Greetings from Sobro!

So life is a little different now than from my last post.

Tall, Dark & Handsome and I started renting a house together and we'll start the mortgage process again once his taxes are done. Until then we are trying to tolerate the landlords who drop by randomly, yell at my cat, take pictures of our personal belongings and take no responsibility for the crap rehab that was done on the house (for example- instead of replacing a rusty bathtub, they painted over it).  But we still love the house, still love the area, and we know it's not our forever home.  So we'll gradually be fixing things properly so that when we found ourselves needing something bigger then we won't have any problems moving it.  In the meantime, it's small, it works, and it's getting cuter every day.

Our house is a little South of Broad Ripple- a super artsy area where I can be with my own kind.  It also happened to be somewhere in the middle of where we both lived- literally meeting each other halfway in a part of town we both love.  We are close enough that we can ride bikes to dinner if this winter ever goes away, but far enough away that we won't wake up with passed out people in our yard.

I'm still at the nursery but am looking for something a little more regular that pays a little better.  So if you know of any openings in HR or Marketing somewhere in Indy- let me know! I do love working at the nursery, and I'll try to stay on for weekends- at least until our yard is adorably landscaped. I'm so excited to have a real in-the-ground garden this year!  I might even try to do some canning this year!

Since our house still isn't "ours" we are stuck with brown walls on brown floors in a brown brick house.  The house and floors are staying but the walls are covered the paint chips as we try to determine their next color. Here's a few pictures of my favorite places, more to come as we get into the fun parts once we close on the house.

My quilt! Turns out that being shut in the house for a week during these awful snow storms was really good for the quilt.  The top is finished, and I've purchased the backing fabric (10.5 yards- ouch!).  My friend who has the long arm quilting machine is currently having it worked on so it may be a few more weeks before I can get it done done. But I love it. It's absolutely huge.

Madeline's favorite spot- her red blankie at the front window.  I've got a few birdfeeders set up outside her window because I felt so bad moving her to a tiny house and then spending most of my time at work.  I set up a few more at a different window today so she can sit on the guest bed and watch the birds there too.

 My "greenhouse".  Okay, some of my plants went to friends or didn't make the move, but these are my favorites.  I had to temporarily relocate my Meyer lemon and African violet so this year's garden seedlings have a chance- someone was eating all the starts when I was at work.

 My spinning wheel finally got to move to the living room!  And my mom got me something I have been wanting for years- an Ott light!  It's amazing and I love it!  I spend entirely too much time curled up in the corner of the couch with an audiobok, my light and a knitting project.

My corner.  It has my quilt rack (quilt just moved to the guest room) and a chest that my dad made for his mom when he was in high school.  She kept her yarn in it for years.  It moved internationally with us a few times and a few years ago, I found it broken and waiting for the trash man.  I found someone to repair it and she charged me a pair of socks.  Now it holds my yarn and sometimes a glass of wine.

 The guest room!  So if you're ever in Sobro (or in Indy from out of town) you're welcome here! It has 4 of my favorite sheep (including Baaahbara McFleece) that now have a lovely handmade home. TD & H stuck a project of mine on there so he could watch the US v Russia hockey game on there and Madeline has claimed it for her own.  She's about to get her own blankie though so I can have that one back, wash it and give it to someone special.

 The house is still coming together and I'll show you more as we change/fix/update more of it.  But for now here's 2 projects that I desperately need to finish and make designs for. Like the Main Squeeze Hat.  It's been sitting on my desk untouched since we moved in.

The Snowbunny Pullover.  This is supposed to by my Olympic knitting challenge.  I worked on it during the opening ceremonies and didn't touch it until the other day but have found some momentum.  I'd really love to have it done by the end of the closing ceremonies.  And I'd really really like for the pattern to get fabulously famous and sell lots of Chord.  But let's just take it one stitch at a time for now.

So that's my new life.  I'll try to be much better about regular posting.  TD & H worked on my computer a bit and it's now muuuuch easier to blog so I don't have that excuse anymore. So I think I'm going to start dinner since I'm a domestic diva now and he's wanting to see Robocop tonight.  I think I'll take my knitting. 

