Noni Hydrangea Bag

This one's for me!!


I've been eyeing Noni patterns for quite some time. -- Over a year, at least. I love the details and the surprise "different-ness" of these fulled bags. They just nail a punch, in my opinion. So, a few weeks ago when Sister and I went exploring (and found) a local yarn shop, and I found this pattern, I knew it was coming home with me!

The bag itself was quick and easy to knit up. -- Took all of a few sittings while Son took his nap. The flowers, however, will be another story! -- Forty-one in all, if I read the pattern correctly. -- GROAN! Two took at least an hour, each. And I was hoping to have this bag ready for spring. -- Maybe next spring, at this rate.


It all will be fulled, and then there are all kinds of details to do to the bag as well, at least according to the pattern: lining, zipper, snazzy handles, even FEET to rest it on! This is one detailed bag!

Wool Delights

Ages ago, while looking at Noni patterns online, actually, I stumbled upon these sassy pom-poms. Being purely a knitter, I thought (for now) they were beyond me. I love working with wool, though, so decided that one day I would figure these little things out. "Imagine what one could do with them!" I thought.

Over Christmas, while visiting in the town of Hastings, Michigan, I was overjoyed to find "Lady Peddler" open! I have attempted visiting this store before, but their posted hours are anything but regular, so they were never open when I happened upon their store. This time, however, they were! My mother quickly realized she had lost her window shopping partner to several hours in here. She passed along some snacks she had in her pocket, and found another ride home, telling me to take my time. How lucky was I!


In the back of the store, behind all the beautifully hand-died alpacas and silks and wools, was a solid wall full of huge balls of roving wool. And in a corner were two sectioned boxes filled with small balls of roving wool, dyed every color of the rainbow. I instantly knew that I was headed down a new road.

I took a couple of small balls to the clerk, who also happened to be the owner of the store, and timidly asked a question or two. She was busily knitting away on a shawl-type garment that she was designing as she went. Clearly, she knew what she was doing. And now, besides being in just a most wonderful shop, I was at the feet of an incredible teacher. -- Things just kept getting better!


The lady peddler showed me what needle I needed, and gave a brief description of how to make the balls, and I have been off and running ever since. What fun!

I have to say, the little single-owner stores built into a house or row of quaint shops hold some of the best yarns and most valuable teachers! I wouldn't know half of what I know as a knitter today if it weren't for them. I've had some incredible mentoring.

New Look

I'm after a new look! What do you think of the new layout/background for my blog? I like the cleaner, less cluttered look of this layout, and I think it goes better with my blog title.

What do you think?

P.S. -- Pictures coming soon! I've been way too busy making, and doing no recording. Sorry!

Some hints to upcoming photos:

completed fulled slippers for Daughter (I've already posted the pre-fulled pics)
fulled slippers for me (!!! I don't usually make things for myself)
needle-felted pompoms for garland/ornaments
too-fulled knitted hat intended for Husband, passed on to Daughter or Son
current project of re-make fulled knitted Peruvian hat for Husband
current project of cute Noni hydrangea bag for me (I'm on a roll of making things for me!!)
current project of recycled sweater blankets

Fulled Helmet Hat

I bought this pattern over a year ago. Again, it's a fulled (felted) project, and I just thought it was really cute, and would be really warm, too. So a week or two ago, in the non-occupied evenings, I started working on it. Last night I finished it, and this morning I shrank it.

I think it looks Medieval-ish, no??

Right now it is stretched, drying over a balloon. Hopefully the balloon's shape doesn't get any funkier, or this hat will be a laugh and a half!

Considering how large it was before shrinking, I thought my husband might land the hat instead of my son. Amazingly, though, it shrank down very nicely. -- Almost too nicely??

Dear Son is fascinated with balloons. I am drying this over one of my heat vents, so it is at Dear Son's level. A while after leaving it on the vent, I caught Dear Son red-handed, tugging on the hat with one hand while desperately trying to release the balloon out of the hat with the other. It didn't matter that I had blown up five other balloons, which were lying all over the house; he wanted this one!

