Happy New Year?

Yeah, so I failed at keeping up with this last year. :)

It wasn't my best year ever, to be honest but everything is changing this month, it seems: new web site design is up, brand new email addresses*, and hopefully, a new year that is better than the last one. Nothing tragic happened or anything last year but I've just been lost in the fog in certain ways.  (I think it's kinda crazy and sad how fast last year went by without me paying attention.)

I don't know that I've missed blogging per se but I have missed an outlet for keeping track of my projects and chatting with people. Especially because I finished OH SO MANY PROJECTS last year. (For me, at least.) I know people are jumping the blogging ship to move to Instagram but I never seem to remember to use that either! I'm super bad at the social medias thing. (I have NO IDEA how people keep up with multiple social media sites every single day. None. Zip. Zilch.)

So, I started going through what I finished this year in the hopes of getting it down before I forgot and the pile just grew and grew and grew.  

Some finished items...

 

My favorites were the Sled Dudes I finished last month: 

As you can see, no actual sled needed to finish. I popped the last one on a $0.99 black 'chalkboard tag' from the craft store that I dotted with white and it made a quick and easy gift for someone. 

 

Though......definitely not as many 'finished' finishes as I would like. Most of the items are smalls in an unfinished state:

  

   

Plus one totally random Bent Creek that's neither small or big and fits in with nothing theme-wise. lol

My knitting took a hit with all the stitching going on. I finished only a 'scant' three pairs of socks, my usual handful of Scrap Yarn Blanket Squares and one Christmas Stocking.

Just one stocking. The other stocking (mine) is a WIP but slow going. I'm mighty tired of colorwork at the moment. Particularly because I powered through that stocking with only one circular when it called for two. (I Magic Looped it which is totally a doable thing but very, very tedious to shift the circular cord around every half a row. Now I'm in so far it makes no sense to pay $$$ for a second circular when I'm this close to finishing the project so I'm just STUCK being miserable with it.)

 (designer photo)

 

Not seen: 2 colorworked 'Advent' mittens that I finished in December before I got the stocking done. SUPER CUTE project and well worth a peek for any knitters. I never had a hope or a pray to get a whole Advent calendar's worth of them done (I'd be happy with 8-10) but a lot of people DID finish the whole set and each grouping is more amazing than the last. The original set is done in red/white/oatmeal but so many people did them in brilliant, rich colors and ACK! I just love looking through the project pages on this! It's pure knitterly happiness.

Hmmm. I know there was something else I had in mind to put here but I've already forgotten it since I started uploading photos. The mind....it goes. Next up is to hopefully try and get back into leaving comments on all the pretty, pretty blogs I read everyday in my Feedly because I've been awful with that as well. (Sorry!)

 *Drat. Just remembered I have to change my email with Blogger as well. Grrr! My cable company got bought out and it's a NIGHTMARE trying to change 10 years of internet history to a new email before the old mail servers get deleted.

April

How is your April going so far? 

I'm happy that the snow is almost gone here. (Or actually might already be gone. It's been raining all day and it's possible that finished off the last of the snow, if I bothered to get up and go look.) I hope it's awhile before we have another winter as snowy and dismal as this last one has been. :(

It wasn't a good winter for our bees either, as one of our hives died off. They almost made it but it was just too cold for them in the end. (He thinks they starved to death huddling in one area to stay warm because the other part of the hive was loaded with honey still.) The other hive is still active...for the moment. *crosses fingers* 

It's always a crapshoot if they are going to make it through the winter here so a 50% die off isn't all bad. Could be 100%, right? Replacing a whole hive is quite expensive. Buying live bees isn't cheap!

(I don't know where I got that Oprah gif, it's been so long, but it cracks me up EVERY SINGLE TIME.)

I stay focused last month and, GASP!, actually did manage to 'finish finish' everything I've stitched so far this year. It's a Christmas miracle come early, I tell you! :)

 

Gosh, I love this little L*K pattern! I changed his eyes from black to blue though because I think I like my leprechaun better that way. :)

These are from two different L*K patterns: Flora McSamples 2014 stocking booklet and a Merry Bright booklet. I only did the ones I really liked and I took the top border from another stocking to use on the cardinal one in place of the one charted. 

