Getting back in the groove

It's been so long since I have wanted to knit anything. 

I knit so many socks when I started knitting back in '99 that I was completely over it. I never wanted to see another pair of knitted socks again. Then I started having to buy socks, I don't care what kind you buy, nothing is as comfortable as a hand knit pair of socks. But that still didn't motivate me to get knitting. 

Then I had to find a blanket for the freezer I call my church. (you could hang meat in there!) I could not find one that fit my needs, it needed first of all to be thick and warm but have the ability to fold up and fit into my church bag, along with all the other things I take with me every Sunday. It needed to reach from my waist to my feet and not be gaudy. After looking around forever, I finally decided I would just have to make my own. The freezing temps (only to me and a few others, everyone else seems to be quite comfortable in the freezer) was what finally motivated me to get out the needles.

I found some really soft Lion Brand Comfy Cotton in white. Tho it is a cotton yarn, the pattern I used made it quite warm and cozy.

I cast on 180 sts on size 6 needles and used the linen stitch pattern. Just a heads up, linen stitch on 180 sts takes a WHILE to complete. Since it was winter weather outside and dark by 5 pm, it was also t.v. season (that seems to be the only time of the year we have time to sit down in front of the t.v., that and .......well.....football. 

Fine! I admit it, most of this blanket was knit during football games. I love football season!

It wasn't long until the old habit of not being able to sit down without having something in my hands to knit on kicked in.

It's been on every since!

This is my church blanket. The bestest, comfiest, warmest blanket I've ever made. I love it!

 

Shortly after I finished this blanket I noticed a friend shivering in the row across from me. So I grabbed some more needles, some Lion Brand Mondail yarn with some pretty brown and blue colors and cast on 130 sts on size 7 needles and made a garter stitch blanket on one of our three hour, week long trips to the hunting camp, and gifted it to my shivering friend, before she started hugging up to anyone who sat beside her to keep warm. LOL

That one I don't have a picture of but trust me, it's really pretty. I love the colors and the striping in the yarn. And ooooo so soft!

Afterwards I noticed someone else shivering away. 

I decided that my large stash of wool would be perfect for making lapghans for my friends at church, so I grabbed the maroon and the green yarn and started knitting garter st blankets.  

Unfortunately because I have had this wool in my stash so long, the yarn had many breaks in it. The green yarn took as much time tying all the ends together to have enough yarn to finish the blanket, than it did to get it knitted up. Because these two have so many knots in them, I decided they wouldn't be a good enough blanket to give away, but they look really cool on my wing backed chair don't ya think?

 

Then the sock bug hit me, after all these years, I wanted to knit socks again! But alas, our two month winter is over, we might get about three more cold snaps and then we are done for the year. So I decided to save that for football season. 

I still need to make the blankets (yes, we need them all year round, and I think more in the summer when they turn the a.c. down) but after four blankets in a row, I wanted to find something else mindless to knit on as t.v. knitting is still on for about another month, maybe. 

I started searching around on Ravelry and found an awesome group

Warmth for Warriors then I found their Facebook page 

and it was on. 

I had two children who served overseas, my daughter in Iraq from 2007-2008 and my youngest son in Afghanistan  from 2013-2014, so this was something I could get behind. Warm hats from home, hand knit and filled with prayers for each and every one. 

So get behind it I did, I just joined the group three days ago, and I have already knit three hats and am almost finished with the fourth. My goal is 30 for March.Since we are going to be traveling in the next few weeks, I think I will be able to accomplish it, or at least get very close.

I don't have a lot of 100% wool left, but they do accept other fibers that are given to Vets here in the States. 

Guess I am just going to have to use what I have and suffer through buying some more (oh the anguish I put myself through) LOL!

These hats are just the basic pattern that they have a link to at the Ravelry page. It's simple, it's mindless t.v. knitting, it's perfect for showing the love and support I have for the American Soldier!

