Happy New Year!

 I hope it's not too late in the year to wish everyone a Happy New Year!

The holidays seemed to come and go very quickly this year. We were distracted by the health of my 97 year old mother-in-law, who was suffering some issues. That always seems to bring up other family issues.

I miss the quiet time my husband and I shared over the years. No matter how hectic our jobs and family issues were, we managed to carve some time out just for us. That seems much harder to do now. I miss those days!

I didn't do as much holiday stitching as I usually do. I did manage to finish stitching Merry Little Christmas.

Merry Little Christmas - Willow Hill Samplings

 

I haven't quite decided how to finish it.

Then I stitched Bon Noel.

Bon Noel

My apologies to the designer, but I have had this for a while, and I don't remember where it came from. Another one that needs to be finished!

Then I knitted a pair of socks.  They are such a little luxury in this cold weather!

After that, I knitted up this cowl from some recycled cashmere yarn I had from a previous project. The free pattern is from Purl Soho.

It called for a long tail cast on, but I really don't have the patience for that. I used the crochet cast on method to give it a little extra ease, and it worked out just fine. It is a quick knit, and is a good way to use up that extra yarn.

Well, I have a lot of finishing to do in 2025. That was my resolution for 2024, but I didn't get as much done as I would have liked. Hope springs eternal!

I hope all of you have a wonderful 2025, full of good health and happy surprises!

My First Finish of 2024 was . . .

the Nut Border Cardigan, designed by Sasha Kagan. I saved this pattern and squirrelled away the yarn for it years ago. I finally decided to give it a go.

I guess I would give it a passing grade, but not my best work. The color work seems a little sloppy. I had done some color work before, but not with so many changes. It was a learning process!

There's a certain rhythm that you get into when you are working on a project, whether it is stitching, knitting, or anything else. I never got into that rhythm with this project. It was a constant struggle!

Here it is:

Nut Border Cardigan - Design by Sasha Kagan

It came out a little too big, which surprised me because I made the smallest size. I may try to re-block it, but I am not sure that would do much good. It is too large around the neck in particular.

My next project will be a bit of a rest compared to the sweater. I just started Heart Sachet Ornament, an oldie from BH & G.

I made a small start.

This one should finish up soon.

Enjoy the rest of your weekend!

First Finish of 2020!

I finished one of these socks in 2019, and the second one a few days after New Years.

I guess I can wear them on St Valentine's Day. Otherwise, I'm all set for next Christmas!


After that I got back to work on Flower Power.

I finished up the blue Delphiniums and the two little hummingbirds at the top of them.

Then, I went back to the middle of the design to finish up the little blue butterfly and the bird flying over head.

This is how it looks so far:

Please forgive the wrinkles!

Next I will move over to the left side, to start on the Columbines. If you look closely, you can see one that I finished (next to the Day lily and on top of the daisies).
I am determined to finish this design this year, however, it does get tiresome working on something this large without a break. I am thinking that I might make a small quilt next for a change of pace.

Once I get started, I will post back and let you know.

That's all for now. Hope everyone's having a good year so far!

First Finish of the Year!

I saw a little kit that was on sale on Craftsy.

I have wanted to practice my fair isle knitting because I have in my stash some yarn and a pattern for a sweater. This kit was on sale, and I couldn't resist the price.

The pattern itself was very easy, but there was something wrong with the gauge. I read all the reviews and everyone said that it came out too large. So, I decided to drop down one size on the needles. Well, it was still too big, so I ripped it all out and came down one more size on the needles. I had to add some rows to it because it was coming out to short, but I finally got something that was wearable.

I am not too thrilled with the acrylic yarn. I prefer natural fibers, but it will be good as an extra hat.

I also have this hat that I knitted last month. I forgot to put it into my 2018 finishes.

This one was also knitted of acrylic yarn in my stash. Ha! The pompom kinda got away from me on this one!

Stay warm!

The Pillow

This was not my first pillow!

I have made pillows with piping before, and I have installed many zippers in my time.
I have no idea why all of this went so wrong. It seemed like everything that could go wrong, went wrong!

I finally finished Winter Watch, after what seemed like forever filling in all that gray and then making all the French knot snowflakes!

