First 2015 TUSAL Post

By the looks of my TUSAL jar for January, I'm not doing enough stitching!  This is pitiful looking isn't it?

And to make it even worse, my jar needs a good washing.  This tells you how dark my living room is because I didn't realize how bad the jar was until I brought it into the office to photograph!

I'm going to work harder at filling it up so next month's photo should be less dusty and much more robust.  I hope you are filling your jar up with lots of stitching orts.

Cold Weather Fashion Statement

I wanted to wear a skirt suit to work today.  It was -12 when I left for the office at 6:15 for an early meeting.  I decided that my tights probably weren't enough so I put my long johns on over those, wool socks, my great winter boots and my dog walking coat (think puffy down) and off I went.  Thank goodness for my seatwarmers in the car.  Best invention ever!

I may have been a fashion don't but I didn't get frost bite either!  I really hope this arctic turn of the temperature goes back north where it came from really, really, really soon.

I did make a start on my Heart in Hand piece but didn't get too far on Monday. It's been a crazy buzy week back and I've been quite tired after work.  I've also been trying to get my scarf for the upcoming Maine Special Olympics done so stitching has taken a back seat to crochet this week.

Tonight at knit night, I started weaving in the ends so that it wouldn't all have to be done at the end.  I'm off to put a few more rows before crashing into bed.  TGIF tomorrow - yeah!

I plan to do some serious blog hopping this weekend to see what you all have started for the new year.  I know there are some crazy challenges going on so I'm guessing there will be a lot of things to see.

PS Welcome Update

I went to visit a friend in Connecticut for the weekend and didn't bother to take any stitching with me as I new I would probably not have any time to stitch and that was true.  However, I did get home relatively early on Sunday and had some time in the evening to work on my Plum Street "Welcome" ornie.  The crow's tale is done and I've started in on the upper half of the body. 

Not sure if I will pick this up again tonight as I feel the need to make a start on the HIH heart I want to get done for my sister's birthday. 

I hope those of you experiencing this arctic weather blast are keeping warm.  The dog (unfortunately) did not seem to mind it tonight and I forced myself to go back out to the gym but I'm glad for my warm down coat!  These are the temps that make me long for Florida again.

THE Ohio State

THE Ohio State rolled the Tide last night and although I'm a huge fan of the Crimson Tide, I'm a very proud member of Buckeye Nation so I had to root for my alma mater last night.  So very happy for such a talented and hard working football team! On the the next one....

2015 New Year Greetings and 2015 Stitching Plans

I didn't stay up to see the new year in - did you?  I spent some time sorting through my stash to come up with what projects I wanted to start off 2015 with.  After that I tried to get engaged in some bowl game football but ended up going to bed by 10:00pm. 

Here's what I came up with for project starts for January.  I signed up for the 2015 Smalls SAL after seeing it on Anna's blog and I knew right away what smalls I was going to focus on.  A couple of years ago, a private group I stitch with did a kitted ornament exchange for both Christmas and Halloween and I have not touched any of those kits.  This will be the year I focus on getting some of them completed, starting with Halloween.

My January small will be Plum Street's Welcome and despite a busy day cooking, cleaning and putting away my Christmas decorations, I have a few stitches in.

Next up is a gift for one of my sister's.  She's always admired my finished 2002 Collector's Heart by HIH so I've kitted it up and probably should have started that first given her birthday is February 23rd. 

I think my next choice was definitely influenced by Rite Aid as I went in to pick up a prescription on Monday and they were already stocking the shelves with Valentine's Day merchandise.  Sheesh!  I have very little Valentine's Day items stitched so I thought this little piece would fit the bill.  It's Trilogy's Love Tree.

And finally is a larger project for me.  This is an older Cricket Collection that I picked up on vacation two years ago.  It's Walk in the Woods and I tested out the DMC on a piece of R&R 18th Century Green that I have in my stash that I've been trying to use.  I did some test stitching of the boarder and it's obvious the fabric is too dark.  I switched to a piece of 32ct cream linen I had in my stash and hope to get started on this one soon.

One thing I am going to try and do this year is keep a stitching journal.  I have started out logging all of these projects with the fabric and fibers and will track the start and finish days and how I finish them.  I never do this and I would like to see how long these projects take me to completed.

I also hope to complete one of my WIPocolypse pieces as I've still got quite a few of these and I've manged to finish at least one each of the past two years. 

I also have several knitting and crochet projects planned but for now I'm in the mood to stitch so I shall. 

