Banana Bread, NaKnitMo, & The Lost Hero

The title sums up my day. I finished up NaKnitMo last night with a grand total of 30,066 stitches, which was 66 stitches over my goal. This was exciting enough, but I just got a message on Ravelry this afternoon (and a text from my soul sister Mary!) letting me know that I had also won something in the NaKnitMo Prize Drawing!!! Very soon I will be the proud owner of the Summer 2010 issue of Verena Knitting! A very special thank you to crosstitchlinda on Ravelry for donating my prize!!

I went back to the library today for the first time since my pneumonia diagnosis in October. It felt good to be back, even though I only made it 3 hours before ripping the tape from the tape dispenser was making me break out in a sweat and get shaky. I came home then, and after eating lunch took a L-O-N-G nap. I felt refreshed enough from this to bake some Banana Bread this evening, as well as cook dinner, wash a load of laundry, and sew together a strip on the quilt I'm working on. Not a bad day, productivity-wise; however, I really wish my energy level would come back. I really miss it!

I'm worn down again now, but content. I picked up The Lost Hero, by Rick Riordan, from the library, and am looking forward to a hot cup of coffee and reading some of it tonight. Not that there's much tonight left...it's almost 10:00PM now...but I plan on soaking up as much of it as I can before my eyes close. I'm really hoping, being an extension of the Percy Jackson series, that it lives up to my high expectations.

Last week in crafts...

Well, you all already saw that I finished my Anastasia socks.

I also managed to get quite a bit of work done on my quilt!

I got the nine-patch squares attached to the center strip, the center strip that connects the square halves together sewn, cut & pressed, AND got 6 squares completely assembled. I'm hoping to find time this week to, at the very least, finish assembling the squares. The dream would be for me to also get the squares connected into strips, but I don't know if that can happen or not.

I finished the sweater that I was working on, and found a little time to play around and take my first stab at making some note cards!

Not too bad for a first try, huh? Okay, I'm off for now. I've got a TON to get done around this house before this afternoon, and I've yet to figure out how to blog and clean at the same time.

Have a great Monday!

Last week in crafts...

I accomplished quite a bit, for no more time than I had to actually work on things.

First I finished the first of my Anastasia socks. I'm using Premier Yarns Serenity Sock Weight in

Purple Spice. It's a lovely yarn to work with; it doesn't split and slides easily on my needles. I'll be making baby booties for a friend of mine who had a beautiful baby girl on November 30th with the leftovers, which I'm finding is great motivation to ward off SSS (Second Sock Syndrome).

I spent the majority of my crafting time over the past week quilting. I have 35 squares left to finish on Bradley's twin-size quilt for his bedroom redo. I managed to get 140 nine patch squares cut, stripped, sewn together, and pressed. I've still got to square them up, which I hope to get to later today.

My current on-going project is "Scrappy". This is an affectionately

named rectangular granny square afghan that I'm working all my bits of leftover worsted weight yarn into. It seems that the majority of my yarn basket is taken up by these little, tiny balls of yarn that just really aren't enough to do anything with, so as I run into them I'll be adding them to Scrappy until he is as big as I like. Then, if I have any let, I'll start on Scrappy II!

Last, but not least, was cast on yesterday. I cast on and got to about the 60% mark on a Presto Chango baby sweater. I'm using Caron Simply Soft Heather in Truffle Heather for it, and it is coming out gorgeous! I've got the right front and sleeve left to finish of the main body, and also have to do the front flap and sew the buttons on. The best part? I've only got about 4 hours in this sweater, and will have less than 8 in it when it's complete! I LOVE projects like that, how about you?

Okay, that sums up what I got done last week. This week? Well, my goals are to

1. cast on Anastasia sock #2 and get to the halfway point on it
2. finish Presto Chango
3. get all of the remaining 35 squares assembled, squared up, and pressed for Bradley's quilt.

Now I just have to keep the Real Life Monster from rearing it's ugly head and keeping me from my fiber!