Stitching with friends

I worked on Santa of the Forest some more on Friday and Saturday. We watched Series 6 of As Time Goes By (hysterical as usual) and The Weatherman (didn't care for it). We recently got a DVD player for up in the bedroom (yay for cheap technology!), so I can comfortably stitch, watch a movie with DH, and, most importanly, allow for the comfort of feline companions. Very rarely are we ever without the company of either, or both, kitties.

Itchey is snoozing while I work on Santa's left shoulder.



A bit wider shot shows that Abner is also in attendance.



Jenna asked about how the kitties got their names.

We adopted the kitties from a local shelter, and these two were brought in together (they were house mates, but not litter mates). Itchy and Abner were the names that the previous owners had given them. DH's guess is that Itchey (I added the 'e' to her name) is named from the 'Itchy and Scratchy Show' on the Simpsons, because she looks like the cat, but the cat was Scratchy. (This is all from DH. I've never really watched the Simpsons.) Abner is a mystery, though it really is a fitting name for him. We would have most likely picked some more...intellectual (nerdy?) names like some mythological character or some star in a distant constellation.

Of course, as most pet parents do, they're rarely called by their names anyway.

Sewing for the Niecelets

I'm breaking out the sewing machines (both the sewing machine and the serger) this weekend to do some sewing for my two nieces.

My one niece just turned old enough that DH and I bought her her first American Girl doll for her birthday this month. I had an American Girl catalog sent to her so she could pick out the exact doll she wanted. We went through the catalog over the phone, trying to narrow her search down to ONE doll. Once she found the one she wanted (Kit, if you're curious), I asked her if she wanted the accessories that go with Kit, and to this she replied very matter of factly, "Auntie, girls like accessories." I took that as a Yes. The clothes are frightfully expensive, so I picked out some patterns to make her some clothes for Kit.

Actually, all American Girl stuff is expensive. I think it's a way to condition young girls so that it's an easy transition to buying Longaberger baskets when they're adults.

Her younger sister is still a Barbie girl, and so, I also want to make her some clothes for her Barbies.



I'd like you to meet the other furbaby. This is Itchey. She's very prissy, can be skittish, and stays on the periphery when we have guests at the house. Southern Belle is a good description of her. She's very reserved, very polite, very dainty, but look out when she lets her hair down. She can put any cat toy in it's place, and Abner is usually the target of her ambushes. While Abner loves everybody, Itchey has only bonded with me and that took three years. (She tolerates DH) When she was three, she had her first (of many) urinary infection. DH was out of town, and I stayed with her continually and comforted her through the worst. That's when she truly bonded with me. She's very talkative and when she comes into a room, I'll say hello to her and she'll respond with a trill. She also initiates conversation. She's got a beautiful meow, but only meows when we go to the vet. She likes to be continually spoiled, like her Mummy. DH calls us two peas in a pod. At night, as soon as I get into bed, she comes up to curl up along my left side. When it's really cold, she curls up tightly next to me under the covers.



It's interesting, I don't have children, but I've heard it said that mothers love each child differently. As with the kitties (who are my children), I can see that it's so true. I love both kitties equally, but have very different relationships with each one.

Rotation? What Rotation???

Baby? What baby??? LOL! Did you see Two Week's Notice?

After finishing those arches, I feel like I would after getting through Finals at the end of a term. That feeling afterwards, after all the studying and stess is over, it's like, 'OK, what do I do now??' Ooooh, I remember my junior year having a four hour Electronic Circuits final. Very painful.

For some reason, I've had an inkling to work on Santa of the Forest. (Probably after seeing the Stitching Scientist's GORGEOUS progress on hers! Check it out!)

Mr. Bear's eyes and nose are done (the poor thing needs to eat, doesn't he??? LOL!), and I filled in some more brown on his paws and side and did some of Santa's left arm (up by Mr. Bear's ear). Every time I pick up this piece, I keep thinking to myself that I really better get Santa's beard started so I can do it a little at a time.

I know myself, and to me, all that pale stitching will get really, really tedious, and if I leave his entire beard until last, this piece will stay a UFO until the threads disintegrate!



