TUSAL – April 2011

Posted on April 4, 2011 by Heather

Yes, I’m a day late this month. I know, I know. But, I have a good excuse: I’m sick with yet another cold. It seems I catch just about everything going around, unfortunately. Thankfully, the little man has nothing more than a runny nose (which has almost totally cleared up), and the husband is just fine.

Anyway, on to the TUSAL picture!

April 2011 TUSAl, with a preschooler

As you can see, the little man is helping himself to some yarn. Since I took the picture, he was taken all the white yarn out of the jar, and has just started picking out the yellow. He’s using the pieces to set up a race track for his Hot Wheels.

Anyway, the white and yellow yarn come from some daffodils I’ve crocheting for the PlanetJune Easter CAL (pictures soon-ish), and there is yarn from the socks I’ve worked on this month, and lots of little floss bits from March’s Santa ornament and The Twelve Days of Christmas.

Next month’s new moon is on May 3rd, the day after our latest federal election. (Why, yes we do spend a lot of time voting up here, thanks for noticing.) I’ll try to be on time, but if the results of the election are awful, I just might be late.

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Good-bye, Quilter’s Palette

Posted on March 30, 2011 by Heather

On Friday afternoon a sad email arrived in my inbox: my LQS, Quilter’s Palette is closing. When it’s doors close for good, I will have gone from living in a neighbourhood with a fabulous and active yarn shop and quilting shop, to living in a neighbourhood that only plays hosts to restaurants, dentists and spas. (Seriously. Oh, and a really big Goodwill store.)

Like everyone else who has ever shopped at Quilter’s Palette, I decided to head over there yesterday morning, the first day of the sale, to snag a few good deals. I’m not a quilter, but I do enjoy sewing when I get the chance. I’m glad I did go today, since the store was packed. In fact, it was so busy I didn’t really get a chance to look at any of the fabric on bolts. I just grabbed some patterns I knew I wanted, some fat quarters, and a new rotary cutter, along with some other odds and ends.

Fabric, batting, thread, patterns and more

The patterns I bought are: Amy Butler Sweet Harmony Handbag & Tote, ArtFabric Studio Catnip Kitty Pink Cushion (I wanted this guy too, but I didn’t see him yesterday), Atkinson Designs Pockets to Go, Silk Road Creations Spidey, and Favorite Things The Lunch Bag. I’m excited about making every one of them, although, I will need to purchase a bit of fabric to do so… (I think my husband just hid my credit card.)

I’m going to miss Adele, Leslie and the other ladies. They were always kind and helpful, even though I wasn’t a quilter. And, even better, they were always very sweet to the little man. They even had a set of Duplo blocks for kids to play with. I can’t ask for more than that. 😉

I have two other things to quickly mention. First, I’m at 46 followers over on my little Google Connect widget. If I hit 50, I will host a giveaway of some of my favourite things. Please, take some time and hit the Follow button. (I’d  love it if you checked out my non-crafting blog too.)

Second, on Tuesday the little man and I went to the allergist, where he was diagnosed with a peanut allergy. Today we will pick up our Epipens and start learning how to live with this allergy. If anyone with experience with peanut allergies has any advice, I’d love to hear it.

4 Comments | Posted in Crafts, The Outside World |

Annis – The Beginning

Posted on March 29, 2011 by Heather

I’m knitting a shawl. In fact, I’m knitting a bright pink shawl. A bit out of the norm for me, eh?

The shawl is Annis, from Kitty Spring+Summer 2010. The yarn is “cotton flake” laceweight I was given as a gift for knitting some socks. (I bet you knew socks would figure in this somehow.)

So far I’ve done three rows. Three rows of 363 stitches. If this were a pair of socks, I would have actually knit 17 rows.

Annis - three rows in

All of those things hanging off my needles are stitch markers, marking the 29 pattern repeats. It jingles when I move it. 😉

There are three rows in this pattern with nupps, which are sort of like pretty bobbles. However, they are kind of a pain to do, especially when you aren’t using needles with really pointy tips. (I’m using my Denise Interchangeables, which have moderately pointy tips.) I’m thinking about replacing them with some clear beads, which will have the added benefits of giving the shawl just a bit more weight and a little bit of sparkle.

In other knitting news, I’ve almost finished the Liesl for my mom. All that is left is to bind it off… and fix the button band.  Somehow I managed mess up the garter stitch pattern a couple of times, so I have a spot a few rows down that looks like this (the oval shows where there should be a ridge):

Oops, no garter stitch here

It isn’t much of a problem, really. I just need to drop down those three stitches about ten rows and do everything back up properly. It will take me less than a half an hour, and some quiet time to concentrate.

The problem comes in  here:

Oh dear, is that the top of the sweater?

This mistake is a little further up the sweater. See that edge? That’s the neckline, where I started… I’m going to have to think really hard about whether or not I want to drop stitches down that far. I could do it, but it would be a lot of work, and if I messed it up I would be in serious trouble.

