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.

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.

300 years ago today

What follows isn't knitting or stitching but just some random recent thoughts on the history of where I'm from
300 years ago today, the original Scottish Parliament passed the Act of Union which joined Scotland to England and Wales as Great Britain under one Monarch but with separate legal and education systems and a independent Church of Scotland.
At school, I learned about the Act and the turbulent and rebellion filled time which followed and I was encouraged to be proud of my country's history inspite of the many failures. I do sometimes wonder how things might have been if the Act of Union had never happened and if an independent Scotland would have thrived. Or perhaps the hard times are what made Scotland the nation it is today. I guess the world would have been different for many countries as so many Scots left to seek better times elsewhere as times got tough at home.
Today I choose to remember that we make our own decisions about how history affects our future. In the past, Scotland has let itself dwell on past injustices and how a now 300 year old act, which many were opposed to, caused the country to feel resentful about its bigger neighbour. The best thing that any country can to do is to look forward to a better future and ensure that its talented people are helped to achieve their potential and great traditions are preserved so that future generations can appreciate the country they live in, not forced to leave for whatever reason.
Today I am proud to be Scottish but also British. It makes for a interesting bag of different experiences.

Wet and wild

Wet and wild pretty much describes the year so far around here. I've been off work for the past week and I've spent most days indoors because the weather has been so awful. I had big plans for my week off - I was going to paint my living room and think about paint colours for my bedroom but post Christmas lethargy has set in. I have moved some furniture around and tidied out some stuff that I no longer need but thats pretty much it.

I did knit a pair of socks though.



I'm taking part in a Sock a month knit a long on Crafty threads 'n' yarns forum
and this pair is January's pair. They are knit in Posh Yarn's Lucia yarn in the shade Highland mist. The yarn has been in my stash for a while so its good to see it knitted up. I do have quite a bit of it leftover as I do with most of my sock yarn as I have quite small feet. I'm starting to have quite a collection of leftovers. I took a class with Kerrie Allman of Hipknits at Harrogate which was about knitting small flowers for decoration so I think some of it might end up being used up that way.

Stitching wise, I've started Noah's sub but there isn't really enough progress to see yet. I have also been stitching on some exchange things too, which I can't share either but look out for pictures of them next month once they reach their destinations.

Happy new year and a review of 2006

Happy new year everyone. I've been taking it easy and generally relaxing over the past few days. I was going to to say I had been chilling out but that phrase grates with me a bit now as someone at work uses it every five minutes and I can't bear to hear it anymore.
2007 came in with a bang in Scotland. Pretty much every outdoor event was cancelled because of 70-80 miles per hour winds and driving rain so my plan to stay at home was the right decision. I was a little worried at several points during the evening when the power flicked off and then on again as my heating is electric powered but thankfully it was okay. In quite a few areas nearby, they weren't so lucky and engineers are still trying to get the power back on.

Scotland pretty much still grinds to a halt at New Year. The only shops that are open tend to be garages. Many shops are still shut on the 2nd of January as it is also a Scottish bank holiday as well as the 1st of January. There was an outcry in 2005 when one of the department stores in Edinburgh suggested that they might open on the 1st. New year has always historically been a bigger thing around here than Christmas - my dad tells me he can remember working part of Christmas day when he started working in a wire factory in the early 1960's whereas they always had New years day off.

And so another year is over. This year promises some excitement - my sister's wedding and now my cousin has announced her wedding too. I'm not sure where my cousin's wedding will be - she lives in Leeds just now but her parents are near Southport and her fiance's father can't travel too far so the wedding might be near them in Kent. Its apparently going to be in June also so June is looking busy with the big GTG that I'm attending with a load of UK based stitchers.

At the start of 2006, I said that my main aim for 2006 was reduce my WIPs. I started 2006 with 29 WIPs plus 1 round robin. During 2006, I started 68 projects and finished 61. I also gave up on 2 projects which were never going to get done. I'm no maths genius but I don't think thats gone in the right direction as I ended up with 34 WIPs lol. I did get the count down to 27 in April but from July onwards, the only way was up. Part of the problem is that I didn't stitch as much in 2006 as I did in 2005, which is due to the knitting bug biting hard. I need to balance it out a bit better this year.

