Updates and recaps

Oh, let's see what I have photos of... On the left is the latest photo of Queen of Roses by The Silver Lining. It's stitched over 1 (one thread over one thread) on 28 count evenweave.

Next is the update on MacGregor's Garden. The first photo is showing the short-row toe which I now love thanks to Susan's hint in the directions. It's neat and it fits like a dream. The color on this first photo is bad but the others are much more like reality.

Next shows the rabbit ears in the cabbage patch. They are cute and fun to knit.


















Now for the profile - the heel is done and there is a twisted stitch setting off the heel from the pattern. Now I'm starting on the 4 cable patterns that are inside the cabbage patch. After that a bit of ribbing and then the first sock is done.

I can't gush enough about both the pattern (from Sunflower Designs) and the yarn from Kim at The Woolen Rabbit.


Above are two of the other cross stitch in rotation right now. On the right is Fire and Ice by Kustom Krafts in Canada. On the left is my own design, based on a photo my DD took of my younger granddaughter seeing herself in the mirror. The name is Dragon Eye because my DD named it that when I sent her a scan of the upper left part when I had started stitching it. The chart was made using Pattern Maker for Cross Stitch by Hobby Ware. I scanned and imported the photo but had to tweak it a few times to get the resolution the way I wanted it. One thing I did learn (the hard way) was to adjust the number of colors BEFORE you save the thing otherwise the default is 99 colors... It was too late to fix this as I'd already started stitching, but I will remember in the future.

The last item in rotation is not started yet - I'm still waiting for the fabric... It is another design from The Silver Lining called Wisteria. It will be done on black Hardanger fabric, 22 count. It will be a companion to Lilacs - which will also be done in black sometime in the future. I have many projects lined up and in process - and my goal is to complete at least 5 projects (both knitted and cross stitched) that are already in process by the end of the year. I should be able to finish at least 3 knitted projects (2 pairs of socks and a shawl) but I do want to finish Dragon's Eye and Fire and Ice. I also would love to finish Victoria Sampler's Heirloom Christmas. It's about 75% done and I do have the matboard for it. I'll try to get photos of it in the near future.
On the left, a delayed Friday Flower Photo - a yellow Iris from my former home in Farmington AR.

The weeds show up really well too. Oh well.

Enjoy the week and I'll update again in a week or so.

Memorial Day - time to remember

This photo is of the marker of a relative who was a casualty of the Civil War at the Battle of Prairie Grove (Arkansas). He is buried at the National Cemetery in Fayetteville, AR. This is one of the original National Cemeteries as designated by President Abraham Lincoln. Today, there is an American Flag in front of his and thousands of other headstones.

I often stop and think of those who have fought for us by orders of our Commander-in-Chief (C-in-C)(the President for those who flunked out of government). I think the reason is that so many in my family have served.

My grandfather served in World War I in France. He never talked about it but I've recently been sent a copy of a photo of his unit.

My father served in World War II in Europe. He arrived there a month after Normandy and was captured by the Germans about 3 weeks after that. He remained in a Stalag until it was liberated at the end of the war in Europe. Later he was sent to Korea during that war (even tho the government still calls it a conflict).

Dad died almost 6 years ago. His cremains are interred at Arlington National Cemetery.

My husband joined the Navy right out of High School. He served during Viet Nam and the only story I will relate is he received his draft notice while his ship was on Yankee Station (off the coast of Viet Nam). He did request that the draft board go ahead and take him back to appear before them - but they failed to do so. We were married before his sea duty started and our oldest was born 3 weeks after he returned to his base.

I do feel grateful that the attitude of the American people has changed since the Viet Nam War. Back then 'civilians' didn't see a difference between the members of the military and the military action they were ordered to participate in. Now, thankfully, we support the members of the military even if we do not support the actions of the military C-in-C.


To all of those who have served or are serving in our military, I thank you for your time, your service and your sacrifices.

One of these Socks...

is just wrong - well half wrong... Presenting Caledonian Mist.
















If you click on either photo, a larger version will come up. The top and left versions are correct. If you can't tell, the 'bad' version had me leaving out 1/2 the pattern, and actually the gusset is wrong too. So this week's project will be to unravel the wrong foot back to the gusset and correct my biggie boo-boo.

Other knitting - for the break times at work - MacGregor's Garden. I'm now in the part where Peter Rabbit's ears are knit in. The kit was purchased from Woolen Rabbit with the design from Pandosu.

I love the yarn - it is so very soft and the color shifts are beautiful. The little jade stitch marker is one I made. It seems to fit right in, doesn't it.

Pandosu's directions give a wonderful hint for the wrap and turn rows in the toe (and I'm guessing the heel). If you lift the wraps up and over the stitch before knitting the 3 as one, it looks so good. I've done other socks with the wrap and turn rows and they never looked like this. The lifting of wraps is now a permanent part of my knitting technique notebook!


Now, while I'm not knitting all the time, I've picked up some other WIP's and started working on them. My plan is to stitch on a graphed page then rotate to another project. I'll be spending more time on each project, but I think there will be more progress each time. Also fewer rotations before completion.
Presenting the first in the rotation: Queen of Roses by The Silver Lining.
Marc's designs are so beautiful and realistic. I'm stitching this one over one on 28 ct evenweave. The bottom of the leaf is the bottom of the page and the line on the right edge of the rose is the other page edge.

For those not knowing much about cross stitch, this is counted and 28 ct means 28 threads per inch. One over one means one strand of floss stitched over 1 thread of fabric. Next time I'll put a dime on the fabric so the scale can be seen.

My next project will be Wisteria, also by Marc at The Silver Lining. It will be stitched on 22 ct black fabric. I'm even nuts enough to consider his Lilac design on black for a companion piece.

Other stitching projects to appear will be Dragon's Eye, my own adaptation of a photo my daughter took; Purple Perfection, a purple iris from TSL; The Holly and The Ivy; Fire and Ice; 'Shroomhilda; a few hardanger projects and some embroidered placemats and napkins with a story. There are probably a few others that will appear as I dig through all my projects and get them sorted and put up. I also have a design in progress of some iris I had in Arkansas.

To do all the sorting, I'm going to have to acquire the parts to assemble new shelving for a closet in an upstairs bedroom. First to come will be the supports for the back and the brackets. Then I'll get the shelves and the plastic containers to store the projects in. I also have some large ziploc bags of wool and some bins of other fibers to be put up and worked on.

One of the blogs I read has a Flower Friday - showing photos of flowers on Fridays. Well, this is actually Monday morning, but I'll post one now and I'll try to post each Friday. My first will be one of my favorites - bleeding heart - the old fashioned kind which blooms in the spring. The purple flowers are a 'weed' called vetch (I think). Weeds are misplaced flowers, right. I had a lot of misplaced plants in that garden.