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Hubby’s Sweater

December 28, 2015 blogtest_2q7z6c 2 Comments

Well, it’s not a disaster, but it’s not right, either. I’m counting this as a learning experience.

I finished his sweater on the evening of Christmas. I had him try it on at different points during the seaming process, so I knew what the result was going to be. But since the seaming was quick and easy, I went ahead with it so I’d know what I needed to do to fix it.

Now, before I show you the (hilarious) photo, let me tell you that this is NOT a gauge issue. My gauge was spot on. It’s also not a pattern or yarn issue. The pattern pieces measure approximately what they’re supposed to.

This was a measuring issue.

One of the ways to measure for a sweater is to use a sweater the recipient already wears and loves. The trouble here is that I didn’t have an actual sweater to measure. I measured a shirt that was meant to fit looser. This sweater, however, will grow a bit with wear, and it just ended up way too big.

I will say that the patten didn’t mention anything about the amount of ease. That would have been helpful in determining the size I needed to make.

The pattern is written for four sizes. I measured him to be between a medium and large, so I made the large. As it turns out, I needed to make the small.

I should mention, also, that the shirt I used to measure is several years old and he’s lost a bunch of weight since then.

When I measured his actual body, he was a full 8 inches smaller around his chest than the pattern size I made. Oops.

If it was just the sleeve length, I could have dealt with that easily. I would have undone the cuffs and unraveled the sleeve and then reknit the cuffs. But this is just a whole mess.

The only thing for it is to reknit the whole thing.

At least I know for sure I have enough yarn.

P.S.
This will certainly help. What a wonderful surprise from my aunt for Christmas!

Time To Relax and Celebrate!

December 14, 2015 blogtest_2q7z6c Leave a comment

The stockings I’ve been talking about for so long are finally finished! I was cutting it close with these. We’re halfway to Christmas already. I’m just glad I have really awesome customers.

Last year, I made Ashley a set of stockings for her family. Remember these?

Well, they’ve added a new little one to their family and asked me to make a stocking for him, too.

(There is no cool brick at this house. Boo.)

Well, Ashley was so impressed with the stockings I made last year, she gave her sister-in-law a gift of two stockings for Christmas. Then Amanda asked me to make two more for the rest of her family.

As you can see, Amanda’s style is much different from Ashley’s. And, in all honesty, mine, too. She sent me some ideas of ones she liked and we talked about colors and I got to work. This set of stockings was so far out of my comfort zone, but that is a really great thing!!

As it turns out, I really loved designing and knitting these stockings. I don’t have one favorite, but different parts of them ended up being fun. The green plaid on Amanda’s stocking was fun to knit and I really love the snowflake on Addie’s stocking. I think these will look great on the mantle!

And now, I’m done. I tried to knit a little bit on Doug’s sweater, but I’m just so tired. After having six men, and two trucks haul all our furniture and all the boxes that were packed, we still had to rent another 15ft truck to go back and get more stuff and there’s still little odds and ends that are left in the garage (and a few plants. I keep forgetting those.) It’s frustrating and expensive, but we all got sick in the midst of moving and we just couldn’t get everything packed up.

I’m starting to feel more like myself, now. I also am suddenly feeling very pregnant. I’m halfway through and I can no longer suck in the bump. I have had only one pair of jeans that fit for over a year, now, but those are rapidly becoming uncomfortable. I appear to be in a different shape than I was with Jellybean because the only pair of maternity jeans I wore with him don’t fit me well. I’m wondering about the other maternity pants, but they’re still packed away. I do know where my boxes of clothes are, they just haven’t been unpacked yet. I have one skirt that I brought in the suitcase – thankfully it’s black so I can wear it with just about anything. I really don’t want to have to buy more clothes that I’m only going to wear for 5 months, but I might have to bite on a new pair of maternity jeans.

We had the mid-pregnancy anatomy scan ultrasound and everything looks good. Lollypop has ten fingers and ten toes and everything is in the right place. We did not find out the gender. I think my family has started a betting pool, though.

I know I have at least one trip back to the old house to look forward to this week, but other than that, I’m taking it easy. My next project is to focus on Christmas shopping, since I didn’t get the chance to knit any gifts this year!

Have a great week, friends!

Made It!

