NaBloPoMo post no. 27: Shoppmageddon tempts me.

Beloved pointed out to me that I didn't have to make everything for everyone on my list. I hear the siren call of shopping and I am doing my best to resist. I suspect in the end half of what I have planned will be made and I'll be working on a shopping list in a week or so. Because there's a lot to do to fix the disaster of this apartment. 

It is my goal to have it all clean by Yule or Mother's Night. I'm not throwing a party or anything. I just want to have this place sorted out kinda like a present to myself. I don't know how I am going to get the kids to participate in this. It may be a temporary suspension of tablet time. I don't know. Snuggle Bug is very forgetful and I have to watch him like a hawk to keep him on task. (As much as he assures me he doesn't need the supervision, he really does.) Cuddle Bear is finally beginning to step up and start handling some of the chores.

I don't know what Beloved said to him in that conversation, but it's made for a turnaround in his attitude towards housework.

Nablopomo post no. 16 - Slow progress is still progress.

This confounded sweater for Cuddle Bear is taking forever. I honestly don't know if I'm going to have it done in time for Yule. I just finished the table mat for the tea cozy set pattern test. I need to buy more yarn because I don't have the right color to make the two that I want to in addition to this pattern test. 

Now, you may wonder why I am doing a pattern test. Because the last time I took a pattern for granted, the gauge was all wrong and I had to rip the whole thing out. It was a headache. I'm fairly sure that I need to get more buttons as well to finish the tea cozy itself. Heck, I think I need buttons to do the button joins for Snuggle Bug's stuffie.

I have buttons but they're all the wrong shapes. All I need are simple, round buttons and I have none. You want stars, flowers, or hearts, I've got it. But no basic buttons are in my button jar because I have used them up repairing things. Large heart buttons could be fashionable on a pair of pants, but they'd be useless because they wouldn't fit through the button hole. Ugh.

I am at the point where I am questioning if I'm going to get any of this done. I always do, but I have my fits of uncertainty and stress.

Yule project list 2023

 Well, I have two seasons that I do work in. The spinning and fiber prep for spinning happens during the light half of the year where I can see better what I'm doing and can actually take a walk while spinning. (My preferred method of spinning is medieval style with a distaff and drop spindle. One of these days I will acquire a medieval stick spindle and some whorls. Then it'll be glorious to confuse the neighbors as I draw out thread and make it look like the spindle is levitating.) The dark half of the year, I make things like gifts for Yule and such.

Here is my project list so far:

Cuddle Bear's very late sweater (I'm finally past the halfway mark on this project and may actually get it done in time.)

Snuggle Bug's yellow bear stuffie patterned after a FNAF character

K. 's tea service set (I'm testing the pattern now to make sure if there's any errors I can fix them. This is a crochet set.)

T. 's fabric dice to go in his restored Pontiac Chieftain wagon

K. & R.'s Diabetic Recipe book (This will be written out by hand in an A5 notebook. Some of the recipes are my own and others I've collected off the internet, which will be cited in endnotes.)

T.'s tea service set (Based off of the pattern I'm testing, it looks like it can be done not just in single crochet but also in Tunisian crochet.)

More preemie hats to be donated by December. (I am hoping a solid deadline means I can get that box filled up.)

More things will be added to the list as I go on and finish projects in the works.

Fiber fluff update

 Well, it's December and I've only got one present made. That's right, I've only made one present. We'll be baking cookies later on in the month. But, that's not the same as making stuff like scarves and toys. I'm panicking a little bit about what I'm going to give people. I was going to make my increasingly famous Apple Pie Moonshine but the list of people who can have it keeps growing smaller. I may just give out the recipe.

On the preemie hat front, I'm grinding away at making hats. The people who write these patterns and say they work up in fifteen minutes lie. They're dirty, filthy lies. It's more like a half hour regardless of hook size and yarn weight. It is vexing but I'm going to keep at it. I've lost count as to where I'm at right now. But I know that I'm not going to hit my goal of 100 by January 1. Those few months back in the summer when I had a mental health crisis really screwed up my plans for the holidays. That's typically when I'm working on making things for people.

