When will I learn?

So, where have I been? I have been in re-arranging mode for the past week, and I am warning you, it isn't over! LOL Those words make my children visually shudder....ha.
I have been trying to rethink how we use the house, and after living here for a little over a year, I think I have it now!
I have moved the dining room table into the sunroom, so that the first thing you see when you come in is this:

I love my Willow Tree figurines, my family has helped my collect them over the years. I like seeing my quilts and the other things that make my heart sing.And here is my darling Wilson wheel with and old apron, quilts and embroidered tea towels.



and then I moved our "playroom" stuff into the "library". We all like it better. We opened up the doorway between the rooms and it is alot more open feeling.

I have begun to move the boys out of the downstairs room and put them upstairs and take the craft stuff out of the upstairs and move it downstairs. This is just the beginning, but I am leaving the bed in there, so that it can still function as a guest room when needed. Ashley's beading stuff will be in here and all the skein winding, spinning stuff and all my sewing stuff, so we have to call it the craft room!






I have an urgent need to finish the craft room ASAP, and here it is! I can't wait to make this bag. I discovered Lazy Girl's blog and was instantly enamored!


Oh yeah, and I have not been idle with the knitting either!! I do have a confession to make to blogland.......I am a circular knitter.......Whew! There, it is said. I can no longer deny it. I can not even bear to knit a bit in flat...I was going to try, Diane, you know I was. But, I couldn't do it. I just couldn't.
I finally got my pattern for the Fletcher sweater and cast on for it. This is what I had in about 3 or 4 hours of work. I know that it looks blue, but this is the delicious handspun yarn I made from my birthday fiber Ashley got me at Copper Moose. This is being worked in the round...lol, duh, and has 14" of knitting finished. That means the front and back both have 14" done.When I looked at that, compared to the pitiful 4" I had done on just the back of the little sweater I was knitting out of Ashley's hand-dyed.....I couldn't help myself. I swear, I was just looking at it one minute, and the next minute it was totally ripped out. It was like an out of body experience! Knowing the lovely knitting audience that I surround myself with, I don't want to offend. But, come on guys....14" vs. 4'????? I guess I will always be paddling upstream, I mean I am a continental knitter, after all. LOL
I really shouldn't say that I didn't learn anything from this, I did learn to knit back backwards (why didn't I realize then that I would not be able to knit flat???) and I did learn that my particular lot in life will be constantly converting patterns to circular. Okay...well, I guess I better go learn to design sweaters for myself!

I heart my sweater

Here are pictures of what happened to the little cedar handspun, hand-dyed shawl after you last saw it.


I took it upstairs
after a little wash and spin and Ashley helped me pin it out.






Then I wore it last night.




















I got my pattern in the mail for my Fletcher sweater from Noro (again....sheesh, just don't ask!) and have now cast on for the long awaited sweater for myself.

This is the sweater I have waited to make from the 3 lbs of roving that Ashley got me for my birthday and I patiently (not)spun up....

So, here is my Valentines picture of this sweet little darlin....Oh and by the way, just for my knitting group's information...;), I have converted this to be knit in the round....don't want to do too many seams in my lifetime.

Knitting by the second

I finished my shawl, and yes, thank you, that was my own handspun and hand dyed merino. I love it and am now moving on to blocking it. I will post those pics soon.
On the needles at present, is a cute little cardigan from Garnstudio. The radically different thing about this cardigan is that it is being made with Ashley's new yarn. Yeah, Ashley Megan is starting her own line of yarn. I am using the Bamboo/Merino and I have to say I love it. I love her colorway and the yarn itself. We weren't sure how this would knit up, so I boldly volunteered to knit something...lol.
This is knitting up so well. It is soft and shiny and drapes oh so well.
The other radically different thing about this cardigan is that I am learning to knit back backwards. This is so fun. I am so proud of myself. Strictly for you, dear reader, I had Ashley time me on this little cardigan back (yes, Diane, I am making it in pieces!). Here are the results:
I knit one row of 124 stitches in 2.37 minutes, I purled in 4.13 minutes and I knit back backwards in 6.4 minutes.
I dont' even want to think about the time I have put into.....oh never mind, LOL.
Ashley is going to be selling her yarn, and very reasonably too, I might add. Rush over to her blog and you can see all the pretty colors!!

This is the WIP that started it all!

Here is a picture of the Tasha Tudor shawl that I am working on. I wanted to get a picture of the lace I had chosen to go on it. I thought, well, before I sit down and post this picture, Iwill go and get a cup of coffee..........and that is what caused the previous post.

Tables or????

