Fabulous and Frustrating

That was my weekend. We had absolutely fabulous weather for Memorial Day - the best I can remember in a long time. Usually it tends to be cold and rainy. We did have rain overnight on Sunday but Monday was pretty clear and warm. I got my "window" boxes planted on my porch and mulched. I need a little more mulch but that can wait until next weekend. That was the fabulous part of my weekend.

This is the frustrating part. My third - yes THIRD - cast on for the IW Lotus Tank from last year's summer issue. 230 stitches in a lace pattern that I found out after I'd switched to smaller needles (after 9 rows!) was knitted twisted. UGHHHHHH. I am just heart sick. This pattern is kicking my hiney. I was hoping the "third time is a charm" would work for this project but unfortunately - it didn't. I'm not going to give up though. I might try my Denise needles and use a longer cable than the 24" called for so that I can lay out the stitches better to make sure they don't twist - I swear I checked so carefully.

This morning I cast on for my Summer Tunic KAL swatch. I really like the yarn and the fabric it is creating. I don't know what they treated the yarn with but it smells like fress cut grass! LOL Perfect for a summer top right?

TGFLW

TGFLW stands for Thank Goodness for Long Weekends! It's the unofficial start of summer here in Maine and we kicked it off with 90+ degree weather~heavenly! The pup got his own pool and has already been swimming twice and I got a lovely package full of this:

This is Elann Callista in the Tarragon colorway and I bought it for the Summer Tunic KAL. I'm planning to start my gauge swatch tomorrow so I can be all set for the June 1st kick off date. I also received these in the box with my Callista...

I just couldn't resist the lure of this cotton yarn and the price was great. The color on the left is Burnt Tangerine and the color on the right is Oasis. I bought 10 balls of each color. I'm sure I can find some kind of summer tank or sweater that this yarn will work for!

This was my first time ordering yarn from Elann and I have to say it won't be my last. I got my order from Washington state in two days!

On a stitching note, here is a picture of my morning project. I've been able to put in a few stitches before work each day this week and I'm pretty pleased with my progress.

Tonight is my SAL with Joanie and Sue on the Stitcher's Wallet. I made some progress on it this morning and after work but I will show you that tomorrow in case I pick it up again. I hope your Memorial Day weekend is off to a most excellent start! I will take a picture of Cowboy in his pool tomorrow!

Thoughts of Summer Knitting

Over the weekend I was able to pick up the summer issues of Interweave Knits and Knit.1 - and I didn't even have to leave town! I have already read the Knit.1 issue cover to cover. It's their green issue and I have to say it's a really excellent issue. There were lots of interesting articles on alternative fibers (not just wool!) and some great projects. I haven't gone through the Interweave issue as closely but I think I will end up making the Summertime Tunic.

It's also time for another Summer of Socks and I'm really excited to be participating this year. First off I have tons of wonderful sock yarn I've been wanting to work with and I feel much more confident in my sock knitting skills compared to last year. The KAL doesn't start until June 21st (THE FIRST DAY OF SUMMER!!) but I plan to sit down this weekend and choose the patterns and yarns I plan to work with. I know I want to make a pair of Jaywalkers and several Knitty patterns I've printed off plus I have the great pattern I got from my Sock Kit pal last year that's been ready to go forever. I can't wait for the start date!

SAL Progress

I forgot to take a photo of the fabric I used for my CHS pillow. It was a fat quarter I bought a while back because I really liked the colors and when I found it in my fabric drawer I knew it would be perfect. It has the same reds and golds and a bit of a metallic sheen to it.

Here is a photo of my Friday night progress on the Stitchers Wallet. Because I decided to put together my CHS piece, this one didn't get quite as much attention but I did manage to finish the dark brown motif in the center. I look forward to getting back to work on this next Friday!

Dainty Housewren Pillow

On Friday evening I sewed and stuffed my CHS Dainty Housewren piece into the pillow form and last night I sat and completed the beading. The picture is not great because we have no sunlight to speak of. I will try to remember to take a picture when it's finally sunny - if it ever comes back. I'm really happy with how this turned out and pleased that I've completed the project all the way through.

TGIF!

As you may guess from my lack of posts since Monday, this has been quite the tough week. I had something going in the evening after work Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday and tomorrow I will be volunteering at an all day event at my job. So not a whole lot of stitching on but I did make some progress on a UFO that I will show you soon. Today is the Stitcher's Wallet SAL so I hope to get some work in on that this evening.

I completely forgot to share photos of a wonderful package I recently received as part of a color exchange. My color choice this round was red - in any shade. I got a wonderful package from Gaby who stitched me the most gorgeous heart. Her blog has much better pictures but here are photos of the goodness that was inside! Two wonderful pieces of linen banding, two pieces of linen and a Crescent Colors thread called Ruby Slippers and other wonderful goodies.

Finally Finished!

Yesterday I sat down and focused on finishing my CHS Dainty Housewren. I put the beads on last night and now she is ready to sew up as soon as I choose a backing fabric. Wooohoo! This is my first finish from my 25 projects challenge. One down and only 24 more to go! LOL I was so excited about completing something, I picked out another project from the list to start - BOAF's Spring Garden. I need two WDW threads so I ordered those from ABC Stitch and in the meantime I've picked up PS Autumn Winds and started working on that. Can you tell I'm a little psyched to have something completed?

Spring Serenade

We are having a glorious spring weather weekend and everywhere Cowboy and I walked yesterday, we could hear the sound of lawnmowers and smell fresh cut grass. We had quite a warm week with temperatures in the 80s but now it's dropped back to a more springlike temperature of mid 60s. I hope you are enjoying a lovely Mother's Day whereever you are.


