So Cute!

There was a Tiny Modernist booth at the Peel Stitch-In last November. One of the patterns I purchased was Spring Rabbit Pillows.

This confuses my stitcherly friends because they know I hate rabbits. But that’s because rabbits eat a lot of stuff in my garden. I think the actual critters are very cute.

This stitched up really quickly and is SO cute!! With the help of the floss colour tool, I substituted DMC 3833 for 3733 and 3340 for 352.

It would make a great standup. Since I have all the floss pulled for the other one and set aside the same fabric (36ct antique white linen) I might as well start it. Using two strands on this fabric really made the stitches stand out, giving them a bit of dimension. Also, when I press the finished item I use  50/50 solution of Best Press and water and iron it face down on my wool pressing pad or onto a terry cloth towel. They way the stitches don’t get flattened out. I was also careful to trim threads close so the tails wouldn’t be visible through the thin fabric. I still need to do this on the black backstitching on the paw.

I’d really like to get started on the Autumn Quaker. I just need to pick the fabric.

Some of us are going on a little road trip to a quilt shop (not that any of us need fabric, cough, cough) and on the way home will visit Hank’s Pastries, a bakery in Port Perry that boasts apple fritters ‘as big as your face’. They don’t offer dining inside so we’ll probably have to find somewhere to have lunch and save our honkin’ apple fritters for eating at home.

I love that we’re always planning some kind of stitcherly outing or get-together. Always something to look forward to.

Speaking of that, I just learned about the Hobby House retreat the weekend after next Labour Day. It features Tanya Brockmeyer from The Scarlett House and Vickie Jennett from NeedleWork Press. I've paid my deposit.

I’m also excited to be attending the one this spring featuring Heartstring Samplery and Plum Street Samplers. 

Always moving forward. Life is good.

To be Fully Finished (FFOd)

I had a stack of project bags on a table in the corner of my dining room for the longest time. Recently I decided to sort through them. One pile became WIPs/UFOs and the other pile was items I'd finished stitching and tossed them on the FFO pile. This way, I could remove the threads and incorporate them back into my thread stash, throw the patterns and working copies in a pile to be filed later, and completely empty 8 project bags. 

I'm not sure how many of these items I'll ever fully finish. The Christmassy ones can be made into ornaments. I still need to add some snowflakes and bling to this one.

This was the second Mary Corbet 'Christmas Wreath Ornament' I stitched. It was a very quick stitch. If you've never done surface embroidery, I highly recommend trying this pattern. I used 46ct oat linen, DMC threads, and HotFix 'jewels' instead of beads. The other one I made, I gave away in our Christmas ornament exchange with the Trillium Embroidery Guild.

This, too, was a pretty quick stitch. It's from a Just Cross Stitch magaine.

I bought this chart from the Tiny Modernist booth at the Peel Stitch-In last fall. It was fun to stitch but I see I still need to add some bling.

I currently don't have plans for the others. Here they are in no particular order.

This is part of a Strawberry Thief chart. 

A punch needle piece.

I loved stitching this. I also did it on the yoke of a denim shirt. That Sticky Fabri-Solvy makes stitching embroidered designs so easy. 

I used it on this project, too. I really enjoyed all the special stitches and different plies of thread.

I stitched two of these. One I FFOd in a hoop and this one.

This is a Terri Bay whitework design using #8 and #12 Perle cotton. It stitched up pretty quickly. It would make a nice lid of a box.

I have many, many more items that are waiting to be FFOd. Bottom line, I love stitching them but often don't have a plan for how I'll finish them. That is why I enjoyed doing model stitching - once the stitching was done, I just sent it back to the designer to be framed or finished in some way.

I hosted the Monday morning stitching group today. We had a wee toast to the memory of Sharon, our friend who died last week after living many years with lymphoma. She will be missed.

Puzzling...

I didn't get into jigsaw puzzling during COVID like many of my friends did. I certainly had a lot of time to kill but tended to sew, stitch, and knit.

I'm now quite obsessed with jigsaw puzzling and have done a few since I got back from vacation.

I bought this one in the fall with the intention of doing it after Christmas - since I wasn't going to be home for Christmas. I worked on it just before the New Year. It was lots of fun.

The pieces were nice and thick and snapped together very well. And lots of blocks of colour. After I was done with it, I gave it to the mother of a friend who likes 500 piece puzzles because they fit nicely on the table she uses.

I bought this 1000 piece Lego puzzle for $5 at Dollarama. I love puzzles like these where there are several little puzzle areas to solve. It, too, was very fun.

