What does it takes to make me happy.

On my way home today I saw some kids playing in the dirt and they looked so happy.  I remember those days when all it took was dirt pile, my barbie doll, my brother's metal tonka trucks and a hose with water.  Oh good times.

That got me thinking, what does it take to make me happy now?  Lucky for you all I have the answer.  Besides the usual. My hubby, cat and family.  I think I have narrowed it down to 3 or 4 things.

1)  The angry birds hat I made my brother, and my brother because he is as fun to be with as he was when we were kids.

2)  Making handmade socks for family members.  This is the latest pair for my Mom.

3)  Yarn my Mom saw and had to buy me from her friend who raises alpacas.

 

4)  Last but certainly not least.....embroidery, cross stitch, needlepoint and knitting supplies from my Grandmother-in-Law.  Man I do not even know where to begin.  At first I was on cloud nine then on day three of organizing I thought I was in hell and now I am back to cloud nine.  I now officially have all the DMC Floss colors except 28 of the colors.  Yes, I do plan to get the last 28 might as well it will be under $10.  This picture does not even represent my own supplies. 

I do have a question for all of you how do you organize your floss?  By color or number?  I have 6 boxes of my own and now I have added 6 more boxes from Granny.  I organized by color and she organized by number.  I am confused!  The floss in the baggies are perle cotton, rayon, rayon mix, hand painted, metallic, ribbon and wool.

The box in the back is full of needlepoint hand painted canvas and some half finished work and some I have no idea what to do with.  I will be researching needlepoint.

I did not take any pictures of the knitting supplies because they are not to organized yet.  She also gave me her Bernina sewing machine.  I see I will need to start reading up on lots of things and do not even know where to start.  Needlework?  Knitting?  Sewing?  Going Crazy?  I am thinking the latter. What do you all think?

~Bekah

Is it the Weekend Yet?

Here I am at working waiting for the last hour of the day to end.  I know I should be working but if I have to do one more date change I will bleed from my eyeballs.  So I thought I would show you I finished another pair of socks and this time they are actually for me.  I did not get a chance to take pictures of them before I wore them, then inadvertently threw them in the dryer and tah-dah nice tight form fitting felted socks.  Sure I meant to do that?!

I have been embroidering up a storm the last two weeks and I hope to show you pictures soon if the weather lets in some sunshine so you can see them better.  I have vowed this year to get my embroidery pattern organized and to stitch more of them.  I am doing pretty well so far hopefully I can keep it up.  What have you all been up to this year?

~B

Sock Knitting.... and other updates

Back in January I said that by the end of the year I would make 22 pairs of socks or die trying.  The time has come and my last birthday is is coming up at the end of December.  Did I make it?  Do I still have the use of my fingers?  Was I crazy to try and attempt it?  Will I ever do it again?

I am sitting here typing so I did not die and since I am also able to type I do still have the use of my fingers. Am I crazy well that is still to be determined even though my hubby says I was crazy a long time ago.  I will never do that again!  I promise you that.  If I do something similar it will be for just one side of the family at a time not both sides.  I did finish although a few people in the 3 months of hell did get their socks a week late they were still happy to get them later.  It was the most terrible thing I could think of to go to a birthday party without a present and just a card and a promise to give them their gift next week.  The other sad part is our back-up hard drive crashed and burned and I lost over half of the pictures of the socks so I only have a handful of pictures to show for all my hard work.   It is done and not need to dwell on it.

My next obsession has been Doctor Who.  Our friends told us to start watching the new series and man I am hooked!  I have started to watch all of the old ones one by one and reading about the ones that the episodes were lost.  I have gone nuts for a Sci-Fi show and I never go nuts over Sci-Fi shows I really could take them or leave them but something about this show makes me crazy for it.

So crazy that when a friend asked me to make him a Doctor Who Scarf I quickly said yes without realizing it is a huge scarf and so crazy big it is not even funny.  Luckily he asked for a Season 14 scarf and that is the shortest scarf there is.  I was able to finish it is in 16 days I was quite surprised but once I got started I had to finish it was lots of fun with all of the color changes. To give you an idea how big this scarf is he is 6'1".

Now before I made this scarf for a friend I asked Brian 3 separate times if he wanted a scarf he defiantly said no three times.  With that I felt confident to start making a scarf for our friend and as I progressed Brian kept looking longingly at the scarf and saying how cool the scarf was how he would like one and why was I not making him one. 

I was like really you told me no three times... He sheepishly said no I never said that and he knows I was right.  I told him I already promised this one so he would get the next one.  So after I finished the first scarf at the end of September I went right in to work on this scarf.  This scarf took a bit longer because I actually started on it and figured out I would not have enough yarn so I had to order more which would not be a problem except that two colors were discontinued.  I am like really I have already started and knit a huge chunk.  To make this long story a bit shorter I had to pull out all that I started because I needed to get a different color for the tan and then I went about to start again.  This one is a Season 12 the original scarf and longer than Season 14.  Brian is 6'4" so you can see how much longer it is.  The real crazy thing is that I plan to make two more.  One for our Friends Wife (my best friend) and myself. 

