I’m a Fool Winner

Posted on April 5, 2010 by Heather

Thank you to everyone who entered my giveaway for the lovely but slightly used yarn. I’m very pleased to announce the winner:

Chana of Eclecticitee

You can stop by her blog to check out the yarn she bought while on holiday.  It looks like my yarn is going to a happy, yarn-loving  home.

To continue the “I’m a Fool” theme, you might remember that I mentioned the other day that I had some cross stitch kits and charts for trade. I figured it was time to clear some things out of my stash that I just know I’m never, ever going to finish.  At the same time, I also pulled out some projects that had been hidden away because I made a big  mistake that I didn’t feel like fixing at the time.  I also picked out the few stitches I had made in several projects (de la Tour’s Moon Maiden, TW’s Unicorn, Dragon Dreams’ Why Hoard Gold to name a few) so that I could use the fabric for something else.

After two days of hard work, here is the pile of thread I ended up with:

I also ended up with two piece of black evenweave, a piece of faux-hand-dyed sky-like evenweave, and piece of white linen.  I also now have two projects that I want to work on again (Dragon Dreams’ Dust Bunnies and L&L’s Santa of the Forest).  I also “recovered” a whole pile of floss and a gridded piece of 25 count fabric because I’ve decided not to do the HAED project I had kitted up.  Honestly, when I have the wall space, I’ll just buy the print for the darn thing.  (If anyone is interested in the chart for HAED’s Wicca, let me know.)

So, with all of that, and a finish I will share tomorrow, my current WIP/UFO count is at 40, and my number of kitted up/ready to go projects is now 47.  Still, I suspect, enough to keep me busy for most of the rest of my life. 🙂

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

April Goals

Posted on April 2, 2010 by Heather

Last month I didn’t do very well with my goals.  I did manage to get more than half of the Friendship panel of Sewing Seeds done, but that was about it. In my defense, March was a difficult month for me.  I don’t really know what was wrong, maybe it was just exhaustion or maybe something more, but I wasn’t myself and things went undone.  I’m slowly starting to feel better, and with luck and care, I should be back up to normal soon.

With that in mind, I’m going to be kind to myself this month.  Only a few easy goals.

  1. Finish the Friendship panel of Sewing Seeds and make an attempt to work on the border
  2. Make some progress of Sunflower Fairy
  3. Cast on and get to the heel flap of the second Broadripple Sock
  4. Stitch my name tag for the getaway at the end of the month
  5. Finish at least both sleeves of my Lily Cardigan

I think that is pretty good, and I’m fairly certain I should be able to accomplish all of that.  In fact, yesterday evening I made some progress on Sunflower Fairy, so that is one goal accomplished already.

I also wanted to share the progress on my Lily Cardigan.  I’ve started one of the sleeves, and I think it is going quite well.  It is so soft and lovely.  And I’ll tell you a little secret: I’m knitting one size smaller than I need.  I’m hoping that that will help provide the impetus I need to get back to eating more intelligently.  I know that it would only take a few simple and easy changes to drop that one size, and so with this lovely cardigan as my reward, I will do my best to do just that.

Lily Cardigan - WIP

Also, please take a look at my post from yesterday to enter my giveaway for some lovely yarn.  I know most of my readers are cross stitchers, but at least some of you knit once in a while.  And, really, it is quite lovely yarn.

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

I’m a Fool Give-Away

Posted on April 1, 2010 by Heather

April Fools’ Day is one of my least favourite days of the year.  Personally, I think a lot of the jokes aren’t that funny. Today, I want to offer something that is no joke and might make your day.

As you may or may not know, I can’t knit with wool.  It makes my throat itch, my tongue feels like it is swelling, and my eyes water.  It isn’t a pleasant experience, and I figure it is about darn time that I stop experimenting with wool yarn.  I keep trying to prove to myself that it is all in my head, only to get ill all over again.

Why should you care?  Well, I’m offering my tiny stash of wool yarn as a give-away.  It as been knit with (two of the balls haven’t been used much), but it is all in great shape and ready to be used by a knitter or crocheter who will love it.  If you’d like, I will also throw in several free patterns (not written by me) that you can use with your new yarn.  There are lots of patterns out there, so even if you are a beginner, I will be able to find something.