December 7, 2015 blogtest_2q7z6c 2 Comments

Well, we made it to the new house, along with all the furry pets and the furniture. Some things did get left behind, such as the fish, and some random odds & ends, but we’re going back to get those this week.

The move itself went pretty well. I had the job of transporting the cats (we have four,) the dog and the kiddo to the new house. I gave all the cats a tranquilizer pill that morning and put them in their crates. They were definitely not happy about it, but it was the only way to keep them safe and get them doped up for the ride. This is the first time Jellybean has taken such a long trip with Daisy (the dog) in the car, too, since he’s been forward facing in the carseat. Daisy gets very excited when she sees livestock suck as horses, cows, goats, etc. Jellybean thought it was hilarious that she got so excited and he would just cackle at her.

We’ve gotten things unpacked enough that we can cook, eat, sleep, work and relax, so we’re pretty settled. The rest of the boxes will get unpacked as we can. Or they may get sent directly to the yard sale in 6 months, if we haven’t opened them by then. 🙂

Jellybean has surprised me with his understanding of what’s been going on. I was so afraid that I hadn’t explained everything to him well enough and that when he realized that we weren’t going back to the old house, he would be devastated. However, he seems to really get that this is where we live now and that we won’t go back to live in the old house. All of his stuff is here, and I’ve made sure to unpack and set up his favorite toys and books, so I think that helps. He says he likes it here.

The new house has some definite advantages over the old one. The kitchen has a lot of counter space, it’s all one level, and the bedrooms are large. We did lose some living space, however. We had a living room upstairs and a den downstairs, and we used the den at night, after Jellybean went to bed so we could watch a little bit of TV. Now we just have a smallish living room and we haven’t been brave enough to watch anything after he goes to bed, for fear of waking him up. We haven’t even hooked the TV up to anything. We’re not big TV folks around here.

One huge advantage to this location is that we’re closer to all our family, now. We’re 10 minutes from my in-laws and an hour closer to everyone else. My parents came to visit over the weekend so Jellybean has had the chance to see all his grandparents in a week. He got to take a long walk around our new neighborhood with his Papaw and read a few books with Mimi. He’ll get to spend more time with Grandpa and Granddaddy, too.

I’ve been working on stockings when I can. I have the bright set all knitted and ends woven in. They got a little bath on Sunday afternoon, and when they’re dry, I’ll do the duplicate stitch for the names and one of the reindeer. I think I can have them done by the weekend. Sunday’s bath was just water, just to get the stitches to even out, but I need to find the box with my wool wash in it before I get ready to do the final wash. I’m afraid it might be in one of those boxes that got left, but I’ll either find it or go buy more.

I miss my friends back in Nashville, but we’re only a few hours away, now. I do have friends who live here, too, which will help me get adjusted to the area. I lived near here about 15 years ago, and while not much has changed, 15 years is a long time. I’m still going to have to find my way around and find things to do. I think the first thing is to find a new Mother’s Day Out program for Jellybean. I hope we can find one we like as well as our last one, but it’s going to be hard to beat his teacher, Mrs. Kathy.

I feel like this post is rambling so I’ll stop here. It’s been a crazy few weeks and we’re just now starting to decompress. I feel a little disheveled in just about every aspect!

I hope your holiday season has been fun for you so far! Here’s to a joyful season for all of us!

P.S. – Oh yeah, I’m halfway through the pregnancy, now. Little Lollypop is giving me some strong kicks and I’m starting to feel them on the outside, now. I told Jellybean he was going to be a good big brother and he says I’ll be a good big sister when Lollypop is born! Ha ha!

Keepin’ On

November 16, 2015 blogtest_2q7z6c Leave a comment

As I mentioned on the AbbyCrafty Facebook Page, I went to my first craft show yesterday. It was a very small and private affair, but it was lots of fun and I even sold some stuff! I set up what I thought was a cute little holiday themed table.

The lip butters were my best sellers. I will definitely be expanding my flavor line as soon as we get moved.

I have snowflake ornaments back there on the tree. I made those early this year, but I’ve never listed them on Etsy. I haven’t had a good place to photograph them. If you’re interested in those, let me know and I’ll get some photos.

