Category Archives: Everyday

30 Days of Daily Blogging— Done & A Giveaway X 2

I’ve just completed 30 days of daily blogging! It didn’t start out as a goal or anything like that, but it is an accomplishment for me nontheless. I guess I started blogging day after day in September because I had gone 9 days without a blog post and was wondering if it would get easier if I made it a daily habit.

It did get easier, but also took a lot of my creative energy, so less time and energy for actually making new things. This past week I started preparing my post in the evening which solved that dilemma, but it is harder for me to write in the evening. I also noticed that looking back so often on my past creations stopped me from looking forward. It kind of got me stuck in the past. Like, “Oh, that was so cute.” or “I should make something like that again.” This kept me from moving forward at my usual pace. Funny how that happens…

I’m not sure if I will continue blogging daily or not. Any comments out there?

Anyway, thank you to my readers for reading along! I appreciate all of you!

As a thank you, I’m having a drawing for a free online Craftsy class. Actually I have two of them to give away. Craftsy sent me a “thank you” email to forward to three of my friends so they can get a free class. My first “friend” was my husband, he picked a photography class, and my second and third friends are two of my readers. All you need to do is leave a comment and tell me which class or type of class that you would pick and you will be entered. Don’t worry, you can change your mind later.

The drawing will be Sunday night, October 11 2015, (9:00 pm CST), so you’ll know on Monday, October 12th (check my Monday’s blog post) if you are one of the lucky recipients for a free online Craftsy class. If you win I will forward Craftsy’s email to you. You can click the link in their email which will take you to the Craftsy site where all the classes will be free until you choose one. (This is how my husband said it worked.) You will need to sign up for a Craftsy account to get the freebie.

You can go here to peruse Craftsy’s online class list. This drawing has no monetary value, it’s a freebie, so if you don’t want a class, but want to comment just mention it in the comments.

Also, I would love to hear your comments about my daily blogging this past 30 days. Like, dislike?

Thanks so much for reading!

Shy, Shy Sun

4 Replies

Day four of waking up to a dark and cloudy morning. Geez, enough already! It looks like the sun may come out today. Please, sun won’t you peek out from behind the clouds today?

I don’t know about you, but these cloudy days start to pile up on me and leave me feeling tired and drained. I had a difficult time getting any sewing done yesterday; all I wanted to do is sit in front of the fire and knit, knit, knit. Today I have to do better.

I thought that looking at sunny photos might help.

If you’re stuck in the clouds like we are, did that help? I think it helped me. Now, to push myself out of this chair, feed the pups, and get moving. And, I see some clearing in the sky. Yay!!!

Hope you have a sunny day today!

Thanks for reading! Bye for now!

Still Learning DPNs and Having Fun

12 Replies

I spent the bulk of the day yesterday working on my DPNs. I stopped knitting the hat I showed you yesterday and decided to learn the invisible cast on technique so I could knit from the top down.

You are probably wondering why. Good question and I have a good answer. That white mohair, while so beautiful for its fuzziness, tends to get knitted in with the red wool. It is so fuzzy that for nearly 10+ rows after changing to my red wool I am still trying to get it to stay out of my red stitches. Truthfully, it is nearly impossible to do this 100% and that bothers me if it is avoidable, and it is; the solution is to knit with the white mohair last.

Okay, so that meant learning the invisible cast on. The first thing trying to learn this new cast on taught me is that I am not very coordinated, and I don’t have a photographic memory in the least. I watched the tutorial again and again and again. Hmm, where have I heard those words before? There are four needle movements for every two stitches cast on. Finally, I had to write out a cheat sheet and I was then able to perform the steps four times to get 8 stitches cast on. I won’t lie, it probably took me an entire hour to get this. And then, I kept on practicing it throughout the day to get it down better.

You probably have no idea what my notes mean, but it was all I needed to get this down, sort of.

And, after a day and evening of knitting this is what I made for my Little Darling, Gina!

Here’s my Santa hat, my first DPN project! I had the pom pom left over from last year, so I pinned it on where the one that will match this outfit will go.

For next time, I will use a rewritten pattern to make it a bit longer with a wider “fur” trim band. I also don’t like knitting garter in the round because it involves purling in the round, which I am not comfortable doing, so I will probably knit that part flat and make a short seam for that area. I found pics of garter stitch in the round and it looks seamed anyway.

Oh, Happy October everyone! It really feels fall-ish here todyay, very breezy and cool with puffy white and dark clouds moving rapidly across the sky, but it’s mostly sunny; it’s a very perfect fall day in my opinion. And, the moon is still out at almost 10:00 am!

Thanks for reading and big thank yous for your comments. I love reading them and commenting back. I work by myself all day (except for my dogs, of course), so it is so nice to connect with my readers.

Bye for now!