Monday and new yarn

How was your weekend?  Was Father's Day a big celebration at your house?  We were quiet here, very quiet.  I think I might have a problem, you see when I am home I never want to leave.  Not to run errands, not to go to dinner.  I like my home.  I am a Cancer, we are home bodies, but for me, especially lately, I just want to be here.  And I want to be here ALONE, but that never happens.   Maybe it is menopause, or I am just so darn tired of driving the hours I do every day to work and back.  I think my husband is feeling I am getting very boring.  Home is comfort and since I am still a bit off, (really when am I not a bit off) I need all the comfort I can get. 

Yarn gives me comfort.  I want to show you the beautiful yarn I received this weekend.  I had a visit from one of my Medical Foster Mother's and her brother, she has the home where my little buddy lives.  Her brother taught her to crochet a while back, wouldn't you love a brother that crochets?  He has since taught himself to knit.  He was having a bit of trouble with the knitting thing so she wanted to come over and spend some time getting him on track.  I love to help a crocheter or knitter in need, especially when they surprise me with yarn.

Amazing yarn goodness, yum!

This Malabrigo is from my Medical Foster Mother for taking care of my buddy last week.  My favorite yarn in this gorgeous color combination it is called Archangel, lovely I think, don't you?

 And these lovelies are from her brother, all for trying to help him out.  The very colorful yarn is Knit Picks Stroll, do you remember the yarn I made the shawl for my Medical Foster Mother? This is the yarn and I am thrilled to work with it again.  The green yarn is from The Verdant Gryphon, it reminds me of Ireland, or at least what I think of Ireland, green and lush.

I am not so sure I helped a whole bunch.  You see he is a left handed knitter and I am right handed, it does pose a bit of a problem.  But we worked things out like why stockinette stitch curls, how to do a ribbing, joining in the round, and how to do a fun basket weave pattern.  I showed them my craft space and got lots of oohs and ahhs over my new curtains.  It was a very fun afternoon.

 The rest of the weekend (when not gardening or cleaning) has been spent on this.  I am through with the top part and am now working on the bottom crochet portion. I have winged it a lot on this pattern, I didn't want my crochet to be too frilly and cutsie, so I put a bit of a square border around the top.  I am aiming for the same on the bottom, scallops and such are cute but not really for me.  Again here I go making something I know is really not my style, what is wrong with me, I seem to keep repeating the same lesson, over and over.  But when I saw this pattern I knew I was going to have to give it a try, even if I never wear it.

I am usually not home on Monday mornings.  Today is the first day of summer school for a few of the kids I work with.  In order to make sure the bus came and they knew what to do, we decided that school was a priority not therapy.  I will have an extra long day on Wednesday to make up for today, but for now I am enjoying this time at home.  I was outside this morning tending to my plants when I turned around and saw my boy reflected in the pool.  The pool turns on at 9:00 AM, the water is always moving after it turns on, so it was beautiful and still, just perfect to see my Max in.

He was not amused I had my camera out, you would think he would be used to me by now. 

Before I go I want to thank you all for your lovely comments on my crochet curtain.  I really love it and to answer a few questions.  The Sugar'n Cream yarn I picked worked perfectly for this project.  It is cotton and a bit stiff so it is perfect.  I am not using Sugar'n Cream for clothing or a blanket, I think it is too rough, but for this it was perfect and inexpensive. I always go up a needle size or hook size when I crochet or knit, but for this project I went up two sizes and used a J 6.00 mm hook.

Hope that helps.

Window Makeover

Sometimes when you are just minding you own business, innocently trying to make an African Flower baby blanket, something jumps off your computer screen and demands attention.  I felt that way when I saw the Flower Power Valance by Robin Sanchez at Once Upon A Pink Moon.  I just about screamed with happiness when I saw this valance, could anything be cuter for a window?  I knew it was a matter of a few hours before I started it.  I jumped in my car and drove to Joann's for some yarn.  I bought a cone of Sugar'n Cream white yarn and got busy.

This is all I had left over when I finished last night.  This was a very, very fun project.   I loved every flower.  Robin did a fantastic job creating this pattern, it was well written and easy to follow.

