Mary Western 1820

Hi, all. Just a quick one tonight as I'm embroiled in some knotty homework. Now that the online needlework show has revealed this sampler, I can show you what I'm working on: Mary Western 1820 by Samplers Revisited. I was lucky enough to wander in to In Stitches when Patty Yergey, the designer, stopped by with the model and some charts. I can tell you that the real-life sampler is so much prettier than even this photograph of the project.



I stitching it on the recommended Lakeside in Maritime White, although I'm using 40 count, rather than the 36 count suggested, worked with NPI (although it's also charted for DMC). It's a large sampler! I've counted 68 of the little pink fan-flowers in the border (sweet peas?); so far I've stitched 8 of them.


Off we head to last-minute chores and then to bed. Happy week ahead, says Peaches.

Satin Stitches

I used to think I didn't like satin stitches before undertaking this project. I can't show you the whole picture until next week when it's released at the online needlework show, but it is a sweet design.

I made some progress this week on A Parrot, a Leopard, a Lion. Only, because I haven't fleshed out the parrot, it should be called "A Scrawny Chicken and Some Endless Foliage." I am uncomfortably reminded by this image that Thanksgiving is a little under six weeks away. Urk.

How I regret not buying more Birds of a Feather charts while they were still designing. Now we're left with what we can scratch up from ebay. I got this chart this week. Does anyone have any idea of how many designs they might have done? (So I can take a second mortgage on the house to get them all.) Cue Joni Mitchell, singing "You don't know what you've got 'til it's gone..." Is it any wonder that we stitchers are such chart hoarders? "A Bird in the Hand," charted for DMC and WDW on 32 count linen.



Here's a sweet little group to wish you a merry Sunday and a happy new week.

10-10-55 - 10-10-10

I was born on 10/10/55, and today--10/10/10--I turned 55. Perhaps I should go out and purchase some lottery tickets, but the gas station that sells them is about three miles away, but that would have involved putting away my stitching. I didn't even want to go out to eat; BF was not really surprised that I preferred to stay home and make my own birthday dinner (baked ziti, raw veggies with my killer homemade blue cheese dressing and apple crisp).

Yesterday my sister treated me to a birthday lunch and gave me a generous gift certificate to In Stitches, and my parents sent me yarn and a pattern book (my mom knits, so she chooses wonderful knitting stuff). All in all, a wonderful birthday weekend. Chester and Yazziebear contemplate the balloon that my sister's BF brought me along with a nice bouquet of flowers:


I can't show you everything I stitched, since I put in a lot of time this week on the sampler that has not yet been unveiled by Samplers Revisited. I worked on this Christmas ornament, which is by Birds of a Feather. I'm stitching it on a scrap of 40 ct. Lakeside from my stash using the called-for GAST threads. I am going to frog that particular gold Kreinik--it's too brassy, I think. I'll use a different gold.


I had "homework" for my fair isle hat class which meets again on Tuesday, so I have made progress on that project as well. Two interesting things about fair isle knitting: there are never more than two colors in a row, even if there are lots of different colors in the design (yes, there are things you knit with multiple colors in a row, but those are not fair isle--those are intarsia); and if you can read a counted cross stitch pattern, you can read a knitting pattern! With circular needles, you start on the botton right and read left, repeating until the end of the number of stitches on your needle. Easy! If you knit and have been hesitant about trying fair isle, go for it! Next I'm doing the whale watch hat, which will be more time-consuming because of the fingering yarn, but will not be more difficult. This hat is a snowflake pattern by the instructor. I'm knitting it in two colors of Mission Falls 1824 merino superwash.


Peaches, grooming Pink's ears during morning snuggle time.


Happy week ahead!

Market

Yesterday I went to In Stitches and had a blast buying the things they brought back from Market. But first, this is what I stitched on this week: "A Parrot, a Leopard, a Lion," by Scarlet Letter.


