sleeping puppy`s famous!

I`m so busy sharing this on Facebook that I almost forgot to post here: remember the sleeping puppy I knitted about 2 months ago? When I finished it, I sent an email to Knit Today with a photo of it attached and as it turns out, I was first past the post knitting this particular pattern. So they feature it in this month`s issue, which is great in itself, but! On top of that, I`ll get some Rowan patterns books too as a prezzie! Woooooop! I`m so happy about this I don`t even care about my tooth I managed to chip during lunch (with a pizza! How???? With melted cheese?). Anyway, back to the beautiful cottage I`m stitching at the moment - pictures of that in a few months` time...?

time to tea

I`m so focusing on the Christmas stocking I`m stitching right now that I almost missed the publication of one of my other projects. After months of not being able to post a photo, now finally here`s a chance (all photos courtesy of Cross Stitcher 266 via The Making Spot):

La Scapigliata update

I was about to start with saying that `a good pattern is worth its weight in gold` but then I realised that talking about paper, that wouldn`t mean too much. However, it`s true: now that I have a more unified pattern to work from, it feels like I got wings and I`m flying through the wee crosses. 

Elsewhere, in my parallel universe: I finished the 3 Christmas characters for Collection, I posted them this morning, and last night I finished Six Feet Under (I devoured all 5 seasons of it in the past couple of weeks  in an intensive TV watching marathon). Strangely, I haven`t knitted anything for a while, although Gloria`s beckoning me but I`m so absorbed by my stitching at the moment that everything else has to wait. So back to it I go... Cheerio!

WARNING: this will be a very long post, with lots of links and some photos :)

Before I say what I want to say, I`ve just got to say this: I won again!! Same as with buses and hedgehogs: now two wins come along at once (of course, entering competitions helps). Last night I got an email from Celtic Rose Needlecraft, with 4 PDF patterns attached - Dartmoor Heather, Moonlight On The Shore, Cottage Garden Pond and Daffodil Wood. I`m so chuffed! I just wish I had more time... or more hands... or both... I think if I ever get round to do it, I`ll start with Moonlight On The Shore. (Note to self: Don`t forget to write Thank You email to CRN!).

And now, what I originally wanted to write about: visiting other blogs. The other day my dear friend Katya (http://astitchingtime.blogspot.com) has already touched on this topic when she apologised, unnecessarily, for leaving a longer-than-usual comment after one of my posts. Unnecessarily, because - don`t get me wrong, I`m, like everybody else, glad to receive any signs of appreciation, even if it`s just a four-letter word (I meant `Nice!`, naughty!) but I simply LOVE long, personal comments where we can engage in a friendly conversation. At the same time, I realise that that`s what emails and personal FB messages are for, and maybe not everyone`s interested in the above-mentioned conversation... luckily, this blog is MINE so I can do whatever I want with it, so here`s what I didn`t want to clog my friend`s comments with about her book review:

I`ve been meaning to read J. K Rowling`s `next book`, i.e. the one that came after Harry Potter for ages, just like one day I intend to read The Host by Stephanie Meyer, her `next book` after the Twilight Saga, because I`m always curious how an author is trying to break down the fences their epic first work has built around them. But I have to be honest, after reading Katya`s review of The Casual Vacancy, I might not rush too hurriedly into this novel - I tell you why. Because with every year passing, I notice that I`m less and less tolerant towards sad things. At the moment, I can (just) cope with watching the news every night but I can see a future where even that`ll be too much for me - if I picture my supersensitive, weepy future self, then look back at my Dostoevsky and Camus reading, Goddard and Becket watching teenage self, I guess I`m about halfway through the scale. The little time I have for guilty pleasures like reading, I try to fill with happy  and easy stuff, so apart from perennial favourites, like Pride and Prejudice, I read a lot of historical novels - do you think it`s cowardice that I seem to escape to bygone ages, when the world seemed a less complicated, nicer place? (I know it wasn`t, not really, but you still get the illusion).