The yarns I’m giving away (because I am a fool for buying them), are one skein each of Berroco’s Ultra Alpaca in colour 607 Salt & Pepper (was knit into Morgan and ripped out, so now is two balls rather than one), Berroco’s Ultra Alpaca Fine in colour 1207 Salt & Pepper, and Filatura di Costa Zarina in colour 1725 bright blue.  These are lovely, lovely yarns.  The two Berroco yarns are a mixture of wool and alpaca (with some nylon in the Fine yarn, making it great for socks), and the Zarina is superwash Merino.

How can you take advantage of my foolishness and win these yarns?  Just leave a comment telling me if you like April Fools’ Day or not.  For a second entry, share with me your most or least favourite April Fools’ Day joke.  And, for a third entry, post about my giveaway on your blog.

I will draw for the winner at noon Eastern on April 5th.

And while you here, why not check out my trade page.  You’ll find it here.  I’m open to just about anything, because I’m a fool who wants to see these items go to a new home.

COMMENTS/ENTRIES ARE NOW CLOSED

17 Comments | Posted in Crochet, Knitting | Tagged ,

March Progress

Posted on March 29, 2010 by Heather

I’m still under the weather, but I am trying to slow down a little bit.  Thankfully I have managed to beg off work for most of this week, and with a bit more time to myself, I just might be on my way back to feeling like normal soon.

In order to keep sane, I have been trying to pick up my needle as often as possible, which isn’t nearly as often as I would like.  Sewing Seeds of Friendship, Hope and Love by Karen Weaver, Jennifer Aikman-Smith and Teresa Wentzler is coming along well.  I just have the Friendship panel and the majority of the border left to left to finish up, and I would say that the last panel is at the 50% mark now.  And that was my goal for March, so I feel good about that.

Sewing Seeds WIP - March 29, 2010

I also put a little bit of time into Kitchen Blessing from Enchanting Lair, but I didn’t get 50% of the border done like I wanted to do this month.  Nonetheless, it is looking good and I am pleased with how my recharting of the border turned out.  I think it is just the right distance from the characters in the middle.

Kitchen Blessing by Enchanting Lair (WIP)

And, because I totally needed another project, I started Lizzie*Kate’s ABC Lessons.  I promptly made a mistake, but I’m not ripping it out.  (The O should be one stitch taller.)

ABC Lessons by Lizzie*Kate (WIP)

And to keep with my theme of making mistakes this month, I am several stitches much too far to the left on the line of text in Dragon Dream’s Dragon’s Lullaby.  This one is for Baby Man’s room, which is due for a bit of a make-over soon.  (I figure since he is getting close to 2 and a half, it is time to take out the Mirabilia baby pictures.)  I’ll fix it soon,but my heart isn’t in it right now.

Dragon's Lullaby by Dragon Dreams (WIP)

I didn’t meet all of my March goals.  I only finished one Broadripple sock, not a pair.  And I still haven’t got around to fixing the Enchanted Dreamer pillow that Baby Man picked the beads off of.  (The beads are back on, it just hasn’t been made into a pillow again.)  Hopefully I’ll start feeling better soon and I will be able to clear some things from my list.

Tonight, before I fall into what I hope will be a deep and restful sleep (hahahah!), I am going to knit.  I just don’t think I can concentrate well enough to stitch.  My current knitting project is the lovely Lily Cardigan from Marie Grace Designs.  I’m using Rowan Purelife Organic Cotton DK in colourway Brazilwood, which is a lovely pink that has very subtle variations due to the dying method.  It is soft and lovely, and I’m already looking forward to wearing it even though I’m only about 12% done (one ball of yarn from an estimate 8 balls).  If you’d like to keep up with my progress and see my project notes, you can visit my Ravelry project page here.  No need to sign up, the page is visible to everyone.

And one last thing, Jolene of Dip Diddly Designs is having another giveaway.  Head over to her blog to learn more.

Oh, and on April 1st I’ll be having a little giveaway of my own.  I hope you’ll stop by to check it out.

1 Comment | Posted in Cross Stitch | Tagged ,

National Craft Month – Crochet

Posted on March 24, 2010 by Heather

Spring has made a reappearance here after disappearing into a couple of days of gloomy gloom.  The sunny weather doesn’t match my mood though.  I’m down in the dumps because I am having trouble sleeping again, and it isn’t Baby Man’s fault this time.  Just another one of my semi-regular bouts of insomnia.  Joy.

