“oy” and the importance of great lighting

Good morning and happy Wednesday!

Today’s project is an ornament that I stitched mostly last Christmas from the 2014 ornament issue and when the holidays were over I tucked it away. Since it needs very few stitches to finish it, I’m tucking it in my bag for this weekend (details coming tomorrow..) and plan on finishing it while I’m away. I used a fabric remnant from my stash and some leftover threads from a previous project. Ornaments are such a great way to use up leftovers. Fawn over at Stitch Therapy is working on Plum Street Samplers “12 Days of Christmas” series at the moment and I love that she is also using up what she has on hand already.

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Marion asked me a great question yesterday on the difficulty of seeing high count fabric and tricks for helping. I’m certainly no expert but what works really well for me is always having very good lighting wherever I’m working. Many of my stitcher friends use a product called mag-eyes – and let me tell you, we are one sexy bunch when we gather in a group. None of us could care a whit, though – as long as we can see what we’re doing. My favourite light is an off brand ottlite style light that is portable and I carry it around the house with me. The power draw is also extremely low and I can use it at the cottage without the batteries dropping much at all in charge in the evening which as you can imagine, thrills me to bits and allows me to work into the wee hours.

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My other light is a stand LED light with a magnifier in the middle (which has come in VERY handy for the pulling out of the odd splinter in a certain small child’s hand). Here’s my stitching chair in the bedroom and this light allows me to keep working after John is asleep without needing the other lights on in the room. Once I almost set the house on fire because I had the light under the skylight and the sun hit the magnifier at just the right angle. I smelled something burning upstairs and discovered a scorch hole in a blanket that I was knitting for Sarah at the time. As we were about to leave for a week away with the children, this could have been disastrous. Now, I keep it in a different spot and when we leave for holidays I cover it with a pillow case.  Crafting dangerously!

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Posted in Cross Stitch | 9 Comments

on the move

Tuesday and Wednesday are my craziest days of every week. A lot of teaching, business paperwork for John, orchestra and family life must happen so every moment must be scheduled. I have no complaints, my students are terrific and lots of paperwork means that the business is well, busy. That is preferable to the other option.

I knit a fair bit last night and the scarf is very close to finished. I’ve decided to seam the ends together to create an infinity cowl which will suit its’ recipient who has a lovely graceful neck. We’ve been best friends since childhood, and she occasionally knits so she is worthy of the knitting.

On to todays bit of WIP catalogue information, this is Amtrak, by Sampler Cove Designs.

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It’s being stitched on a 25 count evenweave, 1 thread over 1. There are only three colours and at the time that I kitted it up, I substituted the called for threads (Gloriana, I think) for some less expensive but very lovely HDF by Vikki Clayton. My shop no longer sells her threads because I think Vikki might be concentrating on different fibers at the moment but I have a small stash that I’m sure will see me out. When the stitch count is so small, though the project is large, it doesn’t require much thread so a little splurge on silk thread was a nice treat. They also take a long time to stitch which also brings the CPS (cost per stitch…. haha) way down.

See you tomorrow!

Posted in Cross Stitch | 7 Comments

Irish Hiking Scarf

This was one of the first few knitting projects that I ever started, and to be honest I had 100% completely forgotten about it. In the great clean out of 2015 (which is like my WIP pile, unfinished) I rediscovered it and crowed to myself at the time that it was a Christmas present gift for someone and clever me – I”m ahead of the game! Because this scarf is almost done – yippee! I need a hostess/Christmas gift for a special friend on Nov.20 and this will fit the bill nicely as I know she loves cables. It’s Monday night, which means 2.5 hrs of solid knitting time, while listening to the youth orchestra rehearse. Maybe I’ll finish it up tonight!

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It’s an Irish Hiking Scarf pattern – click on it for my ravelry details. I’ve actually knit this twice, the second one I finished a few years ago as a gift for John and he wears his all of the time. It’s a very simple pattern and easy to knit miles of it quickly if you’re starting to look for gift ideas yourself.

Here’s John’s – I used Cascade 220 for this one and it has worn very well, little to no pilling. As you can see I added a fringe to his per his request. I probably won’t add it to the cream one.

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Have a great start to your week, all.

Posted in Knitting | 5 Comments

here we go.

So, this is a project that I can actually see the end of maybe by the end of the year – so I’m starting with this in hopes that in dribs and drabs over the next two months it will be on my bed by the new year. Last year for my birthday (it was a big one, decade changer) my very talented SIL gave me a very special gift. She knew that John was also giving me a very special gift so she plotted accordingly. Along with Kathy’s help, John chose a sewing machine for me that will see me out to the end of my days. It’s a glorious machine that even a sewing beginner like me could use straight out of the box and with practice, sew a straight-ish seam. Kathy’s gift was a box loaded with pre-cut fabric that she laboured for days over with all of the pieces needed for a queen sized log cabin quilt. She even taught me how to put them together, lovely girl that she is. So I pieced and pieced and finally had a top. I made the sandwich on my kitchen floor. I did vacuum the dog hair up first, but Daria really wanted to supervise. I used a King sized sheet from a local discount outlet store as the backing and added in a strip of the red fabric as an accent.

