Giant Time Suck

Yes indeed, I have fallen fully into the Ravelry black hole of time suckage. Even though I had not intended to do so, I spent last night photographing the majority of my stash and putting it up on Ravelry notebook. I realized that a very large portion of my stash is sock yarn. How this escaped my notice before is evidence that I live in the State of Denial. I know that not all of my yarn is up there, but what is there is what I consider my active stash (that is, stuff that I will actually knit up). I didn't put up all of the odds and ends that I have or the yarn that is currently residing next to the couch, ostensibly the WIP or queued projects.

I fully intent to take a picture of my WIP and get them posted both here and on Ravelry. Soon, I will do this soon.

Just as soon as a FO isn't a felted hat.

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This weekend is the 1 year anniversary of when Eric got really sick last year. I feel so out of sorts about it all. In a way, I just want the next week or so over so that the reminder is behind us and we can face the second year. Halloween leaves a bad feeling in our household, but we don't want to transmit that to Caleb. Personally, I would prefer to wallow in my misery for a couple of day to get it out of my system, but as a parent it just isn't possible.

Coming up for air

This week has been so busy. I finished off 4 purses and 2 felted hats (which currently just need felting). I have been knitting the hats in the flat up to the decreases so that I can use my knitting machine to do the long stockinette portion of the hats. It does leave a seam but it seems to come out okay once it is felted.

I am loving these new bags. I had originally purchased the striped fabric as an exterior, but never really felt the love. It seems to be working perfectly as the lining for these suede-like bags (which, honestly, are too boring otherwise)

I'm really happy with how well the stripes line up on the slip pocket!

So far so good

I stopped to check out the sale at the Grainery this weekend and as of noonish on Saturday I had sold four bags from the main building. I’m not sure what sold from the other buildings because it wasn’t tied to their computer inventory. My sister had sold some aprons and my mom sold a Flying Geese pattern quilt for $250.00. Not to bad considering that there had only been a day and a half of sales. There are still 4 more days, so I am hoping to get at least $500.00 gross sales. I am being very good and resisting the urge to call up every hour to see if anything else has sold! I am guessing that this would be in very bad form and that she might not invite me back next year.

I also took a bunch of stuff up to LaCrosse for the Holiday Fair Sale in November. I had 18 hats ready and over 35 wash cloths. The woman who runs the Grainery should have some hand made soaps left over from the sale and she is willing to let me have them at cost. I think it would be a great pairing to have the cloths and the soaps in an old-fashioned washbasin. I think my mom even has an antique washboard… hmm. I am also planning on hanging a rope and pinning sample cloths to it. Now I am on the home stretch of finishing off some more bags and just a couple more hats.

I am officially declaring Bloglines Amnesty. If something momentous has happened and I haven’t commented, please accept my sincere apologies. In a generic, blanket statement, congrats on all FO, new babies (which I guess is the ultimate FO), pregnancies and birthdays. My condolences for all tinking and frogging that may have occurred as well as any illnesses.

Melancholy

Have you ever had the experience of having to go through something truly awful to get to something worth having?

One of my dearest friends is going through one of the stickiest things I can image; yet, I know that she will come out the other side happier than she has been in 10 years. I am so torn that she has this bad situation, but am relieved that she will be at peace again. I wish I could take a portion of her burden from her and make the upcoming weeks and months less painful. I am elated for her on one hand because the end result will be so positive, but my heart aches for the current moment she is in.

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I dropped off my bags this weekend for the sale that will be running for the next three weekends. Keep your fingers crossed for me!

So that's what happened

Apparently one can catch all sorts of nasty things on the internets from Rabbits and Sheeps. The scratchy throat that was discovered when I woke up this morning has blossomed into the glowing embers from depths of hell and I can tell that I am next to take up the baton in the relay race of Universal Snot Dispenser. Yipee freakin' Skippy. Just as I am about the head to my parents for the weekend.



Unfortunately this is a business trip to drop off my handbags before the start of a show next weekend. And I get to go again next weekend. At least the mileage will be deductible.



I know that I won't be around much (as if I had been here much recently anyway...). The boutique will be selling my bags for the next 3 weeks. Then there is a show in the middle of November. Then we are off to the races for the rest of the year with Caleb's 5th birthday, Thanksgiving in the same week and the mad dash for Christmas. (I can guarantee that I won't me making handmade items this year!)



I will post as regularly as I can. I am planning on hanging on for dear life until January when I will finally be able to catch my breath and do some knitting of my very own.

The deed is done

I must apologize to my faithful reader(s?). I have not died in a forgotten corner somewhere. Nor have I decided to stop blogging. Rather, life has bitten me in the ass yet again.

We finally made the decision to buy a new car. Normally, this would mean a different car that is somewhat newer than what we currently own. This time we decided to bite the bullet and get a brand-spankin' new vehicle. We drove a couple of different ones and decided on the Kia Rio. It's not fancy, but the price is right and the safety features and warranty are great for the price point. We got the silver one with the dark grey interior. I'm really happy with it so far.

Let's just say that the new car buying process sucked the will to live from me. Thankfully, I received a pick me up in my inbox today at lunch. My invite to Ravelry finally came. I fully expect that what little free time I have available between now and Christmas will evaporate before I know it. My username is HouseofWool.

I leave tomorrow to take a load of purses up to the first of 2 shows I have this fall. This one is in a boutique and runs 3 consecutive weekends. The woman who owns it is a friend of my mom's and she is trying to get the local paper to do a story on the sale focusing on my family because my mom and my sister are also selling items there as well.

I will try not to disappear for too long. Ciao for now.