New Hobby.

But not for me! For the hubby. :)

Last week we made the (2hr) trip up to Northhampton, Masschusetts to the much-loved and always-awesome WEBS yarn store so he could take a 2 day class in......

WEAVING. Specifically weaving on a Rigid Heddle loom. 

He's always wanted to try it out and the basic class they offer is a good way to figure out if you like it or not. They provide the loom and most materials to take the class and a Rigid Heddle isn't too expensive an investment, as far as looms go, if you decide you want to continue on with it. (Very easy to store as well because it folds in half!)

Northampton is a college-y New England town and we were blessed with the most glorious fall weather while we were up there so I got to spend a lot of time walking around town, enjoying the fall weather and colors while he is in class. The Yarn Harlot was teaching classes all day there at the same time so I even got to bump into her - in the doorway of the restroom at WEBS. Because OF COURSE that is where I would literally bump into her. No nice conversation over yarn for me, just HEY LOOK........bathroom?

I didn't spend too much time in WEBS myself  but the time I did spend there was pretty neat - as far as customer watching. I never get tired of seeing what projects/yarn people are hunting for. :) They had 3-4 registers going, almost the entire time I was there, which is pretty nuts for a YARN STORE, you know? SUCH a busy place! I love it. The Freia yarn above is the only yarn I bought while I was there so I WAS REALLY GOOD, too, as far as that goes!! :)

Anyhoo. I hope he sticks with it...........I have dreams of woven cotton dishcloths and plaid scarves..and lots of stuff for ME *fingers crossed* Wait. No, no, no, I mean I hope he's happy and has fun with it. That's what I meant. *ahem*

This brown scarf is the first thing he worked on at home, made out of, I have to say, TRULY TERRIBLE yarn. Yarn I should have thrown out long ago but the colors are pretty so I never got around to it. (I did a pair of socks in another colorway in this stuff and had to THROW THEM OUT after *one* wearing because the yarn was THAT felty and awful to wear.) It looks great but I'm still throwing major shade and side eye at it because I just know that sucker is going to felt if worn out in wet or snowy weather. :(

Oh well. If it felts, it felts. He needs to do a bunch of basic scarves to work on his tension and stuff anyway. I'm always happy to share my yarn stash, too. Maybe not ALL of my yarn because I have a few favs that are too near-and-dear - but MOST of my yarn is up for grabs at any rate. It is an interesting thing, weaving. I could see me doing it but you can only have so many hobbies so I'll leave this one all to him. :)

I've been busy busy with bead orders lately but I've been TRYING to squeeze out a little time here and there to do a few new things as well. To that end, I've uploaded some new stuff over the last few days:

Fingers are totally frozen now putting this post together. Whew. Need to go do dishes or something to warm them up!! :) :)

Another week.

It's crazy how fast this summer is going by!! It doesn't help that I've been seeing a lot more Halloween beads being ordered from my web shop the last couple weeks. (Yes, Halloween. Already. I do love the colors in Halloween stuff though so I don't mind it.)  

Mostly everything is put back to rights from the lightening strike. (Was that LAST weekend? Good god it feels like a MONTH ago already.) New grass is being grown to get rid of the dirt runway in my lawn, we've started purchasing some new flowers and plants to replace the big bushes that were pulled out near my front door, and all the smoke damaged clothes are off being handled by a service that specializes in that type of thing. Insurance paid for everything right away so....WHEW. No worries there. (Thank you, Safeco Insurance. You were, dare I say it, quite amazing to deal with?)

Hey! Do you want a free pattern?

I finished up my Dandy Dreams and, in the spirit in which it was given to me (thank you, Maggee!), if you'd like to stitch it too I will be happy to send it along to the first person who asks. I stitched this up with no mods in the colors, on a.......I believe it was 36ct fabric? Loved it, aside from blurry issues with my eye sight, that seems to be affecting everything I do lately. (Not sure if I 'suddenly' need bifocals or what. Does that come on you real quick like? I'm off to the eye doctors in a couple weeks at any rate because it's really annoying. It seems a little better when wearing glasses vs. contacts so I'm just sticking to glasses when doing my handwork stuff.)

I've been meaning to get to finishing up another WIP project so I went digging in my storage ottoman (where things go to die) and came up with this........

You know what? I kinda hate this project so there doesn't seem any point in finishing it, to be honest. BYE BYE, FISHIES. (insert 'swim with da fishes' joke here)

Like: the pattern, the colors. Dislike: the linen, linen, linen

I feel like the stitch count is too big for such a simple pattern. It needs to be done over one or over two on a much finer linen, like a 40ct. It's hard to tell in such a random picture but the fish are just too.......BIG. Don't like. Moving on.

