No Knitting Today

My hands are feeling a little better. The left hand is OK, the right still has some pain, not as bad. I think I'm going to put some Ben-Gay on it tonight when I go to bed and see what happens. I haven't done any knitting since Friday, I'm having withdrawals, but I'm having fun surfing patterns on Ravelry and dreaming and queue-ing. By the way, I was using circular needles when this pain started, not straight needles. I really think I overdid it. So I'll lay off the knitting for another day or so.

As mentioned in my earlier post, I did get the shawl done. Wanna see? Here it is:

Finished, completed, done. Yay! Here's a close up of the stitch definition:

A few years ago my son was temporarily living here with his cat. The cat attacked my sewing chair. It looked awful. Like this:

I kept saying I was going to somehow fix it and the years went by and I never got around to it. It finally bugged me enough and I made a little cover for it.

For some reason, I can sew! My hands don't hurt then. I'm so happy, I can still be crafty! It's amazing how much free time I have since I haven't been able to knit. I've been actually making some progress with the book I've been reading, "T is for Trespass" by Sue Grafton. I love her books!

But now I'm hungry. I made some Sloppy Joe's from scratch yesterday, time to go heat some up and eat, yummmmmm!

Aching Hands

The shawl is done! I will post a pic once I have blocked it. That thing just absolutely killed my hands. They just ache. I don't know what it was, but I think it was the needles I was using that made me so sore. I used the Boye interchangeables and the cable is so stuff, when you start a new row you have to fight with it, the tension of the cable I guess. And since I was knitting a LOT the last few days because I wanted it done so badly, I think I overdid it. I was going to go to a knitting afternoon tomorrow, but I think I better lay off the knitting for a few days. This pain really sucks.

I did get a little bit of sewing done this afternoon. My hands were OK with that, but I didn't sew long. I did take a break from the shawl last weekend and made these little animals, a dog and two cats.

My daughter's friends really wanted me to make them once they saw the one I made her. I had to improvise on the dog as I didn't have a dog pattern, but it turned out hilarious. I just HAD to sew on a little tongue. I used a sheep pattern I had and just modified it to make it dog-looking. The cat pattern is one I used from Ravelry.

My daughter did come home for a night last night. It was so good to see her! She brought some stuff home as they have to start getting their dorm rooms ready to move out in TWO weeks. Can you believe it? Two more weeks and she'll be home. These first two semesters of college sure flew by. I'm going to have to dust off the stove and cook again.

Almost done!

I have one more repeat on the shawl! Hip hip hooray! I'm so close to the end I can almost taste it. After that repeat, there are four rows of garter stitch and then I can weave in the ends. I'll be so glad to be done with this. There is a new episode of Grey's Anatomy on tonight, I'll be on the couch knitting while I watch it. I know I won't finish tonight, but I'll get close. So exciting!

I bought some calico fabric to make my sister a little project bag. Then I'm going to get some more fabric to make my other sister a bag too. Once this shawl is done, I'm going to sew up a storm for a few days! So many family members want my little bags. Can't wait to get started!

Balloons

Four more repeats. Four, count them, four more to go and this shawl will be done. I can't tell you how sick of it I am. This is the biggest project I've ever knit. I need to make a dishcloth or something real small next.

I bought some more fabric, fat quarters to be exact. So vibrant and pretty!

And with all the funeral activities lately I knew I would be seeing one of my other aunts. She makes beautiful quilts. Very talented. She also inspired me in the crafting aspect of my life and makes me little gifts sometimes. So I made a little project bag for her from the fat quarters and gave it to her today at the funeral. She loved it!

Balloon Send Off

Today was the funeral for Aunt Roz. It was just very, very sad. But also so very nice to see relatives. Some I haven't seen in a long time. After the service at the church we all went outside and there was a big bouquet of helium balloons. Lots of them. My cousin passed out as many as she could before she ran out. I got one. At the count of three we all released them into the sky for Aunt Roz. It was so touching watching all those colorful balloons float away to heaven. What a moment. We watched as long as we could see them. We were all smiling and crying at the same time knowing she would have really loved seeing something like that.

Beautiful Sunrise

What's that old saying: "Red Sky at Night, Sailor's Delight; Red Sky in Morning Sailors Take Warning." It was a beautiful sunrise this morning, the sky was so red and pink. I was very awed by it. Didn't get a picture, just too many houses and garages and utility lines in the way. The color of the sky was awesome.

I planted some daffodil and tulip bulbs last fall. The daffodils are up and blooming! They look so pretty and cheerful in my yard. The tulips aren't in bloom yet.

I'm still working on that shawl. I'm getting so bored with it. I have 9 more repeats to go. In the meantime I got some more Japanese fabric that I bought. This piece came from China. It was very strange too, no stamps at all on the envelope.

Thank you for all of your kinds words about my aunt. Everyone needs an Aunt Roz.

And on that note, I'm off to get done what I gotta get done. Have a great weekend!

