WIP-it Wednesday...

...so many things in progress; so little progress made.

Being sick did not help my productivity. I did manage to do a few rows on the latest Halos of Hope hat.



Other than the Christmas quilt, everything else in on hiatus until after Christmas.

*WIPs roll call*

Worked on:

• All That Glitters Christmas quilt (quilting)
  Still playing with the layout
• Christmas goodie cookbook (desktop publishing)
  It's ready to go, but having trouble finding someone to print it inexpensively or in the size I want.
• Icelandic Halos of Hope hat (knitting)
  Using the Malabrigo Head Thingie pattern as inspiration. Knit 4.5 inches of the 6 needed before I can start the descreases

Works In Progress, did not work on:

1. 4-shaft sampler (weaving) [Ravelry]
2. Bear Paw pottery (needlepoint)
3. Mother of Dragons shawl (knitting)  [Ravelry]
4. Sea of Dreams baby quilt (quilting)
5. St. Charles (needlepoint)
6. Valley of the Heart's Delight sampler design (cross stitch)

UFOs/Hibernation:

1. Be My Baby for My Baby (knitting) [Ravelry]
2. Canto de Sirena shawl (knitting) [Ravelry]
3. Celaeno Shawl (knitting) [Ravelry]
4. Finishing work
5. Mermaid of the Pearls (cross stitch)
6. Peacock Pomatomus socks (knitting) [Ravelry]
7. Peacock Majesty by Just Nan (cross stitch)
8. Tucson Twilight (needlepoint)

WIPs To Be:

• A peacock or mermaid quilt for me.

I'm back...

...sort of.

In addition to being busy at work and doing Thanksgiving prep, I managed to catch the Husband's cold. So pretty much all of Thanksgiving week, I was sick. It's mostly a chest cold with a lot of sinus congestion. Definitely not the flu, though. (Thank goodness!)

We hosted Thanksgiving, which meant that we were both busy cleaning house and getting the food ready. Fortunately, most of what I make I can do on automatic pilot. Two of our guests were bringing side dishes so that was two less things I had to worry about. The Husband did all of the vacuuming and cleaned the guest bathroom. He also helped in the kitchen by peeling potatoes, etc. (He's a keeper!) I washed my hands so many times (to prevent the spread of cold germs) that they are completely dried out.

But it all came together. The food and the company were great. And I was thankful that we eat between 2 and 3pm rather than later. It meant we had plenty of time to visit and when everyone went home, I was able to crash on the couch and get a lot of rest.

The day after T-day, we were supposed to go on a hike with the Daughter, but there was no way I would be able to handle that with the coughing and congestion. So the Daughter, the Husband, and the Daughter's Aunt and Uncle went out together. I vegged out on the couch, which is what I really needed for my recovery.

I didn't get any real energy back until Sunday, when I was able to do the grocery shopping and check out some of the Michael's sales.

Needless to say, I did not have a lot of energy to spend on my craft projects. I did manage to work on the arrangement of the Christmas quilt blocks and knit a few rows of the latest hat, but that's it.

Now that I'm on the upswing, it's time to switch over to baking mode. I'm not going to finish a whole lot of crafty things until after Christmas, unless they are really small!

Oh, yeah...I still need to do an October recap.
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WIP-it Wednesday and some catch-up...

...I am herding cats again for open enrollment and the days just speed on by. I thought about posting yesterday and that's as far as I got.

• I worked on the Christmas quilt and have a preliminary layout. I'm trying to decide whether I want it to be square (6 x 6 blocks) or rectangular (6 x 7). I usually make this pattern rectangular, but I'm leaning towards square as it's different.
• I made some progress on the Christmas cookbook and looked a some sites to get an idea of cost. Yeah, I might not be printing very many of them!
• I decided that I will machine-stitch appliques on the corners of the baby quilt after it's sandwiched and partially quilted. I did that on the cat quilt I made and it has held up very well through multipl washings.
• The Mother of Dragons shawl is going to take a time-out until after Christmas. I really need a knitting project that I can easily pickup and put down during the holidays. Hats are the easiest, so...
• ...I bought some yarn for more Halos of Hope hats. I started one on Monday at Craft Coffee.
• As for Thanksgiving (next week!), I decided to make my own dry brine mix after seeing how much the Williams-Sonoma version cost. I am also forgoing the Turkey Gravy Base that I buy from them. I love their stuff and the quality is excellent, but it's getting pricey (along with everything else!).
• Yeah, I'm way late on a recap.