Well what do you think?  I took these at 8:00 PM so the light was not that great, I took more this morning that looked even worse, but you get the general idea.  My craft space is looking pretty good if I do say so myself.  I love this valance, it adds so much charm and coziness to my little area.

I measured my window which is 72 inches across, I made 11 flowers for the top row and 10 flowers for the bottom row with two half flowers on the side.  Robin has directions for the whole flower and the half flower, they were very easy to make.  The yarn cost $9 with my 40% off coupon, and the rod was about $6 at Home Depot, fun and inexpensive, you have to love that.

 

I am loving my little bit of flower power, and with this project completed I am up to 21 completed projects for the year with 9,880 yards of yarn used so far in 2013.

 

Do you all know Pammy Sue of  Scotty's Place?  If you don't hop right over there and get to know her, Pammy Sue is so funny and my goodness she is fast with a hook.  She creates amazing crochet projects and will make you laugh all the while you are on her blog.  Pammy Sue sent me a link to this pattern (aren't bloggers the best?)  She said it reminded her of me, well you know what it reminds me of me.  I had seen this a while back, but of course now that I have been sent the link I have become obsessed. 

This is the Keila Top by Handy Kitty.  You can download the pattern for free on Ravelry.  

I got busy scrounging around my craft space.  I still have the bottom of number one dress, the dress I put the arms in upside down and had to throw out the top, this might be perfect.  I also have this gorgeous Malabrigo yarn that is supposed to be a Christmas gift, but who needs a cowl right now?  I mean it is summer after all.  I think this might be a very fun project to work on this weekend.  Pammy Sue I am holding you responsible for not finishing my African Flower baby blanket.

   

I am leaving you with this.  My buddy went back home on Tuesday, boy was I tired and in this picture he was, too.  He fell asleep in his lunch.  He was talking away to me while I was cleaning the floor, and suddenly it was silent.  I looked behind me and this is what I saw.  Priceless.  He is very happy to be home with his family, and I am very happy not to have my floors spectacularly clean.  Remember the days when your little ones were crawling and no matter how hard you tried they always had dirt on the top of their feet from crawling on your floor?  He is a cutie that is for sure.

Happy Friday to you!

Feeling a bit off center

I have been feeling a bit off center these past couple of weeks, and when that happens I completely withdrawal into myself, I am a Cancer after all.  I love the comfort of my shell, and I don't want to talk.  So I have quietly looked at all your blogs, being a lurker for a few weeks.  Hope you do not mind my lack of comments, I am trying to be a bit better starting today.  

My wonderful sister Claudia has done some much needed updating to my blog, I thank you so much Claudia.  Now you can follow me on Pinterest and bloglovin, July 1st is coming quickly, the end to our Google followers fun. I don't want to join circles and have a bunch of people I don't know joining me.  I feel like I am back in high school trying to be a lot cooler than I am.  I have a thing with the whole Google empire, I don't think anyone should have that much knowledge of me.  So it is bloglovin for me, hope I don't lose too many of you, that would make me so sad.  I have said a million times I can not do a thing on this blog without my sisters help.  Claudia is so patient with me and now doesn't even try to make me do it on my own, it isn't going to happen.  I really just mess it all up, I have no idea what hlm thingy I have to do with this widget and that widget, so thanks again to you dear sister for helping me out.

Last week I had a field trip to  my favorite yarn store in  Tampa with a few friends from my knitting group.  Knit n' Knibble is a fantastic store, you have to visit it if you are in the area.  I walked in an immediately saw this lovely yarn bowl sitting on one of their big work tables. I immediately fell in love.

I have wanted a yarn bowl for years, they are not in abundance here in Florida.  I wanted to see it, and touch it before buying it, and look here it is the perfect one.  It is extra large, there is 450 yards of sock yarn in this, I love it.  Let me say it was pretty expensive, something I do not usually do splurging that way, but I do have a birthday coming up.....that is my excuse, and it is pretty cute.

Dress number two is completed, and it only took me two days.  It is amazing once you get those arms put in correctly it is much easier the second time around.  Something I always forget about myself is that I am tall, and frankly not that cute.  I am 48 and this dress looks like an Easter dress for an 8 year old.  I think I will hang it in my closet for a bit and pass it along to Goodwill.  Someone might wear it because you know what, I'd look foolish in it.  I need classics, classic lines, shapes and colors, not cutesy.

