parade o' gifts (part 1)

Yeah, so, um...Hubs was gone on a work trip all week and got home at midnight last night...and a good thing, too, because I was just about at the end of my parenting rope. I don't know how those of you with traveling spouses do it. I bow down to you.

So I'm a little cranky. And also tired, because I don't sleep too well when he isn't here. I stayed up way too late each night working on a Christmas gift for my nephew. I mentioned it awhile back, and now it's almost done:

I love looking at this - it actually helps a great deal with my crankiness because I'm the queen of unfinished stitchery, typically, but this one is going to get done! I worked it each night until my eyes burned and I started making mistakes, and I was tired enough to fall asleep. 

I need to finish my nephew's name, work a few backstitch outlines (the propeller, the sail), and then carefully steam out all that awful hoop-burn. And frame it.

Now to go hem a halloween costume and finish up some baby gifts for our new niece who will arrive anytime...and then there are a few more Christmas items to work on...this time of year the crafts all sort of blend together, the end of one flows right into the start of another. I still need to make a rough list of all I hope to accomplish. 

Busy!

a finish and a start

Have you ever had a project hang around so long you begin to actively dislike it? That's the story with these stupid socks:



I am pretty sure evil gnomes visited in the night and unravelled all the work I'd done each time I knit on these. They took FOREVER! I cast them on in January - yes, January! - and finally finished them a couple of days ago. They were started as a project to carry along to the hospital when AJ had surgery to close up his belly. I worked on them in fits and starts all year. They just never seemed any closer to completion.

The yarn is Regia Galaxy, and I didn't love working with it. I don't know if it was the fact that I pulled from the center of the skein or what, but the twist was intense and I kept ending up with coiled, kinked yarn. I had to drop the sock-in-progress every inch or so and let it unwind so I could continue knitting. Not so fun! I will be stuffing these in the back of my drawer, to be worn this winter when I'm done being frustrated with them.

On to other things: I've been taking lots of cross-stitch and embroidery books out from the library, poking around for inspiration.

And inspiration struck.



Oh boy. The book is Traditional Samplers by Brenda Keyes. One design jumped right out at me, and I told myself if I had all the supplies on hand, I would let myself start it. And what do you know...I had all but one color of floss in the house, plus the correct aida cloth, needles, and hoops galore.



This is the Edwardian Style Birth Sampler. I originally thought it would be for my son, but now I am thinking perhaps it will be a Christmas gift for my nephew instead. Neither of them is a Patrick so I'll have to re-chart the name and birthdate, of course. So far (the past 3 nights) it's been a blast to stitch.

I've been listening to The Help on CD (because I cannot get my hands on a paper copy) so it's been working out perfectly to enjoy the story and stitch away.

I love cross stitches - the orderliness of them, marching across the cloth. This sampler appeals to me because there is a minimum of backstitching and no other stitch is used. I don't care for lots of different styles of stitches on aida cloth as I find them hard to execute. 

It's a bit of an ambitious undertaking when I have plenty else to do, but it's buzzing along so quickly, and I am enjoying it so much...I think I will actually finish the thing! Stay tuned! 

short and stout

More from A Rainbow of Stitches. Love.

14-count, DMC color 823.

ps: I erroneously referred to these little squares of aida as DMC short cuts...they are actually made by Charles Craft.

a rainbow of stitches

As I've mentioned before, after a period of seriously practical knitting and sewing, I'm feeling pulled toward more whimsical projects. I would like to make some things that are art for art's sake, just fun and skill-enhancing without necessarily being strictly "useful."

I started with some lace shawls, which are kind of a hybrid of useful and beautiful (mainly because even though I'm not likely to actually wear one, the possibility exists so I can justify the time spent). I'm still working on the latest one - 3 charts to go - but I can only work on it when I am undistracted for a length of time.

In the meantime I've gone to some hand stitching. I used to do tons of embroidery and cross stitch. I even had a friend who liked it too, and we could be found in the embroidery supply aisle of Michael's at age 14, picking out samplers and DMC floss.

When I saw this book on a blog back in the spring, it knocked me right over:

I usually take craft books out from the library, but the choices for embroidery and cross stitch are...well, let's just say "dated" at best. We're talking Better Homes and Gardens compilations from 1992. Not exactly inspiring for the modern crafter. Unless you're into teddy bear bibs. Which frankly I am not.

But A Rainbow of Stitches is fresh and fun. I highly recommend it! I linked to amazon, but I actually found mine on ebay and bought it from a Goodwill seller. It still had the Barnes & Noble gift receipt stuck inside! Someone got it for Christmas 2009 and, it appears, never even opened it. Now it's mine!

I dug through my bin of hand-me-down embroidery supplies and found a pack of DMC short-cuts, which are 6X6 inch squares of aida cloth. Mine were 14-count in white and off-white. Perfect for stitching up a little nugget and getting back in practice. I chose a tomato-red skein of floss and I was off to the races:

Don't ask me what I'll do with it, but oh, was it satisfying! Cross stitch is just so orderly and well-behaved. Anyone can do it, it's inexpensive, and the results are pretty much guaranteed to be good if you follow the chart. I found this little apple to be so, so relaxing to stitch.

There are many, many designs in this book that are built around colors and themes, with about an equal split between cross stitch and embroidery. It is NOT a project book, which I guess really upset some people who reviewed it online, but it does not claim to be a book of directions. It's just motifs and charts with photos of project ideas.

We are attending a tropical destination wedding this winter, and I'm thinking of making Daughter a dress for the rehearsal. Look at these adorable water/beach/nautical designs:

embroidery:

cross stitch:

more embroidery:

And I know this one is hard to see, because it's printed in a light tan, but I'm thinking of a pale linen sundress with some of these shells embroidered around the hem:

So many things to make...so little time!