Fun with Sewing!

I'm still plugging away on the shawl for my Mom. I should reach the halfway point tonight, yippee!!!

In between working on the shawl I've been making puppets! I've made three of them so far. They are for my grandson to play with when he comes over. They are so cute, I want to play with them too!

They are Butterick pattern B4209. All of them are made with polar fleece. Fun to make!

April Snowshowers Bring May Flowers?

It's snowing. Sunday, April 13, and it's snowing. I just might have to bake cookies, lol! I switched my closet around yesterday, got out my spring/summer work clothes and put away the winter work clothes, sweaters, etc. Hmmmmm. I went to the thrift store too and found some new (to me) tops and did a way fun shopping spree at Kohl's! I haven't bought brand new clothes in ages. It was fun!

I've been knitting on the shawl I'm making for my Mom for Mother's Day. It's coming along, slowly. The pattern calls for 18 repeats. I have 7 repeats done, but I may have to go up to 20. It takes me two hours to do one repeat, so this is pretty slow going. But it's turning out nice. See . . .

I did get a little bit of sewing in lately. I finished a couple more project bags. I love each one. It's hard to part with them.

I mailed that little purple kitty that I knitted to my daughter and she LOVES it! A lot of her friends want one too. Don't know if I'll have time to make them any as she only has about 3 1/2 more weeks of school and this shawl comes first. Maybe I should grow some more arms so I can knit all the stuff I want to and still have time left over to sew.

We're getting a brand new yarn store in the area I live in! I'm so excited. I stalk it, I mean drive by it, at least once a week to check progress. Not open yet. I feel like I'm on that old commercial, I think it was for Mervyn's . . . "Open, open, open . . ."

My First Bag

I finally finished the bag I was making. I like how it turned out! Making a bag was a lot more work than I thought it would be, but it was fun, it challenged me, and I will definitely make another one some day.

Here is an overhead view:

And here is the inside. You can see the inside has a pocket also. There are four pockets on the outside too. Lots of room for stuff!

I used Butterick pattern B4532, View D. I made it with a cotton calico I bought at Joann, the lining is calico too. I also used magnetic snaps on it. I made the straps longer than the pattern called for and I sewed a button on the front instead of making a bow with ribbon. It's bigger than a purse I would normally use for everyday, but I will still use it. I can carry around a small knitting project in there if I want to. And maybe my lunch.

On the knitting needles I have a shawl that I started for my Mom for Mothers Day. I don't have much done yet. More on that next time.

Meow

Wow! It's been beautiful outside all weekend! Except for Friday when I went to the baseball game and froze my ass off. I'm going outside after I post this.

I finished the little kitty I was knitting. I think it's so cute! I'm going to mail it to my daughter at school. She loves getting little gifties from mom.

I went outside yesterday and checked out my yard, looking to see if anything is growing yet. I planted some tulips and daffodils last fall. And look! They are starting to poke through the ground. I'm so excited!

Spring is really here this time! Hopefully we're done with evil snow.

As a kid I loved The Little House on the Prairie series of books. They were one of my absolute favorites. I'm in a group on Ravelry and we're re-reading them. I have the whole set in the basement, except for the very first one, it's missing. So, I checked ebay and bid on it and won. Now we will have the complete set again. I'm so happy to be reading these books again.

I babysat the grandkids last night while my son and his wife went out to celebrate her birthday. I had so much fun with them. They are a crack-up, especially the little guy. He's four. He found my old eyeglasses, and of course had to show me that he found them.

Being a gramma is fun, you can enjoy having kids around without all the work.

I hope the weather is nice where you are. I'm going outside now to enjoy it.

Tigers v White Sox

Detroit Tigers v Chicago White Sox

Cost of Ticket: Free from Boss

Parking: $10

Bottle of Diet Pepsi: $3.75

Hot dog: $3.75

Bag of Peanuts: $3.75

Temperature: 40 to 41 degrees. It fluctuated and we froze. It was so cold.

Final Score: Detroit 5 - Chicago 8

Afternoon spent with my Son: Priceless

A New Milestone

Ta Da!!!

Look what I made . . .

My first ever pair of finished socks!

I figured if I started small this time, maybe, just maybe, I could do it, and I did! I know how to knit all the elements needed to make a sock, it was just a matter of putting them all together and doing it. Picking up those little bitty stitches along the heel was a real challenge, but I persevered, and did it. They took me a week to knit, lol! A week for something so tiny.

They are so teeny tiny, and so cute. I didn't make them for anyone in particular as we have no babies in the family and none expected in the near future. I just may frame these!

This is the yarn I used and the needles. The pattern called for US #2 but I didn't think I had any so I used US #1. I used the needles on the left at first. I got them on line somewhere. They were very flexible, some kind of plastic. I hated them. So I bought the steel ones on the right, much better for me! I love working with DPNs.

Now that I have conquered this . . . I feel like I can do anything!