FO And WIPs

 I've finished and framed my knitting sampler. It's hanging in my kitchen now.

I could have sworn I found the pattern on Etsy, but I didn't. It's on the October House Fiber Arts web site and it's called A Knitters Sampler. The original is in 4 shades of red, but I did purple, of course. It was a nice easy, quick project to do after all those months of the bicycle.

I got the frame and mat from frameiteasy.com. I used to get them from another online shop, but they were bought out by another company and I had a very bad experience afterwards. Frame It Easy is awesome.

Now a couple WIPs. I started a beading project. I was wearing one of my necklaces when I stopped at the liquor store a few months ago. The clerk loved it and asked lots of questions after I told her I'd made it. I ended up telling her I'd make her one. Well, then the whole business of Sue getting cancer and dying happened, and I forgot about it. I remembered it a few weeks ago, so I popped into the liquor store to talk to her about it because I could not remember which necklace I was wearing. Thankfully, she remembered I'd said something about Russian Spirals, and I remembered what it was. Hurray!

It was a necklace where I'd done a Russian Spiral in purple bugle beads for the focal, and the chain was Biva Nepal stitch. I remember it was a pattern in a beading magazine, but it's been a long time (I made it in 2006) so I can't remember which one. Anyway, I finally got her necklace started. I'm going with white and silver this time. I forgot how much fun spirals are to make.

Next WIP is a pair of mittens I'm making for KnitWits. I've got one little thumb left to do.

I did the first thumb this morning at the Yarnies meeting. Took me the whole two hours. You'd think I'd never made a thumb before. 

We had a wonderful weather day yesterday. It rained, almost the whole day, and it was nice and cool. I opened all the doors to air out the house. The air outside smelled so good, like wet happy green plant life. Knocked all the smoke out of the air, and helped firefighters working on the wild fires. The 90's will be back this next weekend. It was nice to have a little break from it.

Live long and prosper. \\//

Bicycle With Surfinia

 I just realized I've not blogged the finished cross stitch project! Here it is! (Click on pic to enlarge.)

I bought the pattern on Etsy. It's named Bicycle With Surfinia. The flowers are beads. It really adds to the picture. The biggest challenge, for me, turned out to be the back stitching of the wheel spokes. I chose to use couching, instead of back stitch for those. It was much easier to get the lines straight.

It's all framed and ready to go. I taught myself how to properly frame it. Instead of the usual purchasing of an adhesive mounting board, I found a couple video tutorials on how to lace the project on a foam backing board on YouTube. I used size 8 perle cotton for the lacing. 

It was much easier than I expected, but took some time to adjust it properly. I got that picture mounted perfectly! It's absolutely straight vertically and horizontally so that the edges of the matte are lined up correctly. I purchased the matte and frame from an online shop named Frame It Easy. The foam board was included free. I am extremely happy with their service. Everything arrived perfectly and was well packaged.

All in all, I'm very happy with how this project has turned out.

It's hot hot hot today. 95F currently. Definitely hotter than yesterday. I went out this morning and did some much needed yard work before the worst of the heat arrived. Now I'm enjoying our air conditioning.

Live long and prosper. \\//

Teal Works

Sharing the second fleece blanket. Same fabric, but with dark teal for the edging.

I like it more than the yellow. That's the end of that fabric. The next ones will be different.

Here's the matching sweater. It's still a WIP. I need to put the second button band on and do the finishing.

I'm LOVIN' IT! I emailed pics of the first set to our group leader and she is thrilled with it. Told me to make a whole bunch more. I shall make as many as I can before I get tired of it. Fortunately, there are lots of different edgings and baby sweater patterns out there. Heh heh...

Sweet hubby and daughter finished their ride today. They dipped their wheels in the Mississippi river.

The weather is nice and cool today with a breeze. Perfect deck knitting weather. I think I'll go put that second button band on now.

Live long and prosper. \\//