Frugality
09 May 2012 1 Comment
in Craftyness, Knitting, Painting, Personal goals, Personal notes, Tatting Tags: allergies, bathroom, clothing, edging, home-made laundry soap, knitting, plants, purses, recycling, shower curtain, tatting, value village, washcloths
Since I’m not working I’ve become the Queen of Green and I enjoy it. I’ve always been a bargain shopper and loved shopping sales and clearance racks. My favorite place to shop is Value Village because you can find something unique there that everyone in town doesn’t already own. This is a small town with very limited shopping so the chances of seeing someone in the same outfit you have is very very high. I am not a person that likes expensive purses like Coach or dooney and bourke. I really don’t get why anyone would want a purse that costs hundreds or thousands of dollars. I do like purses but I especially love small, unique purses and I find them at Value Village. In the last few months I’ve found two really nice purses in new condition that I love for a total of $12 for both of them. I’ll have to post a picture when I get a chance.
This year I didn’t plant nearly as many seeds. I don’t have as much energy as I did last year. I just planted some herbs and flowers so far. The veggies I’m planting can be started directly outside in the garden. This year I didn’t buy anything but a bag of seedling mix and the seeds. I started the seeds in toilet paper rolls and I will be able to plant them in the ground because the TP rolls will break down. I’ll write more about this later and include pictures but I haven’t been able to see very well because of allergies. My eyes have been like waterfalls the past few days. The pollen count is very high.
My newest venture is making my own laundry soap. I’ve seen a lot of websites on making laundry soap and I like this one. http://www.thefamilyhomestead.com/laundrysoap.htm I just bought the ingredients and I’m going to make it soon….when I can see to do it. I am just going to reuse my old tide bottle when it is empty. I also read that a half cup (I think it was) of distilled vinegar in a downy ball helps to soften clothes. I am going to test this out and see how it works. My main reason is, of course, to save money but I also have a lot of allergies to soaps. I’ve always used Tide (unscented) since I know it is safe but it costs me around $19 here in Alaska! I always buy it whenever it goes on sale but now I am just going to make my own and then I’ll know what is in it.
I am also going to knit my own washcloths for the main bathroom. I bought some cotton yarn in matching shades of blue. Now I just need to find the right pattern. I actually may just make my own. When I get the time I will actually make that shower curtain that I was going to make a year ago. I bought the material and tatting thread to tat an edging. I just couldn’t decide on the perfect edging and how I’m going to sew the curtain. I’m not using a pattern so I have to get it right in my head before I start. The theme for that bathroom is supposed to be old ships so my husband and I painted the bathroom in a warm medium toned blue and ragged it with a stormy blue-grey glaze. It looks great. The fabric I bought is a white crushed voile so it will be sort of like a sail. I actually sent off a paint sample to Handy Hands so I could get tatting thread that matched as closely as possible. The thread is matched to the lighter shade of blue. Eventually I plan to paint a picture of a ship for that bathroom. I love old ships. Each room in my house is supposed to be decorated to a different country but until I figure out which type of ship I want to paint I wont know which country that room will be.
Now, someone please stop me if I start knitting TP out of belly button lint.
Fill in the _____ Friday
13 Jan 2012 2 Comments
in Crochet, Personal notes, Photos Tags: crochet, diet pepsi, fiber, Fill in the blank Friday, free crochet patterns, knitting, memories, photography, wool, yarn, yummy cake
3. Using the letters in my name I can spell my name LOL [donna] okay, I can spell.. do, on, an, nan? I can’t spell much
Anyway, about my wool-eater blanket I’m making…. I don’t remember where I left off yesterday but this picture shows me adding the first row of the blue. The second row of blue is now finished completing the circles. I’m ready to start adding a new color but I am having a really hard time deciding what color to use. I’m trying to use yarn I already have – yarn that was donated for Project Linus – but it’s all so random. Some of it is probably from the 70′s and wouldn’t look good at all. I might go with some purple…. but I’m not sure… I actually started to add this mid-toned purple baby yarn with some green fun fur… it looked cute at first but once I got a full section finished the fun fur just made it 
all hard to see. I realized I made a mistake too and when I tried to take it out it got stuck. So I grabbed the scissors and I’m glad I didn’t go any further than I did. Fun fur is bad.