Anyway, enough of the heavy stuff, back to other people`s blogs. If you haven`t visited Minnie`s blog (http://minnie-allxxs.blogspot.com) yet, do it now... I mean, after you finished reading this! You know how sometimes you regularly check out a blog and the person`s WIP photo never seems to change? (Like my DaVinci, lol!). Not Minnie`s, uh-huh. She must be stitching 20 hours a day and I love ALL her WIPs, which is rare but I guess we have a very similar taste, I`d gladly take on any of the patterns she`s working on. The other day she shared photos of some of her finishes and I cheekily tried to get her to give me her African ladies cushion (my attempts failed miserably, btw). Shame, it`d have looked so neat with my Joan Elliott design, which I managed to frame since I posted that picture:

And so as not to leave you without news of La Scapigliata: although I haven`t worked on it since last Friday (on the upside, though, I finished Santa so I only have a robin and a snowman to stitch - oh, that reminds me! Now that the weather`s getting summery and I`m stitching Santas, the Fathers` Day hot air balloon cards I stitched last Christmas are in the shops! Sorry for digressing but I have to quickly add a photo here):

Cross Stitch Card Shop issue 90

Where was I? Yes, La Scapigliata. The good news is, I had another look and I hope I was panicking for nothing because the way I calculate it, there should be at least a 2" border so that`s fine. And the teaser from my last post: once I finish this, I shall stitch another version of the same painting, this time designed by one of my fellow model stitchers, Pippa Slack from Stitching Dreams. Her chart contains 22 colours as opposed to Maria Diaz`s 8 - I can`t wait to see the difference between the two! It`s quite a while away yet but rest assured, there will be plenty of progress photos - I`m going to enjoy that, a nice change from all this super-secretive magazine stitching! Obviously, I have to finish the commission works first, then my own 1-year-old DaVinci - but after that I hope not to have too many distractions (luckily, I got a fairly lax deadline from Pippa: "sometime within the next couple of years", lol!). And talking about distractions: have a look at this!!! I can`t believe they didn`t give her a name, she`s OBVIOUSLY a Gloria?!? Can`t wait to knit her!!

Alan Dart`s Heatwave Hippo from Simply Knitting Magazine Issue 107

timelessness

I have the weirdest `out-of-sync` feeling today. This is the first Sunday of May and as such, it`s Mothers` Day in Hungary: my Mum and Gran can finally see the Country Diary of an Edwardian Lady cards I stitched for them a couple of months ago. I keep reminding myself to phone Mum`s house this afternoon, where my whole family will get together to celebrate - and all the while I`m stitching Santa Claus for a magazine! And as there`s no other imminent sign of this being anything else but an ordinary Sunday, I`m sitting here in my PJs amidst all these suggestions of special occasions like Mothers` Day, Christmas and May Day. (Even the latter only half-counts in our house: Gregory`s off school tomorrow but Hubby has to go to work :( So much about a long weekend!). And somehow I didn`t feel extraordinarily (intergalactically?) powerful yesterday either while shopping in ASDA, although I`d had several messages of the `May the Fourth be with you` kind.

On Friday I did get La Scapigliata out of its box (HA!!!!). I have to admit, after a year-long hiatus, I was struggling to find my place on the chart, especially as I was working from two photocopied halves on different scales... so I spent the whole day making a new, complete copy of the original* and then painstakingly transferring the squares I`d already worked. Now I have only one chart to work from but by the time I finished with all the paperwork, I hardly had time + energy left to stitch, so this photo will not be too different from the one I last posted about a year ago (still, who remembers that, right?). Oh, and I`ve just realised that I probably cut the fabric too small... happy days! Good job I`ll stitch another version after this - but more of that later... I`m such a tease, aren`t I???

