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Monday, December 29, 2008

End of the year...

So this is when folks normally make some nice philosophic post about what their life has meant the past year, what they are looking forward to in the New Year, blah, blah, blah. LOL Obviously I'm in a Bah Humbug mood and really don't have the time to make a post like that.

Gotta say Life is Good though. The past year was nice and we're still adjusting to my husband's retirement from the Navy. If he had still be in he would not have been here for the holidays this year. It was a bit odd to have him home for 2 Christmases in a row!

Things have been hectic and crazy through the year too. I never thought I would be busier once the kids were grown. I always (stupidly) thought things would settle down some.

I'm looking forward to 2009. I'm hoping to find a bit more time for some things I love to do. I'm also hoping to get back to regularly updating my blog. We'll see if that happens or not! Life has a way of "happening" and getting in the way sometimes.

Wishing all of you the best in the coming year!

Saturday, December 20, 2008

Happy Holidays!

Wishing everyone the best of the season!

Wednesday, December 3, 2008

Life gets in the way...

So, I haven't forgotten about my blog. Life has just been busy, hectic, and at times annoying. I will try to update and post some pictures soon!

Saturday, October 25, 2008

Knit One Save One



These are just a few of the hats I'm donating to Save the Children's Knit One Save One program. I currently have 30 done and am continuing to work on more. I'm getting close to running out of scraps though! Darn it. It's a little tight, so when I run out of yarn I may be done for the year. I'm trying to run down some yarn donations to continue making them. If you would like to donate yarn or know someone who will donate please have them email me at cleedesigns@gmail.com .

Saturday, October 11, 2008

Color Guard again...





So I got a panicked phone call from our daughter the other week. The place she ordered the top for the one girl in her color guard called to say that since it was a special order it would not be delivered for 6 weeks. ugh They wait this long to get back to her on that?! Of course that meant mom had to come to the rescue.

The top needed to go along with the one I made for Allen. (see Poet's top) So I came up with this one. The red portion is made of the same red used in Allen's top. It is also cut from the pattern piece for the heart portion in the closer flags. I also used lace around the bottom of the top like that lace used on the opener flags. The red is sewn along the top and into the side seam, but the rounded side of it is loose for movement on the field.

Monday, September 22, 2008

The goats...







The top photos are of one goat that kept looking over the wall to see what our spinning guild was doing. He was so funny checking up on us and probably hoping to find food close enough to steal. The other goats we in various pens and were all friendly and sweet. I got nicknamed the "goat whisperer" because they all seemed to like me and would let me pet them.

More Fair photos





Of course I had to take photos of the cute little baby bunnies! They were so sweet. Then you have just 2 of the many sheep that were there. One member of the spinning guild brought 6 of her sheep to demonstrate sheep shearing. I didn't get any photos of the shearing or of the guild spinning.

Lots of Fair Critter photos






The beige chicken above had such fine feathers it looked like it had fur. From a distance it looked like a fuzzy chicken. LOL The next 2 chickens reminded me of the Muppet Beaker. I don't know how they can see with all those feathers in their eyes. The other 2 were just some neat colors blended on the feathers.

Thursday, September 18, 2008

Ribbons at the Fair!



Went to the fair this evening to see how I did and I won 2 ribbons. Took first place for my hat and second for my socks! Pretty good for my first showing at a fair.

Lots of livestock to see and I really enjoyed that. Loved all the sheep and goats. There were some really neat varieties of chickens I had never seen before. Should have taken photos but I didn't.

Tuesday, September 16, 2008

Time for the Fair!





It's time for the County Fair and I'm entering a hat and a pair of socks for judging. This is my first time ever entering something in the fair and I hope it goes well. From what I saw of the winner for socks last year I think I have a good shot at winning. I don't really remember what they had for hats, so I'm not sure there. Here are my entries, Autumn Atmosphere socks and the Shedir hat!

Wednesday, September 10, 2008

Dish Rag Tag

Got my turn at the Dish Tag Rag Tag Team box!  Above are the goodies I received from Wendy in VA.  Thank you so much!!!  I forgot to get a photo of the cloth I made for Dawn in NH.  :o(  Oh well.  Anyway, Wendy sent some chocolates too, but I ate them before I took the phot.  LOL  She sent to dish cloth, of course, a dish "scrubby", some row counters, stitch markers and a pretty floral covered pen.

I do hope that Dawn will enjoy all I sent to her.  I should have taken a photo before I stuffed it all in the box but didn't.  Maybe she'll send me one to post here.  

Thursday, September 4, 2008

Sundresses for Charity


I am a member of the Homefront Team on Etsy.  One of the members mentioned her church doing a project.  They are making sundresses for a mission trip coming up in October.  I told Terry Ann (top left of her blog) that I would be happy to make a few and send them out to add to the other.  I finally finished them and they are winging their way now to join the other dresses being made.  I do hope they will be useful and the girls who get them will like the dresses.  

