Missing in Action

Hi Everyone! I can't believe that I haven't posted in over 2 weeks. Just where did the time go?  I have been busy and just need to remember to take more pictures so I remember what I want to blog about. We were supposed to go to visit my daughter in the South but due to weather and illness we were unable to make the trip.

This last week I have been in bed or on the sofa with a really bad cold. It seems many people have been hit with this thing and its been a long recovery for them too. Here it is Sunday night and I am still in my pajamas laying on the sofa under a couple of quilts.

Even though I have been sick the world still turns and things still happen. I got some knitting done on my barn raising quilt.

When I was looking at my blocks I noticed that I didn't have any purple blocks. I need to get some purple into this thing!

I have been working on getting a beginner quilt class together. Here is a sneak peak.

One of my nieces asked me to knit her a coffee cozy.

And last but not least....I have been invited to be a guest blogger on Tatertots and Jello. I am super excited!

Big things are happening for me this year and I am so very grateful for all the support from all of you. Thank you, THANK YOU!!!

How Do You Eat an Elephant?

How do you eat and elephant? One bite at a time.

I really feel that by setting goals and trying really hard to stick to them I am making progress on eating my elephants.

This month I have been able to get 2 more barn raising squares knit. Both of the blocks this month were knit with self striping yarn. It really adds interest.

I showed you this one as I was knitting in the car last weekend.

Since today is Valentine's day I felt like knitting with some pink yarn. It makes me happy! I started this block as I was talking to my Mom on the phone. We tend to have really long conversations and its nice to have something for my hand to do that isn't distracting or that I have to pay much attention to.

So what elephant are you trying to eat? Have you set reasonable goals? I truly find I get lost or get side tracked when I don't hold myself accountable to get something done. I will get back to knitting on my sweater tonight as I watch the Olympic coverage but for now I am going to enjoy mindless knitting with some gorgeous pink yarn.

Take Along Projects

I really like to have a project to work on when I am out and about. Today's project was a Barn Raising block while we were driving home from a visit with my Son.

Its hard to take a picture of your knitting on a good day but a moving car is not easy. You can just barely see that I have a quilt on my lap. When we are in the car I like to kick off my shoes and cover up with a lap size quilt. I hate cool breezes and even in a warm car I cover up. I am such an old lady.

It was a snowy drive home.

I was able to get the block complete and just need to bind it off and another one is done! Having little project with me helps me to get a little knitting time in almost anywhere.

January Recap

I thought it would be good to see just how I did with my 2014 goal one month in.

Here were my goals for January-

Barn Raising: Goal was to knit 2 blocks.
Beekeeper Quilt: Goal was 34 hexipuffs.
Dish Cloth Challenge: Goal was 1 each week, 4 for January.
Mystery Quilt
Finish UFO quilt projects.

Now how did I do?

Barn Raising- FAILED

I almost got 2 knit but missed it by this much.

 
I do have 24 others complete so that is a big step towards my 60 that I need for the quilt.

Beekeeper- FAILED

I only got 20 of the 34 knit.

Dish Cloth Challenge- COMPLETED and then some

I got these 8 knitted.

Plus these 2 that I sent home with my Son. So that is 10 done when I only needed to knit 4 for my goal. YAY!

Mystery Quilt- FAILED

I didn't get much done on it this month. It is so much sewing that I need to get moving on this. Maybe I can get it done by the end of February.

UFO Quilts- DONE

I got 2 quilts finished in January, Nice Patch and Flower Market

So all in all January wasn't the best of months for getting this completed. However these are just goals, things I hope to get done not hard deadlines. I am really happy with all I did get done.

Now to get busy on February's Goals.... this is all the above plus I want to get a sweater knit during the Olympics. Something will have t give but since I am ahead on my dish cloths that can be one thing to set aside for the month.

What are your goals and how are they going??

Things are coming along.

As we are halfway through the month I thought I would check in to see how my knitting plans were coming along.

The plan was to knit 2 barn raising blocks each month. Well I have one done and another more than halfway done.

