A Digital Christmas

Posted on December 24, 2010 by Heather

I’ve found that as each year passes, life becomes more and more digital. Even my sweet Baby Man learned his letters and numbers thanks to the computer (mostly due a whole pile of work I was doing using Excel, sadly).

Here is a very cute video about how the nativity story may have happened if the world back then was a digital as we are today.

If your holidays are a little more secular, you can track Santa of at the NORAD Santa Tracker. And, of course, you can follow Santa on Twitter too.

How ever you celebrate, may you have a lovely Christmas filled with family, friends, and a perfectly cooked turkey. And if you don’t celebrate Christmas, I hope you have a lovely, quite day tomorrow.

Merry Christmas!

2 Comments | Posted in Site News |

A Rainbow of Fabric

Posted on December 23, 2010 by Heather

Like most people, I’m sure, my thoughts tend to turn to organization at the end of the year. And, since I’d rather not clean out the cupboards or closets, I decided to tackle my fabric stash. So, I dumped out the box on the bed, removed everything from their plastic bags (which they shouldn’t be stored in anyway) and sorted it all by colour.

My Fabric Stash (mostly)

That’s it, nearly every piece of fabric I have. There are about five or six projects that have their fabric stored with the chart, but this is the majority of my stash. (I also have a small stash of adia tucked away for a rainy day.) Clearly, I have a lot of blue fabric. I also have enough blue/purple mix to rate its own pile. I’m very low on red, and I don’t have any yellow. But, really, I’ve never stitched on yellow and rarely use red, so that is no problem. I have a little less white than I would like, and I think I’ll keep my eyes open for a deal on some.

The fabric is all back in its box now, wrapped in acid-free tissue paper, much better organized than before.

When going through all this fabric, I was a little bit surprised that I could easily pick out which hand-dyed pieces were from Enchanting Lair, or Silkweaver, or elsewhere. It is very true that each dyer has their own style, even when the colours used are similar.

I was thinking about joining a fabric club next year, but I’m not so sure any more…

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Stitching Out of Season

Posted on December 22, 2010 by Heather

With Christmas so close, I suppose it is no surprise that I’m actually a little tired of Christmas stitching. So, I decided to whip up a Halloween Design.

Halloween Ribbons from Cherry Wood Design Studio

It is stitched on Seafoam from Enchanting Lair, using Dinky Dyes silks, rather than the suggested Crescent Colours. I think it turned out really, really well. I had trouble getting the colours right in the picture, but the orange Dinky Dyes (Tropical Sunset) is a near match for the orange in the ribbon. And the purple Dinky Dyes (Jinabyne), is the same sort of tone as the purple in the ribbon, but darker.

Eventually, I will finish this into a flat-fold or a cube, but I think I’ve got a bit of time until I will want to display it.

Happy Halloween! Merry Christmas!

3 Comments | Posted in Cross Stitch | Tagged , ,

Darn That Sock

Posted on December 20, 2010 by Heather

I started knitting socks in January 2009, when I took a class at my LYS. My first sock was knit from Dale of Norway Stork, a 100% cotton yarn meant mainly for baby items. I used that it because the yarn for the class had to be bought at the shop, and they didn’t carry any non-wooly sock yarn.

The socks turned out well, considering they were my first pair. The yarn faded and grew softer with wear, and I did enjoy wearing the socks, even if they weren’t my favourite pair or the greatest colour.

Unfortunately, when I put them on the other day, I realized that I had a problem. One of the socks had grown a hole, right on the ball of my foot.

Hole-y Blue Sock

I have two choices for darning this sock. 1) Say “darn sock” while I drop it in the waste basket. (I might add this is the choice of many fine knitters, including fellow Torontoian, the Yarn Harlot.) Or 2) Wait for my darning egg to arrive in the mail and try to fix this sock.

I’m actually looking forward to trying to darn this sock. I know one of my favourite socks is eventually going to sprout a hole, and I’d like to have had some practice darning before I attempt to fix one of them. So, I guess you could say I’m looking forward to making this hole whole.

2 Comments | Posted in Knitting | Tagged ,

There’s Only Splendor for the Sight

Posted on December 19, 2010 by Heather

As I’ve mentioned before, I’m a little behind this year. But, finally, the gifts are all done, the final grocery shopping trip is planned for today, and the decorating is finished.  All that remains is to wrap the gifts and share some pictures.

Our Christmas Tree

This is how our tree looks this year. We have more than an enough ornaments for me to rotate them, so it looks a little different every year. Santa, however, has been on the top of the tree for about ten years now. (Notice the nativity scene at the bottom. Baby Man said they all crashed.)

Newest Ornament

This snowman is my newest ornament, a gift from Erica. Thank you, Erica, very, very much.

A view of the top

The tree isn’t tilted, I am. The purple butterfly was a gift from my mom this year, and the glass peacock is one of my favourite ornaments.

Counting Down

This picture is nice because it shows the variety of ornaments on our tree. Some cross stitch ornaments, some Hello Kitty ornaments, some from Hallmark and Carlton, some old fashion-style Victorian-esqe paper ornaments, and even an old sewing needle card (the Madonna and Child).

I hope your holidays are shaping up to be happy and full of all the people you like best in the world. Merry Christmas!

4 Comments | Posted in My Life |

A Prize from Kreinik

Posted on December 15, 2010 by Heather

A few weeks ago I won one of Kreinik’s Facebook draws. Somehow, Canada Post pulled off the impossible, and it has already arrived at my door.

Kreinik Ornament Frames

The prize is two of the new Kreinik Ornament Frames. The silver one is just the frame; the gold one comes pre-mounted with 40 count silk gauze. Each package contains a metallic front frame, a metallic  back, a working frame (in the case of the silk gauze ornament frame, this is where the gauze is mounted), and nine double-sided Treasure Tape dots for assembling the frame. The opening measures approximately 6.5 cm (2.5″)  across, and the frame itself is approximately 10 cm (4″), not including the bump at the top for the hanger.

The instructions are pretty easy: stitch a design that fits the frame, mount it to the back of the working frame, then sandwich on the front and back, using the Treasure Tape dots  to secure everything. I would have liked to see a free design included with the gauze-mounted frame, but overall, I’m happy with the kit. The finish on the front and back look to be fairly durable, and the weight of the pieces seems to me to be similar to matte board. I think my biggest problem will be finding designs to fit the frames.

I’m actually very excited about winning these. I mean, other than free stuff (and who doesn’t love that?), I’m finally going to get to try silk gauze. Along with canvaswork, stitching on silk gauze is another one of those things on my to do list. (I might actually have a little kit with silk gauze in it somewhere if I look, but I think my stash has swallowed it whole.) Now I just need to figure out what the heck I can stitch that will fit in the frame. Any ideas?

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My Fourth Bewb

Posted on December 14, 2010 by Heather

Back in October, I knit a few bewbs for charity. Apparently word got around, and my mom asked me if I would be willing to knit a bewb for a customer at her shop. What else could I say but yes?

Silky Bewb

This time I used a lovely silk yarn from Handmaiden Fine Yarns, a Canadian company. Again, I used the pattern from Knitty, but made the bewb all in one piece. I don’t know if the lady has received it yet, but I hope she loves it.

I like to knit and stitch things for other people, but I often wonder if it is worth the effort. I made several nice baby things for the husband’s cousin, and when she asked if I made them and I said yes, her response was “Cool”. Yeah. Maybe it is time to only make things for people who ask for them and appreciate the time and effort that goes into them.

How do you feel about making things for other people? Do you get more enthusiastic reactions that I have been getting?

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