Create 52 Challenge

I've challenged myself to creating a minimum of 52 things this year...one for each week of the year.  The creations can be crafty, yarny, cooking, etc.  Within that goal, I'm trying to push myself outside of my normal box and try new things.  That can include new techniques, making things I've never made before or making them differently, new recipes, etc.  I had originally thought I'd use Pinterest as my inspiration but I've found inspiration in so many other places too.

Here's what I've created so far...

I fell in love with Caron Cakes yarn and just had to give it a try.  I just couldn't resist these colors and that I wouldn't have loose ends to tuck in at each color change.

The new thing I tried with this shawl project was knitting a triangle from end to end.  The pattern was on the label of the yarn.  I used two balls of this yarn and size eight needles.  It was a lot of fun to knit up.  I found myself knitting pretty fast on it as I would always want to knit to the next color.

I knitted up a pair of boot cuffs.  The new-to-me on this project was that I'd never made boot cuffs and I'd never worn them.  I thought they were pretty cute, could keep me warm, and was something I could make with some leftover yarn I'd acquired from a knit friend.  They knitted up quickly and were fun to make but I wasn't thrilled with how they felt or looked when I tried them on.  I ended up turning the photo black and white in an attempt to like the photo.  I may give them to my daughter.  I think she might enjoy them more than I will.

I've been noticing crocheted jewelry online for a while and finally gave it a try.  I tried making earrings.  It took a few attempts and was surprisingly not as easy to crochet onto the wire as I thought it would be.

I made myself a "pussy hat".  I didn't march in any of the protests as I was sick that weekend.  But, I felt strongly about a lot that was going on.  And, I just love these hats.  It was a fun project to make and to wear.  I found a pattern on Ravelry that was knitted in the round.  I love this color!  And, the hat is really comfy.  It's fun to wear little ears too.  Makes for funny shadows too.  lol

I crocheted a wavey scarf with some yarn I had leftover from my Taos vest.  The pattern is Nanci's Waves Scarf from Ravelry.  I liked how a few people had crocheted the pattern lengthwise I and decided to do that too.  The wave technique was new to me and fun to make.

I crocheted some fun tassels for the ends with little circles.

I made a Pussy Hat for my daughter.  She didn't want it in pink.  So, I knitted it in gray.  I embellished it with a little pink heart.  I've been wanting to embellish some of my projects.  This is a tiny start.  I did it with some pink yarn and duplicate stitch.

I'd knitted up a few gnomes last year and I guess they must have been fun because I just had to make another one.  lol  This time, I made it as a leprechaun.  I bought him a little hat, gave him a shorter beard, a little belt with a felt buckle, knitted stripes for socks, and used the same color for his hands instead of another color for gloves.  And, it was done before Saint Patrick's Day!

I made up a bunch of wool felted balls a few years ago and had been meaning to decorate some and use them for drier balls.  I finally got around to making one.  It's a simple design on natural, multi-color wool.

I got a little fancier with the next one.  I decided to make a desert scene on it.  I started out by making one scene on one side but decided to go all the way around.  It was fun needle felting little cactus.

My daughter was home for spring break and we all found ourselves enjoying an entire day outside on the back patio to enjoy the incredible weather we had that day.  While I was out there, I decided to harvest some lavender from my yard and make a lavender wand.

When my daughter went back to college, I went with her and spent a week there.  There's a great little thrift shop in town that I always go to when I'm visiting.  This time, one of the things I found was a package of tiny glass jars with cork lids.  When I got home, I added lavender to one of them and put it on a chain.  It's cute and I can take a whiff of that lovely scent anytime I want.  It's like aroma therapy on the go!

That's 11 projects and I should be up to number 13.  So, I'm a bit behind on my challenge.  However, I have several projects in the works.  I should be able to catch up with no problem.  I'll try to post the new projects as I finish them up.

You can also follow me on Instagram.  I post on that a lot more often.  You can find me there as acorntooak

Big Time De-Stashing

There's some big time de-stashing going on around here!  I went through my yarn bins a couple weeks ago and pulled out a lot of leftover yarn and full skeins that I've had for a while and didn't think I would use.  There was a big bag full when I was done.  Instead of letting it sit and later putting it back in the stash (like I did a few months ago), I took it to my stitch group meeting and gave it away.  Everyone seemed excited to get new-to-them yarns and it felt so good to lighten my load.  It was like taking things off my to-do list.  No longer are those yarns sitting in bins causing me to try to figure out good uses for them.  Now, I have a lot less yarn and only yarn I really love.

