Livin' La Needle Loca

...Spinnity! Congratulations!  Let's chat about when to receive your prize. Thanks to all who commented! You're the best! .

I extended the entry deadline by a day because I forgot to send out a reminder. You have until midnight tonight, 1/19/16 to enter the contest. To enter, comment on my 1/5/16 post by Midnight PST, Monday 1/18/16. The prize is 1 skein of BMFA Socks That Rock Lightweight in Wavelength. I'll draw and post the winner tomorrow, 1/20/16. Good luck!  . .

...and again I have missed my regular postings. Sagh.  This office move combined with client work and normal HR tasks that I need to perform has me spinning in circles. Today, the only eye candy I can offer you are oranges: and a weird-looking cactus: Up this weekend: Who knows....maybe some sleep. Maybe some crafts. Maybe a year-end recap. Contest! To enter, comment on my 1/5/16 post by Midnight PST, Monday 1/18/16. The prize is 1 skein of BMFA Socks That Rock Lightweight in Wavelength. I'll do the random number thing and post the winner on Wednesday, 1/20/16. Good luck!  .

...and the weekend report. Spin-In was great! It was wonderful to start a new spin and chat with the other spinners. I took some of the remaining Christmas cookies as my contribution. As I mentioned in a previous post, I really hated the linen stitch on the Be My Baby for My Baby [ Ravelry ] project. One of my friends, recommended trying another stitch at the end of what I currently have to see whether I liked it better. I knit a few rows of garter stitch and was immediately happy with the way the fabric felt and the way it draped. After thinking about it overnight, I pulled out the 23 inches I had already knit, back to the lifeline at the end of the sleeve stitching. I then restarted the scarf portion in garter stitch using the same size 17 needles. By the end of Sunday, I had knit 12 inches of garter stitch. By the end of Monday night's Craft Coffee session, I was at 19 inches, almost back to where I was! And I'm happy with it...hooray! I delivered the last goodie bag tod...

...blog and run. This is pink knotweed, a ground cover growing in our courtyard. Don't forget to enter my contest! To enter, comment on my 1/5/16 post by Midnight PST, Monday 1/18/16. The prize is 1 skein of BMFA Socks That Rock Lightweight in Wavelength. I'll do the random number thing and post the winner on Wednesday, 1/20/16. Good luck! Up this weekend: Spin-In tomorrow...yay! That is all... .

...after completing a couple of WIPs, I'm back to the long- suffering standing WIPs. HI haven't shown a photo of the Be My Baby [ Ravelry ] project in a while. I am working on the scarf portion of the piece. It's 67 inches of linen stitch. And you can add linen stitch to the list of things I hate to knit! If I wasn't 23 inches into this, I'd rip back to my lifeline and start this again in garter stitch. I think it would drape better and it certainly would knit up faster! I forgot to mention that I finished spinning Calypso [ Ravelry ]. No photos yet. Contest! We have some entries in my Blogiversary contest. Yay! To enter, comment on my 1/5/16 post by Midnight PST, Monday 1/18/16. The prize is 1 skein of BMFA Socks That Rock Lightweight in Wavelength. I'll do the random number thing and post the winner on Wednesday, 1/20/16. Good luck! **WIP Roll Call** Worked on: Be My Baby for My Baby (knitting) [ Ravelry ] Works In Progress, did ...

...can you believe it? I started this blog January 5, 2006 as a way to track my projects. I also wanted to share my projects with friends and anyone else who might be interested. Getting large numbers of followers was never my goal. The blog is a great way to gauge how a particular project is progressing, and it's fun to finally show a completed project. It's also my journal of how things are going with me and mine, at least in a general way. In the last year, I've thought about moving the blog to my website ( http://solarbrations.com/ ) and started to research how to do that. Obviously, I didn't get very far. For now, I'm leaving it here. I might move it later. So, how about a contest for my 10th Blogiversary? Leave a comment on this post by Midnight PST, Monday 1/18/16. (No, multiple comments will not give you multiple entries!) I'll do the random number thing and post the winner on Wednesday, 1/20/16. The prize is 1 skein of BMFA Socks Th...

....sciencejock! You win the skein of Socks That Rock Lightweight in Fleur de couleur. Send me email (marie_novicki at yahoo.com) and let me know whether you've changed your address since last year. I'll send it out as soon as I can. Congrats!! The quick weekend report: I finished the back-stitching on the mermaid and started the beading; I worked on Anasazi (needlepoint), which has been languishing in the UFO stack; and I decided that the Japanese short row technique didn't work for me either. The longer report... The Mediterranean Mermaid is in the home stretch! I finished the back-stitching on Saturday--the crown was a P.I.T.A. and I had to rip it out twice. I hope that it will show up better after I've added the beads. I gave the project a bath, ironed out most of the wrinkles, and hung it to dry overnight. Here's what she looked like just before the bath: I started beading her tail on Sunday. The pattern calls for invisible thread for the beads that ...