Wrapping Things Up for Christmas

The part of me that loves the crunch of holiday knitting is having a great time right now.  I was really stressing about how much knitting I still had to do before Christmas, but I finished a couple things and I'm feeling much calmer now.  This year it's different- nearly all of my gift knitting is for other people to give- cupcake and other baby hats, scarves and hats for the Mary project, and a pattern I'd like to get done before then.  I'm thinking about maybe making Purdue golf club covers for my dad as he's gotten in to golfing more this year and he's impossible to shop for, a hat for Tall/Dark & Handsome, and a doily with his parents' last name in it.  And those two things are MY Christmas knitting.

But my Christmas knitting still needs to wait for an apple hat, an ogre hat, a mostly finished scarf, 1 mostly finished adult hat and a hat pattern for Good For Ewe.  And then as soon as mine is over I go right back to cupcakes, as a local boutique has picked them up and is doing quite well with them.

I am still madly in love with my quilt but am forcing myself to ignore it- sort of.  After I finish 1 Christmas project, I allow myself to put one more row on it.  I've made 2 more strips since this picture, but haven't ironed them and joined them to the beast yet. 

The pattern I'm using is for a twin sized quilt, and since I'm not going back to a dorm room anytime soon, I decided to make it for a Queen sized bed that I'll have once I move in with T/D & H. But I am having to adjust the pattern and since I don't currently have a queen sized bed to try it on, it's a little tricky to decide how many more rows I need before I move on to the next part- the first of 4 borders. 

What's this 4 borders crazyness you ask?

It's really very simple.  Once I decide that the middle is big enough (and if I'm not there, I'm getting really really close) then I do a couple inches (I think 2.25) of a "solid" color instead of continuing with the strips of squares.  Since T/D & H really loves blue and I love everything that isn't taupe, we're going with a blue batik fabric.  He even went to the quilt shop with me yesterday and picked it out.  (The stockinette stitch fabric was in this $6/yd cuts section and I couldn't NOT take it home- no idea what it wants to be yet)  So a couple inches of blue, a couple inches of the white/bone that is already in with the middle, a border of squares like the ones in the middle again, and another white border.  For binding I'll be using every single color that's in the quilt already- it will either be color-vomit or really really cool.  In my brain it is the latter. 

So that's my plan for the next couple weeks.  Knit knit knit quilt.  Rinse & repeat. Drink eggnog. 

How are your holiday projects coming?

*By the way, the 400th post is rapidly approaching. I'm thinking a giveaway- what do you think? 

A case of the blehs

Maybe it's the threat of impending winter or the exhaustion of the house (or lack thereof) drama, but I'm rocking a major case of the blehs.  The highlight of my day for the past week or so has been going to bed.

But since the craft fair is over (and I had the worst year ever!) I'll show you what I've been working on now that I can lay off the baby blankets (I still have 2 more orders for cupcakes and a big order for Christmas for someone).  First up...I'm back at the quilt.

I bought a few yards of Kona Cotton in the color "Bone" at a quilt shop back in May for the quilt.  I bought all they had but the shop owner assured me that matching it wouldn't be a big deal- Kona dye lots are really consistent.  So I bought the 2.5 yards they had at the shop and ordered the rest off etsy.  I didn't actually open the etsy package until the craft fair was over and I could return to the quilt without guilt.  That was when I realized....that the two different Kona Cottons I had were just that- different.  Really different.  Crap. I contemplated changing up the pattern and adding a colored border and then returning to the pattern so that it wouldn't be so obvious that we just went from off-white to taupe, but instead I kept searching for more Bone.  Found it at JoAnn, 40% off. I love to shop local/independent for fabric, but I'm cheap right now and I shopped independent and got the wrong color.  No sense paying full price twice. Washed and started cutting last night. As you can see, I had loads of help.

*By the way, if you're looking for 5 yards of Kona Cotton in a color that is not Bone but still very nice, let me know. I know where you can get some.

