Stash Dash 2017

So there's this thing called "Stash Dash".  It's a friendly competition, mostly with yourself, which is hosted by a couple of women who call themselves "The Knit Girllls".  The Stash Dash runs from 12:01am on May 26th and will run through 11:59pm August 20th this year, and the goal is to finish as many projects as you can. You then count your finished meters, and you then post at Ravelry the number of meters you accomplished. I accomplished 7750.6  yards or 7085.6 meters. I'd say that's pretty good. Here are the items I've done. It includes knitting, crochet, and spinning.

A baby hat with hearts.

Humiliate the Cat?  :)  hehe.

More to share . . .

Here's a couple more May finishes for crochet ....

Doesn't that hat make you think of forget-me-nots?  So pretty :)

Here's my green pepper and tomato seedlings as well.  I've been having some back issues and forgot to water them for a few days, so a few were looking a little sad, but hopefully they'll bounce back.  I'll need to get down there and check on them today. a few of them need to be potted up to get more feet room.

A Premie Hat

So, what do you think of this? I just finished it tonight.

Couple more quick finishes . . .

Well, it's the end of the month and I'm trying to get as many classes in as I can . . . So here's a couple more quick finishes ....

I made two little baby / premie hats using the leftover yarn from my large shawl.

I also made this Atari dishcloth.  I created the chart myself, and it does say "atari" at the bottom, although because I wasn't careful with the twists on my purl stitches (I wrap the yarn backwards, and so I have to be aware of it or it affects the final product sometimes.) .. anyway .. during the "atari" section I was twisting my purls, so the words don't show as well as they could have.  The upper part I was more careful, so the details show much better there.  What do you think?  I'd share the chart but I'm unsure if there is a copyright on the symbol .. Anyway .. here's the cloth I made last night:

Items crafted on our trip to CT

We drove to CT to visit family for Thanksgiving, and on the way there I kept my hands busy.  here are a few of the things that I worked on in the car and also while there visiting.

There was also a small coaster made out of the above yarn, 

but I gave it away before I could take a picture of it.

Another HPKCHC Class

This project will be submitted for the November 2015 HPKCHC class called "Hogwarts in the Triwizard Cup".

This is a micropremie baby hat that will be given to the local hospital NICU.

HPKCHC - Cat Hats

A friend of mine requested some hats for her cats.  I couldn't find a pattern, however, by using several pictures I was able to come up with these.

You can see that Peaches does not really care for hats.  Thank goodness they are not for her. :)

More Progress

A couple of days ago I finished this .. using just small balls of scrap yarn . . . a baby hat. knit on #7 dpns from the top down.

Over the weekend I also finished this hat from sock yarn and #7 dpns from the top down.  Different style of increases ...and then I increased too much and had to do a drastic decrease .. but it's kind of cute.  I really like the blue / green varigation.

I have enough yarn to do another slightly smaller hat.

I was also able to sew block #24 on the Three Cords quilt yesterday ..

I sewed it together with 5 other blocks to make the 6-pack that goes inthe upper left corner of the quilt ...

I think it's turning out quite well! :)

Yesterday I also laid out block #20 . . .

And this morning I sewed it together ...

I will be laying out block #3 yet today before I go to the CGBSD PTO meeting. Maybe sew that block tomorrow.

I wonder if dh will let me buy a mid-arm quilting machine so that I don't have to struggle to get this quilted.  It's coming along so nicely that I'd love to be able to do the quilting part justice instead of having to struggle with rolling it up and doing such small sections at a time.  I can hope, right? :)

Progress . . Step by Step

Sometimes progress is by tiny steps, but with each step you move forward .. so here are my baby steps towards getting things made ...


Here is block #16 (according to the pattern, but not the 16th block I've made for it .. more like the 6th .. ) of the Celtic Knot or "cord of three strands" quilt that I got from Lynne's blog ..

 You can see the pieces were all laid out.  I took this picture last night.  I got the pieces laid out yesterday afternoon.  I sewed a seam or two last night .. also got this little baby hat completed yesterday afternoon.....

Pattern for hat here.

 This morning/noon I spent a little bit more time working on the block.  Getting more pieced together ..

 Peaches wanted to help take pictures.  Actually, I think she just wanted to play with the wrist strap on the camera! :)

Crochet Hats & Peaches

Okay, so I'm trying to catch up, and you get 3 new posts in one day! :) lol.

