Livin' La Needle Loca

...and we're rapidly running out of January. From my neighborhood walk two weeks ago, a purple daisy: and a sweet pea bush: From our anniversary last weekend, Miramar beach at Half Moon Bay: And there is much celebrating! Both of our cars are back from the shop earlier than expected. Hooray!! Of course, I no longer feel comfortable parking my car in the driveway, at least until we've caught one or two rodents in the traps we've set. I just want to wrap my car in a big rat-proof bubble. Up this weekend: Other than some household chores and my regular errands, I have no specific plans. I'm not a sports fan and I particularly dislike football, so I am not watching the Super Bowl. I have a host of projects I can work on including: Making a label and burying the threads for the I'm Just Mad About Citron quilt. If I get really motivated, I could probably finish this tomorrow. More knitting on Be My Baby [ Ravelry ]. This one will take a while. Ive...

...yeah, we kinda skipped over Monday and Tuesday. It's been a challenging few days for us. I mentioned about the Husband's car and the chewed wires in Friday's post. When I got home that night, I had him show me where he found the rats nesting in his engine. We both have Honda Fits, so it would look the same in my car. My car is 15 months old, so everything still looks new. My engine was clean and there were no indication of nesting activity. On Saturday, the Husband spent a lot of time cleaning up dead leaves, sweeping the concrete, and trimming bushes. In the afternoon, he wanted to run an errand and was going to use my car. "Was" being the operative word. My car made the same noise his did when he started it. When we opened the hood the d@mn rats had gotten into my car!! ARG!! This time we knew the procedure and called our insurance right away. They couldn't tow my car until Monday! They did authorize a rental car, but the local place was already clo...

...and it's almost the weekend! As promised, here are some of the photos I took during last week's Sunday walk.  Some sweet alyssum: Rosemary that is blooming: and a pale pink rose: Up this weekend: we are down to one car due to some wiring damage in the Husband's car. Apparently some rats set up house in his car engine (ewww!) and chewed some very expensive wires. The good news is that it's covered under our comprehensive auto insurance. The bad news is that he won't get his car back until after Tuesday. One thing we'll do this weekend is make sure that anything that looks remotely like food for rats or raccoons (birdseed, cat food) is either trashed or moved into metal containers. I suspect we'll do a little cleanup of the leaves in the courtyard to discourage nesting in there. I need to double-check my studio and make sure there is no evidence of invasion.  I keep cedar blocks, scented soaps, and other scented items in the containers ...

...in which we have one-step-forward and two-steps-back versions. First, I'll show you the singles for Walking on the Sun handspun [ Ravelry ]: This is a very happy and bright colorway. For a change, I spun this from end to end; I did not split the top at all. This should make for some nice long color runs. In the one-step-forward version, I started working on the linen stitch scarf portion of Be My Baby. I was struggling switching to size US 17 needles (from US 10.5). Aside from the needle size difference, my size 17 circulars were Susan Bates, which are all plastic. The yarn simply would not move on the plastic and it was painful to get a row done. At lunchtime, I went across the street to Jo-Ann and bought the Boye version of US 17 that are made from aluminum. They are much better than the plastic ones. In the two-steps-back version, I knit about 8 rows of the linen stitch for Be My Baby and realized that I was inconsistently knitting through the back loop (KBL) fo...

...and the weekend report. I finished spinning the singles for Walking on the Sun [ Ravelry ] that I started at Spin-In last week.   The sewing machine place called early Saturday afternoon to say that my machine was fixed! Hooray!   After I picked up my sewing machine, I made a quick run to Michael's to buy more sewing machine needles.   On Sunday morning, I took my new camera out for a walk. There were a lot more things blooming than I expected. I was out about an hour, taking pictures of whatever caught my eye. I'll post some of them on Friday.   After my walk, I ran a few errands and then came home to sew. Happy dance!   I finished machine quilting I'm Just Mad About Citron. I'm debating whether to trim and bury all the threads before binding it, or just go ahead and put the binding on. The advantage to doing the binding now is that once I've finished burying and trimming the loose threads, the quilt is done. Hmmm, not quite done...I still need to mak...

...and hooray for the weekend! Today's eye candy is brought to you by the color red. On the light end, we have a pink petunia: Red strawberry leaves: and an abutilon in Lucky Lantern Red: Up this weekend:  Since my sewing machine won't be fixed yet, I can't quilt. I'll have to pull out some of the stitching projects and make progress on those. I'm pretty close to finishing the first sleeve of Be My Baby [ Ravelry ]. I should be able to finish that and transition over to the scarf portion of the project. I might have to fiddle a bit with it to make sure that I knit the proper width for the scarf portion. I hope to do a camera walk on Sunday so I can explore some of my new camera's features. The only thing that might prevent my walk is if the weather is too cold. It's been freezing at work and I'd really like to warm up a bit. Mostly, I just want to spend some quality time at home when I'm not sick! .

...in the Workin' Down the WIPs group on Ravelry , we're calling 2015 the Year of the Finish.  I have a few projects I'd like to finish this year. There are a few that might even go IDJ (It's Dead, Jim). Before I get into the WIPs list, here's the project that is currently in play. This is Be My Baby for My Baby [ Ravelry ]: This is the first sleeve of this shrug-scarf  garment. You can kind of see the thumb hole in the front. The picture was taken on Friday and the sleeve is longer now. I'm within a couple of inches of switching over to the scarf section. Update on my sewing machine: The guys who works on Pfaff machines only works on Mondays, so they are keeping my machine until then. Sigh...this means I won't be able to sew this weekend either. So it's either knitting or stitching for me.0 WIP Roll Call WIPs in Rotation: Be My Baby for My Baby (knitting) [ Ravelry ] Working on the first sleeve Works in Progress: Ghouls, ghosts, an...

