Stuff I could Make For Myself...

Well, it's Black Friday, so I'm probably out shopping. The plan, before today, was that Mom and I were *not* going to go stake out any electronic stores or Big Box chains - we were going to, maybe, JoAnns to start, and then run around a bunch of LNSs. This may or may not happen. Just in case we end up staying home, I contemplate the following: Knitted Hat, Fingerless Gloves and Vest from Athleta.com.

  
Looks like something we could all make, really - and even if we buy good wool, we'll be paying less than the $225 or so they want! (Plus the joy of the knitting.) But, they are pretty.

And it's not like I don't shop, anyway. A couple of weekends back, I went on a Massive Boot Hunt. I saw boots that actually went with my favorite jacket, and had to hunt every Marshall's store in the area (and, to my surprise, there was a Marshall's I didn't know about over near my cousin's house). But I found them!!




There will be a full report of what actually happened, plus the stunning result of "30 Rabbits in 30 Days" on Monday. Everyone have a good weekend!

Turkey Day!

Happy Thanksgiving, everyone! Happy knitting!

Scarves, finished and not

So, here's the last Waiting Project, in its finished form:


I like the fact that it's all sorts of colors, and still goes with my coat!

Here is the current Waiting Project, my LabCat Lace Scarf:


I finished the first ball of variegated KPPM on Monday, and started with the blue. Together, I think it's going to look like a lovely field of wildflowers against a deep blue summer sky. Yay!

A contest! Enter now!

DK is having another contest, for some REALLY cute snowman stitch markers!! Whoo Hoo! To enter:

1. Leave a comment on this post on her blog (1 entry in the hat of names);
2. Put a link to that post on your blog, myspace, facebook, whatever, so others can find DK's contest post (another entry);
3. Leave another comment on her blog telling her where you put the link (another entry)!

You can get your name in the hat three times by doing all three steps. She will draw names for the three sets on December 1st and send them out to you as quickly as possible.

Good Luck and Have Fun!

Rabbit Day!

Today is Rabbit Day. (Okay, not really, but...) You see, I have now hit the point of Daily Rabbit Count =Thirty Rabbits Knitted, and I just have 28 more to put together. This is a rabbit with its paws finished, but no head yet. Looks like a rabbit suit or baby footiesuit or something.


Hopefully, more rabbit sewing will happen soon, since I only have five days left in the month to reach the official 30 Rabbits in 30 Days goal. I had forgotten, until this morning, the EAR PROBLEM. I have two complete rabbits (with ears - that's four), all six other ears needed for white rabbits, four ears for grey rabbits, and the two chenille brown ears. I have to knit 44 more rabbit ears, as well as all the sewing... YIKES!!

But, just in case I finish early, I've got two other sewing projects.

I got my Ravelry loot last week, and let me tell you something about the "fitted" American Apparel t-shirts. "XL" means "Size 8". Remember this when ordering. I am not a size 8 at the present time, but want my cool shirt. So, last weekend, I found an *actual* XL t-shirt that matched the pink of the "Ravelry.com" on the back of the shirt. I then snipped off the sleeves and snipped up the side-seams of the Bob shirt, and got stuck on just how to deconstruct the insane amount of seaming across the back of the neck and the tops of the sleeves. I think it will take actual deconstruction, rather than just snipping. On the other hand, that should give me the extra fabric I need for around the neck (I hope). Yes, I'm totally winging this.



Eventually, I'll have a custom Bob-Yarnpile shirt that I can wear to work!

The other is more mundane and wifely: I get to figure out how to repair my husband's new shirt.


Thankfully, there's probably an embroidery stitch that was first used for repairs - I just have to figure out which one it is!

Finished Noro Mobius Scarf

Friday night, I was going along happily, almost done with my Waiting Project, when I discovered, to my horror, a KNOT in my colorway:


Now, you may not be able to tell, but this is BRIGHT pink, tied to green. The green, in fact, that I rather thought would nicely wind up being at the end of the ball, thus matching the green from the beginning of the ball. Having the green here didn't work at all. So, being me, I untied it, and rewound what was left of the ball. The scarf went from BRIGHT pink to kinda muddy turquoise.