Here are a couple of hats I knit with this pattern and some small balls of yarn that I got from freecycle.

Have you ever seen Peaches in a Box? :)

 I also found this really neat crochet stitch called the Crocodile Stitch in one of the emails I get every day.  It's really neat.  Ravelry has several patterns for using this stitch, both free and for purchase.  I started with this hat pattern and using more of the yarn I got from freecycle.  It's Red Heart yarn this time.  I used up almost 100 grams of the tan,and then I used some turquise that was in the bag.  Still looks like a strawberry or pineapple! :) 

Neither Seth nor Joel would try any of these hats on.  Rob was a good sport and tried them on, but I didn't get a picture of him wearing them.  I do like the style of the top two hats for Rob.  It fits him much better than the standard style.  The extra bit at the sides and back will cover his ears and neck nicely without falling over his eyes. The pink one will probably be mine for shoveling snow, and the blue one for Rob. The crocodile stitch hat may be given to charity or sold.  If you'd like it, make me an offer! :)

Do you see Peaches in the background ? :)

My Memorial Day Weekend

This past weekend we did a lot of travel. Since dh was driving, I did a little bit of crochet. First we traveled from WI to Indianola, IA.

First I started with trying out a new stitch I saw Wednesday night on a recorded episode of Knit & Crochet Now! It was a crochet cable. I made a pillow front using the stitch, and it turned out pretty neat. Of course, it's too small for the pillow I intended because I didnt' measure before I left and the pillow wasn't with me in the car!

While at Indianola we did a bunch of yard work at the house. Trying to keep it looking nice for potential buyers. Please Please Please let the house sell quickly! The yard got mowed, the weeds are pulled from the driveway, and we cleaned more out of the basement and loaded the van down so that the basement looks bigger and more open. Then it was time to drive to Thompson, IA .. so we could attend an Oleson/Escherich Reunion in Mason City on Sunday.

I finished the pillow back while at my parents on Saturday & Sunday. Also on Saturday and Sunday I took two sport weight skeins that I had (partial skeins) and put them together to make a baby hat and a snack mat. Or I suppose it could be a doll's blanket.

On the way back to WI on Monday, I grabbed another sport weight skein of yarn from the back of the van and made a baby's hat, and started a second one .. but I ran out of yarn on that skein, and decided to put the crochet on hold for the moment .. I'll finish the second hat with white sometime .. this week hopefully! maybe today?

My friends at One Stitch At A Time really like embroidery, and it's been a long time since I got out my embroidery floss.  I used to do quite a bit of cross-stitch, but haven't picked that up in a long time either!  They've inspired me to do a little bit.  I had some flour sack towels in my stash, so I took one, and traced this birdhouse design on it ... and well, this is what I got done yesterday .. just a bit of green for the wood of the birdhouse... not bad fo rnot having done it in awhile! ... :)

Well, I'm off for now.  We are going to the first activity of the Ozaukee Homeschool group ... I joined the group (it's basically an online forum) a few weeks ago, but today they have a field trip activity for the kids to do archery/boating/candlemaking/disc golf .. and Joel would love to do some archery, so I decided to sign us up.  It's at a local campgrounds/retreat center called "Jewish Community Center".  I suppose it's a lot like the Methodist church camp back in Indianola. I think Seth is coming too .. hopefully the boys will have fun and I'll get to meet some of the moms .. ..

Crochet Projects finished in the last week or so . . .

Show n Tell time :)
I usually knit or crochet in the evenings in front of the TV with the family.  Occasionally I'll read, but that's beside the point :)

Here are some things I put the finishing touches on in the last week. 

This neck scarf/cowl had been crocheted a long time ago - last summer maybe

.. but I just added the buttons last night. 

I made this based on a hat that I saw at our homeschool group.  It's not quite exactly the other hat, but it's got a similar feel to it.  Used Bernat Comfort "mixed nuts" which I purchased at Charity's

This is the same type of pattern as the brown & white one .. but it's using Bernat Softee Baby yarn.  I also "puffed" the main body above the band a little bit, so it's a bit "more". 

Following are three photos of some baby bands.  I didn't have a lot of yarn left in the skeins from the hats I made, so I made a few simple baby bands.  :)

A Lavendar Knit Hat

A night or two ago I finished a knit hat.

Its more of a beany style .. I can't seem to knit long enough to make it more slouchy .. Ah well .

what do you think? It will probably go on Etsy.