March GG ~ A Flower Blooms

Hello, world!  Spring is trying valiantly to take over, but winter is still fighting hard.  There have been more warm days than cold so I will count that as a win!  My daffodil sprouts are now about 3" tall and I can see the line of them from the house. :D  Of course, March has really roared in like a lion and we're experiencing some crazy high winds.  I hope to stays true to the adage and goes out like a lamb!

click for more info!

before
after

I worked a bit more on the Flower of the Month towel and managed to coax one of the flowers to bloom, complete with its backstitching.  More greenery has also sprouted along with the flower! The after picture is a bit dark; days of gloomy rain don't make for the greatest picture taking.  This particular flower counts for GG because the towel is a gift from TiffStitches and there's a bonus gift of floss from my husband after I discovered I was somehow missing one skein.

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Calico Crossroads - Furever

And here is giveaway number three; apologies for the somewhat dark photo! This is an older and really sweet Calico Crossroads pattern, and one of their colored ones to boot! (I'm used to their black and white kitties.)  It has the pattern for the scissors finder which would also double as a cute little pincushion.  This is a totally clean chart, apart from the thrift store sticker on the front.

Gifted Gorgeousness Giveaway Guidelines
  1. Be a minion follower (upper right corner of my blog)!  Feedly, bloglovin', etc. do not count as there is no way to show it!  I am sorry; blame blogger for this one.
  2. Comment and tell me you would like to be included in the drawing!
  3. Open worldwide! 
  4. No winning twice in a row (example: the winner of March's drawing would not be eligible for April's).
  5. Closing date: March 29th, 2019 23:59 CST.
I ran into some slight drama mailing out the previous giveaway pattern.  I send just the chart in the padded envelope, no little goodies that sometimes come along with giveaways.  The clerk at the post office insisted that, though the pattern was paper (or rather, cardstock), it wasn't paperwork and so, needed to be charged at a different rate.  Something that normally costs around $3 was going to cost $15.  I guess the clerk could tell I was most confused with this sudden multiplication of shipping charges and called a manager up -- who overruled the clerk and the pattern went on its merry way for the original rate.  I get where the clerk was coming from (since it's not paperwork) but this was the first time this has ever come up in all my history of past giveaways!

I suppose one way of getting around it entirely would be to fold the patterns and put them in a regular envelope but I'd really like to avoid doing that.  Have any of you run into this weird shipping dilemma?  This only applies to shipping outside of the USA.

Kind of sparse this month!  I did manage to finish the knit hot water bottle cover and went on an adventure with a thrifted find.  Those will be tales for the next post, along with the winner announcement~  G'luck and until then!  :D/

Random #2: Short Needles are Awesome!

Hiya, everyone~  Thank you so much for all the help on the issue I was having on my blog. Extra big thanks to people who also emailed me screenshots!  It was strange that I wasn't seeing the "no entry" symbols on my version of Chrome.  I played around with the code some and found that there was a renegade apostrophe in the code for the sidebar images.  I'm not exactly sure what the issue was for the banner image, but I moved the location of the image source and somehow, that fixed it.  I guess Blogger doesn't like Google's own picture hosting(???). Everything should now show in Windows/Android-based Chrome, IE, and Firefox!  I haven't got any iProducts to test Safari, nor a way to test the Linux versions so hopefully they were fixed as well. :D

image found through Google search

First up, the winner of The Needle and I Seasonal Hearts pattern!  There were three entrants this time for the cute little primitive hearts and the random number generator chose number three -- Clare at Aimetu's Stitching, yay, congrats!  I will need your address, please, and then off it shall go~

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tomatoes!

Now for the crafty bits ~ I've finished that pain in the tuchus of a knit!  It's not a large bag but it's remarkably stretchy.  To finish it, I have discovered the wonderful world of tiny circular knitting needles, the kind that have very short tips and cables.  I LOVE THEM.  [please insert your favorite heart emoji here x20] I finished up the top of the bag using a pair I found in a thrift store and even in that short of time, the ladders decreased significantly.  I am currently on the search for an interchangeable metal set in all sizes, including those larger than a US 5.  I can find several bamboo kinds but I don't much get along with wooden needles with how tightly I knit.  Plastic is a little better, but not by much.

such a heavy load

As marvelous as the shorter needles were, they didn't help the binding off -- I should have used a stretchy bind off instead of a "normal" one.  It's still a great and functional bag (maybe a bit cosmetically challenged) that weighs a whopping 0.4oz (~11 grams).  It now lives with the rest of the shopping bags, ready to do its duty.  I think it will be especially helpful when the local Farmer's Market gets back in swing.  This knit also managed to finish off a ball of vintage cotton thread which is a nice bonus as it clears up space for new stash.

