Be Better

Here we are again at the very beginning of a brand new year.  2014 was a great year.  We did a lot of cool things and shared so much love and laughter.  It was also a time of adjustment and mourning. Without my Dad here I felt that missing piece of myself all the time.  I know I always well.  The pain isn't as sharp but I am always aware. I know he is in Heaven and watching over me and with me all the time and that is what makes me OK.

But like I said, 2014 was still a great year. And I know 2015 will be also.

I have a theme for the new year... Be Better.  A better person, a better knitter, a better crafter, a better friend, in better health.  All those things and more.

So with that theme in mind, here are a few things I am planning for myself for the new year.

Eat healthier. Exercise more. Feel better. No real plan in place for this other than just do it! I'll keep you posted on my progress. I want to lose weight and I think keeping up with these things will be a great start.

In addition to that, I want to be a better knitter.  For Christmas I got some great books that I can't wait to read and dig into.  I know learning more about technique will help be be a better knitter.

This year I was also gifted by my wonderful husband a spinning wheel.  I can't wait to spin more and over the course of the year be a better spinner.  Which I am already well on my way here since before I had the wheel I couldn't spin at all.

Better crafter for me means trying new things.  I want to sew more and there are a few other crafts I want to try.  My daughter loves doing crafts so I want to encourage her in the arts and crafts as well this year.

Doing all these things will make feel better, and if I feel better, I know I'll be a better friend.  Which all this boils down to me being a better person.

Tomorrow I will discuss more details on goals for the year. Until then, have a wonderful New Year's Day!

A New Spinner Is Born

Hi everyone out there in Cyberland.  What a great day it is.

You know, it is always hard for me to write up a blog post. Especially since I have not blogged on a very regular basis in such a long time.  I need to work on remedying that. So my posts won't feel so clumsy when I type them up.  Maybe that will be a goal in the upcoming year.

But today I'm not going to talk about goals though. I've been having fun with my Christmas present from my hubby.  This year he gave me a spinning wheel. Yay!

I've been wanting one and just couldn't see myself investing that much money into a wheel when I knew nothing about spinning. So a while back I did invest in a spindle and some fiber and started spinning on my spindle.

Well, I was out doing some searches one day and found a very affordable beginner spinning wheel.  I forwarded the link to hubby, and what do you know, he gave it to me for Christmas.

It is absolutely gorgeous! It's the BlueBonnet BumbleeBee, from BlueBonnett Spinning Wheels.  A beginner wheel, perfect for a beginner like me.

So I've been practicing with the fiber I haven't spun on the spindle yet.  It will take me awhile to get a good feel for the wheel and what to do and how to get better at spinning but that's fine.  I know this will take me some time to do. But in the meantime I'm having fun with it.  The fiber is Ewephoric Fibers that I purchased way back in the spring when I went to the Carolina FiberFest.

Look at this picture I snapped last night.  it's the fiber spun up on my spindle and the same fiber spun on my new wheel. Not much as far as yardage goes. A thick and thin ratio.  But it will make a lovely accent for something wonderful.  I did purchase some worsted weight, dark blue Berroco Vintage to make hats and gloves or maybe a cowl and I want to use this as an accent to that blue. It'll be great.

Even though I haven't been spinning long, I can already tell that I'm going to love it.  I think it's safe to say, a new spinner is born!

And Sew On

Hi everyone! I hope this has been a great week for all.  I've had a pretty good one myself. There is always so much to do and so little time it seems like.  However, when I reflect back on the week, I feel like I've accomplished a good bit.

I finished one of my works in progress (WIP) and it looks even better than I hoped. Yay!  I also knitted some on my Happy Street shawl this week, which makes me happy as well.  Making progress.

But the thing I think I'm the most excited about is my sewing.  Awhile back, I ran across some Christmas themed fat quarters at Hobby Lobby.  Now, I have to admit, I've acquired some fabric stash over the years.  Not a lot because well, let's face it, I'm not a great sewer. But I do love a nice looking piece of fabric.  So when I came upon the Christmas fabric, I bought it.

That fabric has been in sitting in my fabric bin for almost a year.  Awhile back I made an attempt at sewing some project bags for my knitting projects with "meh" success. They were not awful, but certainly not what I would call good, quality bags.  And I really wanted to sew a nice bag.