So, Saturday night, I actually managed to finish my Noro Mobius Scarf. I used ALL the yarn in both balls - and about 6" of it-matches-well-enough yarn at the very, very end of the cast-off. Here it is, all knitted up:


Then, there was the "softens after washing" that the Stephanie, the Yarn Harlot mentioned. How does one wash Noro? I'd heard that wool "blooms" if it's soaked, very carefully, after knitting, and softens up. And something about "very gentle soap, if any". So, I found the big stainless-steel bowl. And two other bowls. And ran them through the dishwasher, because... well, sometimes things fall into bowls. And, quite frankly, if I can't identify their origin, the bowls get washed before use. (Will now store bowls upside-down.) So, took big bowl, and put a Wee Drop of Ivory Liquid in the bottom, then filled it with warm (not hot) water.

The little scarflet did not want to drown, and held a HECK of a lot of air, so I had to weight it down with the silverware holder from the dishwasher (which was also just cleaned). Eventually, the whole thing stayed under:


Nothing bad seemed to be happening to the colors (yay!), and the yarn did seem to be getting somewhat thicker. This may have been an illusion, but I don't think so. Then it was time to figure out how to dry a Mobius-something. It sat, more or less in shape, on the metal bowl over the sink and dripped dry for about an hour - that seemed to get the bulk of the water that was going to leave quickly out. Then it moved on to the fluffiest, cleanest white towel and sat in front of what passes for a fan in our house: the clean heater vent.



By morning, the towel was soaked (I guess wool holds a lot of water... or fluffy cotton towels don't dry very fast when there's wool sitting atop them), and the Noro Mobius Scarf was almost dry. Since the remaining moisture wasn't weighting it down very much, it has been carefully suspended on a special hanger in front of the heater vent for the day.

Hopefully, I'll be able to wear it tomorrow - because it has gotten COLD down here!!

Oh, really quick: Daily Rabbit Count 27 Rabbit Squares Knitted, Two Rabbits Assembled.

TGIF. Seriously!

Cindy wanted to see the rabbits... which, right now, make up 23 6"x6" squares (although the "Chocolate Rabbit" out of chenille is actually about 10"X10"). This is not such the exciting picture. (And, yeah, I was only able to stay awake for One Bunny last night.) However, here's the link to a photo of a finished Bunny, which, incidentally, leads to the pattern as well.

Here is proof that I do actually get to knit at my desk every so often... although today, I'm just too tired to do so more than two rows. Sad, no?


Having three separate projects has the appearance of keeping me out of trouble (mostly - ignore the two balls of Feza "Cyprus Mohair" that followed me out of Stitch D.C. Tuesday night), so I think I'll keep going with it. Looking at my Ravelry projects, I need something that doesn't travel well as Couch Project, something nonboring for the Commuting Project, and something mindless for the Waiting Project. So, a break-down of which is what is needed:

Couch Project	Commuting Project	Waiting Project
Peacock Scarf. (beads involved)	Forget-Me-Not Shawl	Ninja Armwarmers (if on circs only)
Titania Cardigan	Tiger Eyes Shawl	Koigu Scarf
Argyle Hearts Sweater	FTSC-1-III Socks

You'll note that I'm assuming that I'm going to finish the current three projects (SotS-II, 30 Rabbits, and the Noro Mobius) by the end of the month, or sooner, and will need new projects to concentrate on. HA!!! Well, actually, I *have* to finish SotS-II over the weekend. I've reserved the floor of the main conference room at work all day Wednesday, so I can use the (carpeted) floor to block it! There isn't a space in my house, other than my bed, that would work for blocking something this size, and my husband has put his foot down about "pins" and "bed". And this isn't the order I'll be using, either... for example, if I *do* finish SotS-II, then the next commute project is finishing the FTSC-I-3 socks, before the first of the FTSC-II socks arrives. (Yeah, yeah, I never even started FTSC-I-2, but I finished I-1, so there.)

