Wednesday, December 31, 2014

Goodbye 2014

I assembled these pictures for a year in review on Instagram.  So here they are on my blog too.  My finishes, some of my WIPs, and also a few familiar faces.  Enjoy.





































Happy 2015, everybody.  May it be a happy, healthy, wonderful year for us all.

Monday, December 29, 2014

Christmas

Thanks to everyone on my finish of His Eye is on the Sparrow.  I emailed Beth Twist, the designer, and she said I'm only the third person to finish the piece -- besides her and another stitcher.  Pretty good, huh?

Oh, that reminds me.  The person who finished before me used 28ct linen, and she also ran out of WDW Havana and GAST Caramel Corn.  So you should get 2 skeins of those in addition to the ones mentioned on the chart.  And I think she said she needed 3 skeins of the green -- WDW Oscar? -- that is listed as needing 2 skeins.

Enough of that though.  As a reward for finishing, His Eye, I finally started this fair isle scarf I've been dying to start knitting.  It's called the Walking Tour Scarf, designed by Dolly Donhauser.  I got the kit for the scarf from the Feral Knitter website -- it uses Jamieson's Shetland Spindrift wool, lots of pretty colors.  Here is my progress so far.


This picture doesn't show the ribbed edging -- it came out a bit too loose, but I'm not about to redo it.  I'm enjoying knitting this one up.  Part of why I like fair isle in particular is it gives you breaks once in a while with a row of plain knitting.  Always nice to have a break once in a while!

Here is my last Fussy Cut Friday with two star halves, both mystery fabrics.


Next year, I will start making the white diamonds to go between the stars.  I don't know if I will stick to Fridays or one a week or anything.  We shall see!

The girl child arrived home Christmas Eve in the evening.  So we were all set for Christmas morning!




If you're wondering what the Father type's new toy is, go to this website.   The Father type and the boy child had a great time together playing with it.  The boy child learned a lot about the audio type things that the Father type's toy involves, so the boy child could give his dad pointers on how to get the most out of his new toy.

And I was made a very happy mom when the girl child asked me to teach her to knit.  Yay!!!!!


I got her started right away on a garter stitch scarf.  She's gotten a lot done this Christmas break.


It's even longer than what's shown in the last picture!

I'm hoping the girl child sticks with it and becomes a fellow knitter.  I would be thrilled if she does!

We had to go out for dinner for Christmas this year -- our stove broke at the beginning of the week and the replacement will be arriving today.   So we went to our favorite diner for Christmas dinner, quite a change for us for Christmas.


(If I'm looking tired out, it's because I was still feeling the after-effects of that vertigo episode I had mentioned a couple of blog posts ago.  We were having a good time!)

Then we went home and settled in to watch A Charlie Brown Christmas and Santa Claus is Coming to Town, both classics from us old folks's childhoods.  It was a wonderful, family Christmas with lots of bonding time.

Mia got a toy for Christmas too.  I'm not sure how much she likes it.


If you look closely, you can see the toy up in the air.

Mia was not best pleased by all the hubbub of Christmas morning.


Father type got this picture -- isn't it hysterical?  She's got this look on her face that says "I hate this! Leave me alone!"  lolol!

This will be my last post of 2014.  What a weird thought -- a New Year is just a few days away!

Thanks as always for stopping by and saying hi.  I hope everyone has a great week -- and a happy, healthy, wonderful 2015!

Monday, December 22, 2014

Stop the presses!!!!

Ok, I know I just posted last night, but this calls for another blog post.  I'm feeling more or less normal today, just a bit weird from the effects of the vertigo.  But I'm feeling well enough to stitch again.  And guess what?

Ta da!!!!!

His Eye is on the Sparrow by Heartstring Samplery
40ct Doubloon linen by Picture this Plus
using the called for WDW and GAST fibers
started mid-September, 2014
finished December 22, 2014


Yup!!!  It's done!  Finis!

I am happy.  :D

ETA: someone asked what size the linen has to be with 40ct.  I bought a stitcher's half and it worked great.

Sunday, December 21, 2014

Vertigo

This morning I suffered a bad bout of vertigo.  Ugh.  I did the Epley maneuver several times and that helped, but all day I've still been feeling weird.   A blogging friend  (thank you!!!!) sent me an email telling me to Google "Colorado doctor half somersault."  It turns out to be a new technique to treat vertigo.  If you ever experience vertigo, these exercises work!  Not perfectly -- I'm still not back to normal yet -- but they work well enough that you don't suffer anymore in comparison.  There are videos on Youtube for both.

Anyway, since I can't stitch or do much else (even reading seems to make me motion sick), I decided to write my blog post.

Here is His Eye.  I'm actually down to the last motif, the big flower next to the deer that goes in the corner.  The deer and the big bird are done. But with my vertigo I haven't taken a picture of that.  So you'll have to be satisfied with this picture, the last one I took.


Here are my fussy cut star halves (I'm doing half stars to fill in the sides of the quilt) for the week.  One is a mystery fabric and the other I forget.  lol!  It's by Me and My Sister Designs though.


We got our boy child back home for Christmas break on Friday night.  Hooray!  (Father type was being silly....)


And Saturday evening, the girl child came home for a few hours in between events on her busy social calendar.  So we got to decorate the tree as a family for the first time in  years.  Yay!


(decorating the tree stump for this year)

If you want to read about our tree stump collection, go here.





We had a good time, and it was so nice to get the kids to pose in front of the tree like old times.  Although they are a lot bigger than in the old days.  lol!  

Mia was not very contented with the goings on.  She even attacked the man bun.


Silly cat!

I made it through this post!  Hopefully I will feel normal tomorrow.  Fingers crossed!  Seriously, I'm a lot better now than before, so it's not bad.  Thank goodness for those techniques!

Thanks as always for stopping by and saying hi.  I hope everyone has a great week.  Happy Hanukkah, Happy Kwanzaa, Happy Christmas!