I went to put my coffee down yesterday morning and found there was no room on the table. I moved to put it on another table close by and that was when it dawned on me! The tables in my house have become....ummm, I don't know, baskets maybe?!
Underneath all that Playmobil is a coffee table. I remember it well. I think it matches my couch.



This table is next to the couch, so that if you wanted, you could place a drink (or whatever!!!) beside you. Perfect logic, right? Wrong!

The really cool part about what you put on a table is that almost all of it can stack, and stack and stack....to infinity.

You would think that because my dining room table is in another room, like perhaps, I don't know, let's call it the....dining room, that this disease might not have extended itself this far. ha

The thing about this is, I can justify almost all of the stuff that is on this table. The placemat is out because the kids were quizzing each other on presidents. (Cool, huh? I didn't even ask them to) The file is out because someone was filing their artwork. The swift and yarn winder is there because Ashley has been skeining her dyed yarn. Go see! Now, never mind that I have a craft room upstairs. What part of UPstairs are you not understanding??? That is lightyears away, silly!
The part I don't understand is WHY IS IT ALL STILL THERE?

A little bit about me....

Sometime around Christmas, my friend Veronica (hi), said something kind of off-handedly that has stuck with me. I was so taken aback (in a good way) and it has really made me think.
So, are you ready yet? lol She asked me about something in my house, and to be quite honest, I don't even remember what she asked me about, but anyway when I told her about it, she replied "I knew it had to mean something, or else it wouldn't be here".
Gosh, I never thought of it that way before, I honestly never did. Then, I got to looking around and sure enough, Veronica was right. I know I am not telling this very well, so I will show you what I mean.
Last post, I had my dining room curtains on display behind the girls. My curtains are made out of old quilt blocks that I found. I love them because they are so full of life.

My particular fav is the one that says Mother,

but this one is also cool. Sorry the picture is so fuzzy, but it says Ovada Kenum 1936. Awesome, huh?

These blocks are all hand done, I had to trim every single one of them to be square. And just in case my Aunt Mel is looking, I had a dickens of a time making this whole affair be square, obviously...lol....actually, don't even look Aunt Mel! Anyway, the quilt blocks are awesome and so when it came time to hang them, they couldn't just go on any old curtain rod! Greg made me a rod out of an old slat from a rope bed that we had in the workshop, I love it. He is good to me.

Around the corner is my apron hanger. It is a piece of an old horse yoke and old door knobs. I love it too!! And my aprons have a special place in my heart. They are all vintage, except for the new one I got Kelsey for her birthday last year.

I have ads out of really old magazines up above the aprons.

Kelsey's apron is underneath the one on the right side.



Lastly, we have my Christmas present from Greg this year. The cabinet.
This doesn't have any particular significance, except that I love it...lol. It has behind it, an old ladder I bought at a garage sale many years ago, that holds quilts that I rotate from time to time.

So, that is my little bit about me. I do like for things to mean something, to carry some significance and I do love my friend Veronica for being so nice. Thank you Veronica!
My next post is going to be on the subject of tables. What are they for anyway????

Lots of firsts!!

Well, this post is going to be full of lots of firsts.....

First of all, pun intended,lol, is the girls. Kels and Boo. They decided their Lego creation was a first prize article and so they gave themselves this first prize ribbon. It says...."Perfect job, first prize"
Now, how is that for confidence?

See my curtains? I just love them. I got these quilt squares out of an old Hoosier cabinet Greg and I got in Alabama years ago. It was supposed to be a friendship quilt, where they embroider their own names and sometimes a date. One or two of them have a 1930's date sewn on. Cool, huh? And Greg made my curtain rod out of an old rope bed slat we found in the attic of the workshop when we moved here. More coolness, huh?

The second first is that I am doing the Tasha Tudor shawl...finally, and I am doing it with my own handdyed handspun. I very rarely make anything for myself, but to get to do it with my own handspun and then to dye it this gorgeous cedar, is a biggie for this marmee!

And the third first is that for the first time, Kelsey Belle, is doing a marmee KAL (knit-along). It was so cute to see her sitting next to me, doing what I was doing...and well, I might add! Her project is knitted just as well as any I have seen, and she is only 9. I am expecting big things out of this little knitting prodigy!


So, I leave you with this darling photo of my shawl, with my baby's shawl she is knitting (her gauge is twice mine!) and my knitting partner Bisou. Tres Bien, Suzanne?

PS. One last first, I took my first french lesson from Suzanne this week. I sat in on the class for my littles and learned I am not very good at pronunciation.....I am not beat though!! I will persevere. LOL