The worst thing to happen in a year

I have many things I love to knit, socks, anything for my daughter, and I have added Shawls to the mix. I have made shawls with worsted and fingering weight yarns, but I wanted to do lace. I figured it would take time, and I was right, but not because of the yarn or even the pattern, but because of a stitch called a NUPP.

A Nupp to anyone who has not tried it, is a stitch where you increase 1 stitch into 5,7 or dare I say 9. then you continue the row, and when you turn your work to purl you have to purl every single nupp together with all the stitches you increased.

Now if this were a larger weight yarn even fingering weight it would be I feel rather simple, still time consuming yes but no big deal, but when you are working with yarn that is the width of dental floss or even a strand of hair, it gets a little challenging, but I did it anyway, I took several pauses throught the year, made many a more things, that where nothing but simple, however everytime I looked into my yarn basket there it was staring at me, the continuous rows of nupps left to do, and I tried to bury it under many a more projects but I couldn't it would poke out at me and taunt me as an unfinished project.

Finally when it was one of the few UFO's I had left, I would sit and just bear it, and the nupps even as annoying as they were got a little easier, I did my best to make it not so chanllenging, I put markers after every nupp so I could find them when I had to purl, I used the smallest DPN I had to help me purl the stitches together and low and behold the rows of nupps where soon staring behind me and all that was left was to finish the shawl and I did, staying up well past what I should have and waiting for the moment I would block it and wear it.

That moment came to me last night, as I was so proud of my accomplishment, and as I went to bed with my new shawl drying on the dining room table I couldn't wait till morning to try it on.

Then morning came and what do I see when I go straight to my shawl, a hole, a rather large space where there shouldn't be. I am freaking out, I am looking to see what the problem is, did the yarn break? did a cat lay on it and break my yarn? did I pull it to tight when blocking? No none of these things happened, I do not know how I do not know when, but there was a live stitch undone some how some where and I was so mad. I couldn't undo the shawl, frogging lace you got to be crazy.

I did what I could only think to do, I got one of my crochet hooks and I fixed the hole and got all the stitches back to where they belonged and I did the only thing I could, I cut the stitch and tied it, then I took my clear nail polish and I basically glued it in place and it looks just fine now ( I took no pictures for I was in too much distress to worry about pictures) and now I have the final result



I am very pleased with the end result of both the shawl and of fixing of the shawl, I am going to do another lace shawl here in a bit, but let me tell you it will not have any NUPP's

Evan James

Meet my new Nephew Evan James, born July 10th.



Yes that is a sweater he is wearing made by Auntie Sarah, I had to knit it up pretty fast, its hard to decided what to make a summer baby.



To my beautiful boy you are loved so much, you have blessed our family with your presence and I can not wait to see what wonderous things you will do. Love always and forever your Auntie Sarah

P.S. I am working on your current winter wardrobe, you will be decked out here pretty soon in booties and hats and some other fun stuff.

Oh My Rhubarb

What do you do when some one gives you A LOT of Rhubarb?



I will tell you what you do with A LOT of Rhubarb,

First you wash it



then you chop it,



and chop,



and chop,



and chop some more,



then you will have a huge bowl full of Rhubarb ready to go,



and still a whole LOT more Rhubarb left, giving some to a neighbor is highly recommended, thankfully I have a great neighbor who took some off my hands,



Then you get all your ingredients ready,



and your mixer and bowls,



and of course the pans you plan to bake everything, yes that is a cast-iron skillet,



and of course you must have all your recipes handy,



then you mix and measure, bake and bake for several hours until your kitchen is a sauna and you have been standing on your feet until midnight and this is what you have,... a beautifully empty bowl that was once over flowing with rhubarb, and ...



... Two rhubarb pies and two rhubarb coffee cakes. One of the pies is for my Aunt, and one of the coffee cakes is for the person for whom gave me the rhubarb, I think he got the better deal.


and just to mix everything up I decided right at the end to make these cute little banna breads, I love banana bread.



But don't think that is the end of the rhubarb, this weekend I will be baking again, and this time I will mix things up and make a Rhubarb upside down cake, that was what the cast-iron skillet was ment for and maybe a crisp.



Hope you are enjoying your summer's bounty, and would anyone like some rhubarb?

Who Dat?

Say Hello to my new project on the hoop, I simple love her and can not wait to finish.



Now back to stitching I have a lot to do.

