Stitching Saturday: Birds, birds, and more birds

So, I'm officially obsessed now - I spent the majority of my holiday stitching oodles of birds from the Snow Bird pattern by Larissa Holland.

When I ran out of time to stitch for Christmas, I began stitching "2014" on the backs of these, and got a jump on my holiday stitching for next year! Why I've never thought of that before, I have no idea, but now I'm all ready for homemade gift giving next Christmas. :)



I adore all of the color combinations I came up with - it's so easy to put these together - but they are time-consuming. I estimate each bird to take about 5-6 hours of stitching, so I "watched" a lot of tv - all the available seasons on Vicar of Dibley on netflix, Dr. Who, and a string of odd Christmas movies including Rare Exports (which I recommend).



And, if the quality of photos seems to have radically improved since I started making them, there is a reason - after almost a decade of using point-and-shoots, I finally got myself a "real" camera - a Canon Rebel T3i. There's just no way to compare the quality - it's out of this world when viewed side by side with my point-and-shoot, and most certainly when viewed next to my cell phone camera.

Stitching Saturday: a little embroidering

Heavens, yes, I know it's been forever. I've been crafting, mostly under the radar, just for pleasure or for FS reviews. I've also been adding to my log cabin knitted blanket, which has grown quite large. And it's cold in our pre-central-heating house, which means my hands ache after a day of crafting.

Nevertheless, I found this Snowy Bird Pattern by Larissa Holland a few days ago, and instantly had it purchased, downloaded, and ready to craft. I finished my first bird after about 5 hours of stitching, which included a hunt in my house for sequins. All I found was an iridescent green sequin ribbon which I've been patiently detaching the sequins from, bit by bit.


I liked my first bird, though it was far from perfect. Against Larissa's sage advice, I used the cheap acrylic felt I owned, because I prefer to use what I have, and because I'm too darn impatient to wait for felt. Also, it would likely be Christmas before it arrived at my house. :) I'm an old hand at crafting with cheap acrylic felt - I kne exactly what would be frustrating, and have formed my own workarounds over the years, so it went fine.

I've never, ever crafted with sequins before, and had you asked me my preference, I would have previously classed them in the same taste category as bedazzlers and puffy paint - not exactly my cup of tea. But there's something about the way Larissa incorporates them into her design that is so elegant. And they're so sparkly and dazzling.

In no time, I had the makings of 10 more birds all cut out and ready to stitch. I admit, I went a bit bonkers, but there is something so addicting about this pattern, I can truly say that almost every color combination I put together looked great. Also, there's something a little Charley Harper about the geometric unstitched bird shapes... these would look great as papercuts, too.



I've been using every day at lunchtime to sit down with needle, thread, sequins, and beads. When I first stitched these with a drink at Starbucks, one of the baristas came up to look at them at chat with me. I have to say this is one of my favorite things about crafting - the delicious inner calm and perfect silence you experience, only when creating, drawing, stitching, whatever. And the innate curiosity just about every human being has about crafting - I like how it breaks down walls and can bring the shyest of people together for a conversation.



I tried to snap a picture of each step in the embellishment process so I could come back and see what I might change around and improve on in my choice of materials...

Knitting inspiration - quest for a blanket

I haven't been writing, but I have been knitting A LOT this past month. I went through many successive phases in my quest for a new knitting project, truth be told.

After washing my acrylic Vanna's Choice Dr. Who scarf, it became so dreamy soft that the whole unpleasant process was washed away in my mind. Knitting up a whole new scarf in wools just because I hated the acrylic seemed silly, and I just felt done with my Dr. Who knitting phase. :)

My new quest: Use my favorite cheap yarn - Love This Yarn - in a soft, squishy blanket. I vowed (sort of) I would not buy new yarn (if I could help it). :)

1. Chevron Blanket
First I fell in love with chevron blankets, like this gorgeous one by Purl Soho:


Purl Soho blanket pattern

But when I used Love This Yarn in this pattern I didn't love it so much. It wasn't very soft and fluffy in this texture. Thinking I'd done something wrong, I knit it up on larger needles, which helped somewhat, but the texture was still not as bouncy and fluffy as Garter stitch...


2. Missoni Inspired Chevron Blanket

Next, I found this gorgeous blanket pattern by Tangled Yarns:

Missoni Inspired Chevron Blanket pattern

I LOVED the gorgeous color variations and bold changes. I loved that it was striped. I loved that it was chevron. The crazy part of me loved that it was huge, and more complex than any knitting pattern I'd ever tried.

And I loved the beautiful variations on Ravelry like this version by POF:

POF's Missoni inspired chevron blanket on Ravelry

These colors make my heart sing. I love what she did with them. And of course the little girl is adorable, too.

