I can't think of a title Tues.

This weekend was a rough one. Our garage door broke and consequently dh was parked in the driveway. I unfortunately forgot this fact and managed to back into his truck denting both our vehicles in the process. Ugh. I also foolishly and carelessly have lost something I treasure and to all of you who believe in prayers and saints or some combo if you would please say a little prayer to St. Anthony I would be grateful. I will know Thurs. whether or not it is lost forever.

On the brighter side of things. Here is what I am currently spinning. It is a beautiful merino/tencel blend.

I started spinning it on the drop spindle with quite some success albeit slow. I was shooting for a nice fingering weight when plied. The consistency is pretty good, but not quite there yet.
Unfortunately it seems I am having a tougher time of it with the wheel though. This fiber is definitely more tricky than the others I have spun so far, and I am constantly breaking it. I am debating whether or not to go back to the spindle to finish the rest of this fiber or just stick it out with wheel and hope that it looks better when plied with the first spindle spun batch. We will see.
Recently a bunch of us local knitters pulled together to make an afgan for my dear friend Nicole who is kicking breast cancer's ass. It turned out to be quite lovely and I enjoyed working on the blocks that I contributed. I have never made an afgan before and although this project is now complete and gifted I feel the need to continue making squares.
So I bought a few more balls of the Berroco comfort, which is mighty soft but awfully splitty and am going to see how many squares I can make before I lose interest. I can't decide if I want to give this to my friend who just had a baby or continue with my plans for the Buster sweater V.2. If I do gift this afgan, I have figured I need to start whipping out a square a day to be done in time. Do you think 4x4 squares would suffice? The blocks are about 8.5 inches. Add to that the crocheted edge and then I would probably do a border as well. I like the one that Marly did on the afgan for Nicole, but I am not sure that my crochet skills are quite up to par to do that, so we will see.

Yummy new yarns

There has been a lot of talk on message boards about MCY (mystical creations yarn). Apparently they have been banned from ebay and etsy and have cheated a lot of innocent people out of their money. Unfortunately another ebay seller has been ensnarled in the mess and been accused of being MCY selling under another name. So I sent an email to Yarntopia and flat out asked what her affiliation is. She informed me that she was indeed a former employee but had been doing business on her own for several years now. After some correspondence I went ahead and decided to purchase some sock yarn. I received it last week and it is every bit as gorgeous as pictured in the auction. Tammy also sent me a skein of her best selling rayon boucle to test out as well. The colors are so vibrant and it has such a beautiful sheen. In addition she also sent me some of her 100% bamboo in the Starbucks colorway. It is so yummy, I want to drink it up like a big latte. She was quite kind to send me these complimentary skeins and I had indeed mentioned on ravelry that I would give her yarn a test. So in the next coming days I will knit up a swatch of each and give them a wash and see how they do. So far I am pleased with the yarn and eager to knit it. I do believe it is best to have a little knowledge before one threatens the reputation of a business. Sometimes our manners get lost on the internet and it is a shame.
I also recently purchased this mohair blend at Knit Knack. It is so soft, like big giant cotton candy skeins.
I am planning on knitting this sweater out of it. I think it is just darling and will hopefully be flattering.
And it was serendipity to find this yarn on sale. It was with all the Valentine colored yarns at Knit Knack calling out to me. It was in fact the first yarn I fondled as I wandered around the store.
And just merely a half an hour or so after I had been eyeing this pattern. Sure enough when I looked back at the pattern this indeed was the yarn it called for. So tell me now could you resist?
This will be a lovely spring garment, I hope to knit it soon, but I do have a long quere, so maybe it will be done next spring. I really need to get some of these projects done.