I have a bit of a destash project going on at the moment, and of course, have loads of help with that too.  She's been really needy lately.  

It's a shelter blanket and I'm using up a year's worth of partial balls and including 2 sweaters from the frog pond.  It's much bigger now but this was the best picture I had of it.  I love these shelter blankets- you get to clear up your stash and get a warm fuzzy feeling while you're at it.  Plus it saves me from deciding what to do about those 2 cardi's. 3 birds with 1 stone. The hardest part of these blankets is getting Madeline off them long enough to work on them. 

And lastly, I've got a little design that I'm working on.  The magic happens in the crown, which as you can see, isn't there yet.  It looks really neat on graph paper though.  The blue version is in Good For Ewe Sultry Steps, the green is in Chord- the pattern is definitely going to be written up for Chord-love that stitch definition.  I'm calling it the Main Squeeze hat as it was originally made for Tall/Dark & Handsome but due to gauge issues, is now going to be a trunk show sample.  He'll get his eventually- if I'm a really nice girlfriend it will be before we start snowboarding for the season.  It is a fun little knit though. 

So that's all for now.  Hopefully I'll have a couple finished projects to show off for my next post- and who knows- maybe a mortgage (but I think I'll have to sell a kidney to make it happen.  Banks hate small business owners.  Backbone of America my arse.) 

Setbacks, Frustrations, and Cupcakes

This weekend was rough. After a week in suspense over what the sellers of our house will and won't fix on our post-inspection requests, I got a call on Saturday from the lender to tell me that I was no longer approved for the loan he approved me for a month and a half ago.  Good For Ewe reported a loss last year- that's just what happens when you start a company halfway through the year with a ton of overhead- you don't break even.  And although they won't consider any income from Good For Ewe to be valid income for the mortgage, they will consider last year's loss to be a good enough reason to stop everything.  But they had to wait until after the sellers cashed the earnest check, I paid for 2 inspections (ouch!) and the sellers had started repairing what we requested to tell me they had changed their minds on the loan.  Less than 2 weeks from the closing date. Thanks, Huntington.  I'll be moving my 3 accounts to another bank within the next week.

Furious does not begin to cover what I'm feeling.

I knew that starting my own business would be slow and frustrating, but I wasn't prepared to put my life on hold for 3-5 years.  (I need 2 years of tax returns not showing a loss before I can be considered for a mortgage, and it will be a while before I make up for all that overhead- especially since any "profit" is reinvested into new colors and going to trade shows.) I also haven't really been paying myself much from Good For Ewe because I haven't had to.  I had savings, I sold cupcake hats and then I started working at the nursery.  So what was best for the company is bad for my mortgage.  There are days that I love owning a yarn company and everything is all butterflies and rainbows, but right now I'm regretting every decision I've made for the past 4 years.  Not a great time.

I'm meeting with yet another lender tomorrow that specializes mortgages for small business owners and people with inconsistent incomes. I really hopes this works out- otherwise I've blown months of savings on a house I can't buy. Once again, thanks Huntington.

Not a whole lot going on as far as knitting goes- trying to crank out as many cupcakes as possible before I drop my goodies off at the craft fair on Saturday.  I'll have a table there for a week and I'll probably spend the entire week it's there making more cupcakes and dropping them off- last year I took 15 (I think?) and came home with 1.  I currently have 2 finished- I've made 8 but sold the other 6 before I could finish them. Then back to a hired knitting project and then maybe some Christmas gifts.  I'm getting a little burnt out on cupcakes, but I'm considering sucking it up and trying to make them a year round thing- a little extra income wouldn't be a bad thing right now. The only question is how- etsy?  Boutique?  On the corner in a dark alley?  Facebook pimping?

And something that makes me smile- Party Girl in her ogre hat and pumpkin sweater.

Have a Happy Halloween!

New Chapters

I feel like I've been sprinting through the past few months.  It's been great, and busy, and emotional and a thousand other things but it makes my head spin a little to think of where I was three months ago and where I am and what I'm doing today.