Right away, I did this one over two days. I wasn't all that fond of the knitting chaos but was able to sort several of the colour blocked areas first. Again, 1000 pieces.

This 506 piece puzzle was loaned to me (thank you, Barb!). I started it yesterday and finished it last night.

Where my guild meets is a recreation room at an apartment complex. There is a bookshelf full of puzzles so I donate the ones I no longer want and borrow any that look interesting. Truth be told, I prefer 500 piece puzzles as well. Mostly because I only use one end of my dining room table. I also prefer puzzles with blocks of colour.

While I do the puzzles I either listen to audiobooks or have a YouTube video on. 

I'm going to take a bit of a break from puzzling because I want to do some more stitching.

I finished Miss Hazel last night so she goes on my 'to be FFOd' pile. 

These Animal Crackers series patterns don't really take that long to stitch. I have Clovis the Badger my pattern stash. Is Clovis a female name? If not, he has a very cute apron and dress.

The one I want to start is Spring Rabbit Pillows by Tiny Modernist.

This should be a very quick stitch. I picked up the two DMC threads I was missing this afternoon. Now to pick the fabric. It calls for 14ct or 16ct (28ct or 32ct evenweave or linen) but I prefer 36ct or 40ct - mostly so I can get away with stitching with one strand over two. However, it would be really cute on 28ct evenweave over 1 with one strand. The result would be about 1.5" x 2.5" for the one on the left. Hmm... will have to think about it.

Another project that would be pretty quick is Autumn Quaker by Lindsey Weight. This was in our swag bag at the Simple Stitching 2024 Retreat sponsored by Pastime Pieces. 

I have a lovely, tonal floss - JK 07 Sleepy Cat by Cottage Garden Threads all ready to go on this. 

Again, fabric selection will be from my stash. The model was stitched on 28ct and was close to 5.75" square (Dontcha just love how I mix my Imperial dimensions with Metric?). Honeybee Quaker also appeals to me, 

Like a couple of my stitching friends, I just might have to start making these into little pillows and displaying them seasonally. The other seasons in this series are also very cute.

Jen1, Poppy, and I are getting all excited about our upcoming tour of Iceland on our way to our cruise up the western coast of Norway. Jen1 is knitting a Musselburgh hat and Poppy has started an Icelandic sweater, Ranga by Vedis Jonsdottir.

She's knitting it as a pullover and has picked a beautiful, golden yellow as the main colour with white as a contrast. It uses Alafoss (bulky) for the cuffs and collar and Lett-Lopi (Aran) for the body and sleeves. I have knit a few Icelandic sweaters and they knit up pretty quickly as the main parts are all stocking stitch. Ranga's sleeves are tubes with all the increases at the transition between the cuffs (with the bulky yarn) and the stocking stitch with the thinner yarn. I'm sure she'll be able to get it finished by the time we leave for our epic trip.

I plan to wear one of the sweaters I knit Skip, Riddari:

These sweaters are unisex and this one happens to fit me perfectly. Icelandic yarn is very lofty and makes for very warm garments. The sheep are dual coated with a strong, lustrous outer coat (Tog) that provides protection from wind, rain, and cold, and a soft undercoat (Thel) that keeps the sheep warm. The fibre is a spinner's dream. 

I found a little break in the yarn on the front of this sweater so have tracked down a remnant of the yarn to make a repair. It will be a very cozy addition to my travel wardrobe. And I'll feel like Skip is with me. 

I also knit this one for him, Afmaeli, a free pattern by the same designer, to commemorate the 20th Anniversary of Istex - the Icelandic yarn company. This one also fits me quite well.

Skip wore one or the other of these sweaters every day, all winter. He was always so appreciative of the things I'd make him.

I'm trying to decide what hats I'll take. I'll definitely take one of my Musselburgh hats for really cold

 weather due to the 4 layers of knitted fabric over the ears.

Then there are the other two I discussed in my previous post. Maybe I'll take all three.

I've just been made aware of an excellent retreat I could possibly attend next September. Must investigate...

Holidays are Over

I'm just starting to get things back to normal after the holidays.

Yesterday was our guild's stitch day. It was so fun having some sustained time to sit and stitch with folks and get caught up on everyone's holiday activities. We shared ideas and pattern suggestions.

 Laura showed Marilyn and me the embroidery project she found in a magazine from the public library:

It's called 'Winter Wonderland' and depicts 'a stroll around Strasbourg market'. What could be more  perfect as a memento of our trip! 

It's from Issue 58 of 'Love Embroidery' magazine. Now that I'm doing more surface embroidery, I will have to start looking at back issues of the magazine.