To keep with the sewing theme (and slightly less cuteness)  I made this dress from two large men's t-shirts I bought on sale at Target.  I followed part of the directions from Anne at WobiSobi, and then did the neckline on my own, because once again I am not cute and young and can't get by with a neckline hanging off my shoulder.

My little buddy is back for a visit, and Max is holding up very well.  He has allowed patting and hair pulling, and lots of drool on his fur.  He is an angel my Max.  My little one is with us for a whole week while his medical foster family is at Disney with their adoptive daughters.  They deserve a break and my little guy needs to crawl around and explore, being in a hot stroller all day at Disney would not be fun for him.

From time to time Max needs a bit of time to himself to regroup from the little boy that is constantly invading his space and saying, "doggie".

And little one is busy, busy, busy, pushing trucks and bowls around, saying, "beep, beep" and, "outside," and crawling to the stairs to call for my youngest son.  He is a treasure.

Hope you are all well, I will try to catch up with you all in the next day or two.

Button, Button, Who's Got the Button?

Hi everyone, this is Claudia, Meredith's sister.

Meredith, my wonderful, adored sister can do lots of things extremely well. There is one area where she freely admits she is lacking and that is doing anything remotely technical with this blog. So, after trying to figure out Blogger's new version of a template and html code (yikes) I've added a Pin It button to the bottom of every post - so you can pin anything your heart desires. And I claimed her blog on Bloglovin and you can now follow her there. Since Google Reader is disappearing, Bloglovin is the perfect way to follow along with Meredith's adventures.

I also added a "Follow Me On Pinterest" Button.

Both buttons are at the top of her sidebar.

Meredith knits like a dream and she made a dress for my Maggie Rabbit. And an apron. I just received them in yesterday's mail. I'm posting about them tomorrow.

So I think I owe her this little update at the very least!

Meredith will be back soon.

Thanks, everyone.

Ignore this, it's to claim the blog:

Follow my blog with Bloglovin

The Sewing Faeries

We are the little known Sewing Faeries and we have decided to take over Meredith's Blog for the day.  We love to cause a bit of mischief here and there and she has given us the perfect opportunity.  She is out for a walk with her dog Max on a rare Friday off, something about one of her little ones having strep throat, can't go to work....blah, blah, blah.  So here we are!  

For those of you that sew we visit you every once in a while to give you inspiration and to help you through a tough project.  All of that helping you achieve sewing greatness can take its toll on us, you see we are Faeries and we do like to have a bit of fun.We are the ones who move your scissors or laugh hysterically when you can't find the reading glasses that are propped on the top of your head.  

Meredith was like the perfect storm to us.  We spotted her in Joann's one day marching purposefully to the Clover crochet hooks, she had that air about her, a bit too cocky about her yarn skills.  We knew from her past history that she had some sewing experience, limited at best to Halloween costumes and placements, but she had some experience and that was a plus.  We knew she had a sewing machine and a serger, which to us means twice the fun.  We helped her to slow down as she walked by the fabrics and notice the beauty all around her, usually she only is drawn by the yarn fumes in the store, fabrics she did not ever seem to notice.  We magically put 40% off coupons in her purse and enticed her to walk by the very simple, super easy, patterns section.  We knew if we were going to nail her the pattern would have to be on a display rack, this woman was not going to sit and flip through pattern books.  Then it happened she reached for a simple dress, six pieces of fabric stitched together with some elastic, and poof you are done, it seemed easy enough.

Meredith bought everything we told her to by whispering in her ear.  She took it all home and but it in a bin.  We waited, waited and waited some more for the perfect time to help her make this dress.  A three day weekend seemed perfect.  Normally a dress of this easy level should only take an hour or two, but with Meredith we decided to have some fun.  You see she is extremely menopausal, her hormones are all over the place thanks to the Hormone Faeries.  She gets very confused and easily overlooks the simplest direction, ah she was the perfect candidate for some Faerie fun.

First we confused her with the pattern layout, then we kept breaking the thread on her serger, it was a hoot. But when she put the arms in upside down, twice well that was priceless, we could not have asked for more fun, and she did that one all on her own!  

