I went to my first sheep and fiber festival yesterday. Not on the scale of Rhinebeck, but fun nonetheless. Saw many different breeds of sheep -- shetlands, babydolls (small brown sheep w ith heads shaped liked a bear's, Jacobs with two-to-four hours, and many others, the names of which I don't recall -- llamas, bunnies that looked like live "dust bunnies" with their long, fuzzy fur, and in the petting zoo, a pig, a turkey, a funky-looking chicken with a crown of black and white feathers that reminded me of Cruella DeVille. Unfortunately, my camera batteries ran out so I didn't get many pictures.
(Here's a picture of the babydoll, but it wouldn't turn around)
Lots of lovely yarns, especially from The Sanguine Gryphon. They had such gorgeous silks but I didn't buy any of that. I only bought sock yarn. This is Sea Sock, a blend of merino wool and sea silk; the color is "Maggie May."
This is Little Traveller, 100% merino wool that is sooo soft, in "Djibouti."
This is Woolie Bears Superwash from Woolbearers, a wool/nylon blend, in "Don't Leave."
And finally, this is Oasis Yarn Aussie Sock, a merino/nylon blend, in "Hot Pepper."
Now to find patterns for all of these. Off to Ravelry!
New Project?
Not yet, but the current issue of Interweave Knits arrived today, and there are a couple of patterns I really like: the Ruched Shell and Henley Perfected. I may actually try the Ruched Shell. Although I like many sweater patterns, I'm put off right now by sleeves.
As an aside, I could have sworn that the model on the cover was Jennifer Garner. In some pics, the model is a deadringer for her, others, not so much.
Brooklyn Sock Knit-a-long II progress
Finished the first sock. I tried a picot bind-off but I'm not sure I really like it on this sock. It's also a little finicky because you have to knit into a stitch, move that stitch to the LH needle, knit into that stitch, etc. The yarn is a little split-y, too, so I had to redo stitches a few times because I wasn't knitting through the whole stitch. But I enjoyed using this yarn, and I really like the way the color variations came out. On to the second in the pair.
Related post: Second Brooklyn Sock Knit-a-Long -- MacGiver style
Oh, Canada!
Had a wonderful visit a few weeks ago with May. You know things are bad when you get to the airport 2 hours early and they've already delayed your flight. It just got worse from there. Thunderstorms and a deluge of rain was keeping everyone on the ground at LaGuardia. After about 7 hours, finally took off at midnight. We could have left sooner -- plane was there, had a crew, but ... no pilot. We had to wait for him to fly in from Chicago! Crazy. At least, the flight wasn't canceled.
The rest of the weekend was great, so it was worth it. Friday we spent the day shopping for cross-stitch and yarn. Saturday was knitting, stitching, munching -- much fun. Here's my stash enhancement report:
Cross-stitch:
Went to Gitta's, May's LNS. Nice shop, with a nice selection. - Take Time to Stitch too (will embellishment pkg.) -- Jeannette Douglas Designs. Like many of her designs, but didn't want to spend too much. (Yeah, right.)
- Black and White tulip (#34940) -- Marjolein Bastin. There was a stitched model of a larger piece -- Black Tulips (#34840) -- that was amazing. The shading and detail made it so
realistic. But decided to go for the smaller kit, which I think will be equally lovely. - Cross-stitch booklets from Zweigart. I haven't seen these anywhere in the U.S., but outside the U.S. there are so many wonderful cross-stitch magazines and booklets with designs for making something -- placemats, a bag, potholders. The poppies and roses were my favorites.
Knitting:First stop was Village Yarns. Great shop with many wonderful yarns to fondle and a great atmosphere. From the website:
We are about a 10 minute drive from Pearson International Airport and more than once an Airport Limousine has waited at our curb for a knitter to shop on the fly.
Worth it, if you can.- Knitting Lace Triangles by Evelyn A. Clark -- The shopowner showed us a knitted sample from this book and it was beautiful. A must for the knitting library.