Hat Addiction

So I've developed quiet a collection of hats over the fast few months.  I started with the request of my niece Alex, through to a gift for a friend and along the way, 4 hats for me at this point!

 Cabled Hat from Knit Simple magazine.  I made two of these, one for Alex and one for me.

 Cozy Cabled Hat using Loops &Threads Cozy Wool - the pattern was on the ball band.

 Low Brow Cowl and Hat - this has gotten a LOT of wear since it was finished.  

Hide Your Hair Slouchy Beanie by Heidi at snappy-tots using Red Heart Boutique Treasures in Watercolors.  I find it to large so I've bought another skein to crochet it a smaller size.  I loved this yarn and for the very inexpensive price, I was impressed.  I found a cowl to crochet to match so I hope to knock that out too.  I will donate this one so someone can put it to good use.

And finally, another Cozy Cabled hat that I completed last night.  Just in time for the arctic weather that is arriving overnight.  We've had a really mild December so this will be seasonal weather but a still unwelcome reminder that we're just at the start of winter.

Oy do I have a pointy nose!  LOL

Christmas 2014 Recap

Belated Merry Christmas greetings to those of you who celebrate that holiday!

For the first time in the almost 10 years I've lived in Maine, I actually spent Christmas in Maine!  Usually I got to family in NH but they were leaving very early on Christmas day to head to FL so we decided to get together when they come back and that worked out great for me.

On Christmas eve, one of us was busy doing last minute wrapping.  This was the pile of things that needed to be taken care of:

And this was how Beau spent his Christmas Eve!  Lazy hound dog.....

I had all the ingredients we usually have for Christmas morning, cinnamon rolls and a breakfast casserole.  Being on my own, it allowed me to try out a new recipe from Southern Living magazine - Cheesey Sausage and Croissant casserole.  It was good!

I also had the makings for Mimosas on hand which are traditional in my family.  Quite a nice way to get some Vitamin C!

And after that I settled in to open a few gifts.  A friend came by around noon and we went out to lunch at a local Chinese restaurant and then took a long walk in the ridiculously warm weather (53!!) with the dog.

I hope that wherever you were and whoever you were with, you had a nice day.

It's a rainy day here today so I'm planning to sort out what my stitching plans are and do some knitting which I will share tomorrow.

Just in time finish

Last night I put the finishing touches on the finishing for my niece's stitched gift.  Do you ever know instantly how you're going to finish a piece as you start stitching it?  That was how it went for me with this piece.  I had a picture of what I wanted the finished piece to look like in my head almost immediately and I'm happy to say, it came out perfectly.

When I started this piece, I wasn't jazzed about the DMC colors called for but as it got closer to being fully stitched, I was very happy with how it turned out.  I think stitching it over one was the key to making me fall in love with it.  I love the little owl!

I took a series of photos to show the finishing stages:

Gathering the materials

Ready for trimming

Ready to make cording - 3 colors!

Boarder trim complete

Cording close up.  The three DMC colors were used in the project and I'm really happy with how the colors blended in the cording.

With the hanger attached

 

I debated whether or not to sew or glue on the cording and decided to go with glue. Usually glue + me = disaster but this time, I took the finishing in stages to minimize accidents and my own frustration and everything turned out happy.  I hope my niece likes it!

That is my last handmade gift so I can turn my thoughts to 2015 projects and boy, do I have a lot in mind!

Those Christmas carols lie...

They tell us it's the happiest time of the year when in fact it's the complete opposite for so many people.  Working in the health care field, I often get to witness that for many, many of us, it is in fact a very sad and horrible time of year.  Today was an especially hard day and I am struggling to focus on the positives of the holiday season. 

Please, please, please be kind to those you encounter this holiday season because your kindness can be unbelievable important and impact decisions you never know are being made all around you. 

Now that I've totally rained on your holiday spirit, I do have some positive Christmas gift progress to share.

I've finished the stitching on my neice's gift.  I'm very ambivalent about the fact that there is a sort of bottom border and that it doesn't care around the rest of the piece.  I debated completing it but just wanted to move on the the finishing part so I'm leaving it as is.  Unless your comments make me change my mind before I tackle the finishing this weekend....   I plan to finish it as a little wall hanging piece with cording around the edges.  Nothing too fancy or fussy I think.

And I've also managed to finish a hat for a friend.  This took one skein of a super bulky yarn I found at Michael's and I have to say I think I'm going to grab another skein and make one for myself.  It is very snug and warm and was very easy to knit.

I hope wherever you are, that you are finding joy in your holiday preparations and celebrations!

