Whoops, I let time fly again....

Wowza, it's been almost a month since I've been here? Time flies that's for sure.
It does seem like I had the 'I'm so busy' illness the last few weeks. A big part of  it was a large volume of work at my day job. I don't know why, but I always get so heavily invested in work to be done. So much so that I end up stressing myself out, making myself sick - and I'm the only one at work that notices! My boss never says anything - good or bad, one way or the other - and neither does anyone else really. It's all self inflicted. I don't like owing reports or invoices etc to people. Jp never gets like that for his work, and it seems that this is more of a female thing doesn't it? I never even used all my vacation days last year.

Well, it has to stop. It's just not healthy. It's not going to do anyone any good if I get sick from stress. I only made that decision on Thursday, so I only practiced my new rule on Friday. I'll let you know how it goes!

December was also busy with handknit orders for my little Etsy shop. I had lots to do. I guess I haven't shown you. Here's a couple of items:

Crochet and Knit Converse Sneaker Slippers

Crochet Christmas Tree

And lots and lots of pairs of finger cymbal aka zill, covers, for my fellow bellydance friends. The rainbow ones seem to be the most popular

There were a couple other items but I guess the photos are on other devices so I will have to show you later. 

Happy New Year! My resolution is to post more frequently on my blog!! But I have to admit with Facebook and Instagram etc - it's hard to repeat everything more than once when you have to post everywhere, isn't it? How many other platforms are you on? Where else do you post? 

Cherry Blossom Time

It's still a little chilly in the mornings when Eco and I go out for our walk, but it's spring here - lots of flowers in bloom - it's time for colour and fun, so I decided to make these Cherry Blossom Fingerless Gloves:

My favourite colour for the gloves and I love cherry blossom imagery. What else reminds you of spring?

Happy Easter to YOU!!

I made a few more Easter Egg Cozies. First, a traditional bunny in lavender:

And next a Viking Helmet. For the Crusades, or should I say "crus-eggs"? yuk yuk

When we were kids, my dad told us about a game that he played on Easter. Before you could eat your hardboiled egg, one person would challenge another to a duel and then they'd bash the eggs together. The broken egg was the loser and you would continue on peeling your egg and then eat it. This Viking Helmet reminds me of that game. Let the battle begin!!!

Crocodile Stitch Slippers

Just finished these slippers. They don't look like much but man they kicked my ass. It took me almost a month to make them. I just kept ripping them out and re-doing them. I'd like to blame the pattern, but I'm pretty sure it was me, all me.

The biggest issue was that dang crocodile stitch cuff. It make a couple of rows and then try it on only to find out it tightened up too much so I couldn't put my foot in them, so I would rip out and start again.

Anyway, they are down now and I think I'll be taking a break from slippers for a while. It's a good thing it's almost spring and they shouldn't be needed for much longer

Owl and the Gang

Sheesh, another week has gone by. Well I do have a very good reason - I have several knitting orders that I am working on completing. I've done a couple of owl hats, a couple pairs of wrist warmers and some cowl/hoods - two for little kids and two for adults.

here's one set that I just finished for a little girl who turned 9 this past week:

Her mom took her hand measurements in her sleep. She told me her had was 15 cm around (not including the thumb) so as I was knitting at the kitchen table I happened to pick up a bottle of hot sauce and found that it was 15cm around, so I used that to size her fingerless gloves. Purple is her favourite colour and she is thrilled with the set.

The one odd thing was I could not get an accurate read on the colour. I tried three different cameras and different settings and they came out wrong - often blue and not purple at all. The yarn as a deep grape colour but I just couldn't capture it.

Anyway that's what I've been doing. Taking advantage of some orders before sales die down in January.

Lil Pink Sock

Any fans of Patrick McDonnell's cartoon "Mutts"?

Then you must remember the cat playing with his 'lil pink sock'?

Well I made a pair of them for a co-worker who's expecting her first baby in 3 weeks:

The stitches are tiny but the sock still knits up pretty fast! With only 30 rows for the leg and 8 rows for the foot. I made these out of an elastic cotton, I figured they would wash up really well, and stay on really well (since some babies can really fling those feet around) and she should be able to wear the for quite a while.

Unfortunately I had to make three socks because it wasn't until I was finished my second one that I found I had looped the yarn (by skipping a needle)

If it was for me, I would have left it but since the mom may want to roll down the sock it would then be visible, plus I didn't want her finger or the baby's toes getting caught on it. So I had to rip it all out and start the sock again.

They're done!!

After 10 long years I have finally completed the 10 counted cross stitch cat pieces for my mom! And she has now framed them and will soon have them hanging in her living room!

Why did it take so long? yah, it's just one of those things... life, work, other  plus I'd forget, plus I'd put them somewhere and 'lose' them for a while.

If you're a long time reader of my blog, I'm sure you've seen them occasionally when I finished one. Each piece features a black cat and background details also in black with one or two items in them image in colour - for example there is a red string with the cat under the rug, or a coloured birdhouse and silver snowflakes in the one where the cat's in front of the window.

If you'd like to see more, you can see this Kats by Kelly Pinterest page.

Cat Cross Stitch # 10

I have finally completed cat cross stitch # 10 - my mom can finally order her frames and get them on the wall. She will frame them in 2 frames, 5 pictures across. Here's the final one:

Now I can get back to my knitting and crocheting and embroidery projects - I haven't done anything since March 18th. Time to get productive and creative again!

Some projects

Here are some cross stitch/embroideries I have been working on -

This one is still in progress

Sorry I didn't iron them yet. It's harder to see them when you're distracted by all the wrinkles isn't it? They are for my mom. When I'm done there will be a total of 10 and she is getting them framed in two horizontal sets of 5. I hope I can show you the finished framed pieces one of these days.