I started something else but it needs more work before it has a TA-DA!!! moment. :)

If you ever wondered (which I'm sure NO ONE has) where my interest in handwork type things come from, I offer the above towels as evidence that it came from my mother. She did those last month for me. All freehand and her own pattern. She doesn't care for cross-stitch because it's too 'structured' but she can embroider the hell out of most anything. (Thanks, Mom!)

My wee little kitties-to-be are getting bigger and are *almost* big enough to take home with us. They are being weaned this week so we're almost there. :)

...Hearts....

 'Tis the season for lots of hearts. Which is fine by me because I never get tired of doing them. It's a welcome, happy break when it's all doom and gloom outside your windows, you know? :)

 How many hats do you need to knit before it's a 'thing'? This is my third hat completed in four weeks. lol

(Irish Hiking Hat - free online pattern - done in about $5 of Patons Classic Wool. Very easy. Knitted up in TWO days!)

Also finished?

The freaking mittens I started back in SEPTEMBER. Feels good to finally be done with these. The yarn is a Shetland wool so it's sticky, sticky, sticky to work with and I would get annoyed with the two colors constantly twisting all up in each other's 'business'. (I've given up on learning how to do Fair Isle knitting using two hands, which would minimize those sorts of yarn issues. My left hand REFUSES to learn it. Um, hello - I AM LEFT-HANDED???? Why for you fail me left hand??

Grrrr.)

 Makes for a very woolly and warm mitten though!! These will be quite nice when walking outside.

Annnnnnnd, now I have exactly ZERO knitting WIP's left to tackle, thank you very much. Can get started on the massive pile of stitching WIP's now. (Soooooooooo many to get through. *sigh*) I really am going to try to add AS LITTLE AS POSSIBLE to the stash this year because it's totally, totally out of hand. 2013 is for stash busting!!!!!

It's so durn cold out though I might have to start a knitting project soon just to give the ILLUSION of warmth around here because...........BRrrrRrrrrrr! So cold. lol

Holiday Giveaway time!

 Little bit of blogging first and then I'll get to the free stuff. :)

I haven't managed a day off from work..............yet. But it's coming!!!

Etsy shop is closed down now and I *was* going to wait until this weekend to shut the web store down but I rethought it and now that will be closed sometime tomorrow too. Three weeks without a day off and an annoying bout of dizziness the last couple days have me waving the white flag. I need time to regroup; physically, mentally and just about any other 'ally you can think of. lol

(Also: need to finish cleaning my house and Xmas decorating. The tree is up - with lights but no ornaments on it. *sad*)

I did manage to put together some stuff for a holiday giveaway though!

A little bit of everything - so something stitchy for stitchy peeps and something beady for beady peeps, etc.

The stitchy stuff is a brand-new Blackbird Designs stocking pattern (I overbought but my whoopsie is your gain!) and I made a handy-dandy fabric thread catcher to match. The fabrics on the thread catcher aren't OVERTLY Christmasy though if you want to use it year-round. (I can't promise a couple beads won't work their way into this offering too though. Heh.)

For the beady stuff I did up four different hatted snowmen and wired them up with Swarovski crystals and put them on coordinating lobster claw lariats. Perfect to put on a pair of scissors, your cell phone, etc. - or take it off the lariat and put it on a chain for a necklace! (I went with snowmen because they can work as a trinket all winter long vs. just a few weeks in December.)

So FIVE separate things to giveaway! :)

Here is how you can get them:

1. To enter all you have to do is email me. ( I will ship it anywhere in the world so everyone is welcome to enter.)

 

2. If you have no preference on what you'd like to win, no message is needed on your email. If you'd prefer one thing (stitchy) vs the other (beady) then feel free to put that in your message.

  3. If you are a follower of this blog, let me know and I will enter your name in twice. I do so appreciate my followers and the comments I get here so of course you guys get extra special attention. :)
(If you are not a follower but want to be, just click the 'follow' link on the right side bar. Everybody has a Google account at this point................right?)

4. I will draw the winners names next Tuesday, December 18th using the random number generator. and contact the winners by email for their mailing addresses.

And that's it. Easy-peasy, right? :)
GOOD LUCK!

Too soon?

For most of y'all - PROBABLY. 

But I've been knee deep in the Halloween beads for a couple weeks now. 

(This pile was from a few days ago.)

It's my favorite holiday, because of all the GREAT, bright colors so I'm having fun. Ask me again about it in September though because I might be burnt out then. (Or not. I really DO love working with all the purples, limes, oranges, yellows, purples (I love purple so it gets two mentions), etc.)

