2KCBWDAY5 And now for something completely different: A Day in the Life of Dustbunnies

Hey Devon, here she comes, quick, hide, hissed Dustin. 
Oh don't be such a scaredy bunny, Dustin, said Devon, she's just bending over to pick up her knitting, she isn't lookin' for DUST BUNNIES.  You know she started that new sweater pattern last week and she hasn't had time to do housework since.  She has been knitting furiously on it so she can get it done and wear it for Easter with her favorite skirt.

Yeah I guess your right, said Dustin, she will do just about anything to avoid house work anyway.  I once heard her say that she stores the vacuum cleaner in back of her yarn stash so that if she ever does get the urge to clean she will see all her pretty yarn and forget all about vacuuming.  The only time we have to worry is if the little dog's ball rolls under here and she comes looking for it or if the grand kids come to visit, then she will drag out the vacuum and the dust rag so no one will know how much she knits instead of cleans.

Devon, did you see how much she has gotten done on that sweater, asked Dustin? It is growing by leaps and bounds.  I really love that pattern she is using.  I was looking at the paper on the floor last night and it said it was a wildflower knot stitch. 

The pattern is In the Green from the July 2008 issue of Creative Knitting Magazine.
Oh I really like the yarn she is using, said Devon.  It is that Simply Soft yarn by Caron in a really pretty soft green color.  I heard her say she thought it would really go slow because it is worked on #5 needles and that she thought that new wildflower knot stitch would slow her down but it looks like she is making great progress to me.

You know Dustin, said Devon, we may have something else to worry about other than being sucked up in the vacuum tube.  What's that, asked Dustin?  Devon said, what if she gets a crazy notion that she wants to start spinning her own yarn and tries to turn us into roving and spin us into yarn?????  YIKES IS THAT POSSIBLE?????

If you would like to know more about Dust bunnies just visit Maggie the Crochet-a-holic's page, Dust Bunny Facts.  Check out her crochet pattern page while your there.




Mochimochiland Dustbunnies pattern

If you would like to knit your own little dustbunnies  Mochimochi Land has the pattern above for sale.


One last thing........HAPPY APRIL FOOLS DAY!!!!!

                                                       >^..^<

2KCBWDAY3 Day Three: 30th March. Tidy mind, tidy stitches

How do I keep my yarn wrangling organised? 
This morning's blog subject is a very rude awakening to my phsyche.  My mind has always thought I was quite organized.  Why I even have quite a few of my friends believing that, but in the hard light of reality it is not so.  I talk and think a  lot about getting and being organized but have never gotten it all done at one time.
I have a few good organizational tricks to share with you today that are working out great for me.  Although I have to admit that even my organized chaos works for me because I can put my hands on what I am looking for in a minimum of 5 - 30 minutes (well most of the time).

First let me show you some of the chaos and get this mess behind us, so to speak.

My giant bag of yarn stored in one of the

"vacuum out the air bags".  Not too pretty, huh.

My stash of crochet thread in my favorite basket. 

Not quite as bad as the above mess.

Now let me share a couple of my good ideas with you.

                          

These are a couple of my "Grandma Bags"

I call them that because I can stick my

 grands pictures in the outside pockets and show them off.

The bags hold my projects and patterns and all the gadgets I need whether I am sitting by my chair working or have to grab it and take it with me.  I have several because I usually have several projects working at one time.  If I don't have it in one of the "grandma bags" then the project is usually considered a UFO and shoved into a WallyWorld bag and stuffed to the back of the cupboard.

 

This is my gadget bag, which to me is very organized and helpful.

It is just a large zippered bag made very sturdy.  I found it in the school section of WallyWorld and have used it for my gadgets ever since.  It is big enough to hold lots of goodies as you can see but small enough to fit into my "grandma bags", you ought to give it a try if you don't already have something that works for you.

Next I want to share my favorite organizational accomplishment with you.  For years I struggled with my circular needles.  The first time I use a pair I was in love and I hardly ever use anything else now.  But that meant I was collecting all the different sizes and yikes, they were flopping all over the place.  I saw in the catalogs that there were some really nice EXPENSIVE systems for keeping them but at the time that wasn't an option for me.  So I rummaged around until I came up with this.

A three ringed notebook with plastic page protectors w/top flaps (this keeps the needles from sliding out). 