I would do the wood parts of the booth and historic building in a dark brown. Lots of bling could be added to the tree, too. I definitely would print the template (given at the back of the issue) onto Sticky Fabri-Solvy and just stitch through it and the fabric. Those candy canes are SO cute! I could also add a mug of steaming Gluhwein, too!

Thanks for the heads up Laura!

Speaking of mementos of our trip. After I returned from the Alpine Christmas Market tour, an ad appeared on Facebook that caught my attention from Happary.com. They specialize in personalized ornaments, frames, fridge magnets, etc. The trip souvenir one permitted up to 11 destinations. I ordered one for each of us with our primary destinations and it arrived on Friday.

I did more stitching on Miss Hazel:

After our stitching, Poppy and I headed up to Myrtle Station Wool to get her the yarn for the Icelandic sweater she wants to knit herself for our trip this spring. It was a very successful trip.

This morning I ordered the frame for my 'Live on Little' from Custom Frames Canada. 

I just need to add my initials and the date.

I selected the same wood as I used for my 'Winter Rose Manor'. A mahogany frame which should make the carnations 'pop'.

It should arrive in a couple of weeks.

I knit some more on the Flannel Scarf but hit another snag on the 4th band. Somehow the colours got reversed so I tinked back [tinking is when you un-knit stitch by stitch rather than ripping it out by frogging (rip it, rip it). 'Tink' is the word 'knit' backwards]. So it's good to this point. Will need to do more thinking before I continue.

Of course, the main problem is that I'm watching a detective series on Netflix, "Missing You" so the knitting doesn't have my full attention.

Friday was a busy day. Barb, Alda, Judy, and I visited Sharon in Port Perry. Afterwards, Barb and I went for lunch. Then I had a my dental appointment to fix my tooth that was lacerating my tongue. Orthodontic wax really saved me (and my tongue) since returning from my holiday. I can chew on both sides of my mouth again.

Afterwards, I visited a friend who lives near the dental office to get caught up on our respective Christmas activities. Meal time approached so we went out for a bite for supper. My mouth was still a bit frozen so I ate sparingly and gingerly so as not to crunch a big chunk out of my cheek. I came home and vegged out with my knitting and TV.

Yesterday, as I mentioned was stitching, so today I'm taking it easy.

Tomorrow the regular routine starts again with Monday morning stitching. Back to 'normal'.

Intrigued...

 I just saw this pattern, Snow on the Ground, from Hands On Design and I was very intrigued:

I seem to be drawn to these 3D projects. There are also instructions for a scissor fob.

I'd like to get my hands on 'The Light of Winter' by Brenda Gervais.

It seems to be sold out everywhere. I believe it would be a great companion piece to her Winter Rose Manor which several of us did as a StitchALong in 2023.

I was pleased with the custom frame I ordered online and still need to order one for my 'Live on Little' project.

Happy New Year! And Getting My @ss Kicked

I've started and frogged the Flannel Scarf project several times. The last time is because somehow the pattern in the third pattern block doesn't match the pattern in the first pattern block. So I've frogged back to the beginning of the third pattern block for the second time and will try again.

Did I switch the main colour with the contrast colour? Am I not paying enough attention because I'm knitting whilst watching TV? Is there a mistake in the pattern? Am I going 'tweedly'? Good grief.

I may have to frog the whole damned thing and start over, possibly with other yarns, possibly with some of my handspun.

I had Jen1, Barb, and Jeanette over for some stitching on Tuesday and got a little bit more done on Miss Hazel:

While Jen1 was over, we discussed what hats we'd take on our Iceland/Norway trip. She and Poppy found lovely ones on Etsy which will be custom knit with, I believe, fingering weight.

I have many hats I can take like this one, Bonnet l'Hiver on Ravelry. The instructions were in French but Google translate helped me out. I knit it with Icelandic wool so will need to line it so as not too be too scratchy. A lot of the Icelandic hats I saw when I was there last were lined with t-shirt/knit jersey fabric so I'll do the same for mine.

There are several free Nordic hat patterns on Ravelry. I may do this one with worsted weight non-scratchy yarn. It's the Basic Norwegian Hat and is a free pattern.

My winter coat is dark grey (almost black) so I would use grey, black and white yarn. I would also make the ribbing 4" long to have double thickness over my ears.

I also plan to take one of my Musselburgh hats and this one I knit for Skip.

I bought two patches on eBay and affixed one to the hat and the other to the sweater sleeve.

