Winter is Coming

Posted on May 24, 2012 by Heather

I’ve been working like crazy on socks for other people, but I have found a little bit of time to work on Winter Keep by Teresa Wentzler.

Winter Keep by Teresa Wentzler

It is so close to being done! All it needs is the beads. This was my WIPocalypse project for this month, and I’m declaring it done!!

Here are the two pieces together. Isn’t it interesting how two designers can take exactly the same subject and produce designs that look so different. I think that anyone familiar with Teresa Wentzler and Jennifer Aikman-Smith’s designs would be able to pick out who designed which piece.

Winter Keep/Summer Keep by Teresa Wentzler and Jennifer Aikman-Smith

My plan is to finish this up as a needlebook. That means miles of nun stitch. So, I’m sure you can guess that is will probably be a while until I get to it. I’ll add the beads after I finish the nun stitch.

So, I’m making good progress on stitching up all my TW designs. I think it might be a lifetime of work though, since I’ve managed to collect all of them but two.

 

Finally, like to say thank you for all the recommendations for [amazon_link id=”0143119680″ target=”_blank” container=”” container_class=”” ]A Discovery of Witches[/amazon_link]. My mom also suggested it as a book I may enjoy. So, I cracked it open (actually, loaded it up on my Kobo) the other day and so far so good! (I’m also reading [amazon_link id=”0307352145″ target=”_blank” container=”” container_class=”” ]Quiet[/amazon_link] by Susan Cain, [amazon_link id=”0061694940″ target=”_blank” container=”” container_class=”” ]Anathem[/amazon_link] by Neil Stevenson, and [amazon_link id=”0812978846″ target=”_blank” container=”” container_class=”” ]Absolute Monarchs: A History of the Papacy[/amazon_link] by John Julius Norwich.)

3 Comments | Posted in Cross Stitch | Tagged , , ,

TUSAL – May 2012

Posted on May 23, 2012 by Heather

Goodness, it has been a lot longer between posts than I planned. I actually do have something to share, but I’m waiting for the final pieces to arrive in the mail. I’ve been waiting since April 5th! Apparently the package was mailed out on Saturday, so I should have it before a full two months have elapsed. Truthfully, I”m a bit disappointed. I really like this ONS, but the last few times that things have been delayed I didn’t get any sort of notification. To me, that is poor business practice.

Anyway, on to something a little more fun: my Totally Useless Stitch Along jar. This month it has new bits from the My Vampire Boyfriend Socks, Winter Keep/Summer Keep, and from a crochet project I just started (I’ll be sharing him later).

TUSAL Jar full of thready goodness

And see those yellow yarn bits? They are from these crazy socks:

Toe-Up Sampler Sock

The pattern is a combination of Wendy Johnson’s Toe-up Socks with a Difference (pdf link), the Sampler Socks from the book [amazon_link id=”1603425799″ target=”_blank” container=”” container_class=”” ]Sock Yarn One-Skein Wonders[/amazon_link] (if you collect sock yarn, this book is fabulous!), and also some tinkering of my own. The cast-on is Judy’s Magic Cast-on, and I used Jeny’s Surprisingly Stretchy Bind Off. (Cat Bordhi has videos demonstrating both of these on YouTube.) The yarn is Yarn Hollow’s Summer Sock (aka Panda Cotton) in colourway Santa Fe.

The second sock is well underway… or would be if I hadn’t had to rip out 5 cm of it last night. Knitting around and around might seem easy, but clearly I got too distracted while playing Minecraft/watching my husband play Minecraft. Yep, we finally drank the Minecraft Kool-aid and we love it! Now I’m trying to figure out how to sneak the Minecraft Lego set into the house. lol!

3 Comments | Posted in Cross Stitch, Knitting | Tagged , , ,

My Vampire Boyfriend

Posted on May 14, 2012 by Heather

I haven’t fallen for the most recent round of vampire-mania. I’ve managed to avoid reading Twilight (nor have I seen the movies), and I don’t know anything about True Blood or the Sookie Stackhouse books. But, back when I was a teenager, I did do the whole Interview with the Vampire thing and Bram Stoker’s Dracula. (Tom Cruise is the worst vampire ever!)

The title of this post doesn’t have anything to do with any of that, though. Instead, I’m writing about socks. (Shock!)

My Vampire Boyfriend (side)

This is one half of a pair of socks made from the pattern My Vampire Boyfriend, designed by Kate Atherley and featured in the Fall 2009 issue of Knitty. The yarn is from Yarn Hallow, hand-dyed in a semi-solid red. The yarn base is my favourite: Panda Cotton.

My Vampire Boyfriend

Look at those beautiful cables. Would you believe, after all that work, that these aren’t even for me?

Oh, and Louis would be my vampire boyfriend for sure. What about you?

5 Comments | Posted in Knitting | Tagged ,

Ladybug, Ladybug

Posted on May 12, 2012 by Heather

I’m very particular in my preferences. My tastes run to what I would term a sort of shabby Victorian, even though I’m more of a jeans and t-shirt kind of a girl with it comes to clothing. (I would totally wear April Cornell stuff everyday if I had the shape and thought I could pull it off.) I’ve also got a soft spot of culturally sensitivity Asian designs (with my husband being Chinese, I often cringe when I see “Asian” things that are just a jumbled mess of stereotypes and misunderstandings).

Anyway, once in a while, something that isn’t my usual tastes just jumps up and says “Take me home! You love me!”

Japanese Handkerchief Bag

How cute is this little bag? Lady bugs are not me, and neither is red, but it was so cheerful and cute that I had to have it. The kit was from Quilt a Bag, and the pattern is Japanese Handkerchief Bag. It was pretty easy to make, but it did require some careful checking of straight lines. But my lovely new iron was a big help.

My Rowenta

Yes, I love my new iron. I’ve wanted to replace my $10 Walmart special for years, and since it was coming up to its 11th birthday and it was marking fabrics, it was time. The new beauty is a mid-range Rowenta, and it is a dream to iron with. (I also love the beautiful ironing board cover I bought off of etsy.)

What’s next in the sewing basket? A couple of more bags from Quilt a Bag (I already sort of messed up one, but I’ll be able to fix it once I’m not mad at myself any more), and maybe a pair or two of kimono shoes. What do you think?

1 Comment | Posted in Sewing | Tagged ,

Theme-a-licious Update for May 2012

Posted on May 11, 2012 by Heather

So, Theme-a-licious this month is about memories.

There were a whole lot of projects I could have worked on, going all the way back to English Garden Sampler that I started sometime at the end of high school or beginning of university. There are a whole lot of memories wrapped up in it, which is why I haven’t worked on it in years. Ditto for Magical Night. Instead, I looked to more recent, but still untouched for a while, projects that held good memories. I ultimately decided on Winter Keep/Summer Keep, a two part piece designed by Teresa Wentzler and Jennifer Aikman-Smith. (See a theme developing?)

Summer Keep by Jennifer Aikman-Smith

I finished up the Summer Keep half (sans beads) late last week. When I picked it up, all that was complete was the dark green and brown in the outer border. It didn’t take long to finish it up, and I love how it turned out.

Winter Keep by Teresa Wentzler (WIP)

Winter Keep is now under the needle. It is much more fully stitched, but I’m still hoping to have it done by the end of the month. The pieces have been stitched close together on a piece of mushroom Lugana, and I plan to finish them into a needle-keep eventually. Hehehe – Summer Keep, Winter Keep, Needle Keep. 😉

 

In other news, have you heard about the Lizzie*Kate mystery sampler? I may have decided I have to have it. Maybe. I’m still wishing I had bought Halloween Rules, but after that order (if I did order it), I’m on a stash diet until the Creativ Festival in the fall. Goodness knows, I don’t need anything else.

 

And completely off-topic: I’m taking part in Camp NaNoWriMo in August. That means I’m finally going to write a novel. Check out this blog post on my non-stitchy blog for more information. And if you’d like to sponsor me (please!!), check out the widget in my sidebar.