Getting to Know me

I plan on stating a few things about myself, so you can get to know me, and I would love to get to know you, so feel free to leave comments about you


1. My name is Sarah

2. I am a single mother to a beautiful little girl

3. I am a self taught knitter, and I love it, and now I am teaching my self sewing, but I am a slow go at it

4. I live in Idaho

5. I love rain

6. I lived in Portland, Oregon for 4 years, hence the last statement, and miss it terribly

7. I love to laugh, even when there is nothing to laugh about I laugh, I will think of the weirdest craziest thing and start to giggle

8. I love spicy food, not where your mouth burns so bad you need a gallon of milk, but to the point you feel like you can breathe fire, that spicy

9. I love tea but only with milk and sugar added to it

10. I like coffee, but of the Latte variety, its one of my little treats

11. I love to read autobiographies, I am intrigued by the past

12. If I like a movie I will watch it repeatedly until I can leave the room with it playing and know what is happening when I get back

13. I am some what of a perfectionist, but the bad kind, if I don't feel I can do it right before I even start then I won't do it.

14. I love to listen to music really loud and sing to it, but I can't carry a tune to save my life, hence the loud part

15. I love to cook, and bake, I find baking a bit easier, and some what therapeutic

16. I hate reality shows with a few exceptions, Top Chef, Project Runway, and The Real Housewives series. Those ladies are just crazy

17. My favorite color is pink, but I do not wear it, I would look like a big Cotton Candy walking around

18. The one attribute I wish I had was I wish I could sing, refer to #14

19. I love both dogs and cats, but I lean more to the dog side. How can you not love those cute faces with the big eyes and the unconditonal love. Cats just look annoyed all the time

20. My favorite day dream is walking into a craft store and a large alarm sounds and confetti falls from the ceiling and I just win a 1,000 shopping spree.

Thats a few bits of me, more to come, it makes ya really think about who you are when you list parts of you out like that. Hope you have a great weekend

Excuse me but what day is it?

Say hello to my first set of Day of the Week tea towels, aren't they the cutest thing ever. I had so much fun making these guys, and so did my mini me, and I now have to say that I am addicted, I have 7 more sets ready to make, not all for me, 2 sets are for my mom, a set of roosters and a set of Merry Maids, but I'll probably make me a set as well. I can not help it, they are just so cute, and to add to there cuteness I have crazily decided to do somthing, well crazy, add crochet trim to each edge of each towel, so that is in total 14 edgings I will have to make, luckily it's pretty simple and I think it makes them look even better



Now all I have to do, besides make trim every moment I can, and making Bella sweaters till my fingers fall off, is what to embroider next? I have more tea towels and transfers to do, and a baby quilt I have wanted to make for almost 2 years, decisions, decisions, decisions.

I told you I was addicted to Day of the week tea towels, but it is an addiction I can live with. Who doesn't need kitchen towels?

Crafters are the nicest people

I had a joyful experience today, and it made me love being a crafter even more, (if that is at all possible).

As I am finishing my Day's of the week towels, well this set anyway, I ran out of the color I am using for the weeks, I was shocked to have run out and that I didn't have any in my new awesome embroider box, it is really cool, but the best part I got it 50% off, anyway back to what I was saying so I had to make the trip to my local Joann's fabric's I went straight to where they hold the thread, I know that store so well you could blind fold me and I would still find my way around, and there was another lady in the same aisle looking at the iron-on transfers, she wanted to make sure she wasn't in my way and I assured her she was perfectly fine. I instantly found the color I needed, luckily since I brought a finished towel with me to be accurate.
Well, I myself had to check to see what they had for tea towels, I tell you I am addicted, like my mom says I will have to have one large kitchen, any who I am easily distracted, the lady and I started to chat about how cute the transfers are and how popular they were in her mothers day and how they are getting a resurge. I showed her the finished towel I had with me and she was so kind as to compliment me and we just chatted and chatted, she showed me what she was getting I showed her what I was getting, and even my little mini me was in on the conversation.
Finally realizing we had other parts of the store we had yet to see and other things to do so we said our goodbyes and off we went with a smile on our face, for isn't it great to meet someone, not even know there name and you can chat and smile and share a bit of who you are and know with full confidence that even though we are strangers we share the joy of loving something so easy and simple as embroidering tiny little threads with cute little characters or flowers or what ever tickles your fancy onto cloth. Even though we did not exchange names it was a wonderful experience for me and it is one of the many things that I love about the crafting world.
Whether you knit, sew, embroider, or quilt everyone is welcome with open arms and great compliments and I thank everyone of whoms names I do not know but for the love of our craft we shared.

Has that ever happened to you? did you make forever friends? or was it just a brief encounter? I would love to hear your stories,