Projects

While the cat's away, the mice will play...

Dh is gone for the week at a training series for work. Usually during his longer absences I will complete a project around the house to surprise him with for his arrival back home. Unfortunately, he accidently took the house improvement funds with him, in his wallet, on the airplane instead of giving it to me in the car at the airport as was planned. So, instead of a house improvement project, I've decided to work on things that have already been started, or that have the tools needed already lying around.

Way back in middle school, my good friend Lisa taught me to crochet while watching movies in her basement. It was very basic, and I never got more than a few rows for a "blanket" completed. Picking up a cute crocheted hat on clearance for my daughter brought those memories back and have inspired me to take up crocheting. Which then, of course, led to me teaching myself how to also knit. So in the past month, my hands have been speeding through tiny movements made with sticks and yarn to produce the endless amounts of Christmas presents required of this giving season.



In the midst of these simple hats, I've taken up the task of knitting a cableknit sweater for a dear neice who's about to turn one. Teaching yourself to knit and purl is one thing, trying to figure out cableknit and sweater patterns is another!! I'm one of those fools who hates to follow directions. I hate reading notes while playing the piano, hate drawing out a plan for painting, and never follow a pattern while sewing. Hence the many, many mistakes I always make!! So, this sweater is a work of learning art.





I know the estimated lengths and widths, so I'm hoping that the more I work on it, the more it will begin looking like a sweater. And I am hoping hard that I will actually finish this before her mid-November birthday!

Last night on a whim, I decided to do something I haven't done in a long time, and make something for myself. Inspired by these skirts, and the one Ashley just made, I decided to grab some handfuls of material I have piled up in the back room and make myself a skirt. It's huge, but the drawstring waist saves that fact. I still need to add a pocket and some applique work. Hopefully I'll finish it and add a pic later on.