#2, #3, and #4

These guys eclosed this morning.

Two of them were out by the time I came down for breakfast and the third was ready to emerge.
I took the castle outside and set up the camera hoping to catch its emergence on video. The chrysalis is completely transparent and the scrunched up butterfly is visible through it.

Unfortunately I missed the first part by only a few seconds.

I haven't figured out how to edit and upload the other video.

I left the Caterpillar Castle open and out on the deck hoping the three adults would fly out when they were ready. When I checked on them several hours later, they had gone.

Another Blanket à la Hudson's Bay

The latest crochet blanket is over half done. This is the first half. I'm at the end of the green in the second half.

I'll buy some more white yarn to make another one to use up the coloured yarns.

I did somewhat of a destashing earlier in the week and some of my Tuesday night fibre fans took about half of the yarn and fibre off my hands. I'm making room for some of my fabric stash.

If I clear out another cubby from this IKEA shelf, I can probably get the rest of my fabrics in there. I may arrange them by colour at some point. I need to continue to destash as a lot of my stuff just sits here year after year and at this point, I'm ready to get rid of some of it. My yarn stash alone is vast and I need to get rid of more of it to make room for fabric.

I made another batch of basil pucks today.

After washing and spinning basil leaves, I put them in the food processor and drizzle some olive oil while processing. Then I press them into the mini-muffin tin. I could also use ice cube trays or silicone ice cube trays but I didn't have any spare ones. After freezing them solid, I pop them out of the mold and into freezer bags to be used after the season is over.

Crochet

Inspired by Shelley and Jeanette, I finished crocheting a blanket for the chemo department of our local hospital. I used up quite a bit of my acrylic worsted weight yarn and ended up asking for donations to finish it.

I don't think it's very nice looking so I stitched a heart in two opposite corners. I used reversible stitching - kinda like blackwork. Hopefully the recipient will realize it's the thought that counts.

Unattactive or not, it will be quite cozy for the user.

The stripes I crocheted made me think of the Hudson Bay Point Blanket colours. I decided to crochet another blanket using those colours and am well on the way. I got quite a bit done during my regular Sunday afternoon videochat with some of my stitching friends.

I'm using a 6mm needle and cast on about 135 stitches to get the 45" wide blanket.

Then 4 rows of double crochet in each colour as follows:
White
Blue
White
Yellow
White
Red
White
Green

Then 20 rows of white. Then repeat the colour stripes in reverse order starting with green.

That'll give me 84 rows and a length of 55".

We had blistering heat again today. I didn't go outside except to chat with Skip while he was working out in the garden. We are expecting rain tomorrow afternoon and things will cool down a bit on Tuesday. By then I hope to have the second blanket done and be able to deliver them to Shelley for her delivery to the hospital.

In COVID-19 news, I have been monitoring the cases in the region in which I live (Durham Region) in the eastern greater Toronto area. Today we only had 1 new case and only have 24 people with the virus isolating at home.

We haven't had anyone in hospital or ICU for over a week and have only had 1 death in about the last month. All that being said, I'm still not comfortable going indoors in a public setting such as a restaurant. I do our grocery shopping in off-peak hours and get in and out as quickly as I can. I have had stitching friends over for deck visits and can comfortably accommodate 5 people while observing social distancing. I've been at others' homes for deck and porch visits as well. On Thursday we had friends over for a deck visit and wine after dinner and didn't wear masks. We were at least 2m apart - maybe farther and didn't wear masks. It was a gorgeous evening and we enjoyed each others' company until the mosquitos started in on us after dark. That reminds me, I need to buy a couple of mosquito coils.

This is our new normal. When the weather gets colder, we'll be back in isolation. Hopefully our case rate will be almost negligible and we'll start being comfortable visiting inside. But that is a couple of months away.

We just began Stage 3 in our region last Friday where restaurants and bars can be open with reduced seating. I'm bracing myself for the spike in our cases. This will occur every time some restrictions are lifted. The key will be to not overwhelm our medical system with new and life-threatening cases.

Lucky 13

I have 13 pupae now. I love this stage because I don't have to feed them and they don't poop.

There's only one larva left and judging by its size it should be ready to pupate in a couple of days.

A couple of them pupated under one of the milkweed leaves, so I had to snip that portion of the leaf away and attach it to the ceiling of the castle with a pin. Unfortunately one of the silk parts - the cremaster - broke right off so I glued a loop of thread (turquoise) on it and also pinned it to the top (second from the right).

The first one will eclose around August 3.

Starting Newcastle Bouquet

I got the fabric for 'Newcastle Bouquet' at Kim's on Friday. It's 40ct Wichelt Sandstone. I gridded the last sampler I stitched for Teresa Kogut and found that once I had that done, I could stitch a lot more confidently, count more accurately, and make fewer mistakes that I would have to frog and re-do.

