Wire Tree Display

Please accept my apologies for the horrible picture but this was hard to photograph! I picked up this wire "tree" recently at an antique store that carried both antique and reproduction things. It was only $22 which I thought was a great price. I knew I had to have it to display smalls and ornaments as you can see. It is now sporting Carol's scissor fob and a wonderful pin cube I received in the pin cushion exchange I am participating in. Mine was sent off on Saturday but I can't show you photos until it reaches its destination.

I did not make much progress on my Stitchers Wallet SAl on Friday. I was so tired by the time I sat down to work on it, I was afraid I would make too many mistakes and have to frog so I only put in about 5 beginning stitches on the third panel. I also realized I have somehow lost one of the GT Flower Thread colors I ordered which was to be used for the lettering inside the frame of the third panel. I think rather than reorder (I'm still hoping I will discover it!) I will use the #8 DMC that was used with the alternate thread listing.

More lovely presents received recently

I've received two more lovely packages from my birthday exchange partners Kathy and Leigh. I will start with Leigh as her package arrived a bit before Kathy's.

Leigh is a very talented beader as well as a great stitcher and I was lucky enough to get example of both of her crafts together! She sent me this wonderful red pin mattress with a heart design, a gorgeous red crystal bracelet that I immediately put on and a great book mark with wonderful heart charms on either end. She also generously included two charts that were on my wish list - LK Halloween Thrillology and PS Friends. Plus there was a gorgeous piece of R&R Fabric in 18th Century Red.

Kathy's package showcased two of her talents as well (two of the many with these ladies!); sewing and stitching and her incredible finishing skills (okay that could be considered three). Kathy made me a fantastic knitting bag she made herself based on all the things a fellow knitter would need. It has a ton of wonderful pockets for gadgets, your pattern and needles and lots of room as it is nice and deep. And she stitched the perfect little pillow for me - a figure of a lady knitting socks! Isn't that so clever and perfect for me? I think so! She also included two great balls of yarn I can't wait to try for socks, some Eterna silks and Needle Necessities fibers, three packages of beads and a great felted bag pattern.

I feel very privileged and spoiled to have received so many wonderful gifts to celebrate my birthday. Thank you all for helping me to start off this new year in my life's adventure.

Garden Goodness

Or should that be godess? LOL Here are some pictures of my "garden". I am growing curly and flat leaf parsely, basil and tomatoes. One of my tomatoes ripened early. The next day after I took this picture (the dates are wrong I think) I couldn't resist and I ate it. Never even got it inside, just picked it and chowed down! LOL

There's nothing like a home grown tomato. I think I'm going to expand this side area of my yard to a raised bed for next year now that I know I inherited my dad's gardening genes.

I have been using the basil to make my own pesto and layering it with mozarella and tomato on some good fresh bread. Yumm-o as Rachel Ray says!

Gift from Carol

Carol and I share the same birthday and I received this lovely scissor fob from her - early of course. She is so organized! The stitching and finishing are wonderful. Thank you Carol!

I was late in getting mine out - I'm so unorganized lately! Hopefully she will receive her package this week - it only has to go one state over but the mail can be quite quirky sometimes.

It's back to work for me tomorrow. I will have finished my pin exchange piece (the stitching part anyway) and will hopefully get that project into the mail this weekend. I'm going to attempt a hand sewn finish so cross your fingers!

Stitchers Wallet Progress

So it's been quite a long time since I have posted. It's been a combination of being on vacation and having some hot weather - the room where I have my PC gets quite warm so it's not been very comfortable to spend time in. Plus I've been busy stitching! LOL

I am now halfway done with this project as I finished the second panel/page during this week's SAL time. I am very pleased with how this panel turned out and I'm looking forward to starting the next one on Friday although that one is a LOT of letter stitching which is not my favorite.

I have taken a lot of photos of wonderful gifts I've received over the last few days but I will spread them out over the course of the week!

