It Rained Green

Spring rains made everything green - seemingly overnight. After the brown decay of winter, 2 or 3 days of rain washed everything clean. It rained so hard at times it was a bit like Mother Nature took charge with a power washer.

Spring Cleaning!

It's a bit of a shock to the system to suddenly see everything so green it makes your eyes hurt. But happily looking forward to the gardening season about to begin.

I have one and only one flower in bloom.
A daffodil right outside the kitchen window.
There's an angel in waiting next to it.
Reminding me to be patient.

I finished my hardanger bookmark!
Made the first tentative cut along an outer edge and then got swept up in knitting for Sock Madness again - pattern came out late Monday afternoon but we were away for the day. The pattern corrections worked out during the test knit were mistakenly missing from the file sent to contestants. Luckily someone was usually standing by on Ravelry - willing to set things straight as best they could.

I tried not to let myself knit for too long at a time but the last day I JUST WANT TO BE DONE mode took over and I may have overdone it. My wrist & arm still ache. Got Asprin?

The bookmark cutting waited until I felt braver.
Cut it completely out Thursday night and clipped the threads as close as I dared. Trimmed it again this morning, but never having actually seen anything cut out, I'm only guessing it's done right.

It's really done!!






Round 3 socks for Sock Madness have been finished in time to move on to the next round. I've never gotten past Round 4. Part of it's luck of the draw in who you're paired up with. This year I seem to be luckier - our group is slower to finish up each round. Maybe I can beat my personal best this year?

Nemesis

*Buttonhole or Blanket Stitch
"formidable and usually victorious rival or opponent"

I was reading the Nordic Needle newsletter and came across this bookmark collection project underway for Reading Literacy.
Nordic Needle has taken it a couple of steps further:
For every hand stitched bookmark you send to them before May 7th you'll be entered in a drawing for a $100 gift certificate.
They're also doing a Bookmark Challenge contest - due May 3oth.

So I decided my next Hardanger (with color) project would be a bookmark.
I can't seem to visualize by designing on paper yet and so it became another design-as-I-go trial.
And error.

I'll probably keep this one and try again for a more kid friendly donation.
I wanted it to be narrower but forgot the buttonhole stitch all the way around would be necessary. Until I had already done what I thought would be the outer edge. Adding the buttonhole border means doing about a bazillion more eyelets before needle weaving can begin.

I'm almost ready to cut. I'm using 1 strand of matching DMC floss for the eyelets & woven bars. It's a little like sewing with a strand of hair. But it matches the size 5 DMC variegated Perle Cotton. Need to talk ACMoore into carrying the pretty balls of size 8 & 12 perle cotton. Black, White & Ecru are all we can get without ordering online.
Come on... we need the pretty, pretty colors!

*Besides not being able to "see" the first time around trying Hardanger, the buttonhole/blanket stitch is what pushed me over the edge in giving up on it.
It's coming easier but I can't say I like it much better yet.
And I've never cut the outside edge away yet.
I'm a little afraid.


I almost forgot:
The front of the Needlecase do-over is finished!
Well. Except for the buttonhole edge or hem or whatever they call to do for finishing it.
(Free Pattern here)

I jumped to something else first.
Surprised?

Interruption or Intervention

First, to finished things

I finished my hardanger practice piece April 2nd!!
I'm thinking it will become a page in a fabric book of sampled needlework.


I hope to continue exploring different techniques for each page. Giving me a perfectly reasonable excuse for jumping from one thing to another as the mood strikes!
Brilliant?


Sock Madness - round 2 got underway Saturday. The pattern was delivered by email at about 9:30 in the morning and we were told it would need 2 contrasting colors.



I was afraid it was going to be stripes.
I should have been more afraid, as it turned out to be stranded knitting. I'm ridiculously slow at stranded knitting and when the highlight of a chart is getting to do several sets of 4 stitches in a row of the same color!! ...seriously. Slow.

Steph dubbed them Cinderella Socks as she squeezed them onto her foot for the official & mandatory "feet must be in the socks" photo. The girls were both on campus until after 6. I finished them around 1:45 but couldn't convince them 2 of their feet needed to get home immediately. The madness!

Finding someone they'll fit should be interesting. They are very tight.
As I believe I've mentioned: I do knit quite tight.
And they're very long in proportion to width.
Cinderella?

And now for the needed intervention round 2 of Sock Madness provided. Concentrating on knitting socks for 4 days made me put aside the colossal mistake I had just made with a pair of scissors that morning.
I was happily stitching away on a piece with some much desired color when I seem to have gone mad with a pair of scissors. I foolishly cut across 3 of 4 columns of threads before realizing 24 of them were not intended for cutting.
I had not yet pulled many of the longest threads, and I thought by cutting them in half I could pull from both directions. They would come out easier.

Major structural damage has occurred! It will take more time to try and fix that I intend to devote to it. I believe I'll let the flames of the wood stove destroy all evidence of my stupidity and try again.

Like it never happened but for the lesson learned.
Careful with those scissors! (And no shortcuts.)

Humbled by Hardanger

Picking up where I left off

Hardanger progress

Continuing with my "design as I go" practice piece, I needed to work myself away from the center. Somehow.

I thought centering the next section above the on-point square - keeping the 3rd stitches in line and 4 threads above - would allow for the corners to meet back up at the edge. They're off by at least 2 threads.

I'm telling myself it was mathematically impossible and not my counting. Since all 4 corners did it.
Design flaw?

I managed to give myself way more eyelets to do before I could cut & needle weave again. Since the book says eyelets must be done first or the cut threads will be ripped from their moorings, eyelets it is. MERCY!

I'm just itching to start something with some color but so far I've stuck to this so that it gets done. And then I can move on to one of my new books.
Or maybe I'll try this needlecase in DMC Perle Cotton 5 4190 Ocean Coral.

Yes. An impulse buy while birthday shopping for Steph.
Along with this Clover turntable hoop discounted from $36 to $8 at Joanne's. It's even marked down to $15 here - so it was either overpriced in the first place or just plain sucks.

For $8 I'm going to find out for myself.
As soon as I finish the rest of these eyelets so I can get to the fun part of this hardanger project. (And before round 2 of Sock Madness!)

Take a deep breath

Remember to exhale!

My first Hardanger Woven Picots :)
Not sure if I did them right - but they don't suck.

How dainty stitches are on 30 count fabric!

Took me all afternoon to do these few.
The hardest part was getting the courage up to make the 1st knotted loop.

How committed would I be if it failed?
Would it be a mess to untangle if things went very badly?
A great gasping breath escaped after about the 3rd pair and I realized I had been holding my breath for way too long!

Next to cut the middle threads away and weave it back together. Remember to breathe...

I bought new stork scissors and some better tweezers for removing the drawn and cut threads.
Dear family: HANDS OFF!!

2 of the new books I ordered arrived.
Can't wait to explore them; they both look full of inspiration and brimming with the details of new stitches just waiting to be tried.

Puzzled

Did I mention I bought a light?

And it came with a magnifying glass?
PRICELESS. Seriously recommend it!!

I've been experimenting with more puzzle pieces. It suddenly occurred to me my pieces could be like little band samplers of every technique I've ever tried with fabric postcards or fabric ATCs. I don't have to reinvent the wheel for ideas! I've already had a couple of good ones and it's okay if use them again. A needle tatted basket of flowers soon :)

I tried the Hardanger doodle puzzle piece on top first. No basting. Just outlined the puzzle shape roughly a quarter inch away and started in one corner and away I went. It's a little random - but I was practicing!
There's a tan fabric layered behind to highlight the cut work and I added some beads as quilting when I was done because it seemed like it needed something more.

Mostly I wanted to see if this type of fabric could be buttonhole stitched without fraying all over the place. I used fusible web, plus stitched the outline very close before cutting the puzzle shape. (I should not have used a pencil as I can see some marks that I thought would never show. Oops!)

I also tried experimenting with the tabs on the bottom one. To see if I could make it fit, I custom cut the top tab down to size.

I was afraid the stitch work on the bottom piece was too close to the edge, but when I locked them in place the open space from the top piece made it less noticeable I think. It's a 2nd try.
(This time it's square... for what it's worth :)

I mistakenly used 3 strands of floss and didn't realize it until I went to separate the other 4 in half. There were only 3? Damn! I ran out with an inch of edge work left. I hope I have some more. Somewhere. It was late so I haven't gone looking yet.
Wish "organized" was trait I could say I've passed on to the girls.
NOT.

