The Rush of Starting.....

You know that rush you get when starting a new project?? The wonderment of collecting all the fibers.... of picking out just the right fabric.... of gathering everything all together and getting it all ready and putting in that first stitch??

Well, last night I was doing that. I had purchased a new (to me anyway) chart from Ink Circles... the lovely Sea Stars, and I had treated myself to the equally beautiful Vikki Clayton premium silks to stitch it with. The only thing left to do was to select the fabbie, and I had decided to stitch out of my stash.

First I looked at the fabrics I had just gotten out of the Silkweaver grab bags that had found their way to my door... A couple of very likely candidates after a floss toss, very pretty green overdyeds, but alas, they were 28 ct, and were too small. Off to get the bin of 32 ct fabric. I needed a 21x21 inch piece (yeah, this sucker is gonna be big)... and much to my dismay... the best color choice was...

...white.

Plain old boring, ordinary antique white.

Richard sensed my disappointment and asked if I couldn't just wait and order something more appropriate. I told him that would defeat the idea of stitching out of my rather extensive stash.

Not that there's anything wrong with white. It's a perfectly nice color: it shows off the beauty of the silk. I guess I was just hoping for something more... well... exciting. Guess it should just teach me to appreciate the beauty in the more plain things around me and how they can show off everything else, eh?

So I started stitching my new project, and the dark blue I'm working with does look stunning against the white background. And I know it'll be beautiful when I finish. White does serve it's purpose.

Just a reminder to scroll down and check out Oscar's caption contest. Only a few more days before it closes on the 31st! :)

I *finally* stitched something!!

Ah yes, they're small, but they're completions just the same....
Behold the Jeannette Douglas ornament from the 2005 JCS ornament issue. Imagine, if you will, it constructed into a wee needleroll. I'm trying to imagine that myself right now, because I'm having a Major Brain Cramp on hemstitching. Too late tonight to work with that anymore!This pretty is the Nordic Needle ornament from the same issue. I'm imagining it with some nice twisted cord around it. I'm sure Vicky will do a splendid job finishing it the way she has all my other ornaments. Someday I'm going to learn to do that.... One more item on my "to do" list. Right now I don't seem to have the patience.

A reminder that Oscar's caption contest is still open and will remain so until the 31st. Looking forward to seeing all your creative thoughts! :) Did I mention prizes?? Your choice: A chart from Needlecraft Corner, a skein of sock yarn from The Loopy Ewe, or a donation made to the dog rescue group of your choice (if you don't have one, Oscar will be happy to make a suggestion).

Oscar welcomes your input

He's weighing in on the Michael Vick situation...And he's looking for a caption to this picture.... He found a calendar in Office Depot, and while he didn't want to waste his hard earned dog-treat money on it, he decided to have a little fun with it and a cell phone camera.

Any suggestions? There's a prize for the most original caption as determined by hubby Richard....

Happy Birthday to Our Boy!!!

Oscar Worf, His Royal Lowness, is 14 years old today! Seems only yesterday that he was a little 3 month old pup that was an impulse purchase from a pet store (never go by one when you're having a bad day, and yes, we know all about buying dogs from pet stores now, but we consider him our own little rescue). He is the love of our life, and we hope he's with us for years to come as long as he's healthy and happy. We like to say he's in touch with his inner puppy.

So we'll be treating him to a meal spiked with Grandma's roast beef and a trip to PetSmart, where the smells are oh-so-interesting. And then we'll come home where he'll curl up next to me, right where I want him to be, and he'll "hold" my pattern while I stitch or knit. He's very, very good at that.

So please join me in wishing a happy birthday to our little man! We love you Oscar, and we can't imagine a day without you.

A New Hope

A wonderful weekend with my friends... lots of laughter and food... no pictures, I'm afraid on my part. Lots of other people were taking them, so I'm hoping I can sneak one onto here when I can snag one. We did our annual ornament kit exchange from last year's Just Cross Stitch Ornament issue, and I have lots of kits to work on. :)

When we last left my spinning efforts, I was, at best, in the remedial class. My wheel was spinning too fast, and I couldn't get the speed cranked down enough for a beginner like me to be able to handle it. There is some speculation among folks that I've talked with that there's a defect with my current wheel, so I'm going to take that up with the folks from whom I purchased it.

