We have a winner!

Contrary to the quality of this picture, Tyler has declared this scarf to be "Really nice." From him, I'm taking that as high praise indeed. He's pretty excited that he'll get to go to the Harry Potter Party as Harry Potter, but he did also ask me if I'd use one of my pillowcases and cut a hole for his head so he could dress up as Dobby the House Elf. I swear. If this boy had his way, this party would have more outfit changes than a Carrie Underwood concert. I also think it's hilarious (and kinda cool) that he's so creative and believes that his mom can make anything!

An Ode to Granny's Everywhere...

I have a particular obsession with Grannys....Granny Squares that is. I think they are so charming and, well....just happy. I love colorful granny squares, star/flower/hexi granny squares, simple granny squares. ALL granny squares really. After I took down my Christmas tree and was deciding what blankets to put up on my wall hanger, I figured there was no better time than the present to display my Grannys. Don't they just put a smile on your face? So cheery!

In other yarny news, I thought I would show off another of my other handmade Christmas presents. I made this little guy for my little guy:

As a side benefit, I also submitted it for a Nerd Wars project.

Sadly, Nerd Wars Tournament 3 has ended and I have to wait a whole month for Tournament 4 to start. I know....What will I do with my time? Well, I have a few ideas on that and will keep you posted on what I end up doing for fun until Feb 1st when I can resume my Nerd Wars obsession. Oh! And one more Nerd Wars project I completed (for my very own selfish self) is this scarf.
I swear, any little bright spot on these gray days is appreciated!

Holiday Stress

I had an epiphany about Holiday stress as I was walking into a Starbucks for a little knitting meetup with my family on Christmas Eve.

Somehow, the holidays always seem to be stressful. List makers make lists, shoppers flock to the shops, bakers cover their counters with cookies, decorators decorate the heck out of their spaces and crafters work their wee little knuckles to the bone. People get short tempered and intensly focused which leads to holiday tensions in parking lots, shopping centers, etc.

For the past several years I have tried to do more handcrafting for Christmas gifts, which is its own kind of stress. It's the stress of wondering "Will I finish all this in time?!?" "Will they like it?" "If they don't like it, how can I ask for it back without seeming rude?" and so on. HOWEVER (and here's my epiphany) Crafting stress is the kind of stressing out that happens while you're in your pajamas at home on your couch watching TV show marathons or listening to music of your choice. It is NOT the fighting traffic, standing in lines filled with cranky people and listening to the same piped in holiday music that every store seems to play, but with a 1-2 song delay ensuring that you hear the exact same song at least 3 times in 3 different stores kinda stress. I would far prefer the Holiday Stress of a Crafter to the Holiday Stress of a non-crafter.

Here's a picture of one of the fun things I crafted for the holidays.

He was for my dad who we like to tease about his sneaky ninja-like qualities.

Thanksgiving recap

I had a fantastic Thanksgiving and looking through the pictures deciding what to post has me drooling over the food and remembering the fabulous people all over again.

Here's what my plate looked like: Basically, the perfect (to me) Thanksgiving meal...Homemade cranberry sauce, dark turkey meat, mashed potatoes with my mom's gravy, green beans, yams with brown sugar and homemade bread rolls. Simply fabulous! Although I wasn't able to finish all this food, I still managed to make room for Apple Pie and Pumpkin Pie. I know gluttony is one of the seven deadly sins, but on Thanksgiving I really didn't care.

There was also music:This is another of my favorite things. Listening to my dad and uncles play their guitars and sing all the songs I grew up listening to. Johnny Cash, Marty Robbins, Kris Kristopherson and many campfire songs feature heavily in the playlist. Mmmmm....Perfection!

There's also been a little bit of knitting. This is the project that I've been working on for a few days as an in between project after finishing my projects for Round 2 of Nerd Wars and waiting for the start of Round 3:

I also bought a new Camera (please note the capital "C"...This is a serious.business Camera...vastly different from my poor little point and shoot.) So far I've been enjoying it and look forward to learning more about composition, aperture and all those other foreign words that photographers bandy about like it's nothin'.

Naughty Blogger...

I feel like I'm constantly posting apologies for not posting....actually, not even constantly, because then I'd still be posting and wouldn't have to apologize for not posting....but you get the idea. And I was doing so good for a while there. I kinda fell off the blogging wagon. Actually, I was pushed. I was pushed by guilt.

