knitting break

First - it's halloween time and last night there was a party for the preschool kiddies which meant that K needed a costume. He was going to go as Kurt Cobain, but I had trimmed his hair a bit last week and it just didn't seem like it was going to work anymore. So, I asked the three year old what he wanted to be for halloween and he said 'a ghost'. So yesterday I cut up our only white sheet into a ghost costume and there you have it. There were a lot of kids at this party. Nearly every boy was a dinosaur in the same fuzzy costume. Or a superhero or a pirate. Nearly every girl was a princess or a fairy. The coolest costumes were a little girl dressed as a lego and a little baby all wrapped up in gauze as a mummy.

my right wrist has been giving me some carpel tunnel type pain lately, especially when knitting or using the scroll wheel on the mouse. so this past week i've been taking a bit of a knitting break and trying my hardest not to use that darn wheel. life has been wicked busy, so in a way it's been nice to kick back at the end of the day and do nothing.

well, nothing is a bit of an overstatement. i've been collecting fabric and trying to pick up sewing again. my mom taught me when i was in my teens and at that time i hated the meticulous nature of sewing. i hated the constant ironing of the seams - especially since the sewing machine lived in the basement and the iron was on the second floor. that's a lot of up and down. so anyway, i didn't sew again until the past year when i started to make the wool sachets for Hug-a-dub-dub. lately i've been watching all the cool projects in blog world as well as project runway - and just getting the itch to do a little sewing myself. i bought the book Sew-U to help me get started as well as tackling some little projects.


Today I finished up this cute little zippered pouch inspired from this tutorial. it's actually my second try - the first i sewed so close to the zipper that it didn't work, i'm still trying to rip that one apart.
Here's a little peak into my workspace. it's in our basement, but we do have a walkout basement with some lovely windows. It's a constant battle to keep this space organized - as you can see, mostly a losing battle. I'd like to add one more window and more shelves and cubbies and things to use the space more efficiently. Behind this table is a big piece of carpet with a monster train set up so my son can crash Thomas while I fiddle with craftly things.