- Handmaiden Yarns Sea Silk -- It's a blend of silk and seacell. Don't know what that is, but it feels luscious. Had to have it and it's hand-dyed in Canada, so it's a souvenir. The color looks reddish purple in the photo, but it's really more bluish purple.
We went to another shop (can't remember the name), but I didn't buy anything there. It' s a huge shop and they have any standard yarn you could possibly want. Also lots of books, magazines and charts. It was sensory overload, by that point though.
The shop is on Queen Street West, where there is also a lovely Asian tearoom -- Red Tea Box
"for any Asian spin on afternoon tea.*" It's a great place for a light meal and tea. When you walk in, it's a little deceiving. There are only a few tables. But in the back through a small courtyard, there's another room which is delightful. The furniture is very eclectic, with mismatched chairs, tables and settees. We shared a pork sandwich and a bento box that had an assortment of small sandwiches and cakes, and a pot of Earl Grey tea. Everything was delicious. Interesting twist on the water they served. They put some slices of cantaloupe in it. Unusual, but not bad. They also let us sit there for quite some time while they were closing up.
*from the New York Times, requires free registration.
It was just supposed to be a relaxing weekend by the shore. Really. Sure I knew that we'd be visiting a couple of needlework shops, but I could control myself. Maybe buy just one or two. Really, all I wanted to do was look at the ocean, relax and sit and stitch. Yes, really.
Theresa and I set off for Cape May, New Jersey, on Friday. We were meeting our friend, Carol, who was driving up from Maryland. Theresa and Carol have been making this trip for the past couple of years so that Theresa could deliver the Metrostitchers' submissions to Carol for the Montpelier Needlework show opening July 13. This year they invited me to come along. On the drive down, we were planning to stop at the Cranberry Cupboard in Westmost near Philadelphia. We have met Paula, the shopowner, and wanted to visit her. It's a lovely shop filled with lots of new charts and quite a selection of older ones, too. Paula has many lovely models hanging up, all of which she's stitched herself.
As I wandered around the shop, I decided it would be nice to get a kit for a small project since I had brought two larger WIPs that I might want a break from. I found a Shephard's Bush kit called Busy Sheep with sheep and bees that would be perfect. It also was on sale so how could I pass it up? (You see where I'm heading here, right?) Let me cut to the chase here and tell you what else I bought:
- Haunted Wool by Kit & Bixby-- acheckerboard sheep, a Halloween cat, haunted mansion and jack o'lanterns
- Mermaid's Singing by The Workbasket -- I liked that it uses colors I don't normally stitch with
- Santa in the Country by By the Bay Needleart -- love Santa scenes
Okay, it's more than I was planning to buy, but not too much damage. So I check out. We continue chatting with Paula for a bit. I take another turn around the shop and come across this:
Chicken Wired from Whiskey Creek
The fox on the stitched model was so adorable. And lately, I've been drawn to roosters and chickens, sooo... off to the register I went. But then I got it in my head to buy the DMC and fabric so I could start it over the weekend. Yes, I know, I bought the Shepherd's Bush kit for that purpose, but this fox was just calling to me. So I checked out again, doing slightly more damage.
Finally, we leave. It's late by the time we make it to Cape May. So we drop off our bags at the B&B, go to dinner and call it a night.
Blame it on the heatAfter breakfast on Saturday, I walk down to the beach. It's sunny and warm but there's a nice breeze. I sit on the promenade for a bit, then decide to walk around and "window" shop. I wander in and out of a few tacky souvenir shops and jewelry shops, but there's not temptation there. Then on to a Christmas shop. DANGER, DANGER. I not only love to stitch Santas and Christmas-themed pieces, I also collect Santas. The shop had wonderful Christmas ornaments and I bought a couple -- a Santa and sleigh pulled by a cow, sheep, pig, and duck and a Santa on skates holding two owls -- both very cute. I also picked up an Eiffel Tower ornament which I taunted Theresa with so much that she had to buy herself one the next day.
There were also a number of beautiful Santa figurines. Too many to chose from -- almost. I just couldn't resist this one.