I had such fun meeting people yesterday: a dear reader from Spotsylvania who has 132 samplers! I've encouraged her to start a blog so she can share with us; she was holding two beautiful needlepoint projects that she had completed--a tiny stocking and a New Orleans-style mask--such beautiful work. I'm so sorry that I didn't take my camera! I also met Stitching Cats who was also shopping! And the designer of Catharine McNeal, Patty Yergey of Samplers Revisited, was there with a framed model of a brand-new sampler, "Mary Western 1820." I can't show you the sampler, because it's under wraps until the online show at the end of October. But here's a sneak peek from her site. Having seen the model, I predict it will fly off the shelves: it's a happy and adorable reproduction done up in glorious colors of pink and rose and amethyst and blue and yellow. You can see a butterfly in her little peek, but my favorites which you cannot see are two little blue and yellow striped birds. And the charming verse is over two in pink.


I picked up this little sampler, called "Paradis Perdu," by "a mon ami Pierre (Dessin)." If you like A&E's, you're going to love this one. Notice Eve's typically French bikini panties--no granny panties for her in this project! Call In Stitches if you want one--there were a couple left on the rack as of yesterday a.m. (703-360-4600).

I liked this and kitted it up--here's the floss toss.

Porcupine Collection is re-releasing their old charts, and In Stitches had several of those also. I got Mary Slatter and Jane Ballard. This is Jane:

And here is the chart spread out on the coffee table next to a Scarlet Letter chart booklet of Catharine Metcalfe to give you an idea of the size of the project. It's charted for DMC, as are the other Porcupine Collection charts. I did a conversion to silks in my stash.
There were other things that I got, and there's still a list of things that I want to acquire--someday (I saw some brilliant red fabric I regret not picking up). I think next year I'll take the week off after market, visit the store on the first day and then stitch the rest of my vacation. As it is, I hate the idea of heading to work tomorrow. I'm off to do some stitching with what's left of the day. Wonder if BF will mind having cereal for dinner....



Pink: "This is what I would do with your charts. You have hardly noticed me all weekend!"


Happy week ahead!

A Frog, a Leopard, a Lion (plus, So Long, Audrey)

We said so long to Audrey and her friend Spike this week; we were sad to see her go, but putting Spike in the mailer bag with her made me feel better about sealing her up. She's on her way to spend some time with Diva Kitty and the Fluffies in California, where she'll be walking in the Susan B. Komen Three-Day Walk for the Cure in San Francisco. In honor of the event, I knitted her a little pink scarf.

I had considerable frogging to do on this because of a miscount, but now I'm back on track. This is "A Parrot, a Leopard, a Lion," by the Scarlet Letter. Edited to add: I'm stitching it with AVAS on 40 count navy bean Lakeside, over two. And I'm not tent-stitching the background (yikes), which is optional.

Yesterday I stopped by the LNS to pick up my copy of the 2010 Ornie Issue of JCS (my favorite is the little Blackberry Designs snowman). This had arrived as well--such a cutie!

Here are the bunnies, wishing Audrey and Spike good luck on their journey.

Happy week ahead!

Sampling

Look! A self-portrait! ("Sweeping Cobwebs" by Prairie Schooler on 45 count legacy, using NPI (my conversion), and planning some Kreinik embellishment).

It was a busy weekend. Yesterday we went to sample oysters at the 17th Street Market Shockoe on the Half Shell in Richmond, only there was a line for shucked oysters, so we crossed the street and had a crab omelet and oyster shooters at LuLus. (Bloody mary mix, vodka, extra horseradish, raw oysters.) Personally, I prefer my raw oysters plain with just a squeeze of lemon.

Then we viewed the James River from Oregon Hill. There were tons of people on the shore and wading in the water; it was hot in spite of the ever-so-slightly-turning-to-fall colors and haze.

