Knitting, knitting, and more knitting

I've been working on some new ornaments. Signed up for my first fair. And found a game that I just had to buy because the character was a knit sackboy! I know that sounds kinda strange, but it really is fun and I'm not much of a gamer.

The ornaments, so far as just little sweaters, snowflakes and wreaths. Working on some stockings and mittens as well. Got lots of new things done and working on, but wanting to do more. With the fair coming up, not sure how much to list and how much to wait till after the fair to list. It's all just new to me. I'm excited and now realizing that I have to figure out the best way to showcase my work as well as making sure I have enough to sell! Wish me luck! I leave you with a pic of some ornaments. Christmas is coming!

Mailing Day

So I've got a few packages to go out today. A blanket for a new baby.

A shawl for my mom.

And some fruits for a few little girls.

Crazy Life

It's been a crazy few weeks. Had 3 visitors, 1 new member of the family, a computer crash, a few more orders, 1 family member hospitalized, and just not much spare time.

The 3 visitors were nice, well actually 4 since one was a couple. My hubby's mom came to visit for a few days. We had fun. Hung out a bit, knitted, shopped, and played with the kids. As well as talked with the adults. She also brought me my birthday present, a set of circular interchangable knitting needles, which I so love.

Then my hubby's cousin and his very preggo wife came for a visit. It was nice listening to their excitement at the new little girls pending arrival. And the last visitor was another of my hubby's cousins who is a new military spouse. Her husband is a Marine stationed out here and so she came out to start scouting housing since he is currently deployed. Played a little guitar hero with her and hung out with the kids.

Our newest family member is named Oli. He's a cute, curious little tabby kitten. We've been talking about getting a new kitten for our cat to play with. We have a 4.5 year old black siamese mix who is just a lover and more dog than cat. He's not been too sure of little Oli who gets into everything and just isn't going away. They're slowly becoming friends however which is interesting to see. We hope they do become great friends. Our Flip has been more playful since Oli came along, and it'd be nice if they could burn off that energy together.

The computer crash was mine, of course. Using the laptop as a temporary fix. It probably just needs a hard drive. But with the car still in pieces in the garage, the pc gets to wait. The laptop is a nice little machine, however it isn't my norm so not used to the keyboard and mouse.

The orders were for more berry purses, a strawberry and blueberry along with some little wallets/coin purses that a few dollars can be slipped in with initials. One strawberry is crocheted, the rest still to be done. When I finally can stock the shop again with berry's I'm sure they won't last! I've got an order for a baby blanket that I've just about finished as well.

And the hospital, my mom has been having issues with her gut. She went in in January for emergency surgery. 90% of her colon gone, the issues were supposed to be gone as well. It was a long recovery process and she still wasn't all the way back to par. Then this past Monday she went back into the hospital for more surgery. Seems she didn't heal quite right and the small intestines had decided they wanted to twist up on her. Some adhesions removed and the twists untwisted, she's once again working on the recovery. Started a comfort shawl for her with my new circular needles. Hoping to have it done this week. We will see though, with the new kitten, it's been difficult to pull out my yarn.

It was treatment no. 7 this weekend and that seemed to go pretty well. Will have to blog about that another time. Oli is coming to play!

Little Thiefs

I knitted a new hat this weekend. Hadn't knit much in awhile so my hands were a bit sore Saturday night when I started it. But finishing it Sunday morning went quickly. Thought it turned out really neat... as did my son. The little thief made off with my new hat!

It's sized for an adults head. My hubby just says he'll grow into it. It makes a great hat to play peek-boo with, one of his favorite games. "Peek-boo" was one of his first phrases and he loves to say it. Cute lil drawl to it.

Anyhow, made sure to keep notes on how I knit the hat so that I can make another. It has sideways chevrons knit into it. You can sorta see them in the pics.

Oh well, my little thief now has 3 hats of his own. One more than his sister, who has purses as well as sweaters.

Time for hats

So I pulled out what I've made and took some new pics yesterday. Gonna start listing out the hats I have. Was fun to look back through them. Makes me want to pick up my knitting needles and figure out some more fun hats! Here's a sneak peak of what's to come.

Yes that is a hat with hearts on my sons head, but he really wanted his pic taken and I'd already done the blue toned hat!

