Painting with Noel

Yesterday, while the boys were playing with their Legos and Chad his beehive, Noel and I sat down to paint each other. 

It was fun to try to be creative with my daughter, and she had all of the supplies to do it. I chose to do a pink background since that is one of her favorite colors, and she chose purple for me because that is my favorite. I wanted to show her love of butterflies, so I painted her wearing a shirt with a butterfly in colors that she would wear. She seemed happy with my choice. She gave me a red shirt since I like wearing red. When we were done, we named our paintings like professional artists do. I think they turned out fairly well for a couple of amateurs who just like being creative. 

My painting (My Baby Girl):

Noel's painting (Mi Mom):

My Best So Far

 

I spent a god portion of the spring trying to make good sourdough bread. I made many good loaves, but was never quite happy. A lot of them had semi-burnt bottoms. One tasted great and was great on the inside but didn't brown up the way I expected. They were all eatable, but not what I had imagined. 

Yesterday, I made my best loaf to date. It plumped up beautifully and had a soft crust which I have never had. What was the difference? First of all, I put rice on the bottom of my Dutch oven under the parchment paper (a trick I learned on Facebook). Also, I used a recipe from a book and times everything exactly as written. I think part of my problem was the source of my recipes. I had one from TikTok and a few I found from a Google search. I don't know if the recipes were bad. It's possible this is just the recipe that clicks the best for me. 

I am loving the process of learning to make sourdough. There are so many things I can do with the starter. I'm excited to see what I make next. 

Sweater Progress

 

This sweater has been one of the hardest knitting projects I have worked on. It has also been fun to see come to shape. I have finished the yoke and already split for the arms. I am currently working on the body and need to do about an inch and a half of stockenette more before I start the shaping. I'm hoping that I can to the rest of the shaping right the first time because I really don't want to have to pull out more mistakes. I can already tell that I am going to love this sweater and can't wait to be able to wear it. 

Harry Potter Sweater Progress

 

My Harry Potter Time-Turner sweater is coming a long a bit slower than I had hoped. I can't just sit and mindlessly knit this sweater, so I have to work on it when doing something that doesn't require much brain power like watching certain shows. Also, this sweater is kit with fingering weight yarn. (I'm not sure why I didn't think it would take a while to knit a sweater out of such light weight yarn.) Even though it is taking longer than I had expected, I am loving the process! I have already learned from this pattern, and know I will learn more as I go. 

Homecoming 2024

Noel's boyfriend is still in high school which means she gets to do some high school things she missed out on the year she was home schooled. This week, she joined him for several homecoming activities such as the peach fuzz game, bonfire, and the dance. 

She has been wanting to have someone really back her to homecoming instead of just the assumption she would go for a long time. She told her boyfriend this, and he delivered! 

She once again made her dress. This time, she got a bit of extra material to make him a matching tie, too. She did such a great job! I am in awe at her talent!

Soap Day!

 

I made soap today! I love the process of making things, and soap is definitely one of my favorites. I started making soap for when I had an Etsy shop thinking that people would love to buy handknit washcloths and handmade soaps. I was wrong. My sister was the only one that bought them. After closing my shop, Chad and I decided to use the soap as hand soap in our bathroom. I loved it and have made it a lot since then. 

I use a recipe from The Spruce Crafts that I love. It is easy to follow and comes out good each time. I have made it with peppermint, tea tree (my favorite for soap), and cinnamon (crossing my fingers it works). I prefer making it in molds rather than a block that I have to cut because molds are fun and pretty and don't have to be cut. I have bugs, flowers, and dog prints. I don't think I will ever make a block as long as I can keep buying chocolate molds. 

Time Changer Sweater Update

 

Now that I have passed the German short rows and increases for the yoke of the sweater, I am working on the color work section and loving it. Have I messed up a few times and had to tink back a bit? Yes, but I have stitch markers in and don't have to go back too far to fix it. Each row is a bit more time consuming than knitting with one color, but after only 6 of the 19 rows done, I am already seeing the time changer take shape. I love watching things take shape as I knit or crochet. That's why I keep doing it. 

Harder Than I Thought

 

I have finished 3 sweaters so far this year, and each one has been hard in different ways. When I started this sweater, I knew the colorwork would be hard, but I figured the rest would be fairly easy. At least I wouldn't have to seem it together. Right? I was wrong. 

