Hemp and Wool Dishcloths

I have been looking for an alternative to those yucky sponges and plastic dish things that simply do not work. Well I got myself in gear and actually knitted some dishcloths out of my hemp and wool yarn stash. I should have done this a year ago when I got the yarn because let me tell you my dishes are actually clean. My glasses do not have that film on them at all anymore. It is so weird because all this time I thought it was my dish soap that was causing the problem but it wasn't. It was my sponge. The great thing about hemp and wool is they both have wonderful antibacterial qualities occurring in them naturally. Not to mention you just throw them in the was and hang them in the sun to dry. I have recruited my oldest into helping me make more because this week I am throwing out all of our sponges. Great thing too is my new dishcloths are environmentally friendly. If you are in search of some hemp/wool to make your won I suggest going here. Stacey is great to work with.


Edit: Forgot to mention Wool felts so if you use 50/50 Hemp/wool there will be some shrinkage if you wash it in the washer.

Knitting OCD

I have to admit that I have a little bit of OCD going on off and on in my life and it is interesting to me to see how it will manifest itself in the different areas of my life. With my kids it is their names. My first child's name has 5 letters and each child after has one more letter than the previous. There are other number things that I do but that would take a book to explain. :-)

I have recently noticed the OCD creeping into my knitting life. In my knitting bag I feel the need to have on the needles something for all the parts of the body. What this means is I currently am working on a hat, sweater,mittens, shorties, and several pairs of socks. When I finish up a sweater it is replaced with another sweater project. I am currently trying to figure out if a shawl is in the sweater category or if it will fall into it's own little area. I am thinking it will have it's own special place but if that is the case I need a bigger bag. :-)

Hmmm I think I will make myself a new knitting bag. I have this bag pattern by Amy Butler that I have been wanting to make for a long time. The question is do I use my current stash of fabric for it or do I wait for my Midwest Modern to show up. I have an idea for a little bag for my sock projects. I keep losing my tape measure and my extra DPN's in my bigger project bags. When I start digging around for them I end up with a big ol' yarn mess. So I hope to have that pattern worked out this weekend. Well looks like I have a lot on my plate so I better get going.

FO

I have a finished project!!! I ordered a charm pack of the Ginger Blossom line of fabric from Hancock's of Paducah. I really love this line but could not decide which fabrics to get so I got a sampling. I made a bath mat based on this tutorial. I am very pleased with how it turned out and plan to make another one for our kids bathroom out of some Heather Ross fish fabric that I have here. I must say I am completely addicted to charm packs. I have all kinds of ideas floating around in my mind for them now. I picked up a few more at our Local Quilt Shop yesterday. They have an absolutely amazing selection of fabric. They have Japanese Imports!!!!! I love all things Japanese and this was the first time I was able to actually see them in person. I am very excited about my sewing future. :-) Okay off to get some knitting done before running errands.

Went To My LYS Today

I am terribly excited. I went to my Local Yarn Store (Knitwicks) today and sat and knitted for a while with some wonderful ladies. It was the first time I have ever done anything like this. Since becoming a mother I have had a horrible time connecting to other women. In the mommy and me type groups I was always too crunchy. In other groups I was not crunchy enough. Then when the kids got older I started looking for a nice homeschooling group to join but found it very difficult to connect to any of them. In some we were to religious and in others not enough and then there was the crazy one where we were too poor.
But here age did not matter, religious preference not a problem and money not needed. All were welcome and knitting advice shared freely. It felt a little surreal at first because I have not felt this welcomed in a long time. I was so excited to see a group of women of all ages come together in such a positive environment. I have been looking for something like this for a really really long time. I am so excited about getting to know all of them better.
We just recently learned of the passing of a close friend that had suffered for many years from MS. She was very close to my age and it made me realize that I have become isolated from other women and I need to reconnect. I had to make myself go today and at first I just looked at the yarn in the store and felt like I could bolt at any minute. After a few minutes I realized that they were not going to bite me and it is okay to be afraid but not okay to not try. I am very glad I did. Well now I had better go save my husband from the kids.
Peace

Stash Enhancement

These are some of the goodies that I have gotten recently. I got a drop spindle from the Etsy store ford4him . I love it. It is great craftsmanship for a great price. I am taking a spinning class at my local LYS in a few weeks. I am going to use some roving that I got from Peace Fleece.

The fabric is from Fabric.com. It is one of Stephen's Special Assortments. It is an amazing deal. All half yard cuts for only $19.98 for the lot. Some of the Heather Ross prints are retired. I have wanted some yellow gnomes to go with my blue ones for a really long time. I want to make a special quilt from this fabric. I plan to make a bath mat with the fish fabric.

The charm packs and wool pack are my very first order from Hancock's of Paducah. I love this place. They have fat quarters of some of the really cool designers like Alexander Henry and Amy Butler. I love getting a little bit of an entire line. It is great for smaller projects.

Now I should probably go on a diet but my LYS just got in some new Schaefer Yarns.....

Out in the Yard

It was nice and sunny earlier this week and I was able to get a wee bit of yard work done. We are putting in a bed along the fence in the front yard for more veggies. In the top picture you can see how much is left for me to do. In the bottom picture is what I was able to get accomplished before I ran out of steam. This is where we plan to put our tomatoes, cucumbers and melons this year. I am starting to rethink my plan to dig beds. Maybe a tiller wouldn't be so bad after all.....

Wee Wonderfuls Spaceboy

This is our Spiderman Spaceboy. He is a wonderful design by Wee Wonderfuls . I love Hillary Lang's designs. Our guy was made from Spiderman fabric because my son has a love of all things Spiderman. It was so easy to put together because of the great instructions. The only thing I will do differently next time is I will use better felt. His felt belt is only 30% wool. That is just not as strong as it needs to be for all the activity my 4 year old puts this guy through. Now all I need to do is finish up his robot companion for my two year old.

What I Did While We Were Sick

I also started another pair of shorts that are multi colored and some socks. I am nearly done with the shorts and hope to finish them this weekend. I just happen to be resting again due to some cramping and it is perfect time to knit. I just heard "Daddy's Home!!!!!!" so I better go see.

Where did March Go?

Seriously, where? I am going to try to post a little more this month. We were under the weather a lot last month with that weird cough thing that went around. All of us had it some worse than others. But I did make a wonderful nourishing soup that helped ease the cough a lot. I am actually getting good at this cooking thing. We rarely eat out anymore and that is really nice. It's kinda weird because I never even think about that as an option for meals. Our garden is going good. We have radishes, lettuce, cabbage, broccoli, onions, herbs and peas. Next year I am going to add brussles sprouts to the list. Turns out with the right recipe they are very tasty. Lidia has the best recipe. Cooking her recipes make me feel like a real woman. I just need my apron to complete the picture.