Stitching progress

Before knitting came along,  stitching was my main crafty thing. Of late it has fallen by the wayside for a variety of reasons - mainly hand problems and the addictive properties of sock and shawl knitting.  After seeing the Prestonpans tapestry, I had an urge to stitch this past weekend and even finished a few things.

A little hardanger embroidery book mark.  This went much better than my previous attempts at this type of embroidery

A little hedgehog in satin stitch with french knots

And I finished a Shepherds bush scissor fob that I started ages ago.

Here's the front

and the back

I then moved on to some finishing, sewing together the Trick or treat sacoche that I finished a few years ago.

Hopefully this wanting to stitch feeling will stick around for a little longer as I have a lot of projects I would like to stitch.

life and more knitting

Work is a little busy and stressful at the moment plus I've ended up on Facebook too in order to keep up with my extended family around the world. So its time for a catchup post. Over the past weeks, there's been a family party too - My cousin and her family are leaving the UK to settle in Canada. We are all going to miss them a lot but I am sure they will visit plus its nearly 20 years since I last visited Canada so it might be time to plan another trip.

As work has been a little crazy, I've been in need of relaxation and destressing when I'm at home. One of my favourite things about all the craft things that I do is that I find that they all help to reduce stress. I have a tendency to let things bother me and get me down so things that relax me are really vital. At the moment, its mostly knitting thats grabbing my attention. I've finished two projects since my last post.

Firstly Shur'tugal socks in absolutely divine Malabrigo sock in the shade Abril. The colour is even more purple in real life. These took a while to get done but it was worth it.



My second knitting finish, on the other hand, just flew off the needles. 18 days from start to finish and I didn't knit on it most days. The pattern is Ishbel by Ysolda Teague. I've knitted a lot of her designs largely because they are so pretty and so well put together. She seems to put a lot of clever detail into her designs. The yarn is Habu naturally dyed laceweight cashmere. I bought this yarn several years ago when I first started knitting as I loved the colour but wasn't confident enough to knit it up into something that would do it justice until now.



I love this little close up in the window as it shows how light and airy the lace is.



I now know why people knit lace as it is so addictive plus blocking a lace shawl is just like magic. Blocking boards aren't available in the UK so following some advice on Ravelry, I used children's foam puzzle tiles which worked out fairly well.

Overcoming a fear of sewing machines

Ever since I was a very little girl, I've been around sewing machines and fabrics. My mum was a sewing machinist to trade and spent many years working in a variety of different factories, making wedding dresses, waxed jackets and evening wear amongst other things. Times change and there aren't many factories making clothes around here. Although I've always been around sewing machines and have made some clothes in the past (with help from mum), I've always been really a little scared of sewing machines. At school I hated the home economics sewing lessons we had as the teachers expected me to be a natural because of what my mum worked as. Alas I was really very uncoordinated as a child and although I'm a little better now, I'm always scared I will hurt myself on it or destroy the fabric.

In recent years, I've been finding myself wanting to sew more, especially to finish some of my stitching into something. Up until now, most of this sort thing I've done by hand sewing. A couple of years ago, I bought a mini sewing machine but it really wasn't that good so last year I splashed out on a full sized Janome machine with lots of features. At the moment, I'm off on holiday so I thought I would get cracking with overcoming my sewing machine fear with the side effect of trying to reduce my to be finished into something pile.

I started off with some simple cushions with the cross stitch bits hand sewn on to the front of them.




Happy holidays by Lizzie Kate.



Scatter sunshine by Shepherd's bush



Scatter Christmas cheer by Shepherd's bush.

I then moved on to a cushion with the cross stitch sewn into it.



On the haunt by Shepherd's bush

And a banner type thing.



4 square peep by San Man designs.

Finally and much instruction reading, I put my very first zip in a cushion - normally I either get my mum to do it or just hand sew the side up. Its not perfect, it was a little scary to do but I like it. The stitching is a dragon round robin that I was in a number of years ago.


