In the realm of crafts I’ve learned a lot. It’s really easy to get into a craft rut so I’ve been pushing myself to learn new things.

February I tried to make mitts out of a felted sweater.

and made a salve with arnica and willow bark.

March I finished my first pair of socks.

In April I worked on using natural ingredients in my soaps.

and layering soaps

and made my first batch of marshmallows

and visited my first LYS

In May my Mom went in the hospital for a cell transplant and out of some mental preservation went crazy with crafting.

My first batch of rebatched cold processed soap.

I participated in a soap swap and had this beautiful soap

Hand balm pearls and coffee butter lip balm

Indoor rose bush cultivating

My first hand knit dish cloth

Got to see myself knitting (this is a silk shawl)

In June I turned 30 while I waited to see if my Mom would make it out of the hospital.

I tested out several premade lip solutions.

I had my hair cut with a cute aline bob (this is me in the morning before styling)

If you haven’t tried the card game Dominion I highly recommend it! It’s so fun and we played several games on my birthday.

Felted my first and second pair of slippers.

Tried weaving again using roving

In July I was still waiting for my Mom to get out of the hospital but I was looking forward Sock Summit at the end of the month.

For the 4th hubby and I went to the mall to see the show.

3 am pie!

The week before the summit I fostered a cute baby kitty for a few days before his family picked him up. Such a sweetie!

Sock Summit!

August

Astoria in August

A swift at the Maritime museum in Astoria

August was also when I decided that I wanted to make handmade things for Christmas gifts and also when I started knitting up these fun cowls.

Since this post is getting really photo heavy I’ll finish up the year in another post. I am wondering how 2012 will go though. After only half a day this year I managed to step on a knitting needle that has put me out of commission for the rest of my vacation time (maybe) and my Mom is back in the hospital. Wish me luck. I think my family could use it.

I present! Susie’s Reading Mitts With a modified thumb by me in Be Sweet Bamboo yarn in color Storm.

Most likely, this isn’t rocket science (nothings been confirmed yet) and I could have just picked up another pattern with a thumb design that looked like what I wanted but hey, I wanted to do it my way! And mostly it’s working out with only one minor rip back so far. I really think this designing thing will be the only way I’ll learn to read charts so here’s to a December full of knitting, crafting and learning.

Ps: This year I’m planning daily posts (hopefully!) with pictures of yarnie and soaping goodness and who knows what else! If I get desperate for idea’s there’s always the completely un-edited novel, lol.

One thing that’s concerning me is my self imposed knitting deadline looming in at a mere 34 days. So far I’ve finished three cowls, one pair of mittens, a kitchen towel (and a half), and one scarf. Three of these are wool and will be avoided like the plague by most of my relatives so it seems I need to take a closer look at my projects and conserve energy to only the most important projects….my biggest problem is not knowing what the men in my family would actually use. Scarves and socks seem like easy projects but they would quickly be discarded. Fingerless mitts might work although would also likely meet the discard pile. The question is, what Would they use. One option I found was a remote control holder for the couch. The other option is to find something in a completely different craft area which might work out better in the long run because I might have a boost of enthusiasm to get me through a new project. Currently I’m looking into some ideas with leather because my father likes most things leather.There is also the option of metal stamped items since I’ve got the whole set up already it would be easy enough to find the right thing to stamp or if I’m feeling really brave I could try sewing something. I’ve seen some really cool re-purposed men’s ties. Soo many options and sooo little time!

Oh my. The last several weeks have been a roller coaster.

1. Mom’s cancer is back.
2. Transmission issues with our car led us to acquire a new suv (ahem, I will Not mentioning locking the keys in the new car!)
3. Mom in and out and back in the hospital.
4. Several get together’s including English high tea, Knottie Ladies knitting (read eating and chatting, love!), monthly book club, friend’s birthday, and Apple Hill trip with my girlfriends.
5. My sick cat….that was nasty. I threatened her with a trip to the vet and I think it worked because she seems fine now….I was bluffing…mostly.
6. Prepping for what has become a traditional themed Halloween party at our place. This year we chose Harry Potter. This means costumes to fit the theme and lots of themed food.
7. I’m going as Fleur and hubby is going as Bill. My hat isn’t finished.
8. The holiday shopping season has picked up and I’m working on a steady stream of orders and items for donations.
9. I’m posting a blog instead of sleeping but can’t seem to drag myself to bed yet.
10. There are only 45 days till my Christmas gifting deadline with little to show yet.
11. Next month is NaNoWriMo where I’m supposed to write 50,000 words….not sure how to fit this in with all the knitting….it’s causing a little stress….and I still want to do both.