I start in the centre and do my grids in a zigzag. I find it's easier to count that way. I don't know anyone else that does it that way but it sure works for me.

I use sewing thread. I don't tend to pierce the grid lines when I'm stitching so they're easy to snip and pull out with tweezers when I'm done an area. I'm stitching 1 over 2 using most of the called-for colours with only a couple of DMC substitutions which I'll identify in a later post.

The dark spots are specks of link inside my camera that I can't get to to clean up. Aside from that it takes acceptable photos.

As I work outwards more from the centre, I'll continue gridding.

This is going to be quite a long project. I can do some of it when I'm chatting online with my crafty friends, for example, the inside of the oak leaf that I've outlined is filled in with only one colour. That's perfect for social stitching where I don't have to count.

I got word on Saturday that the model I stitched for Teresa finally arrived at her place. Phew! It took 7 weeks for the fabric, threads, and pattern to get to me. When I mailed it back, I mailed it regular first class mail in hopes it wouldn't get held up at Customs and would go through like a regular piece of mail. I'm very relieved she got it in a little over 2 weeks. Her plan is to take it and two other stitched samples to a framer a few hours away and pick them up at a later date. She wants to release the three sampler patterns in the fall.

If any of you are going to be near Clare's Stitching Post, 682 Main St in Vermilion OH next Friday, July 24th, Teresa will be there from 1 - 4pm. If there wasn't a raging pandemic and Skip and I could enter the US, we'd definitely be taking a road trip to meet Teresa and explore Clare's Stitching Post.

First Pupa

I haven't been pursuing the monarch rearing as enthusiastically as I have in past years. I just don't seem to have the same excitement about it. I tend to be like that. I hurl myself at passions, interests, and hobbies and then often my interest wanes a bit. Sometimes I come back to past pursuits as I did with stitching, and when I knit again I really enjoy it.

Anyway, I have about 10 larvae on the go. (Larva - singular, larvae - plural) I may have even brought in another egg today when I was clipping the top off a milkweed plant to bring in to feed the herd. This morning one larva was on the ceiling of the Caterpillar Castle getting ready for its 'j' formation.

This is a pic of the Caterpillar Castle from a previous year. In the jar a green water reservoir can be seen. Basically, I cut the tender top section off the top of a milkweed plant and jam the stem into the reservoir. It stays upright in the jar and the leaves stay really fresh. The larvae seem to like this setup as it seems to replicate what they'd experience outdoors in the wild - minus predators, of course.

This evening I checked and it had formed the chrysalis (pupa). At this point I write the date on a little piece of masking tape with its number (this was #1) and stick it on the outside top of the castle right on top of the chrysalis. This pupa hatched from its egg (which I found on June 30 and brought inside) into a larva on July 4 so it took 15 days in the larval stage. That is about the longest time it takes. I figure because our house is air-conditioned, it slows things down for them.

The closer larva appears to have made its silken 'button' which has attached its hind end to the ceiling. Its longer fore antennae can be seen at its other end. Probably tomorrow it will hang in the 'j' formation, then pupate as well. The other two chubbier larvae will probably do this as well. The smaller one at the back is just up there waiting to shed its skin and grow bigger. Then it will crawl down to where the leaves are and complete its last couple (out of 5) larval stages. Then it will crawl back up to the ceiling and pupate.

These guys are in the other castle. Three are visible and one is munching away inside one of the leaves.

When the caterpillars get to this stage, they each eat one leaf per day. I have a great crop of milkweed in the garden this year so should be able to meet their dietary needs until the last one pupates.

#1 will emerge from its chrysalis (eclose) in about 2 weeks as a fully formed adult. In the pupa state there is a way to determine the sex but it requires a bit more effort on my part that I'm not really up to at the moment. I'll just have to wait until it emerges to determine whether its a male or a female (easily done by the naked eye).

Until last week, I hadn't seen many monarchs flying around at all. With the hot weather all that changed. Out in the wild, they have about a 3% success rate of making it from egg to adult. In my kitchen it's about 97%.

When I release these butterflies, they will lay eggs and when those eggs complete metamorphosis, they will be the ones to fly down to Mexico beginning at the end of August or so.

An FO and an FFO

I started this the other day and finished it today.

It's Teresa Kogut's "Star Shaped Snowman". I stitched one over 2 on 36ct dirty linen. It was a pretty fast stitch.

In the 2019 Christmas-Winter issue of 'Punch Needle and Primitive Stitcher Magazine', Vonna Pfeiffer, 'The Twisted Stitcher' did a finish for this exact project.

