Crunch Time

I added a new hastag today to some of my posts on twitter (feel free to follow me, LOL): #imaystayupallnighttilChristmas. Yes, folks, for us knitters, quilters, crochet-ers, and crafters of paper, scissors, glue, ribbon, and button types, it is Crunch Time.

This is the time of the year we realize that we have more hours of crafting left than there are hours left in the year, let alone 6 days short of the year.

Today we had to make a little road trip to Sweetwater to deliver one of our roosters to a lady there for her mini-farm. Did I forget to take one of my diverse knitting-for-Christmas projects? You bet, I sure did. I took the passive riding-in-the-car time to pull out half a sock Diantha has knitted that was too big around, cast it back on, and knit the toe cup. But still, not what I needed to work on.

And of course, some of the gifts have to be mailed, which means finish them this week, or die of embarrassment. So I thought I would go public with my need-to-do list, sharing my potential humiliation with the world at large and provoking sympathic head-shakes from everyone out there who is in the same boat.

One of the projects I can't post, because 1) it isn't even started, 2) it's for one of my kids who is nosy and reads my blog (WHY did I teach them to read anyway??) 3) I have to get rid of said kid for a night or two or weekend sometime between now and Christmas to do it, and 4) it's really supposed to be a surprise, though keeping a secret in this family is nothing short of a miracle.

Here are the rest:
Nice warm slippers for my niece. My sister's family is in Ohio this winter, after having lived nearly 20 yrs. in FL and 2 years in TN. It's COLD in Ohio, so I am making slippers, mittens, and a matching beanie for the little niece. So far, pictured here on the left, a slipper...


The Show Me The Money Scarf. No tellin' who this one is for (on the right). It is a batt of hand dyed Merino wool I bought from Jazzturtle, that has shredded money carded into it. I spun it up into a chunky yarn and I'm doing this scarf with a braided cable and garter stitch borders. Might post the pattern later.

The needles shown are like the So Big They're Obscene needles available in Artemas' GotWood4You Shop at Etsy, but these are made from Eastern Hemlock Spruce. I am actually not knitting the entire scarf on them, just testing them for a few rows to make sure the burrs are all out of them so I can send them as a gift to a knitter friend of mine.

Flamin' Phoenix Betsy Bootees are a quickie that I've had to throw in the mix, because my 2yo informed me a couple days ago that her feet were cold, because her slippers are now too tight. So I should knit her some new ones. This is just acrylic Red Fart but it's toddler-loud. I did an eye-of-partridge heel just for fun. As of right now I am doing the Kitchener Stitch toe on the first one.

The same yarn is going into a hat like this (on the right) for Des' best friend Bethany's daughter Lily, who needs a beanie with a HUGE pom-pom. So that is also on the list, even though I haven't cast it on yet. Fortunately toddler beanies are fast, even if the toddler has a big head.

Last on the Christmas Knitting list is this sorry start on a fur-bordered, cabled beanie for Bethany's other daughter Summer. She is 9 so naturally she likes purple and pink. I hope she will like her nice warm beanie too.

~:0) ~:0) ~:0) ~:0)

In the midst of all this I am working on a selfish project. I got two beautiful skeins of Aussi Wool worsted yarn through a swap from Mystery Swappers Group at Ravelry. I saw this Circular Shrug and wanted to make one. Last week I found the greatest, real suede, purple Ho boots ever, and knew I needed to wear them to dh's company Christmas party. (Go on, tell me how wonderful they are!)

So 2 days before the party, I started the Circular Shrug. Yes, 2 days. Only I decided that instead of knitting ribbing, body, ribbing, and seaming the ribbing, I would take another knitter's modification advice and do a provisional cast-on, knit the body, joint the working stitches and the live provisional stitches, and knit the 5" of ribbing for the shawl collar, in the round. And THEN I decided to knit the body in a lace, of my own devising.

Sad to say I only got about 2/3 of the back done. About half-way through the back, the morning of the party, I had to join the 2nd ball of yarn on and realized I wouldn't have enough yarn to do the ribbing at all. And sadly, the company website doesn't list this yarn anymore. So what I did really was lose 2 days of intense knitting on my must-do-s for 2 days of ribbing on an I-can't-do. The partner I had in the Mystery swap says that yarn is still available where she lives and she will kindly rescue me and send me another skein. So I will have a beautiful purple shrug, just not now.

