Think pink

When you bring your almost-5-year-old daughter along to pick out thread you are in serious danger of falling prey to pink. So here is my palette for the "Snowflake Fantasy." Light to dark pink shaded, dark pink, and light to dark avocado. I also ordered sight-unseen some opal pink beads. Pink is pink, right? We'll see. Actually, there were only a couple of directions I could go with the current selection of threads; I'd rather buy from the shop than order myself and I truly like all colors. So, pink it is.

Jasmine flower finished in one day

Amazing! Mini-Brazilian is my new best friend. Witness my mistake, though. I got carried away with stem stitch and did all the vines as stems. I like how it turned out; the stem stitch keeps everything nice and curvy, little couched vines tend to get zig-zaggy. Usually I like the zig-zaggy look, but here I like how the whole thing just swirls out.

I am moving on to a giant project next, but the mini has given me great inspiration. Here is the project the Brazilian club is doing next. They're just finishing up a bunch of minis themselves (Sunshine's Treasures). This is Snowflake Fantasy JDR #154. It doesn't quite fit on the scanner. Since snowflakes don't have eight points in the first place I am not going to get hung up on a snowflake palette. Heck, the pictures I found online of real Jasmine flowers didn't show pistils, but they sure look cute in the pattern! I was trying to figure out what color they should be. Clearly they were meant to be whatever color I had on hand in Glory thread: pale apricot. I don't know what colors I'm going to go with for the "snowflake" at all. I'll probably go down to the shop and pick off the rack. Maybe today even! School, and therefore dance classes, are cancelled due to the massive power outages. (We were among the lucky first 70,000 urban homes to get power back; another 100,000 more rural or with more damaged lines may have to wait up to a week!) I'm thinking a trip to Village Needlework and a couple of haircuts today.

Jasmine flower

Here is a Brazilian I've been working on today. It's from The Art of Dimensional Embroidery by Maria Freitas. I've been planning to make a Jasmine spray for my friend whose daughter's name means "jasmine." These are turning out really cute. Like I said, sometimes I intimidate myself out of picking up the Brazilian and make something knit and square instead, but when I finally get up the nerve I am always happy.

Speaking of knit and square, the Turkish washcloth turned out nicely as well.

We did end up losing power for about 8 hours last night from the ice storm. I told my duaghter it was an adventure; she told me she didn't want to call it that. No school tomorrow, so no dance classes. A three-day weekend!

Pictures haven't been uploading for days

I can finally post the February mid-month KAL. It was fun to do a pattern stitch--it's been awhile.
I am working on a spa washcloth (turkishwashcloth) for my husband, he nearly confiscated the KAL one for shower use. My first thought was to make all the bathroom ones blue, so we know they belong in the bathroom, but now I'm thinking I want a spa washcloth for me, too. What color do I make that one? I'm making all the kitchen ones ecru or varigated including ecru.

Here is my progress on the Brazilian. Stuck now until I can get to the shop for some more Iris 222. We are getting slammed with an ice storm as I write, so no getting out tomorrow. It's a snow day for me! Lose income, but get to stay home all weekend, which is a rarity.

Here also is my first Brazilian, which I have picked at for many years. Let's see, started it maybe 2 years before getting pregnant, worked on it again on another fishing trip when baby was 3 months, baby turning 5 next month. Dug it out tonight and figured out that I'm stuck right now, having run out of Kreinik metallic thread for the little branches. I think the shop can order it. Also have to remember what color I need to pick up to do that last rose at the top over again, I remember picking it out. I'm sure it's in my notes, I just haven't really looked. There is some questionable stitch technique here, but also some pleasant surprises looking back at it.

Okay, here is the cross-stitch. This has been fun. I have a few questions about how to finish it to ask next month, then I am on to another, I think.

It will be a fairy, but I'm not sure which direction to go. I have turned some fairy art into cross-stitch patterns (copyright guilt), and also turned some of my daughter's drawings of fairies into patterns. I may make a quilt eventually including either or both of these ideas. A quilt seems very daunting, so that's way off.

Brazilian seems daunting to me sometimes, too, when I haven't picked it up in awhile it's hard to believe I will still be able to do it!

Barbie's Beach Bag

Bikini (she also has a mix-and-match tankini top for these bottoms) , halter tank and mesh cover-up.

