Knitting Pattern Please?

I have about 100 yards of a wool yarn that I handspun, slightly thick and thin but mostly worsted weight. I am looking for a small project since I don't have any more of this yarn (and wasn't intending to buy another batt but I could! LOL!). I am not really intersted in something felted either.

I want something kind of fun. Not a scarf. I'm thinking maybe fingerless gloves like I made my sister but only want to do that as a last resort. I've been browsing through Knitty and nothing has particularly sparked my interest. I should mention that I cannot follow a pattern to save my life so I need something particularly easy, LoL!

Please let me know your ideas!!

A Good Time?

Last night at 11 pm our head maintenance man/manager for our apartment complex knocked on our door and informed us that our shower drain in our master bath was leaking into the tub of the master bath in the apartment underneath us. Lovely! He says, Just use the shower in your hall bathroom and we'll be back Monday to fix it. I told him the shower in that bathroom hasn't worked in the 2 years we've lived here. It wasn't a big problem for us since the tub works just fine and that's the "kids" bathroom and I usually give them baths anyway. The good thing was I had a shower right before he got here and I can give the kids baths tonight so Tony is the only one with a problem, LoL! The bad news is when the guy showed up I was sitting on my couch with a towel on my head, in my jammies, with my house TRASHED (2 days of just coming and going littered with baby toys) and a beer in my hand (one of those new Michelob Ultra Lime Cactus, yummy!) This morning I realized I also had a bright red Victoria's Secret bra hanging in the shower he was looking at. Mom says Beer, Towel, Trashed House, Lingerie...sounds like a good time.

We took Jeremiah bowling along with his Nana Cheryl. (Papa) Buddy was supposed to meet us but has even worse timing than Daddy does so Buddy showed up about the time we were eating dessert at Ryan's. I didn't do toooooo badly, I bowled I think 108, LOL! Seriously I've bowled 48 before so it was a good day. Dropped Jeremiah at church, drove over to Alter Ego on Kingston Pike to talk to "Big Jon" Goad about Tony's scorpion tat. The guy is awesome and is currently sporting a 6" fuchsia mohawk like Tony and Jeremiah had last summer. Killer!

Yesterday was also National Quilting Day and did I sew even one stitch? No! The closest thing I got to "quilting" was to cut out 4 sets of 10 5" charms from blue fabrics for this months charm swap. Tomorrow I will have to play catch up on my block a day again, but that's okay 'cause the only thing on the agenda is to rent Twilight.

Today Tony and I cleaned house (with Jeremiah's help, he picked up his toys like a good boy) so that tomorrow the maintenance dude's can come and do their thing. The main part of my house wasn't so bad but my bedroom needed a LOT of work. Basically just boiled down to putting clothes up and most of those were Tony's though, so ha!

Dropped Jeremiah off at my parents house to play so we could keep our 6pm apt. with Jon. Mom, being the great artist that she is drew Tony a tattoo of a scorpion with "Luke 10:19" in the "links" of the tail. He was so happy with that! And Jon, being the great artist that he is inked it for him this evening. Tony went with classic red and black to which I said he was just trying to copy me, LoL! (My tats are all red and black). He's been wanting this tattoo for at least 2 years, if not longer. I am so happy he finally was able to get it!! When we got back Jeremiah had Mom draw a "tattoo" on him of a "guppion" as he put it. Check out some of the work they've done over at Alter Ego where we get our "body modifications" done, LOL!

I got a little work done too 'cause piercings are on special on Sunday, hahahaha!

grr batteries!

I am exhausted and I haven't even begun to clean up my house (which needed it this morning but there was no time) or bathe my children (for the second time today)!

My brothers and sisters (and I have many) participated in a sort of aggricultural/science fair this afternoon. They had a "booth" on growing things and another one about what to do with sheep. LoL! The "booth" next to theirs was shearing sheep all day and then theirs was about cleaning, carding, dying, spinning and knitting. That was fun. I got a bunch of pictures and of course my batteries died. GRR! So now I have to either recharge the stupid batteries or find other batteries and I am not bothering with it tonight.