Teresa will be releasing other ornaments this shape so Vonna's instructions can be followed for them as well. This one looks like it was stitched on Monaco cloth 2 over 2.

I also Finally Finished the Honeybee Sampling. I found a raw wood 3-picket fence at the craft store. I had ivory chalk paint on hand and the finishing wax.

I laced it to a piece of foamcore and glued it onto a backing that I had covered with gold fabric. I then glued them to the picket fence. I may add a bow and covered button. In the meantime I like the simplicity of the finish.

I went to Kim's to pick the fabric for my 'Newcastle Bouquet' project. It's Wichelt 40ct Sandstone linen. I am using all the called-for threads with one exception. The called-for colour for the white flowers is almost the same as the fabric. I'll swap it out for a lighter colour that will 'pop'.

Basil Pucks

Skip has worked hard on the garden this year. He has been rewarded with several robust basil plants.

I stumbled upon an idea for preserving basil for later use. Wash and dry the leaves. Put in a food processor and chop, drizzling a couple of tablespoons of olive oil at the same time.

Press into ice cube trays or mini muffin tin and freeze. Once frozen, pop out of the mold and store in a freezer bag. The 'pucks' are ready to use after the growing season.

Even frozen they can be cut into smaller pieces.

Honeybee Sampling - Another Finish

I finished this today during my videochat with my stitching buddies.

I was a pretty quick stitch.

Now I need to find a frame for it - probably one that is for two 4" x 6" photos. I'll hit the craft store tomorrow in search of that. I probably have a couple of other finishes I could get frames for as well.

I swapped out a couple of the colours. The Gingerbread and  Hazelnut were too close in colour so I used 420 instead of Gingerbread on the hive. I got the two stitches in the wing crossed the right way.

This was a lot of fun.

I have a few other projects I'd like to kit up. In the meantime, I'm working on the crocheted blanket and have 38" done of the desired 55". While at the craft store tomorrow I'm going to have to buy another ball of worsted acrylic yarn in either white or off-white to finish the blanket. I've run out of both those colours.

Another FFO

I purchased this Lizzie Kate pattern a while back. I'm not sure when or where. The pattern came with the fabric - a very stiff 28ct linen, starfish charm, and beads. I had most of the threads in my stash and only had to buy a couple of colours to start the project.

It stitched up quickly.  There were significant creases in the fabric where it was folded to fit into the package. I pressed them out by putting the finished project face down on the ironing board covered with a loopy towel, spraying it with MaryEllen's Best Press, and pressing the bejeepers out of it.  That seemed to do the trick.

The frame was already in my stash. I cut foam core to fit the frame opening and covered it with a piece of batting. Then centred the design on the front and laced the back.

It reminds me of South Padre Island.  (sigh)  I hope we get to go there again, even if only for a couple of weeks during a bird migration.

I curse the pandemic and the US president's poor leadership mishandling it. Skip and I love to take little trips to the US (and big winter ones). In addition to the disruption to our lives here at home, we feel really cheated.

Wash Day in a Pandemic

We are in a drought and have had record high heat for the last week or so. After lunch I did some laundry including all the masks we've been using when out in enclosed, public spaces. These items will dry in about an hour.

It's handy to have several masks to choose from as we just grab a clean one on the way out the door and toss the used ones beside the wash tubs where I soak them before throwing them in the wash with other items. Once they're off the clothesline, I iron the bejeepers out of them which should definitively kill any remaining viruses.

On Tuesday, we went over to Jen's for our regular weekly evening meeting. We videochatted with our regular Tuesday night folks who couldn't join us in person. We sat 2m apart, outside in the shade, and wore our masks. It was nice spending time with folks in person. We never seem to have trouble finding topics to talk about.  I took my double crochet blanket to work on. I'm running out of acrylic worsted weight yarn from my stash so Alexa dropped some off this morning. I'm about 1/4 done.

 Stitching buddies, Jeanette and Shelley are also making blankets for the chemo patients at our local cancer centre.

I found a remnant of 32ct Belfast linen in my stash that was the perfect size for my Honeybee Sampling by Little House Needleworks.

The colour lambswool was called for but the Belfast linen looked very close to the same colour. I just noticed the bee in the 'C' in the pattern is missing from the model on the pattern's cover. I don't feel so bad about leaving out the little row of stitches on the model I just sent back to Teresa Kogut.

I'm rather surprised at how quickly this is stitching up.

I used DMC 420 instead of Gingerbread on the beehive (skep) to provide more contrast with Hazelnut.

I also did vertical satin stitch on the parts where there were 2 rows of Hazelnut. It did expose bare threads above and below so I covered that up with backstitching with the same colour.

I'm using DMC Blanc for the wings, again to provide more of a contrast with the linen fabric. I just noticed I somehow crossed these two stitches on the wing the wrong way.

