New stash!

My Valentine's Day gift from my husband....



Some new charts and fabric to go with each, a couple of needed threads, a VB bag for knitting tools and trinkets, and a bunny needle minder.

I was waiting for the mail yesterday because I thought i should be receiving all of this. When Michael came in from the mailbox yesterday afternoon, I was disappointed that I didn't receive my order... Or so I thought. He said (and truthfully, he thought) that all we received was junk mail and he had dumped it in the trash on the way back inside. I asked him if he saw any boxes on the front porch and he said he didn't notice any. So I resigned myself that I would be waiting until later in the week. I stayed up stitching until around 1 am last night. Before going to bed, I went to make sure the front storm door was locked and flipped on the front porch light. There on the porch, in the opposite corner that our mailman normally puts boxes, sat my order. I was thrilled!!! And wide awake suddenly. After looking at everything several times, I went on to bed. But I was up early this morning putting the first stitches into CEC's Spring. Progress pics to come!

Happy Stitching!

Bloom

Finished this sweet design earlier this week. Such a fun, pretty, and quick stitch.



This is by M Designs and was in the March/April 2011 issue of Just Cross Stitch magazine. I plan to finish it as a pincushion with brown seed beads all along the edges similar to the model photo in the magazine. If only I could find the time! I don't want to stop stitching long enough to do the finishing. I don't enjoy that part as much. Lol!

Have a fun stitchy weekend!

a few finishes and a WIP

I have finished the February installment of the 2012 Year of Smalls SAL.

This is Garden of Love by Citrouille's Designs. I made a few little mistakes but not so much that I wanted to frog them and start over. And the raspberry silk thread had way too much dye in it so I didn't want any "bleeding" to show on my fabric either. (personal rant.... why is that a particular brand's red/deep pink silks always stain stitching? Is it too much to ask that when you pay approx. $7.00 a skein for silk threads that it not bleed all over your fabric?!.... rant over).

This was a cute, fun, quick stitch. I purchased the kit that Cathy of Inspired Needle put together. This was stitched on a 32 ct. fabric, 2 over 2.

I also finished a couple of knitted items.

A pair of Monkey Socks by Cookie A out of LunaBudKnits fingering weight yarn. Love this yarn!! She is a somewhat local KY dyer).

And a waffle knit dishcloth out of Knit Picks Dishie yarn (blue) and Sugar and Cream yarn (natural). This the is the first dishcloth that I have knit with Dishie, but it won't be the last. I really like this yarn.

And for my biggest Ta-Da....

I FINALLY finished Paradise Lost!!!!! I started this piece on October 29, 2009. I didn't stitch on it exclusively. Often there were very long lapses in time between stitching sessions, but I am so glad to finally have it finished. As soon as I find a good framing deal at Michael's, this little beauty is going to be framed and hung behind the living room couch. As much as I have stitched through the years, I have very few pieces framed and displayed. I am making a conscious effort to remedy that. I am starting to become more of a project stitcher rather than a process stitcher. I want to stitch things that have a place and purpose in my home decor rather than stitching whatever strikes my fancy just for the fun of stitching it, if that makes sense. :) (Excuse my wrinkles...)

After finishing Paradise Lost, I dug Sarah Woodham out of the WIP pile to start working on her diligently once again. She's another reason that I am ranting about those particular red silks.... Between the deep pink and dark red silks, parts of her are getting a pinkish cast that I do not like. I am very concerned about stitching all of the over one verse in the deep pink. I hate to spend so much time (and $$) stitching a project for it to look like it has been dipped in a pink bath. Hopefully that won't happen, but I am noticing some bleeding in other parts of the piece where I have used those two colors. I put this one back into q-snaps, even though I usually stitch in hand. I am hoping that will alleviate some of the bleeding if I do not have it in my hands as much.

A couple of knitting notes... started a February Lady Sweater out of Cascade 220. I haven't made enough progress for it to even look like a sweater as of yet. I plan to knit a bunch of Cloisonee mittens out of Cascade 220 as well. If I can master this pattern, everyone I know will be getting mittens for Christmas because they are so stinkin' cute! I'm also working on a Hitchhiker scarf which I will show on my next post and talk a little bit about it. (If you are on Ravelry, and would like to "friend" me, my username there is kellieps3).

I want to thank everyone for their kind comments and emails regarding my former principal. While she continues to be missed daily, her staff members are settling into a new normal. I have had the opportunity to visit the school in a professional capacity several times since her death, and while it still seems very surreal, everyone (staff and students) seem to be adapting.