Hit the fabric store after that and got some fabrics for the blue charm swap this month. They are in the washer right now along with some more of the black I've been using for blocks so I can once again begin my block-a-day, tomorrow. I've been doing them, I swear, just not sharing pics. Several went into Jenn's bag which I mailed today so I should be able to share pics of it on Tuesday? Marion recieved a package I sent her today too so I can share pics of the little girly bag I made for her daughter Barbie. Here are those pics.

I made 2 other "Little Princess" bags I call 'em yesterday. Have a third ready to put the lining and straps in and then it will be done, I just didn't get to it last night. Can't share pics of THEM because of the batteries. Now I can cross those off my list. I cut the linings for 5 sock knitting bags but didn't make the pockets so those are next on the list. All in preparetion for the craft show. This thing BETTER happen or I am going to be SWIMMING in quilted handbags, LOL!

Tony is off for the weekend and on the agenda is for him to get a tattoo he's been wanting for at least 2 years. He wanted it to years ago when I got my cross on my back but I told him it was my turn, LOL! I still say it's my turn since he has 1 more tat than I have but he's not listening to reason. Men! Mom is supposed to be drawing him his scorpion as we speak. We shall see, hahaha! He said something about dropping me and the kids off at Mom's while he went to go to that. Huff! He said it was because he didn't think Hannah would be happy without me for the couple hours it'll take, and they won't let babies in the tattoo parlor. *I* think it is because he is afraid to take me with him because instead of costing him $200 it will cost him $350, buahahahaha.... And a special thank you to everyone who has purchased an item from me in the last couple months for your contribution to my wonderful hubby's tattoo fund!! I appreciate it!

Ice Cream and Denim

Today started bright an early again, with a still-sleepy Hannah thinking she was cheery and wanting to play so I've spent most of the day cuddling her off and on. Mom and the kids came over this evening while a couple of the kids were at church and she brought her leftover corned beef and cabbage roast (with carrots, potatoes and onions) and turned it into Corned Beef Soup (with the help of some canned tomatoes). She also brought some freshly baked herb bread. Yummy! One of my favorite meals I think and she makes the best bread, I could make a meal out of it by itself!

I finished up 2 bag UFOs today, ones I had started a week or so ago. The first was a dishtowel that I had. It was so cute with a dish of ice cream surrounded by cherries and a blue checkerboard. I added a too-orange lining with a couple pockets, straps and a zipper and made it a great summery tote! I listed it in my esty shop but if it doesn't sell by the craft show I'm planning on in May it will go with me that weekend. : ) It measures 12.5" tall by about 17.5" wide. Both sides are exactly the same.

The second UFO was a litte handbag/clutch from some more of those jeans I cut up a while ago. I have enough of the jeans left to do 1 or 2 more little bags like this. Tony bought me a yard of this wintry horse fabric for my birthday for me to make bags out of because he said, "Chicks like horses." I appliqued a 2 horses on the front and put a patch-style pocket on teh back. It measures 10.5" at the top (9" wide at the bottom) and about 8.5" tall. This one didn't make it in my etsy shop but is going to the craft show. I might make another one like this but get some of those wooden handles to go on it instead of the fabric handles. This bag is lined with the horse fabric. Everytime I make a bag out of these blue jeans all I can think of is "denim and pearls." LOL!

And that's all I have to report for the day. Oh! Except this morning before Tony left for work I finished Jenn's bag!!!!!! Since I am such a pain I am not posting pictures of it until she gets it and I will be mailing it either tomorrow or Friday so sometime next week I should be able to post pics.

Tiny, Me?

