Like eating an elephant.....

One bite at a time!  I have been working diligently for several months on the Master Knitter Level 1.  I mailed my submission off for evaluation this week!  Now for two months to breathe until it comes back with what I need to redo and fix.  It is a daunting task.  I had to look it all over and then just look at the next step.  There is a lot of research and writing involved as well as knitting.  While in the midst of it I had serious doubts I would go on to level 2.  I am now convinced that I should complete the entire program, all three levels.  The research and writing are good for me.  Below are just a few of the 17 swatches I had to submit.

 Take a good look at this vest.  I loved it, she loved it, her Mommy loved it.  It met a horrible demise.  It came up against the dryer and lost.  It was not knit of superwash wool.  Mommy knew it, Daddy did not.  Sigh.  It would fit a teddy bear now.  I cried.  I contacted the dyer, my favorite dyer, to see if I could get more of the yarn and knit another.  It even had Olaf buttons!  It was too cute to wear once.  Elena, from Colour Adventures, was in the midst of dying for a coop, her mother in law was sick, and she had a lot going on.  She put in time to dye some more for me, included it with my coop order, and she didn't charge me!  I cannot say enough good things about her yarn.  The color, the feel, the way it knits up.  She's always been sweet but this was above and beyond.

 It's been a few busy months.  I've been sewing more that knitting but knit a few gifts for a friend and her new baby granddaughter.

 I love the mini swaps in the Itty Bitty group on ravelry.  The requirements for these swaps is one hand made gift, it can be sewn, crocheted, knit, tatted, painted, whatever, and a card.  That's it.  I crocheted a few snowflakes for the last swap before Christmas.  It was fun to get back into crocheting with thread for a bit.  I stiffened them with one part tacky glue and two parts water.  They were stiff enough, or as Goldilocks said when she sat in the baby bear's chair, they were "just right."

 Sewing, sewing, sewing...oh my.  Pjs for all the grandmunchkins, and flannel shirts for the boys and that was the extent of my Christmas sewing and gifts.  I failed miserably on my goals for gifts this year but have a goal to do better next year.  I did get some amazing deals on the flannel and fleece even though I had to go to Joann's twice to get those deals.  One day was flannel sales, the next fleece.  I found Olaf flannel for the girls and took all that was left on the bolt.  It was just enough!

 Shega kept busy right before Christmas knitting a Dr. Who scarf for a friend.  It took her hours and lots of my stash but it was beautiful when she was done and the friend was very happy with it.  He paid her with a Starbucks card (my suggestion) and she was thrilled.  She got a new hot chocolate mug.

 I almost forgot about this.  His older brothers had a Chillman vest for Christmas at his age so it was time he got one.  Unfortunately he will only get to wear it this season.  I made it big enough for this year but not next so I'll be knitting another.  I still love knitting with Sublime yarn.  Yummy!

 The boys' seasonal flannel shirts.  Shirts and I have a love hate relationship.  I love sewing them for the challenge but after all these years they are still that, a challenge.

 This was a very special Christmas gift for me.  My granddaughter, age 13, spent hours coloring this for me and framed it.  It is proudly in the living room where I can see it often.  I cried when I opened it.  What a treasure.  A 13 year old girl would spend her time to make this for me.  I'm crying again.

 Well, the saying goes, "Go Ducks!"  Or not.  It was a phenomenal football season watching the Ducks this year.  I've slowing been enjoying college football more and more and specifically the Ducks.  I watch the Beavers as well but they frustrate me.  We even went to a Beaver's game this year and throughly enjoyed it.  I think my heart is more with the Ducks, always kind of has been.  Since they were in the Rose Bowl and then in the National Championship, I knit my youngest grandson a "Go Ducks" vest.  I've been wanting to use this pattern for years and finally did!  It is going to be a go to for baby showers.  Fast and cute.

What a hodge podge this blog post has been.  It probably wouldn't be if I did it more often but life happens and blog posts take time.  So no apologies, just when it happens, it happens.

I set a few goals for 2015, not resolutions.  I posted them in the ravelry group.  We'll see.  No pressure.  Looking back at 2014 goals was helpful.  I made a few, made dents in a few, and a few never even saw more than the list.  The goals are like life, keep striving.  And with that, I'm off to strive to clean up the sewing table, again.  Can't have a fabric stash.  It's not in me.  So I sew but I enjoy the sewing and the clean sewing room after....for awhile and then another project notion hits and a trip to the fabric store and more sewing.

The making of a quiet book

My grandson is two and can count to 13, accurately.  But he doesn't know his colors or shapes.  Time for a quiet book.  I have forgotten how many I've done, at least 10.  I started when my children were small and I think I saw one so developed my own.  My daughter still has hers.  They evolved as grandchildren came along and now with pininterest they have become works of art.  This is not a work of art and it only took me 3 days to make.  I have other hobbies and grandchildren and, to be honest, I don't think Mr. C is going to notice if I sewed and embroidered a lot of details.  Most of the ideas are from pininterest but there weren't patterns for most of them so it involved looked at the picture and drawing it out with the modifications I wanted to make.  So if you want to make one,  head over to pininterest and type in quiet books and browse away.  From reading blogs and looking here are some things I learned:

....use a blanket stitch, it looks more handmade than a zig zag

....I used two layers of muslin.  I wanted more firmness but not the firmness of interfacing.

....felt was my best friend and they even have stitcky back felt I used on the sandcastle because I didn't want to sew the little windows.  I used felt doubled and stitched together for the moveable pieces like the shapes and color circles.

