One Step Forward, and Fifteen (?!) Back

Posted on October 28, 2010 by Heather

I’m so proud of myself! I’ve finished another project from this year’s CreativFestival. This time it is Hidden Treasures by Enchanting Lair.

Hidden Treasures by Enchanting Lair

It is stitched with Gloriana and Belle Soie silks, beads, Kreniek braid, and a pewter charm. It will eventually be mounted on top of a round box, but I need to wait for Laura to send me one. (There is a long story there, involving her granddaughter.)

I’m very pleased by all that I’ve managed to get finished. I think, if I put off Christmas gifts a little bit, I could get nearly everything done in another week or two.

My excitement at all my accomplishments has wanned a little bit, though. I went poking around in my stash for some felt to finish up a couple of crochet designs, and I came across some kits from last year’s CreativFestial. No problem, really, since I knew I still had a lot of them to finish. And then I came across the kits from the year before… Yikes. I thought I only had one more of those left to do. So, those kits have been added to my CreativFestival pile, and I still need to hunt around and pull out a few more.  I figure, counting the DD/TW joint classes as one, I have:

  1. Celtic Charm by Enchanting Lair
  2. Hanging About by Enchanting Lair
  3. Whitework Dragon by Dragon Dreams
  4. Live Fully Sampler by Dragon Dreams
  5. Huck Weaving towel by Christine Allen
  6. Here be Tiny Dragons by Dragon Dreams & Teresa Wentzler
  7. Winter Keep and Summer Keep by Dragon Dreams & Teresa Wentzler
  8. Cutwork Compass Rose by Teresa Wentzler
  9. Celtic Thunder bourse by Enchanting Lair (and the finishing on the other pieces of the set)
  10. First Dragon Encounter by Dragon Dreams
  11. Dragon’s Lullaby by Dragon Dreams
  12. Tiny Torture Sampler by Dragon Dreams
  13. Delightful Dragon Fob by Teresa Wentzler
  14. Celtic Sewing Box by Enchanting Lair (didn’t take class, but bought kit)
  15. Enchanted Garden by Enchanting Lair (didn’t take class, but bought kit)

Fifteen class pieces to finish! Fifteen! I used to have a rule that I needed to finish pieces from the past year before I signed up for the next year. Clearly I gave that up a while back.

I’m trying not to consider all of this a setback. Rather, it is an opportunity to revisit some designs I really love and to remember the good times I had in the classes.

In happier news, I won day 27 of Missy Ann and Annette’s 31 Days of Halloween. Yay!! There are still a few days left for you to win. (I don’t mind, now that I’ve won. 😉 ) Head over to enter at Missy Ann’s for day 28.

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A Trio of Ornaments

Posted on October 27, 2010 by Heather

I love it when I finish a design, and I love it three times as much when I finish three!

First is Perforated Paper Dragon Ornament from Dragon Dreams (Creativ Festival class). Jennifer designed it so that one colour was our choice (the belly and wings). She brought a large bag of silks to the class for us to go through, and I picked Caron Waterlilies Iris. He is a lovely 3-dimensional little guy, with separate wings and treasure. The arms fold forward, so the hands are actually stitched on the back of the perforated paper (which is why they are not blue; be warned, the new painted perforated paper from Mill Hill is only painted on the front).

Perforated Paper Dragon Ornament by Dragon Dreams

If you’ve been over to Erica’s blog in the past day or so, you may have noticed that our dragons look a lot alike. Well, we tend to like a lot of the same colours and when I picked my purple she just said “I’ll  have what she’s having”. We still managed to make our dragons look different though, since she went with Waterlilies Passion for her dragon’s treasure (as it is charted), but I decided to use Iris for mine. (There are two other treasures, a present and a candy cane, but we picked the same thing again, this time without realizing.)

Finish number two is Peace Ornament, also from Dragon Dreams and another Creativ Festival class. It is a quick and easy stitch, but cutting it out was fiddly. If you look really closely, you can see I made a small mistake and cut down the centre of one of the unstitched arms.

Peace Ornament by Dragon Dreams

The third finish is another Dragon Dreams design from the Creativ Festival (see a theme here?). Jingle was Jennifer’s beginner class, and it is super cute. Take note, it is on perforated paper and uses Fuzzy Stuff. So, if any of you experienced stitchers are avoiding either of these, be brave! Jennifer thinks beginners can handle them, and so do I.

First, here he is without his Fuzzy Stuff fuzzed up:

Jingle by Dragon Dreams (not fluffy)

And then after few pokes with the hook end of Velcro, and the attachment of a bell, we have:

Jingle by Dragon Dreams

And see those two perfect knots for eyes? I finally, after, what, three years now, got Jennifer to show me how to do a Colonial knot properly. She shows us all ever year, but the classes are usually too big for me to be able to see it properly. The beginner class only had four people (and only one real beginner), so she was able to spend the time and show me. Turns out that I had it right, I was just picking it all up to soon, and losing the knot in the process. So, no more cheating by tying knots on top of the work or adding beads, I can do a proper knot now!