I've been doing quite a bit of yarn de-stashing over this past year by using it for projects.  I just finished up another one last week.  I had a skein of Wool Ease Thick and Quick left over from a scarf I made for my daughter a couple of years ago.  One skein is all I needed to make a matching hat.  I found a pattern on Ravelry that went well with the scarf.  It's a pay pattern but lots of Ravelers have put such detailed notes that I didn't even need to buy it.  I felt kind of bad but it was super easy and the directions were right there.  So, I used notes from several and made one.  It was easy and quick.

I sent off to my daughter last week and she loves it.  I knew she'd like it a little slouchy and it turned out to be just the right amount of slouch.  When she received it, it just happened to be cold enough to wear it that day.  She got lots of compliments.  That makes me really happy.

Have you been doing any de-stashing lately?  What have you made?  Or...have you done some drastic de-stashing like I have and gotten rid of lots of yarn all at once?

FO Friday - The Secrets Revealed!

I can now post about some projects that were a secret until yesterday!

I made a Sockhead Hat for me about a year or so ago (it has a fun story...you can read about that HERE and HERE).  My hubby loved it so much that I made one for him earlier this year.  And, my daughter loved it so much that I made one for her and gave it to her for Christmas yesterday.  

I need to get some pics of her wearing it but here are some I took before I wrapped it up...

My friend at Inner Yarn Zen dyed this yarn and it was love at first sight.  It turned out that it was love at first sight for my daughter too.  I quickly decided to use it to knit a hat for her.

It's interesting how the color spiraled up the hat.  Then, when I started to decrease for the top, the spiral reversed.  Pretty cool!

This is a free pattern on Ravelry and we all love how it fits and feels.  It calls for sock yarn which turns out to be perfect for a hat.  It's warm but not thick.  The wide band at the bottom allows to double it up for extra warmth and style or to wear it as a single layer if it's not quite so cold.  We also love that it fits nice without being too snug.  That makes it extra comfy and nice to wear.  The slouchy part is cute too.  For my hubby, I gave his hat just a touch of slouch.

I love the creamy white and the little bits of Fall color in the stripes.

I made a dream catcher for my daughter too.  I used a metal ring that I had and some left over yarn.  I think it could use a little something extra but haven't figured out exactly what or how I want to go about it though.  Probably some beads and feathers.  But, it's kind of cute the way it is too.

It's leftover Pagewood Farm yarn in the "Army Girl" colorway.  I absolutely love the colors in this yarn.  I originally used it to crochet a lace shawl.

I used a doily pattern and just crocheted part of the center.  I like the little picots.  They're kind of like little flower buds.

My daughter hung it up right away and it matches her room!

I'm happy to announce that she loved both gifts!  And, I did a little de-stashing too! ;-)

Finley is Finished!

I finished another Sockhead Hat!  It's a free pattern on Ravelry and the second one I've made.

I love it!  It's comfortable, easy, looks great on, and it's a great pattern for multi-colored sock yarn.

You can see my first one HERE and HERE.  

This one is made from yarn that was dyed by a friend of mine at Inner Yarn Zen.  This colorway is called, "Finley".  I love the browns and blues (more turquoise in person).  Hubby loved the colors too and was excited when I started knitting a hat for him with it.  It was fun to watch the turquoise spiral up as I knitted it.  Then, it started to pool in these really cool shapes.  It's looks a little like tie-dye.

This pattern has a wide four inch band of ribbing that folds over nicely.

It works great to keep ears warm.  The sock yarn makes the hat comfortable and not bulky.

I used a size two, circular needle and a set of double points to knit it.

The pattern creates a slouchy hat.  I made this one a little less slouchy for hubby.

When it's on him, it doesn't have much slouch.  He's at work right now though.

So, I used my handy dandy glass head for a model.

I weighed the hat and the leftover yarn and I was excited to see that the hat took exactly half.

That means I have plenty to make another hat for me or something else in these pretty colors.

Busy, Happy Life!

Life has been full and busy and wonderful around here!  I'd love to blog more about it but much of what's been going on has been busy-ness and preparations.  That's not always blog worthy.

However, some of the things we've been working on are definitely blog worthy.

One of those things occurred last weekend...my daughter's junior harp recital.

She's been working for over a year on some of the pieces she performed.

