A Clean House!

Before I begin, let me just say that I do love our house and I'm so glad we have a house at all! So, that said, now, I'll describe it a little: Our house was built in the '70s ... certainly not old enough to have intricate woodwork or claw-foot tubs, yet, sadly old enough to have cracked porcelain tile and icky fiberglass flooring in the shower stall.
We need new carpeting, new faucets, new sinks, etc., but then, there's always something that needs fixing ... even in new houses. All in all, as houses go, it's a nice house. I mean, it keeps us almost warm in the winter (because we keep the thermostat low, not because our new furnace wouldn't heat it up in a second!) and it's almost cool in the summer (again, our air conditioning works fabulously, but we don't want to spend very much)! We have enough room (almost) and it can look pretty good when it's tidied up.
That's the biggest problem, you see. The tidying-up part. I hate to admit it, but the last time our house was really clean was way back in May when I was hosting the neighborhood bunco night ... and, at the same time, my daughter was hosting her high-school graduation party.
I've never been a particularly good housekeeper. I just have way too many other things to do. Keeping a house clean is really a full-time job. If you use something, you have to immediately put it away when you're finished. And, more often than not, I'm called away at that very instant when I should be putting away!
We all have hobbies that take up a lot of room, too. Guitars, guitar books, guitar cases, amplifiers and pedals fill the living room. Chess sets, clocks, and score pads are everywhere. My yarn and fiber and all the supplies for dyeing and spinning and knitting and weaving take up the entire spare bedroom! Because we homeschool, our shelves are loaded with books and papers ... art supplies, science-lab materials, tapes of lectures and computer programs! Maggie's tennis balls, stuffed animals and squeaky toys line the upstairs hallway like Hansel and Gretel's breadcrumbs! Wow, the list goes on and on. It's difficult to keep a house clean if you simply don't have enough space to put everything ... or enough time to figure it out!
Once the school year begins, it keeps on ticking. We try not to take many holidays so that we can end our school year at the same time the college year ends. (There's nothing worse than moving your college kid(s) home, while you're still working on finishing up the last quarter with the one(s) still at home!) YIKES! So, if the house becomes cluttery and sloppy early on in the year, that's it until Christmas vacation. A sad, but true fact of life around here. There's simply no time to stop and clean it all up.
Well, this past week was a real blessing! Kent was enrolled in his driver's education class, which lasted 5 days, from 7:30 a.m. to 2 p.m. Every day! For a whole week! I didn't have to teach! It was like I had a week-long holiday!
Every day this week I've tackled another room until finally, today, Friday, I can proudly proclaim: This house is clean!
*sigh
What a wonderful feeling! Let me just say that, with all the stress I've been under lately regarding my elderly parents, my underlying fear has been that I was going to have a heart attack ... or maybe a stroke ... and the paramedics would come and everyone would gasp in horror and disbelief at the state of our house!
Now, I can confidently have that stroke or heart attack! Phew! What a relief!

Gingerbread Man is Running Away!

I haven't even finished getting all my Halloween patterns written up when I suddenly had an idea for a gingerbread man! I decided I'd go ahead and experiment. On my third try, I got just what I wanted! You need two sets of double-pointed needles to knit one ... no, you don't use all the needles at once, but it's easier if you let part of him rest on needles rather than on waste yarn.

If you use size US 8 double-pointed needles, your finished cookie will be about 5 inches tall by 4 inches wide (from arm to arm) ... if you use size US 10 1/2 double-pointed needles, your finished gingerbread man will be a bit bigger ... approximately 6 inches tall by 5 inches wide.

If you make one (or two or three) please let me know! The 8-page pattern is available at my store (The Pattern Box) and also on Ravelry. Stay tuned! I have visions of SUGAR PLUMS dancing in my head! Lollipops and other sweets. Wouldn't a garland be nice?

Unexpected Events ...

I feel like I've been away from my blog for a long time! I guess it's really not even been a month, but it feels like it. So many things have happened regarding my elderly parents. It's been very challenging, to say the least. I know there are many people out there facing similar situations. It's so strange as we age the life events that we share ... first, we notice we're suddenly attending lots of weddings! Then a year or so later, we find we're heading to yet another baby shower ... after that, we're in play groups and meeting other moms ... in fact, we're known as "Colette's Mom" or "Oh, you're Amelia's Mom!" and "You must be Kent's Mom!"