*It is from The Ultimate Maria Diaz Cross Stitch Collection.

pictureless post

This is just to reassure everyone that I haven`t disappeared completely - I`ve been rather busy the past couple of weeks... and probably before that too but that was so long ago, I can`t even remember that far back. Anyhoo, due to the Spring school break/Wee Man being home/Mum`s staying here/Easter/my general laziness, I was relly, REALLY behind with the cushion for Cross Stitch Gold. For some reason, I thought that after Mum flying home, Hubby going back to work and Gregory to school, two weeks should be enough to finish this mammoth of a project* - they weren`t. Even when I increased my daily stitching to 10 hours, I was beginning to see that I was running out of time. So for the first time since I became a model stitcher, I had to ask for an extension on my deadline - and when I got an extra week, what was the first thing I did? I decided to relax a bit after the last few days` hurry, only did 4-6 hours a day... then I started to panic as my second, amended deadline was looming. Again, for some mysterious reason, I first thought that a couple of days should be enough for the backstitch - and they were, in a way: last Saturday I stitched 15 hours, on Sunday 14, and on Monday 6, so I just managed to post it on the designated day, before I had to go and pick up the Wee Man from school. I`d used almost 2 whole skeins of 3799 for the backstitch but it was well worth it (you can see the result in issue 104 of Gold).

I thought that after this stitchy marathon last weekend I won`t pick up a needle for a long time - but by Monday evening I couldn`t resist any longer (obsessed or what?) and started another commission piece, a smallish beach sign. Sorry, I can`t show you a photo of this either but I`m sure you can imagine it, sailing boat in the compulsory nautical colours of red, white and navy blue, plus some beige for the sandcastles in the foreground. It was a nice and easy piece after the cushion and I took my sweet time with it (I only just posted it an hour ago).

And what now, you ask? Well, I thought about getting my La Scapigliata out of its box (don`t laugh! One of these days it`s going to happen!) but I`d better hurry because there`s already another project in the post from Collection (something Christmassy already! Oooh, and it`s by my fave designer, Maria Diaz) - plus occasionally I should clean the house too... but surely, that can wait...?

* it took 180 hours in total

I`m such a winner!

Look what postie`s brought yesterday!

I entered the competitions a few weeks ago and I quite forgot about the whole thing. What a lovely surprise!

Yesterday was a stitchy day through and through: after receiving this kit, I got an email from Twilleys of Stamford (new commission in the post) and with just the odd tea-and-pee break, I stitched for 10 hours non-stop. My deadline for the Cross Stitch Gold cushion is next Wednesday and I`m beginning to have this panicky feeling in my stomach - there`s still quite a lot to do! Sorry, I can`t show you any pictures of it... it`s a shame because it looks gorgeous! And, weirdly, bigger from the computer desk... hmm, maybe I can do this...? OK, back to work! 

sleeping puppy

Hope nobody`s huffing about my tweet-like posts lately - my Mum`s still here and I spend next to no time on the computer these days. Plus, the sun is out (!) so it`s time to take the Wee Man for a walk.

I just wanted to share a quick photo with you of this little pup I started knitting yesterday when my copy of Knit Today (85) arrived, and I finished it just now, in less than 24 hours (my personal best so far). Any suggestions for a name?

my version of a Fashion Cape

The other day, I got fed up - I mean really fed up - with this Arctic spring we`ve been having so far and decided to do something about it. Not the weather in general, but more specifically with the problem that`s been bothering me for a while - namely, that when I sit in my stitchy chair, my shoulders and upper arms are cold. When the knees get a bit chilly, I just put a blanket over my legs but the temperature is getting too warm (in the house, at least) for a thick jumper, and in a thin one my upper arms are still cold. Anyway, long story short, I figured I could do with a cape and I found a pattern in Issue 83 of Knit Today. The original "Fashion Cape" is a lovely, white and navy checked number in pure wool, but I used my recycled pale green cotton yarn because 1. I had loads of it, 2. I didn`t want to concentrate on patterns, and 3. I didn`t bother too much what it looked like (after all, nobody`ll see me in it, except maybe postie if I have to sign for something). I finished it a couple of night ago and I`m happy to report that it`s nice and cosy, albeit resembling a straight jacket but I don`t care. And here`s a photo of it, taken by my Mum, who`s famous for chopping heads off when photographing, but I have to say, this is one of my favourite pictures of myself lately:

No more worries about bad hair days :)

Mum`s Easter chicks

Another quick post as I don`t want to be rude and sit here for hours while the whole house is in Easter fever - I just wanted to share this photo. My Mum might not be a needleworker per se, but she can definitely create all sorts of magic in the kitchen: this morning, for example, she made this breakfast for us! :)

Easter decorations

Today my Mum and I finished the Easter decorations for the table - hurrah! They are uber-expensive styrofoam eggs (a pound for a dozen), over which we - and when I say "we", I mean "she" - stretched the little cross stitched patches I made (I found the patterns in Cross Stitcher 250). Aren`t they cute?

Sorry for the picture quality but professional photographer I ain`t...

a couple of new(ish) publications

Just a quick update this time (I`m still busy with the cushion for Gold plus Easter plus sickness plus my Mum`s here). By the way, she loved the hedgehog and last night she asked me for a wee bag for her camera so I knitted this for her:

I`m pretty chuffed with this: first time I`ve knitted eyelets so my I-cord sits snuggly... all in all, a neat-looking little bag :)

Anyway, I`m just updating here cause I bought issue 221 of Cross Stitch Collection today and I love the tea cosy + tea towel + coaster set they made with my stitching on linen:

Also, although I posted my own pics a few days (weeks?) ago, here`s a link to the official photos of the cheery Easter cards that appeared in the previous issue of Collection. 

If I don`t "see" you before next weekend, Happy Easter everyone!

knitted hedgehog

I have realised something today: hedgehogs are like buses. You don`t see any for ages, then two come along at once. After the Ed Hedgehog I stitched the other week, I couldn`t resist knitting this little critter when I saw the pattern here. 

How sweet is that nose? And the ears? I just love it! Needless to say, Gregory has already claimed it - oh, I almost forgot to mention: he`s home again, this time with a sore ear but luckily the Nurofen is already kicking in, so he feels well enough to watch endless episodes of Garfield (yes, you guessed it, I have to either knit or crochet him one...) and demand `healing` biscuits (???) on a regular basis.

If my updates are a bit less frequent in the next few weeks, it is because model stitching jobs are like buses too: at the moment, I`m working on some Angela Poole cards for Cross Stitch Collection and this morning I got my next assignment for Cross Stitch Gold, a mammoth mandala-type design by Durene Jones, it`s going to be gorgeous, a 180x180 circular cushion cover. Can`t wait to start but first I wanted to finish this hedgehog, plus I`ve got a reindeer to make (have I told you I`ve enrolled in a free Craftsy class? I have 2 days left to learn a bit more about crocheting). I have finished the two Mothers` Day cards for my Mum and Gran - I can`t show you the photos yet but they were WOCS freebies, both from the Country Diary of an Edwardian Lady series. Oh, and talking about magazines: on Saturday I picked up about 25 issues of Cross Stitcher from a charity shop for the hefty sum of £2 - yay! So if I have a spare minute (haha!), I have those to go through too. Hope y`all are busy doing your favourite things too, happy stitching!

mastering crochet :)

Another busy day, another late night, another finish and another short post: I had a lovely morning chatting at Jo`s and she liked the bunny - yay! Then I came home, enrolled in a Craftsy class and spent the afternoon learning to crochet: as it turns out, I already knew all the basics, I just kept miscounting, hence the crooked end results. But now, as suggested, I started to use a stitch marker and lo and behold, all my problems are solved (it was really a revelation, can`t believe that a tiny wee thing can make such a big difference!). And the first thing I made? Naturally, the long-awaited angry bird for the Little Man! :))

I found the original pattern here but due to changing the hook halfway through and tweaking with practically every bit, this being sort of a trial run, I could almost call it my own design

Easter bunny

This will be a very quick post - it`s way past my bedtime but I wanted to share this cute little bunny with you. Earlier today I spoke to my friend, Jo, whom I`m going to visit tomorrow morning. A few hours after we spoke, I found out that a payment I`ve been waiting for for a while is not likely to clear in my account before Friday. 