I've got three project updates to show so it was quite the productive stitching weeken for me. The first is my completed H is for Horse from my CHS Alphabet piece. I have decided I'm going to keep this out and rotate it with CHS Dainty Housewren and my Stitcher's Wallet.


Thursday night I worked on my CHS Dainty Housewren as well as giving her some attention last night. She is really quite close to being completed and I think I will look in my fabric stash to see if I have a suitable backing fabric to finish this piece off. I have really enjoyed working on this but I will be glad when it's completed so that I may start something new!




And last but definitely not least is my progress on my Stitcher's Wallet. I completed the flowering vine motif down the right side and the crown and started working on the darker brown area under my initials. This project continues to be a joy to work on!


To all you mothers out there, I hope you are treated like queens today - you deserve it!

2nd Blue Moon Sock Club Kit

This arrived the week before last and I forgot to post about it. It's the second installment in my Blue Moon Sock of the Month. It's a really cool new product from them - Silkie Socks That Rock which is 89% superwash merino and 19% silk! This yarn is so incredibly soft and silky so it's very appropriately named. The colorway is called Walking on the Wild Tide. The pattern that came with the yarn is called Grasshopper and I am really looking forward to working with both the pattern and the yarn. I am thinking I will make these for a Christmas gift.

I also gave in and bought some more STR - gotta keep that addiction going!

Well, it's TGIF and that means I am allowed to stitch on my Stitcher's Wallet so I'm off to do just that. I had a nice bit of stitching progress on two other UFOs so I will share that with you when I show my SAL progress tomorrow. Enjoy your weekend!

Stitcher's Wallet Progress

First off, I forgot to put a picture of Jo and I stitching in the stitchers lounge at Celebrations so here it is - thanks Pete for taking the photo! Jo looks her usual wonderful self and I'm not sure what I was thinking - I look like a dork! LOL

The piece in my hand was my Stitchers Wallet from The Gift of Stitching. I worked on it all weekend and had to finally zip it into its project bag on Monday and put it away because I didn't want to stop working on it. I am really loving how this is turning out. I will not bring it out again until Friday so I don't get too far ahead of the other ladies stitching along on this. Nancy, did you subscriber yet? I'm glad to see you posted - now you need to get a blog!!!

Celebrations Report

So I went to NH for the weekend and got back yesterday to discover that my computer monitor had finally died. I had to go buy a new one in order to be able to see to upload photos and check email. As a result of all that rigamarole, I'm a bit late in posting my Celebrations report!



I only went for Friday and got to see Carole, Jo, Nancy, and Sandy and her friend Lisa and meet a friend of Nancy's named Tinka. I had a really nice day and managed to leave at the end of the day without spending too much in the shopping mart. I also got to see Joyce and another knitting friend Lucille who I haven't seen since I moved - 2 years! Nancy and I arranged to meet at the entrance to the shopping mart at 9am on Friday and ended up pulling into the parking lot behind each other. We spent about 1.5 to 2 hours looking around and I managed to only come out with 5 pieces of 28 ct 9x13 fabric from the Picture this Plus booth. I started out picking out my usual samplery colored pieces but decided that what I really needed was some colors I wouldn't usually buy and so I ended up with these. The colors are from the top left, Kermit, Coastal, Flash(2nd row down on left), Ember and Splash. I thought it would be really cool to stitch a quaker or some thing similar in a contrasting fabric - a sort of modern quaker piece. We shall see on that.


Nancy and I had lunch at Applebees and then went back to stitch. She was meeting Tinka at 1:00 for another run through the shopping mart and I was meeting Jo after her class at 2:00. Jo and I ended up in the stitching lounge all by ourselves for quite a while. Nancy and Tinka finally managed to drag themselves away from the shopping mart so we stitched a bit and then went to an early dinner at Outback with Pete, Jo's husband. I made quite a lot of progress on my Stitcher's Wallet SAL. A really nice day all around! It was great to see good stitching friends again! I just wish Joanie and Sue had managed to join us as well. Maybe next year ladies right?

A Pair of My Own!

This morning I finally finished the second sock of my Inside Out Socks so I am happy to say I now have my own pair of hand knit socks! The sock on the right is what it looks like turned "inside out" and the one on the left is the "outside" as I was knitting it. The socks can be worn either way but I think I like the "inside" version on the left because it shows the cabling much better. I was really concerned that I would run out of yarn but thankfully I didn't but you can see how little was left over.

I loved knitting this pattern as it really challenged my skills and I learned two knew techniques, knitting from the toe up and cabling. I will definitely use this pattern again but not for a while!

I'm off to NH for Celebration of Needlework tomorrow and I hope to have lots of pictures to show when I get back!

2007 Color Exchange

I received an email saying that my last exchange had been received so I can now post photos of what I sent. My exchange partner wanted spring colors and mentioned that lime green was a current favorite color. Digging through my stash I found a 30 ct piece of R&R fabric that was a great lime color so I started with that.

The design is from a recent issue of The Gift of Stitching magazine - February or March I think - that was actually part of an oriental motif pattern. My exchange partner likes dragonflies which make up the corners of the motif so I thought that would be a good choice. The thread is WKS Calypso and I used some dupioni silk I bought a while back.


The ribbon came from a "ribbon jam" display at Michaels which they intended to be stuffed inside a mason jar with a bunch of other spools of ribbon. I know immediately it would make a great finishing item so I bought several other spools when the went on sale for $1 each. I'm very happy with how it turned out and the recipient seems to be as well. This was a fun project to do.