Long Time No Blog Again

Things have been a tad hectic in my life recently. A couple of weeks ago, my mom woke up with a sore foot. Well, it turned out that she had broken a bone in her foot. No injury, just wear and tear. So she's in a soft cast and a boot, and she can't drive until it's healed. Of course, she still needs to get to all of her medical appointments, and she still needs errands run. So I have been flexing my hours at work like crazy, and going in early to make up the time I am taking off, which has eaten into my blogging time. She sees the podiatrist again next Thursday, but I have a feeling that she will have the cast on for a few more weeks yet.

On the plus side, all this waiting in doctor's offices with her has given me some extra knitting time. I've been working on my vacation scarves, but I haven't managed to finish one yet. I did manage to weave in all the ends on Mocha Roca last week, so I can finally show you a picture of me wearing the sweater.

And here's a close up of the buttons, which I just love.
I wore the sweater to work yesterday and got all kinds of compliments on it. So I am jazzed to both knit and crochet more sweaters for myself in the coming year.

I also finished up another chemo hat, which will probably be donated next year some time to the local hospital.

Other than that, I am working away on some WIPs, trying to finish up some projects to clear the decks for those sweaters next year!

I Know, I Know...

...I only posted 4 times in October, and here it is November 2nd and I'm posting twice in one day. But I am so excited! I just finished the crocheting my Mocha Roca sweater.
I still need to weave in ends and make a button. Hopefully I will get that done later this week. But in the meantime, I am going to relish having one fewer WIP!

Recent Acquisitions

(Sorry about the title - sometimes I am such a librarian!) Last Friday was my birthday, and I just couldn't resist getting myself a couple of birthday gifts. Knitted Lace of Estonia by Nancy Bush was published last week, and my pre-ordered copy arrived just in time for my birthday. It is a beautiful book with gorgeous patterns that I just can't wait to start knitting. Then, yesterday morning, I decided that I just don't have good lighting in the 2 spots that I do most of my crafting and that it was time to do something about this situation (especially since I can justify the purchase as a birthday gift). So I took myself over to my local Joann's store and purchased the new Ott Light with a rechargeable battery. (I also don't have room for either a table or floor lamp that has to be plugged in near either of my crafting spots.) I tried the new lamp out yesterday and it makes such a difference! I can actually see the stitches when I am using lace weight yarn. I might actually get Eva's Shawl finished now that I can see the stitches. And it is completely portable, so I can take it with me to crochet guild or wherever.

Now, speaking of lace weight yarn, the yarn in the picture is not a new acquisition. I dug it out of my stash yesterday and balled it up just before I took the picture. I have to love lace weight yarn. Those 3 innocent looking balls contain 1,320 yards of yarn in them. I am going to use them for my Fan Stitch Half Circle Shawl. I actually started the shawl yesterday. I got 16 rows in and already I have to frog back a few rows because one of the edge stitches is wonky. However, the shawl is a lot of fun to knit, so I'm happy. I think it's going to be a good project for getting used to working with such thin yarn, which right now seems to be my biggest challenge with lacemaking. I'll post a picture when it is a little bigger and actually looks like something.

Where does the time go?

This month is seriously flying by! I'm not at all sure where the time goes. We have had some fun. We have gotten out to enjoy the fall colors on the weekends. On a more serious note, our pussy cat has been having a bit of a hard time, so we have been to the vet a couple of times. The cat turned 13 this month, and all of a sudden we are dealing with some old age issues. He is on medicine now, and he seems to be doing much better, though. And on top of everything else, I have been fascinated watching history unfold day by day, between the economic crisis and the presidential election. I have become a news junkie, and I have been spending entirely too much time reading political blogs. Unfortunately, that's where my computer time in the mornings has been going to.

However, I do have a couple of fiber related items to share. First up, in addition to working on Mocha Roca, I have managed to finish 2 hats and 1 scarf for Dee's 60 Scarves in 60 Days challenge.
I used Red Heart Soft for the turquoise hat and Simply Soft Tweed for the hat and scarf set.

I also won a prize from Seasons of Lace! I won in the Newbie Lace Knitter category. I feel just a little guilty, since I didn't manage to finish one project I started this summer. However, I have a feeling I am really going to enjoy this DVD - Knitting Lace with Meg Swanson. There are 3 patterns discussed in the DVD, and I already have my eye on the neck scarf-sized version of a Faroese shawl pattern. Hopefully this weekend I can sit down and watch a little bit of the DVD. And I am definitely signing up for Winter of Lace. I am not giving up on my attempts as lace knitting!

My Apologies...

...to everyone coming over here from the Everything Hewitt website. Clearly, this is not Priscilla Hewitt's blog/website. My first name is Priscilla, and I do crochet, but that is where any resemblance between myself and Priscilla Hewitt ends. I will work on having the error corrected. (And, yes, I also think that her designs are stunning!)

And to those of you stopping by to see what I am up to, I am still crocheting away. Life has been a little busy lately, and will be for the next few days. But I will try to post some pictures of what I am working on (including an almost completed Mocha Roca cardigan) by the end of the week.

More Catching Up

I finally got off my duff this morning and took some pictures of some more projects that I have been working on lately.

I started knitting preemie hats this summer, and I got 4 done before my attention drifted.
I came nowhere near finishing the skein of yarn I was using, however, so now I might start a preemie blanket with the same yarn to try and use it up.

I also crocheted a "One Skein Scarf" at the end of September. This one will be donated to my crochet guild for their November sale.

And finally, over the past few days I have crocheted 2 hats and another pair of wrist warmers.
I intended the purple hat to be a chemo hat, since the yarn is soft. However, the hat and wrist warmers look so nice as a set that they might also go into the crochet guild sale. The red hat is toddler sized, on purpose this time since I wanted to finish another partial skein and there was only enough yarn for a small hat. It will probably also be donated to the guild sale.

All this, and my big bag of acrylic yarn still isn't getting any emptier. I may have to rethink this particular stashbusting strategy, because the big bag of yarn is starting to discourage me a little bit! However, it is certainly convenient to have so much yarn sitting right next to my chair, so the big bag of yarn will stay put for now.

Total Yardage for September...

...is 1,463.5 yards. I didn't quite make my goal of using some yardage everyday (thanks to that nasty cold I caught), but I am pleased with the number nonetheless. I will set myself the same goal for October and hope it goes even better. Goodness knows I have enough to do, what with the various charity projects I want to work on.

I have a couple of things that are finished that I will photograph and post about soon, but I haven't gotten anything finished over the last week. I think the lingering cough from the cold is wearing me out a bit. So, in the meantime, I want to post a couple of pictures of items I made this year that, for whatever reason, I never blogged about.

First up, another hat that will be sent to Warm Up Winchester. I made this back in February from a wool/camel blend from the stash. Not surprisingly, it came out toddler size. (I really need to expand my hat repertoire!)

And here are some baby booties that I finally finished up earlier in September and donated to my mom for the craft sale her apartment complex is having this month.

I will have plenty more items like these to show you over the next month!

Posting may continue to be a bit light over the next few days. Tomorrow is my dh's 50th birthday, so I still have some preparations to finish. We will go out to dinner tomorrow night, and then I think we are going take a road trip on Saturday and just have a play day. But hopefully things will be back to normal next week.