It's the Dale of Norway 'St Moritz' pattern from 2003. I used Dale of Norway Heilo yarn and the now-discontinued KnitPicks yarn, Telemark. I recall this being a very fun knit and used the rolled Italian cast-on for the cuffs. It was not Skip's favourite sweater because of the bulk under the set-in sleeve but he would haul it out from time to time in the winter.

Years ago I came home from shopping to find him wearing it whilst decorating the little tree we always put in our front window.

That man sure was an appreciative knitter's husband. 

Getting back to the Basic Norwegian hat, I will raid my stash first before buying any yarn. 

I didn't make any New Year's Resolutions but stitching wise, I am continuing my pledge to finish or fully finish a project before starting something else. I have several projects kitted up and need to select the fabric (again from my stash). But lots of finishing work to do first.

I spent a quiet New Year's Eve at home, attempting to knit the Flannel Scarf, sipping my 200mL bottle (Piccolo) of Henkel Trocken and watching TV. Look how little the bottle was compared to the champagne flute! LOL. That's 4/5 of a cup for you British measurement holdouts.

I was surprisingly exhausted by 10 pm and got to bed by 10:30, having PVRd Anderson and Andy on CNN to watch later. Skip and I used to watch them, crack open a couple of the little bottles of sparkling wine, and sing "New York, New York" along with the folks at Times Square. That song has special significance for us. First, because we had many getaways to NY state. Secondly, we happened upon a big celebration in Sackets Harbor one June day in 2003. Funny Cide, a racehorse owned by locals was running in the Belmont Stakes, and hoping to win the third race for the Triple Crown. The whole town was out in the street preparing to watch the race on big TVs. We all belted out, 'New York, New York', the theme song of the Belmont Stakes. Sadly the horse, which had won the first two Triple Crown races lost. The only reason we were there was that I had left my credit card at the local bar two days before and we had returned to the town to pick it up, getting caught up in all the revelry. We always had fond memories of this once-in-a-lifetime event.

The Grand Finale - Days 23 and 24 and My Christmas Vacation

I left for vacation (more about that later) on the 21st so brought 22 - 24 with me. I revealed 22 but here are the last two.

Ecru and DMC 310 floss and 3 candies.

Project bag tags and a marking pen.

That was fun. I thought Marlene from Pastime Pieces did a great job with this box. 

I ordered a 'Christmas Mystery Box' from Simona Bussiglieri of Mani di Donna back in October. 

She just mailed them at the beginning of December which, of course, was the middle of our Canadian postal strike. I am still waiting for its delivery.

On another topic, I was intrigued by the Flannel Scarf I saw on the Gusto Wool Facebook page

so I ordered the pattern today.

Now comes the delicious task of deciding what yarns to use. I remembered I have this Paintbox Gradient bunch of mini skeins that I purchased at the Maryland Sheep and Wool Festival eight years ago. It's from Fiber Optic Yarns and is Bitter Lime to Rose 0715 colourway. There are 15 thirty yard mini skeins for a total of 450 yards. 

It's 80% superwash merino, 10% cashmere, and 10% nylon. 

I plan to use this raspberry-coloured yarn for the contrast. 

I believe it also was a Rhinebeck purchase lo those many years ago. 

The scarf only uses 50g of each yarn so I'm not sure how I'll use the gradient - half of each colour? I want to work all the colours but don't need a scarf 12 feet long. I may get this cast on tonight.

Yesterday I returned from a week in the Dominican Republic near Samaná at the Bahía Principe Grand El Portillo. I was accompanied by my niece Rosa, her husband, Darryl, and their two adult offspring, Derek and Andrea. Also with us was Andrea's fiancé, Chris, his parents, Jane and Paul, and his two cousins, Sam and Alex, and Alex' wife, Amanda. 11 in all. I was invited to join the group right after Skip's death so didn't have to worry at all about how I'd spend Christmas. 

We all gathered at the airport on the afternoon of December 21, at our departure gate. Chris' family arriving from east of Toronto had  arrived first. We had been messaging back and forth that week - excited about our upcoming trip and looking at some Facebook photos, I was able to recognize them. They said they had hogged reserved a couple of tables at the gate. I introduced myself to my new friends and shortly thereafter the rest of the gang who had come from the west showed up.

Earlier that week we  had received notice that our flight was changed from 7:30am to 3:15pm. The good news was that I needed the airport limo (an SUV, really) for 11am rather than 3am. The bad news was we lost the complete first day at the resort and arrived in the dark.

When I checked in online 24h before, I was able to switch my seat to an aisle seat near the front of the plane. The rest of my companions were closer to the rear of the plane.