Blankets and wash cloths

The plan for this Christmas was car seat and stroller sized blankets for the youngest of the Grandbrats, a few wash cloths for a 'few' people and that was all the craftiness for this season.
Well that has turned into 3 blankets, cloths for dirty santa at the MIL's this year, AND cloths for a few MORE people.
I have one blanket finished, one will be done by midnight tonight. Yes, I am committed to staying up that late, even with a five a.m. wake up, to finish this blanket and start some cloths that have to be done in less then ten days.
When will I ever, ever learn to start earlier? 😅
I know I work better, faster, under pressure, I've always been a 'last minute freak out and done' kind of person. And this year, it seems, will be no exception.
I will post pics of the blankets tomorrow.
And yes! I will have that second blanket finished by the time I take those pics!
Watch me!

Sewing has been moved

I know, I know
You come here for knitting, for ideas and links and patterns, for knitting. (let's not forget the witty conversation too)
So I have moved the sewing to it's own blog.
Sewinfun (what else could it be?)
All things sewn will be moved over there so don't forget to bookmark it if you did enjoy seeing what I have been up to sewing wise.
The knitting is zooming along.
I finished Trent's blanket and am about a quarter of the way through Ada's. Tho with this one I am on a deadline. Christmas comes early when you have a grandbrat who lives so far away. So you celebrate when schedules allow everyone to get together.
Which in this case means I have 2 weeks to finish Ada's blanket and make at least 8 dishcloths!
Some for my FIL, some for my MIL, no, they don't share, he likes acrylic and she likes cotton. LOL
And some that were requested for dirty Santa this year.
Yes, that's about as dirty as our Santa gets. ;0)

Making personal bags with link to tutorial

 

Once a month we go to a local women's shelter with people from our church.

 DD#1 started going with me just a couple of months ago, and decided we needed to make them bags for Christmas.

Nothing huge, just little personal item bags to put, well, personal items in.

So a call to duty went out and DD#1 and I broke out the sewing machines. She found an awesome video on YouTube 

Zipper Pouch Tutorial-Super easy-5 minutes-5 straight seams

And it was on.

She seemed a little daunted when I told her we would need at least 60 bags. 

And that is how I got involved in her project. 

We each get to make 30 bags and then I will stuff them all.

I am thinking a warm pair of socks, tooth brush and paste, hand sanitizer and maybe some candy.

Anyway, we took last Saturday, before the game and set up two machines on the kitchen table and hung out, laughed, talked and made bags. 

I really love the way the 33 we have made so far have come out. And, I actually stole one of hers, (don't worry we have lots and lots of materials) that I really liked.    

These are just a few pics. When we are finished I will get some pictures for you. 

Who doesn't like Trolls!

Will post pictures of the rest of them tomorrow.

Knitting blankets and Grandbrats

There is still actually knitting going on at the Knittinfun house. Lots of knitting, continuous, one stitch, football watching, evening t.v. knitting.
"Let me make garter stitch blankets" I said, "it will be easy (boring) knitting to make for the babies," I said.
I admit, I get bored really easy with my projects. I can't help it. It starts as a bright flame and visions of piles of garter stitch blankets, and ends with "what was I thinking?!"
But I have a deadline to keep, so I plugged away at it. Sissy B's blanket is probably about only an hour away from being finished. Since she has been the recipient of many of my handmade items when she was little, I had to throw this to the back burner and get started on the babie's blankets to have them finished in time for Christmas.
Don't get all bent out of shape, Sissy B will still receive her hugs from MiMi, just doesn't have to be at Christmas time.

 

Trent's (Grandbrat #7) blanket has to be finished a lot sooner than that. 

The picture is a little dark, but this is the same yarn as Sissy B's in blues,blacks, greys and whites. Perfect for a growing boy.

 

Here is a better picture with some more length on it. 

And yes! I am most definitely still in love with this yarn!