Saturday, August 30, 2008

Kiva

From the Kiva website -

The people you see on Kiva's site are real individuals in need of funding - not marketing material. When you browse entrepreneurs' profiles on the site, choose someone to lend to, and then make a loan, you are helping a real person make great strides towards economic independence and improve life for themselves, their family, and their community. Throughout the course of the loan (usually 6-12 months), you can receive email journal updates and track repayments. Then, when you get your loan money back, you can relend to someone else in need.

Kiva has been in several publications, including - Forbe's, Inc., CNN, Time, Fox News, and many more. Read about Kiva's work.

I just made my second loan through Kiva and will continue to roll the money back into more loans as they are repaid. I hope some of you will think about loans through Kiva as well. This is a great way to give a little, but have a huge impact through the help of others on the Kiva site.

Wednesday, August 27, 2008

Baby Afghan



I finished this baby afghan for the Navy Marine Corps Relief Society. They give new parents a "baby's first sea bag" with all sorts of products including a hand knit or crocheted afghan or sweater set. This is a filet crochet afghan. I still need to buy some flannel to back the afghan, sew the afghan on in several places to keep little toes and fingers from getting caught in the holes.

Poet's top



I finished the top for one of the guard members for the Carmen show. We went with a "poet's top" with the same fabric on the yoke and cuffs as the girls' tunics. It was a major pain to gather all the fabric into the yoke but it's done and from the field it will look good. I hope they will be happy when it arrives!

Friday, August 22, 2008

Closing flags...



If you are familiar with the story of Carmen you know that in the end Jose` kills Carmen by stabbing her in the heart. Work with me here folks... this set of flags represents this killing. The brick color to the left is the heart, the lame` fabric represents the dagger and the background colors coordinate with the other set of flags to keep the color scheme going. I hope they are happy with the flags when they get them!

First set of flags...



Okay, so the show is Carmen. So, for the first set of flags they wanted something simple and yet gave the "flamenco" feel using colors other than red and black. It's a small guard and to make a larger impact the flags are a solid color with lace along the top edge. Using various colors forces the eye to scan the entire field to see the other flags, rather than flags being all the same and taken in in one glance. Color restrictions due to the band uniforms moved me into the gold/brown color range. It actually gives a rather rich look to the flags. These colors are repeated in the closing flags.

Thursday, August 21, 2008

Got Silk?

Sure have! LOL The silk and lame` arrived for me to work on color guard flags for a high school in Maine. They are doing Carmen and I designed 2 sets of flags for them. I have one set of flags almost finished and hope to finish them tomorrow, and the other set should be done withing the next few days as well. Once that is done I have to pick up fabric to make a top for one member of the guard. Hope to post photos soon!

Sunday, August 17, 2008

Socks!

I love knitting socks. Seems I always have one or more pairs on the needles at any given time. LOL This was a pair done for a custom order for my Etsy store. I sure hope Katesy likes them when they arrive. She wanted chunky socks that were roomy enough to allow for some shrinkage as they felted.

Thursday, August 14, 2008




I had some fun dyeing yesterday. The first 2 skeins are for Pren for her Harry Potter sock swap. The first skein is "Draco" - Slytherin House colors of grey and green, black for the Dark Arts, and Gold/Yellow for Draco's hair. The second skein is just Slytherin House colors of grey and green. I put more green in than grey because I didn't want them to be too somber and grey.

The sock blank is for Gryffendor! Gryffendor House colors of red and yellow with Harry's scar painted in the middle in black. Came out better than I had thought actually.

The bottom skein is what I call "Happy Accident". I put the yarn into a plastic baggie and just dumped in grey and green I had left over form the Slytherin skeins. I think it's neat how in spots there is bright blue because there was not enough green in there to absorb.

The Happy Accident skein and the Gryffendor sock blank will be posted in my Etsy store soon!

Tuesday, August 12, 2008

Sorting gift..


So, I'm a Harry Potter fan but never knew I could get sorted into a house! Luckily my friend Pren pointed me to a site to do just that. I am in Hufflepuff! Sweet Pren made me a Hufflepuff necklace as a sorting gift.

Dish Rag Tag...

This Friday (8-15) the Dish Rag Tag will kick off. I'm hoping it will be more fun that the 2 sock wars I have been in - they ended up being somewhat of a bust for me. People need to hold up their end of the bargain in these things, ya know?!

Teams have been set up and boxes go out on Friday. I'm hoping my team (team #1) will be victorious.

Latest Project...


I've knitted this baby tam that I will be listing in my Etsy Shop. It was knit with a soft, superwash wool/nylon mix so this can be thrown in the washer and dryer for ease of cleaning. Unstretched the band measures 16" and stretches to roughly 20". This would be great for a boy or girl!

Parking Lot Dye Session




My spinning guild held their annual Parking Lot Dye Day at our July meeting. This was my first time ever dyeing as well as doing it the "parking lot way".

We sure picked a hot day to do it, but you need the heat to process the dyes on the fiber. I really did not have a plan since I had never dyed before and just went to play at it, so to speak. I had 5 pieces of fiber and did a few by choice and the others were just kind of a "need to use up the last of the dye" type thing where I just poured it all over or in sections with whatever I grabbed.