Women are not... Finished!

Well I finished the Women are not.. piece and the pattern is now for sale in my Etsy shop. If I were stitching it again I would do the colors a bit differently, but oh well.

Stitching on The Cheat has been a bit stalled, since I'm just been so tired lately. I know I keep saying it, but after that I really must get to the chintz napkin. The last bit won't take that long and I know I'll be overjoyed when it's finished.

Pink elephants...

Meet my elephant! He's a bit messy, but cute. You can stitch one with this pattern from Knitty. Be forewarned, I think there's a mistake in it and things aren't always explained super clearly.

Mine is not really suitable to be a kids toy, because I used a variegated yarn and there are a few thin spots. C'est la vie! My sister knows one of those yarn super-careful and conscientious toddlers though, so possibly it's suitable for her.

Right now I'm finishing up the "Women are not..." piece and working on a pattern of The Cheat from the old Homestar Runner site (remember those cartoons? Good times...).

Women are not... Stage 1

I finally started working on cross-stitch again and completed this text. The border isn't too onerous, so hopefully it will be done soon.

Today I finished my knit elephant, but I'm saving the pictures for later. She turned out very sweet, though far from perfect. 

This morning I spend a couple hours with my sweet nephew, who now starts a lot of sentences with "Well I think..." as in "Well I think I am a little thirsty..." We had a good time talking and reading my new book The Charles Addams Mother Goose, which is priceless.

He said something along the lines of "You should take a picture because we're happy and smiling." Adorable:

custom work

I did a little custom work for a friend (though still for money) and this is the result. It's for his favorite bar, which is having a one-year anniversary. I don't think there's any restaurant/bar I love so much that I'd spend $35-$40 dollars on it (where I didn't get any food back). But c'est la vie!

My brain has gone quite lopsided, as I've been trying to create a pattern from the first edition cover of Little House on the Prairie. That's a commission as well, and they are getting quite the deal as I may go a bit mad finishing it.

Re: Flo the Elephant - I finished knitting all the bits, but now I have to block the pieces, which I hate doing. I hate it partially because it's just tedious and boring, but mostly because I don't really have the proper supplies for it. Definitely need to find a cork bulletin board to use rather than the old bit of foam core I've made do with. The pins don't always like to stick on the foam core, which is rather a problem.

Oh, I also cut my hair, and look beyond adorable. I get a lovely little surprise every time I walk past anything reflective. Mirror-gazing has been a hobby of mine since I was a toddler, when I'd sit and talk to myself in the mirror for ages. I really never stopped doing that, actually.

Sad Socktopus!

Once again I've put off working on embroidery (really need to finish my chintz napkin!) to do some knitting. Having that bag of fiberfill had made me finally work on a number of projects.

Today I finished my Socktopus. I've noticed I have a tendency to give the kid things sad faces. Children are surrounded by happy toys and cartoons and endless smiles, but sometimes they're sad. 

It's good to show them that it's all right to be sad sometimes. They don't need to constantly have a smile on their face and maybe more toys should have neutral expressions.

Pogo - Finished!

Well here is Pogo, all finished! He is ten inches tall, stitched on 22 ct. Aida. It was a lot of tedious work!

I haven't started a new embroidery project as I was busy knitting some toy mice for my nephew. He has now throttled them completely out of shape, but seeing his face when he saw them and learned he would get to take them home with him (I have some other stuffed mice which he always plays with when he visits my apartment) was worth the work!

He immediately grabbed them up and gave them kisses, then becoming hypnotized by me making squeaking noises. The fact that the absolutely first thing he did was kiss them and have them kiss each other makes me happy.

Aren't they cute? I bought the pattern from Etsy seller Yarnigans. She has a lot of really adorable patterns for sale.

Now I'm quickly making a Socktopus before going back to embroidery.

If you give a man a fire...

My break from Pogo was well-used, and helped me work a little more steadily on the monotony of black stitches. Pogo is actually almost done now, I just forgot to post about the quote piece yesterday.

This pattern is now for sale in my Etsy shop!

Choosing to stitch this on Monaco (an all-cotton even-wave) was a great choice. Blackwork is always harder to photograph though, so I must assure everyone that it looks SO much better in person. I'm really pleased with the combination of italic text and the wind-blown look of the flames.

When I designed the pattern I tried filling in the spaces between the second and the third flame colors but nothing really looked right. I have a new idea of how to do it so I might work on that a bit if I ever find the time.

This quote is from the Terry Pratchett book Jingo. It seems it's no longer in print in the US which is a crime! In my benevolent dictatorship I will be the one controlling what goes in and out of print.

Pogo by Walt Kelly

This is a commission I've been working out. It's stitched on 22 ct. Aida and will still end up being 10 inches tall, so that's a lot of tiny black Xs.

I think this is probably my last non-family commission, because it just takes too much time away from developing patterns for my shop. Not to mention that it's impossible to actually charge a fair hourly wage for my work, no one would pay it. 

Of course this leads to my having a massive stack of finished pieces sitting around. I'd like to eventually have a booth at a craft fair and just sell them unframed to get rid of them.

Pogo and all those black boxes got a bit tedious so I finally started my Pratchett quote piece. It's already over halfway finished and turning out brilliantly!

finished flower

Well the flower is all done. I think it turned out very nicely, though it would be good stitched on a smaller count fabric and with gold metallic thread, but it's still nice.

Now I'm working on a large commission, of a Pogo pattern I created. I think it will turn out nicely, but it's a whole lot of stitching on 22 ct Aida. I'm anticipating taking a break for the quick Pratchett quote once I get a ways into it.

I am so tired and odd feeling, mostly due to the sudden switch from lovely cool whether to freaking hot weather. I hate summer...

Wisteria Part 3

Thus far, this week have been really busy, with less time than usual available for needlework. On the plus side I found out that there's an embroidery group that meets at a nearby library once a month.

I'm hoping to go, though initially I will probably be a bit careful about which projects I bring. Now, I know some very open-minded older ladies with broad senses of humor, but all the same...

Here's all the new progress on the wisteria piece! I'm getting a bit lazy and cheating by sometimes filling in the one or two squares of something with whatever similar color I'm already using in that area. That's right, I'm a rule breaker!

I got some of the printable Fabri-Solvy to try out. Maybe it will be my perfect method for pattern transfer, so I'll be starting a new non-counted embroidery project soon.

I'm so knackered though that tonight I am going to watch some Bones, eat some leftovers, and drown myself in tea.

flower on linen

My brain is so dead lately. I spent a few hours this morning with my adorable niece and nephew. Benjamin snuggled up with me for quite a while (half an hour is a long time to for a 3 year old to sit and talk). I explained evolution to him, though I forget what led to that.

I've been working quite a bit, and added a lot to the wisteria project. Then I started a new piece - the flower you see here. The pattern is from Cross Stitch Designs From India by Carol Phillipson, which has a lot of very nice designs in it, especially of the floral variety.

After this it's time to finish up the chintz napkin!