4 Comments | Posted in Cross Stitch, Memes & Collabs | Tagged , , , ,

Watch Dragon Paused

Posted on May 4, 2012 by Heather

Sometimes a design doesn’t grab you the first time you see it. But, after looking at it for a little while, you know that you absolutely have to stitch it. For me, that was the case with Enchanting Lair’s Watch Dragon. I was lucky enough to see the model at the Needleworker’s Marketplace back in April, and it was fabulous.

The model is stitched on Enchanting Lair’s own dyed fabric in the colourway Sunset (she uses Zweigart, so you know it is nice stuff). It uses three colours of Dinky Dyes, and has a border surrounding the dragon’s face. Well, I just had to be different. I’m stitching mine on 28 count black Lugana using the newish Dinky Dyes colour Quicksilver, and I’m leaving off the border.

Watch Dragon by Enchanting Lair (WIP)

This is as far as I’ve gotten with one skein of Dinky Dyes. Laura told me she only used one skein of each colour, so clearly I am a much  more wasteful stitcher than she is. Thankfully, I will be getting another skein of the same dyelot shortly.

When I’m all done stitching (by the end of next week, possibly!), it will finished into a banner. I’m not sure how or where I will hang it yet, but I’m so pleased with how it is turning out that all those details don’t really matter. The silverly silk just about glows on the dark fabric. It is glorious. 😉

But, until I can get another skein of silk, the Watch Dragon is paused and I’ll work on Summer Keep by Jennifer Aikman-Smith… or maybe the Chocolate Humbug Purse I picked up from Northern Pines…

4 Comments | Posted in Cross Stitch | Tagged ,

Using Up Yarn

Posted on May 3, 2012 by Heather

Four months down, and I am still managing to make a fairly good dent in my yarn stash. I will freely admit that I have bought some yarn (and a friend of mine has bought a fair little bit of yarn on sale with the idea of me buying it from her. hehehe). But, I’ve also traded away a whole lot (I mean, a lot) and given some to Darlene over at Craftkitten, as she does a lot of charity knitting.

So, without the yarn from my friend (hey, I haven’t paid for it and it isn’t in my hands yet), I’m down 1427.1 yards. Not bad at all! (I think once I get all the yarn from here, I may actually be at 0 or worse!)

To help with my numbers, I made a couple of projects last month that used all the yarn in the skein. First up was Dicey, the socks I’ve been working on since March. The second sock actually ended up a row shorter than the first sock, but I’m pretty sure no one is going to notice. The yarn is Crystal Palace Panda Cotton that was originally their Caribbean Blue colourway, but which I over-dyed with some grey Ritt dye.

Dicey from Sock Madness 2012

The pattern was from Sock Madness 2012, a sock knitting contest on Ravelry. I was knocked out in the first round because I wasn’t able to finish the socks to the directed length since I ran out of yarn. I took my time with the second sock, and finished them up about two weeks go. (Yes, I’m super lazy about taking pictures.) The cables on the socks look all wonky because they are random. Their placement was determined by the role of a die, hence the name. I reversed the direction of the cables for the second sock.

Dicey's crazy cables

I also crocheted myself two new dishcloths from some Lily Sugar n’ Cream cotton in colourway Urban Pastels. The second one is a bit large because I wanted to use up all the yarn in the skein. I still have a metric craptonne of kitchen cotton, so I think a secondary goal this year is to knit and/or crochet it all into dishcloths and washcloths. Guess what everyone will be getting for Christmas. lol! Seriously, though, I find my handmade dishcloths to be so much better than store-bought ones. They are thicker, scrub better, and wash like a dream. And I’ve never had trouble with any of them getting smelly or having to bleach them. I will never go back to store-bought dishcloths or sponges.

Crocheted Dishcloths

If there is any interest, maybe I can do a little draw for some dishcloths so those of you who don’t knit or crochet can give them a try. Let me know in the comments if you’d be interested in that.

2 Comments | Posted in Crochet, Knitting | Tagged , , ,