I decided to turn it into a pillow. I remembered that I had a piece of gray velveteen in the attic that I thought would be perfect for the backing. As it turned out, it wasn't the best match, but it was ok. I wanted to stay away from the Christmas reds, so it would be displayable in January-March.

Well, then my troubles began. My trusty 50+ year old Kenmore was acting up! The tension was all messed up, and the clutch for some reason wouldn't engage. How does this happen when the last time I used it, it was perfectly fine?

Well, after an entire afternoon of fiddling with it, I got it so it would work, not perfectly, but enough to get me through hopefully.

I had a lot of trouble with it. First I made the piping out of the same material, Then I basted it to the canvas, and sewed it on. That went ok. Next step was to put the invisible zipper in. The side of the zipper that went onto the canvas went in ok, but when I tried to sew the other half to the velveteen backing I had a lot of trouble.

 No matter what I did, I couldn't get that pillow to line up! It seemed like the backing had skewed itself, so it was crooked. I don't know how this happened because I basted everything, but it slid around somehow!

After hours of trying to straighten it out, I gave up. This is what it looks like:

I was going to make a pillow liner for it but I didn't, thinking that maybe someday I would go back and revisit it. For now though, I am so frustrated, I can't even look at it!

I guess it is ok if no one turns it over, but people always do, don't they?

I would love to fix this, but I really don't know how I can make it any better. I can feel my blood pressure going up just thinking about this! What a disappointment! Maybe I shouldn't have attempted the zipper with the piping on such a thick fabric as the velveteen. Certainly not my best work! Oh well! Moving on . . .

I knitted a pair of socks for me! This was actually my first finish for the year.

I knitted these using Kroy sock yarn, in Brown Marl. I liked the colors. They seem so cozy.

For a change of pace, I am now stitching Love Heart from Bothy Threads. I love this design. It is so fun and quirky!

This is what I have so far:

I did swop out the aida for 28 ct linen, which I much prefer. In hind sight however, I wish I had chosen 32 count linen instead of the 28ct. I didn't realize how big this design was. I would like to frame this one, but my wall space is somewhat limited

That's all I have for now. I am looking forward to spring as I am sure all of your are. I suspect that winter is not quite done with us though! March is always a tricky one!

2015

What a blur!

I had always heard that time passes quicker when you get older, but this year went by at a dizzying speed!
I felt that if I turned my head, I would get vertigo!

I did keep working steadily on my projects though. Warning! This is going to be a long post to catch up on 6 months!

I finished Sarah Elizabeth Brooke.

I love the verse on this one. A girl after my own heart!

No glory I covet no riches I want

Ambition is nothing to me

The one thing I beg of good Heaven to grant

Is a mind independent and free

She is still not framed of course.


Next I decided to work on a few Christmas presents. I had planned to knit the Winter Wonderland socks for Martha, my mother-in-law.

This one took a lot of planning. I had to find just the right color yarn, and send away for the miyuki beads. The pattern called for a cream color, but I didn't think the mohair "snow" would show up well enough against it. I chose a gray-blue cashmere blend yarn. Unfortunately the "snow" didn't show up as well as I had hoped on this color either.

This is a very interesting pattern that presented quite a few challenges. All the beads all had to be counted out and placed on the yarn (backwards in order of use) before the knitting could start. I had to string 1144 silver-lined clear beads, and 480 green-lined crystal beads! I was in fear the whole time that I hadn't counted right, or I had placed the wrong color bead in the wrong place!

The next challenge was the provisional cast on. I had never done this before. The top part of the sock, with the crystal snowflakes, is knitted sideways in stocking knit stitch.

The piece is then sewn together. Then the stitches are picked up to complete the body of the sock.

The mohair is knitted along with the blue yarn to create the snow drifts. Again, I was a little disappointed that it didn't show up better.

So far, so good. Now all I needed to do was knit my way down the foot.

It went well. The only thing was, now I had to do it all over again for the other foot!

In the end, thankfully, they turned out very well.

Now, it they only fit!


Next, I knitted a simple pair of socks for Keith using an Opal self-striping yarn.

He liked these. He wore them on Christmas day.

Then, I knitted him another pair in brown merino wool.

Hard to tell from the photo, but this was gorgeous wool, very luxurious to work!

Then, I knitted this tan pair for Martha.

After all the knitting, I decided to finish A Crossed Wing Christmas.
I had been working on this one off and on for a long time, and it felt good to have it done.