See me being crazy is still to be decided.  That is just a small amount of what I have been up to since my break.  I will write a bit more once I get the pictures uploaded.  Oh I also got a new scanner so I should have more patterns to scan soon.

What have you been up to this fall?
~B

Anchors Away!

Back in August I finished knitting up Mr. Foster all the clothes I have had for him were his pajamas and his robe.  I felt so bad that I bought the Monkey Business kit that has three other outfits for him.  I have had this kit since early October last year.  I finally got around to knitting him is very own sailor outfit I am wishing I had done it earlier.  He looks so cute in his hat. 

Gilligan!!

Brian is pretty happy since Mr. Foster belongs to him.  Now Brian is asking when the other two outfits will get done and when I am going to make him his girlfriend.  Yes they had a kit for Carmen Banana a girlfriend for Mr. Foster and I bought it.  I will take his other outfits with me when we go camping in May.  How appropriate he is in a sailor outfit since we will be going to the beach. 

Do you have any other ideas for an outfit for Mr. Foster (B.A. for short)?

~B

Socks Galore

{First let me say I know it is Tuesday but my scanner really bit the dust today.  So I will scan something at work and post it tomorrow.}

I told you awhile back that I was planning on making socks for my entire family that would turn out to be 22 pairs of socks and most of them need to be done before August.  So far I am trucking along just fine because it has only been one birthday a month.  I am enjoying and hating it at times.  The good still outweighs the bad. 

The ones orange ones were the first ones I made in January for my niece that turned 16.  The ones still on the needles were done in February for my niece that turned 14.  I just did not get a chance to take a picture of the finished product. 

The next pair were I a bright purple pair for my nephew in February that turned 12. I was finishing them on the way to the party and did not get a chance to take a picture. Yes bright purple for a boy. He is autistic and loves purple he says it is his power color. I am not sure what that means but at least he likes them and wears them a lot.

The green ones for my nephew that turned 13.  He wears a camo jacket all the time so I thought these would go well with it until I hit the middle of the ball and this blue yarn appeared. Trust me I did not see any blue on the outside of that skein. It still looks manly and nice. 

The last pair are the purple ones for my Mother-in-Law she got them on Saturday.  Her actual birthday is St. Patrick's Day but I thought I would make a pair her favorite color instead of green. 

That is five pairs down 17 pairs to go. I am exhausted and my fingers hurt but I still want to make more so that is a good sign.  Off to knit a pair pants for Mr. Foster  I have already finished his sailor hat.

What do you do that stresses you out but you still love?

Fun with Knitting

I had a pretty fun day on Sunday. My niece (Lizzie age 8) came over because she wanted to learn to knit.  She wants to make clothes for her stuffed dogs and her real dog so she can open a shop when she gets older and move to Beverly Hills because you know people here love their dogs more than here (at least that is what she told me). 

It all started late last year when I knitted a dog sweater for her stuffed dog Lou.  He got a rip on his back so I packed him up to come to Aunt Bekah's emergency room and when he was returned he had a nice green sweater on with his name embroidered on it.  She loved it and then wanted me to make one for each of her stuffed dogs.  I said I can teach you and she has hounded me ever since.  I think it also has to do with she wanted to come over to eat snacks and play animal crossing (such an addicting game). 

I also finished a project that took me way to long I told Sew~Amy in August I would make her a knitted VW Bus just like mine or at least so it could match her VW Bus. If you do not know about Amy go check out her blog she is the VW queen. I finally mailed it last week and she received it yesterday. I did a much better job the second time around her bus looks so much better than mine.

I think I have set an unattainable goal for myself but we will see if I can do it. I plan on making 22 pairs of knitted socks one for every family member for their birthdays this year.  I have one due in a week and another one due in February.  The killer will be May where there are 4 birthdays, June 3 birthdays and July with 5 birthdays. All the other ones will be fine I just have to see it I can actually survive those three months. 

This sock is for my niece that is turning 17 next week. I originally bought this yarn for myself because I love orange and bright colors but it just called her name.  I might have enough left over to make ankle socks for myself as well but that will have to wait until my birthday in September. 

I hope I survive this.

~B

Knitted Goodness

I have had a lot of road trips this summer and with most of them being camping I decided I would take knitting instead of my embroidery. I tend to lose those small embroidery needles and then I would probably step on them in the car. I do that in the house and that is bad enough.

The Monkey is Mr. B.A. Foster. (B.A. stands for Ben Anise) B.A. is a bit of a character always trying something. First of all he thought he should drive when we went to Portland and we had to tell him no. Then he thought he should have our lunch.

We finally got him to sit in the backseat and leave us alone while we ate. Cheeky little monkey.

After we bought our Bug I was looking on etsy for anything VW bugish and I found this lovely pattern. It has a bus, bug and scooter. I did make the bus for my T. He loves it and it sits on top of his computer desk.

What have you done this summer and what have you made?

~Bekah