I'm buying a house!  It's a rather plain little bungalow in south Broad Ripple that needs some serious landscaping and a little bit of color. But it's been time to move out on my own for a while now, and having a summer of a very intense long-distance relationship has been the straw that broke the camel's back.  Things with Tall/Dark & Handsome are great, but we are tired of driving an hour several times a week to see the other one.  So I'm buying a house that's halfway between our houses in a part of town that we both love.

Buying a house has been a frustrating process to say the least.  Since we are both small (and new) business owners, most bankers wouldn't even talk to us.  So I had to have the loans written up to work with my part-time job at the nursery because we can't look at any income through Good For Ewe or any knitting-for-hire/pattern sales income since it's not been registered with the state for more than 2 years. It took a lot of work and a stroke of luck and really good credit, but I finally got pre-approved for a very small mortgage.  So finding a house that's move-in ready in the area we like has been...challenging. 

We found a cute little 1920 bungalow right on the Monon trail that needed some love but had really great potential.  We put in an offer, went back and forth a few times and got it down to a comfortable price range.  Then we had it inspected and realized what the owner's rush to leave was- tons of water damage in the attic and subsequently, a ton of mold. The electrical was also on the fritz- it hadn't been updated since the early 50's and the inspector said he was surprised it hadn't caught fire.  So back to house hunting. We found another that was a smidge out of our price range but put in an offer anyway.  They said absolutely not and then came back a week later with a changed mind.  I'm not quite sure what deal T/D&H worked out with whom, and I'm not sure I want to know, but suddenly our offer was good enough.  We had it inspected and submitted our list of things that need fixed before we close.

The seller, however, is in no particular rush to get his end of the paperwork done, so our November 14th closing date is slipping away quickly.  We'll see when and if it happens. 

So that's that.  I'm still working a lot at the nursery and of course with Good For Ewe.  Most of the traveling shows are done for the fall, and while I'll miss the income, I'm enjoying not leaving the house at 4 am Saturday morning to get to a show. I'm also preparing for a craft fair that's the first full week of November, and that's coming right up.  Unfortunately it's boring knitting and even worse blogging.  It's a lot of big fluffy baby blankets and cupcake hats, but I need all the cash I can get to cover the ridiculous amounts of closing costs on the house.  If and when it happens.

I'm selling mostly baby blankets and hats but do have a few other items that I've made and not used- a couple lace shawls, some potholders, and even some jewelry from a beading phase a few years ago.  If you're needing something, let me know and I'll save it from the craft show box.

 

I'm trying not to get too excited about the house, because I got really excited for the last one and was absolutely crushed when the inspection came back with a list that we just couldn't afford to fix. That being said, I still find myself nesting and drifting off in thought...how would the kitchen look in yellow? Should I put the cross-stich sampler or the State Fair pig picture there?  Is Moulin Rouge an appropriate theme for a living room?  Does that spot get too much light for hydrangeas?

 

So my two nesting projects are...the quilt and the cross-stitching.  I've been working on the quilt since before T/D&H was in the picture but now that there's going to be a bed that needs a queen sized quilt, I find myself a little more motivated to get it done. It's even more exciting to work on it because he gets excited about quilts (I think it's a Southern thing.  When I went to his parents' house he took me on a tour of the quilts that had been made and passed down for generations- he seems to be excited about continuing the tradition).  But craft fair projects and projects that pay come first....most of the time.

 

And...the cross stitching.  I was on etsy a few months ago looking at cross stitching patterns for a friend's wedding and the hilarious pattern came up- a delicate script and flowers that said "Please don't do coke in the bathroom".  It was beautifully subversive and demanded a double take once you realized that it wasn't some inspirational quote or something surrounded in delicate petals.  I kept it in the back of my mind for my someday house.

I revisited the listing on etsy and realized that it wasn't a pattern for sale- it was a finished cross stitching, matted and framed and way out of my budget.  I mean...I've got fabric, threads and empty frames.  No reason I can't doodle something up on graph paper and have something done before we moved in. I'll probably go a little simpler on the floral motifs so that it goes better with the other cross stitchings I had planned for that room.

