Celebrating Squishies!

Only to a quilter or knitter would a "squishy" be a good thing, LoL! This week has been a week for squishies so far, and I am lovin' it!!!

Sunday, while the shower fiasco was going on in the bathroom, I sat upon the couch in the living room and finished not only Jeremiah's "deadfish" hat (badly) but I also then added eyes to the hat I made niece Maisie last year for Christmas because she loved the eyes on Jeremiah's so much. I tried to do girly eyes but I had limited supplies and I'm not sure they turned out like they were in my head but she was happy with them nonetheless.

I also finished that "Finger Friendly" hat I was working on for my friend's Mom, Nancy. I hope it fits her! As soon as I got it done I thought, oh no! It's too small!! Of course I have a big head where my friend and her Mom have realitively small heads so I hope it will fit her.

Monday's mail was AWESOME! Diantha sold some yarn I'd made and instead of giving me the moola they went on etsy and picked me out something fun! This cool iron on patch that says "Knitting Ninja - Armed with Pointy Objects"-- I can't wait to put this one something. I'm thinking my jacket. Right on the arm, like a tattoo.

Then a BEAUTIFUL merino, bamboo and nylon batt called "Grape Godess" from Spincerely on etsy. I can't wait to start spinning this one however....

The rosey pink jump rings Mom had ordered for me to spin into Diantha's Rosalie batt came in the mail from Unkamen Supplies!! I have to start on that today, LoL! I LOVE using their jump rings, they are so wonderful to work with, and spinning them into yarn adds such a bright, unique touch!

Also in the mail were the peacock blue jump rings I ordered from them! Squee! These are going in some kind of yarn for ME. Wonder if peacock blue would would in the grape goddess batt? haha Maybe not but I will stash them and get another batt to go with them. Hmm, might have to buy some more fiber.

Which brings me to the yarn I finished last night! The white is pure, undyed merino and the brown is a mystery wool that Marion sent me. I thought the brown by itself might be a little scratchy for me but now that it is plied with the merino the resulting bulky yarn is sooooooo soft! Like a cloud! I love it. I thought it looked like an Oreo or something but Tony says it reminds him of an owl. : ) I am wondering if I should knit him a hat out of it. It's only 88 yards but since it's bulky that's plenty to knit him a hat or me some fingerless gloves, LoL!

.....

Also on Monday morning I got a new tattoo! I drew a rough drawing and took it to Alter Ego Tattoo and Piercing on Kingston Pike in Knoxville. Jon there did my and Tony's last tats and we were really happy with our experience there. Jon was busy so Josh did this one for me, he cleaned up my drawing, fixed the leaf to look like a cherry blossom leaf instead of just a plain leaf and drew the cherry blossoms for me. He did a beautiful job on the tattoo. I Love it!! This picture isn't very good, I couldn't get it sharp enough. It's hard taking a pic of the outside of your ankle. Also, it will look better in about a week when it's healed more!

The Shower Fiasco

Saturday we drove 2.5hrs over to Greeneville for our niece's 8th birthday party. The kids had a blast, we ate pizza, socialized with family. It was a nice time. During the party my brother-in-law Jordy mentioned to Tony that he and Keely (his wife) were worrying they were going to have to get a new shower soon. Apparently theirs was poring down in the wall and flooding the floor whenever they used it. He was worried I guess because he doesn't really know how to do home improvement-y type things.

Tony and I talked about it privately and decided to help them out by buying their new shower and starting to help put it in. We thought it would be a few hour ordeal. It ended up being a 27 hour fiasco.

We hadn't intended to spend the night in Greeneville but we got back from Lowe's with the shower about 9:30pm, the guys turned the water off to take the old shower out. Got it out (and laid in the yard, true redneck style) and discovered the leak had molded the wall. Ooops, too late to buy drywall! Crap!

The water-proof-treated boards under the tub were saturated and we thought they might have to be replaced too but after having the window open and a fan turned on them 9 hours later when they were mostly dried out the guys were thrilled to discover they were just wet, not molded!

They recruited help from brother-in-law number 2 and together they biult 2 new sub walls to set the new shower to, ran new pipes (which was a fiasco in itself) and set the walls of the shower in. But then the old pipe to run up to the shower didn't fit. So off they went to walmart for some felxhose and some fitting glue. 2 hrs later they hooked the shower head up, turned the water back on and the fitting on the backside of the shower sprayed water all over the wall. Sigh. This happened 3 times.