Spinning is on hold at the moment because I'm trying to finish off this damn ball of yarn for the preemie hats. I'm a bit frustrated. I love the way the Alpaca fiber is spinning up. I'm sure that it'll be a beautiful yarn. But I can't make anything for myself out of it because I will react to it. Nothing is as disappointing as getting all that work done and discovering that you can't do anything with it.

I'm debating rebooting my Etsy store and slapping up some of my yarn hoard for sale. I've been considering spinning for production for a little while. I enjoy spinning and I know that I can spin for production level work by the fact that I have spun a mile of yarn in the span of a month. And it was good, fine weight yarn. On a drop spindle. Since I have a kick wheel, I can probably do double that in shorter time. I am just in the situation that I don't have a comfortable chair to sit in and do this work. 

Looking at the yarn offered up for sale by others and the cost of their spinning services, I find myself thinking I could probably undercut some on the price and still make a decent bit out of my hobby. And not be left with the question of what the hell am I going to do with all of this damn yarn that I have spun. I'm still deciding on this one.

Holiday To Do List

 Just a post as a reminder of the stuff I have to get done over the next few weeks:

• Finish Snuggle Bug's Socks
• Make Cuddle Bear's Bells
  
• Fix Beloved's satchel
• Make soap to go with MiL's wash cloth
  
• Bake or acquire cookies for FiL
• Clean up living room to decorate
• Put up yule tree
• Put up stockings for kids
• Fill the 12 days of Yule gift boxs w/ trinkets & goodies for kids
• Pick out Yule projects to do for 13 days of yule
• Repot african violet
• Repot rando orchid
• Make Apple Pie Moonshine
  
• Get picture frames for school pics
• Finish NaNoWriMo project no. 3

Fiber Fluff Ramblings.

 I have officially begun my holiday knitting. My MiL asked for another nice scrubby washcloth. So I'm making her one that matches her bathroom. I think I have the right shade of red. I'm going to try to make two, if I have enough yarn. It's left over yarn from the red section of the Monstrosity. I have not done any work on the Monstrosity because the weather's been too warm and I'm at a point where the whole thing has to sit on my lap to be worked on. That is enough to be stifling, even with a box under it to lift the thing up a little so there can be airflow going about under the project.

I am in the progress of trying to decide what I'm going to make for the boys. They are in obvious need of longer scarves. I'm half tempted to do what I swore off of doing and making another illusion knit scarf. This time in the school colors with a paw print on it. Right now, they each have a scarf in school colors that from a self-striping yarn that worked up with big blocks of each color. The scarves, however, are beginning to get a bit short for them. The other option I am considering is making them each a pocket scarf one in blue and the other in orange. (Blue and orange are the school colors.) 

I am entirely stumped on what to make for Beloved. He's got hats, a scarf and matching fingerless gloves in his favorite color, and a random miser's purse (made from my handspun in his favorite color). I know that if I attempted socks, they wouldn't be worn. Because he wouldn't want to destroy them. Maybe I'll make him a bookmark. I do have punched paper bookmark blanks sitting around.

On the spinning front, no real progress of note has been made. I have to rearrange my spinning space. I am sitting in a chair with arms that isn't a problem if I'm using a supported spindle or a drop spindle. It is, however, making it challenging to use the kick-wheel because I can't draw out as much yarn as I'd like to at a single go with the wheel. I also need to find the grippy mat that should go beneath the kick wheel because it likes to try to get away from me as I work. I, of course, put that mat in a safe place. I've been looking for it and feeling like a fool for my difficulty in finding it.

Fiber Fluff: Yuletide projects.

I have taken my annual break from spinning to celebrate Yule. I lasted about an hour before I was twitchy and had to have some kind of project to work on. I decided that during daylight hours, I was going to work on embroidery and in the evenings work on crochet.