I need to knit 34 hexipuffs each month to stay on target. I got my 34 done for December and for January I have 10 done and an eleventh one that just needs stuffed and bound off. Only 23 more to go!

My dish cloth plan is one a week for 52 weeks. I am way above this mark. Technically these first 2 were done in December for my son to take with him to his new apartment.

I have 7 others I have knit this month. This makes me happy. 52 - 9 = 43 more to go.

Accidents Happen

I had a little accident yesterday that totally derailed my plans for the day.

While walking in the school I tutor at I twisted my left ankle and fell on my right knee and right hand. So instead of spending the morning with some kids I was off to the Urgent Care to get some X-rays done on my very swollen ankle. On the bright side no broken bones but boy an I sore all over and my ankle is extremely painful so I will be spending a few days on the sofa.....knitting.

So instead of tutoring , running some errands, and working on my mystery quilt I spent the day on the sofa with my ankle propped up on some pillows.  All was not lost as I was able to start a new Barn Raising Square. I knit on and off all afternoon and got almost one whole square done. I really enjoy the self stripping yarn as it keeps the knitting interesting.

Tomorrow I plan to knit dish clothes.

Mystery Quilt Clue #2

Today I spent hour after hour cutting fabric for clue #2 on the mystery quilt Celtic Solstice. I needed to cut 488 2" squares from my neutral fabric, 488 2" squares from my yellow fabric, and 2"x 3.5" rectangles from my green fabrics. So what does that look like...

I now need to sew all of these together. Each green piece with get a neutral and a yellow sewn to it. I will post pictures tomorrow when I get those done.

Last night I was able to get some knitting done on a Barn Raising square.

I hope to get this one finished up tonight and begin another one as my goal this month is to get 2 knit up this month. I have 20 finished and would like to have 60 for a nice lap size blanket. No matter what the temperature I always have a blanket on my lap. I even take one with me in the car if I am not driving. I cannot stand a breeze blowing on me. Okay, if its 85 degrees and sunny I don't mind so much but lower than that and I'm a baby.

Barn Raising Quilt

My Barn Raising Quilt isn't exactly what you might expect. This quilt is a knitting project that I came across in the book Knitalong.

To make this quilt I need 42 blocks that are then sewn together to make a lap size quilt. I plan to make one slightly larger. Not sure how much larger as it may just get to a point where I say enough is enough. Here are a couple of pictures from the book so you get an idea of the finished quilt.

I am making each block from leftover sock yarn. When I knit a pair of socks I always have a small amount left over and this is perfect for one block.

So far I have knit 19 blocks. This is a wonderful project to make from yarn you would otherwise not use. Its the prefect scrap quilt and I just love that!

I keep all my finished blocks along with extra sock yarn in a tub. It keeps everything in one place and dust free. This is a LONG term project so keeping everything in one place so nothing gets lost is a plus.  You can make this quilt without using left overs, one 50 gram ball of fingering weight yarn yields approximately 3 squares.

I finished my Mom's Christmas present in which I used fingering weight yarn so I'm using what I have left over for a block. It may not be enough to make a whole block but because this quilt is scrappy I can just add another color to finish it off and it will be just fine.

In case you are wondering...these needles are Signature double points.

Side note :   Signature makes my  FAVORITE needles. www.signatureneedlearts.com  You need to be a serious knitter to purchase these needles, I think of them as heirloom pieces, something I will hand down to the next generation when I pass. I like the idea that when I am no longer on this earth that someone will inherit items of mine that they will use and think of me. (I was lucky enough to inherit 2 quilts from my cousins when they passed, they were sisters,  that I treasure because I remember the quilts being on their beds when I would visit them.)
The price of these needles is not for the faint of heart, however once I used a pair of these needles I just fell in love. I only own a few pairs of their needles. I have one straight pair that I use for knitting my dish clothes, one double point, and one pair of circular needles in a size that I use frequently. Someday (insert dream sequence music) I hope to own several more.