I Have Pictures!!!

I'll start with the oldest first.

I took some photos of the new sewing room after things have been sorta moved in. Now remember I said 'sorta'. There is still some sorting and re-arranging that will need to be done. There is trim that still needs to be put up, yada yada yada.

Here is where I sit and sew.

Here is the fabric STASH. Jeez, didn't know I had that much fabric. If you look closely at the bottom right, you can just barely see an orange tote hiding behind the closet door. That too is full of fabric that needs to be sorted into the rest.

And here is the majority of my yarn stash. I have a couple of bins upstairs with acrylic yarn in them. I have some shelves to build in the closet to the left of the fabric rack above. I wish I had bought another of these pink rolly bins, because they are already getting kind of full. The oak table above the bins will be my cutting table, however I didn't want you guys to see the top of it as I've been using it to sort stuff and it looks a mess.



I finished and blocked my Cascading Leaves Shawl by Vicki M. It turned out so nicely. The color is called Grape Jelly and I used 2 skeins of Knit Picks Lace yarn held together.


I joined a Thrummed Mitten KAL on Ravelry. There are several of us doing them in my South Bend Knitwork Group. Our start date was Dec. 1. I picked out a blue Pattons Classic Merino wool, but couldn't decide if I wanted to use redish roving or white roving. A coworker suggested I alternate them. So I did and here is what #1 looked like.


I wasn't real happy with the mitten. Mainly, because I've never done anything thrummed before and discovered that I made my beginning thrums too fat. I thinned them down on each consecutive row, but then thought how hard it would be to match mitten #2 to #1. And to be honest, I wasn't thrilled with the red, white and blue effect of the alternating rovings. Great colors, but they just weren't doing anything for me. So I ripped #1 back to the row just before I added the roving and started over. I ditched the red roving and thinned out my white ones. Here is what it looks like now, I like this version much better. And I think I'll actually be able to move my hand when the mittens are done. :o)

PS From what I've seen, the thrums are supposed to form those cute little V's, but my first attempt was too fat to form them. They just looked like big polka-dots.

I started making a pair of fingerless mitts for one of my friends for Christmas. #1 is all done and I am just starting the thumb shaping for #2


I tried out a new pattern this weekend for a sock knitting bag by Lazy Girl Designs. (Technically, I think it is meant to be a purse, but let's be real it's too small for a purse. At least for me!) It's cute, but cotton just doesn't drape well. I want to re-design the bottom, so it not so curvy. Of course, you cannot tell that by the picture you are about to see as it is sitting down, but trust me.


I told you I had pictures, but did you really believe me? I think not. Wait, I'm not done yet either. I have one more.

TADA!!! I put up my Christmas Tree for the first time in about 4 years. I know it looks a bit pitiful, but I discovered that I don't have (or at least can't find after much digging) any ornament hooks for my ornaments. I'll pick some up this week and hang some stuff this weekend. Also, I was pleasantly surprised this morning to see that the tree was still standing. As many times as I had to chase Java and Jasmine away last night while I tried stringing those red beads around, I thought for sure that it would have been lying on it's side in pieces this morning.

Multiple Updates

I know, I have been neglecting my blog lately. It seems that at first there will be nothing new to say, then I have too much to say so nothing gets said at all.

I have been working on Christmas knitting. I have 1 item done, 1 a little over 1/2 done, and I just started the 3rd today. I'm not going to be posting too many details of those until they are sent out. I had to set aside my Cascading Leaves Shawl until I have the Christmas knitting finished. It's getting down to crunch time and I really need to kick it in gear. I have some Christmas sewing to do also, but those items are going to be "belated" gifts. I will be working on them during the Christmas break.

Last weekend I went to the Frog Pond Fiber Arts group's Christmas Party. It was such a blast. There were so many people there and so much yummy food. I brought knitting along with me, but didn't do any of it, because there was so much chatting going on, I couldn't tear myself away from the conversations long enough to remember where I was. Thank you Elizabeth for opening your home and letting us all in. I hope we didn't make too big of a mess and it wasn't too much trouble to re-re-arrange the furniture. Oh and the Chicken Tortilla soup was scrumptious. We had both a door prize (knitting related items) and a White Elephant gift exchange. The white elephant item did not have to be a knitting related item, although the one I received was. Here is what I got. I did not have either of these books. And Aubrey showed me this really cool cabled hat in the SNB Nation book. PS I also got a true "White Elephant" gift. I got an outdated Exel 97 computer book. I mentioned it to one of the 'computer' geeks at work and he said he still runs Excel 97 at home, so guess who getting that!!! I had a really nice Stanley Thermos in my hot little hands, but it got stolen. :o(


On Tuesday night, I went to a Christmas party with my former quilt group (BTW this is party #3 this week). The Tuesday Night Crazy Quilters meet in Hartford, MI, but the ladies travel from all over; Niles, South Haven, Bangor, Coloma, St. Joe, Dowagiac, Hartford, Decatur. I joined that group in 1990 at the ripe old age of 18. I have grown up with these women and love them all. I never really realize how much I miss them until I we all get together. Because of the distance, I just don't get to see them as often as I would like. I do go to their quilt retreats ever year though. I think I have only every missed 1 since they started having them. Originally it was just a fall thing, then we added a spring one and now they have added a winter one too. (Can't wait for January!) They are always so much fun and so productive. Since I learned to knit, I think I get more sewing at retreat then I do the rest of the year. A big Thank You to Teresa who hosted the party. And Nancy really needs to give me the Pomegranate/cranberry salsa recipe. Oh man was that good!!