*WIPs roll call*

Worked on:

• All That Glitters Christmas quilt (quilting)
  Did a preliminary layout of the top; need to look at it fo a while to determine if I like the combination of blocks.
• Christmas goodie cookbook (desktop publishing)
  Input a few more recipes and located more sources.
• Icelandic Halos of Hope hat (knitting)
  Almost done with the ribbing. Need to decide what the rest of the hat will look like RSN.

Works In Progress, did not work on:

1. 4-shaft sampler (weaving) [Ravelry]
2. Bear Paw pottery (needlepoint)
3. Finishing work 
4. Mother of Dragons shawl (knitting)  [Ravelry]
5. Sea of Dreams baby quilt (quilting)
6. St. Charles (needlepoint)
7. Valley of the Heart's Delight sampler design (cross stitch)

UFOs/Hibernation:

1. Be My Baby for My Baby (knitting) [Ravelry]
2. Canto de Sirena shawl (knitting) [Ravelry]
3. Celaeno Shawl (knitting) [Ravelry]
4. Mermaid of the Pearls (cross stitch)
5. Peacock Pomatomus socks (knitting) [Ravelry]
6. Peacock Majesty by Just Nan (cross stitch)
7. Tucson Twilight (needlepoint)

WIPs To Be:

• A peacock or mermaid quilt for me.

Eye Candy and F.O. Friday...

...and I finally finished processing the vacation photos! Yay! If you want to see the full set, go to my 2016 New Mexico Vacation album in Flickr.

Not that I'm done with those, I can get back to my normal photo processing. The Husband has planted a bunch of mums to get some color in the backyard.

Yellow

Yellow and pink

Pink

and Orange

I also took photos of the latest handspun. This is Multi-Llama handspun [Ravelry]

and the close-up:

Specs:
Started 10/15/16
Completed 10/29/16
Llama top (4 oz.) from Tall Tail Ranch
249.4 yds 2-ply; 18 WPI

Up this weekend: Well, technically it's already started. Today, I did the Cost Plus run to pick up some items for Christmas baking and to look at the Christmas ornaments. That was so fun!

Then I came home and had a late lunch. I caught up with some personal emails and I'm doing the last thing on my list for today: doing a blog post.

My plans for the rest of the weekend are to start getting things in order for Thanksgiving. Working on the Christmas quilt is also high on the list. From there, who knows!
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WIP-it Wednesday...

...after yesterday's election, it's hard to get motivated. Sigh. It's going to be a long 4 years.

*WIPs roll call*

Worked on:

• All That Glitters Christmas quilt (quilting)
  Sewed all of the blocks; ready to layout the top.
• Christmas goodie cookbook (desktop publishing)
  Checking recipe sources and verifying that I have input all of the current recipes.
• Sea of Dreams baby quilt (quilting )
  Sewed the top together. Deciding whether to add appliques in the corners.
• Mother of Dragons shawl (knitting)  [Ravelry]
  Knit a few more rows.

Works In Progress, did not work on:

1. 4-shaft sampler (weaving) [Ravelry]
2. Bear Paw pottery (needlepoint)
3. Finishing work
4. St. Charles (needlepoint)
5. Valley of the Heart's Delight sampler design (cross stitch)

UFOs/Hibernation:

1. Be My Baby for My Baby (knitting) [Ravelry]
2. Canto de Sirena shawl (knitting) [Ravelry]
3. Celaeno Shawl (knitting) [Ravelry]
4. Mermaid of the Pearls (cross stitch)
5. Peacock Pomatomus socks (knitting) [Ravelry]
6. Peacock Majesty by Just Nan (cross stitch)
7. Tucson Twilight (needlepoint)

WIPs To Be:

• A peacock or mermaid quilt for me.

Top-of-the-Waves Tuesday...

...yeah, I totally missed Eye Candy Friday. It's going to take me a bit to get the hang of having half-days off on Fridays.