Pressies

I have recieved two lovely packages in the mail this week - both from members of my online stitching group. Jodi sent me this lovely yarn - it is unbelievably soft! I couldn't keep my hands out of it - LOL It's a great color and I'm already mulling over some options for working with it.

I also received this wonderful PS tasseled pillow from Danielle. I just love it and her finishing is wonderful although she always thinks it's not. She sent me the spring and summer PS charts so now I have all four seasons and she included some yummy Crescent Color threads and two great pieces of fabric. And some yummy candies that got opened right away - Haribo gummy bears and Sour Patch kids.

Thank you ladies for thinking of me!

Week in Review

Okay, I was not on the computer much last week because I spent every waking minute trying to finish this - and I finally did on Wednesday night. I still haven't decided if I'm going to put beads on the end of the ribbon or not. I bought four different kinds/colors of ribbon and ended up using this matching rayon velvet ribbon. It hugs the fabric better so not as much slipping around as with the satin ribbon I also bought. The fit is pretty good with the exeption of the ribbing. I didn't knit it tightly enough - maybe I should have gone down another needle size - so there isn't much of a blouson effect when it's worn but I'm very happy with how it turned out. And oh so happy to be done that endless stockinette!

Friday night I had to go to a company event so I didn't get much time to work on the Stitcher's Wallet so I put some time into it on Saturday morning. I should be able to finish this panel when I get back to it this Friday. I think it's looking good!

I have more to post about but Cowboy needs to go for a walk so I'll save it for tomorrow! Stay tuned......

Stitching Update

I worked on my Stitcher's Wallet SAL piece on Friday and a bit more on Saturday. I really like how the blue and the "orangey" color work together. I feel like I'm about 1/2 way through this panel and hopefully I will be able to finish it off this coming Friday. For some reason that K is still bugging me!

I also picked out my pin exchange piece along with the fabric and the fibers - yummy silks this time! The finishing construction is one I've not tried before but looked interesting so I hope I don't botch it too badly when putting it together. I won't be able to show you that until some time next month as the mail date is August 15th. Aren't I good to be starting so far ahead? LOL I'm sure I'll be scrambling to get it finished on the 14th!

One Legged Happy Dance

Well, last night I finally finished my first SOS 07 sock. I have to say this pattern is very close to giving me the one sock syndrome because it felt like it took forever to get one done and I'm not that enthusiastic about starting the whole process over - but I will before I start another pair. Hopefully the second will go much more quickly than the first one did!

I need four more people for my pay if forward challenge so please leave me a comment if you'd like to participate.

My Turn Paying it Forward

Jennifer, who is part of the Yahoo group I belong to, posted that she is doing a pay it forward thingy and I was one of the five people who signed up. Thus it will be my turn now to pay it forward. So, if you'd like to be a receipient of something from me, the first five people will be on the list but you must in turn pay it forward for five others!

How it works: I will send a handmade gift to the first 5 people who leave a comment on my blog requesting to join this PIF exchange. I have no idea what that gift will be and only promise that you will receive it within the next 365 days. The only thing you have to do in return is pay it forward by making the same promise on your blog (or - in your life - if you happen to be blog-less). I hope you will join me in this exchange. All I need is 5 interested people - I am not restricting it to stitchers - you can knit or sew something but it must be handmade!

I look forward to creating something I hope will surprise and delight others and that they will in turn enjoy that pleasure as well!

More Things I Shouldn't Be Trying!

I bought this book on a recent trip to Patterworks in Center Harbor, NH. I have been trying to resist getting involved in beading or jewelry making but several ladies in my Yahoo group bead and I've fallen in love with many of their projects. See, I'm blaming this all on them! while at Michael's this weekend, I bought some steel crochet hooks and some practice wire so I'm all ready to test out my skills.

