A Little Cat and TUSAL

Posted on February 16, 2010 by Heather

Things are getting back to normal around here. Baby Man has slept through the night three nights in a row. I’m not yet ready to admit success, but it is a good start. And with full nights of sleep, all of us are starting to act a little more like ourselves. That is a very good thing.  It may be time to tackle potty training soon!

In other happy news, I received a gift in the mail from Pauline of A Stitching Frenzy. The kitty is My Favourite Kitten by primitivebettys.  The fabric is just perfect for a project I have planned, and I love the ribbon and note cards.  And really, I can never have enough DMC. 🙂  Especially in such  pretty colours.  Thank you so much, Pauline.  (Baby Man says the kitty says “meeeeooow!!”)

Pauline's Generous Gift to Me

And, as usual, I am a little late posting my TUSAL picture.  For those who don’t know, the TUSAL is “Totally Useless Stitch Along”, started by Yoyo or Dragon My Needle.  The point is just to collect our orts (thread ends) in a pretty jar and share them on the new moon every month.  Why? No reason at all, but also as a way to see all the  progress we’ve made and all the lovely colours we’ve worked with.  If you are interested in signing up, head over here for all the details.

This month I added a bunch of floss from Sewing Seeds and some yarn from Francie and the Kris Knits dishcloth, and even a wee bit of silk from Egyptian Garden.  I think I made good progress considering my sleep situation.

TUSAL Jar for February 2010

Inside the TUSAL Jar

Any guess whose hands those are in the bottom picture?  They aren’t mine.

I’ve got good news on the Hey Teach yarn front.  One of the people on Ravely with that colour for sale has returned my message, and has the same dye lot as me.  Hopefully we can get the final details worked out, and I should have the extra skein I need.  (Watch me not need it now! lol!)

And one piece of news to pass on: Martina of Chatelaine is offering 10% off her class designs for a week.  Head over here for more information.  This makes me want the lotus temple class even more.  Time to ask the husband sweetly. 🙂

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Knitting Olympics Update 1

Posted on February 14, 2010 by Heather

Happy Chinese New Year! Gong hei fat choi!  (That more or less means “Congratulations and be prosperous.”) Welcome to the year of the tiger.

I’ve been a bit of a busy bee the last few days.  On Friday afternoon I finished up my pair of Francie Socks. They are fabulous and fit perfectly.

Bottom of Francie

A Pair of Francies

Oh, aren’t those awfully pale legs, and so chubby looking because of the angle!  And there is my weird strawberry birthmark. Yikes.  But the socks are great!

On Friday evening I cast on my Knitting Olympics project, Hey Teach.  So far I’ve finished most of the left front and made some progress on the back.  I haven’t finished the left front for a very convoluted reason.  You see, I’m a wee bit curve on the top.  So, to make sure the banding sits in the right place, I wanted to do a front piece first and make adjustments.  But, when I reached a certain point for the front it said “continue until the same lenght as the back.” Ack!  So, I’ve put the nicely adjusted front aside, and I’m knitting the back to match the front adjustments, and then I will return to the front.

But, all of this means I might not have enough yarn to finish the project. Oh noes!  I’ve sent notes to the people on Ravelry with the same colourway for sale, and hopefully I can get some yarn from one of them.  I think it will just be the button bands that I won’t have enough for, so if the dye lot is a little off it won’t be the end of the world.  My other option is to get another (solid) colour of the same yarn to do the button bands.  I’m not sure how things will go yet, though, but I am forging ahead.

Hey Teach - February 14th Progress

This project is going so fast because it is worsted weight yarn on US9 (5.5 mm) needles.  That equals a quick knit (I hope!). So, onward!

I did take some time to work on Sewing Seeds today, but I want to make a wee bit more progress before I share another picture.  The Love panel is nearly done! Yay!

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Knitting Olympics Training

Posted on February 12, 2010 by Heather

It looks like I will be going with Hey Teach for my Knitting Olympics/Ravlympics.  I’ve registered using the Yarn Harlot’s form here and I’ve set up my Ravelry project page here (registration required to see).  I even swatched the project yesterday.