Finally it was 1:30am Mon morning and Tony had to admit defeat and we packed up and left. Keith (bro-inlaw #2) said he was off today and would fix it.

So we tried to do a nice thing and really ended up tearing up their house and making them go without running water (flushing toilets) for 22 hours. But! When they get it done they'll have a really nice, beautiful, white, sparkling shower!!

An Etsy Day

Today was one of those days where it would have been better to just stay in bed. Everything I've done has gone wrong today, right from the minute we woke up and I started to dress Jeremiah to leave and realized his sneakers had gotten soaked in the rain yesterday and had soured overnight. It's a good thing he had some nice new knit slippers to wear over his socks in the car and at Nana's!!

Then on the way to Mom's I discovered Hannah riding in her car seat with 6 cents in her mouth. 6 cents she must have put in there about 20 minutes before I discovered it. At least, I hope it was just 6 cents. Sigh.

We went to Mom's bright and early because the local large newspaper, the Knoxville Newsentinal, was sending a photographer to take pictures of our family doing our respective crafty things for our shops. I made a bad, Diantha carded some fiber, Veronica spun some yarn on a drop spindle, my Mom and Dad made some soap, Mom dyed some recycled yarns and Artemas worked on a walking stick from pearwood. Whew!

All my mayhem, mishaps and annoyances from things not going correctly aside, today was a productive day. I made this "Think Solar" bag and listed it in my etsy shop. I really got in touch with my quilting roots making this one, actually making a wonky star quilt block instead of just scrap piecing the front.

I helped Mom sort, photograph and list these little pet yarns-- small mini skeins of handspun yarn we spin from each batt Diantha makes to sell in her shop, so people can see how the fiber will spin up. They are gorgeous, wonderful skeins of yarn, they are just little. We separated them into "Manly" colors and "Fun and Bright" colors and they're available in Diantha's Fluff4Ewe shop.

I unwound a sweater for Mom and dyed some skeins of yarn for her shop. Like this one, Florin Channel, which is one of the latest recycled yarns in her The Princess Bride series! If you're into high-end fibers at reasonable prices, pop into her My7kids shop from time to time, as she listed a couple new yarns today and has 2 or 3 to list over the rest of the weekend! One is a gorgeous blue and black self-striping sock yarn, that if it doesn't sell, I will be keeping and knitting myself some luscious socks!...after Christmas.

I made the CUTEST little spindle for my brother Artemas to list in his GotWood4You shop. My parents has a couple storms knock down 2 HUGE bradford pear trees in their yarn and instead of just throwing out the wood he is recycling it into all kinds of things, spindles, buttons, walking sticks, votive holders--anything he can think of. It's a lot of fun to play with power tools! The little spindle I made isn't listed yet, but there are a few others to look at.

Then the kids and I went to walmart to get Jeremiah some sneakers and me a pair of jeans--gasp! I actually found one that FIT! And to get my niece a birthday present. Now we're finally home and I would love, love, love to spin a little. My overwhelmed and overwrought mind is craving the relaxation of using my drop spindle but my body might just be too tired. Might just have to sit here and veg and watch The Proposal.

Holy 2x4s Batman!

It's a wall! I had to work Sunday night at our church from about 6-9 and when I got home, I was very surprised and extremely please to discover that in my absence my dear hubby and my brother had built the doorframe, wall frame and hung the door to our bedroom upstairs! Squee!!

You can see in this picture that we're basically just moving the wall and doorframe forward about 3 feet, even with the existing wall on the right (you can see a sliver of green). Then all the existing walls on the inside of the doorway are going to get torn down. We're still needing to put up one piece of drywall on the outside, and drywall the inside, but alas... we ran out and here in East TN "winter" means "rain". Today was sunny but instead of going to buy drywall Tony ran out and had my oil changed, bought me new windshield wipers, put gas in my car, etc so I'm not complaining! I'm so excited that progress is really being made upstairs and the end is in sight--soon we will actually have our OWN bedroom! Nuts, I know!