I heard about Earthfaire from one of those ladies (Laura made the bracelet at the bottom of this post) and of course had to go online and buy this Bead Stew Bracelet kit called Rock Candy. It's a kit for knitting a bracelet with beads - how could I resist? And the project uses Kreinik braid so that's kind of like stitching right? LOL

I must say I was really pleased with the company - the package arrived promptly and they even included some bead samples to try - very unexpected. They happen to match some beads and wire for a project I want to make out of Crochet with Wire so I think I will incorporate them into the project. This is the project I thought I would start with - the first in the book and it's labeled "EASY". I couldn't the exact shaped beads but I think the ones I did buy will be fine for a first project.

I MUST stop looking and buying - I must start doing projects, I must! Thank goodness I have some vacation time coming at the end of the month. I certainly won't lack for projects now will I?

I Couldn't Resist

I'm not supposed to be buying any charts - I have enough to open a shop of my own - but when I saw these on Thursday at Shakespeare's Peddler, I picked up the phone and called right away. How could a Halloween/Fall lover resist? They arrived on my doorstep yesterday and they're just wonderful! I must, must, must finish my Stitcher's Wallet but boy is it tempting to start the Pumpkin Patch immediately! Theresa does a Crescent Colors conversion so I may wait to get that instead of starting with DMC - although PS is a genius with picking DMC colors. We shall see!

Here is my Stitcher's Wallet Progress after Friday's SAL. I managed to get the K back in and the bird. I'm still not sure I like how the K looks even thought it lines up with the P which was my intent. However, I'm not ripping it out so I'll just have to get over it. I had hoped to start the band below but it got pushed aside for some sock knitting.

I have completed just over 3 inches of the 5 inches needed for the leg. I had really hoped to have this completed by this evening however I got bored and switched to working on my quilt. I am going to sit and work on this a bit more this evening so maybe I'll be able to get it done!

Happy Fourth of July!

Some of us celebrated with an outdoor pool session until the water got turned off.

Others of us walked in the town parade - ours is one of the best I've ever seen - very long and tons and tons of people lining the street. I'm not walking next year so that I can see the whole thing!

Some of us also took advantage of having a day off to do some knitting! I've finished the heel and started on the leg. I would have been a bit farther but I discovered a dropped stitch half way through the heel and I couldn't figure out how to pick it up and make sure the stitch was wrapped so I had to rip back pretty much all the way. It's all pattern knitting now I'm not sure how quickly I will get it done but I am working hard to complete it this weekend at the latest!

I hope you and yours had a wonderful Independence Day! It's back to work tomorrow and then another parade on Saturday for an Old Home Days celebration.

June Recap

Well, I can't believe it's July already but I guess I'll have to just get used to it! I don't usually do a recap but I thought I would do so for my own organizational process.

Summer Reading Challenge

I finished two of the 10 books on my list, The Road by Cormac McCarthy and Silent Spring by Rachel Carson. Up next is As I lay Dying by William Faulkner which will be my first book for the Southern Readers Challenge. I'm a bit behind as I'd hoped to have started that in June but there's been a lot more knitting than reading or stitching going on at Casa Pearl these days.

Summertime Tunic KAL

Well, I've finally managed to get past the endless 12 inches of stockinette above the ribbing and have begun to work on the back - I've got a little bit more than 1/2 an inch done of the 4.5 I have to do. I had hoped to be done this by July 1 but that darn stockinette was endless.

Summer Of Socks 2007

I've just started the increase rounds for the heel so I'm almost 1/2 way through the first sock. As you can see in the photo, the pooling has finally changed from an all vertical line to more of a horizontal one. I'm moving slowly along - the pattern part requires all of my concentration.

I've decided not to get to angsty over how slow the projects are going and just enjoy the process - both of reading and knitting.

Stitchers Wallet SAL

I worked on this on Friday but unfortunately it doesn't look like much because I had to rip out a fair amount. I had started the K and ended up having to rip out the right side bird as it was going to prevent me from fully stitching the K. Then I got about 2/3 of the way done with the K and realized that it was much higher than I thought and would bother me if I left it that way so I ripped it out. Unfortunatley, my initials contain two very wide letters, the A and the K so it's been a challenge to fit them correctly. I will have to move the right side bird over more than the chart called for but I think it will still look fine.

