I'm taking pictures of my latest thingies for Yarn Confections and my kid has to get in the picture...




Come visit Yarn Confections!
I've opened another storefront on etsy that is more aptly named and doesn't make proper people go "uh-oh." The items from the original site will either be moved over or saled off. Ringos are my latest confection. Check them out! I have to snap pics and bag 'em quickly before the girls or I try to hoard them ALL.

Oh, and my friend who makes those beautiful fairy crowns also has an etsy site, KeikiGifts.etsy.com. She only has a few of those handmade wonders available...going for a TOTAL STEAL. You won't believe it. Please check them out.

My friend made these absolutely beautiful fairy princess crowns for my girls. I took loads of pictures to try and capture some of the workmanship and intricacies.

It looks like she first wrapped eyelash yarn and thin ribbon around the wire base.




Then pieces of that wedding veilish stuff is tied all along it, along with lots of pretty fake flowers that have bead centers.









Also, ribbon streamers are tied at the ends with different beads tied along the lengths and at the end. Wire circles with beads and charms are also attached at various points. These crowns are really the most amazing things I've ever seen. Soooo neat! The best part is the base is a thick but bendable wire so I can shape it very easily to the wearer's head. Oh yeah, and my kids LOVE them!

Thank you so much, J!

This is my child 10 minutes after a bath.

Solder socks are about 4" into the second sock's cuff. First sock is 13" into leg and waiting on needles for second leg to be pau.

We just got back from camping and this is how we all feel. Wiped...out...
Washing clothes and putting stuff away for the rest of the day. Next camping: July!

I just posted a review for this book:

You think I was too harsh?

OH. MY. GOD. I just bought yarn....I just wanted to look at my favorites! And then there it was. But the caption also said: buy now, only 1 remaining. And that was after the original one i had favorited had been sold. So i HAD to buy this one. And then I had to buy ANOTHER SKEIN of a different yarn from the same seller to maximize the shipping. (NOT said in a whiney voice).

Do you see?! Do you see why I HAD TO BUY YARN?!!! After months of self-imposed yarn diet. These will be socks FOR ME. Because I sold two things on etsy that combined don't even add up to shipping of the yarn, okay, maybe they do.

I forgot to mention: I made my first two online sales!!!! Whoopeee! Two hairpins sets sold.


And all the kindergarten graduation leis have been bowed or rosed and handed out. Whooo. I tired. Took way long to make those bows, and attach the roses. The normal way to finish a lei is to attach a ribbon bow. But with more than 20 to do, I attached a bunch of fake roses instead to some of the lei. Only trouble was, I thought I would be "assisting" in the leing process so that they wouldn't get tangled up, dropped, faster dispersion. WRONG. Kid insisted on doing it all herself, so I don't know who got what and I know roses were popping off their stems right and left. boohoo. Didn't get chance to take pics after bows and roses attached. They looked way good! The bow really is the finishing touch! Felt like completing works of art as I selected bow and rose colors to go just right with the lei.

And last thing is the Kikaida hairpin for my littlest one. Made matching barrette sets for oldest ones fellow muskateers as their kinder grad. gift.

So two of our parakeets died this past week. I changed their diet to include fruits and vegetables on advice of the bird guy at the vet and I guess the birds couldnt adapt. One 'keet is fine but sad to be alone again. I'm pretty sure the other two died of starvation when I cut their seed amount to force them to eat the fresh stuff.

Four Friends barrette is pau. Mostly the bear has been wearing it.

And this is me enjoying a very rare chocolate milkshake while on a Girls Nite Out with my budz and special visiting bud on her way to stay in Okinawa. We ate dinner and desert at Chili's in Waikele. The chicken strips were tender and the milkshake was AWESOME. And the girls were asleep when I got home before 10 p.m.!

I watched the first episode of Starter Wife with Debra Messing. I like her. Not overly impressed with show otherwise. Maybe too much hype. It looks like they may have killed off my favorite character! On to watching more back episodes of Grey's Anatomy. They just killed off my other fav character on that show - Denny the heart patient. So sad. So so sad. And then those bomb guys bit it! This series is so riveting I can only knit socks because my eyes are riveted to the screen. It's the most compelling hospital show EVER.

Older one's recent works from her class Adventures In Art:
The teacher is very good. Art in the schools is not a priority for the Dept of Education any more so I am glad I can provide her with this opportunity.

Flower hairpins just added to my etsy site. Great for giving mom a lift when all our energy and activities are directed at THEM, you know, the offspring!

It's pretty hot today. But outside in the shade there is a nice breeze. Good for working on craft projects while the kids play dirt, as long as they don't spray the house or me with the hose!

Now kids are getting TV time watching the Mandarin version of Muzzy. I think it's taking. Helps when I can learn some of the words to use with them.

Have about two weeks to finish the kindergarten lei for frenz. Red, white, and blue ones are Kikaida themed. I love using cotton yarn for lei because it is not scratchy against the neck, even in our hot, humid weather. And it is completely machine washable!!! Always a plus with kids.

Pink and white is the one I am working on now. That and more stuff for my shop.

Kid birthday party also successfully completed this past weekend. Had planny food, typical of local style get-togethers. Hubbo grilled hotdogs, chicken, and made poke. Yum! I was surprised everybody ate up the cucumbers and carrots I put out too. Usually my vegees go neglected. I know why, only had grapes out besides that, i forgot to slice the oranges and put them out too. At least the kids had fun and the breeze kept things cool out back.

