Psychic Knitter

The Summer is passing too quickly, especially in terms of knitting projects. I have been seriously considering entering my stash of unfinished projects into the Guinness Book of World records for consideration. I really feel I have a shot to win. The other week I spent half the day in my craft room, just organizing the yarn stash. All I can say is that if I ever dare buy another ball of black yarn, my husband has permission to shoot me. Earlier this Summer I went to a trunk show at Fancy Tiger Crafts to see the fabulous Stephen West and Steven Berg.

with the fabulous Steves

This of course resulted in buying several wonderful patterns and of course, yarn. It was special "for the tour only" yarn. I had to do it. Speaking of Stephen West, I joined his Summer KAL and have started working on the "Vertices Unite" shawl. I love all of the stripes! The scarf is fun and easy to knit while I am watching television. Did anybody mention "Outlander"? Oh my! I am about 8 rows from finishing my Dream Stripe shawl using the beautiful Anzula Nebula sock weight yarns. I hope to have a picture up of the finished project sometime between now and the time I die. Speaking of insanity, I found yet another KAL that I cannot resist. It's called the" Four Elements Dragon Mystery KAL". It's a "choose your own adventure" pattern. It reads like something out of Pathfinder. It is a double knit scarf so your dragon will show up on both sides looking ever so cool. Speaking of Pathfinder, I have started making dice bags
both for myself and to sell. I have also been knitting lots and lots of tarot bags both for a special order I received, and for my Etsy store. OK so maybe now I don't feel nearly as bad about the dozens of unfinished projects I have.
The one thing I am getting done are the squares that I work on for an ongoing charity project group I work with. I have a bag of yarn in my car and a square on the needles at all times. I have taken said yarn on hikes, overnight trips and whenever I am in the car. It takes the boredom out of being a passenger.
Our group is now doing some youth size blankets in addition to the regular size blankets. I found out the other day that the youth size blanket will be 20 squares so I now have focus and plan to wait until I have 20 done (all nicely color coordinated) and pack them up and drop them off complete with finishing yarn and a picture for the assembly team. While the knitting has been sitting in bags, I have been getting a nice bit of sewing done thanks to my embroidery machine and some great designs that are out there. I have started embellishing handkerchiefs. My goal is to single handedly bring back the handkerchief industry. I figure my Etsy store is the perfect place to start. Handkerchiefs, are after all, very earth friendly and at the very least make good costume accessories and if nothing else are a good conversation piece. I tea stain white handkerchiefs to give them a vintage feel and take the glare of stark white away. You know, I have always hated ironing so it was only natural for me to take up sewing.
You gotta love 100 % cotton. NOT. I am on my second iron in 4 years. I loved my pink iron but it finally gave up on me so I went with a Rowenta (a very low cost model) which I heard were good. Yes, I went for color over quality with my last iron. It was pink after all. Generally speaking, when purchasing my crafting items I like to go with good brands but the most basic model. My thought is that if I outgrow the basic model, I can upgrade at a later date. So far, this has served me well. For now I am being kept plenty busy with sewing and knitting, not sure I can fit one more crafty thing into my brain. Martinis, however, are quite another story....