Earth Socks and Sun Socks

Posted on April 20, 2011 by Heather

I’ve been knitting socks again. Surprise!

Herimone's Everyday Socks by Erica Lueder

The pattern is Herimone’s Everyday Socks from Erica Lueder of Dreams in Fiber. The pattern is avaliable for free through Ravelry or through Erica’s website here. The yarn is Bernat Sox in colour Wooded Denim, a nylon/acrylic blend, which knit up quite nicely. These socks are now on their way to a lovely lady in Austin, Texas.

And, since I think the world might end if I don’t have a pair of socks on the needles, I’ve cast on my next pair:

Cookie A's Summer Sox Socks by Cookie A

The pattern for these socks is Cookie A’s Summer Sox Socks by Cookie A, a free pattern avaliable for Classic Elite. (This appears to be the same as her Kelp pattern, which is for sale for $6 from Webs.) The yarn is a hand-dyed from Yarn Hollow, and appears to be very, very simlilar to my all-time favourite sock yarn, Panda Cotton. These are yet another pair for the lady in Sarnia.

So, there are socks on the needles and all is right in the world.

 

1 Comment | Posted in Knitting | Tagged , ,

Ornament of the Month – April 2011

Posted on April 19, 2011 by Heather

Somehow we’ve made it well into the middle of April, and I’m only just finishing up my ornament of the month.  I’m not really sure how that happened (being halfway through April, not the stitching). But, here we are, deep into crazy Canadian spring weather (rain, snow and sun on Sunday, clouds and a little snow yesterday, -1 today, and maybe 19 on Wednesday; no wonder everyone gets sick this time of year).

Britty Kitty Christmas by BritterCup Designs

The design is Britty Kitty Christmas by BritterCup designs from the 2005 Just Cross Stitch ornament issue. The fabric is some 28ct white from my stash, and the threads are Dinky Dyes silk in colour Black Coral and the remaining silk is unknown colours from my collection of Oops packs, etc.  It is stitched over one.

As I was working on this, I started thinking I wasn’t really feeling this ornament of the month thing. It was really cutting into my stitching time for my larger designs. And, with all the commission knitting I’ve been doing, my stitching time has been very limited (not to mention all the sewing I want to do). But, when I finished it, I very nearly started another ornament. 🙂 Good to know that I know my own mind.

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

Favourite Things Giveaway Winner!

Posted on April 18, 2011 by Heather

I got up bright and early this morning (actually, the little man woke me up at 6-o’yawn in the morning) in order to draw the winner. But first I would like to thank everyone who entered, and everyone who visited my blog this past week. I appreciate all your comments, and I really enjoyed reading about all your favourite things and visiting some new-to-me blogs.

Some of my favourite things

Thanks to the help of Random.org, the winner of all the lovely things you see in the photo above is marlajap!

Thank you again for entering, and I do hope you will continue to visit.

2 Comments | Posted in Site News |

My New Friend

Posted on April 17, 2011 by Heather

I’m not much of a sewist (sewer?), but it is something I’ve been really wanting to work on. However, I’ve often found that I’m lacking the tools that will allow me to do what I want to do. So, over the past year or so I’ve accumulated some fancy feet for my sewing machine (a trusty but simple Kenmore) including a very handy walking foot. But I felt I still needed one toy tool to be able to finish things nicely and to do some complicated things really easily.

So, after some planning, some sacrifices, and maybe a little bit of whinging, here’s what I bought on Friday:

Janome Four-DLG

Isn’t she pretty? Now I can nicely finish seams, do rolled hems, make a ruffle and attach it all in one step, and even nicely finish the edge of my cross stitch fabric (super important). I’d like to get one more foot for it shortly, to make it even more useful. And then, I think, I’m pretty much set for quite a while…

…that is, until  I want a fancier sewing machine… and a cover stitch machine… and one of those $6000 embroidery machines. Yeah, I live in a dream world.

Don’t forget: today at noon Eastern entries for my Favourite Things giveway ends. Head over here to enter.

1 Comment | Posted in Sewing |

Bread?

Posted on April 16, 2011 by Heather

Just to show that I’m not a one-trick pony (or is that four, what with sewing, needlework, knitting and crochet?), I thought I would share with you my latest attempt at baking.

Funny looking bread

Hmmm… well, it sort of looks like bread. It smells like bread, too. And I’ve tasted it, and it’s pretty good. It’s a wee bit dense, but I should be able to adjust the recipe in the future to make lighter… I hope.

The recipe is from [amazon_link id=”0312362919″ target=”_blank” container=”” container_class=”” ]Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day[/amazon_link], and believe me, the bread in the book looks much nicer. I just seem to have trouble baking.  Oh, most of what I make tastes great (I make the world’s best sugar cookies, seriously), but it usually ends up looking weird. For example, it doesn’t rise quite right, or it spreads too much, or ends up lopsided. Thankfully, I’m a pretty good cook, which helps to make up for my deficiencies in the baking department. Sort of…

Don’t forget: tomorrow is the last day to enter my Favourite Things giveaway. Head over here for all the details.

3 Comments | Posted in Crafts |

Giveways – Mine and Other’s

Posted on April 14, 2011 by Heather

Wow, the week sure is speeding by. I’m very nearly done yet another pair of socks (again, not for me), and I’ve even manged to fit in some stitching time, even though I’ve been dealing with a three-year old with a very bad cold.

Don’t forget to head over here and enter my Favourite Things Giveaway. Even if you are a follower of my blog, you still need to leave a comment to let me know you want to be entered into the draw.

Ruth of Ruth’s Running Stitch is also hosting a giveaway. Head over to her blog for a chance to win some great charts, pretty buttons, and some other great things.

And, don’t forget that the Online Needlework Show is running again. There doesn’t seem to be as many doorprize offers or free charts are previous years, but there are some great new designs to look at and add to your wish list. Have you seen the new rose design from Cross Eyed Kat? Fabulous! And the dragon sampler is pretty cool too.

Comments Off on Giveways – Mine and Other’s | Posted in Cross Stitch, Site News |

Size Does Matter

Posted on April 13, 2011 by Heather

I really enjoy crocheting toys. But, since I am a still a fairly new at it, I still run into a lot of problems. One of my biggest issues is keeping track of rows. So, I try to remember to use a marker to mark the first stitch of my round or row.

Crochet with marker

This is an example of one of the projects I’m working on right now, with a marker in the first stitch. When I remember that marker, I’m much more easily able to keep track of where I am.

The other day I ran into a problem I’ve never had before. I’m in the middle of making a bunch of toy sushi pieces for the little man,  from the book [amazon_link id=”0740792601″ target=”_blank” container=”” container_class=”” ]Yummi ‘Gurumi[/amazon_link] by Christen Haden and Mariarosa Sala. I’m making eight rice bases for the sushi using Mary Maxim Starlette yarn in colour 106 Natural. But, take a look at these guys:

Uh-oh, those aren't the same size

It seems, somehow, I got my hooks mixed up and did two using a 3.75mm hook and six using a 3.5mm hook. Argh. Crocheting eight of the same thing, in white, is boring enough, but have to do two more because I wasn’t paying attention is just so sad. 🙁

So, lesson learned: don’t leave all my hooks for amigurumi laying around in the bottom of my project bag. It’s just too easy to grab the wrong one. I totally need to make myself one of these.

Don’t forget to enter my Favourite Things Giveaway. Head over here for all the details.

Comments Off on Size Does Matter | Posted in Crochet |