Happy Halloween!

Vest Progress

Here's what I have so far on the first of three hooded vests. This one is Levi's.




It still needs the trim and the two drawstrings. Hopefully I will get them started tomorrow. More pics to follow.

It's Halloween in Singapore

So I'm going to show this off. :-)

The first successful study and sculpt of anything resembling a face. And I made it especially for San's palace!

I was working off of these images:
I have to admit I was nervous about sending this mini clear to the other side of the globe. Add that to the hope that San would like it and you get a frazzled Kat. ;-)

Rosana's Christmas Swap

Just to let folks know, dearest Rosana is playing hostess to a Christmas-themed miniature swap.

She writes: "Why don't we do a Christmas swap on our own?

A circle swap would be easier and each one of us would only do one piece.

I think it should be Christmas related and mailed at the beginning of December to let the Mail Service to do its job."

I've already signed up. If you are interested, here is the original blog post.

Lighthouse

It's done and framed. :-)

Now to get it wrapped and giving to it's recipient.

Best Treasure Ever!

Here is my long awaited post about the lovely treasure made by Jodi Creager for Ara's "Up From the Basement" swap.

I am in absolute love with her!Isn't she the most lovely dearly-departed you've ever seen?

She is intended to become mistress of my haunted San Fran when I get it back from storage and start work on it again. Until then I think she will have to be Ezzie's house guest in the witch's house. Of course this means I have to get Ezzie's house started and Ezzie made. Oh darn. ;-)

Thank you again, Jodi for such a beautiful doll.

Give and Take

FH gave me whatever viral nastiness he came down with last week. I am typing with tired hands and bleary eyes right now. He has run off to play in the woods with a compound bow and arrows tipped with broadhead points. Hopefully he gets something; the freezer is getting bare.

The washing machine drama is not yet over. It was supposed to come with the new dryer on Thursday. Somehow the washer ended up being marked for dock pick up at a store two and a half hours from our house whilst the dryer showed up on time. They tried bringing us the washer today but the wrong one was on the truck. I'm about ready to start spitting nails, but I fear the loss of iron would make me feel even worse.

Five days ago my nephew and his wife welcomed their third child into this world. Baby Beau joins big sister, Sadie, and big brother, Levi. For those of you wondering about generational mathematics, this particular nephew and niece-in-law are the same age as me. That's what happens when you have brothers and sisters old enough to be your parents.

I finished the layette. It still needs to be washed and blocked but here are pictures of the jacket:I made the 6 month size, so it will not fit our friend's daughter until Easter. But I think it will look great over an Easter dress. :-)

Jumping back to the family news, I decided it would be fun to make matching sweaters for Sadie, Levi, and Beau. I found a pattern for a vest with a hood in one of my crochet books. Each one will be a different color and size, but otherwise they will match. I thought them posing together in their sweaters would be a fun picture opportunity for their parents.

I've started on Levi's already. I'm actually further along than these pictures suggest. The back is finished and I've almost gotten one of the front pieces finished. I really just don't feel like playing with the camera right now.Here's a closer look at the texture.I'm using a DK yarn by Sirdar for all three of them. Levi's is called "blue twist."

I know I still need to get the promised pictures of my treasure from Jodi up here. Maybe if I can find some energy I can fight my way through the jumble of furniture (everything is still out of place from the attempts at large appliance delivery) to where I stashed her away from the cats. I think I will go ponder the situation and see what happens.

More On the Layette

FH was home sick today. While waiting at the doctor's office I was able to get quite a bit done on the layette. The bonnet is completely finished. The bow was extremely simple but dull. No other way to describe 60 rows of single crochet. ;-)

Found that all the leaf appliqués are complete but the only large flower I had originally made has a visible mistake when compared to one I worked this morning. Worked a second new one for the hat. Need three more for the jacket.

I successfully reworked, trimmed, and attached the flowers to the booties. I still need to get some ribbon to lace them.
Now I just need to trim the jacket, make three more big flowers, find some small buttons, and attach everything.

I missed the Quilter's meeting this morning so I could get FH checked out by a doctor. I may miss the Knitter/Crocheter meeting on Thursday, depending on when the new washer and dryer will be delivered.

Tomorrow FH goes back to work and I will probably work on the lighthouse since it needs to be finished sooner rahter than later. If I make it to the meeting Thursday morning I can play with the jacket trims then.

I have some pictures to take of my newest treasure, but I missed my chance during daylight to get them today. Here's hoping tomorrow is as gorgeous as today was.

Where've I Been?

Ara knows I've been spending the last few weeks chained to the kitchen table while I worked on the swap item for Sans. I had to stay away from the blog to prevent any temptation of blogging about the project. Unfortunately mum is still the word until the big unveiling on Halloween.

On top of that our washing machine decided to die the day before my birthday. We went and looked at some and ended up getting one I wasn't overly fond of in favor of the high energy efficiency idea. In short, the new machine sucks rotten eggs. I hate it. The only thing good about it is it looks cool. We have since gone back to the store and told them they are going to take it back from whence it came and trade it in on a new washer dryer set that is more like what I wanted in the first place. Not sure when this drama will officially be over, but I believe it will be sometime after the hE washer is gone and the new set is delivered and installed. Here is what my hallway looks like right now and it will only get worse as the days pass.
Even Confetti is afraid to go down there. The piles of laundry are scary!

My workroom (glorified craft closet) is also terrifying.
But I have no intentions of dealing with it for at least a few weeks.

I also have been stealing time to work on the lighthouse cross stitch. Luckily one of the special interest groups for our Stitcher's Guild is "Counted Threads" so I was able to stitch at our meeting last week. As of this moment I just need to finish the rock at the bottom with one color and complete the remaining back-stitching. I have to have this finished, blocked, and framed by Friday.
Somehow I found the time to work on more of the layette I showed you all a few weeks ago. Here's the bonnet. I still need to make the ties, do the trim, and do the decorative motifs. The recipient was born Thursday morning, but this won't fit her until Easter so I don't have to rush.

Yesterday was the Annual Spin In for the Bishop Hill Fiber Guild. It was an extremely productive day. I met other people on Ravelry, did the work on the bonnet, learned how to use my spinning wheel, bought a fleece, picked up a nice skein of Merino, played with Angora bunnies, and took a class in microwave dying.This fleece is from a sweet little ewe lamb named Beyonce. If you click here you can hop to the website with her picture. She is a Romney crossed with a Border Leicester-Wensleydale cross.I am going to enjoy this once the new washer gets here.

The dying class was a lot of fun. We learned how to use acid dyes, Kool Aid, and Wilton Cake dyes for fibers. These two pictures show fiber I dyed with acid dyes.This one shows fiber I painted with Wilton Cake dye.
Once the color is on, you wrap the fiber in saran wrap and put it in the microwave. I took these pictures after the fiber was cooled and rinsed. I plan in spinning the actual roving at some point. I'm not sure what I will do with the mixed yarns from the first photo.

Tuesday our Guild's quilters are meeting to discuss what types of techniques we want to learn and see who wants to teach them. If I can get to it, I may take the purple and blue quilt to get basted...maybe.

I do have some minis that need to be made before Christmas. And an ornament for the Stitcher's Guild ornament exchange... and gifts for family, etc to be working on for the next several weeks.

That's pretty much everything worth mentioning. Here's hoping the washer issue gets resolved quickly so I can quit making phone calls and dealing with it. I know I have some new followers to welcome and a couple of awards to accept. I will try to get to that Monday. There's just so much to do and so much to catch up on.