Sunday we went to Mom's where Tony and Dad put in their new dishwasher. While I was sitting around helping yell at children I got the rest of 1 slipper sock and an entire 2nd sock knitted for Jeremiah! He LOVES them. He picked out the yarn saying he needed new slippers and a deadfish hat. I am working on the hat now and it is never ending. I'm starting to get very burned out on it but it really is not too far from completion and is already so cute.

Saturday night Tony was off and Mom and all the kids came over so we could hit the annual Antiques festival that they have here in downtown Clinton. We left Tony off to begin working on the doorway upstairs and we wandered around downtown in the cold, with the children's noses all running. It was great fun and I bought Mom a screen door LOL! On our way home Mom got a call that her very dear friend Tina was passing thru town on her way back home to FL and wanted a visit. I live closer to the interstate than Mom so we gave her directions to my house and we all had a very fun, noisy visit! I finished my purple Decode hat while they were here.

After Tina left, Mom snapped a picture of me being very worn out and having a very bad headache. I was lying on the floor and Hannah put a Bumblebee transformers mask on my face. Sometimes people take your picture when you don't particularly care for them to. The scissors are not really sticking out of my head but were in fact just lying on the floor where I left them when I finished using them to snip the yarn on my purple hat. I did pick them up when I got up.

As some of you may know, and the rest of you will know now, my parents are expecting their 8th child in May!! Mom had her first prenatal appointment with Dr Roberts yesterday which also happened to be my Dad's 67th birthday.

My Dad LOVES flannel and thinks everything should be flannel and so as a birthday gift/joke/sort of I took the Baby Bjourne carrier I had for Hannah which was still in new condition, washed it and made a flannel cover for it! The cover has a zipper on one side for easy on/off to make it machine washable and is oooh soo fluffy and comfy. I wish I had thought of this when I was using it for Hannah because it would have been SO much softer against her skin than the material the carrier is made out of, which is slightly rough. Though I swear the cover looks like a flannel uterus to me.

My "Decode" Hat is Done!

Finished tonight, finally, and no where near what the hat that gave me this idea looks like.
As you remember my fiasco with beginning of the hat chronicled here NOT Haley's Decode Hat, I'm sure you're just as thrilled as I am with its completion.

What I am not happy with is that my camera will not pick up the incredible, too cool, diamond pattern in the knit pattern no matter how many pictures I take or how much I try to foctor them. Also there is the enigma of the fact that the hat is a different color every time I take a picture. This picture here on the left is the truest color I have, and it's pretty right on.

So what do you think? Even tho the original hat from the Decode video by Paramore had cables and bobbles, I am entirely happy with mine and I think I like it better because I went my own unique way. The diamond pattern that you can't see is beautiful and I love it and cannot wait to use it in the top of the foot of a pair of socks!

And, btw, yes...that is my real haircolor. LOL

Fall Means Flannels

Unless you're my Dad and then anytime means flannel. Seriously, he wears flannel shirts during the summer. Crazy huh? Alright...anyways!

I still have all these gorgeous, gorgeous flannels Jenn sent me. I put together a messenger bag with them before and it sold almost over night, so I thought hey--it's fall. Time for another. And as I cut squares I thought might as well make one with the button/tab thing like I normally do. I just love the wooden buttons on both of them, my brother Artemas made them and sells ones like them in his etsy shop: http://gotwood4you.etsy.com/ Both bags are available at my etsy shop: http://hamncheezr.etsy.com/

I should mention that Monday night I was climbing up our basement steps which happen to be directly under our inside-the-house steps because I'd been downstairs doing laundry. Hannah had followed me downstairs and as I climbed upward I stooped to pic her up and upon standing errect cracked the very top of my head on the underside of our inside-the-house stairs. The result was a slight concussion. So for 2 full days now I have been suffering from a splitting headache that people tell me nothing but major amounts of caffeine and Motrin will help. I am not sure they're really helping. I've thought tonight that my head wasn't hurting quite as badly, but I'm pretty nauseous and now that I've talked about it I realize my head hurts worse.

I've been making slow progress on my knitting too. Hannah thoroughly tangled my brown sock yarn and I can't knit any farther on my Dad's socks until I untangle it. I rationalize this lack of untanglage by telling myself that I already have Dad one pair of socks for Christmas, so if I don't get this one done it's okay and I have many other projects that need knitting before Christmas and I can come back to them.

I've gotten about half of my Finger Friendly hat knitted for Nancy. I had Mom close her eyes today and feel it all over to tell me if she thinks Nancy will like it, LoL!

I just got my first paycheck from working for our church tonight so tomorrow I'm going to get a tattoo! Actually, I'm going to stop in Alter Ego (in Knoxville) and show them my drawing and ask them how much it will cost me, and if they have time to do it tomorrow I will and if not I'll make an appointment to come back. As you may know my dear hubby Tony and I just celebrated our 5th anniversary and I'm going to get a tattoo for him, a cute little drawing I did of some heart shaped cherries and cherry blossoms. No, it wasn't his idea. I'm planning on getting a tat for my children in January (one of each of their birth-month flowers) and I thought I should have one for him first. I'm pretty excited about it. He knows I'm planning on getting one in the next week or so, but I am hoping they can squeeze me in tomorrow so it will kind of be a surprise for him.

Crown molding and knitting for the blind

Last night we officially finished the put-up-crown-molding adventure!! I am thrilled! We had to buy 6 more feet of it yesterday and while I worked at church last night Tony and Jeremiah did manly things like put it up and change out the downstairs toilet seat. When I got home I caulked around it, then painted the corner pieces and touched up the ceiling paint along that wall so now it's totally done!!! It looks awesome! This was the wall that didn't actually go all the way to the ceiling. Tony had to patch it, both sides around the corner, with a 1"x3" board. Luckily our molding is 3.25" so it covers completely. I love it.

Now Tony's talking about putting a texture on the ceiling to hide the spots that had to be patched. We'll see. If we do, we'll probably do it the weekend we resurface the floors--which will be soon!

We've also been making progress on the bedroom upstairs. We still have a wall/doorframe to build and one to tear out but we've gotten the far wall (the one that had the built-in) almost ready to paint with primer. I am going to try to tinker with it this afternoon if I can sneak away from the kids. : )

For Christmas last year I knit my friend Bethany a soft, brightly colored hat with a huge puffy ball on top. Her mother Nancy is blind and says she loves it and could I make one for her in gray and red. Her coat is gray and red is her favorite color. I got a lovely dark red/cranberry color yarn and some gray fun-fur. I am knitting the ribbing for the cuff of the hat with both yarns, then I will discontinue the fun-fur and just use the red for the body. I am planning cables and other patterns so it has a lot of texture and is "finger friendly." This way Nancy can "see" it easily by feeling it.

I am starting on the 2nd sock of the 2nd pair of socks for Dad for Christmas. I haven't finished the first yet, but have knit it from toe to heel. I am going to run out of the orange varigated yarn so I put it on different needles to hold and I'm beginning the second sock so that at least they will look the same, haha.

I have so many projects that need doing before Christmas, I'm starting to get a little overwhelmed! Need to knit:

Nancy's hat

Nancy a matching scarf

Summer a hat

Rush a hat

Lily a hat

Jeremiah a fish hat

Jeremiah slippers

Finish these socks for Dad

Need to make:

3 more large, pleated fabric purses

22 more flannel/batting "sandwich" squares to add to our queen sized flannel shaggy, making it king sized.

A couple more regular and funky purses like I put in my shop, by the 1st week of November, so I can take them to craft shows.

I think I need to make a pot of coffee.

A GREAT trade!

Somehow my Mom "met" this woman named Marion through the internet and I've started talking to her/getting to know her by osmosis I guess, LoL! Marion loves all things fibery and knits, spins, sews, and makes and sells spindles just to name a few things.

A while back she asked if I'd like to trade; if I would make her a knitting bag in exchange for a spindle. I was definitely up for it! The trade got put off a couple months while she worked at the pool during the summer and I moved (I wonder who had a better time??) but finally in the last couple weeks we've gotten our act together.

I wanted to make her a special bag that would be very easy for her to tote her knitting or crochetting in, or even a small spinning project. I chose an all-over print because she likes bright colors, with a blue lining because she said she liked any shade of blue. I chose to make it messenger style so the flat over the top would keep things from falling out, but I cut special notches on each side so that if she wanted to walk around and knit her yarn could thread up through and have a place to come out easily!!

