Texas projects

Dennis and I were both put to work this weekend in Texas. :) Dennis and James built a cabinet for the upstairs media room.



I on the other hand, put my crochet skills to work. I made Stacy a seven foot scarf to match her blue coat Saturday night. On Sunday I made Laura a pink one on the way home.

Jessica's group

And here is Jessica's group. She is sitting on another girl's shoulder in one picture. She was quiet upset on Friday because the other girl was sick and she didn't think she could come so she was very happy when she showed up.

Color Guard trooper of the day

This girl deserved some kind of award IMHO

Texas weekend

We took vacation on Friday and went to Texas, picking up Laura on our way. Jessica was in a winter guard competition on Saturday. This was her first one so we really didn't know what to expect - all we knew was that she had to be at the school at 6 am and picked up at 11:30 pm. Even considering the event location was about an hour away from the school that sure seemed like a long day. Plus she was not even going to be fed all day - she could either pack a breakfast, lunch and supper or buy at the concession stand. She chose to pack all three meals. Her group was to preform at around 11 so we went a little early to watch other groups. The event had a concession stand and vendors with some very cute t-shirts, necklaces and other items. We also stayed to watch some after her.

The competition was nothing like we expected - it was much better! There were 72 groups starting at 8 in the morning and ending at 9:30 in the evening so that answered the "what is she going to do all day" question. She watched groups before her group preformed and watched the ones after. Many of the groups brought out "floors" to put preform on - large vinyl pieces held together by duct tape and carried out by 20 or so kids. This explained the t-shirt that said "give me some duct tape and I can fix anything"

None of these groups were Jessica's group.

Dot. The world's smallest stop-motion animation character shot on a Noki...

This little video is amazing but of course the ending is my favorite part

Knitting and Crochet projects

I have been a knitting and crocheting machine of late. True, I have two big projects that have been neglected because of impulse small projects, but it sure is fun to see completed crafts.
The first were some small little red crocheted hearts. The idea is to put magnets on the back but I know three little girls that want them so they can do what they wish with them. They take about five minutes to make and are cute as can be.

Next interruption was for fingerless gloves. I have seen many patterns for these and thought they were cute but didn't realize they were also very popular until Jessica told me that she loved them. I had a pattern and left over yarn from her hat so went to work on a pair. Not only are they cute but they take less than 2 hours to make and I think she is going to like them.


Of course I had to take Jessica's glove to work to show it off to my friends and Michelle L said her daughter would love a pair. Since Michelle is my back up when I am gone (and I am gone a lot anymore) I want to keep her happy. So this weekend another pair was made.


Speaking of Michelles - another friend at work Michelle S joined the grandma club recently a little sooner than expected. Little Avery came about a month early so I am not done with the project I started for her so crocheted this little hat this weekend for her. Met her last week - all 4 pounds 8 ounces and she is a little doll.


On Sunday the triplets came to visit and I discovered that the mitten I made Izzy didn't fit after all. It is a bit too big and was causing her all kinds of distress. I told her I would make her a new pair and managed that this afternoon.


I don't like the way this blog works with pictures so hope adding this line makes the words match up with the right picture

My last project was a very simple one - pillows for Stacy. She made a beautiful quilt last year and wanted a couple of throw pillows for it - after all the work she did on that quilt I do not understand why she didn't make the pillows herself but she is a bit busier than I am. She gave me some material from the quilt and I bought a couple of pillow forms from JoAnns Fabrics and got them done Saturday.

Final yarn organization procedure

I did the final step of my yarn organization. I bought 12 plastic name tag sleeves for $1.88 at Walmart. Then I used the back of my business cards and wrote what yarn is in each basket. I have a ton of business cards that will soon be pitched, so thought it was a good use for the cards. It made it so nice to go in today and find the basket that had pink on it and pull it out to get the pink yarn I needed for the mittens. And as I knit up the contents of each basket (please stop laughing) I can change the cards very easily.

Mittens - I have wanted to try mittens for awhile and found a very easyfree pattern last week on the Lion Brand website. Most mittens are made in the round using four double pointed needles and although I know how to use the dpns, I am not quick at it and get frustrated. I know myself well enough to know that making three pairs would never happen if I had to use dpns. The pattern has the mitten knitted flat then folded in half and the seam sewed. They came out adorable! The first pair looked too big but fit Izzy. I made the size smaller this weekend and it fit both Lily and Audrey. I crocheted a chain between the two mittens so they can be slipped through the sleeves of their jackets. Now I have one more pair to make and tomorrow off for Martin Luther King day. They knit quickly so I should have the last pair for the triplets done by Tuesday. The best part of the project is that not only did the yarn match their coats - it was in my yarn stash! Two pair used up one package so I am quickly on my way to busting my stash!

259 workers at work

Hubby took me to work this morning because the roads were still slick. Since he has to be at work at 7 I ended up at work an hour early - 6:45 instead of 7:45. The district snow removal crew was hard at work when I got there. They were trying so hard to get the lot cleared before everyone got there and parked in it. It was dark and quite fun to watch the different vehicles racing around the lot from my sixth floor window.