My hubby, aware of the horrible pun he was about to make, suggested that I look for a "training wheel". On Friday, I got a goodie courtesy of UPS and my new friend Bob of Winderwood Farm. Above you see an Ashford Kiwi, and I'm happy to report that Richard assembled it for me today while we were watching the race, and the purple stuff you see coming out of the front is some roving I've already been spinning into some crude, hideously overspun yarn. I'll be taking the wheel to my spinning class tomorrow night. I'm very excited at the potential of being able to do this right! I can't say enough good things about the great customer service Bob gave me through his Ebay store, so please check it out when you get a chance through the link provided above (this is not a paid commercial, just a very satisfied customer!).

Not much either knitting or stitching this weekend, altho I did start an ornament from the 2005 ornament issue and a pair of Jaywalkers for my friend Judy (who bought the yarn during a run to the Whole Nine Yarns on Friday morning).

This week will be busy with work, and on Monday night I'll be staying with my friend Andy who is having a lumpectomy for breast cancer. The prognosis is very good, and we feel blessed, but it's just another reminder for all us girls to keep a check.

Not sure where the week went....

... I think it was taken up with far too much work and far too little fun! Had a lot of work to do for clients this week. Work = money, which is good, but it really eats into my stitching/knitting/blogging time, ya know??

We're currently getting ready for the Big Stitch Weekend, where all of our stitch group will gather for merriment. Vicky is graciously allowing us to invade her house. I'm psyched because Judy, Teresa, and Ann are all coming into town. Haven't seen Judy since Feb., and it's been Oct. since I saw Teresa and I think that long since Ann was in town (altho if memory serves, she may have made a December weekend.... It was a long time ago anyhow). Even tho I talk to my buds nearly daily either on the computer or on the phone, it's always great to have them here. And Judy's bringing her friend Joan with her, who I believe is about to become a good friend of mine as well. She's a fellow NASCAR fan and a knitter and stitcher, so what's not to like??? :)

New Vista computer is now behaving much better after I deleted the Evil McAfee security program that was bogging down my surfing and (gasp!) not letting me onto my fave NASCAR site that's hosted by ESPN. Oh, the humanity!! Alpha Geek Hubby figured that out late last night so I zapped that sucker this morning, and even tho Vista is issuing dire warnings that I'm "unprotected" (I can only imagine that I'm about to get some dire computer social disease), I'm a much happier person.

So I hope to maybe post some pictures of the merriment early next week (or, at the very least, have some good blackmail material). Maybe I'll even get a little stitching or knitting done. But I know I'll do a lot of laughing, and that'll be good for my soul.

Blogging from the new computer

It's just flat out dangerous to let me loose in a store when I'm under stress. I was in Office Depot on the fourth of July, and there was an awesome deal on a Gateway laptop that I just plain couldn't resist. So, it came home with me. I hadn't wanted a computer with Vista, considering *none* of my work software runs on it, but this one will be nice to play with for all my stuff at home. 1G RAM, 160 G Hard Drive, 4 USB 2 ports, firewire, modem, wireless built in, SD card reader built in, PC card reader built in, DVD R/W (I found it amusing that the blurb on the box says "Watch movies and be productive"... yeah, right). It probably has more geeky stuff that I can't remember right now. The kewlest thing for me at the moment is being able to have the computer on my lap while sitting on the sofa and watching the big TV. My previous system had no battery life, so I'm kinda enjoying surfing while watching NASCAR coverage. :)

Many thanks to my Alpha Geek hubby who spent most of the afternoon transferring information files and such from one computer to another. He's very handy with that; of course, he never has to worry about having his taxes done. :)

As for the stress, I'm hoping that it's coming to an end. Had a very productive meeting regarding Lynne's estate this week, and I think maybe now everyone's finally on the same page as to what needs to be done to finish stuff up. With any luck, I can close it down by the end of the summer.

Not much knitting this week. I did take a wheel spinning class, only to determine that I'm a remedial spinner. We think the problem may, unfortunately, be with my wheel, but I came up with another solution to that to be revealed in a later post.....

As for stitching... I'm still working on a sheep that I'm **almost** finished with. With any luck I'll have a picture here soon!

Socks for Mom

Another pair of socks finished for my mom! Made from the Lion Brand Wool Ease and from the same pattern from Creative Knitting magazine. Not my favorite yarn to work with, but they work up pretty quickly. I changed from size 7 to size 6 needles to make them fit her a little better... after working with the size 1s on the Jaywalkers I'm working on, I feel like I'm knitting with railroad spikes!

I'll be giving them to her when I go to Rome on Thursday.