Finally we felt she had had enough, bless her, she needed to complete that dress before too long or we knew she would never sew again.  She is such a fun subject we knew we did not want to be done with her quite yet.  So we helped her sew the sleeves on, in the right direction, she is a therapist after all you would think she would know that your arms do not grow out of your waist.

 We helped her put the elastic in the sleeves, neck and waist without it getting too caught up on the inside seams.

And we helped her to hem the bottom of the dress, of course it is a bit wavy, her first project in ages can't look that good.  After putting the finished dress on Caroline the dress form we helped her to step back and take a good look.  Keep in mind Caroline has no waist, or hips, well she has no bust either but neither does our student Meredith.  Caroline is looking pretty snazzy in the super, simple dress that has now taken Meredith about a week to finish.

We had so much fun at Meredith's expense we had her stop by Joann's again yesterday on her way home from work, those 40% off coupons are working in our favor.  She picked up this linen blend, with little flowers for a steal.  We might have her hooked.

 Oh no what is this?  Speaking of hooked she has started something new, Lord that girl has a short attention span.  We saw her outside yesterday evening playing with yarn and swinging, with the most sublime look on her face.  This new African Flower is what we found in her basket.  We knew she was up to something when she looked so content.   We had better get busy and not let the Crochet Faries have a laugh at our expense.

Oh, and by the way, when she shows you pictures of flowers she is trying to distract you from looking too closely at the things she has made.  I mean we love flowers we are Faeries after all, but even sweet little roses should not divert your attention from her projects, and all their irregularities.

We better get going we see her walking up the driveway with that Max, he knows when we are around and growls at us a lot, which only makes Meredith lose her concentration and adds to our fun.  We might go a bit easier on her with dress number 2, I mean it is the exact same pattern, what could go wrong?

Things I have learned from sewing......

There are several thing I have learned from my sewing experience and none of them are pretty.  For all of you out there who sew, I take my hat off to you and give you a bow.  You are amazing. Yesterday I hurried up and did my cleaning, started my laundry and took Max for a walk.  I was ready to get my two dresses going.  They had been pinned, cut out and I had read the directions, I jumped right in.  So these are a few of the things I have learned from my sewing experience yesterday.

* I can not sew.

* I can not sew a straight seam, it does not matter how fast or slow I go, they are not straight. 

* I can not read a pattern.  Knitting and crochet patterns are so easy to read.  Really if you take it line by line eventually it will all make sense.  Sewing patterns not so much, they give you diagrams and sort of tell you what to do, and I think they assume you are awesome at sewing so they leave the rest to your imagination.

* Working on two of the exact same dresses at the same time makes my already muddled brain more muddled.  Even following this simple direction, "Sew bodice front to bodice back at the sides." Left me confused.

* No matter how hard I tried, and read and re-read the directions I ended up with my sleeves sewn in upside down, on BOTH dresses.  I wish my arms grew out of my body in a different direction but they don't.

*  When working in a gauze type fabric it is best to just throw it out if you have made a huge mistake (see above) because there is no way I am ripping out two seams sewn, 1/8 of an inch apart and a serged seam, without creating big gaping holes in the fabric.

* Decide to throw out the other dress top also because I have more fabric in this color and it is much faster to just start over on the whole darn thing.

* After cutting out new top and sleeves, put all of this away as I have had it for the day, sewing and sewing mistakes can leave you exhausted.

* Decide to clean the tile and grout in my shower because this is something I actually can do, and will give me almost instant gratification, unlike sewing.

* Spend extra long time in shower after it is clean, trying to get rid of headache I already had before I started the sewing fiasco, and try to relax.

*  After shower go outside with a late lunch and read Knitter's Magazine when my youngest son comes out to chat and tells me that my, "feet are gross and look old, and so do your hands."  

* Wish darling son, who is generally very quiet and sweet, would go upstairs and leave me alone.

* Now I have had one son discuss my aging feet and the other mention I have more wrinkles than any person he knows (which would include his 94 year old Grandmother).  Feel that like I did something wrong raising these two monsters, which would normally make me feel a bit sad, but yesterday just irritated me even more.

* Go inside to put the tea kettle on to make some calming tea, quickly put lotion on offensive feet and hands to counteract the aging process, when I notice sesame seeds all over counter and floor, from husbands lunch.