So far, I have finished a tulip pillowcase that my late Grandmother had started years ago before her dementia got bad enough that she couldn't do embroidery or cross stitch.

I am now working on a table runner with roses on it. The pic isn't the best, but this thing isn't finished either. It's half done.

The crochet project is a purple ombre granny square. I have no idea how big this thing will be when I get it done. I'd post a picture of it but it's kinda difficult to spread it out with out making a tangled mess of the yarn that I'm still working from. When I get it finished, I'll post it.

Just before Yule, I made my annual scrap yarn project. It is a shawlette that's just big enough to sit on my shoulders and keep me warmish as I sit by the window and work on these projects.

Operation Clean for the Holidays is GO!

I have begun the process of deep cleaning the apartment for the holidays. I'm not really expecting too many visitors. Most of my friends live a good ways off and it is something of a hike to come visit. Still, there is this ingrained thing from my childhood that before the holiday decorations can go up, the home must be utterly clean. Something of a challenge with two prepubescent boys, but they're even getting into this idea.

My brain is misfiring presently. I'm pretty sure that Beloved was right when he said that I seemed to be entering a mixed episode. I feel like crap and I want to sleep. At the same time, I feel incredible pressure to do ALL THE THINGS. I have the kitchen pretty close to clean. I spent my day yesterday cleaning. I was going to do a blog post on here but I just got into this cleaning groove and worked on the kitchen. I scrubbed up dishes, wiped down the stove and the sink. I put away a small pile of toys that were just kicking around the room. I did a bunch of things.

The room looks a lot better, but it's not quite done yet. Today, I am going to attempt to finish it up. Tomorrow, I scrub the bathroom. I'm not looking forward to that task. For some reason I can not fathom, I can't manage to get the tub fully clean. I have my orange based cleaning stuff that I am going to try. If that doesn't work, I may have to go get a can of scouring powder and do it the old fashioned way. That orange based cleaning spray usually can clean most everything up. It was an accidental find years ago at Dollar General. I haven't been able to find it since.

Also on my list of things to get done today is to finish my planning of yule presents. I feel sad that my night vision issues keeps me from attending the yule vigil party hosted by my friends out in Buffalo. I am thinking about doing a nice dinner and inviting a few folks over on the Solstice. It depends on how stable I am and what I can accomplish between now and then. 

Holiday cheer?

So, I have to start my story off with a bit of a preface. I had the flu recently. I just got over it in time to be ready for Yule. Well, Yule came along and the guys got a gift I did not intend to give - the flu. Christmas eve, we were lucky and the family doctor was able to see my youngest (who was living up to his nickname on here, Snuggle Bug). We thought he was the only one sick with it and started making plans to do family gathering in such a manner that he could rest and his brother could go spend time with the extended family. Then Christmas day happened. Beloved and Cuddle Bear both came down with the flu.

It was Christmas day, we knew that the family doctor wasn't going to be in office. We were pretty sure that after hours care over at the next town over wasn't going to be in office either. So, the guys toughed it out until today. Now, I called the family doctor explained the situation and he made his decision whilst on the phone with me to put them on the same stuff as Snuggle Bug. It makes sense, they've all got the flu.

Christmas eve, I went into Walmart to pick up Snuggle Bug's medicine before the pharmacy closed and the place was a zoo. I expected that and planned around things being super busy. I even managed to have enough mental fortitude to handle the crowds despite my social phobia. I expected going into Walmart on Christmas eve, there's going to be a crowd of last minute shoppers and people buying goods for holiday dinner.

It was going in to Walmart today to pick up the medicine and a few things for dinner that caught me off guard. First off, about half of the Christmas stuff was already on clearance and off the shelves. I was surprised there wasn't just a heap of stuff in a big wire bin marked down to a dollar. What was left on the shelves, I watched people getting into actual shoving matches over who got the last stupid gigantic mug with bad hot cocoa mix. I saw someone mindlessly push another person aside to get to a large bin full of chocolates and half dive into the bin to start digging around for something.

