Yarn Eradication is a Goooooooood Thing!

Evil grins abound today as I make stash yarn disappear! It's great! The best part? I finally get to use the Sam-eaten skein of my beloved hand dye!

This was the stuff I dyed with Wilton Icing Colors. Loved it! Then one day Sam got bored inside his crate and picked through the bars until he caught hold of one of the skeins. By the time I found it, it had been slightly peed on and chewed into itty bitty bits. I couldn't bear to throw it away so I washed it, untangled it, wound it back up, and wondered what the heck I could ever do with it.

Turns out Baby's Got a Brand New Big Bag is the perfect pattern! My hand dye looks great paired with leftover purple and brown and a felted bag is ideal for using up little yard-or-so-long bits of yarn without worrying about hiding ends. It's moving along super fast - I just started it last night - and I'm so excited about having a new bag. The bag has only a slit-type handle at the top so I might add a purchased shoulder strap when all is said and done. We'll see.

Wanna see the Fun in the Sun Hat?

I used two almost-complete skeins of TLC Cotton Plus (love that stuff!) that I had leftover from the crocheted bunnies. Yeah, I could have used the skeins to make 3 more washcloths EACH, but I was in a crochet mood and I'd just found a couple back issues of Interweave Crochet - Spring and Fall 2007 to be exact. Whee! Love them! I fell in love with the hat and had to give it a try. It is a little small for me but I'm sure I could will it into size if I wore it enough. Perhaps A. would wear it? One never can tell.

Burp cloths are moving along swimmingly. Here's the 4 I've finished so far.

The green one on top is my favorite. Each one is better than the last and I just love making these. The 5th one is even better than any of these, but I'll wait to post a photo until it's done. My friend's due date is T-minus 19 days so I'm gonna keep plugging away on these.

Next, the Mason-Dixon Washcloth frenzy. One ball of red TLC Cotton Plus made 3 washcloths and they're just so soft and nice! I had just enough yellow left over from the hat to make another. I also have enough Cotton Ease for at least one more. I have a lot of Peaches/Sugar n' Creme, but I'm hesitant to use it for these cloths because I don't want them to shrink and get goofy looking - at least not right away. These are going to be for teachers who don't get the blankets. Don't make me think of the blankets yet!

Lastly, Annette Petavy's Pillow from CrochetMe. I'm using worsted weight acrylic from the stash and an I hook, but following the pattern exactly. I stopped after 15 strips for the one on the right and still have a few more strips to go on the left one. I'll crochet backs, stuff, and toss on our sofa. My family room is looking dark and bland lately and I'm hoping these will help to brighten things up a bit.

This is a lot of stuff. What's gotten into me, you ask? I'm doing my usual thing of "I have something I have to do but I really don't want to do it so instead I'm going to enter a stage of profound yarn catharsis and produce so much that I delude myself into thinking I'm actually using my time productively."

The thing I have to do is make my niece's 1st Communion dress. I'm ready to start and I know I can do it, but it's a big and quite important project so I'm waiting for the planets to align just right before I start and that is NOT this week. It's spring break, A. has been at WI Dells with the neighbors so it's just the boys and I. Now really people, can you see the logic in laying out mounds of white (WHITE) satin, lining, tulle, and organza with two boys running rampant and just waiting for the opportunity to strike? Me neither. I'll start after they go back to school next week.

So in the meantime, I'm trying to make yarn go away. There's nothing more satisfying than throwing away bits of yarn too small to make anything with and watching the pile lessen. Plus, when I'm all done, I can buy new yarn guilt-free!

Is it spring yet?

This is what I did on Thursday and Friday. You like? I've had the yarn for several months now but finally got off my arse and made A. her Fiber Trends felted clogs. They are GIGANTIC! I have unshakable faith in Bev Galeskas's instructions however and I'm certain they will felt down perfectly.

I'd forgotten just how quickly these slippers come together. I knitted them both on Thursday and felted them this morning. I haven't been able to get her to stop sliding across the wood floors long enough to take a photo, but I'll get one some day. She's been invited to the Wisconsin Dells with our neighbors for spring break and really wanted to take these with so I tried drying them in my dryer, on the rack, on extra low heat. Worked like a charm. She spent some time trimming off all the fuzzies and they are perfect. Finally, a "knitted thing" she actually likes!

