Livin' La Needle Loca

...and not a moment too soon! Very few things are blooming in the garden right now. However, the rosemary is pretty happy right now: The recent rains have made for some interesting sunrises. Here's Wednesday's: The Husband and I celebrated our 32nd anniversary yesterday. We went to dinner at a nice steak restaurant. We shared a calamari appetizer, had wonderful main courses (beef for me, fish for him), and split a piece of cheesecake for dessert. We were able to relax and just talk to each other for a change.  We both enjoyed it! Up this weekend: Go through more of my MIL's craft things and start going through some of his parents' mementos. The plan is to identify and organize meaningful mementos into scrapbooks for his parents to enjoy. For the most part, the mementos have been sitting in boxes, unseen for several years. My other plan is to get the stitching done on the mermaid. I have no idea if that's possible, but I'm going to make a big push...

...and an old finished object. As I mentioned, we're going through my mother-in-law's craft stuff. In on e of the boxes I found this: Specs: Stitched in December of 1989 Kit  - I need to check my project book at home to see if I have the name of the publisher. I bought several kits in to make presents for the female members of The Husband's family. Each one contained a painted tin with an insert for a cross stitch insert on the lid. The kit came with patterns and I picked different ones for each person. My MIL still had the design on the tin's top., but no longer had the body of the tin. In this batch of craft items, we're finding some vintage crochet patterns that are in decent condition. We'll need to find homes for them. :) WIPs Roll Call Worked On: Christmas 9-patch Pillow (cross stitch) Working on the solid red square. Trying to decide whether to modify the other solid red square to make it less boring. Mermaid of the Pearls (cross stitc...

...and the weekend report. We made it to the V.E.T. on Friday with only a little bloodshed. Tica does not like the carrier at all! We had to burrito her in a towel to get her into the carrier. They yowled the whole 5 minutes it took to drive to the vet's office. Tica passed her exam and is doing well for a cat who just turned 17. Sombra is also doing OK at 16, but needs to lose [a lot of] weight.  The Husband needs to cut out giving them treats during the day and we need to reduce the amount of food we put out for Sombra. In addition, Sombra had dirty ears and had to get them cleaned by the vet tech. She's on ear drops for the next few days, and boy does she hate that! I got sucked into a cross stitch vortex on Saturday. I am getting *this close* to finishing the cross stitch portion of the mermaid. I found a placement error that was easily fixed (thank goodness) and was probably a function of working upside down. I think it's time to turn her right-side up for the fi...

...as in Finished Object. Here is the photo of the August 2016 Phat Fiber box. The theme was Indian Wedding. This photo shows what was in the box: And here's what I spun: Specs: Started 6/18/17 Finished 12/29/17 Yardage not calculated; mix of singles, 2-ply, and chain-ply I did not spin the silk hanky, locks, and banana fiber that were in the box. My hands are too trashed from washing them 50 million times during Christmas baking, so the silk hanky and the banana fiber will have to wait. As for the locks, they are my least favorite things to spin. Up this weekend: Today is V. E. T. day for the cats. They are not going to be happy with me and will need a little extra TLC. Then they'll really hate me on Sunday when I do their monthly Advantage application. Might as well get it all done at once! Other than the normal chores, my goal is to spin a lot more of the Mirabel fiber ( Ravelry ) and make progress on the mermaid. .

...sorry, no new photos. I have not been able to fully embrace my WIPs since last Wednesday, I've done a little work on some of them, but no where near enough to get them to "done." My audition of the Purpleheart square spindle from Spindlewood was successful. The resulting single was much smoother than the previous attempt. I think this is the one! My goal is to spin a little each day on this project, even if it's only 15 minutes a day. Because I tend to spin thin on the spindle, it might take a while to spin this fiber! WIPs Roll Call Worked On: Denali handspun (spinning [ Ravelry ] Working on the second half. Christmas 9-patch Pillow (cross stitch) Worked on the solid red square. Mermaid of the Pearls (cross stitch) Still working on the tail and the trailing seaweed.  Mirabel handspun (spinning) [ Ravelry ] Auditioned spindles; split the top into halves, and then each into quarters; started spinning. Works In Progress, Did Not Work On This Week: ...

