New Knitting!

In the creative mind, there are always new ideas floating around, but never enough time to get those ideas produced. At least in my mind and in my time schedule.

I would love to be able to write everything I make into a new pattern. I try, but some patterns take me several months to write and some of those designs, I will actually knit up 3 or 4 times, before I hand the pattern to my trusty test-knitters to knit or editors to read. You see, I do most of the work by myself on my patterns, from the beginning sketches to the knitting, editing, layout, photography, picture editing, tech editing and final printing/publishing. I even do some of the charts, BUT, most of my charts are done by my good friend, Liz. Thank you Liz!

Sometimes, I just have a brain-freeze and need to just create, knit, take notes and NOT write a pattern. It is like a vacation for my brain, I guess.

This project is just one of those times. It is a baby girl dress, made out of cotton yarn. No one in my family is expecting, that I know of anyway. So, I have listed this dress for sale in my etsy shop. It should fit a 3 to 6 month little girl.



It is fun to knit items for babies and try new ideas. I used a picot edge stitch for the hem and for the edgings around the armholes and neckline.

I used the Daisy pattern, that I sell, for the bodice embellishment and then embroidered some lazy daisy stitches on the skirt of the dress. The stripes are knitted in.


Then I thought, what about a shrug for a baby? Not just any shrug, but a lacy shrug???? So here is my lacy shrug. It fits a 3 month old and it is in the etsy shop too.

Here is the back, you can see the lace stitches better on the back.

Ever Done the Nupp Stitch?

Yesterday, I received the link to this you-tube video. Have you ever done the Nupp(noop) stitch? I haven't but it looks like a pretty cool stitch to add texture to your knitting projects.




I hope everyone has had a safe and fun Memorial Day, with some time reflecting and being thankful to the brave soldiers who have given their lives in service to our country.

Painted Bags and My Spinning

Camp G-G ended with finished bags, full of yarn. Imagine that? Gramma filling the bags with yarn, some knitting needles and crochet hooks. I thought it a good idea, that I was starting the girls with their yarn stash early in life. :) The bags were painted by the girls and then the next day I added rhinestones to the bags. I used the Darice Gemstone Setter that I purchased at Joann's Fabrics. The girls were excited to have glitter added to their new bags.

I have to tell you, it was a precious sight for me, to go checking on the girls, to see what they were doing, and finding them sitting, knitting and crocheting. I loved seeing the creative juices flow in the projects this week.




Camp G-G is over. Daddy and Mommy came home from their cruise. Did I mention they were celebrating their 15th wedding anniversary with a cruise? CONGRATULATIONS! To Chad and Rebekah.

Saturday arrived and I was off to the Sassy Spinster in Lancaster, TX, with my Texas Twisters spinning group. Sassy Spinster is a wonderful yarn, fiber, weaving and spinning shop. The owner let us invade her store to spin. I say invade, because we were a group of about 11 people yesterday.

I carpooled down there with 2 other friends, Terri and Laurie. I met Laurie and then drove to another parking lot to meet up with Terri. Terri offered to drive to Lancaster, which is south of Dallas off of I-20.

Well, The UPS Store guy was wondering how 3 women, 3 spinning wheels, our fiber, our knitting, our snacks, our drinks(it is 90+ now in TX, so we take drinks everywhere), and our chairs would fit into a Toyota Prius! Yep, a Toyota Prius. Truthfully, Terri, Laurie and I wondered the same thing, so we had my Blazer as a back up.

I am happy to say that we did it! Yep, we got all of our stuff into the Prius and headed down to Lancaster.

I am still amazed at how much this Prius held. And if anyone from Toyota sees this, yes, we are available for an ad. LOL!!

Oh and I forgot to mention that we went shopping, of course. What woman doesn't shop, when in a store???? Then we browsed in other stores, too, and made some more purchases. If that wasn't enough, we also were bringing home 5 dozen eggs, total, not a piece. We managed to hook up with Mary of FancyFibers and purchased some of her wonderful farm fresh eggs.

Mary has a CSA(Community Supported Agriculture) farm. She is selling shares to her farm and you can find her info here. Her share purchase includes spinning fiber, if you are a spinner OR yarn if you are a knitter. Check out her info. You will receive other benefits too, and you will know where your yarn/fiber comes from. It will come from an independently owned farm in the USA. :)

Now back to the Sassy Spinster. We made it there and what a great day we had spinning. I took my Ashford Joy wheel, I packed small, knowing we were trying to take the Prius. It fit like a gem behind the front seat.

I have some great wool/mohair blend that I am spinning on it and managed to get this bobbin filled. I am aiming for a worsted weight yarn. We'll see what I end up with.

I do have a skein of the yarn plied and ready to go. Thought you might like to see it, too.

Weighing in at only 11 lbs. The Ashford Joy wheel is great to take places. It now comes, standard, with Ashford's new sliding hook flyer. If you would like an Ashford Joy, you can find them on my website.

Knitting, Crocheting and Painting

Another day of Camp G-G and we were busy again.

Here is our new knitter in action.

Here is our new crocheter in action.

Our arts and craft project for the day was painting tote bags, with our some of our favorite things on them.

N is putting names of her friends on hers.

C is using stars and hearts to decorate her bag.

Today we plan to put rhinestones on the bags! We have bubbles to play with AND a pool to swim in. We have been in the pool each day this week.

Camp Grampa and Gramma

Or as commonly known: Camp G-G, is now open. We are having lots of fun. The first day of camp we made fancy flip-flops by tying 5 inch to 6 inch ribbons on the straps.

We had pink, gold, ecru, blue, and polka dot ribbons to tie onto the flip-flops. Lot's of glittery ribbons. Here they are done! They are just fabulous.

Knitting and crocheting are also activities going on at Camp G-G. Here we have C's first knitting project. We decided it would be a shawl for her doll and we have added a button to it for a closure.

Tea Parties are a must at Camp G-G. We have lots of fun outfits to wear to tea.

Friday Night Play

The Public Library Children's Theatre

Presents

King Thrushbeard

by

The Brothers Grimm

I arrived early for the dinner and play and as I waited in my car, I looked up to see the flags that I had parked under. What a wonderful sight! I had to show you. Glistening in the sun with the gorgeous blue sky in the background.

Older sister was not in the play on Friday, but she would be in the play the next night as it would be performed two times. That way every child would get to perform. She was to play the princess on night two.

Younger sister was in the play I went to see. She played the character of the maid. She would open and close the curtains between the scenes and talk to the other maid about the story line. This Gramma thinks she did a fabulous job.

She is the one on the left in my pictures.

After the play her mom and dad gave her roses. A happy girl, who loved the play and asked immediately to be in next years production. :)

Good job!!!

In a Treasury

On etsy, a member can make a treasury of some of their favorite things. Treasuries help others see what items are for sale, without having to look to hard for them. They are fun to see and look at, because you see what others like.

Yesterday, I was in a treasury. My shop, http://www.terrificcreations.etsy.com/ was featured by http://www.cordovastudios.etsy.com/ in a great treasury. Not only that, but when I looked at the treasury, the first picture is my daughters shop, http://www.sunnybrookfarmdesign.etsy.com/ . That is fun to see. My friend, Mary, owns http://www.fancyfibers.etsy.com/ and she is in there too.

Thank you Kay for including us all in your Treasury!

SunnyBrookFarmDesign is the first picture on the left.
FancyFiber is the green mohair fluff on the top row, right.
CordovaStudios is the bottom row, right.
and
TerrificCreations(mine) is the center bottom row.