And, we've been working for months on the details.

It took place on Saturday evening in a recital hall of the university she attends.

She did a spectacular job!  Her many, many hours of hard work and practice made her shine.

I was so happy for her about how it turned out and so proud of her.

She's never performed better or looked more beautiful!

The event was recorded and she's hoping to post it on YouTube

for everyone to see who wasn't able to attend.  I'll be sure to post a link when it's up.

I've been keeping up on my minimum five days per week workouts of running.

It gets tough sometimes and I've thought about figuring out another short term incentive

but my pace time improved this week and that feels really good.

I'm trying to keep with regular weight workouts too of at least once or twice a week.

And, whenever possible, I like to break it up with something different and extra fun like a hike or

bike ride.  Hubby and I went mountain biking on Valentine's Day morning.  :-)

Speaking of Valentine's Day....look what my sweet hubby gave me....

I was so excited when I opened the box!  I fell in love with this belt at Boot Barn last November.

Hubby and I were doing some boot shopping there a few weeks ago and I showed it to him and oogled over it.  He went back a couple days later and got the very last one...

which happened to be my size.  I'm normally not a glitzy type of person but I love this!

I think it's so pretty!  Hubby and I go line dancing sometimes and I think it'll be perfect for that.

I can't wait to wear it out on the town!  :-D

For those of you who've been following my blog and wondering how my husband's grandparents are doing....they're doing great!  Grandpa was moved to a place that could assist in his care around the clock.  He celebrated his 94th birthday while he was there.  He told us that he had a gift for all of us...that he was going to walk.  And, he did!  Here he is walking down the hall to his party...

He had lost so much weight that his pants weren't staying up.

So, my father-in-law held them up for him and stayed close by in case he needed assistance.

Amazing!  He hadn't walked in at least a month and we almost lost him weeks earlier.

He hadn't been eating much for weeks and weeks.  It was amazing that he survived that!

He literally lived off very little bits of juice and "Muscle Milk".  He had refused to eat.

But, just before his party, he had started eating a little bit of real food.

Some of his favorite foods were brought to the party and he couldn't wait to dig in.

He had a piece of shrimp cocktail in his hand before he was completely scooted up to the table!

He had some of my mother-in-law/his daughter's famous marinated mushrooms too.

And, of course, he had to have a beer!  He was one happy Grandpa!

Here's Grandpa and Grandma together that day.

Such an inspiring couple.  Married about 72 years and still very much in love.

They decided they needed to move closer to the family and bought a house here.

We got grandma moved in and that inspired grandpa so much that within a week he improved enough to go home!  Since then, he's gained over 20 pounds back and is feeling better and better.

I accomplished something this week that's been on my to-do list for a while.

I studied the California handgun safety booklet on Monday and took the test.

I got every single answer right...100%...and now have my handgun safety certificate!  Woot!

I've shot rifles before...even did some biathlons years ago.  That was SO much fun!

They weren't the cross country skiing type...they were run, shoot, run shoot, run.

We live in Southern California and there's not a lot of snow around here.

I wish they still had those races!  Anyway, I've been thinking it's time to get a handgun.

So, now I'm legal to buy one.  I plan to learn a lot about it and start going to a local shooting range.

I've been doing more knitting and crocheting lately.  Yay!  I finally found some patterns that I like.

I posted the mohair shawl last week.  I started knitting a hat too.  I'll post more about it when it's big enough to get a good look at it (it's made with sock yarn and size 2 needles...so, it takes a while).

I've been working on some other exciting stuff and I'll post about it when I can.

Just one more week to enter my Grow Your Blog Party give-away.  How's the party been going for you?  My blog following grew a lot last year from the party but has hardly grown at all this year.

But, it's been fun to visit lots of blogs and hear from lots of new people.  :-)  The give-away is still on...every comment posted on my blog (comments left on Facebook don't count) for the month of February and every follower will be entered to win.  There's about a week left.

I'll pick a winner on March first!  :-)

Waffling

I haven't forgotten about my blog.  In fact, I visit blogger often and visit blogs.  I've even been wanting to post.  But, I just haven't been into it.  I've been feeling down lately which is unusual for me.  And, I just can't seem to get focused and find a direction for anything.  I guess you could say I'm waffling between ideas and goals, things to do, places to go, how to handle certain things...and on and on.  I guess that makes this accomplishment perfect...it's called the "Waffle Hat".

