Almost Done!!

I am almost done! I started working on Bunny Hill's Postcard Cuties for Spring Back in January. 7 months later and 25 appliqued blocks later. I am 10 more blocks away from completion of the main part of the quilt. I of course have the borders, corners, and piecing left; but I feel like I am almost done. Here is a picture of her finished quilt:

 I love her quilt but you wouldn't believe how tiny it is when its all finished (we're talking smaller than a baby blanket). So in mine I might not cut the squares down as small, or I might put sashing in-between the rows. Here is a picture of mine that I took: 

As you can see I have two rows that are still blank. I am hoping that I can get the applique pieces for those rows cut out, starched, and glued on before I have to leave for vacation on Friday. We are going to Park City, Utah and I am anticipating a fair amount of sitting around which means a fair amount of sewing time.

On another note I have a new link on my page for Alpaca Direct. I used to work for the owner and he told me that anyone who puts a link to his page on their blog can get 20 % off of their purchases. So, see it, love it, use it as much as you like. He has great deals on yarn and other crafty type stuff, as well as some non-crafty but comfy stuff.

Stay tuned for some crafty adventures (and non-crafty adventures) in Park City, Utah. 

Canning with my peep

So as the title suggests I have been doing a lot of canning lately, with my peep. I would say peeps but there is only one. The canning season started back in April, at least it did out here in sunny California. We started with Cherries and have progressed to Apricots and early peaches. 

This is my peep's trusty truck Eleanor. She claims that it is her sons truck but i've only seen him drive it once. I think she might have a truck crush or truck envy. Anyways we use Eleanor to transport our boxes of Apricots, Peaches, or plums because she has lots of space in the back for our rather large boxes of fruit. As shown in the next picture.

We canned about five or six boxes of Apricots like the ones in the picture.  We used the Dry pack method with the oven, so that we could pack the jars pretty tightly.  Here are some pictures of the jars. Aren't they absolutely gorgeous!

 We were totally ecstatic that they turned out so well. My peep sent me these pictures like a week ago and I procrastinated posting but now seeing these up just makes me want to can more. Which means coming up soon you'll get to see my plum jam that I have been working on lately. I'll write again soon. TTFN

Busy, Busy

So yeah as my title implies I have been busy lately. That and my daughter hates it when I am on my computer and not paying attention to her. So when I do post its late at night but most of the time thats not always possible. I never realized how much of your day as a mom you spend sitting around and playing because your child won't let you do much else. At least with first children I think thats true.

My crafty peep just started her blog and that is what has inspired me to try to keep up on mine. She thinks that if I can blog regularly then I might be able to sell more stuff on my Etsy page. Not that there is much on there anyways.

On a side note though I have been thinking about retiring my grubby t-shirts. My husband refuses to let me wear them out in public (which is probably for the best). So instead of throwing them away I am going to turn them into a quilt. I'm going to batik/tie-dye them so they are colorful. I found this lady's blog: http://fabricdyeing101.blogspot.com/2006/11/how-to-make-bati-like-fabrics-with.html
I am not 100% sure that it will work on t-shirt material but i'm going to give it a try. I am thinking of making it a rag quilt but it might just end up as a 5x5 block quilt. I'll try to post pictures as soon as I get started (my camera has finally stopped acting up).

The Hungry Caterpillar quilt

So as an aspiring pattern writer I figured you have to start somewhere so here I am starting with

 the very hungry caterpillar. Which also happens to be one of my favorite stories, and so far my daughters favorite also. I started with the panels and then sat down and started doodling thinking now this goes here and that goes there. Realizing that I had large gaps that I would have to fill so here is a glimpse of what I filled it with....

As you can see my daughter is helping me the very best way she knows how, by holding it down with her bottom. Its amazing how much you can get done in one nap time. The plan is to have this finished in a few more days and then send it off to the quilter and write the pattern while they have it. I hope to be able to offer it in pdf and printed form which you could buy on this site, or possibly even in a store. I have to go my daughter is terrorizing my husbands desk.

I'm Back!!

Okay so I had my baby and am back for good now. My baby girl Cadence Ylise was born on May 21, 2007. Here is a picture.

As you can see she is wearing a hand knit soaker. My latest projects. I am currently working on two or three of them. There are a surprising amount of free patterns for these on the internet. The pattern that you are looking at right now is the punk knitter pattern. The pattern that I will be attempting later is called the curly purly pattern. Both are free and I found out about them on a yahoo group called wool diaper covers group. They are a really nice group of ladies who have links to all of the free patterns on the internet as well as the ones that aren't. they also help people with any problems that they might be having with the patterns themselves.

Anyways so I went to the Dixon lamb and Wool festival. It was fantastic! But it was ridiculously hot. I was only their for about a half an hour to an hour, but I got some really nice wool. 4 oz of BFL in a yellow and blue colorway died with all natural plant dyes, another 4oz. of merino in an orange and red colorway also dyed with natural dyes, and last but not least a 9month old Romney lamb fleece that is unprocessed. Not sure what i'm going to do with that. I'm going to have to take pictures of all of these (it would be a good idea to put new batteries in my camera:D).

