Whims

My needlework isn't limited to cross stitch. I found a great pattern on Ravelry and have become just a bit obsessed with the idea of crocheting with perle cotton. Since my collection of DMC perle cotton is limited to the few skeins I've purchased here and there for random Shepherds Bush projects and maybe a Sekas design or two back in the 90s, my palette was not very varied and since I wasn't sure I'd even be able to crochet with the teeny, tiny 1.80mm hook I decided to cheap out and purchase a bulk package of inexpensive(cheap) perle cotton at JoAnn's. It was going to cost quite a bit more to purchase all colors I wanted in the DMC at $1.49 a skein so the bulk perle was good for experimental purposes.


It took a little practice to get used to the small hook and the slippery thread but I love it! I got a little jammed up yesterday afternoon when I tried to work my way through the process of connecting the hexes, so I set my little hexes aside for the night. Maybe today the instructions will make sense. The pattern is quite thorough so I'm sure it's me not the pattern.

This is what I'm hoping to turn my hexes into:

Through the Loops!: Pincushions

I didn't link directly to the pattern info on Ravelry since not everyone is a member of Ravelry. The above link shows what I'm hoping to make and then I linked to Ravelry in the first paragraph.

I've made some progress on A Haunting Mermaid. Every week I think I'm going to finish and another week passes and it remains a WIP. But that's ok because I am making progress and is there really a rush? I'm not on a deadline, I'm stitching for myself. I have to remind myself constantly to enjoy the process.

The beautiful spring weather down here on the Redneck Riviera makes me feel guilty about wanting to stay inside and stitch. I've moved my stitching spot to the front porch and also the backyard for a little while everyday. The sun feels so good and lifts my spirits but not nearly as much as needle and thread slipping through fabric. As much as I enjoy the sun I do believe I could survive 10 months of winter as long as I had my stitching. Now remove stitching from the equation and I'd go flippin' nuts.

Have you all seen this:

Carriage House Samplings & Mo Jewelry: A Very Big Announcement

I am so very sad.

The Mom Saga

Last week my mother was admited to the hospital and is being treated for two chronic and debilitating conditions. While she's trying to get better it looks like her COPD is just getting worse. Going on home right now isn't an option and once she is released from the hospital she'll be going to rehab for 20 days to learn how to breathe again. Once she's released from rehab I'll be going back home to Tennessee to stay with her for a while. I'm hoping they can really get a handle on her problem but I'm pretty sure smoking for 50 years has left her lungs in pretty bad shape, although my Mamaw was diagnosed with emphyzema and the woman never smoked a day in her life. The doctors said it could have been caused the type of kerosene her father used in their house when she was a kid or the fact that she was around smokers most of her adult life. She wasn't diagnosed until she was 78 years old.

And to show what a stupid obsessive stitcher I am, I've been sorting WIP that I can easily take to my mother's and work on since there isn't much to do where she lives and I'd go insane without a project or two or twenty. Having time to plot a stitching strategy is a good and a bad thing. I have several projects that I know are going unless I finish them before having to go back home, fat chance of that happening, and one or two projects I hope to get all kitted up between now and when I might have to leave.

Trust me when I say there is absolutely nothing to do where she lives except "visit" and my mother isn't going to be up to visiting that much which, unfortunately, is another aspect of her health issues. Being pretty much a shut in for the last couple of months accept for the occaisional trip to the Piggly Wiggly and a daily run to the post office has left her depressed. She has no hobbies except for her "stories" (General Hospital, One Life to Live and All My Children). While there are those that believe I have no life because stitching seems boring or they just don't understand it, at least I'm using my mind, keeping busy, and I always have the hope of that new start just right there within my reach. I can't imagine living like my mother with no hobby, nothing to stimulate my brain or creativity, just endless hours of waiting to take my next pill or hoping someone will knock on the door for a visit.

I'm planning on taking a few stamped embroidery pieces with me that my mother might like to attempt if I'm there to show her how to do it. I think she might like that more than cross stitch.

