Livin' La Needle Loca

...yes, I'm still here!  Our office move sucked up most of my energy for the last couple of weeks. Once I got home, all I wanted to do was sleep! One of the things that happened in the last week is that the Husband and I celebrated (and I use that term loosely) our 30th wedding anniversary on Monday. Monday was moving day...right. We got married on the anniversary of our first date, the pivotal date where I started looking at him as for than a friend. It was also the first date where we took my daughter with us. She was almost 3 years old. January 25th is "our" anniversary--for all three of us. The Daughter sent flowers: and a calla lily in the bouquet: The Husband bought some flowers to plant in the garden. These are bleeding hearts: Red anemone: and blue anemone: Up this weekend: I need to catch up on some sleep. Then do some of the housework that has fallen by the wayside in the last couple of weeks. After that, crafts would be good. .

...Spinnity! Congratulations!  Let's chat about when to receive your prize. Thanks to all who commented! You're the best! .

I extended the entry deadline by a day because I forgot to send out a reminder. You have until midnight tonight, 1/19/16 to enter the contest. To enter, comment on my 1/5/16 post by Midnight PST, Monday 1/18/16. The prize is 1 skein of BMFA Socks That Rock Lightweight in Wavelength. I'll draw and post the winner tomorrow, 1/20/16. Good luck!  . .

...fewer spinning and knitting projects, but more quilting and stitching projects. I read fewer books, but many were huge! (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: 12 pounds Biscotti: 666 Breads and fruitcakes: 26 mini-loaves and 14 medium loaves Cookies: 772 Spicy nuts: 2 pounds Sugared nuts: 10.75 pounds Knitting Beaded Knitting Sampler Beyond Antares Blue No-Noro Hat for Halos of Hope Gray Ribbed Hat Irisa Cowl/Scarf (knitting for Loopy Academy) Parritch Bonnet Serpiente Snow Queen Hat Stitching Backstitching on some nearly completed ornaments (cross stitch) Ghouls, ghosts, and witches...oh, my! (cross stitch) Happy Wishes scissor fob (cross stitch) Sail (cross stitch) Santa Fe #5 (needlepoint) Scaredy Sheep scissor fob (cross stitch) Sheep Scissor Companion (cross stitc...

...and again I have missed my regular postings. Sagh.  This office move combined with client work and normal HR tasks that I need to perform has me spinning in circles. Today, the only eye candy I can offer you are oranges: and a weird-looking cactus: Up this weekend: Who knows....maybe some sleep. Maybe some crafts. Maybe a year-end recap. Contest! To enter, comment on my 1/5/16 post by Midnight PST, Monday 1/18/16. The prize is 1 skein of BMFA Socks That Rock Lightweight in Wavelength. I'll do the random number thing and post the winner on Wednesday, 1/20/16. Good luck!  .

...and the weekend report. Spin-In was great! It was wonderful to start a new spin and chat with the other spinners. I took some of the remaining Christmas cookies as my contribution. As I mentioned in a previous post, I really hated the linen stitch on the Be My Baby for My Baby [ Ravelry ] project. One of my friends, recommended trying another stitch at the end of what I currently have to see whether I liked it better. I knit a few rows of garter stitch and was immediately happy with the way the fabric felt and the way it draped. After thinking about it overnight, I pulled out the 23 inches I had already knit, back to the lifeline at the end of the sleeve stitching. I then restarted the scarf portion in garter stitch using the same size 17 needles. By the end of Sunday, I had knit 12 inches of garter stitch. By the end of Monday night's Craft Coffee session, I was at 19 inches, almost back to where I was! And I'm happy with it...hooray! I delivered the last goodie bag tod...