So apparently the NaBloPoMo prompt I used yesterday was actually today’s. If I blog later they already have put the next days up. Alaska’s time zone is 4 hours earlier than Eastern. Screws things up nicely.
So Thursday’s prompt was
Tell us about your earliest school memories.
I remember playing out on the playground and hanging upside-down from the monkey bars. Then this little girl I didn’t know came up and pulled me down on my head. It hurt and a big chunk of one of my molars broke off. I told the teacher but she just told me to quit tattling and go play. I showed her my broken tooth and she just said it was a piece of gravel and tossed it in on the ground so I couldn’t find it again. She told me to go play and quit whining or I would have to have a timeout. After I got inside I told another teacher about what happened and they actually made me apologize to the girl who did it for making up stories about her. When I got home I showed my dad my broken tooth and the bruises from where I fell and he went in there storming mad. That is when I learned my evil passive aggressive ways…. I used a baggy to pick up a soft dog poop and put it in her coat pocket.
Focus! Focus!
12 Dec 2011 1 Comment
in Craftyness, Knitting Tags: bracelet, knitting, knots, pinterest, Turk's head, yarn
That is what my husband says to me all the time. I’m horrible at starting project after project and jumping into new hobbies one after another without finishing anything. What can I say? I’m a great starter… just not such a great finisher. So today I found this simple little project on Pinterest.com and I’m going to do it and finish it before doing anything else!
First I’m going to knit a simple icord. It’s just 3 little stitches a bazillion times. Sure, I can do that.. I think. Well, after I dug through my yarn stash for something to play with and found some suitable double-pointed needles to use I realized that I couldn’t really remember how to start out so I watched this video. It is really clear and easy to follow just don’t think you can keep up with her LOL Just watch the video and take notes and then try it. Really, you don’t need to take notes…. it’s only 3 stitches.
So once I have enough I’m going to make a bracelet from this Turk’s Head (Woggle Knot).
This is the pin that led me to this craziness. I think I need one in every color of the rainbow and more.
Source: animatedknots.com via Donna on Pinterest
Well, I made an icord that would loosely wrap around my hand 4 times and decided to get it a try. At first I tried using a cable pin to hold the loops so I could avoid binding off until I knew if it was long enough but the yarn still attached to the ball just got tangled up and made a mess (duh). I snipped the yarn leaving a bunch of yarn to work with if I needed to add some more stitches. Well, it wasn’t long enough so I knit until I used up all of the extra yarn until I had barely enough to bind off with. I had to use a crochet hook to help bind off actually. I ended up with 42 inches and then I tried again. Still too short!!!! So now I’m working on another length of icord and I’m just going to sew it onto the first one. Until then….
Zentangles
18 Nov 2011 3 Comments
in Personal notes Tags: knitting, teeth, Zentangle
Today wasn’t a very good day for me. I couldn’t sleep all night and then I was up a long time during the day unable to catch a nap. I sat at my computer and watched youtube videos on zentangles. I tried to copy some of them but my hands were really shaky today and they don’t look so good. I do so much better when I work them in pencil and then paint them in like I did with the tree. Maybe tomorrow I will do some more. I want to start a book to keep track of the zentangle patterns I learn.
I also knit a few swatches trying to find a suitable yarn in my stash to make a dog sweater for blue. She needs something to keep her warm when she goes out to go potty. I also need to make her some booties. She’s lost most of hers. Last year I had to use those little stretchy gloves you can buy really cheap. I just wrapped rubber bands around the top to keep them on. She looked so funny….. like a 4-legged seal or something.