Ever have one of thise moments when someone tells you something about yourself that you know just isn't true and you mentally go "Huh"?
Today a girl and her mother came over to try on the prom dress I am selling on the craighslist (didn't fit, total bummer) and during the course of the visit the woman commented that my son is going to be a big guy when he grows up. I mentioned that he started out big at 9.5 lbs and 22" long. She said, "How did you get him out you are tiny!!"
What?? Never has someone said I'm tiny. Don't get me wrong, I don't think I'm an amazon or anything but I am 5'8 and wear a 9/9.5 shoe. I have big hands (almost 8" long) and I'm big boned. Yeah, I read somewhere that there is not such thing as "big boned" but I defy that particular author to then explain how, with not a scrap of extra meat around my ankles I have to custom order anklets to fit for length?? Ha! Tiny. Huh. Kinda made my day.

I have a couple little teases for Jenn, since I've been working on a handbag for her today. Made the straps a litlte while ago, don't know if they are long enough. Crap. Might have to get creative. I've been "exempt" from making a quilt block off the calender since Thursday because since Thurs there has only been one actual pieced block--the only other blocks were a shamrock block and a appliqued chicken block. I am not doing the shamrock because I already made a St Patty's quilt (see back posts for Jeremiah's green quilt/Turtle-Tigress) and I plan on doing the chicken quilt one day but I want to do it in REALLY LOUD bright colored dot and stipe fabrics and I don't have them. And I can't afford them right now So instead I've been working on Jenn's bag, which has blocks so...*blows raspberry*

Jeremiah's fish have been dropping like flies. We're down to 5, we had 9. Apparently they have high cholesterol according to my mother. She's never seen obesity in fish before but mine are C.H.U.B.B.Y. I swear, we read the label on the fish food. It says "3 times daily, as much as the fish will eat in a minute." That is what we feed them. They are just Bowman fish and as we all know, Bowmans are hearty stock, LOL!


So I am a little Irish and I suck at it. I didn't make corned beef and cabbage, though I love it and the leftovers made into soup. Diantha told me, "It's as easy as making a pot roast you know" LOL! I know, but I made sausage rice casserole and made it even more southern by topping it with cheese. And I didn't wear green (though Hannah did). In fact the only thing green I own is a thong, and I'm not sure that would count anyway.

Rechargable batteries

I have no quilty pics to share tonight. One reason being my current project I want to be a surprise and so it is secret, though I know you all know me well enough to believe me when I say I did make a quilt block today. In fact I made 4.

The other reason being that my beloved Duracell batteries I use in my digicam ran out the other day and being broke I broke out the little wall-charger and rechargable batteries I got Tony for Christmas '07 that we'd never opened yet. I charged the batteries all night, took 12 pictures and the wonderful frickin' enviromentally and ecconomically friendly "rechargable" batteries died. Stinking dead. Kaput. No more. Not one OUNCE of juice.

I am wondering how many watts of electricity I am bowling though to recharge these wonderful batteries so I can then take TWELVE LOUSY PICTURES?! Would it be more eco-friendly to just go buy some more beloved, trustworthy, always ready Duracells?

Diantha's fingerless gloves

Finally I can post a pic of the fingerless gloves/mits I knit for Diantha for her birthday. I couldn't do it before I came them to her 'cause the little rugrat reads my blog, LoL!

I love YarnsbyAshleyB on etsy. She doesn't list a ton of stuff in her shop but I like almost everything she does and occasionally I buy some when I'm having a moment of lack of self control. This was one of those occasions. I had favorites a yarn of hers called Misfit Circus thinking it was just the right yarn to knit Diantha something. It was yellow/orange with a slight bit of pink here and there and spun/plied with a thread with sequins on it. I bought it and dyed a small chunk of it dark plum and another chunk very orange just to mix things up. Then I knit it into these super cool fingerless gloves, seen here modeled by Diantha as she tried to cut her cake.

