Noah's Ark

I have been working hard for the last few weeks on a very special project.  Before I say too much I want to show it too you.

My friend Angie is having a baby in about 4 weeks and this was her baby shower present, sort of.  She paid for the yarn and I did all the work.  I had a lot of fun making this blanket and it is really pretty simple.  There is no reason a beginner could not do this as a first or second project, but I have gotten a number of people on Ravelry who have mentioned to me that they love this blanket but could never make it because it is too hard or they don't crochet.  So I have compiled a few tips or ideas I have about this blanket in the hopes it will help you tackle this.

1.  You don't have to crochet.  Huh? What ?  Are you nuts?  Nope I am completely sane. Despite the fact that this is a crochet pattern, and I can only knit a very little bit,  I know that this is totally something that anyone with basic knitting skills could knit.  The base is a ripple afghan .  The boat is crocheted flat with a few strategic increases--you could totally buy the crochet pattern and simply knit the boat ( and house) as they are written.  The animals, with the exception of the giraffe's neck, are worked in the round from the center outward so break out your double pointed needles and you can do the same.

2.  This is a beginner to advanced beginner level crochet pattern.  So even if you just learned to crochet last week this is totally a pattern that you can do.  The background is all double crochet worked flat--super duper easy and super duper fast.  The hardest thing going on in the background are some increases and decrease ( yeah I know these are a tiny bit tricky for a beginner but you can do it).  The animals are worked in the round in single crochet which is also super duper easy.

3. Get yourself some audio-books or radio, or tv, music, movies whatever you like.  This is not super huge but you do have to work about a mile of plain old double crochet, plus sew all the animals on.

4.  Give yourself plenty of time.   I know I just said this was super duper easy and I stand by that.  However after finishing the background in about 2 1/2 days I then had to spend 5 days making little animals and about the same amount of time sewing everything together.  So although it is easy, this is not the fastest blanket in the world.

5.  Use a yarn needle with a great big eye.  You are going to end up sewing in 100 plus ends on this one.  Do yourself a favor and put your embroidery needles away after you finish the faces and dig up or buy a proper darning needle.  I have sewn in ends with embroidery needles before but it is always a fight to thread them. When you have so many ends to deal with you want to be getting the sewing done and not fighting with your needle.

6.) Use safety pins  to pin the animals in place to the blanket so they aren't wiggling all over the place.  Straight pins don't work--trust me,  and no pins are even worse.

7.)  Have Fun  The most important thing whether you knit or crochet is that you take the time to enjoy making an awesome blanket.

What is your super power?

In January I told you that I wasn't doing any resolutions this year.  It's going to be hard to describe this but that was totally a turning point moment for me.  I feel like I finally gave myself permission to be me just as I am now and not who I might be in 5 years or even tomorrow.  That person is not real, she doesn't exist yet and she might not ever exist.  And somehow I don't think torturing myself with self criticism and overwhelming goals etc in the here and now will help her.
I suffer from a couple of auto-immune disorders, debilitating migraines,  and severe depression.  I usually don't tell people this, because I don't like trying to explain something most people simply don't understand.  I don't like the weird, pitying looks or the unhelpful advice that I have received. I don't like being made to feel like I am pretending to be sick because I look just fine.  So I have learned not to tell anyone and to pretend like I just fine.  I am explaining it to all of you now, because it plays into what I have learned in my experiment over the  last month of just trying find peace.  Sometimes as I pretend to everyone else that I am not sick,  I convince myself that I am not sick.  I am not sure I ever realized this before, but as I have stopped trying to meet any specific goals and simply tried to do things in the moment that make me happy and comfortable I have started to realize that most of the time I push my body too hard.  I can put a smile on my face and pretend to the world that I am just fine, but I have to tell my self the truth.  I have to realize that I am sick and I need to pay attention to my body.  Listening to my body has helped me so recently, by stopping whatever I am doing when I start to feel tired or hurting,  I have actually been able to get more done rather than less.
That's all well and good you say but what does being sick have to with superpowers?  Nothing.  And everything.  We all have weaknesses I have just described a few of mine to you and we all have strengths--superpowers if you will.  When we fight our weakness--either by believing they are insurmountable ( I love that word it is so much fun to say) or by pretending they don't exist, we are paying our selves a great disservice.   Paying so much attention to our "negative" traits, draws our attention away from what we are good at.  So as I have began to seek balance in my life and gave myself permission to be imperfect.  I started to see that I was awesome; I could see all sorts of things that I was good at that I had ignored because they hadn't fit into my narrow vision of what I wanted.
Everyone has superpowers some of them are silly and some of them seem unimportant but they are part of what make you unique.  Your superpowers are the things that you are really good at, things that make your heart sing, and the silly things that only you seem to do.
So what ARE your super powers you say?  Well okay okay... I am good at talking, but in recent years I have become a superstar listener.  I am a good teacher, patient ( well most of the time), and a great sight reader--both music and books. I can read at the speed of light, and  I am great at reading aloud,  good with kiddos, I know how to relax and have a good time ( doesn't sound like much of a super power but trust me it can be).  I am good at cooking, crocheting, knitting ( well learning to be), and learning.  And last but not least my super power is creativity--I always have at least a dozen crazy ideas cooking in my brain.  I wish I was a little better at following through with them but that is a story for another day

