October is National Craft-Making Month!

Day 21

I was in throes of a PEM event yesterday. I wound some yarn to relax and not tax my brain too much.

[ID: Three different skeins of variegated cotton yarn tied for washing. End ID]

Day 21

It was a busy day, and once I finished the last event on my calendar, I started to feel not so good; I had a fever. :/ At least I made some good progress on the (hated) backstitch on the mouse...

[ID: A cross stitch project in progress, showing a gray mouse wearing a turquoise scarf; Holly leaves in dark green thread are stitched at the top and bottom of the mouse. The head and ears are outlined in backstitch. End ID]

It's not been my best week ever, but I got little bits done.

Day 10

6 more rows on a new pink baby hat (I generally knit through a whole cake of yarn at a time, and this pink one is HUGE, which is why you're seeing so much pink)


[ID: A purple knitting loom with 11 rows of knitted pink yarn. End ID]

Day 11

During our family screen break time, I knitted 14 rows on the baby hat, and finished it off.


[ID: A knitted pink baby hat. END ID]

Day 12

I had a stitch-in today only instead of stitching, I wound more yarn for washing. (The center skein is an absolutely gorgeous purple that my phone camera refuses to render correctly.)


[ID: 5 skeins of yarn in various weights and colors, tied for washing. End ID]

During this day's screen break, once I got done with some chores, I wound 6 stems of faux flowers with floral tape to prep them for my wreath.


[ID: 6 stems of faux yellow flowers with green leaves; the stems are wrapped in brown floral tape. End ID]

Day 3

I looked in the easiest and most logical places downstairs for my floral tape, with out luck. Since I needed to be out anyway, I did a quick dip into a craft store to get the floral tape and a spool of white thread (which had also gone missing)

In the evening, I knitted 13 rows on a new baby hat while on a zoom call..
(I combined everything into one picture)


[ID: a spool of white thread, a roll of unopened brown floral tape, and a purple knitting loom with 13 rows of knitted pink yarn.End ID]

Day 4

I cut a few of the florals to start attaching wires to them (which required me to actually find cutters heavy enough to cut through them), but everything was being fiddly, so I put it aside. Later on in the afternoon, I felt that I need to go outside, so I went looking for and actually FOUND more of the yarn I knew I had that needed washing, and I took them outside to wind them on my swift to tie up for washing. I got 5 skeins done; the leftmost skein in the picture took forever because some part of it got really tangled.


[ID: 5 skeins of yarn in various weights and colors tied up for washing. End ID]

So, I am kind of blocked on this wreath. I got this sock loom for my birthday, and I'm just itching to play with it (not that I currently NEED any socks, mind you). So to motivate myself to work on this wreath, once I finish the wreath, I will reward myself with getting to play with the sock loom!

I'm been doing pretty well in the challenge in that I am ACTUALLY doing something craft every day, but I fail TERRIBLY in doing the posting part of the challenge.

Day 25

I made brown sugar, because I was completely out of that golden goodness:



[ID:A metal mixing bowl containing brown sugar surrounding a metal paddle on a red mixer. End ID]

then, I finished making the center-pull ball of variegated pastel yarn that I started on the 24th:



[ID: A finished center-pull ball of variegated pastel yarn. End ID]

After that I spent the Wednesday stitch-in completely finishing winding a skein of variegated cool pastel yarn into a center pull ball:



[ID: A finished center-pull ball of variegated cool pastel colors. End ID]

Day 26

I was going through some yarn to make room for some "new" knitting looms that I picked up on the weekend, and came across some eyelash yarn (5 skeins of white, 4 skeins of pink and 1 skein of blue) that I hadn't quite known what to with. I decided to pair a white skein with some textured pink yarn. It looks like it will knit up into a baby hat pretty well.



[ID 8 rows of fuzzy-looking knitting in pink/white yarn on a purple round loom. End ID]

Day 27

I went outside for a while, and I wound a skein of yarn for washing, but forgot to take a photo.

Then I finished up the baby hat. The eyelash yarn did work ok, and the hat is very fuzzy!. I am going to have to be more careful about clean hands, as the dirt really shows on light colors.



[ID: A finished baby hat in very light pink and white fuzzy yarn. End ID]

Then, I wound about 2/3 of a skein of blue/tan/white yarn into a center pull barn, until I hit a tangle and stopped for the evening.



