I got a new shirt

 Wow!  It's been over a month since I've posted.  I've been busy.  I got a new shirt.

I went back to work.  Food Lion (a grocery store) this time.  I'm a closing cashier and I love the job.  Not sure what it says about me that I absolutely Love running a busy cash register, but I do.  The job is fun and the people are nice.  But my arms are falling off!  I'm on my third week there and my arms still haven't fully adjusted.  I knew I had no upper body strength but...  Good grief!  Gallons of milk and cases of beer are heavy and, well, wow!  My arms and shoulders are sore from the nightly workouts.

We are also house hunting once again.  That takes up a surprising amount of time.

Between the new job, a recent craft fair and another one coming up mid-May, I haven't been doing any exciting knitting.  I just keep making the same few things over and over and over again.

There's been soap bags and f-bombs,

and beaded socks.

Lots, and lots of beaded socks actually.  They sell well and it's been difficult to keep up with demand.

And of course, lots and lots of pot holders.  They sell well too.

And while I deeply appreciate all the sales success I've had, I am looking forward to May 16th when the last craft show I'm signed up for is over and I can go back to knitting for me.  Or at least knitting something different.

So no, I don't have anything new and exciting to show you.  But I do have the day off from work today so I'm going to wind this up, go get another cup of coffee, knit another f-bomb or two and maybe crack open a bottle of wine later on.

I hope you all had a nice Easter.  And I hope those of you in the path of yesterday's blizzard survived.  My idiot husband was trapped in his truck, wearing shorts and flip flops when they closed the roads in western Pennsylvania.  That will teach him not to watch the weather before he heads out!  No worries though.  He survived and made it home this morning.

So.... Happy knitting and I'll check in again on my next day off.

Busy, busy, busy

It's been a busy week!  I cleaned out and rearranged the pantry.  Doesn't sound like that big of a deal but...  You should have seen the pantry before I started!

After cleaning out the pantry, I spent a few hours Googling recipes that use huge quantities of potatoes, bread flour and powdered sugar.  Yes, amoung many other excessively purchased things, I found four 2 lb bags of powdered sugar, a 5 lb and three 10 lb bags of potatoes, and four 5 lb bags of bread flour.  

The pantry looked so clean and organized, I decided to rearrange and reorganize my room and craft supplies the next day.  My room proved to be a little bit more challenging than the pantry.  And took quite a bit longer.

I watched the daffodils bloom - and practically blow away in the wind.  That whole "March comes in like a lion" thing has certainly been true, wind-wise at least.  I couldn't even get a half way decent photo because the wind was moving them around so much.

I listed several new items in my Etsy shop.

I watched gas prices rise almost 75 cents over a four day period.

I went to the store to buy trash bags.  The next day I went to get a trash bag and couldn't remember where I'd put them so I had to go buy another package.  And when I got home and went to put them away in the cleaned out pantry...  Yep, you guessed it.  There was the original box, sitting just where they were supposed to be.  Aack!

I went to a local craft show, bought a few things and talked to the lady in charge of organizing the event.

And I immediately went home and applied to be a vendor at the April craft show.  I also signed up for the Hanover Strawberry and Wine festival in May.  That one is a much larger, two day event.  And because wool hats and scarves probably won't sell well at either event, I've been frantically crafting non-winter things.

That's only a few of the things I've finished so far.  I've made four potholders, seven pairs of beaded socks, three sunflower gnomes, two sets of crocheted coasters, four chapstick holders that attach to your keyring, four garden soap bags, four knitted market bags and I've tie dyed the fabric for twelve more fabric market bags.  Later today I plan to sew those market bags.  And maybe take a nap.

How about you?  What have you been up to?

More Potholders

 I just can't stop!

I've made a few more potholders that I need to get listed on my Etsy shop.  

Okay, question for the grammar police...  "In my Etsy shop," or "on my Etsy shop?"  It would be in a shop, but on Etsy/the web.  Which is correct?  I really should have paid more attention in school.  But hey - in my defence, the web didn't exist back in those days so my lovely English teacher, Mrs. Hall, never taught me "in" or "on" an Etsy shop rules.

I really am excited about these extra large potholders.  The cotton loops are SO much better than the kids' ones from the big box craft stores.  Besides being a much better quality and color, they are bigger and make 8 - 8.5 inch potholders instead of the little 5 or 6 inch ones.  These are big enough to protect a whole adult hand and they make fantastic trivets.  I'm just 100%, completely obsessed with making potholders!

It's a good thing I'm so obsessed with weaving potholders.  I'm going to need to make an awful lot of them over the next few months.  I've signed up to be a craft vendor at Winterfest.  Remember me talking about Winterfest?  Winterfest is the big Christmas/winter holiday event at the theme park where I used to work.   I'm very excited.  And a little bit nervous.  It will be fine though.  I'm sharing a booth with a few friends.  Sales or not, we'll have fun.

Oh, and sorry for skipping this past Tuesday.  I was busy hanging with my best girl.  Poor Hayden, her molars are coming in and they are giving her a fit!  Plus, she wasn't very happy that Nana was interrupting Paw Patrol to take selfies.

I'm back!

