Took me two weeks again!

I know, this is pretty common...  The thing is, as I said with "Getting it all done", sometimes, nothing gets done.  Last week was nonstop.  Thursday and Friday were taking care of a sick husband and when Tater Tot wasn't here, I was trying to get caught up on what I have missed the last few weeks.  I really didn't have time to craft at all until Friday at the doctor's office.  I got about half and hour of knitting done on my car project.  Even this past weekend was pretty busy!

Almost everything in our house is built in and original to the house back in 1977-1979.  Lucky us, our microwave went out finally.  Look at this beauty!  It was on sale in 1979 for something like $450!  Mr. Penny found the ad for it, so I don't have it at hand to share as well.  Saturday was spent going out shopping for something that would fit into the built in area.  Guess what...  We found two. One isn't made anymore and we couldn't find it in black anywhere that delivered.  Number two was on Amazon...  Just continues to show, when it doubt Amazon will save you!

Sunday I did manage to spend some time just resting, getting caught up on personal stuff and crafting!  My chevron blanket got finished!  I used up 1.5 balls of the Red Heart Jumbo and 7 balls of the Wintuk (.5 ball went to granny blanket project basket).  This got super heavy towards the end especially since I have been working at the computer not on the sofa.

I forgot to get a final picture of it before I took it up to await its blocking.

<Man!  My blocking pile is really getting stacked up.  Harry Potter baby blanket is in that pile too!>

As I told you when I pulled the yarn for the chevron blanket.  I have an empty spot on one of my shelves!  LOOK!  LOOK!  I will pull down the bin of Sweet Rolls and then my craftroom will look 1/500 neater!  I still have so much yarn just in my "Donation" shelf!   I am starting to think that "The Great Craftdown of 2018" might become "The Great Craftdown of 2019" too!

Yes, I said "Donation" shelf.  Everything, aside from the Craftsy boxes, are yarns I have set aside/bought for prayer shawls, donation baby blankets, lapghans...  I have actually donated a few softies in the past.  This is the yarn I know is the right amount for these projects.  I have had some friends that have given me yarn for that purpose as well.

I have a book case in my workout room that has the yarn for two projects sitting on it.  I can't remember why I left them in there.  It might have been the idea I would do those projects in bed...  I don't know...  But I pulled the yarn for this shawl from there.  I used 6 balls of Lion Brand Hometown USA in Napa Valley Pinot.  The pattern is a basic triangular shawl pattern.  All four increases are done in one row and the next row is knitting across.  I normally use an M1 down the center, but this time I used a YO.  I did decide to do that after coming across Dovetail Wrap by Purl Soho.

The other yarn that is on that shelf was bought to make Tater Tot a blanket, but it has been re-purposed to another project.  I haven't started it yet, but half of it will be a bed "I am doing a facial" project and half will be done down stairs like most my other projects.  The final blanket may still go to Tater Tot since I still haven't given him his own blanket from me after 3.5 years...  His sister Cookie got hers for her first birthday.

I want to take a minute right now to share this with you guys.  So, I am a very manual person.  I write better when I put pen to paper, not just typing (yeah, sorry, that is why my blog is kinda like how I talk to a friend when I am super excited) and that has found its way into my crafting as well.  This is how I keep track of my rows.  I have tried abacus bracelets, push button row counters, old school row counters, digital row counters...  Pen and paper work best for me.  This time I changed my pen color as I changed yarn balls.  I was just curious as to what percent of the rows each ball made in this style.  I wanted to just take a second to share with you guys how I work and what my process is.

Monday I finished my garnet shawl, so I wanted to prep what to start next...  Well... This got kinda funny because I am a little snot...

I have a lot of Paton's Venus yarn.  It was discontinued and I paid about $.50 a ball through a discount site.  I wanted to make a sweater with one color I got and I got enough for a few shawls for Summer in two more.  I wanted to go ahead and make a Summer stole so I went to Ravelry to find a super basic framework pattern.  Kind of how Dovetail is a shawl that I use all the time, but never had a pattern for (well until recently).  I wanted to just find maybe a basic stitch pattern to use or maybe an interesting increase....  Well, I came across Step it Up Knit Shawl by Caron Design Team while looking.