I’ve been working on more stockings. I have a set of four commissions I’m working on right now. I got them all started, and now I’m working them all down to the heel first. I have three of them going right now and almost ready to get moving on the fourth. These were so much fun to design and they’re lots of fun to make, too. Here’s a sneak peek:

The color is really saturated in these photos, because I’m snapping them with my cell phone, inside, at night. They’re actually brighter than the photos show. The sparklies don’t show up well, either. The snowflakes and reindeer in the first and last photos have opalescent sparklies and the gold band at the top of the middle one has gold sparklies. That green plaid is turning out to be LOTS of fun to knit up.

We just keep moving on with packing things up. The sellers haven’t finished moving out yet, so we’re going to stick to our plan to move at the end of the month. We’ll probably have to go back once or twice before moving to get keys and set up the rest of the utilities.

Lollypop and I are doing well. We’re 17 weeks and I’m feeling lots of flutters and rolls in there. We’re just cruising along right now and getting things done.

We have lots of errands to run today so we’d better get moving! Have a great week!

Now The Real Fun Begins!

November 9, 2015 blogtest_2q7z6c 2 Comments

So, we closed on our new house on Friday. That means it’s time to really get focused on moving. We’ve been cleaning and purging and packing some, but nothing that remotely resembles close to being ready to go.

The urge to purge has been diminished quite a bit. We bought a house that was bigger than we expected to buy. The garage is huge and has lots of storage space, for better or worse. That means we’re to the point that we’re just chucking everything into boxes and we’ll sort it out at the other end. But we all know how that goes. There are boxes sitting in our garage right now that I moved here from my last house that are still full of the same crap that I moved INTO my last house. Oh well.

Knitting has taken a back seat to packing. I’m sorry to say I won’t be doing any more new stocking orders this year. I don’t even think I’m going to get much personal knitting done for Christmas this year. I do have several stockings to finish up for customers, and I’m going to be working hard to get those done in time for them to be enjoyed. I’ve spent this week’s allotted knitting time designing four stockings for a family that have been really fun to do. I love the designing process and I really enjoy making them so personal for each person.

My main focus for the next few weeks will be packing and moving and knitting the things that have to get done. Hubby’s sweater is on hold for a little bit, even though I’m working on the last piece. He’ll get it by the time he really needs it, though.

Also, I have yet to make Jellybean’s winter sweater for this year. I have the pattern picked out and the yarn is sitting right here. It’s just going to have to wait until after all the Christmas knitting is done. (Unless I can manage to get it done FOR Christmas… that’s a possibility.)

Lollypop and I are just cruising. I’m feeling lots of flutters, and I just love that. With all the craziness, it’s been difficult to bond with this baby, but feeling the movement helps a lot. I’m also starting to get a little bit of a bump, although it’s not noticeable to anyone but me and my blue jeans just yet. Jellybean talks about Lollypop some, too, which is just adorable.

Have a great week, my friends!

A Wee Little Announcement

October 12, 2015 blogtest_2q7z6c 4 Comments

Shopping for a house in a town two hours away is really exhausting. I’ve made a trip there every week for the last three weeks, but the ball is rolling.

I’ve been working away on hubby’s sweater as I have the chance. I have both sleeves done, now, and I’ve started the back, so I’m about a third of the way through. I’m very pleased with the progress of that.

There’s more big news that I can share with you, my friends. This is one of the very few times I will post a picture of my little man on my blog, but this time is worth it:

That’s right! We’re going to have baby #2 late April/early May. In keeping with the candy theme, Jellybean’s little sibling is nicknamed Lollypop.

I’m gearing up for the second trimester, and I’m getting my energy back and feeling the nesting coming on. Perfect timing! And I get to nest a whole new house!

So, yeah, this is on top of everything else going on, but we’ll just get all the hard stuff out of the way all at once, right? HAHA HAHAHAHA

Ahem. Sorry about that.

Have a great week, friends. I’m going to go get some rest. 🙂

Monday’s Update (Late) on a Tuesday

October 6, 2015 blogtest_2q7z6c 2 Comments

This is getting to be a habit, isn’t it?

I’ve spent lots and lots of time adulting this week. Things just gotta get done, ya know? The craziness of preparing to move plus trying to find a new house plus getting this one ready to sell (we can’t find any handy people who want to bid our job!) plus keep up with all the normal stuff we need to do (for some crazy reason, my family still wants dinner. Every night!)

