Whew! Finished! Party Time!

The mother in law hat is done! Yay! Hopefully there will be more cold weather so she will have a chance to wear it. Wait a minute! Did I just say "hopefully"? Oh well, it's only the first part of January, so that's pretty much a given. Here is the hat. It's very soft and warm.

I finished the mother in law hat day before yesterday, and got it blocked yesterday. I also started on Weston's hat yesterday, and worked on it a little today.   

Right now it just looks like a soft squishy tube.

But when I roll up the edge you can tell it will be a hat.

I also worked on some spinning today. I am trying to finish up this merino and silk blend. I can hardly wait to make something out of it. 

Yesterday we went to Daniel and Holly's house for Chloe's birthday party. It's hard to believe she is already 5 years old. Where did the time go?

Here she is 5 years ago being fed a bottle by her cousin, Brittney.

Chloe Ann Morris - 5 years old

Mother In Law Hat

We have been having some really bizarre weather here in Mountain Home, AR. We had another ice/snow storm, mostly ice, and the roads were just horrible. They looked like they were just wet, but try stepping out on it and you would get a BIG surprise! So we have been stuck inside a lot this winter, which is fine by me. I'm one of those weird people who never gets cabin fever. I can always find things to keep me busy at home, and I love being at home.

My mother in law has been asking me for a hat that would match a cowl that I gave her last winter, and I am finally getting around to it. I love this pattern. Even though you can't really see it with the yarn I chose, Lionbrand Homespun, it has a cable brim. Then stitches are picked up all around it, and the body slowly increases a bit, then decreases to the crown. It's a quick and fun knit.

While I'm on the subject of creating things, I want to tell you how impressed I am with my grandson, Weston. He has started tanning hides. We have a lot of deer hunters in our family, so he has had a lot of hides to practice on. It may sound gross to some, but it's really amazing for a twelve year old to be doing this so well. It's kind of a lost art, I would think.

His first attempts were not very soft, but he didn't give up, and the last piece he put in my hands to feel of was SO soft. He made a knife sheath out of a piece of it. It has a plastic casing to hold the knife firmly in place, which he also made!

He bought some snaps to put on it this same day, so now it has a snap. That's pretty impressive, right?

New Flooring For the Entry

Randy and I finally got completely fed up with the carpet at the front door. It was impossible to keep clean and the door was too low to keep a rug under it. The rug outside was not doing the job well either. We went shopping together to change this, which was a huge thing alone since Randy hates to shop, and this is the result...

New Tile- Yay!

Ginger was completely worn out after this job

Teaching Aiden to Knit

School has been canceled a lot lately because of bad weather, so I have had Aiden with me a few days. He is a precious child, but a handful. I have tried to keep him busy by teaching him the basics of knitting. I really didn't know if he would be able to catch on, but I taught him in 5 steps which he counts down. He is really doing much better than I thought he would.

I am so proud of him, but more importantly, he is pretty proud of himself.

Aiden knitting for the first time

Daily Picture

First of all, I really can't believe how long it's been since I have posted anything. I honestly didn't fall off the face of the earth or anything, just got busy living. I know it's no excuse, so one of my New Year's resolutions is to do MUCH better at keeping up. 

I was reading a blog that I subscribe to last night, and was intrigued by an idea that they are going to do. The idea is to post a picture everyday of something that was created by you that day. I'm going to try to do this, but I have some catching up to do, seeing as it is already eight days into the year. 

I have been working on a birthday present for my sister for a couple of weeks, and finally finished it two day's ago. She is the pastor's wife at South Coast Worship Center in California. Churches can get chilly even in the summer with the air conditioning on, so I made her something to keep the chill off. 

Then I had an order to make some mittens for Chloe's birthday, she just turned five, and she is my youngest grandbaby. She was spending the day with me here because she was sick. 

Bunny Mittens

Creative Knitting had a great tutorial in their newsletter today. There is just something about cables that draw the eye, and makes my finger's itch to make it!  The cable needle does tend to be in the way though, so here is a solution - if you aren't too scared to let stitches slip off your needle. Just follow this link:

http://www.creativeknittingmagazine.com/blog/

I have to try it soon.

What's Going On?

This has been a very busy week. I haven't even had much time to sit down and knit. Sad face here...

Stephanie and I are planning on having a yard sale the first weekend in October, so I have been trying to get stuff together for that, while at the same time, trying to declutter. How did I get so much STUFF? This is going to take a while.

I finished organizing my yarn closet. I should have taken a picture of the back bedroom when I had all my yarn scattered all over it, but I was too embarrassed. I read that the best way to declutter something is to take everything out of it. That's true. Now my yarn closet is clean and organized. All the yarn is separated into different yarn weight categories. You can't see all the yarn on both sides of the closet, but believe me, it's all organized. Now I don't have to duck and cover when I open this closet door. Smile!

This week I also made liquid hand soap. This was very easy, fun, and very inexpensive. All it takes is 2 tablespoons of glycerin. Eight ounces of soap, shredded, I used Ivory, and 1 gallon of water. 

Combine the water and glycerin, and heat it up over low/medium heat, and add the shredded soap.

Stir while the soap melts down. I didn't stir constantly, but I stirred very often.

When the soap it finished melting down, let it sit for 10-12 hours, or overnight. It will start clouding up after about 4 hours, and then become very thick. I mixed it up really well with a mixer before I poured it into jars. If it is very thick, you may have dilute it with a little water, and shake it well.

Next time I make homemade laundry detergent I'll put it on here too. But it may be awhile. I made my first batch the first of June, and I still have a lot of it left. 

We had a couple of birthdays this week too. Jason Arnold's, my son-in-law, was the 10th, which also would have been my parents 52nd wedding anniversary, and Weston's was the 12th.

Stephanie had everyone over for a spaghetti dinner, Weston's choice, and cake. 

After everyone left their house, Jason and Weston went fishing together. This was part of their haul...

They had a really good birthday. 

On the 12th I noticed that my grandson Aiden was in the paper. The fire chief came to his class on the 11th to talk about 9/11, and read them a book called "The Little Chapel That Stood". It looks like all the children were really taking in this story. There's Aiden, in the back, really concentrating...

Randy and I went out shopping yesterday, and he bought me a pretty new cookie jar. He's so sweet!

While I was making soap this week, Randy, Stephanie and her children went on a hike. We have some of the most beautiful places here in Arkansas, I believe. These  pictures were taken at Dry Run Creek, by the fish hatchery.

Look like fun to you? I'm sorry I missed it, but I'm thankful that Stephanie took a lot of pictures for me. They said it would have been too long of a hike for me and my knee. Sad face...

But I'm glad they had fun.

How was your week?

Labor Day Fun

It was hot hot hot in Mountain Home on Labor Day. We opted to spend the day in the air conditioning, but still had fun. We played Jinga, ate a good meal that Randy braved the heat to grill for us, and just enjoyed being together. Of course the ladies cooked a few things too, but we got to do it in the cool house!

Brittney was a little nervous!

She decided to try the other side of the table.

Holly doesn't seem to be nervous a bit. 

Stephanie, a little nervous, but it was about 35

blocks high by now.

Awww, Gabriel did great the whole game. I think

it was already a little wobbly before he even 

touched it!

My honey, braving the hot sun, over a hot grill. He's

the best. The food was pretty good too.

Over the weekend I finished a project I had been working on, off and on, 

for about a year. I put down crocheting for a while, and concentrated on 

knitting and spinning.

This is the Flapper Bag that was published in Crochet! magazine in January of 2009. Here is my finished bag.

I am changing the button to a toggle button, then it will really be finished. 

I have gifted this bag to Holly.