March 1st 2016: Heavy Hearts

Hello Friends and fellow Crafters, I hope your week has been well. I must admit I have a very heavy heart this week. My motivation is at an all time low and I'm quite listless as I wait for test results on Cleo (more on that at the end). But I have been finding ways to pass the time.

Cross Stitch
Again nothing this week. I haven't beaded Touching The Autumn Sky which I wanted to do before the end of February and I haven't been interested in pulling out something else to work on. I am still keeping up with the Nashville previews and I believe the actual market itself is now on so it will be interesting to see if there will be any big surprises.

Knitting:
I have completed the Banana Leaf Shawl:

It is stitched with Malabrigo Lace in the Dusty colourway same as the model for the design. It is super soft and squishy and I will be using this yarn again. I need to block it and am waiting on blocking wires. When it's done I will post better pics. I love the look of this shawl paired with blue jeans and a white or light grey long sleeved top for autumn.

I then tried to complete my third and last knitting WIP from 2015, which was the Meristem Mittens. I had knitted one (above) and needed to do the other. Well I just couldn't do it, I was using smaller needles than called for, 2.25mm, as I don't have the right size and it was painful to knit. The yarn was splitting and I couldn't get the lace pattern with backwards yarn overs to come out properly. So I decided to officially 'frog' this project and give up. I was knitting these because I liked them in reality it's too warm here for mittens so I'm not too bothered.

So I was at a bit of a loss as yarn I had ordered still hadn't arrived. The only project I had ready to go was the Coffee Lovers Cabled Cowel (free pattern). It wasn't what I really felt like doing, especially in summer with worsted/aran weight yarn but I was out of choices. so I started and this is where I am at:

 

Horrible photo - I'll do better next time It's BC Garn Hamelton Tweed 1. I think a lot of people wouldn't like to knit with brown yarn - but I do and I like the look of navy/white/brown together. This is knitted on 6mm with worsted weight yarn - quite different from Malabrigo lace! I do prefer lighter/smaller yarns and must remember that. The tension seems so loose in comparison and the needles feel like sticks. I wasn't enjoying this project at all until I came to the cables. This is my first time with cables and - wow it's magic! 


Mail Day:
Some lovely mail over the past week: Yarn for socks!

Cleo: 

Tuesday last week, about 10 minutes of publishing my last post, Jonathan contacted me to say that he had been talking to the vet who has referred us to specialists.

Thursday we took her in to the new place which is right in the city and they kept her in for an ultrasound. They said her intestines are definitely thick and some of her lymph nodes are large too. So all signs are pointing to lymphoma although it could be Inflammable Bowel Disease (but the lymph nodes are distressing...).

Friday, we bought her back in and they took aspirates to check for cancer and ended up keeping her overnight. They said we would probably get results on Monday.

It's now Tuesday and today is our 13 year anniversary. I have a feeling we will find out today and it wont be good.

I feel like I am already grieving for her. In fact I have been for almost a month now since I spent a day researching online her symptoms and overwhelmingly the articles and stories led to lymphoma. It's just hit Jonathan on Thursday. So we both have very very heavy hearts. For the whole month of February she has been very sick, the fact she has been so very ill so long has been the biggest indicator that this is something major. On the other hand I can't believe how quickly we went from a chirpy, healthy happy cat to this, it's such a shock.

February 23rd: swapping my needles

Hi everyone,

I hope you are having a good week, creating and crafting lovely things. Here in my part of the world I have felt the first signs of autumn - a few cool breezes - I'm so finely tuned to the change I was heading to the postbox at the end of the drive when I felt it for the first time and I literally stopped and savoured the moment. It is still summer but it's definitely reached the tipping point. It's my favourite time of the year the wind dies down and it seems a bit stiller / calmer. It's still hot but the nights are cooling down - just slightly.

This means that I have changed my needles - from stitching to knitting. Ideally I will be doing a bit of both at the same time but I haven't knitted since October so I've been enjoying it too much to stop!

CROSS STITCH
As implied above I have not stitched as all since finishing the beading of Persephone. I have Touching the Autumn Sky ready to bead, and it has far fewer beads, so my goal is to do this by the end of February.