This hat, obviously, is not a surprise gift for Dear Son. I have tried it on him numerous times as it has been drying, and each time I am pleased with the results. Since I have gotten the ties on it, Dear Son is even more pleased, too. He loves a hat!

Letters

I've been working on more Christmas gifts, these for some girls whose names are obvious. Last time I did this, it took me HOURS to complete, as I wrapped each letter with wrapping paper and glue. This time, I got smart. My neighbor and I both like to use Stampin' Up! stamps, so I called on her to see what she has. She loaned me several sets, plus gave me more ideas, and this is what I came up with.

First, I stole my daughter's spare toothbrush. (It has since been relegated to my craft bin.) I flicked acrylic paint onto the bare white letters.

Next I stamped on the blue dots for Isabella and the flower designs for Olivia.

Then I took a sponge, dabbed it on the stamp pad, stamped it several times on scrap paper, and then lightly brushed all around the edges of the letters, giving them an 'antique' look.

I had to let it dry at this point for a VERY long time (most of the night), as that blue stamp pad for the dots was worse than paint.

About 4:00 a.m. I awoke thinking about it, so came to check on it, and it was finally dry!

'Isabella' was just too plain; the dots too bold. So I took another stamp set, and, after stamping the first bit of ink off onto scrap paper so my real stamping would be lighter in color, I randomly stamped the flowers and berries on top of the blue dots. It toned it down significantly, and I was very pleased with the results.

Finally, I sprayed it with a clear coat finish to protect all my hard work.

They're now wrapped up, ready to gift the recipients with.

Shared Meals

While perusing another's blog one day, I happened to learn about shared meals. Basically, it's where you get several households to join you in creating one large meal each and then each household gives their meal to all other households in the group. It majorly cuts down on cooking, and is supposed to help with the budget. (So far I've had too many other things happening to know if it really does save money.)

We have four households in our group, and are trading meals once a week. So it ends up that we have four different cooked meals per week, and only have to heat them up. It's wonderful!

I confess, I hate to cook. So this is my answer to staying out of the kitchen.

Only, last week didn't go too well. I failed my other households and didn't get the meal ready on time. I promised it a few days later, and something else happened. So today I've spent the entire morning in the kitchen. I finished the meal that didn't seem to want to happen last week. I made the meal for this week. And I'm getting ahead of the game and made the meal for next week. Thankfully some of this can go in the freezer, otherwise I'd have to buy a new fridge to house all this till 'delivery day'.

The meals:


Cuban Black Beans and Rice; "Chicken" (vegetarian) and Lentil Soup; "Beef" (vegetarian) Stroganoff (with noodles still to come); more Chicken and Lentil Soup for the Christmas party.

Bathroom Paint-Job

We are soon hosting Dear Husband's office staff Christmas party at our house. This has been great impetus for completing a few more "renovations" around the house, one of which is the main bathroom.

The bathroom was gross. Purple in color, and a VERY bad paint job at that; caulking around the sink that looked like it was carelessly smeared in place -- if you can call down on the counter 'in place'; baseboards not even fully laid. There was also an old wall heater under the window that we are afraid to use.


So Dear Husband handled the electrical end of things and took out the heater, and then replaced the hole with new wallboard. From there, I took over mudding -- yes, again -- the patch, and various other major discrepancies all over the walls. Then, on Friday, David rolled the ceiling for me, and I rolled the walls to this new color.


I am not as thrilled with the color as I had hoped to be; it's too . . . something. It swears with the natural wood color of the cabinet and door frame. Oh, well. What it is, it is. -- For now.

We then installed some new towel bars, and did a couple other little things. I have yet to make a new shower curtain, a curtain to cover the linen cupboard, and a curtain for the window. I'm hopeful that I'll like it much better once these things are completed, which I'm hoping to finish this week. We'll see . . .