Don’t forgot: Missy Ann and Annette’s 31 Days of Halloween is almost over. (And I still haven’t won. 🙁 ) Head over to Annette’s to enter today’s draw.

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

Saturday and Sunday at the Creativ Festival

Posted on October 25, 2010 by Heather

The Creativ Festival is over for another year, and while I feel creatively re-energized, I am absolutely exhausted.

(I’m sorry for the dull pictures. It isn’t very sunny here today.)

Saturday was a very long day. My first class was at 9am, and was a needlework designer round robin. Alma Laidlaw of Sew Fancy taught goldwork. We did a little flower piece using several types of sadi (coiled wire). It was very simple to do, and the results are stunning. I am already thinking of ways I can incorporate this into my regular needlework. (I didn’t do a very good job of couching the wire of the stem, but it still looks okay, I think.)

Goldwork Flower (class from Alma Laidlaw)

The second instructor was Christine Allan of Fun and Fast Patterns, and she taught us Swedish (or Huck) Weaving. It is another simple technique that gives fabulous results, and I can see myself doing more of it the future. The picture is a close-up of the small area of a towel border that I was able to finish during the class.

Mountain Mist Towel (class by Christine Allan)

The third teacher was Jennifer Aikman-Smith of Dragon Dreams. She taught a lovely snowflake ornament on perforated paper. If you go to this page, you can see a picture of the centre of the ornament, which says “Peace”.

Peace Ornament (WIP; class by Jennifer Aikman-Smith)

My second class of the day was yet another class with Jennifer. (She is a fabulous teacher!) I’m not going to share that one yet, since it is very nearly done.

My final class on Saturday was about a provisional cast-on method of knitting. I wasn’t impressed with the teacher or the method. This YouTube video explains it better, and it only takes about three minutes, rather than an hour and a half class.

Saturday night I attended the “gala” dinner and fashion show. The dinner was nice, but the fashion show was far too long. It was a showcase of designs from the local fashion school (Ryerson, for those who know Toronto colleges), and some of the designs were fabulous. Some, however, actually made the audience laugh. Really, an audience of crafty ladies are probably not too interested in “high fashion’ designs from college kids.

Sunday was a short day, thankfully. I took a very short class on needle tatting, where we learned how to do the double stitch and picots. I tried shuttle tatting years ago by taking a class at my then LNS Golden Threads (I miss your shop terribly, Michelle!), but I promptly forgot how to do it. Needle tatting seems much easier to me, and hopefully I’ll be able to figure out some more advanced techniques with the books I’ve bought.

My very last class was an ornament taught by Laura Dickson of Enchanting Lair.  Unfortunately, there was a problem with the class kit. The design is stitched on three Tokens & Trifles triangle cards, but the distributor has had none since the spring and the company itself seems to have disappeared. Laura was terribly upset about it all, but she was not allowed to cancel the class. She did give us each one card, as well as all the treads required in full skeins (!), and she is continuing her hunt for more of the cards to send to us if she can find them. If your shop has some of the triangle cards, please let her (or me) know!

And that is about it. I did more shopping then I meant to, but the things I bought were few and exactly what I wanted: some Interweave Knit back issues, yarn for shawls and a sweater for Baby Man, a couple of Dinky Dyes oops packs (which are fabulous!), a design pre-order from Laura, a small piece of fabric from DoveStitch (which I’m not overly happy with, truthfully, as it feels very rough), a couple of beads, and a couple of cross stitch leaflets. There were so few needlework vendors there this year, so it was more difficult to find things to spend money on.

I am already looking forward to next year. I love taking classes with favourite instructors and seeing all the ladies I only see there. It is also great to get away are re-charge creatively.

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More Dragons!

Posted on October 22, 2010 by Heather

A girl can never have enough dragons, right? Today at the Ceativ Festival I started working on another one: Jennifer Aikman-Smith’s Perforated Paper Dragon Ornament. It is too cute!

Perforated Paper Dragon Ornament (WIP)

My other class with Jennifer was the Life Fully sampler:

Live Fully Sampler (WIP)

It is a lovely band sampler with a very inspiring verse. I can’t wait to finish it up. (And I’m really sorry, but I forgot to ask if these designs will be released later on Patterns Online later. I’ll try to remember to ask tomorrow.)

And with Laura Dickson I started her design Hidden Treasures, which will go on top of the wee round box.