B100 Fit Club Update: I keep missing the radio broadcast that announces the team loss totals, so I'm not too sure where the Dazzling Divas stand. I will see if anyone knows tonight at the bootcamp. I lost 1.8 lbs last week, which brings my total loss to 17.8 lbs. If I loose approx. 6 more lbs, I will have hit my 10% goal. Then I will set my next goal for another 10%. I learned in weight watchers once that you'll feel better setting the smaller goals and that each one will be a milestone once you hit it. It's better than saying I need to lose like 90 lbs total and seeing what a huge difference there is between 90 and 17.8. Also, last week I donated blood. When you do that, the blood bank tell you your total Cholesterol. It is of course a non-fasting test, and I think that is supposed to mean that it would normally be higher than a fasting one. Someone please correct me if that is wrong. In October when I had a fasting cholesterol test done, my total was 157 and the results from the non-fasting test was 136. SOOOO, I pretty sure that means my Cholesterol has come down as a result of this diet. I can't wait until January when I go back to have the blood work re-checked. I want to know what has happened to my Triglycerides!

Tonight is Christmas Party #4 of 5. I am going to bootcamp beforehand though. And I am brining a salad to eat for dinner, since I know I will be hungry after the workout and I don't want to pig out on all the goodies that I know will be there.

Knittng Progress

Just wanted to show everyone my progress on the Cascading Leaves Shawl by Vicki from Simple Knits. I just finished my 6th repeat last night. There are 11 repeats (counting the set-up at the beginning) in all. I've gotten to the point where after doing the first repeat of each row, I have it memorized. I do have to glance back at the chart when I get to the beginning, middle and end sections of each row though. The biggest problem I have been having is that I tend to forget YO's or occasionally add them where they don't belong when I get distracted. But I have gotten really good at recognizing where I made the mistake and fixing it by dropping back a stitch, adding the YO and then re-purling the 2 stitches. Was worried about doing this the first couple times because I was afraid I would royally mess it up. But since I keep forgetting YO's, I have gotten quite good at it. The first time Vicki showed by how to fix an extra YO by just dropping it and the correspond Purl to it, I was terrified to do it. I was sure that it would result in a huge hole. But she showed me that by tugging on the other stitches adjacent to it, I could 'absorb' the extra yarn and the hole magically disapears.

This has been a really nice pattern to knit. I really like the fact that there is no edging to add on. Once you block it, it forms it's own edge. The biggest reason I set my first mystery shawl aside was the edgings. It was just too complicated and I could never seem to get it memorized. I have decided to block it 'as is' and just end up with a neck or shoulder shawl, depending on how much it "grows" after the blocking process.

I know Vicki has been busily working on her next lace project, which is going to be a stole. She showed me a peek of it last week at our meeting. Looks interesting. I have not made a stole yet. I tried the Print of the Wave Stole by Eunny Jang, but the yarn I was using was too thin, and I messed up soo bad that I frogged it and set it aside. I decided that maybe that stole was a little too advanced for my first lace project.

4 Weeks on the Program

B100 Fit Club Update: I have now been on "The Cardio-Free Diet" by Jim Karas for 4 weeks. Today was my official weigh in day. I can hardly believe the results. I have lost a total of 13 lbs and 12 3/8 inches. I am so excited about this diet. The best thing is that it doesn't feel like a diet. I eat just as much if as before, if not a little more when you count I get 3 meals and 3 snacks a day. And I have been making healthier choices in regards to my food; More veggies, leaner meats, no fried foods, etc. And exercising with either weights or the resistance bands 3 times a week. I'm loving this! I especially love not getting on the treadmill or elliptical machine or stairmaster.

Speaking of food, has anyone tried those new Steamer Bags by Glad or Ziploc? I tried the Glad ones this weekend when I was at work. They work fabulously! I used 2 bags and made Cajun Salmon in one and Lemon Pepper Asparagus in the other. And my meal only took about 10 minutes to make, including prep time. I actually cooked 2 pieces of salmon and enough asparagus that I have leftovers for lunch today. I would really recommend giving those suckers a try.

On the Knitting front: Since I worked both Saturday and Sunday this weekend, I did a little updating on my Ravelry page. I put in all of my knitting needles and crochet hooks. I put in a bunch more yarn (mostly sock and lace), I just have to add pictures of those which I haven't gotten around to taking yet. Also, I started the Cascading Leaves Shawl by Vicki Mikulak. I am working a double strand of Knit Picks Shadow lace yarn in Grape Jelly. I have 2 repeats finished. When she said that it was a fast knit, she wasn't exaggerating. It is going along really well. I also got some more knitted on my Raspberry Truffle Felted Bag. The pattern is Tote Around by Janet Scanlon from Knitkit.com. I have one of the I-cord bind-off rounds done and only have the handle and 1 or 2 more I-cord bind-off rounds to go. Thinking I'd like to get that done this weekend. Maybe, depending on how much I knit on the shawl and the socks and the scarves I have do to for Christmas presents and the UFO scarves I found that I started 2 years ago and forgot about.....