A Happy Ending to the Year :)

As per usual, I have let my blogging lay aside too long. I could get all remorseful about it, but quite truthfully, I just didn't have the desire to put in the time to keep up with it. That's where I love Twitter - I can just fill in those 140 characters & be done with it when I have the time to put into it - blogs are just so much more daunting to me.

However, I still hope to make a post here at least twice a week (at least that's my New Year's goal), but I won't beat myself up over it if I don't. I'm thinking that if I give an update at least once a month it'll still be a vast improvement over what I've been doing (or not doing) so far.

So a recap:
Tote Bag - still haven't had time to put towards it, but we've just entered into winter break for our home school, so expect to get it done during this time.

Larry's wool socks - finished last month. Wish I had taken a picture of them, they were enormous & weighed in at 1lb each! His toes will be nice & toasty when he walks out to the barn. My DH liked them too & so now I have to make him a pair. I've also finished off a pair of crochet mitts for Larry to wear & have yet to make a pair for his partner, Betty.

Socks for Jen - unfortunately, Jen's health deteriorated & her Mom Christina decided they needed to move back to Ontario, so they never got started. I do have plans to crochet a shall or lapghan for Jen to send for her birthday.

New stuff:
I've been experimenting with making different wristlet & fingerless glove patterns, which I was hoping to put into my Etsy store before the holiday season, but after 10 attempts they still aren't turning out the way I envisioned them. Probably best to lay them aside for a week before I start to stress out over them!

We've been doing some major cleaning & de-cluttering around the house as we've moved the girls into their own separate bedrooms and put all the boys into the biggest room. Spent a lot of time sewing new curtains for all of the rooms (& I'll state it again, I'm terrible at sewing), but these have turned out half decent. DH made the boys a very cool bunk bed - it is 3 bunks high and has another bunk coming out at right angles from the second one (like an L).

The great thing about the room change is that is has opened up another room for us which we will be using as an office, craft & guest room. I'm so happy to regain some of my sanity - I needed a place to work on projects without the little guys trying to get into things all the time. And then, as if I wasn't in my glory as it was, I stumbled across some of my own patterns that I thought I'd lost during our de-cluttering, so I'll be checking them for errors & digitizing them into pdfs. What a wonderful way to end the year :)

Many blessings to you & yours and have a Happy New Year! :)

Will Work For Eggs

I'm not getting anywhere with my tote bag - other people's priorities have put mine on the back burner for now. Things like getting my DH's passport arranged for when he makes his trip to Interbike later this month, sleep-overs & pool parties for the kids, unexpected company, getting ready for the new school year & the like. This is not a complaint, just a fact of life with me - my plans often get changed & I just learn to go with the flow, knowing that I do eventually get to finish off most of my projects in winter, when everything slows down.

I am still doing needlework on the side - just not stuff for my own personal pleasure at the moment. Now that I've test driven my circular bamboo knitting needles, I've got two orders from my shepherd friend Larry - a pair of socks for him & another pair for his partner, Betty. I'm using super chunky sized black wool, spun from his own herd. They are going to be very toasty when worn, but that is exactly what is needed for our winters here, where it's typically sitting at -20º Celsius throughout most of January & February, sometimes even dropping to -40º! I don't have any sock patterns that call for this weight of wool, & Larry has a stocky build, so I couldn't just adapt from another pattern - this will all be "make it up as I go" from his measurements. In exchange, I've been getting farm fresh eggs delivered to my door every couple of weeks. If ever I should become homeless, I can just see me sitting on the curb with a sign like "Will Knit for Eggs" or "Will Crochet for Milk".

I need Larry to come over & do fittings for his socks ever week, which has brought about another turn of events. I was coming home from the end of the season party at the local pool with my toddler when I saw his jeep parked outside the cafe across the street from my house. I figure I'd go in & let him know that when he was done eating that he could come over for a fitting, as the timing would be good for me then. The owner of the cafe, Christina, overheard this & asked "You knit socks? Jennifer (her youngest daughter) really needs some hand knit socks!" I replied that I would be happy to as long as she provided the wool. She agreed to this & still wants to pay me something on top for my labour - I'm kind of hoping it will mean a couple of free salmon burgers down the road :)