I've been doing some spring cleaning and trying to get my house in order in case I have to go home sooner than expected. I had really hoped to get through the 14 yr old's school year but I think with a bit of planning everyone will get along just fine and not even realize I'm gone.

Dear Fairy Godmother

A.K.A.- Siobhan

I want to thank you for a pretty sweet weekend. Actually unless you had set me up with Viggo or Nikki Sixx, I'm pretty sure it couldn't have been any better.

(For those of y'all wondering where my pictures are, well they are currently trapped on my camera due to a fractured memory card, damn it all! I'm hoping the pictures can be saved, but it's going to take some work. For the time being you will have to take my weekend wrap up on faith-- of course there is picture proof at Lisa's blog.)

Saturday morning Siobhan picked up Sharon and I early, early. We drove over to the Strawberry Sampler, Siobhan's LNS, and sat in the car in the parking lot because it was 8:00a.m. and the Strawberry Sampler was closed--she wouldn't even let us grab some Dunkin' Donuts coffee while we waited, but it was all good, because who should come driving up a few minutes later but Primitive Needle Lisa. Lisa parked her Bug and jumped in the backseat with me and I have to admit, she didn't seem scared at all, even when I asked her if it might be possible for her to set up text message alerts regarding her design progress. I thought it was a good idea, just sayin'.

We then pulled out of the parking lot, headed to Dunkin' Donuts, OMG, what a treat that was this weekend. We don't have a Dunkin anywhere around me and that's really a crime, I wanted to lick the bottom of my coffee cup, but that's another story.

We then headed out of town towards Amish country and well, if my memory card is fractured it's probably because I was trying to covertly or as the Yarn Harlot would put it, "Kinnear" some Amish and well it's probably damning their souls to hell and I shouldn't oughta do that, but you know, there's Amish guys in fields, on horses, cute kids wearing milking hats, girls mowing the lawn in their sweet Amish attire, so yea, it was more than my obnoxious self could handle. I clicked, and obviously the evil was smote from my camera. I should add that the Amish I wasn't able to snap pictures of have Siobhan to thank because she blew by them like nobody's business.

We talked poor Lisa's ears off and she was a good sport as we were picking her brain about her super top secret design releases. If only she hadn't forgot my cell number I'd keep y'all up to date with the text alerts, I'm sure it was just an oversite on her part. ;)

After a while we pulled into a driveway. Whose driveway you're asking yourself? Well none other than Kathy Barrick's! Yep, not only were we allowed in the driveway, we were invited into the house and to her credit, Kathy didn't seem the least bit frightened. No alarms went off, no nets were dropped over us, we were allowed to roam freely through her beautiful home and we saw her studio where the magic happens.

Kathy had a sweet brunch set up for us, I know she was thinking food would calm the crazies, but it didn't shut us up, we bugged her about her upcoming designs and guess who else was there, Carol Sims, model stitcher extraordinaire. Talk about stitching nirvana--I am not worthy. It was just a, how did the spousal unit put it, hmmmm, a Super Fantastic Kathy Barrick Day.

After taking the tour we jumped back into our cars, and to Lisa's credit she got right back into the backseat with me, so it's possible I'm not as stalkerish as I think I am. We grabbed Panera for lunch and then we invaded Eldreth Pottery and we went all the way back to the Strawberry Sampler(yes Kathy was with us) where there is a trunk show of Primitive Needle Lisa's designs and she got to see it all displayed. We also got to see Siobhan's awesome framing.

It was one absolutely fabulous day that I will well not to sound lame but I will cherish. It was a day spent with good friends, hopefully new friends, and there was food and some needlework talk, everything I love.

Things I learned:

That when telling a story about a crazy family person I might need to stress at the beginning that it's true as when I was finished everyone became silent waiting on the punch line, uh, no, that's the story, it's all true.

That Kathy reads my blog! I showed her my Strawberry Blonde and she referred to it as Tomato Blonde, whoops! But she liked it, she really liked it.

That I can wear a white shirt and manage not to spill one thing on it all day long. I had soup with Kathy and Lisa and didn't dump it down the front of my shirt.