I have gotten to the part where I add the color to create Hermione's time turner. It was not easy to get here. At first, I struggled with learning German short rows. With some help from YouTube, I got that figured out and only had take out that part to redo it once. As I was doing this part, I also ran into an issue with the pattern not making sense, so I found a project page on Ravelry that rewrote the two lines that were written poorly. Then, I had a counting issue (it's hard to not lose count with that many stitches while making increases). I used stitch counters ever 10 to 15 stitches depending on the row to help with that. The problem with this part was the first increase row did not have the stitches to match what was written. I got that part figured out and continued on. Now, I am adding the colored pattern and fighting my own counting issues again. Why is it that counting while crafting is so much harder than counting in every day life?

I will do more updates on the progress of this sweater like I did for the mittens a while back. I'm quite excited to make it! I hope it comes out as beautiful and fun as I imagined when I ordered the yarn. 

Cabled Sweater

 

I finished the beautiful sweater a couple of weeks ago, but I waited to take pictures because it has been too hot to put more than a few seconds. 

I have been wanting to make a cabled sweater for a long time. When I saw pictures of this one done for daughters and granddaughters in a knitting Facebook group, I fell in love immediately and was excited to see that the Lion Brand yarn website was selling kit for it and the yarn was on sale  I was able to get all of the yarn I needed plus some die about $40! It’s really hard to buy enough yarn that isn’t scratchy for this price. I order it right away and eagerly awaited its arrival.

I started the project I called my “Taylor Swift” sweater because the pattern was inspired by the “Cardigan” video in April and finished it in late May. It was such a fun project, and I had a hard time putting it down. The only thing I would have liked better would have been it if was knit as one piece rather than having to stitch it together. Overall, I loved knitting this and would not be opposed to knitting it again.

Needles Needed

I planned to start my next sweater today. I had it all planned out. It is a pattern inspired by Hermione’s time turner from Harry Potter. The original pattern calls for a red sweater with gold details, but I decided on gray with red details. The yarn was delivered last week, but I wanted to finish the baby sweater first. 

This afternoon when I was done working, I sat down with the pattern book and yarn and looked at the needle size recommendations to make sure I pulled the right ones out of the bag. I don’t have the needles I need. I need size 2 circulars to do the ribbing at the beginning. Such a bummer! I’ll have to wait until I get paid on Friday and make a trip to Hobby Lobby. Maybe I can finish my poncho while I wait. 

Noel’s Sweater Done

 

I finally finished Noel’s sweater. I am happy with the final product, but I will hopefully never use this yarn again. It was awful to work with. The pattern was well written and there was video support. I probably would have enjoyed this challenging pattern if the yarn had been better quality. Noel is very happy with the sweater. That makes the struggles I had totally worth it. 

This is the Seasons Cardigan by Ozetta: Hailey Smedley. I purchased the pattern through Ravelry for $6.00. It was a really good deal considering all of the video support. It was almost like taking a class on how to make the sweater. According to the pattern measurements, I would have made an extra small, but she wanted it a bit bigger and asked for a small. She also asked for it to be a bit longer than the pattern said because she didn’t want a cropped sweater. I also made the sleeves one in longer.

I can’t say I venture into fisherman’s rib again any time soon, but it was fun leaning something new. 

Bread Plan

While I was a single mom, I made all of the bread for my family. I felt it was healthier and less expensive than store bought bread. My former mother-in-law gave me some of the supplies when I told her this as I picked up the kids after work one weekend (she often watched them when I needed help). I loved eating this bread and liked that I was putting less chemicals in my kids’ body. 

Now, we are trying to find ways to save money knowing child support will be done soon and wanted to set ourselves up for the future. Making bread is one solution I settled on. The ingredients aren’t that expensive, and I want to find ways to eat less chemicals again. Thankfully, Chad is an amazing baker and will be sharing the responsibility of doing this with me. Noel was very excited about this plan because she likes this kid of bread, too. 

After buying a few more bread pans (I was down to one), I got to work. I made my trusty bread recipe I got at church; it’s the same one I use for cinnamon rolls. By the end of the night, I had three light, fluffy loaves of bread. It made for a tasty breakfast. 

