This is the first item made with my anniversary yarn - well, it's the second, the first thing I frogged because I didn't like it. But this hat I like a lot and I made it this morning (read late last night) while watching Prince Caspian. Get this: I started it at the beginning of the movie and I was done before the end of it. It took less than one skein of yarn. And the skein was 197 yards.) The fiber is
Universal Worsted Weight LP. It's self-striping - didn't know that. The photo doesn't do it justice. I showed it to Mr. Honey and he said, "Hey, that's really cute!" It looks like it's a color pool but it really isn't the color rows are close together. I really had no idea it was self-striping. Really pretty. 15 years because we've been married that long - get it? OK, no said I was a comedian.
In the interest of full disclosure, I stopped writing this post to go watch something on the t and v and while I was doing that, I completed another hat. I am beginning to think my progress relies on the that particular bit of media and that frightens me just a little.
Remember I told you a while back I joined Crafter's Choice? I joined because I got 4 books for 99 cents which turned out to be four books for $11 because they put the price of the books in the shipping. Still, it was a good deal and I was going to fulfill my obligation of buying one book and then get out. Well, I have fulfilled that obligation by purchasing three books. There was a deal. I could have purchased the one book for $12-$15, 2 would have cost me $30 and three cost me $33. So, I purchased three and am waiting for them to arrive. Once they are safely within my walls, I will cancel the membership and be done with it. I will also tell you what the books are when I have a chance to look at them!
I have a prayer shawl and an afghan on the needl
es. I also have in my head the second Sit and Knit for the year. We will be making caps for patients and the Cancer Treatment Center of America - Chicago. I do have a great book called Craft Hope. I find this book very inspirational and it has given me some ideas and starting with the caps is a good one. I will be spending some time getting that idea together for a fall Sit and Knit so we can make holiday caps for the patients. My goal is to have 100 caps done on the day because the center goes through 100 caps a week.
It's windy today, but it's beautiful - go out and take in the air.
I broke my resolution. I purchased yarn. I cannot blame the fabulous Melissa - though she was with me - she actually tried to stop me. She didn't try very hard but she did try. Even the store owner tried to stop me.
I purchased seven skeins of 100% merino yarn in a lovely shade of blue originally priced at $16 per skein and on sale for 50% off.
I am flawed. And happy.
But I have to say I am happy and I am also feeling guilty. I no longer carry my credit cards because it is just too tempting. I need to stop myself before I get too far out of control. This is a real fear.
This is the lace crochet slouch and it is off to a new home in Portland, Oregon. I am
thrilled to have another sale. I was lamenting with Melissa on how i can increase my sales. She gave me some really good suggestions and Mr. Honey gave me some of the same suggestions so I should probably listen to them.
I am going to take pics of the projects I have on the needles. Well, one of them because it's a scarf made of Cascade Magnum and it's an awesome pattern. The other two are stash busting afghans and it's all squares and that's kinda boring but the one with the Cascade is really has an impact.
So I am off to prepare and ship the cap off to the west. I hope your week is a great one with people to love and work to do!
Another block has been completed. I think it's number 12 - might be number 13 - there was another completed that I do not count because it is horrendous - even more horrendous than the one I did that I do count. This one has no cuteness about it. I am artistically challenged. Wait, that's a lie - I don't have enough skill to be artistically challenged. I do not have that gene, germ, synapse whatever is is that people have that helps them become artists. I do not possess it and it clearly does not possess me.
I am a mature woman. I know not all talents are given to all people so this serves as only the means which God is telling me not to apply to the Art Institute or even fill out that match book cover with the advertising 'can you draw me?' when it doesn't matter, if you say 'no, i can't' and send it back, you'll get an acceptance letter. You would. I would get a note saying 'thank God, we would have felt bad taking your money.'
The block is call Bobble Lace because there are
bobbles all over it outlining the lace pattern. I am surprised it took only a couple of hours - I would have had it finished by the end of Prince Caspian but I had to take out a few rows near the end and redo them but it was finished only a couple of minutes after.
It was too early to go to bed - a decision I regret as I fall asleep at my laptop - and I looked over a cap I crocheted the night 
before. I looked it over and decided I could design a slouch beret. Really, how long would it take me? I had an idea in my head and all I needed to do was to start crocheting.