The Nashville Market is coming up early March and I am keen to see the new releases. The best place I have found to see the previews is at StitchesnThings. Make sure you have ample time when you visit this link - so much to see already!

KNITTING
The Banana Leaf shawl has tripled in length since I picked it back up. I have started the second ball and will soon be decreasing for the second pointed end, I think this is achieved with short rows. I really want to knit this one again at some point and am thinking about finding a lace weight linen yarn for the next one - maybe spring next year,

Last year I knitted my first sock and this week I knitted up it's mate for a pair. They were supposed to be for me and I casted on 64 stitched on 2.25mm (US size 1) and there were far too large for me. Jonathan tried it on (at the stage just the cuff and leg) and it fitted him fine - still not tightly fitting but tight enough. They will be bed socks for winter, I don't think he would ever wear wool socks during the day as it's not cold enough here. I'm going to cast on 56 stitches for my next pair. I made a few mistakes and need to practice more.

Knitting is a new craft for me and I'm trying to approach it in a mindful way - I have so many thoughts it's a struggle to elaborate them. Usually with knitting we make clothing garments or accessories which means I need to think about fit, colour and style. I guess what I'm trying to say it's not just process the finished product is also very important. I don't feel that way with cross stitch and embroidery that is very much process for me. I am attracted to bright fun colours but I need to think about what I'll actually want to wear.

In addition I don't want to stash away too much yarn and let that get out of control. I don't want to start too many projects and let that get out of control either. I want whatever I'm knitting to be exciting and of the moment and when I buy yarn I don't want to feel guilty about the yarn I already have. Which is why I have spent the past week working on last years unfinished projects (only 3).

Finally with knitting it would be easy to stop learning new techniques and level off and I don't want that to happen. I don't want to knit endless shawls (though I do love them) so these are some things I want to learn this year:

*cables
*stranded colour work
*garments: sweaters and cardigans
*perfect sock

MAIL DAY
A partial LoveKnitting order arrived today:

This yarn is to make the Cabled Coffee Lovers Cowl pattern which I loved from the moment I first saw it. 

LoveKnitting.com has been an amazing find for me, in NZ. They offer free shipping for orders over $100NZ and flat rate $10NZ otherwise. They are always having sales too and each order has a 10% off coupon code on the invoice. Living in NZ the cost of shipping has always been problem so to find this shop which has a wonderful selection of yarns and notions is a life saver.

CLEO

My much loved cat Cleo has been seriously ill for over a month now.  She's lost so much weight, and is hardly eating anything. I have calculated how many calories she is probably getting and it's about 100 calories - if I'm being generous - and a normal adult healthy cat needs at least 200 calories per day. She is mostly licking up the gravy off canned food - we are specifically buying the 'gravy lovers' Fancy Feast brand - at this point anything she will eat we will give her. On Sunday night we tried a new flavour of dry biscuits, salmon as she seems to like fish flavoured things now, and she ate quite a lot. The relief was immense - but it didn't last. Just that once.

We have taken her to the vet numerous times and the experience hasn't been that great. It's so distressing to feel like a beloved pet is dying right in front of you, slowly day by day, and have to trust a professional that doesn't care or think that anything is particularly wrong?! We are always pushing for the next step, blood tests and ultrasound etc. She hasn't got better, she has lost 20% of her weight and it's still dropping. She's hardly eating a thing and sick a lot. That. Is. Not. Normal.

February 17th 2016: Beading Forever

Drum roll please! Persephone is finished!!

Design: Persephone by Mirabilia
Fabric: 32ct linen by Picture this Plus in their 'Rosewood' colourway
Other Materials: DMC cotton floss and Mill Hill beads as called for in the design

I finally finished beading on Saturday night after several marathon beading sessions throughout the week. The beads in the blackwork behind her were attached using the same charcoal coloured floss of the backstitch with a full cross. The first leg went through the bead and attached it the second split over top of the bead and 'hugged' the bead. This meant the charcoal thread shows around the bead which I liked the effect of in this instance. The other beads were attached using a double stand of YLI invisible thread half-cross. This stuff truly is invisible.

