Something new for today, and it's just for me! I came across any etsy seller, sosorosey, who took custom orders for Lidded Project Keepers...now, I always need somewhere to stash my projects, so the name certainly spoke volumes to me! Jennie of sosorosey was a dream to work with online...she patiently chose combinations from her recycled fabric goodies and sent me fabric selection possibilities from which to choose...then sent "in progress" photos while she crocheted the keeper! A totally awesome experience, great fun! My keeper is complete and is shipping to me tomorrow! Here's a photo of the top of the keeper...



Lovely isn't it??? And now I've asked for a custom keeper that'll be given as a holiday gift for a certain someone...can't say here...shhhhhhh

*edit 11:30am - I've completed the rose brooch...let me know what you think!



A few project photos to share...
So far I've gotten just a few rows of the first ribbing done on the Mara shawl. This yarn really is beautiful to knit with, I've enjoyed the process of this one...



Part of a swap on Ravelry...I made a few cards and am sending out one of my fabric roses too...the roses will be intro'd to my Etsy shop soon.




And this is my Jane Market Bag, pattern by Alicia Paulson...I had fun making this, though adding the little top-stitched corner edges made me nervous! All in all it was a very straight-forward pattern, I had no trouble interpreting it, no problem at all. I am thinking of making a couple for Christmas gifts this year. Christmas already??? Yep, gotta start thinking about it...I'd love to be able to make the majority of my gifts this year.

Thinking, thinking, thinking...I really want to start up my Etsy shop. Just trying to get things in order around the house before I do though, seems only right I think. I don't want too much going on at once, and I really need to simplify my household, decluttering being the first thing that I need to do. I know I'd feel a huge weight lift off me if I can just simplify. Yes, that's what I've been trying to do this week and what I will continue with over the weekend.

Two swaps to mail out on Saturday. One baby jacket to sew buttons on. One pair of lovely little Savvy-size fingerless mitts to knit the thumbs onto. One little crochet hat to stitch in a larger size. The list goes on...how about your list? Do you have one? Or are you a start-to-finish type person?

And for my downtime, I need to pick out a book for my Kindle...have lots of samples on there, just need to decide. Any good reads lately?

I'm trying to finish up and post pics, really I am...I'll be starting a 3 12-hour days stretch though, so hopefully I can squeeze in a bit of at-home computer time to unwind.

I'm finishing up the little Paxton test knit...awwww! So darn cute!

And, once again, I've been sidetracked by a new-to-me knitting book. It's Knit One and Embellish Too, and I'm loving it! Love the patterns in it and the first part of the book deals with recycling of yarn to expand your color collection of wools and wool mixes for the projects...truly inspiring. I'm going to be collecting and trying to recycle some too...I have visions of lots of little hats and mitts this winter. Can't believe I'm thinking that way, it's barely the start of the warm weather and I'm already thinking ahead...but they'll be quick little projects, not cumbersome to knit in the summer. And! I bought the book itself, but while looking it up on Amazon initially, I noticed it's available in Kindle!!! What??? A real knitting book? I sent myself the sample and have to admit, I haven't looked at it yet...my sister sent the sample to her Kindle and she said it just was the beginning of the book, the narrative portion. Darn! We had both hoped it would show a partial pattern so we could see the formatting on our Kindles...ah well...

So, it's off to pack up a work bag for tomorrow...I always try to tuck a little project away in case there is a wee bit of downtime...we'll see!

A bit of a lapse here in posting all the photos...never could seem to remember the camera batteries when I was out and about. But now...here's a smattering of photos...take a look!

First off, my lovely Kindle cover! Beautiful, just beautiful...I wasn't sure how I'd like it, and it is kind of pricey, but oh, it is gorgeous! This is the Avenue of Trees design in Fern color, and attached is the little Tree of Life charm (freebie)...inside is my sleeping Kindle :-)



Next off, wanted to share the blooms from my garden...this is the first year bloom for the clematis.



Here's a coiled yarn attempt (first time) using a single spun from a TerraBellaSpun Party batt...lots of fun, slow going, but the results are lovely I think...I've named it Gypsy...



And lastly, photos of yarns I'm using this week...Madelinetosh yarn, from Stef of The Backwards Loop, in the Fig colorway for the Mara shawl KAL on Ravelry (on The Backwards Loop forum) and also a DK weight hand-dyed yarn I bought for test knitting a little preemie jacket...I'm thinking this yarn will be oh-so-cute, so we'll see!

for Mara shawl:


for Paxton Preemie Jacket:


Ooops, don't want to forget this cute little crochet pot I made, pattern from Ravelry...link to follow...

Nothing too terribly exciting to post about...working on spinning up some roving I bought last August at the Midwest Fiber Festival. It's a nice blend of merino and tencel...really makes it kinda slippery to spin with the tencel in there, but such beautiful colors I'm having fun with it. I'm hoping I get enough yardage to use it in a little Baby Surprise Jacket (Zimmerman).

Working on some flower motifs (crochet) for the May Flower Swap on Ravelry...should have those done by tomorrow. The colors my swap partner requested are reds with medium greens. The colors I requested for myself are Halloween inspired: pumpkin orange, purple, fuschia, hot pink, wee bits of yellow, grays and lime green. My idea is that I will then crochet these together with chaining (like netting) with black, then I'd be able to use it as a table runner of sorts...hmmmm...I hope it looks as nice as I envision it being.

And, have another repeat or two of the lace pattern on the Boheme sweater. I'd think this will be done by tonite, there's a Red Wings game on and I'll be knitting/crocheting thru-out.

If all goes well I'll have some photos to post by tomorrow.

My newest spin...62 yards of a 2-ply mostly worsted weight. I love the colors, and the spinning was so much fun! Just edited my photo to a much nicer one, very true to color...the skies brightened a little so I was able to capture the colors much better...now I'm happy!


So, what do you think? Kinda pretty isn't it?