One person's junk... (picture heavy)

...is another's treasure.

We got yet another installment of free furniture! A while back, my Dad was out jogging and went past a house where the owner had put out their garbage. Next to the trash cans was an end table. The top of the table looked like someone took a hammer to it. Having the eye for well made furniture, he went home, got the car, and brought it home. It turns out to be a piece of Henredon furniture.

He stripped it, and covering the table top with a dish towel, he ran a steam iron over it, about 1" from the surface, which made the wood in the indentations expand, so the majority of the hammer marks were gone. Once he stained it, they're almost undetectable.

It's a beautiful piece of furniture and is the perfect mate to my free chair! :o)





I told him that he should take a polaroid of it and send it to the old owners! ;o)


How to make a polarfleece sock:

1. Here are the three pieces:

L to R: Top of foot/front of shin (A), back of shin (B), and sole (C)

2. Sew B to C at the heel:


3. I used the Elastic Stitch, which is stitch #3 (#1 is your typical straight stitch):


4. Sew A to the two pieces just sewn together:


5. Turn down about 1" and stitch the cuff:


6. Turn right-side-out and you have a warm, comfy sock!

Thankful thoughts and lots of turkey...

I hope everyone in the US had a lovely Thanksgiving, spent it with loved ones, and thought thankful thoughts. We spent the day at my parents' home. It was fun and relaxed with fabulous traditional fare. I got to spend some quality time with my neices and nephew kitties and neice ferret.


I also wanted to thank everyone for all the sweet comments about the Swallowtail Shawl finish!


Shopping always lifts my spirits, so I paid a quick visit to Needlecraft Corner for a therapy session:



The two top Little House Needleworks designs, 'Ye Olde Coffee House' and 'Liberty Hill Inn' are slated for the kitchen, by the breakfast nook. The 'Home of a Needleworker', which I've been oogling over on other blogs for forever, and the Diane Graebner design, 'Hide & Seek' will probably go up in my sewing room.

The little blob of pink on the fabric below is a restart of Fairy Flora. I originally started her on 28ct. linen, and the more I stitched her, I found I was liking the size and appearance of the stitches less and less, so along with my other stash above, I picked up 32ct. linen.




Vash's RR also arrived on my doorstep, and I just had to put a few stitches in on the adorable little Painted Bunting I chose to stitch in my square:




Of course, with the holidays just around the corner (*shiver*), all holiday gift-related stitching is highest priority. The Mom scarf is just over 3/4 complete!



While working on the Mom scarf, I was able to rip all of my holiday music, which I'm listenting to as I type...

Some of my faves:
Time Life Treasury of Christmas I have an old version of this when it first came out (1997?) and the list of songs on mine is slightly different (and longer).
Excelsis: A Dark Noel - An excellent set of Goth versions of traditional holiday songs done well, not ridiculously. Welcome Christmas (from How the Grinch Stole Chirstmas by Love Spirals Downwards) is awesome, and O Come Emmanuel (by Area) will give you shivers.
Meowy Christmas - By the Jingle Cats. Some guy has a bunch of kitties that he recorded the various noises they make and edited them into holiday music. DH has banned the playing of this CD while he is within earshot. He just doesn't appreciate true quality music... ;o)


And, a gratuitous picture of my little helper...

Swallowtail Shawl is finito!

I just finished it up this evening (while watching 'Goblet of Fire') and had to share!!



And a closeup:



Tomorrow, she gets a dip in the bubbles and blocked. DSis's Christmas gift (mostly) complete!

Details:
Pattern: Swallowtail Shawl (Interweave Knits Fall 2006)
Began: October 2, 2006
Completed: November 19, 2006
Yarn: Knitpicks Alpaca Cloud (Iris)
Needles: US#5 Addi Natura (I hated these needles for lace! The yarn kept getting caught on the join)


Off to work on the Mum scarf! :o)

You say 'Antisocial' like it's a bad thing...

The Mom and Mum scarves are coming along nicely, They don't really look any different, just L-O-N-G-E-R, so just imagine more stitches. :o)


The Swallowtail shawl has been such a fun knit. I'm really glad I started it, because, truth be told, it looked a bit imposing and almost scared me off...

I don't have access to pins at the moment, so here's the best I could do with one-handed blocking (for all you XStitchers, those French Knot looking things are called nupps):



To the knitters out there, I finished Lilly of the Valley 1 border and am just over half way through the Lilly of the Valley 2 border. (I think I'm finally getting the hang of the nupps!!!). There are JUST 20 rows to go. Of course, there are 220+ stitches on the needles that I have time to only do one row per sitting, working on it during lunch. Barring any major catastrophies, this will definitely be done with time to spare before Christmas.

Here's the whole kit and kaboodle...




For about the last month, after work, I just want to go home, get into comfy clothes and just...hide out. Not a whole lot seems particularly blogworthy (hence the sporatic posting). I haven't even started listening to my Christmas CD's. By this time, DH has had to endure Jingle Cats at least a few times!

Just call me Ms. Antisocial-General-Crappy-Attitude! :o)

I suspect that the time change and colder weather have been the culprits. We don't see all that many truly sunny days around here anyway, and it's been cool, damp, and dreary. Could be just a very mild case of SAD, but it's getting on my nerves. I went to a candle party at a neighbor's house this week, and it was really fun and great to get out of hiding the house. Hopefully, this will help bootstrap me out of my funk...

Santa of the Forest

This past weekend, I thought I heard some muffled noises coming from my basket of stitching, and when I went to see who/what was making all the racket, it was Santa wanting to get out of the ziploc bag! Since it's so close to the holidays, I thought I'd play it safe...

After:


Before:


I worked on Santa's cape...

Yes, I am a TOTAL dweeb!

I was reading comments left on my blog, and Anne so sweetly reminded me that I've been referring to her as Sue. And I think I've been doing that for the entire time I've been working on her RR.

*sigh* sadly shakes head...

Anne, I'm so sorry! I went back and corrected them all. Feel free to call me Sue any time... :o)

Not really MIA

I'm here, everything is great, but I just haven't had much blogworthy to post. And I honestly believe time accelerates between posts!


-> I finished up Anne's RR, mailed it out and am eagerly awaiting Vash's RR to arrive.
-> While waiting for the next RR, I briefly picked up Fairy Flora Friday evening and added a few stitches.
-> I finished up my Scissor Fob Exchange (at The Robins Nest), but can't share a picture until delivery is confirmed.
-> I've still been madly knitting away on Christmas presents.
-> A number of you left comments asking about the polarfleece socks. I just cut a bunch out and will try to get some 'action' shots of their construction. (really!)


I can share the *lovely* (over one!!) scissor fob I received from Su. I've admired the gorgeous stitching she displays on her blog, so I was really excited to find that lil 'ol me now has one of her creations!!!




Class has been going well. I was working on homework last week, and thought I'd share a picture of my 'supervisors'. Abner is holding down my left foot so I can't move until I finished (per Daddy's orders). The big white thing my papers are on is one of those beanbag lap desks. The cats were not happy that it was in their way but perservered and found places to curl up anyway.