School was canceled for today so the parking lot never did fill up. Many took the day off and those working at our building on a teacher contract didn't have to come in. It was a very quiet day for those of us there but quite chilly at the beginning. Some offices were 58 degrees this morning. Mine started at 62 but gradually warmed up by lunchtime.

Mondays

I have started to love Mondays. As most know, I retire in June and the school district will only pay you 160 hours of vacation when you leave. I happen to have an abundance of vacation and temporary leave hours so I have scheduled myself on vacation almost every Monday from now until June. I think I am working four more Mondays in my career. Today I looked brilliant for scheduling a vacation day. We got four inches of snow and the roads are a mess.

I also decided that my vacation days are for being on vacation. I ran the sweeper this morning and the rest of the day sat downstairs working on a cross stitch project.

Cross stitching was my passion until three years ago when I learned to knit. Somehow knitting became more than a hobby - I am addicted to the actual knitting but also reading about knitting, finding patterns and yes, buying yarn. My cross stitch projects have suffered.

I have crocheted for over 35 years, making doilies at first then afghans by the gazillion. Who knows how many afghans I have made over the years as most have been given to family members. Crocheting never got in the way of cross stitching though the way knitting has. So my Mondays are going to be spent cross stitching. I have one project that I have been working on longer than I want to admit and a lot of projects in the wings.

I have two cross stitch projects with first place ribbons from the Kansas State Fair and I have five grandchildren so I need to get busy and get three more first place ribbons so they don't fight over the projects when I am gone. :) Or at least one more so each of my kids get one and they can decide which grandkids get the ones with the ribbons.

Grandma Duty

This week Lily was sick so I had grandma duty on Wednesday. Izzy and Audrey went to daycare so Lily and I had a day of watching tv, coloring and reading books. I also knitted quite a bit as at 11:30 she announced she wanted to go to bed and then slept for over two hours. It is so different to only have one around instead of three. Slightly boring but very relaxing.

Friday night I had all three so their folks could go see Tron at the new Imax theater. The bad thing about babysitting in the evening is that they go to bed by 7:30 so we didn't have much playing time but did get to cuddle a bit.

Sewing room

My knitting hobby has created an abundance of yarn so in December I came up with an idea on how to get more organized. Dennis got me shelves and he and the girls got me the fabric baskets to go in shelves. Then the day after Christmas I took everything out of the walk in closet in my sewing room. I can't believe I had so much stuff in that closet! Dennis put together the shelves and then I started organizing the yarn. Two weeks later I finally finished. Along with yarn and craft supplies there were a lot of other things in the closet that got moved to the basement or trashed or given to the DAV. That was the easy part. Trying to decide how to sort the yarn was the hard part. I started with types of yarn, had a basket for all cotton and another for sock yarn. Two more baskets have the kits that I have put together, mostly from the yarn hop. Another had special yarn such as the yarn that my friend Jan brought back from her trip overseas. The rest was harder to decide and I may change the way I have it. I also bought plastic name tags to attach to the handles so I can put a card in them telling what is in each basket. That will be much easier than pulling out every basket trying to find something. Even I have decided I have too much yarn and plan to go on a yarn diet. I am going to get most of this knitted up before I buy more. Well, at least get a basket empty!

Few more pictures

Just a few more random pictures of our Christmas.

Jessica's Hat

I finished Jessica's hat - the first project from the yarn hop that I went on in October. I just realized I never did a post on the yarn hop so that needs to be done sometime so the projects will make more sense. :) Jessica loved the hat and apparently one of her friends has one similar which is always good. The hat is from the book "hattitude" by Cathy Carron and is called "Aloof". The yarn was Berroco, Ultra Alpaca fine which is about the weight of sock yarn so the hat seemed to take long time to finish. Making a hat with worsted weight yarn goes so much quicker! I bought this package of yarn at Yarns Sold and Told in Salina. It was across the street from the theater where we saw Straight No Chaser the night before. This shop was large and the people there were very friendly and helpful. They also gave very nice freebies to hoppers.

Christmas 2010

We had a great Christmas - actually a series of them. Christmas Eve was spent with Jimmy and family. We went out to eat then back to their house to open presents. On Christmas Day we drove to Ponca City and had dinner with Laura and opened more presents. Then on New Year's Eve we picked up Laura and drove to Stacy's house to have another celebration there. Jimmy and family also came so we had a great time together. We came back on New Year's Day so it was a quick trip but it was nice for everyone to have a Sunday to recover before going back to work on Monday.

Usually we have to work a few days between Christmas and New Years but this year there was a mandatory shut down of all district buildings so we had the week off. I never knew five days could go by so fast! We bought new cell phones so that blew one day as we had to play on them most of Monday. We also went to the Haysville Fish Market, a new little cafe in Haysville that was just great. We will absolutely go back.

Dennis gave me shelves for the sewing room closet to organize my yarn so some of the week was spent working on that project. I am not finished with it yet - I had more yarn than I thought! I need to get to knitting yarn and not buying yarn. :)