You might be a yarn freak if...

...your first priority in vacation planning is which projects to take with you. But come on, a two week road trip? The family can't demand my attention that entire time. Shut up. A girl can dream.

Anyway, I just ordered some yarn from KnitPicks to make a couple of Lucy bags on the road. I will also stick the supplies for a star afghan in the tote, it is my new always going project.

I finished all of the stitch markers for the craft fair, cut out a few of the needle cases to sew, and immediately got distracted. My excuse is I can't sew while the kids are in bed, the machine is too loud. So I'm making a couple dozen sets of marble magnets featuring, yes, yarn. I'll try to get a good picture of how cool these come out tomorrow when the glue fumes have cleared

Put down the beads already!

This is absolutely the last day I am making stitch markers for the craft fair. I mean it. Seriously. I have to put this stuff away so I can sew needle holders and make birch needles. Running out of time here! I thought last night was the very last, but I needed to pick up one small pack of 12mm jump rings to finish one more set of markers. Well, the craft store had some beads on sale, and now...



The star blanket crochet along project is getting to the final rounds, which are not as fun as the inner part, but they still go pretty quickly. This will probably get a few more rounds of blue after this white on I'm on now. I think. When it looks great or I am bored to death, it will be done.



Hat, this is a hat. A simple roll brim hat I made from the left over bib yarn. It reminded me of how I do enjoy the feel of cotton on bamboo needles. I may rethink my stance against the baby socks when my rosewood double pointed needles get here.

Progress, yay.

I finished the mutant bib. Yes, it certainly does look like some kind of halter top. Those triangles actually go at the neck though, so it only really looks bad in this picture. You buyin' that? It's only a drool catching device, no sleep lost over it here.



I am making a little hat with the rest of that yarn as my tv-watching, no brain involved project. I guess the baby could pull the hat over their face if the bib actually were too humiliating to be seen wearing.



Here is the star blanket for the crochet along. After this round I'm going back to white, and doing a bit of blue/white striping. Which will avoid the image of a star shaped fried egg on a blue plate special that invades my head every time I look at this, but will be a real pita when it comes time to weave in the ends. What are you gonna do. I'm not sure if the crazy helps or hurts me with some of these projects.

Two, count 'em TWO socks

I frogged the messed up sock back to where it was time to pick up around the heel, and managed to finish it. Can I just say that the Kitchener stitch is evil enough without trying it at one o'clock in the morning? It's nice that they are completed. We are in no hurry to make another pair anytime soon. Not everyone is cut out to be a sock person.



The Star blanket crochet along is going well, today I get to switch colors, whee! Sorry about the fuzzy picture, the camera was set for micro-closeups or something. I'm too lazy to reshoot.



Today I have to relist 3 sets of stitch markers on ebay, along with 7 new sets. I always feel a little sad when I relist, like the poor things weren't good enough for first string. This will be an interesting auction this week, since nobody seems to know exactly what is on these:



I think I will get all ambitious and make my ebay page a permanent link over there on the side. Today is just more star blanket, and maybe sewing the last two slings if I can get in the mood for it. Must also find a knitting project to start.

Let's talk about hooks

Why? It's my damn blog, and I want to talk about hooks. Go away if you don't like it.

Which kind do you prefer? I love the type on the left, I think that is a Bates. The one on the right is really hard for me to work with for some reason. I even like that they are aluminum, the one bamboo hook I have feels so light I can't keep my gauge right.

I am blaming my non-start of the eggplant hat/mitt set on the fact that it wants a G hook, and my G hook in the style I like is too small (4mm) and the larger G hook (4.25mm) is in the icky style I don't want to use. Now what?



Yeah, that was thrilling, wasn't it? Well, sock #2 is sitting here while I decide to either frog it all or try to get back to before picking up around the heel, because why? Because I am an idiot, and started the toe shaping when I should have been doing the gusset. Durrr. The knit bib that turned crochet still hasn't figured out exactly where it wants to go now, so it is also waiting.

The butterfly fabric is now a lovely butterfly tube sling. It was my first time sewing a knit fabric like that. Kind of fun. Kind of not fun.

The star blanket is coming along nicely, but I'm not ready to settle down on the couch with it just yet.

I don't want to talk about it

That whole craft contest involving Chauncey was just really, really traumatic. Let's just focus on the future now, shall we? Put all of that ugliness behind us. Yes.

I started my first every crochet along today. Yet another alarming sign of my increasing sociability. We're doing the star afghan. Here's mine as of this afternoon:



I ditched that other star blanket I had started, because I was doing it wrong. Also? The mint green color makes me a little sick to look at for long.

Sock #2 is almost to the heel, again just waiting for a few solid minutes in a row to work on that without interruption. Hah.

