Kissing Cardinals

I finished stitching the Kissing Cardinals ornament from the 2014 JCS Christmas Ornament issue.

I should have referred to the photograph in the magazine. The symbols for the beads do not appear on the chart but are clearly there in the photograph.

I also stitched the string down to the mistletoe in the wrong colour but I'm not going to correct that.

The Twisted Stitcher usually irons light fusible interfacing to the wrong side of her ornaments or lines things with white fabric. It just smooths things out. I have done the former.

Once I get the beads put on in the correct position, it'll be ready to fashion into an ornament.

Charts That I Covet

As I mentioned in my previous post, I often take notes when I'm watching Flosstube WIP parades and Haul segments.

Here are a few I aspire to own someday: (note, the photos of many of these do NOT do them justice)

Is that a donkey at the bottom?

Cat and Mouse by Kathy Barrick

Hill Side Sheep Needlebook - Chessie and Me

Grace Quaker Sampler - Samplers Cove

House Blessing - Imaginating

Stitcher's Resolution - Heartstring Samplers

Strawberry Bird - Kathy Barrick

The alphabet in this one can be completed with eyelet stitches.

A Free Bird - Modern Folk Embroidery

There were many other samplers from Modern Folk Embroidery that appealed to me.

Flosstube

I have recently become very enthralled with Flosstube videos - videos about stitching on YouTube. I get to see so many projects that others are undertaking or have completed. Some of the Flosstubers are quite well-known designers and others are just regular folks who enjoy stitching and sharing their enthusiasm.

I take notes during much of the WIP parade (Works In Progress) and FOs (Finished Objects) and FFOs (Fully Finished Objects).

If you find a Flosstuber you enjoy you can go back to their first episode and watch all the way through to the present. If you want to be notified when a new episode is posted, you can subscribe and click on the little bell.

Many of them talk a lot at the beginning and throughout their posts so I just fast forward until I see them showing a stitched item.

Some of my favourites are:

• The Twisted Stitcher (Vonna Pfeiffer) - Vonna also has a number of excellent finishing tutorials called 'Flosstube Finishing School'
• Jen's Stitching Niche - check out her year end wrap ups. Lots of interesting projects and finishes
• Stitching in the Barn - Episode #6 was particularly inspiring with an interview of a long-time redware potter and reproduction sampler stitcher
• Saltbox Stitcher
• Yankee Creek Stitcher
• Off the Grid Needlearts - a London ON flosstuber
• Teresa Kogut's Creative Whims - 
• Ginger Gerald Stitcher - a crafty guy from  NJ
• Sassy Stitchin Sisters and Brother - three kids from Utah who are hooked on stitching and quilting. They are adorable!

and the one that got me hooked on Flosstube:

• Priscilla and Chelsea Podcast - a mother/daughter team who stitch exclusively on 28ct Monaco cloth, most of which they dye with coffee and tea; very interesting and folksy finishes

At the end of each episode, YouTube's algorithm will start an episode by another Floss Tuber - most often something interesting. Show notes are below the video, just click on the black triangle. Some Flosstubers have weekly giveaways which you enter by leaving a comment.

Everyone has their own particular style of patterns they like but it's a great way to be exposed to things you'e never normally seen.

Not everything in every episode is to my liking but I have learned a lot about techniques and patterns. 

My next blog post will deal with projects I've learned about by watching Flosstube and which I'd like to try myself.

Binge Watching/Knitting

We had light freezing rain/pellets all day yesterday which left an icy slick all over everything. Skip and I had planned for this and stayed in all day, puttering around on our various hobbies.

I spent much of the adding length to the two sleeves of Scooter's sweater and knitting on the body.

Most of the body was done while I binge-watched episodes of "Broadchurch" on Netflix. I believe I had watched season 1 before but have only a vague recollection of doing it. I'm almost finished Season 1.

It's straight knitting to the underarms where I'll do some short rows before joining the stitches for the yoke. 

Skip is going to see Scooter on Sunday but I don't think I'll have the sweater finished and blocked by then.

Stitching Stars

I got all the cross stitching done and have started the specialty stitches.

The red ones are Leviathan stitches and the yellow ones are 4 different sizes of stars.

The vines between the houses are done.

I changed the star colour to make them a little brighter. Now I'm wondering if they are too bright. I will try a couple with Caramel Corn - the substituted colour from the recommended silk threads - and see how I like it. All those stars at the top took me all night.

More Sleeve Progress and Stitching Update

I started the second sleeve to Scooter's Riddari last night. I was watching a couple of documentaries quite intently and was sleepy so didn't get as much knit at the night before. However, I knit up to the end of the decreases.

It's straight knitting to the underarm now. Then I'll cast on for the body.

I also did some stitching on the Drawn Thread 'Stars' project.

I finished the windows in the blue house and have three blue stitches to complete there. I did the windows in the house on the left but accidentally stitched four black stitches where the door is. Rather than pick it all out, I'll just stitch over it with the correct colour. I did the vertical parts of the windows on the red house. And then there's the entire white house to do plus all the chimneys.

I finished the green tendril and her blouse and skirt. I'm looking forward to having all the cross-stitches done so I can get to the specialty stitches.

Almost there.

Last Night I Knit a Sleeve

I started a sleeve on Scooter's Riddari on Tuesday night at spinning. Unfortunately there wasn't enough contrast between the light grey yarn and the white in the colourwork so I made the executive decision to exchange the light grey yarn for a darker colour.

Yesterday I ventured northward again to Myrtle Station Wool to do the exchange. I also swapped out the ball of dark blue as I found a ball of the denim-coloured yarn in my stash that I will use instead.

I'm knitting the Small size but cast on for a Medium-sized cuff. I knit a whole sleeve last night.

Again, I placed stitch markers on round 1 of the 7 rounds to indicate the increase round. It is then a simple task to count up to the desired number of stitches before knitting straight to the underarm.

Skip and I did a bit of running around today after going out for breakfast. Our microwave oven made some very scary noises so we decided to replace it. We comparison shopped at a couple of places and ended up bringing one home almost identical (make, model, size, features) as the other one.

Now that we are ensconced back at home, I will begin the second sleeve. I may have mentioned it before, but I always knit sleeves first. It doesn't take long to get to the knitting where the gauge can be checked and it's not a lot to frog if some adjustment is needed. This will be the 4th sweater I'm knitting with this yarn and needles so I know I get the called-for gauge of 18 sts/10cm. I still do the math to calculate which size I'll knit from the pattern by multiplying my gauge per inch by the chest size I want.

On Skip's Afmaeli, it wasn't as wide as I'd planned but after the firm, wet blocking, the stitches smoothed out, the fabric loosened a bit, and the sweater fit perfectly.

Now back to my knitting...