How the family comes in

   Here's how my family effects the crafting process other than in project requests. My father turned 60 on the 20th of February. I'm sure those of you who, like me, enjoy creating memorable events for loved ones can imagine how this significant birthday might have disrupted life. Sadly the disruption spread to my blog as well. To keep a long story short; Mom & I planned a huge surprise party for him. Three days of cooking were involved in this. Family came in from out of town. Then there has been the cleaning up and getting the house back to normal. I did manage to get the first of Mom's typing gloves done. She was so excited about it that she took it to work to show a co-worker who also suffers from cold hands. That is why the picture here is the wrist band of the second glove. I'll post a pic of the finished pair sometime next week. And now for your viewing pleasure, I hope, pics of my finished shrug.

 The view from the back.

 The view from the front.

  And here is the wristband with it's ball of beautiful Lana D'Oro. I'll post the pattern here and on Ravelry when I get the pictures taken after the pair is finished. Thank you for reading!

Success!

  First off, I want to apologize for my dereliction of blog duty. It was a combo effort. On Saturday night I sliced the tip of my right index finger open. I'm fine, no stitches or anything. I just took a good chunk of skin off the tip of my finger and today is the first day since that it hasn't hurt to type. I have also been knitting frantically since I got the big, bulky bandage off of my finger. The result of the furious knitting is... I have finished my shrug! For a first attempt at a sweater ever in which I substituted yarn & different size needles than were called for, it turned out very well. There will be pictures posted as soon as I get some taken.
   The next "featured" project is going to be a pair of fingerless gloves for my mother made from Cascade Lana D'Oro color 1063, which is a beautiful dark aqua & marine blue heather color. I'm hoping that there will be enough in the skein to make a pair for myself also. I really love the color. I'll have pictures of this too when I put up the pics of my shrug.
   Right now, however, both of my children are sleeping, the sun is shining and WARM, so I'm going to sit on the deck with my knitting and enjoy! hope everyone is have a productive and sunny day!

The Best Laid Plans of Mice and Mommy

   So, I get all excited about the progress I'm making on my shrug. My Mom gets all excited because the sooner I'm done with the shrug, the sooner she gets her fingerless gloves. And of course, the only knitting I got done was last night during Bible Study. What has derailed my ferocious knitting agenda you ask? I'll give you a hint.

 Culprit Number One: Quinn Micheal will be 3 in March

Culprit Number Two: Connor Joseph 3months.
   Don't get me wrong, I love my little boys very much, but quite often the two of them are not terribly conducive to knitting. I can't knit while I'm feeding the baby. I'm not quite desperate enough to try yet. And Quinn will pull my hands off the needles when he wants something. He's a pretty strong little bugger too. The end result of all of this is that I've only knit about 8 rows in the past two days. I'm hoping to get more done over the weekend, but it's finally supposed to warm up over the weekend and knitting may get sidelined in favor of going outside and absorbing some sunshine. Only time will tell, but I am now thinking that my goal of wearing my shrug on Valentine's Day is not going to be met. Maybe I'll have it done in time for President's Day.

Works in Progess

Works in Progress, that aren't being worked on. Well, aren't being worked on much. The shrug in the pretty hand-painted yarn is pretty much my all consuming passion right now. But I drift back to my other projects in odd moments of inspiration. Featured in photo today are my shockingly simple crocheted afghan & my sock snake.

 This afghan  looks like it should be challenging. Just trust me, it really isn't. It's worked along the length, so I'm actually a little shy of halfway done.

The snake is my own pattern. He was inspired by an expedition into toe-up socks & a blue/ green/ grey ombre yarn I had floating around my stash. I'll publish the pattern as soon as he's done. The plan is to make him somewhere between 2 to 3 ft long. The afghan pattern came from Leisure Arts "A Year of Afghans" Book 4. The name of the pattern is Emerald Trellis. I changed the colors of course.
   The shrug is coming along well. I'm about 5 rows shy of having the back half done. I may complete my shrug by next Sunday after all! I will post more of my works in progress at I get them out, or, *gasp* get them finished. Happy crafting!

The Super Knitting Bowl

   After spending most of the afternoon cooking and snacking, I was able to spend almost the entire game knitting! That was almost as thrilling as watching the Packers win their 4th Super Bowl. Yes I'm a Packers fan, my mother passed it on. Anyway, since I got to knit through most of the game; I managed to finish my second sleeve for my shrug & cast on the back. I even got about 18 rows of the back knit before I went to bed last night. If I get some work done at the Stitch Night at Bah! Yarns tonight, I should be well on my way to my gaol of finishing my shrug within the next week.
   Now that the finish line of my shrug is in sight, I'm looking forward to my next project. I was at Hearthsone Knits in South St. Louis county picking up a special order that my cousin placed a few weeks ago. And I found some beautiful Cascade Lana D'oro in a lovely heathered blue that is destined to become some fingerless gloves for my mom & if there's enough left, a pair for me too! I'll put the exact colorway when I actually get them started. Honestly I'm not going to run all the way downstairs to get the label right now.
  I'm planning a little photo shoot of all of my current works in progress tomorrow since it's supposed to snow again tomorrow. I'd have done it today, but I had to run errands before it snows again. As always I wish everyone warm and happy crafting!