...crafting concepts of the week. First, let's go to the top of the waves. I spent Friday afternoon sorting through a few things and working on the Mermaid. I surveyed the cookies remaining from the Christmas baking orgy and decided that I had enough to take to Spin-In without having to bake any more. Yay! Spin-In was great! It was really good to see everyone again. There is something about crafting with a group that is energizing. Not that Craft Coffee isn't energizing; it's just a different dynamic. Lots of good conversation and, of course, good munchies! The next fiber up for spinning is a merino-silk from Lisa Souza, called Mirabel: I want to do something different so I plan on doing spindle spinning and the use the wheel to chain-ply it.  I'm auditioning spindles now and have already rejected one. My KCL Woods mini-spindle (0.62 ounces) works, but is not maintaining its spin very well with this fiber. My next attempt will be a Purpleheart square spindle (...

...here's hoping for a little sunshine this weekend. Here are two more photos from the macro lens tests I did a few days ago. Strawberry leaves: Raindrops on the branch of our lime tree: Up this weekend: Spin-In! Another reason to hope for a little sunshine. It is a real pain to haul your spinning wheel around in the rain, especially when it's a folding wheel that doesn't fold anymore. I have some fiber on the wheel that it about 1/3rd spun. I need to finish that so I can be ready for the Winter Ravellenic Games that starts on February 9. I haven't found a team yet, but I plan on entering the spinning event. Besides spinning, I'm determined to get closer to "done" on the cross stitch portion of the mermaid. The beads are going to take a long time to do after that. Maybe I'll have her done by Summer? .

...and a finished object. As I mentioned in my last post, I finished the All That Glitters quilt over the weekend. Specs: Started 11/2006 (est.) Finished 1/6/2018 Pattern: Yellow Brick Road by Atkinson Designs; Glitter Christmas fabrics mostly from Makower It's a mostly-square quilt, which is unusual for me. I normally make rectangular quilts. At any rate, it's done and I'm happy with the way it turned out.  First finish of the year! I still do not have an updated photo of the mermaid, but I did manage to get a WIP photo of the Christmas 9 Patch cross stitch project: I worked on it at Craft Coffee last night and I've also worked on it during the week. I need to restart the project rotation so I can finish a few more things before I get start-itis again! WIPs Roll Call Worked On: Denali handspun (spinning [ Ravelry ] Started on 12/29, spinning end to end Christmas 9-patch Pillow (cross stitch) See photo above. Mermaid of the Pearls (cross st...

...more knitting projects (mostly hats), about the same number of quilting and stitching projects; a couple more spinning projects; and no weaving projects. I also read more books and IDJ'd a few that I couldn't get into. (If you are not on Ravelry, you can see pictures of these items in my Flickr photostream and sets: Knitting , Spinning , Quilting/Sewing , Needlework , and Weaving .) Finished: Christmas Baking, etc. Bark and fudge: 6.5 pounds Biscotti: 319 Breads and fruitcakes: 4 small bundt, 7mini-loaves and 6 cup-size loaves Cookies: 747 Spicy nuts: 2.63 pounds Sugared nuts: 6 pounds Knitting 1/7 Pussyhat #1 1/15 Pussyhat #2 1/15 Pussyhat #3 1/28 Sarah's Hat 1/28 Sunset Hat 2/26 Macaw Hat 2/26 Camo Baby Sweater 2/18 Baby Camo Hat 3/26 Icelandic No-Noro Hat 4/9 Shimmer and Shiny Hat 5/4 Teal It To The Bees hat 9/30 Blue on Blue hat 10/28 Confetti hat Stitching 2/7 Be Happy by Shepherd's Bush (cross stitch) 3/13 Leaf Monthly Musing ...