These were not children doing this. This was grown adults. I was astounded. I'm not sure what was more mind boggling. The people behaving like this or the fact that half of the stuff for Valentine's day was up already. They were still playing canned Christmas music. It made the scene more surreal. If it was all in a minor chord, I would have thought I was an extra in some badly made horror movie. Holiday cheer?

Crochet miser's purse.

Interweave's Spin Off and Piecework have featured at different times a knit pattern for a miser's purse. Looking at the historical patterns, I've seen them for crochet as well. I decided that for a special somebody, I was going to use some of my handspun yarn to make them one. Because I didn't have enough to make the full sized one that I saw in the Victorian pattern book, I came up with my own  pattern.

The yarn weight I used was a ply of cobweb weight wool singles with size 10 crochet thread. It basically was size 10 crochet thread. I had two rings that are one inch in diameter. If you don't have them, you could crochet a ring that sized. It needs to be able to slide along the finished product.

Chain eight with a size H hook. Work a single crochet into each stitch. At the last stitch of the row, work three single crochet. Then work a single crochet into the back of each stitch of the chain row. At the beginning of the row, work two stitches into the first chain and slip stitch into the first stitch. Chain one. (16)

Work two stitches into the first stitch of the round. Work one single crochet into each stitch of the round until at the first of the three stitch increase at the middle of the round. work an increase into that stitch. Single crochet into the next stitch. Work an increase into the next stitch. Then single crochet into every stitch until the final stitch of the round. In the final stitch, work an increase then slip stitch into the first stitch of the round. (20)

Place marker. Begin working in the round with out slip stitching together. Single crochet into each stitch around until piece is four inches long. At the marker make a treble crochet. Chain three. Skip next stitch. Treble crochet into next stitch. single crochet into next stitch and continue around. (23)

On the next round, single crochet into the first treble crochet. Skip the first chain stitch. Single crochet into the second chain stitch. Skip the third chain stitch. Single crochet into the next treble stitch. Single crochet into the next single crochet and continue thus around.

Single crochet until piece is eight inches long. Bind off. Sew open end together so that it lies flat. One end will have a semi rectangular side and the opposite end will be rounded. Roll up pouch and slide rings on.

To use the miser's purse, slide both rings to one side of the hole and insert coins on one side. Then slide both rings to the opposite side of the hole, insert coins of a different denomination on the opposite side. The addition of the coins will keep the rings on the purse. To keep the coins in the purse, slide the rings until they meet their respective ends where the coins are.

Holiday complications.

I'm coming down the home stretch of getting projects done. I'm now at the point where I have to sew up the binding on one blanket. Aside from that, I have to do my holiday baking. There's a short list of things to buy for the 12 days of Yule I'm going to do with the kids again this year. I'm going to start Christmas day. They get their big present then. After that it will be little things like sweets and matchbox cars or something similar. It's not going to be thirteen matchbox cars or whatever.

I'm going to have some challenges this year in finding things that are both useful and still holiday related. I'm thinking about the stocking stuffers like pencils and fancy erasers. The boys are still working on sketchbooks and Doug's sort of journaling. I'm also going to be giving them a few joint gifts. The complication here is the fact that we're trying to get things out of the house that we don't need. Buying a bunch of random dollar store toys is just going to make more of a mess. So I'm thinking about things like a package of socks (because they go through socks like nobody's business) as a gag gift one day, new mittens and other small but practical things.

I'm also going to crochet them their own snowflakes. I will also take some of the gobs of white yarn I have and make 'snowballs' for them to fool around with. Basically large pompoms that they can mess around with in the house. I'm just stumped on what else to do. I'm leaning towards cookies.

Deb's December Knit Along Scarf Project.

Day 1: Cast on the same number of stitches as your age. Knit the same number of rows as in your household.

Day 2: Stockinette stitch the same number of rows as years of your oldest friendship/relationship

Day 3: Change color. Reverse stockinette stitch the same number of rows as holiday items you have up for decorations. (You don't have to count all the ornaments on the tree unless you want to.)

