My Balls are Busted

I'm back! We actually got back 3 weeks ago but things have been hectic around here and I just haven't gotten around to posting. I'll do another post another day on all that's been going on.

I've been busy working on all those balls and I've finally got them done! I'm so glad to be finished with that project. The mostly somber colours were getting really boring. I broke out some bright colours this afternoon. What a treat!

So here we go. The original bunch.

What it looks like now. This is all sport weight yarn that I decided to add to the Cuddle Box instead of working up into squares.

The finished product. One hundred and eleven squares! This is the same bin that held the balls. It's crammed full. At 35 squares per blanket, there's enough for 3 blankets plus a few left over.

As I got to the end, some of the balls weren't big enough to make a full square, so I had to get creative. I think they turned out quite nicely.

I enjoyed this challenge I set out for myself and I'm proud of myself for actually finishing it. But I am glad it's done. I haven't figured out what I'm going to challenge myself with next. For now, I'm just working on squares in colours that appeal to me.

I'm also working on a couple of personal projects. I'll share those on Wednesday.

Woo Hoo Wednesday

Weigh-in...I'm down 2.5 pounds and a couple of inches. That makes me 16.5 pounds lighter and 8 inches smaller since the New Year. Yay!!!

It wasn't a very productive week but I got hit with the flu last week and I've had packing to do and arrangements to take care of before we leave this afternoon for our holiday. Still, I managed to get 11 more squares done.

Had to take the pictures on the couch because my suitcase is all sprawled out on the coffee table.

Touch wood, Grampa hasn't picked up my sick germs. Yet. Hopefully he doesn't at all.

Tomorrow night, we'll be at our condo in Mexico, far away from the cold and the snow. Woo Hoo!!!

Bustin' My Balls: Part 6

A quick update on my health. I'm feeling much better than I was yesterday. Still not quite up to snuff, though. Did a couple loads of laundry...was completely out of clean undies and we all know how it icky it is to recycle those! Also washed my bedding to get rid of the sick germs and so it would feel nice and fresh tonight. I'm sleeping in the spare room for now so Grampa doesn't pick up this bug. Don't need him sick while we're travelling.

And now...on to my balls. The original pile:

And now:

To this point, I've made 70 squares for Knit-a-Square . I had originally guesstimated that I would get 75 but, as you can see, I was off by a bit. I figure there are about another 40 squares in there.

I won't get this all done up before we leave on Wednesday but I'm going to keep plugging along until then and finish it up when we get back.

Woo Hoo Wednesday

Weigh-in...I'm down 3 this week. Had a lot of ups and downs this month so my overall total is a loss of only 4 pounds for the month. But hey! It beats gaining, or even staying the same! Since the New Year, I'm down 14 pounds and 6.25 inches. Hoo-rah!!!

Managed to get 13 squares done this week.

In an effort to get all those balls busted, I've decided to not make any more with hearts. They take a bit longer to make and I spend too much time agonizing over colour combinations.

Not so Woo Hoo...I've picked up a bug of some sort. Woke up this morning with the beginnings of what felt like a cold but now I'm suspecting it might be bronchitis. I don't smoke but I'm wheezing like a 5-pack-a-day smoker. We're leaving next week for our holiday and I want to make sure I'm not sick with anything serious so I'm going to try to get in to see my doc tomorrow.

And on that note, I'm off to bed. 'Night, y'all.

Bustin' My Balls: Part 5

Well, it's been a whole month and the pile is diminishing.

Original:

Now:

So far I've made 58 squares.

I was really hoping to have this all worked up before we left for our holiday but I'm not sure it's going to happen. We leave in 11 days. I suppose if I didn't do anything else for 11 days I could get it done but good luck with that. Even with my kids grown and gone, life still has a way of getting in the way. All I can do is what I can do.

Woo Hoo Wednesday

It's been a crazy day. Almost didn't get to making this post.

Weigh-in...up a half pound but down a quarter inch. I'll take it. :-)

Here are this week's squares. Forgive the bad lighting. I only took it a few minutes ago and the lighting isn't as good as it is during the day.