I visited the Yarn Lounge where I have signed up for my fair isle hat class and purchased supplies. I really, really want to do this hat and bought the book ("New England Knits: Timeless Knitwear with a Modern Twist") The very nice and tactful sales woman at the yarn store talked me out of doing it for class because it's knit of fingering yarn on size 0 needles in four colors. Too time-consuming to be able to start and finish it in three weeks unless you can knit all day, so I'll do the two-color hat in a worsted weight yarn, get the technique of changing colors and then knit the more challenging "Whale Watch" hat here. Actually, wouldn't it be a great pattern on a throw or a scarf?

While I dithered over yarn, BF was across the street at Cancan Brasserie having a beer. When I joined him, I was thirsty, and the bartender wandered by with one of these for someone else. It looked so intriquing that I had to order one: It's called a Coco Noir: Ciroc coconut vodka, ginger syrup, blackberry puree, and a splash of champagne, served very cold. It has occurred to me that the entire summer has passed without my posting a picture of a homemade cocktail, and now I really am going to have to get a bottle of Ciroc and try some of the recipes on their website.

Off I go to bed while the bunnies snuggle their way into sleep. Good night and happy week ahead!

Bits and Pieces

Just a quick post today, as I have a few non-stitchy things to finish this weekend. I was heartily sick of all of my frequent WIPs, so I took out a few things I hadn't worked on in a while. I actually got a fair amount of stitching time in, but it's pretty spread around, so I don't have tons of progress to show.

Sous le Soleil de la Lune, by Reflets de Soie. AVAS on 40 count maritime white Lakeside Linen.

Charlotte Clayton. This is a restart. NPI on 40 count Lakeside (navy bean?)

Birth of Jesus, by the Stitching Parlor. NPI on 36 count natural something-or-other linen. My favorite part of it is the sheep, which is stitched in Wisper fiber, and the tiny brass stars that are affixed to the trees when the stitching is complete. I'd love to finish this up in time to frame it for Christmas.

Elizabeth Savilles. Crescent Colours on 40 count Lakeside (maritime white, I think). I love the sherbet-y pink.

"Did someone say 'Pink?'"

This has been a tough couple of weeks in rabbit blogging: our bunny blogger friends, Bunny Lady and Rabbits Guy lost a dear bunny named Baxter.


And Patti, the leader of the pack of rabbits at Bright Eyes Sanctuary, lost little Earless Glenna Bun. I met Earless Glenna at a pet adoption and fund-raising event at Bark! in Maryland back in April. She lost her ears to frostbite when some horrible person decided they didn't want the responsibility for a rabbit and just turned her loose.


And close to home, my sister lost her lovely Lab companion, Gracie, a few weeks ago.

Binky free, little guys, and Gracie, no chasing the bunnies, and stay out of the shrimp bowl!

Hanging Out at the BOA

I carpool to work with someone who starts work half an hour before I do; she was worried I'd mind and wouldn't want to carpool with her since I'd have to leave earlier and would have an extra half hour to kill once we got into Richmond. Put your hands up if you think I have a problem killing time! This is the cafe at the Bank of America building. You don't have to buy food to sit here, although generally I at least buy something to drink and a bagel in the morning. I love this room--it's like a glassed-in patio and the stitching light is the best. There's also an outdoor patio that has lots of trees and flowers and good views of the city. Generally I have the cafe to myself in the morning, and when I am not working out at the Y across the street, I have lunch here too. It's never crowded and no one even casts a glance my way when I pull out my needlework. I love this space so much and I'm so grateful to the Bank of America (my own office is too crowded to find a nook for stitching) that I'm thinking of switching my bank account over to them.

Here's a little more on Ann Smith. I have to admit my attention is wandering. That's just about right--it's been about 4 weeks. Time to move on to something else for a while.

So I picked up Catharine O'Neal and worked on the thistles on the top right.

I have signed up for a three-week knitting class at the Yarn Lounge in October. The project will be a Fair Isle hat by Mission Falls. Here's the project I've chosen. As a knitter I'm an advanced beginner or an intermediate. I'm good at some things--knitting, purling, cabling, increasing, decreasing--but not others, including changing colors. This class will teach me to do that. The following month is a three week class in mitten-knitting which I will sign up for if I like the hat class.