Still keeping up ye olde stitch marker factory, ten sets ending on ebay tomorrow. Go get them!

Don't even try to act surprised

I told you it was cute.



Now go away. I have some sewing to do. The beading is running a little bit behind. Please don't bring up the three small crochet projects that need doing by tomorrow night.

I said, shut up.

That wasn't supposed to happen

Honestly. I didn't mean to. Things just got out of hand.

Today when the husband got home from work, I left him and the two boys to play in the pool while the girlbaby and I went to Joann. I had a 50% off one item coupon, and they are having this big sale this weekend, and you know where this is going, don't you?

So all I wanted to do was see some knit cotton fabrics and maybe get one single cut with my one coupon and try making a sling out of it.

So I found this:



Which turned out to be on sale anyway, so I still had my coupon to use on this:



Enough! Let me get out of this place! Wait...30% off all jewelry making supplies? All of them? Maybe just a quick browse. Got some absolutely darling fish shaped beads, and some silver cross pendants. Now we're finished. Going home. Right now.

Then, well, the lines to check out were just really long you see. Really long and slow. Not to mention, lined with clearance bins with these big evil signs screaming ADDITIONAL HALF OFF MARKED PRICE! You have to look. You at least have to look. I found a pair of size 10 bamboo straights for $2. Don't even tell me you could have left without them. Your pants will immediately combust, liar.

There was a definitely no pink knit jersey fabric with an angel print that I'm absolutely not going to go over in the morning and not buy with tomorrow's coupon. No. That was all in my imagination. No need to go back and see it again. None at all.

Am I convincing you there? Because I'm not convincing me. Not even. *sigh*

Bless my little cotton sock

I finished the sock. Actually, it was finished a day or two ago, but the whole owl fiasco distracted me from posting about it. These are easy, and even though I'm still having hole at the gusset corner issues, I'll make the other one to go with it.



I started another bib out of sheer boredom, it was just a simple stockinette with a garter stitch border, and suddenly last night I decided I was done knitting it, bound off the last row, and started crocheting instead. I have no idea why or how this will turn out. Talk about living on the crafty edge.



The eggplant hat/mitts are pretty much the only thing sitting in the tote waiting to be started. I vow to not put any more projects in there until I do that.

Right after I do some cleaning in here.

I don't like birds

Ok, I hate birds. I don't hate ducks, because they are cute with the big fluffy butts and all, but all other birds, I really can't stand. Wait, penguins are ok too. Anyway. I recently took out my avian hostilities in a craft contest. Meet Chauncey. He's a macrame owl. Sort of. In a way that would probably bring the inventor of macrame back from the dead to kick my ass.



Today I made some more stitch markers. These are the perfect project for those days when you get a couple of hours to yourself - five seconds at a time. I even managed to get them on ebay again. That's three weeks in a row of having my act together. Yay me.




Tomorrow is Project Clean the Pit. If you don't hear from me by Thursday, send in emergency help - maybe those ladies from How Clean is Your House?

Did you know this blog has a grand scheme in the works? Being moved to my permanent URL and all kinds of fun things? Well, now you do. I'd tell you more, but, well, you know.

No really, she needs them

More slings. A baby can't go around in the same sling day after day, now can she?

So today I made her this one, to honor her royal nature:



I made this one because the fabric is so cute I could just scream. Yes, I am a freak. Get over it.



Back to knitting and crocheting now. Honest.

It's called the Craft Pit for a reason

So, I'm very fortunate to have this entire room for my crafty endeavors. I have storage, workspace, and most importantly, a place safe from little curious hands. I call it the Craft Pit.

Well, during the whole pregnancy and postpartum thing, the Pit got a little...cluttered. In a scary, scary way. I'm slowly recovering it to the beauty and efficiency it previously had.

This morning I was making some stitch markers, because I'm trying this new thing, you see. It's called - getting things done ahead of time. Amazing, really. Putting together a few sets a day and I have an inventory to work with, rather than staying up until 2 am twisting wires and trying to list auctions.

Well, an enameled handbag charm tried to make a break for it as I was putting it on the eyepin. Do you know how well a little enameled charm can hide in a cluttered room? Very, very well. I crawled, I dug, I poked, finally found the thing.

New goals for the upcoming week, work on clearing out the Craft Pit a bit each day, enough to be able to show off some pictures of it next weekend.

Oh, the baby socks, yeah, I'm ready to shape the toe on the first one. I find things like heel turning and toe shaping are best done when the children are in bed, since they involve using all of what remains in my brain power regarding counting and such.

An entry in a crafty blog looks nekkid with no picture, so here is the wee hippy girl in her new sling yesterday at the park. Yes, she is wearing a tiedyed dress. She is also a little mad that I took her paci out for this photo.