For the crocheters out there, first, a VERY cool hat made by D here at work:


and now, a quick joke from Kodi on Ravelry:

A man and woman were married for more than 60 years. They shared everything, they talked about everything. They kept no secrets from each other but one: the little old woman had a shoe box in the top of her closet that she cautioned her husband never to open or ask her about.                For sixty years, the little old man never thought about the box, but one day his wife got very sick, and the doctor said she would not recover. While sorting their affairs, the little old man took down the shoe box and took it to his wife's bedside. She agreed: it was time for him to know what was in the box.                When he opened it, he found two crocheted dolls and a stack of money totaling $95,000. He asked her about the contents. "When we were to be married," she said, "my grandmother told me: 'the secret of a happy marriage is to never argue.' She told me that if I ever got angry with you, I should just keep quiet and crochet a doll."               The little old man was so moved - he had to fight back tears. Only two precious dolls were in the box! She had only been angry with him two times in all those years of living and loving. He almost burst with happiness!                "Honey," he said, "that explains the doll, but what about all of this money - where did it come from?"               "Oh," she replied, "that's the money I made from selling the dolls."

Murphy's Wednesday

Yesterday was one of those days when every little, silly thing that could go wrong did. Nothing major, nothing long-lasting or irreparable, but the weight of the hundred silly things piled up to the point that I cried when I discovered that someone had "cleaned out" my drawer in the fridge, and tossed out my Bacon Salt. It turned into, eventually, a nightmare that woke me up around 3:30 this morning, and, after waking up my husband to get much-needed hugs, I went out to the couch and finished reading The Lace Reader.


(Sites of interest: LaceReader.com and Brunonia Barry's blog.) It's one of the better books I've read for some time, if only because the entire pattern is *right there* through the book, but I didn't see it until the end. I probably should have, but I didn't. Masterfully done.

As a result of Murphy's Wednesday, I started yesterday with just under eight rows left to go on Hint #8 for SotS-II, and joined in the fourth and final ball of yarn. Eight tiny rows until the home stretch... so, naturally, the plan was to "forget" to come back from lunch for an extra fifteen minutes, just so I could finally be on the FINAL HINT. This SO did not happen. Thus, today, instead, I'm hoping to get to Hint #9. As I did no knitting at all on the commute in, I've stopped seeing this as realistic.


On the Noro Mobius Scarf front, there was an "interesting" development. Noro yarns tend to the scratchy and straw-like, but I'm assured they vastly improve upon careful washing with a wee dram of conditioner. Silk Garden, I hear, is the softest after-the-fact. However, it would behoove one to first, before washing, remove all the thorns. Yep, that's right - I pulled a THORN out of one of my stitches after it felt beyond reasonably scratchy. (This was Murphy Wednesday's Second Small Thing Gone Wrong.) I wish I'd kept it to get a photo, but I flung it away at the bus stop. A THORN. That would've hurt, a lot, on a tender ear - or, heaven forbid - EYE. Nothing similar has been found thus far today, but believe me, I'll be keeping my fingertips on Thorn Alert! And I was bad, and the only thing I worked on was this project, regardless of where I was (but trust me, most of it classified as "waiting"!!). Murphy Days require mindless knitting.

DAILY RABBIT COUNT: 22, putting me the required two rabbits ahead for the date. It looks like one rabbit takes about 40 minutes, or an hour, if TV is *really* interesting. I'm looking forward to having all the knitted squares finished, so I can start rabbit assembly. They're going to look a bit wierd, I fear, since I've run out of several colors before getting to the ears. And that's really how you can tell that nothing major was wrong yesterday, even if it felt that way: I still knit my Daily Rabbit.

Commenting... on comments.

First, there was a bit of waiting yesterday, so I had a chance to about double the amount of Noro Mobius Scarf I've done:


Second, our area got the first light flurries of the season yesterday. (I didn't actually see them, but there were reliable news reports and some video, so I'll believe it happened.) The little plants in our yard, however, clearly didn't get the "it's winter now!" message:


DAILY RABBIT COUNT: 21, due to an insane flurry of Rabbit Knitting last night, that ended far too late, but got me two days further ahead than I thought.

And now, for something completely different: Now, for the tag part. Cathy tagged me on a recent blog post, so now it's my turn. I'm to comment about the last ten persons who commented on this blog. I'm not going to tag anyone (you can play along if you wish), but it's been fun actually going back through my entries and seeing who's been commenting. I very much appreciate you all stopping in! (And pardon me if I'm shocked because more than 10 people have commented here in the last month...!)

