Where are they now? 2KCBWDAY4

Day Four: 31st March. Where are they now? 2KCBWDAY4
Whatever happened to your __________?
Write about the fate of a past knitting project. Whether it be something that you crocheted or knitted for yourself or to give to another person. An item that lives with you or something which you sent off to charity.

I guess this isn't so much about the projects as it is what happened after I knit them. Back in 2008 a church friend's granddaughter was diagnosed with a brain mass that was causing her to have seizures and be in a lot of pain. At the time Lilly was only 2 and of course scared of all the poking and prodding that was going on plus she hurt. Her great-grandmother (actually step-GGM) was still alive at the time and she loved to dress up and wear hats and so when Lilly was going to have to have brain surgery and most of her hair would be removed GGM told her she'd get to wear pretty hats until her hair grew back. I wanted to make sure she had one that was pretty and soft for her head so I knit her one from a design by Leigh Radford. I used Plymouth Wildflowers DK in a soft blue color since she is so fair skinned. Here's a picture of Lilly sporting her hat after her hair had grown back some.


To me the most important thing is that 3 years later Lilly is a happy and very healthy little 5 year old girl.

The other is also related to sickness. In 2009 we found out that my cousin Dennis had aplastic anemia and due to his age the usual treatments weren't advisable. So instead he had to have chemo to kill all the stem cells and then take medicine to grow back his own with the hope it would grow back without the illness. It was a difficult treatment which meant he had to leave his home outside of Charlotte and move to Baltimore during the procedure. He and his wife stayed there for months and of course it was in the fall and winter. Poor dear lost all his beautiful dark hair so I thought he needed a dashing cap to sport when he went for treatments. I made him Claudia with Misti Alpaca Silk & Cotton yarn. It was soft enough it wouldn't bother his newly bald head, but would also keep it's shape. No pictures of him in it, but I did manage to get a picture of it on my mom before I shipped it off. I know he was surprised and since I made it in Ohio State Buckeye Scarlet, or at least as close to it as I could, he was happy.

Pretty simple pattern and looked great too.

So it's a theme of hats for people who are sick and lost hair, but the great news is that even though the procedure that Dennis originally went through didn't produce the results we had hoped for, he was able to have a different procedure last year that did the trick and he's doing quite well.

It's fun to make things for yourself, but I also enjoy making something for a friend or family member, especially if it lets them know that I'm thinking of them during a time of difficulty.

Tidy mind, tidy stitches - 2KCBWDAY3

Day Three: 30th March. Tidy mind, tidy stitches. 2KCBWDAY3
How do you keep your yarn wrangling organized? It seems like an easy to answer question at first, but in fact organization exists on many levels. Maybe you are truly not organized at all, in which case I am personally daring you to try and photograph your stash in whatever locations you can find the individual skeins. However, if you are organized, blog about an aspect of that organization process, whether that be a particularly neat and tidy knitting bag, a decorative display of your crochet hooks, your organized stash or your project and stash pages on Ravelry.

In some respects I'm very organized about my work, and by extension about my crafts. I have lovely containers that I store my yarn in, well most of it at least since unfortunately I'm acquiring yarn faster than I can knit it! For now I have a lovely tall wicker basket full of yarn, 2 smaller baskets full of yarn, a large round hat box full of only sock weight (but not all of my stash) and a lovely trio of baskets that my mother bought for me last year for my birthday.

I only have a picture of the pretty set of baskets since the rest is kind of well boring. Not sure if you can tell but the middle basket has all the yarn for my Great American Aran Afghan that I started back in 2009. I wish I had more of this completed than I do, but some day I'll get all the blocks finished!

My goal is to purchase a couple of these lovely shelving units from IKEA, Expedit. I'm shamelessly copying my DF Heather since I'm pretty sure this is the same ones she has in her "craft cabana".

My goal with these is to be able to then put all my knitting books, patterns and magazines together in one place and also have baskets that would hold some of the overflow of yarn.