I have had a lot of fun in January.  I have learned a lot about myself and you know what at least for today I like me.  That feels great to say.  I Like ME!
So what are your super powers?

Just an ordinary box!

I am a terrible blogger. I get sidetracked and forget that I have a blog. I get super excited about projects and get started with no idea how to document them. I forget to take pictures while I am working. Anyways despite being a terrible blogger I wanted to share something that I thought was pretty cool.

It's just a box, an ordinary cardboard box. Let me tell you about this box got so cool. For the past year or so I have been teaching a Sunday school for 4-5 year olds. This means planning and hauling a bag of stuff with me. I am terrible at keeping my bags neat and organized. This inevitably leads to heavy messy bags and not being able to find anything. I was recently asked to help organize all of the activities and teachers for the children age 18mo to 11yrs, instead of teaching a Sunday School class.  I knew that this would involve my dragging even more stuff back and forth between home and church and I dreaded the thought of yet another messy bag.

And then a lightning bolt struck me. I thought I don't need another bag I need a better way of carrying my stuff. For me a box is much better than a bag it is easier to load and unload, I can see everything I have at a glance, and It doesn't fall over and spill all over the floor.

I found a sturdy box; dug out some fleece that had been destined for pajamas, before I realized I would never sew them because I hate to sew; my rotary fabric cutter and mat; white glue; an exacto knife, scissors, a stapler and wrangled my husband into doing 90% of the work helping me ( Thanks Pat :P).


Cut the flappy things off the top of the box. Lay the fleece on floor or table.  I wrote out the directions for cutting the fleece 3 different way and they all confused me so I have drawn you a handy diagram.

Set the box in the center of the fleece as shown.  Measure the height of the box and cut a square( or rectangle) of fleece that is large enough to fold over the top of each side of the box while the box is sitting in the middle.  If you see my diagram above I have partitioned of the corners and marked them as a, b, c, d.  Use your scissors or rotary cutter to cut out those corners.  Now you have a piece of fleece shaped like the Red Cross symbol.

Flip the box over and spread a fairly thick layer of white glue over the entire bottom of the box.  Flip the box back over and set it into the center of the fleece.  Flip the box ( with fleece attached) back over and use your hands the smooth the fabric over the bottom of the box.  You want to press out all of the bubbles and wrinkles.  Choose one side of the box to start on coat the side of the box in glue.  Pull the fleece up and over the top edge of the box smoothing it as you go.  You will need to pull the fleece very tight.  Put glue on the top 2 inches of the inside of the box, fold the fleece over and smooth it out.  Staple the fleece to the top of the box using 4-6 evenly space staples.  Repeat  this on the other 3 sides.  You will need to let your box dry for about 45 mins before continuing.

Cut 4 strips of fleece 2 inches wide and 2 inches long than the height of you box.  These strips are for covering the corners of the box.  Center one strip over one of the box corners and glue it down fold it over the top edge and glue it there as well.  We did not need to stale the corners because the fleece one fleece pule glue held really tight.  Repeat this until all your corners are covered.

