Livin' La Needle Loca

...hooray for the weekend! As is typical this time of the year, there are tons of things blooming in the garden. We have Alkanet: irises: Lavender: Strawberries: and Scorpionweed: The berry bushes are getting ready to set blossoms, so you'll probably see photos of that soon. Up this weekend: There are the usual chores and errands on the docket. In addition, I need to start researching yoga classes again . Our yoga teacher decided to take a full-time job and can no longer teach our twice-a-week classes. Sigh. It's so hard to find the right type of yoga class in the early morning. There are plenty in the middle of the day. However, most yoga studios don't have showers...no one at work would appreciate a sweaty co-worker. The Mirabel handspun [ Ravelry ] should be plenty dry by now. I need to re-skein it and double check the yardage and WPI. Then it's photo time! At the same time, I take photos of the Phat Fiber box I just received. It...

...and it's the Husband's birthday! We'll probably do something over the weekend to celebrate. Celebrating a birthday in the middle of the week is hard because there's so much going on. At least he lets us celebrate it now. In the early years of our relationship, he preferred not to do anything about it.  We've been together for over 37 years and we've both mellowed a bit. Anyway, that's where my attention is today, so no new WIP photos. WIPs Roll Call Worked On: Charred Teal Shawl (knitting) [ Ravelry ] Back on track. Knitting section 3 with contrasting color #2 Mermaid of the Pearls (cross stitch) Beading the midsection. Works In Progress, Did Not Work On This Week: 4-shaft sampler (weaving) [ Ravelry ] Attic Windows quilt for me (quilting) Finishing work (Shepherd's Bush Christmas ornament.) Mother of Dragons shawl (knitting) [ Ravelry ] Rosewood Wrap (weaving) [ Ravelry ] St. Charles (needlepoint) Valley of the Heart's Del...

...how is it Tuesday?  The last week has been a blur. I had two doctor appointments last week and Spin-In on the weekend. That plus being motivated to finish spinning Mirabel meant that blogging just fell off the edge. Oops. Saturday morning I baked some mini pineapple upside-down cakes to take to Spin-In. Pineapple upside-down cake was my mother's go-to dessert when I was growing up. It's still one of my favorites. I like the mini version because it's easier to serve - cutting into an upside-down cake is always messy because of the pineapple rings. At Spin-In, I finished chain-plying Mirabel [ Ravelry ]. I transferred it off the bobbin and washed it on Sunday. It's taken a couple of days to dry, so no photos yet. Now that Mirabel is done, I can concentrate on the Mermaid again. I spent several hours on Sunday beading the middle portion of the design. I also got the Charred Teal shawl [ Ravelry ] back to a point where the stitch counts are correct. I'm still ...

...in which there are no new photos of WIPs. Instead, here's a photo of my Abundant Earth Fiber dye kit: I bought this after Stitches West, knowing that it was going to take some time to get it because they had to rebuild their stock. (This was the vendor that had all of their stuff stolen before SW.) It arrived earlier this month, a lot sooner than I expected. I can't wait to try this! WIPs Roll Call Worked On: Bead inventory Transferred all Mill Hill beads into new storage containers Charred Teal Shawl (knitting) [ Ravelry ] Ripping out rows to fix stitch count. Mermaid of the Pearls (cross stitch) Almost done beading the tail. Mirabel handspun (spinning) [ Ravelry ] Started plying. Works In Progress, Did Not Work On This Week: 4-shaft sampler (weaving) [ Ravelry ] Attic Windows quilt for me (quilting) Finishing work (Shepherd's Bush Christmas ornament.) Mother of Dragons shawl (knitting) [ Ravelry ] Rosewood Wrap (weaving) [ Ravelry ] St. Charles...

...and a weekend report from our kitties: Yup, that's what they looked like all weekend. They did mix up where they slept and whether they slept in the same place, but this sums up their weekend. My weekend, on the other hand, was very productive. The vacuum monster and I took care of the rugs on Saturday. That was one time that the cats weren't sleeping on the bed! I started plying Mirabel. This is going to take a long time! Usually, I can chain-ply a single in half a day, but this single is very thin. I've put about 5 hours into it, and it doesn't look like I've made much of a dent in it.  I'll need to step up the ace if I want to spin anything else this month! I put about the same amount of time into beading the mermaid and the progress is evident there. I had to stop beading the foam to go back to the beading on the mermaid's body. I was getting very tired of the white and crystal beads. The tail and fins use the red and green beads, so it...

...and I'm ready for a weekend! One of the few nice things about Daylight Savings Time is that I get to see some wonderful sunrises. Here's the one from Tuesday: Our sweet pea bush has had flowers all year round and is looking particularly lush right now: The double hibiscus are starting to bloom. They are in a container by our front door: and the watsonia are starting to come up: Up this weekend: Originally, I planned on finishing our taxes and getting them filed on Saturday. However, we finished them last night and everything's been accepted already. Score one for us! I want to start plying the Mirabel handspun. I also plan on doing more beading on the mermaid. There's always more finishing work to do. I'm expecting an Amazon order of two Elizabeth Ward Bead Storage containers : one 82-piece and one 45-piece. If they arrive on Saturday like they're supposed to, I'll start transferring some of my Mill Hill bead stash to them. I...

...and a couple of photo updates. Here is the bobbin full of Mirabel [ Ravelry ] singles: And the current state of Mermaid of the Pearls. Beading is complete on the lower half of the design (except for the Mill Hill Treasures). I've returned the Charred Teal shawl [ Ravelry ] to the rotation list. I'm in section 3, which gives the instructions and stitch counts for Contrasting Color (CC) #1. The next instruction says to repeat those rows with the remaining 5 contrasting colors, with no stitch counts. Every time I pick up this project, I can't figure out where I left off (even with notes) - there is always something off. If I had stitch counts, I could easily figure it out.  Aside from being very bad at reading my knitting (and obviously not taking good notes), it doesn't help that I don't work on it for several weeks. So after pulling out the last section of CC#2 for the nth time, I sat down and figured out the stitch counts for each of the 5 remaining...