But just when I thought, `Bummer! Now I have to go empty-handed, I can`t even get a pack of biscuits, how embarrassing!`, somebody shared on my FB page a picture tutorial of a little knitted bunny - which, needless to say, I had to make straight away. I made an effort of finding the original site for the pictures so that I can give credit to the creator of the pattern (it`s a Polish blog so thank you, Google Translate - although the photos are quite self-explanatory anyway). You can see the original here.

And here`s my little Fluffy, a wee early Easter present for Jo:

this week`s finishes

I can hardly believe how long this week`s been and that we only reached Sunday just now! I don`t even remember where I left off the Snotty Saga - probably at Wednesday, when my poor, still sick Hubby went back to work, and Gregory and I almost made it to the door of the school but then we had to turn back, he had such a bad coughing fit (lol, first I typed "fitting cough" - I`m a bit distracted, watching Blues Brothers 2000 while I`m writing this). So anyway, I took him to the doctor`s and it turned out he had a chest infection and promptly got the miracle cure, antibiotics. I kept him home for the rest of the week (maybe that`s why it felt extra long?) but I`m happy to report that, judging by the star jumps and break-dancing routine I`m witnessing just now, he`s definitely going to school tomorrow.

I`ve got a few more finishes - so much so that I think very soon I can get back to my abandoned La Scapigliata!! I only have two more cards to make for Mothers` Day (the Hungarian one, which is in May, but I have to finish the cards before my Mum gets here in 3 weeks` time, so she can take them back for herself and my Gran and store them until the first Sunday in May. I`ve had so many things lost in the post that I`d rather give whatever I make to her in person). So those `ll be the gifts I have to make in advance and here`s what I made "looking back"... I have to be cunning here because my Mum sometimes checks this blog and I don`t want her to see any pictures that she`s not supposed to see yet - however, her command of the English language is not great enough to actually read all this blah-blah, so I`ll attach a photo of the magazine I stitched from:

Issue 150 of WOCS

It was her birthday a couple of weeks ago and I just finished stitching Ed Hedgehog and put it in a small white frame so I can give it to her as a belated prezzie when she`s here. 

I also knitted another two hats for the charity appeal:

I went a bit wilder with the colours this time: traffic cone orange with navy blue stripes and a pink one for a little girl

So that`s a grand total of six hats and I think I`ll stop here cause I was thinking, if everybody hands in half-a-dozen hats, the poor woman who organises this thing will end up going with a suitcaseful of hats to Uganda.

Friday afternoon I finally got to some shops but no matter how hard I looked, I couldn`t find Scooby brown yarn anywhere, so that project is still halted. On the other hand, I got some purple potatoes in ASDA - you should have seen the boys` faces when I served up dinner tonight! :))

Now I`m asking you: what`s wrong with my haggis, neeps and tatties? 

little chefs finished!

Good evening from Ward 7 where the only thing warmer than the soup and tea is the nurse`s smile :)

I`ll be the first to admit: I have no idea how it happened in all the commotion (both snotty males are home, no doubt to give the school and work a little respite for a change) but I managed to finish not one... not two... but THREE projects!

OK, first up is the least successful one. I sewed up the Scrappy Doo pieces I`d knitted the other day - well, I don`t know if you remember the cover of the Wendy booklet I showed you earlier, but my Scrappy looks nothing like the model. I don`t know why, I mean I followed the pattern to the letter, and still: my version looks more like the love child of Ratatouille and Wile E. Coyote. Are you ready for a giggle? Here we go:

I think I stuffed the muzzle too much so it`s a wee bit on the large side - not to mention that I mixed up the arms and legs (by that point I just wanted to finish ASAP and get this thing out of my sight) but Gregory seems to like it... well, he very caringly buried it under a pile of toys...