Super Bowl Sunday... who are you rooting for? Honestly, I don't have a personal team that I hope wins. Jake does. He wants the Giants to win. So I guess I will root for the Giants since that is who he seems to want to win. Michael and Jake have big plans of watching the game this evening. I agreed to make some super bowl snack food and give them a party atmosphere. Personally, I will be taking my buffalo chicken dip and lil smokies back to my sitting room where I intend to stitch and enjoy my latest audiobook (Alone by Lisa Gardner) and later watch Downton Abbey.

Petey says, "Mom, quit your belly aching about silk thread and fix the super bowl food already..."

Have a fun week.

Happy stitching!

Kellie

overload

I didn't mean to be away so long. I am trying to be better about blogging more frequently.

The last week has been very hard. I don't typically dwell on sad things on my blog, much preferring to mainly focus on stitching and knitting and positive. But this week has had a profound impact on me and if you will indulge me for a minute, I will get back to more positive things....

Most of you that have been reading for some time, know that I am a school counselor. I have worked at all levels from kindergarten to eighth grade. Actually when I first started this blog I was an elementary school counselor shared between our two elementary schools and within the last year and a half, I transferred back to our middle school. Anyway....

Last weekend, one of the elementary school principals that I worked for previously was tragically killed in a car accident. It was a single car accident. It is thought that she swerved (to avoid an animal maybe?), over corrected and lost control of her car. She was killed instantly. She was young. Forty seven (I think that is young...), and she had two children. And she was the caretaker of her family. And she was a respected well-loved principal that knew every single child and adult in her building by name. She hugged. A lot. She told people she loved them. A lot. And a whole community has been in mourning for her all week. Along with everyone else, I am struggling to understand how such a vibrant person can suddenly be gone when so many people needed and relied on her. It has caused me to rethink a lot of things. To want to be a better version of myself. To be kinder than necessary. To live fully in the moment. Every. Single. Day. To not dwell on past hurts or troubles. To not worry about future problems that I have absolutely no control over. To be the best mother and wife and daughter and sister and aunt that I can be. To tell people that I love them and appreciate them. Not just people in my family who I tell daily that I love them, but my friends that I am close to who I may not have let know how much they mean to me. To learn ALL five hundred and fifty plus students names every single year so that they know that they matter to me too.

Okay enough of the sad.....

On to the positive....

In the little time that I have had, I have stitched and knitted this week.

I finished Poinsettia House! Just in time for the new small that will be announced tomorrow. I am so loving this 2012 Year of Smalls challenge. I chose to stitch our name on the sampler rather than "poinsettia."

Poinsettia House by Little House Needleworks

40 count Lakeside Linen Navy Bean

recommended threads

I think I mentioned in my last post that I am wanting to stitch a lot of smalls this year and to work on whittling down my WIP pile. Most of which are BAPs.... I am trying to focus on one WIP at a time in between the smalls that I stop to stitch. Right now, my focus in Paradise Lost by Plum Street Samplers. While I love Paulette's quirky fun trees, I will be happy to have all of them stitched on this piece. This last one with the diamond shaped leaves is about to plow me under.... LOL!

In the world of knitting, I have embarked on making some baby hats. I have two teachers in my building that are having babies soon. Like one of them is due this month. She's having a girl and I finished her hat last night. Here it is modeled on one of my baby dolls from when I was a child.

Easy Peasy Newborn Sock Hat

Free pattern found here: Ravelry

Classic Elite Yarn Summer Sox

3.25 mm needles

Mods:needle size and stitched stockinette for 4 inches instead of 3.5 inches

Anyone know what these dolls are called? I know they are old and antique, but I know very little about them. I was given two of them by a great aunt. I remember seeing these type of dolls in clothing stores when I was a child in the 70s. They used them as mannequins for baby and children's clothing. I can remember seeing them sitting on top of clothing racks, but not for sale. I have no idea how my great aunt came by the ones she had. They were old when she gave them to me as a child. If any of you know anything about them, let me know. I am curious to learn about them.

I am working on Jake's epic striped blanket. I have started stripe number three of seven. This is supposed to be my focus knitting project right now, but I have strayed. I am knitting this out of Vanna's Choice by Lion Brand. Not that I am a yarn snob by any means, but I am not too fond of acrylic yarns. However for blankets, I want something machine washable and dryable. And Vanna's Choice is actually pretty soft to knit with and not squeaky on the needles. This is a modification of the Purl Bee Super Easy Baby Blanket. I just cast on a bunch more stitches (around 300 maybe?) and have made my stripes approximately 10 inches long (39 garter ridges). Very easy knit. Also very boring knit. But I love the simplicity and squishiness of garter stitch, and this is a great TV project.

Speaking of TV, I am officially hooked.... Love. This. Series. I watched the entire first series last weekend which was very therapeutic for me and helped to keep my mind occupied.

I cast on a pair of Toast mitts last night. I am making these out of KnitPicks City Tweed in the color Larkspur. This is the first time that I have knit with City Tweed, and I love it. I will be looking for more projects to knit using this yarn.