I wish I were a lot more organized, but it is my hobby so I don't like it to be too much like work!

Skill + 1UP -2KCBWDAY2

Day Two: 29th March. Skill + 1UP. 2KCBWDAY2
Look back over your last year of projects and compare where you are in terms of skill and knowledge of your craft to this time last year. Have you learned any new skills or forms of knitting/crochet (can you crochet cable stitches now where you didn’t even know such things existed last year? Have you recently put a foot in the tiled world of entrelac? Had you even picked up a pair of needles or crochet hook this time last year?

Sadly I haven't learned any new skills this year. I have a few on my list that I really want to delve in to and at the top of that list is double knitting. Last year I bought yarn to make Rainbow scarf, which is double knitted with Kuani. Even bought the Kauni I liked for it, but I haven't dipped my foot into this technique. Maybe after I finish the scarf that's on my needles right now.

I did have fun at my first attempt at dying yarn. I dyed some sock yarn at my LYS during a Midnight Night. I love how it turned out but haven't decided on a pattern to use it for.

  The colors are pretty wild, but it was a lot more fun than I imagined and I'd like to do it again.

A Tale of Two Yarns 2KCBWDAY1

I know! Two  blog posts in one day is insane, but it may happen a few times this week. I just found out about this and couldn't resist joining in.

Day One: 28th March. A Tale of Two Yarns. 2KCBWDAY1
Part of any fibre enthusiast’s hobby is an appreciation of yarn. Choose two yarns that you have either used, are in your stash or which you yearn after and capture what it is you love or loathe about them.

This isn't exactly an easy question, there are SO many yarns out there and SO many different ones in my stash that I just love for many different reasons. I've thought about this and am going to say that I love all things hand dyed and am a sucker for them in all their forms. I mainly buy hand dyed sock or lace weight yarns because I live in FL and it gets fairly warm here and we don't really have much of a winter, some of my friends would say we don't have any winter. So I really like knitting things like socks, shawls, wraps and the occasional hat or two. Sometimes I'll buy a yarn because I just love how it looks, thinking I'll use it for one thing and end up using it for something entirely different.

That's what happened with this skein of Rio De La Plata sock yarn.

I thought I wanted to use it for a crocheted purse I saw in a magazine. Obviously the yarn had other ideas since it became this...

Southern Porch Hat (ok the pattern is really North Porch Hat). The yarn was perfect and I've gotten more than one compliment on it when I've worn in this last year.

And then there's times when the perfect yarn is found for just the right pattern. Last year I went to Stitches South with friends and it was a wonderful experience. I finally saw yarns I'd only heard about, The Sanguine Gryphon, Habu Textiles, Lisa Sousa and Madeline Tosh to name just a few. Knowing that if I didn't have at least some sort of plan I'd just buy all kinds of things that when I got home I'd have no idea what to do with, so I went prepared with several patterns that I wanted to find something different for, something that my local store doesn't, or didn't at the time, carry. One of the patterns I had in mind was a fairly easy wrap called Cambria Wrap. I wanted something just perfect for this pattern, not too much change in color, but enough that it would flow thinking that the pattern was fairly simple so the yarn should be as well. I searched and in a booth from a dyer I'd never heard of I found this.


The yarn is from Knitting Notions and is their Classic Merino Superwash Sock. It's just beautiful to hold in your hand in the skein and then you knit it and it looks like this.


And at this point it wasn't even finished so it's not blocked. I'm still hoping to get it blocked and a picture of it in all it's glory up later this week. But the colors are unbelievable.

So what don't I like about these yarns, not much I have to say. They both work up beautiful, have great drape and just plain look amazing. The only problem is I don't have more in my stash!

Really I Couldn't Help Myself!