What would you do?

 

 

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Eyes! Eyes!

Posted on March 28, 2011 by Heather

One of my endless goals to get myself organized. I’ve been working on sorting out my stash, putting yarn in drawers and bins according to some weird logic that makes sense to me when I do it but not later. I’ve also tried to sort out all the ones and twos of types of specialty fibres I have for stitching into some sort of coherent system. Somehow I’ve actually managed to catalogue all of this on the computer, using Ravelry for my knitting and crochet supplies (yarns, needles/hooks, and patterns/magazines/books), and Google docs for my stitching stuff (fibres and beads). (I’ll get to  my cross stitch charts and magazines one day, really.)

One thing that has fallen through the cracks is my eyes for my amigurumi. But, thanks to a little plastic container from the dollar store, they are nicely organized and ready for my next creation.

A container o' eyes

I have a few more than I intended to have. You see, PlanetJune is moving to South Africa, and she is closing down the eyes and accessories part of her shop for the next little while. And, seeing as I have a bunch of monster and amigurumi projects planned, I wanted to make sure I had every size I might need, since I don’t know how big things may turn out.

Look! A close-up of my most used size of eyes.

So, I placed an order and put it away in my new box. And then, a few days later, I opened up one of my sort-of-organized drawers of yarn, moved a few things, and found a bunch of eyes I had forgotten I ordered. So now I have more eyes than I know what to do with. Looks like the little man may be getting a bunch of toys this year, whether or not he really wants them… 😉

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March Socks – Part 2.5

Posted on March 27, 2011 by Heather

Oh noes, more socks. I know, it isn’t very exciting for my readers who don’t knit. But, I love to knit socks (they are small, portable, and fairly quick), and I enjoy sharing what I make in the hopes that it inspires you. Maybe you will see my lovely stripey socks and decide you need to stitch something with stripes. Who knows!

Anyway, I finished up my LoveSocks on Friday night. The yarn is Panda Cotton in Crystal Pink and Roses colourways.

LoveSocks (not for me)

Aren’t they cute?

LoveSocks Heels

And look at the hearts on the heelflap. I’m so tempted to make a pair for myself.

The 0.5 part of this post comes in with one sock of the simple short socks I’ve been working on:

Simple short sock

The yarn is Berroco Comfort Baby, which is the same as Berroco Comfort Sock, but in baby colour. I like how the yarn has worked up. However, I don’t like the Dutch heel in this sock.

Simple short sock Dutch heel

I find it too boxy. These are for my mom though (do I knit socks for myself anymore?), and I hope she will find it comfortable.

I’m not sure what my socks for April will be. I have another pair of commissioned socks (for the lady in Texas this time; I love her, so I don’t mind), but they should go quickly. After that, maybe a pair of Leyburn socks for myself.

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12 Days with Gold

Posted on March 26, 2011 by Heather

In my last post I expressed some, uh, trepidation with regards to using the Anchor metallic that came in the Twelve Days of Christmas kit. But, I’m a big girl, so I got out my needle and gave it a try:

Twelve Days with a touch of gold

The verdict is a little mixed. First, because the pattern calls for only one stand, I’m actually finding it very smooth to stitch with. In fact, it feels more like PTB than DMC metallic. On the other hand, because I am only working with one strand, I’m not sure I like the coverage.

I could buy some PTB to substitute. But, I would need five cards of it, and that would add about CAN$15 to the price of the kit. Now, that might not seem like that much, but I’ve already spent money on the kit and on the fabric, and I’d rather not spend any more.

I think I will do a bit more of the border, since it is three stitches wide (gold stitch, red stitch, gold stitch). Maybe I will like it better then.

What do you think?

Oh, and we got a whole pile of snow this week. It feels more like January than March around here. (And my winter jacket was totally ruined early this week, so I’m really feeling the cold.) If you’d like to see some pictures, check out my other blog.

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

Day One Done-ish

Posted on March 23, 2011 by Heather

My goodness, this was certainly more of a struggle than it was worth, but day one of The Twelve Days of Christmas is finally finished… well, except for the outside border and a little bit of backstitching.

Day One for Twelve Days of Christmas by Joan Elliott

I’m using the floss from the kit, which is actually quite nice. I’m not sure if it DMC (those are the numbers given), but if it isn’t, it is of comparable quality. The fabric is some 28 count linen from my stash, to replace the adia from the kit. I’m not too happy with the beads in the kit, but I also don’t want to take out all the ones I’ve already put in.

I haven’t done the border because I’m not sure if I want to replace the Anchor metallic in the kit with PTB or something else. I suppose I won’t know until I try to stitch with it. 😉

Now, on to the next day! I’ll probably do day seven next, because that would work best for me given the flow of the chart. And this one should go much more smoothly, now that I have got the whole enlarged chart thing taken care of.

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