Happy Mothers' Day

HAPPY MOTHERS' DAY TO YOU!!

I am hoping that you had a wonderful and relaxing Mothers' Day today. We were able to go to brunch with our daughters and our oldest daughter's family. We had a wonderful time.

Being a creative person, I tried to instill creativity into our daughters when they were small. Both are very artistic and create wonderful items. It does this mother's heart good, to see the projects that they both work on. In turn, I love to see art being passed on to the next generation. Below is a necklace made for me by my younger granddaughter. She and her sister are blessings in our lives and I love my necklace. I put it on and wore it into the Cheesecake Factory, with pride and happiness. :)

Do you ever hit a road block when you are working on a project? I do. These past few weeks, while I have been trying to work on knitting and writing a new pattern, I hit a road block of frustration. First off, I made my first 2 prototypes from a yarn, that doesn't really have a typical gauge. I discovered this after the fact.

I wrote the pattern using the gauge for that yarn, only to discover that when I tried to make a third (yes third) one, that the new yarn didn't meet the gauge of the first two items and it was knitting up toooooo loooooose. :) Sooo, I added a new gauge and size to the pattern. THEN, when finished, I discovered that the yarn I had just used, didn't really meet any other gauge either. So, at this point, I decided I would have to knit this item yet again. Yep, a fourth time.......... This time using yarns that have normal gauges for their size. You know, like a real worsted weight, or a real fingering weight, not an acrylic/mohair blend or a fluffy cotton yarn. Yep, that is what I had done. At this point, I was also wondering where my brain had gone. Do you see it anywhere???? So..... I put it all down(no I didn't throw it at the wall) and decided to do something fun.

Here are my fun dolls. The first one that I made is in the center. She was actually made 10 years ago for my oldest granddaughter, but had lost her clothing, while being played with. First, she had a pretty new dress knitted and embellished for her. Then onto 2 new dolls.

None of the dolls have a name. Anyone have any ideas?

And going on with family creativity. My SIL, painted my gorgeous teapot, the matching tray and 2 matching mugs, that the dolls are using for chairs.

One of these days, my new pattern will be able to be seen. It will be funny, when I introduce it to you, because it looks like it should be the easiest thing in the world to write. AND it should've been, except I used unusual yarns. :)

Canton Revisited

Last weekend was the First Monday Trade Days in Canton, TX. My oldest daughter and I like to travel over there a couple of times a year, to see what treasures we can find. We usually have a list of what we are looking for, because it is very easy to lose track of what we need. This time, we both came back hauling large bags of doilies. She plans to use hers in a slightly different way than me. But, both will be creative. I have mine washed and dried, but that is as far as I have gotten.

I found several other items there, but no big furniture purchases for either of us this time.

However, here is an item I was truly shocked to find. The phrase, "One man's trash is another man's treasure," is fitting here. This is a great picture, for a knitter anyway. There is an older woman, who we would assume is the grandma, teaching a much younger person how to knit socks.

I had picked up the picture to take a look and then put it down, thinking about it. The man in the booth decreased, yep, he decreased the price and said, "The frame is probably worth more than that. The picture is not valuable." :) That is when, the knitter in me came out. I was thinking, "Well, the frame may or may not be valuable, it is dirty and old, that is for sure. BUT, the picture is what interests me." So, I said, "OK, I'll take it." Here is a picture, of the cleaned up frame and picture.



The second item that I wanted to show you is this tiny doily. The diameter is about 5 to 6 inches. Lying above the doily is a toothpick, to give you an idea of the doily's size. This doily looks handknitted. The yarn used by the knitter, looks to be cotton sewing thread. It is that fine or finer. My guess is that the knitting needles were about a 0000. Truly a tiny needle.

Wildflowers

In Texas, we love our wildflowers. As a matter of fact, our state flower, the Bluebonnet, is a wildflower. Sometimes, when the spring arrives and the grass starts to grow, people will say, "Cut your weeds! Your lawn looks terrible." But, if you let it go and see what happens, you may find, like our neighborhood did, that you have quite a collection of gorgeous wildflowers.


About a week and a half ago, our oldest daughter and her daughters came over for a visit. As you enter our neighborhood, your eyes feast on color, glorious color! The wildflowers are in full bloom and they are all over the fields at the entrance to the neighborhood.

Upon seeing the gorgeous flowers, the girls wanted to pick wildflowers. They came excitedly into the house asking, "Gramma, can we go and pick wildflowers?" So, we did. They each had a gorgeous bouquet of flowers to take home with them. Below is the picture of both of their bouquets together.

What do you think????
Do you like the wildflowers?

Spinning Wheels and Knitting

The other day, I went over to my friend Laurie's home to get some extra spinning time in. One thing great about spinning is that, it can be a very portable hobby. Some spinners, when purchasing a new car, will take their spinning wheels with them. If the wheel doesn't fit in the new car, then forget it(the car, not the wheel). Spinners can be very dedicated to this hobby/craft/art form.