Here's the deal, I found this bag with some DMC and a spool of Kreinik in it today. The bag also contained some printouts of items in my stitching stash and what I needed for them. So I was curious, I went looking for the patterns, found a couple of them and of course felt the need to start one. Now here's the really screwed up part about the whole thing. I didn't have all of the floss colors needed, but I still wanted to start this one project, so I went to my stash, made a few changes and got started. I am justifying my actions based on the fact that I cast off Autumn in Cambria, a wrap I started last May after I bought the yarn during Stitches South. Made perfect sense at the time.

So here's what I managed to get done during Dancing With The Stars and Castle tonight. Please note that I was also on an online chat with two friends during DWTS and making comments about the routines and costumes. Plus in the middle I decided that I didn't like the color the alphabet was done in so I needed to change it. (Sorry for the glare on the pattern and I don't know what's up with that odd shadow in the top right of the fabric, no natural light makes it hard to get a decent picture.)

Briar Rabbit by La-D-Da

For those who are interested here's what I'm actually using. The fabric is from my stash, it's from Country Stitch in NZ and I'm not sure if they still produce this color since I got it by being part of their club several years ago. It's Cashel 28ct overdyed and the color is called Kiwi. It does kind of look like the brown on the outside of a kiwi fruit. The fiber changes include changing the alphabet from DMC 612 to two different flosses. For my initials (TMB) I'm using GAST Deep Sea and for all the rest I'm using a skein of overdyed cotton from my stash from The Dye Shop called Tropical Teal. I checked their web address and it's no longer being used so I'm going to make a guess that they are out of business. If I'm not mistaken a group of us went in together for some floss and fabric that was all hand dyed and I ended up with this color, I actually have 2. Then for the carrot and flower instead of DMC 3858 I'm going with WDW Terra Cotta, it looks so pretty with the fabric, just the look I wanted. Not too orange. The other sub I'm making is for the bunny, I'll do the body in GAST Lambswool and the tail in Anchor 926. So, really I'm only using DMC 730 & 833 from the original list on the pattern. I like my choices so far so I'm happy.

Sorry no picture of the finished wrap, I need to block it and get some pictures in some good light. That might not all happen until this weekend as we're supposed to get some much needed rain this week. Hopefully tonightt it won't rain since some friends and I have tickets to the FSU v. UF baseball game at the Jacksonville Baseball stadium. It's always a fun game and this year we have tickets right behind home plate.

Why Yes I Do Love Things Over The Top

I realized Wednesday while doing the finishing on this...

 that I really do like things a little over the top, tricked out, "totally MacDaddy'd out" (as one friend recently said about my little snow bunny ornament). I had decided I didn't want to frame this piece so I collected all sorts of lovely ribbons and flowers and stuff, including this sweet little beaded bird

thinking that maybe I'd use some of it, ok all of it, to decorate my cube-it. And decorate is what I did.

May your day be bright and cheerful and just a little over the top!

Murder and Mystery: It's Books Again

Here I was lamenting I hadn't been reading so much and I've finished another book. I really would have given this one 3 1/2 stars if I could. I liked it, but can't say I loved it. I do have to say there was a lot of research that went into this one, and I respect an author that puts that much time into researching, especially a mystery. Makes it better. So, even though it's 3 stars I'd recommend it and I'll probably pick up the next in the series to see what happens. 

The 7th Victim by Alan Jacobson

My rating: 3 of 5 stars


Having debated between 3 and 4 stars I went with 3 on this one. There was a little TOO much going on with this main character for me to believe she could hold it together as well as she did in this book. That's fine, I can suspend my belief for a good book but it did keep me from giving it 4 stars.



There are a lot of points to keep track of and even small things end up making sense in the end. Some are there to try and throw you off track, while others help you begin to see a picture before our heroine does. I didn't have any trouble believing she wasn't "seeing" all the pieces, since between her ex-husband, the investigation, her mother issues and her son's issues there were a lot of things for her to deal with and that's what I think kept her from figuring out what was going on earlier. Like any really good mystery all the clues are there, the reader just has to pick them out and put them together, much like the detective does.



All in all a good, fairly fast paced, mystery. I might even have to see what happens to Supervisory Special Agent Vail next.