I will leave you with a picture of one of my furbabies. This is Abner, and he's a very friendly chap and often spontaneously breaks out in loud, rumbling purring. He is a happy-go-lucky guy and never misses a chance to give many, many kisses. He likes to stop and smell the roses, but then forgets where he was originally headed! He's not a graceful kitty, but he's very plush and makes an excellent lap warmer. On cold nights he'll curl up on my pillow with his head on my shoulder. I'll rub his chin a little and fall asleep to kitty purrs, which, in my opinion, is better than any relaxation CD out there!

Has it been a week???

Wow, I didn't realize that it's been so long since I last posted! What better to close the gap than with a Happy Dance. I completed the Summer Arches this weekend, and this finish also completes the Seasonal Arches set. Winter, Spring, Summer and Autumn are all finished!!!



In retrospect, I had a wonderful time stitching this series. This was my first time using hand dyed floss and I really enjoyed the look of color variation. At first, I really didn't care for stitching the arches themselves, but eventually I came to like them.

One frustrating part was that there were a number of errors on the charts. Wrong color symbols and stitches that were just wrong, mostly, but it was easy enough to correct. I guess 'Quality Control' comes to mind...

Now, I just need to take these off to the LNS for framing...

Woo Hoo!!!!!

Eye-Pod

In an earlier post, I referred to my eye-pod. No, not an iPod. (iPods are really cool, and I've thought hard trying to come up with a good reason why I should have one, but cannot. 'Really Cool' just doesn't cut it.) And, besides, an iPod won't help with knitting when there is no light. Like this morning, on the ride into work.



Actually, my eye-pod is a book light I bought at Costco some time around the holidays. It's a clip with a sphere shaped light (which looks like an eyeball) that rotates around at any angle. I clip it to the seat belt and aim the beam on my knitting, and so I can knit in the dark. DH came up with the term eye-pod.

Let there be light!



Have a lovely Valentine's Day, whatever your plans may be.

Happy Dance!

This weekend was a "Spring Arches Marathon". I got a good bit done Friday night while watching Season 4 of 'As Time Goes By'. I was so close that I just didn't want to put it down until it was totally complete. I actally finished it up Sunday (not much stiching done on Saturday), while watching He Knew He Was Right. (a very good Masteriece Theater. It was written by Anthony Trollop, who also wrote the Pallisers series, another great watch)

So, Winter, Autumn and Spring are complete.





Sock 1/2 was completed Saturday morning and I cast on for Sock 2/2. (The Sock Collective)



I was also kind of bummed. We just got skimmed by the Nor'easter that roared up the East Coast. We maybe got an inch. There was some impressive snow at times, but nothing that accumulated.

Sock it to me!

I really do still knit. Really. I guess I've just been so excited with getting back into cross stitch that knitting has taken a bit of a back seat.

I don't think I've posted a picture of the socks I have started. (Since I haven't worked on them for a while, I guess I really can't say that I'm 'working on them'.)

These are just plain socks, and I'm using Lorna's Laces superwash wool in the Flame colorway. Normally, I get to do some knitting during the morning commute (DH drives), but I just haven't felt like it, and it's still too dark to knit without my 'eye-pod' (I'll explain that on another day), so not much knitting has been going on. I have just about .5" still to knit on the foot before I start the toe decreases. (The colorway is much brighter in real life (like flames, hence the name), not sure what my camera was thinking this morning)

Also, you may notice that the top part looks a little different than the foot. I have larger calves than feet, so to accomodate that, I use US#1 needles on the leg part and US#0 on the foot. It gives them a more snug fit on my feet.



We watched No Business Like Show Business with Ethel Merman, Marilyn Monroe and Donald O'Connor (he is so cool to watch dance...) while I worked on Spring Arches. I really hope to finish it this weekend. We've got a few All Creatures Great and Small DVDs coming from Netflix that should get here (just about to start season four) for the weekend, so I'll have some good motivation to stitch!



The Watermelon Arch (Summer Arches) also got a new top (I ripped and restitched), but that's not particularly picture-worthy.

All that glitters...

Last night was Teresa Wentzler SAL, and faced with the choice of the Harvest Sampler and Floral Bellpull, I chickened out and went with the sampler. I just couldn't face miles and miles of intricate backstitch. I should be a bit braver later in the week when my next TW Rotation Day comes up.

