Socks and bargains

I finished my march sockamonth socks last night and I'm wearing them today. They are very comfy and soft. I bought the koigu for these when I was in Utah in September



I spent a good part of yesterday tidying up my spare bedroom/sewing room. I started tidying up my cross stitch stash and I now want to start lots of new projects. But I'm trying to be good so I didn't.

Today I wasn't so good. I found out recently that Fraser's in Glasgow has a yarn department. I knew that they used to have one which also had cross stitch supplies many years ago but I thought it shut about 10 years ago. I've been meaning to visit it the last couple of times I was in Glasgow and finally I did today. It was a very good time to visit as they had a sale on with 20% off quite a few yarns.
Here's the haul


There's some felted tweed in a purple colour which I think will become Ivy and some Tapestry in greys which I think might become a scarf and some kidsilk night because its pretty and will make some sort of lacy thing. I was chatting to the assistant whilst she was ringing it up and we were discussing how much of a bargain the felted tweed was. She asked what I was planning for it and I explained about the knitty pattern. She hadn't heard of knitty but she thought it was a great idea. I also shared a couple of other links so I think she might be in for some surfing and shopping.

Thanks everyone for your lovely comments about the framing. Jim, my framer, is a lovely and talented man and he loves framing cross stitch. I stitched something for him a couple of years ago as a thank you and I think another thank you cross stitch will be happening at some point. It will probably have to wait a while as my dad has asked that I stitch him a Buddha design. Its the same design that I stitched for his Buddhism teacher and its shades of brown. Whilst its beautiful, the thought of stitching it again is a little trying. He rarely asks for anything to be stitched and appreciates how much work it takes. I just need to find the pattern in the stash mountain lol.

Returned from the framer

Finally I got my 3 things that were getting framed back from my framer. Both he and his supplier had run out of spacers so there was a bit of a delay for that. Now I've seen them they are definitely worth the wait.
The framer is a friend of my dad's who frames as a hobby and charges me the cost of materials. I let him frame them how he thinks as he paints and has good colour sense. I've not been let down so far.

First up, Portrait of Lauren in blue by Nora Corbett.




Taj Mahal garden by Chatelaine, which is huge now its framed.



And finally Titania, queen of the fairies which I finished in 2004 and got semi forgotten about when I moved a couple of years ago and didn't want to frame stuff just before moving.



I'm pretty pleased with them, I just need to decide where to put them. Taj Mahal is going in my bedroom but I'm not sure where the other two are going to go.

Bringing things up to date.

Things seem to have been a little busy of late. I had a good time at the Glasgow stitching show but I didn't buy too much - some beads to make into various items of jewellery, some wool to knit a wrap cardigan and one little cross stitch kit. There wasn't a lot of cross stitch at the show but there was a lot of papercrafts. I did buy some new papers and some card blanks too. Other than the show, I've spent quite a bit of time with my mum - we got the sad news that one of my uncles died just over a week ago. He was married to my mum's nearest sister in age and they live in Ontario. He was diagnosed with a fairly aggressive cancer late last year but sadly he lost the fight against it. My mum was pretty upset as she couldn't get a flight to be at the funeral to support her sister. Its all been pretty sad as my mum is very close with her family (she has 5 sisters and 4 brothers).

Wedding preparations are still taking a lot of my time. The invitations are done and sent away in plently on time - the 2nd of June is the Wedding day. This past week, I've been making Wedding favours



Only about 30 to still get made. There was a minor disaster this week when my mum had the bridesmaids over for fitting as one of the dresses doesn't fit. Its getting sorted as we speak. Next its on to place cards, bridesmaids jewellery and buttonholes for the men.

I have still been managing to knit. This month's Sockamonth project is BFF socks in Koigu. The pattern is designed by the fabulous Cookie A and its the first of many of her patterns that I want to knit.
I've turned the second heel and I'm on the home stretch. I really love these socks and the koigu is gorgeous and squishy.



I also finished stitching another baby pressie for my friend's new baby.



I should have some pictures of newly framed stitching in the next day or so. The framed pieces are currently at my parents but I haven't seen them yet due to work commitments. I'm told they look great.

Time for an update

I find it ironic that when I'm off work for a week, I always seem to end up not blogging as much and sometimes not at all. This week so far, I have been mostly going out for lunch with various family members and knitting.

I heard from a very good friend on Sunday that she had her second baby on Tuesday so a bit of baby knitting was on the agenda. I should have started it weeks ago but I'm a terrible procastinator. I knitted the baby kimono from the Mason Dixon knitting book. Its in Rowan handknit cotton. I made it a little bigger than the patterns as my friend's new daughter was over 9lbs at birth. In the end, I ran out of yarn as it took about 2 1/2 balls of the cotton to knit this up



There is also some booties to go with it. They aren't terribly practicable as they are a wool/angora mix but hey they look nice.



I can safely share pictures here as she doesn't know about my blog. I've also bought some other yarn to knit something else for the baby and also some yarn to knit a cardigan for her big sister too.

Stitching wise I've finished a square for an online friends quilt but she hasn't received it yet so I don't want to post it here just in case she sees it.

I did hear earlier in the week that Veronica had received the redwork exchange that I stitched for her. Thankfully she likes it. Again, I've used DMC 115 on linen and I used finishing forms to finish them off. I'm lucky that I have a lovely local shop which stocks hundreds of ribbons and trims so I can get these pretty easily. I wish they stocked stitching supplies as I don't have a LNS within 1 hour of me now.







Tomorrow, I will be surrounded by craft supplies as I'm off to the stitching show in Glasgow. I had been planning to visit on Thursday but a local train strike put paid to that as the centre where it is held is only really easily reachable by train if you don't have a car. Its a shame for the show organisers as last year, the last day of the show was ruined by a very heavy snow fall. I'm sure the rail strike will have affected the takings for yesterday and today as the trains going to the centre are packed on show day. I'm going to the show with my mum and aunt and we're planning to have lunch out too, which would make it four meals out in restaurants since last Saturday.
The other thing that occupied my time is wedding preparations. I should point out that it is my sister who is getting married but she has no craft abilities. I'm making the wedding invites etc as a wedding gift to her. She is a pretty easy going bride so far, which I hope will continue. Between my mum, my sister and myself, we are trying to do as much as we can ourselves as a lot of the wedding stuff that other people sell are very expensive and it seems crazy to spend so much on one day.
I'm off now to watch Doctor Who.

Stitching to share

Sadly, the new stash has not yet arrived. The post office have been a bit useless this past while. Somewhere in the mail system, there is also an order from Get knitted and some stuff to finish the Wedding invitations; both of them should have arrived today. I did get the Spring issue of Interweave knits in the post today so I will be reading that later.

I also got a parcel containing my Redwork exchange from Judith.






Its lovely and the design is very appropriate.

I also got my two SB finishes for February framed up - Egg basket and The sheep's in the meadow. I love the little mats that came with these kits, they are so sweet.






The past few days have been a blur of work, sleep and making wedding invitations. This next week will be good though - work is off the schedule until a week on Monday and the wedding invitations are almost done. Thats really just as well seeing as the Wedding is 3 months tomorrow.