Let's see, what have we been up to over in the Dreams in Fiber household? Thanksgiving was good - I enjoyed a week without hot water while our water heater was getting fixed so that was awesome. I have not taken hot showers for granted since!
The minions have been doing well in school. We had a nice Holiday Season/Winter Break complete with an abbreviated trip to Chicago to see friends and family.
So far we have had minimal illness (knock on wood), some colds, little miss is on meds for strep right now, and other than that, we're maintaining status quo :)
I have been enjoying making soap! This is a new venture for me but I'm having lots of fun. There are so many different scents and techniques to try it's a bit overwhelming so I'm taking my time. My skin is super happy about using only handmade soap. I had a small surgical procedure done over Winter Break (nothing exciting, all is well) and I used a store bought bar of antibacterial soap we had in the closet and that is not something I will be doing again any time soon - one use and I had a rash and it took almost a week to get my skin rehydrated. ugh.
I didn't have an "official" mold, so I MacGyver'd a soap mold using a USPS Priority Flat Rate box and it was working fairly well but my FIL gave me a wooden mold this week that he had made and I used it for the first time the other day. It is so nice!
All the bars are uniform and lovely... I just finished another batch during our Snow Day today so I'll cut that in a few :)
Since I started using Instagram (and Facebook) my blog posts are even farther apart it seems - if you're on Instagram you can follow me at Dreamsinfiber - you can get updates a bit more quickly that way!
Okay - It's pretty sad but I had to look at my Flickr pictures to figure out what we had been up to! Nothing but full disclosure here, folks!
The minions had a performance (with their chorus/show choir) downtown for the Holidays. They did a nice job!
Little man was more than happy to dress up for the occasion, little miss not so much... Looks like I may have a tomboy on my hands after all :D
Little man is playing the piano, cello, and clarinet at the moment. Little miss is also playing piano and viola. The band has performed twice now - once in December and once last week. He is having a hard time deciding between the clarinet and the cello - in middle school they can only do one.
All decked out for Christmas.
Little miss is signed up for soccer again this Spring. This will be her last U10 season. I signed up to be the assistant coach and as usual, we have received the "your daughter is on a team that does not have a coach..." email. Seriously. We've been with this league for 6 seasons now and this has happened ALL 6 SEASONS!!!!!! It's ridiculous. I get that it's all volunteer-based and they can only do with what they get but ever single f**ing season??? We gave her the option of staying where we are for this season or moving to a different league and she wanted to stay here because her friends are here... Given that she will be going up to U12 in the Fall I am thinking this will be our last season in this league and we will look at moving her to either West Des Moines or Urbandale.
I have been crafting here and there during my blog absence. Pants have been made for both minions,
I made a pair of slippers for the secretary at the school (and need to make a pair for myself). These were crazy simple and although I will admit, I was a bit skeptical at first, they do seem to fit well and are warm so, win win! Little man wants a pair. Looks like I'll be making a few more.
I finished a thick pair of socks for me that turned out too big but it's fine - I can wear them over other socks as slippers and I'll tweak the CO and/or needle size for my next pair. When I sat and knit on these, they went quickly - the entire sock was knit in a couple of hours on the way to Chicago over Winter Break :)
These were made using Norfolk yarn from Britain. I just might have a huge weakness when it comes to British yarn. I may have even managed to snag a few skeins of the limited edition Cornish Tin! Not sure what I'll do with them yet, but I love to squish them :)
Needless to say, little man was stoked about the new Star Wars movie and he took one of his friends to see it at IMAX for his "birthday party". The IMAX was cool if not a bit overwhelming. He's seen it a few times now but I think the rest of us will wait for it to come out on DVD before we get to see it again.
I can't remember how many years ago it's been now, but I made a pair of tree mitts for my SIL and have mended them multiple times since they get so much use :) Unfortunately, I did not have enough yarn left to fix the most recent break down so she got a new pair of mitts. I used DK yarn and my Hermione Sock pattern.
