mom did do lots of crafts. I brought Mom back in to the knitting fold. She's kind of a crazy sock lady although she will deny it now that she is more into sweaters. I don't know who taught me how to crochet but it had to have been my Mom or Dad. I had to relearn the basic for crochet and how to read a pattern but I fumbled through.

I really like to learn from videos so NexStitch crochet videos were my friend when I was learning to knit it was KnittingHelp.com.

What or who made you pick up the needles/hook for the first time? Was it the celebrity knitting ‘trend’ or your great aunt Hilda?
I had been looking for a hobbies that I could make some functional and beautiful things and some times some fun things. The fact that it's popular was kind of bonus. Not so much that I wanted to join the crowd but that there are so many cool things for me to make I will never be bored again. (The being bored thing is not entirely true though. I still get bored but I really shouldn't because there are so many cool things to make)

knitcroblo1

Ubiquitous Kitty Post

The boy kid has been volunteering at the animal shelter for some time. We finally found a kitty we all liked and adopted her. The shelter gave her the name of Candy and she is pretty sweet.







She is settling quite quickly and likes to sit in my lap when I'm yarning and doesn't mess with the yarn too much.

The Boy Kids New Doo

He was singing a song while I was taking pics. I just love how this photo turned out.

What's up

This is the busiest fall on record for our family. Lots of activities and learning fun. I'm full!

Both kids are volunteering at the animal shelter. It's more Corbin's thing than Jade's so far. I'm really impressed with the initiative the kids are taking with it.

Jade is taking an acting class and really enjoying it.

We are participating in a Science Club with other homeschoolers. That's been fun for me too learning about things along with the kids.

I'm helping with a Fiber Arts Club for homeschoolers as well.

Lots of skatepark time. Corbin can almost jump stairs!

Role playing games at our house.

We are trying to do at least one fun family thing a month, keep up with household projects and still have some down time.

Is anyone else exhausted just reading this list? I am!

Dear Entropy,

Would you please play somewhere else today?



I have work to do. Is it obvious?



I'd rather to more fun things too.



Actually could you just take an extended vacation?



I would like to be clutter free and clean for the holidays.

Thanks!

Remember when...

My dishwasher died? We lived without one for over a year. We broke down a few weeks ago and bought one. The last few weeks have been torture waiting for it to get delivered and installed. Why did I do or not do dishes by hand for over a year w/o out too much complaint?

So here is our wonderful new dishwasher.

Yet, I wonder if it's really worth the cost. I truly doubt it will help me keep up with the dishes. Unless somehow this dishwasher comes with magical properties so the dishes literally jump into the washer when dirty and out when clean. Now, that would be a dishwasher!

If you are curious we bought the SHE4AM1 model from Sears on sale for about $500 dollars. We've used it twice and it's cleaning the dishes pretty dang well. The only draw back I can see is the use of controls. I think this is the same quality in materials as the higher end Bosch but to save money that skimp on the electronics. So there's lots of button pushing manipulations to make some things happen. So for me there will be a learning curve to figure out how to use the dang thing. The wash cycle is long. I believe that normal for many new dishwashers. It's quieter than our old dishwasher but not quite as quiet as I expected.

The fine print:
The photos in the blog post have been cropped to hide this blogger's messy kitchen.

Brrr!

I have yet to turn on the heat. I know a but crazy.  I try to wait as long as possible to save money and do my part to reduce greenhouse gases.  We keep the heat pretty low all winter long too so the longer we wait the warmer 65 deg F feels.  I'm also inspired by the Yarn Harlot who has Furnace Wars each year with her family. 

But dang I'm cold. It's currently 58 deg F in the house. I'm wearing a hat, scarf, sweater, fingerless mitts and warm wooly slippers. If I was moving around and doing some housework, ha!, I might be warmer but I'm not. Now my nose feels cold and the key board is sucking the heat out of my fingers. 

It's less than 60 deg F in the house.  Why does it seem so cold? If this were spring we would have the windows open and enjoying a lovely day.  It may be warmer outside. Let me go check. Our out door thermometer reads 50 deg F and the newspaper says it's 41 deg F. So no it is warmer in the house. I think I'l go make tea.  I'm going to hold out a bit longer, atleast until halloween. I can do it. I can but I need some long underwear.

The things kids say.....

My son loves to tell jokes. He wants to be able to tell his own jokes but often fails. Sometimes he can manage a great play on words. He manage such a feet when we were camping last weekend.

He went down a few camp sites and introduced himself and was invited to check out their horses. He came running back a bit later to have some breakfast and was telling us about the horses and how he got to pet them or as he said "I got to pet them, the horses, not the people because that would be weird."

I've been giggling about it ever since but maybe I'm easily amused.

Rennasiance Festival

I'm not having much luck with my fibery photos. I do have several to share from our Renaissance Festival Fun.

The Duel:


Very cute yes!




Sir Marcus the Victor

Archery Fun:





Sillieness:






Fighting in the Barbarian Pit:




Sheep: