Friday, November 13, 2009

A Little Christmas Stitching


Every year I attempt to stitch at least one new Christmas ornament. Although I finish the cross stitching I never seem to "finish" the ornament. Consequently, I have a bag chock full of cross-stitch Christmas designs waiting to become ornaments. This year's contribution to the bag is from Just Cross Stitch 2009 Ornament issue. It's called Caroline from Miss Crescent's Crowne and it really is adorable. I was fortunate enough to find the PERFECT fabric for "finishing" it at Hancock's (that's it in the background-don't some of those snowflakes look exactly like the cross stitched ones?). I used a DMC variegated thread for the body of the bird and whatever DMC floss looked good to me for the green and gold and DMC white for the snowflakes. Since the picture was taken I have finished the cross stitch but of course I haven't "finished" the ornament.

Sunday, November 1, 2009

NaNiNaNiBooBoo

Okay...so I couldn't remember what it's called but I know there's an effort underway to encourage bloggers to post every day in November. If you see my history, I'm an erratic blogger at best so it would be fruitless to even think about participating in the "official effort". So, I'm starting my own blogging challenge called NaNiNaNiBooBoo and here are the rules:

1. Post once (any day, any month, any year). Blog entries prior to November 1, 2009 can count towards your total.

Yep...that's it...one rule. So I'm done...having successfully completed the NaNiNaNiBooBoo challenge I can feel good about finally having finished SOMETHING!!!


Friday, October 23, 2009

I'm so excited...

No, the Pointer Sisters haven't asked me to sing with them (boy did they dodge a bullet there :)). Some time ago I purchased a quaker sampler chart and cross stitch software combo from Needleprint and I have been putzing around with the software ever since. I created a little Christmas sampler and an ornament and sent it to Jacqueline (the owner of the Needleprint blog) and she has "published" it on her blog today. You can see here . She is offering it free in pdf or in jgg format (jgg is the Jane Greenoff cross stitch software format). This is my first foray into cross stitch design and I am so delighted that she deemed it worthy of posting to her website. I'll be watching anxiously to see if anyone actually stitches it-then I'll feel like a real designer.

Friday, July 17, 2009

Yes, I Really Do Tat

See...I told you I was a tatter. I recently tatted this from a pattern I got off the interwebz. I'll try to look it up for you and post the website later {Found it: http://tatslife.voskes.eu/e/index.htm }. It is tatted from some Tencel "yarn" (more like a thread-about the size of #5 perle cotton) from an etsy shop called Yarntopia Treasures. I just love the bright colorway-quite a departure from what you expect for tatting.

It's clipped to my office cubicle wall at the present moment to remind me that there's more to me than just my job. Sometimes I get so wrapped up in work that I forget that work is not who I really am. It brightens my day to look at it and remember that I am actually a much more creative person than my job allows.


Wednesday, July 15, 2009

StitchMAP Stitch Challenge


Since it's been 26 years since my last attempt at Crazy Quilting (heretofore to be known as CQ cuz I'm a lazy blogger). I've joined the StitchMAP Yahoo group. It's a wonderful group of stitchers who offer mentoring services and classes for those interested in pursuing needlearts and stitchery. They are a really kind, funny and generous group of stitchers.

I signed up for a Stitch Challenge while I wait for the next CQ class to start so I can brush up on my long neglected embroidery skills. Here's a pic of my fabric preparation for the challenge. We will be learning three stitches and using what we create to cover an Altoid tin.

Stay tuned for further developments.

Sunday, July 12, 2009

ROFLOL!!!




Please laugh with me and not at me. Even on my PC I kept making this same dumb mistake...of course the computer won't recognize your camera....IF YOU DON'T TURN IT ON!!!! What an idiot! Actually, it's the story of my life: failure to learn from previous mistakes. So with no further ado, here are pics of my one and only foray into crazy quilting. Oh, and back then my last initial was a "J" not an "H".

P.S. Can you believe those itty bitty boullion roses? How on earth did I do that?

Piffle!!!!!