Ok, now into the meat of the post - I'm staring out my window, this lovely March 21 - first day of spring, I might add - and looking at a beautiful winter wonderland.

Except is MARCH 21, THE FIRST DAY OF SPRING!!! Haven't we had enough yet?

I know there's a lot of people out there who think that Minnesota is cold year round, but that's just not true. We get brutal cold winters, but our springs and summers are lovely and warm. This has been the longest winter we've had in a really long time and it's starting to wear on all of us.

Our first snow was sometime back in late October and it never left us. We've had lots of snow and more than our fair share of insane cold. The house has been shut up tight for nearly 6 months. We were just starting to see grass again and now bam, we're hit with more snow. It can't last long, right?

This weather has to be the major contributing factor to the rampant influenza B scare that's running through our town. It actually killed a little 5 year old girl who's preschool classroom is right across the hallway from B's class. L. had it first. 103 fever, couldn't go to his 1st grade concert, puking, you name it. He got better after only 2.5 days though. Mr. T. got it next. I've never seen him that sick and I've known him now for 15 years.

I took care of him and came down with it next. I was sitting in the elementary school listening to the kindergarten registration program when the throat tickle and cough started. By that night, I was down for the count as well. Fever, chills, worst aches of my life, cough, and limp lungs that can't seem to get quite enough air. I *think* I'm starting to rejoin the living again after over a week.

As far as the rest of my yarn world, I've begun to feel the pressure of a friend's baby's impending arrival and the looming of the last day of school - hence, teacher gifts. I tied up some loose ends with some of my other projects (Kanga Sweatshirt and Climbing Cables) by crocheting until I ran out of yarn and those are set aside for now. I'd like to get back on the Oblique horse and get that one done. I went like gangbusters on that for so long and then just stopped. I bought the perfect buttons; now I just need to finish it.

I'm cruising along on the Baby Genius Burp Cloths. I've finished 3 and would like to just keep going and see how many I can do. My friend's baby is due April 15, and then I have 2 cousins who are also expecting in June! Never hurts to have things like those burp cloths on hand for gifts and I have quite enough cotton to last me a while. I have a baby blanket in a box somewhere that only needs a few more inches as well as several baby quilts that only need minimal finishing. I should be good.

The big box of Fluffy Lap Blanket yarn is calling my name too. I plan to shovel those out with wreckless abandon. I won't need as many last year because L. has some of the same teachers as last year - thank goodness! I'm making more Mason-Dixon Washcloths for them. Those are so quick and cute and take so little yarn. I have 4 stashed waiting for blocking and I'll add to that in the days to come, I'm sure.

Oh! AND I've committed to sewing my niece's 1st Communion dress. Yikes! The big day is May 4. I have plenty of time, but I must budget my time accordingly and concentrate. I'll keep you posted!

I must be going through blog-withdrawal or something - better stop for now, but hopefully since I'm starting to feel better, I'll get back into the swing of posting daily. I like that.

Have a wonderful Easter weekend, everybody

It's finished!

Yippee! I finished my Dusty Miller Cardigan! I don't care what anyone has to say about Red Heart Super Saver - it made a great crocheted sweater! I wanted a workhorse, and I got it. It's comfy, warm, and has beautiful stitch definition. Here she is!

I love crocheted sweaters. It's so fitting that March is National Crochet Month - I didn't even know that when the bug hit me in late February. Much to the dismay of Oblique, the crochet bug is not satisfied yet. I finished Dusty Miller, I'm nearly through the back of the Lady's Kanga Sweatshirt...



...and the estranged back of the Hooded Pullover from Weekend Retreat is quickly being transformed into Climbing Cables from More Crocheted Aran Sweaters.

You might notice that Climbing Cables is the same color as the Fisherman Sweater. Well, I really love that Fisherman Sweater pattern and I know I need that sweater, but I realized that I just haven't been crocheting my cable crossings loosely enough. I'm just not sure I can block the acrylic yarn out enough to make it work. When the Hooded Pullover has been obliterated, I'll continue with the yarn from the Fisherman Sweater. I trekked down to JoAnn yesterday for some more sale priced TLC Essentials and ended up with 5 skeins of Medium Thyme. I'm pretty sure it's destiny is the Fisherman Sweater. I'll make sure to crochet more loosely next time...and enlarge the pattern. The print is teeny and doesn't cut it for my weak 34-year-old cruddy eyes.

