Slow Sunday Stitching - May 26, 2024

Not a lot of stitching this week, the garden is exploding and we've had enough rain that I need to weed pretty much every day.   My tomatoes and peppers are all blooming, so I hope for another bumper tomato year!

What time I did get to stitch was getting back into the KC Plaza Sewing Bag.   Fill in on the statues in the fountain is what's up next.  Right now I'm working on getting the shadow color on the right hand horse.   I did finish the last little dolphin statue over on the far right.

I also got the short rows to shape the back shoulder area done on the yoke sweater, but no photo of the whole sweater laid out, since it doesn't really look any different than last week on the needle.   I have discovered German Short Rows and I like them SO much better than the wrap and turn variety of short rows.  This style is darn near invisible.   Here's the wedge formed by five short row sets (so ten rows) and other than tracing a row of stitches from the front of the sweater on the left side around, can you see where the 'seam' is?   I can't and I know where I put them!   I also got the repeats marked with ring markers. 

The other news is that there was gifted stash acquisition!  One of my co-workers is a knitter and she gave me retirement sock yarn!   The Meilenwiet is in my preferred sock colors of blues, teals and purple toned greys.  The Dream in Color Smooshy is a lovely rainbow - I think that one will become a scarf or shawlette.  

Linking up with the SSS crew (a little later than usual).   The current round up is here.

Haul - it's a rare thing

On FlossTube (stitchers' YouTube channels), there are a lot of people who video post about their "haul" each time they buy stuff for needlework.  I may have mentioned my stash - it is deep but old.  Most of the kitted patterns that I have date from the late 1990s, early 2000s.  But there are still a LOT of things I want to stitch in those tubs, so I have only purchased a very few things over the last few years and mostly just patterns.  And occasionally, supplies to finish something in progress.

But when I saw Plum Street Samplers new market release "Corgi Caboodle", I knew I had to stitch it for Angie!  Her Corgi cross, Zoe, has sold me on the breed and I'm hoping to be able to adopt one from a local(ish) breed specific rescue once I retire. 

So I asked the gals at The Silver Needle in Tulsa to kit it up for me and I got squishy mail this morning!  I have already pulled the DMC colors that I have on hand.  There's only three or four missing.  As much floss as I have (five large bobbin boxes worth!), I always seem to be short a color when I kit up a project.

I'll need to pick up the DMC colors that I am missing and find a backing fabric (hoping for one with dogs or doggie footprints or similar).  Or maybe I'll frame it, I'll check with JC and the kids to see what they think Angie would prefer.

It's a very rare project that goes from the shopping or shipping bag directly onto the scroll rods and into rotation without ever hitting the stash per se.  But that's what's happening with this one.  Excited to get it slotted into the "modern" slot as soon as I finish the Victoria Sampler ornament/quilt block. 

Swiftly, swiftly ......

 A couple of people expressed puzzlement  about yarn swifts after I posted about the demise of the one that had served me well since the 1970s.   

A swift is a contraption that has been around for a long time - centuries at least.  This 'umbrella' type seems to have been invented in the 18th century, but ones with fixed cross arms are much older.  It's used by textile folks (knitters and spinners) to process hanks of yarn into a ball or cake that doesn't tangle when used.   Weavers whose warp is in hanks can go directly from the skein to a warping board using a swift as well.  A lot of 'big box' yarn is in machine wound commercial balls that do not need this intermediate step, but for specialty yarns, especially hand dyed yarns and handspun yarns (which end up in hanks as part of the processing), it's a necessity.  

Here's what a healthy one looks like folded up for storage.  My new one - right out of the box.  The wooden screw clamp in the middle sets the diameter when it is working and the bottom one secures the whole thing to the table.

I set up on my dining room table.   Swift clamped to one side of the leaf, ball winder clamped a couple of feet away (ended up moving it a bit further over).  Pile of hanks to be made into balls there in the center.  (It's not really obvious that the commercial grey hank is twice as large as my handpun hanks, but it's nearly twice as thick, though shorter.)  

Since this procedure takes up a fair bit of space, I try to do as many hanks as possible one right after another.  Two pairs of potential socks there!  (Plus some left over singles from the spinning wheel on the wooden spool bobbins.   I store my leftover singles as mini-cakes because I only have four good bobbins for my wheel and that doesn't give me any spares for yarn storage.  I won't use the swift for them, but want to empty them while I have the ball winder out.

And away we go, first skein on the swift, cranking the ball winder.  You can see why it's called an "umbrella" !  The ribs expand and contract to fit many sizes of skeins.  It spins around on the center rod freely.

And here's the yarn all caked up and ready to be turned into socks!  I can finally cast on my birthday start.  Three weeks late, but better late than never!  The kitchen scale is out because I used it to divide the commercial skein into two equal balls by weight.

Slow Sunday Stitching - June 14, 2020

Good morning Slow Sunday Stitching crew (link to current roundup).  First up, a garden update.   This has been a week of things flowering!

Both of my cherry tomato plants have bloomed and set the first fruit.   Itty bitty green tomatoes!  These are Supersweet 100s.  These are the ones you can buy 'on the vine' in the grocery produce area with a dozen or more little one inch fruits all in a row.  These first sets look like they will have a half dozen or so fruits, but I think the ones later in the season will be more prolific.  These need to be caged because they are indeterminate, so they will grow and produce all season.   I also have a beefsteak tomato that is a heirloom variety (non-hybrid) so I will be able to save seeds of it.  That one hasn't flowered or set any fruit yet, though it does have a cluster of buds.

My sweet bell peppers have also set fruit on one of the three plants.  There are three or four little peppers in there! 

