Scribbles & Bits

On This Night of a Thousand Frogs*

The mermaid gloves just weren't working out.  I don't know why I'm having such a difficult time with this pattern, but I thought it was time to give up for a while.  So what do you do when you feel that everything you touch turns to disaster?

Go ahead and frog the cardigan you've been putting off frogging, too. Face it: the mistake isn't going to go away.

*with apologies to Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice.  I loved Evita.  Really. 

A Stitch in Time

This piece sent me back on a cross stitch kick.  It's one of the patterns in the Subversive Cross Stitch book (except with red flowers).  Back when I first got the book, this was one of my favorite patterns and I kept meaning to stitch it up.  When I found out that a friend was coming in to town, I decided he would need this, so I started stitching.  It actually only took about three hours (including the distractions of America's Next Top Model).  Of course the total piece is only about 3x5 and there is a lot of open space.  Anyway, he loved it and I'm happy.

So the piece so fit my attention span that I started thinking of a piece that was in the February issue of Cross Stitcher.  I'm not normally into traditional samplers.  They're fine to look at, but I've just never had an urge to stitch one myself.  But I fell in love with this one when I first saw it.  So while I was at Michael's picking up the frame for the other piece, I picked up the 28 count linen for this one (Charles and Craft Irish linen in tea, in case you were curious).  It's a nice, simple, keep your hands busy piece that I finished last night (and would have actually finished Sunday night had I not been seeing friends!  Woohoo!).  It only had 4 colors, 2 of which I used and 2 of which I switched out so they looked more like the picture in the magazine.  I'd also gone with a darker cloth to match the picture in the magazine.  Hey, I can't help it!  I fell in love with the picture.  Anyway, the final piece is about 4.5x6.  Sorry about the hoop marks!  I was really ready to get a picture of this.

So does this mean I'll be going back to the stitch for a while?  Probably not.  I'm still in love with the Mermaid Gloves.  but just to be on the safe side, they're all I brought with me to work on while I'm on breaks. 

While I was Convalescing

So I kept saying I'd post pictures of what I worked on while I was laid up from the surgery so here we go!  The first is a thistle done in needlework.  There are a couple of firsts involved with this:

1. It's my first time to work on needlework canvas.  I've always used Aida cloth or linen before now.
2. It's my first time using wool for needlework.  I'd only used basic embroidery floss and perle cotton before.  I love the wool!  I'm not veering away from the others by any means, but the wool has this amazing texture that I want more of.
3. It was my first time using a pre-painted canvas.  I've always done counted work, but considering I was on meds that made me drowsy and made thinking a chore, the painted canvas seemed like a brilliant idea.

I think that covers all my firsts with that one.  The final stitched area of the piece is 6"x6".  It's done completely in tent stitch and mostly in wool.  There's a little perle cotton for a different texture.

The next one is a geisha and her dog walking through the snow.  This one is rendered in wool, perle cotton, and embroidery floss (rendered!  Ha!).  There's still tent stitch in this one, but I tried playing around with different stitch textures (as I hope the close-up shows).  That was fun but a little nerve wracking.  I'll certainly need to practice that more often.  Anyway, the final stitched area of this piece is 8"x8".

The final picture is of the completed washcloth.  I've mentioned it at least once before.  This started as my waiting room piece that, when completed, would be sent as part of a gift to a friend of mine.  That is still the plan, although her birthday was in the later part of March.  I suck.  Anyway, the pattern is from Yarnplay.  The washcloth is made of hemp by Allhemp 6 in Cinnamon.  The cloth is supposed to help exfoliate.  The decorative soap was my attempt at spicing the picture up just a little bit.

I did also work on the Mermaid gloves (a modification of the Pomatomus sock pattern from Knitty).  I first mentioned them here (I think that was the first time) and first saw them here.  However, the night before last I realized that I was knitting them too small.  I've moved up to a size 2 needle and I think that will work for me!  I had a lot of frustration with this pattern at first because of all the ktbl, but I've got the hang of it now so we're friends again!  I may even get these finished before next winter! 

Now, what did I not work on?  The lace cardigan from Modern Classics.  I screwed up the lace pattern and I'm going to have to rip it all out.  I've been putting off doing that, thinking that maybe, just maybe, I'd decide that it wasn't all that visible and I could keep all that hard work (I was all the way up to the armhole shaping).  but alas, every time I look at it, the errors seem glaring.  I think I'm also putting it off because I know I'll need to re-graph the pattern (like I did the first time).  I never would have thought a cardigan could cause such drama in my life.  I swear this thing better be magic when I finish it. 

Yeah.....

Still not caught up.  Still haven't responded to e-mails and I feel terrible about that.  Still tired.  Still need to take pictures.  I'm getting there, just slowly. 

On a rather unrelated note, I've started to see Ravelry pop up, so naturally I signed up, too. In one of the blogs I commented that I thought it was "a hugely exciting development in the knitting world."  Then that cracked me up for two reasons:

1. that's so P.R. sounding, isn't it?  Why did that come out of my mouth?
2. as a kid, I couldn't pick up the whole knitting/crochet thing.  It was pretty frustrating and actually helped turn me away from any sort of crafting for years.  It just brought my whole craft mojo down.  Anyway, I kind of wish there were some way for my now self to have visited my kid self and say, "Self, don't let this get you down.  In a few years, you'll be using phrases like 'a hugely exciting development in the knitting world' and you'll mean it.  So buck up and keep practicing the stuff you're good at!  Oh yeah, also, don't worry about Emily being a *****.  I won't get into details, but let's just say karma sorts her out.  And one more thing.  Don't worry about that boy in your class.  You know the one.  Yeah, he's really cute and funny, but after 12 years of adoration and seudo-dating you find out he's gay, so really, save yourself some heartbreak there, ok?  And oh yeah, don't date the guy that looks like Drew Carey.  And don't date the guy that talks to the squirrels.  Turns out he's not a charming animal lover, he's a nutcase who will stalk you." 

On second though, maybe it's best that I can't go back.