I also started the Pillow by Annette Petavy from CrochetMe. I'm using stash yarn exclusively for this. I thought at first that I would make this into a throw, but I like the colors and the patterns so much that I think I might just use this pattern to make several pillows for our couch. Everything in my family room is starting to look dark and character-less so this could be just the punch it needs. I also buckled down and finished Baby Genius Burp Cloth #2 from Mason-Dixon Knitting. I love how the solid color softens the effect of the variegated yarn.




On the home front, while the little buddy was extremely disappointed to miss his concert (he's still talking about it today), his fever finally broke sometime between Saturday and Sunday and he's better now. He had a rough day at school yesterday and cried a couple times about the concert, poor thing. I hope today goes better for him. His teachers decided to re-implement a feedback sheet for him. They hadn't been doing it this year but felt that it could give him the motivation he needs right now to get back on track.


For every stage of his day, he gets either a smiley face or sad face for the following categories: I said "ok", I used nice words, I was quiet, and I walked. The sheet from yesterday is kind of funny. The first stage of his day is reading and he got all sad faces for that, but everything else for the rest of the day has a smiley face. Mr. L. really likes to get smiley faces so I hope this continues to work. His teacher even commented that the afternoon went really well for him. Yay!


Time to get back to work. Miss A. is getting braces in a couple weeks (yippee, hoo ha, hooray) and has an appointment today for impressions and x-rays. It's a 40 minute appointment so I'll bring my crocheting. I'd love to bring Oblique, but I'm very near the sleeve cap and I don't want to have to mess with measuring while in the orthodontist office. Perhaps I'll start another burp cloth. That's mindless enough. Cast on at home, get through the first color change, then go go go!

I hear patience is a virtue...

...but I'm having a very hard time being virtuous!

I subscribed, I paid online, and I'm trying to be patient, but I STILL haven't received my Spring '08 Interweave Knits! It's been below zero for days on end and I need my dose of spring, people!


I'm slowly making my way through the sleeves for Oblique. She isn't making quite the progress I'd hoped for, but my distractions have been many. I've had this rotten flu, which sank in my lungs over the weekend. Luckily my most excellent asthma doc is kind enough to give me an emergency course of prednisone to keep on hand for these very situations. I'm finally starting to feel like myself again.

Another distraction, in a good way, is my girlfriend's baby boy due in April. I had the gift-knitting withdrawals so I'm very pleased to be making things for little Will. Not to mention the serious stash-busting potential. I have enough 100% cotton to make several burp cloths and bibs without ever setting foot in a store. So far I've finished one of each.

I really like this color combo. My next set is going to be even better. I started this one late last night so I haven't had much time with it, but it's looking so great!

I also found out that a cousin of mine is expecting in July...yay! Another baby to knit for - and it's even spaced out enough so that I won't have to knit for two babies at the same time! How thoughtful of them!

Remember I mentioned the mindless knitting I started while watching Lord of the Rings over the weekend? Here's my progress on it. Yep, it's another Mr. Greenjeans.

This time I'm using Patons Decor in First Spring from my stash (there's a theme here...). I had bought 4 skeins for a Clapotis, but made a pair of socks instead and the rest has been sitting here. After seeing a couple Greenjeans in variegated Patons, I got going. I think I will need one more skein to make it all the way through, but that's not so bad.

Lastly, along the same vein of trying to create spring when spring is not even remotely in sight, I've begun my semi-annual kitchen overhaul. The cupboards with dishes were the easy part. I loaded a box full of stuff that I haven't used in at least a year, wiped them down, replaced everything and that was that. The pantry cupboard is another story.

We all know I have a boy with autism. One of the ways we treat this is with the gluten-free/casein-free diet (GFCF diet). I'm also allergic to dairy. We've been doing the diet now for almost 5 years so the cooking part isn't the problem...it's the sheer number of products I need to have on hand. Check out the upper half of my pantry cupboard, which is devoted to all things flour, plus a few cans of chips. It's a deep cabinet, and it's stuffed.

