house on hill road

Slowly but surely

I've been stitching on this skirt slowly.  I pick it up when I have a few minutes - in the carpool line and other times while I am waiting for the girls.  It lives in this bag, with the Alabama Stitch book, thread, scissors and a pin cushion.  It's a project that has a nice pace to it.  Easy to pick up, and equally important, easy to put down.  I'm a little more than half finished with the reverse applique so, fingers crossed, I will be wearing it some time this fall.

And not as slowly, but definitely as surely, I am making camera straps and some other goods to sell in the shop.  As of right now, I plan on re-opening the shop on Thursday, September 3.  I haven't set a time yet, but as soon as I do, I will let you know here.  Sound good?

Multi-crafting

Some Sewing Green,

stitching up camera straps,

and a small, on-the-go knitting project have been keeping me busy this week.  It's been fun to sew by hand, with the machine and knit all in the same week.  I haven't done that much multi-crafting in a long while!

I hoe you have a fantastic weekend.  I am off to Chicago to reconnect with my high school friends at our 20th reunion.  I'll be back next week with some shop news and to welcome Betz White when she stops by on Wednesday.  See you then!

Monkey-ing around

Our nephew Kenan turned 1 on Sunday and a t-shirt was requested.  I couldn't refuse!

So here it is - I did finish it in the carpool line last week. I think the monkey is a bit, um, robust.  Cute, still, but if I do one like this again, I think I will slim him down a bit.

Off I go...I have a yoke to tangle.  Finally.

Carpool line

Some people call it the carpool line.  I think of it as 20 minutes of peace and productivity.  Happy Thursday.

Not too much

I really like blogging in the morning.  I'm not sure why, but that is when it feels right to me.  Today I didn't have time - Tuesday is the Iactuallygotomyparttimefivehouraweekjob day.  And in reality, I don't have too much to report.

The light is nice this afternoon - finally!  I took this photo of myself in the carpool line.  I didn't even have to crop it - nice, huh?  The necklace was made by the ever so talented Kristen. It was a gift to me from my brother-in-law and sister-in-law.  Heather bought it from Kristen in person without knowing that I already have some of her jewelry.  Serendipity?  I think so.  Anyhow, I love it.  You can check out Kristen's other baubles at her own little web store, Mood Swing Studios.  I bet you like what you see.

I squeezed some knitting in, too.  Maybe about five minutes worth.  Better than nothing.  Tomorrow is the day I conquer the sewing room.  I left it a huge, gigantic, really horribly bad mess after my bout of Christmas crafting.  I think the twill from Fatty's apron is sitting on the floor next to leftover patchwork strips from the blanket.  When will I ever learn?  Apparently, um, never.  I must get it spiffed up, though.  I've got something in the works.

7 x 2 = 14

Thanks for all the great knitting advice yesterday.  I appreciate it so much.  I do knit pretty big gauge swatches and normally measure over 4 inches.   I took Sarah's advice and measured what I had already knit over 6 inches and came up with 4.67 stitches per inch.  (Thank you, Sarah!)  We (that is Sarah and me) think I can continue on and get to 4.5 with some blocking.  Phew.

Last night was my local craft swap.  This time there were 8 of us so we each made 7 things.  I have spent the last month or so of carpool/soccer/volleyball practice knitting fingerless mitts.  I did one pair of Fetching (remember this?).  I used that pattern as a template of sorts and came up with some other rib, cable and lace versions.  They were a hit with the crafty ladies and I had fun making them.

Time for a new carpool project.   What crafts are you doing on the go?

Thursday

Took Scout to be spayed and declawed.

Thinking she might need a cat bed when she comes home tomorrow.

Got a massage.  Apparently I needed one.  I was very tense.

Worked for a couple hours at the stationery store.

Went fabric shopping.  Bought too much.

Came home for 15 minutes, ate soup and read blogs.

Knitted in the car.

Made snacks and supervised homework.

Found forgotten treasure in mudroom closet (more on that tomorrow).

Contemplating assembly line sewing projects.

Wondering if I could run a half marathon.

Meeting girlfriends for dinner.

A very good Thursday.

All day long

I was knitting in the afternoon, waiting in the car for the girls.

And I was knitting in the evening while watching TV.

It's all I want to do.

2+ socks

When school started, I was all set to start knitting my knee socks.  Wouldn't you know I couldn't find my size 1 double points?  Hmmm....Then it hit me.  I still hadn't finished Jane's socks.  For a split second, I thought about buying a second set, but then thought better and started knitting her socks again.

To be fair, the first sock was about two-thirds finished.  Now I realize it was a good thing I didn't finish them back in the spring.  It's no secret that my two little girls are very close to the same size.  Jane, who is two years older, wears one size bigger than Kate in everything, including shoes.  She must have had a big growth spurt this summer because the foot portion of her sock ended up being about two inches longer than Kate's.  And Kate's socks....kind of small now.  Lesson learned.  No kid sock knitting in the spring.

I was sweating it a bit, but thankfully there was just enough yarn to knit them both.  When I cast off, I had four and half yards of yarn left.  Phew - that was close.  I used this pattern - easy to follow and very simple.  The yarn is Claudia's Hand Painted, fingerling weight, Red Wagon colorway (as best I can tell from the website - I lost the tag!).

I chose the On Your Toes pattern from the summer issue of Interweave Knits for my knee socks.  Thanks to lots of tips from Leslie, I am knitting right along.... on the airplane earlier this week, at the doctor's office yesterday (sinus infection - ugh!), in front of the TV at night and, of course, every day in the carpool line.

Happy weekend folks!

A Moment

It's too nice to do anything but play outside.  78 degrees too nice.  But when I am sitting in the carpool line, I have to do something.

I just need to knit up the last toe and my first (well, really second) pair of socks is finished.

Back tomorrow folks.  Hope your weather has been as good as ours.

Rainy Day Tuesday

gray skies

mirror self-portrait

in the carpool line

knitting while I wait

Some progress

Well, I'm back and very happy about it.  I did manage to find my black layering tank (along with three flashlights and tons of other random junk) in my closet.  I also emptied my dresser and cleaned out some other junk drawers and catch-all closets.  The car is loaded up with bags and boxes for Goodwill.  It feels good.

What I did not find was my zipper foot or the other missing one.  In fact, I didn't make it to the sewing room at all.  Kate had some weird fever virus and was generous enough to pass it on to her mom.  Thanks, hon.  The sickies brought my cleaning streak to a standstill and I am having a hard time getting back in the groove.  I will get to it soon, though.  I have to or the crafting will also come to a halt pretty darn fast.  And we can't have that now, can we?

I did manage to squeeze in some crafting between cleaning closets.  I have been dragging my embroidery everywhere - soccer practice, pool, carpool line.  Seeing Hillary's new stitchettes got me going on the ones I already have.

I have this vision of them all individually framed and hung as one big group on my guest room wall.  Three out of the eight I have are finished.  Of course, the winter set will be coming soon.  I imagine I will be stitching in the carpool line for awhile.

Back tomorrow with some WIP.