When I bought it, I didn't realize that there was a secret compartment in the base. And in it is a rolled up list for Santa! Now how cute is that?
After lunch and a little more window shopping, it was back to the B&B for some stitching. We sat on the porch to stitch, but the sun was beating down that it was just too hot. We moved to the gazebo which as a little better. At least we were out of the sun. I attempted to start Chicken Wired, but after frogging three times I gave up. No stitching for me.
We decided we'd head over to Stitch by Stitch before dinner. Sharon, the shop owner, is very fun and friendly. And her shop is chock full of charts, old and new. Need I say that my tepid resolution of buying only one or two charts was thrown by the wayside by this time? Here's what I bought:
- Parisian Panache in Cross Stitch from Leisure Arts -- Besides the Eiffel Tower, there's a chart for fishnet stockings that is too precious.
- American School of Needlework book of Colorful Borders -- I couldn't pass up the checkerboard chickens.
What can I say? I'm weak. I admit it. If I could, I'd stitch every one of these. If only I had enough life times.
The weekend wasn't a total spendthrift holiday. After three weeks, I finally kicked my bronchitis cough. I owe it to the sea air -- and maybe the shopping. ;-)
A few years ago when PDAs became popular, I purchased a Handspring Visor. I used it for obvious things like the calendar, address book, reminder notes, etc. But what I really loved was being able to keep track of my stitching stash.At the time, other stitchers were creating databases, called tinybites, for fibers and fabrics. You could mark off what you had, in say, DMC, so you always knew what you were missing or needed to replace. This was really handy when you wanted to kit a new project or just happened to find yourself in a needlework store. I even customized a database that I used to inventory all of my charts, WIPs and finished projects. My Visor became an invaluable tool.
Then one day, it all ended. My batteries were running low and I foolishly put off replacing them. Big mistake. They eventually went completely dead -- and I lost all my data. I know what you're thinking. Why didn't you backup the data? I did when I had an iMac. Then I bought a PC. By that time, Visor was defunct. I think Palm took it over. Although I searched around, I couldn't find anything that would let me back up on Windows XP. Then the batteries went kaput.
The State of the Stash
I decided I didn't want to invest in a new PDA, so I no longer have any system for keeping track of stash. That's unfortunate since I don't have the most organized stash collection. Some things are better than others. Charts are relatively organized, threads, not so much.
With that, here's a snapshot of the sorry state of my stash:
Charts
My charts are alphabetically filed in five large binders, which works well when I'm looking for a particular design I know I own. Not having an inventory can be a problem when shopping. though. If I'm looking at recently released designs, I know I don't already own them, so no problem there. But if I'm looking at, say, Prairie Schooler charts, which I own a lot of, it's a little trickier. The last time I was at Tawny's, there were a couple of older Prairie Schooler charts I was considering, but I wasn't sure if I had them or not. I decided not to buy them, which isn't such a bad thing since I have so much already.But here's a confession about the binder filing system: I haven't keep it up-to-date for at least a couple of years. I have a shopping bag full of charts that have yet to be filed or need to be refiled.
When I kept an electronic inventory, even if the chart didn't make it into one of the binders, I would enter it into the database so I always knew what I had. Since I don't plan to buy a new PDA, I may just have to resort to good old-fashioned pen and paper to keep track of things. I certainly have enough small notebooks that could easily fit into a purse for a shopping excursion.Fabric
I don't have a huge fabric stash, so it's not essential to inventory it. Whatever I have is kept in a storage bin. When I'm looking for a fabric to start a new project, I can easily paw through the bin. I don't feel compelled to use the exact fabric a design calls for. But sometimes, like in the case of The Village of Hawk Run Hollow, I purchased the recommended fabric. Not so much because of the color but because of the size. For 40 count, a 27" by 20" is needed, which I knew I didn't have. Lakeside Linen provided custom cuts for this design, so I bought one.Fibers:
I own almost a complete set of DMC, a significant amount of Sampler Threads and Weeks Dye Works, various Silk 'n Threads and Gloriana silks, and a few miscellaneous skeins of other brands. I started out trying to keep them organized, using the baggie system. I like the baggies, especially because it helps to keep partially used skeins tidy.