For a really long time (for me) I didn't buy new yarn. Then I went on vacation and bought two lovely skeins of yarn whilst visiting my grandma in Coeur d'Alene, Idaho. I rationalized that yarn as "not stash--Souveniers!" But then I bought some yarn to make a Christmas present and rationalized it as "not stash--Prezzies!" Not too long after that, I placed an order online with Jessie because if you order $50 you get free shipping and since I was splitting an order with someone else, it was saving a ton of money so I rationalized as "not stash--Economizing!"...at that point I realized I had ruined my Stashy Sunday idea. And it's difficult to write Stashy Sunday posts and ignore the pile of newly purchased yarn sitting right next to your desk. Soooo I just didn't post. See how that works?
But now that I've made my full (ok...partial) confession, I feel like I can get back to posting with a clear conscience.

I actually have been doing a great job of knitting from the stash, even if I haven't done as great a job at not buying new stash. I've been madly knitting away for Nerd Wars, which is just about the funnest thing I've ever done. I swear, I've laughed so hard at some of the things other people have posted and am making a great dent in finally doing a lot of the projects I've wanted to do for a long time. I learned to crochet and I've learned a LOT about many different things I would never have known about without Nerd Wars.

Here's a picture of one thing that I've wanted to make for forever but didn't know how to crochet and so put it in the "Someday" list. He's tucked into a potted plant at work and makes me smile every time I see him!

I also made Kim's cat a costume. Meet Father Riley:

Awwww. They're friends!

I started Nerd Wars this weekend and the first challenge I chose to tackle was the Colortastic challenge. Basically, any project with two or more colored yarns. I've been longing to learn to crochet for a while simply so I could make granny squares. I find them to be sooooo charming and fabulous! So, I decided this challenge was the perfect opportunity to give it a go. I started on Saturday and it's growing so fast! I'm loving the colors--as Jessie says, "It's a party!"

Since these are totally Jessie's colors, it makes perfect sense that she should make one too! I'm a little sad that hers is almost as big as mine and I started mine waaaay before her, but I'm learning to live with it. (It's not a race, but I'm totally losing!)

The other great thing is that this is a Stashy Sunday project since i've had this yarn just waiting for a prefect project. I think a granny square is just right!

Stashy Sunday-The Ecstatic and delayed

I spun (and plied!!) my own yarn! I used a drop spindle and some lovely merino wool to make a wee tiny bit of yarn.

I am positively ecstatic at how it turned out. It's not perfect by any stretch of the imagination, but it's still awesome. Now, to decide what to make with it! The main reason this turned out so little was because my fiber had a run in with the dog on Saturday. My mom was teasing me at dinner last night that since I had gotten the fiber at a spinning class, I could call my spinning teacher (the lovely Micheline at The Knit Addiction) and say that the dog ate my homework. I'm still going to try using the rest of the molested fiber, but I wanted to have it separate from the unmolested fiber yarn.

I also finished one of my other Stashy Projects. If you haven't seen the show "Phineas and Ferb" this will mean nothing to you. If you have: "Where's Perry?!?" Mancub loves the show, and especially Perry the Platypus who has a double life as Agent P. Since he also loves hotwater bottles to sleep with over the winter, I made him this:

He is, quite possibly, the cutest little hot water bottle cover EVER! I love how his little feet splay out all over and I used fuzzy black buttons for his eyes. What 6 year old boy wouldn't want to cuddle up to Perry?

I also made some progress on my Harry Potter Cowl...I'm over half way done!

ETA Ravelry link to Perry the Platypus Hot Water Bottle Pattern that I used. If you are a knitter, crocheter, spinner or weaver and don't have Ravelry, sign up for the free account right away and you'll never look back. So, here's the pattern link.

Stashy Sunday--delayed

Technically my Stashy Challenge has been successful this week since I haven't purchased any new yarn; however, I've also not gotten a lot done on my Stashy Projects. I did a wee bit of knitting on my sweater, no knitting at all on my Tilting TARDIS Cowl, a little bit of knitting on my Where's Perry Project. I have finished seaming three of the four adorable platypus feet:

So now all I need to do is finish the fourth foot, seam the who thing together. I also count it as a semi-Stashy thing because I helped Jessica reduce the size of her stash by using this perfect orange yarn from her bin.