I don't think I'm ever going to be the most confident sewing machine user but it was a little less scary than it was before. I did do some hand sewing based finishing by making Pumpkins by Little house needlework into a pin keep.



Other than sewing, I've mostly been using my holidays to sleep and catch up with a lot of household things that I've neglected of late. The weather here has been pretty wet, wild and cold so its been ideal. There's also been some knitting but no knitting finishes. There has been a fairly large amount of progress on a variety of projects so I'm hoping for a few big knitting finishes soon. The weather just now is certainly knitwear weather.

Stitching, knitting and exchanges

I have been meaning to post but just not getting around to it for the past few days. Given that I'm not really short on spare time at the moment, I'm not really sure where the time goes each day. Mostly it disappears into more sleep time, doing strange stretching exercises and general household stuff. I have been catching up on a lot of household tidying over the past 2 weeks as I seem to be further along the road to recovery than I was a few weeks ago. Returning to work soon is looking a lot more realistic just now and I should hopefully have a better idea after a round of different hospital/GP appointments this week.

Saturday I got a lovely surprise in the post. I took part in a Valentine's exchange on the SBEBB earlier in the year but something went wrong and I didn't receive an exchange. On Saturday, I got a lovely replacement stitched by Cathy B who stepped in so I got an exchange.

It is a lovely sweet LHN design finished as a little pillow and she also included some DMC threads and some sampler fabric which will be made into something soon.



A slightly better picture of the pillow



I've also finished some stitching. First up a little biscornu pincushion which I stitched to try out the finish as I've signed up for an Biscournu exchange.



The design is a freebie from Barbara Ana which I found via a link on her website. I also signed up for her newsletter which sends out some lovely freebies. I can see a few more biscornus in my future.

I also finished a Shepherds bush design On the haunt. The fabric is a lot more orangey in real life.



The sock knitting continues also. I've finished knitting the two pairs I was working on and cast on for some more.





I haven't actually finished any socks in the past week or so. I've been doing some secret knitting for someone and also knitting some squares in leftover sock yarn for a charity afghan that I'm taking part in the Who knits group on Ravelry. Speaking of knitting, this coming Saturday, the Guardian has a knitting supplement featuring designs from a knitter that had a Doctor Who related run in with the BBC

Thanks for the nice words about my baking. I do appreciate it and the biscuits and cake were lovely. I do agree with Lena-lou about the shape of the Dalek cake though. The Dalek cutter came from a kit that you can buy in a local supermarket and I've saved it for further use.

Yay stitching

I've just about recovered from last weekend's stitching GTG and now its the weekend again. The GTG was lots of fun and I really don't think I've laughed so much since the same time last year. During the weekend, I dyed a couple of pieces of linen which I'll share pictures of once I've managed to get around finishing rinsing them and ironing them. Ironing is really not my favourite thing to do but I'l force myself lol. I also made a small trip to Wye needlecraft but I didn't go mad - I only bought a small piece of linen plus two mirabilia charts which were a particularly good price. We also had a stash giveaway in which I managed to give away a good amount of used charts and I gained a couple of pieces of fabric and two chart. All in all, it was a good weekend.

Anyway being around lots of stitchers certainly helped my stitching mojo, especially with all the finished pieces and WIPs that I saw. It helped so much that I actually finished a fairly long term WIP Happy Haunting by Shepherd bush.




I actually finished it on the train whilst the train got very close to Glasgow. Its one of the only good things about public transport - the ability to stitch on trains.
This was the retreat project from the 2006 Shepherds Bush retreat. I had planned to go again this year but being off work and still having back pain, I had to email to cancel. I'm a little disappointed but I had to be sensible.

Inpsired by one finish, I decided to pick up one of the numerous small projects that was waiting to be started and so I started, finished and finish, finished the Purrfect Bookmark from Cat's Whiskers. Its stitched on 40ct.



