A bit of catching up

I don't want to take a whole lot of time, so this may be kind of short. I do want to show you a few things that I've actually finished!

First, I actually finished the knitting of this bag at least a year ago, maybe more. Then it took me awhile to get it felted. Then it's sat for months waiting to have the straps sewn on. Today I sat down and did them. I'm calling it "Brown Goes to Market". The pattern was free when I bought some yarn at the Knitting Emporium in Kennesaw, GA. It's a mixture of Cascade wools and some specialty fibers. It was a fairly simple project. I even made some other things to go with it, but they haven't been felted. Maybe this weekend I'll get that done. I love these colors and it's meant to be a project bag.

The next picture is of my completed "I Dreamed of Africa" socks. Aren't they lovely? They are much prettier in person. They are made with Shaeffer Anne, and I have no idea what the color name is. I have almost a half a skein of the Anne left, at least that's what I think. I've got to weigh it and see. I might have enough to make some other socks with, or do something fun with.

They really do make me think of Africa, with all the reds, browns and tans and then the blue of the sky peeping through. The only part of Africa I've seen in Egypt, yes, part is actually in Africa, but I would like to go to more of the continent. Until then I can wear my socks and dream.

I'm taking a few days to relax and hopefully get some things done that I've been putting off. Mostly some cleaning and some finishing of projects. If I do manage to do more finishing, I'll be sure to post some pictures.

It's March Madness!

You have to love this month's theme. How can you not love the idea of working on something different every day you knit, stitch or crochet? Ok, I know there are some of you that have only one project going at a time, but there are far more people who are like me and have project ADD. So far I've managed quite well to live up to the name of this project while finishing a few things as well. I actually didn't stitch or knit much most day's but here's what I did manage.

March 3rd - It's race day so that means I'd be working on a square for the Victory Junction afghan project over on Ravelry. I finished another square that day.
I also cast on for another square, but didn't get much done. I decided to do some of my squares and work on some patterns from some of my British knitting magazines. So far I've done 2 and love both of the patterns.
March 5th - Knit on the Water Bottle Sling. Didn't quite finish it.

March 6th - Knit on the Water Bottle Sling and finished it so moved quickly to finish the first of my I Dreamed of Africa socks. Success!
March 7th - Started the Coffee Sling to match the Water Bottle Sling. Finished stitching the outside of Catherine Theron's lovely Quaker Sewing Case. The picture shows the front and back to the scissors fob which I finished right after the class 2 years ago.In my world, working on the individual pieces that go inside this case will be working on a different thing. That's my interpretation and I'm sticking to it!

So, that brings us to today. I haven't had a chance to do much of anything today. I had thought I'd do some finishing work, but that may wait. I need to cast on my 2nd I Dreamed of Africa sock so it will get done. Mom has a Dr. appointment Monday and socks are my go-to travel project lately.

I'm waiting for my sock yarn to be dyed for my Hogwarts pal's socks. I'm anxious to see what they look like. A local dyer is doing it and I'm very excited. Love everything they do.

So, that's March Madness so far. Not to bad!

What do you mean it's almost Thursday?

Seriously, it's crazy how fast this week has gone. I spent most of the weekend sitting on the couch feeling pretty sick. Thankfully not so sick that I couldn't knit or stitch while I wasn't sleeping.

Yes, I said stitch! It seems I've found the stitching mojo and it is all my DF Heather's fault. She finished this and I couldn't resist bringing mine out to work on. I actually made some progress on it this weekend and this is what the outside looked like when I picked it up on Friday.
And this is what I looks like as of this morning after I worked on it some again last night.
Pretty good if you ask me. I'm booking right along. Of course I haven't worked on it today since I spent most of the day at a doctor's office, running errands, in a meeting, church and then band practice. Oh, and I did some "work". (My use of quotes will have to be explained at a later date, this post is all about the stitching and the knitting.) The pattern is a class piece from Catherine Theron. If you click on over to Heather's blog (link above) you can see what it will probably look like finished. At least I hope it will look somewhat similar since we're using the same pattern. I also have the stitching done for the scissors fob. Just no picture of that yet and I've not done the finishing.

Speaking of knitting...I've been working on the re-knitting of my "I Dreamed of Africa" socks. I love this pattern and I love the yarn, especially now that I'm fairly certain they are going to fit when I get them finished. Here's what they look like so far.
Unfortunately this picture doesn't show the stitch to it's best advantage, but you get the idea of the colors. Really pretty.

That's all. But I'm happy with how things are going. I'm stitching and I'm knitting and I might even manage to accomplish something in the long run. I think I'm going to have to come up with a day or time or something to work on finishing at least once a month. I've got a stack of things to do and it seems to get bigger not smaller. I know I've complained bitterly about finishing in the past. It's not that I don't love the end result, it just gets in the way of doing actual stitching. But I'm resigned that it's a necessary evil and must be done so I can enjoy some of my pretties. Now to find and schedule a time.