 

So that's my life right now.  I'm running around like a headless chicken trying to get the counter offer in by 5pm, and one more cupcake hat finished, and go through the closet and make a goodwill trip so I don't move a bunch of clothes that don't fit, and somehow work in 2 jobs around all that.  But things should settle down in a bit here, and I certainly won't miss the midnight drive home from the Westfield hockey game to be at work by 8. Fingers crossed that it's worth it!

Life in Fast Forward

Holy cow- I am a horrible blogger.  And as of late, a horrible crafter as well.  Well, not horrible as much as infrequent.

So here's an overall update and I'll try to cover all the bases that need covering.

1.  I've taken on a really big knitting project that's not really my style, but I really felt compelled to help.  A woman at my nursery job is currently engaged to a widower.  His late wife was a knitter, and left behind a tub of yarn.  (I'm amazed that it's only one frankly) It's a collection of partial hanks and a couple projects' worth of sock yarn.  There's a few projects already started- a couple baby bibs that are 90% done and include the pattern with them, one fingerless mitt, and there was also the first bit of a sock started.  The woman at work asked around (we have loads of knitters at work- it's a little weird) and several of them pointed her in my direction as the person to help.  She would like to make her fiancé's children something out of their mother's yarn so they have something finished instead of a tub of oddballs.  When she said "children" I automatically assumed you know- children and I agreed immediately.  Then I found out those "children" are 24 and 27 and those projects became a little bigger.  I'm still on board.  And I'm about halfway through the first one...

This was what I found in the knitting bag...

And here it is now.  The original knitter was clearly making a sock- she was partially into an eye of partridge heel flap.  I talked the new Stepmom out of socks though- especially as this is supposed to be a surprise and I'm afraid that I'd spend hours and hours making socks that won't fit.  So I pulled out an old faithful pattern- the Zetor Scarf.  I know.  This is my fourth but I'm thrilled with the results each time.  I love how the colorway is working up- I know it doesn't look like much all scrunched on the needles.

2.  I had knee surgery last Tuesday.  Considering how much resting/laying around I've been doing, I really haven't been knitting that much- just sleeping, which is frustrating. I bought a couple baby blankets' worth of big fat yarn for the baby blankets I sell at craft fairs in the Fall, and finally managed to finish one. 

(In case you were wondering, I had a cyst inside a tendon that was pushing on both discs in my knee, causing them to both slip as well as having a giant cyst that meant my knee didn't fit together very well. I'm doing fine now, still really stiff.  Stitches come out tomorrow.)

3.  Tall/Dark&Handsome.  We chatted online for a couple weeks and met in early August and have been attached at the hip since then.  The past few weeks have been like a Nicolas Sparks novel on speed, and it's kind of amazing.  He's been taking good care of me since my knee surgery (How's your knee?  Do you need to sit down?  Why are you carrying that? I don't care if you say you're fine, I'm getting you ice) and we went to his family reunion this past weekend in KY. He's a fellow Boilermaker and small business owner.  He's also a hockey player and cyclist, which means I've been knitting a lot at hockey games, and will be knitting on road trips to mountain biking tournaments.  

4.  The garden is a little insane right now.  Do you need tomatoes?  How about peppers?  Well tough- you're getting some.  Seriously- Indy area peeps- free produce.  Just holler. Today I'm drying some of the hot peppers to make my own crushed red (and orange) pepper. 

5.  I'm in a swap and putting together a package, including a small hand knitted item but I can't post that quite yet...

6.  I'm not cross stitching as much as I'd like.  And I have 2 audiobooks waiting for me.  I should work on that, but I have a ton of Good For Ewe stuff that needs to happen first- you know.  Real work. Tall/Dark&Handsome is going to be hiking and mountain biking (very manly stuff) in Colorado for Labor Day (my knee is not quite there yet) so I might take some time and work on it...between craft fair knitting, Good For Ewe project design, and the late knitter's stash elimination, I think it's a lost cause by this Halloween.  