Take all that and add in a toddler who’s dropping naps (woe is me!) and it’s a struggle to get anything done.

I’ve instituted a daily quiet time for the toddler, which will allow me too get something done, and I’m using my MDO time to pack and sort through all our stuff. Which only leaves bedtime for knitting. The plus side is that we can put jellybean to bed early when he doesn’t nap and he usually doesn’t have an issue with that.

I’ve been focusing on my husband’s sweater for the last week or so. I’ve finished one sleeve and made good progress on the second. The pattern is easy and predictable, so after the first repeat, I didn’t need to look at the chart anymore.

This sweater is constructed differently than my cardigan. My cardigan was knit all in one piece with no seams. This sweater is knit with the front, back and sleeves being separate pieces.

Patterns always start with instructions for the back, then the front, then sleeves. I started with the sleeves, though. I do have a reason! The sleeves start out at the cuff, and are only 54 cast on stitches rather than 120-something. I used the first sleeve as a gauge swatch, so I sorta cheated. Turns out I hit the gauge right on the money so there was no need to rip out. Always a good thing.

When I started the second sleeve, though, I realized I forgot to change one of the needles after the cuff. (The ribbed cuffs are usually knit with a needle one or two sizes smaller than the body.) So I knitted the entire sleeve with an 8 on the wrong side and a 9 on the right side. Oops.

I’m not really sure if that will have a huge effect on the overall fabric, but just to be on the safe side, I forgot to do it again on the second sleeve.

I have a few stockings that are washed, blocked and ready for details and personalizing. Two are for the shop and the other two are claimed. One of these nights, I’ll take a break from the sweater and get them finished up.

I have plans to offer some luxurious lip butters and lotion bars in my shop this fall, too. My father-in-law keeps bees, so I have an awesome local source for untreated beeswax. I’m very excited about this!

Tomorrow we’ll be looking at more houses. Wish us luck that we find one we like! Have a great week!

P.S. I wrote this entire post on my phone, since I’ve been to busy to sit down at the computer. I hope the mistakes are few and forgivable. 🙂

Slow News Day

September 28, 2015 blogtest_2q7z6c 2 Comments

I’ve been doing way too much adulting this week.

Most of my free time this week has been taken up with contacting handymen, realtors and bankers. You see, we’re planning a move that has been a desire for several years, but several life events have happened that makes now the right time to go.

So, I’ve had to be an adult and take care of some very important things this week. I don’t like that very much. I’d much rather use my free time to knit and sew, but we all gotta do what we gotta do. 🙂

Anyway, this whole thing will be good for us, once we’re through it, but it is definitely stressful right now.

I have used some of my toddler sleeping time to knit, mostly in the evenings. I’m finishing up my third stocking of the season – the one for my friend Ashley that I’m not sure about the color. I’m going to get them all washed and blocked and then I can finalize the details.

I’ve not made any more progress on the lion costume, although Jellybean asks about it. I might take one MDO day this week and work on that.

I am still working on the spinning challenge occasionally. I think I don’t really enjoy spinning as much as I want to and I’m considering destashing my fiber and spindles. I just really want to be using my free time to knit, not spin, so the tools for spinning are just taking up space. I’ll try to finish up the 4oz I’ve got going now, but I think that’ll be it for me.

Only one photo for you today. And it’s not fiber related at all. We had to have some septic work done on Monday. (YAY, she said sarcastically) Jellybean loves big machines and he was glued to the window watching the backhoe dig up our back yard. Not so fun for our bank account, but great entertainment for a toddler!

As we progress more toward the packing and moving part, things may get slow around here. I hope you’ll forgive a few missed posts. Hopefully we’ll have this all done before the end of the year and I’ll be back in the swing of things!

Have a great week!

Oh No!

September 22, 2015 blogtest_2q7z6c Leave a comment

I totally missed a post yesterday!

I’ve had a bad case of disorganization this week. I do most of my knitting while Jellybean is asleep. My little knitting nest is downstairs on the opposite side of the house, so I don’t make a lot of noise to wake him up. I also knit in the evenings while Hubby and I watch TV. Neither of us likes me to be up and moving around while we’re trying to watch something, so I can’t dig around in my yarn bins in the evening. During the MDO time, I’m usually busy doing housework or other stuff that I can’t do when Jellybean is home.

