Purple Afghan Square

Posted on May 1, 2011 by Heather

Last week I shared a blue afghan square I knit for a very young man who is in the hospital after undergoing heart failure. Today, I have another afghan square to share. Again, this is part of a larger Raverly project, this time for a love lady (who shares my love of the colour purple) who has been undergoing some health problems.

Purple Passion Afghan Square

This is the Purple Passion square from the book [amazon_link id=”1601406703″ target=”_blank” container=”” container_class=”” ]50 Fabulous Crochet Squares[/amazon_link] by Leisure Arts. The yarn is Bernat Satin in colours (from the centre) Sultana, Stardust, and Camel.

Centre of Purple Passion

I enjoyed working on these afghan squares this past week. It is sad to think of what the recipients are going through, but it is also wonderful to see all the people (and there are a lot!) who are coming together to make these gifts.

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Freddie the Flounder

Posted on April 30, 2011 by Heather

Can you believe it will be May tomorrow? Where has the year gone? It has been a busy year, at least, so I do feel like the time has been well spent, rather than one of those years where the time disappears and you haven’t got much to show for it.

And speaking of having a lot to show for time spent, boy did I get a lot done this week. Sadly, two pieces are for a secret partner exchange on Ravelry, so I can’t show pictures right now. Well, I can show you the package in the bag, waiting to go to the post office:

Mail!

I can also show a picture of this cute little guy:

Freddie the Flounder

I call him Freddie, and he is the Flappy Flounder pattern by cheezombie in the Spring + Summer 2011 Knitty. He is knit in Vanna’s Choice in colour Denim Mist, with a wee bit of white Mary Maxim Starlette.

Wow, those are some big eyes!

I used 9mm safety eyes for the pupils on his very, very big eyes.

He was a quick knit, less than a day from start to finish. He was a bit fiddly though, but part of that came from the fact that I used needles that were a bit too small. I just grabbed what was sitting next to my stitching spot, rather than getting off my fat bum and looking for the right size. Serves me right. 😀

Sadly, I didn’t do much stitching this week. In addition to the toys I finished up, I’ve been working away on the yellow socks. And, honestly, it has been hard going. I don’t like the colour yellow, so I’m not really enjoying working on these socks. But, I did promise to have them done at the beginning of May, so I need to get moving. I’m about 1/3 of the way down the foot on the second sock, so I should have them finished and in the mail in a few days. Thank goodness. Then it is back to more stitching, and that pink shawl I started a while back.

 

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Afghan Square for a Little Man

Posted on April 26, 2011 by Heather

I consider myself very lucky to be part of a great community on Ravelry. I’ve found a lovely group of ladies (and a couple of guys) who are great fun to talk to, trade with, and just generally have fun with. Sometimes, though, sad things happen to those great people. Right now, one lady has a very sick nephew–a 10-year old guy waiting to have open heart surgery.

So, since this is a great group of people, a bunch of us have gotten together to make squares for an afghan for him. I whipped up my square today, since a cold, rainy spring day is a great day for getting out the crochet hook.

Square for Jason

It hasn’t been blocked yet, so it is a little wavy, but for my first afghan square, I’m very happy with it. The yarn is Vanna’s Choice in colour Denim Mist. The pattern is a modified Autumn Leaves from the book [amazon_link id=”B003W0NW9G” target=”_blank” container=”” container_class=”” ]50 Fabulous Crochet Squares[/amazon_link], with a few extra rows added to make the square 10″ across. (The colour in the picture is off because it is raining and dreary here today.)

As I was typing this entry up, I just heard that Jason is doing well. His doctors except the best, but it is still so sad that such a young man has undergone heart failure.

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Happy Easter

Posted on April 24, 2011 by Heather

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Easter Egg Failure

Posted on April 23, 2011 by Heather

Holiday stitching should be fun and easy, I think. (Except Christmas stitching. That is long and sometimes difficult…) So, when I saw the new cute freebie from my LNS’s resident designer, I thought I would give it a try, figuring it would work up in a couple of nights.

Well, it didn’t.

Easter Egg by Kathrin Ellison

I know it looks okay, but my count is so far off on the one side that it is truly laughable. I have no idea what happened, other than perhaps a few too many nights of not enough sleep have finally caught up with me.

The design can be found here on Kathrin’s blog. The fabric is white 28 count evenweave from my stash, and the fibre is Lavender Skies from Ayrloom, whom I found on eBay. (It appears that their current listings are all for fabric.) The fibre uses DMC for a base (I sent them a message to find out), so it stitches really nicely. However, I don’t like the really long colour repeats in this particular colourway. So, I suppose, I wouldn’t have been happy with the finished product, even if I had been able to count correct.

This wee piece of stitching will go back in the fabric stash, and I will pick out what I’ve done some other day. Easter is far too close (tomorrow!) for me to worry about it now.

At least Easter crafting with the little man went well. (The picture is blurry because the little man is always in motion it seems.) We really need to get him blue bunny ears next year…

Bunny gift bag (from Dollarama kit)

As an aside, has anyone else noticed that they are no longer following some of the blogs they had previously followed through Google Friend Connect? Every once in a while, I run across a blog I know I follow, and yet it isn’t showing that I am.

2 Comments | Posted in Crafts, Cross Stitch |

Swedish Weaving Finish

Posted on April 22, 2011 by Heather

Back in October, at the Creativ Festival, I took a Swedish weaving class from Christine Allan of FunAndFastPatterns.ca. The project was a simple towel design called Mountain Mist.

Mountain Mist Tea Towel by Christine Allan

The finishing on the towel is pretty simple. The bottom is fringed to your preferred depth on both ends, and a line is sewed just above the fringe to stop it from unravelling. Then the perle cotton is secured with a couple of lines of stitching on the selvage edge on both sides:

Mountain Mist Tea Towel - securing thread

Then the salvage edge is folded over and stitched down along the whole length. And there you go: you have a fabulous tea towel.

Swedish weaving is quick and easy to do. Just take your needle and weave over and under the floats on the fabric, and you get a lovely effect that shows only on the front of the fabric. I will definitely be doing more Swedish weaving projects. In fact, I have all the supplies for Christine Allan’s Flickering Flakes design that was in last year’s Festive issue of A Needle Pulling Thread. I’m looking forward to starting it… once my number of WIPs decreases a little bit. 🙂

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Royal School of Needlework Profile

Posted on April 21, 2011 by Heather

CBS Sunday Morning recently did a profile on the UK’s Royal School of Needlework, highlighing their history and some of the projects they have worked on. It is a lovely video, full of beautiful pieces of needlework (and not a mention of the upcoming royal wedding).

There are not words to express how much I would love to attend the Royal School of Needlework. I know I’m nowhere near as talented as the ladies highlighted in this video, but that doesn’t mean that I don’t have the desire to learn. (It is a shame, though, that my artistic ability is limited to following someone else’s pattern.) Actually, I feel very inspired to try something different, again. Maybe I should work on some more canvaswork pieces…

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