A Blog Move

Hi All. I have been having people visit me here still and I just wanted to make a quick note that I have left active blogging on this blog and now blog here. 4 Living Simply is a broader title and gives me more freedom to just blog on whatever comes to mind at the moment that I sit down to the computer to share. So, if you still happen upon this blog, please visit me over at 4 Living Simply. Hope to see you there!

Sick here...

It has been a while since I have posted because it just seems that as soon as we get over one illness, another follows right behind it. We have had the flu and the flu with a cold, and now we have colds floating around our house. Ugh. We are really missing getting out with our friends. We are staying in as much as we can so we can hopefully not spread our germs and also not pick up anything else!

We did have a good Easter. W and C dyed eggs with us. This is C's first time dying eggs and he had a blast. Last year he was just barely tall enough to get his nose over the table to see what his big sister was doing. It was a fun, messy time we had!

I have also been busy at the sewing machine. Knitting has been neglected except for the purse that I am knitting for my exchange partner at Tea Time Knitters. I made W and C bottoms for Easter. I repurposed a few shirts that were given us into a twirly skirt with lace for W and a pair of pants for C. They both loved them and were so happy to wear them to Grandma's house Easter Sunday! I forgot to take pics of them wearing their new clothes, though. I also made my Mom a knitting needle roll for her birthday. She is just taking up hand knitting (she owns several knitting machines and has made many beautiful things, but is now into making socks), and I thought that she'd love a place to store her new needles. I searched around on the Internet for a pattern, but did not find one that I exactly liked, so I designed my own pattern. I think that it turned out really well, and now I am jealous that Mom has a roll, but I don't! I'll have to make myself one soon, but I always tend to make gifts for others and feel guilty when I keep something that I have made for myself. Why is that?

The end of March also brought around my little one's birthday. It is hard to believe that C is already 2 years old! I still remember holding him and nursing him when he was so small. I could just put him in a sling and carry him around and he would be so happy and content. He is now a very active toddler who just secretes so much boyishness! Forget the sling, he wants to run! He has energy to outlast me every day. I feel so blessed to have him. Here is a picture of him with his birthday cake. The party is to follow next week.

Yesterday was such a wonderfully sunny day in the upper 50's here, so we took the opportunity to go outside and enjoy it. We barbecued on the grill and played outside. C helped me replant my aloe vera plants. The little one I was gifted two years ago for Christmas had grown so big, that the pot could not support it. It also had grow 8 more small plants. I repotted the large one for myself, planted a medium sized pot with 4 of the little plants for my sister-in-law, and I have an extra pot to give away to someone that has three more plants. The last plant was very tiny, so I composted it.

It is supposed to be warm outside again today, so we plan on spending the day outside again. I think that I am going to hang out some laundry for the first time this year. I had Hubby fix the clothes line yesterday so I could use it this week. (It had an accident this winter!) I love the fresh line-dried laundry smell. I hope you all can get out and enjoy this wonderful Spring weather we are starting to get, finally!

The hat is done!

I finished the hat that I started 2 days ago and I will have the perfect opportunity to wear it tomorrow out in the cold and snow while we go house shopping...again. I knitted continental method which, in my opinion, is faster than the English method when doing something this easy. This is only the 4Th project I have knitted continental, so I am still learning. I do find continental knitting much quicker when just doing a knit stitch and it is much less movement than the English method. I like the ease of doing the knit and purl stitches with the continental method too. No need to put your yarn in the front and then move it to the back, just one slight adjustment of your needles and the yarn is where it needs to be. Well, I am off to have a nice cuppa tea to help clear my stuffy head. I am hoping this cold goes away soon, because I am really sleep deprived!!!

Drum roll please....

I finally finished that soaker for C that I started when he was 3 months old! I knitted it in the toddler size, thinking that I would felt it when I was finished, so thank goodness he can still fit into it now! I think that it could be felted a tiny bit, so I'll have to search the net to find out how to do that since I have never felted anything before. After that, it just needs to be lanolized and can be put to good use. C doesn't seem to want to use the potty, so he should get some good use out of it before his diapering is over with. It is a great feeling to have something out of the UFO pile!

