Livin' La Needle Loca

...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: 4-shaft sampler (weaving) [ Ravelry ] Bear Paw pottery (needlepoint) Mother of Dragons shawl (knitting)  [ Ravelry ] Sea of Dreams baby quilt (quilting) St. Charles (needlepoint) Valley of the Heart's Delight sampler design (cross stitch) UFOs/Hibernation: Be My Baby ...

...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 ...

...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 ...

...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 thing...

...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: 4-shaft sampler (weaving) [ Ravelry ] Bear Paw pottery (needlepoint) Finishing work St. Charles (needlepoint) Valley of the Heart's Delight sampler design (cross stitch) UFOs/Hibernation: Be My Baby for My Baby (knitting) [ Ravelry ] Canto de Sirena shawl (knitting) [ Ravelry ] Celaeno Shawl (knitting) [ Ravelry ] Mermaid of the Pearls (cross stitch) Peacock Pomatomus socks (knitting)...

...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. 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. 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! 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. I spent the rest of the afternoon, sewing together...

...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: 4-shaft sampler (weaving) [ Ravelry ] Bear Paw pottery (needlepoint) Finishing work Mother of Dragons shawl (knitting)  [ Ravelry ] St. Charles (needlepoint) Valley of the Heart's Delight sampler design (cross stitch) UFOs/Hibernation: Be My Baby for My Baby (knitting) [ Ravelry ] Canto de Sirena shawl (knitting) [ Ravelry ] Celaeno Shawl (knitting) [ Ravelry ] Mermaid of the Pearls (cross stitch) Peacock Pomatomus socks (knitting) [ Ravelry ] Peacock Majesty by Just Nan (cross stitch) Tucson Twilight (needlepoint) WIPs To Be: A peacock or mermaid quilt for me.

...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 ...