Technical Details
  • "Weightless Produce Bag 2.0" freebie pattern by Julie Tarsha can be found here (ravelry).
  • My ravelry project page found here.
  • Yarn: vintage Knit-Cro-Sheen crochet thread - size 10 in white.
  • Needles: best with 10½ (6.5mm) short tips and 16" cable (9" or 12" probably would've been better).
  • Started December 6, 2018, finished February 10, 2019; unknown hours.

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cozy comfort

My next project (also using the tiny circulars YAY) is a cover for the hot water bottle.  This is just a plain knit utilizing one of my absolute favorite colorways.  I seriously love the colors of this yarn even if it's "just a cheap acrylic"!  I'm not sure acrylic is the best choice for a cover though, or maybe it's actually perfect because it will never need blocking if it gets wet.  Did I mention I love the colors (it's Banana Berry, if you're curious about the color name)~~~

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gotta love the vintage

Lastly, I said I would try to inventory my craft books this year -- Project Successful!  I even went wild and logged all of my needles, hooks, sewing patterns, and magazines.  Whew.  They got their own spreadsheet instead of tacking them onto the owned media!  There is an option to log the needles and hooks in ravelry, but I do not find that easy to deal with while on mobile devices.  Plus, I think I'm more apt to keep the spreadsheets updated.  You know, since I seem obsessed with them.  :)  Since I was conveniently flipping through them, I also made note of "patterns of interest" in the magazines.  This will hopefully help with the "Where was that thing I liked 10 years ago?" problem haha.

I do actually have some stitching going on but it's a bit of a secret so it can't be shown here yet. 

That's all for this ramble so I'll see y'all next time with March's Gifted Gorgeousness post.  I hope that by the time GG comes around, Spring Will Have Sprung (meteorological spring started today, that means it must sprung, must).  Right now, we're set to get more snow and temperatures are going to plummet this weekend.  At least when I checked the mail earlier this week, I saw proof it's not delayed forever -- my daffodils have poked through the ground.  :DDD  Have a wonderful day~

February GG ~ I CAN SEW!

Hello, stitching buddies~  I hope you're all doing well and enjoyed your Valentine's Day.  I decided I've been healthy for far too long and spent the day groggy and coughing, yay!  Luckily it doesn't seem to be one of those that will linger forever (knock on wood).  We're set to get a few inches of snow today which is fine with me; I'll just snuggle up with some blankets and cats.

I'm starting to long for spring though...  we bought some special seeds I'm anxious to try.  What are they, you might ask?  Well... Carolina Reapers, Trinidad Scorpions, and Naga Morichs.  :D  We greatly enjoyed our Bhut Jolokia last year (more readily known as Ghost Pepper here in the States) putting them in all our various chili/bean dishes and my husband enjoyed sharing them at work.  But enough rambles, onto GG~

click for more info!

before
after

I can count this for GG because it's being worked on the huck towel gifted to me by TiffStitches. Thank you! :D  It sort of has started to look a little more like nothing, or maybe possibly just random greenery.  I wanted to see if I had the widths right; it feels very weird for me to start at the bottom of a stitch but all of these towels have been like that.  It makes me nervous until I know for sure the width is centered, or at least centered enough that the "weight" of the design looks centered.  It's a bit difficult to tell in the picture, but there are actually two different greens in there now.

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yes, let's take pictures of PJs!

The sewing machine can actually sew! What a strange adventure this was.  Here is an unglamorous shot of a pajama set I made.  I figured my husband could have the first clothes made on the machine since he spoils me. :D  They look really huge but are somewhere between a medium and a large.  I suppose it wouldn't hurt to find a dressform at some point.

zig-zags!

I am glad I started with the pants. If I had started with the shirt, I'm guessing nothing would've been finished as I would've nuked the whole project. The shirt is a stretchy material, not quite jersey but almost like a poly-spandex blend. I'll have to get back into the store and see if I can get a picture of the bolt end to know for sure. These older machines do not have built-in zig-zag capabilities and zig-zag stitches are quite necessary if you don't want your stitches to break when the fabric stretches! So I got to play with one of my fancy little attachments. Let me tell you, after breaking three needles in a row, I was about to start stabbing things in the craft room and possibly the rest of the house.  One panic run to the store later, and armed with fresh ball-point needles, it finished up easy as you please.  I still need to master the tension needed with guiding this type of fabric on the machine.

look at that plaid

Not very perfect, mind you.  I am not so good at sewing in a straight line just yet.  The plaid on the pants sure helped with that though!  I think if I make this pattern again, I will change a few things.  Those buttonholes seem like they should be vertical slits in the waistband.  Maybe a different fabric for the shirt; something more T-shirt-y.  I really liked the raglan sleeves.  Waistbands in general will require patience and practice.  That was an adventure -- I redid it three times because I thought the elastic was twisting inside the band.  I am pleased that most of my seams lined up very well with the plaid.  Plus I got to use a button from my (new-to-me) stash!