A Very Monkish Sunday

It started very innocently. Sat. evening while dh was napping I perused the gallery over at Two Peas in a Bucket. Looking at the pictures of some of these women's craft rooms are inspiring, daunting, and some just plain jaw dropping. Now I am happy with my little room and thrilled to even have a craft room, but there are a few things I would like to do in the future. I love the idea of an island, and built in cabinets would be awesome too, but for now, with two mortgages that just isn't in the cards. However, I could use the inspiration found in their rooms to improve mine at least organizationally. So alas when I awoke at 8:30 am on Sunday (I should have slept in since we were kid free) I began my task. I gathered all my scrapbooking embellishments from the various places they were currently inhabitating and started to sort. I began with all my letters. About half way into this I was starting to doubt my sanity, but I need not fear, when Dh walked in and surveyed my project he confirmed my suspicions that indeed I had crossed over into new OCD territory.
I must say that the payoff is good however. All my little letters and numbers now have a new home in the cute cubbies that sit on my desk. Oh and see the cute little hearts adorning the wall, my dearest little boy made those for me.
See, look at all the pretty Zs. Completely worth it.
Next I started sorting all the other embellishment by color. About the time I finished with this task my friend Mariah showed up for knitting. Ha, fooled her. Off we went to find the necessary storage devices to house my new organiztional system.
And after a couple of different stops and a bribe of dinner I found what I was looking for. I already had a few of these drawer units, but to do what I needed
would require 8 more. Thank goodness Mariah was there to help me get them out to the car. Each drawer hold a different color. And in each drawer is one of the these tackle units to hold the smaller items.
I also did drawers for my stickers. These are the baby and Christmas drawers. The other drawers are: flowers, sports, nature, travel, birthday, cards, saying and quotes, neutral alphabets, colored alphas and misc. Here are the colored alphas. So now I should be able to find things more readily. At least that is the plan.

Six of the 8 units. The other two are under the dresser (see baby/christmas pic). And lastly I sorted all my buttons and placed them in these cute little glass vases.
I found quite a few buttons that will be used shortly for knitting projects. Its amazing what you forget you have.
And while out shopping we hit Archivers and I purchases some goodies for V-day cards. I neglected to send Christmas cards this year due to all the commotion in our lives so instead I think I will have the kid's pics taken and send them with the valentines. I also plan on making some funky magnets with the papers on the left for some special people.
Can you guess whose card will be bestowed with the Love of My Life die cut?

It was indeed a productive day. I finished around 8pm, so almost a good 12 hours of work and a few more inches over the OCD line.
XOXO

Charlie and Buster

Now that Charlie has received his Buster sweater I am able to share it with the world. And who couldn't ask for a cuter model? Look at those cheeks. Oooh my ovaries are twitching. This is such a cute sweater, and I get to knit it again for a friend whose baby shower is in Mar. Little Julian has already arrived, so we are anxiously awaiting their visit shortly. I hope he looks as cute as Charlie in it.
Knit Knack now has Namaste knitting bags, and of course I couldn't resist. It is in my favorite shade of orange and I am a little fanatical about orange (see upcoming post).
And here we are again with my dear old friend, The Philospher's Wool Southwest Sweater. I am so close to done. I think I will work on it a bit this afternoon. I really should give myself a deadline. Okay, it will be done by the end of Feb. No ifs, ands or buts. My mom has to have a chance to wear it this season.
When I am unable to knit the above mentioned sweater, this is the scarf I am working on. Perfect project for mindless knitting. It is a simple ribbed scarf in Malabrigo that dh picked. He wants it to his knees, and since he is 6'4" it may take a while. But it such yummy yarn to work with. I think I may have to make Mr. Greenjeans out of the remaining skeins. Off to knit....purses coming next.