Suddenly, just when your children are moving into and out of high school, we find ourselves trying to help our elderly parents ... who are entering yet another phase of their own lives ... a phase they are not greeting with joy!

But, speaking of Joy ... I am working on a gingerbread man for Christmas and my first attempt is in my little felting machine right now. He's been in there for 45 minutes and still not felting to my liking. I think his arms may be too wide. We'll see.

I still have to post my ghost, raven and pumpkin man patterns. They are finished, I just haven't had time to write them up in Publisher yet. *sigh

I hope things will be back to normal soon, but I just don' t know. Why is it so hard to live just one day at a time???

Embroidery Bug Has Hit!

While I have been working feverishly finishing up my new Halloween toy patterns, I have also been dabbling in embroidery and weaving. I have ordered lots of books from Amazon.com and have been learning all kinds of new and different things! Years ago I loved crewel stitchery. Remember all those kits for sale back in the '70s ... with great sayings and "mod" flowers?! I got very good at the lazy daisy and the chain stitch ... French knots, too! Well, I've been refreshing all those stitches from my past, along with new ones just especially suited to ribbon embroidery ... which, by the way, is TONS of fun and quick with fabulous results!!! I'm working on a bit of a sampler right now. Also, I have to say I've fallen in love with redwork ... though, probably I should refer to it as colorwork as there are so many great colors of floss out there to use!
I have been thinking up my own little line drawings of Halloween parties and tea parties and birthday parties, Christmas celebrations and most especially ... my favorite ... the big-top circus! I have high hopes for them, although not sure where they will fit with everything else I'm doing!
My next experiment will be with using embroidery on top of my felted toys. For instance, I am designing a dove right now that will have embroidered features, rather than knitted/felted ones. We'll see. As soon as I'm finished, I'll post a photo.
I also have a cat to work out ... just a gray tabby this time ... and the dragon and the mermaid ... which are on the back burners, but definitely still in the running ... and THEN onto my new Thanksgiving patterns (maybe a cornucopia?) and some vegetables? Or maybe I'll just skip ahead to Christmas, where I have a lot of ideas for gingerbread people, Christmas trees, snow globes ... and then of course, spring will bring about all the Easter-y toys and also I'm hoping for gnomes, mushrooms, fairies, logs, flower gardens, etc.
*sigh
So many projects, so little time!!!

Ravelry Stoep's Sun!

Here is another Take-Along Sun! This one is by fellow Ravelry member Stoep. Thank you so much for allowing me to share him! He's so cute! I think he'd certainly cheer up my dreary day!

Please Welcome MollyMeow's Wedding Sun!

Mollymeow from Ravelry made this beautiful Wedding Sun from my Take-Along Sun pattern. She has a couple of pattern modifications to share:

It might be worthwhile to knit the rays in the round rather than as halves and then sewing them together, since I found that seaming the two halves led to smaller, slightly bunchy rays. also, I think the space between the legs might have been a little large, though maybe I just wasn’t so great at sewing it up in a nice-looking but also gathered way.

I really like her suggestion to knit the rays in the round! Now, why hadn't I thought of that??? Meanwhile, I do pull my take-along sun's legs together when I use the gathering stitch to close up the bottom hole. But if this doesn't work for you, feel free to play around with the amount of stitches you cast on with the backward-loop method when joining his legs to his body. Just remember to add the same amount to the back as you do to the front!

Thanks, Mollymeow, for sharing your wonderful sun!

Hear ye, Hear ye! Another Patternbox Pattern Knitted Up by Ravelry Member!

Didn't CozyKitty from Ravelry do a great job on my teacup and saucer pattern? She was kind enough to allow me to post her photo here. She shared a comment from her 4-year-old, too and it's so nice, I had to print it here, of course!!!

my kids pretty much ignored the teacups while i was knitting them (since they don’t look like much at that point)

but the very minute i had them up on the counter drying… they were all over them (the handles had not even been sewn on yet)

my 4 year old son said “teacups - can i play with them mommy!”

She also discovered a neat tip when knitting the bottom:

I thought the pattern was very easy to knit - here’s my tip

first you start the cup knitted back and forth and then after a few rows you start knitting in the round - this leaves a hole. I found that if i picked up my cast on tail at this point and knit along with it it closed the hole and wove in my cast on tail at the same time!!!

Anyways - very easy to knit and my kids love them. I will probably make lots more out of leftover yarns

Thank you, CozyKitty, for the kind review!