And that's a wrap....

So what DID I do in 2016? Well I did more than I thought!!!  My friends always tell me I get a lot done... but it never seems that way to me. I think because no matter how much I do there is always more I want to do. And while I do knit, cross stitch and sew a lot, I also goof off too. I am hooked on a couple of games I have on my Kindle and I play them every day. I feel a bit guilty that I spend time playing a useless game when I could be accomplishing something... but I do it anyway. Perhaps the problem isn't that I spend time on the games... perhaps I can lay the blame at the feet of the Benedictine nuns who instilled in me a deep sense of guilt and responsibility!  Yep, this is all the fault of Sister Esther and Sister Joanita and Sister Ida (ohhh she was a real psychopath) and Sister Caritas and Sister Lawrence. I won't blame Sister Dorothy as she was the sweetest nun I ever had... loved that woman!!! Yep, my guilt isn't my fault... it is the fault of 12 years of Catholic education...LOL!!!

Now I really don't hold any animus toward the nuns... guilt and responsibility aren't bad things... the world could use a bit more guilt and responsibility IMHO.

So here's a run down of what I accomplished in 2016. I went back and looked at all my posts for 2016 ... there were only 87... but there was a bunch of stuff there I didn't remember...  oh the mind isn't what it use to be... and it probably isn't what its going to be in the future... scary thought for the day!

I've ended 2016 with another sock finish... ta dah!!!!  This is the 2nd pair from my Opal Advent Calendar and astoundingly I knit the entire pair in less than a week!! Never happened before ... and will probably never happen again. A combination of having a nice chunk of holiday free time  and yarn that was egging me on to see what it would knit up like made these socks fly off the needles!!

Overall on the  knitting front I produced 33 or 34 socks...you know math isn't my friend...  about 16 pairs and 2 single socks waiting for their solemate...which is on the needles.  Only 1 sock was a patterned sock... this pair... Sunday Swing done in Regia Colormania.

All the rest were the plain vanilla stockinette kind except they weren't that  plain and vanilla as they were all some variation of scrappy or Frankensock. I knew that this kind of knitting was something I would like but I didn't realize I would become addicted to it. It is a good thing I don't drink, smoke or do drugs... I'd be a goner!!  An addiction to scrappy colorful socks isn't illegal or immoral...LOL... gosh I feel almost virtuous!! Here are a couple of my favorite pairs...

On the cross stitch front I completed 12 different projects... some big.... some small... a couple framed and a bunch that still need framing or finishing.  My favorite pieces this year were Sampler Hill from With Thy Needle and Thread (which needs framing)...

and  Fragments by Summer House Stitche Works...

I saw last week that there is going to be another Fragments this year... the sneak peek showed a really pretty bird in yellow and blue... you can check is out here... as I'm sure it will turn up on this blog in 2017.

And onto the quilting front...  a bit of a mixed bag ...  I consider a quilt finished when it has the binding on it and with that requirement met I finished 13 pieces of various sizes from this little square piece that is hanging on my back door...

ain't he cute? I saw him on IG and found the pattern here on Craftsy.

On the other extreme I did  a very large quilt... 104" square... that I gifted to my son and daughter in law and forgot to photograph. You can see it here before I sent it off to the long arm gal.

And here is my latest finish that is hanging on the back of my couch this Christmas season. The pattern is Diamond Dash from Missouri Star which you can see here....

the fabrics are Christmas Tole by Gina Martin. I really love the ornaments and that white poinsettia in the border.

But my favorite quilt this year is this one... Avant Garden Vintage Stars...

I LOVE EVERYTHING about this quilt...the colors, the quirky prints, all the yummy butterscotch Grunge background. It is on my bed right now as it goes so well with the butterscotch buffalo check drapes and the blue walls. I'm really having quite an affair with Momo fabrics... and it is going to continue into 2017 as I'm doing a QAL where I'm going to use my stash of Momo to do Tula Pink's City Sampler: 100 Modern Quilt Blocks. I started another QAL on Instagram with this book and these fabrics back in November but I jumped  in around Block 77 but fell off the wagon around Block 99. Doing a block at day was a bit too fast a pace for me... this QAL is doing 2 blocks a week. I think I can handle that.

That was the positive side of my quilting ... and on the dark side I started at least 12 projects... maybe more... that are UFOs... now I'm not totally bummed by the 12 or more UFO's  as I believe that UFO's are a vitally important part of quilting. When I return to these projects I will already have a nice start... in some cases almost a finish... and that can motivate me ... sometimes...so we shall see what 2017 brings! I have confidence in me... that I will finish some stuff ...and I will start more than I finish... that ain't gonna change.. LOL!