My aims for 2007 are
1. To take part in the Bloggers Christmas ornament SAL each month. In the past, I haven't been that good at keeping up with SALs but this year I hope will be different
2. To take part in the pair of Socks a month KAL on a knitting forum I visit. I need to be careful with this one as I've been having an occasional bit of wrist pain after knitting and I really don't want to make them worse and end up not being able to knit at all.
3. Start Noah's sub and make some progress on it (another SAL)
4. Get at least one Chatelaine WIP finished.
5. Reduce my stash - I have lots of lovely things in my stash waiting to be stitched and its a waste for them to sit there gathering dust. I'm not going completely on the wagon as each time I say that I'm going to do that, I end up buying even more.
6. Most all, I want to enjoy all the crafts that I do, especially cross stitch, which is still my favourite.

I will be interested to see how I get along with these.

Whoosh

December has gone by me in a hurry this year. I can't quite believe that its the 31st tomorrow. The past fortnight, I've been working a lot but as of tonight, I have 5 days off. I'm planning lots of sleep, relaxation and stitching. I've hardly stitched for the past 2 weeks and I'm really missing it.

Therefore I've got no stitching progress to share today so I thought I'd end this post with a picture of my Christmas tree decorated with stitching ornaments received in lots of different exchanges and many I've stitched myself.

Knitting and insomnia

I've been awake since around 2am this morning as I finished night shift on Monday morning and promptly crashed out asleep from midday Monday to 2am this morning. Shift work screws up my already pretty hopeless sleep pattern.

I tried to get back to sleep but I couldn't so I picked up one of my many sock projects and finished the second of my broadripple socks. They are knitted in Cascade fixation and in spite of what it might look like, they are both knitted in the same shade and from the same dyelot. The only thing I can think of is that the first sock was finished a few months ago and perhaps has faded a little.



I still have quite a few other socks in progress and quite a few skeins and balls of yarn waiting their turn to become socks. I find knitting socks pretty relaxing and they are so much more comfortable than shop bought socks.

As well as socks, I'm also knitting a few pairs of Fetching gloves for Christmas presents. They knit up pretty quick and the weather has been pretty cold this week so they will be useful too.

Catching up

Oops, where did November go ?. I can't quite believe that its December already, Christmas is just around the corner.

Okay so since my last post, I've been to Harrogate to the stitching show. I bought some lovely things - Hipknits aran weight silk, an Orna Willis chart and materials and some lovely Gloriana silks amongst other things. Whilst I was away, I got a cold from hell which is now dragging into its 3rd week.
The visit to my potential new employer went well and they seem to be keen to employ me but they don't have a vacancy just yet. They are going to contact me as soon as they have one though, which is just as well as my current Ward Sister seems to be trying to drive me insane with my rota for this month - I'm working Christmas day and the 3 days before it, 3 days between Christmas and New Year and 6 weekends in a row. I have had a discussion with her about it and made it clear that I am very unhappy about the situation. I was expecting to be working Christmas day but the rest of the rota stinks, especially considering that I helped her to ensure that the rota was covered for this month. I'm not going to let this get me down as I don't want it affecting me outside work. Looking on the bright side, I will have a good pay in January with all the weekend working.

Stitching wise, its Christmas all the way around here. I've stitched 5 ornaments in the past month and I finished my SB Jillian's stocking. Pictures to follow once I've done some finishing. Knitting wise, I'm working away on more socks and I've finish knitting a shrug in Rowan Chunky print. The Shrug is the design Blackberry from knitty and its the first thing bigger than socks/scarves/hats that I've knitted. Its not particulary perfect but its warm.

I've switched to beta blogger tonight also. It seems much easier to use and much easier to customise. It doesn't work with the Mac browser Safari so I've switched to Firefox, which I like better since it was upgraded. My blog might change a little over the coming weeks as I fancy a completely different look for it.

Stitching progress

Not too much going on around here hence the lack of posts. I've been stitching quite a bit the past couple of weeks as I tend to do at this time of year. I usually find October onwards is my most productive time of the year. I guess its because Christmas is around the corner and its my favourite time to stitch for.
The other reason for not posting is that I've been preparing for a job interview today. It went fairly well and I'm going back to the company to spend some time with one of the staff to see if its the sort of job I want to do. Its still in nursing but working for a private company rather than a hospital. Hopefully it will all work out, only time will tell.

Anyway back to the stitching. I've running slightly late on my seasonal stitching this year (or really early for next year lol). So in the past week, I stitched two of the Halloween bags from Shepherds bush that I bought at the retreat. They are really quick to stitch.