Two thoughts about the beads in this project:

1) The bugle beads which are the long ones are 9mm as called for in the chart. In the chart 4 squares/8 linen threads were left as a space for these but actually required at least 5 or 6 squares (10 or 12 linen threads) and I had to place them over top of stitching. Not too bothersome but if stitching again I would get the 6mm beads.

2) I don't like the bead work pattern in the dress. I think it would be much better to use metallic thread for that detail and have the dress flat, all the other beadwork is gorgeous, and the beadwork in the dress is too in isolation but as a project as a whole I think it's too clumsy and distracting. I had this thought after attaching the hundreds of beads in the dress but I wish I had thought of it sooner. I looked online and Kreinik has several metalic braids in the jade greens / silvers that would work as a replacement. Alternatively a really nice overdyed self patterning cotton or silk floss could work too.

Finally the blackwork pattern behind Persephone is called wallpaper in the design instructions. However throughout I have thought of it as an ironwork fence, and because of the colours in the design overall I have thought of her somewhere in the Caribbean, Florida or New Orleans. Weird huh?

I still have another Mirabilia to bead, but the knitting bug has been creeping up on me and so On Sunday I pulled out a scarf WIP:

Pattern: Banana Leaf Shawl by Yuki Ueda
Yarn: Malabrigo Lace in the Dusty Colourway

Photo from September 2015 when I had three mail deliveries in one day - score!

The lace is incredibly soft and squishy - I will use this again for other projects! I am enjoying this project because I don't mind the repetitiveness and enjoy the process of simply making a knitted fabric. I would also recommend this design to a beginner knitter as it's simply purl and knit with simple increases and decreases and will really help in learning how to 'read' knitting and also how to fix mistakes. Yeah it's lace but it's stitched on size 5 needles so not too small. It would also be good for a knitter that is learning how to knit a different way e.g continental style  etc and needs to get practice and tension right. However if you are an impatient knitter that gets bored easily - don't go near this one!

Cleo is as before. Not 100% but not critical either. Just trying to get her to eat and still waiting on blood tests.

To those who comment thank you so much! Recently I've just been wanting to get the posts up but I will be spending more time on blogland responding to comments and visiting others :)

February 10th 2016: some beading

In an effort to get a post out the pictures of my needlework were taken quickly, wrinkled and when the weather was overcast moment. Oh well.

Last week in spite of everything going on, or because of it (more below) I stitched quite a bit on Mermaids of the Deep Blue and finished the right mermaid's body. I'm now up to the shoulders/arms/face and hair for them both. While I have always admired the mermaids and fairies it's always the Mirabilia ladies I tend to stitch so this one is a bit of a departure for me and it seems so weird to be stitching a fish tail/body/fins... like the act of stitching it has really bought home how bizarre the mermaid concept really is. I mean even a fairy in comparison is a human with some wings attached to the back... could even be a costume.

Because it's the weather is overcast the fabric in this photo is way off - so blue when it is in fact green.

Last week much to my surprise my order from 123Stitch.com arrived. It was so quick: I ordered on January 21st, it was shipped on the 23rd, and arrived in NZ on the 2nd February. All up less than two weeks quite possibly the fastest delivery in over 13 years of stitching. I ordered beads, fabric and charts so I'm impressed that they had it all in stock.

The main reason for the order is that I have two Mirabilia's waiting on beads so now they have arrived I have put the mermaids aside and gone back to Persephone to bead the design to complete it. I didn't want to avoid the task for no good reason. I am always so so surprised at how long it takes to bead. I used to estimate a few hours, now I think it will take a few days which is still underestimating the job - it takes a week or more. Persephone also seems to me to be a big design, even for a Mirabilia and has a lot of beads. So here's a shot of some of the beads (many more to be stitched!):

Again it's overcast so not the best photo

I decided to complete the backstitch/beads on the blackwork pattern behind her at the same time so this has also slowed me down as I have figured it out. I like the look of long stitches but I couldn't get good tension and the thread was being carried too far. I didn't want to couch the stitches down so in the end I reverted to normal backstitch. I used the dark coloured floss to attach the beads using a full cross and the second leg 'hugs' the bead (because it's two strands of floss) instead of going through it. For the rest of the beads I will use invisible thread so no floss will show through.

