May's Monthly Starts

And a bit of April's Wrap-Up too!!

First for the new monthly starts...

Stitching...

Love Thy Neighbor from Plum Street Samplers. I bought this one quite a while back and thought I just LOVED it. Then it came in the mail and I couldn't make myself start it. Something about it just didn't feel right to me. I still liked it, but didn't love it. It's taken some time but I think it's the sideways house and the odd pumpkin/peach things as well. I still really like the colors and the basic part of it, so I've decided to stitch it without adding the far right hand side. I think that will do it for me and have me loving it again:)

Crocheting...

A hat for my daughter. She just recently got her hair all cut off (I mean she went from mid way down her back to hair right up to the base of her neck with only about 2 inches of length at the top!!). It looks really cute on her and has been easier to maintain than she thought it would be. She is overall very happy with it. She requested a few hats that I think will make it look even cuter still and this is the first she wanted to have done. I'm not so sure how it will turn out with this color combo, but I'm giving it a shot and since it's not too difficult of a pattern, I can always make another if she doesn't like it:)

Knitting...

A knitted bag to put my knitting in!! I LOVE bags of all kinds and am always toting several out to the car for the times I need to be waiting on dd during one of her activities (she is SOOO close to being able to drive herself!!!). This pattern is by Debbie Bliss and it said to use up leftover yarn, but I found all this yarn (cheep cotton yarn at Walmart) and the colors reminded me of Spring. I do have to admit that I took this picture a couple weeks ago, and I wasn't able to stop myself from going ahead and starting it. I have one side of the bag just about done and I've only stopped since then because I want to do the handles differently than the pattern says. Not being a very experienced knitter, this has slowed me down quite a bit, but I think I know what I'm going to do with it now, and can hopefully get the first side done in a day or two:)

And now for the April Wrap-Up. As I said on my last post, April was a crazy busy month. Most of my free time was spent running around like a crazy lady:) But it was a super fun month too, and I did get a little crafting done...

Stitching...

A pathetic little amount of stitching done on 'Hand Print on my Heart" from Heartstring Samplery. This is a project from being in the Ladies Prim Society. The instructions say to stitch this with one thread over two, but I don't like how that looks so I was going to order more thread, but decided instead to stitch it over one and see how I like that. Well, I like it very much, so that's the way I'm going with it:)

Crocheting...

Working on the baby blanket for my dh's friend. I'm almost at the half-way point, but I need to get this done by the end of the month, so this will be a focus for me for sure!!

Knitting...

This is turning out very nice and I am sure I am going to love it in 15 years or so when it's finally done!!! UGG, this is a VERY SLOW project. Between using size 3 crochet string and knitting with size 3 needles, this one's going to take a while.

As you can see, I have lots of fun things to take up my free time (and some of my 'housework' time as well;) and several of the projects have given me reason to learn new stitches too which I find to be lots of fun! Learning how to increase and decrease in knitting has opened up lots of possibilities for new patterns to try. I'm having a really hard time just starting one new knitting project at a time!! Next month I am joining my first KAL (knit-a-long) on Suburban Stitcher's Revelry page. Its focus is all things that go around your neck and I have 3 different scarf ideas for this one. It goes through until the end of Aug, so I'm hoping I can force myself to start a new one each month instead of all 3 at one time like I want to. ;) I'm also really itching to try out knitting socks. I even have the yarn and the needles that I will need, ACK!!  I better get off here and get some 'work' done on what I already have going. :) Have a great day!!