It's all craziness I tell you!!!!

I guess with the start of school and all, I have been so crazy busy lately. So an update is in order.
The coolest thing we've done lately, (in my opinion) was we went to our backyard and picked some apples and I made some apple butter. If you follow that link you'll find the recipe I used. The girls had a lot of fun picking the apples as you can see. We used a ladder and everything. (as the bead explained to my DH when we were done) I am really overjoyed at the idea of getting apples from the tree out back. Don't ask me why it just makes me all kinds of happy. (yes I'm a dork)

The next coolest thing I've been doing is sewing. I found some great t-shirt surgery tutorials and I tried one of them on a tie-dyed t-shirt. I think it turned out really interesting. It's definitely something I'm going to have to try again. Basically you take a large t-shirt or one with a stain or hole or even one that's too small for you and get out your scissors and cut and sew it into something you actually want to wear. I took that plain old man's XL t-shirt and turned it into a girly and sparkly v-neck (something definitely showing off the girls better) Here's another link to some tutes for you (if that type of sewing interests you)

I also spun up some angora for a friend, crocheted some squares for a comfort blanket, Knit some death socks and worked on a test knit. (that I'm still working on but almost finished)

Oh and I also made this crazy cute Owl key chain or zipper pull that I'm going to/HAVE to write up a quick pattern for. (or so I'm told)
And did I tell you that the girls got a new pet? It's a hamster. 
I think that's about it for an update... as usual you're most likely to find me over at ravelry, in the HPKCHC group. 
I've got another blog post running through my head so I'll be back sooner than later!

Do you listen to podcasts?

I love listening to podcasts. (in fact i'm obsessed with it) it's great for walking, spinning, knitting, and just all around fun! One of the podcast I listen to is Getting Loopy, it's all about crochet fun. Well every week she has a contest to enter and you can win a prize. Guess what!?! a couple of weeks ago I won! and last week I got the yarn I won in the mail. Its pretty isn't it? I'm not sure what to make it with. Any ideas?

Another podcast I listen to is Knitmore girls. I love it. well they had a head to toe contest. for designing preemie hats. I made one up and submitted it, and it was picked for a prize. I haven't received it yet but I'm sure I will soon. It's sooo exciting! So do you listen to any podcasts? lmk which ones b/c I'm interested.

One of my Summer Projects

Thanks to the Ravelry Group DIY tools, I found this tute. Of course I had to try it, I got my DH to do the cutting for me. (b/c I can just see myself sawing something I need off). I'd measured and marked everything for him to cut. Then I needed to find someone with a drill press. Luckily my BIL had one and he allowed me to bring myself and the kiddos over while He and my DH drilled the holes for me. So I had all the parts sawed, and I sanded them till they were smooth. The hardest/longest part was sawing the heads off the nails with the dremmel. After that was done the nails were epoxied in place and I glued the two pieces of wood together and attached a handle. It was from an old grilling tool that I hadn't used in a long time so I re-purposed the handle. I only put a handle on one of the

combs b/c I figured I'd be using the other one attached to the table. Then I tried them out. The weren't awesome but worked completely well. I loved it. I'm slowly working on the unprocessed wool a friend gave me. Look at my little nests! So much fun. I'm off to process more wool. Now if only someone would send me a sheep or an alpaca or both!

What to Knit with these wonderful skeins?

A couple of weeks ago I went on a dying binge. I was actually dying some yarn for my etsy store. With the left over dye I thought I would dye some roving. I broke some up into 4oz sections and dyed away. It was a lot of fun. Of course I couldn't let the roving sit that long with out spinning it. 

So first I took the Peacock roving and got to work. I named it Peacock b/c it reminds me of the colors of a peacock feather. I decided to try my hand at spinning a cabled yarn. Which is taking the singles plying them together and then plying those together. (4 ply total) Here's a close up of the yarn.
  I'm unsure of what kind of wool this is. because my sister got it at a garage sale. But it works out fine for me to play with. 

The second 4oz of wool I dyed with the Twilight book cover in mind. I use only 2 colors, black and red. They blended really well and it just turned out LOVELY! I am really amazed at how wonderful the roving turned out.

Spinning this yarn was a lot of fun. The colors changing as I was spinning was exciting to see. I've got to to try dying with only 2 colors again. This yarn I just plied a 2 ply yarn. It's so lovely i'm just staring at it. Here's a closer photo of this yarn. of course there's more photos in my handspun set over at flickr. I really enjoyed how the grey parts and the pink parts plied together and look almost purple.  And I have one more 4oz roving left, from this dying binge, to spin up. This one is named Flaming Forrest. and I can't wait to spin it up.

Summer Fun!