I'm not going to think about that now though. I have yet another meeting at church tomorrow night. In case anyone is keeping count other then me, that's 4 nights in a row if you count Monday's which is really a class. I think that will almost take care of the month though. But tomorrow may just be the beginning of more meetings. Oh well, I didn't say no when asked so I only have myself to blame. I won't complain too much if we can get some things accomplished, emphasis on the "if".

to finish "Winter Garden Gate". I don't have an updated pictureWait, this is about stitching...oh, I know what I was going to post so I'll have it in writing. I want this is the last one I have.I may have actually done some more on this, but not certain. It's actually close to being finished so I'm going to bring it out to work on this month since it's from one of my favorite designers. I'll keep you posted.

Holidays...humph!

Today I decreed that in no uncertain terms would anyone in my family ever "do" anything on a holiday. That's any type of holiday. Even things like Veteran's Day. Apparently there is some "curse of the holiday" associated with my family that I was unaware of until, well today. I'm sure you're wondering what brought on this latest insanity on my part. Even if you aren't I'm going to tell you.

Yesterday started off so nicely. My aunt & uncle had arrived Sun. evening while I was out to dinner with friends before we took in a show. (The Wedding Singer. Highly recommend the stage performance should it be in your area.) My father took them to dinner (it's his brother & SIL so he should take them to dinner). The next morning they left around 9-ish, having not eaten the lovely bagels we'd purchased but I'm ok with that since it means I can have a bagel or 2 now. Rather then go back to sleep - hey, it was a holiday you're supposed to either go somewhere or sleep in - I decided that I needed to do some work on all those ornaments that need finishing. Plus I needed to catch up on some shows I've been recording from TV. All this sounds good. I worked on finishing, even completed one of the pieces that's been stitched for a couple of years at least. (I haven't taken a picture, but one will be taken soon.)

Let me digress from this very interesting tale to inform you that I can't estimate how much actual thread I need to make cording. Invariably I make way more then I need and I haven't figured out how to make it shorter without either cutting it (and I didn't want to do that), or starting over (and I definitely wasn't doing that). So I have this really cute piece with this fairly long cording. I make it work on the tree so I'm not upset, just perplexed.

Back to the Holiday curse...so, I'm doing my thing and at the same time it seems my father decides he should go out to the shed and replace the gas tank on the tractor. By tractor I mean a riding lawn mower that takes attachments, not an actual huge tractor. We own property, but not that much. It seems that when he was through fiddling he was closing the door and tripped over something and hit his head. The good news is he apparently didn't pass out. Nor was he dizzy. He did have a nice little goose egg on his head and managed to mess with it and cause it to bled, but only after he'd eaten lunch. Hey, he was hungry you know. So, off we go to the doctor's office to make sure he doesn't have a concussion, or something worse. Luckily his doctor had a cancellation just as we walked in, so we didn't have to wait long. We love Dr. Goh, he's an amazing doctor who actually takes time with his patients and listens to them. (I think it's because he's a D.O. and they are trained to treat the whole person, but that's just my opinion.) He decided that we needed to be safe, so gave my dad orders to get a CT scan of his brain. That we accomplished today. We'll know what they found, or didn't find, in a day or 2. I'm fairly sure if they saw any bleeding, and that's what they were looking for, they would have told us by now. Dr. Goh thought everything was fine, but better safe then sorry later.

Now, 1 event does not constitute a curse, but several years ago, on a lovely 4th of July, my mother decided that the bleach should not only go in the washing machine with my father's underclothes, but also in her eyes. Sure, she said the bottle slipped into the machine and she hadn't closed it and all the bleach just popped back at her and into her eyes, it was just a silly accident. But I'm beginning to wonder. That day we spent most of the holiday in the emergency room while they washed out her eyes and then put some protective lenses in because she'd burnt them with the bleach. Please note that there is a warning label on those bottles for a reason. Luckily I have been known to wear contacts and had some saline solution so I spent the entire car ride with her head in my lap in the back seat while I pried open her eyelids and squirted the saline solution in them. The ER doctor said that's probably what saved her sight in the eye that took the brunt of the damage. By the time we got there I had managed to bring the PH levels down considerably, one eye was very close to what it should be. (So note to everyone, saline solution isn't just for contacts. It should be in every household in case of eye emergencies. It's what they use at the hospital.)

There have been other incidents, though not as major. Hence my moritorium on work on holidays. The madness has to stop. Not to mention it cuts into my time to do what I want to do.

Ok, rant over. Other then to note that these doctors visits have meant some time spent with my new socks I'm knitting. Yeah, yeah, I'll take pictures of that too.

I did stitch tonight. Worked on a cute ornament. It's a triangular shaped Santa, I think from Bent Creek. One of the many ornament kits I've collected from the exchage I participate in. Should finish it next Tuesday night. (I've re-established Tuesday's as ornament nights after taking a little break.)

No other changes to report on. Boring me.