To celebrate this, I casted on for a hat for myself. I always seem to knit for everyone else, so I am being a bit selfish and knitting myself a hat that looks better than the ugly department store hat that I have been wearing. I am using the pattern from here because it looked like a quick knit, I like the simple style, and I thought that it would go well with the yarn that I dug out of my stash to knit it with (Berroco ultra alpaca in shade 6287/denim mix). I have made fast progress because I have been up with a cold that W so graciously shared with all of us! I hope to have this hat finished tomorrow, since I probably won't be able to sleep very well tonight either. Just too hard to breath laying down.

This is the heart candy box cloth that we knitted for the beginning of the month KAL at monthlydishcloths. I sent this cloth to my exchange partner at gettingtoknowyoudishclothknitters for the Ferbuary exchange. Unfortunately, I tried to access that group tonight and it looks like the group vanished! I don't know what happened, but I really enjoyed belonging to it and am a bit disappointed to see it go. If anyone out there reading this knows what happened to the group, please send me an email because I'd really like to know. Well, that is all the news in the knitting area for here, so have a great evening!

Pay it Forward

I signed up for this a while ago and just now have found more than a few minutes to adequately post about it on my blog. I read about this on the Pugs, Knitting, and Me blog posted by Amber. She knits and talks about that in her blog. I just visited her site again today and found out that she also belongs to a bag sewing Yahoo group and posted pics of a few bags she made. I and definately a bag addict, so I will be checking out that Yahoo group for myself! Anyways, here is the description of the pay it forward exchange idea which I so lovingly lifted from Amber's blog (thanks Amber for including me in this!):
Let me tell you about it, these are the instructions: "It’s the Pay It Forward Exchange. It’s based of the concept of the movie “Pay it Forward” where acts or deeds of kindness are done without expecting something in return, just passing it on, with hope that the recipients of the acts of kindness are passed on. So here’s how it works. I will make and send a handmade gift to the first 3 people who leave a comment to this post on my blog requesting to join this PIF exchange. I do not know what that gift will be yet, and it won’t be sent this month, probably not next month, but it will be sent (within 6 months) and that’s a promise! What YOU have to do in return, then, is pay it forward by making the same promise on your blog.
I will now Pay It Forward to you THREE, I wonder who you will be?! Please, be a PIF! You will enjoy it just as much as we do!
And, remember...you have 6 months to get your gifts done! Come on, you know you would love to be one of my angels. Then, one day, but you don't know when....you will get a gift that I have made especially for YOU!
Please remember, you don't have to knit or crochet to participate, anyone who can make a nice handmade gift is welcome to join :)

So, that being said, leave a comment and join in on this wonderful exchange idea! It is so rewarding to give a handmade gift and experience the joy it gives the recipient!

On a roll....

It looks like I am on a roll with this blogging business. I think that I manage to post once a month :-) I have been busy knitting up a storm here. I managed to get that leg cuff knitted for the wool soaker for C, but I have to search the internet to find the directions to the cast off that it requires. I finished knitting the beginning of the month KAL at the monthly dishcloth knitters, finished knitting several cloths for Valentine's Day gifts, and finished knitting a cloth for my exchange partner at getting to know you dishcloth knitters. Now I have a stack of cloths that need the ends woven in. Not the most fun part of knitting, as you all know!

This is my latest yarn score. I found this Patton's Classic Wool at Michael's in a clearance basket for .99 each! Woo hoo! I have been wanting to learn how to felt, so this just may be the perfect yarn for that job. If whatever I make turns out terrible, then I won't be out much. Now to find a project for this yarn....

Found Some Pics...

I found some pics that I took of the last two cloths that I knitted for Christmas and thought I'd share them with you. I also designed my own care tag to attach to the cloths. It was not hard, for those of you who would also like to make care tags for your cloths. I just used a print program, chose the business card template, and designed a tag using that. Easy!
These cloths were sent to Christmas, Florida, so I chose to use Christmas colors to be used year round!
Here is a close-up of the Christmas tree cloth.