Work in Progress - My Needle and Floss Comfort Me

I'm definitely on my way to being a member of the Stitcherhood! I've finally decided on my colour choices for this well travelled pattern, and made a start on it this week. Because I find stitching in golds and rusts the most "comforting" that my lady had to be dressed in those shades, and I have searched my GAST stash (one of my favourite overdyes) for suitable colours.

I'm hoping that I will be able to finish it this weekend, as the lady is the most densely stitched part of the design and she is nearly done, as I've worked on her since this picture was taken.

I am sure most of you know about the Sisterhood of the Travelling Pattern but for those of you who don't this is her journey:

Harmien in the Netherlands (November 3, 2007)

She sent it to Lili in France (June 17, 2007)

Who sent it to Barbara in Malaysia (June 25, 2007)

Who sent it to Tessa in Australia (July 16, 2007)

Who sent it to Lizzy in the North Carolina, US (February 26, 2008)

Who sent it to Barbara in the Netherlands (March 11, 2008)

Who sent it to Sarah (no blog) in Ohio, US (April 11, 2008)

Who sent it to Anna in Pennsylvania, US (May 28, 2008)

Who sent it to Wendy in Ontario, Canada (July 4, 2008)

Who sent it to Sue in Michigan, US (August 2, 2008)

Who sent it to Jennifer in Pennsylvania, US (September 2, 2008)

Who sent it to CJ in Texas, US, (October 25, 2008)

Who sent it to Claire in Nova Scotia, Canada (January 20, 2009)

Who sent it to Kathy in Arizona, US (February 18, 2009)

Who sent it to Carol in Indiana, US (March 15, 2009)

Who sent it to Carolyn in California, US (May 20, 2009)

Who sent it to Sharon in Oklahoma, US (August 8, 2009)

Who sent it to Jill in Minnesota, US (August 19, 2009)

Who sent it to Sara in North Carolina, US (September, 2009)

Who sent it to CarolR  in Kent, United Kingdom (October 27, 2009)

Who sent it to Nic (me) in Yorkshire, United Kingdom (January 25, 2010)

Who sent it to ????

I'm going to need some stitching time, as this weekend is a busy one - I'm just checking in now before I dash off to assist in teaching a workshop about teaching workshops and of course tomorrow is Mother's Day here in the UK, so I will be entertaining my parents - and as I'm not going to be able to finish Ma's gift in time, I'm going to have to do a bit of quick shopping after the workshop! Fortunately, I'm working not to far from Meadowhell - aka Meadowhall, a very large shopping mall. I normally avoid it like the plague, but I'm prepared to brave it because it's for my mum! :o)

Hopefully I'm also going to have time to show some pictures of stitcher's finishes from my freebie charts ... thank you everyone for your kind comments about the latest design for St Patrick's Day. The March biscornu chart is ready for release too - I think you'll like it, I'm very pleased with it, it's very fresh and spring like!

E is for Embroidery - Prairie Schooler

Even though I have UFOs to get cracking with, I couldn't resist starting the next block of my Prairie Schooler ABC, and this was after the first couple of sessions.

I've left out the cat - I don't really like cats, and there are two large ones in this project to come - I'll probably replace it with another spool of thread.

I've also changed the design the lady is stitching to incorporate the year.

I'm not sure about the design to go in the frame, whether to stitch the dark background or not ...

Happy Dance! - A is for Anchor

Design: A is for Anchor (from A*B*C) 

Designer: Prairie Schooler 

Threads: DMC as charted  

Fabric: 28 count evenweave, cream 

Stitches: Half cross stitch

I started this on the 28th of December, and finished it on the 5th of  January, as I wanted to stitch my New Year's Day pieces too. Again, this was mostly worked whilst listening to the coverage of the cricket in South Africa - cross stitch and cricket go very well together!

This is how it grew:

 

And this is how the first row completed looks:

Apologies for the dark pictures - we have grey skies because of all the snow we're getting.

I didn't make any changes to this. Although I may go back and work two of the letters in the compass rose in a different colour, as N and W are my initials :o)

D is for Drum is taking slightly longer to work, as I'm doing a bit of a re-design - the flag and shield motif are being changed to designs more appropriate for someone who is not American, and the eagle is changing species too!

Finish or Fling? - Advent Calendar Wall Hanging

I started this - oh, 1992? 1993? Sometimes around then. So this makes this project one of my oldest UFOs. It came from a magazine - now defunct - called Needlecraft. I used all sorts of oddments for this, so it is a mix of cotton and polycotton fabrics - a mistake I wouldn't make now, but as I'm unlikely to ever want to wash this, I don't suppose it will really make much difference. It's quite big - about half the width of my double bed here.

When I unwrapped this, I noticed some of the pins holding the felt hair on had rusted - but there's no rhyme or reason to which ones had gone. I think I'm going to have to cut some more shapes out - I don't think I have the templates, but I can draw round the other shapes.