The other Stashy (yarn) project I worked on was a cowl using two yarns I've had in my stash for almost a year. The pattern was written by Jessica and is really fun. Apparently, unbeknownst to me, I am not a Gryffindor (as everyone wants to be) but rather a Ravenclaw, since blue and grey are much more my style than maroon and gold (shhh...don't tell my high school alma mater). Do you see the cool "Sammy" and "Dean" stitch markers? Supernatural is going to be back on TV soon!

Finally, the thing that has been eating up most of my crafty time is a quilt. I have been inspired (goaded?) into entering a quilt into the BIG Fresno Fair and the deadline for completion is September 16th...Yeah...the September the 16th that is 10 short days away. So I have been stitching like a madwoman to get the binding put on in time. No pictures, I don't want to jinx it!

Stashy Sunday--3 week mark!

This week I worked (and worked and worked....) on 2 projects. It's very strange for me to be so monogamous with my knitting projects--usually I just from one to another then another. But now this week! This week I was so enamored with the 2 I was working on that I stuck with them. This week's stashy success all started when PG&E decided they needed to change a power pole at my work. They did this last Friday and because of it, our power at the office was down pretty much all day. I could go into all the details, but suffice it to say that my computer was down, which left me with few options as to how to be productive. I decided to clean my desk and I found a started project that had been languishing(because I forgot all about it!). I fell back in love with the project and the yarn so have been knitting away on it this week. Because my gauge has changed a little bit since I last knit on this, I can see where I picked it back up this week. I've made about 5 inches of progess!! One day soon, this will be a finished sweater!

The other project I worked on is a secret one, and since I have a helper blogger today and forgot to take pictures yesterday, I will have to post pictures later. Suffice it to say that it will look a little something like this:

I also consider the fact that I gave away two skeins of this:
To be able to be counted as a Stashy Success!

Stashy Sunday

I spent some time this week working on my Stashy projects and I'm happy to say I've made some great progress. I finally finished these monsters that were a special request by Tyler after listening to the Never Not Knitting podcast where she talked about knitting her daughter some. I must say, I am completely charmed by them. So fat...so monstery...Love! Tyler hand selected the colors, specified which would be stripey, which solid... and he also hand selected the buttons out of my button jar. He also seems to be pretty happy with them so I count them a success. I also continued to work on my Tilting TARDIS cowl. I know it doesn't look like much, but considering how little time I've had to knit on it this week, it's really quite impressive. Are you impressed??? My last Stashy project was designed to use some fabric I had set aside and already cut for a magic pillowcase for me. I don't remember why I never actually sewed the dang thing, but I decided that it was time! Now all this little baby needs is a good wash and it's going on my pillow.

Now that I've dazzled you with my Stashy successes, I can tell you about an alteration in my Stashy plan. I am adding a caveat to the Stashy Challenge that allows for purchasing yarn that will be used to make a gift for someone else (birthday presents for myself don't count!). In pursuit of this endeavor, I decided to buy some destash yarn (where other knitters post their stash yarn that they want to sell--Usually for less than what you'd pay at a yarn shop) to make Tyler a Perry the Platypus hot water bottle cover. Now...before you call me a freak, let me assure you that Tyler does in fact LOVE hot water bottles. He loves to snuggle them, sleep with them, sit with them on a chilly winter morning, etc. He also is really loving the show, Phineas and Ferb, right now--most especially Perry the Platypus/Agent P. Stay tuned for updates on Perry as the yarn should be arriving this week sometime.

Stashy Sunday

This week was a Stashy Success!! I finished my stash project and I'm sooo happy with it--The color, the shape, the feel...Everything about it! (Please excuse the wild and crazed look in my eyes--I am clearly NOT photogenic.)

I am moving on from there to a project that I've been working on for a while. (Well...mostly I started it a while ago and then it got pushed aside for something new.) I have been on a Dr. Who kick lately and in that spirit, I started a "Tilting Tardis Cowl". It's a project that I decided would be perfect to use another yarn I've had in my stash for about 2 years.

It doesn't look like much yet, but I'm planning to work on it a fair bit this week so I hope to have more to show next Stashy Sunday.

And speaking of Dr. Who....stay tuned for a post documenting a FABULOUS Dr. Who Swap that I participated in on Ravelry. Spoiler: Kim (my sister) was my swap partner! She's very clever AND crafty so I was completely spoiled by her package. (Disclaimer: I'm not a total nerd. I just have fandom tendencies.)