Wouldn't you think by now I would know better than to plan anything? I got up this morning and began my photo shoot with a framed crazy quilted piece I did in 1983 that I was going to share on the Yahoo group I was just accepted to called stitchMAP. I got some lovely shots of it on my really nice digital camera and guess what? I don't have anyway of reading the card on my laptop nor do I have the cord for it (that must be in my storage unit). So, I dig out my newer simple digital and re-take the photos and guess what? I have the cord for it, but the PC has gone up on me and the laptop won't recognize the camera and I don't have the disc for the camera to load in the laptop (that must be in the storage unit also). So I have squat for you in photos...I'm so sorry.

How about this? Here's something from my Flickr account just so you can have something to look at. I was on a roll one year with ballband dishcloths and had all these little tiny bits left from every skein of cotton I used. So I took some plain ecru cotton and made what I call a stash-bustin' dishcloth by using up a different leftover in each stripe.

Stay tuned-I'm gonna get this camera thing figured out yet...I don't want to resort to using my cell phone for the pics cuz it takes awful pictures.

TTYL

Saturday, July 11, 2009

Check It Out!

Woohoo! I adore this new background and header from "Cute n Cool". I'm amazed at how simple it was to put it here...I am so lame when it comes to bloggie html stuffs. I'd still like to figure out how to put my blog title back in an appropriate size and font.

I think today will be picture day. Gonna break out the digital cameras, go outdoors, and take some pics just to prove to my readers that I really do knit, crochet, spin, tat, cross stitch and quilt. The down side will be my utter embarrassment at the number of UFO's I have accumulated as well as the number of finished objects I've never done anything with. The up side will be that I will have blog fodder enough for many future blog posts.

Great News! After seven months of having no wheels, I will finally be able to get the transmission replaced in my Dodge Grand Caravan sometime in the next couple of weeks. Yes, peeps, this means I can finally get a life. I know my son will be thrilled as well, cuz this means I won't be underfoot all the time.

More good news! One of my coworkers recently got an iPhone. Now he doesn't need his iTouch anymore and is selling it to me cheap. I have it this weekend to try it out and OMG am I having fun with this new toy. I already have an older model shuffle and a fifth gen 80G iPod, but this iTouch is just a bundle of awesomeness-I can plurk, twitter and facebook from it.

Well, gonna stop blabbing and get on with the photo session-stay tuned for the embarrassment of riches in the form of a zillion fibery UFO's.

Saturday, June 27, 2009

So....I Lied :P

Okay, so no swatch last Sunday. It's the whole camera thing-I have always been a lousy photographer. I use my digital cameras so seldom that I have to get the manual out to figure out how to use it every time.

Okay, so I missed my PlurkBuds and signed back up again. Mine is a big lonely world and I need my cyber buddies to help keep me sane. Oh, and I restored my Twitter account too-mostly I just read, not post.

So here's the deal-sometime today I'm gonna dig out the digital camera and take a picture of the swatch I'm doing for the Ravelry Symbol Crochet Mystery CAL and maybe the Cold Mountain Shawl KAL (I love Kieran Foley's designs-this one is really lovely).

And if I get real ambitious I'll do a shot of the SAL of the Quaker sampler by Mary Wigham from Needleprint.com. I'm not very far on the sampler so it'll just be a shot of the floss and the fabric and the fifty or so stitches I've managed to do. It's been a long time since I did any cross stitch and geez are my eyes getting old-gonna have to find some young person to thread my needles for me LOL.

I think the deep blue funk has finally lifted. Ever since April I've been spiralling downward-delayed reaction to all the chaos in December I guess. But thankfully, the blues seem to have passed (good riddance to bad rubbish, I say).

Well, it's too beautiful a day here to sit and blog all day. TTYL.

Sunday, June 14, 2009

Swatchkeeper Sundays

Swatch is not a dirty word...swatch is not a dirty word...swatch is not a dirty word.

Intellectually, I know that swatching is crucial to the success of any knitted or crocheted article that must FIT something as opposed to scarves, afghans, and various other projects that will forgive the lack of swatching. I tend to stick to the non-swatch requiring sort of item myself. But I also know that swatching is a great way to create a stitch library as well.

