Saturday, January 24, 2015

Grow Your Blog Party!!!

2 Bags Full
 
WELCOME to this year's Grow Your Blog Party!! Hosted by Vicki of 2 Bags Full, this is THE blogging party of the year!! Or at least mine:)
 
I have participated for the past 2 years, and it's always been a great way to grow my blog. I'm Shannon, formally of the blog 'Around the Homestead', and am now found here at 'With Work in Hand'. I decided late last year that I wanted a change in my blog name to better reflect where I wanted to go with my crafting and blogging, so I made the switch at the beginning of this year:)
 
So what do I blog about here? Well, mostly about stitching, embroidery, crocheting and fairly recently about knitting as well. I like to learn new handwork and am super excited to get into knitting now. What's next? Who knows, maybe needle punch or latch hook?!?! I'm thinking that learning to knit, and all that goes with that, as well as the other forms of needle arts that I enjoy will probably keep me pretty busy for a while. Here is a recent picture of what I am currently knitting on...
 
Guernsey Wrap by Jared Flood
My first love is cross stitch though and I have been doing that since high school. I love many different designers including With thy Needle and Thread, Plum Street Samplers, and my very own sister-in-law, Marianne Meyer of Midnight Stitching. It's nice to have a designer/stitcher in the family:)
 
I also blog about my family and pets. I have been married for 17 years to my high-school sweetie. We met when I was 14, so we've been together for 23 years now!! We have one daughter who is 15 and is homeschooled. Her passion is animals, so 2 mornings a week she volunteers at our local zoo. Our zoo is super small and they depend on their volunteers to really help them out. She is able to go into most of the animal pens and do a good deal of the same work that the zookeepers do. It's been a good experience for her to see if this is what she really wants to do for life (especially when its 15 degrees out:)!! 
 
I do a bit of volunteering too with our 4-H club as I am their community leader. In fact, before writing this post we had our annual 4-H Carnival and Family Fun Night. It's a lot of fun, and a lot of work:) Our club needed to put together a gift basket to auction off and the kids voted on a garden theme. Here is the 'basket' that we took tonight...
Please ignore the handprint artwork on the frig in the background:) It was a gift from my niece's family.
We are all exhausted and there were candy wrappers EVERYWHERE, so all-in-all I think it was a success:)
 
Since this is a PARTY!! I have a give-away for one lucky winner. I had all intentions of actually having the gift completely made so I could fully show it off, but I came down with a cold/upper respiratory something-or-rather last week and I haven't been able to completely shake it. SO it's not done yet, but I do have a sneak-peek...
One dishrag ready to bind off and another ready to cast on.
These are cotton dishrags in a yarn that is a bit rougher than the ones I use for my face. They will probably be best for actually washing dishes with or other cleaning, but they may soften up after a few washing and be good for the shower as well. Leave a comment and a way to get ahold of you (if you are a no-reply person:), and I will post the winner on Feb 15th!!
 
I hope you are all having great fun at the Grow Your Blog Party!! I can't wait to visit you as well:)

29 comments:

  1. Good morning, enjoyed your blog. Grow Your Blog party is fun. This will be my 2nd year of joining and have enjoyed meeting new friends. Please include me in your give a way.
    Joyce
    http://joycesloveoflife.blogspot.com

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  2. Good morning and welcome to party. I really enjoyed your beautiful blog. I am one of Vicki’s helpers and we are thrilled to welcome you to the Grow Your Blog party. I hope you have a great time with it!! Debbie (SunflowerHouseArt)

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  3. It is nice to meet you in the blog hop. Your knitting looks beautiful. I am also a homeschool mom (I still have 5 left in grade school). There are never enough hours in the day. I love paper crafting, jewelry making and needlework. My latest project is learning to crochet. Enjoy the hop! Jennifer www.jennifersvintagepaperie.blogspot.com

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  4. Popping in from the GYB event and your blog is wonderful!
    Your knitting is great and I look forward to seeing more of your posts!

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  5. Glad to meet you and have a little 'quiet' party this morning. I love that basket btw. Looking forward to see what you are up to!

