Livin' La Needle Loca

 ...another week has gone by very quickly! And I have a finished object! This is The Sea Merchant's Wife: Specs: Started 1/6/2025 Finished 5/22/2025 Pattern: Mirabilia The clematis is blooming: as are the marigolds: The pink lantana is popping up under the cherry tree: and this sun face is peeking our through the trumpet vine.

...no eye candy today. I finished the cross stitching and back-stitching for the Mermaids of the Deep Blue Sea. I'm washing the piece and will dry and press it before starting the beading.

 ...that last quilt from the tops I completed in 2020/ This is Mermaid Songs: Specs: Started 3/19/2020 Top completed 3/27/2020 Finished 5/24/2022 All patterned fabrics are Laurel Burch Ocean Songs panel and fabrics; Dark navy borders from my stash; No quilt pattern used Now that I've finished this quilt, I can allow myself to start another large project. Yay!

 ...I finished the stitching portion of Lilith of Labrador. Specs: Started 1/17/2022 Stitching done 3/13/2022 Pattern by Mirabilia Today, I'll wash and press the project. Then I'll let it hang for a day or so before I put it back on the scroll bars for beading. Happy dance!

 ...one more off of my plate! This is my modification of The Mermaid and The Sea. I did not like the antique style of the motifs and the way that the colors were pooling. The more I stitched it, the less I liked it. I decided to finish the large mermaid that I had started. Then I added another fish in the lower left corner and added 4 stars at the top. Specs: Started 4/4/2021 Finished 1/6/2022 Design by Examplars From The Heart Overdyed linen fabric from an unknown vendor Modifications: Did not complete the sampler as written.

...and a lot of catching up! Friday was busy. The Husband had a minor procedure at Kaiser that required me to drive him home. Of course, the appointment was in the middle of the day, meaning that I couldn't do much before the appointment. After I took him home, I ran a couple of errands and then spent the rest of the afternoon spinning. Remember when I mentioned that our spinning team sent an entry to the California State Fair? Well, we received the results on Friday. We got second place in our division/category! See knitflix's updated blog post for photos and info. Yay, team!! Saturday was devoted to mermaids. I did a Michael's run to buy a frame for Mermaid of the Pearls. Since I was going there, I bought the floss that I needed for the Renaissance Mermaid. I figured that I'd decide which mermaid pattern to do next after I had all the materials for both of them. Here is Renaissance Mermaid: Here is Mermaids of the Deep Blue: I chose the Renaissance ...

...and I couldn't be happier! OMG, it had a truckload of beads! There for a moment, I thought I was going to run out of the pearl seed  beads.  I ended up combing the carpet for loose beads that fell during that beading process. Between that and not being able to cram all the beads called for in certain areas meant that I had just enough to finish the piece. The piece needs pressing before I can lace it on to acid-free foam core. I also need to make sure that I actually have the right size foam core board on hand. If not, I'll need to buy some when I go to buy the frame. Here is the first look at Mermaid of the Pearls: As a closer look so you can see the insane number of beads. Specs: Started 6/15/2014 Finished 5/28/2018 (Hibernated 9/1/2014- 5/23/2017) Pattern by Mirabilia Variation: I used pearls instead of glass pebble beads (Mill Hill 5147) I worked on this piece in rotation a total of 1 year 2.5 months. I have no idea how much actual stitching time ...

...at least, I started it while it was still morning. LOL! Yeah, I missed Friday's post. I managed to get my Facebook eye candy post done, but never quite made it to the blog.  I had to work a little extra on Friday to make up for earlier in the week, so something had to fall off the list. Shortly after I got home, I received a flower delivery - Mother's Day flowers from The Daughter! They are gorgeous! Since I've been holding down the fort at home, there were several more chores to do before I could start my own stuff. That meant that I didn't have much craft time in the afternoon. Spin-In was on Saturday. I baked some chocolate chip cookies to take. I didn't have the attention span to actually spin at Spin-In. Instead, I took the Charred Teal Shawl [ Ravelry ] to knit. I finally finished contrast color #2 and can start on contrast color #3. On Sunday, after calling my mother and talking to The Daughter, I drove to my mother-in-law's house. Sever...

...I'm still on the mend, but I'm very tired of this whole cold-thing. To keep this from being a picture-less post, here is another flower that is blooming in our garden. This is a Bill Wallis geranium: The weekend was uneventful. We really don't celebrate Easter, and the Daughter was otherwise occupied. The Husband visited his parents in the morning and I went to the grocery store. I decided that we needed a real meal - protein, starch, vegetable, and dessert - which hasn't happened the last two weeks.  As far as the weekend's crafts, I did OK. I still have about half an ounce to spin on Mirabel [ Ravelry ]. And I'm working on the last square of the Christmas 9-patch cross stitch piece. As for the mermaid, I finished all of the seed beads on the bottom half of the chart. I won't place the treasures on this half until I'm closer to the end. The treasures are too bulky and will distort the fabric when I roll it on the stretcher bars. I hit...