Sixteen squares for Knit-a-Square for a total of 54 so far. The red yarn that I'm pairing with baby weight is interminable. It just keeps going and going and going. I figure I'll get 5 or 6 more squares out of what's left. I'll be so glad to be done with it.

Bustin' My Balls: Part 4

It's been 3 weeks and I'm making progress on the stash of balls.

Original pile.

The difference is really starting to show now.

So far, I've made 43 squares for Knit-a-Square. Grampa and I leave on our holiday in just under 3 weeks. Gonna have to hustle if I want to get these all busted before then.

Woo Hoo Wednesday

Weigh-in...I finally blasted through that 2 week plateau I hit. I'm down 3 pounds this week though I have no idea how. Our trip to the city didn't always include the best food choices and I didn't exercise, even though I had planned to. However, I'll take it!!

It was a slow week, craft-wise. I got this cap knitted but I still have to sew up the seam.

And I only got 8 squares done. There are monthly themes and this month it's hearts and red/pink/white. I have tons of red balls but the yarn is a bit thin so I've been pairing it with pink or white baby yarn. I was stumped on what to do with the less than inspiring colours and then it hit me. I can put hearts on them!

Bustin' My Balls: Part 3

On Thursday, Grampa had an appointment in the city 3 hours away so we left bright and early. Since we're redoing our bathrooms, we decided to stay overnight and do some Home Depot shopping. So No Thankful Thursday and I didn't get to posting about my ball bustin' yesterday. So, without further ado, here's how my balls are looking.

Original pile.

And here we are 2 weeks later. Last week there didn't seem to be much difference, but you can see it now.

Thirty squares made for Knit-a-Square 

Woo Hoo Wednesday

Weigh-in Day. I'm up 1.5 pounds but my total overall measurements stayed the same. So I guess it's a Woo without the Hoo...lol. I'm attributing the weight gain to the monthly weight gain many women have. I'm making small changes at a time and haven't been exercising, just tracking what I eat. I'm going to incorporate using the treadmill for 30 minutes, 3 times a week. Maybe more if I can rustle up the gumption.

I got the brown cap finished but haven't started another one yet. Also 2 more squares for the memory blanket.

And I've almost completed one sleeve on the go-over. The go-overs are rather boxy but they're meant to be quick and easy and roomy. These usually go over top of other clothes, so they need to have lots of room around the shoulders so they don't bind. Other KAS members manage to make some mighty pretty go-overs within the parameters of the pattern. I'm not so talented.

Got 15 more squares done this week. Here are the basic ones.

And here are 3 that I fancied up a bit.

The black and grey one is an adaptation of another square but it didn't quite work out. It's got a bit of a pucker but I'm going to send it anyways. KAS doesn't demand perfection. Their main request is that the squares are 8 X 8 inches and this one is.

The star applique...yeah, I don't know what I do wrong. It's off-centre. My flowers ended up doing the same thing. They start out in the middle but don't end up that way. It must be in how I'm holding them as I'm sewing. Oh well. The kids won't care.

I had just a small ball of Christmas yarn left so I used it up in the middle and then finished it with the red. I really like this pattern. It's a great way to use up small amounts. It's on the KAS website.

And that's that.

What Woo Hoo did yoo doo?

Woo Hoo Wednesday

First things first...Weigh-In Wednesday. I'm down another 3.5 this week for a total of 8.5 this month, so far. Woo Hoo!!!

For the last month, or so, the team that Grampa works with has been putting in some long hours and had to deal with some difficult situations so the company is taking them, and their spouses, to supper in a nice restaurant tonight. I am NOT going to count or care about calories. This will be my first cheat day in 3 weeks. It's probably going to take me all week to recover from it, calorie-wise, so I'm not expecting much of a loss next week.

Remember these?

I got all the light blue yarn worked up and finished the dark blue one. I ended up frogging the grey one because I realized the yarn was a little thin so I'm going to add a baby weight to it. There were actually 6 blue skeins when I started working them up so this is what I accomplished, square-wise, this week.

