I Can't Help Myself!

I made another Little Buddy yesterday! I have an infinite supply of yarn remnants so am not sure when I'll stop.

This one's a little taller than the other - achieved by knitting a couple more leg rounds.

They were very patient during the photo shoot.

"Who us? We're just standing here minding our own business. Checking out the scene."

I can whip one up during an evening of TV watching. I just finished season 3 of 'The Diplomat' on Netflix. It continues to be very good. Highly recommend.

I signed up for the Jingle Ball and the three classes I was interested in. Liz Mathews was the first to send the class information. I found some 32-ish count fabric in my stash so I could start the Hello from Liz Mathews Snow Globes. The fabric is off-white so hope it will look OK. I'm now on the hunt for good 'snowflakes'.

The fabric is 32ct in one direction and 30ct in the other. It's some old MCG Textiles linen that I bought at Michaels in the US years ago. 

I had similar problems with some Aida cloth a few years back whilst trying to stitch a biscornu. It was 16 ct vertically and 18 ct horizontally. So annoying.

However for the Snow Globe project, taller, skinnier motifs wouldn't be a bad thing. And 32ct is much easier on the eyes than my usual 40ct. I'm just not a big fan of stitching with two strands. 

I did make substitutions for some of the colours that I didn't already have in my stash. I used Cody Hoover's Floss Color [sic] Tool. Basically you plug in the DMC number you're missing and 5 suggestions are made. 

There are actually quite a lot of stitches in these motifs but I can knock several off before our finishing class during the Jingle Ball. I'm guessing we'll use Alene's glue as stiffener. I've successfully mixed white glue and water 50/50 before when stiffening crocheted snowflakes.

My stitcherly peeps that have been at Mrs Parkman's Stitching Workshop and Retreat will be home on Tuesday. The have kept me apprised of their activities via texts and photos. It sounds like they had a splendid time. I look forward to seeing them and all their loot.

Little Buddy Gets a Little Buddy

I took a look at the other patterns by the Izzy Bear designer, Esther Braithwaite  and decided to purchase the Love Teddy pattern. 

It was quite fun knitting him up and duplicate stitching the heart on his sweater.

The chart was somewhat easier to follow and I liked the dimensional face/definition of its snout.

He's a bit shorter than the first little buddy but his sweater is a bit longer. I also liked the purl round that made it look like the sweater had ribbing around the cuffs.

I haven't decided on names for them yet.

Today was cool and drizzly. I did take some photos out in the garden because I'm not sure when we'll get our first frost which will likely kill most things.

The gaillardia continue to bloom. I deadhead them every time I go out. This practice seems to work well for continuous blooming. They're supposed to be perennials so hopefully they'll come up again next year.

The cosmos are finally blooming. The dark ones have just bloomed; they get lighter as time passes by.

The bee was sleeping on this one.

Google tells me it is a Common Eastern Bumble Bee. I also got a side view. It didn't budge even when I got close. 

A few calendula (pot marigold) are still hanging in there.

The zinnias are done blooming. I'm leaving them for the time being because I occasionally see birds eating the seeds. I also deadhead the bachelor buttons so the odd one is still blooming.

I brought my hibiscus indoors and it seems to like this spot in the kitchen. It gets the morning sun through the east-facing sliding doors and the afternoon sun hits it through the south-facing bay window. It has lots of buds on it so I'm optimistic about its future indoors.

Season 3 of 'The Diplomat' was released on Netflix this week. I stayed up WAY too late last night binge-watching it, I have a couple of episodes left. It is really good with Allison Janney and Bradley Whitford this season.

A Little Buddy

I don't remember how I learned about these but a while back I knit what I call a pocket buddy. I had trouble sewing him up so I left the project for a while.

Feeling the need to finish yet another UFO, I fixed the issue I had with it and finished it up last night. I'm not sure what to name him yet.

I had trouble embroidering his facial features and resorted to Hot Fix jewels for his eyes. I love how he looks like he's just standing around with his hands in his pockets.

The pattern is Izzy Teddy Bear Dolls by Esther Braithwaite and is available for free on Ravelry. The pattern includes the basic doll pattern with the striped sweater plus three options for cabled sweaters. I had difficulty stitching the 'arms' evenly on both sides which was my big sticking point initially. 

He's 26cm tall (5 3/4"). I used sport weight yarn from my stash and knit him in the round as per the pattern. He's a bit wonky but I think he's really cute.

The pattern is available for charity knitting. Here's the info about its history and where to donate (screenshots from the website):

Here's how it all started (again, a screenshot):

Thanksgiving!

