My newest project.....

     I found a book at Joann's a few months ago that I fell in love with....Amy Gaine's "Little Knitted Creatures" this book had everything I love about knitting: cute, easy, fast projects-on straight needles!!! The book was a little pricey so I did not buy it but I did visit it several times and even looked at it on Amazon.com....which by the way surprised me because they gave you an inside look at the book including a free pattern!!! Recently, the book went on sale and thanks to my sister talking me into buying, I brought it home! There are 26 cute projects in the book and each one is well-written and easy!
     So, I have challenged myself! I want to make all 26 of these adorable creatures-they range from gnomes and acorns to bunnies! So far I have made 4!!!!! And I just cast on my fifth!!! I do not think I have spent more than 2 days on one project....sooooo nice and easy!!! The kids in my family love them too!

Rainbow fish....made from recycled yarn

This little crab is made from Red Christmas yarn with tinsel throughout

    

Sheep made with Wool bought from Metro Richmond Zoo

Your knitting and crochet time....2KCBWDAY7

Write about your typical crafting time. When it is that you are likely to craft – alone or in more social environments, when watching TV or whilst taking bus journeys. What items do you like to surround yourself with whilst you twirl your hook like a majorette’s baton or work those needles like a skilled set of samurai swords. Do you always have snacks to hand, or are you a strictly ‘no crumbs near my yarn!’ kind of knitter.

     My typical crafting time....what does "typical" mean? LOL!! Really though I am a craft as much as possible--whereever I can or am--however I can-- person! Most days, I can be found on the loveseat in my living room with needles in hand, in front of the television, watching Sadie (22 month old great-niece) run around the living room.
     I am not a social crafter only because I am not much of a social person...I used to make jewelry with my friends but found myself helping them "fix" things instead of working on my own pieces. This is how I am....instead of focusing on my stuff, if I work with other people, I focus on everyone else and how I can help them....this can prove to be too distracting and it gets on my nerves!
     My favorite place to knit is in my bedroom, on my bed, with the television on, and my dog. He is afraid of yarn BUT puts up with my addiction because he can curl up at my feet and cuddle. However, the yarn CANNOT touch him or get too close to him...he runs and cries. In everyday life he is a vicious, horrible, Min-Pin/Pom that scares everyone (but me) and does bite. Unless you are yarn...crazy but true. Anyway, I like to knit in on my bed. There is something comforting about having my pillows and blankets around me while I attack yarn with needles. The only downside is that it is my bed....sometimes I find pieces of yarn under my sheet or between my pillows. Also, when I am working on a project I do not sleep...most of the time I have to finish my project....this can be bad because I am on my bed but cannot sleep causing a love/hate relationship between me and my bed....
     However, my dog loves when I knit on my bed because I think secretly it is his favorite place too...as long as the yarn stays on its side of the bed and he stays on his side....everything is okay....

Something to aspire to....2KCBWDAY5

Is there a pattern or skill that you don’t yet feel ready to tackle but which you hope to (or think you can only dream of) tackling in the future, near or distant? Is there a skill or project that makes your mind boggle at the sheer time, dedication and mastery of the craft? Maybe the skill or pattern is one that you don’t even personally want to make but can stand back and admire those that do. Maybe it is something you think you will never be bothered to actually make bu can admire the result of those that have.



     This prompt is an easy one to answer for me because I aspire to....well...everything! There are so many things I want to learn and accomplish that sometimes it is overwhelming. With knitting, I want to learn how to use circs, DPN's, cabling, intarsia, and how to knit from a chart...oh and I want to gain speed. To me, I am the world's slooooooowest knitter. I am envious of people who can crank out quality, beautiful, detailed, and intricate items when I labor to work through the smallest of items. OH AND LACE....lace seems sooooo detailed and tiny. Even thinking about knitting lace makes me feel clumsy and oafish, like my fingers are really sausages.
     I also want to write a craft book. Not just a knitting book but a craft book...something with a little bit of everything in it....
     I have so many hobbies that sometimes I wish that there were more hours in the day, more money in my pockets, more words to write down, and more people that were interested in what I said and did. Maybe one day....
     In life, I want to use my education for something that will leave me in someone's mind so that one day I will not be forgotten. I want to "produce" something of a legacy....whether it is a book or an idea or a product...something....
      SIGH....when I read this prompt I did not think it would make me feel so wistful....but it is....there are so many things to accomplish......

And now for something completely different....Blog Post #5

And now for something completely different! This is an experimental blogging day to try and push your creativity in blogging to the same level that you perhaps push your creativity in the items you create.




This is a blue heart. Enough said.



Where are they now? Blog Post #4 of Blog Week!!!

Whatever happened to your __________?

Write about the fate of a past knitting project. Whether it be something that you crocheted or knitted for yourself or to give to another person. An item that lives with you or something which you sent off to charity.



     Haha!!! This is a great prompt for tonights blog post!!! This question was answered for me tonight by my niece about the fate of a baby blanket I made for my great-niece, Kylie, who is now 7 months old (I made it for her baby shower gift) Here is how the conversation started:
 
Brie: Ummmm, Aunt Cathy, about that baby blanket you made for Kylie...
 
Me: What about it? Did she pull it apart? (this is a fear of mine when gifting something to a baby-that they pull the yarn out and make a choking hazard out of it!)
 
