Well that week FLEW by! Always the worst part of taking a week off - the CATCHING UP you have to do when you get back to real life.  

SOMEONE had a 17th birthday the other day. (Hint: it wasn't me.)

Thanks so much for the kind comments about my poor boo-boo kitty. He perked up a bit mid-week and seems mostly back to normal now, or at least his 'normal'. As his brain started healing though the 'must eat everything sight' switch got turned off again and I'm now back to trying to coax him into eating all day. He really, really, really hates the kidney diet prescription food. Like, really hates it. What's the point of food to extend his life a little if he's going to starve to death in the meantime? I keep trying to stick with it (and have for over a year) but at this point I think we have to concede that we are both terrible at sticking to a diet. I can't blame him for being happy with bits of ham or cheese. Aren't we all?

Anyhoo, I'm trying to catch up on photos, photos, photos. I keep taking photos of things but then never posting them. Grrr. I actually did manage to finish a few things on break, that I was very glad to get finished and off to the great Finish Bin in the sky, I mean my closet.

 God I really don't like these socks. I started them in January and JUST finished them, so that right there tells you how disinterested I was in them. I took a skein of yarn I really didn't care for (too thin and splitty) and paired it with a slip stitch pattern that I also didn't care for (because it's a TERRIBLE CHOICE FOR A SPLITTY YARN) and GUESS WHAT? They were a miserable knit from start to finish and I will forever be shocked AND awed that I finished them. (In my defense though I picked that pattern because it helped alleviate the thinness of the yarn. It creates an almost woven fabric that adds bulk.)

 Also finished: the bonus charts from the L*K mystery sampler that I started last summer. Very much not miserable to finish and I'm glad I finally got to it because these are cute and I love Halloween stitchies. :)

 And a bunch of totally unphotogenic Scrap Yarn Blanket of Doom squares. I needed something mindless and quick to start/finish to clear my head of the oogie-boogies from the stupid socks. Blanket square I can finish in 90 minutes? YES PLEASE. I think I'm up to 8 new squares now to add to this never ending, not even CLOSE TO BEING FINISHED project because I'm still having fun doing up new ones. Once I get a bunch, like a dozen, I'll wash and block them so they look pretty and totally not like wadded up Kleenex. :)

To 'reward' myself for finishing a stitchy wip I did up a brand-spanky new-to-me small one. I randomly picked colors for this Val's Stuff freebie and think it came out pretty good. (Though I curse you Belfast green linen for always being IMPOSSIBLE to photograph nicely. What is it with this color??? So pretty in person SO HORRIBLE ON THE INTERNETS.) Could use some more contrast in the nose but I can live with it. Original pattern doesn't chart a flower or bunny tail but it's pretty easy to put them in. (Can't have a bunny without a TAIL?!?)

Now that that is done I reached into the nether regions of my wip stack (also known as my storage ottoman in the living room where things go to die a lonely death) and pulled out another wip to tackle. Oh, how optimistic I was when I happily stitched in the year 2012 on this!!! Twice. *face palm* Oh well. 2012, 2013. Isn't time just an illusion anyway? How can be sure that ANY sampler with a date stitched in is correct, right? So I'm keeping the 2012. And don't be thinking I'm almost done with this because there is whole other section of frames that go on the bottom of this. I originally abandoned this because - SURPRISE SURPRISE - I made a little boo-boo with the border and one of those borders is off a little. And ripping out black floss is miserable so I put it in time out. I think I'm mostly over it now though. Aside from talking about my failure on the internets, of course. lol

Whew. Now I'm all caught up I think, aside from adding these to my project pages. Yay!! :)

Reckoning.

 Finished sewing up yarn ends last night on my 'Olympic' squares. 

 I ended up with a dozen knitted over the course of the Olympics, plus I had 6 floating around from spring that I had never sewed up. 

 So that's 18 new squares added to the total........bringing me to 48 now. 

 OMG THAT'S IT? 

Sheeeeeeesh. I'm really in this for the long haul, eh? 

Oh well. It *is* a nice way to use up the 9,998 yards of scrap yarn balls I have floating around the house. 

Onward to other projects now. I definitely need a nice, long square breather. lol

I may or may not have gone back to the book sale for a second go-through. It's not my fault though as I go RIGHT BY the church on my way to the post office. How could I not stop again, right? It only goes on once a year!

 So, yeah. I now have enough books to last me until....... PROBABLY FOREVER.

Resurrected.

And not just the blog. (Because I see I'm in a 'not very posty' posting mood again of late.)

I mean my long-buried, long-dead, long-ignored Scrap Blanket of Doom project. 

I 'remembered' I wanted to try and get back to this (after not having touched it since LAST January or so!!!) this year, in the form of doing two squares per month. Each square only takes about 90 minutes (not counting the time to weave the middle closed) so it's HARDLY a monumental time taker-upper to get TWO measly squares done per month. So I powered through six of them to 'catch up' with the 2012 calender over a few nights............here's hoping I can stick to it over the course of the year!