So here we go:

1. Liz is a longtime friend in the real world, even though she lives far away. I actually met her through her husband, whom I've known even longer... back to the 80's, I think. They own a lot of my cartoons. She's an amazing metalworker, great mom, and all-around fun girl. Eventually, I will get to the RIGHT part of Florida *and* remember to call first...
2. Cindy is my favorite quilter. Seriously, look through her quilt page, she does beautiful stuff! I own one of her bags (it's orange, of course!). I found her on LiveJournal, and have been following her around since. She's also the #1 commenter over here!
3. DK is the fearless designer of the three Secret of the Stole stoles, one of which I've almost finished (trust me, that's some dedication on my part!), plus a fourth in the works (patterns are available for sale here, including the Civil War Shawl by Suzanne Pufpaff). Keep checking http://groups.yahoo.com/group/secretofthestole-iv - it's going to be opening up early next year (I believe), and it's TOTALLY worth it to be in on one of these lovelies!
4. I just started reading Kar's blog recently. I found her through another blog - someone had dropped by Kar's blog, and she'd thanked them very sweetly in that other blog's comments, and thanked them for explaining the "magic loop". So I decided to drop by her blog and say "hi", too!
5. Kim has a visually fun blog. Its colors and layout change with some frequency, and there are lots of dog photos. I'm allergic to most furry creatures, in person, but I love seeing them, and wishing that "allergy to fur" hadn't been one of those things that went along with me getting older! (She just got an adorable new puppy, too...). She knits, she spins, she does it all! And she finishes stuff. A lot. Every time I'm not sure if I'm ever going to finish (X), I wander to her blog and look at all the pictures of finished things, thus reassuring myself that finishing is, in fact, possible!
6. Cathy tagged me. This is all her fault. We know each other from the Virginia Knits blog, which I think was an offshoot of Virginia knitters that were doing one of the SotS knitalongs, and has morphed into a great community for Virginia crafters. We legal chix need to stick to gether. (Yes, three puns in one sentence. I live for that kind of stuff.)
7. Claire and I found each other on a Stitching Knitters yahoo group, and have followed each other over to Ravelry. Or did we find each other on LiveJournal? Y'know, it's been so many years at this point, I can't remember! I tend ot think of her primarily as a stitcher, since she does stuff like Teresa Wentzler's 'The Castle'. I have the pattern, but I haven't started it yet. Or maybe I have, and I've just forgotten? She's one of the few people who's allowed to nag me about how many UFOs I have. (The answer, as of today, is 67.)
8. M is my cousin, and will probably kill me for stating this fact publicly. But I have, so there! She can't stop me! BWAAAA-HA-HA-HA-HA!
9. I stumbled across Alex's blog somehow, and I'm so glad I did! (Not just because she sent me orange fluff to turn into my very own hat, either...) She is *so* creative. She does her own embroidery of some really unusual things, making beauty from things you wouldn't expect. A M9 handgun, done in redwork. Lungs, embroidered. Supersocks. Also, she's forgiven me for introducing her husband to Bacon Salt.
10. I think I found Lynnio's blog because of her Fla-vor-Ice Cozy, which, let me tell you, is something I desperately, desperately needed as a young child growing up in Georgia. (Yeah, for just two years, but...) Nothing, I mean NOTHING, feels as cold in August in Atlanta as grabbing a fresh Fla-Vor-Ice or Otter Pop out of the freezer! Anyway, I'm glad Cathy tagged me, because I *thought* I'd added L to my list of blogs to read, but I hadn't (?) - but now I have! (I can't comment there because I'm not a Wordpress-er, but I read it all!)
11. Finally, Jo of Celtic Memory Yarns dropped by. (Eeek, a internet knitting celebrity!) She's based in Ireland, and I just love reading her blog. It's always full of photos - people, history, geography, sheep, yarn... all sorts of loveliness from across the pond. Even if she's not going far from home, her entries are like wonderful windows into a fairy world full of color and fleece and fun. Which, as it's Ireland, seems appropriate!

And, once again, just because I love it so much, my Favorite Knitting Photo:

My favorite knitting photo so far...