The original pattern calls for the following colors, in Biggan Yarn:


I decided to try my own version in Love This Yarn - my colors would not be exact, but close. Using size 8 needles I cast on 241 stitches. 241 stitches! I quickly realized this pattern was too ambitious for my short-attention-span knitting. I practiced again and again - at one point I messed up my increases so my blanket began to hilariously shrink on one side. :) Also, it is stockinette, which means purling 241 stitches. Eek. But it was good practice purling, and I found a way to cope with it, although I started out with very sore hands.

Finally, I found peace with the whole process and knit my way up the first 3 color changes. And realized it was again, not as soft as I was questing for. Love This Yarn didn't feel or look very soft in Stockinette - and Stockinette brings out its Acrylic-y sheen. SO, another blanket experiment was unceremoniously unraveled. Sigh. No fault of the pattern, which is gorgeous!


3. Honeycomb Stroller Blanket

Next, I fell in love with a Honeycomb blanket. The original free pattern is rather plain, but people have done gorgeous things with it on Ravelry.

One of my favorites is this version by Duschinka:

Duschinka's Honeycomb Stroller Blanket on Ravelry

Best of all, this pattern is EASY. Like, incredibly easy. So I cast on 164 stitches and got to work with Love This Yarn. But guess what? The finished texture, and combination of Garter and Stockinette? Not the softness I crave. But I'm gonna finish the dang thing, anyway. And it's pretty - I'll have pictures soon. :)


4. Log Cabin Knitted Blanket

Last in my quest for a blanket pattern I found Log Cabin knitting. There are so many great tutorials out there, but the one that helped me most was this free pattern by Staci Perry. The pattern has links to video tutorials, and she walks you through every step in very clear and detailed way.

I fell in love with this Log Cabin blanket on Cozy Things:


The color placement may seem random, but my gut tells me that she has a very artistic way of creating color harmony -her sense of color is just wonderful. I'm aiming for something maybe half this size. I started up with the remainder of Love This Yarn in my stash, and it is finally, just as soft and squishy and happy as I hoped for. All of this research has made me promise myself to only knit Love This Yarn in garter stitch, ever. Pictures soon!

Stitching Saturday: Marilyn Leavitt-Imblum

detail from Angel of Autumn

I have carried many angels with me in my moves, life changes, and travels for the past 14 years. They are Marilyn Leavitt-Imblum's angels, and they have tagged along for the ride as I moved from college, back home, to New York City, then back home to Texas again.

Angelica was begun in my second year of college - I'd say it was 1998. I'd just lost someone very dear to me, and maybe this was what inspired me to begin a project of such impossible scale: thousands of tiny stitches on 32 count linen, with beads, metallic threads, and 1 over 1 thread stitches. I hadn't even worked with linen before. Had no clue what a beading needle was! Personally, I think I was a bit crazy to even attempt it:



About a month ago, I pulled Angelica out of the box she'd traveled in, almost finished, for 14 years. So you might notice a few discolored edges and a spot or two.

I had worked on her little by little, growing at turns discouraged with the task before me. Then, rather inexplicably, when all I had left to do was finish the beading, I folded her up and carried her around NY for another 6 years.



All it took was a few turns with the beading needle to remember why I'd almost abandoned her. :) But I refused to give in now, so close to the end, and I finally finished her!

I thought it was weird that I'd so randomly unboxed her - why, after all this time? Then I popped over to Marilyn's site for a quick visit and saw with great sadness that she'd just passed away.


This is 1x1 stitching, by the way. I remember almost pulling out my hair in the process. :)

I'm too old to believe in coincidences, and I've had too many loved ones pass to the other side to think that they do not nudge us at times to finish what is left undone.

So I picked up the 2 other angels I'd left incomplete (yes I'd started 2 more without finishing the first - bad crafter! :) and I vow that this is the year I'll finish them.

Angel of Autumn



Angel of Spring



Here they both are after 8 hours of additional stitching:


Yes, I know it's almost impossible to detect my progress. :) It's very easy to get discouraged working on projects at this scale - Pam just finished her own huge cross stitch project (it's AMAZING) and that gave me a little nudge of encouragement, too.

If you've never visited Marilyn Leavitt-Imblum's site, Told In a Garden, I highly recommend it. You can easily see her training as a fashion artist in the way her designs move. That, and the detail on her faces is simply out of this world. I know frilly dresses are not for everyone, but I think that anyone can appreciate her artistry. But more than that, the words she left behind, the things she found important, what she chose to commemorate, these are all things that speak volumes to me about the kind of woman she must have been.

And, if the Angelica images look familiar to you, you may have seen them on the DMC Threads blog - where they appeared in a tribute post for Marilyn.

So there we are, what I've been stitching lately! I've also been working on more Wee Little Stitches (pics soon) and have made a bit of progress on my blanket. Have any of you ever stitched any of Marilyn's designs? Or maybe just something incredibly huge that you thought you'd never finish? :)

Stitching Saturday: knitting catch-up

I've been knitting pretty steadily lately, even though I haven't been updating you - so here's a catch-up post with accompanying crappy indoor photos. :) Up above you see my baby blanket progress - I've knit at least 12 squares over the past week - I find each square takes me about 30 minutes, start to finish.

