the Little Knitted skirt Churchmouse simple straight skirt

I've been waiting to do this post because I wanted to have pictures of the finished product.
During the summer I was able to go out with my family to a lovely shop called Churchmouse yarn and tea.
Its on Bainbridge Island and if you have the chance I would surely go over for and afternoon or morning to shop and lunch in the little town.

alpaca merino wool blend in a sage green

I picked up a pattern while on a trip in Oregon last spring.  But being relatively new to knitting, wanted some advice and I have trouble with some wool's making my hands dry out and hurt. As a longtime crocheter I've chosen to use many blends with natural cottons, or alpaca and merino wool blends. Bamboo is also a favorite for yarns and fabric for me.
Here are couple pics where I started, doing the waistband in one piece, dividing it between two sets of circular knitting needles. Then the panels are worked on straight needles. It was my goal to have this finished for Christmas for my daughter.  I did have the knitting  finished, but I wanted to make sure that the waistband elastic was the proper size. So I waited for my daughter to be available to have the fitting done on it. 

starting at the waistband, and the front panel

 Finished it has a little ribbing edge along the bottom and slight shaping at the hips. 

this if 55

I love when you look in a certain magazine and it shows photos of various women, stating this 40, or this is 50.  Well as slow as January is- usually recovering from the holiday indulgence of spending, and gifting and cooking and eating, start thinking about birthdays.  Both my grandmother and mother-in-law who have both passed from this world, had birthdays during this month. They were 3 days apart and a few years. One of my best friends for the last 30 years or so, also has her birthday during this month which happened to be on my mother in laws birthday.  I could never think of one with out the other although as women they are as different as night and day. With the passing of my friends birthday, I immediately think about my husbands birthday- Mr G and his sister who is born the day before him.

this is 55!

I still send real cards when I can,(time being the issue most often). I love a real card.  Unlike and e-card it stays around, you can look at it over and over again, and even if you only catch it in a glance, You KNOW someone thought about you.  I like the memories that real cards evoke.  My lovely aunt, bought me the same card 3 years in a row. I laughed because she liked the card so much she bought it 3 times.  I'm a card maker. I make my own cards when I have time. If not, or can't think of a good saying I'm out to buy one. I also like to occasionally purchase those cards with the annoying music in them sometimes.  Not always but occasionally they right song hits the mark!

 Here is Mr G enjoying some of his home brew made during Christmas break.

 Mr G opted to stay home and make beer the day of his birthday.  Now I know people who go to places that you can make beer, or wine and it takes them a little over an hour.  At our house its a several hour operation, that starts a few days ahead and takes all of one day, plus half of the next day to clean up. Mr G spent his day brewing and measuring, etc.  We ran out for quick dinner and then had friends over for desert and a few rounds of Boggle.
Happy Birthday Mr. G.  We Love You!

 Christmas has come and gone, but I had to laugh when we put up our tree this year.  Our old house had much taller ceilings, so we had this giant tree that took up a huge amount of space in our foyer. While there we could enjoy it from the living room/dining room, and see it from our windows as well.  It never required we change furniture etc there to put it up. Unfortunately its not such a great fit in our new home.

  Our ceilings are not quite 9ft in living room area, so the tip of the tree has a bit of a bend to it.  No Angel or star could sit up there either.  We moved the furniture a bit squishing together and re-arranging. We are still trying to find things, and stuff things into places.  It looked pretty clean and arranged nicely here we had chairs out all over as we host the Christmas dinner, and situating enough seats is a challenge before and during dinner. But I love having the family over. Next year I do believe we need to purchase a smaller tree for a more comfortable fit. (ps decorating 9 ft trees take forever and I find I put fewer ornaments on every year because of that.)

We have duet shades in here that have slight gold shimmer to them.  I really like them but I would like some curtains too, and haven't made any choices yet as to what way to go. So far we haven't really had a problem with sun, with all the trees out back, so its more personal preference. I like my windows dressed, I guess.

once a ballerina, always a ballerina

  

Wow its february!

Oh time flies. One minute I was preparing for Christmas and the next, I'm thinking about Valentines day.
so rather than do a long  catch up post covering a lot of this time. I will do several small post.

For Christmas, my husband  took to my amazon wish list and bought most of what was on it, including a Silhouette Cameo.  It arrived after Christmas by a few weeks and that was just fine.  It's one of those things I've been wanting for a very long time, but couldn't justify the expense for myself, no matter how much I wanted one. I've been experimenting, finding that some card stocks require deeper cutting levels than others.  Then saw a darling dish towel done with fabric letters and saying Love and a bit of bias tape trim.  I liked the idea so much, I had to do something comparable. I went to one of my favorite craft stores, Ben Franklin's and  found  2 prints that I really like- one the pink and red polka dot seen here above, and a the second a red background that has white flowers with pink centers.  My first foray was making the Love letters out of the flower fabric and ironing them on.  Unfortunately, my iron also spit on the fabric leaving a dirty stain argh! so I set that one aside and started the second one. Seen above here, I cut hearts using the silhouette of various sizes and styles after backing the fabric with heat and bond,  ironed on and then sewed around each heart, adding the rick rack trim on about 3 inches from the end of the towel. This one I took into my Enhance fitness class I teach and did a drawing. I really enjoy my students and like to give back to them.   I have one more towel to make, and thinking of how to fix my first attempt, and plenty of fabric to make a few more. Not sure what I will be doing next with this wondrous tool, but I'm hoping to pick up some self stick Vinyl and create a wall  post that you would see on entering our house.  Decisions, decisions....