It is hard to tell from the photo, but there are many pearlescent beads sewn all over the snow.
This also has yet to be framed.

Next, it was time to stitch some Christmas ornaments. I picked Merry Christmas by Samplers Not Forgotten, from the 2015 JCS Ornament issue.

I am still working on the finishing.

This is the backing fabric I chose.

This will be finished up tomorrow.

Also, I stitched the cat from Prairie Schooler's Christmas Past.

This will be a quick finish too.

After that, I stitched two of the Old World Santas from Prairie Schooler.

I love these old Prairie Schooler designs. I may hold off finishing these two because I would like to stitch the whole collection, and have a similar backing on them.

After that, I made myself some socks! I used Opal Yarn's Neon yarn to make these.

During the last few days, I have been plugging away on Winter Watch. This just might be the year I finish it, although I can't think of many things more boring than filling in a large background with gray stitches!

This year has had losses for us. About a month ago, we lost our little Hermie to cancer.
He came to us right around this time back in 2008. You do not pick a cat. The cat picks you!

Hermie

 We hadn't gotten over that, when a week later, our McGruff was diagnosed with a very serious case of heart failure. We are taking care of him as best we can. Hermie and McGruff were the youngest cats. My others are older, so I worry about what is to come of course.

Well. lets hope next year will be full of good things for all of us!

If you have made it all the way to the end of this post, you deserve a medal! That's what happens when you try to put 6 months into one post!

I have been busy.

I haven't been blogging, but I promise you, I have been very busy.
The dreaded kitchen cabinets still have me in their hold! At this rate, I will be lucky to finish them sometime this summer!

I finished up the year with my hand-painted socks. I was on a roll. I was determined to refine my sock-knitting skills. The first pair, I knitted the traditional way on 4 double point needles. This time I wanted to try knitting them on a circular needle.

I was lucky enough to score a free box of yarn. Most of it was leftovers from other projects, but I did find some purple yarn that caught me eye. It was only a lace weight, so I had to double it up to get to a sock weight.

Last time the socks came out too big, so I made them smaller.

My purple socks from mystery yarn

The yarn was not so good, but atleast they look like socks! The circular needle was a little tricky at first, but I got used to it.

Keith saw me knitting all these socks, and said "Where are my socks?"

Well, I was hoping to refine my skills a little more before giving anyone a present, but what the heck.

I set out to knit him some socks. The green wool is a very nice, super-washed merino.

I found out that knitting socks for men takes a lot longer than knitting socks for me.

Thank goodness they turned out ok. Of course I still didn't know if they would fit. They seemed very big to me.

They were a St. Valentine's Day surprise.

He says he likes them! Yay!

We need lots of warm socks this winter! It's cold here!

Long Overdue Update

The Fall and the holidays came and went in a flash!

I really was getting some things done, but I have also been working on re-doing my kitchen. I have taken on the difficult task of painting my old oak cabinets. Normally I do not believe in painting woodwork like oak, but these were from the 80's, and had seen better days.
I decided to paint them white. What a job! I am still not even half way through!

I finished Autumn Harvest.

Autumn Harvest - Chessie & Me, 32ct linen, Weeks and GAST threads

I love Chessie & Me designs. They always have a little cat in them.

Next, I worked on my 2014 Christmas Ornament. This year's was Down Jinglepot Road from the 2014 Just Cross Stitch Christmas Issue.

Unfortunately I didn't get a chance to finish it into an ornament, but here is the stitched piece.

Down Jinglepot Road

This photo didn't come out that well, but it depicts an old red truck going down a bumpy dirt road with a Christmas tree in the back. When Keith and I were first married we had an old red truck. We went everywhere in it! When we cut our Christmas trees, it is always in a place like this.

On top of everything else, the rooster on it reminds me of our dear departed Walter!

To finish out the year, I finally finished the socks that I bought in a kit from Maine Woods Fiber. I have had this for a while. The yarn is hand-painted merino wool.

I actually made 3 socks. They came out way too big for me. I re-knitted the larger one. Truth be told, the other one also needs to be re-done, but I just don't feel like doing it. After finishing one sock, you really don't feel like doing the second one, let alone doing a fourth one! You can see that one is bigger than the other.

Socks are hard!