Art, Craft and Needlework, September 2014

[Harriet]

Elizabeth, I would give you a blue ribbon for both. How will the sweater/shawl be displayed? Here in the only instructions I've read recently, which were for a county fair, they said if it was a garment it had to be on a hangar. Wish yours could have a mannequin, or that you could photograph it flat as well, since that is so interesting to see. Barbie looks great, and much more sophisticated with the custom tea dye, I'm sure.

Again I didn't realize how early you have to be to get entered in our neighboring county's fair. The deadline moved up this year as well. I don't mind missing it so much for me, but I think dd would win if she really studied some categories. On the other hand, it is a good drive away and only a county fair, and then the state fair would be almost impossible to attend it's so far, so a bit of difficulty just being a part of things.

FFriend, you probably just missed the chat about new threads in PWYC on the first day of the month. The Cleaning thread and Holiday Plan thread were the only two new ones that had been mentioned for Sept.

Our target for getting our Holiday Plan thread up each year is to start at about the time HGP and the Houseworks plans start, and link to them, but we also link to The Christmas Countdown, which won't start until late October. (I like the fact that the existence of the CC plan keeps anybody from being "late", LOL!) On this same index page of Creative Home forum, It just so happens that the 2013 and 2012 threads haven't scrolled to the second page yet, so everybody will have an easy time seeing any wisdom you were wanting to send to your future self. If you think you were wise in earlier years, you'll have to go to the second page!

[Ramblinrose]

OMG Elizabeth..both entries are amazing!!! I am so very impressed with your yarn work. I agree with Harriet...you'd get two blue ribbons from me AND Best of Show winner.

[FelineFriend]

Elizabeth! You do such beautiful work! Good luck on the fair entries.

Harriet, I put up the Christmas Countdown on my computer last night, with the days, months, weeks, minutes, hours, etc.. until Christmas. I'll keep looking here. I didn't realize it didn't start until late October. I thought I was running "late" on my projects.

OH! I just found the Holiday Planning, 2014, post by Booksaver, here. I glossed over it this morning. Sorry about that!

Waving to RR and Nancy, too.

[BookSaver]

Elizabeth, those projects are beautiful. Thank you for posting the photos.

[FelineFriend]

I crocheted on dgs-5.5's Christmas afghan today. I pray-crochet OR crochet-pray for him, while I do it. It makes it more rewarding when I do this for grandchildren because I pray for their future and how their life will be as they grow up into adults. It brings me Peace.

Edit: I'm now on row 83 of Dgs-5.5's Christmas afghan. I've not worked on it yet today. The only reason I'm counting the rows is so I'll know how many rows to make Dgs-3.5's Christmas afghan. I want them the same length because they go on twin beds with identical-robot-quilts-sewn-by-their-Mommy. If they're the same length, they'll match when they're on the quilt tops.

[FelineFriend]

I'm on row 110 of DGS-5.5's afghan. I've got 3 rows to go before I edge it with a 4" - 5" multicolor border. It's looking very nice, to me. DH loves it, too.

[Nancy]

I am now one third of the way done with the pink prayer shawl that is my current knitting project. That felt great to see that progress.

[FelineFriend]

I was moving 1/2-bin-full of yarns to another 1/2-bin-full of yarns. I found several Lbs. of kitchen yarns on the cones. The colors are nice, I'm glad I found ecru because it's a neutral color for kitchens, for Christmas to surprise a few pen pals with potholders.

Also, are we supposed to talk about Christmas crochet, knitting, sewing, and crafting in THIS thread OR the holiday thread? I don't know if the holiday thread is for decorating, getting cards done, wrapping gifts, and sharing that sort of thing or if Christmas Needlework is included there- or should be left for here.

[FelineFriend]

I'm on row 1 of the edging, in red, going around the completed afghan of 114 rows. I'll make the edging solid red, instead of in stripes, because red is the MC and the DGS's favorite color.

His puppy puppet will be probably red, too.

I have 2 sets of potholders in various stages to complete, too.

[FelineFriend]

I'm on round 3 of the afghan edging now. It looks so nice.

Edit: I got out 2 large totes of yarns for DGS-3.5's Christmas afghan. It's in a variety of different shades of blues, forest green, and a bright Granny Smith Apple green. Sort of chartreuse like the caboose. It'll be rich-looking. His fav color is blue. The green adds contrast.

I was hoping to have the edging done by bedtime, on DGS-5.5's afghan, but my elbows were getting sore and my hands were tingling from so much crocheting.

I'm doing other things, too, like working on Jan. stories,so I cannot just sit and crochet only all day. I have my work job, too. I'm trying to plan out my week ahead now, get Oct. b-day cards addressed, etc.. so probably won't crochet this evening.

I have 3 dfriends to crochet potholders for. 2 friends' potholders are nearly finished. So that's a plus. I can pick them up when I need a break or need to "switch tasks" from the Christmas afghans.