Liked them so much, I had to make a pair for me and put the pattern up on Ravelry for free :) I am currently working on a pair of Snape mitts as well that will be released once I finish. I have a vendor gig in Cedar Rapids this weekend so most of my spare time has been spent dyeing and prepping for this show and for my other upcoming show at the end of this month.
What else... Oh, little man got his Christmas Socks again this year. This yarn is the Captain America Self Striping that my friend dyed up for me.
Little miss doesn't wear her wool socks very much and said she didn't want/need another pair this year so I spent my time working on other things. She'll come around ;)
This is the Weasley Sweater I made for little man. Of the two, he is my wool guy so he asks for more things than she does. I finished her green sweater earlier in the year though so it evens out.
This yarn was actually gifted to me several years ago and I have been meaning to make this sweater for him ever since. The yarn comes from the Netherlands and was given to me by our friend J. Hi J! Don't know if you read the blog or not, but Thank you for the yarn!!
This was "my" Christmas project.
I released the Advent Calendar last November and had started to make this infinity cowl ahead of time to use as a sample. Obviously that didn't happen since I managed to finish it in January. Whatever. It's lovely and warm and cheerful on these cold Winter days and nights. I am working on this year's Advent Calendar already - no sense leaving it to the last minute if I don't have to!
One of these days I will get my wheel out again. I don't think I have shown these on the blog before. Both of these skeins ended up heavy fingering weight and have ample yardage.
The one on the left was a 4oz Pencil Roving in the "Gryffin" colorway (n-plied) and the other were 2oz each of Pencil Roving in "the Box" and "Bigger on the Inside" colorways (2 ply) that I have held onto since I did the Inspired by Dr. Who Club. One of my goals for this year is to finally get around to creating things that I have been meaning to for however long now. We'll see how it goes; I keep adding things to the list!
Honestly, I have been itching to spin these past 2 weeks but there's so much left to do for the upcoming vendor gigs I am doing my best to behave. Truth be told, I should be doing that right now instead of blogging, but if I didn't do it today it might be another 2 months, who knows?
"Snowman" by little miss.
I think that's about it. School. Dyeing. Knitting. Sewing. Cleaning. Cooking. Shoveling. Prepping. Soaping. Crochet (I've been working here and there on my crochet blankets, I just don't have a photo). Haven't touched the cross stitch projects. Exercising. Reading. Laundry. Not dusting, as evidenced by the current coating covering the house...
The hubby and I got new cell phones a week or two ago. To me that ranks right up there with shopping for a new car. Bleh. Getting used to the new phone - different than the old one, kind of like the older one better, but this one seems to take better pictures.
Oh, and right now, you can sign up for a Collaboration Club I'm taking part in. It will be the Dreaming Pickle Pot's last Collaboration Club and we're taking on the Globe! Details can be found here. Sign-ups are open thru Feb 7th.
I feel like I'm forgetting something so I'm probably forgetting multiple things... I will try harder to post more frequently. Like I said though, I'm on Instagram the most so you can follow me there as well and get updates quicker.
Hope everyone is enjoying their Snow Day and is staying warm! We are given that we got to fork over more $ to have our furnace fixed yesterday. Hooray....
I needed a bit of green the other day so I changed my dye plans and created a new colorway - 2 actually. Eire and BB8. Guess which is which ;)
Ha! I knew I forgot something - I finished a pair of socks. Well, 1 sock. I knit the first sock last Summer and finally CO for the second after I finished the Norfolk socks. Let it sit around again for a few weeks and finished it up so I could get a pair of Arne and Carlos socks on the needles for the Super Bowl. Go Broncos! This is a pair of Hermione's Everyday socks in a OOAK colorway I dyed and screwed up many years ago now. It wasn't really screwed up but there were specks in it I didn't like so I couldn't sell it. Can't tell when it's knit though :)
Now I'm done!
Until next time!
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