WIP It, WIP It Good

Couldn't help that title.

I hope everyone had a lovely Thanksgiving. We drove to Mass. Our usual 3-hour trip turned into 5 hours when we were stuck on the Mass Pike for over 2 1/2 hours. It was fine until we got to the Pike, then it was like hitting a brick wall. A Thanksgiving Blessing: Max fell asleep, so we thankfully did not have a cranky toddler to contend with. We had a lovely joint dinner with my Mom, her family and Sam's family and then dessert with my Dad's family. After this very exhausting day, we decided to go home a day early. I'm so glad that we did!

Here are a few of my WIPs. I intended to add more, but Blogger is not letting me add more photos. So more tomorrow.

First up: the knitting. It isn't first in my heart, of course, but it's what I'm doing right now.

Project: Basketweave scarf
Source: http://www.crazyauntpurl.com/
archives/2005/06/magic_scarf_a_b_1.php
Yarn: Ego Tweed Color No. 80
Source: www.purldiva.com
Needles: No. 11 Brittany birch wood - I love them
This is my first knitting project so don't look at it too closely, eh? I am still trying to figure out how to fix it when I drop stitches or knits accidentally morph into purls. The yarn is actually a deeper color than shown. It was really a very sunny day for once!



This is Heloise Williams from The Scarlet Letter. She is much prettier in person than she is on the SL website. I think I started stitching this in 1993. So this probably qualifies more as a UFO than a WIP. But I really do want to finish her!










Catherine's Sampler by Eileen Bennett. This was a class that I took at CATS in Houston. Could have been 2000 or 2001? Lisa took this class at Sampler Gathering and actually finished hers!

More to come later!

It's All Lisa's Fault

It's all Lisa's fault that I don't have any stitching to share. Really! You see, she talked me into learning how to knit. And now I'm obsessed. I started out at AC Moore with plastic needles and some cheapy yarn to practeese, practeese, practeese. Then I found a LYS in Brunswick, called Purl Diva. I spent the entire afternoon there on Monday while my car was conveniently being worked on across the street. It's a wonderful shop run by a terrific, hip chick named Ellen. She every kindly let me hang out for the afternoon and gave me some much needed assistance. I have found out that I love wooden needles. I have now started my first project, a scarf for myself - mostly a confidence booster before I start making gifts.

The only stitching I've done is on Lisa's Christmas gift, so I can't show you any pictures either. I'll have some knitting pictures soon though. I've also got a new photo project in the works -- a photo documentary of all of my WIPs. This should be fun. I'm still in the gathering stages. So far I've found projects that: (a) I don't remember starting, (b) forgot I had, (c) I don't recognize, and (d) love, love, and love and must stitch NOW (but of course I won't). So we have daylight today, but I'm at work, so hopefully sometime over this long holiday weekend I will find both time and daylight to cooperate with my picture taking project.

Some things I am grateful for: a loving family, my sweet son, awesome friends, being able to afford my passions and still put food on the table, having two hands to craft with, the internet for helping me meet new people and try new things.

Hope you all have a wonderful Thanksgiving!

Rain, Rain, Go Away

I can't believe it's been three weeks since I've posted. I've been doing some stitching (not enough, never enough), but it's been raining for days, which doesn't make for good picture taking. But here is what I have been working on:

1. Celtic Band Sampler. I have been wavering between editing this by deleting some bands to make it go by quicker so I can give it as a Christmas gift, but I just can't make myself do it. I even photocopied the picture, cut out each row and tried to edit it by deleting some. Just not working for me. So I'll keep stitching on it, but it most likely will not be done for Christmas. I have finished rows 1 and 2.

2. Cure Tree by M Designs. I am half done. I was also on the fence about this one. About whether to do it over 1 or over 2, which thread to use if I did it over 2, which fabric. I finally decided upon the original over 1 on the original fabric, but substituted Romance by Weeks Dye Works.

3. White Christmas ornament by Birds of a Feather. This chart has 4 designs and I have almost finished stitching one of them. I can't find the floss (Freedom by GAST) that I was using in the border. I know I found it on the floor one day and then put it somewhere safe. Need to find it because that's all I have left. So I would say I am 95 percent finished on this.

What's next: I am would like to finish Celtic Band by the end of the year. I also have another gift for Christmas, that I only have a few of the silks in my stash for, so I need to place an order ASAP. And that should wrap up the year!

Goals for next year: Lisa & I are going to do another SAL, as the one we did for Frances was such a huge success. We have chosen Bands of Many Colors by Eileen Bennett of The Sampler House (pictured at left). This has been in both of our stashes for a long time. We both love Eileen's samplers and have stitched a few and taken several classes with her. After that, we shall see what pokes its head out of the stash and asks to be stitched next. The chipmunks in BOAF's Welcome Home sampler keep popping up to the top of the pile ...