Thimbleanna – Page 46 – My little online diary.

Welted Fingerless Gloves

36 Comments / January 21, 2014 February 15, 2014 / Chat, Knitting

Thanks for all the yoga bag love — you guys are all so very kind and sweet! I’ve had fun reading your comments this last week — I’ve been so lazy, it’s been hard to even get back here and post! (And it may be Easter before Santa and his sleigh up there disappear — ouch!) I have been knitting like a madwoman though. After dinner each night I settle down with a sweater I started a few weeks ago. And then the next day at lunch I rip out what I knitted the night before. Ouch again! I’m getting really good at picking up stitches but I hope I don’t wear the yarn out before I’m done. I’m slowly making progress, but with work during the day, it hasn’t left much time for anything else.

Anyway, here’s a look at a much easier knitting project. This is the last of my Christmas gift making. I made a couple of pairs of these pretty little Welted Fingerless Gloves from Churchmouse Yarns and Teas.

I first saw them on my almost-local buddy Anne’s blog. Anne has made many of these little mitts and she describes them as her go-to gift, which I think is a great choice. They’re quick and easy and fun. Thanks for a great suggestion Anne! (Btw, this is the little project I was working on when I posted about the Yarn Harlot’s visit to our little burg. I showed a picture of just the cuff in progress and Bonnie knew right away what they were — good eye Bonnie!)

So, if you’re in North America I hope you’re staying warm. (And if you’re burning up in Australia, I sure wish I could send you some snow!) We’re having another coooold week here and I love it. I love winter when we can hunker down and work on projects. I know some of you don’t like it though, but take heart. The days are slowly getting longer. Here’s a little pic from the archives to remind you that this deep freeze won’t last forever.

Because, you know the routine …

Have a good week!
XOXO,
Anna

Peace. Love. Yoga.

37 Comments / January 15, 2014 February 15, 2014 / Sewing, Store

Hello boys and girls! It’s time to show you the super secret Christmas sewing project that was the most time consuming. Here’s a little hint:

Any guesses?

Ok, I’ll tell you. All the ladies in the ThimbleannaLand family are planning a little yoga vacation this summer so I thought it would be fun if we all had matching yoga mat bags. Altogether, I made 6 bags and it took me several full weekends to complete them.

I think the girls really liked them. CuteNiece2 (who is becoming a certified yoga instructor and will be our own personal instructor on our trip) told me this was her favorite gift, so that was pretty exciting!

I couldn’t find a yoga mat bag pattern that I liked, so I just sort of made one up by looking at commercially available yoga mat bags. Each bag has one long zipper for the mat compartment in the middle and a smaller zipper on one side that opens into a pocket for wallet, keys, etc. There is also an outside mesh pocket for a water bottle or towel or whatever. Here’s a shot of what each side of the bags looks like:

If you look closely, you can see that I personalized each person’s bag with their name. The top bag in the picture above just happens to be mine! ;-D There’s a big long shoulder strap that runs from the top of the bag to the bottom of the bag. It’s sewn down on the bottom of the bag, but on the top it’s left open so that it could be used as a carrying handle if someone wanted to carry their bag in an upright position but not on their shoulder. There are also grommets in the bottom to provide ventilation for the mats. Here’s a shot of the top and bottom of the bags:

You can see that I used Sweetwater’s Make Life print on the ends of the bag. I also used it for the bag linings. It’s one of my very favorite prints ever and I’ve been hoarding a lot of it for a long time. I think the little sayings in the print are perfect for a yoga bag. Like the pencil rolls, I used the Robert Kaufman Essex Linen in Sand for most of the outside of the bags and then chose some scrap fabrics to match the Make Life fabric.

The machine embroidery is a design from embroidery library. We had a lot of peace signs this Christmas ;-D. (They also have a cute Peace. Love. Knit. design that I think would be fun on a knitting bag.)

And just to prove that I really did make six of them, here they are all stacked together. This was really a fun project to sew!

So, that’s the big project and the medium project posted. ;-D There’s still one other little project that I’ll save for next time. I hope you’re having a good week!
XOXO,
Anna

Ooooh, P.S. I forgot to tell you that I got my shipment of Linen Mochi Dots by MoMo from Moda. I LOVE this fabric and if it had been available before Christmas, these yoga bags would have had a very different look! You can find them HERE, in my little etsy store.

Pencil Rolls

40 Comments / January 11, 2014 February 15, 2014 / Sewing

Well, apparently time doesn’t pass any more slowly in the New Year. I was really hoping things would slow down, but this past week sure whizzed by. Maybe we were just busy trying to stay warm LOL.

I’ve debated in what order I should show you the super secret Christmas sewing. (Just so you know, there weren’t any quilts — don’t want you to be dissapointed LOL.) Easiest first? Save the best for last? There were three projects and, in my mind, I can put them in a definite order. I’ve finally decided on a random order show-and-tell, so, this is the “middle” project.

