Well that week FLEW by! Always the worst part of taking a week off - the CATCHING UP you have to do when you get back to real life.  

SOMEONE had a 17th birthday the other day. (Hint: it wasn't me.)

Thanks so much for the kind comments about my poor boo-boo kitty. He perked up a bit mid-week and seems mostly back to normal now, or at least his 'normal'. As his brain started healing though the 'must eat everything sight' switch got turned off again and I'm now back to trying to coax him into eating all day. He really, really, really hates the kidney diet prescription food. Like, really hates it. What's the point of food to extend his life a little if he's going to starve to death in the meantime? I keep trying to stick with it (and have for over a year) but at this point I think we have to concede that we are both terrible at sticking to a diet. I can't blame him for being happy with bits of ham or cheese. Aren't we all?

Anyhoo, I'm trying to catch up on photos, photos, photos. I keep taking photos of things but then never posting them. Grrr. I actually did manage to finish a few things on break, that I was very glad to get finished and off to the great Finish Bin in the sky, I mean my closet.

 God I really don't like these socks. I started them in January and JUST finished them, so that right there tells you how disinterested I was in them. I took a skein of yarn I really didn't care for (too thin and splitty) and paired it with a slip stitch pattern that I also didn't care for (because it's a TERRIBLE CHOICE FOR A SPLITTY YARN) and GUESS WHAT? They were a miserable knit from start to finish and I will forever be shocked AND awed that I finished them. (In my defense though I picked that pattern because it helped alleviate the thinness of the yarn. It creates an almost woven fabric that adds bulk.)

 Also finished: the bonus charts from the L*K mystery sampler that I started last summer. Very much not miserable to finish and I'm glad I finally got to it because these are cute and I love Halloween stitchies. :)

 And a bunch of totally unphotogenic Scrap Yarn Blanket of Doom squares. I needed something mindless and quick to start/finish to clear my head of the oogie-boogies from the stupid socks. Blanket square I can finish in 90 minutes? YES PLEASE. I think I'm up to 8 new squares now to add to this never ending, not even CLOSE TO BEING FINISHED project because I'm still having fun doing up new ones. Once I get a bunch, like a dozen, I'll wash and block them so they look pretty and totally not like wadded up Kleenex. :)

To 'reward' myself for finishing a stitchy wip I did up a brand-spanky new-to-me small one. I randomly picked colors for this Val's Stuff freebie and think it came out pretty good. (Though I curse you Belfast green linen for always being IMPOSSIBLE to photograph nicely. What is it with this color??? So pretty in person SO HORRIBLE ON THE INTERNETS.) Could use some more contrast in the nose but I can live with it. Original pattern doesn't chart a flower or bunny tail but it's pretty easy to put them in. (Can't have a bunny without a TAIL?!?)

Now that that is done I reached into the nether regions of my wip stack (also known as my storage ottoman in the living room where things go to die a lonely death) and pulled out another wip to tackle. Oh, how optimistic I was when I happily stitched in the year 2012 on this!!! Twice. *face palm* Oh well. 2012, 2013. Isn't time just an illusion anyway? How can be sure that ANY sampler with a date stitched in is correct, right? So I'm keeping the 2012. And don't be thinking I'm almost done with this because there is whole other section of frames that go on the bottom of this. I originally abandoned this because - SURPRISE SURPRISE - I made a little boo-boo with the border and one of those borders is off a little. And ripping out black floss is miserable so I put it in time out. I think I'm mostly over it now though. Aside from talking about my failure on the internets, of course. lol

Whew. Now I'm all caught up I think, aside from adding these to my project pages. Yay!! :)

Weeeee - I'm no longer a virgin!

How's that for an attention-grabbing subject line? :)

Seeing as I'm going to celebrate my 20th wedding anniversary later this year I'm not, of course, talking about THAT kind of virgin. I mean I'm no longer a SWEATER virgin. 

I've knit almost a 100 pairs of socks (or maybe even a little over a 100!), at least a dozen scarves, more than a few mittens/gloves and a few cutesy-poo toys but never, ever sweater. Partly because I'm SERIOUSLY, RIDICIOUSLY BAD at reading knitting patterns and wondered if I could actually muddle my way through it, and partly because, well, it's REALLY FREAKING expensive! lol 

But I saw this pattern last Year and was like ZING! Gotta have! MINE!

I bought the yarn for it last October from WEBS....

...similar color as the original but only because there weren't many colors to choose from when I purchased this...I'm kind of bummed at how many more choices there are now..