Oh and one hat is crocheted, but whatcha gonna do when you enjoy both forms? Share them both!

How do you stash?

A friend of mine posted about her starting to crochet and subsequent purchase of yarn. Had to harrass her about the addiction that comes with yarn! I've read a few other blurbs on the web (sorry I don't remember the urls) and I figured I could share my stashes.

Here's the little bits. Below are projects working on currently, to the side are projects to be worked on. The navy bag has a full sized blanket in it that I need to buy more yarn to finish. The mesh bag squares to embroider for a quilt for my son. The sweater, needs to have a hole fixed in it (but since it's too warm to wear, it'll wait a bit more). The basket, bits of yarn that I'd like to work with soon.

Recently we reorganized our house. My computer is now in the living room and each child has their own room. That also means all my crafts are in the living room. My hubby is thinking of reorganizing again and moving his computer to the living room. He'd prefer my yarn and fabrics, etc. in the garage.

I don't see that happening! We have a dresser in the garage that we're going to paint. It's a bright fire engine red currently and we were going to use it for our daughter. Now he'd like to maker her a dresser. Which means I'll get the other for my yarn! Will still leave some stuff in tubs, but not quite so many.

My hubby has told me, I'm almost positive in jest, that if I buy more yarn and it does not fit in said tubs... he'll burn it! Of course, he also said someday when we buy a house and I have my own office, I'd be happy with wall to wall shelves of yarn (color coordinated is all that I ask) and a place for my computer a tv and my rocking chair. That part made me feel a bit old, but I'll take the rest!

As you can see, I have a few other places to put yarn :) It is a sad, sad addiction that I would not trade. Maybe add to if I start to get more comfortable sewing. But for now that stays with stuff for the family. There are so many other shops that sell great items that I don't have to make them all myself!

Simply Marvelous

I did manage to finish my daughters sweater awhile back. The one where I fell asleep at the needles. Also managed to teach myself how to knit left handed or Continental if you prefer. Man, I shoulda just had my MIL show me how she knit instead of trying the righty way! Truley is easier to not throw the yarn.

Anywho, just recently took pics of it to share. She's a ham, but she does love it. Will work great as the weather starts to cool a bit in a few months. Gonna start to work on my son's sweater as well so I can have it finished for this year too. He's a moose! As long as it's the same size as hers, it should fit him :)

This, of course, will be done while working on countless other projects (I can think of at least 5-6 that have been started) and adding new items to sell as well. Gotta keep busy right?

Promised Pictures

Just wanted to post the pics I'd been talking about! My flowers... first rug...

and my daughter's sweater so far. You can sorta see in the pic where I fell asleep at the needle. It's a garter stitch sweater and I managed to put in 2 rows of stockinette without even noticing! So instead of pulling them out, I went with it and really do enjoy the different rows in it. Adds a bit of texture to it. I've been playing with the idea of veering completely off the pattern to finish it. We'll see how bold I am when that time comes! For now, I do like the way it is turning out.

What I do best

So I decided I'll come back to the dolls/pillows/voodoo stuff later. Save it for Mother's Day after all. That'll give me some time to figure out the best way to do it all. And go back to what I do best. I made my mom two things, one from a simple pattern I found online. I've always liked the idea of a mobeius scarf, and wanted to see how hard they really were to execute without a seam. It was tricky at first, like it says, but really not bad after the first round or two.

Here it is after getting the mobility back in the needles! Kinda fun to go round and round then.

And the finished mobieus scarf. I'll have to work on my color changes next time or find some different stitches that work up the same, front to back. But I still like the way it turned out. Added a bit of faux fur for texture and fun factor.

After finishing that, I thought it'd be nice to send some flowers as well. Being as it was after Christmas, when most people have no money, plus we'd just bought some new couches. Something we were really needing, the new ones are wonderful. My hubby picked them out, after we'd looked at a few together awhile back. He did pretty good with them too! The only thing I laughed at was he didn't want green as one of the color choices, and he came back with olive recliners! Anyhow, figured flowers would be easy to make up and a good use of odd yarns. Made up half a dozen, put on some stems, and then made a pot, which I then stuffed to keep everything more in place. Here's a pic of that as well. I have to mail them out to my mom now. I think she'll really like them. Be a nice reminder that we're thinking about her even if we can't be with her now.