Stitching Saturday: It's just my face

Pretty much the second after I saw this pattern by Plastic Little Covers, I had it purchased and ready to stitch up. I whipped out the text in about 2 hours of stitching while getting my car serviced (hilarious for onlookers, I know) and the borders took me another few hours.

If I was in a hurry, I'd stitch it as it is above - just a few bits of the border look just as delightful. :)



But the full borders do add a nice vintage touch. This piece is PERFECT for me - I am a lifelong sufferer of CBF. I used to call it my "street face", aka the face I wear so no one will mess with me, but if the truth be told, it isn't exactly something I can turn on and off, and it is on more often than it is off. :)

Well, I'm gearing up to work on a new crewel class review for FS - more on that as soon as I stitch something! Thanks to everyone who commented on my huge cross stitch piece - I'm working on her steadily while watching 1980's Battlestar Galactica. :)

New Knit Stitch a Week: Stocking heel stitch

Teaching myself one new knit stitch a week, from the Complete Guide to Needlework book, c. 1979.

I cast on 13 stitches on size 9 needles - left: Wool-Ease in Oxford Gray; right: a random chunky acrylic yarn in my stash.

Row 1: *K1 sl 1* , K 1
Row 2: purl

What I like about this stitch is its chunkiness - it looks like a K1,P1 rib, but is SO much faster to stitch. It's kind of raised and textur-y, and very easy to work.

The back is really pretty too, a kind of woven look:


I am wondering how much it would curl on the edges on a larger piece, like a scarf. The chunky acrylic piece was already curling a bit on each side...

Still, I'd love to try this on a scarf!

New Knit Stitch a Week: Striped fagoting

Teaching myself one new knit stitch a week, from the Complete Guide to Needlework book, c. 1979.

I cast on 20 stitches on Size 9 needles in Wool of the Andes, Firecracker Heather.

Row 1: *P4, K 2 tog, yo, K2*, P4
Row 2: *K4, P 2 tog, yo, P2*, K4

I really like this stitch - it's simple, but very pretty - the examples in the book are knit up so tightly, it makes me want to try this on much smaller needles as well. I love the fishnet-like texture on those little open bits in the middle.



I really like the wrong side, too - all in all, quite nice.

New Knit Stitch a Week: Lace Insert

Teaching myself one new knit stitch a week, from the Complete Guide to Needlework book, c. 1979.

I kind of hit a busy spell - one week with a lot of parties and other projects, so I had to skip, but here we go with this week's. I like how this breaks up the fluffy routine of garter stitch with some nice, open pauses.

I cast on 12 stitches on size 9 needles (I forgot my trusty size 8's) - left is a thick, acrylic yarn I lost the tag to, right is Caron Simply Soft

Rows 1 to 6: knit
Rows 7 and 9: *yo, K 2 tog*
Rows 8 and 10: *yo, P 2 tog*

Stitching Saturday: A little cross stitch

This weekend and last, I decided to catch up on a little cross stitching. This is one of those pastimes that takes forever. Above was my starting point, last Saturday morning...



And here she was after a good 6 hours of stitching...



And here she was after another 6-8 hours of stitching. Can you even see the progress? :) I'm filling in the wings. Reading the graph is one of those things you must have an absolutely clear head for - all those little black and white symbols make your head spin. :)

Any of you working on something huge? Or am I the lone crazy one? ;)

New Knit Stitch a Week: Double Drop Stitch

Teaching myself one new knit stitch a week, from the Complete Guide to Needlework book, c. 1979.

I cast on 14 stitches in Stitch Nation Washable Ewe on size 8 needles.

A bit of a funky look as a swatch, but it looks very nice when stretched out. Working all of the drop stitches was fun, and less tricky than I thought.