Oh,  the count of 12  UFO's is only what I "created" this year... there are many more than that from previous years languishing in plastic bins waiting oh so patiently for me to pop the lid on them... they are such good little UFO's... its a good thing fabric doesn't spoil!!


And as 2106 comes to a close,  I want to take a moment and thank all of you who read this crazy blog... you have hung in there through dithering about ... petunias and marigolds....  window boxes and shutters... decorating and deer and many many many rantings about the weather... Mother Nature provides me with a lot  of material, doesn't she? This little blog is a diary of my life...as I said yesterday it ain't Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous, but it is my life and I'm happy with it!

May 2107 bring all of us the best life has to offer!

Happy New Years!!

carol fun

I LOVE hand knit socks!!!

So the end of 2016 is in sight... and on the knitting front I will end this year just like last year... with hand knit socks on my needles.  Socks are my most FAVORITE thing to knit ... and in looking back over the last year they were pretty much the ONLY thing I knit.

I was curious how many socks I knit last year and by my count (and remember math is not my friend) I knit 32 socks... 16 pairs, but really 15 pairs and 2 single socks. The good thing is both of the single socks have their mates on the needles... I am amazed at me...LOL!!

Here are the first complete pair of socks made from my Opal Advent Calendar...

I did these in the Frankensocks style so there were lots of joins and ends to deal with but I do like the little bits and bobs of different stripes and colors. I wanted the Advent calendar so I'd get some different colors than I usually buy and I did. That purple and pink  were no where in my stash. This pair reads very "cool" and subdued to me... nice but different.  I finished these up on Christmas Eve...

So on Christmas Day I cast on the second pair of socks from the Opal Advent Calendar... and these are much brighter...

I picked out the skeins that were showing some yellow and orange... not many with yellow. The cuffs, heels and toes are a variety of yarns from my stash. Now these are even brighter in real life!  And did they knit up fast!! Like I said I cast on the first sock Sunday and I was finished with it on Tuesday. I don't remember the last time I knit a sock that fast.

Using 3 different skeins of yarn, in much bigger chunks sped up the process as there was less decision making.  And I'm always super motivated when starting a new skein of yarn to see what the repeat is going to look like...multiple that 3 times over and you get very speedy knitting!!!

The second sock is moving along nicely too. I took what was left of each skein and wound in into a ball so the sequence of the striping pattern is reversed.  It makes for scrappier looking socks in my opinion and then I'm again motivated to see what the repeat is going to look like... I know I could just turn the first sock upside down and see what is coming but hey....I'm easily amused here... and it keeps me off the streets at night!!! LOL

With a bit of luck I may have this pair finished before the end of 2016!!  My plans for New Years Eve are to stay home, probably eat pizza and knit or cross stitch. I'll be up at midnight because I'm a night owl, not because I need to see the ball drop.  As for the New Year I will usher it in with more knitting, cross stitch and quilting. My philosophy is that you should do the things you love on the first day of the year to set the tone for the next 365 days!!

Tomorrow I'll have a little recap of what I've accomplished this year. I never think I get much done but reviewing my blog showed I was more productive than I thought. I haven't been too conscientious in posting the last couple of months but I have been working on stuff. I've considered not updating the blog and moving solely to Instagram, but looking back over 2016 shows me why a blog is a good thing. It is a pictorial diary of what is going on in my life. It certainly isn't the lifestyles of the rich and famous (remember that show with Robin Leach? Whatever happened to Robin Leach?)... but I am certainly happy with the life I have!

I'm going to link up with Patchwork Times to see what others are knitting this week. So much yarn...not enough time!

happy knitting -
carol fun

Merry Christmas to you!!!

Merry Christmas dear blog readers!!!  I hope that you received the gifts you wanted and that tasty food was eaten and wonderful memories were made!! I did brunch this morning with my family and now the rest of the day should  be a quiet one spent knitting and cross stitching and probably napping...naps are soooo GOOD!!!

As you can see from these two pics my Christmas decor has gone to the deer this year... I'm particularly fond of the glittery sparkly kinds of deer, as opposed to the smelly ravenous ones who eat my roses... just saying... I'm more of a Bambi kinda gal... I like my animals well behaved!!

Okay,  I'm off to stuff my face with ginger cookies (thanks for the recipe Laurey!!) and then I might take a nap....nooooo... I'll definitely take a nap!!

Merry Christmas!!

carol fun

Merry Christmas Eve!!!

Are your stocking hung by the chimney with care?  Naahh, neither are mine...but I do have a lot of pretty sock yarn!  Here are 23 of the 24 little skeins from my Opal Advent Calendar. Aren't they cute???

The one I left out is the first one that I got... the ugly black brown one... now I did use the black/white sections but I don't think the other portions of this skein are gonna see the light of day in my socks.

And here is the first pair of socks I've made with these goodies...

I just have to do the toe and this pair is done!  Now I like these but for Frankensocks they seem quite subdued. I think it is because there is no yellow in them... yellow makes me happy ... and I think yellow makes for happy happy socks!

I'm planning on casting on a new pair of socks this evening and I'm definitely picking one of the brighter skeins.  I want to try knitting a pair of socks with a large swath of one skein, followed by another swath of another skein... like these...

I wish I had seen these socks before I started knitting the pair I'm finishing up. I LOVE that swath of yarn on the bottom of the sock on the right... and I used quite a bit of it on the sock I'm finishing up. Love the colors and those little dotted black and white stripes. Oh well... I shall survive ... there certainly are quite a few pretty skeins to play with.

I forgot to show my new Christmas knitting bag I got as a gift along with that fabulous shawl...

Isn't this a hoot??? Or should I say a cluck??  Polka dot chickens wearing hats and scarves and bearing gifts!!! Now I purchased several yards of this fabric last year with the intention of making Christmas curtains for my kitchen but I never got around to them... they will be top of my list for next year!!!

So are you ready for tomorrow??? I'm as ready as I'll ever be. The gifts are bought and stuffed into their Christmas bags...

years ago I made a ton of simple fabric bags out of Christmas yardage. Each year we stuff our presents in the bags and close them with either sparkly pipe cleaners or sparkly elastic cording.  Very "green"...but that's not the reason I did it... I did it because I really don't like to wrap and this method of gift presentation is easy peasy.  I store all of the bags in a plastic bin (you know how I LOVE plastic bins) and toss a dryer sheet in the  bin so everything stays fresh smelling.  This gift wrapping idea came from my friend Vicki who's been doing this even longer than I have. Very smart, dontcha think?  It makes me appear virtuous when in fact I'm really just lazy...LOL

We are doing brunch tomorrow at my son and daughter-in-law's  house... I'm bringing quiche and cinnamon rolls... the kind that come out of a can... told you I'm lazy!  I'm making the quiche tonight so I don't have to get up early to cook... I'm sooooo NOT a morning person. I can drag my sorry butt out of bed if I have to ...but I don't like it.  Brunch is good... doesn't start too early...and this arrangement allows my son and daughter-in-law to do Christmas dinner with her family. Then we will celebrate again next Sunday with a prime rib dinner at my house. It spreads out  all  those big holiday meals. My younger son and I are planning a shrimp and pasta meal for our Christmas dinner and that should be tasty too!

I hope you have a wonderful Christmas or Hanukkah celebration...lots of good food and family and fun!

Merry Christmas!!!
carol fun

Some assorted stitching on Sunday...

Well I haven't done this for a couple of weeks, but today I have  some cross stitch pics to share. Something completely stitched, something almost done and something started... I'm covering the whole gamut today...LOL! (Funny aside... at first I had typed gamet... which didn't look right... so I looked it up and I'm glad I did. A gamet has something to do with before a vowel... a little knowledge is dangerous!)

Anyway here is the piece that is completely stitched...

This is A Funky Bird by Barbara Ana. Now I changed the body of the bird from the dark brown to the lighter thread color that I can't remember what the number is now... but I like the looks of it.  I plan to get this one framed.


And then this is almost completely stitched...

This is from Teresa Kogut and is called appropriately Star Shaped Snowman... hey I guess titles get hard for designers too!  Now I pretty much changed every color on this one as the original was done more primitive. I wanted to use this scrap of linen in my stash that I have no idea where it came from. It is dyed/bleached with what I think is  a snowy look...however, I may not have made the best choice for where I located this on the linen. The snowman's arm... which is behind that branch is almost invisible. I think he would benefit from some backstitching....ugh!!!  He is a cutie but I was surprised that this primitive piece included a ton of 1/2 stitches and 3/4 stitches.  I think he will end up as a little pillow. You can see more of Teresa Kogut's cross stitch here... she has some cute Santas and chickens too!


And finally there is this ... a BRAND NEW Christmas start... which doesn't have a snowball's chance in Hell of being done this year....

This is the Lizzie Kate Jingles series from about 2013. I had never seen... or probably just hadn't paid attention ... to this bunch of adorable charts before. I lay the blame for this new start squarely on the shoulders of my friend Heather, who not only pointed it out to me, but also found it on sale on ebay for a great price including all the embellishments. Now it is well known that I have little self control where cute stuff is concerned... I'm thinking it is a genetic flaw and that will absolve me from any responsibility for my actions stemming from this condition... right??? A head nod in the affirmative would be  greatly appreciated.

Here is what it will look like when all 12 little darlings are stitched...

If you go to Lizzie Kate's website... here... you can download a layout that shows you where to put each chart and gives you additional little fillers like those blocks under the reindeer and the heart frame for what will be a snowman scene.  They also provide this layout info for other series... and somehow I think that info will get me into more trouble as the Halloween stuff  is too stinking cute!

So right now I'm happy with my stitching stuff. I have BIG BIG BIG plans to organize my cross stitch graphs in 2017. I'd like to put them into alphabetical order by designer so when I go to look and see if I have a chart I don't have to look through 6 different boxes. I also have plans to lose 50 pounds, quilt only from my stash and win the lottery... I think all those plans have about the same probability of success... should be an interesting year, dontcha think???? LOL!!!

So dinner tonight is going to be Mexican food... at El Rancho Grande... my boys and me...always tasty. My daughter-in-law is attending a concert her mother is singing in...she is a good daughter!

I'll link up with Kathy's Quilts today and Super Mom - No Cape tomorrow.

Hope you have your Christmas duties well in hand. I hesitate to say this out loud but I'm in pretty good shape. Two more gift cards and I think I can call it a wrap...I hope I haven't forgotten anything...

happy stitching-
carol fun

A soggy Saturday of socks, and a shawl, and a sad sad song...

Hello -- can you tell I LOVE alliteration... soggy...Saturday...socks... shawl...sad...song... I'm don't believe that all those things  would actually have any connection other than on this blog... oh well...here goes...

First off on this soggy Saturday,  I'm down to the toe of my first Frankensock from the Opal Advent Calendar...

I like this one but in the scheme of the Frankensocks I've knit I think this one is rather subdued... pink, lavender, sage and blue... not a bit of yellow and only  a couple of specks of orange. Not my usual picks but then I hoped that the Advent Calendar would give me new color combos, so it is successful on that point. I am going to make the second sock using these same skeins... by my calculations I've used a bit of 7 different little mini skeins in this sock.

And here are the delightful little bundles that have popped out of the calendar since I last posted...

This soggy Saturday doesn't make for good lighting but these little guys are a nice bright bunch... except for the black/gray/white one bottom row second from the left... he is definitely odd man out!  I see several pairs of brightly colored Frankensocks using these skein.

My ever changing strategy this week is to proceed with the second sock mate to the one currently on my needles and then start a new pair with lots of the bright stuff.

 Wednesday night my quilty lady friends got together to celebrate Christmas.  We exchange names each year and I was blessed to receive this magnificently exquisite shawl from Cathy... thank you SOOOOO much Cathy!!!

My photo does NOT do justice to this shawl... it is knit with yarn from Caterpillar Green Yarns which you can see here. The pattern is called Playground Shawl... it is free and you can see it here.   The magic of this shawl is that this was knit from ONE skein of yarn that was dyed to have the rainbow sections separated by the gray sections... there are NO joins or loose ends to weave in for the entire shawl except for at the beginning and the end... think about that for a minute?  Isn't this genius???

Here is how it looks when you wear it...



I tried to take a selfie of me wearing it, but between juggling the camera when it almost fell into the toilet and temporarily blinding myself, this is  the best pic I could get...

and yes, the bathroom mirror definitely needs to be wiped down... housekeeping isn't one of my talents, no one on their death bed every said "I wish I'd spent more time in the office" or "I wish I had cleaned more bathrooms."  NEVER been said!!!

As for the sad song...have you ever heard the song "Same Old Lang Syne" by Dan Fogelberg?  It is played on the oldies station locally that does all Christmas music this time of year. Now other than it mentions Christmas eve in the first line I'm not sure why it is considered a Christmas selection. I love the lyrics and the melody but this song ALWAYS makes me cry... last night it came on the radio and I should have turned it off after the first 8 bars... but I didn't... and I cried. I don't know why... I'm certainly not pining for any lost love but there is something just so evocative about this song that is always touches me. The chorus includes the line "we drank a toast to innocence, we drank a toast to now"... you can tie up a lot of memories in that line.

So on that note I'll sign off... I'm happy all the rain today isn't snow... and I hope you are warm where you are.

happy knitting-
carol fun

The saga of socks saunters on...

Another crazy week... but then aren't they all a bit off... running around...cold weather has descended...working on too many projects at one time... par for the course. I have dutifully opened every door for this week on my Advent calendar... right to left Day 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, and 9...

I'm very fond of Days 4 and 6... Days 5 and 7 are kinda similar as are the greens in Days 8 and 9... but I have seen some other skeins on Instagram that make my heart go pitty pat and I hope they are still lurking in my calendar.

I haven't been knitting as much as I thought I would and the new little hanks backed up a it but that was a good thing. It let me pick and choose more what I wanted to knit. This is where I am at the moment...

The sock on the left is about ready for a heel... gonna do that in the same charcoal gray I did the cuffs. And the sock on the right is showing off my favorite skein so far...Day 4... the only one to have any yellow in it!!!

I've been looking everyday at the Instagram board #opaladventcalendar which you can see here... and there are lots of pretties. Instead of knitting a bit of each skein when it pops out of the cube some people are knitting the whole skein before moving onto a new one and I'm liking how that looks...

these socks from oldmaidenaunt...

and these from coopknits which use a substantial chunk of  a skein before moving on...




I think when I finish this first pair I'm going to make a pair using more of the skein... Looks like it takes about 2 1/2 skeins to do a sock. Since several of mine will be a little light by then I'm thinking 3 should do a sock and I can pick 3 that sort of coordinate.

Have you noticed that my plan for these socks changes every week?  The plan is there is no plan that way I can be as fickle as I want!!

Well my mood this morning was a gray as the sky but things have brightened up. Last night my laptop decided it no longer wished to converse with the internet in my home. Other devices were happy to chit chat but not my laptop...ugh... I tried everything I knew ...which wasn't much ... and then took it to Best Buy to their Geek Squad. I had resigned myself to probably paying at least $100 to get it fixed. I hoped it wouldn't be more than that. The computer is old but it works and I like it... and it is Christmas and I don't want to have to buy a new laptop for me at the moment.

When I got to Best Buy they asked if I had an appointment... I didn't know you could make one, but no problem they'd look at my laptop in a few minutes after they took care of the older couple in front of me who did have an appointment. They got to me in about 10 minutes and I explained that my laptop wasn't speaking to the internet in my home.

The tech, Eli, told me that they were getting a lot of this problem...an issue with Microsoft... and well, they didn't have a definitive fix for it... ugh again... but he'd try a few things and see what he could do. So he did and on the 3rd or 4th try he coaxed my laptop to engage in a conversation with the internet... THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU ... and what did this little exchange cost me??? NOTHING... absolutely NOTHING... the first 20 minute consult was FREE... I was stunned. Needless to say I will be giving Best Buy and Eli at the Waterstone Plaza in Cincinnati OH and glowing review. He never made me feel stupid ... which has happened before ... and he was personable and funny. I will definitely be returning for any other computer issues I have in the future...and you know they will occur. I'm hoping this doesn't happen to my son's laptop, but if it does we will be off to Best Buy lickety split.

So I have a busy weekend planned to go along with the busy week... tomorrow I'm doing lunch with my boys at one of our favorite restaurants in the trendy Over the Rhine neighborhood of downtown Cincinnati.. and then we have tickets to go see Brickmas which is a Christmas display of Lego stuff. My boys are both big Lego fans and if I had a penny for every Lego brick I've stepped on in my life I'd be a very rich woman...LOL!!  Sunday I'm hoping to have my handyman Dan hang some vertical blinds in my son's room and take care of a couple of other projects. My Christmas shopping is pretty much under control... still need some gift cards but I know what I'm getting.

Hope you holiday preparations are coming along well... but for now I'm back to do a little knitting...

happy stitching and knitting -
carol fun

The saga of socks

Okay, so where have I been??? Have I been sick? On vacation?? Kidnapped by aliens???

None of the above... no excuse... I just haven't been posting... sorry...

With Thanksgiving behind me I've moved into full Christmas mode. I have my tree up... my outside lights on... bought a new 7.5 ft inflatable snowman for the side yard (I'll see if I can take a pic of him in the dark... his body is kaleidoscopic...oooooohhhh... pretty) ... and the majority of my inside decorating is complete.  A lot of the old stuff and a few new things... I'll show the new things in a day or two.

But the event I was waiting for with bated breath was the opening of the first door of my Opal Advent Calendar....

I had pre knit two cuffs (they are perched on the top of the box) to start some Frankensocks... some nice charcoal gray Fabel that I thought would be a good neutral... at the stroke of midnight on Thursday December 1 (and I'm not kidding it was 12:00) I opened door number 1... and I must be truthful... I was a bit disappointed. Oh it is a cute little 15 gram skein but my first door skein was brown... not on my list of favorite colors... oh it has its place in the world but in my world it is mostly banished to a small dark corner in the basement furnace room...sigh...I had feelings similar to those I had as a kid when I opened a beautifully wrapped present to find it contained... underwear...ugh!!!

But I persevered and started knitting the brown skein... it was really really brown...okay.. it is a nice mottled yarn but it doesn't make my heart sing. I could see that the interior of the skein had a section of black and white which was intriguing. I LOVE those faux fair isle patterns Opal is so good at, and I continued and this is how that section knitted up...

Okay, it is kinda handsome but it isn't what I wanted... insert stompy foot, frowny face, holding my breath temper tantrum behavior... oh I'm so adult...

Onto Day 2...now this is what I'm longing for ... I love this little pink/turquoise/blue/purple skein... a HAPPY skein of yarn...

And Day 3 has dawned colorful too... purple... I hardly ever buy yarn that is purple but I like it...

So what happened to the Day 1 yarn?  I unravelled it and put it in time out... I was going to show a pic but my son remarked that it now looks like something Big Dude left in the litter box... I'll leave you with that mental image and move on...


So 2 out of 3 days were happy little skeins of yarn... that's a pretty good percentage. I've been looking at what others have gotten in their Opal Advent Calendars on Instagram... you can check them out here... and here.... it turns out that the calendars don't have the same yarn in each day so I'm assuming that the pretties I'm seeing that others have found will show up in my calendar later in the month... I hope so!!!

The plan I started with was I was going to knit 5 rounds from each skein alternating from one sock to another. One sock would be the odd days and the other sock the even day... but 5 rounds isn't enough to show the pattern well... so I changed the plan to 10 rounds... and that wasn't enough for me either... so right now the plan is to knit till the skein tells me to stop... sensible, dontcha think??? ( Remember I am happy happy happy in my delusional little bubble fueled by yarn fumes and the click of my needles... my happy place...LOL!)

I'm a day late but I'll be linking up with Patchwork Times knitting post On the Needles... fun stuff over there too...

And before I forget...which I did... when I'm not posting here I sometimes do post on Instagram... you can click on this link anytime and see what I'm up to... if I got around to posting there... and I'm not always good about that either. I'm carolfun53 on Instagram if you want to follow me. Instagram is my new Pinterest... I can spend hours there looking at stuff... and when I find cool stuff I pin it to my boards on Pinterest which makes this activity a continuous loop of time wasting... I'm really really good at time wasting... almost as good as I am at starting new projects... God has given me many talents... LOL!!!

Hope you have a nice weekend ahead... I'm off to do some grocery shopping for dinner tomorrow. The weather has turned truly cold... may see some snow flurries next week... ugh... already planning my Spring gardening... my way of denying winter exists... another delusional little world I visit...

happy knitting -
carol fun

Happy Thanksgiving...

Happy happy Thanksgiving!!!  Hope you have the day ahead of you that you WANT...we are eating at my older son's and daughter-in-law's home at 3pm... such a trek for me... 2 whole blocks!!! I could walk but I have a ton of stuff to haul over there so I will load up my car and drive the 32.5 seconds to get  there.

I want to thank all of you who keep wandering in to read about what is going on in my world... not really exciting stuff, but I am very grateful for my quiet little life and for all of you!!!  Along with cooking and eating I hope to have some time today to stitch a bit... and maybe knit a bit... I still have some Christmas stitching I want to do and yesterday I got an idea for how to approach the socks I want to make with my Opal sock yarn Advent calendar...only 6 more days and I can open my first little door...yippee.... I need to cast on and knit two cuffs... good thing I have plenty of needles...that's another thing to be thankful for!

Blessings are many

when you look

within your heart!

happy stitching...

carol fun

Fly away Funky Bird and Elfus Interruptus...

EDITED to add photo of elf/santa which makes the paragraph where I ramble on about them a bit more coherent... sorry... and if you ever notice I forgot a pic please feel free to let me know... I need all the help I can get!!!



Well there's been a little activity in the cross stitch department... and I'm in the mood for some holiday stitching so here's where things stand today... oh please excuse all the wrinklyness... I just walked my 10,000 steps for the day and my feet hurt and I'm too lazy to go downstairs and iron these...

First off... almost finished... Funky Bird by Barbara Ana...

 all I have left to do is the beak and the rear end/tail. Remember how I dithered over one ply or two and went with two because I wanted good coverage ??? Well, it became a moot point when I decided to go with DMC 3046 instead of DMC 3371 for filling in the body.  DMC 3371 is just sooooooo dark... and while the polka dots would have stood out I was afraid the stars would disappear. Now DMC 3046 is close in color to the linen but since it is outlined in DMC 501 it worked out fine.  I think I can finish this tonight while I watch my PBS shows... The Durrells in Corfu and Indian Summers.

Last year I ran hot and cold over Indian Summers... this season I love it... but tonight is the last episode and I'm not sure if the series will return. There have been some stunning plot twists and right now none of the main characters are happy... perhaps they can eke out one happy ending tonight.

And last week I was pulling out some holiday charts to show to a friend and it got me in the mood too. I re-discovered this conundrum... Christmas Joy by Barbara Ana Designs... and the elf problem. Well first I'm not sure if he's an elf or Santa but I'm going to Santa at this moment. I started him on larger count darker linen on the left.... don't know why I stopped. Started a new version on smaller count lighter linen on the right... like the elf ...wasn't sure the snowflake border will show up enough. Both are in a state of interruptus... last time these saw the light of day I thought of doing the elf as an ornament... and I'm leaning that way again with the idea of doing the entire sampler on a piece of blue or turquoise linen... that would make the snowflake border pop... I see an order of linen in the near future for me... like when I get finished with this post...LOL!!!

