Meezermeowmy’s Weblog

Here on the home front (not at Sock Summit) much progress was made.  In fact, I finished four projects!  There was a lot of happy dance, happy dance going on.

The first two projects were cross stitch embroideries I had stitched a week ago.  I hadn’t planned to stitch these two charts at all.  Knitters know all about this phenomenon:  you go into a yarn store for some little thing, and come out with a new project, too.  I went to the cross stitch store to pick up the frame for the Summer Garden Sampler,  and saw these two small charts.  They were by Judy Whitman, one of my favorite artists.  She delights in doing an over-all design, say an apple, that is built of many tiny pictures, including apples, A for apple, an apple basket, etc.  That was the first one that caught my eye, her French Country III Apple. 

This weekend, with a consult from my even-geekier-than-I DH (that’s a compliment!), I sketched out the pillow design I wanted to make.  Although it is a style that I have seen often in pictures — pillow cover with buttons on one side closing the opening — I had never made one.  I treated it like a square pillowcase, with the extension twice the width of the buttons I had chosen.  I was very pleased with the results.

The second design, Alphabet Pumpkin,  also a Judy Whitman, was from the get-go for DH.  I was thrilled to find the  pumpkin fabric for the pillow.  DH loves all things orange, even once buying an orange car.  This pumpkin’s for you, babe!

Then, flushed with success, I finished a shawl and a scarf.  When you have many projects waiting on the needles you have a jump-start on finishing.  (Well, that’s my story, and I’m going to stick with it.)  They should come off the blocking board later today, and hopefully pictures will follow tomorrow.

Several years ago we were facing a bitterly-cold Christmas Eve.  I spent the afternoon knitting a cabled cloche to wear to midnight services.  The knitting was well executed, the hat was warm, and I looked…awful.  I  looked like a peeled onion!  Needless to say, that has has languished on the closet shelf.

Now I am gearing up to resume my other love in the world of fiber art, cross stitch embroidery.  DH has kindly ordered a Stitch Mate needlework floor stand.  It will allow me to do two-handed embroidery, and to flip the frame over to finish my work without having to unfasten the frame from the stand.  I’m ambidexterous, and I have always thought it was a real shame that I didn’t have the set-up to embroider two-handed – I should be so good at it.

But what about the knitting, you ask?  Well, I have a Dazor magnifying lamp on a floor stand.  It’s been my joy for about 20 years, and I’m still using the first bulb.  However, in our old house there was only one window/room, which I believe was the architect’s attempt to deal with our tropical heat.  I didn’t have to worry very much about direct sunlight hitting the magnifying lense and starting a fire.  Now the Dazor will be set up in our keeping room, which has four large windows, 2 south and 2 east.  I went on a dig through my bags in the closet, hoping to find something with a drawstring that would fit on the lamp.  Nothing would fit…but wait, that hat fell off the shelf as I rummaged.  Why not give it a try?  It fit, so I ran a ribbon drawstring around the edge, tied it in a bow, and said  the Meezer mantra:  I meant to do that!