Monday, July 25, 2011

Bunch O' Stuff

We <3 Colorado Books

As part of reorganizing the guest room, we went through the bookcase and got that organized too. Do you think we like books about Colorado?

Workin' on Blanket at Sbux

Sat at Starbucks with Ian for a while yesterday and worked on the blanket :)


Hangin' Out

Got to use the new room today! Amber came over to knit. All 3 cats joined us. Can you spot them?

Orange

Big Orange was particularly helpful.

Orange

And some more blanket progress:

Blanket Progress

Sunday, July 24, 2011

Neil's Blanket Blues

I put my other projects on hold this week to make a blanket for my father-in-law, Neil, who is going through chemo and is always cold. I finally found a pattern I wanted to use to I just went for it. It's been working up really quickly. I am half done with it now after just 4 days. :) Here has been the progression so far, starting with a picture of my father in law :)

My Father in Law, Neil
Yarn for Neil's Blanket
Starting Neil's Blanket
Neil's Blanket Progress
Neil's Blanket Progress
Neil's Blanket in Progress
Neil's Blanket in Progress

That last one is the most current photo but I worked on it a lot more tonight and it's now half done (which is three pattern repeats)... well, half done according to the pattern. But when I get to the "done" point, I need to see how tall the blanket is and decide if I want to make it a little bit longer. I want it to cover feet to shoulders comfortably on him. I should have this done in just 4 more days or so though, assuming the extra yarn I ordered arrives quickly!

New Guest Room (Again)

Ever since we moved into this house, our guest room has been through several phases. First, it was the typical guest room with the double sized bed from our previous home. Then it became my massage room, and I let my massage table double as a guest bed (which hasn't been well received, lol). Since I am really not doing many massages, I wanted to change the room again. Yet I didn't want to go back to having the double bed because it takes up the entire room and it never gets used unless we have a guest staying with us. So, I set out to repurpose the room.

First I had to organize the closet so I could make room to store my massage table in it (just in case I want to give a massage!) This meant reorganizing all of my knitting & crochet stuff because it has really gotten out of hand. I pulled it all out of the closet and this was what I had to deal with:

Knitting Stuff to Organize

Yikes. Well my good buddy Amber showed me the coolest stacking bins she got at Wal-Mart... so I went through everything and used some of those to get it all organized.

Organized Closet

See? plenty of room to have my massage table in the back and all my bins stacked up in front. To the left of the bins is a reusable shopping bag which I put ALL of my project bags into. Here's a closer view of the bins:

Organized Closet

In the top two small bins I have a bunch of small supplies like buttons, zippers, stitch markers etc as well as some spare straight needles (which I don't use anymore, but keep around in case I teach anyone to knit). I also have my cases that hold my circular needles, DPN's and crochet hooks. In the two deeper bins I have my yarn "stash", all of which is being used in current projects or a planned project that is coming up soon. In the bottom bin I have some yarn for upcoming projects, but mostly it is filled with my scrap yarn:

Bottom Bin...

I did all of this yesterday. This morning Ian helped me go through the bookcase in the room and he got rid of a bunch more books - even priced them to be ready for my garage sale in a couple weeks :) We made room so that all of our Colorado books can go on one shelf (we have a TON!) and the top shelf is reserved for all of my craft books.
Oh and in the closet, we went through all the linens on the top shelf and kept only what we need, which left me some extra room for my sewing machine & sewing box too!

Lounge/Craft Rm/ Guest Rm
I'm planning to buy a few more bins so I'll be able to expand my stash and also include room for fabric and other sewing supplies :)

Then we moved out the headboard and all the massage room stuff, and brought over my LoveSac and IKEA couch which have been stored in my parents' basement. Now I have a nice lounging space AND the IKEA couch makes a VERY comfy bed.

Lounge/Craft Rm/ Guest Rm

I'm happy with the results! This will be a great spot to have friends over to knit, sew or do other projects.. it's a great "me" space when Ian's video games get too loud too :) And as a guest room, I KNOW this 'bed' is really comfortable (have slept on it myself for weeks at a time) whereas the massage table wasn't. It was a lot of work the past couple of days but I'm so glad I did it, and so glad my wonderful husband and dad helped me out with all the heavy lifting!

The best part is that, other than the bins for oganization, I didn't have to buy anything. I get to use stuff I already had :)

Tuesday, July 19, 2011

6 Squares Done

I have my first six squares done for my parents' blanket!








I'm going to be putting this aside for a little while to make a simpler blanket for my father-in-law who is going through chemotherapy and is always cold. I'll post pics once I get started on it!

Sunday, July 17, 2011

Recent Projects!

One thing I've been keeping busy with lately- lots of crochet and knitting projects! I haven't posted about any of them in a long time so here I'll catch up on them!




A little something I am working on :) Some birthday gifts for my mom-in-law and sis-in-law. Can't reveal what they will be just yet. I'm using cotton yarn for the first time and I love all the awesome colors available in this brand (Lily Sugar'n Cream). This is the color combo chosen by my MIL and I just love it!

I'm also currently working on a big blanket project for my parents. Here is one square...





I made two whole squares and then decided to do some in tandem, so I've been working on the next four all at once:





These four are almost done now and I'll post a new pic once they are:) then I'll have six... The pattern has 36 of these so I'll do 6 at a time for the rest of it. Here is just an example of what I'm making...






I am using similar colors but in a different order, and my squares do have borders around them.
So this is a BIG project for me which I hope to complete within 3 months.

The last thing I'm working on is a cabled iPad sleeve for the hubby:





That's all I have to show for it right now. I already finished my own though, and I haven't shown that yet either so here it is!





That project was great- I learned cabling AND magic loop method!






While my friend Chrissy was in town, I whipped up these crocheted headbands for my aunt and grandma to wear to their Red Hat Society outings.






That's it for now but as you can see I've been enjoying myself!