Being a slave driver is hard work, but it pays off in the end. After several weekends of pushing my husband to his limits my cubby shelf is done!

It started out like this

Then this

It’s got a lot of squares

Before I get to the finished product I must say that tragedy struck. Maybe I worked him to hard or maybe it was just a small accidental oversight, but this was made for the upstairs and was painted in a color to compliment our bedroom. We were trying to move it upstairs and it would not clear the stairs. Our stairwell has a little bit of ceiling above it and we just couldn’t get it past. I suppressed my urge to beat my husband for his bad calculations. I thought of all the hard work he put into it just for me and how lovely it came out, and I just couldn’t be cross with him. So it ended up downstairs (which I feel is getting a bit crowded with furniture and abandoned exercise equipment). So without further ado here it is all dolled up.

Only two of the bins are full of yarn. I have woefully underestimated the amount of sock yarn I own. 

I put all my quilting and sewing books in here and little bins to hold my scrap yarn. Having this shelf downstairs has really cleaned up my sewing table and ironing board. Its great! I used to store my sock yarn in a basket that sat on my ironing board and it was always in the way. My chevron striped bins sat on my cutting mat on the table also getting in the way.

Above you see one of my little bins of sock yarn. There are only two that are full of yarn. The sadnosity of this situation should escape no one.And another gratuitous photo for good measure! My glass head finally has a proper home. I will probably utilize the lower squares as the baby gets older and I get more stuff. Thank you my dear husband for being so craft friendly, so handy, and talented to boot!

Well I’m back up to four knitting projects. I had to cast on a sock. I had no socks on the needles and that was just weird. I won’t be going above four. When I think about going above four I have to remind myself how nothing was getting done with seven projects on the needles and its just a slippery slippery slope.

I got my book that I won. Its full of lovely socks.

I also read through Rachel’s blog archives. Good times. I will be following her blog from now on.

Due to blog enabling I found a new fabric shop on etsy. Poppyseed Fabrics. I had favorited some pre-cuts a few weeks ago and I finally ordered them.

The first set is Dots Small by Riley Blake Designs

Then we have Indie Chic by My Minds Eye & Riley Blake Designs

This is Ovals from Remix by Ann Kelle and Robert Kaufman. I think they are pretty cute and a good, solid, adult addition to the stash.  Have a good weekend folks.

For a brief moment in time I was down to two knitting projects. I think that lasted one night. Yesterday evening I finished a shawl. Then the next day I cast on a new project which brought me back up to three.

This was my first mystery shawl and I was in from the beginning. It’s the Wendy Knits Summer Mystery Shawl 2013. The KAL started on June 1st which is when I started my project. I completed it on July 20th. I knit a large and added 80 extra stitches. I think this is the biggest shawl I’ve ever made. It was knit from the bottom up. As I was knitting it I kept thinking there is no way this is going to come together and be the right size. I kept thinking I missed a repeat somewhere it just didn’t seem right to me. I love knitting Wendy’s bottom up shawls so I trusted the pattern and as usual I was not led astray. I used knitpicks gloss lace. It took about two skeins. I love this yarn it is so economical and was great to knit with.

This is my kitchen table. It seats four when not expanded. Thats how big this shawl is. The pattern is so light and airy. It’s going to be great for this winter.

This pattern is great for beginners to lace and was fun to knit. I kept up with the pattern and was ready to move on when the next clue was released. It was good fun.

I promised myself when I was down to two wip’s I could cast on something new. The sock yarn was very tempting but I decided to do something that I don’t often do, and that was cast on for a cardigan. I don’t knit cardigans for myself that would take forever and is expensive so this one is for my daughter. It’s the Sunday Sweater  by Ginny Sheller. I’m knitting it with Drops Cotton Lite. Surprise surprise I got gauge with the listed needle. Things are going well so far. Knitting with yarn this fat is quite a nice change for me after all the lace and socks.

My husband is building me a shelving unit for yarn and book storage. It’s coming along quite nicely and he hopes to have it finished next weekend. So look for some woodworking on the blog soon. Take it easy and have a good week.

It may not look like much, but there are lots of 3.5×3.5 inch squares here. They took me about 3 days to cut. For the first time I’m pre-washing fabrics and so that added time to the process. After cutting for a while my back starts to get sore. I cut at my dining room table so thats a lot of bending over for a back that isn’t in mint condition to begin with. I’m happy its done and I hope there are enough.

I joined Bloomerie’s scrap of the month club. As the packages started to arrive I thought maybe this scrap club isn’t for me, but its come in handy. I got a lot of boy print cuts for the quilt out of those bundles. I would have had to order a lot of fat quarters to get all those prints and boy fabric seems hard to come by.  Being new to sewing I don’t have a huge fabric stash so I guess joining the scrap club was a rare moment of brilliance. Wish me luck piecing this back. Im a little worried its going to look like horrible chaos.

Have a good weekend.