Well I’m still taking the antibiotic for the mysterious abscess that doesn’t seem to be related to a tooth. The endodontist’s office hasn’t called yet to schedule an appointment. Around 1 pm or so my mouth started throbbing and it swelled up. I took some more ibuprofen which seems to help with this and went to lay down. I zonked out until 10 pm! I was sleeping so deep and dreaming some weird stuff about bombs in alarm clocks. I dreamt that I had this clock with a bomb in it running around trying to find a place to toss it but there were people everywhere….. I woke up totally freaked out. Well the swelling is down now but it is still bothering me a bit. Of course it is Friday again. This thing all started last Friday evening and I had to wait until Monday to call the dentist. On Monday I’ll call the endodontist’s office to see what’s up. I bet there is something going on with the tooth right next to this abscess and it’s the one the endodontist had to re-do the root canal on but that was a long time ago. I’m really worried I’m going to lose that tooth and have to have a bridge. I really don’t want to pay for one of those or deal with something like that. UGH!
Zentangles and other tangles of mine
15 Nov 2011 4 Comments
in Knitting, Personal notes Tags: art, birthday, free class, knitting, mandala, willowing, yarn, Zentangle
About a month ago I went to a meeting with the Watercolor society here in the Fairbanks area. They had a Zentangle instructor come in to show us how its done. It was fun and a nice change from what I usually do. I still prefer to sketch and paint but every now and then I like just play and have fun.
Here is what I did during that meeting in October. This is my very first Zentangle!
The instructor sent us an email showing everyone’s tiles next to each other and it was neat to see how different they all were considering we were all learning the same “tangles”. The picture isn’t very big. You can see mine down at the bottom left. The email also contained a link to this video on youtube. Rita, I think the calligraphy and pen at the beginning is neat and it made me think of you LOL
This pattern is called ”Betweed”
Here is another pattern they show called “mooka”. This is one of my favorite ones I’ve learned but I’ve never actually tried it.
Here is another neat one called “coil” I really like this one too.
Here’s another Christmas tree I did with my version of a coil. It’s not finished. I was waiting for it to try to play with it some more.
I also signed up to take a class on Willowing.ning.com. There is a cute little graphic for it on the right side of my blog that links to their website. The class I’m taking is on learning how to make mandalas. It’s a free class and it just started Monday so it’s not too late to join. You can jump right in! I can’t wait to get started. I just needed to pick up a few supplies. 
I have some nice colored pencils but I didn’t have any watercolor pencils. I saw on another blog where this awesome artist (Serena) was working with Derwent Inktense pencils and I loved how intense the colors were. I had a 50% off coupon so I bought a set of 12. For the class I also needed a square (although so far it looks like she’s just using it as a straight edge) and a compass. My compass is in hiding so I bought a cheap one to use for now. I ended up looking all over town for a square (just in case). What I found is a triangle but it will work. Other than that all that is needed is a mechanical pencil, eraser and paper. I think that’s all. I can’t wait to get started! Yesterday, the instructor uploaded some templates to print off and there is a video to explain how to add to them. The first lesson is to just play around at creating designs by adding lines to the templates. There will be another video uploaded on Wednesday where we will paint a mandala. I’ve got my table all cleared off and ready to play!
While I was out running around yesterday I was also looking for the yarn and knitting needles I need to make the hat I posted in yesterday’s blog. I couldn’t find anything I needed! The pattern calls for double pointed needles in size 15 (10 mm)! That’s really big for dpn’s. I will have to order them online but I have a regular set of needles that I can use to check my gauge. I also need a set of size 17 knitting needles…. I might have to order those too unless I can make a size 19 work. I’m looking at some nice needles on Ebay. I was surprised that I couldn’t find any yarn in the weight they used – 6 – Super bulky. They were out of a lot of yarn at Joanns so that is probably why but I lucked out and found something that will work in my stash!