If you look at the time on the website it says that this pattern takes "More than an Hour".  Well, duh!  But I got curious as to how much longer than an hour it would take.  I had a left over ball of Caron Cake from a stole I crocheted last year.  Why not!  So yesterday I started this shawl.  I am back to the first color of green.  So far it has been about 6 hours long...  I think Michael's needs to extend their time of project to maybe "Over an Hour" and "Over a Day".  I only have two other colors left in my cake.  I should finish this up today.  If you are looking for an interesting simple pattern, this one is great!  I love the drape of it with the Caron Cake as well!

I did go ahead and bring down my Venus yarn.  I am still not sure what kind of shape I want with it.  The yarn is so open when worked, the sweater pattern from Paton's that inspired me to buy it when I found it is just so light and I want that kind of texture but the shape is still a mystery.  It will come to me though.  I also want to say that this color is so beautiful it doesn't need a special pattern stitch.  If you guys have a suggestion, I will be casting something on tomorrow most likely!  I would love to hear what you guys think!

I am also thinking about making a Step it Up Shawl with any left overs should I have enough...  What else I am I realistically going to do with left overs of this kind of yarn.

Anywho!  For everything I lost last week, I do seem to be getting it back this week so far.  I haven't gotten behind on chores nor have I run out of time to craft.  Oh and the last two days I got some cardio in!

I hope that you guys are having a wonderful week so far!  I look forward to hearing from anyone who is following along for "The Great Craftdown of 2018"!  I am going to dive back into my Step it Up Shawl!

Take care and blessings to you all!

What happened to my leftover yarn?

I know that many of you who stop by are also knitters or crocheters.  I know that many of you also have a horde of half balls languishing in your stashes.  Have any of you ever looked at what colors you have sitting in there?  I have taken a good look into mine this last week.  Where did all my gray yarn go?  I see a lot of black which I don't destash or use up because it is great for; a band on a hat, face on softies or just to round something.  I see a few little balls of colors that are darker than I prefer.  There are very few whites as it isn't my preferred neutral.   What I can't seem to find is gray yarn though!  I use a lot of gray!  I should have tons of scrap balls!

No, you might not understand this...  I use A LOT of gray yarn!  I use it in hats, scarves, sweaters, ponchos, softies, blankets....  Seriously!  I use so much gray it didn't surprise me that I only had two the over-sized skeins in my stash.  Somehow though, I had very little left in my leftovers bin.  My leftovers have some how gotten used up too!  I am so confused!  Maybe I just didn't have that many because I come back to it so quickly.  Maybe I still have a box of scrap I haven't found.  I don't know, the world may never know...

I didn't go looking for no reason.  While I was working on my Lenten hats for donation, I started making some granny squares from my blue and gray scraps.  After the finishing of the Dr Who scarf, I thought I would come back and just work mindlessly for a little while.  I have now used up 100% of my gray scrap yarn.  No, my blocks are on hold right now because I have no gray sitting in my stash or in the donations my Prayer Shawl Ministry has gotten of the years.  This granny blanket will be donated so I didn't have a problem pulling from the group stash either for this.  Nada.  Nothing.  Nix.

I did get a lot of blocks done.  The final size blocked these will be 12x12.  I think total I will need 20-24.  I have 3 smaller balls of blue sitting around waiting for their date to show up.  BTW, as a total side note, those three balls of blue appear to be all of my blue scrap.  I was very surprised by my shortage of blue too!

Now, I didn't decided to jump in on a gray project because I couldn't possibly do something the predictable.  I started a wide chevron blanket with some old Caron Wintuk (Dk Colonial Blue) and Red Heart Super Saver Jumbo in white.  I did grab the stitch pattern from the Red Heart site, it is called Chic Chevron Throw.  I liked the curve to the ripple and the length between zigs and zags.  This is another donation project.  I have a whole section of my personal stash in the craft room that I have set aside for donation projects.  The Wintuk has been hanging out in there for about 3 years now.  I already did a blanket out of it once.  So, this should bring up the end to that set of yarn. 