I'm off now to try and finish my multicoloured monkey socks. Next weekend sees the start of the Summer of socks KAL. I've joined in to try and use up some of my frankly too large sock yarn stash but I need to try and finish some of the socks currently on my needles as only socks started and finished during the time of the KAL count towards it. Currenty I have 3 pairs of socks at various stages of completion on the needles and it would be nice to start the KAL with none on the needles. That hasn't happened in a while.

Grape threadkeeper HD

The title says it all really. I finished the stitching in January this year and I finally completed the finishing on it last night.

I made a couple of changes on it. No initials on the front and no year inside. Partly because they were stitched over one which I don't like doing and also because I felt it looked fine without it. I used a premade cord around the edges rather than making it mainly because I had the perfect colour in my stash. I also found some random oddments of Vikki Clayton silk in my stash to wrap on the thread rings.

Here is the outside.



And here is the inside.





I took some more pictures in the daylight today which I think shows it better.





Tonight I'm off to a local knitting group for a meet up. I'm hoping to finish the Cranford mitts that I'm knitting.

Holiday crafty progress

Well my time off work is nearly done. I'm back at work on Thursday for 2 days and then luckily I'm off for 6 days after that due to my roster and the end of the holiday year which means I have to use all annual leave.

The weather has been truly horrible. We had some snow at the start of the week and thereafter its been rain, rain and more rain. Still its Scotland in March and really its not that surprising lol.

As a consequence of the awful weather, there's been a lot of house based holiday activities. I have been spring cleaning which is not really my idea of fun but a necessary evil. I also have been spring cleaning and tidying my wardrobe so the local charity shops are going to benefit a little from my efforts.

I have been knitting a bit too. I finished my blue Monkey socks in the Sheldridge farm yarn.



I also have done a bit of internet shopping at the Yarn yard. Natalie had uploaded a lot of merino plus a lovely pattern for some lacy mitts designed by Jane. I started them as soon as the yarn arrived. This colour combination is Sooty cherry/Mysteron. I'm hoping to get them finished in the next day or so.



As well as the knitting, there's been some finishing being done also. I finished stitching You've been hatched by Teresa Wentzler in 2005 and since then I've been looking for a box to mount it in. I finaly found one in The Viking loom in York in November last year and yesterday I mounted it in the box top.


Today I framed up a Shepherds bush kit that I bought in Utah - Boo to you. The mount came with the kit and I had a frame made to size locally.



This evening, I'm continuing with the finishing kick. I started the finishing on Grape threadkeeper yesterday and I'm hoping to get it completed tonight. I'm working slowly on it as I don't want to mess it up.

Work, sleep, knit, repeat.

And throw a little internet surfing, a tiny bit of stitching too and that sums up life for the past month. There was also a rather nasty cold which floored me for a few days. Finally though the dark days of winter are starting to be over and it was actually light at 5 this afternoon. Its a downside of living in Scotland that the days are so short in winter, which is thankfully balanced out by long summer days.

There has been a little stitching in the past month. First off a stray Christmas ornament that I finished the stitching on in January and I did the finishing on yesterday. Its French country mitten by JBW designs on some Lambswool linen using Gloriana silk in Cranberry.



Then this afternoon I finished Autumn Silhouette by Blackbird designs. I used Crescent colors thread in Pansy purple for my version and the fabric is some R&R reproductions linen in Light expresso.



There is another project which I completed but its for an exchange so I can't share it until it arrives at its destination. Its a little overdue already so I hope the postal service hurries up.

Most of my off time in the past month has been spent knitting. I've finished a pair of socks using the remains of a skein of Lisa Souza sock yarn which I had already used to make a pair of monkey socks. One skein of this yarn seems to go very far, partly because I have small feet.




I've also been doing some baby knitting for a stitching friend. Sadly work stopped me getting to a GTG to give the knitted items in person but I was able to send them to Joy who was hosting the GTG.