Also loving:

Olympics. I'm a junkie. Totally totally junkified. 

(Which is really odd seeing as I don't like watching sports on tv otherwise. I tolerate a *bit* of NASCAR  - but only a bit - and nothing else at all.)

I absolutely ADORE the equestrian events, which you can only get, really, online here because you're lucky if they do a highlight reel on tv, never mind actually show the entire event. (I'm bitter about it.) So I was up and ready for the cross country jumping this morning at 7:30am. 

74 riders.

6 hours.

 Yep. Watched it all. :)

  The live feed had this wonderfully droll British announcer that sounded just like Wallace (from Wallace & Gromit fame). I could listen to that all day, it's just so delightfully...........British.Going on about 'cracking good rides' and 'great knobby horses'. And when you put a horse on to boil or off the boil and all that. Love it!!!

The third phase starts tomorrow at.............5am. 

Hmmmm. Might be a little late for watching that one! I don't get to bed usually before 1am-2am so I don't see 5am happening. I'll probably check in again around 7:30am and hope there is some good jumping left to see. I don't have much patience for the chopped up, time delayed stuff at night so I'm finding the main NBC site is quite good for viewing stuff live. (It works quite well on your iPhone as well for watching on the go.) In case there are any other junkies out there. :)

New new new.

Firstly, I hope everyone had a great Mother's Day. :)

I'm not a mother but I didn't want to feel left out so I made myself a nice home-cooked 'mother's day breakfast'. lol (It was YUMMY too!) And then I was busy for the rest of the afternoon doing lots and lots of housework and food shopping. Hmph. (That part wasn't as fun.) The weather was just PERFECT perfect perfect though and I did manage to enjoy a bit of it out on the deck, doing my nails and chillaxing with a book.

I also finished a new stitchy!

This was the Shepherd's Bush kit that came out a couple months ago. Quick stitch and even quicker to finish. I went digging in my fabric stash and, shockingly, found something that closely matched the chenille trim that came with the kit. (Shocking because I don't have too many fabrics in the purple-mauve-plum tones in my stash.)

Not too cool? The chenille trim didn't fit the piece. 

!@#$!@#!@#$!@#!@#!@#

Disappointing because the kit instructions call for cutting the square to 8 inches and I actually cut it to 6 - so by my reasoning I should have had EXTRA trim, not fallen an inch short of it. Grrrr.

The gap is on the bottom so it's not really noticeable but it's going to bother me knowing...it's...there...mocking....me. I'm going to email them and see if they can send me out another piece. If they don't have any extras, I'll hit up the lovely Victorian Motto Sampler Shoppe for some other chenille trim. I'll get 'er done one way or the other. :)

Also new, some new beads are up on the shoppe pages and Etsy:

(Plus others.)

I also spent a little time redoing the front page of my web site. Always good to spruce things up once and again. I get bored with it so I have to think OTHER people get bored with it too. lol

There's more work to be done to it, I think, but I'm done with it for the moment while I think on it. I'm no pro when it comes to html and style sheets and blah blah blah geekspeak so I have to move carefully and slowly and to get where I want to go and my brain is melted after this first go round.

My bad.

I think I forgot there for a couple weeks that I have, like, a blog and stuff. And I should, I dunno, like.........USE it or something. lol

I have been keeping myself busy OFFline though! :)

There have been a few new beads posted:

I am making good headway on the long, long, long list of WIP stitching projects I have started or kitted up around the hosue:

An Ewe & Friends Roly-Poly Snowman. 

I had this kitted up for so long that I probably had 75% less wrinkles and gray hair when I first put it together. *cough* Finished it up in FOUR nights. (What the heck was wrong with me that I let it go so long??) I think I want to finish this up as cube. Hmm......

Some Midnight Stitching cutie-pie snowman hearts started last winter. 

I actually finished up a pinker version of the right one last winter but I ended up HATING the fabric it was on (too holey) so I restitched it on a better fabric and did it with a different red too, because I love deep reds. 

A trio of Bent Creek minis. 

(The third one, a wee little house, was downstairs when I was picture taking and if you think I was going to  haul off and go down two flights of stairs to get it in the interests of doing a blog post, well then, you don't know me very well. My sedentary nature knows NO BOUNDS.)

I'm loving my new most-favoritest nail polish (all new polish automatically becomes my most-favoritest, you know that, right?)

He gifted me the OPI from his visit to the hair salon last week and it's the perfect shade of green for this lime-loving gal. (Matches my pocketbook, my iPhone cover, AND my Fire cover! lol) Paired with an iridescent top coat? Totally springalicious! Like a perfect, glittery easter egg. I may be stuck on this combo for a while. (The top coat is clear with an iridescent micro-glitter - not white like it looks like here.)

