Ornament Happy Dance!

That's it! The completely stitched Quaker Reindeer by The Workbasket from the 2006 Just Cross Stitch ornament issue. All ready to be finished into a pretty ornament. I think I've already said that this was one my mom really liked when she was the ornament issue last year. I don't think I would have put it on my list if she hadn't said how much she liked it, but honestly it's so beautiful in person. The fiber is Caron Waterlillies, Copper and the shading doesn't show up in the picture like it does in person.

In other news, I think I've finally knitted all I need to on the straps for Eliza tank. I have to pin it together and make sure they are long enough before I do anything drastic. I'm a bit concerned that this is actually going to fit me. I was looking at some people who had finished it on Ravelry and it doesn't seem that anyone was extremely pleased with how it fit when they got it finished. So that's got me worried. I hope I'll have worried for no reason. I really like how it looks. Cross your fingers for me.

In other, slightly related news, I've decided on a pattern and fiber for my HP Sock Exchange year 2 socks. Not to make sure I have enough yarn before I get started. If not, then I'll have to do some quick rethinking. Need to get started soon, so I'll have them all done in time. I'm excited about the pattern. I think it will look very cool when I'm done. I love to start new things, so this will help my itch to start something new.

A weekend report

What with being sick and the extremely hot weather, even for FL it's been extreme, I haven't done much posting. I have however, managed to accomplish some stitching and even some knitting. Luckily this month's theme was "Lazy Days of Summer" (a.k.a. work on anything you feel like working on!). That being said I saw it in my mind back 8 months ago as a free-for-all. Not sticking with any one project, you know, total abandonment. Surprisingly that hasn't happened. For some reason I've gotten into this habit of working on a different project each day. Thought I'd take you through my week and show you some updates along the way.

Monday is the day I've worked on my secret project. (No use trying to guess Heather, you'd never guess. No use trying to get me to tell you either, I'm not telling.) As a hint, it's a gift for a friend. Now, wonder which friend is getting something....and no, just because I won't tell H. doesn't mean it's for her. This project will start seeing less time when my Monday night class starts back the week after Labor Day. But I should still manage to get some time in to get it done on time.

Tuesday is still "ornament" day. Lately I've been working on the Quaker Reindeer from the 2006 Just Cross Stitch (JCS) ornament issue. As you can see, only 1 more leg to go, then put it's little bell on and I'm ready to finish this one. I have quite a pile going right now that needs actual finishing into an ornament. That's the part that I don't really like to do, not that I can't, just seems to be not as much fun to me. I will probably find a day soon and do some finishing though, since I have so many ornaments and at least 1 purse that needs to be sewn together and a couple others that just need the handles attached.

Wednesday and Friday I knit. I've gone between the Eliza Tank and the new Rowan sweater Lynton. Last week I had a bit of a problem with Eliza, realized I hadn't read the directions correctly and had to rip back quite a ways and restart. So, I'm back doing the straps and am much happier with it. Not sure why I didn't get a picture of it Saturday when I was taking pictures, but I did get one of what I've done so far on Lynton. As you can see, I'm working on the sleeves, both at the same time. I'm to the point of decreasing now, although in this picture I wasn't quite that far. I tried to get a picture of what it should look like, but that's not looking so good. So there's a better pictures. As you can see I'm doing mine in a green color, I think it's called Jute. The Cotton Jeans yarn is very lovely to work with. I think I've said this, but my goal is to be able to wear it at ASG in Louisville this year. Yes, that's in October, and yes I realize that. Hence why I work on it more then just on Wednesdays and Fridays. I've also been working on it when I'm sitting in bed trying to get sleepy. Working out well I think. I'm also planning on this being what I take with me during football trips this year. I'm hoping that the drive over and back will give me some time to knit, that's if I ride over with my friend Selena. We'll see how quickly the other parts come along.

Thursday I stitch again. Thursdays on Legacy UFO/WIP group is for...well UFO and WIP finishing. I've picked Traditional Elegance II to concentrate on. That's a picture of it with all the bands I've finished and the one I'm working on now. And a close up of the current band. The yellow flowers that are completely finished are honeysuckle. I love this very stylized band. I don't have any Japan thread in gold, so I'm going to have to order that to be able to finish. But I'll keep working on what I can without it.

As I said, Friday's I knit. Saturday I either knit or stitch. Kind of depends on what I feel like doing. This week I did a bit of both. Worked on Eliza, Lynton and stitched on something, but don't remember what.

Sunday I've been devoting to working on my Halloween Fairy. She's coming along very nicely. This picture was taken on Saturday, so it doesn't show what I did yesterday. I'll have to take another picture. I've actually finished the bottom part of that wing and gotten the "eyes" done on the top portion. She looks very striking on the pumpkin fabric.

Well, that's all I have to show today. I'm still taking it kind of easy this week. The weather has gotten a little cooler, and we did get a little rain which has helped some. I know there are a lot of people who have been dealing with flooding and also fires. I've been worried that if we don't get some good soaking rains, we might end up with fires around here. That can be very scary. We had to evacuate a few years ago because of a fire in our area. Hopefully the weather will even out and everyone will stay safe.