I specifically did the back stitching parts first while I could still use q-snaps. I can't put qsnaps over beads so a lot of them will be attached in hand.

As alluded to last week was one of the worst in a long time. Our beloved cat Cleo got very very sick and it was impossible to figure out why. She's been getting sick, not eating much and loosing weight since October 2015 and we have been investigating this since the start of the year. Last week it suddenly became very acute she stopped eating all together, we changed her food in order to get her to eat anything, and she vomited all day (the carpet is a wreck now) Wednesday and started finding dark places to hide like under beds and in closets. I was at this stage certain that she had stomach cancer or something like that and was basically dying. I was so upset and depressed. She is 10 years old so heading into 'senior cat' stage but still quite young. I've had her since I was 21 and she is such a huge part of our lives I can't imagine not having her.

I am happy to say that was the low point and since then she has been getting better. But we still don't know what's been happening since October and if last week was related to the overall problem or because we changed her food. Our vet is reluctant to investigate any further now that last week's crises is over but Jonathan and I would like to figure out what's going on as she can't continue to decline and loose weight - and it might be something treatable?

WIPocalypse 2016

I began to seriously collect stash and have multiple WIP's from 2003. From about 2008 I stopped rotating through them all and some became UFO's. Then around 2012 I began to work on projects one at a time - nearly always new projects - and so everything became a UFO. From mid 2015 I have been stitching more and upon completing my most recent start - decided to work on a UFO rather than start something new!

The Plan 2016:

I'm still enjoying working on just one project and seeing it progress so fast. I am thinking about working on a second WIP one day a week for variety as I can't seem to pull myself away from Mirabilia's. There will be new starts but I hope to chip away at the UFO's. I am well on my way to knocking out two in 2016!

WIPs:
2014 Mirabilia - Persephone - waiting on beads
exhumed Oct 2015: 2009 Mirabilia - Touching the Autumn Sky - waiting on beads
exhumed Jan 2016: 2008 Mirabilia - Mermaids of the Deep Blue - current

UFO's
2004 Mirabilia - Royal Holiday - really can't stand fabric choice
2004 TW - Castle Sampler
2004 Chatelaine - Taj Mahal
2004 Chatelaine - Herb Garden
2004 Lavender and Lace - Angel of the Sea
2005 TW - Mermaid
2005 TW - Peacock Tapestry
2005 Black Swan Designs - Lilypond Dreams
2005 Silver Lining - Audrey
2006 Chatelaine - Alhambra
2007 Mirabilia - Moonlit Lullaby
2007 Just Nan - Black Magic
2008 Just Nan - Bellemeade
2008 Indigo Rose - The True Love Sampler
2008 Drawn Thread - Random Thoughts
2008 M Designs - Sampler Girls
2008 Elizabeth Designs - A House of My Own
2008 LHN - The Rose in Morning
2013 Scarlett Letter - Dorothy Walpole
2014 Examplar Dames - Yellow House 

I'm not going to take them all out and iron and take photos - it's too big of a job. Some of these may never be completed it depends on their condition as I work through them.

Stash:
I have way too much stash. Charts, floss, fabric. Most of it bought haphazardly and not belonging to anything. I would really like to start using the fabric I already have in 2016.

Update: 1st February 2016

I was one of those kids that would leave a path of destruction as I went from my lego, to my barbies, to colouring in, to monoply... My mother used to be able to tell exactly what I had got up all day judging by the piles of stuff left around the house - well that's kind of stuck with me into adulthood only now it isn't always fun stuff. This morning has been one of those days where I looked at my watch and it was 10am and my house was a disaster zone. How did it happen?

1. It's Monday morning and I tend to let things go a bit during the weekend...

2. My cat Cleo hasn't been very well which has neccesitated a switch from dry food to prescription wet food (which she doesn't like) and the associated mess of tins/packets/bowls etc...

3. I discovered at about 6:30am a murdered blackbird (there was blood, lots of blood) on the back stairs thank goodness I wasn't carrying a laundry basket I probably would have fallen down. Further investigation found a second murdered blackbird in one of the downstairs spare bedrooms this one was in pieces. It was too early to deal with and I needed coffee!

