Year of Using Up the Stash: ERHMEGHERD BABY SOCKS

Wow! It's been a while since I've updated you all with my knitting escapades, Readers!

Those of you who've been following me will be pleased to know that I've finished the socks:

Beautiful pattern, and a reasonably quick knit too!

I also finished Pop's gloves:

She absolutely loves them! Now to pick a second pattern for pair number two!

I also started working on this wonderful thing:

I was looking for something to use up the rest of my bright green acrylic, and came across a fabulous pattern for a Minecraft Creeper doll! I finished the head up just fine, (not bad for my first attempt at the duplicate stitch), but I find that I'm struggling with knitting the body. The pattern is a mite bit confusing in the way of attaching the rectangly limbs to the body; I'm going to give the body a few more attempts, but if I'm still messing it up after a few tries I may just wing it.

A while ago, a good friend gave me one of the "Jane Austen Knits" magazines, and I found a gorgeous pattern for a re-usable grocery bag. I've used up all of my purple wool blend on the bottom/body of the bag, and I've used up nearly all of the chunky gray wool for the top of the bag:

I still need to do more of the lace pattern on top, as well as the straps for the bag. I'm going to use a chunky dark purple for that; it may not be the prettiest thing to come from my knitting needles, but it's certainly going to be one of my most useful projects, given Seattle's plastic bag ban.

Lastly, I have the perfect use for (at least a good chunk of) my sock yarn! An old high school friend of mine just gave birth to a beautiful little girl, Readers! You guys know what that means....

BABY BOOTIES!!!!!!

My word, Readers, baby  booties are so much fun to knit! It's like instant knitting-project gratification! I finished both of the purple booties in one day!

So, Readers, here is my list of my current projects to help keep me on track!

1. Baby booties: Purple 2/2; Gray with lace trim, 1/2
2. Minecraft Creeper: Head: finished. Body: still working on attaching the feet.
3. Grocery bag: About 3/4 of the way finished!
4. Pop's gloves: Need to pick out a pattern and get started!
5. New Snowflake Pattern: We've got a title! New snowflake, I dub thee: "Odette/Odille!" Still working on two prototypes; "Odette" is crocheted in all white, and "Odille" is crocheted in all black.
6: Space Invaders Warm Up America Square: Not even started yet, heh. I'll start that one as soon as I finish the Minecraft Creeper; that little guy is capitalizing on all of my bright green yarn.

Until next time Readers! *Muah!*

Canvas Bag and a Prayer Request

Hello, Readers.

I've got two things I'd like to blog about today.

First of all, at last, I bring you a finished project.

That, Readers, is a home-made canvas bag.

A few weeks ago, I was overcome with the urge to crochet more lace to add onto my lace mountain (which, because most of the lace pieces have been given away as Christmas gifts, is more of a lace molehill as of late). I resisted the urge to get the organic mo-hair lace weight material, and instead opted for the cheaper, more "environmentally friendly" option: the Aunt Lydia Bamboo thread. I liked this stuff: it was soft, easy to work with, and was a lovely shade of ecru.

I made a doily (along with a couple of others, but I will post those later), and tossed it in my Rubbermaid container designated for finished pieces that have yet to be "blocked". I liked the doily, but it just looked a little bit too, I dunno, "Grandma's Knick-Knack Cabinet" to be set out by itself.

Later, I was lucky enough to stumble upon a free sewing pattern for a basic canvas shopping bag. The pattern can be found here:

http://sewing.about.com/od/bagstotespurseproject/ss/grocerybag.htm

At last! Something I can use these doilies for! I went to my favorite fabric shop (Stitches in Seattle) to pick up the canvas fabric and notions, came home, dragged out Dumpy and went to work furiously measuring, cutting, pinning, and sewing! After the bag itself was finished, I pinned the doily on and appliqued it as best as I could (it wouldn't lay as flat as I'd like, so in some places the doily kind of looks like it's folding over on itself).

The bag isn't perfect, but is one of my better sewing projects (Readers, remind me later to write about the disaster that was the Princess Daisy dress). I'm definitely going to make more.

I also wanted to ask for prayers, Readers.

My mother is going in for infusion therapy (aka chemotherapy) tomorrow.

As some of you know, my mother has been living with Sjogren's syndrome and Sub acute Cutaneous Lupus since I was a teenager. Essentially, her body's immune system can no longer distinguish what to attack...so her white blood cells attack everything. To treat this, her doctors are giving her a drug called Rituximab, which has been shown to have promising results when used to treat autoimmune disorders.

The side effects of the drug are not pretty. As I wrote above, this is chemotherapy. My mom has been firing on all cylinders to try to diffuse my "freak out" moments in regards to her health, but I have google at my disposal and I know what this drug does. Essentially she'll be feeling like a cancer patient does when getting chemo.

My mom blogs about life with auto-immune disease here.
http://reasonablywell-julia.blogspot.com/

Keep her in your prayers, Readers, if you pray.

<3