[ID: a partial center-pull ball of blue/tan/white variegated yarn on a cardboard nostepinne. End ID]

Day 28

After I put out a very few Halloween decorations (my kids weren't into decorating this year), I went back to work on the center pull yarn ball that I started on the 27th. I had to start a ball from the other end to make it through the tangles, but I finally finished the ball while attending the Saturday stitch-in.



[ID: a finished center-pull ball of blue/tan/white variegated yarn on a cardboard nostepinne. End ID]

After I finished the ball, I started another baby hat using pink yarn paired with pink eyelash yarn:



[ID: 8 rows of knitting in fuzzy-looking pink yarn on a purple round loom. End ID]

This time period was stupidly busy because it was the Kids' birthday and the other driving parent was gone so I had to shuttle the other kid to activities.

Day 19

We celebrated the kids' birthday a bit early, since one of them would be away for the actual day. I made a double batch of oatmeal cookies as one kid's dessert:



I also made a double batch of chocolate chip cookie dough for the other kid, to be baked the next day:



[ID: Rolls of Chocolate Chip Cookie dough wrapped in parchment paper on a white plate in the freezer. End ID]

I fixed a kid's broken chain clasp:



[ID: 2 photos of a black chain, the first with a broken silver clasp and the second with a new, whole, silver clasp attached. End ID]

I think I also knitted about 5 rows on a baby hat, but forgot to take a photo.

Day 20

I washed 4 skeins of yarn:



[ID: 4 just-washed skeins of yarn of various colors draped over hangers and hung out to dry on a porch beam. End ID]

And made 4 1/2 center-pull yarn balls. The one skein of yarn that's tangled mess is the one that gave me so much trouble getting into a skein for washing.



[ID: 4 center-pull balls of yarn in various colors, and a half-ball wrapped on a cardboard nostepinne, on top of a tangled mess of pastel variegated yarn. End ID]

And I baked a couple of pans of chocolate chip cookies, of which I forgot to take a photo.

Day 21

This day was really quite busy, so all I had the energy to do was bake a couple of pans of chocolate chip cookies (of which I forgot to take a photo), and work on winding the current center-pull ball of yarn. Unfortunately, the yarn got caught on something, and broke, so I'll just wind a second ball of this yarn.



[ID: A center-pull ball of pastel variegated yarn on a cardboard nostepinne, with a tangled mess of the same pastel yarn to the right. End ID]

Day 22

I knitted the last 13 rows on the baby hat:



[ID: 25 rows of white/yellow/orange/pink/blue/purple variegated yarn knitted on a purple round loom. End ID]

And then finished the hat completely. I liked how the yellow bits of the yarn formed almost a lightning bolt. (I didn't plan that!)



[ID: A knitted baby hat made from white/yellow/orange/pink/blue/purple variegated yarn. The yellow and white bit of the yarn form a shape like a lightning bolt (not planned). End ID]

Day 9

After a longish day, but a nice visit with my mom over lunch, I only had energy to put 5 more rows in the baby hat, but that included a yarn change:



[ID: 20 rows of knitting, 10 in a reddish yarn and then 9 in a navy blue, followed by 1 row of the red-ish yarn again, on a purple round loom. End ID]

Day 10

A few little things: I found some frames for a couple of small stitched pieces, I finally remembered to bring in the yarn that I washed over the weekend, and I finished the two-toned baby hat! (Weaving in all the ends was time-consuming.)



[ID: A completed baby hat with a wide navy stripe in the middle, bordered by narrower red-ish stripes. End ID]

It was a day yesterday with kid issues and the continuation of a heat wave that isn't supposed to break until Sunday, UGH. It was very late afternoon when I took some of my recently-acquired, secondhand yarn stash outside so I could start winding it into skeins suitable for washing; washing secondhand yarn is important so that you don't introduce pests or allergens into your stash!

I started with a large, pretty, baby-pastel variegated (probably acrylic) yarn that was a mess:



[ID: A tangled mess of baby-pastel variegated yarn. End ID]

I thought I had untangled the yarn enough to start the washing skein, but after only a few winds, part of the middle pulled out to make an even bigger mess, so I had to start a ball in order to tame the mess. I think I have finally untangled all the mess, but I still have the rest of that yarn to ball and then skein. That all took more than an hour, but I was listening to good music and I find untangling string relaxing.



[ID: Baby-pastel yarn being tamed into a small ball, with most of the skein to still wind. End ID]

And to round out the evening, I knitted 7 more rows on the current baby hat:



[ID: 18 rows of red-ish yarn knitted on a purple 31-peg round loom. End ID]