I have been doing a bad job of managing my time. My house is falling down around me while I sit at the sewing machine and I need to rework my priorites with that. I do need to do sewing but I also need to have order in my home. I need to make a list of sewing things I need to get done so I don't get overwhelmed and confused and then I need to make a list of housework to take care of and alternate back and forth between the 2 lists so that everything gets done. Not all in one day mind you, LoL! Today is clean up the house and go grocery shopping day! I have been putting off the shopping since Friday morning and we are seriously out of food, LOL! And I had a girl write to me this morning and say she'd like to come over and try on the prom dress I listed on the craighslist so it's time to clean house too! Nothing like some incentive!!!

What started it all

I didn't blog last night because when Tony got off work at 10:30pm he called and said that his supervisor was taking whoever wanted to go to Shoney's for the breakfast buffet because they ran more parts than day shift by a couple hundred and did we want to come meet him? You'd think I hadn't fed either kid all day because they packed away bacon, eggs, biscuits and gravy, fruit, salad, everything!

There wasn't a block for yesterday but I did do some sewing: I made a little girl bag. This one isn't going into my etsy shop because I have a better plan for it. I am thinking of making maybe 2 or 3 of these to take to the craft show I'm going to be doing on May. This is getting difficult to decide what to make/take. I don't want to take so much that I look stupid sitting around surrounded by bags, but I want to take enough that if they sell well (I pray!) that I don't run out, ya know? Hmm...must ponder some more, but not right now. Still too sleepy.

I thought I would share with y'all THE Bag that started it all. About a year ago my sister Diantha had her 13th birthday and I couldn't figure out what to get/give her. I had been working on a baby quilt made entirely from batik fabrics and I picked up some scraps and this is what I came up with. I appliqued a rhinestone "D" on the front and a little star burst on the back. She's never washed the bag but I am still amazed and impressed with the iron-on rhinestones since I have seen the kind of abuse this bag has suffered and the rhinestones still are hanging on! I took this bag and filled it with eyeshadow, make up remover, lip gloss, lotion, nail polish and some makeup applicator pads and boy was it a great hit!

Seeing Stars and Birthday Treasury

I snagged a Treasury on etsy tonight, and themed it in honor of my sister Diantha who turns 14 on Wed. When I was a kid I kept praying for a sister but got 2 lousy brothers (LoL) until finally Diantha arrived when I was 9. She was a fussy baby, a whiney little kid and she's turning into the coolest sister ever. She's a GREAT help with my kids, my house and I'm sure for Mom too. She's tall and gorgeous and got hit on today by one of the little redneck boys next door and rolled her eyes. Way to go, Diantha! Go check out my collectio of stuff that reminded me of her, Flower Child

Another etsian included my X's and O's quilt in her treausury here!

The kids and I, along with Mom and her kids and my friend Tara and her kids all visited the Children's Museum in Oak Ridge again. Man do the kids love that place! Afterward, on the way home we stopped by the Artisan Studio in Clinton where some of my handbags are for sale. Sadly none of my bags have sold in the last month but it has been dismal weather not suitable for walking around boutiques and antique stores. Not enough sun shine! Summer is coming though and I hope and pray the sales pick up.

Diantha followed us home, LOL (more like Jeremiah begged her) to spend the night and has been a HUGE help to me with sewing! Together we squared up the 6 star blocks I made the other day, made the other 6, made the 24 enormous flying geese to go around the first set, squared them up and set them together and made the rest of the flying geese I need. Lots of sewing, snipping, squaring and sewing. This is what we ended up with! I will have to add the second round on flying geese around the 6 squares with dark backgrounds tomorrow, I've run out of steam tonight!

Unfortunately Desiree

LOL, I found something tonight kind of fun.
Go to google and type "unfortunately your name" (I used Desiree, of course). Make sure to include the quotes and see what comes up.

Here's some results for "Unfortunately Desiree":
Unfortunately, Desiree loves her husband so much that she feels that she cannot live without him.

Unfortunately, Desiree did not win Miss Rhode Island USA

Unfortunately, Desiree has closed. (What?? LOL)

Unfortunately, Desiree is gone. Disappeared. Probably kaput. No more. Owl dinner.

Unfortunately, Desiree isn’t with me, hunkered down over an old chest used for a backyard table, with grease on our hands and at the corner of our mouths.