I am having to water twice a day on this box since the soil isn't very deep.   I ran out of compost.   I have a coupon for the garden center, so I need to pick up a bag or two, though I far prefer my own. 

Now on to crafting.   On Millennium, I am well into the bottom border and 8 hours of 10 in this rotation.  The top and bottom edges of the borders are each five rows wide.  I'm working from the inner edges to the outer edges.  There's some shadows and shading where the angel over-robes lap over the 'stonework' of the base that is very confetti.   That takes a lot longer than the plain runs along the bottom edge!

And there was a bit of haul this week.   I have been saving up for a small diameter interchangeable needle set.   Back last year, I had bought a set of US 3 tips and several lengths of cables from DyakCraft (link to their website) to use on the Rosemarkie Waistcoat and liked them so much that when they ran a sale on their "Heavy Metal" sets, I pulled the trigger and bought all the sizes (plus an extra set of US 0, US 1 and US 1.5 for doing socks TAAT contiguous).  They aren't cheap (about the same as Addis or other upper end needles), but made in the US of stainless steel and are interchangeable.  I love, love their cables - they swivel!

Since I bought a set, they included a case!  No more keeping everything in a ziplock baggie.

Quilt WiP - the never-ending scrap basket

UMMM, I found another box of quilt scraps last night when I was putting away all of the Christmas stuff.   In one way, it was great - there were actually some fabrics that 'go with' the quilt I'm working on - "It was the 80s".   All these are matching or coordinating prints to the fabrics already in the quilt.  There's at least a yard total, maybe closer to two.  

I will be able to remake and swap out one or two blocks that have a lot of that bright rose pink solid in them (and move those blocks to the back).   And I will have enough to do the one fabric sashings now.   But I'm so happy with the Carpenter's Wheel block, which was made out of necessity when I thought I was running out of fabric, that I can't be sorry these fabrics were hidden up to now.

There are also a bunch of pieces of homespun, shirt weight ticking, parts of shirts and shirting fabrics in small checks and plaids.  I've been casually collecting for one of Bonnie's quilts from "Shirt tails", so the variety will be nice. Not sorry I found that box in the basement storage, but will I ever get to the end of zombie craft supplies????

It is becoming increasingly obvious that I need a better storage system for my quilting fabric! 

Needlework WiPs: The Silver Needle Camp Projects

Last week was Silver Needle Camp.   This was my third time at the fall camp.   I know the directions and feel comfortable on the drive now, and I had a great table of people to stitch with.

The weather was so-so.   As is often the case in mid October, there was a mix of weather.  I was chased all the way south from Topeka to the OK state line by thunderstorms closing in behind me.  Lots of lightning in the rear view mirror.   It was starting to rain hard and it was about 10 pm on Wednesday night when I got to Independence KS, so I stopped for the night.  My co-worker, Kelley, is from around there and recommended a nice hotel, The Appletree.  I got a room with minimal hassle despite it being late and having no reservation.    Their breakfast bar was good, too; I got back on the road by 9 am. 
Thursday was glorious weather, crisp and blue skies with bright puffy white clouds.

Got into Tulsa and met up with Beth at a great restaurant near the Silver Needle shop called "The Silver Skillet".   I highly recommend the Chicken Avocado sandwich - but come hungry because it is HUGE!!!   Beth had to go back to work, and I got some shopping in at the Silver Needle.  I bought a new pair of cutwork scissors from the German company Dovo.   Very skinny points on those, which should be just the thing.  I can't wait to try them on the next Victoria Sampler Four Elements project.

The accommodations at camp are two to four person rooms.   I was in with three other 'solo' campers.  If you come in a group, you can room together.  

the "Bunkhouse" and the pool

The food was wonderful as always.   Breakfast and lunch in the cool retro restaurant onsite.  One dinner of pizza from a local (non-chain) pizza place plus Lindy's huge salad bar, other dinner is at an Amish farm.  Miz Rachael does a wonderful family style dinner for us.   The little daughter of the house who was just a toddler the first year I was there is now about five or six and solemnly handed out rolls from a basket.  So darling.   Alexis is about the same age and I can totally see her helping like that.   (I don't take pictures at the farm, it would be rude.)

retro dining, yummy food

We got three charts and four projects for camp.  

Pincushion in a Sudberry House base. 

Chart is "Kiss A Bit"  by Hands on Design/Just Another Button Co.

On hand dyed charcoal Aida

Two projects from Heartstring Samplery from the chart "Festive Little Fobs: Beekeeper Edition".  One (bottom) to finish as a fob, the other (top) as a tray.
On 28 count "Homespun" linen over two with Gentle Arts Sampler floss.

And last but largest, "Hocus Pocus Halloween" by Heart in Hand.  The original on this is tiny - 32 count over two.  Blown up to 9 stitches per inch (18 count Rustic Linen over two) and done in perles and ribbon floss, it's still darling.  It will be finished as an oversized ornament for a holiday display or to center in a wreath. 

Great weekend, then it rained on me all the way home LOL. 

Stash Enhancement: Bateau Bayeux

It's so much fun to get a squishy package! The kit for my new online needlework class came in the mail today!  And oh, it's nice. 

The threads are crewel wools hand dyed by Renaissance Dyeing in a rich brown, navy, light blue and gold.   They are incredibly soft to the touch, and I'm really looking forward to seeing how they will stitch up.  The design is silk screened onto a nice linen (I am assuming) ground in a pale gold ink and even two #5 crewel needles are included. 

The whole thing came in a zip bag with a heavy cardstock photo of the project in full color (almost life sized!) and on the back, some close ups of details of the stitching and interesting facts about the Norman invasion of England.