Now back to my regularly-scheduled knitfest. #imaystayupallnighttilChristmas

Misc. Stuff From Being Behind in Blogging

Last year I spun up some misc. wool in red and green, plied it with red fun fur, spun in some plastic candies, and laid it aside wondering what to do with it.

This year, Des wanted us to card some green and red merino for her with some white angelina nylon sparkle. She spun it up into a self-striping yarn and hated it.

She gave it to me, Diantha and I knitted it up into this wild and funny scarf, listed it in my HeartFeltFun Boutique, and it sold in 3 days.

Funny how life works sometimes.

Des knitted these Eliza Doolittle type gloves out of the same sock yarn she had hand dyed and knit my piebald (now blue and purple) socks. Then she overdyed them and came up with this lovely maroon shade. Very pretty.

We've been pretty busy, trying to fill orders for Christmas. Artemas got featured on Springtree Road's blog with his knitting needles and sold 6 sets of them last week. You should go to her Etsy shop and check out her handspun yarns. Gorgeous!

Richard's soaps are selling almost as fast as we can make replacement batches. His shop has some nice, small gift sets in it, so stop by and see him sometime! Handmade soaps make great tips for teachers, hairdressers, or anyone who has served you exceptionally during the year. Great stocking stuffers too!
We did Thanksgiving early, because my parents were down from Ohio the weekend before. So I cooked a meal fit for a king, including the best from-scratch gravy you ever tasted, and homemade pies. No, folks, I do not buy pie crusts. My kids say store-bought crusts are an abomination. Are these beautiful or what?

For actual Thanksgiving day, we went up to Greeneville, TN to be with our SIL Tony's dad's family. We all had a great time, ate, did some shooting out in the field (very cold & windy though), and had a safe trip up and back. They are terrific folks to be "related" to.

A couple days later, we went up to Des' house. The ham she baked for Thanksgiving had disappeared up in Greeneville like Houdini, so she made a turkey, just to have leftovers.

We helped her wreck it in true large-family style.

And I cut my hand doing the dishes. No alcohol was involved in this incident, despite the Pure White Trash shirt that looks like a Pabst Blue Ribbon label.

Hot Chicks and a Trip to the Park

Wow, our chickens from last Spring are HUGE. They are kind of crowded in the coop we have, and I think there is at least ONE rooster. Oldest DS says so, because his room is near the coop and he says there is some crowing going on out there.

In 2 weeks, the kids will each take 3 of their nicest hens to the 4-H Fall Show and Sale. They have to donate the chickens to the auction, but they get $20 each for entering it.

I went to the feed store Saturday for feed for them. I am a sucker for little peeping things. The chicks shown here are Blue-Laced Red Wyandottes. They are a rare breed, which comes in two colorways, both of which are called Red (a mystery to me). The little chick that looks a like a chipmunk will be the darker color, the pale chick will be the lighter color.

Next to and below are some pics of adults and the plumage. You can plainly see that the edge of each feather is outlined in a cool blue color. The body of the feather is either dark red or a cream color.

Monday (oh was it only yesterday?) Richard and I had a date in the morning. We went out a couple places and had breakfast. When we got home, the older kids and I went walking and to take a jack to Allen, who got a flat tire. Richard and the younger kids stayed home and built about a 10 ft. square chicken run on the side of the coop. We can't let the chickens totally free-range because our lot isn't fenced. But the girls seem to like their new "freedom," and it will relieve their crowding a little, until we thin them out.

Des called and asked if we would like a trip to a local park. She and another friend and Des' two kids and Tara's three (a son, Riley, Jeremiah's age [4], a daughter Micah the same age as Hannah [18m], and a 5 month old baby Savannah) were there playing when we got there. This is Hannah, who managed to face-dive off the slide, and Micah, who has wonderful Queen Elizabeth the First hair.

Diantha is holding Savannah, whom they call Banana, and who looks JUST like her daddy. Des says Banana is so cute it could "almost" convince her to have another kid. But not yet.

Veronica peered out at the world through the eyes of a Knight...

And Josiah did too... with the company of Fair Damsel Beverly of Ross.

Beverly, who has been a bouncer since we watched both her little feet kick out repeatedly at the same time, in her 12-week Ultrasound, took an opportunity to bounce in the sand, in the shade.

After the park, we left off the kids at Des with about a TON of fish sticks and fries in the oven, and went to visit with our small group from church. After that and driving back 15 miles to get the kids, and driving home 30 miles from Des' house, we were tired. But it was a nice end to a nice day.