Unfortunately, Desiree’ was adamant in her refusal to be pronounced “nuts”.

And there you have it!

Today's bags

Allow me to introduce you to Very Bad Sue!
Needing to calm her troubled mind, Sue has taken off her cumbersom bonnet and prairies dress and is taking a nice ride on her motorcycle! This one of a kind bag is 10"x10.5" tall. Sue and her motorcycle are machine appliqued, her fringe and handlebars have been drawn with a permanent heat-set ink. She is surrounded by batik fabrics and the back of the bag is all scrap-pieced batiks and machine quilted in a free style. The bag is lined with a black and red Betty Boop on motorcycles print. It zips shut along the top and has a 40" long strap for cross-body ear making it a perfect bag to take motorcycle riding!

I have one more of these Bad Sue bags in mind, but it will be a bigger, tote like bag with shorter straps and pockets. This bag seen here will be available locally for $38. After that there are no more Very Bad Sue Bags unless made upon special request.

Also today I have a small clutch or hang bag. Made from recycled blue jeans it has a hybiscus flower appliqued on the front and small handles and button tab made from the same fabric. The button is wooden, very cool with the jeans and the lining is a cheery green color to go with the leaves of the flowers. This bag will also be available locally at a show in May for $15.

Today I didn't get anything else done, LOL! Except hold Hannah who was particularly cuddly today and I spent 45 minutes singing to Jeremiah to fall asleep for a nap. Time well spent!

Meager Productivity

Today I was going to get a lot accomplished! My house was going to be pleasantly tidy and inviting. My children were going to be clean and happy. I was going to sew beautiful masterpieces and cook my hard working husband a gourmet dinner.

Today I didn't get a lot accomplished. My house looks like a picked over yard sale. My children need baths and are still in their jammies from last night. My husband gets to come home to possibly the worst spaghetti I've ever made. My sewing? I got 6 blocks made. Not even 6 whole blocks either, really.

I awoke this morning hurting so badly all over I couldn't really move until naptime after motrin, a very hot shower, a couple glases of caffeine and a lot of complaining. I sorted a huge load of clothes my SIL gave me; weeding out stained items to toss, 5 or 6 outfits to keep (along with as many onesies) and the rest for the goodwill. I folded them and put them up and cleaned out Hannah's drawers while I was at it. I ran my dishwasher. I made 24 flying geese that squared up to 4 1/4" x 2 3/8", talk about weird. Then I cut out 24 2 3/8th" squares for the block corners (which was very difficult today since I was hurting so badly.) Sewed half of the 6 blocks they made up together and realized that I cut LIGHTS for the corners when I needed DARKS. Crap!!
I left off that and made the horrid spaghetti and premade frozen garlic bread. Fed the kids. Picked out a billion little seams. Cut 24 little tiny squares from my dark fabrics (assorted reds). Remade the 6 blocks and ironed them. Then I made the pieces for today's block which the calender says is "Prairie Queen." I didn't get them squared up or sewn together. Hannah is in her fussy stage of the night so I will have to finish it tomorrow. Along with finishing the 6 blocks I made today because they are actually the center square for 6 larger star blocks just like them, hence the star within a star. And if that fiasco weren't enough I realized that I didn't just need 6 blocks the size I made today I need 18 more blocks that size with dark backgrounds and 18 more blocks that size with light backgrounds. Some other day! LOL! They will be the setting squares for around the edges of the quilt so I don't need to start on them til I get these bigger star squares done.

In the middle of all of that, during one of my breaks to nurse Hannah I snagged another treasury on etsy. Jenn (Sunshine of Autumn quilts) asked me if I'd ever made a Nursery Rhyme treasury, since she just happened to list a nursery rhyme quilt *wink* I said I hadn't, but it's time had come! So here it is Nursery Rhymes.

My Mom also got a main treasury collection today too, and did one in my honor, LoL!
Queen of Hearts