The hats are knitted from a pattern in the book Itty bitty hats which I've used before. The socks were knitted using some of my sock yarn leftovers and took about an hour to knit the pair. And finally a Tulip baby cardigan which I bought the kit from Socktopus, my current favourite yarn supplier. If you knit and haven't bought from Alice yet, I would recommend Socktopus very highly. Many of the yarns she stocks aren't available elsewhere in the UK and the customer service is second to none.












Tomorrow I'm back to work which is not much fun at present as my workplace is being renovated around the staff and patients by the world's slowest workmen. I've got a week off coming up at the start of March which can't come too quickly at the moment.

Exchange stitching

I really like getting things in the post. When I was much younger, I had quite a few penpals. Sadly I've lost touch with them now for a variety of reasons. Since joining various online communites, I've been taking part in variety of exchanges and at times, I've even run a few of them. In the first online group I joined on what is now yahoogroups, I ran quite a few but after a while, there were problems in the group so I stopped.

Most of my exchange stitching today is as part of the Stitching Bloggers exchange board. I really enjoy taking part and sometimes the best bit is that I stitch things that I wouldn't normally. My last exchange parcel has arrived at is destination just as I received mine in return.

In a strange twist of fate Leena and I stitched for each other.

Leena sent me a lovely bourse using a design by Long dog



The outside looks like this




Leena chose Cats as her critter in this exchange. I'm not really a cat person so I've not stitched any before. I ended up stitching a Sweetheart tree design, Catnip kitty fob

This is the front



And this is the back



I had a lot of fun stitching it and I'm happy as it turned out that Leena had been wanting to stitch the design for a while so it worked out well.

The exchange stitching isn't finished though. I've got a SB exchange piece to finish off for mailing on Monday and then after that, I've signed up for a Halloween exchange and my favourite exchange of the year - The TWBB Christmas ornament exchange.

Thanks for everyone's comments during my recent time off work. I'm pleased to say that my back and foot are back to normal finally and I'm starting back at work next week. I have a few extra days off at first as the two weeks annual leave that I should have took whilst I was off gets returned to me unused. Its going to come in handy as my physio has signed me up for a gym based program of exercise, which I started last week. The aim to attend the gym and follow an exercise program at least twice a week. In the past, I've not really been much of an exercise fan. I've swum a bit and walked a lot but I'm not very well coordinated when it comes to sports. This program appears to have changed that and I'm very surprised to find that I actually enjoy going to the gym and working out. The best effect so far is the reduction in back pain and I've been able to stop taking painkillers. I've got an assigned advisor to help make sure I'm doing everything right and to help tailor the program for me.

Flowers and finishing

The title says it all really. There's a tradition where I work that if you are off work ill for more than a few weeks, you get flowers. Today I answered the door to be presented with some lovely flowers.



At the weekend, I bought a new digital camera as mine has decided to stop working properly. I had put some money aside for it as my camera has been gradually failing. I asked around and Gill mentioned the Fuji finepix S5700 that she got recently. It had all that I was looking for and it has a very good macro/supermacro setting. I had a little play with it using the flowers. Its very cool. The colours seem much better too.





I finally got around to doing the finishing on some projects that have been waiting for too long.

This is Lizzie Kate's Official snow guide on Silkweaver hazelnut lugana.




Lizzie Kate's Sweet Christmas. I stitched this previously for an exchange and had to stitch it for me. I used the supermacro setting to take the picture and its great for taking pictures of stitching.


And Best Witches by Shepherds bush.


I'm still stitching on exchanges so I can't share pictures of them yet but I've got some pictures of a previous exchange that I hadn't shared before.

I stitched this for the SBEBB Monochromatic exchange as a replacement for another stitcher who hadn't received their exchange. Its a design from the De fil en aiguille tout rouge issue and its stitched in a thread called Solitaire SF0060 from Sparklies


This was the orginal monochromatic exchange that I sent to Leena