A funky little cloth

This is the January mid-month dishcloth, finished last night, the night before the new KAL. It's a funky little cloth--see what I mean about the topography?

January KAL

I've caught up on the 1st January dishcloth. I like it a lot. I think I prefer the "picture" to be all in stockinette stitch (like this) rather than in garter (like the February hearts). I suspected I would.

Started the January mid-month last night and I have to say I'm glad I have the pictures of the completed ones to peek at. I thought the topography of mine was a little extreme (like maybe I forgot how to cable properly, which is a distinct possibility) but it turns out it's okay.

Happy Valentine's Day to me!

Look what my husband got me for Valentine's Day! A Brazilian thread organizer!! I was drooling over the ones the Brazilian club had and he remembered. Combines my loves for embroidery, organization, clear things and him. :)

Oh, yeah. When I listed all my groups I forgot that I am following along with the Brazilian club even though I can't attend their meetings. I'll show the project we're starting next time and maybe I can get some ideas for colors!

Reaching into the closet with my eyes closed

Here is an adaptation of a tutu. My daughter wanted a fairy suit so one of her Barbies could play Barbie's friend Dandelion from Fairytopia. This one has undies to go with it somewhere.

Stayed up waaay too late last night

I let my preschool daughter pick out which Epstein pattern (within limits) I should make her friend's Barbie for her birthday. She picked this poncho, which I heartily approved, and she picked out the colors for the stripes. I started in plenty of time a couple of days ago and proceeded to knit half of it with the wrong gauge. Dumb. (But now my daughter's Hearts Only dolls will have a poncho soon.) So I started over and was hurrying, so of course I did dumbs at every opportunity. Seaming went quickly, but I silently cursed the stripes for producing all those little ends to tuck in. Luckily, I had convinced my daughter on the first try that it would look good without a fringed bottom. That would have been maddening at 2:00am. I actually like it better without the fringe. I did this one before in self-striping yarn and with fringe and the fringe rolls terribly.

Been having fun at http://www.darklilac.com/ making my own cross stitch patterns. Getting a little ahead of myself there... let's finish the first one.

Pictures

The swiffer cover.
The cross stitch sampler. Hee, hee, I'm up to "i" now.
The patchwork bag.
The rose dress and stole.

I've been a busy bee

Oh, dear. Most of the pictures are not inserting properly. I'll try again later.

Here is my first knit-a-long dishcloth, the February pattern. Red or pink yarn was recommended and I was happily going to play along, but Walmart had no red or pink solid dishcloth cotton. Can you believe it? So, I bought a big ol' cone of ecru and I will be sedately knitting all the picture cloths in ecru for a lovely, understated 12 cloth set. I bought a roll of ecru/someotherstuff varigated for the February mid-month. Or I might use it to catch up on the January mid-month if I get my cable hook back in the next couple of days.

Here is a detail of the "Swiffer" cover. It's almost done.

And here is the beginning of my cross stitch sampler. Met with the sampler group on Monday. They are all working on cross stitch fractals. The scope of these is amazing. They plan to complete one page of pattern each month (maybe 3000 little squares)and at that pace it will take three years to complete the whole thing! I've already done 5/26 of the letters of the alphabet in three days.

It turns out the appeal of cross stitch for me is going to be the extreme fine-ness of the work. This is on some kind of linen (32 count over 2 threads for the cross stitch initiated). I am gleeful to discover that your really do account for every single little thread in your material! Duh, but too cool. I am imagining whole dresses and whatnot in the days of yore embellished with this level of precision. Amazing. It strongly appeals to the perfectionist and the miniaturist in me.

Haven't done any work on the Brazilian this week. Time to get back to those leaves. Haven't seen the crazy quilt block in a while--three stitches behind on TAST. I had an inspired idea to embellish the crazy-quilt type Gypsy costume I made last Halloween with each stitch from TAST. Then I got it out and discovered that it isn't really a piece put together with enough care to invest that much in it. Ah, well. Maybe a smaller Gypsy piece sometime, a headscarf or something.

From Barbie's closet: a patch-work bag. This was an insane idea. I used up the last of some varigated sock yarn and cut it into little separate color pieces to knit this bag from Epstein. And a rose dress and stole, Simplicity pattern 5755.