Wednesday WIPs: Fa La La La La

 

I made a VERY big mistake on the 1st. I watched the first of the daily Arne and Carlos Mystery Christmas KAL videos and I was hooked. I love their little daily holiday chit chats so out went all the plans I had just made for the month. I started a Christmas stocking instead. Only it didn't go so well.  I wanted to do cuff down so I thought I could just reverse the daily toe up clues but that didn't work. Off to the frog pond it went.

 So I decided to use their pattern from last year"s KAL and re-knit it instead.

 I hated the colors I had chosen for this one and had wanted to re-do it in gray and maroon anyway, so I did. 

And....speaking of Christmas, look who was waiting for us on our morning stroll with Pup. The town is getting ready. Lights are going up everywhere. I just wish they put as much energy in their election planning. We stood in line for over 2 hours to vote in our local election yesterday. We have a drop box right in front of town hall but could we use it? No. They crowded what seemed like the whole town in a teeny tiny gym and made us jump through a ridiculous amount of hoops before we were even handed a ballot. I hope the new town administration does a better job at planning these things. The voters were NOT happy.

Tiny Needle Tuesday

 

Gobble, gobble. My November stitching project is in the works again. I didn't get far on my turkeys last year. I probably won't finish them this year either. There's a long way to go and I'm feeling a little ho hum about them.

Peter Rabbit's back in rotation also and almost finished. I had put him in time out during spooky season. I was listening to The Shining and I didn't want to stitch any bad juju into him. I'm still listening to The Shining but I am only working on.....

....these while I do. I'm crazy about this project and would work on it all day if I didn't have....

....so many other things going on. Dear Jane needs her few minutes a day too. I finished one block and have covered the pieces on the next. Let the assembling begin. 

And....yes, I know it's Election Day. I've decided to be very zen about it. I survived the 60's and the pandemic so I figure I can handle whatever comes. I also have plenty of toilet paper stashed away. Hope for the best, prepare for the worst.

Shredded

     

I'm still chugging away on the crazy quilt. It's doing a number on my rotary cutter so I thought I would invest in a new blade.

The new blade was not working very well but I didn't realize what I had done until I tried to cut some thin wool strips for the turkey rug. Instead of cutting, the wool was being shredded. Upon inspection I discovered I had inserted TWO blades. They are always stuck together in the package so it's easy to do. I have actually done this before so you'd think I'd be more careful. Nope. 

And.....fall has finally fallen here on the western shore of the Chesapeake. I am happy to say our heat wave is over. I had the AC on Friday. Now the heat. It's been a crazy fall. I hope it sticks around for a while this time. 

Enchanted

 

The cupcake dress I've wanted to make for my Taylor Barbie finally got its day.

Ta da....it's almost finished. 

Now I have to figure out how to make it sparkle. I bought this fabric glitter but I'm wary. It dried better than it looks here but it's still clumpy. 

I'm kicking myself for not hanging onto to all that extra costume making odds and ends I had from back in my skating days. I bet I had something in that stash that would have worked. We did a Prince number so I had plenty of sparkly purple. 

And....would you believe it? The night I finished that dress she actually wore it to sing Enchanted but I DIDN'T choose it in the Mastermind game. She hardly ever wears it anymore so what were the chances. Look at that terrible score. Even The Mister beat me on Night 1 in Indy. It still smarts. 

Stolen Moments

 

We're back to doing this again. We are finally putting the finishing touches on all that new flooring we put down. First up were the upstairs bedrooms. I think we finished those floors pre-pandemic so it's more than about time they got their transition pieces down. 

The good news is while The Mister was doing most of it, I could do the grunt work and still work on getting that new warp wound since they both were happening in the same vicinity. 

I'm using the leftovers from that giant scarf I made for myself to make one for The Mister. I'll be using that handspun in the top left for the weft. It's that very soft Cormo/Silk blend I worked on during this year's TdF. I won't be making this one as wide or as long. 

I also got a few minutes to get some more of that towel threaded while The Mister was measuring and cutting those thresholds. It all went pretty smoothly until we tried to close the bathroom door. We had to do surgery on it which wasn't fun but the patient seems none the worse for wear, thank goodness. 

November

 

Gobble, Gobble....Mr. Turkey is out and about again. I've got a lot of background to do on this one too it seems. Let's see how far I get this month.

Inktober 2024 is now in the books. I did do about 20 of the prompts. I found a lot of them redundant so I combined them into one sketch. I did get them watercolored while watching Hocus Pocus yesterday.

As soon as I was done, I turned that part of the work table into a Christmas card assembly line in hopes of getting The Mister interested in helping get those gnomes colored. 
 

Speaking of Christmas cards, the blue backing paper for the cards is here. I added this bookmark die to the cart. Does anyone use bookmarks anymore or we all on Kindles? Asking for a friend. 

The new month has also given me a monster case of startitis. I've got everything ready to go to get this Book Club cardi by Sari Nordlund on the needles.

I'm waiting for the yarn to show up to start these Cozy Quilt socks by Natalie Sheldon. I was tempted to do Arne and Carlos's Christmas stocking KAL again this year and then remembered I hated doing it toe up with them. I could not figure out the heel.  It starts today but I'll wait until the whole pattern comes out at the end of the month and if I like it, I'll reverse it and knit it in December. In the meantime, I'll knit along with them using this pattern instead-if my yarn gets here.

And....Halloween wasn't much fun without any little kiddies at the door but I did make my mom's traditional Halloween donuts. I only make them on Halloween because of how dangerous they are. That plate could be gone in one sitting if I really concentrated. 

Trick or Treat

 

I'm packing Jack up today. I'm very impressed with how much I got done this year. I'll be digging my turkey out tomorrow and hoping I can make some decent progress on it this year too.

As for Halloween, I've had my lights shining all month but I doubt it has impressed any of the neighborhood kids. 

We never get trick or treaters anymore but we still buy candy to sit by the door. I'll have it eaten in no time. 

Happy Halloween!