So I’ve managed to find myself with a project to start, but all the yarn for it put away twice this week. I’ve sat and watched tv – without knitting – twice. That’s unheard of.

I also haven’t had much progress on my spinning. I’m finding it not as much fun as I thought I would when I started the challenge. It’s fine to spin, but I enjoy knitting so much more, and with my limited time available, I choose to knit more often.

That being said, I have made a little bit of progress on my spinning. This was week two of the challenge. I spun half of the fiber and then wound it off onto the toilet paper roll to wait for plying.

Week 3, I spun about 20 grams, which is less than an ounce. Still, it’s more than nothing, so I’m still eligible for prizes in the challenge. 🙂

I’ve made progress on the lion costume, too. The body is done and the hood is going well, so far.

I was so dreading sewing with that furry fabric. I expected it to be thick and messy and hard to deal with. I did take the cut pieces outside to shake out all the fur, but sewing with it has been a breeze. I’m excited for Jellybean to be a lion at Halloween.

The knitting I have been able to do has been stockings. My sweet friend Ashley recently had another baby boy so I am making his stocking to coordinate with the other three I made.

The new baby’s stocking will have two snowflakes on it to be similar to Fenner’s but just slightly different.

I started the new stocking on Saturday, but I’m fairly certain I picked the wrong white. I started the stocking with white, but my notes say I actually used a cream color instead. I will finish the white stocking anyway and put it in the Etsy shop when it’s done.

And that’s pretty much it for this week. It doesn’t seem like much, but I sure am tired!

Have a great week!

What a Busy Week!

September 14, 2015 blogtest_2q7z6c 4 Comments

I feel like we’ve been run ragged this week and it’s not over yet. Jellybean is back in his Mother’s Day Out program, he started on Thursday, and he’s doing well so far.

We’ve had an unusually social weekend, but the weather was awesome for it. I can feel fall in the air and I love it. I got to take my sweater out for a test run in the cool weather. It’s so soft and cozy and it never got itchy unless I was standing directly in the sun. I can’t tell you how much I love it, there just aren’t words.

I’m still on the knitting hangover from making such a large project, but I’ve got some good things on the horizon. I decided to redo Jellybean’s stocking, so I’ve been working on that. I made him a snowman originally, then I designed the train stocking. He does like snowman, but trains are a bigger deal, so how could I not?

It took me a while to get back in the groove of doing colorwork. I think I ripped out and started over at least three times. But I hit my stride on the fourth try and I’m almost done.

I’m planning two more sweaters before the end of the year. One is Jellybean’s annual winter sweater. He didn’t much like wearing the one I made last year (boo hoo) and I think it’s because it was 100% wool. this year, I went for a wool and acrylic blend that feels so soft on the ball, maybe he’ll be more willing to wear this one.

The second is a sweater for my hubby. I picked out several patterns that a) I thought he’d like and b) I wouldn’t mind knitting. Out of that list, he chose the 2900 Pullover by Jennifer Owens. I’ve got the yarn ordered for it, and I’m really excited to make that one.

RAVELRY_Homestead_2900_medium — 2900 Pullover

Lastly in knitting news, I’ve got a few commission stockings on the list, if you’re interested in one, please let me know soon!

I do want to show you another hobby I’ve been working on. I’ve joined a spinning challenge so I’ve been spending a few minutes each day making some yarn.

I’ve had the fiber for years, but I recently rejoined a group on ravelry that’s hosting the challenge. I even bought a new spindle for the challenge. I’m enjoying it, so far.

My plan is to spin all of this into two singles that use half the fiber, then ply them together for a two-ply yarn that I’m expecting to be worsted weight or so. I think the final product should look neat.

And because I don’t have enough going on, I am making Jellybean’s Halloween costume. He said he wanted to be a lion, so we picked out a pattern and I bought all the fabric and supplies together. Now he says he wants an alligator costume, but he’s ok with a lion. If this turns out to be as easy as I think it might, I’ll see about making an alligator, too.

That’s about it in my little world. We’re all busy, but well and I hope you are, too.