Button hat

Here is the hat I test knitted for Isela, it is very cute. Especially on my friend lol

Well, I promised I wouldn't keep away so long but now another month came and went. The Holidays are quickly approaching. I stopped on the cleaning crusade but need to get back to it. My best friend died two weeks ago and another friend is in the hospital. I don't want to go to the second floor ICU anymore. Enough. There, I said it so now it is so. Do you like my power???
I have been cleaning a little bit but I need to start concentrating on Christmas gifts. My craft/sewing room looks like a tornado hit it. Ouch. I have good intentions but that doesn't poof it all in its appropriate spot now does it? Where is Samantha from Bewitched when you need her?
I have been looming some, here are some pictures:

Busy August 2008

I've been really busy this summer and seem to be getting no where fast. I have been remodeling my house and trying to organize. Life keeps getting in the way. I want no more surprises this summer. Funerals of friends seemed to be never ending, each week something horrible happened. Then household things like washer flooding laundry room, electrical problems and other everyday stuff filled my life. I have been trying to keep my sanity by loom knitting and sewing (teaching to sew class in the picture) but not getting much completed there either. I did make a pinwheel blanket for a friends new baby, 24 snowballs for VBS and a hacky sack,then the LAL pinwheel dishcloth at Dalooms (pink picture above). Now I am almost halfway with my first sweater on the KISS loom (half of back done in picture with loom and pick). I am behind in that class but I will continue to plod along. I have so many squares to catch up on in the afghan class but I had no intended recipient for this one so it will take a back seat. Now I need to fire up and start on my Christmas gifts. I have some yarn already to make my husband socks (wool) and my DIL a nice top and purse. I need to concentrate on those quickly so I won't be rushed at the holidays. We are painting and re-doing the living room this week and next.See the mess before starting. The table and computer area are my Husbands messes. I'll post new pictures when it gets done. My new wall unit and dining table will be here in a week so we have to get this done this weekend. I hate starting but will love the end results. Then I can get back to finish up the organizing in my craft room. I still need to remove two pieces of furniture and put up the peg board system. That should help a bunch. Then I will sort out the closets hopefully for the last time. I'm working on the flylady principle of 15 minutes and bless others and it can get done. I actually cleaned out 9 Kitchen cabinets this week so it does work. Just one at a time and it will finish before you know it. A friend is leaving her husband so I'm going to give her my extra furniture. That will help me clean up the clutter and bless her in setting up household from scratch with her and her daughter. They were in a mess and deserve nicer things. Many at the church are volunteering to help her. Till next time...keep looming :-)

Hacky sacks

I made one of these Hacky sacks when another loomer wanted to see it from the snowballs I already made. I still need to try it on my KISS loom. I used the small flower loom. I cast on using Brenda's gather cast on technique(http://www.box.net/shared/qftmvmeww0). Then I knit with worsted weight yarn (two strands as one) for 14 rounds. I used the knit stitch not the e-wrap to make a nice tight stitch. Then I threaded it for the gather cast off and removed it from the loom. Then fill a large new helium style balloon about half full of rice. Tie a knot and put this balloon into another balloon. Then pull the yarn tight and knot it inside by weaving the tail into the ball and out one other stitch. Don't fill it to full or it won't be flexible. They only take 20 minutes each. I used Red Heart Strata. It ended up being 2.5 inches across and high. I have unusally large flowers (aren't they pretty).

Pinwheel Blanket

We worked on this blanket several times over the last year and I finally made one and finished it. It is for a friends new baby. The pattern is from Denise Layman and wasn't as hard as I thought it might have been. I used bright colors since we didn't know if it would be a boy or girl. Plus she likes brights. I bought the yarn Baby bee at Hobby Lobby and used it two strands as one since it is a finer yarn.

snowballs

I had a neat idea this year and decided to do a VBS with Christmas in July as the theme. We called it 'giving not getting'. The children participated in making gifts for this coming Christmas and we will continue to work on them through the fall. I made some fun loom knit snowballs and we played games with them. We made fake 'snow' out of a science kit I found at creative toys and US playthings store in Plano. We also sang traditional songs that the children had never heard.They did so well learning them. These are songs we all grew up with but are no longer allowed in the schools. Hark the Herald Angels sing, Mary did you know.., Joy to the World, Angels we have heard on High, and other songs. We had a great time. Here is a picture of the snowballs before they were taken home.

Good intentions

With all this mess to cope with in my craft room I do all my looming in the Living room. I have 4 or 5 projects going and want to start three more. Please send help. I need the flylady to get calm out of this chaos. And you haven't even seen my husbands mess in the other rooms yet or whats behind the closet door #1, #2, and #3. At least it is beautiful, clean and calm outside. Just to unbearably hot to stay out there long. My sink is polished and shiny though and the laundry is done. Life is to short to get your shorts in a twist over this. I know where most stuff is, just can't reach most of it. This is my full time job. And people say--do you work??? It got this way because I worked. Now to control the beast. One step at a time, one space at a time. I have 9 sewing machines in this house and 5 must go soon. Two will go up to the church and one to my daughter in law and I hope to sell the other 2.The other 4 are different. One is cast iron, one is embroidery, one is a serger and one is my husbands embroidery and sewing combo machine. Maybe someday I will only have one or two of these, just not right at the moment. If I had a storage shed or basement this would not be a problem at all. I know people with much more space have storage trouble. I don't even have a garage so everything is in the house and full up. We do need more space, or get rid of more 'things'. I have trouble parting with some stuff. I still have a few toys from my sons, I even found that I have toddler stuff yet. The big roller coaster of KNEX and electonic battleship should go. It is hard for me to let go. These were so cool. My oldest took most of the LEGO's and gave some to an autistic clinic. I hated that. My dad got that stuff before he died back in the 80's up til 1990. They don't make them anymore. They cost so much back then. We had them all. Big sets, and little ones too. I love Lego's, and they remind me of my dad who died in 1990. I need to let go of that stuff. Put it to use instead of collecting dust. As my neighbors two year old says 'OH MAN!'