Dinner is in the crockpot... stroganoff beef... kids are coming at 6pm and it will be DARK... remember when I said I was okay with the time change? I LIED... and you knew it... I hate it being dark so darn early... I know you people who are up with the birds like that it is lighter  earlier but I am a night owl... if I ever saw sunrise it would be because I hadn't gone to bed yet... and those kinds of nights are definitely in my past... LOL... oh well...along with the time change Mother Nature slammed the door on the glorious Fall weather and the cold has arrived.  I am so happy I put my Christmas lights up on Friday... I look like a genius... okay, not quite... but I'm quite pleased with myself.  I will put out an inflatable or two... I have a little gingerbread man but I'd really love a GIGANTIC inflatable for my side yard. A couple of years ago I saw this awesome ENORMOUS reindeer at Walmart... it was $100... and I didn't get it... I have since seen it online on ebay and it is going for 2 to 3 to 4 times that price... darn... I always say it isn't the things you buy that you regret it is the stuff that got away and I certainly regret this one getting away.

I'm going to link up with Kathy's Quilts today for Slow Stitching Sunday and on Monday I'll link up with Super Mom - No Cape.  I know it will be a busy week for a lot of us... I think I have everything I need and won't have to go back to the grocery store before Thursday... but I'm probably delusional and I'll be there at least once in the next few days.

Hope you have a great week...
happy stitching...

carol fun

Sockiness Shenanigans While Showing Superior Self-Control....

Another week blew right past me... but it has been a week of glorious weather. As I type this I have the windows open enjoying what is probably the last beautiful weather of 2016. Today it is 75 degrees ... tomorrow the high will barely reach 40 and there may be snow flurries... shorts today... a parka tomorrow... ahh... typical Ohio weather. Not much I can do about it ...other than complain... and I do that A LOT...LOL!!

I've made the most of the week... on Wednesday I planted 190 bulbs... 100 daffodils...60 Japanese irises... 15 allium... and 15 tulips which I put in a pot instead of the ground.  My plan is to let the pot sit outside this winter and when they start to bloom in the Spring I'll let them sit out during the day, but I'll drag the pot into the garage at night and hopefully avoid having them be a midnight snack for the deer. Hope springs eternal in every gardener's heart...

Today I cleaned out my window boxes of deceased mums and frosted sweet potato vine. I chucked the ferns on the front porch and put the porch furniture in the garage. Then I put out my Christmas lights....LOL... I'm not going to plug them in yet... I'll wait till next Friday for that. But I figured it would be a much more enjoyable task today than when it is 30 and sleeting.  I am very proud of myself ... I feel like I got the jump on Mother Nature... and somehow I'm sure she'll get me back!

There has been some activity on the knitting front... some sockiness shenanigans... first I finished  one of my Sunday Swing socks....you can find the free pattern here.

I'm happy with this sock... the Regia Colormania yarn is very pretty. I've already cast on its mate and it is sitting right next to me now waiting for some attention.

And the Zitron Trekking XXL 415 sock is just a toe away from being complete...

It is turning out BE-YOUUU-TI- FUL.... so happy happy happy I remembered I owned this yarn. I will finish the toe tonight and cast on its mate too. I added some dusty purple heels and toes so that I have a nice bit of this yarn leftover. I know I'm going to want to use it in other Frankensocks in the future.

And somehow this lovely skein of Madelinetosh appeared in my home...

the colorway is called Night Hawk and I love the bits of purple and teal and pops of lime green. My friend Cathy... who is also my personal yarn shopper... she works in a great LYS called Lambikins Hideaway in Hamilton Ohio... brought it with her to dinner last night. She said it had just arrived at the shop yesterday... well I was immediately smitten and asked if I could buy it... she graciously let me pay her for it, even though she had selected it for herself. She said the shop had 9 other skeins and she would get another for her... isn't she sweet?  I'm envisioning this as a shawl... or a scarf... need to peruse Ravelry and find some inspiration... and ask Cathy what plans she had for it... she always knits the most gorgeous stuff.

And drum roll please... this is the biggest sockiness shenanigans where I have shown SUPERIOR self control... an Opal Sock yarn Advent Box!!!!

this box is a 1 foot cube stuffed with 24 mini skeins of Opal sockiness goodness... each skein is 15 grams and I should be able make 4 pairs of Frankensocks from  it... I have had this box in my house for almost 2 weeks and I have not opened one single door... SUPERIOR self-control... something I am NOT known for... LOL!   I became aware of this delightful box last December when it was too late to obtain one. I was on the prowl for it starting this summer and found an Etsy shop in the UK that was selling them. I know I visited her Etsy shop at least a dozen times before I convinced myself that I was worth the box and the shipping... and I am glad I did!  I can't wait to open the first door on December 1 ... TWELVE more days... the suspense is killing me.

