Alexa Knows Best

 

Having time in the sewing room while The Mister was away wasn't the only fun I had. In the afternoon I got to sit and knit a bit-uninterrupted. The Regia socks look like this now. 

In the blissful quiet I could do some serious measuring and declare the body of Bon Amie finished. I also started the ribbing for the first sleeve which was a comedy of errors in figuring out the right needle to use. I need a good needle gauge and I'm happy to say one is on the way. 

You wanna see something scary? Look at all those ends to weave in. I put the body on a capped off cable so I can work my way through them little by little. I learned the hard way to never weave them in as I go because it makes ripping back impossible.

One of the Grands wanted a beige pom pom hat and it's now at the top decreases. It took forever for the pom pom making kit to get here. Amazon apparently delivered it to everyone on my street but me and none of my lovely neighbors had the good sense to just stick in my mailbox or walk it down. It kept getting sent back. After 48 hours of being told it was here when it wasn't, I finally got the okay to do a return. The new one took four more days to get here but at least it's finally here. 

I also had an order from Knit Picks show up and am happy to say it was what I expected. I took advantage of the return of Felici and also got some worsted weight yarn for possibly another hat for the pom pom loving Grand. 

And....Alexa kept telling us to expect snow yesterday when no one else did. Not the local weather, not The Weather Channel nor the online weather folks. We thought she had lost her mind. But... as you can see the old girl got it right when no one else did. We even had an emergency alert due to the terrific squall we had. There was thunder and lightening and a lot of wind. It was didn't last long but it was glorious. This is what winter is supposed to look like. 

Unexpected

The Mister decided at the last minute to take a road trip yesterday to visit his ailing brother. That meant I had the house to myself so I planned on big things happening. I set the dining room table up to sandwich the February quilt only to realize that I HAD NEVER BOUGHT ANY BACKING. 
 

Oh, well. It wasn't like I didn't have other things to do. I set up the Juki in the sewing room and got to work on quilting those little snowflake mug rugs. 

Then I started adding a very thin black border on the Crazy Quilt blocks. I wanted something to keep the crazy from running into each other. I also needed something to tame those weird edges you sometimes get when you trim the blocks. 

Before I was done in the sewing room for the day, I took everything out of the new fashion doll sewing kit and was amazed at how many things were in it. Besides all that pretty fabric, you get a lot of interesting trim and sewing tools. It's almost too much. I don't know where to begin.

The Big Chill

 

The New Year sure came in with a bang. We had a series of scary thunderstorms on New Year's Eve and now they are calling for a Polar Vortex which is going to put us all in the deep freeze. Seeing that it's been in the high 50's and 60's for the past few weeks, that's going to be quite a jolt to the system. I've been washing my knits. I think it's time to get out the heavy duty sweaters and socks. They are saying there could even be snow on Monday. 

Speaking of crazy weather, it was downright balmy for the bay plunge yesterday. I think everyone in town participated this year. The crowd was huge.

I couldn't even get a good shot at them all out there frolicking in the water because they ran so far out that my view was blocked by the crowd and the big wooden pirate ship we have on the shore for the kids to play on. Oh, well. Next year I'll find a better place to perch for the event. Getting too close didn't work out very well. 

First Things First

 

First let me say Happy New Year. We made it through 2024 and with a little luck we'll be able to say the same about 2025 in what will seem like a very few minutes from now. Time does fly. 

When I was a teacher it was a non-negotionable that all holiday decor had to be removed before you could leave for winter break. That's still ingrained in me and yesterday everything Christmas had to go. I was turning the house winter blue when I realized I didn't have enough of those mug rug thingys that I use on the quartz counters under glassware. All my big new year plans are now on hold until I get them finished. I had plenty of blue winter scraps in the bins from that blue snowflake quilt I made a few years ago so putting them together has been pretty easy. 

And....look what got delivered yesterday. I bought myself a fashion design kit for dolls.

Movie Barbie needs an over the top gown and I haven't been able to buy her one so I am going to try and make her one. The kit comes with a large collection of fabulously fancy fabric and all the trimmings so it's going to be fun-as soon as I get those blue things finished first.