Rows 1, 3, 5, 7: knit
Rows 2, 4, 6: purl
Row 8 (wrong side): K00 (winding thread twice around the needle)
Row 9: rep Row 8, letting the extra loop drop
Row 10: K, letting extra loop drop

Feline Friday: Ice Cream update

So, it's been 7 months since I started feeding the cats in my back yard. They have all come such a long way in terms of tameness (at least with me), and one by one they have all let me pet them. Ice Cream, above, was the only holdout. Up until a few weeks ago, she would still hiss if I appeared too quickly, and would never, ever let me pet her. But I was dogged and determined. Every time I fed her, I tried to pet her, and she'd bolt. I'd try to pet her, and she'd bolt. But every time, I tried, and she seemed to know I would never let up.

Finally, last week when I went out to feed the cats, she walked straight towards me and greeted me with a meow, something she'd never done before. When I reached down to pet her, she not only stayed put, she purred. Just like that! She also loves to be brushed, and although it took her forever for her to come around, she is among the most trusting of the cats with me now. She lets me scratch her tummy, and just purrs and purrs.

Her colors have also darkened - she went from being snow white, with little gray tips on her ears, to having chocolatey blotches on her back, and darker points, which confirms my suspicion that she is part Siamese. Also, her meow sounds Siamese, too, and she only uses it to say hi.

New Knit Stitch a Week: Drop stitch lace

Teaching myself one new knit stitch a week, from the Complete Guide to Needlework book, c. 1979.

I cast on 14 stitches in Stitch Nation Washable Ewe on size 8 needles.

Rows 1 to 4: knit
Row 5: K 00 (winding thread twice around the needle)
Row 6: K, letting extra loop drop

I really liked the look of this stitch, and it looks the same, right side and wrong side. I'm not sure what I would use it for, but it's a nice texture.

Stitching Saturday: Finished Baby Blanket

Yup, there it is - my finished Chevron Baby Blanket (free pattern from Purl Soho) - I really like how this blanket came together! As you can see I did thin stripes of ivory, light pink, darker pink, light green, and turquoise in Love This Yarn. I went with thin stripes so I could use up leftover bits of yarn - that's all very well but it meant LOTS of ends to weave in.

The texture is a bit thick and nubbly, but not unpleasant - it would probably feel amazing underfoot in a sturdy cotton - I might try that soon. The only thing I'm not impressed with is how I bound it off - I followed the directions, took it apart, and tried it again, then decided just to leave it and not let it bug me. But if you study it closely, you can see the peaks on the bottom, where I bound off, are not as pleasantly pointy as they are on the top. I bet blocking might help with that, but again, I love it and I won't let it worry me.

I washed and dried it and handed it off to my work friend yesterday, and she seemed to really love it. She says her husband's a shutterbug, so I may even see a few photos with baby on it - yay! Now I need another lap blanket to knit up - this was fun!

My playlist for this blanket was an interesting mix of (fittingly) Call The Midwife - really an excellent show, you should definitely check it out and (not so fittingly) Game of Thrones, which was really just a compilation of guttural sounds (every time I hear a gush or splash, I don't look up), awkward sex scenes, and male on female or male on male brutality. I have tried to get into Game of Thrones, but aside from admiring the author's ability to create a universe of complex characters, I can't get into the constant brutality. The books start off ok, and get more and more graphic and strangely, boring. But I will keep going, if only to see Daenerys rock their world. Her, Arya, Brienne, the costumes, and the dragons are pretty much the only thing that keeps me going.

New Knit Stitch a Week: Oblique Openwork

Teaching myself one new knit stitch a week, from the Complete Guide to Needlework book, c. 1979.

I cast on 12 stitches in Yarn Bee Andes Alpaca in Peacock, size 8 needles.

Row 1: K1, *yo, K 2 tog*, K1
Rows 2 and 4: purl
Row 3: K2, *yo, K 2 tog*

I'm really liking this open pattern, but it depends on the yarn. It's kind of hard to see the open spaces in my photo, but it's a nice eyelet sort of look. I first tried a mustardy acrylic Vanna's Choice yarn, and it looked kinda like 70's macramé (not my favorite):



The wrong side makes a pretty pattern - I like both sides equally, I think: