Yarn Along

Finally! I can link up with Ginny at Small Things for a Yarn Along! It took me quite some time to finish this hat, but it's done. There were so many great shots of my son modeling that I couldn't choose one. FYI - If you think you see yarn hanging down from the upstairs balcony in these shots, you do. Wrapping the house in yarn seems to be the thing to do....and I think those are boogers under his nose. Whatever.

 Blowing me a kiss.

 Here's some of what we've been reading. Eaden made this bag so that she could take her little books around with her. I couldn't find the fabric markers...obviously.

Yarn Along

I'm trying to make a baby poncho for a friend's baby shower this Saturday. I have never made anything like this and I don't really know what I'm doing. I started the thing over 5 times because of mistakes with increasing (i then took the increases out of the pattern) and purling or knitting when I was supposed to be doing the opposite. I am really bad when it comes to fixing mistakes. I usually make things much worse. That's why I have these horrible polka dots. I was in lala land and started knitting when i should have been purling, i may even have dropped a stitch, and there was no way i was starting over again. I'm sure I will mess up when I get to neck shaping and the hood so why keep starting over right? I covered my mistake with a polka dot and then I had to even out the polka dots. Hideous! Anyway, I was hoping someone might be able to give me any tips on the neck shaping. The pattern says to knit 20, join a new ball of yarn and bind off 14, and then knit 20 again. So I'm thinking this is going to become more clear when I get there, but I'm having a hard time visualizing it. After you finish binding off, the knitting just starts up again? I predict ruin! Check out others or post your own Yarn Along over at Small Things.

Another Glove

Now I just need to go to my mom's house and pick up the fabric that was shipped there. Then I can make a matching shirt!

Yarn Along

Because I'm new to knitting, and I've already knit two winter hats (and I live in south Texas), I decided it was time for something new. My daughter loves to dress up and she loves to dance. Hmmmm, think, think, think. Texas style Michael Jackson gloves! And the best part of all is she adores it! She sleeps in it! I say "it" because I've only made one. It was a practice run. Not very exciting yarn and a little tight near her fingers. I'm waiting for the rainbow yarn I ordered to come in and then she'll be stylin' for sure!

As far as what we're reading, well, my house is covered in field guides!

Check out others or post your own Yarn Along over at Small Things.

Etsy Shopping Spree-Thanks Mom!

My birthday is next Tuesday, and my mom gave me $150 to spend on Etsy! Here is what I bought....yay!

Some yarn....and a lot of fabric!

Thanks Mom! You're the best! Love you. xoxoxo

Yarn is from Artric and fabric is from Allegro Fabrics and Fabricpalooza.

Yarn Along

I finally finished the hat!

I believe it is a little too small for its intended recipient, but that's okay. Here is the smallest head I could find.

I had a hard time taking pictures of the books we're reading, so I decided to cheat and just upload pics from the Internet. I'm on a pretend I live in a different time period kick, hence the picks.

These are all juvenile books that I checked out from the library for myself while browsing for my kids. The top two are 2011-2012 Texas Bluebonnet books. As a librarian, I have found that Bluebonnet books are usually not as desirable to kids as they are to their parents. I guess I'll be checking out the Louisa May Alcott one that made the list this year too. As for "adult" fare, I am reading Witnessing America: The Library of Congress Book of Firsthand Accounts of Life in America 1600-1900. I love it! I really hope that when we die we get to pick different time periods and places to live in with our friends and family. It could happen. Check out others or post your own Yarn Along over at Small Things.

Yarn Along

This morning I am knitting, writing, and reading for my soul and my sanity. Yesterday was not the best day I ever had and I even wrote a post about it titled "Venting." However, I deleted the post figuring that people would not want to hear me throw myself a pity party when I have such a full life with so much to be thankful for. So I'm working on the hat I've been knitting for about five years, reading Walden again, and venting to my kids in the journal in which I write to them. Well, I'm feeling better already and I'm sure I'll feel doubly better once my house is clean and organized. I'm on a mission to put toys and books far far away until a future time when they will be novel and more appreciated. Hope y'all have a great day! Check out others or post your own Yarn Along over at Small Things.

Yarn Along

Yes, I realize that wrapping yarn around sticks is not knitting or crocheting. However, my son, as I said yesterday, dropped my yarn into a pan of cooking oil. So, my kids and I created a bouquet of sticks. We also created this work of art. The books are just some random ones we picked up from the library on Monday. Because of my exceptional ability to multitask, I am still reading Prodigal Summer. I am liking it! Check out others or post your own Yarn Along over at Small Things.

A Work of Art

I'm so excited with the work of art my daughters and I created today! Primarily because we had no intention of creating it. First, Taven dropped a skein of yarn into a pan of oil I had fried okra in. I knew I was probably not going to be making a hat or a....well that's all I really know how to make. Anyway, I got the idea to take some branches from a fallen tree limb in our back yard and wrap them in the yarn. The girls had a hard time doing it by themselves so we came up with this ingenious method where one person holds the yarn and the other spins the branch.

After Taven fell asleep for his nap I decided I would let the girls play with some clay that we found at my mom's house last weekend. After playing around with it a bit, we decided to make some beads. I wasn't really too sure what to do with the beads. I initially tried to string them all on one long piece of yarn and hang it on the wall. I was then planning on hanging the kids' artwork from it. However, the yarn broke and the beads went flying. So I nixed that idea. After thinking for a bit, we came up with our masterpiece!

Yay!

Yarn Along

It's raining! Hallelujah! Hallelujah! We have been in a major drought and wildfires have increasingly been getting out of control. And this is real rain, not one or two drops! So thankful. Anyway, here is what we're reading and knitting. I've been skimming through Country Wisdom and Know How. It's amazing! Everything you could ever want to know is in this book! I finally got to the library yesterday to pick up all the unicorn books I had requested for Eaden. We tried having a weekly theme for a grand total of two weeks. It didn't really work. Sometimes, we want to spend more or less time on a given theme and I'm not really into time constraints. I'm also not great at requesting and picking up all of our holds that quickly. So we will probably be on unicorns for about a month. The knitting is a hat I'm making for a friend of mine's son. Two weeks ago I posted a hat for Yarn Along, but no one pointed out to me that it looked humongous. After knitting for a while, I realized it was twisted (can you tell I'm a great knitter?). So I unraveled it and it turned out it would have fit an elephant. I've restarted and I hope this one is not too small. Post your Yarn Along over at Small Things.

Yarn Along With The Library Fairy

I've gone from being a working librarian to being a stay-at-home-mom and library fairy. I make and hide bookmarks in library books for others to find. I got the idea last week on world-wide knit in public day. You can check out my first bookmark here. For more "Yarn Alongs" or to post your own, head over to Small Things.

Guerilla Knitting

I knitted (some of) this bookmark at the library today in honor of world-wide knit in public day. I then left it inside a book on the shelf for some lucky being to later come across. Tons of fun!

Yarn Along

Here is what I'm knitting and reading! I thought posting this was a great idea as I'm always reading, and now always knitting! However, I almost never read one book at a time. Check out what others are knitting/crocheting and reading over at Small Things. Oh, and yes, that is Elsa Beskow in Chinese. The library doesn't carry it any other way, lol.

Taven's Hat!

Here is my first full knitting project! It turned out much better than the disaster quilt. However, it's 100 degrees outside and Taven wants nothing to do with it.

Too Expensive

Damn! Sewing and knitting are expensive! I thought I'd go to Half Price Books and sell all my Noam Chomsky, Edward Said, etc. books I read in college in order to have money to buy fabric and knitting supplies. Well, I got $15 for the books and the supplies cost me $75. Considering we have a weekly food/gas/other budget of $120, that is way too much! Looks like I'm going to have to knit and sew super slow. Maybe I can enter a bunch of the blog giveaways and win some fabric or yarn. Ugggh! Oh well.

Embarrasing

Well here is my first attempt at knitting. My friend Natalie came over today to show me how, but unfortunately she doesn't really know how herself (just kidding Nat! I love you!). The project started getting way too big for my needles so I had to quit. Instead of looking up how to bind it off, I just cut the thread thinking that was probably right. It wasn't. Going to try again now.