Nervously Knitting

It’s Election Day in the US and I’m very nervous about what the outcome will be. We probably won’t know for sure for a couple of days because of all the hand counting of ballots.

I had a nice afternoon of stitching with Jen1 and Barb. The past couple of days I’ve finished the motifs of the Christmas tree.

Still lots to do and will keep plugging away.

I finally took a photo of my Live on Little. I still have to finish the house (converted from a church) and may add a little something to the right between the house and the tree. There are a couple of ‘bricks’ that I still need to fill in.

Today is day 5 of the stocking KAL. I’m all caught up.

After Day 4:

After Day 5:

I skipped out on my Tuesday night crafty group. I got home after 6 from a hair appointment and I was too pooped to go out again.

Day 3 of the KAL (KnitALong)

I just finished today's 3 rounds of the KAL. 

I'm not in love with the emerald green. A darker one would work better, I think. I'll have to check other Michaels stores to see if there is a darker green in stock.

 

November Stitch Day with the Guild

Yesterday was our guild's stitch day - the first Saturday of the month all year. I got the rest of the mortar done on the house on my Live on Little piece (pics to follow) then worked on my Kathy Barrick Christmas tree piece.

Once home I completed Day 2 of the Arne and Carlos Mystery Stocking KnitALong and after posting this will knit Day 3's six rows.

I then completed the Puffin Hat that I was commissioned to knit.

I took some artistic license with the design, adding a couple of rounds here and there, duplicate stitching the beaks on the puffins rather than deal with stranding 3 yarns for those rows, and only using a medium and light blue rather than dark, medium, and light.

The pattern calls for 90 sts and 6 repeats but due to the recipients larger head, I cast on 105 sts and did 7 repeats. 

The decreases for the crown on the chart were a bit misleading so I just did what I thought would work and it did. Also the chart calls for a k3tog on the final round before finishing/closing the top. this creates a slanted stitch that shows. I thought a centre double decrease would look better. This is done by slipping 2sts together knitwise onto the right needle, knitting the next stitch, then passing the two slipped stitches over the knit stitch. What results is the outer two stitches slanting towards the centre and the centre stitch resting on top.

I emailed the person who asked me to knit the hat with photos. She was pleased with the result. I said there was more than enough yarn left for me to knit her one - either the same pattern or another pattern using these colours. She thought another one the same would be good so I have started it and am at the round at the top of the beaks. Instead of using orange yarn there, I knit with the white, then cover the beak stitches with the orange yarn using a darning needle and duplicate stitch.  The orange yarn is a bit thicker so covers nicely.

These hats are for an upcoming tour of Iceland that we'll be doing before our cruise out of Bergen up and down the western coast of Norway - well beyond the Arctic Circle. A first for me. 

Arne and Carlos just did a knitting cruise out of  Bergen on the same itinerary and highlight each day on their Instagram page. 

Skip and I travelled to Bergen on our Scandinavian tour back in 2017 and after that, the Norwegian cruise was on our bucket list. Sadly, Skip didn't live long enough for us to do it but I'm thrilled to have the opportunity to do this trip with dear friends. Skip's spirit will be with us. 

• Watched 'Maudie' on Netflix. 
• Enjoyed 'Nobody Wants This' and hope we don't have to wait long for the next season.
• Also watched the Martha Stewart documentary.

Not a Lot of Stitching This Week

I did a bit of stitching on Monday morning but haven’t done a stitch since then. I got notification from my bank that two $600 PayPal transactions were withdrawn from my bank, supposedly transferred to my PayPal account.  I responded quickly to confirm that they were not authorized by me. A couple of days later I noticed they had indeed been withdrawn from my bank account. Turns out, in my haste to respond to the original notification, it was to an email address that isn’t monitored. I checked PayPal and the money from my bank didn’t go into my PayPal account so it must have gone into some hacker’s account. Damn! 

I submitted disputes with my bank for the two withdrawals and crossed my fingers they could track down the unauthorized account they went into. I’m not worrier (I have trained myself for that) but it was in the back of my mind. I also had what I thought was decaffeinated tea that evening so couldn’t fall asleep until 4am. Listening to my audiobook didn’t help. I got an email a day later that the funds were put back into my account. YAY! 

I have changed both my PayPal and bank passwords.

The same day I learned about the bank/PayPal fraud, I got a call from my financial planner to set up a meeting for next week. I needed to find some information for that meeting and was having trouble doing it. I was also not sure about a couple of things that would have caused a big problem with Skip’s estate - yet another concern that night of insomnia. 

I finally did find the documents I needed and after making a couple of phone calls, learned that everything was good and I didn’t need to be concerned after all. Glad I didn’t fret too much.

I’m planning to do the Arne and Carlos Mystery Christmas Stocking Knitalong which will run from November 1 to 24. Every day, 6 rounds of the knitting design will be revealed. Today I realized that November 1 is tomorrow so I whipped out to the big box craft store for the yarn for the project.

They’re using Rowan Norwegian wool which I didn’t even try to source,  so the Patons Astra is about the same weight yarn. I believe I did last year’s with worsted weight - Probably Patons Canadiana - but they didn’t have the right colours when I was shopping today. In fact, what few Patons yarns they did have left  were all shoved in a small area. 98% of the yarns they sell now are their Loops & Threads brand. Not impressed.

I also picked up yarn for a hat I was commissioned to knit for the husband of a friend. To keep the cost down, and to use non-scratchy yarn (he shaves his head), I went with Patons Canadiana. Fortunately Michaels had most of the colours I need for this pattern. 

I used some creative licence for the colour selection:

I have some orange in my stash that I’ll use for the puffin beaks and some navy blue from my stash for the dark blue above the puffins. I didn’t need to purchase full balls of those two colours.

