What in the world have I been doing for the past three months?

I wish I had a good answer for that, but I don't.  I have just been living the life of a busy mom whose age has caught up with her.  I can't stay up much past midnight anymore without having serious mental consequences the following day.  I was so wrong thinking I would be able to get more done once the kids went back to school.  I'm not sure where my time goes every day, but I am seriously thinking about enrolling in a time management course.  Know of any good ones?

Despite not getting my house cleaned up like I would have liked by now (crafting is much more important to my sanity), I have managed to make a few things in the last few months.  I taught myself how to knit many, many years ago, but never made anything besides scarves....knit, purl, knit purl.

Boring.

While browsing my local yarn store, I came across a book of ponchos, and decided I would make one for my next project.  I bought my yarn and started knitting away.  Within the first few days after I started my poncho, I saw two women on different occasions while I was out and about who were wearing ponchos.  I was so excited!  That shows you how far removed I am from the fashion world.  I had no idea they were in style right now.  I'm not sure what happened with the first one I made.  Even though my guage was right, it did not come out the size it was supposed to.  At least it was bigger, and I can still wear it.  It just looks like I am wrapped up in a huge blanket!  Sorry, I thought I had a picture of it, but I don't.

So I immediately went back to the yarn store and bought different yarn to make a second poncho.  This one was made with another pattern, and I learned how to increase and decrease.  I love this one even more than the first!

The yarn is alpaca wool, so it is super warm.  And super soft.  Not scratchy at all.

And I had just enough yarn left over to make a pair of fingerless mittens.

My husband asked what the point of fingerless mittens was, and I replied "So I can knit at the football games when it is cold out".  Or to cook in the cold when we are camping.  Or just to look cute!

I learned how to make a thumb with this pattern, and it was pretty easy. Until I got to the left mitten, and the directions were wrong. I didn't realize it until I was completely finished, so I had to rip it out (just down to the thumb) and figure out the right number of stitches. If you use this pattern, the correct # of stitches to knit on the thumb row of the left mitten is 23, not 29 as the pattern states.

The pattern for my poncho is out of the book Viva Poncho by Christina Stork and Leslie Barbazette.  The fingerless mitten pattern was in the book Knit at Home by Leanne Prouse.

I've also been sewing a fair bit.  Here is a sneak peak at one of my projects.

Now that I have remembered how edit my photos and post on my blog, maybe I'll be around more often!

K