Sunday Stitching

I actually have some stitching to show!  I spent a large part of my Sunday sitting on my hiney in front of the TV watching stupid holiday movies on the Hallmark channel and then watching the Patriots lose.  The good part of the day was I was able to get some stitching done on what I hope to be a Christmas present.

Now that it's December 2nd, I really need to pick up the pace.  There's one more line and a small border and then I need to figure out how I want to finish it and get 'er done.

Holiday Weekend

I hope everyone who celebrates Thanksgiving had a good day on Thursday.  We lost power at 9:30pmon Wednesday at my sister's due to this:

Luckily I got up early on Wednesday and was there before it started snowing.  It was pretty but treacherous.  Thank goodness they have a generator because they did not have power back until late Saturday afternoon.

This was the view out of one of my sister's windows. The snow was wet and heavy causing a lot of broken branches and downed power lines.  Operating off a generator was interesting.  We fried our turkey as usual and luckily everything worked out well.

This is a photo from one of the times the generator ran out of gas and before my BIL refilled the tank.

I headed home on Friday so that I could attend the tree lighting in town on Saturday.  This was my first time being around for it and it was cold, cold cold! 

I walked down and left right after the lights went on.  Many stayed to chat with Santa and ice skate at the pavilion in town.

It was a nice start for the holiday season. My decorations are out and I'm paging through magazines for the perfect cookie recipe!

Sunday Summary

I don't have any cross stitch progress to show you but I have made some crochet headway on both my wrap and Special Olympics scarf projects.

I'm just kind of making my own pattern for the scarf using half-double crochet.  I an not a fan of the red and orange together so I decided to band them together with the green and have been happier with the way the project looks.

And I managed to put a few more rows into the wrap pattern while I was doing laundry this weekend.  I'm only working two days this week so I hope to get time to work on both projects during the Thanksgiving holiday and over the weekend.

After a very cold and windy week, we had a wonderful, sunny day in the 50s so I took advantage and spent quite a bit of time outdoors.  Beau and I took a very long walk and then I vacuumed my car and switched the floor mats for the winter weather version.  I hope wherever you are, you enjoyed your Sunday!

Special Olympics Scarf Project 2015

A small article (it was likely the picture of Red Heart yarn that did it) in one of the local papers that come free in my mailbox every week caught my eye and had me reading about a project for the upcoming winter Special Olympics that will take place in January.

The goal is to receive 500 scarves for the participants to wear during the games.  There are specific colors to be used and today, my box arrived from Joanne Fabrics.  I'm by no means a fast knitter but I do hope I can get at least one each done and mailed out in time.

This link will take you to the flyer that lists the specific colors they are asking for.  I'm sure it would be even more special if they received scarves from outside Maine.  Hint, hint, hint!

Growing on me

I've been able to devote some time to my cross stitch project and it's starting to grow on me now that I have more colors put in as Laura commented.  I think the fact that it's over one also charms me.

In addition to growth on this project, I started another yarn project.  My fingers were itching to start something new so I dug through my stash and decided to start this very simple crochet shrug I'd downloaded from Lion Brand a few years ago.

I bought the yarn it called for in the color way shown so I'm using Lion Brand Tweed Stripes in the Woodlands colorway,  It feels really good to be working from stashed yarn that's been in my yarn storage for at least 4 years! 

It's the perfect project for watching TV as it's single crochet in the back loop until you reach the given size and then it's just seamed together.  Perfect for watching The Voice tomorrow night!

I hope you had a great weekend and that your Monday is a smooth one!

Needle has met thread and fabric!

Well, I finally picked up my needle and did some actual stitching on Sunday.  I was very productive on Sunday and that extra hour meant I had no excuse for not doing some work on what I hope will be a Christmas present - this year.

Here is where I started.  This was supposed to be a graduation gift but I'm moving a little slow - as usual. 

And here's where I left off on Sunday evening.  Not bad progress.  I'm using DMC and stitching over one on some 30 ct. I had in my stash.  I don' t love the colors but I was in a hurry to get going and just used what was called for rather than dig through my stash to find something I liked better.  Now as I look at it, I wish I hadn't been so lazy.  However, I'm not frogging over one so it's either going to be finished as is or I'll scrap it and start over. 

I also took a picture of my PS All Hallow's Eve which obviously didn't get completed in time for Halloween this year as I had planned.  But there's always next year!

I should stitch on it some more this evening but my fingers are itching to start a new knitting project.  If I manage to decide which one to start, I might have something to show later this week.