As an exercise in discipline and in an effort to create my own swatch encyclopedia, I'm establishing Swatchkeeper Sundays on my blog (not that it really matters-there's no one reading my blog at present). Every Sunday, I will select a yarn from my stash and a stitch pattern that intrigues me and I will swatch. Do you hear me? I WILL swatch.

The procrastinator in me must tell you that Swatchkeeper Sunday entries will begin next week (or possibly later today, depending on whether my lazy a** gets a swatch done and whether the sun comes out so I can take a decent picture).

Off Topic Blathering: If you happen to go to Target(pronounced Tar-zhay of course) anytime soon you must check out the Soap and Glory Clean on Me Shower stuff and the Mist You Madly body spray-they smell absolutely gorgeous!!!

Thursday, May 14, 2009

Returning to the Real World

I've made a decision with regard to the concept of "re-inventing" myself. I need to reduce my internet presence and my total reliance on the internet (i.e. Plurk and Twitter) for social interaction. I've closed both my Twitter and my Plurk accounts so I won't be tempted to return to them. I'll still hang out on Ravelry, Intatters and GoodReads. I've kept my Facebook account to keep in touch my family and old high school friends...and of course I'll keep my blog-it's not as if I spend much time blogging anyway, right?

I've come to realize that I spend so much time sitting at the computer that I'm not moving forward with my life. The last year's events have left me traumatized and have sucked any self-confidence I ever had right out of me. It's time to move on and be part of the world around me instead of just the world within me.

I'm behind in everything, yet the only thing I "have" to do each week is work eight hours a day Monday through Friday. Go figure!

To this point I've lived my life as if it were a daily dress rehearsal...just waiting for opening night...Well, today is opening night! So, to the one or two people who might actually read my blog, wish me luck (or "break a leg" if you want to keep with the theater simile).

Thanks for your kind attention.

Sunday, April 5, 2009

Where's My ZZZZZ's???




One AM...and I can't sleep!!! So, I'll blog about some random stuff:
First-my yarn from the March CJKopeccreations Spinalong:

Check out that boat anchor masquerading as a bottom whorl spindle-five ounces...feels more like five pounds!


Then, there's my vintage spinning wheel I've had for three years and still haven't gotten the damaged leather bits replaced-maybe this year.






And while I'm at it, I'll include one picture of the freshly groomed doggeh from last summer-he's pitifully shaggy right now (note the large plastic bag chock full of tatted bits and bobs-see, I really do tat).





I'm currently participating in a Ravelry hansigurumi swap (I have 2 partners-what was I thinking?), the CJKopec April spinalong, beginning April 13 a Todos scarf Plurkalong, and I'll get my swapbot dotee doll swap partner on April 15...overcommitted much? Oh...and today I got my Martha Ess Tea is for Tatting book and I want to tat everything in it. And then of course, my copy of Hansi Singh's new book full of her amazing hansigurumi creatures is slated to arrive from Amazon on my doorstep on Tuesday (my birthday-perfect timing). All of that on top of a minimum of 20 UFO's. So if it's a long time before I blog again you'll know exactly why.

Thursday, March 12, 2009

My Three Gaiters


Woohoo! Finally a blog entry with picture...lousy picture, but picture nonetheless. These are three gaiters (they don't drape so I hesitate to call them cowls) that I made from some fiber I spun-some of the first spinning I ever did. The one on the bottom was a batt I bought from The Sanguine Gryphon called Wild Mountain Thyme, the one in the middle is called Western Jewel and was purchased from SpinningMoonWool etsy shop, and the third was one of the Plurktest fibers Coby of cjkopeccreations etsy shop sent me. The pattern is just 2 rows of garter stitch at the beginning and the end and a diagonal rib stitch from Vogue Stitchionary 1 in between...I think I cast on something like 88. I made them a few months ago so memory fails me. The little hanks of fiber you see in the back are the other fiber sent for me to Plurktest by Coby.

Sorry there are no links :(...I can make an Excel spreadsheet sing, but the whole html thing...not so much.

Monday, February 2, 2009

I am so sad today. My husband and I have been living separately for almost 2 months and today I had to tell him that while I could be his friend, I couldn't go on as his wife. It was so, so hard. I feel like the lowest lifeform on the planet.