Day 4: Basket weave stitch ( https://www.dummies.com/crafts/knitting/designs-patterns/how-to-knit-basketweave-stitch/ ) for as many rows until you get bored of it.

Day 5: Change color. Reverse stockinette stitch for the same number of chairs in your house.


I'll add more to this over the next several days. I'm currently working on day two, day three is going to be one row. Then I'm going to do two repeats of basket weave stitch before I'm on to today's stitching.

Theoretically, I'll have a scarf by the end of this. I am cheating on the color changing because my yarn is self striping. I think I have enough in the ball to get a whole scarf out of it. If not, I'll start using up my yarn hoard. Red Heart SuperSaver has this awesome colorway called favorite stripes. I used it for my Pride scarf that I made this summer. I loved the way it worked up as Tunisian crochet, so I had to give knitting it a shot. And because the colors change, I'm not getting too bored with the stockinette section.

Reaction guy thing.

I'm making stuff for people at the last minute. Because someone I know tends to have two reactions at work, I made them a peg doll I call reaction guy. Great for constant interruptions.

 The top image is the LOLWUT? reaction. The bottom image is the NO!! FU! reaction. I'm pretty sure the recipient is going to laugh their ass off over this. It is all drawn SO badly. But it adds to the humor of it.

Reaction guy, your real life meme!

In other news, I'm sick as a dog right now. I caught the kid's cold and I feel pretty awful. We haven't decorated for yule because this place is a disaster. I'm sticking with the line I drew in the sand: no decorating until this place is clean. I'm exhausted. I'm going to go work on my scrap granny square. I'm almost down to the bottom of my basket of scrap balls of yarn. It is a task that doesn't require too much thought and if I fall asleep in the middle, I don't feel too badly about it.

Buffalo Ranch Chicken salad.

It has been a long day. The evening is proving aggravating. This calls for easily made comfort food. Since I didn't have the stuff to make the chicken salad with the cranberries and almonds that I liked from Aldi's, I did the next best thing. I made Buffalo Ranch chicken salad from stuff I had on hand. To be honest, I think it came out pretty well.

I used one can of chicken breast (drained). I added a 1/2 cup of mayonnaise and one scallion cut fine. I then put in the last of my bottle of semi-homemade ranch dressing, I guess it was about two tablespoons. I estimate I added an equivalent amount of Sirachca (however you spell it) and a teaspoon of celery flakes. I think it came out ok. We'll see what Beloved thinks of it.

In the meantime, I'm going to make myself a cup of coffee and try not to think about the holidays and stuff. Because it is proving stressful and I'm about ready to just scream at the kids because they're screwing around instead of picking stuff up as they should be. And I'm just done with it. Today is the second day in as many weeks that I had to sit down and sort stuff out so that it could get put away. I'm sorely tempted to just start throwing away every toy I step on. And we haven't managed to get anything actually cleaned up yet.

If things continue at this rate, we're not decorating for Yule or really doing anything fun. We'll just be attempting to get shit cleaned up every damn day. And then they'll get a mess of toys and it'll be an even bigger disaster. I may be in a pessimistic mood right now. It's been a rough couple of days for me mental health wise.

Na-NOPE.

So, I'm just done. I am frustrated with my NaNoWriMo project. And there's no way I can make up twenty something posts in a few days with out being annoying for the NaBloPoMo thing this month. I'm tired of feeling like I have failed some how. I have made the executive decision to set this stuff aside and focus on getting things that make me feel better done instead. And finishing off Yule preparations.

While I don't have the 12 days of Yule stuff done up for Beloved, I have a pretty good start on something for the kids. I'm trying to decide what awesomeness I am going to whip together to finish off the pile of small Yule gifts. The most frustrating part of all of the gifts is not going to be wrapping. It is going to be final assembly on two gifts. One is made of small parts to be sewn together. The other is a bunch of small parts to be drawn and such. At least I know that I've got the stamina for that detail work. LOL

Cookies in a Jar Pages.