In between the frantic Rabbit Knitting and the attempt to actually finish Hint #8 of Secret of the Stole II, the Noro Mobius Scarf jumped (completely unassisted, I swear!) onto my pretty new needles. Since I'm a loose knitter I knit loosely, I cast on 51 stitches, and that'll give me a nice width for a headscarf-ish thing. K1,p1,k1,p1.... and so on. This constitutes "almost mindless knitting" - truly mindless knitting being either the purl rows of SotS-II (I purl faster than I knit) or the stockinette Rabbit Squares. I actually kinda had to pay attention at first, but after a few stripes, I was just flying along. I hope to have the whole thing knitted up in time to wear it before the second snow. (Since the first snow is supposedly going to fall today, I'm not going to make THAT deadline!)

This is also going to be the Waiting Project. Did I mention I'm now categorizing my projects? There's the Transit Project, which is Secret of the Stole II, seen here at the end of its third ball of yarn:


There's the Couch Project, which is the 30 Rabbits in 30 Days, the deal being knit only rabbits on the couch until and unless I am at least two rabbit-days ahead. (I'm presently, as of this morning, done with 16 rabbits, so there's more rabbit knitting in my immediate couch-future.) Then there's the Waiting Project, the Noro Mobius Scarf. This is for doing while waiting for the bus, waiting for my ride, waiting for the train - times where picking up the other portable project (SotS-II) just won't work well. As of this morning, I was able to take what is possibly my favorite picture of my knitting ever:


See? The blue of the sky, the green of the grass, the orange of the leaves on the tree, plus the strong "stripes" of the shadows on the bridge... I mean, the setting just screamed out to have this scarf-scrap held up before it whilst it was recorded for posterity. I am all a-squeal about this photo, and I'm just wishing I had my *real* camera (and the yellow filter) to get a publishable image, with the real vibrancy of the colors that were there. But this will do, and I still love it!

Busy Weekend.

Busy weekend, with a lot accomplished, some of it actually yarn-related.

Friday night, wound up the last ball of Gaia Lace, colorway The Gorge. I got four for SotS-II, and the third ball is rapidly dwindling. On the other hand, I will probably have enough left over for a pretty SotS-II headscarf!


On Saturday, on the way to play with friends in the morning, we were running about forty-five minutes early, and since traffic on the Interstate was, per the Radio Traffic Guy, "horrible", I finagled a stop at In Stitches near Woodlawn Plantation (hey, it's on Route 1, we were going down Route 1...). They're the LNS locally that *always* has Noro yarns, and Friday, I was seduced by the Yarn Harlot's post about The Noro Scarf. That's Brooklyn Tweed's Noro Scarf, and after you click on the link and drool a bit at the loveliness of said scarf. I don't want a six-foot scarf, actually - so I just got two balls of yarn.


I'm going to cheat a Mobius strip scarf, without actually making a Mobius scarf. I'm going to... GRAFT. Yes, you said it. But why would I do such a thing, when I've successfully Mobius-ed before? Because I also got THESE:


Yes, I finally broke down and got my own pair of Lantern Moon needles, which I've wanted for a while. Darned store had them RIGHT as you go in, a whole rack, and these pretties were in the size called for by the yarn. I must obey the yarn, right?

Also, during the various events on Saturday, and most of Sunday afternoon/evening, I was doing things, socializing, and catching up on my Thirty Rabbits in Thirty Days. I cast on #15 this morning, so I'm only a little bit behind, and should be caught up by the end of "How I Met Your Mother" tonight. No, I haven't actually made any into rabbits just yet, but I have faith it will work.


And then, on the way into work this morning, I walked past the Gap, and they had this in the window:


I'll be investigating THAT at lunch, because as Argyle goes, pink-and-orange really IS me. (And that way I'll have an Argyle sweater to wear this year, because we all know I'm not finishing the other one any time soon!)

Holiday Mail for Heroes

The American Red Cross is sponsoring a national "Holiday Mail for Heroes" campaign to receive and distribute holiday cards to service members and veterans both in the United States and abroad.

The goal is to collect and distribute one million pieces of holiday mail.

"As we enter this holiday season-a time to celebrate with family and friends-it's important to remember the thousands of men and women who serve our nation in harm's way and those who are recovering in military and veterans hospitals," said Army Col. Norvell V. Coots, commander, Walter Reed Health Care System. "The Holiday Mail for Heroes program is a wonderful outreach effort and a great way to acknowledge the sacrifices of our men and women in uniform."

