Saturday, August 27, 2005

I started think about my life and what I want out of it. I thought about my marriage and my children and my business, and decided it was time for me to take control because I am the only person who can really say what I am going to make out of each of these areas of my life, I can wreck my marriage or I can make it the best aspect of my life. I know that I really need to work at it, it has been seven years of ups and downs but I really only think about all of the good times that we have had, I choose not to remember the rough times, My mind always goes to the fun times the vacations and the places that we have seen together, the wonderful children that we have and how much fun it is to look at them and see traits of ourselves I see my tendency to carry projects with me wherever I go coming out in my oldest daughter Anastasia, I also see the organizational skills of my husband coming out in her. I look at my youngest Shae and see my inquisitive nature coming out in her and her father’s loving side, Each of use has made our impression on our children and they go forth into the world and are a mirror of us and I hope that what people see is the best parts of us shinning through. My business is picking up this month and it is all because I have put out an extra effort this month to bring customers into the shop and I know that if I keep this up and keep putting my constructive energy into it, it will thrive for years to come. I have decided that I need to work to make every aspect of my life work to the best of my ability; I have acknowledged that I have the ability to make or break each of these and I am going to keep a positive attitude no matter what comes my way and I will trust that God has his hand in everything.

See What FREE Shipping Does

Look what the free shipping offer in Cast On,made me do. I could not resist the new palette yarn form Knit Picks.

I pick put the Petal and Black, Petal is a soft pink color, Oh my I might just be able to afford to be a yarn snob at these prices. All of this for under $11. This is going to be a great christmas present , I plan on making a shawl out of it I am thinking about a very open pattern for this because I think that these colors will be great to show off the design.

I also got a new skein of yarn form a super friend of mine it is one of the new yarns that Jo-Ann's Etc. is now carrying.

I also thought I better post the detail picture of the shawl I posted earlier this week, I have been so busy at my shop that I have not really gotten to add many more rows to it but I think it is making good progress.

Knitting Progress

Ok I started another project over the weekend. I started a shawl and IHave completed about half of it, as of today. Here is a picture of my girls holding it I also have a close up of the pattern, It is alot like the spiral (round ) baby blanket, pattern, but I added a few more spirals than in the original pattern, You can fine the original pattern on www.knitlist.com under the pattern exchange for 2004 it is called the quick and easy shawl pattern.

Chocolate on the brain

I woke up this morning craving chocolate that could only mean PMS. I never crave chocolate any other time. I am not just craving just any chocolate either; I really want some chocolate from San Francisco Chocolate Factory. I cannot find it around here and I got some when I went to California a couple of years ago and I have got to find someone who will ship me some. I know this sounds crazy but this is the best tasting and the smoothest chocolate I have ever tasted. If anyone knows where I can find in online please let me know. I still have the tins, and I use them for holding all kinds of tiny craft things for carry they with me I have been knitting on my daughter’s poncho and it is coming along great but it is just in stockinet with 4 increases on every knit row. So it is an easy item to knit, but a little mindless. I had a really good week last week at my shop so I treated myself by ordering some of knit picks new palette yarn in pink and black for a shawl that I want to make. I am trying to find a good pattern for these 2 colors; I ordered 3 of each color so I have a good amount of yardage. I will have over 1300 yards of fingering weight so if anyone has any ideas for this. I would really appreciate it. Ok I have a good Brownie Recipe for you all. I told you I have chocolate on the brain today. All you need is a Large Brownie Mix prepared according to the directions. A 13 x 9 baking pan I bag Heath Baking Chips Line the pan with foil and fill with half the brownie mix. Sprinkle the Heath chips over the batter and top with remaining batter and bake according to the mix directions. Let cool for 10 min and lift out of pan with foil. Peel foil off edges and cut into squares and serve warm or you can reheat in a microwave for 10 sec. and top with your favorite Ice Cream and a little whipped cream. (You can substitute the baking chips for any candy of your choice, Hershey Kisses with caramel, or Almonds. Also any of the mini chocolate candies are great) (For a mint version lay York Peppermint Patties over the batter and top with the other half of the ba

No Knitting Pictures

I have been getting a lot of knitting done but I could not resist posting these cute pictures of my little angels.

I have been making some good progress on a Poncho for my youngest, I am using the wonderful yarn I recieved from Jackie of Rebel Dasiy. I is Paton's Divine in rose with a cream border.

I recieved a nice set of Stitch Markers form stitch Marker 1 and I lost the Card but they are very cute Fish.

Scanned sample swatch

Here is the sample swatch in stockinet and reverse stockinet. You can tell a little better the color stranding that is going on here.

Blended yarn

I am a big fan of hand tied fiber and I make my own skeins with left over pieces of yarn and so today I conducted an experiment with Sulky Thread and a very boring solid cream yarn that I found in the back of my small stash drawer. I decide to make a center pull ball and I took 4 different colors of thread and held them together with the yarn as I wound the ball on a tube and here is the resulting ball. And here is a close up of the yarn . These pictures do not do it justice so I am going to knit a swatch and scan it and post it later.

My diaper bag design

Here is a finished diaper bag that I design for the chic new mother. I love mixing colors and patterns to make something fun. on the inside there is 4 pockets for a wallet , keys, phone, and a bottle holder. For the bottle holder you sew a fabric hair scrunchie into the side seam and this is the perfect size for a bottle to be held securely. Thank you in advance for your comments.

Handbag pictures as promised

This is my Sling bag I have made about 4 of this same pattern. As you might not know I collected fabric for the past 7 years and have designed handbags for about 6. I really like to sew but knitting is my passion now.