View all my reviews

(I didn't receive any compensation for this, I picked this book up for my Kindle while it was free from Amazon. No affiliation, blah, blah, blah.)

Let's Talk Books

There's a problem with the title of this post. I'd love to talk about books I've been reading that I just love and have been engrossed in, but the truth is I haven't read anything like that lately. In fact, I've not been reading as much as I normally do. I can tell this because it's the 3rd month of the year and I've only actually read five books. Yes 5, two of which  I've rated with 2 stars on Goodreads and one with 3 stars. This may have something to do with my inability to get all settled in with a good book lately and just relax.

On the other hand, I've listened to 3 books on my iPod in the last 2 months. Mostly while stitching. All from the same author and they are part of a series I've been listening to over the last year. I love them. They are just good ear candy, they're probably great reading candy too, but I started listening to them at work and I just kept along with the series that way. Plus I enjoy listening to a book while I'm stitching.

Right now I'm reading

I downloaded it to my Kindle, I think when it was free. It sounded like something I might enjoy and when I was trying to decide on what to read the other night after finishing a YA book that I had figured out from the first page but kept reading because I thought I might like the characters. You can see from my review that I had some mixed feelings. Hopefully this latest book with come with a better recommendation.

The Luxe by Anna Godbersen

My rating: 3 of 5 stars


I've had a hard time deciding if I liked this book or not. In some respects I did which is why I eventually erred and gave it 3 stars. There were wonderful descriptions of turn of the century, high society New York, and some of the characters were interesting, though probably not the ones I was supposed to be interested in. However, I had a hard time liking the older sister, the good sister, the sister whose funeral the book begins with. I'm sure I was supposed to like her, but I just had a hard time doing so. This is apparently the first in a series, and I'm not sure I'm curious enough to find out if the next book deals with the characters I liked or not. Perhaps later.



View all my reviews

(Hmmm, I think there's something about me having to say how I obtained my books that I reviewed. Well I purchased them from a large online bookseller, or at least I downloaded them from there. They may have been free when I did so, I really can't remember.)

March Blogger Question - Stitching

Do you have a favorite Irish or Celtic stitched piece?  If you don't, what about a piece that represents your heritage?

For some reason I haven't stitched something that is specifically Irish or Celtic looking. Not that I don't have a piece or two, or more, in my stash to work on of course. My mom's family, which is the side I know the most about, is Scots and Irish. Several, think more than 10, years ago I went to visit a friend in south FL for my birthday and made him take me around to the stitching stores we could find for part of my gift. I'm fascinated by Scottish samplers and when I saw this one I had to have it and the silk to make it. I finally finished it last year and it now hangs in our living room. I realized that I've never shown a picture of this piece after it was framed so what a perfect opportunity. Of course it's hard to get a good picture because of the glass but here goes.

Traditional Elegance II

I should probably go find out all the particulars, but I'm lazy and just don't feel like going to find it. I'm pretty sure that the chart is OOP. It's worked all in silk and the told filling at the bottom is a gold thread that was "fun" to work with. There are also small gold beads in that area. It may have taken me several years to finish this one, but it is worth it. I love this piece.

Or maybe a family tree style sampler?

I actually have been thinking about this more since I've been working on the anniversary piece for mom and dad. I'd like to do one tracing back the female side of my family, so me, mom, her mom, her mom....etc. I haven't seen anything that screams to me, but I'm sure I will find something eventually. Or if you have an idea I'd love to know about it!

Making Progress

Not much to talk about, mainly because I just don't feel like typing. However, I finally got a picture of HallowEden for your viewing enjoyment.

HallowEden by Plum Street Samplers/Paulette Stewart

Stitching this on 40ct. Newcastle in Purely Primitive and using the called for Crescent Colours fibers. I really do like this piece and am enjoying stitching it. I have made one change, I stitched my initials in a different color than how it's charted.