...and I have no new pictures to show today. The yard is pretty bleak right now and now with a drought emergency declared, it might continue to be that way. I feel the need for ocean, so I'm recycling some pictures we took in Carmel and Monterey in 2008. This is the beach at Carmel: and a lone gull: Up this weekend: No specific plans for me. The Husband has a day trip planned for Saturday, so I'll be in my studio all day. I'm making great progress on the mermaid and I want to keep up the momentum. I'll also continue to work on the hat an the new shawl. Because the hat is pretty mindless knitting, I've discovered that I can knit and read at the same time. Yes! I won't get as bored this way and make a dent in those 7.75 inches that I need to knit. Given that I really need ocean right now, maybe I try to convince the Husband to take a day trip for our anniversary next weekend. Monterey isn't that far away... CONTEST REMINDER!! Leave a co...

...in which I unveil the latest WIP, the Rockefeller shawl. Here's what I've knit so far: I need to knit 31 of wedges to make the top portion of the shawl. Each wedge calls for 3 wrap-and-turns...ugh! I'm trying the Japanese short row method for the next couple of wedges to see whether I like they way they look. I've done one so far and it's a little better than W&T, but a bit fiddly. WIP Roll Call WIPs in rotation: Mediterranean Mermaid (cross stitch): Working on the back stitching. Jacques Cousteau hat for the Husband [ Ravelry ] Knitted 2.25 of 10 inches Rockefeller Moon shawl  [ Ravelry ] Working on the top section Waiting to be rotated in: Anasazi by Susan Portra (needlepoint) Carbonized Zombie socks [ Ravelry ] Celaeno Shawl (knitting) [ Ravelry ] Halloween Phat Fiber samples (spinning) [ Ravelry ] Hive cross stitch Love Scissor fob (cross stitch) Hibernating: Going Snow Global quilt (quilting) Peacock Pomatomus socks (knitting...

...it's just that kind of a day. 1. I hate wrap-and-turn short rows. They never look right. There are tons of short rows in the Rockefeller shawl [ Ravelry ] so I have many opportunities to swear at wrap-and-turn.  I tried the YO method of short rows, which didn't work because I'm using two distinct colors--the wrong color shows up in inconvenient places.  At Craft Coffee last night, a knitter recommended trying the safety pin method for short rows. I'll give that a shot and see if it works. 2. The Cousteau hat looks great, but it's really boring! I have knit 2.25 inches of K3 P2...only 7.75 inches to go! 3. I finished the cross stitching portion of the mermaid! Hooray!  I started the back-stitching after taking this picture last night: 4. Stitches West is in 5 weeks (give or take a day)! Really looking forward to my weaving class! CONTEST REMINDER!! Leave a comment on my 1/6/14 post by Midnight PST, Monday 1/20/14. We'll draw the winner...

...only one WIP picture to show, but I do have pictures of the finished shawl! I started a second hat for the Husband, the Jacques Cousteau hat [ Ravelry ] by Lalla Pohjanpalo. I haven't gotten very far, but it looks like it will fit his head. I haven't taken a recent picture of the mermaid, but I have finished her hair (HURRAY!). I need to finish her arms and the vase that she is holding.  The next step will be to do the back-stitching.  I'm getting closer to the beading! None of the other WIPs have received any play in the last month. Now for the shawl pictures. I have not been successful taking a picture of the whole shawl, but I do have the following pictures. Me and the Shawl: The edging: A detail shot of the edging: A slice view of the shawl Specs: Started 5/19/13; Finished 12/31/13; Pattern: Southern Skies by Audrey Nicklin; edging is a modified version of Jared Floods' Leaves of Grass border; Yarn: Colinette Jitterburg in Vel...

...OK, one day late! I started this blog January 5, 2006 as a way to track my projects and share them with friends and anyone else who was interested. I would have never guessed that I would still be at it 8 years later. My blogging has been a bit more sporadic in the last year and a half due to life and work getting in the way. But I'm going to keep at it because it is the best way to gauge how well or how poorly a particular project is progressing. It's interesting to go back and see where the problems were and how much I have progressed since then. In honor of my Blogiversary, how about a little Contest ? Leave a comment on this post by Midnight PST, Monday 1/20/14. I'll do the random number thing and post the winner on Tuesday, 1/21/14. The prize: 1 skein of Socks That Rock Lightweight in Fleur de couleur: This was the club yarn for the May 2013 installment of the Blue Moon Fiber Arts Rockin' Sock Club. (The mini-skein is not included.) Good Luck!...