Right now I almost sort of kind of have a hole in that cube set from pulling the Wintuk out.  I have things that I will go into it next time I am cleaning up.  There are balls of yarn stacked up all over the place in there still.  This is why I haven't bothered taking a picture of my craft room to "show progress".  There isn't any visual progress because I keep moving things more into the open as space clears up.



Finally, I got some more card tops done this week.  These go with the set from last week.  I still have plenty of card stock waiting for another set.  I think this time I will start by making "embellishment clusters" and then building cards around those.  That should in theory help me to use more of what I have.  I also have some scraps that I want to cut down and keep for bases like I did with my strip scraps from Easter. 

My small makeshift craft table is very small (not that I have a lot of table space in my craft room) so I can't spread out as much as usual.  I haven't been finishing the embellishments as I go like I normally would.  I will come back and do more on all of the cards once I am done with them.  That way I can clear everything back upstairs and just work with gems, enamel dots, bows and pearls.

It doesn't seem like too much got done, but I also have been fighting indoor pollen (yes, I keep opening my windows to air out out house) and allergies non-stop for the last week.  I am just glad that I am getting a blog post up.

If you guys have any ideas of things for me to make with my stash or want to share what you guys are working on right now; I would love to hear from you.  Feel free to comment down below.  I still have many, many, many months left in the Great Craftdown of 2018!

Love and blessings to you all!

As promised-- What else have I been working on?

So, as I promised, I am back with the rest of what I have been working on!  This will be a very short compared to my previous post.  My pictures are pretty bad because I have had some issues with remembering to get some light in my pictures...  Yeah, I never said I took good pictures...  I never said I was good a remembering to at least take pictures before dusk...

Okay, not to hit you super hard with Halloween again, but...  I took my scraps from making my journal and cut them into card tops for A2 cards.  I will use these to build my Halloween cards either this year or next.  I also wanted to make a little container to hold them.  I made one of these for some Christmas card tops and really like having them all cute and decorated. 

 OOOH!  I need to show you guys my sad attempts at being organized one day with my card parts!

I got the tutorial from MayMay again...  I know surprise!  I warned you guys the first post this year...  My paper crafting is her fault!  The video tutorial is A2 Card Holder Magazine Style over on the Youtubes.  She walks you through very easily and listening to her commentary on who, what, when, where and how is just GREAT!

Once I got my temp table cleared from the album, I decided to work on some cards.  These are from the Spring releases from Michaels.  I got everything at 68% off or more.  This is all from the Backyard Picnic I believe.  I also have some journal cards from Hobby Lobby that I threw in.  I have had those forever in my stash and they are another clearance item I WAY over bought.

I do have another 16 cards planned but I haven't had time to finish them.  I have a lot of mats to cut out.  I really like the honey bee card, I think that is my favorite so far!

On to the fiber crafts! 

It finally happened you guys!  My Dr Who scarf is finally done!  Forgive my horrid late night selfie, but...  I was so super exited!  I will take some better pictures with the scarf actually on people.  I am only 5'5, so this scarf is HUGE on me!  The finished scarf is around 10 1/2 feet long, but as the pattern stated, it is very stretchy.  It will be about 12 feet long in no time!


















I started working on my scraps from the scarf and made this super cute little hat!  The pattern is Textured Turban by Janaya Chouinard.  I love the way it turned out.  I still might come back with a little button in the flower.



And that is where my projects are this week!

I did want to share where I am on the year for spending.  Remember, this doesn't include things needed because I run out mid project, staples like adhesives/thread/snaps or any product that isn't a stash item.

Year to date total spent is 45.25

Not too bad for what I am getting done and I have been walking away from a lot of sales and deals!

I hope you guys like my posts.  I know I haven't been perfect at getting things up once a week, but I am trying to post more regularly and hoping by the end of the year, I can get at least 2 a week.

Let me know if you want to see anything in particular!

Love and blessings to you all!