Going Handbag Crazy

I have been going handbag crazy making these up and I don't know what I am going to do with them all I think I may just put a price on them and sell them. I have really been stash busting every stash I have lately. Yarn, fabric, and beads. I was going to post pictures today, but there is a thunderstorm comming up and I better get off this for now. . . . be back soon . . . . .

Just a quick note With Pictures :-)

I have got a good Amount of knitting done over the past few days, as I have been riding around a lot with my DH. We had a wedding to attend and it was a 45min drive both ways to the church, and the reception site was a 15 min drive form the church, so in the drive time over and back I was about to complete the knitting on my first Felted Cell Phone bag. I felted it in my sink as soon as I got home. Over the rest of the weekend I made 2 more, and felted them also. I think this is the first pattern that I really felt like was a cute small project that was actually useful. I now have 3 more people who want me to make one for them. So I have found a great use for the Hand spun, hand painted wool that I swapped for last month. I can get 2 bags out of 100 yards, I am thinking about adding a fun fur trim to some of them to add a little interest. Well about the wedding I attended, they are all very big UGA (GA Bulldog) fans, so the Grooms cake was a GA Bulldog with a Yellow Jacket (GA Tech) and a gator (FL Gators) under each paw it was a great conversation piece until they started cutting it. I also got a chance to go the my local library to look at the new knitting books, and they just got in a Debbie Bliss Book (the Baby Knits book). I think I am going to have to make the adorable baby shoes they are so cute and will be great quick baby gifts and I can use up all the little balls of leftover yarns, I know that you all have a good amount of these laying around. I store mine in one gallon plastic zipper bags sorted by color family, I use color wheel to determine the way they are sorted, this way if I ever want to do a scrap shawl I can just grab a couple of colors that look good together and just get started. I plan on adding a link on the sidebar to a new blog that will have all of the items that I have for sale. I am planning on updating this blog once per week with items that I might have for sale, I am going to try to clear out some items that I have in my craft room, that has just been sitting there and not getting used, Not all of the items will be knitting related as I am the type of person who likes to try anything once and then it ends up in a box if I do not like it. I will be having some Handbag kits with patterns included that I have put together for a craft show that I participated in a for a few years, please take a look at it , it should be operational by the end of the day, today.

Sorry this is so long...

I would just like to send a big thanks out to Jackie at http://knitdaisyknit.blogspot.com For the wonderful R. A. O. K that she sent me. My DH called me Wednesday afternoon right before I closed the shop and told me that I had received a big package in the mail. So I told him to open it for me and tell me what it was. Well inside was a very big stash of yarn (one skein of Wool of The Woods in Soft Spritz colorway it has dark blue, green, mauve, and purple, there was also about 4 skeins worth of Paton’s Divine in a beautiful deep pink color and one skein on a cream color.) and a wonderful card. I was so surprised and it could not have come at a better time to lift my sprits, I had a very slow day at the shop and I was feeling down. Thank you again Jackie, you made my day, (week). Here is a picture of my shop for those of you who have been asking. I have been busy. Yesterday my day started at 4:15 am, My DH and I had to take his father to Emory University hospital for a Lung Biopsy, We were supposed to be there by 7am for him to check in and we arrived about 30 min early. They told us that his surgery would be about 1 &1/2 hours after the check in time, they did not come and get him until 10:50 am so to say the least it felt like we were there all day before that actually started the surgery. While I was sitting in the waiting room I was sitting there knitting and I in turn attracted a lot attention. By the middle of the day I had sold the scarf that I was working on and the lady wanted a hat made with the same yarn, and a hat out of ribbon yarn. I had a small scrap of it in my tote to make a flower for my Secret pal at church. She liked the ribbon yarn and asked if I could get anymore of the same color for her hat. Thank goodness it is a Lion Brand Yarn, “Incredible”. I also had another lady who just asked me if I would mind if she watched me knit. I was working on my pair of socks that I started on Sunday and the Chevron and Feather Scarf from “The Little Box of Scarf Patterns” This is the scarf that I sold. I had about 5 inches done and had to rip it out because I had miscounted some stitches and could not find where they were correct. I have to start all over again. Please pray for my father-in-law, He is still in the hospital today and will be ther until sunday, and they will not have the results of the biopsy until next tuesday. They took 3 samples and they said that they could not find any healthy cells in any of the samples, so it is not looking real promising.

Marker Mania Has Stuck Again

Thank you Katie, yes another Katie for the very interesing 80's style stitch markers, they are cool. She also sent me a couple of the cutest Sheep Stitch markers that she makes and sells at her LYS. Here are the pictures. To link to her blog just click the title.

School has started in GA

My oldest is going to Kindergarten, and my youngest is going to Preschool. Me and my DH made a Decision before we had children that I would homeschool them when they were old enough. This is the year that they are "old enough". My, oh, my, we started yesterday and it was very uneventful and today was even better .

The first picture is of my oldest. Anastasia she will be 5 in October and she is so excited about school.

The second one is Shae she is 3 1/2 and she is trying to do the same things that her sister is doing but we are really making projects that are on her level just for her and she is doing better that I expected.

Thank You to Renee

Thank you goes out to Renee for my beautiful stitch markers that I recieved through Stitch Marker Mania. This picture does not do then justice, they are beautiful, and so delicate, they will be great for the lace shawl that I want to make it calls for 3 markers . Click on the title for a link to her blog.

Socks on the needles