Short on the Live Simply

Posted on August 6, 2010 by Heather

I’m not even going to bother to explain why I haven’t posted for over a week.  I’m sure by now you are all aware that I am scatter-brained and don’t always get around to doing what I intend to do.  Thankfully, I rarely let other people down, it is generally only me whom I disappoint.

I’m working away happily and successfully on my piece for the Biscornus and Other Smalls exchange over on the Rotation Stitchers board.  However, I ran into a snag yesterday. You see, I went out for a little yarn and stitching shopping by myself yesterday morning, leaving my project safely on the end table, and Baby Man in the capable hands of my wonderful husband. Baby Man has been well trained, and he never touches my scissors or projects.  If he knocks my pattern on the floor, he picks it up and hands it back to me (after colouring on the back or stomping on it, usually).  Well, yesterday something happened while I was out and I came home to this:

A big mess of floss

Thankfully nothing is badly tangled. I just need to pull out my colour card and get the labels back on the proper skeins. If Baby Man was older, it would be his punishment to sort these out.  But at 2 1/2, I figure it probably isn’t worth the effort to make him try. 🙂 (I’ve played with the colours in the picture a little bit so they aren’t completely true. I don’t want to spoil the surprise for my recipient too much!)

I made great progress with my punch needle project earlier this week, until I ran out of ivory floss.  I did contact Dimensions, and they say they are sending me more. Hopefully it arrives quickly.  I barely had enough of the darker tan colour as well. And by that I mean I had less than one 3-strand 6″ piece left.  While I do appreciate Dimensions getting back to me so quickly, I will probably think twice about buying another one of their punch needle kits because they seem to be stingy with the floss.  I will, however do more punch needle! I’m planning on starting the Halloween design in the latest Cross Stitch and Needlework as soon as I get some weaver’s cloth.

Live Simply by Dimensions (WIP)

Over the past week I also made one of PlanetJune’s new dinosaur patterns, the T-Rex, but I forgot to take a picture of it. It’s very cute, trust me, and will make a great Christmas or birthday gift for Baby Man. Yeah, I’m one of those. I honestly nearly have my Christmas shopping done. I still have several projects I need to make, but the shopping portion of gift giving is almost done. I’m more or less just waiting to see if the prices drop on a few things before I buy them. Please don’t be too upset with me. 🙂 I just hate going to the malls any time after the beginning of November. I worked far too many years in retail to enjoy the hustle and bustle of holiday shopping.

And speaking of shopping, I’m working on another market bag. This one is for me, and done in crochet using Anchor’s Magicline yarn. It is a bright and cheery mix of red, pink, orange and white. Yeah, they aren’t my regular colours by any means, but I love how happy it looks. Maybe it is the summer weather that is influencing me, but that may mean that using the bag in depth of winter will make me think of summer. Whatever. 🙂 Here are the first four squares sewn together.  I have twelve more squares to do, plus some handles and then everything gets sewn together in a weird way to make a super cool Inga’s Haekelbeutel (link is to a pdf). If you are going to attempt this yourself (and why not?), note that there is an error in round 2. Check out this page on Ravelry for the errata, or just make 16 closed granny squares and then follow the directions for assembly.

Inga Bag (WIP)

My next craft to try is needle tatting. I’m planning on taking a short class at the CreativFestival, and in anticipation, I picked up a book and needle set very inexpensively on eBay. I tried shuttle tatting back when I was in university, maybe twelve or fourteen years ago. I never really got the hang of it, but I understand needle tatting is a little easier.

Lastly, I’ve decided to give up on Victoria Sampler’s Heirloom Baby Sampler that I was stitching for Baby Man. It seriously isn’t to my tastes. What I will probably do is stitch a few more rows and then call it done. The ribbon heart at the top of the sampler is beautiful and I’d hate for it to go to waste. Instead I will be stitching Joan Elliot’s Fairy Mother & Child, which you can see in her blog post here. I’ll do it on some hand-dyed fabric, and I will probably change the hair colour a little bit.  I plan on moving the name and date to below the picture. Unfortunately, that means that it won’t fit in a standard frame, but it does mean I can fit in Baby Man’s full name.