Enough complaining!  I am healthy, I have a lovely home and a loving family, and I have more things that I could stitch in a life time.  A little bit of insomnia is easily overcome.

As you may recall, March is National Craft Month in the U.S., and this Canuck as decided to co-op it for her own purposes.  Today I’m going to post about my favourite Canadian crochet designer: June Gilbank (aka PlanetJune).

I met June at the Spring CreativFestival in 2009.  She was giving a free talk on her cute little crochet amigurumi animals, which I totally fell in love with.  I took one of her business cards and promptly went to her website to purchase several patterns (and I have bought several more since).  Not only are her patterns cute, but they so well written that someone very new to crochet (like me) and easily figure them out.  And, to make things even better, June herself is a very, very sweet lady.

June is also a published author.  You can order her papercraft book Paper Chains and Garlands from Barnes and Noble (I’d love to get my hands on this, but shipping to Canada is too much), and you can preorder her book The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Amigurumi from Amazon or your local bookshop.

And, just this month June introduced her new detail stuffing tool, which helps make stuffing little amigurumi creations so much easier.  And, my dear cross stitching readers, I know it would make stuffing biscornus and ornaments much, much easier too.  I recommend  it highly.

June has an online shop at www.planetjune.com/shop, where you can purchase pdfs of her patterns, eyes for your creations, her new detail stuffing tool, and some punch needle patterns too.  She also has a whole slew of free patterns on her blog (crochet and punch needle).

My latest Planet June creation is this sweet little bunny, all ready for Easter.

4 Comments | Posted in Crochet | Tagged ,

Friendship and Sunflowers

Posted on March 19, 2010 by Heather

We have been experiencing wonderful weather here in Southern Ontario. We’ve taken Baby Man out for a couple of walks, but unfortunately, thanks to heavy rain late last week, our local play structure was far too waterlogged to play on. I’m hoping that we can get him out to play on it within the next couple of days.

Of course, I have still found some time to do some stitching. Sewing Seeds is coming along well… sort of. After stitching the first two lines of text and most of the circular boarder down both sides, I figured out I was one square too high. But, I’m not going to pick it out since everything is still within the outer boarder. I have adjust the bottom circles, making them one stitch longer to get them closer to the bottom boarder, and I’ve picked out the flourishes in the word “Friendship” so that it doesn’t touch the top border.

Sewing Seeds - Progress March 19, 2010

Also, last week I started on Nora Corbett’s Sunflower Fairy, which is from last Septembers Cross Stitch and Needlework I believe. I’m stitching it on the same fabric I used for the Trick or Treat Fairy, which is 32ct. Cashel in cobblestone. I’m using Vicki Clayton’s silks, and her conversion of course. The colours are lovely and vibrant and look so much nicer than the magazine model. I’m so glad I decided to stitch this.

Sunflower Fairy - Progress March 19, 2010

I’ll be stitching the wings with a opalescent Petite Treasure Braid (I don’t remember which one), rather than the blue Kreinik braid that is called for. I don’t think the blue suits the design at all.

I also wanted to mention that I have started blogging again over on my main site The Lotus Pond. There I am writing about the non-crafting parts of my life (is there any?), like my Tarot studies, my spiritual journey, and my attempts to simplify life a little bit. I know that these sorts of post aren’t every stitcher and knitter’s cup of tea, which is why I’ve placed them elsewhere. But, if you are interested, please do stop by.

4 Comments | Posted in Cross Stitch | Tagged

TUSAL – March 2010

Posted on March 15, 2010 by Heather

Happy new moon!  I’m actually posting my Totally Useless Stitch-Along (TUSAL) photo on time this month, which is surprising, no?

Let’s see: I’ve got the labels and yarn from knitting Hey Teach, the packaging from the buttons I attached to it and some thread too, some yarn from a bunny I crocheted (I’ll share that in a couple of days), and floss from Sewing Seeds and Sunflower Fairy as well as.  Wow, I’m surprised I’ve actually accomplished so much since the last time I shared my jar.

If you are interested in joining the TUSAL (and it is fun), you can learn more here.

One last thing to share: a webcam in California which is trained on a hummingbird hatching two eggs.  The babies are due to appear at any time.  You can check it out here: Phoebe Allen’s Web Cam.  (Apparently there are problems with this site off and on.  It has been hacked at least once.  ETA: Here is a more reliable link: http://www.ustream.tv/channel/Hummingbird-Nest-Cam)

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