...and in my typical, procrastinating way I didn't get around to starting it until this week. *ahem*

Did my swatch, got gauge, measured for gauge a few dozen times more, wrestled with the provisional cast-on, watched a few cast-on videos, unfurrowed my brow, started the provisional cast-on again, worried about the looseness of the provisional cast-on, counted my stitches three times, still ended up one stitch over after the hem was done (*sigh*), knit that together with another stitch and pretended it never happened (BECAUSE IT DIDN'T *STARE*), measured for gauge a few dozen more times, worried it was too big.....Oh and this is all within the first 7 inches of knitting. If it goes like this the whole way I MAY DIE FROM ANXIETY BEFORE I FINISH IT. I think it's the whole ' you *WILL* turn this $70 of yarn into something wearable or ELSE, MISSY!' pressure.

I can live with too big though. Too big I can 'do'. I've been schlumping around all winter in the biggest, baddest brown knit sweater/cardigan thingy like it's a Snuggie, may have even rocked it at the supermarket a few times too, not caring how schlumpy and homeless it makes me look, so there. Damn thing could cover a small house if needed but who cares when it's 62 degrees in the house and you can cocoon in the middle of it until you get warm enough to feel your fingers/toes again? Yeah, so. Too big I can do. As long as I end up something that I can WEAR, even if it's only around the house, I'll be happy. And who knows? Maybe it will set off this whole sweater-knitting-revolution for me and I'll become a sweater-knitting machine! (Or not......unless someone figures out how to rewire my brain so I can read these stupid patterns a little better. Pfffft.)

Hmph. I *really* have to get a handle on the projects this week.

There are neat piles of 'stuff' from all over my fireplace hearth in my living room and, yet, I keep_starting_new_projects. I went from a stack o' Blackbird stockings to be finished up, to knitting squares for the Scrap Blanket of Doom, to stitching up a couple Halloween stitchies, to itching to dig into this mystery bag of yarny goodness that came last week:

Look at it......so mysterious...........wanting to come out. It's whispering......knit me......knit me......... knit me. GAH! I'm trying my best to ignore it until I catch up a little because the way it is right now I'm leaving little slips of fabric, thread, T-pins, polyfil, and measuring tapes everywhere I go.  Soooo.............

Designs by Bent Creek & Val's Stuff

I buckled down and finished up my two new Halloweenies into pillows. And let me tell you - this is some of the worst sewing I've done in a while so don't look too hard at the supposed-to-be-straight sides, ok? My sewing machine doesn't have a permanent place outside of the storage closet and I didn't feel like taking the trouble to set up the card table for just two small things so I plunked that sucker down on the foundation ledge. It's sturdy, it's fits..................the foot pedal doesn't reach the floor? I didn't let that stop me so I pretended I had no legs and used my hand instead. LOOK AT ME GO WITH THE ONE-HANDED SEWING. Oh wait, LOOK AT ME SEW CROOKED LIKE OMGWHOA. *snort* Won't be trying that again. Promise. :)

And I also got all the August/September stockings cut out, interfaced, and prepped for sewing together. Will tackle that tonight before I get distracted by more Halloweenie stitchies. (I pulled a bunch of fall/Halloween stuff out of my stash so it is also calling my name at the moment.)

Scrap Blanket of DOOM has been relegated to on-the-go status - meaning I will only get to it when I'm in the car (I don't drive) or steal a minute here and there. I finished up another SIX squares last week but I was in the car a lot - I don't expect to get more than one square a week done up (if that) under normal circumstances.

I have to say though that these are SUPER EASY to knit  - even casting on in the car, while it's in motion, is easy-peasy! They are taking me about 90-120 minutes per square to knit up so they aren't super QUICK (those last few rows take foreverrrrrrrrrrrrrr) but it's fun to see how the colors are going to come out as the square goes on.

 

I just hope the last ten squares are just as fun as the first ten have been. lol (Because there are going to be many many many squares in between.)

New Year, new beads!

Go me for starting the year off with at least a stab at productivity after taking a few weeks off. (I figure this kind of thing can only last about a month before I lose steam though. I mean new beads, new Etsy *and* a giveaway all in one fell swoop? Mark the date because it may never happen again. lol)

I've got a few new things up in the Bead Shoppe (though, admittedly, not as many as I hoped but there is always next week):

 

I also had a good time sorting through my bead box to come up with some sets to offer up at huge discounts. (And I do mean HUGE.) I put them all up on Etsy because these are all 'one offs' i.e. no redos on these. (And, as always, I will combine the shipping if you have more than one order. One shipping charge covers everything!)

Etsy Buy Handmade moonrakerbeads

And something new for this month - a GIVEAWAY. Because we all like free stuff. Spend $35 or more over the course of the entire month and you will be entered into a free giveaway for this little set:

No need to keep track of anything or send me an email on it, etc. I'll tally everything up on the 1st of February and contact you by your Paypal email to let you know you won. (International customers are also included!)