Today I have been a total stupid head. I didn't get my primary objective accomplished for the day. In fact there was a project I wanted to tackle that I didn't even start. Beverly was feverish with a runny nose, and I am feeling about the same, so that didn't help.

But I got a recycled yarn done, called Sonoma Harvest, which is available in my My7kids etsy shop, here. And I dyed some fiber for Diantha to use in her shop, the wrong color, and immediately misplaced the rest of that ONE color of dye we needed. [sigh] Maybe tomorrow. Helped Artemas with some new items for his Got Wood 4 You shop, did 4 loads of laundry, and made a good Lentil Stew for supper (recipe in previous post, here). Diantha doesn't look mad about the fiber. Isn't she gorgeous?

Over the weekend I cast on a little baby beanie for a friend of mine's new grandbaby girl. I was gonna do a K2P2 rib and then a diamond pattern in K and P stitches. Cast on 68 st, no problem. Knitted my first round, didn't have enough stitches. Picked out 1st round, cast on 2 more st, knitted a round, had one stitch too many. ARRggh! I figured, just knit it together with something, won't even show on the 1st round. Knitted 2nd round, found out that I had done a K1P2 at one point early in the 1st round, that's why I had one extra stitch. Picked out round 2 and most of round 1, stopping occasionally to mutter under my breath.

When I got to the pattern, I became a total knitting nah-nah. AND, I broke one of my vintage nylon knitting needles in the process. I have picked out as much of this hat as I have knitted. I am finally down to the bind-off, and so glad. Here is a pic of the Pretty Diamond Baby Hat from hell.

One last pic to leave you with. Des took this when she was down on Sunday. Josiah and B were playing in the fallen tree that serves as Artemas' source of wood for his shop. Beverly doesn't seem too bee too concerned by what appears to be (just off-camera) a swinging metal something in her brother's hand. But she's young yet. And nobody ended up bleeding... so probably it was a good day.

More Later

I know that doesn't make sense grammatically, but what I mean is, I am finally getting around to blogging about Friday and Saturday, and I will write more, later. That will give me time to do today's non-existent block. Plus, you never know what a day will hold.

Friday was my BIRTHDAY!! Yippee for me!! I got up and listed 2 new yarns and 2 new sets of needles in my my7kids etsy shop, and a little pouch/clubbing bag in my HeartFeltFun shop. The bag sold in literally like 5 minutes. I have more materials so I have made another one to sell too.

Des and Tony and the kids came down about noon. My BIL also came down with my niece, so she could play with the kids. I cleaned out the Aerostar and got the junk in it down to about 8 boxes to put in the shed. The guys got the Aerostar running, so as soon as I put 4 wheels back under it, I can sell it. Tony and I made a trip to the dump, which was very satisfying.

Then I made myself a Cherry Chip birthday cake. Because I make delicious cakes from scratch (especially dark chocolate) I almost NEVER use a mix and also almost NEVER get Cherry Chip cake, which is just about my favorite. I used 2 mixes because I am feeding a crowd, ya know. Made 3 layers, with strawberries and real whipped cream between them. We didn't even cut the cake until about 9 Friday night, and by Saturday morning, this is what was left of it. Sad huh.

After the cake, I knitted some on my felted slipper. This is totally an experiment, but if it works, I will make the pattern available here for a little while, and then put it up as a .pdf in my etsy shop. I handspun this yarn into 2 little 60-gram balls. One has just a few more yards than the other. Since I wanted to felt the slipper, I needed to use a huge needle size, and the biggest needles I have (other than the funky DPNs I make out of tree branches, which I have up for sale) are straight needles. So I figured out how to knit the slipper flat, toe up so I could stop when I ran out of yarn, and seam it down the top of the foot. Here is what it looked like when I got done knitting it. Goofy because it is so loose and WAY out past the end of my foot at this point.

We made Peccadillo for dinner, with vegetarian black beans and brown rice. Peccadillo is a Spanish (not Mexican) kind of sweet and sour jumble of a dish, that is not spicy. Delicious. And, my recipe of it makes a 2nd freezable meal for most families, or feeds the crowd at my house. My sister came down for dinner, so there were 15 of us in house.