So yeah after three months of mommy-hood I think i've got enough of a schedule down to be able to post regularly and keep up on my knitting. I'm hoping to be able to post once a week. So i'll talk to you all later gotta run.

No baby yet.....

I'm still on baby watch but at least this time I have access to a computer. Anyways My latest research project has been cloth diapering. Of course my knitting obsession had to get involved somehow and I found it apparently the best summer diaper covers are wool. It breathes and if you lanolize it, it won't leak. How fantastic is that. So now I am waiting to go home and check my yarn stash for wool. Here are some pic's of what the Wool Soakers look like. These are actually made by a lady for money. But they look awesome. there are tons of patterns to make out there. I like knitting in the round so I am mostly looking for patterns like that. I can't wait till my baby gets here so I can take her measurements and custom fit them to her. Now all I have to find is liquid lanolin for the lanolizing. Some sights suggested Eucalan to wash it with and lanolize it. I'll probably end up buying some of that anyways.

Anyways an update on my current projects I finished on of my husbands fingerless gloves I of course have yet to take a picture of it, but he tried them on and they fit perfectly. The only that has to be redone is the bind off around the fingers is a little tight so I am going to undo that and bind off again with elastic thread that will give him plenty of stretch. I don't know if I explained this project already so excuse me if I am being repetitious. My husband is a web programmer and spends all of his time on a computer. In the winter time his hands (especially his mouse hand) get really cold. The other problem is he has really large hands (I had to adapt the pattern to his size !) so most commercial fingerless gloves are to tight. So I of course jumped to the challenge and began working on adapting a pattern to fit him. He loves them so far and hopefully he will remember to wear them in the winter time. I will take a picture and upload it the next time I post with specific information on them.

Most of my other projects haven't been worked on in a while. Every time I am just about to finish that sweater I started days ago I just think of my lap sweating and I don't want to work on it. I'm almost done so I think i'll just buckle down and finish it. It's really pretty so I do want to work on it. I think the only other project that I have left is the swallowtail shawl that keep meaning to start for my mother in law (I have till Christmas to finish). The lace pattern is really complicated though so i'm not sure yet how to start it.

I take it back there is another project that I want to start. I joined the Anime Krafters KAL and have decided that the project that I want to do for that KAL is a pair of tabi socks. I already have the yarn so I just have to get going. I need to post on there too, I think that i'll probably do that when I get home tonight. Well I gotta go post again later.

Long time no blog!

So yeah its been busy lately. I'm in my ninth month
of pregnancy so everyones afraid to leave me alone. That kinda makes it difficult to get computer time, especially since i'm not working anymore. However I have got a bunch of knitting done. I finished my socks as you can see they are awesome. Normally the picture would be of the sock on my feet but I prefer not to take pictures of my swollen feet. LOL it sucks.

Yeah these kind of socks they go really fast since they don't really have any particular pattern being worked over the whole sock you can focus on the construction of the sock . I would say a good refresher sock if you haven't made socks in a while or a good type of sock to learn how to make. I got the pattern from the book: The Knitter's Handy Book of Patterns. It has basic patterns for hats, socks, mittens, sweaters, etc. For all different sizes from babies to men's size large. Great book to have if you like to personalize your patterns. Like these socks are slightly winged in some places like the top only has an inch of ribbing instead of like four inches of ribbing because I wanted to try a different style top.

Anyways I got some fluff off ebay, it was a total steal. 8 dollars a pound for pin drafted Merino wool mixed with viscose for strength. Its natural colored so I can play around with the color. Its definitely going to be socks, eventually. I just have to decide what color I want to make it i'm planning on dyeing it with Kool-aid so it will probably be pretty vibrant. My friend and I are going to have a dye day at some point in the near future, but we have yet to set a date. I'm really looking forward to spinning it haven't decided whether i'm going to spin it on my wheel or on a drop spindle. The drop spindle takes longer but its easier to spin really fine because it is so slow.

Oh yeah and I joined another KAL its the Anime Kraft-along. I used to be into a lot of anime stuff with my sister and since I actually have the time to pick up all my old hobbies I figured I could get back into it. I'll have to post the picture of the Nekomimi doll I made that I was going to post on the KAL. It's pretty cool I might make one again just for my sister probably of one of the sailor scouts. Yeah as you may have noticed i don't just knit and spin but sew too. Its all a product of my extremely bored youth. (I didn't learn how to drive until I was almost 19 years old) I didn't really do normal teenager stuff partially because i wasn't interested and partially because my parents made it so difficult to go anywhere that it just wasn't worth it. So as a result I have more hobbies than most people that I know or have ever met. However I don't doubt that there are many other people who have been in the same boat as me and as a result also have many hobbies like I do. My sister who is just under me is a good example of someone in the same boat as I was with too many hobbies to count.

Anyways, I am going to try to post more often. Especially considering I haven't posted in like a month or two. I definitely will have more time now and will have even more once the baby watch is over. (soon Please!!)LoL post later.