Oh, and very lastly, if anyone is interested in the floss and bead kit for Brooke’s Books Emma Rose, as sold by The Gift of Stitching, please let me know. I’ve decided not to stitch it, after some input from the husband. He is usually very supportive of whatever I choose to stitch, but he seems to really dislike this particular design.

1 Comment | Posted in Crochet, Cross Stitch, Punchneedle | Tagged , ,

Finishing Up

Posted on July 28, 2010 by Heather

I’m sure it comes as no surprise that I have a few projects kicking around that need to be finished up.  Cross stitch projects generally can’t be finished up in a a few hours, but some of my other projects can.

This morning, when Baby Man woke me up much, much too early, I pulled out the March dishcloth from the Kris Knits KAL and finished up the last twenty rows before breakfast.  (As an aside, does anyone know what happen to Kris?)  It was knit using Lily Sugar’n Cream in yellow (I think).

March KAL by Kris Knits

Today I also did the fancy bind off on my anklets, but of course I didn’t take a picture…

I also finished up Planet June’s Lucky Bamboo, which I have actually had in process since June.  I put it aside to finish other projects, and it took me a while to get back to it. It is done in various shades of Bernat Satin, my favourite yarn for amigurumi.

Lucky Bamboo by Planet June

And I have this little guy who isn’t quite done.  I still need to give him eyes.  He’s knit from some leftover Mary Maxim Bamboo Soft Stripes sock yarn.

Minor Minion by Heather Sabastian

How’s that for productivity!

1 Comment | Posted in Knitting | Tagged , ,

Is it October Yet?

Posted on July 27, 2010 by Heather

Yesterday class registration opened up for the Creativ Festival.  And since I’m never one to leave anything to the last minute, I signed up for my classes right way.  I ultimately decided on the classes from Jennifer Aikman-Smith and Laura Dickson as I mentioned before, as well as a tatting class, a beaded snowflake class, and one on provisional cast ons. So, this year will be a  little more well rounded than previous years.  But, unfortunately, my schedule is very full.  I have an hour to shop on Friday and maybe two hours on Saturday. I have a bit more time on Sunday, but who knows what will be sold out by then! The horror!

Since I was in need of a quick finish after all the work I put in on Happily Ever After and the endless gold I’ve been using on Kitchen Blessings, I stitched up Witch Shoes? by CherryWood Designs Studio. It is stitched on Enchanting Lair’s pistachio using DMC threads.  I’ll probably finish it off as a mini pillow, depending on what fabrics I can find when we get closer to Halloween.

Witch Shoes by CherryWood Designs Studio

Have I ever mentioned that Halloween is my favourite holiday? As Baby Man gets older, I hope that I can celebrate it a little more. I’m also looking forward to Christmas as he gets older.  Kids make holidays fun, I think.

On the needles now is a sock from Knit Picks; a pretty little anklet in their new cotton fingering weight yarn whose name escapes me right now.  And under the needle is my exchange piece for the Biscornus and Other Smalls exchange.  I’m also slowly working away on Kitchen Blessings and will share a picture when it looks a little more exciting.

BTW, for those of you planning on going to the Stitching Jubilee this fall, I understand Laura Dickson is going to be teaching a fabulous design.  I’m super jealous!

1 Comment | Posted in Cross Stitch | Tagged , ,

Hardanger Spider Web

Posted on July 25, 2010 by Heather

I think the heat of summer is a funny thing.  In the shade and with a breeze, 32° is tolerable, but stand in the sun and take away the breeze, and I feel like I’m going to melt into a puddle. To make matters worse, we have had very high humidity here this year, and it regularly feels more like 37° or higher. And even though I am inside in air conditioning most of the time, I still feel that lethargy that the summer heat seems to cause.  But, Canada is a country with 4 very distinct seasons, and temperatures will get back to reasonable levels by September, and the fall weather will be starting very soon after that. (Some say we only have two seasons: winter and road construction.)