So, I after my first attempt at sewing some bags I did what many other in my shoes would have done, I turned to social media.  I jumped on the Pinterest train and starting seeking out project bag patterns.

There were many.  Some more difficult than others. Some just right out of my novice comfort zone.  But all superduper cutearific!

As much as I loved all the bags I saw, the patterns to create those bags seemed a little bit, who am I kidding, a whole lot overwhelming.  Kind of like the first time I looked at a knitting pattern.  So I kind of just put my bags on the back burner again. With all my super cute fabric wasting away.  Which is a pretty sad thought, right?

Luckily, I found fresh mojo when I saw the super cool fabric and images via Instagram that Jasmine from the Knitmore Girls podcast was making for her projects.  I was compelled to follow the link she provided to this super neato tutorial on the In Color Order blog.

After reading through the steps, I hopped right to it.  I already had my precut fat quarters and since I'm in the middle of knitting Christmas goodies and Christmas socks, I decided they needed a perfectly cute Christmas project bag to nestle in.  So I got to work.

As I mentioned, I'm not a good sewer, but I do think there's hope of me becoming a better sewer with practice.  And since I am in love with these project bags, I can see myself practicing a lot in my near future.

This is my first finished bag. It is quite roomy.  I have two one skein projects down in there. I'm loving it.

A Year From Stash

When this year started, I told myself that I was going to spend most of the year knitting projects from my yarn stash as opposed to going out and buying more yarn.  In other words, I took stock of the yarn I already owned and then looked for projects that excited me based on that yarn instead of finding a gorgeous pattern and then running out to find the perfect yarn for the project.

By focusing on finding the perfect project for yarn I already owned, I've greatly reduced my stash this year.  I am very proud of myself for doing this.  Now that's not to say I have not bought yarn this year.  But I have bought more wisely and mostly with a specific project in mind.

Another perk to knitting from my stash this year is I have used up a lot of left over and partial skeins. Bonus!

I've actually finished nine projects using stash yarn this year.  One is a pattern design that I'm working on and hope to release soon.  In addition to these nine projects, I have four more WIP's using stash yarn! Whoop-Whoop!

One thing that makes me pretty happy about this whole knitting from stash this year thing is that I actually used my very oldest skein of yarn.

Nummy Bunny was a huge hit with my daughter who now wants me to knit her all the animals. She loves Nummy.

Nummy Bunny is a free pattern from Red Heart Yarn.

Although, I used Cottontots by Bernat in the Dollhouse colorway. You can mix it up and use all kinds of fun colors to knit her up.  She is so lovely and fun.

I can't wait to knit my next stuffy. Who will it be?

A Bucket List Thing

Well howdy out there!  I know.  I know. It's been awhile. Again.  Sorry. I will strive for better posting.  In fact, I'm making a date with myself to at least get out a biweekly post.  I have a lot of things to say; so even if I just say them to myself, they will at least get said. Right?

I have been so very busy, and I know that's not a real excuse because everyone is busy.  However, when you get caught up in life, time slips by so fast that you hardly even realize how much time has past since your last post. That's kind of where I am.  It's not that I don't want to post.  It's more like, I think I just posted last week and it was actually months ago. YIKES!

So I am truly sorry.  Like I said, I've actually decided to add a calendar reminder to write blog post. Yes indeed.  I think that will make things much more routine and regular.

Speaking of routine and regular, I also think having a more regular blog posting will push me along in my journey of marking off an item from my Bucket List.  For you see, I have wanted to do a podcast for some time now.  I start making progress towards actually doing one and something always gets in the way.  Well, I think now that I'm actually putting it out there that I want to do this, I will be much more likely to make it happen.  What do you think?

Now, the podcast will be a knitting/craft related podcast.  Because that's where my hobbies lie mostly. Even though I love to cook, and I want to spend more time honing my photography skills. Those might be good topics to keep to this blog.  We'll see how that goes.  In the meantime, I've been batting around a few names for the podcast.  I've looked and I can't see where any of these titles have been taken so that's good.  I just need to decide on one.

Then again, That Tess Girl: Just Chatting it Up, has been a thought as well.  By that I mean I have also thought about turning this blog into a Vlog. So many options to ponder.

However, for now, I am going to post this to the blog so I can say that I have successfully posted a post.

Until next time...