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...).

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.

Dinosaur City

Dinosaurs are the best. They were the best when we were kids and they still are. So I came up with four cross stitch patterns for the some of the most well known of dinosaurs: the apatosaurus (commonly but mistakenly known as brontosaurus), triceratops, stegasaurus, and pteranodon. 

The pattern set is for sale in my Etsy shop. I might do some of them on a flimsy even weave to use on a quilt. Well, okay, I probably won't. I could certainly do the cross-stitching and give the squares to my mom or sister to make into a quilt though. That could work.

Got the appointment dates for two of the procedures the new doctor ordered. Both are for the same day, which may or may not work. one is an MRI, which isn't usually so bad but if the timing isn't right it could be awkward. Going home with an hour before next appointment means only really going home for half an hour, which won't do much but sitting upright for another whole hour won't work either. On the other hand, it would be better for everyone to do them in one day.

Did a bit of stitching on a new project (a gift for someone who knows about this blog so I'm not going to post it) but mostly I've just rested today. Yesterday was extremely tiring but fun as well.

I finally got my sister to watch at least the first half of the St. Trinian's movie with me and had a wonderful time with my nephew when he woke up from his nap. My sister, Kyla, is due with her second baby in only a month and a half! I can't wait to see my niece in the onesies I've embroidered for her.

As for Hardcore StitchCorps, I posted listings for the patterns for my fox face and owl face (reproduced here) yesterday. Today I finally got the pattern for the raccoon worked out and printed. Once I get him stitched up I'll be posting the three patterns as one listing as well for a two for three deal. I'm thinking about doing another series of animal faces. My idea is to do a simple quilt with five inch square pieces in different colors with embroidered squares featuring the animals mixed in. Simple, cute, personal touch, etc...

I'm afraid I'm being utterly lazy. I got through six episodes of Upstairs Downstairs. Madre and I are prepping to watch the new Upstairs Downstairs that they've been making. I love the old show so much. Certain episodes stick in my mind SO well. The first episode I ever saw was the Titanic once and it just hit me so hard.

What didn't work out so well is the movie they made of the Terry Pratchett novel Going Postal. It is one of my very favorite Discworld books and the movie was okay and probably quite good if you'd never read the book. They somehow managed to remove all the singularly Pratchetty details. Quite depressing. David Suchet was in it which was crazy because I've only seem him as Poirot. The casting was lovely but the script writer was a fool, the operation was a success but the patient died. C'est la guerre.

Working the productivity...

I've been sitting around watching QI, working on the Celtic letter cross-stitch, and dreading trying to color Frida's background. I'm starting to think it would be safer just to do a thick border of vines around her.

Come to think of it, I could do a border of vines and flowers and then paint only up to that point so there was less risk of color seeping into the figure area. That seems like it could work, right? Right?! Seriously, the thought of damaging Frida, who turned out perfectly, is driving me to distraction. I wanted to work on her at the beach and I think I can work on the vine border and have that done by the end of the week.

The Celtic E is looking very beautiful and almost seems worth the immense amount of work that's going into it. I'll be doing the next ones on even weave linen which would make for a much easier time. I'm also starting to get a good picture of the sampler I'd like to make for my sister and her growing family. I have a super pretty tree pattern that would look nice at the bottom and a ton of nice animal and plant motifs.

Sadly I will miss most of the blooms on my lemon tree as I'll be at the beach next week. On the plus side, I bought this thick letter stickers that include some punctuation including brackets. I basically only bought it so I could wear the bracket as a moustache and it looks so awesome. I would wear this all the time.

For the kidlets...

Well I finished the sun lion pattern by Cate Anevski onesie for my upcoming niece and a second one for her with 'girl' in various foreign languages. The girl one is an idea I initially did for my nephew Benjamin and one I particularly like and would like to sell in my Etsy embroidery shop (hoping to open it in about a month). Some parents really dislike people getting their kid's sex wrong (more so I think when the kid is a year old for the ones whose hair grows suuuper slowly) and somehow I like that it facilitates communication with people who you might not otherwise talk with. Plus you could take your families nationalities and just use those languages. I include Dutch on the ones for Benjamin and the new girl because our friend and 'sister' Tessa is Belgian (from the best part of Belgium, the Flemish part!).

I spent a bit of today embroidering a design I drew a few days back. It's part of a trio of animal head designs, very stylized. My wireless was out so I couldn't easily scan in the design and make it larger and then printout, transfer, etc... So in typical fashion I just drew it freehand with the washable marker. Therefore it's not quite right (right side white tuft is a bit too low, eyes aren't quite identical) but it's still pretty cute. I can't wait to try the other animals (along with the fox I did a raccoon and an owl). They'll be good for a possible baby quilt, onesies, and patches (or patch pockets) for kids clothes.

We had two days of warm (mid to upper 40s) weather and now it's cold and rainy again. I was so hoping that it would stay sunny for my lemon tree but oh well. At this point I would just be happy if we didn't get another rash of snow. I am so sick of it. Not that we've had any huge blizzards but snow every week almost since the beginning of December is just not fun. Especially since the house my mum bought is at the top of a really really steep hill (one which scares me a bit even when bone dry). She has a four wheel drive Subaru, but I do not. Fingers crossed, in any case.

Sunny Baby

Well, given that there are only three months left until the birth of my 10th niece/nephew I am an in full "make things for new niece..." mode. I finally got some plain white onesies in 0 - 3 and 3 - 6 month sizes.

I knew I wanted to do this pattern for the niece from the moment I saw it. It is by the talented Cate Anevski and you can find it on her website along with other free patterns. Now, given that I'm doing this on a onesie, stretchy knit fabric, I can't do the dotted line stitches. It works on some onesies better than others but these are particularly plush and springy so it's a no go.

It's turning out well so far though. There will be a total of four shades of yellow and orange in the sunburst parts and I didn't finish the face because I'd gotten to the end of that thread and don't want to do the knots for the dots until after I've washed it. So may as well do that last bit of the mouth then. I hate started new threads, especially when it's for some tiny piece and when I'll have to do another tiny piece later.

On the Frida front I got my favorite stitch book out the library for ideas on how to fill the skirt and some decorative stitches that I'll never have memorized. I really need to go ahead and dye the background but it's one of those tasks that make me feel lazy and procrastinating.