So, I opened up the cupboard to start getting things out to put together into these jars. I'm sure you can imagine my dismay when I opened up a new bag of flour and found bugs in it. Now, this is partly my fault because I had left it just sitting in the cupboard for months unattended to. I may be asking Beloved to pick up another bag this evening on his way home from work. I'm not decided.

I am, however, going to post links to the cookie recipes that I was going to use. In case anyone else is in a last minute rush to get something semi-homemade out the door to people as a present.

Sugar Cookies

Chocolate Chip Cookies

Oatmeal Raisin Cookies

Brownie Mix

Sophia's Headband.

I started out experimenting with yarn. Then it turned into this. Fortunately, however, it proves a super simple pattern and easy to write up.

I used lime green for the headband itself. The flower is in some random shade of purple that I got in a grab bag of yarn. The leaf is a forest green. The button was from a pack of random shaped buttons. In case you can't tell, it is a five petaled flower shape.

My yarn is all acrylic. It is worsted, sport weight. (Size 4 if you're keeping score.) I used as size I tunisian crochet hook (5.5 mm) for the headband and a size H crochet hook (5 mm( to make the leaf and the blossom. You can't see it, but at the back I have a elastic headband stitched to it.

Headband

With the green yarn and the tunisian crochet hook, chain four. Forward pass for tunisian simple stitch into each of the three chains. Return pass for the tunisian simple stitch. Row 1 done. Row 2 is the same. Row three pick up an additional stitch after the first stitch and second stitch. You should have six loops on your hook. Return pass. Row four is tunisian simple stitch into each stitch. Row five tunisian simple stitch into the first two stitches. Pick up an additional stitch between stitch four and three. Do stitch four as per usual, place marker. Pick up another stitch between stitch four and five. Finish forward pass as per usual. Row six, repeat row five, but pick up stitches along either side of center stitch. Move marker up with row completed. Continue until total stitches in row is twelve.

Work 29 rows of tunisian simple stitch, move marker up with each row. First decrease row, pick up to two stitches from marker. Stitch together two stitches before and after marker. Work next row plain. Continue alternating between decrease row and plain until four stitches remain. Work two rows of four stitches. Bind off. Single crochet around the edge of the headband.

Attach one end of elastic headband to the end with four stitches (I used a circular band and put the metal end where things are stuck together on one side. I then folded the band in half and stitched the part where the fold was to the other 4 stitch end of the headband.

Embellishment

With purple and size H hook, make a blossom and leaf as per White Rose of Resistance pattern.

Sew blossom down and add button of your choice to center. This keeps the blossom open. You can stitch down the petals as well.

Stitch down the leaf to the side of the blossom. I used a running stitch down the center in a contrasting color. This presented the image of a vein down the center of the leaf as well as holding it securely to the headband.

Obviously, weave all ends in when finished with each component and stitch things securely. I don't think this will be washing machine safe because of the embellishments. I would advise washing this by hand and allowing to air dry.

Update (or something).

Today, I finished the scarf that I was knitting for Cuddle Bear. It's the orange-navy blue colorway from Red Heart (I think they call it Team Spirit). This one is slightly longer than the other one that I made for Snuggle Bug. But, now the school color scarves for the boys are finished. I picked up two t-shirts for them earlier this week with blue tie-dye and the words 'Livonia Bulldogs' on it in orange. It was $15 dollars for the two shirts through Dollar General, easily half the price of getting the same shirts from the sports booster's flyer.

I also made a cap for the neighbor's 4 month old baby. He's like my boys, a big head for his age. She's got him wearing stuff for an 8 month old baby and has really been struggling to find him hats. So, I pulled out some of my baby yarn for the charity hats and made him one. I remember how frustrating it was to put the boys in hats when they were little. It was cute to watch her light up when I handed it to her this afternoon.

I spent my day going through the huge pile of papers on and around the desk. In the course of it all, I discovered that I have a stack of magazines about two inches thick that I need to put away. (They're my crochet magazines where I have gotten pattern ideas out of over the summer.) I also took care of paying the bills. I felt anxious doing it, but when I got done, I felt like a weight was taken off my shoulders.