I put a label on each page telling what size, length and how many of each should be in that sleeve.  I suggest you use a large, at least 3" notebook for this so you have plenty of growing room.  It is a very inexpensive way to keep them organized. If you take one out you can slip an index card in saying what project it is with and maybe even the date taken out.

I have done the same thing with my finished project pages that I use while knitting a project.  With the coming of the computer/scanner/printer age I have opted to scan a pattern, put it into a page protector sleeve, and carry that instead of using the original pattern. 

I can then feel free to mark any changes that I make on the copy and when I look back a couple of years later I can see just how I made that sweater and why it is so different looking than the original pattern.  You can also put the yarn label in the sleeve with any extra buttons and the gauge swatch.

This gives you a great final record of a project and also lets you learn from your mistakes if you felt you had made any. 

Although I have not been with Raverly for very long I can really see the benifits of the organization that they have brought to us "yarneys"  I think it has motivated me to get my Workbasket Magazines indexed and also in the near future figure out how to organize my yarn stash.

My DPNs and my Straight needles are at the moment residing with my partially indexed Workbaskets (a major WIP).

I hope this little bit of info has helped your organiztional skills, even if it infulenced you to find a better way than my way, lol.

I would love to hear your opinions so please leave a comment below or just click the like/dislike button.

Thanks for reading

>^..^<

WIPs

I have been busy this week trying to finish an afghan and also a sweater.  In other words my Works In Progress.  I almost always have at least two going at once because if it is a large project like an afghan I tend to get burnt out on it if I don't set it aside and pick up something else for a few hours.  Usually I mix a crochet project with a knitting project to break up the hand movements that can sometime get painful if I work too long at one thing.  I find that crocheting will get to my hands quicker than knitting.  With knitting it gets to my shoulders and neck quicker.  Such is life in the older years.  I just praise the Lord that I can still see well enough to do the things I love. 

My afghan I am making with just the simple granny square rectangle that just keeps getting larger and larger.  I am using the Red Heart Super Saver yarns in coffee. burgundy, gold and buff colors.

The colors aren't that good in this picture but I promise when I finish it I will take a better picture for you.  I am probably 3/4 of the way finished with it.  In fact I wasn't going to make it much bigger but when I laid it over myself in the recliner my feet stuck out, lol, so I have to make it longer, which in turn makes it wider. 

My feet are always cold, even in the summer I will wear my hand knit wool socks.  But that is a whole other topic that I will post on and share a pattern or two with you at a later. 

My other WIP is my sweater.  I am using an Ella Rae Phoenix Sweater pattern by Knitting Fever .  I am using Red Heart Super Saver yarn in Lt. Blue.  The main needle size is US 9 and is going really fast even with the bobbles.

  

                                           

I use circular needles whether I am knitting in the round or not, it is just easier for me and travels better when you don't have to worry about your needles poking out of your bag.

It may seem like the only yarn I use is Red Heart, but not true.  I have in the past used lots of different yarns and really enjoy the different types.  My whole reason for starting these two projects was to use up some yarn in my stash.  I was trying to not buy anymore yarn till I got some of the stash used down.  Of course the afghan is taking more of the brown than I had so had to buy more of that.  I had made baby blankets for twin boys with the blue and ended up with enough of it left to make the whole sweater without buying more though.

Yarn is not as easy to find in FL as it is up north and I have a double whammy because I live out in the woods and not close to any city and only one specialty yarn shop in the Ocala area that I have come across. I have seen ads for one in Gainesville and also Lady Lake but haven't gotten to them yet.  I have succumbed to buying yarn online, but it takes a lot of the joy out of the touching and feeling and judging color.  I haven't been too disappointed though with what I have gotten online.  I can only think of one time I thought the yarn was not what it should have been.  That was the yarn that came in the Alligator Scarf Kit that is mentioned in a previous post.  I did love love love that pattern though.  And so did the grandkids!  I ended up making 5 or 6 that year and sent them all for Christmas.  I used camoflauge (Red Heart) yarn for most of them and they turned out great.  I really do like Red Heart for it's durability when making for the G kids. 

The night is getting short and I will say good night, and God bless. 

                                   

                                                  =^..^=

So many projects, so little time...

