Que

How many projects should you have in your que on Ravelry?  I mean really, right now I have 533 things to knit in my que.  There are a lot of sweaters in there.  If I knitted 8 hours a day for the rest of my life Im not sure that I could knit all the items in my que.  It takes me about three evenings to knit a sock so potentially I could knit 52 pairs of socks in a year.  Provided that no frogging was involved and we all know how that goes.  I either need to stop adding things to my que (difficult as there are so many cute cardi's out there that are begging to be knit) or dedicate more time to knitting.  Right now I only have two projects on the needles, Tempest by Ann Weaver in Breathless Ore and Love Potion.  I'm thinking of adding one large stripe towards the top in Blue Raspberry but haven't committed to that yet.  I'm also working on the second sock for the new sock design.

Ive gotten really distracted by the needle felting.  Which is great, but it's really cutting into my knitting time.  I spent a week working on this owl.  She is close to life size. 

 

I'm also working on a large mushroom house for the gnomes from the last post.  While I did order a crazy number of couple of felting kit's Ive also been using some roving that I purchased at my first MDSW.  It came in a huge bag and wound up being courser than what I like to spin. I've tried to re home it several times and there haven't been any takers.  I'm so glad it stayed here because Ive really been having a blast needle felting it.  

Does anyone have fun plans for the weekend?  Tonight I'm making Wiener Schnitzel, German Potato Salad and cooked red cabbage.  We are going fishing either tomorrow or Sunday and I'm really hoping we can go to the movies and see Star Trek.  A few years ago a new theater was put in and it has stadium seating with arm rests that can flip up.  The seats are really comfortable and it's a great place to go on a hot summer day.  We are also working on plans for a new patio area.  I'll have progress pictures soon (I hope!).

PS I finished Ardelise but need to block it!  Yay!  That was a LOT of stockinette!  And did you see that Signature Needle Arts now has convertible needles?  They look super cool!

Blogaversary!

I'm not sure how it slipped my mind, but this month is my 2 year Blogaversary.  My friend Tierney encouraged me to start a blog for quite some time before that.  I really wasn't sure what I would write about since I often have a hard time coming up with things to say.  I know a few of my friends who are probably laughing at that last statement, but I really do have to think about things before speaking most of the time. 

In celebration of my Blogaversary I'm having a sale in my Ravelry Pattern Shop.  10% off all patterns until May 22.  Just use coupon code: Blogaversay when checking out. 

The two secret projects that I have had in the works are complete.  One has been sent off for submission to an online knitting magazine.  My fingers are crossed that I did the submission correctly and that the editors like the pattern.  The second one is waiting to be released in the next couple of weeks.  I can't wait to show you pictures of both of them.  The Amazing Beth test knitted both of these patterns.  She can't really be bribed to show them off, unless you offer some luxury yarn or perhaps chocolate.  I'm really not very good at keeping surprises to myself and this is killing me!

I do have a new sock pattern in the works.  It's cute little design and works up nicely in tonal colors. 

Ive been coveting the beautiful hand thrown yarn bowls that I keep seeing on Etsy and at the fiber festivals.  While they are beautiful, they are really expensive and I kept putting off getting one.  Mostly because the one's that I really like are around $100 and $100 can buy a lot of yarn.  I was cleaning the dining room to get ready to paint the bottom of the wall and took this cute little bowl down from the top of the pantry. 

I found it at an estate sale for less than $10.  At the time I thought it was for making baked apples, but then realized that the hole in the center could let the apples juices drip into the oven.  It's really too small to be a bunt pan so it wound up sitting around collecting dust.  As I washed it off of it, it occurred to me that  it looked like it could work as a yarn bowl!  I stuck a center pull ball in it and voila! Instant yarn bowl. It works like a charm and the yarn feeds nicely out of the center pull ball like it's supposed to.

One really cool thing I found at MDSW this year was at a brand new vendor, Going Gnome.  Ive done a little needle felting here and there, and have always enjoyed it.  I wish I had taken some pictures of their tent.  It was really too cute for words. The top of the tent was bright red and had big white polka dots on it to resemble a mushroom.  I wound up going back to the tent a few times over the weekend.  They have some pictures of the beautiful things they make on their blog.  I picked up a couple kits from them and made these guys:

I enjoyed making them so much, that Ive called Jen and had her send a couple more kit's and supplies.  I've had a stressful few weeks with my Grandmother not doing well health wise and our dog Roper having some health issues as well (when it rains it pours).  The needle felting has been a huge stress reliever.  There is nothing like stabbing something repeatedly to make you feel better, and even better than that is you get a cute little wool guy when you are done. 

Thank you so much for reading my blog :)