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  6. Dear Shannon,
    Welcome to Grow Your Blog party. Like you, I lovw cross-stitching and knitting too.Hope you'll made some new friends and have new followers in the weeks to come. Big Hugs from Singapore

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  7. Hi Shannon, I'm here from the GYB event. Your knitting is just beautiful.

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  8. Hi, Shannon! Found you the GYB party. Love your blog - I've become a follower.....hope you will pop over and visit my blog WisdomwithNeedleandThread.blogspot.com
    Cheers!

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  9. Hello from Pennsylvania. I love these blog hops. So many interesting blogs.

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  10. Hi Shannon,
    Your new blog is great!

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  11. Hello Shannon,

    thanks for your comment on my blog. Your knitting is beautiful! I'm quite curious to see how it will look like once it's finished! We have a similar taste in Cross stitch designs, I'm starting a plum street sampler soon and love the designs from CCN and LHN. German is a difficult language - Hats off to everyone who is learning it. If you have questions regarding german - I'm glad to help! Looking forward to your blog posts!

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  12. This is so weird. I have just read your post about frogging a shawl. I did the same thing this morning. It was going well until I made a mistake which was impossible to correct as it was on the lacy part. I was actually quite relieved to frog it as it was becoming a bit of a chore. I knit and crochet for enjoyment and don't need any more chores!!

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  13. Hi Shannon! I'm already a follower, but just stopping by to say hi from the blog party (a day late!) I'd love a chance in yor giveaway too. Thanks!

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  14. You throw a great party. Thank you for inviting me!

    So that you know, I've become a Follower and when time permits, I'll be back to see what other beautiful things were made by your hands!

    What this party is all about is to GROW your blog and I'm hoping to do the same. When you get to Section One, check out A Country Chic Retreat and SuZeQ Creations, my personal blog, in Section Fifteen I'd love for you to follow and subscribe to.

    Happy crafting!
    SuZeQ

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  15. lovely to meet you ;) I look forward to seeing your updates and what you're creating! I'm your new follower :))

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  16. I'm now a follower of your lovely blog. I look forward to visiting often to see what you've created!
    Cathy
    CraftyCat

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  17. Looking forward to following your blog. I try to knit some scarves and hope to learn to knit socks someday.

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  18. I just stopped by through Grow Your Blog. I am now a follower. I love the "garden" themed basket, what a great idea. You can visit me at www.ColourfulCrossStitches.blogspot.ca
    Happy Stitching!

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  19. Hope you're feeling better soon!

    alexis at cobcottagecraft.com

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  20. Nice to meet you Shannon. I hope you are feeling better. I see you are working on one of Jared's designs. I have knit several of his pieces, I love his work! I will be checking to see how the wrap is coming along.

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  21. Hi Shannon, finally getting over her to return the visit you made to my blog. I too make the dishcloths & love them, can never have enough!!! Are a member of ravelry? It's a great spot for knitting & all things yarn!!!

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  22. Good to meet you - I'm sorry you have been unwell, I hope you're feeling better soon!
    Best wishes from the UK

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  23. I'm in awe with your knitting project - I could never wrap my head around anything that complicated!! I love to knit but it has to be something really simple. So nice to meet you and have a visit.

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  24. Hi Shannon, Nice to "meet" you on the GYB party. You have some great stitching projects going on! I look forward to visiting again and seeing your progress on them... Hope you'll visit me too.

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  25. I have never had a knitted dishcloth I see on blogs that they are getting more popular here in Australia but as I don't knit I'll have to wait for a friend who does. I am glad that I found your blog through the Gail Pan sal

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  26. I am so impressed with your knitting! I have only ever been able to do the basic stitch, and maybe a purl now and then. You are very talented! Visiting from GYB.

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  27. Greetings! Love the name of your blog. I, too, like to have projects to keep with me for random times. Your Guernsey wrap is looking good and should be great when finished. Handknit dishcloths are great so thanks for chance to win some.

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  28. I love dishcloths, and hope to make some of my own someday (don't have the right yarn right now). I'm sure it will be great when it's finished!

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  29. Hello! Your dishcloths are great!
    I learned crochet less than a week ago and one of my goals is to master making some cute dish cloth patterns I found online. I'll have to take a look at your past posts for tips and pics!
    - afistfuloflemons @ gmail.

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