Sixteen squares for Knit-a-Square

I finished the back of the go-over and now I'm working on the sleeves. I've slowed down on this project because I'm getting bored of seeing the colour. This always happens when I work on a big project. It's why I always have several things on the go. Anyone else like that?

Another cancer cap, this one in a solid denim-y blue. I figure some kids might prefer a solid colour instead of stripes.

Another big Woo Hoo was getting my stash organized. Took me 2 hours but it was so worth it. Things had gotten so jumbled up. Now I'll be able to quickly find what I need.

What was your Woo Hoo this week?

Woo Hoo Wednesday

It's also Weigh-in Wednesday and I'm down 3 pounds this week for a total of 5. Woo Hoo!!! Only a bazillion more to go. *sigh*

Blogger still won't allow me to post photos. I've successfully uploaded them from my computer in the past so I have no idea what's going on. Any suggestions?  *Update in previous post.

I didn't get as much crocheting done this week as last but sometimes life is like that. I completed four more squares for Knit-a-Square and added a bright crocheted flower to a couple of last week's squares that were made from a very dark and sombre green.

I got the front of the go-over done and I'm about a third done the back. And I got another 2 small squares done for the memory blanket I'm working on. No idea how that pic got turned sideways nor how to fix it. Sorry about that.

I finished the cancer cap and have cast on for the next one.

So what Woo Hoo did you do this week?

Woo Hoo Wednesday

Woo Hoo Wednesday is where I'll post whatever I've accomplished since the previous Wednesday.

First up...Wednesday is weigh-in day and, with the help of SparkPeople I lost 2 pounds this week. Woo Hoo!!!

I've tried 3 times, unsuccessfully, to post pictures. Things just freeze up and I have to ctrl/alt/delete to escape. So, sadly, no pictures this post. I'll try another day.

Update: Google tells me that Blogger and IE aren't playing  nice at the moment and to use Chrome or Firefox. Success!!!

Since it was too darned cold to leave the house the past week or so, I decided to try my hand at Tunisian crochet. I have a wooden hook that belonged to my grandmother and it was pretty cool to put my hands where hers had been so many years ago. I did a swatch in sport weight and one in regular worsted. I think the hook is about a 6.5mm and seemed to be too big for both yarns. The fabric really didn't feel any thicker than if I'd done single crochet using my 5mm hook, as I normally do for these yarns.  I'll make another swatch using a bulky yarn to see if I like that any better.

First attempt.

Second one.

I also made some hand/foot balm this morning. My poor hands and feet are so dry and cracked. Lotion is useless when they get this bad. I used to make, and sell, cold process soap as well as my foot balm and a few other personal care goodies but I got tired of hauling it all back and forth to Farmers Market so I stopped. I love my foot balm. It's better than anything else I've tried. I put some on this morning and already my feet are thanking me.

I crochet for an organization called Knit A Square which provides blankets for AIDS/HIV orphans in South Africa. In a nutshell, knitters and crocheters around the world send in 8 inch squares which are then sewn into blankets and distributed. I'll try to remember to do a proper post on this fabulous organization in the near future. In the meantime, do click on the link to learn more about them and the different ways one can help.

This week, for this group, I crocheted 6 squares and have the front of a go-over all but finished. The 2 rust coloured squares are for a memory blanket I'll send later in the year.

We have a condo in Mexico that we plan to snowbird to when Grampa retires next year. In the meantime, we manage to get down there for most of the months of March and November. The big city nearby has a hospital that does cancer treatments, specifically for kids. There has been a request for soft caps/beanies for the kids for after they lose their hair. So I've dug out my knitting needles and worked on those as well. This week I got one done and half of another. I took 6 down with me this past November and would like to have another 6 for March.

I also made myself a crocheted Swiffer cover. I'll need to do a bit of tweaking on the next one. It shrunk a bit width-wise and I would like it to be just a smidge wider. Four stitches should do it.

So...what were your Woo Hoo's this week?