I was very glad to have my own room. I could get up whenever, nap whenever, watch TV whenever and not bother anyone. My lodgings were very near the lobby and buffet restaurant - very handy. Sam was next to me, Alex and Amanda were downstairs from Sam, Jane and Paul were in the same building and Derek was in the next building. 

The beach was lovely with many lounge chairs and either palapas or palm trees for shade. There were also lots of chairs around the adjacent swimming pool. I preferred the beach and was usually able to find a place to sit or lounge in the shade. It was a very relaxing time.

It did rain a lot, though. Most days either the morning or afternoon it rained and last Thursday it rained all day. We had planned a boat trip to a secluded beach for that day which had to be cancelled. The beach was pretty deserted in the rain so I just parked myself under a palapa, listened to an audiobook, and generally vegged out.

The entire week was very relaxing. The members of my multigenerational group were all very interesting and affable folks. We all were happy to be in an idyllic setting for the week. 

Darryl, Derek, Jane, Paul, Alex, Amanda, me, Sam, Chris, Andrea, Rosa

Our return yesterday went pretty well. Once in Toronto, we all got through Customs and Immigration thanks to our ArriveCan apps on our phones. All our luggage made it, too. I bid farewell to my family members and new friends and headed for the train to Terminal 1 to get on the UP Express to Union. It was right there when I got to the platform. 25 minutes later I arrived at Union Station. Because I had a suitcase, I wanted to find an elevator to take me to track level at the GO station. I knew there wasn't an elevator to track 12 at the York Concourse so walked over to the Bay Concourse and found one to take me up to track 11. The train was already there so I located the accessible platform and just rolled onto the train.

When we got to Rouge Hill, the train didn't continue on right away. We were delayed there for about half an hour - not what I needed after travelling all day. Then we started moving again but it was announced that after the Pickering station the train was going to travel express to Oshawa and not stopping at Ajax and Whitby. Those wanting to go to those two places would need to get off the train in Pickering and wait for the next train which would take us to Ajax and Whitby. 

At Pickering, I rolled off again. After about 15 minutes, the next train came and took us the rest of the way. All this time I was texting my kind neighbour, who was going to retrieve me from the GO station in Whitby, about the delay. Finally I arrived in Whitby, heaved my suitcase into my neighbour's car and she drove me home.

I really enjoy travelling but like the saying goes, "There's no place like home".

I stayed in bed, dozing off and listening to an audiobook until almost 11am this morning. It was so cozy. I had breakfast and did a bit of unpacking. The house is in disarray and it will take me a couple of days to get things somewhat back in order. 

This afternoon Alexa had our Tuesday night group over to her house for a get-together and to get caught up on what everyone has been doing. Tomorrow is stitching in the morning but first I need to call my dentist. His office is closed but hopefully there is a number of an on call dentist who can help me out...

Let me back up a bit. I was supposed to get a crown put on a couple of weeks ago but because of the postal strike, the couriers were overwhelmed and the crown didn't arrive on time. The temporary had come loose so I went in anyway and had the dentist secure it more firmly until the permanent one arrived. The next week (the week before my trip), a hunk of the adjacent tooth broke off, leaving a sharp edge that lacerated my tongue. When I called to have it fixed, I learned my permanent crown had arrived so I went in the next day to have it put in and the sharp edge on the adjacent tooth smoothed out. It was determined that that tooth also would need a crown which would be started in the new year. 

Last Tuesday at the resort, while I was flossing my teeth, a huge hunk of filling broke off the same adjacent tooth, again leaving a razor-sharp edge. Thank goodness I had brought a bunch of sugar free gum because I used wads of it to fill the gap and cover the sharp edge. Unfortunately when I was eating or drinking and the gum wasn't in place, I couldn't talk as it was too painful. For once, I was a good listener during our conversations at meals. The rest of the day, I had gum filing the hole, even overnight. 

Once at home, I located some orthodontic wax left over from when Skip had braces almost 20 years ago. Ahhhhh. It really helped the situation. Unfortunately, there wasn't a lot of it and again, when I'd start to eat, the wax would dislodge and I ended up swallowing it with my food. 

Long story short, I have ordered the same brand of orthodontic wax on Amazon and it is arriving tomorrow evening sometime. I tried a Shoppers Drug Mart and a Dollarama this afternoon but they didn't have it in stock. 

Hopefully some dentist will kindly interrupt their vacation this week and file down the sharp edge so I can be pain free until the process for the crown gets underway. In the meantime, I'll tough it out with the orthodontic wax.