...I know, it's not on a Tuesday! The weekend short story: I worked a long time on a few things. I truly intended on making a lot of progress on beading the mermaid. I ended up spending only a couple of hours on her. I made some progress, just not as much as I intended. On Saturday, I spent an inordinate amount of time doing the finishing work on a pin poke (pin cushion). I finished the stitching of the item in 2004. Every time I picked up the finishing kit to make the pin poke, I was put off by the directions. It's not that the directions were bad. It was simply that they were written for people who did not have the kit. It told you to cut out the cardboard supports and the fabric, some of which was already done for you in the kit. Not a big deal, except that the instructions combined the cutting and the gluing steps. So you cut out a two circles of cardboard and glued something onto one of them. You didn't get to the second round of card board for another 2 or 3 s...

...somehow it got to be Thursday! I've been working on a secret gift and it's consumed most of my time. We spent another few hours going through my mother-in-law's craft items. We filled a large Ziploc bag with sewing notions and another with knitting and crochet hooks. We set aside the binders she filled with project and gift ideas. These were mainly pages she found in magazines and needlework charts. It would take quite a while to go through them, so we opted to put that aside for now. We sent through several boxes and found more completed projects. The Husband will take photos of theses newly discovered projects. We also found some charts for completed Christmas ornaments, a bunch of seam binding and hemming tape, and a lot of dead elastic. And there is still more to go through! Anyway, after seeing how many projects my MIL made and left the finishing work undone, I decided I needed to do something about mine. I went into my studio and took a good look at what I h...

...and Tour de Fleece update. Tour de Fleece, Day 17 Craftcation Day 3: Today's cleaning chore was vacuuming the living room and straightening up. Then I was able to concentrate on the fun stuff! Technically, it was a rest day, but I went ahead and finished spinning the singles for Ember Indigo Silk. Then I moved on to the mermaid cross stitch. When I write it out it doesn't sound like much, but it filled my day! Tour de Fleece, Day 18 Craftcation Day 4: Before I went on vacation, I had ordered some fabric for my quilt. I expected it to arrive before my vacation, so I sent it to the office. Of course, it came after. Since I wanted to use it for the quilt, I dropped by the office to pick it up and then went to the grocery store to get more fruit. I spent the day plying Ember Indigo Silk [ Ravelry ]: and the close up: Specs: Started 7/15/17 Finished 7/18/17 Merino-Silk (3.8 oz.) from The Yarn Wench 236.4 yds., 14 WPI Tour de Fleece Days 15 through 18...

...and a progress photo (finally) of the current mermaid cross stitch. First, a little bit about this mermaid pattern. Before I [re]learned how to knit and before I ever dreamed of spinning and weaving, I did a lot of cross stitch and needlepoint. The most complicated thing I'd done was modify and stitch a Christmas stocking for the Daughter. (You can see a photo here .) I think it was in the rec.crafts.needlework USENET group that I learned about Mirabilia's first mermaid design, Mermaid of the Pearls , shortly after it was released in January 1997. I fell in love with the pattern and bought it. When I looked at it, I was completely intimidated by the number of pearls and treasures that it needed - I really didn't want to mess it up! I filed it away, thinking that I needed to tackle a less complex pattern first. Mirabilia's next mermaid was Waiting for Ships in 2/28/1998, followed by Deepest Love 1/26/1999. I bought the patterns and the supplies for both of them....

...already! I don't have any new WIP photos, but I do have a photo of a WIP-To-Be. A couple of weeks ago, on of my favorite online stitchery stores was having a 20%-off sale on everything. So, I checked out the newest mermaid pattern from Mirabilia, Aphrodite Mermaid. I decided that while I loved the colors, I wasn't wild about the hair on this mermaid. I looked at the Mirabilia mermaid patterns that I knew I hadn't bought yet and settled on Mermaid Undine. Since everything was 20% off, I also bought the silks and the beads needed for the project. I'll have to invest in some fabric when I'm ready to stitch it. Given that I have Mermaid of the Pearls on hiatus at the moment, that won't be any time soon! WIPs Roll Call Worked On: Charred Teal Shawl [ Ravelry ] Still working pattern section 1. All That Glitters Christmas quilt (quilting) Cut out strips for the narrow inner border, the wide outer borders, and the binding. Ready to sew them on. Wor...