Every single stitch is this is hand sewn - the blocks are pieced over paper. The appliqued faces, hair and quilts are all hand stitched, not fused on. And all those stockings are oversewn by hand. When I took them out of their bag, I was amazed at how fine and regular my stitches were, and how much work in general has gone into this.

Pros:

• I've done a lot of work already
• It will look amazing
• It would free up a lot of space in my stitching box

Cons:

• There's a lot of hand sewing to do
• There's a lot of quilting to do
• The Hermit hates Christmas so won't appreciate this
  

Finish or fling? Oh, definitely finish - I want to display this next Christmas!

Prairie Schooler SAL

Day 1

Day 2(under artificial light)

Day 3

The combination of a peaceful Christmas with no travelling and Test Match Special on the radio, with live coverage of England's cricketers taking on South Africa has given me plenty of stitching time until I start work again tomorrow (boo, hiss!).

So my Prairie Schooler SAL is growing apace ... of course, when talking about over one, 'growing' is a relative term ... but hopefully, I will finish it later today. I've had a visit from the frog, I miscounted the vine border and was one stitch out by the time I got to the top ... I've reworked the horizontal row at the top, but the leaves and berries I've left alone, it can be our little secret :o)

Prairie Schooler SAL

I know I said next year was going to be the Year of the UFO and that I wouldn't do any new starts ... but I really couldn't resist the Prairie Schooler SAL Vonna has set up! And I told myself (and everyone agreed) that if I started it now, well, it was obviously going to be a UFO for 2010 ...

Initially, I thought that I could just stitch the little boxes with the letters, but that wasn't really working for me in the end. So, I decided to bite the bullet and go for the full blown designs! Eek!

I'm going to stitch them over one on 28 count evenweave, but only do a half cross stitch in two strands. I've done this before and liked the effect. And the speed!

I'm going to do the alphabet in three pieces, so I will have a layout of 3 x 3 on each piece - it brings them down to a more sensible size for handling, I like working with a small hoop in hand.

So, here's the set up, with my lovely Prairie Schooler floss tag I received from Laurence on Hooked on Exchanges...

And this is after my first session on Sunday - I'm starting with C is for Cow, as there was a nice solid border on the right hand side so I could just measure and go ... well, calculate, measure, calculate, measure and go...

I'm happy with the coverage of the threads, on the whole. Of course, as it's going to be framed, it only needs to look good from a distance :o) It looks yellowish because of the lighting, unfortunately.

And this is how it looked after Monday night's session:

 

 

I did a little bit of frogging (and you can just about see the fluff left) as I felt that the C didn't stand out enough against the dark background, so I'm going to leaveall the letter spaces unfilled. For now... I may decide to do them in a paler colour later, I think I need to ponder on this a bit more.

I've counted all the grids on the charts, and I think for this section all are 70 wide, and there's only one that isn't 100 stitches high. I'm leaving 5 threads between each design to allow for 'leakage'.

My goal is to stitch this before the end of the month, and then to stitch one piece a month. But you know what they say about best laid plans...

Frustration... and some progress

I've been sewing up the Striped Baby Jumper for a baby that is due on Friday. Jill at the Wool Baa taught me the wonderful mattress stitch technique for knitteds, but I've come to realise why my knitted items are either plain shapes, or knitted in the round. I had to set one sleeve SIX times before I was happy with it (perfectionist? moi?). I know being striped should have made it easier but ... Anyway, it is done, and will be mailed to Switzerland when I know baby has arrived safe and well and I'll share pictures then.

I still need to darn in the ends of my Clapotis, but you can see the yarn here. Yes, using autumn shades - again! I'm going to wear it for a month or so and then decide if I want to continue using it or if I will rip it back. It's hanging on a couple of pegs here, so you can see the lovely drape, but I'm still wishing I'd done it in a less plain yarn.

Although possibly nothing as bright and mottled as this - this is the current state of play of my Big Knit Hats for the Innocent charity campaign. I've been experimenting with stitch patterns from my knitting encyclopaedias, not that you can really tell from this picture, and it's been very interesting and has triggered some ideas for larger projects.

Two Bookcrossing friends of mine were having babies this month. The stripey sweater wearer-to-be is not yet born, but the other has arrived. And is a baby boy. I'd rather hoped it would be a girl, as I had cast on this cardigan:

If Swiss baby is a Swiss miss, all will be well... If not, I will have to think of something, or just rip it back, as I haven't got very far.

(Honestly, I don't really mind that my friend's had a boy. She had a tough journey to conceive, I'm just so thrilled there's been a happy result!)

I'm on the last square of Neat Country Stuff! And if you are thinking it's not looking like the chart, you'd be right. I really don't like the 'sheep' as charted on the original design. However, I also have in my stash the same designer's Sheep Button Sampler. The sheep as charted on this however was a little big, so out came the graph paper and pencils and after a session with those (and an eraser) I think it's going to work - fingers crossed! I'm hoping for a happy dance by the weekend, and then I can get cracking on my By The Sea exchange piece. The squashed stitches you can see will fluff out as I'm going to wash and press the piece - it's all DMC so will be safe. It's been hanging around so long it needs refreshing!