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I trimmed it up and am now in the process of hand tying it together with a black #5 perl cotton.

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That would be Oscar the cat – he’s almost the same size as our beagle and can be much grouchier.

I have just the top left to finish up, then it needed trimming and binding. So close! I’ve only done the binding on one other couch sized quilt so will certainly need to look up some directions for this.

Posted in Fabric | 13 Comments

wet

Why is the really nice part of Fall always so blooming short? It feels perfect for about 5 minutes and then it feels like years of this:

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Wet, gross and cold. Eddie the beagle hates rain and refuses to stay out long enough to complete his toilette so I have to keep checking the enviro radar for a break in the weather so that he can finish it outside instead of finding a dark corner in the living room.

So for years I’ve read other blogs who take part in what seems to now be a ritual of writing every day for the month of November. It has some kind of hip short form “na-no something or other” name, but as I’m no where near hip enough to use it, I’ll just let you know that I’m up for giving it a try and if you subscribe through Bloglovin’ you’ll be seeing me frequently. I’ll understand if you want to take a break, John gets sick of me at times as well – but I thought it would be a good chance to maybe get a few of the UFO’s on the blog as a sort of catalogue for myself. I think I have enough that have collected over the many (many…) years to put a different thing up every day that I’m making by hand and it’d be great to dust them off and give them some love. I should also put up a few of the bigger things I’ve finished before I completely forget some of the details. As I go, I should put a post it note on the back with the eventual inheritor so the kids don’t fight over them when I’m gone. Just kidding! Well, only sort of kidding…… my kids are animals.

Sneak peek of the terribly unprofessional photos to come in the month ahead.

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Have a great Hallowe’en – Darth Vadar is pretty excited to go out and collect his loot tomorrow night.  Why am I not surprised that the forecast predicts 70% chance of rain……….

Posted in Life | 7 Comments

best laid plans

I had fully intended to post on Monday, then yesterday and now here it is Wednesday again. I’ve been fighting off a particularly nasty virus but seem to finally be on the other side of it today. At least I’m out of bed 😉

I spent last weekend with some lovely friends and we stitched our hours away quietly. An ornament finishing class had been scheduled for this retreat and our leader, Kathy, didn’t disappoint. We stitched whatever we wanted on the linen fabric, learned some new specialty stitches and then put them together on the Sunday morning. My design is a bit pathetic, but I was really mostly interested in how to put it together, so the end result is a bit ho-hum, but will fill in a branch at the back of the tree this year I’m sure. We used two pieces of mat board that were pre-cut, used a running stitch on the linen and a piece of backing fabric separately to snug the fabric to the mat. We then stitched the two pieces together around the edge, made and glued on a tassel at the bottom, and then made the cording by hand with the same embroidery floss and glued it around the ornament. I started gluing it at the bottom, hiding the small knot in the cording behind the tassel and used the extra at the top, gave a half twist to form a loop and then tacked the top in place for security. I have another stitched piece ready with a slightly different technique for finishing to try, but it’ll have to wait for now.

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The wee hours of the morning were spent chatting and working on Shades of Blue. I came home quite tired, but to a happy home that John managed to keep from falling around his ears quite handily.

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Being in bed for the last few days has afforded a few extra knitting and reading minutes. I’ve finished up Stephen King’s 11/22/63 (really quite good) and also finished up The Secret River last night by Kate Grenville – a difficult book to read at times, but I still find myself thinking of the characters today. I’m currently listening to Jane Eyre on the Craftlit podcast which makes me about two years behind in her show but I must listen to them all. Just like I must read all of the emails, and read the whole book to the end even if I hate it. Heather Ordover is the host of the weekly podcast and as an English teacher has some incredible research skills and takes us carefully through the books a chapter at a time, “teaching to the joke” as she likes to say and she is 100% on the money. I have truly enjoyed her podcast for many years.

Knitting continues on the September pillow. I tried it on today, and unlike what usually happens in a changing room when I try on new jeans – it is fitting beautifully and I love it! I can certainly see knitting another one almost immediately after this one is finished.

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Joining Ginny today, stop by and see what everyone else is up to – there are some fantastic projects!

Posted in Knitting, yarn along | 11 Comments

back to normal

Our election is finally over and we have a new Liberal Prime Minister. No matter your politics, it was such a relief to have the wash of election signs gone from the landscape yesterday. A fresh start as it were. We have another Trudeau in office, the Blue Jays are doing amazingly well and there’s a new Star Wars movie coming out. As my conductor said at rehearsal last night, “Welcome to the ’70’s!” Nicholas can’t wait for the new movie 🙂

Knitting on the pillow continues slowly – on the weekend I noticed a certain harmony in my life at the moment….