Those 5 colors along the bottom I am least sure about - so you see I am dawdling about knitting those up. One of the most frustrating things about putting together colors is the way they change in different light - one combination looks great in the daytime - but not so hot at night, and vice versa.

I might just stick with some variation of only these 4 colors...


Next up is my mom and I's wonky patchwork quilt - as you can see it almost covers the top of my full size bed, so I guess it's small-throw size:


It looks a bit crazy in my room, but it's actually nice and cozy looking when it sits on the living room couch...


Finally, here's the Watson scarf - hooray, I finished!


Not so hooray - look at all those little white yarn ends to weave in - ugh. The blue and brown were time-consuming enough but the white ends are extra hard to weave in - no matter how I do it, it looks wonky and I get really cranky.

Other thing making me cranky - how my bind-off edge (left) looks so much wider than the edge I started the scarf on (right):


ARGH! OH well. If anyone has any end-weaving-in advice it would be much appreciated.

On tap for my knitting mayhem was season 5 of Buffy the Vampire Slayer- which started off slow and a bit dull and repetitive, but ended with a real punch to the gut. The show where Buffy's mom dies? Incredibly well-done, and terribly depressing! And the last episode, where Buffy dies? I'm always surprised at how many really good episodes are hidden in there. I've also been watching Vampire Diaries, season 2, but not with as much relish. It's an ok show, but it's a lot mopier and soap-opera-ish. There's a whole lot more angst and less plot advancement. I finished season 3 of Veronica Mars, and although the last season was the least interesting, I still felt sad to see all the familiar characters go without any resolution. Not a huge fan of the Veronica-starts-the-FBI pilot, but the show as a whole had a lot of potential. Okay, I admit I feel dumb coming clean about my teen-show tv watching, but there's a reason - I'm working on a teen novel. Really - it's research! :)

What have you guys been up to? :)

Stitching Saturday: monkey time

Yes, I know I've been loath to share my monkey with you, although I finished him the weekend before last - why - you ask? I just haven't gotten any really good shots of him - you know, that capture his truly charming monkey essence. Yeah, I'm a bit strange, but he is one charming monkey.

Maybe it's the glazed look in his little monkey eyes...

And, having (unrepentantly) seen Puss in Boots this weekend, I know one must never underestimate the power of fully dilated pupils. :)

Or maybe it's just the silly floppiness of his skinny limbs, which have seemingly limitless potential for hilarity:


Whatever it is, I'm hooked on the monkey.


Everyone I've met is likewise charmed by the monkey- my friend's little boy played with him very politely for hours, and gave him lots of hugs - my niece was much less gentle but his little limbs took the flinging about in great stride. I have also noted, that if I leave him in a certain pose on the couch, he will be in a different one altogether when I arrive home. Providing quite conclusive proof that my mom is playing with him.

A few construction notes - 5 colors of stripes was a pain and time-consuming, but worth it in the end. His mouth is a little crooked, but it just adds to the charm. The pattern calls for a tail, too, but I thought he had enough skinny appendages, and I bet he'll sit better without one.

Linda filled me in on the mystery yarn I used - so here's a quick recap of the yarns on this project:

Top: Louet Gems - Terra Cotta
Bottom - left to right: Bamboo Ewe - Eucalyptus, Wool of the Andes- Cloud and Mink Heather, Bamboo Ewe - Beach Glass

I used size 6 Addi needles and safety eyes from Hobby Lobby. The pattern is called Jerry the Musical Monkey, designed by Rebecca Danger.

So what do you think of the monkey? Yeah, you know I'm gonna make more. Maybe I've even started another one? :)

Stitching Saturday: a monkey and a movie

Here was my progress as of yesterday morning - I was finishing up a skinny arm:


Then I spent all of yesterday (almost) stitching and here are the fruits of my labor - an almost finished monkey (he is unstuffed and has no tail, but you get the idea):


While I stitched, I spent a quiet morning watching Late Spring. I saw my first Ozu film a couple of years ago after I lost my father - I'm always careful when I watch them, because as detached as they always begin, they pack an emotional punch that totally catches me off guard.

Like Antonioni, he has these dreamy black and white shots and he's a master of composition:


His choice of cast is nearly identical in each of his films - and Setsuko Hara has to be one of my favorites:

There's something so luminous and joyful and charming in her smiling face.

One of my favorite sequences comes near the end, when her father is trying to convince her to marry - she's afraid to leave him on his own - but you begin to see it's not just that - she's so happy in her current life that she can't imagine a life unlike it...







There's something so incredibly moving about this scene, as her father tries to convince her that she needs to move on - her time with him is over.













It's really a stunning, quiet, wonderful film.