I bought a bunch of this yarn from a place that sells discontinued yarn! It is called Caramba by Schulana (made in Italy *oooh la la!*). It’s black and white, fuzzy and super soft! It will go nicely with my coat and boots which are black faux sheepskin.
I also had the pleasure of going to the dentist. They did x-rays and said it didn’t look like I have an absess at the root but there is obviously an infection going on there that is causing swelling and pain. They put me on antibiotics which are making me really tired and I am being referred to an endo— dentist. I forget the proper term. Endodontist? A high tech dentist with a cool microscope! I’ve seen him before and he’s really nice and doesn’t mind all my questions LOL Or at least he doesn’t let on if he’s irritated by them.
I picked out another box to show you. This one was given to me by my sweet sister. It’s a birthstone box. I thought it was fitting since it is November and my birthday is on the 27th. It has a little golden colored stone on the front and inside it says,
”November ‘Topaz’ Color of truth; smiling with generosity and good will”
Knitting
14 Nov 2011 5 Comments
in Knitting, Worthy of Note Tags: free patterns, knitting, pinterest
Bernat Pattern
I love to knit and crochet but since I don’t have much money right now I’ve been on the lookout for free knitting patterns. I got this one in an email from Bernat. I tried to find it on their website but it didn’t come up in patterns. I love this and can’t wait to get the yarn to make a few of these.
I also just recently joined Pinterest. That is a great tool for saving things you love as you are surfing the web. You have to ask for an invitation to join but once you’re a member you will love it. Once you request an invite from the main page it only takes about a day to get it in your email. In Pinterest you have a board (think of a cork board) that you can title for a group of related items. Then you can pin items of interests to it. So say you have a board for hair styles. While you are out looking at websites about hair styles and you see a picture you like you can choose to pin it to your board. There is a handy link you can save to your favorites (Its on the main page). Once you have that favorited/bookmarked you can click it whenever you are on a webpage you want to pin. What it does is pull out the images from the page and you can click ”Pin this” on the image you want. When you pin the image you can copy the link to the page into the text box to find your way back if needed. Other people may “repin” something you pinned and add it to their boards. You can create multiple boards each with a different theme. It quickly becomes addicting.
I just created a board for “free knitting patterns” and when I am looking at one online I can pin the image and then copy and paste the link to the pattern into the text box. That way when I’m ready to make that item I know where to go to get the pattern. Until I’m ready though, it’s not taking up space on my computer hard-drive.
To sign up for Pinterest, follow the link below:
Here is another pattern I really like from Bernat.com
Jacquards - Directional Scarf (knit)
A little Nostalgic
09 Nov 2011 3 Comments
in Knitting, Personal notes Tags: beagle, dog, knitting, mom, nostalgia, pictures, shadow box
Thinking back to when I was a kid… I miss those days sometimes. Not that I miss living at home. I really like having my own home and not having to live by someone elses rules that don’t make sense to me. I just miss those days when I was a kid and played all day in the sunshine. I miss riding my banana seat bike and doing tricks on it that would bring my mom running outside screaming at me to get down. I would get going really fast and then stand on the seat with one foot on the steering wheel (I was always barefoot and used my toes to keep the handle bar straight) and put my hands out until I lost momentum and had to get down. I was always a tom boy… looking back at the pictures I was a dirty little girl with dirty hair and face like Mogli from jungle book. Well, at least after the age of 5. My sister, who is 13 years older than me, left home when I was 5 so the pictures of me from that time were always cute. I was usually dressed up in cute little dresses… usually red with my auburn hair in pigtails. I miss my sister a lot! She and I look a lot alike! Funny thing is, even though she left home when I was only 5 and after that she was in another state and I hardly ever saw her, we still do many things the same and like the same things. When I went down for the funeral I went shopping for a pair of shoes to wear with my dress. I wanted something nice but comfortable and sandal-like that I could wear the whole time I was there. I tried on everything in the whole store and finally decided on a pair. With the shoe on my foot I stuck it out to show my sister and she laughed and stuck out her foot. They were the same shoes. Then while we were waiting in line to pay for our stuff she started putting on some lipgloss. I couldn’t believe it…. I had the exact same kind/color in my purse. She also makes her coffee the same way I do. Well, I can’t have caffeine anymore so I don’t drink coffee but she is the only one who can make me a cup of coffee exactly the way I like it!