Hey Teach Swatch

My swatch is not a thing of beauty.  I started out with 26 stitch cast on, aiming to measure for a gauge of 17 stitches for 4 inches.  I did manage to get that with US9 needles. So, I figured, since that went so well I would give the lace pattern a try just to see how it looked with the yarn.  That ment I needed to to do increases to get to the right number of stitches, which is why the swatch flairs out at the top.

Overall, I am happy with the drape of the yarn for the given gauge, and with how the lace pattern looks.  Now it is a matter of waiting until this evening to cast on (assuming I don’t go to sleep early).  In the meantime, I’ll work on Sewing Seeds and try to get my Francie sock done.

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Love and Some Roasted Chestnuts

Posted on February 11, 2010 by Heather

Last night was stitching night at my LNS.  Actually, it isn’t very local to me with no car, but the lovely Erica and her friend Barb take pity on me and come out of their way to pick me up.  Stitching night is like a little bit of balm for my soul.  I get to spend a few hours in a needlework shop with no one rushing me.  I get to talk to people about things like fabric choices and colours, and why I like one thread better than another and no one thinks I’m weird.  And, there is no Baby Man crawling all over me. 🙂

I hope Erica and Barb, and everyone at stitching night, know how much I appreciate them.

So, what did I get done last night?  Not too much.  I’m still pretty tired, so I’m not working very quickly. (I did get nine hours of sleep last night! Yay!!!)  With what I did last night, and some work this morning, I have the border around the Love panel of Sewing Seeds nearly done.

Sewing Seeds - February 11th

I also picked out some thread to replace the one I didn’t like for my version of La-D-Da’s Roses are Red.  The part of GAST Old Hickory will now be played by Crescent Colours Roasted Chestnut.

Roses are Red with Crescent Colours

I’m still debating what project I will be working on for the Knitting Olympics/Ravlympics.  My two possibilities right now are Hey Teach from the Summer 2008 Knitty, using Knit One Crochet Too’s 2nd Time Cotton in colourway English Heather or Crafty Diversion’s Carmen Bolero using Vanna’s Choice in colour Dusty Purple.  I may just give them a miss entirely.  I think at this point it depends on if I get any more sleep.  But, with the Olympics starting tomorrow (!), I need to decide and at least swatch a little bit.  Anyone care to share their opinion?

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Sweater, Snowman and a Pond

Posted on February 8, 2010 by Heather

Bliss! I had about nine hours of sleep last night: to bed at 9:30 and up at 6:30 (because the husband had an early appointment), with only one small cry from Baby Man.  He slept until 8 and didn’t want much of a nap today.  Hopefully tonight goes well too, but I’m not expecting it.  I think it is better for me to go to sleep early and expect to be woken up at 3am than for me to go to sleep at my regular time and expect to sleep through to 7am.

In my sleep-addled state (can you die from lack of sleep?), I did manage to get a few things done.  First, I finally seamed up the Baby Kimono (from one of the Mason-Dixon knitting books) on Sunday morning.  I think it turned out quite nicely, even if I didn’t do the best job seaming.  It was knit using Bernat Cottontots in colourway Wonder Dreams.  I used some white Berocco Touché to seam it because the Cottontots isn’t piled very tightly.

Baby Kimono

I also finished up the Kris Knits January Dishcloth KAL.  It is a cute snowman on a very large dishcloth.  We have decided it will become a Baby Man Wiping Cloth, since we go through so many paper towels trying to keep him clean.  It knit it using Sugar’n Cream in colour Light Teal.

Kris Knits January KAL

And I have even found a wee bit of time to cross stitch.  I’ve been working on Chatelaine’s Egypt Garden for the Long Jump category for The Wagon’s Stitching Olympics.  The scoring for that category is based on the number of complete 10×10 squares that have been finished.  And, with all the work I’ve done, I still haven’t finished a single square!

Egypt Garden

Happily, the Tacky Box for Beads that I ordered arrived in the mail today. That means I can tackle the beading shortly.  Tonight, though, I think I will work on Sewing Seeds, since that needs some attention.

