I was quite happily stitching the 1939 Morgan 4-4 for my father-in-law’s birthday while hubby serviced the sewing machine:

When I received a phone call from my Mum to let me know that my uncle had died. Although this has been on the cards for about the last thirty years, this came as a shock to everyone. I immediately put down the Morgan

And started stitching a sympathy card for my aunt

Come Friday I was feeling a bit down and didn’t feel like stitching so I knitted myself a hat and a bag to cheer myself up:

The hat is finished and I wore it yesterday when I went to visit my Mum, brother and sisters. While I have finished knitting the bag, I have not sewn it up yet because I have decided to line it properly and make a little purse to match. Doesn’t it look like a little dress though?! lol

Knitting the hat and bag (which really were quite quick to knit up!) cheered me up suitably so I’m trying to finish the sypmathy card for my aunt, and have decided to stitch one for my other aunt as it must be difficult for her to lose all three of her brothers within five years of each other (these are relatives on my Dad’s side, not my Mum’s, so I’m not being mean!)

In addition to all of this, my friend had her baby and named her Sienna Adele. I have added the name and date to the fairies sampler and will be taking it to be framed this week before we take it over to her. I’ll post photos of the framed work later in the week.

As for the service on the sewing machine, I can’t believe that Jay pulled out two mangled, broken needles and a ton of lint and dust etc – it was supposed to have been serviced before it was given to me! He has oiled it substantially and fixed the coupling and I think it works better than before (although I still have to run some waste fabric through until all the remnants of the oil are gone before I can actually sew with it).  I have been a very lucky girl this week because in addition to mending and servicing my sewing machine, hubby has decided to custom-make a sewing table for me! This means that I won’t have to nag him to get on with his bits and pieces so I can sew, because we won’t be sharing his table any more! Hopefully Mum will be free to take us to the hardware store on Friday afternoon and I’ll be away with the sewing fairies come Sunday!

These are gorgeous! I just love Little Cotton Rabbits!

Believe me, you HAVE to read about CraftyCripple’s cushion – it really is the best! Well done on getting this far – I can’t wait to see the finished cushion in all its glory, and the fabulous fabric you have chosen to cover it in!

ArtMind: Local artist exposition.

This caught my eye today while I was reading the blogs I follow – do please click on the link and read it for yourself, and of course look at the pretty pictures!

Stitchgasm! – Rosie Geissler

I am in total agreement with Mr X Stitch on this one!

Craftster Pick of the week on Mr X Stitch

Beefrank is certainly talented!

Artmind loves red – and so do I!

Fleurfatale makes some beautiful jewellery (and plays lovely music on her blog too!)

Do click on the links and see the sources of these beautiful pictures and read about how they came to be – it really is worth your time!

It occurred to me, as I was writing my weekly blog, that I haven’t actually shared any details about the stitching of Fairy Mother and Child have I? How rude! Well, it took me 58 hours 17 to stitch what you can see on my last post and I used nearly a whole reel of Kreinik very fine braid #4 in grey for the backstitch on the wings – I don’t think I have ever used so much metallic thread on one project before! Still, it was certainly worth the result, wouldn’t you agree?

So with the fairies finished, I have started on Mike’s 1939 Morgan 4-4. To date I have worked for 11 hours on it and it looks like this:

There are hundreds of fractional stitches in this project, and they’re all horizontal and vertical rather than diagonal, which is causing me some confusion as the chart just looks like a jumble of similar symbols. But I am determined to finish it, and finish it I will. I can’t wait to start on the other projects in my queue!

Anyway, I’m going to get back to the stitching now so I’ll leave you there.

Polka Dot Rabbit: Things I like today.

This is so cool, I just had to share it with everyone! Hope you all agree!

I finished stitching the fairy birth sampler – beads and metallics and everything! I still need to stitch the baby’s name etc, but we’ll have to wait for that! Isn’t she gorgeous!

And that’s not all: I also finished knitting Ross’ socks:

The cables aren’t to clear, but I assure you, they do go right down to the toe shaping!

So now I have started stitching the 1939 Morgan 4-4 for my father-in-law’s seventieth birthday in March, and will soon be starting to knit Louisa by Anniken Allis, which has been waiting for some time now…

The next small project to go on the needles though will be yet another pair of Marnie MacLean’s “Hooray For Me Gloves” for a family friend who loved Mum’s two pairs so much she wanted a pair of her own. Hopefully it won’t take me too long to knit these; the bamboo yarn I’ll be using is a pain and keeps tangling, but I will try to keep my cool with it…

You read that right folks; I have now finished the cross stitch (in stranded cotton at least) on the Joan Elliott project, which means I only have to work the backstitch, metallics and beads!

So why am I wasting time blogging when I could be stitching?

Damn good question. I’ll be back when I’m done!

Here’s a pic to keep you going:

She’s really starting to take shape isn’t she? I don’t think it’ll be much longer before I finish this design and move on to the 1939 Morgan. As you can see, I was quite busy yesterday! But that’s not all – I also knitted quite a bit of the second Ross sock. It didn’t help the pain in my leg, but it was certainly enjoyable!

Is anyone else stitching any fairies or Joan Elliott designs? I’d love it if you linked here so I can see them too!

Anyway, why am I wasting good stitching time writing this? I want to finish that skirt!

My Mum phoned me this afternoon. Not really newsworthy in itself, except that she phoned to ask me to design something for her to use. I won’t go into the sordid details, except to say that involves a knitted item. She explained the purpose and intended use of the item she wants me to design and has left the rest to me. Wow! I’m chuffed!

Just thought I’d share that with you all…

I could stand it no longer (being parted from my needle and thread that is!) so here is the next instalment of Joan Elliott’s Fairy Mother and Child“, which I need to finish by the end of the month.