This was my first time in gluing the cording around the edge. I usually sew it on but, man, is that tedious trying to do it in a non-obvious way when using a two color cording. I think the glue worked out pretty good though. These little buggers are a lot of work to finish! You have to interface them, sew them, make the cording by hand, sew/glue the cording on, iron at every step to keep them nice, etc. It's no wonder I put finishing off for so long. lol

Backing fabrics.

Surprisingly, all of them are right side out. (I usually manage to sew ONE wrong.)

A L*K kit. Not my favorite because I TOTALLY did not pay attention to the size of this before I purchased it and it's quite.....large. Like box of Kleenex large. My bad. I shouldn't have assumed it was small. /shrug

This one came with the lovely seasonal fabric/jingle bells. I'm not sure I LOVE the jingles on the bottom though. I followed the sample but I might take those off come Christmas when I put this out.

What company is this? Crap. I think it's Waxing Moon Designs. Quick little chart, just begging to be cube-ified with that square design. :)

This was the companion piece to the Bacon pillow I did for Valentine's Day. There are four patterns in this L*K Bacon Bits booklet but two bacon themed pieces are enough for me. :)

(I love how quickly these little patterns go but at some point I really need to get back to the two large pieces I have going already. One of them is a nice Plum Street Sampler piece that only needs a border!)

I'd like to say all this stitching is paring down my stash a bit but...........sometimes a little Nashville market shopping happens, eh? I WANTED to buy at least four times this much so I consider it a victory I *only* got four things. :)

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

My last name is Irish McIrishy so I always look forward to St. Patty's and tucking into a corned beef dinner. Any holiday that comes with good food is a good holiday to celebrate, right? 

(I also had my one Shamrock Shake for the year yesterday but I'm prettttttttty sure that has nothing to do with being Irish. lol)

I only have the one little stitchy done up for the holiday though. :(

At least, not until I finish up the items in my 'in progress pile'....

 I HAVE DONE SO MANY NEW PIECES LATELY! LOOK AT THEM ALL!!!!!!!!!

THERE ARE SEVEN THERE. SEVEN.

 I haven't been knitting lately so I keep blazing through these little charts like WOAH. I'm trying to be good and 'finish-finish' them at the same time so they just don't hang around either. I need to get busy cord-making, ribbon-making and stuffing now and this new batch will be DONE.

Also, this happened for Valentine's Day last month:

I can't say that the husband is really 'into' having his own cross stitch piece gifted to him but I thought it was cute. :)

February

Out with the old....

And in with the new...

Who knew I had so many stitches for Valentine's? I was pleasantly surprised when I went digging to switch out my little basket here!

They might have to stay in there for quite some time though because I really have nothing for spring time smalls. Not sure how that happened either (I don't hate rabbits?!? Or spring flowers?!?) but I might have to buckle down and get some finishing done if I want to keep up with this basket this year. :)

I am perpetually out of sync with the seasons with my projects though.

Case in point I *just* finished this little guy I started last Thanksgiving. 

Well, I'm all set for NEXT Thanksgiving, I guess.  It really was delusional of me to think I would get it done for last year, seeing as I started it just a few days before the holiday. This is only the second biscornu I've done, which is a shame because they are super easy to do.

(Designer is Barbara Ana, which you could probably guess because she has a distinctive look.)

Getting anything done the last few weeks has been difficult as there has been a literal plague hitting my house. We got a bad batch of cat food (I believe) and ALL FOUR CATS were violently ill in turn for days at a time. It was disgusting but, thankfully, they all seem to have come through it okay. (I think it helped that I mix two foods together so they didn't eat a full portion of whatever one was tainted.)

Then we went to see Fleetwood Mac, which was amazing - until I came down with the flu about 48 hours later. Dirty, dirty public places! UGH! I should have covered myself in Purell every time I touched a handrail. My bad. :(

I promptly gave it to the husband, of course, but at least he was about 4 days behind me so we didn't both have a high fever at the SAME time. That would have been real bad with both of us flat-out in bed at the same time. Heh. 