Into the pool

We are having a few days of very warm weather - in the 90s - and I was seriously considering jumping into Cowboy's pool after our walk last night. But he flip flops around so much, I'm not sure there would be room. Plus I'd come out covered in dog hair - not thanks in this weather!

As for other kins of pooling, I was checking out blogs of the many knitters participating in SOS 07 and came across Angeluna who is working on the same pattern as I am. She was commenting on how her yarn was pooling and I had just been contemplating that very same thing! Usually with STR yarn, the pooling is different than what I am experiencing with this pattern. It is pooling up vertically rather than out horizontally. I'm sure it's a result of the gauge and pattern - I'm doing stockinette on my sole and Angeluna is doing the pattern all around - but I did find it interesting. I am making slow progress but I do like the results. I think I may have to keep this pair!

All knitting, all weekend!

I did absolutely no stitching this weekend, not even on my beloved Stitchers Wallet. I was all about knitting and I have some results to show for it!

First off is my Summertime Tunic which I'm pleased to say is at almost 8 inches above the ribbing with only three more to go before I can start the front and back separation. I really like the fabric the Elann Callista is making. It's going to be dense enough that you can't see through it yet it is very light weight and I think will be comfortable to wear during the summer months. I can't wait to get it done! Sorry the photo is lousy but we've lost the light at this point.

And here is my SOS progress - 2 and a half repeats of the Solstice Slip pattern. I really like this pattern and am very pleased with my progress. I plan to focus on both pieces during this week and hopefully I will have a lot more progress to show you soon!

The weather here was heavenly and I went to the beach for the first time this summer. I took both projects and worked on them - it was divine. I tried a new beach not too far from my house and it was easy to find, get parking without having to walk too far and it was not at all crowded. It's at the end of a road so I think you have to know where it is to find it. Now that I do, I'm going to become a regular! Hope you had a great weekend.

HoHoHo, I have a toe!

This

has become this!

I had the day off from work today so I started it off with a cup of coffee and the completion of the toe for my first Solstice Slip sock. I am so in love with this color way - I know I rave on and on about Blue Moon but they are just genius!

I had a lovely day - the weather was awesome, I had lunch with a friend, went to the library, took a nap, watched two good movies while making some progress on my summer tank, and I plan to put in a third movie and wind some more of the yarn for my Summertime Tunic. I hope your Friday was as fabulous as mine!

Summer Solstice - Let the Sock Knitting Begin!

Today is the start date for the Summer of Socks and I'm so happy to be starting a pair of socks. I think I was having withdrawal symptoms! And just in time for today's start, this fabulous package arrived on my doorstep yesterday.

It's my third installment of the Blue Moon Fiber Arts Sock Club and it's so appropriate that I decided it would be my first pair of socks for the KAL. The pattern is called "the Solstice Slip" and the yarn is STR Lightweight in Firebird. It's a heavenly combo of orange, pink and red. I would it into a ball last night and cast on this morning before work.

The pattern can be worked toe up or cuff down and I decided to do toe up to practice my skills. This is going to be another great pattern for expanding my knitting skills! Hopefully I will have some decent progress to show you tomorrow.

Back from the deep end

Real life has taken quite the turn lately so my blogging has been very sporadic. I've been busy working on things but just haven't had the time to take photos and sit down and document my progress.

Here is my latest progress on my Stitcher's Wallet. I didn't get much time to work in it on Friday so I did a bit on Saturday morning. I had to frog a bit on the letter A so part of my time was spent ripping out and redoing. It's nice to be working with more colors than just the blahish browns from the first panel.