...also known as the weekend report. The Husband and I finally got the Christmas tree out of the house. After mopping and vacuuming up pine needles, we put the living room back in order.    I spent Friday and Saturday nights packing up the remaining Christmas ornaments.   We had a last minute change of venue for Spin-In, but it was all good. It felt good to get back to spinning again!  I took some of the remaining Christmas cookies and biscotti as my contribution. I was happy to share them plus get them out of my house!   I spent Sunday morning putting all of the Christmas boxes away in our loft storage cabinet. It was like a giant puzzle trying to fit the boxes back into the cabinet.   I realized that the oldest ornament storage container would not longer fit into the cabinet. 40+ years ago, I started storing our ornament collection in a wicker picnic basket. At the time, it was the perfect size and the wicker provided some protection for the more de...

...almost the weekend!  I'm feeling so much better and I'm looking forward to actually working on some craft projects. Today's eye candy is mostly from work because our garden is very bare right now. This morning's sky around 7:20am: White polyanthus at the front door of our office complex. Yes, they are dirty, mostly because the gardeners' leaf blowers kick up a lot of particles. A pink polyanthus: and a pink and white polyanthus: Up this weekend: Spin In tomorrow...hooray!  I haven't done any spinning since I finished Sweetwater Spring [ Ravelry ] in November. My wheel has probably forgotten all about me. The biggest thing we want to accomplish this weekend is to get the Christmas tree out of the house and put the living room back in order. I still have all of the Star Trek ornaments to put away, as well as most of the ornaments from the main tree. I can do that while I watch a movie (or two) on TV. I'd really like to finish t...

...mostly spinning and knitting projects. For the first time in a long time, I didn't complete any quilting or sewing projects. I need to work on that for 2015! (If you are not on Ravelry, you can see pictures of these items in my Flickr photostream and sets: Knitting , Spinning , Quilting/Sewing , Needlework , and Weaving . ) Finished: Christmas Baking, etc. Bark and fudge: 13.75 pounds Biscotti: 747 Breads and fruitcakes: 22 mini-loaves and 15 medium loaves  Cookies: 805 Spicy nuts: 1.75 pounds Sugared nuts: 12.9 pounds Knitting Alcea Cowl (knitting) [ Ravelry ] Basic Chocolate Hat [ Ravelry ] Carbonized Zombie Socks (knitting) [ Ravelry ] Flock (knitting) [ Ravelry ]; set of 3 knitted birds Jack's Cousteau Hat  [ Ravelry ] Lacy Blue Hat [ Ravelry ] Loopy Mittens (knitting)  [ Ravelry ] Red No-Noro Hat [ Ravelry ] Sparkly Boot Toppers (knitting) [ Ravelry ] Stealth knitting square for a collaborative gift Teal No-Noro Hat [ Ravelry ] Wurm H...

...in which there was a lot of baking, some illness,  and not much else. I also did not read nearly as much as I usually do. Finished: 12/29 Sunny Summer, Happy Garden pillow (AKA: stealth project) 12/31 Loopy Mittens (knitting)  [ Ravelry ] Christmas baking: Bark and fudge: 13.75 pounds Biscotti: 747 Breads and fruitcakes: 22 mini-loaves and 15 medium loaves  Cookies: 805 Spicy nuts: 1.75 pounds Sugared nuts: 12.9 pounds Books: Obsidian Wings, Laken Cane New Regime, Laken Cane Black Widow, Jennifer Estep Gilded Lives, Fatal Voyage, Hugh Brewster Started: 12/24 Chunky Cowl (knitting) [ Ravelry ] Worked on: Be My Baby for My Baby (knitting) [ Ravelry ] Works In Progress, did not work on: Ghouls, ghosts, and witches...oh, my! (cross stitch) Halloween Phat Fiber samples (spinning) [ Ravelry ] I'm Just Mad About Citron Quilt (quilting) Mermaid of the Pearls (cross stitch) Tuscon Twilight (needlepoint) UFOs/Hibernation: Beyond Antares, ...

...today the blog is 9 years old. Wow! This is the longest I've ever kept a project (or any other kind of) journal. My blogging in 2014 was even more inconsistent than the previous year. I still documented my project progress, but just not as much. I'll have to check when I finish my year-end recap, but I think that I didn't have very many large projects this year, which means that my attention was scattered among little projects. If I have too many things to choose from, none of them get enough cycles, including the blog. I decided not to run a Blogiversary Contest this year because there were so few entries the last two years. If you were looking for one, sorry! Anyway, I'm happy to hit this milestone. I hope to get re-energized this year and blog a bit more consistently. I didn't work on my quilt over the weekend as I just wasn't feeling well enough. I managed to rally a bit yesterday and started deconstructing Christmas. I got quite a bit of the decora...

...a limited selection today. Sunrise 1/1/2015: A succulent dish garden in our courtyard: Poinsettia: Blue poppy: We got this plant a year ago and thought it was dead. In the last few weeks, it's added leaves and some of them are starting to turn red. On the last day of the year, I finished the Loopy Mittens [ Ravelry ] for my Loopy Academy assignment...just under the wire and I uploaded a picture before midnight. Specs: Started 11/3/14; Finished 12/31/14; Loopy Academy; Yarn: Dream in Color Classy in Lost in Plum; Pattern: Handy Mittens by Elizabeth Denne Up this weekend: I succumbed to the Husband's plague and I'm sick again. It sucks to be sick on the last few days of my vacation. I hope to feel well enough to work on my quilt over the weekend. I also need to start deconstructing Christmas. Oh and an end-of-the year recap. For now, I'm on the couch, coughing and trying to shake this fever. Ugh! .