Finding Fabric

 

Noel is making her prom dress. Yesterday, we drove out to Joann Fabric to buy everything we needed. When choosing the fabric, I had her hold up the fabric and took pictures of each (I deleted all but her top 2 choices). I love that the people in this store didn’t bat an eye at the way we do such things. When I take pictures of clothing at other store so she can make a decision, we get all kinds of weird looks. At Joann’s, they just let us do our thing. By the way, she chose the red. 

Cold Day

 

When I woke up this morning, it was -12F outside, and I had brunch plans with one of my best friends. I didn’t want to change my plans, so I made sure to dress as warm as I could. I have never been happier about how many warm things I have knit! Along with a pair of jeans, t shirt, hoodie and winter coat, I work hand knit mittens, socks, and hat. It was still a bit cold because it was so cold outside, but I was warmer than I would have been if I did not have my hand knits. They really are warmer than most of the store bought stuff I have. 

Finished in Time

 I forgot to write about Eric’s and Peyton’s socks. I am happy to say that I finished both pair before they came over on Christmas Day. In all honesty, the last one was finished that afternoon before they were tucked into stockings. This was a big accomplishment for me. I don’t think I have ever knit two pairs of socks in one month. I have yet receive confirmation about how well they fit, but they seemed happy with them that night. I hope they get a lot of use. 

Next Pair

 I have finished Peyton’s socks, and i have started Eric’s. The original yarn I chose for his looked a lot different when it was delivered. (One of these days I may learn to stop buying sock yarn online.) I kept trying to convince myself it would work, but I knew it was not something Eric would be drawn to. Once Noel had a chance to look at it and confirmed my suspicions, I had her help me pick out another yarn for his socks. This one has two shades of gray, a brown, and a dark red. It really looks like something he would pick out for himself. 

With 11 days until Christmas, 10 days to work on them, I have already finished the cuff and started the heal on the first one. My hope is to finish it this weekend and finish the other one next week. I am pushing myself to do them very fast. 

Using Birthday Yarn

 

My sister bought me yarn for my birthday on Amazon. She chose the type of yarn and sent me a link to choose which set of colors I liked. I, of course, chose the most purple combination offered. 

I have been so involved with other projects since then that I hadn’t taken the time to look for a project that would suit this yarn. However, with the hats for my kids and my sister’s family done and my sweater at the stitching phase, I am now ready to make something with this yarn. 

Yesterday, I sat down and used the advanced search option on Ravelry, put in the attributes of the yarn, and searched for the perfect project. Unfortunately, the first 3 or 4 that caught my eye were discontinued patterns (how does this happen so much). Then, I saw a pattern for a pillow type thing. It is perfect! Would I rather be knitting? Yes! There just wasn’t a pattern with an existing pattern with the yardage requirements that fit what I have. It is a fun project, but I have made a few tweaks that work better for me. I have a feeling this will be another quick project. I wonder what I’ll do next. 

Weaving the Ends

 

On the back of my office chair, I have 2 shawls, a scarf, and a lap blanket. These are all projects I have finished over the past few months. They are not there because I get cold easy. It hasn’t been cold enough for such things for the most part. They aren’t there for decoration even though the lap blanket will probably stay for that reason. They are all there because I still need to weave in the ends. 

I love knitting and crocheting. Working with yarn to make something beautiful or useful is a stress relief. The problem is that I hate weaving in ends. I do it fairly quickly when I make hats or when I am making something for someone else. However, when it is something for me that I know I won’t be able to use for a while, I’m in no hurry to complete this dreaded step. I know that I will be kicking myself when I want to wear one of these or when I decide to sit down in front of the tv to do it all. For now, I will just adjust my “decorations” when they slide down each day. 

Tommy’s Hat

 I finished Tommy’s hat today. It felt good to finish something again. This was a really fast knit! Funny thing is that I have made this pattern twice for Eric, but it has never knit this fast. I am obviously getting faster when I knit, but I also think knitting in church helped. 

Now, I need to decide which yarn to use for Chris’s hat and make another one. (I am leaning towards the leftovers from Noel’s hat.)

Ghosts!

A few months ago a friend asked if I could make these ghosts for her. Then, she went out of the country for a few weeks, and I forgot about them. As people put up Halloween decorations this week, I suddenly remembered and sought out the pattern. They were very simple to make. I had fun with the sparkly yarn and colored eyes. I would make them again for anyone who asked.