Trying to get back into reading every day again. Currently on tap:

This one just came out TODAY (or the Kindle version was just released, not sure about hard cover) but I had it pre-ordered and actually started it this morning. I have a friend who has been living in India for a couple years now (husband's job was moved there) so I'm not entirely ignorant of how things work there but I still fully expect to be horrified, frustrated, angry, depressed, interested, saddened and moved by this book.

Enh. Not loving this one. I'm giving it a few more chapters before I give it up entirely. (It's probably not the book - I'm just hit or miss on nonfiction.)

You're either a foodie or you're not and non-foodies can ignore this one. Personally, I love these collections because I love food blogs in general. And I like how most of the essays are short enough that you can pick one off here and there when you only have a little time to read.

Watching a whole of this:

I never got around to watching it when it was on air but it's on Netflix streaming so I'm picking it off, little by little while I'm working, etc. I can't say I LOVE IT but it's entertaining enough.

I just finished up season three last night and it doesn't seem possible that it had enough juice to get through three MORE seasons? Hmph. I'm not sure I'll make it all the way to the end, to be honest. /shrug

Whew! I think I'm all caught up on the goings on of late now. Nothing terribly exciting going on, to be honest. lol It may not be very snowy/stormy out this winter but it's still winter and it's still COLD and, therefore, still a little dreary and blah. Here's to spring and more interesting goings-on! :)

Oh happy happy weekend!

And it's nice and SUPER sunny too, which is ALWAYS a mood booster this time of year. :)

 Hard at work this week on adding little goodies on the site/Etsy for Valentine's and spring. Ahhhh, spring! It won't hit here until May but one gets tired of working on nothing but snowmen after awhile. (Still no snow here though. Haven't had a single flake since Halloween, which is totally crazy! I really don't remember if we've ever had a winter with NO snow before?!?)

Also: finished my 'Christmas' hat this week. Yay!!! Another WIP killed, only one left to tackle now. Nothing like being two three weeks late and stuff with the christmas knits, eh? But it's just for the hubs so he can deal.*snort* 

(He *did* get a pair of mittens and socks that made into his stocking for Xmas so I wasn't TOTALLY off the ball here.)

The pattern is called Snowbird (check Ravelry for links) that I purchased from the Stitches East show in 2010. It's pretty funny looking when you are wearing it, to be honest, but this is the same man who goes around the yard in a humongous rabbit fur hat - complete with ear flaps - when shoveling, etc. so at least nothing DIED for this one. :(

Of course, I find ALL winter hats slightly ridiculous in a vague, make-me-chuckle type of way, so it might just be me.

He wanted to have something he could wear to work so I did it in the color palate of his uniforms/work clothing - though he still can't actually be caught wearing it on work grounds, they're so so so so picky about such things. *sigh*  He'll have to save it for when he is working away from work - if that makes sense - but that comprises 98% of his work day so it's all good. The double layer of wool will be nice and toasty for working outdoors all day. :)

The only change I made was to make the inside brim in the same wool (Cascade Superwash) as the rest of the hat instead of doing it in cotton like the pattern suggested. Hates knitting with cotton. Hates it. *shudder*

I'm getting a little tired of doing nothing but colorwork project after project after project but I still have a pair of colorwork mittens that needs some thumbs so once more into the breach....................After that is done though I'm digging into some serious STITCHING. I WILL FINISH SOME ORNAMENTS THIS YEAR. WILL. I WILL. I WILL.

Hope everyone has a nice weekend!!!!!!!!!

Bullet: DODGED.

As in, I was sweating bullets when that October Surprise aka SNOWMAGEDDEN passed through here this weekend because I was *sure* the power would go out, given how many damaged trees there are now from that pesky Irene. It flickered enough to keep us in a state of anxiety about it but crisis averted! WHEW. This should be the last one we sweat through too because the electrician is finally coming this week to wire up a generator all 'proper like' so we will, at the very least, be able to keep the fridge and water running for future outages, which is all I really need to keep me happy. Unspoiled food and toilet privileges and I can live like a king  queen. :)

It's good too because I had SO MUCH work to do this weekend if I hadn't been able to get to it a total nervous breakdown would have imminent. Exhibit A:

Beads made this weekend. As in, the last two days. 

TWO. DAYS. 

(There are at least 400 beads there, believe it or not. *I* believe it because I've lived it but you? You might have some doubt.) 

