Ikea Fail

 We are back to this again. We took a trip to Ikea on Wednesday because I wanted another peg board and some shelves to put over the sewing machine table.

I decided on these simple box shelves.

 I would show you the finished job but.......it's not done. I didn't do my homework and didn't know to buy the separately sold hanging brackets. Grrrrr..........Since it's a long hike up there I had to order them online.

 Darn. I really wanted to set up my sewing pegboard but it will have to wait. The more I get done, the more I have to do. Ikea I love you but would it have killed you to put a reminder on the boxes to pick up the brackets?

Needles and Pins

 This is the last of the piles. Everything else that was heaped in my living area has found a place or a new home.

 This is the spot where I am making the mini bolts for the shelf in the new sewing nook.

 I am addicted to making these cute little things. Who knew it was so much fun? The only problem was that I ran out of pins. The tutorial I was following has you pin the backs.

 So off I went to Micheal's to pick up pins. It was on the way home from Ikea which is a whole other story for another day but look what I found. The Caron X Bamboo was on sale. Half price. I bought a bunch of all the prettiest colors.

One night when I couldn't sleep I played with Caron's online pattern site where you can actually change the hat colors to find the combo you like best. This pattern is for the bulky wool X but I can't do wool on my head because of the itch factor so I'm going to see what I can figure out with the bamboo/acrylic worsted.

Now about those pins I went for. I had no idea pins were so darn expensive. $3.99 for a small package. I even stopped at Walmart to see if I could do better and they were $2.99 which I still thought was a lot.  At least they came with a container. Micheal's did not. Now that I know how pricey they are I'm going to take better care of them for sure. Who knew? Of course this is all coming from someone who thinks nothing of plopping down $30 for some sock yarn.

Tiny Needle Uh Oh....

 I only got an itty bitty butterfly done this week. The stitching gods were not smiling upon me. There was just too much going on.

I thought it would be better for my brain to just do the sentiment under the trees so I'd at least have some progress to show but when I went to start it I realized that the top row of words were printed on TWO SEPARATE CHARTS. This sounds crazy but I just can't wrap my brain around using two charts for one word. I'm guess I am going to have to do some fancy cutting and pasting before I pick this project up again. Boo....

On a happier note, I saw this on Jeannie Gray's post yesterday and had to have it. It's the Knitter's Sampler and I found it on Etsy here. Now I just need the time to sit down and stitch it.

Taming the Stash

 To be honest, as much as I wanted to, I couldn't tame my stash. I could just control it a little. I fit every thing back in the closet but it's not as neat and tidy as I had hoped.

 Everything has a place now and everything is in it but it still looks like an unholy mess. Oh, well...at least it's not all in the middle of the living room anymore.

My new sewing nook still needs work. I think another trip to Ikea for some wall storage is in order. That's a lot of wasted space up there.

 This is the state of the fabric stash. It doesn't look too promising but I've got plans.

 I've got these boards that are going to help me turn it all into mini bolts so I can get in on a shelf or two. I've also got a couple of empty drawers under the sewing table that can be used to store it.

My big squee of joy came from my new Ikea Skadis pegboard system that's over the soap table. I wasn't sure how any of it worked when I was in the store so I only picked up a few of the attachments. Now I can't wait to go back and get more. I love this thing!

Two

 This is my second Father's Day without a dad.

I spend a lot of time still thinking about my relationship with my old man because none of it makes any sense to me.

Until my mom died, Dad was just the guy who lived in the house with her. He was never a big part of my life unless he was doing something stupid to upset her. We had no relationship whatsoever.

In fact, I was scared to death of him. He was not an easy person to be around.

After Mom died in 2002 this started to happen all the time. It was one health issue after another and it had to be dealt with and his kids had to do it.

When he wasn't in the hospital recuperating from one thing or another he was lonely so he connected with his "girls" by doing stuff he thought we were interested in.

It worked.

After all these years, all of a sudden we had a dad we could relate to.

And then all of a sudden we didn't.

Oh, Snap!

Yesterday was a beautiful day. The kind you never get around here in the summer. It seemed stupid to stay in and sort stash so we took Pup to the park instead. I was looking forward to getting some good car knitting done but........

  ...I was just a few rows in when-snap. I wasn't even doing anything weird. The top of the needle just snapped off. Darn.

 I did have other needles with me but they were double points and this sock and its finished sibling was knit on a circular. I had a terrible crisis of conscience trying to decide what to do. Change the needles and keep knitting or wait to get home for my circulars?

The circulars won. I had tons of new ones at home and I couldn't bring myself to change in midstream like that. Talk about obsessive behavior. I thought that was pretty crazy-even for me.

This would have had a happy ending but when I got home I transferred it all over onto a brand knew needle and...........snap. Either I don't know my own strength or Knit Pick is having an issue. I love these pretty wood needles but I guess I'm off to find something more dependable.

AND then......a little later when I was over my needle angst I sat down to knit on another pair and found A KNOT. That is a crime in my book. I hate joins in socks I gift. I hate that this is in a stripey sock (it's Felici) because now I don't know if that stripe is going to be wonky and not match its sibling. Argh....it just wasn't my day.

Two Finishes and Some WIPs

 We are done. Finally. I hate to put the stuff back in this room. I love having all this empty space. It's one thing my house doesn't have thanks to my million and one hobbies.

We even have the new shelves up but that's as far as I am going right now. That mess in the living/dining room is overwhelming me at the moment. I need to stop and think before I start just shoving things where they fit. I want it all to make sense this time.

Here are the Hawthorne socks that I finished yesterday. This is the Happy Valley colorway. They are pretty wild.

Here they are with my gift pile for 2019. I've got three more pairs also close to being finished.

I have managed to keep up with a few other things in spite of the clutter and the confusion around here.  The little lace scarf has grown a bit. It's slow going as it has lace rows on both sides.

 The Hitchhiker now was 20 teeth. It looks a bit shabby but I like it. It's a good use for my wonky handspun.  I think the color changes are working really well.

Finally I've got this sweet little dishcloth in progress. This is my stress knit of the moment. Watching all those pretty colors go by is very soothing and in this mess I need all the comfort I can get.