Next one up is a couple of hats I made for the charity appeal: I have to say, I`m much happier with the end result of this knitting escapade!

And, finally, the big reveal, the moment I`ve been waiting for for a couple of months now (due to other engagements) but it`s finally finished - yay!!!

weekend summary

It`s Sunday night, time to sum up the weekend - so here it is in a nutshell: 

The Snotty Young One (SYO) had finished the third box of mansize tissues by 10 o`clock this morning, so I was forced to go to Tesco again, after spending the bulk of my Saturday morning there (spent a fortune and got a trolleyful again, despite the fact I`d only gone in for another 4 boxes of tissues). The Battery-Operated Husband (BOH) had disappeared somewhere around the garage area on Friday afternoon, and only resurfaced a couple of hours ago - my fault entirely: if I hadn`t kept the coffees coming, he would`ve returned to the house much sooner. (Oh, he`s BOH because he had this 24-hour blood pressure monitoring device attached to him Fri-Sat). And me, you ask? I`m fine, thank you - as long as I don`t have a runny nose, I`m OK, I mean I can still stitch (I just try not to cough all over it).

I`ll show you the stitchy pic in a second - after a quick update on the Scooby story... I`ll be short, I promise, as there`s not much to tell. I spent almost two whole days knitting up the bits and pieces, just to run out of the Scooby brown yarn before making the tail and the two ears. I don`t want to cheat and use a different brown for these, and anyway, I wouldn`t gain anything as I still have to sew up all the pieces. I was so disappointed last night that I started to knit Scrappy instead but then I got bored with it, so today I picked up the little chefs again - and here`s the result:

I`ve finished the cross stitches, done a bit more backstitch and started the "floor" with the tent stitches

Little Chefs update

Just a quick note because I think I might have a cold - that`s the bad news but the good news is that I`m not shivering (yet) vehemently enough to be unable to handle a needle, so here`s how much I`ve done since the last update on my Gran`s little chefs:

I started the backstitch too so as not to be lumbered with the whole lot at the end

Scooby Doo

I`m happy to report that the green pig was/is a great success: we took it to the playground yesterday (and I had to push the bloomin` thing on the swing, whilst hoping against all hope that nobody saw me), and after sleeping with it last night, Gregory took it to school with him today for Show-and-Tell. So all in all, he`s quite chuffed with it - although the first thing he said this morning was that now my next knitting project (for him, obviously) should be a Scooby Doo, because "Piggy needs a friend". After failing to persuade him that I could make the red angry bird or the yellow one (Knitterbees also has patterns for those here), I spent about an hour this morning searching for Scooby - and found this:

Found this on the Vintage Knitting Lady`s website here 

Isn`t the Internet a wonderful thing? My son just utters a wish and within an hour, for a mere £1.50 I`m the ecstatic owner of a vintage Scooby - as well as a Scrappy! - knitting pattern. Whether I can make it for him is another question but at least the first step`s been taken.

I feel a bit guilty for inundating my so-called stitchy blog with all this knitting but it (and especially making knitted soft toys) became my hobby away from my hobby, more so since I started to "work" as a model stitcher. However, today I`ve been a good girl and done a bit more on my Gran`s birthday chefs:

Now I`ve got almost a whole dog and at least half a cat

And, finally, a mixed lot: the mohair beanie on the right is last night`s crop (for charity) and yes, you guessed it, I simply couldn`t resist putting up a photo of the black hat I knitted  for Mummy-in-law - this is the one she`ll get for Mothers` Day, together with this card I made a couple of years ago for a fair and never sold it, but I`m all for recycling... and sniggering at the moment cause the phrase `Here`s one I made earlier` reminded me of Vinnie Jones and Stayin` Alive... And now, of course, I`ll be humming it for the rest of the night, argggghhhhh!