Most all of my time this week has been spent working on my Summer Tunic piece. I've spent quite a few hours at the hosptial with a close friend whose cancer has come back. He had not seen a doctor in over 2 years so the cancer has had a lot of time to grow and did. But the doctor has given him a 95% cure prognosis so I'm very hopeful this will be behind him by the end of the summer. He is out of the hospital and may even return to work this week. You can bet he will never again go without seeing a doctor on a regular basis. Many of us had been bugging him to go for about 6 months but for some reason (I think he knew) he just didn't make the appointment - he was too busy. Please encourage anyone in your life - especially men - not to put off seeing a physician at least once a year - even if they are healthy. Early diagnosis is the best treatment hope for any disease but most especially cancer.

I am three inches above the ribbing at this point and have 8 more inches of mindless stockinette work. My goal is to be done with this project by July 1 but I think it might take me a bit longer as Summer of Socks 2007 starts tomorrow and I'm really excited about my first project for this KAL. Stay tuned!

Stitchers Wallet Progress

I'm quite late in posting this progress pic -it's been quite the week. I've completed the first panel and made a start on the second. You may or may not notice but two of the motifs at the right are reversed. I realized after I had stitched about half of the third star motif (from the top down) that I had been looking at the wrong part of the chart. I started to rip it out and then decided to leave it be and just reverse the two bottom star motifs. I don't think it's too bad and it makes the piece uniquely me. This project continues to be a pleasure to work on and hard to put down!

Birdy Progress

I've been back at work most mornings this week on PS Autumn. I've completed the Owl block and have now moved on the the Crow next door!

Sort of Satisfying Sunday

It was quite cool here today - in the mid 50s with a rainy mist and very damp, chilly wind. I decided to go to Portland today as I didn't have the size 3 needles I will need to move to the next part of my Summertime Tunic and I was needing a sushi fix. I had never been to Central Yarn so that's where I went for the needles. Unfortunately, they didn't have any Addi Turbos which is what I'm currently using (my very favorite needles) so I had to buy bamboo. The shop had a great selection of buttons that I will definitely visit again if I ever get a cardigan knit.

It was Old Port Festival and that means lots of families and visitors crowding the streets of the Old Port where the sushi restaurant was. I had a deliteful lunch and then headed to the bead store to look for beads for my tunic. It turns out they had relocated (which I finally discovered, after quite the long walk, was just a block and a half from Central Yarn). I decided since I was in the area, I would track down where Seaport Yarn was located. It was a lot farther (I was walking all this time) than I thought and they are closed on Sundays but now at least I know where to find them!

Here is my progress on my summer tunic. I have about 2.5 inches knit so just two more before I start the ribbing at the waist which is why I need the #3 needles. I'm planning to go to the Maine Fiber Frolic next weekend and if I find the Addi Turbos, I'm going to get those to use instead of the bamboo.

It was also a UFO Sunday with my Friends in Stitches group so I picked up my PS Autumn Winds piece and worked a bit on that this morning. I think the designer is just a genious with color - and the designs use DMC. I think this is going to be really cute when it's done.

I'm off to give my Lotus Tank some attention as it's been neglected this weekend for the summertime tunic. Thanks for stopping by!

Stitchers Wallet SAL Progress

I never got to post a photo of my progress last week on the Stitchers Wallet - I only worked on this Friday evening so there wasn't a whole lot accomplished.

Last night I picked it up again and made some progress. The motif with the round "balls" is one square (two threads) lower than it should be but it was multiple threads so I just left it the way it was. This morning I put in a little more time and started the motif along the bottom. I may work on this a bit more this weekend as it's such a pleasure to work on. But it's also a UFO weekend so I may drag out my PS Autumn Winds and put some time into that. And then there's knitting!

I have very carefully reconstructed my Lotus Tank (IW Knits Summer 2006) - utilizing a lifeline - why I didn't think of using one in attempt 2 or 3 I'll never know - and here is my progress. I've moved beyond the row where I kept getting screwed up so that's a good thing. I hope to put some time into this sitting out on the porch today. I'm also planning to cast on for my Summer Tunic SAL as I got the right gauge after changing my needle size. Lots going on here so stay tuned!