She told me she mailed me a box and when it arrived, stamped Priority Mail 8 days later (thanks for reliability USPS) I was floored when I opened it!!

She MORE than held up her end of the bargain!!!

Oh my goodness, she sent me a couple ounces (I'm not good at measuring so I'm gonna guess 2-3 and she can correct me) of really fluffy some kind of naturally brown fiber. It is slightly....something, sticky is the wrong word. I think it may either be superwash or it may have some of the lanolin in it though it is not sticky like other wools with lanolin I have felt, so it remains a mystery. It is spinning wonderfully about sock weight, and I think I might ply it with some natural white merino I have and have a wonderful natural brown and white 2ply.

THE MOST BEAUTIFUL SPINDLE EVER! OMG! She knows I like bottom whorl best and I love red so she painted the flower on this wooden spindle red before she clear coated it. It is wonderful. It spins like you wouldn't believe and has a great weight, it is heavy enough to keep spinning (longer than my arms are, LOL!) but isn't breaking the yarn! Like I said, I'm spinning sock weight and it's working beautifully!!! I love, love, love, love, love it! (Please ignore my nasty living room floor, we're refinishing it in about a month).

3 balls of almost white sock yarn, one of which is being dyed a lovely shade of pink while I type! A gorgeous pair of knitted socks for Hannah. Hannah was so thrilled with them she had m e put them on her immediately, wore them the rest of the night and fell asleep in them. She even took 2 pictures of her feet; sorry they aren't totally clear and I hope you can see the lace pattern.

Hannah even took a picture of Mama being very happy about the goodies in the box!

And last but certainly not least for Jeremiah she sent a fishy toy, which he LOVES. It has a little pull string and then the fins flap so it can swim in the bathtub? We haven't tried it out yet because after a stressful day I threw the kids in the shower instead of a bath but we will! He spent a lot of time today amusing himself and his baby sister with it, and making up a story about how the pull tab is acutally a baby fishy but it's so small because it was just born, LoL!

Thank you, thank you Marion!!! I love everything.

Did I mention I love the spindle??

NOT Haley's Decode Hat

The last time I rented Twilight (yes, I've rented it more than once. Heckle and mock me if you will but pay attention.) I watched the video "Decode" by Paramore that's in the bonus features. I had seen the video before but noticed for the first time Haley's awesome purple slouchy knit hat! I've been obsessed with it ever since.

Of course I wanted to do it out of a handspun and I proweld etsy to find just the right shade of purple batt, which I finally did from FiberOptic. I was SO thrilled, it was even superwash! I spun my yarn slightly thick and thin 'cause I wanted some character, all the while dreaming of this hat I was going to make myself. It was going to be awesome.

The picture I had in my head, that I'd gotten from watching the video in my living room in poor lighting looked like it had k2p2 rib for about 4.5" so it turned up quite a ways and then it looked to me like it was knit with a diamond/diagonal grid pattern of purl stitches through it.

Today I decided to Google image search "paramore decode video" and "paramore purple hat" and discovered that I had gotten it all wrong! Knitters feel free to pummle me with acrylic nastiness for missing something so obvious! The hat had CABLES and knittle (knitted and little, ha!) BOBBLES not diamonds! Curses!

So I was devestated all day. This wonderful beautiful hat I had planned was not as I planned. I love cables but I do them all the time. I don't like bobbles/knitted knots so I don't do them at all.

I decided since I wasn't as thrilled about the actual Decode video hat as I was about the one in my head that I was just going to make the one in my head instead. Do you own thing and all that. As I poked biscuits and gravy in Hannah for dinner I drew a little graph of X's and O's since I don't own any graph paper.
I worked out my repeating diamond pattern over 12 stitches. I didn't know what my guage was going to be so I did something I've only ever done once--knit a guage swatch. It was too loose so I cast on with smaller needles, LoL! I cast on 84 stitches on 4.5mm double-pointed needles and I've only gotten about 4 rows knit but it looks like that's going to be a good size. I'm pretty unhappy with that little guage swatch anyway, the pattern didn't show up well but I guess it's hard to see how a pattern will look on a 12 stich swatch! I am however lovin' this gorgeous, orgasmically wonderful purple yarn! Superwash merino too, can't beat it!!