Brie: (looking puzzled)- Nooooooo....but I....its kind of messed up...
 
Me: What happened? Didn't I make you two with the left over yarn from the first one?
 
Brie: Ok, I had to throw it away because I threw up on it after my very serious dental surgery. (Actually, I added that last part because as her aunt I KNOW SHE JUST HAD DENTAL SURGERY BUT AS A READER NO ONE ELSE KNOWS)
 
Me: You threw it away? You couldn't wash it?
    
     At this point her mother, my sister, jumps in and tells me that it was not something that would come out but that Kylie still has the other one so its not that bad! Because I know how bad my niece has had it since her very serious dental surgery, I am not mad. PLUS, Kylie loves her blankets. When she was an infant, my niece lined her bed with the blanket (ummm...number 1 blanket...number 2 came later when Brie asked if I had any spare yarn left so that she can have an extra for when the first blanket was dirty....wow...she looked into the future there!) I have seen Kylie using the blanket to learn how to crawl-which she is the QUEEN of doing- and I have seen her cover up with the blanket when she was suffering through teething (she has two bottom teeth now!)

Kylie-looking cool with her shades!! 7 months old!

     

Tidy Minds, Tidy Stitches- Blog Post #3

How do you keep your yarn wrangling organised?

     When I read today's prompt for the 2nd Annual Knit and Crochet Blog Week 2011, I started smiling right away! First, I have to admit I was a little confused as to what the question was asking: what is this "organized" that the question asks? How does one define this particular word??? Soooo, I thought about it and I think I came up with a satisfactory answer. "Organized" is what people who do not keep all their yarn in hundreds of bags, thrown in the back of their car, and stashed all over their bedroom does with yarn!
     I have never been a neat knitter. When I knit it looks like a small child has run through the house with a pair of scissors and a skein of yarn--yarn droppings everywhere! Pieces of paper with indecipherable scribblings of k12, p8 litter the floor, the couch, the bed, the car-everywhere! One day some futuristic person will find my house/car in an archelogical dig and will run to the nearest expert to try and decipher exactly what the small pieces of scribble mean!
      "Boss! Boss! I found these items on-site', a breathless archeology student yells as he comes up from a giant pit in the middle of Virginia, 'I think it is some dead language! We have to get this right away to the top translators of the world! What do you think "k18p3k15YOk10ptbl" means? Why are there check marks, circles, lines, smiley faces, and X's all over? Is this a warning?"
     The tired female boss-lady who has been overworked for the last 4 months on the site of the dig looks sadly at the young, eager student and thinks two things at once. The first thing is "No one should be that eager and young!" The second thing is "It is a good thing he is cute-because he is as dumb as a post!" Slowly she tries to explain: "Calm down!' she snaps because people that are that eager are also hard of listening, 'Let me see those scraps! This is not a dead language! This is not a cryptic message....it is the scribble of a knitter trying to follow a pattern! It's not interesting! It is just laziness from a messy knitter!!! Don't bother looking for her needles, her books, or her projects!!! They were buried with her!!" As she said this, the tired female archeologist slowly smiles to herself and thinks about her stash of wool at home....sigh....a few more hours until knitting time....a few more hours.....

Skill + 1UP--DAY 2

Here is my 2nd post for the 2nd Annual Knit and Crochet Blog Week 2011!!!


BLOG TOPIC #2
Look back over your last year of projects and compare where you are in terms of skill and knowledge of your craft to this time last year. Have you learned any new skills or forms of knitting/crochet (can you crochet cable stitches now where you didn’t even know such things existed last year? Have you recently put a foot in the tiled world of entrelac? Had you even picked up a pair of needles or crochet hook this time last year?



      Over the past year I would not say that I have really learned anything special, just improved on what I knew. This time last year I was making a baby blanket for my great-niece-to-be, Kylie Rose, but being the over-achiever that I am I also knit booties (3 actually because they came out 2 different sizes), a hat, and my first ever baby cardigan. Since then I have spent a lot of time making toys-they are my newest passion. Because it is Easter time a lot of my items have been bunnies but I have also done 4 Stegosauraus, (Stegosauruses? Is one a Stegosaurai? Hmmm...) a caterpiller, 3 bunnies (ummm I have one on my needles as I post this so 3 and a half???), a bunny nugget, a half of sheep (no I am not a sicko!! I am just having problems deciding whether I like the pattern or not!) a couple of mice, an entire Snowman family and a few I cannot quite remember. I have learned a few things making toys about myself as a knitter.
      I can't make faces. No matter what I try I can't figure out how to make a face on anything. When I do make a face they are twisted or fall off or just look...weird. I have given up! If I can't find a way to find pre-made faces then my toys will be face-less. Oddly, enough it is not a creepy thing. All of them have eyes so that helps (I use beads or buttons! No sewing on of these either!!!) Another thing I have learned is to use really inexpensive yarn to practice the pattern on...sometimes the pattern is off or the gauge or just me (see half a sheep comment above!) but either way I never use expensive (in other words I use RED HEART) yarn to make a test first. Too many twisted up, forgotten, wrong looking patterns to waste good yarn on for my taste!! Cheap yarn first and then the more expensive yarn for the final product!!!
     Future goals for my knitting: to learn to use circs and dpn's, make more toys, and just enjoy knitting more!! It is supposed to be a hobby, right? Not an all-encompassing obsession?? Just a hobby....