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Seasonal Hearts

Next up, 2019's second Gifted Gorgeousness Giveaway!  I chose this one because of the hearts although it joyfully contains all the seasons~  This is a set of cute small patterns on a single leaflet by The Needle and I featuring four different seasonal hearts with a primitive feel!  I rather like the Americana one for summer.  And I like how they're all finished!  Once again, no fancy extras will be included in this giveaway to cut down on shipping costs but it will go worldwide!

Gifted Gorgeousness Giveaway Guidelines
  1. Be a minion follower (upper right corner of my blog)!  Feedly, bloglovin', etc. do not count as there is no way to show it!  I am sorry; blame blogger for this one.
  2. Comment and tell me you would like to be included in the drawing!
  3. Open worldwide! 
  4. No winning twice in a row (example: the winner of March's drawing would not be eligible for April's).
  5. Closing date: February 28th, 2019 23:59 CST.

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blog: version desktop/FF

Lastly, I am requesting a little help! When I was on a different computer, I noticed something different about my blog. I normally use a Windows-based desktop with Firefox as my main Internet browser. This is how my blog looks on it.

blog: version laptop/Chrome

When I was on the laptop, I was using Chrome for the browser and this is how my blog looks. My banner is completely missing, as well as the little side images denoting the blogger widgets.  Don't mind the difference in flowers; my laptop's screen is smaller than the desktop's.

highlighting the weirdness

How does it look on your device? Do you see the banners?  What do you use (computer/tablet/etc)?  I'm hoping to figure out if it's my personal settings (I have very strict script blocking/anti-ads/high privacy settings on all my computers) or if it's a problem with the special code itself.  Thank you for your help; this really bugs me!

Random #1: Winner and Deliciousness!

Well now! January left me behind and it's February! I guess I'd better get my random post in before it turns to the next GG already. I do hope February will be a bit warmer on average; so far we're starting abnormally warm (I may even have windows open today!) after a week of terribly cold temperatures.  Of course, it will be back to Winter later this week.

image found through Google search

First up, the winner from last month's giveaway of the cute snowman by Homespun Elegance.  There were two entrants and the random number generator chose comment number one: Ariadne!  Yay!  Please let me know your address and I'll have it posted out at some point~

a pile of string

I've been working on a few items of interest, and this one doesn't get included in the GG posts.  It is affectionately grumpily known as the "rats nest" -- a veritable pain in the tuchus of a knit!  I'm trying to be somewhat mindful of our household waste production and plastic bags are up there with being everywhere when going shopping!  I have plenty of cold sacks and cloth bags for regular groceries.  This little bag will be for loose produce when it's complete.  It's very light and airy and is making good use of the mountain of crochet thread I have hoarded stashed.

little more open

I really love the idea of this project but I think I am just far too tight of a knitter to function well with magic loop method. :(  It leaves huge ladders between the "loops", not large enough to be a problem but they are noticeable.  Plus the random mistakes that would be a nightmare for me to pull out... I will finish it out of pure stubbornness and then find some other pattern to battle!  I had hopes of loving it and making it for gifts but alas, not this pattern.

This does make me sad because it limits my options of knitting smaller things.  I am fine knitting in the round or flat.  Maybe I should really focus on mastering double points (they still leave ladders too, though).  Bah!  Not every crafting endeavor turns out well.

we have a stem/leaf!

I also started the next Flower of the Month stitch, October's calendula (marigold).  I seem to be missing one of the colors in this despite it being marked as "owned" in my spreadsheet, hmm.  I have no other projects containing it so it is a mystery where this bobbin got to! 

his
hers

Totally random:  These scrumptious milkshakes were from a local ice cream shop. Oh, they were so delicious.  The one on the left is a cookies 'n' cream shake with chocolate dipped Oreo cookies and other deliciousness.  The one on the right is a vanilla bean shake with chocolate dipped strawberries and other deliciousness.  They are served in pint-sized mason jars with the rim dipped in chocolate.  My husband didn't want to waste a single second taking photos of them and dove right in ahaha.  It was a wonderful treat for us and totally counted as lunch, right? :)

it's possibly a thing

Lastly, there's this little teaser for the next GG.  Until then!  :D/

2018 Recap: Books

Whoops, one more recap post! This is my annual "I do occasionally read words instead of writing too many" post where I cover what I read for the year, plus a bit of a ramble.  I wound up trying, and failing, to keep track of the manga read.  There are just too many!  It's especially "bad" in the winter when I curl up with the cats and my laptop and just... binge read all evening.  Imagine all the crafting I could have done!  Oh, well, I am enjoying myself either way. :)

image via Google image search

Italicized is a book I have never read before.   
Italicized and bolded is never read and a new-to-me author.