Happy Thanksgiving, y'all! It has been a beautiful, warm fall so far and this weekend did not disappoint.

I decided I'd only do stuff I wanted to do this weekend - no onerous tasks from my 'to do' list. However, yesterday I did a 'tidy up' as I hosted my Monday morning stitchers here this morning. Due to popular request, I made white chocolate-covered cranberries.

I first learned about this recipe at the first JingleBall two years ago. I forget which designer shared the recipe but it's very simple:

• 1/2 bag fresh cranberries - washed and dried
• 1 200g bag of white chocolate chips

Wanna use all the cranberries? Just add a second bag of the chips.

Wash cranberries and dry them. I just roll them around on paper towels.

Melt white chocolate in a double boiler. I use a metal bowl in a saucepan with some boiling water in it. Microwaving the chocolate would work too but careful not to overcook the chocolate.

Dip each cranberry in the melted chocolate and place on a cookie sheet lined with parchment paper, foil, or plastic wrap. Refrigerate. Once the chocolate has re-hardened, the delectable items can be stored in a container ready for eating.

I don't have any big plans for the rest of the day - just noodling around the house doing little jobs, some crafting, and generally kicking back and relaxing.

I'm also taking time to be thankful for all the wonderful people and things in my life - good friends and family, creative hobbies, generally good health, absence of chronic pain, ability to sleep soundly (the last two items are apparently rare commodities among many in my demographic), a comfortable home and plenty of food to eat. Life is good.

I hope you all are having a relaxing, enjoyable weekend!

Catching Up With A Punch Needle UFO

I'm doing a little workshop - an introduction to punch needle - with some of my Saturday morning stitchers in December. When I rounded up all the stuff last Saturday to do a little display, I remembered I had a UFO to complete.

It's Pumpkin Bouquet from The Old Tattered Flag. I bought it as a kit a few years back

 and got this far on it before abandoning it. 

Since it had an autumnal theme and I really only had the background to finish, I did some more work on it last night and this evening. Punch needle is pretty fast.

I finished the neutral background using all six strands of floss. This is the back.

and this is the front. 

The kit had 5 skeins of the background floss but I only used 2 of them. I have no idea how I'll fully finish it but I have some sense of accomplishment getting this much done. Next will be the darker part.

I use a Morgan hoop. It's a double-decker, lap stand. A regular hoop can be used but one must be careful to prop it against something and not just lay it across the lap. The punch needle is very sharp and could easily impale. This hoop has two diameters - 7" and 10" and the mechanism to grip the fabric to drum tightness. It is very expensive, though. 

I just checked Amazon and it's available there but I noticed  another brand (probably a Chinese knockoff) that has square hoops (like the Nurge hoops) about the same diameters at about half the price. In both cases, the hoops can also be used individually.

I popped into Kimat Designs today to pick up the rest of the floss I needed for my Smitten project. More work was done on it. I could have used DMC equivalents instead of the hand-dyed Gentle Art threads but for the large areas (red mitten and cuff) I like the look of the variegation.

The one colour I decided on the spot to get after seeing it in person was Gentle Art Cinders. It's the dark colour just inside each circle.

I'm not going to lie, stitching this is quite tedious. Because of the dyeing, the linen has bloomed so the holes on this 40ct (20 stitches per inch) are not very open. I generally use the sewing method of stitching - down then up in one motion - but on this project I really need to use the 'poke and pull' method. This is much slower than I am accustomed to. However I'm really liking the colours and I poked and pulled while listening to an interesting - yet depressing - audiobook. 

It's John Grisham's collaboration with Jim McCloskey called "Framed - astonishing true stories of wrongful convictions". 

Before DNA testing, many innocent folks were convicted of horrendous crimes based on bad police investigations, poor eyewitness accounts and testimony, and unqualified 'expert' witnesses. Several of the folks in this book were on death row and sadly, not all of them were exonerated before dying in the electric chair. Texas has put hundreds of people to death in their prison system at the penitentiary in Huntsville TX. I actually attended Francey and Rich's wedding in Huntsville 45 years ago. Some of the places cited in the book are places I either drove through back then or on one of the trips Skip and I took to south Texas for the winter - Palestine, Corsicana, Longview, etc.

Another thing I accomplished today was to wash the exterior, downstairs windows. I had been waiting for a sunny, cool day and today was the day. I had ordered microfibre covers for my Swiffer mop and they arrived yesterday. They fit perfectly on my Swiffer.  

I thought one of them would be really good for giving my windows a good scrub. I used hot water, about a cup of vinegar, and a small squirt of Dawn soap. The awesome thing was using the new 16" squeegee I bought at Canadian tire today. 

