A BIG PROJECT FINISHED!

What satisfaction to have a big project finished. Darling daughter and family love to go camping and last fall purchased an old 1980 small travel trailer. On my last visit with her I brought home all the cushions to make new covers. Yesterday was the day. I have a sewing friend visiting and we did them all. There were 6 total. Several of them very large and hard to deal with.Then I added a pillow as well. What a change from the old brown scratchy covers from 1980. We worked the two of us all day and we finished. I also learned a lot about covering cushions. One you need to find somewhere to purchase long long long zippers. I went to the local drapery/slip cover lady who gladly sold me what I needed. She even started the zipper pulls which is an ugly job in my opinion. Now hubby will deliver them this afternoon on his way east for a week of fishing. I plan to stay home a few days and get things in order for the upcoming workshops. Then I will do some quality grandchildren time. However there are also curtains to make for this little camper. Another day another time.

My company leaves this afternoon and I plan to make some cases to show off the wonderful ChiaoGoo needles I am selling. I think after my first sale on Wednesday I need a better way to display. Thank goodness it did not matter to my customer. I can tell you for someone addicted to yarn visiting a shop brimming full to the ceiling it was an seeing how much self control I had. Lots of wonderful yarn and I held off and did not come home with more. I am most proud of myself. I have made it a rule not to buy yarn on my working visits. However I will soon know where to find yarn!

WHAT A DISASTER AREA!

OK where have I been? Take a look at this mess! I had to move from my little office in the laundry room up to the kitchen because it is toooo darn cold to type downstairs. We seem to have a bit of a delay on summer arriving here. I do not consider 40 in the morning warm weather. Now I am in the kitchen working like wild. I have a 3 workshops to be finished up, the directions written, the samples knit and the booklets for hand outs printed. Way behind would be a good way to put it. This picture is of where I am knitting and writing right now. On top of this I have now taken a job. I am a sales rep. for ChiaoGoo knitting needles. This means learning the numbers and the line. But oh how much fun to visit yarn shops and see what goes. I personally love the needles and so that makes it easy. As well as they are so wonderful and nice to work for. Then add to the mix out of town company coming Wednesday, The covers to sew for daughters camper and getting hubby off for a free fishing trip he was asked to participate in. I think home alone a few days will be a good thing for me. It does not end. June 5,6,7 I will be teaching for the Buffalo Knitting Guild. What fun to do once the preparations are all complete. Also will be visiting yarn shops the day before the workshops.a tough job for sure. Then it is off to TNNA in Columbus, this for work as well. Back home again and then a brunch to host for some out of town company. So if you don't hear from me for a bit I am alive and well. Really involved with all things knitting I will try my best. Perhaps some great pictures of neat knitting things from my travels.

Susie has two graduations in her family to attend to. But once that Katie is finished she will have even more time to knit. I hope we get her to blog a bit for us. Once her life is quiet.

I don't forget about all of you who take time to read this but sometimes "my life gets in the way"

Finally some progress

I know I have not been the best blogger lately. Seems like life sometimes gets in the way. First a week with Lillie age 4 here and then last week I had Bandit the puppy. Lots of fun with him but he is sure full of energy. Then the sewing room clean out and organize. I am still not quite finished with that. All this going on and I get a call to help with some items to be used on Saturday for a local fund raiser. A "Kentucky Derby Gala". They needed saddle blankets for some of the models they are using as well as some embroidery on things. I took time out to help with this as the funds go to our local library. That taken care of I participated in the "Wee Tiny Sock Swap 2009". I have that mailed.

Then a great fabric hunt. I live in the middle of nowhere it seems and have little choice in purchasing fabrics. After a trip to our local JoAnn's and finding they did not have enough denim for my next big project of one color. I can't believe how many colors of denim there are. I need 16 yards to cover the cushions in my daughter's camper. Finally found a helpful clerk who offered to order it for me bless her big time. Then the second fabric hunt was for printed cotton knit. Not baby prints and so far that is all I have found. Louis #1 Grandson has a birthday coming and what he wants are PJ's from Nana. He loves the soft cotton t-shirts and elastic waist pants for summer. I was reduced to solid colors so will need to add some nifty ribbing and perhaps some embroidery.

With all of this I am working on a workshop booklets for a workshop in Buffalo, NY the first weekend in June. I will be teaching 3 days. I have the yarn ordered at this point and am busy working on the patterns. They are originals of mine but with a new computer I know they could look so much nicer so I am reprinting all of these. I have one I finished this morning. Really pleased with how it worked out. Called a "little soap sack" I will be teaching the basics of lace knitting. When I take a class I like to have something I knit to look back at and refresh my memory. You will see the picture at the top of the blog is this little project.

One more day and husband is off to hunting camp. Turkey season in Pennsylvania. I will be working on workshops the entire time he is away as well as trying to fit in some sewing. Never dull here!

