Awesome Fabric Give A Way

Come join the fun if you love to sew or quilt.  Alamodefabric is having an awesome giveaway.  Go quickly it ends Monday 1/31/11

Best Wishes to you all!

Rhinebeck Stash...

I know you are all probably in shock.  Well, its been crazy busy at my house as I have a daughter planning a December wedding and so it goes with all the details of a bridal shower, fittings, decorations, you name it.  The shower is this Saturday and I have yet to get started on making the food.

So, I happen to have the day off and I am catching up on some necessary phone calls to make and arrangements for my car to have an oil change and whatever else it may need.  I do a lot of travelling with my job - my car needs to  be in good shape.

I finally am here to share with you some of the purchases I made at the Rhinebeck NY Sheep and Wool Festival   For the first time, hubby came with me and my two boys who are 15 and 14  , they really love it .  Hubby actually was in no rush to leave (as I was afraid he would be before I was ready) and even said on the drive home that he looks forward to it next year.  Is it possible they had a better time than I did??? No!  but I was so pleased to see everyone enjoying themselves.  It is truly a fun family event!

First purchase here

This is so pretty and so soft!  It is Peruvian Alpaca in white , I purchased 3 skeins and this is a vender who actually lives and works about 20 min from my home.  "A Touch of Twist" in Pattersonville, NY - great couple and fantastic fibery stuff to play with.  This is a 2-ply yarn sport weight.  334 yds per skein.

Next up:

Amazing merino/silk  lace yarn from Skaska Designs - this is the woman who wrote the books on Russian lace shawls - she is fantastic.  Loved chatting with her.  She has an awesome shawl coming out in Jan 2011 in the Piecework Magazine - cannot wait.  Anyway - this yarn is so pretty - in person - shading is a little off in the photo but the sheen on this yarn is amazing -  It is 18/2 lace weight and 1285 yards.

Next:

This is 4 oz of 70% Suri Alpaca / 30% merino   in a light plum color - from Flaggy Meadow Fiber Works
Soft, cannot wait to spin this up.  I am still looking to purchase a Turkish spindle - hoping to maybe use this fiber to try the Turkish spindle out with.  If not, I will be spinning it on my Russian Supported Spindle.

I also purchased some home made soaps, hand softening creams, and lots of food , naturally.  What a great day we had.

Next up I want to share with you a pair of mittens I made:

I made these mittens from some sport weight acrylic/wool yarn I had on hand and that little ball there is all I had left.  Worked out perfectly.  These are the "Susies Reading Mitts"  on Ravelry  a free pattern.  They are so cute and fun to make - I did the smallest size and they fit my adult working hands perfectly.
I actually made these for a young girl who works at my local Dunkin Donuts.  - one day she commented on another pair of fingerless gloves I had made - and she said Oh I want those gloves!!!! - so I went home and made these for her.  When I presented them to her she couldn't believe it - she was in shock that someone would even do that.  Two days later - she made me accept my coffee on her dime - she absolutely loves her mitts!  These are a light grey color - I was not sure what color she liked but figured these would go with anything.  Now I want a pair!  :)

Sheep and Wool Festival

No photos today :(  but, hubby decided he would go with me and the boys to Rhinebeck, NY - every third weekend in October - there is a Sheep and Wool festival being held - I didn't go last year and we are going this Saturday.  I cannot wait.  Supposed to be a beautiful fall day.  Not looking for anything in particular but hope I do get my hands on a Bossie spindle, and a turkish drop spindle.  Of course some fiber to spin, looking out for some pretty gray wool / wool blend yarn for a sweater.  Ok , so  maybe iI do have a few things on my mind, looking forward to a fun day with my family.
Rhinebeck - check it out!
I will share some photos when I get back!

I know it is not Monday....

Hello.  I realize I was supposed to post on Monday - yup..somehow the week got away from me and it is now Friday.  I do have a reason, really I do!  I started back to work with a new schedule - so it takes me a week or two to get used to the new routine.  During the summer work slows down and I am basically not working - so no schedule , no routine - not really - so I have been feeling very tired...
So now I decided to take a few pictures with my new Verizon Incredible phone and see if it would be easier to post pictures from my phone rather than my camera.  For some reason when I use my camera, I have to save it to a disk first, then upload pictures from the disk to here - too many steps , I think.
So without further ado:  here we go:

Before we headed down to the Cape, we took a day and went to Boston, my favorite shop there is Windsor Buttons - so many neat crafty things there - but I go for their yarn - cool hand dyed yarns , cool awesome top of the line yarns , wool, sock yarn - you name it.  So hubby purchased this for me

This is Dream in Color SMOOSHY - yum - this is the first time I have ever owned a skein of this yarn and it is heavenly - I knew exactly what sock pattern I was going to use and they are for me!!! Yeah.  This is 4 oz, 450 yards of goodness -  color is Shiny Moss.  I just love green - so organic - natural.

Here it is all wound up:

I cannot even begin to tell you the gorgeous colors that flow through this yarn - I was not sure how it would knit up but it is very soft and squooshy - (is that even a word)

I am using a free pattern from Ravelry  If you haven't joined - go ahead, so much to explore - it is free!  Free!
Oh yeah, I got carried away - it is a free pattern - Spring Forward socks from Knitty 2008 -  another awesome site for knitters, lot of tips too!