Holiday cards should be mailed to:
Holiday Mail for Heroes
P.O. Box 5456
Capitol Heights, MD. 20791-5456

All cards must be postmarked no later than Dec. 10. Cards should not be mailed or delivered to Walter Reed Army Medical Center.

For more information, visit www.wramc.amedd.army.mil or www.redcross.org/holidaymail for Holiday Mail for Heroes program guidelines. Walter Reed is not accepting mail addressed to "A Recovering American Soldier."

If we pass this on and everyone sends one card, think of how many cards these people, who have sacrificed so much, would get!

Fun Fashinon Friday

Today, by way of Donna at Random Knits, another Fun Fashion Friday. Today's designer, Rodarte, http://www.rodarte.net/.

Specifically, The Sweater. Here is the sweater:


Here is the sweater as part of its runway "look":


It's a nice sweater, but very loosely knitted. Now, guess how much it costs. Just the sweater, not the whole look. Got a number in mind? Okay, now scroll down.... it cost....








$2,760 U.S.

Yes. Almost three thousand dollars - which, even if the dollar isn't doing well this week, is a whole heck of a lot of money for one little sweater that, quite frankly, doesn't even offer all that much warmth. This, my friends, is why most of us have learned to knit for ourselves. (And seriously - where can we get in on this three-thousand-bucks-a-sweater deal?)

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Getting back on track.

Tuesday night, I noticed it was cold. Not that it hadn't been cold for some time, but it was cold enough in my house, on my sofa, that my hands didn't want to knit.
This is Unacceptable.
Thankfully, earlier this year, I'd been charmed by a small photo in IK of the Winter Twilight Mitts, and, after Great Travail and Consternation, was able to get the pattern (which I promptly modified the stuffing out of, due to freakishly small hands and freakishly loose knitting). I actually finished the mitts. (Proof here.) And, Tuesday night - and again last night - I had occasion to wear them whilst attempting to knit on my couch.

Review of finished product:
These things are form-fitted to my hands, and, as such, are a bit tricky to get on. On the other hand, they're form-fitted to my hands, so nothing gets caught on the thumb or the cuff. For knitting, I made the finger part a bit too long - it still feels a bit awkward to knit (or so my left hand tells me). I'm not sure why, but then I also hadn't realized that my left pinky finger plays an integral part in my knitting, and that having warm, fluffy merino nestled in the inside curve of the middle knuckle on said pinky finger would throw me for a loop. So, I'm glad I made the darned things, and just turning the ribbing back does the trick, and I know that my next pair of mits should stop at the first palm-to-finger knuckle of my middle finger, and be no longer.

As to why all this was important, after last week's descent into knitted-rabbit-argyle insanity, I'm back on track knitting things that will allegedly help me get under 50 UFOs by the end of the year. (Stop laughing, I hear you. Yes, I know I'm at 66 right now. But the resolution was to be under 50, and I'm dedicating Thanksgiving weekend to tearing through the stash and figuring out if there's anything I'm actually not going to finish, or if there's anything I could finish in three days, etc.) Thus, last night I finished Hint #7 of SotS-II, and I'm chugging along on Hint #8 now. And, because every entry really should have a picture, here's the one for today:


P.S., Is it Friday yet?

I have yarn. And no cats.

My friend T was giving away a *bunch* of cross-stitch stuff sometime... summer maybe?... and included in it was a cute little cross-stitch minikit of a sheep that's supposed to say "Ewe's not fat, Ewe's fluffy!" - which, being on the fluffy side myself, I didn't find all that amusing. So, I stitched it up Monday night, with a change in the words:


Sunday evening, I organized my out-of-the-stash-room stash. I found all the stray yarn, and bagged it as either "nice acrylic" or "nice wool-type yarn". I bagged balls that belonged together, kept the patterns with the yarn, and otherwise made things a bit easier for myself in the long run. Plus, we now have a clear path between the sofa, the kitchen, and the bathrooms. The evidence:


Did I mention these were the super-large 20+ gallon ziploc bags? That's not tiny skeins of sock yarn in there, that's big ol' skeins of stuff. Lots and lots of yarn. In CLEAR bags, so I can find it this time!!!