Still working on March goal for Alphabets and not even going to try and get that picture until I'm done. I also stitched a small St. Patrick's Day piece, but I need a button to finish it so nothing to show on that yet either.

That's it for now. Hope everyone had a good weekend and is getting some fiber therapy, I know I am.

Is It Really Better To Be Late Than Never?

Often a question I ask when I've set a stitching goal for the month and the end of the month has blown by and I haven't finished my goal. Not sure I know the answer, but I give you Valentine Rose as proof that if you persevere you might eventually accomplish something.

Valentine Rose by Blackbird Designs

 I tried to get this to look as close to how it looks in person as I could. This is pretty close. This one is dedicated to my mother's sister, my Aunt Nora, whose birthday is the same day that some little rodent decides if we're going to have an early spring or not. I spent as many holidays and much of my summers with her and her family as a child as I did at my own home with my parents. My mom wanted me to have the time around family and since my aunt has three sons, one of whom is the same age as I am, that was where I went. Not that I minded escaping Florida in the summer to go to the mountains of West Virginia. Then when I was looking for colleges my Aunt Nora went with my mom and I to check out the first college I attended and over the years I've called her for advise as much as my mom, especially when I needed help with my accounting homework in college!

The "J" above and to the left of her name is for her husband James (Uncle Jim) whose birthday is also in February. The "S" is for Nora & Jim's granddaughter Sara who was born minutes after my maternal grandmother died. The other "J", at the top left corner in the blue/green color, is for my father's sister, JoAnn who also celebrates her birthday in February. I used a different color for her since her last name isn't Hart, well technically Sara's isn't any longer since she's now married but to me she'll always be Sara Hart.

With that goal accomplished I managed to get a start on March's goal for Alphabets. No picture yet since it's all in cream silk perlee which looks white and is a bear to photograph. I'm only going to try that once when it's finished.

That's all for today. Wednesday's don't leave much time for stitching in the evening since I have band practice and I need to do some drama directing for the church. We're doing a series of readings/dramas during our contemporary service in place of actually reading the Gospel lesson for the day. Somehow I ended up in charge of it. Hope you all have a fantastic day!

Another blogger's idea

While trying to catch up on my blog reading I headed over to Lee's blog, Lake Stitcher, and saw an intriguing post. Her idea was to pick a pattern from her stash that's been around for a few years, say from when you first got serious about stitching, and work on it during her birthday month, which just happens to be March. Lets just say I have a fairly decent stash. Not as large as some, but certainly I've reached SABLE and if truth be told if SABLE was more a place on a track my stash would be like a super speedway and I'd be on at least my 2nd Green/White/Checker finish of a 500 mile race. (If you're not a fan of NASCAR this means nothing to you, but for some of my friends this will explain a lot. For the rest just believe me when I say I'm WAY PAST SABLE.)

I have no idea what I'm going to choose but I decided this was a great idea and I'm in. I've got a few months until July to go through my stash and decide what I want to work on, if I need to make any thread changes and gather supplies or wander through my fiber and fabric stash to see what I can use. I'm thinking about all the classes I took back "in the day" and all the patterns I've collected over the years. I'm fairly certain something is going to just jump out and say, "PICK ME!!!"

If you're a stitcher, take a look at Lee's post (linky again in case you missed it the first time) and see if you'd like to join the fun.

A Late Anniversary and such

Although I didn't have it completely finished by their anniversary my parent's piece is completely stitched and at the framers being framed.

An Emblem of Love designed by With My Needle

For those who are curious about such things I used 36ct Lakeside, V. Lt. Examplar with a single strand of Belle Soie in Eggplant and Florimell Silk Floss from Gloriana Threads in Old Gold. It's all cross stitch with one thread of silk over 2 linen threads. The picture doesn't do justice to the slight variations of the Belle Soie nor the Gloriana. I'm pretty sure I've given credit before but I'm going to again. I really am indebted to my DF Melody for being willing to destash the pattern, fabric and Belle Soie so I could get started once I'd decided what I was going to stitch. I'm also thankful for DF Jackie since she let me borrow enough of the beautiful Florimell to work some of the hearts and the years in the gold. I thought I had something that would work in my stash but neither color was just right and what Jackie had is perfect. I've known for years the stitching friends are priceless and this project just proves that over again.