Scraptastic, or craptastic?

A little bird told me a certain favorite 6 year old girl of mine would love the colors I used for the sling yesterday. So I took the bit of fabric left over and attempted to design a bag. Considering how infrequently I work with fleece, and the fact that I made this up pretty much while it was being sewn, it came out ok. I think. It's ok if you don't agree. I do not live for your approval. I live for caffeine.



I did work on the sock a bit last night, but Her Royal Babyness did not wish to go to bed until 10 pm, so I didn't finish it. I turned the heel and started the gusset. It doesn't suck.



Thanks to a crafty and resourceful friend, I learned that you can use these wipes containers to hold your yarn skeins. You could also order some specifically for doing this, but who wants to spend good yarn money on a container? Yeah, nobody. Now the star blankie is a much more portable project. My twisty little brain is already working on how to decorate the container and perhaps incorporate some kind of hook/needle holder to the outside of it...

I got a bit distracted

Never did get around to any knitting or beading today. Instead, I decided my little girl couldn't possibly be seen in public in a bland old sling, and made her a lovely tube style sling out of this fabric:



She's my daughter, she'll just have to get used to letting her hippie freak flag fly, right?

I'll finish those baby socks tonight, really. Seriously. For sure. Yes indeedy.

That wasn't so bad

I finished the basket weave bib. It is cute, and I definitely recommend doing the slip stitching over the ties to make them stronger. I'd like to do a couple more, maybe in lavender and white.



Cast on those dreaded baby socks last night, so far so good. In a few rows I will be at the heel, and that is where things tend to fall apart for me in the sock world. So we'll just see.

Star blanket has a few more rounds on it. So just look at the previous picture of it, and imagine it a little bigger. I need to decide on the other colors pretty soon, probably white and...? I don't know.

For some reason the eggplant set is intimidating me, I really need to at least start on that to get past the inertia factor. I think it's the fact I just noticed reverse single crochet was involved at some point. I have a complete and irrational hatred of that stitch.

It was an accident, I swear

How does a yarn tote become full of WIPs? This is how.

I started my basket weave baby bib, just like I promised. See?



Then it got late, my arm was tired and sore from having blood drawn earlier that day, and the next best thing to knitting is playing in your stash, right? I decided to dig through my big bag of partial skeins, knowing I had a couple of 1/2 skeins of Cotton Tots to try out these baby socks. I have sworn off socks, but everyone promises they are so easy, and they are pretty cute. So into the bag goes the Cotton Tots and sock pattern.

While digging, I came across the very beginning of another star blankie I had done while my sister was visiting. Rounds 2 & 3 on that thing can be confusing, so I did a crochet along with her to get her started. Well, those blankets are addicting. So into the bag went the new star blanket.



Also in the bag are the balls of yarn for my eggplant hat/mittens set, and a couple of balls of variegated cotton for some bibs that my brain is writing the patterns for while I sleep.

We'll not even discuss the stitch marker mishap, wherein my bead board, fully loaded, went flying this morning. I have a lot of sorting out to do there.

It's good to have goals

It's even better, to meet all of them. Yay me. The stitch markers are listed, this doll sized star blankie is in the mail, and you already saw the bib.



Today I start working on a little hat and mitten set that look like eggplants from my Too Cute Crochet book, and a basket weave bib (knit).

The stash of chunky yarn I bought a couple of months ago is making noises about turning into an afghan, but it is so hot outside I absolutely cannot stand the thought of that right now.

Almost there

Stitch markers are completed. They won't be listed on ebay until tomorrow, but they have been photographed and packaged, descriptions written and ready to upload.

A sneak preview of some of the new designs this week:





I think I have decided my next project, but I'll leave that for tomorrow. Now I must go finish that blankie!

One down

Finished the little bib. It's pretty cute, I might make a couple more in some nice variegateds. There is one other pattern I'm trying first.



The stitch markers are on their posts, just need to be clipped and attached to the rings. I stabbed myself in the thumb working on them yesterday, making all of this work just very painful. I suffer for you people. I do.

One more row and I think the doll blanket will be good to go. I can do that tonight.

That just leaves looking for a new project. Yay progress!

All I really need

Is another few hours in each day. Wouldn't that be nice? Of course, they'd have to be hours where the kids are in bed and the husband is at work in order for them to be of any use at all.

I am committing to these goals right now, in the blog, where all can see. By Monday I will have:

• finished this doll star blanket and shipped it off to the recipient
• finished this little cotton bib I am working on
• finished and listed one dozen sets of stitch markers
• dug through my pattern books/websites and found a project to be excited about

Ok then. Here I go.