Finally, this is my Poetry Society letter. It's curling like nobody's business because it's plain stocking stitch. I hope the PS people are planning on putting a border on it, or displaying it stretched in some way. We still don't know what the actual poem is going to be yet ... Can you guess which letter I'm knitting? I'm hoping this will be finished in the next day or so too. It will be great to have some WIPs finished!

Edited to add - forgot to list my socks here, but I think I've left them at the office!

Works in Progress

I've been a busy little bee recently - yes, even on the stitching front - but some of my recent finishes I can't share with you yet, as they've not reached their destinations.

However, I thought I'd show some of the things that are currently in my workbag.

First up is my current commuting project, which will be a sock when it grows up! I'm knitting it on 2.5mm needles, from a pattern in Charlene Schurch's excellent book. The book looks scary at first, all figures and tables, but it really is a joy to knit from.

I wish I could say the same about the yarn though. It's Wendy Happy (colourway: Taurus) and it's not making me very happy. It is 75% bamboo, 25% nylon, and it feels fabulous, don't get me wrong, all soft and smooth and squooshy and silky, but it splits and untwists, and I don't like how the colours repeat, even though I like the colours. I'm also not convinced - despite being sold as sock yarn - that it will prove to make comfortable socks that don't slouch. Anyway, I should have this sock done by the end of the week, and that will be the pair done, so I will wear them and report back!

The dodgy photo isn't the fault of my new camera, it's the fault of the old photographer!

This is going to be the latest addition to my every growing baskets of smalls. It is based on Shepherd's Bush's Antique Heart Needleroll but stitched on my own choice of linen and using beads, charms and lace from my stash. It's coming along nicely, but since the picture was taken, I've already changed the charm!

I don't normally start something as soon as the chart is posted, but this design just spoke to me - I think it was seeing it on Vonna's blog which did it!

The design is a Blackbird Designs freebie, and I've chosen to stitch it on cream 28 count jobelan, with a Stef Francis fine mercerised cotton. I used this hand dyed fibre for an exchange piece last year, and I've been itching to make something for myself with it ever since, and this sampler seemed the perfect thing!

The designer suggests using a family name for the 'signature' and as the sampler is called Petites Lettres Rouges, I'm using the name of my very petite great grandmother. My 'little great gran' was always tickled by her title, and at well under five feet, was just the right size for a cuddle when we were little.

Here she is on the right hand side. The baby that is being admired is my own good self ... the curly hair was yet to grow in :o)

By coincidence, LGG's maiden surname is the same as my partners, so it also fits.

As my Ma has traced back eight maternal generations from my own, I could do quite a few samplers ...

Thank you for dropping by, I hope your day is as sunny and bright as mine is!

WIPs

I have been busy, honest - it's just that a lot of my stitching and knitting has been for gifts, so I haven't been able to share.

Add to that a camera that just doesn't want to hold a charge and adding pictures to this blog has become a bit stressy!

The good news is that my parents are going to buy me a new camera for my birthday next month. The bad news is that I'm getting a 'bigger' present than usual as it's a 'big' birthday - I'm going to be 40! But I digress...



This is how close I am to finishing Prairie Schooler's O Christmas Tree. I really like this - it's seasonal without being over the top, although The Hermit hates it because it mentions the "C" word. Tough - I'm in charge of decorating and come next Christmas, this will hopefully be framed and on display!



This are my current socks in progress - the yarn is something Little Sister gave be for Christmas - it is Regia Wool Cotton and it's lovely and soft to knit. The colourway is a bit too blue for me but it looks very pretty. I might ask my LYS if she is planning to stock this yarn in addition to the other Regia.



This is my mindless knitting project. Underneath all the fluffy bits is a basic garter stitch scarf, like the one I made my Mum for Christmas. In fact, it is the same yarn, just a different colourway. The picture is a bit blurry because the camera is having trouble focussing on the scarf due to the metallic threads. That's my excuse - otherwise I'll have to admit to just being a rubbish picture taker!



And finally, this is my latest shawl project. It is a pattern called Kiri, which can be found here. I'm using a Noro yarn to knit it and I love how it is looking. My Dad asked if I was making a Technicolor Dream Coat... The lace pattern is so easy to knit, too. Unfortunately, I think it's going to be smaller than I thought so will need more pattern repeats ... already it takes me 15 minutes to knit one pattern row, so it might grow very slowly from here on in - but it has only taken me just over a week to get this far.

SAL Progress

This should possibly be "lack of progress" as I haven't done very much at all these last couple of weeks!

However, it seems that Sally and I are at the same place with it, so that's good!

I'm really enjoying stitching this, I might have to keep going with stitching a Just Nan once a week, as I have a number in my stash!