Just Ducky

I got started on Anne's RR this past weekend. You can also see both Anne and Wendy's previous contributions, which are just gorgeous! The little Wigeon now has some tail feathers to shake...



This design is a Wigeon (chosen because the name reminds me of Pigwidgeon - Ron's gift from Sirius.)

Here's what the finished design will look like (Isn't he just a cutie?):




Here's another project that I made ages ago. It's a drawstring bag that I use to put very small cross stitch projects in (little traveling projects). I first got the idea from an old issue of For the Love of Cross Stitch, back in the late '80s, I think. I can't remember where the sewing designs came from, but I stitched them on white 14ct aida and made the bag around them. The finished bag is 9" high and 6" wide.

Happy Birthday To Me!

Saturday was my birthday. With 'Green Gifties' from my parents and MIL, I ordered my birthday gift, Fairy Flora, from Mirabilia:



I've been looking at this design for a while now, and decided that it would be perfect in the master bedroom with our 'new' furniture (from DH's sister) that my dad is currently refinishing for us.

I ordered it online from Needlecraft Corner in Maryland (near Baltimore, I believe). They were very nice! Flora (and materials) will be making her way to my mail box soon-ly.


We met my parents, sister and her BF for our August birthday lunch. It was so fun! I always love getting together with them because we usually spend a good part of the time (when we're not eating) laughing and joking around. And, even though I had my camera in my purse, I totally forgot to take any pictures, and both my sister and her BF have camera phones!

We also got to see my sister's new present to herself. Around the time we were having car issues, so was she, and her new baby is a black Jeep Liberty.

Since my car is older, I've had little things not work, but nothing big enough to pay to fix (unlike the fan motor). One is my keyless remote. My car has a combination keypad on the door that I use to unlock the driver's door, so when it stopped working, it was no big deal. Since I'm starting class and will be parking in a parking garage (and we're keeping the car longer), DH wanted to try to get it to work. For a couple hours on Saturday, we tried different things (including me crawling into the trunk to get to the keypad module receiver) but didn't get anywhere. DH did some online investigating and stumbled upon a BB where someone else had this same issue. In about five minutes, he had it working. (Isn't the internet amazing??)

Friday Meanderings

Thanks for all the compliments on the scarves. I must tell you, the gray lace scarf for my Mum is (temporarily) no more. DH and I frogged it last night (Abner supervised), and re-cast on this morning.

I figured out what I did wrong!

There is a front and back to lace. Somehow, I knit the first 4 inches then accidentally switched which side was the right side and which was the back side. If you look at my picture, I do have a little turquoise stitch marker (in the bottom right) to denote which side is the right side. It's hanging happily smack-dab in the center of the part that's backwards. Live and learn! :o)


We got a call back from the repair shop. The damage isn't as bad as we thought. It's the main cooling fan motor (don't you know, my car has two fans). The service guy said that he had a really hard time locating one because the '95 SHO's are slightly different from other years, so it takes a uniquely sized motor to fit. He finally located one and it should come in next Tuesday. The entire repair should be less than $500, which is a repair worth doing. I won't be entirely happy until the new fan motor is in and the temperature is back where is should be.


Have a lovely weekend! This Sunday, DH and I are meeting my parents, DSister and her BF at a local restaurant to celebrate the August Birthday Babies. My Mum, Sister and I all share August birthdays (13th, 22nd, and 26th respectively), so we meet on one day each August to celebrate them. (Besides an August birthday, we're all Lefties and have Ann as our middle name)

We have scarvage...

I wanted to thank everyone for your kind comments with words of encouragement about my car situation. My car is currently at the shop having the cooling system examined with a fine toothed comb.

I've been plugging away at my Christmas gifts. The MIL scarf is my commuter project on the way in and home during the week. It's only fitting that I use the sun visor in DH's truck to display my progress:




Here's the progress on my Mum's scarf:



I've really learned a lot about lace knitting while working on this scarf:

Firstly, it's visually evident if you look at the bottom. I didn't realize it until displaying it this morning, but the very bottom is just...chaos. I've learned that lace is something that requires more attention than regular knitting. For now, this project will have to be worked on while sitting in the Parlour with few interruptions. Not a multi-tasking project.