Okay, staying on the same theme of Nostalgia, I took a picture of a different type of box this time. This one is a shadow box frame. (for some reason my post got snipped at this point the first time and I had to re-write the rest!)
Inside there are pictures of various times of my mom’s life from her senior dance to the birth of my first baby to smiling at my youngest son… to her in her flower garden happy as a clam! There is a small pill box I found in her things that had a pretty flower design on top, a small book containing the “footprints” poem, and a cross stitch of a feedsack she was working on with the needle still hanging. There is a cross necklace that I bought her for Christmas and various pins that she wore of angels and american flags – things that were important to her. The cardinal was her favorite bird and that cardinal is designed to sit on a flower pot. I bought her that one and a blue jay for myself. The roses are from her funeral.
I’m still knitting my sweater and I’ve gotten several inches of stockinette done now. I have to get it to 14 1/2 inches total before the pattern changes. I really need to work on a baby blanket for my niece’s baby though. The baby is here now and his blanket isn’t done yet!!!! I think I’ll work on it tomorrow.
Blue jumped up in my lap again but this time I was ready! I saw the signs LOL I managed to get some pictures which is really hard to do because she is so close. I put my iPhone in front of my laptop screen and switched the camera to the front screen (a very cool funtion!)
Then she turns belly up wanting her tummy rubbed!
Shhhh! Don’t tell – she’s not allowed on the couch!
Then she got curious about the camera and we got a close up LOL
I’m the baby! Gotta love me!
08 Nov 2011 8 Comments
in Knitting, Personal notes Tags: baby, blue, box, collection, dinosaurs, dog, knitting
Did you ever see that show Dinosaurs? I don’t remember when it was on or what station… it was silly but cute! It was by Jim Henson and the voice of the baby was the same as Elmo. The baby was my favorite part. He was always causing trouble and then he would say, “I’m the baby, gotta love me!” You can skip through the video to the part with the egg…
Anyway, this is what I thought of yesterday when my adorable beagle Blue decided she needed my attention while I was knitting the ribbing for my sweater. I hate that part…. knit two, purl two, knit two, purl two…. I always get screwed up somewhere along the way especially when I’m not feeling well, like now. So I was almost finished with the 3 inches of ribbing I needed when she suddenly jumped in my lap and spun around. One of her nails hooked into my knitting and it spun around with her and the yarn wrapped around her too. THEN she rolled onto her belly in my lap and I sat there horrified as I looked at my knitting still stuck to her foot. The needle was just barely hanging on and several stitches were racing for the finished line. I unhooked it from her foot but just then she leapt over my back and down the arm of the couch to the floor where she again laid on her belly for belly rubs. So now the knitting is wrapped around her and me and I’m trying to hold onto the yarn that is tying us together to keep it from undoing any more. That’s when she looked at me with those big brown eyes and I knew I couldn’t be mad at her. She just wanted me to love her and she is soo lovable! It’s hard being a beagle in Alaska when it’s too cold to go out and play.
So now I have it all fixed. I got it all untangled (which was funny because I had a pencil in my hair and the yarn was hung on that LOL), used a crochet hook to fix all the dropped stitches and finished re-knitting until I got the required 3 inches. 