But I'd like to hang it up next Halloween in my own house.  And that's a way bigger project than anything on fabric. 

Everything but knitting!

The busy continues! I've been absolutely swamped lately, and haven't been crafting as much as I'd like- but that sort of thing happens when you own your own craft-related company.  No time to actually do it!

Things are the nursery have been slowing down a bit.  Things with Good For Ewe have been picking up a lot!  I had one trunk show in Bloomington at In A Yarn Basket (lovely shop, very knowledgeable staff, loved it there!) this past Saturday and I'm taking this Saturday off of trunk shows to go to my BFF Ben's wedding in Michigan City.  But I have also booked a morning appointment with a yarn shop owner in Champaign Illinois who wants some sock and lace yarn.  So I'll be in Champaign when the shop opens at 9:30 and then wedding-bound after that.  Whew- it's going to be about 11 hours on the road on Saturday but killing 2 birds with 1 stone is totally worth it.  I have 10 yarn shows booked for this Fall- one of which is a week long. It's in Chicago and I'm really hoping to sell enough that I have to make a couple trips back to Indy to refill on yarn.  We'll see.  I'm really just hoping to sell enough yarn to make up for the cost of the hotel for the week.

And I'm really really hoping that all of the shows this Fall mean that I can move out and get my own place in the Spring- fingers crossed! That would be awesome! Not that I've been checking out houses online or anything like that...

Still going on dates.  They're slowing down now that I'm on Round 2, but I think I might have another first date or two next week.  We'll see.  I'm taking it day by day right now.

So...crafting.

I finished a potholder this week.  I found one that had been started and had 2 rows done a couple weeks ago and stuck it in my purse.  I finished it Saturday night and gave it away to one of the people that were sitting near me when I finished it. I have tons of dishcloth cotton hanging around so I might have a purse potholder for a while until the stash is a little more controlled.

I'm making a baby blanket for a friend of my mom's who is getting a grandbaby! My mom knows the drill with these- go buy the yarn and I'll make it sometime in the next week.  She got a different brand than usual because it was on clearance and very pretty.  Since she's not a fiber crafter though, she didn't think to compare the yardage to the brand we normally get.  We normally get 5 balls of the usual at 175 yards per ball, so she got 5 balls of this yarn as well.  Except that this ball has 71 yards on it.  Which means that when I'm done with my 5 balls of yarn, that's a really small baby blanket.  She did go to another Joann Fabrics to find the rest of it.  Now we have enough to make most of 2 of this color, which I'll start and then have hanging around next time I need another baby blanket- I'll just need to find another few balls of this yarn eventually. (I do need one more ball of yarn in this one to even it out a bit)

I'm having a really hard time keeping Party Girl off of the blanket.  She's quite the afghan-enthusiast. 

I'm still working on my Halloween cross stitching every once in a while.  I worked on it for a few minutes last night while I was finishing my Sookie Stackhouse audiobook.  I have another book lined up so there will be more work on this soon- or at least before my next book club meeting. 

And lastly...my new project/obsession.  My quilt. 

I'm quite in love with my new quilt.  I spent about 4 hours on 3 different days on it (after all the cutting had been done).  So far I have the first 60 squares all attached (see above).  I have 3 more rows of 10 sewn together that I will attach vertically so then I will have 90 squares attached.  I probably have another 40 squares that are made but still floating around, unattached.  

When I went to buy the white fabric (technically the color is Bone) they only have 2.5 yards of it.  So I bought that, washed/dried/ironed/cut that up and once I have that initial 2.5 yards of white in there I will measure and do some math and figure out how much I need to order to finish the rest.  I'm doing a queen sized quilt- a generous queen to leave lots of quilt hanging over the side of the bed.  I'm also going to be continuing the pattern on a couple pillowcases as well so I can match it all.  But I figured I'd take a breather and finish a couple more knitting/design projects before I dive in to the rest.  

So that's that.  What are your summer crafting projects?