A Little Something Fun

We have had company for the last week - living at the beach makes visiting us attractive.  It isn’t a problem and often it is a lot of fun.

This week we had a four year old in residence.  He quickly found the knitted stuffed animals and had a blast playing with several of them.  These are mostly ones that were recently made and are still in the living room.

He was playing with a hamster in his ABC Mouse game, so I made him a couple of little critters.  These are called Mini Pookies by Barbara Prime.

They were really cute.  Unfortunately, Cam kept leaving them on the floor and the puppies did not realize they were not puppy toys.  The little bear did not survive.  Oh well, easy come, easy go.

He also fell in love with a frog . . . . 

So naturally, the frog had to go home with him . . . Bye bye little froggie!

 

Another Gnome

 The Traveling Gnome is traveling . . .

A Gnome Story

So once upon a time, three little gnomes were designed and planned and knit in Atlanta.  They liked it there but their knitter had better plans for them.  So they packed their little bags - well, since they didn’t own anything, it was ok that they didn’t have any bags to pack.  So they just headed out the door . . . 

And down the driveway toward the car.

After a little boost, they were in the car and ready for their first ride.

Oops!  Wrong side of the car!  Who knew?  It was their first time in a car, how were they to know there was a driver side and passenger side?

They buckled up for the long ride.

Such a long ride!  They took long naps,

. . . and spent some time watching the scenery.

And finally, after the longest time, they were at the new house.  Now how to get out of the car?  That is a really long way down to the ground.

A little help out of the car and off we go!

Looks like a really nice house.

What a nice front door - nice wood!

Hmm, feels like someone is watching us!

Natives seem to be friendly at least.

The views are really nice.  We could learn to like it here.

Pretty happy here.  Time for a nice group shot.

And our individual glamour shots.

Note:  These gnomes were knit for the Nice to Gnome you knit along using the Nice to Gnome You pattern by Sarah Schira whose website is http://www.imaginedlandscapes.com/

 

Sew, starting something new . . .

I learned to sew from my mom when I was quite young.  As a child I was so proud that she made all our clothes and also proud that they cost her very little to make.  She bought the fabrics in the bargain bin and made a pantsuit (remember those?) for me for about 25 cents when I was in fifth grade.  I learned pretty quickly not to brag about that, but I was internally proud.

As a teenager I sewed a lot.  That way the clothes I got should have been more fashionable than her choices.  But I wasn’t very good at it so I did what I could and she helped a lot.  She was very good at so many things - sewing, knitting, crochet, painting, writing, and many more but she hated cross stitch, crewel and embroidery.  As a young adult, life got busy and I dropped all my crafty hobbies. I stayed close to mom though because I lived down the street from her.   Knitting was the first hobby to come back and has always and will always be my first love.  I hated sewing and never thought it would come back but it did.  I got the sewing machine for my birthday several years ago (documented on this blog Here).  So I sewed a couple of bags and then sort of dropped it other than for repairs and very minor alterations until the need for masks arose.  My now adult daughter started sewing masks for family and friends and asked for help which I gladly gave.  

Today I decided it was time to sew again.  We are sort of in the process of a long, slow move from Atlanta to Florida and the new house has a lovely little sewing nook (oddly at the end of a bathroom) surrounded by storage for my yarn, looms, sewing things, etc.  the machine has been here for a couple of months but hasn’t been used.  I bought the fabric on Etsy (Such Pretty Suppies) weeks ago and kept looking at it thinking it was so pretty.  Today, my daughter came down for a visit and we cut it out and sewed it.  It was such an easy pattern and I so love the results.  The pattern is The Runaway Bag on Etsy and I made two - one for Dena and one for me - we are both relearning embroidery for the fun of it.

So here is the fabric - purple and peacock for Dena and burgundy and fox for me.

And a Sneak peak at the pattern . . . 

Cut out pieces in purple . . . .

The bags stuffed - the yarn bag is holding about ten hanks of knit pics palette and could hole more the red is holding a gallon bag with about 70 clothes pins full of embroidery thread.  And my embroidery project and bits and pieces with plenty of room leftover.

And they look good, really good!  If I had to do it over, the only change I would make is to make the handles a tiny bit longer so the tie allowed a double knot.

So, that is something I am doing now that I haven’t done before.  I love it and I love the extra crafting time I have now.  I am trying things I never thought I would - like embroidery because I hate sewing.  But here I am, making a bag to contain my embroidery because I am enjoying it.

Have a lovely day everyone.  

Teresa

 I have recently realized what a wonderful historical archive this blog is and that has caused me to reconsider abandoning it.  It was originally started to keep my Mom abreast of what was going on on my side of the country when she moved to the other side after Dad died.  Then Facebook came into play and made keeping her current easier even if it was less information - it was quick and easy.  So we drifted away from the blog.

Ravelry kind of took over the knitting activity - great place to store a list of projects and spinning etc.  But not the detail that the blog contained.  I am in the process of moving to another state and in moving my yarn/fiber/fabric stash, I also decided to document, catalog, detail it.  I realized I did not remember what fiber was what and what or where it came from and which handspun yarn came from where or what the fiber content was.  But the blog knew.  The blog knew when I bought it, where I bought it, what the fiber content was, how many ounces, etc.  (At least it’s knew more of that than it did not.)

I really loved going back through the history and reading what happened when and what I was working on and what I thought about the process and finished product.  I even learned where a lot of things I knit went.  Ravelry does not tell those stories.

So, we are going to try reviving the blog.  I love knowing the where’s and why’s and who’s of the projects I have done and what I was thinking when starting and while working on them.  So here goes:

What am I spinning?  I recently woke up my poor wheel that has been neglected for probably ten years.  I had to replace a bunch of parts and clean up the rest but it is in working order and making beautiful yarn again.  Currently spinning this BFL from Traveling Rhinos Fiber.  It is 4.2 ounces and was a gift from my friend Laura.  It has been in my stash for a few years but I wasn’t doing much spinning.  I split the braid down the middle and spun the first half onto one bobbin.  The second half is in process but moving along. I am spinning the singles pretty thin and giving them quite a bit of twist.  This is about my third spinning project since I repaired my poor neglected wheel and I am quite enjoying it,