Secondly, I've learned that, for now, I will need to count every stitch on the back-side row (the purl row). The main art of the pattern is repeated three times (10 stitches each). Every so often, when knitting on the right side, I would only have 9 stitches and not enough to knit the pattern stitches. I figured out that I was accidentally purling together a K2TOG or a SSK stitch and a YO. The yarn is so thin, they sit close together on the needle and I've accidentally treated them as one stitch.

I think I will frog it and start again. (Yes, words that knitters everywhere have come to fear, but very necessary) The part I messed up is really bothering me now and it's in a place that's very prominent and it's also a gift. I think it will go much faster this time around, and I haven't the foggiest clue how to correct mistakes in lace.

It used to be that I might get four rows done before I had to put it down, now that I've got the hang of it, I can easily knit 8-10 rows before I have to put it down. It's all a learning experience and why I've started these now, and not November! :o)


Robin's Nest RR News: I received Sue's RR piece from Wendy. The theme is ducks (not surprising if you read Sue's blog!). I can't say that I've ever stitched a duck, but when I saw the selection of duck designs I could hardly decide because they were all so cute and the colors are so vibrant. I chose the Wigeons (besides the picture was so darned cute, it also reminded me of Pigwidgeon)I started with a few white stitches that aren't particularly photo-worthy, so when I've done a little more, I'll post a progress picture.

*Insert Highly Witty Title Here*

It's Sunday evening, and I'm just not coming up with some witty, smart title for tonight's entry. So sue me! :o)


Dark Shadows came in the mail yesterday, and so to the 10 episodes on the DVD, here is my progress on Spring Samplers, Design 1/3:



I did finish what I had hoped to. I also did a little on the B block (bottom right) and added the little blue flowers in the big open section.


Onto Car News: Close, but no Camry.

We went to the dealership last Thursday to pick out my new Camry. We decided on Barcelona Red, with Bisque fabric interior, and the floormats package (Just try and find a Camry without the $199 floormats package. $199 floormats, are they crazy??). Well, the one we picked out *just* came off the truck and hadn't been safety inspected yet (didn't even have the mirrors), so we couldn't take it out for a drive and play with all the accessories to make sure that the one we were going to take home didn't have any obvious defects.

That's when we hit the snag.

We didn't want to sign anything until we did our own test of the car. We were really surprised at how bent out of shape the salesperson got. He told us that we could change our minds even if we did sign on the line, and told us we were calling him a liar because we still didn't feel comfortable signing right then. Then he told us that we could lose the car because they could sell it to someone else. (They aren't making more?) We planned to go back the next day to finalize the deal, and left without signing.

DH and I went home and soul searched the whole car replacement situation and decided to explore fixing my car and if that's not feasible, we'd look for a less expensive, smaller car that DH wouldn't really drive (he's a big guy). We commute together to and from work, so we'd either be leaving a 2007 Camry or a 2000 F150 truck in the garage each day. I feel so much better with this decision, because we really just needed the car for the two days a week that I'll be going to classes this fall. (That Camry was really nice, though :o)

I know I'm getting older, because I equate big purchases to money I could be putting into retirement. New, fancy car or retire earlier? My parents are just beside themselves with glee that their eldest daughter has finally embraced practicality. Use it up, wear it out, make it do...


Ricky, you got a stay of execution... :o)

August SAT at the Robin's Nest

We're meeting over at Renee's this weekend for a SAT!

Prairie Schooler is one of my favorites, but I haven't done one for years until working on Wendy's RR. I also saw The Queen's Stitch beautiful FO she did from Spring Samplers (in her Flikr album). I had a design started from that same leaflet so I dug it out. With a wave of my wand and a puff of smoke, a UFO has become a WIP. How about that?