Screwed onto the extension pole I already had, it did a fabulous job of squeegeeing the soapy windows. It's much wider than the previous one I had used. I completed the task in about 3/4 of an hour. I hired the job out last year, mostly so they could do the upstairs windows but they didn't do a very good job and I didn't get around to hiring them again this summer. With winter coming on, I like the maximum amount of sunlight coming in during the day so the windows needed to be cleaned.

When I got home and after finishing the windows, I had some WhatsApp chats with Barb and Poppy who are in London. They attended the Knit + Stitch Show at Ally Pally (Alexandra Palace) and had lots to show and tell about. Jen1 and Jeanette head to join them this weekend, leaving tomorrow and arriving on Sunday morning, UK time. I am thoroughly enjoying living vicariously and look forward to more chats by text and seeing their photos.

Getting a Few Things Done

I did a lot of puttering around the house today. Not sure I got much accomplished but I did neaten up a couple of completely disorganized areas.

My big boneheaded move today was completely forgetting to attend my first yoga class of this session. What a dope! I'll be there the next couple of weeks but will probably miss one class when Barb and I attend the Pastime Pieces retreat in November.

Jeanette came over so I could help get her various devices synched to her phone for her upcoming trip to England: ear buds, headphones, and headphones. The instructions that come with the devices are very sketchy and I had experience synching devices like that to my iPhone so it was just a matter of going step by step and getting it done. 

I'm having the ladies at my place for stitching on Thanksgiving Monday so have started making the dining room (aka downstairs craft room) somewhat presentable. Still work to do on that front.

I started putting out the autumn and Hallowe'en décor in the front hall downstairs.

Quaker Pumpkin by The Stitcherhood

A Mill Hill kit on perforated paper from 25 (!) years ago. I was fortunate to find the autumn-themed frame. It might be from Mill Hill, too.

I don't remember the source of this pattern. Snorri likes to wear his happy jack o' lantern sweater this time of year. 

Up in my office I noticed the Hallowe'en humbug hanging on my bulletin board. It's going downstairs to hang up somewhere for the rest of the month.

(this is an old photo - I have since restitched the seam to match up the colours)

The pattern is a freebie from Cathi's Stitching Blog. Although she no longer operates her blog, you can try sending her an email for the pattern.

I stitched it on 14ct Aida many, many years ago. Each edge is only 2 1/2" long.

While rummaging about on my desk, clearing up some paperwork, I found an embroidery kit that I bought 3 years ago at the Toronto Guild of Stitcher's event at the EAC's Seminar's Market Mall and Stitcher's Boutique.

The design is printed on the fabric so all I need to do is separate the threads and start stitching.

It was the same event where I first became acquainted with Pastime Pieces and purchased 'Smitten' from All Through The Night which I just kitted up and started last night.

The fabric is darker than this but you get the general idea. I need to pop out to pick up a couple of the flosses I'm missing but will do what I can for now. The fabric is 40ct so I need bright light, magnifying glasses, plus the magnifier on my lamp. Very 'squinchy' work.

Blogger has a new feature that adds additional links to my posts. Not sure I'm a fan but will go with it for now.

It doesn't look like I accomplished much today but I did make some order out of the usual chaos around here.

Daisy's New Blanket

After Aunt Patty made Daisy a quilt and pillow at our Elim retreat, I thought Daisy also needed a blanket. It was also a good excuse to crochet some African flowers.

As I stated in the previous post, I used yarn remnants from my stash. After doing a round with some Malabrigo green laceweight, I finished with a round of the some more off-white sock yarn I round in my stash. Good thing, too because there wasn't much Astra yarn left to split.

Daisy finds it to be very cozy.

I also dug out my geraniums and potted them in some fresh potting soil. I scrubbed the pots clean last night. I trimmed the foliage back and will bring them in the house tomorrow. It's nice having them blooming in my kitchen all winter. Most of these plants are at least 10 years old. I have one small one that I'm going to try the dry root method of keeping it over the winter. We'll see how that goes.

I also need to bring in the hibiscus plant after I repot it some new potting soil as well. Fingers are crossed it'll do OK in my sunny kitchen over the winter.

My cosmos finally bloomed!!! And not a moment too soon - we could get a light frost any time soon. A bee was already enjoying it when I first went out.

The odd bachelor button/cornflower is still blooming. Gardening is not a passion for me but I deadhead as much as I can when I'm out there. 

The calendula are still blooming as well. 

Barb and Poppy are off the England today to begin their holiday which will culminate in Nicola Parkman's stitchery retreat. I am very excited for them and I know they will have a cracking good time.