I think if I quite moaning and groaning about party planning it would go easier. This wasn't that stressful. However, in the subsequent unwrapping of presents later, a card got separated from the gift and I'm not sure what was given. Kid liked all the gifts though! Especially the clothes and girly stuffs. Surprisingly, she readily shared a few gifts with her sister. I have a feeling SIX will be a lot easier to bear than FIVE (in age not number of kids).

Party activities included a modified cake walk, build a bad guy (out of stuffs found around the house that would otherwise be thrown away), coloring pages of Kikaida, Kamen Rider, and bad guys, playdoughing, and sidewalk chalking. The kids here are working on their totally open-ended craft activity of building a bad guy using all found stuffs, some scissors, tape, acrylic yarn, and a hole puncher. I am soooo glad they got into it after a while.

Clay mostly kept my little ones busy the day before while I finished last minute preparations.

Getting ready for end of our 4H year with goodies for the girls.


















Barrette with flowers and beads.

















And progress on soldier sock while watching subtitled movies - surprisingly fast. Most of this was done in one night!

Fourth? blanket panel has hearts. In progress. Oops. Forgot to take a picture.

In search of kona coffee beans for the dedicated soldier sock knitting maven. Looking into Halawa swim classes for oldest right after school ends next month. And prepping to post a few more items to my etsy shop, Yarn Confections.

Have joined the Leeward YMCA. Brand new facilities. HEATED pool! Open til 9 at night. How great is that!

Continuing to knit third strip of Hubby blanket. Going fuzzily. Heart cables with seed stitch inside heart. Pattern from vogue stitchionary cables. Also still churning out bookmarks. Started trying out this cool dim sum pattern. Only made the custard thing in size 10 thread.

Am currently using this lovely but extrememly fuzzy organic cotton, bulky yarn that I got off eBay a while back, to make a multi-paneled blanket for hubby. I'd actually like to make his out of wool, as the stitch definition is clearer, but I had loads of this lying around and it is so very soft, so....

I hope it's less fuzzy after the washing. The fuzz is really bothering my nose as i knit with it. But after just two weeks I am already almost pau with two panels. I think I overplanned when this yarn first came in. Pored over Vogue stitionary 1 and 2 for hours trying to choose just the right designs to go with each organic color. Filling pages and pages in my knit planning notebook with notes and calculations. This time I just flipped though the stitches and picked. I already knew I liked the oxo pattern as the recipient would be a loved one. I want to try a leafy one too, in keeping with the organic theme, but the yarn texture may decide otherwise.

Here is the oxo pattern, unblocked, as it is still OTN.








Next are the two panels side by side; although this is not the final order.
The first, brown panel is in a feathery looking pattern. My kids love how the panels feel and are already trying to wrap themselves up in the strips.

I just bought a yarn ball winder off eBay as my arm got tired that last time I wound the green ball. Now I have to make a swift. YES, I said MAKE.

Taking clear close-up pictures on my camera involves busting out the tripod to hold the camera still long enough for the longer exposure time. Since that is an extra step, I no more FO pics fo' you. However, we did go camping recently and here are some pics from this past weekend and when we went right before Christmas.

It is very beautiful and we are very lucky and I can't thank my friend Jessica enough for all the times she has arranged, encouraged, organized, and cheerled us on to...sleep outside!

Plus a silly pic of me. Wow, that's enough of a puzzle piece to recognize me on the street even!

The weather pixie shows sunny skies but it's been raining off and on all day. Got wet walking into that open all the time exercise place, dropping my kid off at school, picking my kid up from school, getting the mail, moving the car. No laundry hanging today.

Latest, coolest projects: TRIVETS. All-cotton, multi-stranded, ocean themed trivets.
Crab pattern from crochetroo on etsy
with 5 strands and a P hook.
Sand dollar used 3 strands. Free pattern online.
Fish used size 17 needles and 6 strands. Made two and slip stitched them together. Free pattern online.

I gotta tell you, these were FUN! My smart friend K tasked me with making here three trivets of varying sizes, with specific dimensions to fit her pans, and gave me free reign from there. At fist I was going to make the Hot Out of the Oven potholders using Knit Picks Wool of the Andes Bulky Hand Dye. I've been dying to get that yarn! But then I thought about washability as well as thickness, and I came up with using lots of strands of dish cloth type cotton yarn. Using 6 strands for the knit fish was quite a tangly challenge! But the results were better than expected. I worked from fresh balls each time, so as to avoid running out of yarn mid-way and having extra ends to weave in. If you don't use beads, these trivets are squishy soft, thick, and machine washable and dryable - definitely a bonus.

I realize I'm only posting weekly now. Found that in posting more often, I was spending too much time surfing the net instead of doing whatever task I had turned the computer on for in the first place. This way, at least I have planny pitchas to share.

Have also learned that if I'm lazy and don't take the pics using hubby's tripod, the image is not as clear. Just can't get around that in micro mode with the slower shutter speed.

Feverishly trying to finish up lesson 2 of 3 of my TKGA Basics correspondence course begun last May. Got sidetracked by all other knitting and crocheting goodnesss. That and the lack of readily available light colored wool in Hawaii to work the swatches in.

Anyhoo, biggest pair of Big Black Socks, sized 14 after wash & dry are done and shipped off to some lucky big guy.

Bookmarck exchange recipient's package also sent out. Forgot to tack picha.

Hubby ordered bookmarks to send to clients. I chose a freebie octo pattern found online and crochetroo gecko.


The wings are off etsy. Very fun to maker, harder to rig up. I removed middle section and extra cast on stitches after lace pattern pau so would fit my child. That and removed one pattern repeat. This pattern is so beautiful i think i'll make a sweater thing out of it at some point.