  1. Jingo (Terry Pratchett)
  2. The Last Continent (Pratchett)
  3. Carpe Jugulum (Pratchett)
  4. The Fifth Elephant (Pratchett)
  5. The Truth (Pratchett)
  6. Thief of Time (Pratchett)
  7. The Last Hero (Pratchett)
  8. Night Watch (Pratchett)
  9. The Amazing Maurice and His Educated Rodents (Pratchett)
  10. The Wee Free Men (Pratchett)
  11. Monstrous Regiment (Pratchett)
  12. A Hat Full of Sky (Pratchett)
  13. Going Postal (Pratchett)
  14. Thud! (Pratchett)
  15. Wintersmith (Pratchett)
  16. Making Money (Pratchett)
  17. Unseen Academicals (Pratchett)
  18. I Shall Wear Midnight (Pratchett)
  19. Snuff (Pratchett)
  20. Raising Steam (Pratchett)
  21. The Shepherd's Crown (Pratchett)
  22. The Unadultered Cat (Pratchett)
  23. Gilgamesh (Stephen Mitchell)
I started the year continuing the Discworld series.  They just kept getting better!  I was surprised at The Last Hero since I didn't realize some would be young adult novels too.  There wound up being several like this which made for quick and enjoyable reads!  I had hoped to finish the series by June but sometimes there wound up being too much of a delay between books (some had to come from the far corners of the state). I finished in the middle of July.  It's great to have them all read though bittersweet that there won't be any more to enjoy. I cried reading The Shepherd's Crown.

My husband got me The Unadultered Cat off of my wishlist for Christmas last year thinking it was part of Discworld.  I had that book on my list before I ever knew of the Discworld series!  I have no idea where I had heard of it though.

After Discworld, reading books kind of slowed down as I worked on getting caught up on our National Geographic subscription.  I had several months worth of backlog to get through.  There were a few library book sales during the downtime and I stocked up on some new (and old) material.  So, this year isn't as good as previous years in terms of numbers.  And now I have a new series of books to watch for hah.

My husband wanted to read a bit more in terms of stand-alone books (most of his reading is on the computer) and wanted to keep track of them.
  1. Ringworld (Larry Niven)
  2. Eat That Frog! (Brian Tracy) 
  3. Creativity, Inc. (Ed Catmull)
  4. Gilgamesh (Stephen Mitchell)
  5. Extreme Ownership (Jocko Willink & Leif Babin)
I'm really glad he's joined a bookclub at his work!  He seems to be enjoying it too, even though they only read one chapter a week of their chosen book. I often feel like we're holding library books hostage but the librarians are great at encouraging keeping them until they're finished.  :)



owned media - why yes, we DO like Asimov, have you noticed?

Because we've gotten a healthy collection of books, one of my goals whims for 2018 was to sort of organize them so I wouldn't wind up with duplicates.  I think a lot of people might use GoodReads or something similar to track their books.  My solution was simple and less elegant: a Google spreadsheet!  We had already started one for our CDs ages ago (we have as many CDs as books -- we love music!).  It eventually grew to have separate pages for manga, movies, and video games.  I like this method because it's easy to search on my phone whenever I accidentally find myself in a bookstore or at a thrift store.  According to the sheet, we have 275 books (excluding manga, my craft books, and some miscellaneous items).  It sure felt like a lot more when we moved...

I think this year I will tackle my craft books.  I really like vintage craft magazines and books.  Ravelry is a great place to log them but not all of them are listed and I have no scanner to contribute.  I think it will be easier to have everything in one spot anyway.

thread stash

On a stitchy note, I also have a spreadsheet for my floss.  :)  I think we just really like spreadsheets (I also have them for sewing machine attachments and my Corelle set, and my husband has several for his things too).  If you're interested in this stitchy one, you can find a copy here.  You'll need to save it to your own Google account if you want to use it.  She has since updated it to contain the fabric calculator and floss availability, but the newest colors are not in there.  They're easy to add if you have basic spreadsheet knowledge.

Okay, that's all the recap posts for me.  I've already started on 2019's list with a whopping three finishes.  They're children's novels though, so nothing too extreme. :) There's still a little time to enter the first of 2019's Year of Giveaways, if you'd like!