I've been creating things like crazy lately. So much I made a mosaic to show it all. Most of it had been made for my Etsy store. with the exception of my new green sheep  hook for my spinning wheel. I geeked out too making all the HP stuff. but I love it!
Here's the links to the photos if you're interested.
1. green sheep, 2. sheepy hook, 3. dragon stitch markers, 4. yellow and black, 5. my fave colors, 6. ravenclaw, 7. stitch markers, 8. slytherin, 9. bronze and blue, 10. gryffindor, 11. hogwarts, 12. top of yarnlet bag, 13. needle/hook roll, 14. pretty toile, 15. tall flowers, 16. small yarnlet
 Today I went to Home Depot and got some stuff to make myself a  comb and hackle! I'm so excited to do that. Now I've just got to find someone with a drill press so I can drill the holes. Then I'll be processing fiber like a champ. Now all I've got to do is make a diz.
that's not all my Garden has exploded!

See this is the right half.  My zucchini, cucumbers, radishes, carrots, beans, peas, a few tomato plants and, I was hoping, some peppers but I don't think they're going to do well this year.
This is the first year I planted carrots and radishes. the radishes are doing well and I'm not sure when I'm supposed to harvest the carrots, they don't look ready yet. we'll have to wait and see. 

and the Left half that's my lettuce, onions some garlic (i hope) and more tomatoes and cucumbers.
What you don't see is the watermelon and pumpkin and corn. they're up further past the main halves. I also have a pot of mint (just started) and a pepper out by the porch. But I can't remember if it's a hot pepper or regular bell.  I was hoping to can some salsa this year. I may need to stop at the store and get a jalapeno plant. inside i have some lemon balm in water trying to get roots, and dill, basil from last year and hopefully some cilantro.
with all the rain we've had the garden has been doing well and gone a little crazy. I've gotten some radishes and a few zucchini and onions so far. the cukes are almost ready. I'm hoping the tomatoes come in this year. they never did last year.
so we're surrounded by green things right now. Not that we mind at all!
ok well I've got laundry to do. (if only that was fun)

I've been busy!

I've been keeping up with my HPKCHC group on ravelry and my job is to do the CRR (common room recaps) for those who are away. so I'm usually found on the Gryffindor House Cuppers blog doing the CRR's. But I figure I should update my blog more often.. so I wanted to stop in and say HEY! 

I have been taking a photos though for my project365 group on ravelry. So I wanted to share what I've been doing... Here's the photos from the last 36 days. At the beginning of June we went to WI to visit with my family and we stayed for a week and a half. While we were there, my Sister and I  had a Ravelry meet up in Milwaukee with 2 other ravelers it was a lot of fun. When we got home it got really hot and the girls have been playing in the pool a lot, trying to stay cool. My garden is going well and I'm glad for that. I'm starting to get my first few veggies. which is always exciting! Life is a little crazy, my DH has started school and I'm getting ready for home school next year.
Here's the links to all the photos if you want to know more about what I did the past month or so. I've got all the photos with little blurbs about what they are.. go check them out!
1. bento lunch, 2. hawaiian, 3. raw but clean, 4. dyed and drying, 5. 1st ever!, 6. hiding, 7. down the hill, 8. say cheese, 9. windy day, 10. ravelry meet up, 11. from above, 12. 5 grandkids, 13. fingerless mitts., 14. the mess, 15. yum yum yum, 16. raddishes, 17. batt of the month, 18. elliptical, 19. new pool, 20. goggles, 21. ready to be stuffed, 22. green garden, 23. sock progress, 24. soooo hot, 25. time to ply, 26. painted girls, 27. gerbel sitting, 28. black beauty, 29. iced coffee, 30. first veg, 31. zuchinni flower, 32. Mocha, 33. bike ride, 34. stopped and watching, 35. 1st zuchinni, 36. goggle girl

Created with fd's Flickr Toys

I hope you're having a great summer! I'll be back soon!

So Excited!

I'm so excited for this movie I can hardly wait till November! Are you excited yet?

Facebook in Real Life

This is hilarious!

Dyeing!

So I've been really busy lately but I've been able to keep up with posting over at the gryffindor blog for the HPKCHC, so there's no excuse for my lack of posting. I hope my fabulous adventure in dyeing can help by keeping you distracted.

 I used this tutorial to get me started. and Picked 3 colors Pink, Blue and Green. then I started squeezing the colors on to the roving.When I was finished it got wrapped up in saran wrap and rolled up like sushi and put in a pot to steam for about an hour. When I pulled it out of the pot, I realized that the blue kinda took over. So next time I'll have to be aware of how that works out. 
But after it dried and was  braided, I really like how it turned out. I can't wait to see how it will look spun up. I'm just itching to try it again. Though I only have  a few more rovings to dye. But my sister did just pick me up some more wool. 

This spinning thing is sooo awesome. 

Great Video Tute.

I found this video about how not to get ladders when working in the round with a Purl row. I think it is really helpful to anyone who'd going to knit in the round. Watch it and LMK what you think.

Win something free!!