And then on to Winter stitching. I've had this chart pack from Hobb Nobb designs in my stash for a little while so I though it was time to stitch it. The frame is one I bought at Wye needlecraft earlier in the year for the bargain price of £1. I used one of these earlier in the year for another Hobb Nobb design and they are just the right size.



I also started another Christmas project - Jillian's stocking by Shepherd's bush. Its going pretty quickly so far but I'm a bit annoyed as the chart states two skeins of Weeks dye work no5 perle is needed to stitch the dress bit. I've used both skeins of thread and I've not quite finished stitching the dress. I've ordered another skein from a LNS in the US as its not a thread that I've found from my usual sources of overdyed threads here. Other than that, I'm really enjoying stitching it.

Socks, Socks, Socks

This month has been Sockoctoberfest in knitting blogland. Lots of bloggers have knitting lots of socks. This month, I managed to finish the stripy socks in the last post and that is it.
The picture below shows the 9 socks I have cast on at present. How the heck did that happen lol.



Only one of these is the second sock of a pair - the one on the top left, which is knitted in the Broadripple pattern from the marvelous online magazine, Knitty. I cast on two new socks this month which were - Hedera, the purple lacy ones on the top right and are kntted in some 4ply soft that Seahorse Claire gave me earlier this year and the bottom right ones which are in Opal 6ply in Ladybird.

I also have a fair large stash of sock yarn which is waiting to be knitted up too. Considering I only learnt to knit sock this time last year, I think I may be a little obsessed with it. Incidentally, if you are reading this Shannon, I taught myself to knit sock via a pattern and some knitting forum post so I am sure you could learn. I even have a pattern you could have - drop me a message via yuku/ezboard with your mailing address and I'll send it to you. I have to spread the insanity of sock knitting lol.

As I mentioned before, I finished this month's Essy's friend project as soon as it got here. I finally got a picture of it uploaded.



I've had to turn on word verification on in comments because of a weird comment spam which was posted here and at a wordpress blog of the same name as this one that I don't post at anymore. If that person is still reading, I'm Scots not Irish and I'm not oppressed in the slightest. I also have the IP of where you posted from at wordpress.

Knitty and other stuff

First off, thank you all for your lovely commments, they are very much appreciated. Autumn has hit here this past week and its getting cold so the knitting has been getting some attention.

I've finished two things this week so far. Firstly I've finished a new pair of socks. I finished the first one a while ago and now the second one is done. I've now got six pairs and they are so warm and cosy. I also finished a clapotis scarf which is knitted in the Orkney angora I bought a few months ago. Its a little shorter than I would like but it will look okay tucked into a winter coat. I just need to buy a new winter coat now.



I have quite a few knitting WIPs. When I began knitting, I said that I would not end up with my knitting going the same way as my stitching. Cue ironic laughing as I currently have 2 bags and about 8 pairs of socks at various stages of progress plus a few other things. I've definately got chronic startitis with my stitching and knitting.

I've got two more work days left this week and then I'm off until the 3rd. I requested not to work this weekend as the local stitching show is on this weekend and I'm planning to visit on Saturday. I don't really have any particular things I want to get and I'm not planning on spending a lot of money but its just lovely to and see things in person. Its certainly going to be more fun than last weekend which I spent working,

Some finished things

Firstly, thank you to everyone for your lovely comments about the exchanges. I had a lot of fun stitching the designs and trying out new things. And I got such lovely stitched things from my fellow stitchers. Receiving the packages really brighten my day.

I've finished two projects from the retreat so far. A felt bag designed by Blackbird designs and a little Halloween SB necklace that was the welcome project.



When I got back from Utah, I wasn't really feeling like going anywhere due to jet lag so I decided to try and do some stitching. First up two Essy's friends designs by Indigo Rose and Glory Bee. I'm really behind stitching these so I thought I'd better get going with them. I've also finished this month's, which is a ladybird fob but I can't find the picture of that one just now.




And lastly a framed piece - Legends of the Spellcasters. I ordered a frame for this and its been around at home for a few months so I'd thought that was a bit of pity. So I spent about an hour stretching it and framing it up. I'm pleased with how it looks.



I have a few big things waiting for framing - Titania, Taj Mahal garden, Queen Bee sampler, St Peters fair to name 4 of them. The friend of my dad that has done framing for me in the past has been away a lot this year - every time I ask about framing something, he seems to be away or just about to go away. I'm going to go and have a chat with another branch of the framer that Tina (of An Italian Scot's stitching journal) uses as the Glasgow branch isn't that far away so I think Titania might get framed by them.