....and the winner is (drum roll...): Congrats, ScienceJock!! You have won a project bag and a set of stitch markers. Please email your bag selection—abstract (on the left) or birds (on the right)—and your snail-mail name and address to: marie_novicki@yahoo.com    I'll send your prize to you ASAP. Thanks to everyone who entered! FYI: things are a little scattered today. If things settle out, I'll do a regular Eye Candy Friday post. If not, have a good weekend! .

...because Wednesday got away from me! As promised, here is the current state of Violet Needleroll (by Shepherd's Bush), one of my cross stitch WIPs: I'm having a heck of a time getting into this WIP, or any WIP for that matter. When it's cold, all I want to do is curl up in several blankets and watch TV. No way am I putting my hands out in the cold air! It wouldn't be so bad if I didn't I freeze all day in my office. All I want to do when I get home is get warm! There's a reason I live in California...I don't do cold. Here are the top 10 WIPs that I should be working on instead of watching TV: Violet Needle Roll (cross stitch) - Started February 2007 (see picture above). Midnight Rose Mitts [ Ravelry ](knitting) - I’m debating whether to complete this project. Originally I started it to use up the yarn leftover from the Midnight Botanical Cowl that I made for a friend. Now that Christmas is over, I can’t seem to get back into knitting them. ...

Leave a comment on my 1/7/13 post by midnight TONIGHT 1/16 to enter the contest. The winner will be announced on Friday, 1/18. The prize: One of these project bags and the set of 5 stitch markers. Good luck! .

...it was a somewhat productive weekend.  So here we go in no particular order. I baked Mexican Chocolate Brownies to take to Spin-In on Saturday and for a get-together on Sunday. They turned out very well and I'll be making them again sometime. I finished the 10 project bags that I started a week ago. I shared some of them with the spinners at Spin-In, which was my original intention. (Another hide-in-plain-sight project!) Here are the 10 bags I finished: I worked on a cross stitch project that has been hibernating since 2007. I'll post a progress picture tomorrow. I made the stitch markers for the Blogiversary prize (see below). I started spinning Navajo Turquoise, a merino top from the Yarn Wench .  I just realized that I don't have it logged into Ravelry yet. (oops!)  You can see it on her etsy site here . It's a lovely combination of turquoise, brown, and a bit or rose. ***7th Blogiversary Contest Reminder*** Leave a comment on my 1/7/13 post...

...at least for us. It's 43°F outside, way too cold for me; There's frost on all the plants and cars, and many plats are dead or dying. The only plant that seems to be happy are the paperwhite narcissus. They are still blooming away. This picture is from a couple of days ago: I like how the dew drops are highlighted at this angle. Up this weekend: Spin-In tomorrow! I need to survey my left-over Christmas baking supplies and make something to take. Also, I need to go through my 2012 fiber-y accomplishments and select some items for show-and-tell. I'm taking the project bags to Spin-In and have my fellow spinners select which bag to offer as the Blogiversary prize. I love all of the bags and can't make up my mind! I'm not quite finished with the project bags, but they will be close enough to done by tomorrow. I'm in the top-stitching phase and am really enjoying how they are all coming together. I love fast and easy projects! Yes, I'm ignoring my ...

...in which we talk about the new WIP I added to my already-long list of WIPs. As I mentioned in my previous post, I'm making a bunch of project bags, one of which will be a Blogiversary contest prize. I'm using a bag pattern that I got from the Happy Things blog, which is no longer active (very sad as she had some great tutorials). You can find the pattern archived at The Quilting Bees of Murfreesboro site. ( PDF ). I finished sewing together all of the bags. I need to sew the opening closed and then push the linings into the bags. From there, I need to top-stitch to make the casings and thread the ribbon ties. Here's a picture of the bags ready for hand-sewing. The fabrics at the top of the picture are the linings; those at the bottom are the outside of the bags. I bought some coordinating ribbons at Jo-Ann yesterday, but I may use cording for some of them. I'm also working on: Midnight Rose Mitts [ Ravelry ] (knitting) Inkle training project [ Ravelr...

...technically it was Saturday, but I don't often post on the weekends.  I'm usually too busy running errands and trying to get in some quality crafting time. Before I dive into the weekend report, here's a late entry in the Christmas cookie display. I had to wait until these cookies arrived at their final destination before I could show them. Yes, they are for the same couple for whom I made the marzipan bees! I need a little practice decorating the bees, but I think they turned out OK. Moving on... I was essentially housebound on Saturday while I waited for a delivery (which never came!). I took advantage of the time deconstruct Christmas. I packed 95% of the Christmas decorations and put them back into the storage closet. The remaining 5% are the chile pepper lights and garland that hang from the loft railing. After going up and down the stairs multiple times to get the boxes for the decorations and then put them away, I just couldn't face going up the stair...