Yesterday morning I was actually feeling quite productive, even though Baby Man woke me up early by trying to batter his way out of his room. (The door sticks, so he can’t open it himself yet.)  I was able to start and finish lesson four of The Gift of Stitching hardanger course.

I would also like to share with you a wonderful discovery: the best hardanger scissors ever. Knit Picks, an online knitting store, sells these scissors for cutting steeks, but they have a wonderfully sharp tip and such a smooth action.  I have  never had such an easy time snipping threads on hardanger. Best of all, they are only US$2.99.  Here’s the link, if anyone is interested.  (Not affiliated, just love their yarn, blah, blah.)

On Friday, the Creativ Festival released their class list of the fall festival.  And me being me, and this being the crafting highlight of my year, I have already picked all my classes.  Now I  just have to wait patiently for registration to open on Monday.  I’m planning on taking all the classes offered by Laura Dickson of Enchanting Lair, all of Jennifer Aikman-Smith’s classes, a needlework designer round robin that covers Swedish weaving, gold work and stitching on perforated paper.  I’m also going to either take a class on knitting one sock inside the other at the same time or on provisional cast ons, and one on making a beaded snowflake pin. And, I’m planning on taking a short beginners lecture on tatting. This pretty much fills up the entire weekend.  I’ll only have a bit of time here and there for shopping, which is good since it will save me from buying things I don’t need.  However, there are a bunch of make-an-takes on the show floor that I’d love to try, like a sashiko decorated coffee mug, some swarovski earrings, and a beaver fur knitted scrunchie!  Can you tell that  I’m excited?

3 Comments | Posted in Cross Stitch | Tagged ,

Playing with Punchneedle

Posted on July 21, 2010 by Heather

First off, thanks for all the comments about my monster pile of project.  I know, it is ridiculous. In my defence (if there is any!), some of them are quite old and about 10 or so are class projects I just haven’t gotten around to finishing.  And several of them are small. Really. Okay, yeah, I need to start finishing things.

So, that leads me to a new project I’m working on: punchneedle! I did start it about two weeks ago, but I haven’t made much progress because I am actually finding it kind of hard.  I’m not really sure what is so hard about putting a needle in and out of fabric, but if it can be messed up, I can do it. Yay, me.  I think I’ve figured it out finally, and here is my piece so far:

Live Simply by Dimensions (WIP)

I need to do some touching up along the bottom to make it more even, but I think it is looking pretty good.

Here’s a picture of the back.  You can see that I’m a novice for sure since it isn’t very neat at all.

Live Simply by Dimensions - Back (WIP)

If you are interested in punchneedle, I highly recommend a little booklet Planet June put out last year.  (Yeah, I know I recommend her stuff a lot.  I’m not a shill and I don’t get any kickbacks. I just really, honestly think that she is very talented.  I’ve also met her twice [for a total of about 30 minutes], and I think she is a very sweet person.) If I can make my way successfully through this Dimensions design, I’m going to try Planet June’s moon design next. I think it would look great on a bag.

I still don’t know what to do about Castles in the Air, but I appreciate the suggestions. Anyone want to buy it off me? Yeah, I didn’t think so.

I’m also trying to get a little better at commenting on blogs.  I read a lot of cross stitch and knitting blogs but I rarely comment because I just don’t know what to say.  I’m actually very shy and more than a little afraid of sounding dumb when I leave a comment.  I bet my cousin doesn’t even know I read every one of her blog posts because I so rarely comment on them.  Anyway, I’m trying to get better.  And if you read my blog and feel too shy to comment, please do. I want to read your blog too, if I don’t already. 🙂

2 Comments | Posted in Punchneedle | Tagged ,

Now What?

Posted on July 20, 2010 by Heather

I’m not sure if I’m alone in this, but whenever I finish a major project I always have a difficult time deciding what to work on next.  Oh, it’s not like I don’t have a whole pile of things to work on. There’s Baby Man’s birth sampler (he’s very nearly 2 and a half, so I’m not that far behind), Christmas Treasures by Victoria Sampler which is also for Baby Man and for which I got the box just yesterday, TW’s new Miniature Spring Sampler, etc., etc. I mean, seriously, I have upwards of 40 projects actually started and over 50 more that are all ready to go.

