my sewing machine has taken a back seat to the fiber arts: knitting, crocheting, needlework. Those are all easy to do while you breastfeed. I have quite a few projects in my queue. MORE than I want to even talk about. I recently moved things around in my craft zone and piled all my “incompletes” on top of each other. really, a lot are “never starteds” and it makes me feel like I haven’t done ANYTHING in a long time. Ever since the beginning of my pregnancy, I’ve been less enthusiastic about crafting. On the other hand, I’ve been totally gung-ho about collecting craft supplies. Seriously! I don’t usually buy full-price, though. I gather coupons, I visit garage sales and thrift stores, and I scour closeouts. Just the other day, I visited a JoAnn that’s closing and bought 15 zippers! 15! I don’t even make things with zippers, BUT they were 90% off and I couldn’t resist. Who DOESN’T buy something that’s 90% off??? Crazy people, that’s for sure. I also bought a whole bunch of Gütermann thread at 80% off. The store closes (it’s actually moving to a new, BIGGER location) tomorrow and it’s making me anxious! I want to go right.this.very.minute. I think I may wipe them out of thread and zippers. They’re already out of useful yarn (wool) and only have yarn I’d pretty much never use (novelty). I would like to scour the remaining fabrics, but I usually have a baby attached to me and he gets fussy when I stop moving, so I tend to go in and come out really quick. Maybe I’ll check out the 90%-off remnants bin. There’s bound to be something in there I can use, right?

this is the chunk who keeps me from my sewing machine..


but I can make things like this while I nurse..


on the needles:

deliciously lemony socks

my faux-flap hat. it incorporates “ear flaps” into the design (sort of like ganomey). It’s worked top-down in DC throughout.

I made a few extra.
click here:

As many of you know, southeast Texas just got hit by a hurricane. I live in Houston, so my family and I “hunkered down” at my aunt’s house. Power went out before midnight, Friday evening, and isn’t predicted to come back on until after next Monday. That’s going to be a whole 10 days and 11 nights without power. They actually said it may be later, so who knows. Fortunately, my mother-in-law got her power back on Sunday afternoon. We’ve been here since Sunday evening. The boys and I only had to spend 2 nights in hot sticky weather. We are so thankful! My heart goes out to all those who lost their homes and/or loved ones as a result of the storm. Everyone in this area–be well!

Anywho…I brought 2 projects with me for hurricane fun. I sewed the buttons on the BSJ the first night. The next day, when the power was out, I brought out my embroidery project only to discover my embroidery floss had been chopped in various places. Guess who did that. Nathan! I remember the other day, finding my scissors where I never leave them (under my chair!). He must have climbed on the desk and fished them out of their container and tried to “cut” things. the floss is a mess and not salvageable. It’s in little hanks, so one cut makes like 30 pieces of string or something.

I can’t wait for more fall-like weather, so Andrew can wear his new sweater!

coconut buttons!

I still haven’t finished the dodecahedron I started weeks ago. Using worsted weight yarn with small needles really makes my hands ache, so I’m giving it a rest for a while. This hand-sewing is fun. I hope I can finish it and not get unmotivated after a few days. I need to make a lot of hexagons, so that I get to a point where there’s no lookin’ back.