Let see…this would be more interesting with a few photos….

Wet felting is a labor intensive process but usually worth the effort and a lot faster than knitting something and Then felting. This is just the first three layers with a sudsy foam all over. Likely it will also need some starching to help hold the shape.

It seems I missed posting about Lambtown 2011 from the beginning of October. As always it was a lot of fun taking classes and spending time browsing the vendor booths.

Since I am getting tired I’ll write up a full post about it later but here is a picture of the mittens I started at a class about using home spun yarns.

and spinning in class on my new wheel.

One last photo. It’s a yummy sort of homemade whoopie pie. I baked pre-made cookie dough from a co-worker’s kid’s fundraiser along with some Noah’s Bagel whipped cream cheese, about 2 tables spoons plus a teaspoon of powdered sugar mixed together for the frosting.

I think it was a result of all the fiber fumes at the Sock Summit Market Place but it’s Wonderful to spin on. It wasn’t too hard to set up the first time although it was easier after I read the directions. The tension is really easy to adjust even for a beginner like me. I even tried some pencil roving I’ve had sitting in my stash forever and look at how it turned out. Not too bad.

No. 32 ‘SUPERSTITION’ superwash merino/nylon Foot Notes UNSPUN pencil roving from Fiber Optic.

multi-
a combining form meaning “many,” “much,” “multiple,” “many times,” “more than one,” “more than two,” “composed of many like parts,” “in many respects,” used in the formation of compound words: multiply; multivitamin.

Looks like Multi-Hobbyist works.

http://www.oregonlive.com/living/index.ssf/2011/07/portland_sock_summit_race_from.html

Sock Summit Twitter

Knitting Knewbie

Mr Poopers Day Out

StitchyMcYarnpants

Knittyblog

Knitpicks blog

Blue Moon blog (I attended Tina Newtons seminar on dying fibers)

Crochet Liberation Front

Rogue

Oregon Live on Sock Summit

Knitting Golfers blog 

Fourteenergirl

Lots of yummy yarn pictures and 2 finished socks once my computer is fixed….which might be several days from now based on how slow it’s going. Now off to bed. 13 hours of driving and a full day of work with only 5 hours of sleep in the middle and a hosed work computer ALSO doesn’t leave me with much left over energy. Till tomorrow.

Thursday night we made our way into Portland. The traffic here is rediculous! I can deffinitely see why there is a rail system available. So far we have walked to all of our desinations. That’s all well and good but by 3pm my feet were killing me and hubby and I headed back to our room for a few hours of rest (read sock knitting). I’m getting ahead of myself.

I had a wonderful self striping class from Deb Barnhill and an amusing lecture by Tina Newton from Blue Moon on dying yarn.

I will admit to being too chicken to approach Stephanie Pearl-McPhee when I saw her TWICE and also having a celebrity freak out over seeing Steven Ambrose just Sitting! Do celebs really just SIT?!?! This really must be what people feel about Hollywood stars. I did tell on myself and he obliged by calling me a chicken (self-requested) and asked if I would be around tomorrow.

Lunch was very yummy at Burgerville. The veggie burger was delicious. The order line as ridiculous as the traffic.

Well it seems I’m having issues getting the rest of my photos so gratuitous yarn photos will have to come later. What I do have is sock progress.

Sock Wednesday

Sock Friday

More tomorrow and eventually a really late post on the California State Fair fun.

The trio.

This guy was the first and sports a fancy cabled scarf. Eyes and belly button not added yet.

Ok, time for bed.

Earlier today before the wonderful nap I did manage to wind this lovely, wonderfully soft, Cascade Yarns Epiphany alpaca cashmere silk yarn in a beautiful royal blue color. I’ve already cast on AINSLEY SCARF (Floating Reversible Cables) by Bobbi Padgett

A few rows on my sock seems all I’m able to do tonight and it looks like my pie is done so I’ll leave you with a photo of my sock

and a picture of my drowsy kitty