I think I need to prioritize what I want to do.  First, there is Christmas Treasures for the box for Baby Man, but that has a lot of speciality stitches, so it needs to be for a night when I can sit quietly and think while I am stitching.  There is also the design I am doing for an exchange.  That is fairly straightforward stitching, and a good project for most of the time.  I’d also like to get going again on Kitchen Blessing for my husband (although my sister-in-law hated it because it wasn’t the proper Chinese red and gold). That design is now a lot of one colour stitching all around the border.

I think three projects is a good amount to focus on. I should be able to keep going and not get too bored with any of them. Of course, there is that Mill Hill Halloween ornament I really want to work on too…  See, that’s how it starts, and the next  thing you know, I have 40 more projects started. Argh!

My other issue is that Elann, an online yarn shop, has a sale on one of the yarns I really love.  They are selling Rowan Purelife Organic Cotton for 60% off! That is amazing, trust me. Rowan yarn is expensive mainly because of the name, but any way you look at it, $4/ball for organic DK weight cotton is an excellent price.  The problem? My overflowing stash? No, are you kidding?  It is the fact that I don’t know what to make with it! I’ve been poking around on Ravelry for ages, and nothing is jumping out at me. Right now I’m leaning towards this one (warning: link to pdf). Maybe I should just buy 12 or 13 balls and set it aside for later.

2 Comments | Posted in Cross Stitch | Tagged ,

Happily Ever Done!

Posted on July 19, 2010 by Heather

Finally, a month and a bit late, Happily Ever After is finished!  Last night I sucked it up and did all the lazy daisies around the border. (Thank you to Lisa for the suggestions for other stitches.)

Happily Ever After by Marie Barber

I didn’t do it exactly as per the pattern.  My border is a little less fussy, and I like it that way. Overall, I’m very pleased with this design, and I think the recipients will like it too.  Hopefully I’ll be able to take it to the framers this week.   Then it is just a matter of figuring out how to get it to the States… *sigh*

To switch gears, I want to write a little bit about something that is going to go unfinished.  First, a bit of background.  I’m reading The Happiness Project by Gretchen Rubin (which I whole heartedly recommend). In it she writes that one of the commandments she sets for herself is “Be Gretchen”. She also gives “What’s fun for other people might not be fun for you–and vice versa” as one of her Secrets of Adulthood.  These two bits of advice really resonated with me, and jumped to the forefront when the announcement about the release of the next part of Castles in the Air came out.  You know what, I like the design so far, but it isn’t me at all.

Castles in the Air - WIP - Papillon Creations

I don’t like to stitch traditional samplers, I don’t like to stitch Quaker, and I don’t like to hang these things on my wall.  I like fantasy designs and figural pictures.  I do like speciality stitches, but only to a certain way.  I love Teresa Wentzler, Jennifer Aikman-Smith, Laura Dickson and Marie Barber.  I’m fond of Victoria Sampler and Lizzy Kate, to a degree. These are the things I want to stitch, and I shouldn’t be stitching something just because it seems like the thing to do. (I was totally tempted to do that Quaker Sampler everyone was working on a while back even though I don’t like Quaker.  Why? To fit in? To make friends? I don’t know.)

Be Me, not everyone else.

This now leaves me with a dilemma. I have a very large piece of hand-dyed fabric (Wind from Enchanting Lair) with the first few parts of Castles in the Air stitched on it.  So, do I cut out what I’ve done (I’m thinking mainly the centre area minus the peacock and half a fountain) and cut the rest of the fabric up into pieces for other designs, or do I pick everything out so I have a large piece of fabric to use from something else in the future.  (I’m thinking maybe Fairy of Dreams or Circe from Passionne Ricamo, neither of which I own right now).

What would you do? Would you give up, or would you keep stitching a design you aren’t really interested in because you’ve already made an investment of time and money in it?

Damn it. When I pulled it out take a picture of it I kinda did like it. I guess it gets tucked away again until I can really make up my mind.

4 Comments | Posted in Cross Stitch | Tagged , ,