And even though I want cats (I'm allergic), I realize that this is what would happen if I had them:


moar kittehs!

Linkfest for Cross-Stitch Folks

I've been meaning to post this for a few weeks now, and just haven't had time to get the pictures together... but finally did, so here goes. Sadly, my favorite Cross Stitch Store, the Scarlet Thread, has moved. Only seven miles away, but seven miles in a direction I *never* have reason to go. I discovered this at the big 30% Off Everything (pre-moving) Sale mid-October (as opposed to the Inventory Clearance the following weekend, which I didn't make). Since I may never have an opportunity to buy cross-stitch loot ever again, I went a bit nuts.


The items, more or less in order, were:

1. The item I actually came in to get, "Bunny Battle" by Arelate Studio. You may recognize their stuff as something I'm already working on (my "Small Ferocious Beastie" meld of two of their designs).
   
2. Had to get lovely blue cloth to stitch it on, naturally. And, I figured for the next listed item, in much-brighter-than-called-for peacock colors, would look lovely on a bright mustard cloth, thus.
   
   I can't actually explain that third piece of looks like fall leaves on the ground hand-dyed fabric. These things just follow me home.
3. "Good Karma" by Blue Ribbon Designs.
   
   Sarah Leigh knows that if it's got a peacock or a pumpkin, I'm probably going to buy it.
4. A lovely little sheep canvaswork kit, which I've already finished.
5. A handpainted chilipepper canvas, with the threads I'll need to work it. That's some Weeks Dye Works (green & brown), Carrie's Creations & Gentle Art Sampler Threads (reds/oranges), Caron Waterlillies (yellow, for background), and more Carrie's Creations (multi, for border). It's gonna be FABOO.
   
6. A cute little Sheepy Magnet, which was for L's birthday (it's SOOOOOO cute!!!)
   
7. Some needles, because I can never find tapestry shorts (because there's usually at least two parked in every project I've started)
   
8. Yet another Michael Powell kit. I just love his stuff, and whoever's doing the conversions to cross stitch just ROCKS. Even this tiny thing has twenty-plus colors, two kinds of beads, metallics... and will wind up looking like his original sketch. I LOVE these kits!! (Seriously. Go look at his art! To see what a difference a good art-to-stitch person makes, see one of his larger pieces I did, here. Scroll down the whole page - it's not just the photo at the top. This was NOT just run through a cross-stitch converter (people who do that and just sell the patterns w/o stitching them first ANNOY ME so much!).
9. The 2008 Just Cross Stitch Christmas Ornaments Issue.
   my pic
   A much better shot of the Cover
   I usually stitch at least one thing per year; last year, it was the Brittercup pointsettia (I even got a frame for it. Now ask me if I've framed it yet...), the year before that, a cute set of ornaments to be distributed amongst my friends if ever I should find them again and finish them (at this point, I'll be changing the year on them by quite a bit), the year before that, a Dragon Dreams for an ornament exchange... etc. I'm not sure which one I'll do this year, but there are some great photos of finished ornaments at The Christmas Ornament Stitch-A-Long.
10. This INCREDIBLE bargello book, which I've been waiting to come out. I love bargello-style stitching; most of the canvas I've designed myself has been bargello. I throw it in wherever I can (see the NZ Wool canvas - mine has bargello mountains, just because).
    
11. This Tiffany Foxglove pattern sneaked into my pile somehow. I'm guessing it's because I have a shot at finishing my Tiffany Wisteria one of these days, and would like the set. (The only blog record I can find of the latter is on March 1, 2007, in the all-crafts blog. Nope, look, there's something on December 4, 2006...
    
12. Had to get some evenweave for it, though. This happens. And also some sparkly blue material, because it was sparkly, and blue!
    
13. Got some Grime Stoppers, one set medium, one set small - I call them Q-Sox. They really *do* prevent grime, and will also hold excess fabric away from the back of the stitching (where disasters can happen). Haven't seen them around for a bit, and making my own just didn't work well, so grabbed them when I saw them.
    
14. This pattern just appeared in my pile. Can't explain it.
    
15. And, of course, this fabulous beaded oversized handbag to carry it all in!
    

And that, my friends, was me being GOOD!