I started the hat and added one more repeat of the puffin pattern because the recipient has a big noggin. I also added a couple of rounds of the darker yarn above the ribbing before starting the puffin’s design.

I pulled my usual dumb stunt of forgetting to change to a larger needle size once I finished the ribbing. I realized this on the 7th round of the chart and had to rip back to the solid part to change needle size. Of course all this was happening while getting up and down to hand out Halloween candy.

All has been corrected. I had 24 Trick or Treaters - the most since I started recording in 2018. We have mostly retirees in my 40 year-old neighbourhood.

I don’t remember but there must have been a ban on Halloween in 2020 because of COVID.

I got word today about the dates for next year’s Pastime Pieces retreat and I should be able to attend as I don’t have anything planned for that weekend yet.

I’m looking forward to starting the knitalong tomorrow. It’ll probably just be the toe of the stocking in green like last year.

Another Project Roll

I made another project roll for a birthday gift. I followed the same procedure as previous ones, all of which were inspired by Vonna Pfeiffer's video tutorial.

I used a 1 1/2" mailing tube from the stationery supply store, two pieces of 20" x 32" fabric for the outside and lining, and a piece of batting the same size. I also needed a 3" x 6" piece of the outer fabric and batting for the tube ends, and two 32" lengths of 1/2" grosgrain ribbon (satin works, too).

I've had this fabric in my stash a long time - years, in fact. 

Although it took a bit longer than the hour and a half Vonna claimed, it was a pretty quick and easy project.

The quilting was what took the longest. To save time, I quilted the lines 4 1/4" apart.

The small piece of fabric and batting are for the circles that cover the ends of the mailing tube.

It rolls up nicely.

And ties with the grosgrain ribbon.

Project rolls are great for rolling and carrying an ongoing project or in my case, a place to keep stitching that has been completed and is awaiting to be fully finished.

Good grief! I just found a bunch of FOs that I had forgotten about and a couple that I had been looking for.

This is one of my favourite Peanuts fabrics.

It's just the cutest. 

Let's see what all was in there. 

Many of these were stitched YEARS ago - definitely pre-COVID.

I wondered what happened to the Starburst Canadian flag and the Teresa Kogut "Bee Kind" sampler. That was the first model I ever stitched for her. She has the model and this one is my re-stitch for myself. The chart of that little pumpkin was a project I was looking at today - totally forgetting I had already stitched it years ago. 

I wondered what had happened to some of these...

Must. (Fully) Finish, More. Projects.

Fighting Procrastination

I had a couple of tasks I needed to complete today and just couldn’t get started. I did several crosswords, read lots of news on the Internet, wrote a couple of emails, and did a bit of housework. Finally I went outside and got the geraniums out of the garden and into pots to put under the grow lights in the kitchen until next spring.

It was hard to pare them down while they were so beautifully in bloom.

They’ll be in bloom again by Christmas and will go back out in the garden next spring. We’ve over-wintered these plants for at least a decade.

This took all of 30 minutes. Good thing, too, as it started drizzling as I was taking the plants inside.

I started the second project - a stealth one - after selecting the fabric, batting, and lining. It’s going to be a gift so the photos will have to wait until the gifting has happened.

It felt good to get those two time-sensitive projects done. Anything left in the garden can get killed by any frost we get in the next few nights and can go out in next week’s yard waste pickup.

I finished the Autumn Cat project. I didn’t have appropriate buttons for the eyes then remembered I had lots of HotFix ‘jewels’ - some of which might work. I settled on the green ones.

Now to select fabric for finishing the back. It will be a standup. 

Last night, I embroidered another Christmas wreath and added the ‘bling’. 

I used the Sticky Fabri-Solvy. First, I stitched the brown stems. I didn’t like the called-for thread and substituted DMC 300. Then started the dark boughs.

Using one strand of the medium and one of the light green together I stitched the rest of the pine needles. 

Out of the hoop, I trimmed the water soluble stabilizer close to the outer stitching.  I then rinsed the stabilizer away with warm water. I also used a soft toothbrush in the same direction of the stitching to make sure all the stabilizer was washed away.

I pressed the stitching dry on the wrong side, face down on a terry cloth towel so the embroidery wouldn’t get squashed flat. Then added the 2mm red  ‘jewels’.

Now I have two to finish into ornaments. (Sorry, bad lighting)

In keeping with my pledge to not start any projects before finishing or fully finishing a WIP, I can now start some new ones.

So after a very slow start to my day, I actually got a few things accomplished.

Another New Start

At the retreat on the weekend, Kris (of Kraftnkris on YouTube) showed us her Autumn Cat from the October 2019 issue of Just Cross Stitch Magazine. Joanne is holding it in this photo.

She also suggested one could use the basic chart and use different motifs for different seasons or holidays.

I had 28ct black linen in my stash and a couple of the called-for threads. Too lazy to go out and buy the threads I was missing, I substituted DMC 420 for 167, 3362 for 3051, and 356 for 3830. 

I got this much done yesterday.

And a bit more one today - so far.

Marlene has a poll on the Facebook group for us to vote for dates for next year’s retreats. Two choices are on weekends and two are weekdays. So far, all of the dates she selected work for me. I’m really looking forward to next time.

I have a sewing project I need to do but have been procrastinating. Step one will be to select the fabric. It’s not a hard project, I just need to get started.

I’m actually looking forward to cooking supper tonight (<—- a rare thing). I bought the zucchini for the fritters the other day and need to use them so am making one of my favourite dishes - Ricotta and Zucchini Fritters - a recipe I gleaned from one of my HelloFresh kits back in the spring.