A Week between posts...how disgraceful!

Not only has it been a week, but now I'm going to post without putting any pictures up either. I'm just a terrible blogger. But I have a halfway decent excuse...I've been sick. So sick that I even went to the doctor and got real antibiotics. So, please forgive me for not posting.

I have been somewhat busy while I've been sick though, so expect to see some pretties as soon as I can get the camera and take some pictures. Halloween Fairy is coming along very nicely. She has a face and beginning to even have a wing. Last Thursday night I worked again on Traditional Elegance II. More outlining/blackwork was accomplished. I've also been working on my "surprise" item. It's a very soothing piece to work on and is working up fairly quickly. Well, quicker then I thought it would. Tonight was "ornament Tuesday", so I worked on the Quaker Reindeer again and have only one leg more to do. Should finish next week, if I work on it.

Knitting wise I've been working away on my Eliza Tank. I've got about 5 more inches of the shoulder straps to do, then I can see about putting it together. I've also been working on the sleeves to my Rowan sweater. That's about all the knitting I've done lately.

Some of you might remember I told you about my dad having a procedure done last Thursday. It went very well and the doctor was very pleased. Just have to go back in another week for a check-up, then try and get with is heart doctor to decide what to do about his medication, since that's what they think has caused all the bleeding problems. But for now, things are going well. Thanks for all the good thoughts and prayers.

Just a picture and some words

For those who were wondering if I actually made progress on my Thursday Night Focus WIP/UFO, I give you and updated picture. This is what I managed to accomplish last Thursday night. Not bad if I do say so myself. Lots of Blackwork in this section. Can't really do backstitch, since the Trebizond is so thick. It was fun to pull this out and work on it. Hopefully tomorrow I'll be able to get some more done.
Speaking of tomorrow, my father is having another endoscopy, so if you would send some good thoughts and prayers his way. They want to repair some more of the tiny holes in his upper GI they've found that have caused the problem with his blood levels. Hopefully this will straighten everything out.

I did manage to get some great stitching time this weekend, just no pictures. I'll get those and maybe post really quickly tomorrow. Tonight is a "knitting" night for me. I'm headed to the doctor's office since my allergies have started affecting my voice and throat so badly. I may take the new project with me...but more on that later. Off to relax and hope I don't have to answer the phone too often.

Themes

Haven't had a chance to talk about this month's stitching theme. It's fairly easy... "Lazy Days of Summer", which means just work on whatever you want this month. That being said, I've tried to take advantage of the free stitching. I've worked on Halloween Fairy, ornaments, Deer in the Woods, a little something I can't talk about, and a couple of other things that don't come readily to mind.

On Legacy Embroiderers Guild board on ezBoard I try to keep up with the WIP/UFO thread hosted by the lovely CathyC. She's trying to get us back on track and has reminded us that some of us committed to stitching on a UFO on Thursday evenings and one weekend a month. So, in that light I decided to pull something out that I've had for a very long time, Traditional Elegance II.
That's what it looked like before I worked on it last night and watched "Talladega Nights". I haven't taken a picture yet, but I will and will post it this weekend. (BTW, if you don't know anything about NASCAR, I don't think TN would be all that funny.)

I hope to be able to attend at least some of the sampler guild meeting tomorrow. If so, I'll be working on Deer in the Woods. (I've designated that my "guild" piece.) I almost have a full flower in the border complete. When I do, I'll take a picture and post it. I also worked on that Tues. when I met my friend and stitched with her. We had a very nice time. Hopefully we can make a real habit of it, at least twice a month.

The heat continues, so I'm all for trying to stay as cool as possible. Hope everyone else is too.

It's stinkin' HOT here!

Let me just say that when it's 99 deg. F (or so) and the Heat Index is topping 110 deg. F that it's stinkin' hot! For those of you who live in more temperate climates, this is the time of year that living in NE Florida really becomes hard to handle. Believe me, it is the humidity that's the killer part.

To distract you from that let me show you a little something I like to call Quaker Reindeer ornament.Isn't it pretty? I think I mentioned before that this was my mom's favorite ornament in last years JCS ornament issue. The cool frame it's in is my favorite frame of all time to stitch with, especially for smalls. It's called a Stitch-Away Frame and I highly recommend them. I've been nothing but happy with mine.

Tonight I'm going to stitch with my friend Melody. We've been trying to do this for ages. We want to try and find a time at least twice a month to get together. Tuesday's seem to work best, so this is our first time. Wish us luck. Not sure how much I'll accomplish. Not even sure what I'll work on. So many things I've been wanting to work on lately. Love the choices!

Sorry Heather, your answer to yesterday's question was incorrect. The right answer is....
Night Blooming Cereus! Yes, it's got another bloom on it! I'm so excited. We think it might open tonight. If it does I'll have more pictures.