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Finished Heather and a Single Sock

Posted on February 5, 2010 by Heather

Baby Man is not sleeping.  In fact, we were up at 4:30 this morning.  The stress of dealing with a 2-year old on little sleep combined with all the nights I’ve spent sleeping on the floor has lead to a very, very sore back for me.  At this point I am running on fumes and back medication.

I have managed to finish one of my Francie socks.  I only did 1 1/2 repeats of the leg pattern because I prefer short-legged socks and because the yarn I am using, Crystal Palace’s Panda cotton, doesn’t have a lot of yardage.  (Once the sock was done, I saw that I had a enough left over that I probably could have done at least another 1/2 of a repeat, but I’d rather I have extra at the end then not enough.)  The foot shaping on these socks are is really cool. It is a lot like the shaping on the socks I finished last month, but with the addition of ribbing and a little  better transition into the toe.  This is, by far, the most comfortable sock I knit so far.  I can’t wait to have a completed pair.  In fact, I’ve already got started on the second sock! Yay me!

A Single Francie Sock

I’ve decided to take part in the 2010 Ravelympics and knit Crafty Diversion’s Carmen Bolero.  (FYI: Anne is offering a cupon code for the Ravelympics.  Use code CDRavelympics2010 when buying any pattern on this page and get 20% off.  I’m thinking about the Eleanor Roosevelt hat and Lillian cardigan.)  Of course, this will cut into any time I planned to spend stitching for The Wagon’s Stitching Olympics.  But, honestly, I have no chance of winning that, as much as I would love 20 skeins of Dinky Dyes. 🙂  However, it is entirely possibly that I could finish knitting a hooded cardigan in a couple of weeks.  (Yes, I do live in a dream world.)

And speaking of stitching, I have managed to cross something off of my WIP list: Heather by Serendipity Designs.  It was not a pleasure to stitch as it is full of French knots and partial backstitching  on Aida.  I know that I should have changed the fabric that came in the kit, but I didn’t bother and I paid for it.  Nonetheless, the finished piece is lovely.  I think I will probably end up making it into a bag if I ever get up enough energy to pull out the sewing machine.  (The fabric is plain ivory Aida.  The weird colouring is a shadow.  It is dreadfully dull here today, so the picture looks awful.)

Heather by Serendipity Designs

I also wanted to mention that Pauline of A Stitching Frenzy is having another giveaway.  This time she is offering a copy of Jill Oxton’s Cross Stitch & Bead Weaving.  There are some really pretty projects in this issue.  I had actually thought about getting a copy of this issue, but never got around to it.  (The best of intentions around here don’t amount to much when not getting sleep.)  Head over to her blog to enter.

And I just came across this new Chatelaine design: Midi Online 2 – Rajasthan Lotus Temple Pond. It would be an understatement to say that I want to stitch this design.  Time to save my pennies.  The chart isn’t released until May 1st, so I have some time.

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February 2010 Goals

Posted on February 1, 2010 by Heather

So far, February is off to a much better start than January.  Baby Man slept through the night again last night (a wee bit of crying at midnight, but he was back to sleep right away), and he even took off his pants and diaper and sat on his potty.  He didn’t pee, but since he did all of that without my prompting I’m very impressed.

Anyway, enough about the toilet habits of my 2-year old.  I would like to say thank you for the encouragement and kind words I’ve gotten over the past couple of days.  I appreciate it very much.  It is always nice to be reminded that I’m not the only person in the world going through this, and that is soon shall pass. 🙂

So, February goals.  It is a short month, and The Wagon is having the Stitching Olympics again, which means I will be focusing on my project for that.  With that in mind, my goals are:

  • Finish Francie socks (I’m aiming for a pair a month right now, I think)
  • work on my husband’s socks
  • work on Egypt Garden for the Stitching Olympics
  • work on Sewing Seeds
  • seam up that baby jacket I had finished for my dad’s co-worker
  • repair my Enchanted Dreamer pillow which Baby Man tore the beads off of
  • chart border for Kitchen Blessings

I think that is pretty good.

In other areas of my life, I’ve made a few promises to myself that I’m not yet ready to share in case I fail miserably.  And believe me, there is plenty of temptation.  I do want to write more, and get back to eating better.  Beyond that, I am just not sure.

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