P.S.
Super Bowl Menu:
Mini Reubens
Homemade Two Bite Brownies
Meatballs
Hamburger-Salsa Con-Queso Dip
French Onion Dip
Candy

Chugging Along

   It's cold here in St. Louis. The kind of cold that almost makes your teeth hurt when you go outside. It's so cold that I have already decided that my next project is going to be a couple of pairs of fingerless mitts. One pair for me to keep my hands warm while crafting, another pair for my Mom to keep her hands warm while she types at work. I'm about halfway through the second sleeve of my shrug. Like most needle crafters I have multiple projects of varying difficulty going at once. For those of you who I'm sure are insatiably curious about what mine may be, I, of course, will share. In addition to my shrug I am also working on a scrap yarn stitch sampler afghan, a crocheted afghan, and I also have some yarn for when I get my act together and tackle some socks.
   The sampler afghan is great for three reasons. First, it helps me get rid of odds and ends in my stash. Secondly, it's a great way  to try out different pattern stitches, so if one gets really irritating, it doesn't last too long. Last, I feel like I'm completing things really quickly when I get the squares done & move on to the next pattern. The crocheted afghan got shelved for a little while because what looked like a complex and interesting pattern turned out to be dead simple & got a little tedious. I actually started the socks once, but my beloved little boy got into my bag & put a pretty good run in the sock on the needles. The result was me unraveling to whole thing & waiting for some inspiration to start over.
   We're supposed to get more snow over the weekend, so hopefully I will be able to finish my second sleeve and start on the back. I have truly grandiose aspirations of finishing my shrug before Valentine's Day. Now I'm going to go make cornbread to go with the chili I'm making for dinner on this chilly evening. Then I can knit while it's baking!

Work in Progress

I'm very excited because I've finished my first sleeve on the first sweater I've ever tried to knit! I've been working on it every chance I've had today so that I could post a picture and actually blog about something that I'm working on.

Now I will confess that this is not the most complicated pattern ever. It is a simple stockinette shrug pattern that I found on Ravelry. It's 3 pieces, two sleeves and the back. The back is just a rectangle with ribbing on each end. It's being done in Dream in Color Classy in the Some Summer Sky color way. I have to give a shout out to Beth and Bah! Yarn for helping me out with the yarn. Beth & Bah! will probably get more shout outs as this goes on since this is this closest yarn store and the host of Monday night Stitch Night.
   I'd write more, but I can't wait to cast on my second sleeve. Everyone keep warm out there. I don't know about you, but our outdoor thermometer says it's about 12 degrees here. Good Night.

Snowed In

   Actually we're not snowed in yet as much as we're iced in. There has been a fairly impressive amount of all sorts of frozen precipitation around here today, and it's not supposed to be over for another 12-18 hours. What do you do when a major winter storm comes your way? You pull out your work bag and go to town! As I throw myself out into cyberspace to share my crafty ways; my work bag springs to mind. The picture I have posted is of my bag displayed on an afghan I crocheted for my mother for Christmas about 3 years ago.
   My work bag is a vital part of my crafting habit. It comes with me any time I'm going to be sitting some where for more than 20 min. Car rides, doctors appointments, work (back when I did such a thing); it's like an extension of my personality some days. It's got everything I need, and is one of the few things I keep consistently organized. It holds my binder of loose leaf & printed off the net patterns; a magenta pencil pouch with my little notions i.e. stitch holders, yarn needles, cable needles, row markers, tatting shuttle, little post-it pad, row counters, pencil, that sort of thing; a light blue pencil pouch with my double point knitting needles, and a purple pouch with all of my crochet hooks; any books I'm working from; and of course how every many of my current projects will fit. As I'm sure you've guessed it can be quite heavy at times. I will tell you the afghans that are done all as one piece never live in this bag. They have their own canvas bag because they are just so darn bulky once you get more than like 10 rows in.
   I inherited my bag from my Grammie. She had several for various purposes. It's a piece of needle craft heritage that can go where ever I do. It's not anything even remotely resembling fashionable, but it's an heirloom that I tote with pride. I have to admit that this probably won't be the last time that the paraphernalia and tools capture my compositional imagination ahead of the actual projects I'm working on.