This was just about a week ago, and as of 9pm last night it is finished and put in the drawer waiting for prep day.

I will get better pics of the finished blanket after prep day, when it will be all shiny and new looking.

 

We got a special little visitor a little over a week ago. 

This is Ada Grace (grandbrat #8) 

She is the spitting image of her father and I think she looks a lot like PawPaw also. 

She is the quietest little thing and a tad shy. 

I think that means more trips to visit are in order!

 This little guy is the recipient of the blue blanket.
Trent.
He cam to visit MiMi and PawPaw and all those kids.
He is full of life and wonder. And soooo tiny!

Giving high fives!
He loves PawPaw!


So you see, in and amongst all the sewing and visiting and church and appointments, there is still some knitting going on over at Knittinfun!

And we have a rag quilt

After all the Xs and quilting of the squares, it comes time to start making rows. My squares are simply one fat quarter cut into quarters. You do the math, I hate that stuff!
I did want this quilt longer than it is wide, so ended up having to use a half, two squares to make one more block. So I also got two more napkins for the dinner table out of making this quilt.
Gotta love the lagniappe! 


Don't pay too close attention to the lines, I didn't

Slowly but surely coming together.
All the rows were finished, now it was time to connect everything.


And there she is. All sewn together and ready for snipping.
If you can't spot the personality in this quilt, I am sure not going to point it out. ;0)


The back side is really eye catching. As in, it might give you a headache if you look at it too long.
But I love this quilt.


The only downside about this  is how long it is going to take to get all the little strings washed out of it. But I throw it in the washer every time I wash towels and it is ragging up really cute.
I will have to get a pic of the front now that it has been washed a few times.
When I do, just don't mind all the strings everywhere, I don't.

Crockpot meals: perfect for crafting days

I was wandering around Pintrest yesterday trying to find some good Wednesday night, church night, crock pot meals. While I was there I decided to take this week to try out five different ones to see which ones the fam would like.
The kids are really good eaters so I don't have to worry about someone not eating or complaining about not being hungry.
We started with this Cheesy Lasagna from Recipes that Crock.com

In hind sight, using oven ready noodles and cooking the same amount of time was probably not the best idea. I should have cut my cook time down by about an hour and it would have been better. It was still really good tho and has been added to the Wednesday night meal list.

Tonight we are having Smothered Pork Chops from The Country Cook.net

I have to admit, we have had these before and they are absolutely delicious with creamy mashed potatoes.

Wednesday night we will be having one of the kids favorite crock pot meals so far:
Crock Pot Meatball Sub Casserole from Recipes That Crock

They would eat this every night of the week if I would make it for them.
It really is a good recipe and easy peasy to throw together.


I say all of this to get to the crafting part of this post.
Crock pot meals are awesome for knitting, sewing, crafty fun. Throw everything in there and you have tons of time to get work done.

I started an easy rag quilt made with fat quarters cut into quarters.
Trin jumped in and helped with the cutting and pinning and placement so I was sewing right along in no time. 
If you haven't seen how to make one of these, YouTube has tons, literally, of videos.
And then there is always Google. 

Don't worry about the alignment of the seams in this pic, the strips aren't sewn together yet. They will match up later, I promise.
And you know me, even if the don't "personality" lots and lots of personality!

  

Sissy B's blanket is almost finished. I decided to add just a little bit more of a third skein to add some length. I didn't want her to have to ball up under it to keep warm. 

   

Little Man's blanket is coming right along. 

I really like the blacks and greys in this colorway that fade into a beautiful blue. 

Since there are two more blankets that have to be knit after this one. I need to make sure I put at least 25 right side rows on this a day. That's 50 rows that have to be done a day to stay on schedule. 

Perfect t.v. knitting for when it's time to settle down for the night.
 

So needless to say, I am in love with my crock pot right now. So much to get done, and that little ceramic pot affords me the time to accomplish as much as possible in a day.