I couldn't find the leaflet on the PS website, so here's my (kinda blurry) picture of it. (The Queen's Stitch did the design in the middle. I'm doing the design on the left)



Here's my Before:



My goal for this SAT is to complete the border across the top, the A block and the border between the A and B block. It's rainy today and we're expecting the next Dark Shadows installment from Netflix, so I'll be all set!

Kitty Scraps

I was abducted by The Scrapbook Cult in the very early 2000's. It happened quite suddenly, and I don't exactly know how it happened. There was a faction in the area passing itself off as a retail store selling paper products. Little did I know it was Scrapbook Paper and what that meant.

My first love is the really intricate, detailed, embellished but not overdone pages (particularly like those in the Stampin' Up! catalog) that take at least 3 hours to do (and that doesn't necessarily include design time). Each page is a craft project in itelf.

I've also done the minimalist Creative Memories pages to protect my childhood photos. It's nice and it gets the job done.

The urge to scrapbook comes and goes for me. I guess if I had kids, and planned to give them their scrapbooks when they got older, I might do it more regularly. The bug has been biting again and I think that when the weather gets a little cooler and things calm down after kids go back to school, I'll have to call to order the next meeting of The Scrapbook Cult and invite the neighborhood scrappers over to my "Kid-Free Zone" for some serious scrapbooking.

When I took my first scrapbook class, I used, what else, kitty photos. Those first pages helped to begin the Puddy Scrapbook. Yes, the kitties have their own scrapbook, and I'm sure I'll need at least 3 or 4 more books if I were to scrapbook a portion of the ten-gazillion digital photos we have of them. The following are just a sample.


I love The Cat Who books and since Itchey loves to stretch out on her back (like roadkill) in warm weather, DH calls her 'The Cat Who Died A Lot'. It took me forever to make copies of my Cat Who book covers to get enough letters to use as a template. And the white lines around her are supposed to look like the lines police put around the dead body in crime shows.




Abner loves the lazy life, and is very good at sleeping. This was my foray into templates.

A Happy Dance for Wendy

Stayin' alive! Stayin' alive! Ah, ha, ha, ha. Stayin' alive!

Got a little into the dancing there. Betcha you'll have that song in your head all day long! I will! :o)

Anyways, I finished up Wendy's RR piece to Series 3 of Dark Shadows this weekend.


If you click on the picture, it will display much clearer.

They really should have given Barnabas more Vampire attitude. I guess when I think Vampire, I think Tom Cruise, Brad Pitt and Gary Oldman. They were arrogant and in control, and of course, came after Barnabas.

To give you a taste of how much a B-movie feeling this show has, Barnabas was delivering some lines in anger, and a fly landed on his forehead! LOL! But to his credit, he continued on as if nothing happened. It kind of took the wind out of the dramatic situation. When we watch, we look for all the shadows of the microphone, people running behind the sets, people running into the camera, set lights that are turned on and shine in one of the actor's faces, etc. Maybe this is just how live TV was back then. It would make a good drinking game: take a drink every time someone flubs a line or see something that shouldn't be there. The problem is, after a few episodes, no one would be conscious!

Besides the really bad scripts, confusing plots, and flubbed lines, there's a charm to it that keeps us tuned in. The cool thing is that we're just about to start Series 4, and there are 24 series! It's always a let down to me to get into a series and not long after, it comes to an end.

Crafty Girl

OK, here you have it! Alert the media! Real, live evidence that I have been a Crafty Girl!

Lace can be one of those Hallelujah! projects. You knit and knit and knit, minding your own business, doing all of those K2TOGs, YOs, SSKs and the like, and all you have is this scrunched up piece of interwoven yarn that basically looks like a bath pouf. You don't see anything until you've knitted a few repeats and it's stretched out. Then, all of a sudden, it's like WOW, there is a design in all that chaos!

Probably how that person felt while eating their grilled cheese sandwich...

Hallelujah! (cue horns and cherubs)




The Feather and Fan scarf for MIL was my movie project this past weekend. The pattern has been successfully committed to memory, and because it's not a particularly complicated pattern, I can devote more attention to the movie than to the knitting. It's pretty, and looks quite intricate, but has to be in the running for 'The Most Basic Knit Lace Pattern Ever'.