That’s when I noticed a few wrong stitches that I hadn’t noticed before. There were two purl stitches that should have been knit stitches just two rows down and then there was one purl that should have been a knit stitch that was 11 rows down! UGH! It was also a couple of inches from the end too so I had to be very careful to keep the needle on the left from sliding out while fixing the dropped stitch. So that’s what I’ve been doing today… fixing. I can’t make a sweater with mistakes and this is the front. I have to say too that I HATE HATE HATE these needles. They are long and slickery as snot! I kept dropping stitches because they slid off so easily, especially when switching between knit and purl stitches. I would have knit this using circular needles but I don’t have the size needed for the ribbing. I actually didn’t have the needle for the stockinette section either until last week. I can’t believe I did the entire back section with these long straight *slick as snot* needles but now I have a new set of size 9 circulars to switch to for the stockinette section that is next. I’m so glad! I really like bamboo but I am broke right now so I have to use what I’ve got and I had to buy the circulars that Walmart had (same brand blah!) because they were half the price of the nice bamboo needles as joanns. Plus, by buying them at Walmart my husband doesn’t freak out when he sees JoAnns on the credit card. At walmart it could be groceries LOL I’m a good girl, really I am.
Okay, so I was telling a friend of mine about my box collection and I thought I would share some pictures of my boxes. I really love anything that holds anything…. especially when I can find a treasure that *exactly* fits inside it. That just makes my heart jump and spin (kinda like Blue does). So I’m going to post about one box a day starting with one of my most treasured boxes. 
I got this one from my big sister after my mom died. The top of it looks like Angel wings and it has a little bit of sparkle here and there in the wings. On the sides it says “God sends his love and blessings…with wings of Angels”. Inside, on the bottom is a small feather that also sparkles. The bottom is the best part though. That is where my sister wrote me a note.
Tummy not feel so good
07 Nov 2011 6 Comments
in Knitting Tags: george carlin, knitting, pictures, sick
*pout* I am really sick to my stomach and I am starting to think it’s not the flu now… It feels like it did before when I had an ulcer…. although, that time I waited too long to see the doctor. This time I still have meds from the time before and remember the drill. No more tomato soup or my favorite ruby red grapefruit with sea salt. Rice, mashed potatoes, cornflakes and bananas…..oh my! I took Protonix this morning AND Claritin and now I am REALLY ”Sick and tired” like George Carlin.
So yesterday, since I was in bed most of the day, the only creative thing I did was knit and today I think I’ll continue knitting. It will take me a long time to finish the front of my sweater. I’ll post a picture of how far I got later tonight. My hands are not hurting yet so I think I’ll do pretty good. A picture of the back of the sweater is in yesterday’s post.
I did take this picture of myself with my black hair that is not straight like my moms. I feel a bit like Rapunsel.
Me with black hair
Today, I knit
08 Oct 2011 Leave a Comment
in Knitting, Personal notes, Quotes Tags: art journal, knitting, lion brand, Quotes
“The high note is not the only thing.”
-Placido Domingo
I really don’t feel well today. Not because of the usual reasons but because of God’s gift to women. Thanks God, really. Well I am not very friendly at all and I’m avoiding all other humans to keep from losing friends.
Pink sweater
So I’ve been knitting. I am participating in the Lion Brand Blog’s Knit-a-long (KAL) We (people from across the globe) are making a sweater together with the help of an knitting/crochet expert from Lion brand. This will be my very first sweater I have ever knit. I participated in their last crochet-a-long (CAL) where we made a reglan pullover but that was much easier! That is a lighter summer top. This will be a nice lose fitting sweater with a shawl colar. I am making mine in Wool Ease Blush Heather. It is a nice soft pink and it is only part wool so not so scratchy. The yarn recommended in the pattern is a beautiful self striping wool yarn called “amazing”. Just as the name suggests, the colors are AMAZING! I was especially amazed to find it at my local Joann’s store but when I reached out and picked up a skein of it I wanted to THROW it back down. It felt like steel wool! I don’t care how amazing it is I can not put that next to my body. The yarn I bought is much softer and there were so many beautiful colors that I had a hard time choosing. If this sweater turns out well I may make another in another color.
A blank slate
Also, I am going to start an Art Journal. I bought a sketch book to use but I’m not really sure how to start. I’m waiting for inspiration. I am sure greatness is soon to happen here.