While I still need lots of practice and need to study the stitch how-to's more closely, Hardanger stitches are coming so much more intuitively. I blogged about it at the time, so I'm surprised it was so long ago that I first tried.
2006. Really?

I shouldn't have held out so long without a light!
Instead of flinging it away in frustration because I can't see, I want to try more.

The Curious Frog

How it came to this

For some reason lines from the opening of the Lord of the Rings keeps going through my mind:
"What news of the outside world? Tell me everything ... Everything? ...far too eager and curious for a hobbit.
Most unnatural."

I may not have even known the terms Needle Weaving or Drawn Thread until 2 weeks ago. But I'm an eager hobbit... tell me everything!

I've gone to 2 libraries and carried home 1/2 dozen books (just now requested another offered suggestion through the lending library program), purchased a couple online that still haven't arrived...grr!... and dug out all the books I've collected on Stumpwork, embroidery, CQ, Hardanger & more.

All to satisfy a current mood to teach myself.
To stitch something.
I've been working on this 2nd experiment in stitching.

My thought bubbles along the way:
I want it to be bigger than the last piece so that there's room in the center for surface embroidery.
I want it to be square so I can try the Zig Zag hem tutorial - needs an even number of threads.
Baste A LOT because I can't count.
Okay that was too much. Didn't need half of it except as markers in counting to ten.
Tried following the diagonal flow of the last piece but it turned out too Laverne ...Letter L!
Fill in some more to disguise the L.
Now is it too much?
Maybe I liked rectangle better. Next time.
Sort of reminds me of ivy growing on the side of a building.
There's too much empty space to fill. Balance?
Try some Hardanger...make a window!
Now it makes me think of kitchen windows & garden walls...
Add more knots.
Now beads.
Too much?
Should I have left more empty space?
Should I snip OFF some of it?
Too late...filling it in.
Adding more.
And more.
Last night: "I'm stopping now... maybe it will look different in the morning."
When I got up this morning: "Something's not right."

And then I saw the frog charm in the bottom of my stitching container.
Purchased a long time ago and waiting for a place to go.
I dropped the curious frog down onto the piece - peeking into the garden window.
I knew what I wanted to do.
Maybe it would be okay to Add MORE knots & wheels to balance the window.

A line from something Stephani once wrote ends: "that's how you learn" has been repeating in my head as well. I'd been considering my next blog entry and thought I might go with the title I taught myself.

I'm nothing if not determined. If I see something I want to do, I try to figure out how. Whether the "teacher" comes from books, from internet tutorials, patterns with complete and detailed instructions or a simple image that I feel compelled to explore.

Explore. Yes that's what we can do. And access to internet is a seriously valuable tool. Just as we can pick and choose what to use. What to consider. What to discard. What stitches to put together and which "rules"to break.

One comment from a site I visit currently spoke about mixing stitch techniques. She asks: Is there a point when you do so much that it all gets fused in your mind, and you use any technique that seems appropriate, or should you keep each style of work separate?

In my head it was a description of what must be going wrong with my latest effort. What I woke up to this morning seemed "just not right" and I wasn't sure if it needed more, less or something not all. I was still looking at it when I read her comment. I didn't know if I would be brave enough to blog about it, if in the end I hated it absolutely :)

Still not sure about it but I tried something different...
I went exploring like the curious frog!

Fine lines & slippery slopes

No turning back...

A few weeks ago I admitted defeat and bought a Daylight tabletop lamp.
I swore I didn't actually need the magnifying glass that came with it but it would be there for someday. If someone ever did need it.

On Sunday I peeled the protective sheets from the magnifying glass and tried it out. Okay. Maybe I do "need" the magnifier.

I tried Hardanger a year or two ago and declared it the hardest needlework method of all time. Mostly because I couldn't see the damn threads.
I did several heart shaped practice projects before finally getting one to come out "right" enough. Then moved to other things.

I am trying again . . . but now with better lighting.
Inspired by this picture I felt compelled to give counting threads another try.

I've ordered 2 books including the one mentioned at Maggie's Textiles.
Until they arrive I'm (* sort of) going by Mary Corbet's tutorials found on her blog, Needle 'n Thread.


*OOPS!
I was supposed to wrap 4 threads (except for 2 on each end). I did 2 all the way across. All the way around.

I meant to do that!
Not buying it? Didn't think so :) I stopped reading directions too soon and just started sewing.

If there was a report card
Follows Directions marked: Needs Work