Felted Bowl

here's a finished project - it's a wet felted bowl made with dark purple wool, accented with pieces of silk fibre:

How I spent my Family Day

So what did I do with my extra (rainy) day off?

• made the hubz breakfast in bed
• did the dishes
• baked vanilla cupcakes
• did the dishes
• made lunch 
• did the dishes
• walked the dog
• made orange flavoured frosting for the cupcakes 
• iced the cupcakes
• did the dishes
• brought the hubz cupcakes and coffee
• ran the dishwasher
• took some finished project photos
• showered
• got dressed (hair and make-up + dance practice costume)
• ate some dinner (leftovers)
• went to dance class
• came home went to bed. 

Is that good?
I think I wash dishes too much. How does that happen? Probably because of my cooking/baking motto - "right tool for the job"

Here's what the cupcakes looked like:

I think I like pink

I bought this wool because I loved the colours, I had nothing in mind for it. So one night as I tried to fall asleep, I thought about what I should make with it - arm warmers kept coming into my head and so I decided that's what I would make:

I think they turned out really good. They are 100% wool, beautifully coloured and scrumptiously warm! I'm not much of a "pink' person, but I like them!

Cream Felt Hats

here are the two wool felted hats that I made:

I used two different yarns to see which felted better. My mom had found a buyer for one and was going to keep the other one for herself. It's possible I might start making a few more of these, although knitting first and then felting isn't usually the best way to go when making a felt hat.

Charcoal Felted Bowler

Here's a photo of the dark charcoal felted bowler I made just before New Year's: 

This was a custom order. Then she changed her mind and wanted a cream coloured hat instead. Back to the drawing board (and yarn shop!)

I knitted as fast as I could. Then I put on some rubber dishwashing gloves and filled the sink with warm water, added some soap and rinsed and rubbed and felted that hat.

Then I wan't happy how the wool felted, so I started all over again.

I would show you but my phone battery just died so you will have to wait until tomorrow.

along with other yarn porn

Speaking of Dogs

Remember how I mentioned the other day about resetting Eco's internal clock? Well, I had forgotten all about Daylight Savings Time!! Now, she's waking up at 4:30am! Dang it!! I guess I can expect at least a month before I can sleep in. (sigh) the things we do for our beloved furry family!

And speaking of dogs, I'm a wee bit excited about this dog I made for my shop:

Just a quickie phone photo - since I broke my good camera. He has button eyes, a felt nose and a gros grain ribbon for a collar plus he has wires in his legs to make him posable. I plan to made some other colours/breeds too. I think he'll make a cute Christmas decoration so I think I'll add a thin red ribbon so he can hang in a tree. What do you think?

A Little Peep?

Remember yesterday's wrist warmers that couldn't be made?

Well here's what it's become: 

A little chickie baby hat! 

There. Now I feel better. At least something was made from it! 

*******

And I've also finished this ruffle cuffs: 

Except for some reason I can not photograph greens with this camera - they always come out so far from reality. I don't know what to change. I shot this outside in natural light but the colour is so wrong. This is the correct colour:

Well back to the studio, for more yarn to fly off my hooks or needles! 

(these items and more are available for sale in my shop

 - see column to the right for the link) 

Stadium seating anyone?

This is a cushion cover I made for my mom. She said the church bench seats were hard for her to sit on and she wanted to bring a pillow with her to church. When I was visiting her in March, I had quickly sewn a grey cover, but I wanted her to have something nicer and so this is what I designed.

Front

Back

The pillow form is not inside of this one yet, so what looks like a 'gibble' on the bottom will get straightened out when the form shapes it better. I included velcro on the bottom so she could slip in the 12" x 12" x 1" foam pillow form and included a litte handle to make it easier for her to tote to and from her car. But this would also be good for patio chairs (use the handle to hang it up so it's out of the rain) or for the stadium to help with game watching comfort.

Projects - one done, one to go

I finished my mom's shawl/wrap and it couldn't have come at a better time since she fell and broke her left arm and cracked her wrist on the right arm - now she's having difficulty getting her arms into coat sleeves so perhaps just pulling a wrap around her shoulders will help her while we still have some chilly spring days. Here's the finished piece :

I've also been working on this Marie Antoinette doll. I don't normally make toys but I fell in love with the curls and so I had to make it. Ravelry is a site where knitters can log in their projects as well as record what yarns they are using and what patterns they are doing. This is helpful because you can see all the different projects make with a certain yarns or how other people interpreted patterns. I don't like to be negative but if I had've seen how other people were making this pattern before I started, I probably would never have made this pattern, here's an example:

It's nice to see their interpretations, but I intend to follow the pattern as closely as I can. This is what I have so far: 

Her hair curls and bottom skirt still need to be sewn in place, 

plus an outer skirt, arms, leg and face are needed

Soon I will get off the computer and pick up the needles again. It's a cold and rainy day so no need for gardening yet, and I did all my housework yesterday. What are you doing today? 

French Boucle Cowl

I'm kinda in between projects and I've kinda lost my crafting mojo so I was floating around looking for a project that would grab me when I came across two skeins of 100% french bouclé wool in burgundy. It's a big heavy wool and to me if felt like I should make a cowl out of it, so I check the suggested stitch count on the label and measured an approximately size of what I wanted the cowl to be, created my own pattern - et voila! Here's my finished cowl:

I've been wearing it almost steadily for two days and really like how it came out, it's very nice to have it wrapped around my neck and not have to deal with the ends coming loose like some scarves do:

Besides completing a project in about 2 hours, this yarn was also a bargain as I bought it on sale - 2 skeins for $3!  Now that's a good knitting project!