It was a free pattern on Ravelry.  It was super easy, quick, fun and I love the results.

It's super soft and squishy because of the waffly texture.  

And, I love how the colors in the yarn spiraled up from bottom to top.

I made one change to the pattern.  The pattern says to cast on 76 but 

I felt that would make it way too small.  I ended up knitting it with a cast on of 88 

and it's perfect.  It fits great on me or my husband and it's super comfy.  I love it!

I followed the rest of the pattern exactly and couldn't be happier.  The 12 rows of ribbing 

are perfect for turning up.  The length of the hat is perfect as a slouchy hat when the ribbing is left down.  And, I love how the waffle pattern continued all the way up to the top through the decreases.

I had a hard time capturing the colors accurately in photos. 

 The photos above were taken outside on a cloudy day.  The photo below is taken inside.  

The actual colors are somewhere in between.

The yarn is Beroco Vintage Colors in color 5222.  So pretty!

I used a size 8, 16" circular needle and size 8 double point needles to make this hat.

Zion Hat FO

Yay!  My Zion/Extreme Knitting hat is finished!

The stockinette section just kept going and going.

That got a bit boring sometimes.  So, I kept setting it aside to work on projects that were more fun.

I finally got so close to the 9" of stockinette yesterday that I was determined to get to the decrease section.  Once I reached that point, I just had to finish.  That part went quickly.

I never did find a label for this ball of sock yarn from my stash.  I sure love the colors though.

The pattern is "Sockhead Hat" and its free on Ravelry.  It's my first slouch hat.

I used 16", size 2 1/2 circulars  and some DPN's to knit it. 

It's not hat season around here right now.

But, it sure feels great to finish another project that's been sitting around for a while.
I know I'll get good use out of it next winter.

Extreme Knitting 2013

A few years ago, hubby took some pictures of me knitting on vacation.

Not just any knitting....we called the photos, "Knitting on the Edge".

One was taken while I sat near a tree at the saddle of Angels Landing in Zion.  I was knitting near a huge drop off of at least 1000 feet.  The other one was taken as I sat under a tree on the edge of Bryce Canyon.  I was completely safe where I was knitting.  But, I thought they made for some fun photos.

I thought it would be fun to do something like that again this year.  So, before we started out on our canyoneering adventure, I asked our guide about doing something like that.  He was on board with it and seemed to have an idea almost immediately of the perfect place to take the picture.

Here I go....over the top of a waterfall.  My knitting is ready to go.  That's the bulge in my coveralls.

I went over the edge and Hubby had me secure as he belayed me from below.
I removed the gloves, pulled out my project, and got started...

I'm knitting!  Woo hoo!  :-D

 

And, yes...I really did knit.  It wasn't easy because my knitting was completely 

soaked from the previous waterfall rappel and swimming out of that icy water.

Time to put it back in the project bag and tuck it away for the decent down.

Down.  Down.  Down.

Here's another view of where I was hanging while I knitted...

And, here's my Extreme Knitting project.  I started it just for the trip and the hope of getting my

 Extreme Knitting 2013 photo.  It's small and lightweight.  

The perfect size for the backpack and stuffing into the coveralls.

I used a blow drier that evening and again the next day to dry the yarn and project.

Luckily, my needles seem to be ok.  They're not quite as slick as they used to be.  

But, they have a story.  I've been using this adorable bag my daughter made for me.

It looks great with the project and it means a lot to me.
So, it was special to have it with me on my adventure.

The pattern is the Sockhead Hat...a freebie on Ravelry.  I've been wanting to make it for a while but wanted to get some other projects done before I started something new.  My recent FOs and this trip made the timing perfect for casting on.  The colors remind me of the Zion area landscape and some of the beautiful sunsets there.  And, the touch of gray will go perfect with my hiking pants.

Unfortunately, I've lost the tag from this yarn and don't remember what it is except that it's sock yarn and it's wool.  I'm using 3mm, 16" circular needles to knit it.  It's a great project for when I just want to do simple knitting.  I'm excited to finish it up.  I think it's going to be super cute!

When we got back into town and were unpacking the truck, Bill told another guy the story of my Extreme Knitting.  He seemed to get a kick out of it and joked that the photo should be on the cover of "Extreme Knitting Quarterly".  LOL  This 'project' added a little extra fun to our already amazing day!
Thank you, Bill, for taking the photos!

If you missed the story of our canyoneering adventure....click HERE.