I have so many projects that I want to do.  I am like a kid in a toy store whenever I see the words "FREE PATTERNS".  I can't resist clicking on the link and looking at every pattern, and of course then I have to view the yarn that it recommends.  How will I ever do all the projects I would love to do????  And the next question is what will I do with all the projects I want to do if I ever do them?  For example, I love to make baby things, blankets, booties, sweaters... but I don't have any more grand kids that are babies or know anyone likely to have babies... oh wait, my oldest grandson just turned 18 today.  Gee I could make a hope chest up for when he gets married and has kids (uhh, I really don't want to rush him, he really needs to wait a few lot more years to do all that). 
I also love to make things for my little dog, Tuffy, but how many sweaters can a little dog wear in FL?  I have knitted him a bed also but I think my next project for him is a sofa seat, kinda like a little square afghan for him (we have fairly new furniture and we prefer it to stay that way so for now I lay a towel down so he can be up beside me on the love seat).  He just loves anything "yarny" so he will enjoy a little afghan all his own to lay on and it will also match and look nice with the furniture. 
See there I go again.  I am currently making 2 different things (yes, I have to have more than one thing to work on at a time).  I am knitting a quick and easy sweater, and crocheting an afghan for the living room.  I also have one UFO to finish.  A UFO is an unfinished project if you are wondering.  Yet I am dreaming about what stitch to make Tuffy's afghan with and also searching for just the right shade of green to make me another sweater to wear with a certain skirt, and oh that was the cutest baby pattern that I downloaded from Knitting Fever.com. 
What do I do so I don't lose all the great patterns and projects for future use?
If I really love the pattern I download and print it out and put it into my TO DO Binder.  I bought a big 3" binder and page protectors to slip the patterns into.  Then I divided them up into sections like baby, socks, toys, sweaters etc...
Then when I need a new project to start I can flip through it and quickly find something.  I find it much easier than trying to remember where I saw that cute pattern last month.  I also bookmark all my favorite websites that have great free patterns.  I will attempt to share these with you in the PATTERNS AND YARN LINKS on the side of this page.
Oh if you want to see the baby pattern I was referring to from Knitting Fever Inc.  

the pattern can be found at http://www.knittingfever.com/c/leaflet/10173/.

Busy Work

The Alligator scarf kit came from Morehouse Farms and I worked it with out too many problems. I do however think that the yarn that came with the kit was the dirtiest or trashiest wool I have ever worked with. I am not sure that I would order yarn from them again. The kit was to make a scarf for small children but the sticks and trash in it make me think twice about putting it next to a childs tender skin.





I truely have never worked with wool that was that bad before. All that aside, it turned out just tooooooooooo cute. Pictures don't do it justice.






While waiting for the kit to arrive I was looking for something else to work on and I found a pattern for a cotton top in The Woman's Day Book of Knitted Sweaters, 1976, Simon & Schuster. I have had this book for 30 years and made several sweaters from it years ago.
I was sooo looking forward to wearing this sweater with several things but wouldn't you know it was a wee bit small for me (I didn't lose as much weight as I had thought). It really did turn out pretty and my DIL will enjoy it as much as I would have.




Well after I finished the top I really got to feeling guilty about the UFOs lurking in the cupboard. Last year I started a camo hoodie for my youngest grandson so I got that out and finished it. I think it will still fit him this winter but if not my wonderful DIL will find someone that can use it.



Well that brings you up to date with my knitting, well not exactly, I am working on another pair of socks, I just can't stop making them.


Have a knitty day!

Fishing for Gators

Went fishing today but didn't even get a bite. Usually I knit all the way to the fishing hole and back while hubby drives but today I never even knit a stitch. Of course I am making up for it this evening. I just have a few more rows and I will be finished with my sock.

Well now about the gators.....
You probably have already seen them but if not go to: http://www.morehousefarm.com/KnittingKits/Scarves/Alligator/
Living in FL as I do we are kind of surrounded by gators. If not the real animal then the football animal of the University of FL in Gainesville which is only about 45 minutes from my home. Anyway as you can imagine all the males of my family are gator fans so I think I know now what I will be working on for Christmas gifts this year. Of course here in FL we don't have a lot of scarf wearing weather, but I may just try making one in camouflage and see how it turns out. Then my hubby and sons can always wear them in the woods while hunting. Hee hee hee hee....

Actually I have knitted my hubby and one son camo sweaters and they love them. My hubby's sweater is over 10 years old and still in great shape and he wears it every winter. In fact it is the only sweater he ever wears.

Well I have to get back to my sock
Yak at ya later <):-)