1. I spent 1 hour of my precious afternoon-off getting the oil changed in my car. It's supposed to be a 10-minute oil change, but that didn't happen. There were 2 people in front of me, the technician was cranky, and the customer in front of me was a royal P.I.T.A. At least I won;t have to do that again for a few months.
2. The other errand I ran on my afternoon-off was buying a new vacuum cleaner. When you have two cats, you need a decent vacuum monster. I can't say enough good things about buying an item from Target on-line and being able to pick it up later in the day. That took less than 10 minutes!
3. I went home and looked at the baby quilt, thinking that I'd start it. I decided I needed a better yellow for the first border, so I put it aside. I need to make a Saturday run to the quilt store.
4. I spent the rest of the afternoon, sewing together block for the All That Glitters Christmas quilt.
5. Saturday I made a quick trip to The Granary and bought the border fabric I needed plus a colorful flannel that I will use for the backing, Originally, I was going to use a fabric in the same line as the panel, but I thin that the flannel will be warmer for the baby.
6. I sewed two narrow borders on the baby quilt, one yellow with bubbles and one dark blue with stars. Then I added a wider border with the fabric that matched the panel. Baby Quilt top is done! (Unless I decide to add some appliques or something.)
7. I finished sewing all of the blocks for the Christmas quilt.
8. I finished processing the vacation photos for Day 5 of the vacation. (Yay!)
9. I did manage to take photos of the llama handspun, but I want to finish the vacation photos before I touch those!

WIP-it Wednesday...

...and I still haven't taken any photos of the finished Multi-Llama handspun [Ravelry] or the Christmas quilt in progress. Sigh...

*WIPs roll call*

Worked on:

• All That Glitters Christmas quilt (quilting)
  Units are cut out; ready to sew blocks

Works In Progress, did not work on:

1. 4-shaft sampler (weaving) [Ravelry]
2. Bear Paw pottery (needlepoint)
3. Finishing work
4. Mother of Dragons shawl (knitting)  [Ravelry]
5. St. Charles (needlepoint)
6. Valley of the Heart's Delight sampler design (cross stitch)

UFOs/Hibernation:

1. Be My Baby for My Baby (knitting) [Ravelry]
2. Canto de Sirena shawl (knitting) [Ravelry]
3. Celaeno Shawl (knitting) [Ravelry]
4. Mermaid of the Pearls (cross stitch)
5. Peacock Pomatomus socks (knitting) [Ravelry]
6. Peacock Majesty by Just Nan (cross stitch)
7. Tucson Twilight (needlepoint)

WIPs To Be:

• A peacock or mermaid quilt for me.

Top-of-the-Waves Tuesday...

...Hey, look! I'm posting on a Tuesday!

• It's November...can you believe it?!
• While I'd like to say that life intruded on my weekend's craftiness, the truth is that I'm in sort of a slump. I couldn't get motivated to work on anything in the queue. Pretty much everything else caught my attention.
• For example, we added a new rolling cart in the kitchen to replace an old free-standing cabinet. I didn't like how things were organized in it, so I swapped the contents with another same-sized rolling cart. Voila! Everything  fits better in each cart. It will just take some practice getting the cat food out of a different cart.
• The Daughter asked me to go through some old photos to find some for her class reunion. I did that instead of knitting.
• I know I should start working on the baby quilt gift. Instead I worked on a Christmas quilt that I had started a few years ago. The fabric was already cut to make Yellow Brick Road squares. I sewed together the strips and cut them into the required units. They are ready to make into squares.
• One crafty thing I planned on finishing that I actually did was ply the Multi-Llama singles. I wound them into a plying ball and made a two-ply yarn out of them. I'll try and get photos soon.
• I started feeling a little guilty about not vacuuming, but then I remembered that the vacuum monster is a little under the weather. (It's not sucking...really.)
• We had quite a few trick-or-treaters, but they were pretty much done by 9pm. That worked great as I was ready to relax at that point. I asked The Husband to hide the remaining candy so I don't eat it!
• I was also under-motivated to read, believe it or not. I'm currently reading "Three Sisters, Three Queens" by Philippa Gregory. I love her books, but they are a pretty dense read. 
• This week marks the beginning of a reduced work week for me. I'm going to 90% time, which reduces my week to 36 hours. I'm taking half-days on Fridays and hope to be able to use that time in the studio. Of course, this week, I won't be able to as I need to get the oil changed in my car! But at least I don't need to go back to work afterwards!