Also Des and I worked on our quilt blocks for the day. Mine is ugly, but it is mine. LoL. Meanwhile what were the guys doing? Well ya know, Tony has been helping my dh lay new flooring in the back porch, so we can turn it into an actual room. And there is a lot of STUFF back there, with no place to put it so we can lay flooring. And, dh has some odd bits of lumber and 2x4s lying around. So Tony decided to build us a storage shed. The men worked on it until after 11 PM. Tony hadn't been to bed for the day (he works 3rd shift) so by then he was tired and beat. So I had our 2 girls sleep on the couch and gave their room to Des and Tony and the babies.

My Josiah threw up all over his blankets, and Jeremiah had an accident too. So yesterday morning I got up, made French Toast and eggs and bacon for 12, and did 2 loads of laundry by noon. I threw my slipper in with the sheets in hot water to start it to felt. This is what I got after one wash. It shrunk a little more after being in the dryer. I think one more wash and dry might do it.

Richard was off for the day, as was Tony, and my BIL came down again. So we left them to do their "guy" thing out in the driveway and we watched both Bridget Jones movies. Des wasn't feeling too well, and she needed to do some grocery shopping. So we left all the kids here, except Hannah, who might need to be nursed. Went to the store and of course had to hit the quilt shop right up the street!

Diantha and Artemas and I had to serve in the nurseries at church for the 7PM service, so we went, leaving Des to lie on the couch in misery. When I got home, I made a HUGE baking pan full of nacho meat and bean dip for everybody for supper, and chocolate chip cookies. And, made my quilt block for the day. I think I have enough Chicken blocks for now. I am in a Black and White challenge, so I guess I will use the next month's worth of blocks for that.

The guys have the shed, which is an 8x8x8 cube, up, with the siding on, and a stretched tarp for a roof for now. Now we get to begin hauling boxes out of the porch to store in it. Do I get to put a star on the front of my house? and first, can I take a day off?

BIG News

So I have been looking over my shop lately, and I noticed something.

My first sale was 24 May, and I have had over 100 sales. And even though I have had recycled sweater felted items in my shop that whole time, and hand knit items (or offers for custom hand knit items) for a couple months, I have only ever sold ONE little felted cozy.

Apparently the people who come to my shop want recycled yarn, yarn, big fat handmade needles, and lots more yarn. Just about as fast as I can unravel it, dye it, and list it.

So I got to thinking, if I were looking for yarn, I wouldn't want to page through 5 felted items, a few yarns, then some more felted stuff, to get to more yarn. As a consequence of all these thought processes, I got a crick in my neck. No. I went and created a 2nd shop, call Heart Felt Fun. Oh what fun it was coming up with a new name. But since most of the items are felted (we who DO that really know the term is fulled), and most of them are just for fun, and some of them have a little felted heart sewn on them, I thought it was right clever. As a matter of fact, I might sew a little felted heart on everything from now on, as a trademark. Wow, am I smart.

So over there on the left below my regular Etsy shop feed, is a small one for my new shop. Stop in and take a look sometime!

Some completely different notes:
My 6mo grandbaby Hannah growls like a pirate. Now she also eats food. And my daughter says that while she feeds her, Hannah is the Cookie Monster. All growls and "num-num-nums." Which is pretty funny really.

Today I was riding shotgun in the car, knitting, while Artemas got to practice more driving, in the rain. The song "Into the Night" by Chad Kroeger and Carlos Santana came on the radio, and we were all riding along singing, with the rain streaking down the windows. Being a singer myself, I noticed that the lyrics are sung fairly rapicly, and then go directly into the chorus with no break in time or bridge of musical licks. So I said, "I wonder how he does that, sing all those really quick lyrics and then go right into the chorus without taking a breath."

Artemas said, "He is just gifted, I guess." To which I replied, "I am sure he IS."

The cheeky kid threatened to put me out of the car. Imagine.

Not my fault at all if a person is easy on the eyes. And it would be weird for a woman who has managed to make 10 babies in her lifetime to not notice that a person is easy on the eyes. LoL!

Biserable

I hab a code. But dot really, I do'd thig, because dobody else id by fabily is gettig sick. By daughter says it is just by body shuttig dowd agaid, requirig be to rest, because I hab beed doig too buch.

Darlig Richie is off today. So I thig I will lie aroud on da bed ad play wid yard ad poidty sticks a little and sleeb. By house still stigs.

Oh by da way... I hab da page up for da Weird and Ugly Fabric Challenge 14 quilts. Go see them and bote (vote!) Polls are oped until Oct. 15. Copy and paste:
http://www.rossoaps.com/n2quilting/weird