And don't those holes look just like little kitty toe prints???




We watched V for Vendetta. This was such an excellent movie! Of course, I fell for V, right along with Natalie Portman, tall, dark, English accent...mask! Very cool. You certainly wouldn't be scared walking with him down a back alley...

And we also watched The Red Violin. This was recommended to us, and the story line really didn't appeal to me at first, but as we watched it, I got into it. It follows the travels of a violin from when it was first made back in 17th century Italy through to the auction block in present day France. It was very good. The majority of the movie was spoken English, but there were scenes where we had to turn on subtitles, so those were the official 'Knit Breaks'.


I was able to steal some time out on the deck Saturday afternoon and was drawn to work on Santa of the Forest a bit.

Cooler weather = Winter project?
Singular Stitches = goofy?
Who can tell? :o)

I only worked on him one afternoon, so I only completed a about two inches of fill in at the bottom of the very dark burgundy strip on the far right, the lighter blue at the top of the checkerboard section, and the lighter purple flower on the bottom of Santa's cuff, below the bear's left paw.




Also, thank you for the comments on the Welcomes. I think I'll probably get them framed. One can go in the entry and another in the...maybe powder room. Not sure, but they will be finished.


Almost forgot!
Car update: DH is currently in battle negotiation with most of the Toyota dealers in our area. We don't need to immediately replace my car, so we have the luxury of time, and as we're not intense business people, we're using this as a learning experience. Stay tuned...

Thought I'd share a chuckle...

I received this in an email today, and it really made me laugh! Sorry to all you dog lovers out there, but I thought it was cute!

Stitchy goodness...

Last Sunday evening, I started cleaning out the closets in my sewing room. (I clean when I'm nervous. All the hoopla with my car problems and investigating a new car...in about two hours, I had about four white trash bags of stuff I'll never use and isn't good enough to give to some poor sap anyone) Anyways, I also came across some cross stitch I did back in the late 90's.


These are some Welcomes I did. I didn't initial or date them, but I would think late 90's maybe 2000. Not sure where the houses design came from, but I think the sheep one was from a Homespun Elegance booklet.




I can't remember the name of this design, either. I think I bought it while out of town on business. It was initialed and is dated '96. I do remember the Simon & Garfunkel song, Scaraborough Fair, going through my head while working on it. :o)




We did go out and investigate cars today. So, we're on the home stretch and I should be back in crafty mode very soon. (We like the '07 Camry) In fact, the weather is so gorgeous this weekend (oh, the lucky brides today! :o), that I might just take my stitching out on the deck with a cold one.

Cheers!

Bye bye, Baby...

Yes, I'm still here. I really am. I've been out and about visiting other blogs as I've had a chance, but I haven't had much time to be crafty or blog about it. I guess the Dog Days of Summer nipped me on the bottom and I've been busy taking care of life's other activities besides cross stitch or knitting!

Once upon a time, a car followed me home from the dealer's lot. His name is Ricky (in deference to Rick Tocchet ). He was a total impulse buy that I never regretted. He's a 1995 Taurus SHO. Ricky saw me through moving in with DH (then SO), bringing home the kitties, my first (and only) speeding ticket, my engagement, my first (and only) auto accident, wedding, and our first house (to name a few). He's been an awesome car, but the time has come for Ricky to ride off into the sunset...

Yes, I'm totally aware that it's a car, so before you all email me names of really good doctors, I'm not totally off my rocker. After 11 years (can't believe I've had the same car that long!), we've covered a lot of history (over 120,000 miles worth).



Not entirely sure what my next car will be. My vote is for a Viper, but DH would prefer to see me in something a bit slower, like a Schwinn! :o) For, the past two weeks, DH and I have been knee deep in car research (which is why I haven't been really crafty). I'm eating, sleeping and breathing car details. Test drives are tomorrow...

Don't worry, be happy...

Original, unmodified culinary artwork by Abner the Cat.