In my former life, these shelves would have been nearly empty. Canisters of white sugar, brown sugar, and wheat flour would have been the only things there. Ok, perhaps also whole wheat flour and bread flour, but big deal.

Now, however, I have the who's who of alternative flours: white rice, brown rice, sweet rice, potato, sorghum, garbanzo, garfava, potato/corn/tapioca starches, and don't forget xanthan and guar gums. Then there's the larger canisters of premixed (by me) Featherlight Flour Blend (Bette Hagman), GF Flour Blend (Carol Fenster), and Quickie Baking Mix (Special Diets for Special Kids 2). Oh yeah, and two kinds of pasta two: rice and wheat.

Yesterday, my kitchen was a cloud of fine GF flour powder as I mixed up fresh batches of all these mixes and tried to make some sense of what I already have. Oye! I gladly put up with the powdery mess of some of these flours, though, because the ladies who developed them have made my life so much easier. These are my favorite flour blends and they are perfect for all my baking. Casein (dairy) free is like tiddly winks compared to the transition to gluten-free, and these flours are fantastic.

I'd love to go more into the GFCF diet, but that will be for another day. Work is beckoning and this post is already far longer than I'd expected. I like doing it though, even if nobody is reading it! Stay warm everyone and have a great day!

Work and knitting

Yesterday's post was actually posted this morning, so I thought I'd clarify a few things. Sunday was when the ripping happened and I finished the back this morning - not yesterday morning. I made sure to only knit yesterday when I felt perfectly alert and at the height of my TheraFlu relief; all was well. Does it all really matter? Heck no! It's only knitting!

Today I'm still feeling sub-par, but my body doesn't ache quite so much and the mercury has risen to a whopping 12 F ABOVE ZERO! It's unbelievable! I've been half expecting to see my neighbor run around in a halter top and shorts. We be hardy folk here in Minnesota!

Alas, with health comes getting back to work - home and otherwise. Laundry is in motion, dishes are done, and I'm back at my piano room desk doing my real job. We had a staff meeting today - translate: set cell phone to speaker AND mute and commence knitting on the Baby Genius Burp Cloth from Mason Dixon Knitting.




My friend, Kathy (the one in light blue from the picture in the previous post), is having a baby boy in April so yay! - I get to knit for someone other than myself! I have great hopes of completing several of these burp cloths and bibs to give to little Will. Perhaps even a Moderne Baby Blanket, if I have the guts for that much garter stitch.




If you're familiar with this pattern - and have really good eyes - you'll notice right away that I started the stripes on the wrong row. I'm not interested in re-casting on cotton yarn so it's gonna stay exactly the way it is. Plus, the so-called "wrong" side is very neat and tidy stripes so the burp cloth will look good no matter which side the spit up lands. What more could a mom want?


Don't get me wrong - I'm done having kids and want another baby like I want a home invasion. However I really love knitting baby things and it makes me nostagic for the time when I was pregnant, especially the first time. I'd been crocheting doilies and other such crap for many years already but I started making more productive use of my time by crocheting little blankets. My mom let me loose on her Hefty Tall Kitchen Garbage Bag stash of Jamie Baby and I made blankets, sweaters, a cardigan/pants set, a bunting, and a whole bunch of booties. I used a bunch of vintage patterns and a couple new ones.


It was so much fun to drag it all along with me to work each day and crochet before work and at my lunch hour. There I was, 22 years old, crocheting around all ages and types of sophisticated business people. I don't think anyone ever said a word to me about what I was working on...oh wait, there was one woman who commented on a blanket I was making, but nobody else. I think people either didn't know what I was doing, or they thought it a major faux pas to actually call attention to it. I think times have changed a little! For one, I don't think I'd be the only one I ever saw making something during her lunch hour and two, I'm sure I'd be chatting away with someone within 5 minutes. It's nice that this whole yarn crafting gig has gained more popularity. I'll have to drag all those old blankies out and photograph them sometime.


Anyway, only a few minutes separate me from relative peace to the chaos that is children coming home from school, so I'd best be away!