Just thought I would do an update on the various projects I am working on right now. I apparently have the attention span of a gnat and am easily distracted by whatever project I want to do next. Rest assured, these are not ALL of the projects I am currently in the middle of, just the ones that are currently “live.” There are approximately twice as many that are on the back burner. Uh huh. Several of which I have probably forgotten about altogether. I try to keep a list on the wall but I am not responsible enough to maintain that list. If I ignore some of them, maybe the Brownies or fairies will come and finish them for me.

Just finished: Dear Niece age 6’s Christmas afghan. She grew out of her baby afghan, but was still sleeping with it until this fall. She likes Barbie and pink. I had several false starts on this afghan, trying a couple of internet free patterns and nearly tearing my hair out as a result. I have had really good luck with Leisure Arts afghan patterns, so I picked up “Birthstone Afghans” at JoAnn Fabric, and picked out “May” as one that looked like it was long enough to cover a 6 year old and crochet up quickly. I did it in Caron’s Simply Soft. It did go together quickly, especially after I figured out that I was doing the pattern at the end of the row wrong, and I fixed that, and the afghan quit getting smaller with each row. (Maybe it isn’t the patterns, maybe it is me. Nah.) This was supposed to have fringe but I don’t do fringe, and I don’t think it holds up well on a kid’s afghan that is going to get washed often, so I just put a shell border around it and said I was done.

I had to weave in many additional ends because Leo the evil cat bit my yarn in half several times while I was working on this. When will I learn, it is not enough to put it in a bag, bury that bag under a pillow, etc.? Must be locked in a closet! Or it is not safe from the yarn vampire! Here is the bad kitty himself.

Look how offended he looks.

Note cat butt in picture, of course. They own the house.

And, given the chance, we move right in.

This is part of a New York Beauty block, foundation pieced, that I am working on for my Color Class with Heather Thomas. (http://www.wildheatherdesigns.com/) (http://heatherthomasblog.blogspot.com/) Does this look not quite right to you? Like maybe it is flaring? That is because I left out one arc. Following directions, yeah, not one of my strong points.

This is the block, corrected, with parts of two other blocks. These are supposed to be symbolizing a stylized poppy, but I am waaaaaay behind in getting these done for my class. I actually already missed this month’s class because of a work conflict, and now I really should have this project done, in addition to a project for next month. By the first week of January. Can you hear me laughing from where you are? See: Christmas afghan above, and Christmas pillow below.  I got my New York Beauty foundation patterns at: http://imageevent.com/donnarie/newyorkbeautyblockpatterns

http://www2.fiskars.com/Activities/Crafting/Project-Gallery/Sewing-and-Quilting/Yo-Yo-Pillow  This is going to be a pillow for my youngest niece, about 7 mos, for her room. Her mom sent me a paint swatch and some fabrics. This isn’t the final arrangement of yo-yos yet. I need a night when I can concentrate to put them together and then lay them out in a semblance of a straight grid. When my sister in law so obligingly bookmarks things on Pinterest, and then sends me fabric, how easy can she make it? I did not buy any buttons. These are all from my button collection, which is but a very small part of my mother’s button collection.

When my first niece was born 12 years ago (oy vey), I started a tradition by making her a crocheted baby afghan, a pieced quilt, and an embroidered quilt. The more nieces and nephews I get, the longer it takes me to get these done. Youngest niece has her crocheted afghan and that is it. 2nd youngest niece still hasn’t received her embroidered quilt, and she just turned 4. I am going to have to turn hers into a twin size. And I better get it done before she is too old to appreciate bunnies. But of course I started in on the next niece’s pieced quilt because I am a project magpie (ooooooh, bright shiny new project, let’s start that.)

This is youngest niece’s pieced quilt, all the blocks are done:

I will post about this pattern when I have it all put together and the borders sewn on. Because that book is upstairs and I am too lazy to run up there right now.

I am also working on one pair of socks right now, not counting the ones that are almost done but that I am pretty sure I am going to abandon because I don’t really like them. We will see.

These are a pattern out of “Sensational Knitted Socks.” In an effort to improve my sock knitting, I am trying to make one pair of socks for each pattern in the book. At the rate I am going I will be 99 before I am done.

One of these is at the point where I need to start decreasing the toe, and the other one is close. I will bring these along to my Knit Knight tomorrow night and may get to the decrease point on the 2nd one. It is not always a good idea to start decreasing at Knit Knight, because I have to pay attention to do that, and paying attention while we are knitting and visiting and laughing is not always possible. So I will also take along a new project, which will be made with a Sophie’s Toes Magic Ball (http://www.etsy.com/shop/emilyparson) (http://whatsthatgonnabe.blogspot.com/2007/11/magic-ball.html) that my friend Cathy (http://www.catwithcats.com/) gave me. I do not yet know WHICH project I am going to make with this, but hopefully I will have decided by tomorrow night. Maybe I should also take along my shrug which requires no thought to knit whatsoever.

Thoughts on the Magic Ball: These make cool shawls but I am not a shawl person. I might make the Chevron Scarf from “Last Minute Knitted Gifts” by Joelle Hoverson, which I have made several times but always in worsted yarn and never for myself to keep. OR maybe find something new in “Sock Yarn One-Skein Wonders.” You never know. Ooooooo, look, a bright shiny new project……