I finished the alphabet, and so I could complete the specialty row just above it (I needed the 'O' to know when to stop). I decided to branch out and start some of the left side border lattice. The pattern called for gold rayon floss, but I substituted fine gold braid (DMC 5202?) To get the stitches to line up properly, I had to use the 'stab' method (taking the needle above and below the fabric, rather than just working on top). It slowed me down, but the results were worth it, and once I got into a rythm, it went well.



Saturday was an 'All Creatures Great and Small' Marathon on our DVD player, and so, I spent some quality time with Santa of the Forest. I really want to get that bear done! He's cute and all, but there's an awful lot of BROWN. I couldn't take it any more and started one of Santa's mittens (the little purple rectangle at the bottom). One does need a hint of color...



A Shepherd's Bush SAL is just starting up on Friends Gather BB, so I dusted off the Wool Gatherer on Sunday. I think I started him in the mid-90's, so most of his body, his staff, and the sheep to his right were already in progress. This was a diversionary tactic so that I wouldn't watch the Superbowl. (Bad things happen for the Steelers when I watch their games, so I didn't. They won, didn't they???) I completed the squares on the back of his cloak and started the sheep to the left.

Happy Friday!

I'm just so glad it's Friday. It's been rainy here, which is just great curl up and stitch weather. I'm looking forward to a weekend in my jammies!

I worked on Purr-Pals yesterday. I bought this chart back when ribbon embroidery was still the rage. (I never did get into that. The finished pieces I saw were truly beautiful, but just not my cup of tea.) I bought the chart because it matches my kitties. Anyways, the whole reason that I bring up ribbon embroidery is becasuse the Lazy Daisy stitch on the branches call for silk ribbon. I decided to just use the darker of the greeens (DMC #3051).

The leaves were going really well until I started paying more attention to the TV (we were watching an 'As Time Goes By' episode - I love Brittish humor!) than my stitching and had to cut my losses and stop while I was ahead. The leaves you see are the ones I didn't have to rip out.

(If you click on the picture, you'll see a clearer image)


And poor Mr. Tabby has been waiting for a face for a while now since I've run out of #740. I'll have to stop at JoAnn's and pick up a skein before he calls the ASPCA.



Oh, by the way...

Updates a plenty

Last week was a bit wonky. A distant relative of DH passed away and so all the preparations of spending a night away from home needed to be done. Since we had a very nice neighbor and her daughters watch the kitties, the house also needed to be straightened.

Why, you ask, do normally independent animals like felines need someone to look after them for one night? Well, the felines that share our home also double as Hoover vacuums, which means we can't just leave the proper amount of food out for the time we'll be away, because before we're even out the door, they've got their snouts into the food and eat until it comes back up. I have memories of cleaning up messes while DH was in the car, engine running, waiting for me so we can leave.

So, not much stitching was done last week, but I do have some updates from the weekend before.

First up is my progress on Santa of the Forest. I have Mr. Bear's face almost all filled in. He really needs a face, and we're almost there:



And I've been working on the Seasonal Arches. Last night was 4 Seasons SAL on FGBB, so here is my progress:

On Summer Arches, I completed the Flag Arch (with some of the red stripes on the flag) and almost all of the arch on the far right, but also realized that the Watermelon Arch is not tall enough. Actually it's the watermelon, and I used the watermelon to make the top of the arch. It needs to be a few rows higher. I just didn't feel like ripping last night.



Here is some progress on Spring Arches from last week. (It's ALMOST done!!!!) I've been in a border kind of mood, so I've been getting the arch borders completed. I finished Momma Bird and the arch on the far right.



I've also started a little side perforated paper project. I bought this leaflet ages ago (and actually, from a lovely store in San Diego while there on business back in the mid-90s), and planned to complete each one during the month previous so each month, I'd have a new one to display. Working on perforated paper is slow for me, so my goal now is just to eventually complete all twelve. January, February, March and October are complete. I started April, so, hopefully, it will be done so I can display it in April. One thing I've found about Dimension designs, they are deceptively simple looking. At first glance, they look like they're quick stitches, but there's really a lot to them, so they take longer than I would originally have thought. Very nice designs, but not a mindless stitch (IMHO).