NON KNITTING PROJECT

As I have no knitting to blog about I thought I would share this idea with you. Often you can find the old basket type purses at thrift sales. Here is a great use for one. I made Lillie an Easter Basket by changing ribbon and trim. Filled it with grass and her Easter items. Great for small little girls as there is a lid and during the egg hunt things stay inside. She really loved it. This week her favorite color is purple so I used purple flowers and a glue gun to trim the top and just ran some ribbon around the top. I did it too late to share for this Easter with all of you but thought you might want to be on the search for a basket and put it away until next year. With 3 dogs to keep up with life is pretty busy around here.

Yesterday was a sewing day. I hate to mention this one but shortly after Sammy the Cavalier came to visit, he chewed the bottom of the leather sofa, matching chair and ottoman. I have fussed over this for a long time. The furniture was in perfect condition until he arrived. The blue duct tape did little to add to the decor of the room. Yesterday I took some plaid fabric with the blue of the leather in it and made a skirt, flat not gathered or pleated, and used the staple gun to attach it. Looks great if I do say so and now our family room is not so shabby. Best part was the fabric came from the stash. Now I know why I save all this stuff.

Two great ideas for Earth day, save and reuse!

KNITTING NOT!

This sweater nearly did me in. Yes as dear husband says why do you wait until the last minute? I don't really know but I seem to always do this. I thought since I had the cute jacket for Lillie for Easter it would only be fair to knit Louis a sweater. Here is is and he does look handsome I think. However I found doing this in just a few days was not smart. I have been in knitting jail ever since. I apparently pulled my neck muscles and had such pain I was in the ER. Thanks to some great meds ,which make me so sleepy I can't stay awake. I am nearly back to normal but no knitting has taken place here in over a week and I am suffering from serious withdrawal. Now I can always blame it on the other things I was doing for the grandchildren like cut out cookies and a purse/basket for Lillie. I know inside was the knitting.

The yarn came from my stash, some wonderful stuff my friend Ann shared with me a long time ago. It is called "memory yarn" mostly cotton with an elastic fiber added in. Manufactured by Melrose. The directions call for you to make a size larger than normal as well as each section an inch longer. I did all of the above and it was a perfect fit. This stuff is wonderful no sag and ba and ribbing really ribs. Louis was so pleased he had it on all weekend. Now I am going to hunt the stash and see if I have some more of this great stuff. I did find while knitting that the regular metal needles were a bit sticky with this yarn and went back to the good old fashioned Balene that I hold so dear and have stashed away.

Now I am baby sitting with daughters dog while they vacation. The large dogs are at the kennel but the little fellow Bandit (he is in the center) is here with me along with his mom Vera and Sam the original Cavalier who lives here.

More later on what goes on here. I have another project to show you all later.

I LOVE SHEEP!!!

I think that all of us who love to knit have a real passion for sheep. I think they are a big part of our lives. So many kinds of wool and the like. The following link is one of the most amazing things you could ever imagine about sheep. I enjoyed it so much I need to share. Thanks to my knitting friend Sally for sending me this link. Hope you enjoy it as much as I did.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D2FX9rviEhw

CRAYON BOX JACKET

I can not even remember when I started this little jacket it was so long ago. The pattern is Crayon Box Jacket from I think I started and frogged about 5 times. Then read Vivian Hoxboro's little book on Domino knitting and decided to make the little squares using her directions. I also was told by a friend that to use just garter stitch gives a nicer appearance. This makes sense as we all know garter stitch and stocking stitch provide two different gauges. With all this information the project was a delight to do.

Here is my hint if you wish to make one of these: 1. choose only garter stitch 2. do as Hoxboro suggests slip the first stitch of each row knit wise and purl the last stitch.

After I started using this system things rolled along quite nicely. I finished the jacket added the neck band, front borders, and bottom border. Knit up the sleeve gusset and here is where it all went "south" so to speak. The yarn I used for the borders and gusset was one I knew I had 3 or more balls of and I finished up one of these and then the hunt began for the remaining yarn. I hunted and hunted to no avail.

Next step clean out the yarn room. What a mess, I found things I had no idea I owned as well as a lot of yarn that made me question my sanity. Why or why would I keep all these bits and pieces. Also a few unfinished items that I did the "pull out the needle and dump" routine on. I have sorted and cataloged for nearly a full week. Still no yarn. Now keep in mind I am a protestant but I have heard of wonderful things from St. Anthony. He really came through on this one. I found the yarn yesterday slipped down behind a little chest that holds needles and the like. Many thanks St. Anthony who helps find lost items. Now I have finished the little jacket.

I love this and may just start another with something else. Great fun to work on once you get it down. I will admit some short 7" Signature needles made a huge difference. I dearly love the stiletto points and for modular work they are fantastic. I love the sock needles as well. Save your pennies and try a set.

Now I can return to finishing the last of the sorting and stash reduction. You know I had to quit that to finish the jacket. I think I shall add a pretty pink ribbon at the neck to tie a bow. I did not put buttons on because Miss Lillie moves so quickly the tie is much easier on her mom.