...and the weekend report. The weekend went way too fast! The first thing on the agenda was to put the living room back into its normal configuration. Next, find the missing boxes for 3 Hallmark ornaments and put all of the Christmas decorations away. I had to dig through 4 storage boxes to find the missing items. Since I had everything out, I reorganized the storage boxes so I can find thing easier next Christmas. Boxed up the Star Trek tree so it can go back into the Storage Unit. I put away the remaining baking tools and tossed the leftover royal icing so I could fold up the extra table in the kitchen.  The Husband took the Star Trek Tree and the folding table back to the Storage Unit. Yay! On Friday, I finished binding the All That Glitters quilt. On Saturday, I took care of all the loose threads and sewed a label on it. It's done!! I just need to take photos. Sunday morning, there were many interesting raindrops hanging from the tree branches and plant leaves in our g...

...Happy birthday to the blog! It's 12 years old today! Blogging had been a bit more sporadic in the last year. The reducing my work hours even further (down to 34 hours per week) has made it even harder to carve out the time to write the posts. It's especially hard on Fridays because I only work 4 hours. Once I get home, all I want to do it work in my studio. The thought of working more on the computer is not as appealing! Anyway, I still plan to keep this up. It's my online journal, if nothing else. And there's always the eye candy. Here's this morning's sunrise: Up this weekend: I hope to finish the Christmas quilt so I can check it off my To Do list. I need to take some photos of the finished spinning object and more current photos of the WIPs. Mostly, I want to pack in as much craft time as possible. I really missed it in December! .

...lots of baking and a little crafting. Finished: 12/23 Christmas Baking Fruitcakes: 4 small bundt, 7 mini-loaves, and 6 cup-sized Cookies: 747 Biscotti: 319 Amaretto Nuts: 3.5 lbs Grand Marnier Nuts: 2.5 lbs. Chile-Lime Nuts: 2.63 lbs Chocolate Bark: 5.5 lbs Macadamia-Lime Fudge: 1 lb 12/23 Bath bombs, shower melts, bath salts (spa products) 12/29 Phat Fiber box, Indian Wedding (spinning) [ Ravelry ]  Books: Rise of a Phoenix, Shannon Mayer Chasing Darkness, Laken Cane Unbreakable, Laken Cane Unpredictable, Laken Cane Fool's Gold Christmas, Susan Mallery Bayou Born, Hailey Edwards The Splendor Falls, Susanna Kearsley Map of the Heart, Susan Wiggs The Black Book, James Patterson Harbinger Bend, Laken Cane Started: 12/29 Denali handspun (spinning) [ Ravelry ] Works In Progress: 4-shaft sampler (weaving) [ Ravelry ] All That Glitters Christmas quilt (quilting) Attic Windows quilt for me (quilting) Charred Teal Shawl (knitting) [ Ravelry ]...

...starting the new year evaluating what is a real WIP and what needs to fall off the list. My biggest current WIP is deconstructing Christmas. I spent most of yesterday (10am through 8pm) taking down the Christmas decorations and wrapping them up for storage. On the face of it, it doesn't sound like it should take that long, unless you know that I have 3 trees (2 full-size and 1 mini) and a ton of battery-powered Hallmark ornaments. I finally learned that unless I want the batteries to explode in my expensive ornaments, I need to remove the batteries before I store them. For Hallmark ornaments, that means unscrewing the plate that keeps the batteries from falling out, removing the button, AAA, or AA batteries, and re-screwing the plate back on before wrapping it up and putting it back in its box. Oh, and taping the button batteries onto the inside of the box so they don't fall out (ask me how I figured that out...). At any rate, I'm almost done and hope to get the gr...

...the sunrise this morning was not the best for photos, but here it is. I didn't quite make it to midnight. I crashed at 11:55pm...just couldn't stay awake! At least I made it longer than The Husband - he crashed around 10pm. He had an excuse, though, as he made a round trip (4+ hours) to visit a friend and deliver his goodie bag. That takes a lot out of a person! Instead, we celebrated this morning with a breakfast of Eggs Benedict and coffee. I'm spending the day in the studio and he's trying to decide how to spend his day. Tonight, I'll make Hoppin' John for dinner. It's our traditional New Year's Day dinner. Tomorrow, I'll start deconstructing Christmas and get ready to go back to work on Wednesday. Sigh...vacation is never long enough, especially at Christmas! .