A lot of stash enhancement this week, partly thanks to my brother and sister-in-law who gave me gift certificates for Christmas....

Here's my yarn haul...

And the stitching haul....

The scissors were from my parents for Christmas. And I had the JCS magazine. I ordered the fabric, button, needed threads and beads to make the Bloom pincushion. I have fallen victim to Laura's stitching group's influence. I think all of them have this as one of their twelve projects to complete in the coming year. After seeing it featured repeatedly and loving it more each time I saw it, it is now one of my projects to complete in the coming year. :)

Another goal for the coming year... organization!! Everywhere, but including my stitching and knitting. I am a pretty organized person, but I have let some things slide lately and one area is keeping my stash and supplies organized. I am sucker for the visual. I love quirky and unique. I am going to try to find a few more of these locker baskets to store my stash of charts in. I love being able to see what I have at a glance and to be able to flip through them easily. More organization ideas to come. Please share yours with me. Particularly on overdyed threads. I like flossaway bags. What I don't like is figuring out a good way to store them. I have outgrown the big 3 inch rings. I either need more rings or bigger rings or a whole other system. Any ideas?

Okay, now that I have overloaded you completely, and probably very few of you are still reading at this point, I am going to sign off of the day.

Have a good weekend. Tell someone you love them today.

Kellie

3 Things....

Hello everyone! It's been awhile. Crazy busy here, as all of us are, so I haven't posted for awhile. I have so much to share that if I put it all in one post it would be very long and overwhelming. So my goal will be to share a few things in multiple posts over the next few days.

So first, stitching.... One of my current projects is Poinsettia House by LHN. I joined Laura's Year of Smalls, and have started the first project. I am enjoying it immensely. I am finding that I am enjoying small, quick projects lately. I am stitching it with the called for threads, but switched out fabric to a 40 ct Navy Bean that I had in my stash rather than the called for 28 ct Light Exemplar. I am loving this design on a smaller scale with one thread stitched over two.



Second, a knitting finish... Ida's Kitchen by Kirsten Kapur. I started this earlier this year, put it aside, and recently picked it back up. I knit the final stitches and wove in the ends yesterday. I like how it turned out. I used the yarns and colors that the pattern called for... Blue Sky Alpacas Melange and Sport Weight in the called for (and some hard to find!) colors. I think I'm going to knit a matching scarf in the leftover yarn.



Third, I hope everyone reading this had a Merry Christmas, Happy Hanukkah, or whatever you choose to celebrate. Here at the Stitching Post, our Christmas was Merry indeed. My husband surprised Jake and I with a whirlwind trip to Disney at the start of our Winter break to see the lights and festivities there for several days. Then it was home to celebrate with family and friends. We have had a fun, blessed holiday that I continue to enjoy as I do not return to work until Monday. Yay!













More stitching,knitting, and whatever else I think up coming soon!

Happy stitching!

Two finishes!

I don't have hardly any finishes for the year, and now I have two in one night!!! Please excuse my poor excuse for photography.

Let me present....

Molly by Carriage House Samplings

Recommended fabric and threads

October Word Play by With Thy Needle and Thread

Recommended threads/fabric unknown

What to stitch next?? Inspired by Margaret's A&E wall, I am thinking I might focus on finishing my Paradise Lost By Plum Street Samplers. Here is where I have last left off with this particular project...

I have quite a few A&E designs in my stash. Maybe it is time I concentrate on creating an A&E wall of my own. :)

A little sneaky peek of a blanket that I am knitting.

Petey says "Happy Stitching!"

Kellie

New starts and a stall

I have stalled on Molly that I showed in the last post. She is 99.9% finished. I ran out of one color of NPI and need to finish about 20 stitches. As soon as I get my order from Needlecraft Corner, I will have a finish to post. And regrettably, it will be the second of two stitching finishes that I have had this entire year. I don't know what has been wrong with me this year. I think I hop back and forth between projects too much without making a lot of progress in any direction. The last couple of weeks I have tried hard to stick to one stitching project at a time and have been pleased with the progress I have made. I don't see myself becoming a one-at-time stitcher again, but I'm leaning heavily back in that direction.

While waiting for my NPI thread to arrive, I decided to stitch something small that I can easily finish in a week or so. This is October Word Play by With Thy Needle & Thread. I love Her designs, and this caught my eye from the first sneak peek that was shown on her blog. But wouldn't you know, I'm now running out of another thread for this design.




I'm still knitting as well. I started another Pioneer Braid scarf. I love this simple garter stitch design that in my opinion looks more complicated than it is.



Hard to believe that the last time I posted, I was here (although I didn't allude to that in my post).








Now we are back in reality....

Have a happy week ahead....

Kellie