Teenagers, sex, shoes and legos...not necessarily in that order

It was bound to happen. Even though I tried my best to stop it, my baby is now a teenager. I pray that as she enters this period in her life she continues to be the sweet, generous and selfless girl that has brought me endless joy. I pray that she remains on the diligent road she has traversed thus far and keeps focused on living a joyful, content life. I pray that she will always have the good, kind heart that touches all of us around her and that she is blessed with all the happiness and abounding love that she so greatly deserves. I am so proud to be your mom Madison. I love you. Happy Birthday. And now for some shoes. I mentioned the other night at Knit Knack that I had tried to photograph them all. I have now broken the 100 mark and have 103 pairs. Here are the boots (to which I have since added a box and a pair....hey an additional 30% off the clearance price is hard to pass up at DSW) 14 pairs of boots and....
89 Pairs of shoes. :)
And this is what I can be found doing on a boring Sunday evening. I decided to clean the playroom and go through all of Anthony's toys, organizing them and making sure they were all in the right place. The Star Wars stuff all together, the Playmobil stuff, the nerf guns, the board games etc...all in it's rightful place. And then I got to the legos.
For some crazy reason I decided to dump out the huge bin of legos that we have amassed since Ian was Anthony's age...so about 10 years ago, and organize it all. Amongst the legos were many things that did not belong.
You would be amazed what lurks under piles of blocks: a pinto bean, a barrette from when Maddie was a babe, magnets, numerous magnet numbers, and somethings I wish I could forget and was unfortunate enough to have touched.
Anthony even pitched in and assisted, well played as I worked diligently.
Three hours later, they were all sorted out. I could have been really anal retentive and done it by color. But I did it by reg. legos, flat pieces, people, little odd pieces, big odd pieces and stuff for making vehicles and stuff for making buildings (windows, walls doors). Now while this may seem like an incredible time suck, I must say that he has spent a lot more time playing with the legos now that he can find all the fun cool pieces. And anything that gets him away from the xbox is worth it.
Look at what a nice organized play area he now has. And since we moved the TV out of Ian's room and gave him a smaller one, all the kids are actually spending more time down here and I have peace and quiet upstairs. I didn't show the nice cherry bar in the other corner, but since I'm focusing on this being the kids' room I didn't want to give the wrong impression. On the far right you can see the air hockey table that Anthony got for his birthday, although all the kids are really enjoying it. So big A has his office, I have my craft room and now the kids have their own space. It is really starting to feel like home.

And now for the sex! Is this what's to become of us?

Houston we have a craft room

So here is the craft room! I am so happy to have it all done and everything unpacked. Now I just need to find some time to create in it. The cubes are great way to display some of my favorite yarn. The bookshelf holds all my craft books and scrapbook albums. And boy do I have a lot of paper. I really need to do some scrapbooking and use some of it. Here is my work area. Thank you so much to my BIL Ron for coming over last Fri to put my shelves up for me. I hope the lasagna payment was sufficient, although I benefited from that too. Well my ass may disagree. I fell in love with the red chair the moment I saw it and knew I had to have it to match the red decor. It is comfy as well.
This dresser holds a mish mash of things: fabric, paints, art supplies. Hanging from the shelf is some of my handspun yarn, such a great way to display it. The Ragedy Ann doll (made for me by a dear friend when I was a child) sits upon my basket of sock yarn.
This is inside the cabinet doors. The lower shelves are mostly the beads I use for making stitch markers and some for jewelry.
This is the closet, where the rest of my yarn can be found, along with everything else that didn't look pretty when in view. And of course Nietzche. The cats always find a way of getting in a shot or two.

The top shelves in the closet hold my fiber for spinning, knitting bags and stamping supplies.
Some up close shots of my favorite elements. That cute little sheep was found at Bath and Body works. He is very soft and smells delightful.
I had some messy fun decoupaging these letters. I think it took me a good 15 min. to get all the glue off my fingers.
This is the awesome desk calender dh bought me as one of my anniversary presents. Everyday is a picture of a different purse. (Yep, I have a thing for purses too).

Mmm. look at the pretty Touch Me Due on the bottom basket. I am a perv and fondle it often.
An altered canvas homage to my bff. I made her a matching one. Look I had blond hair!
Shelton the sheep, who I adopted at Serendipity in Buena Vista, sits a top my little cubbies that hold all sorts of crafty bits.

So there it is. My new dream space. I am so thrilled to have such a wonderful area to create in. I can't wait to get started.