Happy New Year!

I hope all of you had a wonderful holiday season!

Our holidays were a bit subdued this year, Keith had surgery on December 21st, so we were mostly preoccupied with that.
The surgery went well, and he is now slowly recovering.

I did finish the Cardinal Sampler, my final finish of 2013.

The Cardinal Sampler - Patricia Andrle
32 ct antique linen, DMC, and metallic threads

I combined some metallic thread with the DMC for the border and illuminated initial to give it a little sparkle.
It didn't show up too well, but you can see a little of the shine in this close-up.

I want to get it framed for next Christmas!

My next project had to be something really simple. I decided to knit Keith a scarf. I worked on this in the waiting room during his surgery. It had to be a really mindless pattern because I was totally mindless that day!
I picked a "self striping" yarn that I saw on ebay. It is a "slow stripe", and is just suited for things like scarves.
I am knitting the scarf longways so the pattern is more subtle.
The pattern is really easy. First knit in a garter stitch for 4 rows, then purl 2 rows, knit 2 rows all the way across. Finish with 4 rows of garter stitch.
I believe the color is called "Sherwood Forest". The colors. greens, browns, grays, are favorites of Keith's. I hope he will like it.

I have a ways to go, so I doubt that is will be finished in 2013. I was also thinking about knitting a matching hat.

When I get a chance, I will be back to re-cap the 2013 finishes.

Hope everyone has a very Happy, Healthy New Year!

Mary Eaton finished, Cardinal Sampler begun

Mary Eaton has been finished for several weeks now, but due to multiple problems with multiple cameras, I have not been able to post a photo.

I finally managed to take a few, but the color is not right.
As soon as I can get my hands on a decent camera, I will replace this photo with a better one.

For now, here is Mary:

Mary Eaton  1763 - The Scarlet Letter
Stitched on 30 count natural linen using au ver a soie.

For my next project, I chose something that has been in my stash for years, the Cardinal Sampler from Patricia Andrle. I love her designs. I have stitched several of them.

I took this photo last week. I have made a little more progress since, but I am waiting to solve my camera problems before I post an update.

Unfortunately, the photo is a little washed out. The colors are much richer in person. I was going to stitch this design using silks, but there are a lot of blended needle stitches so I decided against it. I did make a few changes by adding some metallic threads to the border and the large A. It is not too noticeable. It just gives it a little sparkle.
Although it is not a large piece, it is slow going because of all the outlining. Almost every stitch is outlined.

If anyone is interested in stitching this piece, it can be found in the BH&G Cross Stitch & Country Crafts magazine Nov/Dec. 1994.

Well, I intended to post my December TUSAL, but the photo seems to have gone missing.
I will try to hunt that down for next time.