But here's where things start to break down -- the majority of the fibers I own have never made it into those baggies with the nice neat little labels.
It can be very tedious to sort through this jumble looking for thre
ads I need for a project. With the Visor, even though these threads weren't organized, everything was recorded in the database. I still had to sort through this mess, but at least I knew what I had and didn't have.I really need to bite the bullet and get all of this sorted. It shouldn't take too long, if I just chip away at it little by little -- a handful or two every couple of days. We'll see.Final Confession
Now for the worst of it. What do you do with your project bag when you've finished a project? Here's what I do:
Into the basket graveyard they go. Most of this is UFOs. (Maybe one day I'll get back to them.) But there are also project bags from finished projects with charts and threads or kit packs that were never refiled. When I'm looking for threads, I sometimes ransack these bags, including the UFOs. Of course, if I ever go back to any of the unfinished projects, I'll have to fish around to find all those threads borrowed from Peter to save Paul.
It would be nice to have a craft room with a place for everything. For now, though, it's shoe boxes, plastic bins and baskets. With a little more effort, maybe that wouldn't be so bad.
Among the Metrostitchers, we often say that we have two hobbies -- cross-stitching and stash collecting. We all have more than enough stash that would take several lifetimes to ever finish. But sometimes, you just need to own a chart for a while. (I think May gets the credit for coming up with this rationalization for buying a chart that has only a remote chance of being stitched.)
When I first discovered cross-stitch shops and then the Internet, it was like being the proverbial kid in a candy shop. I indulged myself with charts, fabric, threads. But in recent years, I've noticed that I've reached a saturation point. I'm able to restrain myself and leave a cross-stitch shop with only a skein or two of fibers I may need for a project. That's not to say that I still don't indulge myself, but I do it much less frequently. I also have more of an incentive now to economize because I bought an apartment last July.
But my mortgage was the farthest thing from my mind on Saturday when the Metrostitchers went to Tawny's. Here's what I got:
From the top left, clockwise: Avalon yarn from Manetto Hill Yarnery, Brittercup Designs Touch of Wilderness, Brightneedle Christmas House, Mirabilia Lady of the Mist and Crystal Symphony and JBW French Country Cat. The DMC and Weeks threads are for Elizabeth's Designs Seaside Cottage. I need fabric before I can start it and Tawny was out of what I needed. But she's getting a new shipment in shortly and will send me 32ct Confederate Gray linen.
I had seen the Brittercup, Brightneedle and JBW designs at the Nashville Market, but decided not to get them at that time. As soon as I got to Tawny's, I searched them out. Unfortunately, I couldn't find the chart for French Country Rooster also recently released. Next time. The Britty Kitties are very adorable, but I really was drawn to the Stag and the cute Fox in Touch of Wilderness. Brightneedles houses/shops are wonderful, of course. I already have the Needlework Shop. And since houses and Christmas are too themes I'm drawn to, how could I not own Christmas House.
I've always been a fan of Mirabilia designs and own quite a few charts. But I haven't felt the need to buy any of her new ones in recent years, especially the "In the Garden" series. I much prefer the opulent, elegant designs. When I saw Crystal Symphony and Lady of the Mist, I knew I would need to own these for a while. After seeing how beautiful Spring Queen looks, I may actually start Lady of the Mist. Maybe after I finish Les Cerise and Seaside Cottage (this one has to get done by August since I'm planning to give it to someone.) But don't tell my Mirabilia Garden Verses UFO that I'm planning to start a sister design. She might get jealous.
Finally the yarn. I couldn't resist those colors -- shades of green, purple, brown and beige. Alison has kindly shared a pattern for a scarf that works well with variegated yarns called the Multidimensional Diagonal Scarf. I've been eager to start on some socks. And now that I found the dpns I thought I lost, I was planning to get going on them. But I may start the scarf instead. Decisions, decisions...