I did manage to finish the goal I set for DT's Alphabets in February, not that I've managed to work on it yet in March but there's still time. Another alphabet finished...

Looking at it I don't feel like I did much, but that was the goal. Here's a picture of what it looks like so far.

Hard to get a really good picture while it's on the scroll bars. March's goal is to do the section that looks blank right now. It actually shouldn't take me too long. I'm still impressed I've been able to stay on track with this one. I'm sure it can't last much longer.

I didn't finish Valentine Rose, the February block for Anniversaries of the Heart (AotH) during February, in fact I'm still working on it. I have just the year my aunt was born and a couple of initials to add and it will be complete though. My March goal for that isn't the March block, "A Wish for You", instead I'll be trying to get the bonus pattern found in the 7th block, "Swan Lake". It's an alphabet so hopefully won't take me too long since I'm getting so good a stitching alphabets. Although I'd like to stay on schedule with this piece, one block a month, even if I do it's going to take me longer than a year to stitch as there are 12 month patterns and 2 bonus patterns, one of which covers the width of 2 of the blocks.

Well and then there's the facination I seem to have with "HallowEden". I picked it up a last week after I'd finished AEoL and just keep working on it. I've been having a lot of trouble sleeping lately, mostly from RA pain, but I can sit and stitch and listen to a book and eventually feel tired. That's how I got the present finished and I'm thinking that's how HallowEden will be accomplished. No picture yet, but I'll get one soon.

That about does it. No party for the parents since they've decided they'd rather take a cruise when mom is feeling better. Still no job, but there are prospects. But spring has sprung and at my house it looks like this. Enjoy!

A Weekend Retreat

I went a long way for this one, all of 9 miles from my house to Camp Blanding. Camp Blanding is the FL National Guard training facility, both for Army National Guard and Air Force National Guard. They also do a lot of other types of training for law enforcement. It's located on Kingsley Lake, where as a teen I spent many a summer day at either Stricklands or Kingsley both public access to the lake. It's a beautiful area and the facilities were excellent. You can read more over at DF Jackie's blog where she has some great shots of the lake and the room and a whole lot more about the weekend than I should write at this late date.

I will show you some pretty pictures though to distract you from the fact that I took FOREVER to write this post.

This is what my Linen book looked like before it was all put together and aged. I did have to finish stitching it when I arrived on Friday so I spent most of the day doing that...as well as eating and talking to people, some of whom I hadn't seen in a few years. I'm not normally a "primitives" person, but I love how this piece has turned out.

Next is the finished product...

Front, back and the inside. The pattern called for an inside pocket, but I had the pretty mother of pearl hearts you see here and decided I'd rather sew them into the inside and use it as a project book.


Jackie also wanted to learn some finishing techniques for ornaments. Now, I've got plenty of items that need to be finished, and my plenty I mean too many, so I thought this would be a good idea, a way to get caught up on my finishing. So I got all my finishing together, put it all in separate bags with everything I'd need, plus I packed a box full of some of my ribbons just in case we might need them. And here's what I accomplished.

I finished my needlepoint snow bunny ornament. That is all. Now mind you, I went a little overboard on the finishing and totally "mac daddy'd it out", but still. And to top it all off I ended up stitching the cording on after I got home. Still I love it! I loved stitching this piece and I love how the finishing turned out.

The only other thing I worked on a lot while I was gone was mom & dad's anniversary piece. I'll leave you with a picture of how it looked when we left Sunday afternoon. It is further along now and getting even closer to being done. Based on a number of things mom has said I'm not going to have a party for them after all. She would rather go on a cruise, so we'll do that once she's feeling all better from the mono. I'll just finish this and then give it to them when it's framed and explain why it's late.