The blue shawl that I am knitting for my niece Alexis is approximately half done. Not bad for working on it only a little bit over the last several months. I will confess, most of the work I had done before she asked me to make her something. I did pick up an additional ball of that colorway (Caron's Simply Soft Paints in Ocean). I presently have three balls of this colorway that I haven't been knitting off of. I am only going to need one to finish this shawl out. Then I am going to take the other two and make something for myself out of it. Because the colors in this are just too lovely to pass up.

I have made some inroads into my effort to get some spinning done over the last week. I still have a shopping bag full of the raspberry colored wool. I am trying to decide if I want to put it on a distaff again or not. I am leaning towards the distaff but trying to figure out how I am going to tie it on. Because what I did last time didn't work out that well, which was why I took it off the distaff. I have also spun about ten yards on the rainbow colored wool-alpaca-tencel blend on my little Turkish spindle. I am seriously thinking that I am going to spin the rest of the bat on one of my cobbled together Turkish spindles. It will have a different weight for it, but I will be able to make a larger ball on it. I don't think I can make the ball on this little spindle too much larger.

Also, I picked up an astronomy book yesterday. It dates to 1968 but that doesn't bother me. It will still help me get reacquainted with the night sky, with the help of Sky and Telescope magazine. I think all I will really need aside from this is a way to set myself up with good observing conditions (predominantly comfortable that will allow me to use my rinkydink Newtonian desk telescope). I kinda hope that I can get this figured out before the nights get too much longer, this way when observing time happens sort of early in the evening, I can take the boys out and show them stuff like Orion's nebula.

I also have been bashing away at CreateSpace in an attempt to resolve issues with getting book II of my series to market. You can read more about it on my other blog.

Fiber Update & Yule Projects.

I have fifteen days to finish all of my projects. I am confident I can manage it. Considering that I am half done with Beloved's sweater (actually a little over that) and the remainder of crafting type things I have left to do are involving fabric paint, I don't think it is going to be a problem this year. I am presently stalled on my spinning. I still have that batt of pink fiber to tie onto my distaff and spin. I also have several other bits of fiber that I still need to card.

This doesn't include the backlog of work for the sheep study that the spinning guild is doing right now. I think, however, I have finally concluded what I am going to be using the samples for. I believe I am going to knit another sampler scarf for myself, this time less than 12 feet long. (I accidentally did that with the last one I knit for myself.) I have been thinking about fiber and what I am going to do with the samples of Lincoln wool that I've got kicking around. It is all less than an ounce each. And they're dyed in really vibrant colors.

Looking at everything, I am seriously trying to figure out how to make spinning off the distaff with the kick wheel work. If I can manage it, I am pretty sure that I can get a significant amount of my fiber stash spun. I am starting to run out of room for storing it. Thus, I need to start spinning it all.

I am looking over the Yule gifts that I made thus far this year. The large shawl that I made for E. came out fairly well. I still need to soak it in fabric softener and run it through a wash to soften up the fibers but I am anticipating that will not be a problem. I honestly think the only challenge with that is going to be transporting it to the laundromat for washing after I soak it. And that is something I can use a clean garbage bag or plastic shopping bag for.

I was attempting to make another wingspan shawl with the skein of yarn I had sitting from last year. I ended up with a small scarf. I still have to block it out. I am debating if I should sew beads onto it or not. I am not pleased with how small this thing came out. The yardage of it, according to what I had for directions, meant that I was going to get a small shawl out of it. Instead, I got two repeats of the pattern, which makes something just long enough to wrap about the neck once.

I have a pile of washcloths and kitchen goods that I made up earlier this year packed into a little recycled canvas rice sack. I am fairly sure it will be a gift that is appreciated as well as found to be useful.

Mom stuff > Writer stuff.