 I'm back!  I hope.  😀

I really don't even know where or how to start explaining where I've been.  Honestly, I think I had a miniature nervous breakdown and I went to a pretty dark place for a while.  The mother-in-law's Alzheimer's got to be WAY more than I could handle.  We weren't safe with her and she wasn't safe with us.  We were all beyond burned out from trying to care for her but we were trapped and had no other option.  

If you've ever provided 24 hour, in-home care for an advanced Alzheimer's patient, you understand.  If you haven't, well, you'll never truly understand.  You just can't.  The life you lead caring for someone with Alzheimer's is just beyond description.  Things happen that are just incomprehensible.  Again, if you've 'been there, done that,' you'll understand.  If not, well, I sincerely hope you never do.

Anyway, we were finally able to get her into a very nice memory care facility back in May and I've been detoxing ever since.  And yes, detoxing pretty much means sitting on my butt, stitching.  I can't believe how much better I feel now.  I knew I was struggling before but I didn't realize just how badly until she was no longer in the house.  That sounds horrible but...

So, what happy things have been happening since I last posted?

I finished the Anisah shawl but never photographed it before putting it away for the summer.  I am happy to report that after a few soakings, the yarn stopped bleeding.  The shawl did loose a little color but I'm still very happy with it.

Hayden had her first birthday party.  She was so funny.  She had her own cake and was a little confused by it at first but once she realized she wasn't going to get scolded for making a mess and playing with her food... She Loved it!  All I can say is, I am SO glad the party wasn't at my house and I didn't have to clean up all that smashed cake!

Next, I finished an Adult Modular Cardigan.  No decent photos of that one either.  But despite the lack of photos, I LOVE this design!  It was so simple to knit even my stressed out/overwhelmed brain had no trouble with it.  The only hitch is that it's all garter stitch so when you are making one for my big size and really, it's more of a jacket than a cardigan, well, it's a LOT of garter.  But it was fantastic TV watching/reading, stress free knitting.  And the finished product fits perfectly And, the way the mitered square runs across my chest makes me look like I have some boobs.  Yay!

The next knitting project was a shawl with yarn from Organized Chaos.  Again, no photos.  We have a roof leak and it started raining IN my room.  I moved a bunch of stuff, including my mannequin wearing the finished shawl, into another non-rainy room and well, I keep forgetting it's there.  Out of sight, out of mind, you know.  But, Organized Chaos yarns are totally unforgettable.  If you aren't familiar with them, you should definitely check out her shop.  I'm not an affiliate or anything, just love Heather's yarns.  And to be honest, I met Heather at a trunk show and have been sort of fan-girling ever since.

I knit approximately 1,000 wash clothes and made almost as many potholders.

Okay, so maybe I didn't really make 1,000 but I made a lot.  Thank goodness I have an Etsy shop.

Remember making woven potholders on a plastic loom as a child?  Well, these are larger.  The finished potholder is more trivet sized at 8 - 8.5 inches.  I LOVE them!  And I can NOT stop making them!  The simplicity, the nostalgia, the improved loom construction and the pretty colors have been a huge help with my destressing process.  If you are looking for a new obsession, check out Harrisville Designs.  A word of warning for the craft-minded though...  They also sell yarn and weaving supplies.

Hayden LOVES riding on the back of her parents' bike.  I find it odd though because she HATES riding toys.  She screams bloody murder if you put her on her hobby or rocking horse, her baby tricycle or her little ride-on jeep thing.  Maybe she just feels safe behind Mom and Dad.

Remember the Christmas wreath needlepoint I did last year?  I started another.  And I'm almost finished!  I cannot believe how fast this project has gone.  Actually, I can because my arm is unbelievably sore from the repetitive motion of pulling the needle and thread through all those stitches.  How pathetic is it that my arm is sore, sore like I've done 500 reps of lifting 200 LB weights at the gym.  Not that I have any idea how sore I'd be from doing that.  But my arm is sore.  So sore I've begun having to not needlepoint every other day.  But I so desperately want to get this finished and checked off the list. By the way, if you are curious, I am once again using Palette yarns.  I can't get over how well Palette works for needlepointing and best of all, it's inexpensive and comes in every color imaginable.

And one last photo of Hayden...

We were at Red Lobster for dinner the other night and she got mad when she was told she couldn't have another crab cake.  She was good as gold though.  She never cried or fussed or squealed or did normal baby things that annoy the other diners.  But damn if she can't make herself understood with her facial expressions!

Well, that catches us up to a week or two ago.  Since this post has been so long, I think I'll save the last week or so of crafty happenings for the next post.

Speaking of next posts, I'm not sure when that will be.  I want to get back into a regular posting schedule but I'm still being gentle with myself.  Or maybe I'm making excuses to do nothing but sit on my butt and stitch all day.  That very well could be.  I have to admit, I have been very much enjoying my destressing process.  But Mike gave me six weeks to detox/destress and then I'm expected to look for a job. So, while I destress from the MIL, I am stressing over getting my Etsy shop back up and running. I'd pretty much abandoned it for a few years.  But, I would SO much prefer to be an Etsy seller rather than a worker-bee.  If you know anyone who needs a giant, 8" loom woven potholder, please, send them my way.  😁

Unitl next time, Happy Stitching!