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I do love this colour so very much. I’m reading Kate Grenville’s “The Secret River” about a convicted man sent to Australia with his family and their struggle to adapt. It’s a fantastic book. I finished listening to Gabaldons’ latest Outlander book on the weekend. I’ll admit that parts of it were a slog and if I had been trying to make it through the printed version I might have taken WAY longer to finish it. She hooks us at the end of course, so I will probably read the next one as well when it comes out. Here’s an updated photo of the pillow as of this morning – I’m really enjoying the pattern development – it makes me feel very clever, though I had nothing to do with the design whatsoever. It is the September Pillow by Pam Allen. If you click the link it’ll take you to my Ravelry project page – feel free to friend me – I’d really like to meet some more of you and see what you’re working on!

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Lastly, I’m repeating something here from Monday’s post because I’m hoping a lot more yarny people from Ginny’s yarn along will see it and be able to offer up some help in deciphering the pattern for my great grandmothers’ crochet blanket. Because I’m a dodo that doesn’t understand crochet, I posted the photo with the direction of how she worked upside down. Does anyone understand how to translate this into some sort of pattern – esp the bobble feature? I’m reposting it here, correct direction up. It makes a lovely deep V and I’d like to learn how to do it with all of my free time (that I don’t have…) Happy Wednesday, all.

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EDITED TO ADD – Success!!! Linda over at The Crafty Gardener sent me the following, and I thank her indeed! :

This is a crochet ripple stitch afghan, with 2 rows of single crochet, a row of bobble stitch and then 2 more rows of single crochet. The depth of the ripple depends on how many stitches you use. I’ve done lots of ripple afghans, http://www.craftygardener.ca/ripples-stripes/,
By doing a search you can find many sites/videos that explain the bobble stitch.”

 

Posted in Knitting, Life, yarn along | 15 Comments

help in deciphering a pattern

Hello and Happy Monday!

I had a question from Margo last week about an afghan that she had noticed in a photo. Sadly, I have no idea of the pattern and I was wondering if any of you may be able to help decode it. I believe it is crochet – I am a terrible crocheter and wouldn’t know it if it hit me in the face.

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I love this blanket. It was made by my great grandmother, Edna Hilchey. She ran the family dairy farm and was the post mistress in her small village in Nova Scotia. I was only lucky enough to meet her once, but I feel so happy that I have this hand made treasure from her. My mother says that she made this in her 90’s – may I be so lucky to have the dexterity and eyesight to do the same! There have been many, many naps on the couch under this lovely warm thing and I think that would have made her very happy. I washed it this morning and am drying it on the bed – so you can see its full glory.

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Normally it stays on our couch within reach. Good thing, because this was our weather this weekend….

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It’s election day in Canada today, I have plans to watch the results this evening  – it’s been a terribly long, divisive, mud slinging campaign. I look forward to it being over, and hopefully our country can pull together and improve our behaviour.

Posted in Life | 11 Comments

an essay in captioned photos

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“It wasn’t me.”

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“Honestly!! The bag just fell off the chair……”

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“Some lovely stuff fell out of the bag and I helped!! Really, I was trying to put it back!”

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“This cheap stuff squeaked and made my teeth hurt so I just left it where it was – already out in the open, not tucked away into a bag.”

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“I saw nothing. Can I have a cookie?”

Posted in Life | 10 Comments

thankful

It was a beautiful weekend for our Thanksgiving celebration this year. We continued our tradition of sharing our meal with four other families on the Bay and this was our year on the rotation. I was up at 6:30am to light the gas oven and prep the 28lb turkey for our meal. The cottage was quiet with sleeping children and husband, the sun was just beginning to rise and the water was calm. It was a lovely way to start the day and made the early hour very sweet. We planned for 30 people because there could always be an additional friend or partner that tag along and really, the more the merrier. 27 people were confirmed, but due to illness and other reasons our head count was at 23 in the end. For the first time, my parents travelled up and spent the weekend celebrating with us which was very special.  I missed my my MIL and I know she was on everyone’s minds but I think that the meal I made and the time that we all had would have made her happy. I ended up being so busy with the cooking and enjoying chatting with our friends that I took zero pictures of the main event, but early the next morning I snapped a few shots off the back deck. We do see some colour out in the islands, but nature’s showiness was at her most resplendent on our drive back home on Monday. Now, next Spring seems very far away. John is hopeful for enough ice this winter to come over on the snowshoes for a long weekend in February, but I confess to being too chicken to come along. I like my feet on the land.

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I did start my September pillow when I had a few minutes here and there. The pattern is very straight forward and the Quince&Co. Osprey yarn, though a bit of a splurge with our Canadian dollar, is so beautiful to work with. Also, as this is a small project, I might actually finish it this year. Might. I’m still listening to the Gabaldon “Written in My Own Heart’s Blood” (only 3 hours left out of 30+) and 11/22/63 by Stephen King should also be finished up this weekend.

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John will be headed up to the Bay this coming weekend to do all of the close up chores and winterize our place. There is some snow in the forecast and I don’t envy him the jobs that will require a bit of a dip into the water. I better make some chocolate chip cookies on Sunday morning to welcome him home and say thank you. Anyone interested in the recipe? I’m happy to post if yes – they are particularly good….. They clinched the deal in getting John to marry me.

Joining with Ginny

Posted in Life | 10 Comments