This pattern starts off with about 10 rounds of K1 tbl (through the back loop) , P1, then starts the pattern repeat - lacy and quite easy pattern to memorize - I got through one  - 24 row repeat and am now on the second repeat - I am using size 1 - 2.25 dpn (double pointed needles) - I tried to use 4 and knit with the fifth but this is way to fiddly for me - I prefer to knit using 3 needles and knit with the fourth one.  I move along much quicker and less frustration with me having to push the extra needle out of my way - these are shorter length needles than the standard 7" size you can buy.

There you go:  Cross stitch update on Monday and a new adventure for me :  soap making!
stay tuned.

Back From Vacation...

Just posting a note that our family is back from Cape Cod.
We left last week Monday for Boston for the day , took a ride on the Duck Tour - such fun!  Learned a lot about the history of MA - in that area.  Then left for Cape Cod , first off to offer Bible Studies to those in that area - then a few days vacationing - on the beach - gorgeous - white sand beaches - I wish we could have stayed another day - .  Came home on Friday , did laundry for two days - !
Then Monday night I was struck instantly with head pain - all on my forehead and top of my head , it wouldn't go away no matter what I did , I have never experienced pain like this before!  The pain was so unbearable I finally went in to the Dr - 8:30 am didn't leave till 1pm - they did blood work testing for Lyme - they did CScan make sure nothing was happening in my brain - (Clear)  :)  - finally concluded that the migraines I get 3 times a year on the right side of my head (hormonal Migraines) - are changing and for the worse - Great I thought!  So finally after years of asking for meds for the migraine they finally prescribed me some - I took one went to bed and woke up feeling Fantastic!
Haven't done much needlework at all!  But will post some photos of progress I made on my X-St soon -
I was able to knit up a few wash cloths for my daughter - came out quite nice - and trying to finish up a second sock I started for my daughter long ago.
Other news is that I go back to work at the college - starting on Tuesday so my free time is limited - lots and lots - my one day off is Monday - so you may see my postings on Mondays -
Thanks,
Have a Super Day

Rose Hill Plantation Update and More...

Oh what a great week this has been, I have been able to work on my LHN Rose Hill quite a bit since last Friday - in between here and there - and received both packages in the mail in the giveaways that I won.  What a special treat these gifts were :)

First off I am going to share my LHN update:

So here is the update from last Friday 7/31 to Monday 8/2.  I was able to finish most of the house , but ran out of the Crescent Colour "Dandelion Stem" - now mind you, if I didn't have to rip out the whole two smaller sections of the house on the right - I would have had enough thread to finish the left - but it was so worth it to have the stitches counted right and have my whole piece line up properly.  This will be a gift to my daughter and I want it done right :)

The photo above shows what I have done since Wednesday 8/4 and Thursday 8/5 - in between doing laundry, cleaning house and working on a five minute presentation I have on a Bible topic - Which I spent all morning yesterday working on and now need to refine it and type it up.

I am so happy with this cross stitch piece - it has been fun and easy to work up - the whole bottom is done except for the wording as I want to add a different name to it - but I will finish it all up and add the name later - then frame it!

I have yet to buy the Crescent Colour that I need as the owner of the cross stitch shop went into the hospital to have surgery and she is only open Wed - Sat - and I just didn't have the time to run over there on Wed - she had her surgery yesterday.   Most likely I will go into the shop on Wed of next week to pick some up - hopefully she has it in stock.  When I originally purchased the thread two weeks ago she only had three on the rack.  Hmmmmm!   A half finished house is no fun!

Ok so now onto the goodies I received in two giveaways:

First I received a package from Bette :

As you can see she sent awesome magazines of the Cross Stitcher which I have never had myself and some Shepherd Bush designs - a few were of Christmas themes - which I do not participate in but can use ideas of the sheep and things on the Shepherd Bush stocking - Love Sheep!  I do , I do , I do!

And those scissors - aren't they awesome!  Never treated myself to a cute pair before!

Here is another photo:

A closer look at the scissors - not the greatest photo - but hopefully you get the idea!

Now for the second drawing I won from MyFirstBambina

What fantastic threads and cross stitch and embroidery stash to be had here :)  I was delighted to open the cute Sunflower Book box (below in photo) to open up a treasure of layer after layer of fantastic fiber and fabric and projects to play with.  Linen threads. Valdani (which I have never heard of) and the light green Clover thread - what fun!

and look at those fabrics - so soft and pretty - I don't know where to start!  She too sent me an awesome pair of scissors - hmm , have I forgotten to post a photo of that???  I thought I had it in there - guess that will be for next time....

Have a great weekend!

Cross Stitching Stash

Just wanted to share some charts I have picked up in the past few weeks.  Two are Black Bird Designs Series Anniversaries of the Heart - I  have Charts 4 and 5 out of 12 - one for each month - they are about 5 X 5 in design size - may do them all on one piece of linen once I get a few more charts.

This is Pink Hill Manor - chart 4

This is Farm House - Chart 5  They are so adorable - cute and fun!












Last but not least is my favorite designer as well LHN - Love One Another!  I love sheep and the fact that God promises one day soon the animals will live in peace with one another along with humans.  Isaiah.

Happy Stitching!