...I actually finished something other than baking! Finished: 12/26 Going Snow Global quilt (quilting) 12/20 Snow Queen Hat (knitting) [ Ravelry ] 12/24 Gray Ribbed Hat (knitting) [ Ravelry ] Christmas baking: Bark and fudge: 12 pounds Biscotti: 666 Breads and fruitcakes: 26 mini-loaves and 14 medium loaves  Cookies: 772 Spicy nuts: 2 pounds Sugared nuts: 10.75 pounds Books: Shadowstorm, Skye Knizley Stormrage, Skye Knizley Stormrise, Skye Knizley Stars of Fortune, Nora Roberts Raintree: Haunted, Linda Winstead Jones The Royal We, Heather Cocks Started: 12/17 Gray Ribbed Hat (knitting) [ Ravelry ] 12/20 Snow Queen Hat (knitting) [ Ravelry ] Worked on: Be My Baby for My Baby (knitting) [ Ravelry ] Calypso handspun (spinning) [ Ravelry ] Works In Progress, did not work on: Canto de Sirena shawl (knitting) [ Ravelry ] Empress handspun [ Ravelry ] UFOs/Hibernation: Celaeno Shawl (knitting) [ Ravelry ] Mermaid of the Pearls (cross stitch) Pea...

...blog and run. This is pink knotweed, a ground cover growing in our courtyard. Don't forget to enter my contest! To enter, comment on my 1/5/16 post by Midnight PST, Monday 1/18/16. The prize is 1 skein of BMFA Socks That Rock Lightweight in Wavelength. I'll do the random number thing and post the winner on Wednesday, 1/20/16. Good luck! Up this weekend: Spin-In tomorrow...yay! That is all... .

...after completing a couple of WIPs, I'm back to the long- suffering standing WIPs. HI haven't shown a photo of the Be My Baby [ Ravelry ] project in a while. I am working on the scarf portion of the piece. It's 67 inches of linen stitch. And you can add linen stitch to the list of things I hate to knit! If I wasn't 23 inches into this, I'd rip back to my lifeline and start this again in garter stitch. I think it would drape better and it certainly would knit up faster! I forgot to mention that I finished spinning Calypso [ Ravelry ]. No photos yet. Contest! We have some entries in my Blogiversary contest. Yay! To enter, comment on my 1/5/16 post by Midnight PST, Monday 1/18/16. The prize is 1 skein of BMFA Socks That Rock Lightweight in Wavelength. I'll do the random number thing and post the winner on Wednesday, 1/20/16. Good luck! **WIP Roll Call** Worked on: Be My Baby for My Baby (knitting) [ Ravelry ] Works In Progress, did ...

...can you believe it? I started this blog January 5, 2006 as a way to track my projects. I also wanted to share my projects with friends and anyone else who might be interested. Getting large numbers of followers was never my goal. The blog is a great way to gauge how a particular project is progressing, and it's fun to finally show a completed project. It's also my journal of how things are going with me and mine, at least in a general way. In the last year, I've thought about moving the blog to my website ( http://solarbrations.com/ ) and started to research how to do that. Obviously, I didn't get very far. For now, I'm leaving it here. I might move it later. So, how about a contest for my 10th Blogiversary? Leave a comment on this post by Midnight PST, Monday 1/18/16. (No, multiple comments will not give you multiple entries!) I'll do the random number thing and post the winner on Wednesday, 1/20/16. The prize is 1 skein of BMFA Socks Th...

...a little late for a first post of the year and I totally missed the first Eye Candy Friday. Obviously, I'm still not in the swing of things. Now that I'm back to work, there's a small chance that things will get back to normal! To make up for missing Eye Candy Friday, here is a photo of the Australian finger limes that we are growing on the back yard: The inside of the limes have caviar-like vesicles: If you put them in carbonated water, they look really cool floating up and down. The holidays were busy and I really had trouble getting motivated after Christmas. I never did get my Christmas letter written, much less mail out any Christmas cards. Maybe I'll get some New year cards out... I hope to post the December recap, followed by the 2015 year-end recap some time this week, depending on how much I need to catch up on from being out 2 weeks. And tomorrow is my Blogiversary! I started blogging in 2006...10 years ago! Can you believe it? So I'm ...