the January Blahs

The month of January has hit me with full force. The grey sky is so sad it almost seems as though it will press down and force tears from eyes. It have all this wonderful new yarn and keep looking through all my patterns but nothing seems to excite me enough to get started. Today, once the regular housework was done, I sat in my cuddle (a fuzzy zipper blanket that I figured is at least 25 years old) and was content to read a book and drink some tea without having at least a hundred projects going through my head. Maybe we need this time of rest. It might feel lazy but it also might be a time of reflection and renewal. Sometimes I think that we could all benefit by using a bit more introspection so maybe the blahs are really the Yeahs and we should be happy to have these lazy days to grow in knowledge and perhaps self understanding. I doubt if this will last long so I might as well enjoy it.

Another wonderful package

I just got another wonderful package from Petra, my now unveiled secret pal in secret pal 9. The shadows of evening show on the picture but I could not wait to get this up and on my blog. Petra has done a wonderful job of spoiling me and continued right to the end. This time the package included among other things, some wonderful yarn, a book that has not only sock patterns but the history of socks. (I am a pushover for this type of thing) needles... knitting and other, and best of all a needle case that she made herself. She always includes candy and treats for my dog as well as a paper item. I have been so very fortunate to have her as a pal to introduce me to the world of longer term "swaps." I only hope that she had someone spoiling her that was at least 1/2 as nice as the way she spoiled me. Thank-you again Petra Oh, and I don't know why but Chewie is in love with the blue/green yarn I have to zip it up in the tote because he wants to snuffle it all and time.

It's done Well, almost

Whenever Jade gets something she says is that "my cute little _______". so in this case her cute little dress is finished. Well, I do have to hem it but as it is lined I don't want to guess and have to do it again so I will wait until she tries it on. It is a drop waist so there might not be much skirt when it is hemmed. Time to get back to my knitting. The weather here is cold and it will be nice to cuddle up in the recliner and listen to the click of the needles. I get lazy in the winter. With all of the yarn my secret pal sent me in the Mitt kit exchange I really need to get a top I have on my needles finished. I have put this off because I am afraid that I don't quite have enough yarn and am not sure where to get more. I also am a basket case because my dog that was supposed to be heart worm negative starts his heart worm treatment this coming week. I don't know any way to keep a young dog quiet for weeks. My vet keeps trying to reassure me that it will be fine and even gave me the information they have on the treatment. It still makes me really nervous. I really really like this dog and there is always a possibility of a problem with this treatment. Enough rambling. Off to my chair and those knitting needles.

Lucky Lucky Me

I just got my package from my secret pal in knit kit and I hit the jackpot. Wow, did she ever send me some wonderful things. There is not 1, not 2 but 7 skeins of yarn. Two knitting magazines and a knitting book. Tea with a mug and lots of candy for holing up during the cold winter weather. If that wasn't enough there are two bags for knitting. One of them she did some hand work on and it is so adorable. To top it off she sent all kinds of beautiful stitch markers. Oh, I know I am the luckiest person there is.

The dust cover is off

I finally got the dust cover off of my sewing machine. It was a bit mad at me and I had to put in a new needle to show it that I meant business and was not planning on deserting it after only sewing up a pulled out seam. I will admit that the majority of today was dedicated to reading and just being lazy but I did manage to get the bodice of Jade's dress put together. I have a tendency to go off the beaten path and that goes for my patterns as well as my life. I have used eyelet with the dotted swiss and now am wondering if I didn't make a mistake. What do you think? Oh well, I am out of elastic button fastening tape and will have to make some so this will be put off for a little bit anyway. Maybe by then I will have decided if it looks more old fashioned if I take out the eyelet. Jade will probably love it no matter what because there are beads on it. They aren't big but they are beads. Chewie is whining for attention. He starts his heart worm treatment soon and that scares me to death. I was told he was negative but when I got him and took him to my vet, no such luck. Of course by then I was in love with him so here we go. I don't know how to keep a young dog quiet for all of at least a month. I must tell the vet that I will be the one who will need a tranquilizer to get me through this.

Finished at last

I have been somewhat remiss in blogging during the past few days. Nothing terrible happening just staying busy. I did finally finish Logan's socks and now if all goes well I have an appointment with my sewing machine this weekend to start Jade's dress. I know it thinks it has been abandoned and I really need to spend some quality time with it. I go in "spells". I do a lot of different crafts and sometimes one takes priority for a while but I do manage to even things out. If our crafts reflect our lives then everything comes out in the end, or as my mother used to say, "everything comes out in the wash." Oops, that reminds me those socks of Logan's need to be blocked. Got to go but more later.

The Last Two are ready to Go

The holidays are over and its time to get my last two swap packages in the mail. The Mitt Kit doesn't go out until the 16th but the one for my Secret Pal needs to leave now as it takes a while to get to Canada. I have enjoyed the swaps but may take a bit of a break unless one comes up that I just can't resist. So here are the latest goodies and back to working on Logan's sock. More later.

Once again

My granddaughter, Jade informed me that her sparkle socks were too small and she was correct. That will teach me to guess the size of someone's foot. Anyway she wanted blue sparkles so here is the replacement pair, with a much bigger foot. The blue is a mesh and would probably be itchy so I made a regular ribbed turn down top. Now to see how these fit. With a new pair for Jade that means Logan is also in line. I started a pair for him this morning. Will see how they work out and post a picture when they are done.