 * Wonder for the one millionth time in my married life why my husband or children can not wipe up the freaking counter after they make something.  The excuse, "I don't see it," doesn't seem to be working for me right now.  Try to remain calm and blame bad mood on sewing disaster, but know deep down inside sewing has nothing to do with the mess in the kitchen.

* Sit down with calming tea that I have made in a extra big mug, take some Tylenol for now enormous headache, pick up knitting and finally start to relax.  Working with yarn is where I belong.

*  I will try again today to make this super, simple dress, because if nothing else I am stubborn.  Keep your fingers crossed I can put in the sleeves the right way this time.

What are you up to this weekend?

Hooray a three day weekend, I am soooooooo happy.  I get to sleep in and play around with whatever I want to.  Don't you love three whole days where you can move at your own pace and putz around here and there.  I  did have a check list for myself for the weekend but it involved fun things to do.  

Number 1 is to finish my crochet African Flower Bag.  I can check that one off my list.

This fabric is not near as blue as the pictures are indicating, it is actually purplish polka dot fun.  I even created a pocket, let me just say my sewing skills leave much to be desired.

 I am not loving the button, it needs something much more fun, so this will have to do until I can find one.

I sewed on the lining with purple thread and stitched over with blanket stitch with green floss.  I wanted more stability and I did not want the lining to pull off the yarn.

Sorry about my toes sneaking into the photo, number 2 on the list needs to be freshly painted toe nails.  I bought this fabric at the quilting store Rainbow's End, and if you are a quilter believe me this is your little piece of Heaven.  The fabrics are amazing, so many colors and patterns to choose from.  They must have every quilting notion that is made, plus ribbons and patterns.  If you are a quilter and visit Florida, Rainbow's End needs to be a a priority for you.  The store is located in Dunedin, Florida.  I love it so much it makes me want to take up quilting, which I am not going to do, I have too many other things I love to do.

 I had some extra fabric from the bag and I remembered reading somewhere on Pinterest about how to make a t-shirt that is too tight a bit bigger.  I loved these polka dots so much I thought I would give it a try.  So I got busy, and frankly created a big mess.  How could sewing two seams on each side be such a problem?  Well if you have to re-do your serger and the thread keeps breaking (insert several swear words here) it becomes an issue.  So a very quick project became a bit of a pain, but it is finished!

 I also decided that I wanted to sew a few little dresses for myself.  You see I am a bit insane and I can not stress to you enough that I can't sew.  That last thing I seriously made was Halloween costumes for my boys.  About 17 years ago I made some dresses to fit my expanding belly as I was pregnant, but since then, not a lot has been made.
 

 I swear I am trying to conger up my Home Economics teacher from middle school Mrs. Koch.  I am trying to remember what she said to do and what all those symbols mean on the patterns.  I think I got a pretty good grade on the sundress that I made in school, even though I did not back stitch or tie off any of the threads.  I was so worried it was going to fall apart the day we had to wear it to school for a fashion show in class.   If these two dresses turn out you all will be the first to know, if not I am not uttering a word.

I have gardened a little bit, mostly weeding which I need to complete tomorrow, so that can't be checked off  my list, yet.  Look at my gorgeous rose tree, well it is really a bush that has been shaped into a tree.  I re-potted it a few weeks back and it is loving the extra space.  The blooms keep coming, and now it is too high for the deer to eat, they love a good rose or hibiscus flower for a treat.

They have a very delicate fragrance.  Lovely.

A beautiful walk on the beach with a friend this morning was such a treat.  We walked five miles and got to reconnect over beautiful sand, warn salty air and lovely little waves. 

Here is the African Flower bag with my yarn bombing/tree art.  The bag is heavier than I would like, and it looks like a messenger bag, which is actually the look I was going for.  The funny thing is if you put some books in it, or a lap top (which I do not own) it will be heavy.  I am all about the process not the final product, so I may never even use this bag.  But I like that I figured it out all on my own and completed it even if it isn't spectacular.  That puts me a 9,180 yards of yarn used this year.  I think I might have a yarn problem don't you?  

I have few little things to make for my sister Claudia, I get to start those today, another thing to cross off my list.  What is on your list for the long weekend?