Meet Mortimer
Last year I expressed an interest in a tea cozy to cover up my tea pot. I am an avid tea drinker as of late. I had been eyeing a cute tea cozy in a book that my friend Romelda had. She was knitting a tea cozy for someone else's birthday. I made a passing comment that I liked the sheep. Romelda filed that comment away for a later date.

Romelda quietly got started on my 2010 birthday present. I had no idea what she was up to. My birthday came and Romela showed me what she had been up to so that I would know she didn't forget my birthday. I have seen in over the last year in pieces, together, ripped out and then put together again.

I went recently to Romelda's for knitting and we had tea. Mortimer was the guest of honor.
Here is Mortimer from the back. Doesn't he have a cute backside??? And this is Mortimer from the front...
Isn't he cute from the front too? Now who wouldn't love a face like that? Thank you very much Mortimer maker. You did a nice job.

My Dirty Little Secret

We have lived in our current house for over eighteen years. With time comes complacency. Ever since I have been married we have moved every four years. So that means things are cleaned out, given away, sold at a yard sale or just thrown away. I have to admit that I have gotten lazy about keeping house the longer we stay here.

This is what laziness gets you; a big fat unorganized mish mosh of chemicals that have been there for who knows how long. Too long I think. So I felt inspired one day and decided to clean it up. I don't get inspiration too often so I had to go with it.
There was so much stuff under the sink, I piled it on the kitchen cart and stood on a three step kitchen ladder and took this picture. It's my private kitchen shame...
I really wanted to do the baskets that you can get that will slide in and out on a plastic track. We measured and we can't ft them in there because of the garbage disposal, pipes and misc. things hanging down.
So this has to be the solution for now. The plastic bin is for my bathroom cleaning supplies that I carry upstairs when I have to clean up there. Eventually I will have this stuff moved to the bathrooms I clean and then there will be more room under the sink again. This is the view on the right side of the divider board.
This is the left side. I have a metal tin for the sponges and rubber gloves. Below that in the green bucket I bought from the dollar store are all my dishcloths rolled up and stowed away. The tall metal tin are my kitchen garbage bags. I really don't like the boxes. Since this photo was taken I found another way to store those clear yard bags so I don't have to look at those boxes either. I found doubles and triples of cleaning fluids that I need to use up and get rid of for more earth friendly nature cleaners. It's going to take a few months, but I will whittle down the stock.

I know there are others out there who dirty little secrerts too. Clean them out and confess on your blog. You will empowered to move on to another little secret place that needs purging. I know I did.

It's Not Mine
The most wonderful thing about knitting, crocheting and spinning is the people who do these things. They are some of the most generous people I have ever met. One person comes to mind the most; Juanita. I have been lucky enough to get all kinds of things from her over the last few years that I have known her via my knitting group Yarn for Breakfast. (This link will only work if you are a member of Ravelry)

Between Juanita and I, we must have swapped a whole sheep one ball of roving at a time. I have given her roving and then she picks up something wonderful and she passes it on to me. It doesn't stop with roving, but now it's finished crocheted items like a hat, a flower for that hat, and a dishcloth with the state of Texas knitted in it. I know Juanita is more a crocheter than a knitter so the dishcloth will be a treasured item.

She has even give me zucchini and squash that someone else gave her that she couldn't use.
I made a vegetable and sausage lasagna and a grilled vegetable and penne pasta salad.











The other day when we were knitting at The Coffee Shoppe, she gave me two nice sized balls of the most wonderful cotton yarn. She said it came from a spool that she got from Walmart. While I loved the cotton balls, I decided I could not add them to my stash. So since one good turn deserves another, I made something for Juanita. I am hoping she will be surprised and happy.

I don't crochet very often but it seemed appropriate I should crochet something for the crocheter. So I did. I made Juanita a market bag. The pattern came from a search on Ravelry for a free crocheted market bag.

The pattern is called Crocheted Market Bag. If you are not a member of Ravelry you can find the free pattern here. It's super easy and was an extremely easy crochet. I did it in less than two days. It wouldn't have taken me that long but I ripped it out a few times to be sure I understood the directions. Like I said, it's been a while!

Here is the bag laying flat so you have some idea of size. This is laying on my couch and it takes up one cushion size and a wee bit of the second cushion. I have not put anything heavy in it. I will leave that to Juanita to do when she gets the bag.
I wrote this post a while ago and since have handed back the lovely cotton balls that were gifted to me back to the giver. I hope she enjoys it as much as I did making it.

Tour de Fleece
Every year that the Tour de France runs, Ravelry has a group that challenges themselves to do something every day the race is on. This year the YfB (Yarn for Breakfast) group I belong to decided to do a mini event. The challenge is to spin at least fifteen minutes a day for time the Tour de France.

Here is what was on the wheel. It's a wool, mohair and bamboo blend that I bought two years ago at a quilt show in Hampton, Virginia. I set it aside thinking I would be so excited about it I would be all over it: NOT. I started it and then for some reason wasn't happy with it and quit. Since I am limited on the amount of spools I have for the singles I spin, I had to get the stuff off of there. I figured I might as well finish it and be done with it.
Here is the finished product on the swift. It's not consistent spinning but there is one thing it is...FINISHED!
This is a close up of the yarn. I haven't weighed it yet nor have I figured out the wpi (wraps per inch) to see what size it is. At this point I am just glad it's done. Finding a project for it will be in the future.
I have seen other spinner's do this with a coin, so since I thought it looked cool, I did it for mine to. They put a coin under the singles or finished yarn to show how small the stuff is. Mine is not small but like I mentioned earlier, I am just glad it's done. I have more roving on the wheel right now and will blog about that stuff later. Without the Tour de Fleece challenge from my fellow spinners, that single spool would still be sitting upstairs for who knows how long.