I've been all non-bloggy lately but that doesn't mean I haven't been around. I've been following Knock-Off Wood now for a while and I love that site. I'm budgeting, right now, to buy some wood to build a bed for me and my DH. then I want to build some shelves for the girls' room and build them some beds too. The possiblities are sooo endless. I love that site! Well when I was reading KOW's latest post she shared a contest for a Free Mosaic Kit over at Inspired. She has a great website that sells Pink tools they're great! Go Check it out and enter to win!

ignore this post

I made some badges for HPKCHC so just ignore this post!

DIY mugs

So over at ravelry I'm taking part in a coffee/knitting swap. Part of our swap needed to be handmade.  I got  to thinking, what goes good with coffee and yarn? how about a mug? I shared with my sister and she loved the idea so I thought you'd like to see it also! Here are the tools I needed
some white mugs (I was looking for clear ones but couldn't find any)
rubbing alcohol,
paint brushes,
ceramic/enamel paint. (found at the local michaels) I got the water based kind.
I figured I can't draw that great so a saying would be key. I used a piece of paper and wrote down what I wanted my mugs to say, to have spelling working and all that jazz. I had two I really liked, but "I don't have a problem with caffeine I have a problem with out it" wouldn't really fit.  So "Coffee.Knit.Repeat" won. So I slowly painted on the words then let them dry for about 10 min . I'm amazed at how shaky my hands were. Then I repainted them and let them dry for about an hour. The directions on the paint said to put the items in a cold oven heat to 350 then bake for 30 min and remove from a cold oven. the Black turned out better so that's the one I sent on to my partner. I really hope she likes the mug.  I really like how they turned out. What do you think? I plan on getting better at painting and making more mugs to use as gifts. they're a lot of fun to make. If you try it share the photos with me!
To celebrate my creativity I made myself a cappuccino!

Hey Look!

a quick distraction.... I posted about socks over here

a new pretty spindle
and a new spinning wheel
more to come about those later

Scarves the word of the week!

 I've been told I need to update this more often...

So Scarves. it all started when I taught the bub to knit. she made this one for the bead After that she started on a scarf for my MIL. Which she finished this year for Christmas and that was her present to her this year.(a child after my own heart!) Then she made a scarf for a friend at school and
Her last scarf she finished was for a friend who's in kindergarten. I just think it's so sweet she's been knitting them scarves. I've been thinking about getting her to make other things... we'll see. she's happy making scarves right now.

spinning

I have a really cool friend named Ann. she lives on a farm and is really interesting. I met her through knitting. She gave me this.   she's trying to use up of some wool she bought a few years ago. And when I told her that i want to get better at my drop spindle before I buy a spinning wheel. (read save up for one) I didn't really know what to do with it until I searched Youtube. you saw the video on the post before right? I turned that fluffy cloud into a ball. then i proceded to spin it on the drop spindle not very well. but I will need to practice some more. After I finished that I got out some blue roaving my sister gave me and spun a small skein of lovely yarn. and I'm getting a little better I think. Unfortunately I was organizing my basket and found that my spindle is broken. So I need to get a new one I've been searching etsy and falling in love with tons of spindles. we'll see what I get after we get our tax return. If you have any suggestions leave them! I need a new spindle b/c I have a ton of wool from Ann to spin! I can't wait! She's so awesome I'm pondering sewing her a bag or something to thank her for her generosity! what do you think?

Batty Rovings

This is a great tute!!! just wanted to share

where has the time gone?

So it's been a little crazy around here. I can't believe it's the 2nd week of Feb already!

Last Friday it started snowing at 4ish. I snapped this photo around 11 when my DH came home. If you look at the bushes you can see a great deal of snow had already accumulated. and if you look past the bushes you can see the street wasn't really plowed. Luckily my DH didn't have to work Saturday b/c by the time the snow was all done there was about 2 feet everywhere. We took the girls to a local movie place to see the Princess and the Frog. it was a cute movie. I think the girls really liked it. Then they played outside. how could they not with all that snow? They had a hard time getting around it was rather funny. I snapped a photo of them, and you can see how much snow there was on top of their house. Tonight we're supposed to get more snow. On through Thursday we're supposed to accumulate another foot or so of snow. We'll see how that goes! 
Today in the mail we got a memory foam mattress topper that I ordered from overstock.com It took a little work over an hour to unroll and when we were done I wasn't sure if it would fit our bed. In fact I was worried they'd sent us the wrong sized mattress topper. But the directions said it took a while to "air " out or puff up so we went down stairs to eat lunch and do stuff, and when we came back up stairs we found that it totally fit. I'm sooo excited b/c it will be a good nights sleep tonight. in fact I woke up this morning and thought to myself that matress topper needs to get here soon b/c i'm sick of my back hurting. My sister said they got a mattress topper like this one and it really helped when she was pregnant. of course we got our soooo cheap and with two pillows for less than what they cost in the store. (I've been looking at them for some time now). Sorry just had to brag a bit. well I've got dinner to make. Have a great night.