If you are like me and you want to be able to haul you nifty new box around you will probably need handles.  For this you will need 2 24 oz pop bottles, an exacto knife and bulky weight yarn.  Measure and mark two holes about 4 inches apart on opposite sides of the box .  You will have 4 holes.  Before you use your exacto knife to cut your holes out of the box,  You will want to remove the threaded neck of the pop bottle. Pat used a serrated kitchen knife and then sanded the edge, but he reccommends using a hack saw for this if you have one.  If you trace around the inside edge of the now severed bottle necks onto your box where you want the handles you will have the right size for the handle holes.  Use the exacto knife to cut out the holes in the box.  Carefully thread the bottle necks into the holes and screw them in util they are tight against the box.  The bottle necks will help to even out the pressure put on the box and prevent your handles from tearing your box to shreds.  While Pat was struggling with bottle necks I braided the bulky weight yarn into a long braid-- My finished braid was about  1 yard long.  We cute the Braid in half and thread both sides of a braid throgh the two handle holes and tied it into a knot.  We then used scrap yarn to tie the braid together which made it a much sturdier handle.

I love my Box!!!!  It is so much easier to pack for church and easier to use while I am at church.  I have been able to be much more organized for church since making this box.  Since my "organization style" tends toward big honking piles of chaos than anything else, anything that helps me keep it orderly and contained is awesome in my book.

Link parties I may be linking to : http://thecsiproject.com/, http://www.theshabbycreekcottage.com/, http://www.skiptomylou.org/, http://www.thegunnysack.com/,http://www.tipjunkie.com/

A Little Love

I have been working on decorating my bedroom on and off for about the last two years.

This is a sign I recently painted to hang above the closet.   It dominated my kitchen table for about two weeks over the

Christmas holidays and I still need to buy picture brackets to hang it.  I had so much fun making it though.

My Favorite Letter is the E in THE.  Do you have a favorite Letter?



Linking this to : http://www.skiptomylou.org/, http://www.thegunnysack.com/

No More New Year's Resolutions

I dislike New Year's Resolutions. As I was thinking about if I wanted to make a New Years Resolutions this year, my hand started to shake and I started to cry. I told myself I was being silly and that making a goal would help me to be foicused and feel fulfilled, but the feelings persisted. I started feeling guilty about not completing my goals before I had even decided on a goal. I have had some difficult struggles, with self-esteem body image, and depression in the last few years. The last thing I needed was something else that made me feel terrible. I tend make huge goals, get overwhelmed and quit after the first two weeks of January. Then I feel guilty and haphazardly start and break a series of smaller goals throughout the year.

I like the idea of New Year's Resolutions--the idea of starting each year with a purpose and improving on the previous year. But it was obvious to me that setting mighty goals was not the way to achieve this, at least not for me. So I thought for a while about a way to start 2012 with a purpose without initiating a panic attack. As I thought, it came to me that I like to do lists better than schedules, and general ideas better than rules; I tend to think of rules of something put there to be broken. So I have decided that instead of a resolution I would choose a word--just ONE-- that epitomizes what I would like to get out of this year. I have chosen Peace.

More than anything I want to be comfortable in my own skin, to find joy in everyday things, and just to over be, umm well, at Peace.

Over all I think I am more of an idea person than a goal person we'll see how this works out.

FO Friday: Hat and booties

There's not much to show for this week and this will be a short post. I finished the hat and booties I was working on finally.

It's not much but that’s what I’ve finished up this past 2 weeks! What have you been up to? Thanks for stopping by and reading! If you want to see more great finished items… make sure to visit Tami’s Amis blog, the organizer of this great FO Friday theme!

Have an awesome weekend.

WIP Wednesday's: A Busy day

I will try and keep this short. It's been a busy day. First, here is my hat. Doesn't look like much progress, does it? It's quite an accomplishment actually. Last Thursday I made a mistake and tried to tear back and managed to lose the whole thing. A couple days later while working on the purl rows, I was working far too late and got far too tired and somehow managed to turn the piece three times and had some sort of mess that didn't make any sense. So I pulled out another 5 rows very very carefully. And then reknit them. Somehow I managed in all this debacle to injure my wrist and haven't been able to do as much knitting or crochet as I wanted.

This picture looks almost identical to last weeks, because I have only added a couple rows.

Today, I took a trip to my LYS. I got some Suede Berocco for a wallet for my husband to make. I got this gorgeous Nashua Sitar in the colorway Gypsy Wagon. I plan to make a pair of fingerless gloves in star stitch for a swap.

On a less yarny note, I have been working on redecorating my bedroom. We found this lovely set of bedding on ebay and it arrives this week.

Last but not least I made 4 loaves of not-gluten-free bread for my husband. I put 3 loaves unbaked into the freezer. They will be wrapped in plastic wrap and ziplock bagged. I baked the 4th one . Hopefully now he will have bread for snacks and sandwiches for a while.