Hidden Treasures (WIP)

And here is what I accomplished with my snowflake pin class:

Snowflake frm Rypan Designs

Tomorrow I have the Needlework Designer Round Robin, which cover Huck weaving, goldwork and cross stitch on perforated paper. Then I have Jingle Holiday Pin, again with Jennifer, followed by a class on provisional cast-ons for knitting. In the evening I will be going to the gala dinner and fashion show, and probably won’t be home until late. So, my next post will either be Sunday night or Monday sometime.

I will be at the festival on Sunday (and finally get a chance to really shop!), and my classes that day are Needle Tatted Flowers and perforated paper ornament with Laura Dickson.

7 Comments | Posted in Cross Stitch, My Life | Tagged , ,

Celtic Charm and a Dragon

Posted on October 21, 2010 by Heather

Today was the first day of Creativ Festival classes for me. I’m sure you all know by now just how much I love going to this event. I love the classes, teachers and students. I love working on the class projects, getting inspired by everything I see at the vendors booths, and, to be honest, I love getting a little bit of time away from my regular life to totally indulge myself in my hobbies.

I started the morning with a class with Laura Dickson of Enchanting Lair: Celtic Charm. The finished piece will go into a box top.

Celtic Charm by Enchanting Lair (WIP)

Laura was sad to tell us all that she won’t be teaching at the Creativ Festival next year. I suspect there won’t be much in the way of needlework classes for me to take, but that is just the way the world goes.

Next up was Whitework Dragon with Jennifer Aikman-Smith of Dragon Dreams. I didn’t get too much of it done because my light died partway through the class. I also had a bit of a headache, so I mainly worked on that purple sock I shared a picture of the other week. I did win the class door prize: a collection of DMC linen threads. (Thanks, Erica!)

Prize: DMC Linen Threads

And, I rounded out the day with a seminar on creativity, again with Jennifer. She talked about the ways we can nurture our creativity in small, stolen moments, and about keeping a book of creative doodles, pictures of textures, etc. These are the little bits I worked on in the class:

Creativity Bits

I’m not so sure about the word I picked. I think I need to work on it a little more, since it doesn’t quite capture what I’m working towards.

Tomorrow I have two more classes with Jennifer, another class with Laura, and a beading classes. If I were to say I am a beading novice, that would be an understatement! But apparently this class is fairly easy, and the finished product is fabulous!

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

Bewbs for Charity

Posted on October 20, 2010 by Heather

October is Breast Cancer Awareness month, which means it is a great month to knit bewbs!

Knitted Bewbs!

The blue two are knit using Classic Elite Bam Boo (100% bamboo rayon) and the large one is knit from the left over Araucania Ruca (100% sugar cane fibre) from my Clapostis.

The pattern is a modified one-piece version of Tit Bits from Knitty. My bewbs were knit as part of a KAL on Ravelry and will be donated to Knitted Knocker program run by the Knit Café.

If you knit (or crochet), why not knit a knocker or two for a woman who has lost her’s because of cancer?

And don’t forget, Missy Ann and Annette’s 31 Days of Halloween are still running. You can enter today’s draw over at Missy Ann’s blog.

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Making Progress

Posted on October 17, 2010 by Heather

Halloween is getting closer, and I still haven’t finished up Ink Circle’s By the Full Moon. I am getting close though:

By the Full Moon by Ink Circles (WIP)

It is stitched on another piece of fabric from that sampler package I got from Ayrloom (through eBay), using DMC treads.

I’ve also been working on another pair of commissioned sock. These are Kai-Mai from Cookie A.’s fabulous book Sock Innovation. The yarn is Crystal Palace Maizy (a corn fibre and elastic mix) in a very bright purple (too bright for me, surprisingly).

Kai-Mei from Sock Innovation by Cookie A. (WIP)

That’s them stretched on my homemade sock blockers. They do a surprisingly good job, but I should have made them just a hair larger. If you’d like to make your own, here’s the directions I used.

And, I have been able to fix the sleeve of my Top-Down Shoulder Warmer! I had to decrease from 72 stitches to 62! That’s pretty substantial, for those of you that don’t know much about knitting. Consider that I am getting approx. 19 stitches to 4″ (not quite guage, but not far enough off to account for the huge sleeve), I took out about 2″ from the sleeve size. Right now I’m working on the second sleeve, and then I can try it on to be sure the back isn’t too big. Wouldn’t that be funny?

And don’t forget: today is day 17 of Missy Ann and Annette’s 31 Days of Halloween giveaway. (Aren’t they super generous!) Head over to Annette’s to enter today’s draw.

I’d also like to say thank you so much, ladies, for all the comments lately. 🙂 I know I don’t get out there to comment very much, and I really do need to make more of an effort, but yes, I really am that shy.

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