That the septic issues in my house are obviously my fault as I clogged the toilet in the hotel.

That while I managed not dump food all over me on Saturday, on Sunday I dumped a whole coke in the middle of DC National airport. I am so cool.

There's more to report but I'll wrap this up right now and try to work on my camera.

Did You All Know

that Kathy Barrick has started a blog? Pop over there and show her the love:

Kathy Barrick

And have you heard that the blogless Siobhan now has a blog?

Notes From Blue Hen Hollow

Siobhan does some absolutely gorgeous stitching. If you don't know her you are missing out!

Big Weekend For Cross Stitchers

Market, Market, Market!

This weekend is Market. I'm so excited. I have a wish list of the new designs I have to add to the stash.

I think it goes without saying that all of Kathy Barrick's new designs will eventually end up living at my house. I do have a dilemma. I love, love, love the mermaid stocking, but it's punch needle. This is the first punch needle design to make me even consider going down that road. I do not need one more hobby to get sucked in to. But more thoughts on that in a moment.

More designs that have caught my eye are the new releases from Plum Street Designs. Gameboards are cropping up all over the place and I have to say Dead Man's Chess is a must stitch for me along with her tombstone piece. I'm debating on how to display my tombstone pieces. I've stitched two of Kathy Barrick's, have another ready to go, and was thinking about hanging them all together in my hallway with Village of Hawk Run Hollow in the center since it has that Burial Ground block. Then I think maybe that's too much so maybe I should scatter them through the house for a quirky kind of thing or is it just kind of morbid?

A few more I like are the new Hands to Work designs. My Beloved Tennessee is a must for me since I was born and raised in Memphis. I like Hannah Miller and Education too.

Now back to punch needle, I'm a cross stitcher. I piddle in other crafty areas because I enjoy learning new things, but I have also discovered that that piddling really cuts into my cross stitch time. I try to quilt because I'm too cheap to buy quilts when it seems like I can just make my own. I enjoy handpiecing, it's just all the prep work getting to that point. I'm learning to knit because I believe it to be something that might come in handy one day and I like to make things that are functional. I really enjoy using my knitted wash rags. Seriously. They make me happy and almost make cleaning up the kitchen painless. There's a difference in a handknit wash rag than a terry one. I don't know what it is, but there is. It's not even something I think about but I love my knitted ones. They scrub up messes really well too. So the time spent on those is time well spent, and pleasant and doesn't take too much time from my cross stitch. I'm knitting a scarf. This is my second year on this particular scarf, I've started it over several times because I'm a dork and forgot to check right and wrong side when I was picking it back up. It's the Alien Illusion scarf from Stitch N Bitch. I have two alien faces completed maybe by next winter I'll have a handknit scarf. Fortunately I live in North West Florida so my winter at it's longest is 2 months. Usually runs about 6 weeks. But it's a really cold six weeks. I crochet. I have an afghan I've been working on for my mom's new house since she started having it built. I crocheted it in about a week but am procrastinating on putting it together. It's all Lionbrand Homespun will that even fit through the eye of a yarn needle? But putting it together will take time, time away from cross stitch and I've got a lot of projects to get done doncha know? So now here we are with the whole punch needle issue. I will have to learn punch needle, I will have to purchase punch needles, probably a special punch needle hoop, not to mention punch needle kits on which to practice because we can't just jump into the mermaid stocking, do I really want to do this? Is one design worth crossing over to the darkside? And of course we have the whole issue of, "I really like this punch needle stuff, more, more, more!" Do you know how much that will eat into my crafty time? Kathy Barrick's Tombstone punchneedle piece might be good practice and can hang on my tombstone wall if that's the way I decide to go with those.

I do love Market Weekend. It's like Christmas for stitchers!

Have you all heard about the Goat Lover of Mossy Head, Northwest Florida Daily News
big news around here. Here's another story, Northwest Florida Daily NewsGoat2. Other towns have drugs, murders, we have goat lovers. Got to love the Redneck Riviera.