I do adore my handicrafts. For years I have wanted to learn woodworking, and Richmond has a place where I can indulge my curiosity and take classes. I am going to be investigating that also. One beginner class teaches the students to make a small shaker table. Other classes teach wooden bowl making or pictures frames.
Peaches: "I like crafts too; I deconstructed this timothy tunnel in no time at all!"

I'm off to steam some crabs for dinner. Happy week ahead!

Wyfdom

Final weekend of the summer. The temperatures have finally moderated, and I'm out of here in a few minutes to head outdoors. I've been busily working on Ann Smith this week.


And I got outdoors at lunch in Richmond on Friday, and took a photo of this old building. There are lots of such buildings in Richmond--it's a city with a huge stock of unrestored structures with good bones or at least interesting details. See the "Horses Horses" faded paint on the bricks? Wonder if it was a feed store, and if so, how recently. Sixties? Earlier? Wonder how long it takes for paint to fade to this extent.


Off I go. In the meantime, Elvis counsels a good luxurious scratching session.


Happy week ahead!

Scarlet Fever II

I've put quite a few stitches in Ann Smith this week including lots of over-one in the words and area beneath the words. I love this Scarlet Letter sampler, and in fact I'm a huge fan of Scarlet Letter's approach to selling her wares in general. What I especially like about the Scarlet Letter is that most of her designs are sold not only as kits but as separate charts too. I look at her very good website and pore over her printed catalogs as well: they are absolutely gorgeous, and pure needlework porn.

Here's my latest Scarlet Letter obsession, which I ordered today in chart form-- Catharine Metcalf--and in spite of the strict stash diet I've tried really hard to follow. Just look at these photos, borrowed from the Scarlet Letter's website:

How can anyone resist this spotty cow with the bullion knot tail?

Or this cheerful-looking serpent with his pink forked tongue or the Adam and Eve as played by Brad and Angelina?


I've gotten a couple of questions lately about my stash. My header photo is La Famille Lapin, but I'm forgetting who the designer is. I believe I bought it at In Stitches in Alexandria, VA, and you can try calling them--it seems as if I've seen the chart there fairly recently. Their phone # is on the link.

Someone else asked how many WIPs I have. Well, I counted my project bags--almost all of my projects are stored in those nice mesh bags--and it seems as if I have 48 project bags. As I look through them, there are a few I will not continue because I've fallen out of love or my interests have evolved more into the historic sampler reproductions, but I probably have a good 40 WIPS that I would be happy to pick up and work on and someday even finish. My "rotation" is loose: at any given time I work on about my six favorites in a rotation of about three weeks on each project until I get tired of it and put it away until later. I'll pick up and restart an older one to put it back in the more immediate rotation, and I'll start a new one from time to time and add that to the rotation also. It's very fluid and frankly, I don't worry much about whether I finish something or not; for me, it's about the process. It has occurred to me that I need to make some provision in my will for passing them on to someone(s). No one in my family would be even slightly interested or would even know what I had. Maybe I should have a contest for being in my needlework will? LOL!

Pink and Elvis: "We're irresitable too!" Right, guys, but none of the critters on that Scarlet Letter sampler are likely to doot on the floor!


Happy week ahead, all!

Down by the River

I felt inspired by my trip to the Rappahannock for pictures with Audrey (below) to take this out and work on it-Sarah McPhail from The Essamplaire. Still enjoying it, but I have such a huge rotation that it doesn't get out much.

Yesterday was a bit cooler, so I stopped by the Rappahannock River bank after doing my errands yesterday. Audrey posed on the camera bag since it was muddy--we'd had thunderstorms the night before.

And if you click on this picture you can see the friend that Audrey made. He had hauled himself out of the water and was sunning himself probably--a really good-size turtle.

Pink went for a little skittering run down the hall last night.

Happy week ahead!