Socks

I've been knitting away the past couple of nights so I've finished two more pairs of socks. The first pair are made of Lana grossa cotton stripe yarn. I knitted one of them last year and I though I'd better finish the second one.



The second pair are in Jitterbug sock yarn by Colinette in the shade bright charcoal and are my sockamonth pair for February. They are very soft and warm socks and I plan to buy more Jitterbug yarn in the future.



I picked up the frames I ordered today so I'm planning to get a couple of things framed up tonight. My dad's friend frames bigger things for me and yesterday my dad went off with a couple of things which have been unframed for a while - Taj Mahal garden, Titania and Lauren a portrait in blue. My dad's friend is a painter so his colour sense is pretty good. Hopefully I will have them back next weekend as he's usually pretty quick at getting things done.
I have done a bit of stitching this week but it was for an exchange so no pictures just yet. I've been plugging away on Mirabilia Miss Valentine and Japanese Octagon box too.
This week I'm going to be stalking the postmand - I've ordered some charts plus the new Mirabilia New Year fairy from Stitching bits and bobs and I got a shipping notice on Thursday. I've also ordered the Peacock stitching chair from Cats whiskers design studio like a lot of people and I'm really looking forward to stitching it.

Finishing and fimo

I seem to have quite a lot of unfinished things and ideas for various other crafty things at present but time isn't as plentiful as I need it to be. I spent a fair part of Thursday cutting up paper and card for my sister's wedding invitations and I'm happy to say I'm at about the halfway point of getting them done.
Having spent quite a bit of time on them, I then didn't feel any guilt on spending the rest of Thursday working on things for me. First off, I dug out some fimo which has been hanging about my flat for a while. I love stitched pieces with buttons so I thought I would try out making some myself. I found some tiny cutters in my local craft shop and this is the result.



The bigger shapes are, I think, destined to be needle magnets. The little flower bouquets are something that I just wanted to try.

I also got two things framed up using some bargain wood frames from Ikea and some leftover paint. The blue one is the colour of my bathroom lol. I would have more framed stuff to show but the place I order frames and mounts from, phoned me on Friday to say that my frames had arrived but one was damaged so they would need to get another.





And finally, there is this little ornament. Shamefully I stitched it in July 2002 but I had no clue at the time how to make it into a round ornament. Recently I used some metal finishing forms for the first time and voila I realised I could get it finished into an ornament. Around the edges, I've used some rats tail cord to trim it and make a hanger.


My to be finished off pile is starting to reduce in size lately. I still have a couple of stocking to make up and about another 12 or so things to do non framed finishing with. I think I might be spending a lot of time reading Focus on finishing that Karen and Anne have set up. It looks like a brilliant resource.

Valentine exchange

I've heard that my Valentine exchange has been received by Joanie.



The design I stitched is from issue 67 of a french magazine called Ouvrages broderie. I used designs from the same issue for my needlework smalls exchange too. Its stitched on linen using DMC 115, which is a really lovely variegated red. I really loved stitching it and the magazine has a few other similar designs which I can see me stitching in the fairly near future.

Needlework smalls exchange and a finish

I got home tonight after a very long and trying day at work which drove me nearly insane and I found some lovely mail waiting for me.

I got this lovely little fob that Natty stitched for me as part of the SBEBB Needlework smalls exchange. Its very sweet and over one. I'm not very good at over one stitching so anyone who stitches lots of over one deserves a medal.



She also sent a little stitching chart and a piece of fabric.

Whilst I was off at the end of last week, I felt the need for a quick stitching finish, so I started Egg basket by Shepherd's bush and finished it the same day.



The kit came with a lovely mount. I couldn't buy a ready made frame locally to fit it so I've ordered a frame which I will hopefully get on Saturday. Whilst I was ordering the frame, I ordered another one for a different small Shepherds bush kit which I'm going to stitch later in the week and also a mount for Mirabilia's Miss Valentine. I had hoped to finish Miss Valentine before Valentine's day but thats unlikely to happen.

In the past week, I've been stitching away on my Chatelaine japanese octagon box WIP as the finishing class is at the end of next month. I've still got a fair bit to do but I really think I might do it.

After tomorrow, I have a couple of days off again. I expect to spend it largely knee deep in paper and card as I've still got quite a bit of work to do on my sister's Wedding invitations and the Wedding is in June.

Socks, Socks, Socks

Or more in my obsession with knitting socks. The last time I posted a picture of my socks in progress, it looked like this.



Since this picture was taken, the socks on the top right and top left have had both socks finished. The middle socks on the top row (the red,grey and blue ones) have the first sock finished.

Recently I started taking part in the Sock a month KAL on Crafty threads n yarns, which has been lots of fun so far. It has fueled the sock obsession a little more though.


February's socks are knitted in Colinette's jitterbug yarn, which is so soft. The colour I'm using is Bright charcoal. I've just turned the heel on the first one and I'm knitting along the foot.