Added to the previously done squares. 

If I do keep to it I could have, like, 50 squares total done by the end of year. Which means I would only need...........................100 or so more for a good sized blanket! lol 

Yep. Back on track to finishing this up by 2020 or so. *snort*

Happy Friday!

I always work on the weekends (always Sundays and sometimes Saturday if I have some catching up to do) but Friday is still special no matter what, yes? There is no mistaking that Friday VIBE. lol

Which is a lot of words to say that I don't have anything special planned for the weekend. It's chilly and damp and dark outside, per our usual weather for spring, so I'm not sure I care either. Heh 

I got the (mental) kinks out of my knitting system by whipping up some more blanket squares this week. 

Seven more to add to the pile. Which brings the grand total done up to...................24. 

Wait........WHAT? Doesn't it seem like I should have more done than that? *blink*

I double checked though and I don't. Well that's a bummer. *snort*

It's like going around thinking you've lost 20lbs. and then you weigh yourself and realize it was only 15. *pout*

Bleh. Bleh. Bleh.

Don't forget I'm having a giveaway this week!! You have another day to enter so get going!!! (I probably won't pull the name until later in the day tomorrow.)

This week is kind of blechy because I have an ear ache............AGAIN. Fourth time since August and it's getting OLD. :( I get it cleared up (in my left ear), get about a week or so reprieve and then it starts up again. I have prescription drops and stuff but I think they're useless. I hate hate hate hate going to doctor for stupid reasons (especially because I've had ENOUGH doctor's visits lately, thank_you_very_much) but obviously I'm going to have to go back in if it comes back again. What do they do then? Put a stint in or something? I don't have children so I've never had to deal with this round-and-round-we-go ear ache thingy. lol Hey, maybe I can get myself some adult diapers and a BOTTLE and get the full baby experience! *snort*

Anyhoo, I'm still diligently working on my Sock Blanket squares here and there while in the car (I don't drive) and waiting at appointments, etc. I had a three-hour (!!!) seminar last week which was GREAT for knitting - finished not one but TWO squares during that baby!!!!! I washed and blocked another batch the other day and took pics:

 

 I must have been going through my 'blue' phase with these. LOTS o' blue!

 

This dark blue one has a bit of cashmere in it and is quite delicious. :)

I think I have 16-17 squares done now? Only 999 bottles of beer left to go!!!

Hmph. I *really* have to get a handle on the projects this week.

There are neat piles of 'stuff' from all over my fireplace hearth in my living room and, yet, I keep_starting_new_projects. I went from a stack o' Blackbird stockings to be finished up, to knitting squares for the Scrap Blanket of Doom, to stitching up a couple Halloween stitchies, to itching to dig into this mystery bag of yarny goodness that came last week:

Look at it......so mysterious...........wanting to come out. It's whispering......knit me......knit me......... knit me. GAH! I'm trying my best to ignore it until I catch up a little because the way it is right now I'm leaving little slips of fabric, thread, T-pins, polyfil, and measuring tapes everywhere I go.  Soooo.............

Designs by Bent Creek & Val's Stuff

I buckled down and finished up my two new Halloweenies into pillows. And let me tell you - this is some of the worst sewing I've done in a while so don't look too hard at the supposed-to-be-straight sides, ok? My sewing machine doesn't have a permanent place outside of the storage closet and I didn't feel like taking the trouble to set up the card table for just two small things so I plunked that sucker down on the foundation ledge. It's sturdy, it's fits..................the foot pedal doesn't reach the floor? I didn't let that stop me so I pretended I had no legs and used my hand instead. LOOK AT ME GO WITH THE ONE-HANDED SEWING. Oh wait, LOOK AT ME SEW CROOKED LIKE OMGWHOA. *snort* Won't be trying that again. Promise. :)

And I also got all the August/September stockings cut out, interfaced, and prepped for sewing together. Will tackle that tonight before I get distracted by more Halloweenie stitchies. (I pulled a bunch of fall/Halloween stuff out of my stash so it is also calling my name at the moment.)

Scrap Blanket of DOOM has been relegated to on-the-go status - meaning I will only get to it when I'm in the car (I don't drive) or steal a minute here and there. I finished up another SIX squares last week but I was in the car a lot - I don't expect to get more than one square a week done up (if that) under normal circumstances.

I have to say though that these are SUPER EASY to knit  - even casting on in the car, while it's in motion, is easy-peasy! They are taking me about 90-120 minutes per square to knit up so they aren't super QUICK (those last few rows take foreverrrrrrrrrrrrrr) but it's fun to see how the colors are going to come out as the square goes on.

 

I just hope the last ten squares are just as fun as the first ten have been. lol (Because there are going to be many many many squares in between.)