Last night I showed the box to my friends and they decided that they wanted to peek inside and see the yarn. I left the room and they opened the top of the box...the suspense was mounting... only to find out that the way this box is assembled you can't see a darn thing by just opening the top... each day is enclosed in a cardboard partition... we all laughed and laughed because we figure we weren't the first ones who thought we could sneak a peek.  If you have time check out this Instagram tag... #opaladventcalendar   and you can see all the ways people have used the yarn from the Advent Box.

The days are certainly speeding by... next week is Thanksgiving... and then in a blink of an eye it will be Christmas..aaaaayyyyy... I have a little shopping done and a couple of hand made gifts completed... or close to complete. Last year I got my tree up and all my decorations out early. I'm going to try and do that again.

Hope you have a great weekend... don't know what the plans are yet for dinner on Sunday... I'm thinking if my son and daughter in law come over I'll make beef stroganoff in the crock pot... some comfort food that sticks to your ribs... LOL... listen to me... I make it sound like it will be Artic cold... oh well ... I shall survive!

happy knitting -
carol fun

Something I didn't think I'd ever say....

I'm glad the weekend is over... I know who says that?  Well if you'd been barking like a seal and feeling like a truck ran over you, you would say that. I was looking forward to the weekend all week (I know who doesn't ? ... I'm full of obvious observations today... I think it is the cold medicine talking). But on Friday afternoon I started to feel puny and it continued all weekend. I think I overdosed myself on Saturday... that was the worse day... Sunday I felt a bit better... good enough to do dinner, carry out from Carraba's. Today I started out slow but I'm getting there. My voice is still gone, but I always lose my voice when I get sick... and I could do without the cough  but at least I don't feel like a truck is parked on my chest.

On the bright side I do have some sewing stuff to share... stuff obviously NOT completed this weekend... but stuff that finally got photographed. First a new table runner for my dining room table...

It measures about 65" long and drapes down the sides of the table.

I did my best to not duplicate a single square... they are all Sandy Gervais prints from different  Fall collections...and the background is my FAVORITE Basic Grey Grunge... Yellow Chiffon... I have about 5 yds of this stashed in my basement as they don't seem to be making this colorway anymore...boo hoo... I know I've used it in about 5 different quilted pieces and I never get tired of it! I quilted it in a variegated Sulky thread in a swoopy random fashion.

I also love that pumpkin bowl in the center of the table...

I don't know if you can make it out, but it says Thankful... perfect for this season!

And because starting a new project always makes me happy, I want to show you my newest adventure...

These are 6" finished blocks from Tula Pink's City Sampler 100 Modern Quilting Blocks... you can see the book here.

Now this book has been around since 2013 so I'm late to the party... there have been a couple of QAL with groups working together on these blocks and I stumbled across one on Instagram which you can check out here. I've been intrigued but could not come up with a fabric/color plan for the blocks. If you are going to make 100 blocks you'd better have a plan. I didn't want to do brights with blacks and whites... and I didn't want to do Kaffe's... and I didn't want to do anything sweet ... and then it hit me Momo... I LOVE MOMO... and I have a nice stash of several collections of Momo... and it was off to the races.

I've started posting my blocks on Instagram here... you can check back every day or so and see what I've done. Now I didn't start at the beginning... I mean really, anyone can start at the beginning. Since I'm late I started with Block No. 77, and what I have so far is Blocks 77, 78, 79, 80 and 81... I have Blocks 82, 83, 85 and 86 cut out...I think I'm going to skip 84. I only plan on doing 70 blocks as that is all I need for a double bed sized quilt... at least that is all I think I need. And the great part about deciding at the start that I only need 70 instead of 100 blocks is I already feel a sense of accomplishment... I know that makes NO sense at all but it makes me feel good so I'm going with it.

Here are close ups of two blocks I like a lot...

Block 78

I inked the little face on the flower...

Block 81

This one puts me in the mind of looking out a window and that is the view from my front window most evenings... they don't call it Deer Park for nothing...LOL

I'm having great fun with these blocks. Lots of opportunities to fussy cut images and so far it has taken me longer to select fabrics and cut the pieces than it takes to sew them together. Makes it nice to sit down for a couple of minutes and knock out a block. Stay tuned ... I'll have more to show...

Well I hope you had a nice weekend and will have a nice week. This one is a little less busy than last week and that is good... more time to sew!

happy stitching-
carol fun