....this is becoming a habit! Over the weekend, I finished stitching an older cross stitch WIP. This is the Love Scissor Fob: Specs: Started 7/2004; Finished 6/1/14; Love scissor fob kit by Shepherd's Bush; The biggest roadblock for completing this fob were the cutesie people in the original design. I decided that I would never finish it if I had to stitch those people, so I replaced them with extra hearts. Granted, I haven't sewn it together yet, but I'm declaring it done. I do all of my finishing at one time, that way I can do it as an assembly line. I need a couple more completed items before I do the next finishing run. It was a productive weekend. In addition to finishing this fob, I worked on the stealth knitting project. I was unhappy with how it was looking, so I frogged it and started again. I hope that the second time around is better. I prepped a couple of other projects: I pressed the fabric for the mermaid, marked the center and placed the f...

...while it's still not an actual WIP yet, here is a look at the next mermaid. This is Mermaid of the Pearls by Mirabilia: In the picture, you can see the materials--Star Sapphire linen (32 count), DMC floss, Kreinik metallics, Mill Hill Beads, beads--that I need to start it. The next step is to press the folds out of the fabric and put it on the stretcher bars. Then take a deep breath and just start. With two more finishes last weekend, it's time to re-do the WIPs list.   WIPs in Rotation: Mermaid of the Pearls (cross stitch) I have the floss, the beads, the treasures, and the fabric, I just need to start! Stealth project (knitting) It's a secret project for a friend Stormy Affection (knitting) [ Ravelry ] 8 pattern repeats (in the first section) done WIPs waiting for rotation: Love scissor fob by Shepherd's Bush (cross stitch) Queued: Wall hanging (weaving) using the natural color handspun I did last summer I've wound the warp yarn. Need to t...

...I'm cranking this month! First,  little weekend report. I spent some of my Saturday lacing the mermaid onto foam core and getting her into a frame. She looks pretty good: Saturday afternoon was Spin-In. Lots of good company, and munchies, too! I started spinning a merino-silk in Monarch butterfly colors. On Sunday, I continued spinning the Bloomfield Blues alpaca-silk that I'd started the week before. I really love how soft this fiber feels! I finished spinning the singles. I'm letting them rest for a few days before I make a 2ply yarn out of it. I tried very hard to finish knitting the Carbonized Zombie socks, but was not able to do so. I finished them last night, though! Thank goodness! Here they are: Specs: Started 10/6/13; Finished 5/12/14; Pattern: Zombie Socks by Sheryl Giles; Yarn: BMFA Socks That Rock Lightweight in Carbon Dioxide These will probably be the last socks that I knit for quite a while. I did not enjoy the process as much as I ...

...time flies when you have client work! My quick weekend report: I managed to get some housework done, including bringing the dreaded vacuum monster out of the closet. (The cats disappear very quickly when I do that!)  I worked on Anasazi, the mermaid, and some spinning!  And I started a hat for Halos of Hope on Monday! Here is the current progress on Denim, an alpaca-merino top that I bought at last year's Stitches West. This is from Ranch of the Oaks in Lompoc, CA. I started this at the January Spin-In. I finished beading the tail fins on the mermaid and I'm now beading the "legs" portion of the tail. WIPs Roll Call WIPs in rotation : Anasazi by Susan Portra (needlepoint) Denim Alpaca-Merino (5.5 oz) from Ranch of the Oaks [ Ravelry ] Mediterranean Mermaid by Mirabilia , originally started 11/6/11; restarted 9/1/13 (cross stitch) Noro Hat for Halos of Hope Rockefeller Moon shawl  [ Ravelry ]  Works In Progress, did not work on: Carbonize...

...and there are several things in play. As promised, here's a look at the current state of Anasazi: Not my favorite color combination, but it's still infinitely better than Vegas (AKA: the Pink Nightmare). I have knit about 4 inches of the 10 inches that I need for the Cousteau hat. I have restarted the Rockefeller shawl and the Cat Bordhi method of hiding the wraps for W&T is working. Halleluja! Mediterranean Mermaid: the beading has begun! I found a few thread options at Jo-Ann's yesterday. I found a slightly thicker invisible thread, a light gray silk, a pale blue rayon, and a pale green rayon. The pale green matches the fabric very well and is easier to work with than the invisible thread. Here's what the tail looks like so far: It's going to be a long slog...this picture represents about 3.5 hours worth of beading. In stash news, I received a couple of club shipments this month. First is the December 2013 installment of the Rockin'...

...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...