It's easy to fix, I'll just go over it again in the other direction.

That bee motif would be cute on a scissor fob or in the corners of a biscornu.

Aside from these crafty things, I haven't been doing much. I'm SO bored with cooking and all that goes with that - planning, shopping, taking items out of the freezer to thaw, firing up the barbecue, preparing the meal. UGH! I'm SO sick of my cooking. My mouth is even bored. Some day soon we will order from the local Indian restaurant. That'll wake up my mouth.

I still haven't the courage to get my much-needed pedicure. The shop I go to is a husband and wife business and she does the pedicures. There certainly would't be anyone else in there. I guess I'll call for an appointment one of these days. I'm not sure my hairdressing shop is even in business any more. I'm still to chicken to go for a haircut. In my mind, it is more dangerous to have a hairdresser near my head and face for 1/2 hour than a pedicurist 4+ feet away from my head and face for the same amount of time.

I miss sitting around a table with my stitching friends and stitching the day away. In the meantime, we satisfy ourselves with our videochats and the occasional deck visit.

Starting to Lose Track ...

The monarch project for 2020 is in full swing. I brought in 5 eggs and one larva yesterday for a total of 6 eggs and 6 larvae.

If you know where to look on a plant, it isn't hard to spot the eggs. I check the undersides of the uppermost leaves. Then I snip that section of stem down to the next section of leaves and put the stem in a floral reservoir that is already filled with water. (I purchase the floral reservoirs at Michaels)

I then bring them into the house where I keep the stems in an upright position (usually a canning jar). I check and refill the reservoir at least once daily so the leaf will stay fresh. The scent of the mildweed flower is strong and very perfume-y.

The egg will hatch within 4 days of it being attached to the leaf. The larva eats the egg casing then the milkweed leaf in that area.

There is a bit of warning just before the egg hatches. A black dot appears at the top of the egg. This is the head of the larva. After hatching the black head makes it a bit easier to spot on a leaf.

It can be tricky trying to find the little larvae on a leaf. I look for chew holes in the leaf and black specks which is the frass (poop). As the larva gets bigger, the frass gets bigger.

It took me a while to find this guy this morning as he was right on the edge of the leaf.

After a day or so the larvae get quite active and explore different areas on the leaf to eat. I keep them separate from each other until they're about 1cm long as they can accidentally eat each other when they're smaller than that.

I won't need to contain them in the Caterpillar Castle  until they really start crawling around to find other food. For now, the larvae will have enough to eat on their 'birth leaf' (totally unofficial term I made up).

Lots of Little Projects

I finally got the model sampler mailed off to Teresa Kogut on Tuesday. After I got home from the post office, I remembered that I hadn't completed one row of about 9 stitches around the base of one of the flower pots. Oops! Neither Teresa nor I noticed when I sent her a photo before mailing it. She'll fill in those stitches before FFOing it.

Here's Teresa's sneak peek of her floss toss for this piece called Above All. It is scheduled for release in the fall. Those who love primitive colours will like this one.

I started a Lizzie Kate sampler from a kit I'd had in my stash. The kit contained the linen fabric, pattern, beads, and starfish charm. I had to go to Michaels to pick up a colour or two that I was missing. I hope I can get the creases ironed out when I'm finished.

While there, I also picked up the missing colours I need to start this project. I'm pretty sure I have an appropriate fabric in my stash.

Shelley and Jeanette are crocheting lap blankets for the chemo patients at the local cancer centre. Never one to be left out, I found a bunch of worsted weight acrylic yarn in my stash that I could use. While at Michaels getting floss, I bought a 6mm crochet hook for this project as I knew with a bigger hook, the project would go faster and the fabric would be less dense.

At first I thought I'd get all fancy-schmancy and do a ripple pattern. However, I found I had to concentrate too hard for the increases and decreases whilst binge-watching YouTube and Amazon Prime videos so I ripped out several ripple attempts and decided to just do a plain double crochet (treble crochet in the UK) blanket.

This represents several hours doing this. It's slow going but MUCH faster than if I had knit it. I'm happy to be getting rid of stash yarn as my stash of stitchery, sewing fabrics, and yarn are in the SABLE category - Stash Acquision Beyond Life Expectancy.

With my inevitable demise (hopefully a couple of decades from now) in mind, today I printed up labels to put on the back of many of my FFOd stitched pieces, particularly ones I didn't sign. I then affixed them on the back of the corresponding pieces.

Thank goodness for the search feature on this blog (white window under 'Search this Blog' on the top right) because I was able to find when I actually stitched or FFOd most of the pieces.

This is much like putting the date on the back of photographs.

Now I need to get back to my crocheting.