Monday, Monday

I know, it's a song, but still that's the best I could do. Here...look at half of the pretty Print O'the Waves shawl...
See, don't you feel better now that you've seen a picture. Wait there's more. There's even a close-up....Don't you love the pattern? Don't you love the SeaSilk? I know I do. Thankfully so does my mother even though these aren't normally her colors.

So, in the midst of all this prettiness there is sadness at my house. Yes, it's official, the scanner can't be revived and must be replaced. It's not a simple software issue, no, the thing won't even turn on. This has been confirmed by a length chat with "Frank" who was the online HP help desk person I "spoke" to. So, now I'm looking at new scanners. Just what I didn't want to have to purchase. Hopefully I can find what I want for a really good price. Here's hoping.

Getting sad again... here's something to look at...The Halloween Fairy from Mirabillia...
As you can see I'm not working it on the linen it called for. When I got the pattern I had just acquired some very nice pieces of hand-dyed fabric from Silkweavers and I thought she would love gorgeous on the piece called "Frosted Pumpkin". It's 36 ct Edinburgh Linen and the color is this wonderful pumpkin color. I only had to change one thread color to make it work. I changed from Crescent Colours Tangerine to CC Fallen Leaves. I'm very excited with how she's turning out. So excited that I've been stitching on her quite a bit in the last week. This is what she looked like as of last night when I stopped. She'll probably get some more done tonight. I'm anxious to see how her wings are going to look against this linen. Wouldn't it be something if she was finished in time to be given a place of honor this Halloween? Now that would be something special!

One last item of note for knitting. I finished the June washcloth at some point this weekend. I think it was Fri. night actually. It was called Play Ball. This is from the washcloth club at KnitWitz (my favorite LYS). I actually worked it in the same color the mode was completed in (Peaches & Cream cotton "Faded Denim"). I started July's washcloth, so I'm still behind a month. Oh well, I'm making them for gifts so I'm not too upset with being a bit behind.

I leave you with one final picture....
Do you know what that is???? Other then weeds growing? I don't have any prizes to give, but if you know and you're the first to post well you'll have the satisfaction of knowing you're right. Answer tomorrow.

Friday musings

Why is it that things show up in the strangest places, but when you really think about it, they aren't really strange places, they make perfect sense? (Are you lost yet? Stay with me here, I really do have something to tell.)

So, before I left to go to Atlanta last month, I wanted to scan some pictures I brought home from my aunt's house. Pictures that came from my great-uncle Paul. Some were of Uncle Paul when he served in the military, others weren't, but all were interesting to me for various reasons. Unfortunately I put a picture on the scanner bed and pulled up my scanning software and received this nasty message that the scanner didn't exist. (or something along those lines.) Now, I know the scanner exists. I can see the scanner. I can touch the scanner. I can even unplug the scanner. But for some reason my computer didn't think my scanner existed. So, I tried to make the computer go find the scanner. (Yeah, there are technical terms for this, but seriously, I'm only semi-technical and this is the way I talk about these things, so for those of you who are technical, well, substitute the correct terminology.) The computer went looking for the scanner and came back and told me the scanner wasn't there. So, I checked all the cables and the plugs and tried again. Thinking hey, something might have come unplugged. Still, no scanner as far as the computer is concerned. By this point I had run out of time to deal with the problem. When I got home, I thought about it and decided to uninstall the scanner software and act like I'd just brought it home and plugged it in, see if that would work. So I went and found my CD-ROM for the scanner software and then something happened and I had to quit working on the project. Fast forward to last week. I had some time on my hands and I wanted to use the scanner, so of course it dawned on me I had to uninstall the scanner software, reinstall it and hope for the best. I proceeded to uninstall the software and then went looking for the CD-ROM...you guessed it, I couldn't find it. I hunted on my desk. I even cleared papers off my desk. I looked around on the floor. I went looking where I keep my software disks....NO DISK! I was stunned. I knew I'd had it at some point in this whole process, but for the life of me couldn't figure out where.

This evening I finally finished listening to a book on tape that I'd downloaded to my MP3 player and I wanted to load a new book on. (I like to listen while I'm stitching or knitting sometimes.) So, I came to my computer, hit the button to open the CD drive and low and behold, yep, there sat the scanning software disk I'd hunted for! See what I mean. It makes perfect sense for it to be there, but when I was looking I never thought about it being there.

So, here's hoping that when I reload the software the scanner starts working again, because I really don't want to buy a new one, but I'll have to if I can't get it to work.

In other news...sorry, still no pictures. I promise I'll take them soon. I've been working on the Eliza tank top and I think I've got about 6 inches of the front done! So far so good with the yarn. On the stitching front I've been working on a little secret project. It's coming along quite nicely. Reindeer Ornament is progressing as well. I sat down this evening with some knitting and will probably knit a while longer. I picked up the Print O' the Waves Stole I've been working on forever. I am on the last repeat of the 1st half! So, I'm planning on getting that finished tonight and seeing about starting on the other half. Then I may switch to some stitching. I heard Halloween Fairy calling my name so I think I'll bring her out and work on her a bit. Would be nice to get a chunk of her finished. (I know...pictures! Yeah, yeah, they're coming!)