I finally crawled into bed a little after 2 (my usual time but I was tired. Brain freeze. Thinking at that hour of the day is unadvised.) I was up and dressed by 9:30 this morning and came downstairs to finish it off and this is the result though you can't see all of it. The back has similar lace like at the brim with the double crochets in the middle. And it can be slouched or worn like a flapper. I even wrote down the pattern. Now all that is left is to get it tested on Ravelry to see if it makes sense and then I can type it up with t
he last one I did (the Glee hat) and start selling both of them.
Yeah, that's all. I don't know what gets into my head sometimes but it would be nice if common sense made an appearance. Just on odds it should happen a couple of times a year.
What if it happened already? Did I miss it? Nah, I would have blogged about it.
I took something of a nap this afternoon. There I was going along with my day when I found myself really tired. Naps are not something I do. Mr. Honey does one every day. He comes home, eats, if it's Friday he will go to part one of his grocery shopping, and then he takes a nap. Usually lasts about four hours. If I am really lucky, Duke will go upstairs and nap with him and I have the entire house to myself with the strange comfort of having both boys home but out of the way.
But today I found myself upstairs doing something and then I was lying in bed and I told myself if I could count to 100 and not fall asleep or lose my place then I would get back up. (I couldn't do it - in fact counting to 100 was a tip my Mom gave me to lull myself to sleep.) I was awake when Mr. Honey came back and he got into bed and it was a mere hour later when he turned that I knew I had to get up. One, I was in bed for almost two hours and I didn't sleep well, and two, that turn meant the snoring was about to begin. It can throw off airplane tracking so I had to get out of bed.
Turns out naps aren't for me unless I'm sick. Good thing to know.
Look at what I made. It's more than you think. Yes, it's 
another Glee Gnome Hat but this one has a detachable pom-pom and what's more it has a pattern to go with it. I stayed up last night and knit this while writing the pattern. I then requested two knitters from the Ravelry testing patterns group to see if they could follow my instructions to whip it up. (Except their instructions were for attaching the flower like in my first hat.) We'll see what happens. If I can clear up the instructions, it will be the second pattern I sell. I will also be putting this one up in the shop as a special order.
The second baby sweater is almost done. I have to do the second sleeve, block and put together. That will leave me some time to try and get my friend Victoria's second hat done. Don't ask me why I am making another hat for her because I don't have the answer to the question. I suppose since I will be knitting anyway I can spare the fiber and the time to bond with a great kid.
It has been raining all day. It stopped long enough for me to take pictures of the cap but the rain has been almost non-stop. I am not complaining because this could be snow - which they are saying we are going to get a light dusting of. My flowers are poking out there heads on the side of the house so I guess Spring or something like it is coming.
I'm looking forward to it!
The Cubs have lost their first two pre-season games. So the perfect season will not be.
Note to Albert Puljols: you turned down a 10 year $200 million contract. Let me give you a reality check - no one on the planet is worth $200 million. Considering that you will be 41 - way old in baseball years - that's not a deal you turn down. With workers demonstrating in Milwaukee, you don't turn down the amount of money that would pay them all for several years. 
You get $16 million a year now - you should play one year for free.
Here's the other granny square hat. Poor little Styrofoam head can't handle the rasta. It took a lot to try and keep her upright when the cap was on her head. I need one of those heads that have hair. I've said that before. I say it again because I still don't have one.
At our Wednesday get together and the one we had this Sunday the wonderful Melissa and the endearing Chantal had some orange Sugar N Cream Cotton which I just fell in love with. Chantal would not even think about letting me have it - I asked - and I knew better than to ask Melissa. This morning when Mr. Honey took me out to breakfast I asked him to drive me over to Micheal's so I could get some of the goodness for myself. Now I have three balls of it along with two of a nice blue I didn't know they had.
But these are the small skeins so I am wondering how many scrubbies I will be able to get out of them but I am filled with happiness that I have them and I know where to find them if I should want them again. I was so tempted to buy the self striping cotton yarn but saved that for a later time. (This is why we have husbands...)