My left hand is BUSTED like woah now though. Sorry sorry state it's in. I was cleaning and stringing them for over an hour and had to walk away because my left hand isn't working any more. (So I went on to...........photo taking and TYPING UP a blog post...........because *THAT* will surely help things. *eye roll*) I'm hoping two Advil get it 'back' enough in the next hour or two because I have to start digging into another stack of orders this afternoon. I'm down with the whole 'making hay while the sun is shining' thing re: working a lot a lot a lot.............. until my left hand stops actually working because the muscles on the top of my hand are busted from twirling mandrels for umpteen million hours. (Unlike over-knitting, which targets my right hand, I can't be going WHOOPSIE and dropping 1000 degree hot-like-FIYAHHHH things in my lap when working because of numbness. Doesn't work.....not without some serious burning of shit.......or skin.) So we'll see how this week goes. Worst case scenario I'm calling a time out, closing up shop, and taking a week or two off. I could use a break so it won't be the worst thing ever. :)

Anyhoo, I'm now going to show you some things that totally doesn't jib with the hand issues of above but 1) the mitten knitting all took place the weekend before and 2) 97% of the sock knitting took place earlier last week i.e. I've done nothing at all this weekend, knitting-wise. So trust me - I'm not compounding the issue the last few days like a fool. :)

So yeah. I finished the second of the big giant Man Mittens started in September in preparation for last week's Stitches East:

Yay! One pair of unfinished mittens done, one more to tackle.

And mad love was given to a an ever-hopeful thought of finishing up some October socks. (Pattern: Monkey!)

Outlook now: dark and cloudy given my numb hand. But I managed to get 3/4ers of the way through two-at-a-time socks so I made good progress before the shut down.

Also making me sad:

OH NOES!!

My favorite pair of socks, with both heels found to be held together by nothing more than magic dust and a prayer. The stitches seem to be, quite literally, held together by nothing more than a whisper. It's like watching a slo-mo train wreck. You know it's going to blow out and turn into a raveling mess at some point real soon but it's going to taunt me in the meantime until it happens.

I feel certain a new heel could be put on by picking up the stitches where the heel turns but I'm not sure I have the stomach for such fiddliness at the moment. I have to contemplate things for awhile and come up with a plan of attack. The rest of the socks are in such good shape, tossing them, at this point is just NOT an option. 0_o

Edit to add: Ravelry says I finished those socks in Feb. 2009. So nearly three years of wearing them once a week for 5 months a year (they really are my favs).........yeah, I can see why the heels are blown out. Plus, note to self: STOP 'SKATING' AROUND ON THE WOOD FLOORS ALL THE TIME LIKE A BIG IDIOT.)

State of the Stash.

But first......

I know I said I wasn't going to do any more new Halloween items but someone asked for an owl for Halloween so..............

Who am I resist such a thing? I am weak in the face of Halloween requests. :)

(A few other, non-Halloween things, have also been posted, btw.)

Well...................we made an attempt to go through my poor stash stuff this weekend and here is what I was able to save:

Yep. One lonely little bag of snowflake buttons. *sigh*

Everything else was tossed. All of my Crescent Color threads, the silks/Watercolors/Waterlillies/etc, metallics, floss bags, extra DMC I had in a bag, a box of new DMC colors that I had never gotten around to wrapping on cards, a box of the DMC linen collection..........*sad*

Could have been worse, I guess. At least my DMC was in separate boxes so that was safe. I don't even want to think about having to replace an entire collection of DMC. (Heeeeee heeeeeeee hooooooo! Oh god no.) 

And if this had happened this time last year all of my WDW and GAST threads would have been in there too. (Those collections have gotten large enough that they had to be moved to their own storage box.)  

I wasn't even able to save the plastic container everything was originally in. 

Now this I really don't understand. You think some harsh detergent/Nature's Miracle/Simple Green combo would be enough to clean hard plastic............and you would be wrong. lol All of the stuff I lost was in floss bags which were closed, didn't even get wet, and they were still disgusting. WTF?

Oh well. I reordered the Crescent Colors and a couple other things that I use all the time (don't ask me how much that cost) as a super-early birthday/Xmas present to myself and the rest I will just reorder if/when I ever get to the project that I originally bought them for. On the bright side, it will fun going through a whole ton of new threads once that order comes in. :|

 I have plenty of cats left to get all up in my business but, thankfully, I've never had any problems with my Himmies. *crosses fingers*

Though they *do* like to help you do pretty much everything you want to do without them around.

Seriously guys? It's a bag of buttons. And a camera.  So not that interesting! lol

He might actually be sitting on the buttons at this point. But I let him because he was sitting pretty for a quick photo. :)