Man though, when does the nagging cough end? It's been almost two weeks now and I'm still sipping the prescription cough medicine like it's a crack pipe. *cough*cough*cough* So annoying. 

On the upside, you can't catch the flu twice............right? God, PLEASE TELL ME you can't catch it twice. :(

Hats, hats, hats....

What do you when the weather is mean and bitterly cold? Knit hats!

I'm up to two so far for the month. 

 Because nothing says winter like..............lobsters?!?

These are ROCK lobsters, from Maine. (No joke - the pattern writer is from Maine.) I like the colors and always adore doing some Fair Isle so this one was a winner. Husband loves it, so no complaints there. :)

This a free pattern called 'Graham'.  (And much more navy than this uploaded pic shows. Why does this photo look so different on Blogger than when looking at it in my computer files? Hmmm.) 

It's just your basic hipster, slouchy hat. I like these because I can fit them on my head even when I have my (voluminous) hair up, as I usually do in winter. (My spiral curls are DRIED the eff out and frizzy in this weather and blowing it straight is even WORSE. Can't win. Sigh.) Even if I look like a fool when I do that because the hat sticks out and is all lumpy and bumpy.

They probably would have looked better ON someone but there is no one here atm for that. I feel like I used to use my Monkee as a model but I tried that and the results were...

Not good? 

 Oh well. He tried. I'll have to find another job for him. :)

December

One last post for 2014!

It's been a busy two weeks. Been using my time off from work to declutter, clean, organize, sort, pack up or throw away basically half the decorations and other items in the house. (I even cleaned through my birthday on the 21st! RAWRRR!) Many many boxes have been filled for good will and countless trash bags and other items have made their way off to the trash heap. Hasn't been much fun, to be honest, because it's been SO MUCH work (almost like moving) but it was very needed. I've felt for a long while that I have entirely too much 'stuff'. You go through a grieving of sorts as you bin it but then a few days later you realize you don't notice it's gone at all. And if that sounds drastic - it is............but it's also not. I still have PLENTY of stuff left! :)

(Psst. There is stuff to be given away at the end of this.)

 

It's too bad I live in too rural an area for a yard sale because I could have a FABULOUS one in the spring with the stuff currently living in boxes downstairs. Ah well. If that's the price I have to 'pay' for living on an off-the-beaten path itty-bitty slip of  a street that's hard to find even when you are looking for it, so be it. It's also quite nice when you can go hours and hours without even seeing a neighbor's car drive by. :)

So. Didn't get much knitting done for Christmas or anything else for that matter with all that going on. 

A pair of socks from November were finished and I washed/blocked the wad of blanket squares that I had finished in the last few months. (Counted this morning and I now have 82 squares completed. I think at least another 48 will be needed to make a good sized blanket. 48. *sigh*)

A new hat for Christmas.......well.......it's in progress. The lobsters are growing a little each day.

The tree finally made it up - on Christmas Eve. Better late than never, eh? 

Very nice to have it up after taking last year 'off' because KITTENS.

Said cats were nice enough to *cough* get us a present this year. (Which I generously paid for. And shopped for.)

Huh. Cheeky little buggers!

After that massive decluttering/cleaning I wasn't much in the mood for all the decorations to be put out so I kept it to the basics: stockings, various holiday candle holders, lighted pine garland on the staircase, etc. 

And I changed up my little 'stitchy' basket with a winter theme that should last until spring. :)

I thinned out my cross stitch patterns as well and have a big stack of them to give away if someone wishes to pay for the shipping on them. There is a bit of everything in there from Bent Creek, Lizze Kate, The Drawn Thread, Cricket Collection, etc. 

 There are also a bunch of Shepherd Bush patterns *without* the kit materials they originally came with. 

I've gone through each one very careful to make sure they are in order and no pages are missing, etc. It would probably be like $10.50 for a priority mailer in the US, international....I'm not sure. I would need your address to figure it but I do enough 2-3 ounce overseas packages to know it would probably be upwards of $20-25. 

