PINK & GREEN

Actually, amazingly, pretty...despite all the PINK and GREEN.

Quilt Square

I made more of the little trees for a quilt square. It's for a quilt being made for my cousin and his fiancee by her family.














The square is little wrinkly here. I had just washed it and steamed it but it needed more time to relax. I couldn't wait to take the pictures as I had to deliver the square.























Since working on this I can't bring myself to knit right now. I am working on the PINK embroidery again. Actually, I have finished with the PINK part and am working on the greenery. It is a rather pukey avocado GREEN that reminds me more of luminescent celery, but, amazingly, all together the embroidery is looking nice!

Master Project List Snapshot

I keep a MASTER PROJECT LIST. Here is how it stands.

CRAFT PRIORITY

Dashing -- for my dad

Queen Bee Hat -- for new sister-in-law

Finish 3 pairs of socks -- for brothers & pooky

Weasley ornaments -- for nackojacko & piano teacher

Spring or Summer Season Brazilian -- for fearless leader

Ravelry Editing of Knitting for Barbie Doll

CRAFT SOMEDAY

Slippers --for goddaughter & her sister

Ballet Shorts -- for student

CRAFT FOR FUN

Bitty Twins Closet: Sweater for each -- in progress, Dressy clothes, Bill’s ballet stuff, Robes

Preemie Project stuff

Basement Rug, Vortex pattern?

Gryffindor scarf -- in progress

Violet Fairy, etc. cross stitch for future quilt-- in progress

Barbie House: painting & trimming

Finish curtain for mini-me's "dressing room"?

AT HOME

Filing: Pooky's Box, Yellow Files, Green Files, Red/Orange Files, Save Mini-me Stuff Box

Kitchen/Bathrooms: Recycle electric blanket

Boxes under my desk

Garage: Garbage & Recycling Reorganization, Goodwill, make Airbrush Center for Pooky

Tidy up "box room"

AT WORK

Prepare Threepenny Opera, Raymonda/La Vivandiere, Recital Pieces

Notate Messerer, etc.

Notate Raymonda? Notate more Ballet Blanc?

THINK ABOUT

Voice lessons

Performing

Choreographing

Certifying Score

SOMEDAY

Snowflake Fantasy (Brazilian)

Dorothy’s Denim (Brazilian --did I pick up Iris 222?)

12” TAST (crazy quilt) square

Theatrical Character Dance notation

TRMF certification

Paint Mini-me's big girl furniture

Back on Track

The socks are growing. I certainly wouldn't want to see them as a bikini top now.

I only got the one chance to practice the figure-8 cast on when starting the socks, so I practiced it again by making an ipod sock. Yes, I am now a "pod person." It was pretty funny. All week I had been after the dancers to be sure their ballet shoe and Irish shoe ribbons stayed tucked in or I would fine them like a real ballet company does. Any time I charged a virtual fine I would say "more money for me, here comes my ipod!" I guess the universe heard me because at the end of the week a good friend came through town and gave me her old ipod nano! She had upgraded.

<> The preemie blanket is nearly done. Only a couple inches of pattern left to go to be a little bigger than 24" x 24". Next time, a bigger gauge for a bigger blanket.

Mini-me's spa cloth in limbo. She lost the other size 10 needle using it as a wand (in disregard of previous safety advice.)

Finally, the first cross-stitch fairy is in motion! This is Mushroom Fairy's head. She is 28-count over 1 stitch.

And, I got a chance to join Brazilian Embroidery club tonight with my summer schedule. I am way ahead of them on Snowflake Fantasy. They had to finish their other project first.

Four Seasons

These are from Dorothy Platt's "Four Seasons" I finished last summer. I made it as a vertical banner of four squares with wrapped chain stitch borders in the variegated tree branch color. Then I sewed a backing onto it and hung it with a dowel and yarn. A good solution to the framing issue for a rustic piece like this.

In my craft corner today...

Here is the chart for what I am calling the "fiesta dancers" dishcloth. It's not mine, but I don't think it had a name but I need a working title and the yarn I'm using is called "fiesta ombre." I am trying to backtrack and locate the blog where I found this chart, I got to it from Monthly Dishcloths last week. As you can see, I'm highlighting the rows yellow when I am reading right to left for the front of the cloth and pink when I am reading left to right for the back of the cloth.

The dancers won't show up so well on a varigated yarn like this, but I don't care. It's so happy.

Here is my spa cloth coming along slowly.

And here is the sampler.

And finally, here is the very beginning of a teeny hat for The Preemie Project. I'll get that link up here soon.

Oh yes, Snowflake Fantasy with all the roses and daisies. Next are the cast on flowers (no more bullions!).

The Tooth Bunny vs. The Easter Fairy

This is the mid-month KAL dishcloth. Like several others, I was completely stumped as to what this might be. Maybe a tooth? Whereas there were many who said theirs was turning out so cute! A cute tooth? Well, so much for my "spatial" nature. All I needed to do was flip it over. See. Cute.

Nearly done with cross-stitch alphabet. Lots of progress on Snowflake Fantasy. Stalled pending thread on Dorothy's Denim. Knitting a spa cloth for me (Clinique green), a fiesta dancers dishcloth from a chart and a preemie hat for The Preemie Project. Updates on all that to come!

Shopping list: a cable hook I like; a pom-pon maker for hats (yes, I know I can make my own, but I plan to use it a lot so it's a toy I can justify)

Billions of bullions

Here are all the roses with the frills added and a couple of daisies.

Haven't visted Barbie's closet in awhile: here is a sundress I made to experiment with a lace edging. It is the one on Epstein's Barbie wedding dress. I couldn't get the gauge perfect for the wedding dress and I'm not going to commit to that particular picayune project if there is any room for error. So I practiced the edging on this more forgiving dress. The lace edge is the beginning of the pattern, so then I had to work my tutu design upside down to complete the dress. I added a bit of clear elastic around the top for security, the Barbies at our house are very active.

Another good cartoon. This one is in my collection because it refers to dance notation which is my specialty. It would be so great if everyone just picked up books of dances like in this cartoon. Apparently it was that way in the days of court dancing. Courtiers kept books of dances at the bedside to learn.

I'm liking the pink

This is all roses so far and pink is going to be very pretty. This project is bullion happy, but the snowflakes I did before Christmas got me back up to speed on them. Projects go so fast now. I hardly ever have to pull things out unless I want to adjust the number of wraps or the shade of the thread. I have since added the frills around the center rose (more bullions!) and started the daisies (bullions!)
Here is a change of pace: one of my favorite cartoons.

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!

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!