Arrrrr Me Mateys!

You know how sometimes parents are sooo excited about having a kid so that they can play with kid toys without feeling silly or go to kid movies without people giving them a hard time? Yeah...I'm glad to have a boy child because it means I have an excuse to do Piratey Things. (Which makes me think of Veggie Tales). Last night I started a new quilt and although I'm claiming that "it's for Tyler...", I really mean that I bought the fabric because I liked it and it makes me happy each time I see it. I love the blues, greens and reds together...So fun!
The line of fabric is called "Pirates" and it is super piratey. Ships, skulls, pirate sayings, etc. So far I have 9 out of 20 blocks completed, which I consider great progress considering that I spent about 2 1/2 hours on it and I was watching a movie so spent a portion of that time distracted.

On the Catwalk...

I was so excited to receive the call on Saturday morning that my "Yellow Brick Road" quilt was done being quilted that I popped out of bed (this kind of wake up call is welcomed) and tried to rush right over to get it. I ended up waiting until noon to go, but WOW! I love it!! There is just something special about seeing a quilt that you've created using all fabrics that you adore and put together with the backing finally quilted up. It's the time when you get to fall in love with your craft all over again. The time when you get to realize your vision of the project or adjust to a shifted vision. In this case, the quilt that I've been working on (sporadically) for so long is one step away from being completed and on my bed.

In the showing off of this quilt, I had a model auditioning for his turn on the catwalk. What do you think? Paris bound?

I just LOVE the angles of the quilt pattern juxtaposed with the swirly curviness of the quilting design. Perfect!

Progress!

I am excited to report that I have made some great progress on my Noro Log Cabin blanket!!! I have completed 16 of the 20 squares, and even connected a few of them to each other (its sashing, if you will). Unfortunately, in laying them all out together and extrapolating to reflect the other four blocks I need to finish, I have concluded that it will be too small for what I want--a blanket to curl up in front of the TV with that will cover me from toes to nose. I am now on the hunt for a few more (different) colors of this yarn in order to keep the momentum going and complete this blanket SOON!

Owls Everywhere...

One of the fun things about cruising around to different blogs is that you can start to piece together some current trends. Unfortunately for me, I usually come to trends a bit late. (hello...Capris? For the first 2 years they were being sold, I thought they were the dumbest things ever...then I fell in love.) Right now, I am seeing a lot of stuff out there with Owls. Owl fabric, owl jewelry, owl embroidery, owl patterns, etc. So here is further proof that I am not impervious to the influence of trends (albeit late).

Remember when you were a kid and got these little things where you put together the pattern and then iron it to melt the pieces together? They still have them!! Tyler and I were at Joann's the other day and found them so I let Tyler choose one. The one he chose was the one that had an owl, a mushroom, a bear, and one other thing we didn't make. The only problem? He doesn't want to melt them so we worked hard to piece all of these together...and then tore them apart. It was painful...

I also found the cutest tutorial for a stuffed owl on the Toad's Treasures blog. After making one for Tyler according to the directions, I thought it would be fun to size it down and give this as part of Tyler's Teacher Appreciation gift to his Kindergarten teacher. He turned out so cute! I love the fact that I was able to use all scraps and that it's flannel so it is infinitely snuggly.

Here's Tyler in the parking lot on the morning of his last day of Kindergarten getting ready to take this to his teacher:Why is he wearing a knit dino hat on a warm day in June, you ask? Well...that is NOT a dinosaur hat, it is in fact (according to Tyler) a "Mohawk Hat" since I won't cut him a mohawk hair style and he's inventive.

Sew Crafty...

I've been doing a little crafting lately. I'm currently intrigued by the whole concept of a mug rug. The idea that you can put your snack and your drink all on the same oversized coaster is interesting...but more interesting is the whole Mug Rug craze. There are mug rug swaps, vast amounts of mug rug tutorials and Flikr pics galore. Well, who am I to buck the trend? At first I thought these folks were clearly crazy, but after a very informal survey amongst my friends about if people still even use coasters, I decided to give it a go and see what it was all about. Using this tutorial, and my handy dandy Dresden Plate cutting thingy I crafted this one here:I am completely and utterly charmed! I can see how this could become addicting because you can make it in just a wee bit of time and it's a great way to try out patterns and color/fabric combinations without the investment of a whole quilt. This particular one went to live with a teacher friend who I imagine using it after all her bouncing students go home for the day while she's enjoying some hot tea and fresh scones. Shh...It's my imagination...let's not ruin it with trivial things like reality.

I also made this cute little pleated pouch using this tutorial. I learned a lot from this project. It's been a really long time since in put in a zipper, and never before in a zippered lined pouch. I love the way it turned out and although this one is not mine to keep, I feel that I MUST make one to keep for my very own.

Oh the Possibilities!

A while back I saw this amazing blanket and forward the information to my mom thinking that she would love it and it might inspire her to start knitting. Well, I talked so convincingly that I talked myself right into it. So far, I have about 14 of the blocks knit and although I don't have a full picture, I took a picture of the few blocks I've already started to join. I love the riot of color and the fact that these blocks are log cabin blocks, which means I am able to combine my love of quilting with my knitting project.
The other thing I love about this project is that it is a constant reminder that the Possibilities are endless. Not just in knitting, quilting, crafting, etc., but also in life. Just this one little start of a block:
could be anything. You just never know what is going to come out of the ball of yarn next.

A Very Merry unQuilt Camp For ME!!

Usually when referring to Quilt Camp, I would be talking about the Quilt Camp we do up at Huntington Lake at Camp Keola. But just as in Alice in Wonderland they celebrated unBirthdays, I am dubbing this one the unQuilt Camp. In March of this year, Mom and I were invited to join a group of other quilters who were renting a cabin at Shaver Lake to spend a wonderful weekend filled with fabric, food, jokes and the like. It was a marvelous time! I finished my first ever quilt top (above) and also my third ever quilt top(below)

Somewhere in between all that finishing up of lingering projects, I made the backing of my second ever quilt and worked on another quilt that I started at last Quilt Camp (the real one!).

Eagles, Waffles, Chicks, Mitts

Continuing on with my handmade updates, I thought I'd combine some sewing and knitting projects I gifted. I revisited my Magic Pillowcase obsession by making my dad an eagle Magic Pillowcase. Since he's not such a "frills" kinda guy, I left off the wee tiny contrasting strip that the pattern specifies. He tells me he loves it!

I also knit him a Waffle Hat using Cascade 220 Superwash that he can wear while at Lakeview Cottages, during his SAR/CARDA activities or when he's feeling particularly rugged.

Tyler's favorite colors in the world are blue and green. A few years back, I made a brightly colored rag quilt using flannels. Tyler really enjoyed cuddling up under it on chilly mornings before school, so I thought it was high time I made him one of his own in colors he enjoys. It's probably dumb, but I imagine him carting this same rag quilt off to college someday to snuggle with when he's homesick. I also knitted him some fabulous Chickies.
These chickies were a specific request after listening to the Never Not Knitting podcast episode in which she talks about knitting a Chicken Family for her daughter. Since it's just an audio podcast and he had never seen a picture of her chickens, I had asked him to draw me a picture of what kind of chickie he wanted to go with Pock, whom Tyler received when he contracted the Chicken Pox.
I found a pattern that most closely resembled his drawing and make two chickies for Pock.

I knitted Kim some Alice Mitts with some Bristol County Dyeworks yarn in the New Moon colorway. I LOVE this yarn. It's fabulously soft, great colors and it's washable to boot! They are meant to look like the mitts that Alice Cullen wears in the New Moon movie and you can see a picture of those here.

It's never too late...

That's what I was told, at least. I was recently reminded that it's been nearly an aeon since I last posted. When I replied that I had had great plans to blog about all of my handmade Christmas gifts and new pictures of Tyler, etc., I was told that it's never too late. SO...Assuming that is correct, here goes the start of my "catch up" the blog series.

I made the decision around August of last year that I wanted to have a nearly completely handmade Christmas this year. I am really pleased with how all of my creations turned out and especially pleased that each seemed to be well received. (Or else I am surrounded by fabulous actors.)

For Mom, I used beautiful Noro Kureyon to make a very colorful, very "Mom" scarf. For anyone who knows her well, you understand that this scarf will go with virtually everything she wears.

One thing about crafting for someone is that it really makes you think about what that person would like. It's not enough just to make something that you would like, it needs to be to their taste in color, style, care instructions, etc. I really think that this whole handmade holiday thing made me a more intentional gifter.