....most of all, it was fun!  

 I need to get some cars for the garage so Mr. C can drive on his roads.

 I also need to get some finger puppets for the train windows.

Giving it a rest

The sewing machine that is.  I think I've finished all the sewing I'm going to do for the swap packages and a bit of fall sewing for our table as well.  Just a few simple table runners.  Quilting at it's simplest.  Cleaning out the bits of pieces of fabric as well.                          

This one is staying home.  I saw the pattern on pininterest but the lady wasn't selling the pattern, just the finished table runner so I made it up.  I purchased a green jelly roll, a fat quarter packet of Christmas fabric, and a fat quarter packet of orange and yellows.  I also purchased several fall remnants and one crib quilt batting.  Using those purchases and the stash I had, I got 4 table runners.  I didn't divide it out but I think the cost was about $10 per runner.  Maybe a bit more.

This is the Blue McCaw pattern I test knit for Elena Nodel.  Oh my, I love this pattern.  It was so much fun to knit.  The lace pattern was easily read and memorized but enough to hold my attention.  The yarn is also from Elena.  Her yarn is my hands down favorite.  Her colors are so intense and vibrant.  This yarn is Opulent in Girly Fun Sock.  I knit this sweater basically twice.  The first time I knit it I did not use 2 skeins and change skeins every two rows.  The pooling was evident and I knew I couldn't live with it so I ripped back and alternated skeins.  I am thrilled with the results.

The other fall table runner is going out tomorrow to a fellow Itty Bitty friend.  There is a fall swap going on in the Itty Bitty group.  One handmade item for fall and a card.  Nothing more.  It's called a mini swap.  I received my swap package yesterday.  It was from Nicky and is a beautiful bookmark!  The postcard with the yarn has a recipe for Corn Pudding.  Sounds worth trying.

Happy Fall y'all!

I finished up some cute, and fun things.

It's that time again over in the IBK group on ravelry.  Time for the Advent Swap.  I think it's been going about 5 years now?  I almost didn't join in the fun this year.  It's a time commitment and I always seem to be late and you can choose to spend a bit.  After the sign ups were closed I lamented in the group that I'd missed them and Mel, the hostess with the mostess, offered to squeeze me in.  I couldn't refuse.  It's a secret swap and I don't think my swap partner reads my blog anyway so I'm sharing a few things I've made for it.  There are 25 things to be included and a list.  Some are must includes and some are open to interpretation.  For example, on one day you must include something red.  I haven't decided if these are for the red day, the "include something Christmasy" day, or even the white day.

 We had to include a project bag, made or bought.  I'm going with almost all made from stash this year since finances are tight.  I've had this fabric for about 8 years.  I bought it in a quilt shop in Joseph when we were camping at Wallowa Lake.  I originally made a granddaughter an outfit out of it but it was not well received.  It was too bright in the opinion of the parents.  So it's been sitting.  I loved it and it was an "aha" moment when I pulled it out and decided to make it into a project bag for me so I could look at it often.  There was enough for two project bags.  I  hope my swap partner likes it.

 A washcloth was a requirement.  I've wanted to knit this pattern for some time.  It screams home for Christmas to me.

 Another requirement was a dish towel.  I saw this gingerbread towel some time ago on pininterest.  It fit the bill!   I think I need to make another for my house.

 In the nick of time I finished up some baby gifts for an upcoming shower.  The shower is Saturday and I can't go but I still wanted to send some gifts.  Send being the operative word.  I stayed up until well after midnight last night finishing the sweater and was up at 6 this morning to put my go to gift for baby showers together..bibs.  Bibs that slip over the head and cover well.  They were born out of necessity 7 years ago when our grandchildren were born and there were 3 of them.  Three littles wanting to be fed and time was a wastin' tying or velcroing bibs.  Eventually the velcro wore out.  We were using towels anyway to cover what the bibs didn't.  Ta Da!  An idea for bibs was born and I've been making them for every baby shower since.

 One of my favorite baby girl sweater patterns:  the Tulip sweater from Dream in Color.  I haven't knit one in awhile but it sure made me remember why I have a stash of Dream in Color yarn.  The colors!  The softness!  I didn't do the seed stitch border along the front  or the i cord along the hem since I ran out of time but it's still cute.  And washable, and warm, and I hope Mommy is as pleased with it as I am.

I may have to make another.  My granddaughter wants one.

The sewing venture for the fair

Several of the grandmunchkins wanted to enter the fair this year as they have seen their Mom and I do for the past several years.  The entries were online this year and two weeks earlier than normal...yikes!  With VBS the second week after school and the fair entry the very next week we had to jump on it.  Jump we did.  Three entered sewing projects and one, having tried sewing in the spring, wanted to do a bird house in wood.  We convinced him a bird feeder would get more use.  So away we went.....

                                          cutting.....

                                         serging....

                                         sewing.............

                                         measuring...........

                                         more sewing.........

                                         hammering........

                                         more sewing.........

 TA DA!  A finished bird feeder.  Despite Graypa being very sick, he sucked it up to help get the project done.

 And when the sewing machine wasn't humming, the garden was getting some tlc.  I must admit it one pretty garden.  And the first zucchini found it's way to my lunch plate today.

The kids weren't the only ones sewing.  I dedicated an entire weekend to the sewing room to get the traditional 4th of July shirts and dresses done.
Now off to try and finish my knitting project for the fair.  Wish me luck!