I believe I will be finished with my special order hat today - the gnome hat inspired by Glee. I made one last night that turned out more skull cap but it's really cute and it serves as a nice cap - especially with the flower I put on it. I am writing up the pattern and I will take a photo a little later. I want to finish the other cap first and write that pattern and do a two-fer.
Tomorrow is the kid's birthday. Mr. Honey mentioned it at breakfast today. 33. Where does the time go?
I'm not quite sure what I want to be when I grow up. I'm not quite sure I want to grow up - which probably makes the decision that much harder. I'm just saying.
I have the urge to do some emotional eating so today I have had some ice cream, even though my free day was Wednesday and the next one isn't until Thursday. Now that I have confessed, I will be able to stay away from the rest of the ice cream which is feeling ignored. But speaking of frozen goodness..
These are the caps that have made the cup. Don't they look like three scoops of sherbet? They are comfy and cute and I think I said before they don't even use a half skein of yarn so they are going to be very inexpensive. They take about five hours to make and I decided not to put the plastic in the brim and it still works. The other three or four prototypes are around here somewhere and I am going to wear them. I am even going to wear them outside and advertise my own stuff. I am more than happy to tell folks that it was a draft and direct them to the final products coming soon to the site and then whip out a business card and give it to them...on the premise they don't laugh, point at my head and say 'what the heck is that on your head?'
The new year and new projects have started. I am still on the prayer shawl run (10 and counting) but I have also added a cute newsboy cap to the mix. I have made four of them already (they take about 6 hours.) None of them are fit to sell.
It is cute, isn't it? There some work that still needs to be done the finishing part and I have to scale down the patter cuz I think it would darling as a kiddie hat.
They take a remarkably small amount of yarn. (I can probably get three out of a 350 yard skein) and the brim will stay in shape if you use a smaller needle and double it up so I won't need the plastic that's in this sample. Using the same pattern with a different yarn (all the same weight) will still cause the gauge to change. Caron yarn makes them run bigger. Red Heart makes it stretchier (I had some left over from long ago. Can't tell you the last time I bought some on purpose) Hobby Lobby probably works the best. (Note to self - write the Hobby Lobby folks and tell them to stop raising the price of I Love This Yarn - It's gone up at least 50 cents in the past year. If it goes over $3/skein it's no longer a value over Caron by the Pound.)
How about this for a little piece of irony? My first sale of 2010 was of an
afghan I made almost a year to the day it sold. Remember this afghan? It sold to a repeat customer. Someone who bought the red feather and fan afghan - again almost a year after I made it. I'm glad they have gone to a good home and it just goes to show how you shouldn't give up. Trying is the key to both success and failure. Failure and trying again is a key to success.
Speaking of which, we got the final approval for the Craft Cafe and I am working towards a March date which means I have about two weeks to build the website and another week after that to get the word out to crafters and suppliers. It will be a new venture for 2010. One that am prayerful about because it can be so rewarding for everyone involved - including me. Please add to your prayers that it will be a successful venture.
I have to go eat something. My new regime says I have to eat a small meal every three hours. I was on the same plan a few years back and it was very effective. Then I stopped and that's why I have to start again. I eat this way for six days and I have one day I can eat whatever the heck I want. That day is Wednesday and believe me, I am looking forward to it. I already have the thought of what I am going to have that day. In the meantime, I will go have my meal and then get back to work on the prayer shawl that is on the needles. If I work really, really hard it may be done today as well.
I love knitting!
This is the first item made with my anniversary yarn - well, it's the second, the first thing I frogged because I didn't like it. But this hat I like a lot and I made it this morning (read late last night) while watching Prince Caspian. Get this: I started it at the beginning of the movie and I was done before the end of it. It took less than one skein of yarn. And the skein was 197 yards.) The fiber is
es. I also have in my head the second Sit and Knit for the year. We will be making caps for patients and the Cancer Treatment Center of America - Chicago. I do have a great book called Craft Hope. I find this book very inspirational and it has given me some ideas and starting with the caps is a good one. I will be spending some time getting that idea together for a fall Sit and Knit so we can make holiday caps for the patients. My goal is to have 100 caps done on the day because the center goes through 100 caps a week.