So, my eldest is home from school today. He last night told me that his stomach was bothering him. He didn't eat most of his dinner. So, I decided that he was perhaps telling the truth and kept him home from school today. Now he is sitting up in his bed insisting that he is fine and he should get up and play. I, however, have been telling him that if he is sick then he needs to stay in bed and rest. If he is not sick, then he lied to me and he will be in trouble. As a result, his arguments that he is fine have quieted down.

I know he is bored. That was the plan. I decided last night if he was truly sick that rest would make him better. If he wasn't sick, then rest was going to bore him enough that he wasn't going to want to stay home from school again and lie about being sick. It is 9:30 am and we have had about 7 'Is it lunch time yet?' from him. He has his bear and the bucket if he feels sick to his stomach. Aside from that he's got nothing but his bed clothes. As a result, he is bored. Which is according to plan. It irritates me, mildly, that I have to sit at the couch and keep an eye on him rather than sit at the desk to write.

I have discovered that listening to music on headphones whilst typing has made for a more immersive experience, which equates to greater typing speed and inspiration. But, because I need to listen for him causing mischief, I can't do that right now. It is a bit frustrating. Still, I am attempting to do my work and get stuff going as I would any other day. I right now have a few bills to pay and to call in a few prescriptions for Beloved to pick up on his way home from work this evening. Aside from this, I have a sink full of dishes to wash and laundry to fold.

I was sick last week so I didn't get much housework done. As a result, I am playing catch up right now. I have been putting a bunch of stuff aside to focus on my writing. I am participating in NaNoWriMo again. I have met the 50K word count goal. I am actually close to 60K. But my plot is only half completed. Thus, my focus is on finishing the story by the end of the month rather than hitting a word count number. I also need to spend some time knitting because I've got Beloved's sweater only 1/4 of the way finished.

I have been doing some spinning over the last several days when I felt well enough. I am almost finished with the first batt of the raspberry pink fiber that my mother in law gave me last summer. It isn't as soft and as lush as the fiber of the same color that I used to start a scarf a while back. That is because the fiber content is different. That yarn is made from 50% merino, 30% tencel, and 20% silk, if I recall correctly. It was really nice to spin up and the first bit of yarn I ever spun using a distaff.

I have some fiber with the same content as this pink yarn. But it is in shades of grey. I posted a picture of it after Fiber Fest a little while back, you may have seen it. I am saving that to spin after I have finished the second batt of the raspberry pink merino. I don't know what I'm going to make with the stuff I'm spinning right now. I do think, however, I'm going to ply the singles from the two batts together on my kick spindle. I have fiber to comb or flick card but I just haven't gotten to it.

The spinning stuff is going to take a back seat to Yule gifts. I still have several things to finish up. I have decided not to make sweaters for the boys. If I finish Beloved's sweater by early December, I may make them new hats. I will, however, be buying them sweaters as gifts. They're outgrowing the ones they have from last year. I suspect that this winter is going to be as bitter as last winter was, thus the sweaters will be a necessity.

I have been working on a bag of fun stuff for one of my youngest nieces but I realized that what I gathered were all targeted at a lower age group than what she is in. So, I have to start that all over again. I don't know what exactly I am going to give her but I will figure something out. I will be ordering proof copies of my books soon and I intend to give some to my older nieces (and my cousin). I was really entertained to learn that one of the girls was super excited to discover that I am an author.

I honestly thought that everyone in the family knew this. Apparently this somehow got missed. I think she is going to be thrilled to get copies of my books. I have several people waiting for copies of book two. Now that I have gotten the last of the issues with printing handled, I will be getting hard copies to give as gifts to a few folks. I have a manuscript to finish that I wanted done by Yule. I don't know if I am going to accomplish that, to be honest. Getting sick last week put me behind schedule on the fantasy novel I'm working on. Which cuts into the time I have for working on the other project.

With Yule gifts still needing to be finished, I am going to have to put the manuscript on the back burner to get those done. Perhaps if I schedule my time properly, I will get some writing time in while I'm working on that. We'll see. In the meantime, I need to finish this post and get my chores done.