Both of my cute nieces are very artistic, so I made them each a colored pencil roll. I was sewing these at the last minute on Christmas Eve, so we try not to look too closely at the stitching!

I didn’t follow a pattern. I just bought 24 packs of colored pencils, chose 24 matching fabrics, cut those little colored strips 1 1/2″ wide, and then sewed them together in a long line. If I could make them over, I’d probably like to put a binding around the edges, rather than do the right-sides-together-and-turn finishing method. On the outside, I machine embroidered a peace signs and flowers design from Embroidery Library.

Then, I stitched a “made for you” tag on an inside corner, just for fun. (Just how many yellow pencils does one 24-pack need, anyway?)

The linen is essex linen in the sand colorway from Robert Kaufman and it’s wonderful for sewing.

They were a quick, fun little project. Next time I’ll start earlier so I can do a better job! (Famous last words!)

Ok, next time, the biggest project. As in, the one that took several weekends and a lot of time in the dungeon.

XOXO,
Anna

Winston

42 Comments / January 6, 2014 February 15, 2014 / Family

I’m sure by now, wherever you are in the world, you’re hearing about the deep freeze here in the U.S. It’s COLD out there! We had a quick visit to Iowa to visit TheFirstChild and SweetiePie and managed to drive home in the snowstorm.

The snow got heavier the farther east we drove and, surprisingly, we have more snow at home than anywhere along our route. It’s surprising because we seem to be just barely out of the lake effect snow belt and it’s rare for us to get this much snow in one storm.

You’ve seen the view out our back window before and here’s how it looks tonight.

It’s SO beautiful and I LOVE it! It could be a little warmer though — I think we’re currently at -15 F and depending on which version of the forecast you read, we’ll barely clear 0 degrees F tomorrow. Brrrr!

Oh well, enough about the cold (and just how thankful are we for heating tonight, hmmmm?) One of the reasons we went to see the kids was to see the new baby. I’m a grandma. Sort of. Meet Winston!

Isn’t he a cutie? He’s a goldendoodle puppy and at only 11 weeks, he’s pretty big already. He’s such a sweet little puppy and he sure loves his “parents”. Here he is teething on his mother’s fingers.

There’s some intense puppy training going on there. He’s already housebroken (such a good boy), can sit and shake hands, and he’s working really hard on confining his chewing to one of his 5,000 toys. He doesn’t like having his picture taken very much, but here he is, showing me his good side. (We know this because the other side was blurry.)

And, of course, I had to show him how to knit. It was hard to get a good picture of him — he was always on the move.

Anyway, we had a wonderful time with him — it made me miss having a dog around. I came home and puppy-roughed up on the Scruffster and he bit me. Cats are no fun!

Oh — hey — did you notice those cute HOT pink boots in the first picture?

SweetiePie got new Hunter boots while I was visiting and she taught me a clever new trick for boot buying — order your boots in kiddie sizes! They’re a LOT cheaper and just as cute. We went shopping with the hot pink hunters and you wouldn’t believe all the comments she got. I thought the girls in the LuLuLemon store were going to come unglued! That little trick will work for other brands of boots too {cough}Sorel{cough}.

Ok Peeps — Stay Warm. When I come back I’ll start some Christmas super secret sewing project sharing (say that 10 times fast) — better late than never!
XOXO,
Anna

Happy New Year!

37 Comments / January 1, 2014 February 15, 2014 / Holidays

The Kitties of ThimbleannaLand want to wish you a Very Happy New Year!

Even if they’re grumpy and uncooperative for picture-taking. It’s hard to get them to sit together — I don’ t think they like each other very much!

Anyway, I hope you’ve had a good end-of-year week — it all went by in a blur here in our little corner of the world. It was wonderfully relaxing though. I’ve been terribly lazy, mostly reading and putzing around. A teeny bit of sewing, knitting, and organizing of pictures. Tidbits, but nothing significant.

Do you make resolutions? I’m not really a resolution maker, but I’ve been thinking about things I’d like to do and make this year. My list is a mile long and a mile wide — fueled by all the beautiful things to be found on the internet. I’d kind of like to make an organized list — maybe of 10 things this winter or something. I had a lot of fun with my list last fall — we’ll see if I can get motivated. In the meantime, I did a little bit of looking back. 2013 was a really good year here — nice and quiet, which is just how we like it.

Now, it’s time to look forward. Thanks for checking in and hanging out with me now and then. I love blogs and blogging — with all the newer platforms, it’s quite a bit different than it was seven years ago when I started posting. I feel the connections made with many of you could only be made through blogs though — plus, they’re so fun to go back and read what we were doing in past years.

Best wishes for a Healthy and Prosperous New Year!
XOXO,
Anna