You must take the whole thing though. I'd rather stab myself in the eye than have to piecemeal it, sorry! Leave a comment if you want them, if more than one person does I'll just randomly pick a name after a week or so.

Ok, I think that's it for 2014! Have a happy new year everyone! 

Bit somber here, I'm afraid, as my husband's uncle just passed this week. He had been battling cancer for a number of years and it had recently traveled to his brain. It seemed like he would have more time but he started to slip away on Christmas day. I feel so bad for his cousins who have now lost both their parents and all their remaining grandparents within the last four years. Starting the new year with a funeral means you've already gotten the worst part of 2015 out of the way, right? :(

Merry Christmas!

And Happy Holidays to all!

November!

Ahhhhhhhhhhhhh! Almost missed my picture post for November!! *scramble*scramble*scramble* 

Getting in just under the wire. :)

(This post was a real labor of love, too, because I hit something on my keyboard in the middle of it that split all the paragraphs and symbols into gobbledy-gook and, well, it took some doing to figure out how I had screwed THAT up. Turns out ctrl-alt-something will change the formatting of your keyboard to.......something that does not benefit an English only speaker. Ha!)

 Hope everyone in the US had a nice Thanksgiving.  I cooked a lot......and ate a lot. So two thumbs up for the holiday from me! (Also: watched some movies I've been meaning to get to, like Catching Fire, that I never make time for.) 

 (Much better Youtube link)

The husband was  a little more pro-active than me, as he participated in a bike run through the woods in the morning, put on by the local bike shop. (Which is also a fledgling beer company. Beer and bikes! That's aweso.......wait, what? I'm not sure they thought that one out. lol)

I will admit I was still sleeping when he got back from the run. 6am on a holiday? NOT ON YOUR LIFE. lol) 

 No crazy Black Friday shopping for either of us. Not my scene, I have to say.

Went to a not-at-all-local show up in Mass. instead and got some handmade gifts for others and a couple for myself, like Mr. Sheep here. Not sure where I am going to put him yet but I couldn't pass him up!

  

 It's been an insanely busy month because beads, beads, beads, and more beads. Every day a new pile of beads made, packed up and shipped out. Thankfully, December is a little easier because that month has more to do with personal sales (gifts, etc.) than designers loading up for their holiday shows. Just keeping my head down and plugging away at it, trying not to think TOO much about where/when I'm going to knit up some gifts for Christmas. Heh.

All the pretty 'leafs' are gone for the year now. :*(

I enjoyed snapping pics of the nice ones in my travels. I love when they look like they are on fire.

'Stitches East' socks............put to bed. 

Trekking XXL striping yarn. Fruit Stripe Gum pattern.....again. 

It's so much fun I make have to make a dozen socks in this pattern before I'm tired of it. (Pair #3 is already completed, but not photoed yet, and pair #4 is in the very, very, very early stages of being completed.)

Tomorrow is a very exciting day because...

...I finally get to start my David's Tea advent calendar!

You have to get these the SECOND they come out if you want to grab one so I've been staring at this big box for a whole month now, trying to wait until December 1st. Soooo hard! I love advent calendars in general but one that gives you a little tin of special tea every day? Ho, ho, ho!  *fans self*

I got the winter collection at the same time to keep me busy or otherwise I never would have made it. Never. Ha! :)

(Not an actual Grumpy Cat. Sweetest, Gentlest Thing Ever Cat.)

Meisha is still doing ok, so that is a good thing. Her levels are worse every time we test for them (grr!) but she still doesn't have any major symptoms. 

 I got her a new doctor, someone who can devote a little more time/energy to a rare case. Did another whole round of various tests and there is still no cause to be found for her hypercalcemia. (It's certainly not for lack of trying, that's for sure.) The testing was great overall though because her kidneys and joints showed no calcification yet, which is AWESOME. She's the healthiest terminally ill animal you've ever seen! SO FRUSTRATING! @$!@$!@#$

*ahem*

I gets angry sometimes. Just saying.

Someone pass me a holiday cookie to distract me. 

See? I feel better already. Eating your feelings WORKS, guys. 

IT WORKS. Never forget that. Heh.