Christmas, Projects and Ideas...OH MY!

Christmas is coming way too fast. What seemed like plenty of time, is slowly but surely turning into not enough time. I will have my Mom's gift done, possibly by this coming weekend. So her, I am not worried about. Other folks on my list to receive crocheted goodies may not get what I have listed for them. At least they don't know. I need to make a better plan of action for making stuff throughout the year for Christmas next year.

My lunch quiltghan is coming along nicely. I haven' worked on it during lunch this week simply because I have been working on "ideas" instead. I haven't done any other crocheting other than these two projects for a few weeks. My snowflake-a-day plan flew out the window about 3 weeks ago when I began working on completing Moms gift.

smartsmiley.com

A small idea that started as "hey...I can do that..." has turned into something bigger that I am going to try. I've mentioned one of my favorite ebay sellers many times and have her store listed on my blogger links...Sara's Colorwave Yarns. She has become quite the popular lady in the past couple of months! If you don't hit her store the moment she posts new items, you may have to wait until her next "feeding of the store" as she calls it. I have missed some incredible colorways she has posted because I have to think about it and how I can use it and for what...and by the time I make up my mind...*poof*...it's gone. As shown in my previous posts I have experimented with my own dyeing, initially just so I could see how it works, and I had fun with it. Sara also provided some good feedback when I asked and gave me safety precautions when taking on dyes, which I have found invaluable. My daughter, who is expecting in early May '08, is looking for a way to be able to work from home, and get away from being a server. When I told her I am going to have to start dyeing my own thread in order to get the unique colors I have come to enjoy working with, she said we should start doing that and selling on ebay. It was also suggested on the 'Ville that if I ever decided to sell my thread, there would probably be buyers for it. So it planted the seed, and I am seriously considering it. I've made lists of supplies, costs involved, ideas that would make it different than Sara's ebay store, but in the end is still a similar product. I am going to experiment some more, maybe put up the colors I have made to see how they go, and then move forward from there.

Oct 23-24

smartsmiley.comI didn't work on Mom's gift at all. Tuesday night I bowled (like crap, but that is another story), and Wednesday I went out to a movie. I would have been better off in both instances had I not gone and stayed home and crocheted instead. I did get some more done on my "side" project, but no pictures to post. Maybe I will have more to report on tomorrow.

I did get my vacation days nailed down, so I am hoping to get a bunch of crocheting and maybe even some thread dyeing done in November! Errrrr...after I clean my house. Ick.

Oct. 17-22 update

So much for "daily" updates...

I have completed a bunch of motifs on Moms present in the past week. In fact, I only have one corner left to do, then I have to do edging. I might even finish it this weekend if I keep at it! Of course, I have not worked on anything else for Christmas, so my list is not getting shorter.

WHAT IS THAT?!?!=================>

*cough cough* I don't know what you are talking about...what afghan that I am working on at lunch? Oh...that is just a project to keep here at work so that I don't have to transport back and forth each day. Not a Christmas project at all. Although, I should have brought in a bunch of scarf yarn and been doing that instead. But no...what fun is that? That would mean I wouldn't have anything to complain about in my crochet world if I was actually doing what I was supposed to be doing and whittling down my Christmas To-Do list.

I may have been a bit ambitious in thinking I could get that much done. So, I probably need to sit down and come up with an alternate list. Maybe I can start on stuff for next Christmas? Yeah...right...as soon as Christmas is over, I will probably not look at it until this time next year, who am I kidding? Well...I am off to my Procrastinators Anonymous meeting...more later!!!

Oct. 16 - No crocheting done but...

I did get my Svanhild doily blocked finally. Here it is still on the board...



I used Aunt Lydia for the purple and the colorway "Ocean" from Sara's Colorwave on ebay. When I started this I was looking for a pattern that would have a peacock affect, and one of the first comments I got when I posted the pic on Crochetville was that it reminded her of a peacock...so mission accomplished!

Oct. 15 Progress

Five more motifs done. I cheated though and didn't weave in ends on 4 of the 5. So I have to weave-in before I can do anymore. It goes a lot faster when I don't weave, but I HATE weaving in ends (I believe I have mentioned that before), and the only thing worse than weaving them in as I go, would be to have a whole bunch to weave in when I am done. I was trying to get 6 done to complete an area last night, but I had taken some nighttime cold medicine to try to help with the nagging cough that just won't go away, and I had a hard time keeping my eyes open on the 5th one. This is also why I allowed myself to not weave ends. So I could get as much done as I could before I got drowsy. I think I have about 50 more motifs to go, and 8 half-motifs, then the main part will be done, and all I will have to do is the edging. The project uses 208 whole motifs and 18 half motifs...damn...why did I go and figure that out? Because 158 motifs just doesn't sound like all that much. Still, it is about 75% done...I guess that sounds better.

Oct. 14 progress

I lost count of how many motifs I got done yesterday. I worked on cleaning my house most of the day, then around 5:00 I decided I was done and sat down to watch TV and crochet. I would say that I have completed about 75% of this project. Once I picked it back up, it has gone really fast. I would say it was maybe a little over half-way finished when I started on it again, so I feel pretty good about the progress I made over the past week. Of course, I haven't worked on anything else, but thats ok. I think this was the one "big" project I had. The other stuff is fairly small and can be completed (in theory) fairly quick.

We shall see...

Long time no see

I hand-dyed some thread back in July and worked up bookmarks for each color. I have already given away 2 of the bookmarks but here are the results of 4 of my custom threads...