Yes, I know I am still knitting Christmas presents and that one of these really needs to be finished before the end of the month so my brother can wear the socks when he goes to Poland to meet his girlfriend’s family, but I was going through the motions of cross stitching in my sleep and apparently calling out random cross stitch-related words in my sleep as well. Maybe my lovely husband made this up so I would pick up the needle and thread again and stop moaning that I miss stitching, and maybe I really did do these things. Who knows?!

Anyway, all I know is that I am a lot happier having stitched for four hours yesterday and can’t wait to do some more tomorrow. I would have done some today, but we had a friend round for dinner and I thought it would be a bit rude to sit and cross stitch while he was here – even if he does appreciate the art and this particular piece is for his brother and sister-in-law…

In other, slightly related news, we were unable to find a suitable map of Worcestershire for me to cross stitch/embroider for my father-in-law’s 70th birthday coming up in March, so I will be stitching him a 1939 Morgan. Apparently these are built in Malvern, so he has a soft spot for these classic British cars. Therefore, he should appreciate the design when it’s finished, which should look something like this:

So instead of starting on Joan Elliott’s Sea Goddess when I finish the Fairy Mother and Child design, I will be starting this one. It’s ok. I probably shouldn’t do two of Joan’s designs in a row without a break anyway. And when I finish that one I will have to do this one for a family friend who will be 60 in May:

She loves rabbits and I thought this one (printed in Cross Stitcher magazine at some point last year) would be ideal as it is quite cute!

Anyway, I hope everyone has recovered from Christmas and New Year exploits etc and that 2010 turns out to be prosperous and full of love and everything good and nice for all of us – especially those of you who are reading this!!

Wow, I can’t believe how long it’s been since I last posted on my blog! I have been so busy knitting Christmas presents that I just did not notice the time passing!

Well, now that most of said Christmas presents have been completed and gifted to their recipients (and that those I haven’t finished aren’t likely to read the blog!), I can now show you photos!! Yay!

Firstly, the socks for the step-children:

Flutter-by socks for Emily

Scottish Flag socks for Ollie

And Toast Toes socks for Issy

In addition to these, I also made:

Imelda socks for my little sister and…

… a pair of gloves for my Mum

I’m still working on four pairs of socks (yikes!) and don’t have an awful lot of time in which to finish them if I’m going to finish the cross stitched birth sampler for my friend, but I’m sure everyone will understand; especially since we had the kids for Christmas. It was great, but the week went far too quick

For more photos of these projects, you can visit Picasa, Flickr or (if you’re on there) Ravelry. Right now I have to get back to the grindstone or my brother and his girlfriend won’t get their Christmas presents before they leave the country :-/

In case I don’t blog again before, I hope you all have good New Year celebrations and see in 2010 in style. Hubby and I are looking forward to a quiet NYE, but I hope you do whatever rocks your boat! Have a good one!

I think I may have mentioned before that I am knitting socks for everyone for Christmas this year, and that is exactly what I am doing. I have finished three pairs and am half-way through the fourth pair, which is what I wanted to blog about today. I am really chuffed with the Imelda sock pattern I’ve used (published in issue 17 of Let’s Knit! magazine). It is the first time I have tried an invisible cast-on method, my first attempt at toe-up socks, and also my first attempt at a picot edge cast-off – a hat trick of firsts! I am really pleased with the results and can’t wait to share pictures, although this will have to wait until after Christmas (they are a Christmas present, after all). I just hope the lucky recipient is as appreciative of them… Time will tell!

Indeed it has been, and I am more than a little pleased with myself. I have made a new birthday card for a friend of the family:

I’m quite chuffed with this one.

Now for my real reason for posting today: I would like to ask a question of the Blogiverse, at least the crafting portion of the Blogiverse. A few months ago I had a letter published in a cross stitch magazine, and they sent me a prize for publishing said letter (like having the letter published wasn’t enough!). It was a Hodgepodge Hardware tin of goodies. Wow! It’s very nice, with lots of little bits and bobs in it, but my question is; what the heck do I do with the contents? I had it sat next to me while making all the Christmas cards in case inspiration should poke its little head up, but no joy! Here are some photos:

Any suggestions? I really am at a loss as to what to do with them, and would appreciate any input (aside from sticking it up my bum – that would NOT be appreciated!).

So now I must return to the sock knitting. I am tired of knitting socks, and I haven’t even finished the first pair of eight for Christmas! I would love to be cross stitching again, but that is going to have to wait until after Christmas now. Never mind; only three weeks to go lmao!

… to say that I have finished making Christmas cards for this year (unless I suddenly remember someone else I should send one to!) and am about half-way through writing them out.

So? This means that I can now concentrate solely on knitting socks until Christmas.

I have found myself yearning to cross stitch during the day, but daren’t pick up the needle and thread as I am still knitting the first of about eight pairs of socks!

I have completely wasted today (what little I have seen of it) and really should be in bed right now, but I’m writing this before I power down the PC. I have spent the day updating the pages on this blog (although I still have loads of Christmas cards to upload to the cardmaking pages) and editing photos etc. I still have a long way to go, and many more sites to update before my job is done, but then my whole life seems to be a great big Work In Progress at the moment!!

I am really looking forward to Christmas this year – and not only because we have the children! I don’t know, I kind of feel quite Christmassy.

On the other hand, I’m not really looking forward to Christmas, because of the whole L and R thing. I don’t think my stress levels will be lowered until the whole situation has been resolved. And I can’t even blog about it until it has been, so we’ll all have to wait.

Well, I guess I should call it a day and bumble off to bed so I can start afresh tomorrow!