Well, the story behind this "new" wheel of Laurie's is a great story. Just so you know, Laurie has a Louet S-10, which is a great wheel and she has spun miles and miles of yarn on that wheel and will continue to spin on it. However, one day she went to look at a wheel that was advertised as an antique wheel. It was being sold, locally, by a person who was moving to Canada and didn't feel like moving the wheel again. Seems she had brought it to Texas, from Canada, some years ago. When Laurie walked into the room and took one look at the wheel, she was smitten and just gasped. This wheel was going to be hers, she knew it. She grabbed her cell phone and called me so we could talk about a double drive set up, she pretty much understood the "Greek" I spoke to her that day and decided the whee was, for sure, going home with her that day.

The wheel, will disassemble and fit into Laurie's car, so it is portable too. :) Thanksfully, she owns a mini-van, so she can get the wheel around town and has brought it to spinning since purchasing it. This is all good news for her husband. He doesn't have to worry about purchasing a new vehicle to fit the wheel. LOL!

I thought you might like to see Laurie spinning at the wheel that took her breath away, Arabelle.



If you look closely at the wheel, you will notice some pieces colored gray or black. Those pieces are actually cast iron. This wheel is truly a gorgeous wheel and I am soooo happy that Laurie found it and was able to purchase it.

Here is a sweater that I have just finished. It is a size 6 months and is for sale in my etsy store.
I love to knit baby sweaters. This sweater is made from 100% cotton and feels so nice and soft.

You know what it is like, when you send around you-tube links? You keep finding all of these funny ones. Well, this one was sent to me, by my daughter. Here it is:



Hope you enjoy it. :)

Spring is here!

It is wonderful weather outside, right now. We are having sun, warm temperatures, not hot, and cool nights. The wildflowers are blooming and I have seen some Texas Bluebonnets, our state flower out along the roads. Bluebonnets are a wildflower, and usually grow along the highways. Some people will stop along the interstate or highways, get their children out of the car, sit them in the bluebonnets and take the pictures. I probably won't do that, my kids are safe. :) Being they are 33 and 30, they will make their own decisions on it anyway. OK, I digress.

I wanted to show you two of my knitting projects. This black sweater, below is from the pattern Mr Greenjeans. It is a deep v-neck cardigan, worked from the top down. I just love those top-down patterns. Not many seams when done and I can try it on while I work. Below the armholes there is a cable and rib section. When I am done with the cables and ribs, I will put the sleeves back on the knitting needles and finish the sleeves. It will be a long sleeve sweater when done.




These purlple socks are made from a bulky weight wool and will be slipper socks. I made these in a knit-a-long with the knitters at my local library. We meet one morning a week, at the library, and knit. The name of the pattern for these socks is: Tropical Punch Slipper Socks.

Both patterns are available on Ravelry, if you go out there.

You are making what???????

It all started a couple of months ago, when Liz wanted to make herself some clothes. She started looking on-line for mannequins and how to make one. One that will be your size, so that you can use it to size clothing, that you want to make for yourself. She came to spinning one day and asked if anyone wanted to do this with her? Does anyone want to start making some clothing for themselves? OR will anyone PLEASE come and help.

We asked her what was involved. She said, Duct tape(yep, duct tape), an old T-shirt, polyester fiberfil, and PVC pipe and maybe an old office chair(or something else for a base).

We were stunned. Was she serious?? Yep, she was serious. As we thought about it, some of us thought, cool idea. Let's do it. The date was set.

On the day for the project, 5 of us, I think, showed up. The rest of the spinning group was staying home, taking bets to see if we would REALLY do it. "We want to see them," they would say. :)

Well, after being taped for about 2 hours, and seeing our REAL body shapes, we became a little shy to show them to anyone else, that wasn't there.

I had promised pictures on my blog, but thought about it later and decided to crop out heads and hands. :)

It really is a pretty cool idea, if you want to sew clothing for yourself, though.

Below is what we looked like, from the back, when we had 3 layers of tape on. Talk about hot and sweaty. UG. We had t-shirts on and had two people taping one. This is not me and I am not telling who it is. LOL!





Before we were able to take our tin-woman costume off, we marked it with X's down the center back and lines at our waistline. Let me tell you, I don't want a corsett, don't even think about it.
See the X's(below), we cut along them, so we can tape the tin-woman back together.





A look from further away so you can see more of the cutting. This is my tin-woman, by the way.



Below is mine, open. We cut through the t-shirt and it becomes the lining. The tin woman will be taped back together and now stuffed. I have finally purchased my stuffing, but need to work on the base before I can stuff it.

Right now, she hangs in the closet, feeling neglected and lonely. Some day she will be finished. But, I am busy knitting........