4. In telling someone on Facebook that a fabric colour wasn't the same as on the viewer I decided to pull out the fabric to make sure my memory was correct. In doing so I discovered the fabric had faded - only the square that was face up in the plastic bag. So this led to a frenzy of pulling fabric out of bags to check on the others... sigh. More on this one day...

This was the point I stopped, backtracked and began to clean up the 'zones'. I haven't tackled the blood yet. I took photos of it all and sent them to Jonathan at work. I won't post them here - It would totally gross everyone out.

So I didn't stitch much during November and December. But as soon as we were home from visiting relatives over Christmas I got back into stitching in a big way! I have now completed Touching the Autumn Sky except for beads:

With two Mirabilia's waiting on beads I placed an order with 123stitch so they should be arriving in a few weeks.

So then I dug out another Mirabilia I started years ago Mermaids of the Deep Blue:

The fabric isn't showing accurately here. It's Deep Sea by Crossed Wing and is a very deep and richly dyed fabric. Mostly deep sea greens with patches of blue. Not sure if I would pick such a bold fabric these days but I will stick with what I chose back then.

I think I started this one around the end of 2008 but only stitched on it for a few weeks then never picked it up again. I didn't take a photo before I started stitching on it but I had only done a bit of the left mermaid, I have since stitched the tail and all of the right mermaid.

Books read January 2016:
The Importance of Being Earnest - Oscar Wilde - Play
LumberJanes vol. 1 - Graphic Novel / Comic
The Fry Chronicles - Stephen Fry - Autobiography

Currently reading: The Gods of Guilt - Michael Connelly - Mystery

end of the month update

It's been a few weeks so I have more than usual to update. Really I should save some stuff for other posts but I just want to get it all done now.

First lets see Persephone:

No she is not finished yet! But I have completed the cross stitch part and some backstitch. I will do the rest of the backstitch and beading together. Going through my very unorganised messy stash I have found 5 of the 11 colours of beads this one needs. I will have to put in an order and wait for these to arrive via international post so this one won't be completed any time soon.

I did frog the hearts in the right hand side and took a picture as evidence:

 That took forever to unpick and it was the silk waterlily thread! I picked up another skein and at the very end I did need a few extra strands - so very close!

So I have been thinking about what I will stitch on next. I have so many WIPs and stash that it represents years of stitching that can be stressful to think about and of course there is always the lure of new designs and new starts. But I know I will feel better if I keep plugging along at what I have for a while longer.

I pulled out a bag which I designate the 'recent bag' as it has most of the stitching stuff in from the last two years and inside found two completed designs. So gave them an iron and took photos:

Roses of Provence by Mirabilia stitched on the recommended fabric 32 count linen by Wilchelt in the 'White Chocolate' colourway. Stitched between 2013 - 2014

The Industrious Bee by Theron Traditions on a 28count linen (not sure which maybe country french?) and good old plain DMC. Sitched between 2012 - 2013.

The next project I wanted to work on was Touching the Autumn Sky by Mirabilia. I started this one at least 5 years ago and haven't worked on it since. I gave it an iron and this is what it looked like:

I wasn't at all happy with the wrinkles left in it after giving it a really good hot iron with steam. I was wondering if I should just throw the fabric out and restart the design some other time. I wasn't unhappy with the idea of that I just wanted a decision made. I googled ironing cross stitch and chose a method I could get on with straight away without having to soak or freeze the fabric (I'm impatient) and that was to soak an old heavy cotton tea towel in water then place it over the cross stitch face down on a towel on the ironing board and iron on the hottest setting. There was a lot of hissing and steam and because the tea towel was smaller than the fabric I repeated this process a few times and this is the result:

Still faint wrinkles but good enough for me to keep working on it.

Over the past few weeks I did have a brief slump and so instead of stitching I thought about what I want to stitch... a wishlist / TBS (to be stitched) combined. The task I set myself was to narrow the list down and really think about what I liked as I have a tendency to want to stitch almost everything which is impossible. For my favourite designers I limited myself to 5 designs so that was fun almost like a contest with 'sudden death' rounds. The list is linked at the top of this blog and here as 'To Do List'. The list is quite long - even after paring it down heavily!!