These are some of the other socks in progress - on the top row from left to right Hedera in 4ply soft, a simple pair in Cascade sassy stripes, a sock in Regia cotton and a sock in opal 6ply Ladybird.
On the bottom row, a sock with contrasting rib, heel and toes in Lorna's laces in violet and black purl, opal sock in Doctorfish and finally a sock in Lorna's laces Georgetown. In each these are first socks of a pair.




And there's more
A second sock in Lana grossa cotton, a single sock in Lorna's laces Argyle which I haven't cast on the pair for and a regia sock which is my first short row heel sock.


And finally, a first sock in Trekking shade 100 and a first sock in Fleece artist Jester


Which makes 12 in progress (not including the Argyle one which I haven't cast the second one on for). I think I need to knit faster, especially since I've done a little online shopping and today I visited K1 yarns, which is my nearest yarn store. I got to see lots of yarns in person and I can definitely see me knitting some more Colinette yarns in the future. The Cadenza DK is gorgeous.



On the top right are two skeins of Lisa Souza Sock in Limenviolet and little devil which arrived in the post the other day. Today at K1 yarns, I bought some Tofutsies sock yarn, some Hummingbird DK alpaca and some fyberspates sock yarn. I also got some Inca cloud alpaca which will eventually become gloves.

Valentine exchange arrives

Today has been mostly unexciting - some housework and food shopping. But there was a high point when I got my Valentine exchange package from the sorting office. I'm sure the postman only tries to deliver things when he knows that I'm out.

My Valentine exchange was stitched by Helen, who will, I'm sure, have beautifully posed pictures of this as she takes amazing pictures of her stitched things. By a strange coincidence, I stitched for Helen in the Needlework smalls exchange this month.



She also included some lovely extras.

Needlework smalls finish

I heard today that the exchange piece that I stitched for the SBEBB Needlework smalls exchange has arrived with Helen today.



The smaller one is a scissor fob and the bigger one is a pinkeep. You can't see the back of the pinkeep but its got a magnet on the back. I can't claim this idea as my invention as Aniza sent me a pinkeep last year in the pink quaker exchange that had a magnet on the back of it and I thought this was a brilliant idea.
The designs are part of two designs from a French magazine Ouvrages Broderie No67, which I bought specifically for the red and white designs that are in it. They are stitched in DMC 115, which is a lovely variegated red thread. I wanted to find glass headed pins to finish the pinkeep but I can't seem to find coloured ones in the right colours so I trawled ebay for some coloured plastic ones. I ended up buying some in a couple of different colours so I have hundreds of them for future finishes.

Last day of a four day stint at work tomorrow and then I have 4 days off to try and catch up with lots of things. Hopefully I will get some stitching and finishing done.

Its all Seahorse's fault

So I'm casually reading Seahorse's blog and I see her post about some great fabric that she bought from an ebay seller. 24 hours later, an envelope arrives at my letter box containing lovely cotton fabrics. The piece on the far left is a free piece that I got for buying the other 3 and I have to say this seller has great judgement in picking the free piece because if I had seen that bit of fabric, I would have bought it.




My bedroom has quite a lot of chinese texiles and Oriental themed stitching on the wall so I think the oriental prints will become cushions or cushion backs. Its ironic that I really love going shopping for fabric now as when I was very young, I hated it when my mum dragged my sister and I around every local fabric shop. My mum trained as a sewing machinist and made us most of our clothes when I was a child. It was pretty good as I got older as we could take her into a shop and show her something we liked. She would then make something very similar and it fitted much better too, given that I'm not very tall.
I didn't pay enough attention when she tried to teach me to sew when I was younger so I'm not very confident with a sewing machine. Ironically, my mum isn't much good at hand sewing and she doesn't have the patience for cross stitch. I tried to teach her a couple of years ago but she says that it takes too long. At the moment, she is sewing my sister's wedding dress and 4 bridesmaids bodices/skirts. They will be coming to me very soon to have beads applied to them.

I had my sewing machine out this week as I finished my Scared stitches piece from the Shepherds bush retreat. I'm not 100% happy with all the seams as they aren't as straight as I would like them. The pictures make them look even more squinty.





I also made a couple of pieces of oriental fabric that I got from Satomi into cushions and also an Oriental themed round robin into a cushion. I forgot to take pictures of them last night. I've also finished off 2 exchange pieces this week but pictures of them will have to wait until them reach their destinations.
Tomorrow is my last day off work this week. I was off sick at the start of the week so I feel like I haven't been there in ages. I'm kind of dreading going back as I've had enough of work there at the moment. There's still no news from the company that told me at the end of last year that they wanted to employ me so I guess they still haven't got any vacancies. I really need to get myself motivated to learn to drive. I've had a lot of driving lessons in the past but after a very upsetting driving test 8 years ago, I haven't had any lessons. I actually like the driving bit but the test bit is so horrible. It would open up a few job opportunities if I got my license so I should go for it.