Hooray! NaBloPoMo is Winding Down

I’m very glad I decided to go ahead and commit to National Blog Posting Month (a.k.a. NaBloPoMo). It has renewed my enthusiasm for sharing my stitching successes and failures, along with tips I’ve learned along the way. I really enjoy interacting with all of you, dear readers.

However, over the past four weeks, I’ve also learned that in order to write about stitching, I have to actually stitch something! And it doesn’t work to try to do much of both writing and stitching on any given day, not with the full-time job and motherhood to an almost-three-year-old. (Yes, really. She’s almost three!)

So while I’ve had fun doing this, please be warned that come December, posts will not be as frequent. But I will keep posting. The good news is that I won’t be posting just for the sake of posting something on a given day. I can focus more on providing you with quality information. Fortunately, this month I’ve also learned that a post doesn’t have to be long to share a good tip. Pictures really are worth a thousand words!

And who knows? One of these days I might actually finish cleaning up all of the imported posts on my NEW site and be able to share that with all of you!

Home again

Thanks again for all of the well wishes! Erin did fine overnight, and showed she was breathing well and eating well, so they let us go home. She's now laying on her play mat, enjoying being in a familiar place and playing with her familiar toys, without being hooked up to wires and tubes! The cast does not seem to be bothering her much, aside from when we have to do diaper changes and I need to clean near her incisions.

As for me, I hope to catch up on sleep and finish Floral Rondel over the next day or so.

An update...

Let me start by saying thank you for all of the thoughts and prayers sent our way today. We are grateful for all of the support.

Erin is fine, but she and I are not home as we'd hoped. I'm writing this entry on a cool internet/movies/TV setup in the cheldren's area of the hospital. Unfortunately,the screen in our room is VERY blurry, so I apologize for any missed key strokes!

When we went into the surgical center this morning, we'd been hoping that the doctor would be able to manipulate Erin's hips into position without surgery. It was not to be. The doctor found that there was too much muscle, etc. in the way, and he needed to operate.

The procedure went smoothly from that point, until they tried to bring her out of anesthesia. That didn't go so well.. It's a long story, but it ended up with oxygen blowing on her face, her finally waking up fully SIX hours after sergury, and staying in the hospital overnight for observation..

Right now she's sleeping, and aside from an occasional whimper, seems to not be in pain.. I'm going to try to get some sleep myself...

Tomorrow is the day

I can't believe it's here already. Erin goes in for her procedure tomorrow (Thursday), and then she'll be in a cast from chest to toes for 12 weeks. :-( She's NOT going to be happy, especially since she's just recently figured out how to roll over (although then she gets mad because she hates tummy time!). Oh well. I'll try to post tomorrow night to let you all know how things went.

On the stitching front, I've been making rather slow progress on Hannah Thornbush. I'm still on band 2, and I apologize for the lack of pictures. The lesson for bands 3 and 4 came out on Monday. Only the second lesson, and I'm behind already. Sheesh!

After several emails back and forth with Denise from Threadneedle Street in Washington state, the correct color of silk I needed for Floral Rondel showed up today. Thank you, Denise! Now I can finally finish this!

Answering questions

Recent posts have generated a couple of questions from readers.

I'll address the stitching-related question first. A couple of readers have asked about Jean Hilton's ScottLee. I'm sorry to say that the instructions for this project are very hard to find. Jean taught it only twice: once for a national seminar, and once for a group of stitchers near Phoenix.

It is not available for retail sale (though perhaps her family might change that in the future - who knows?). I did not take either class, but I was lucky enough to be given the chart by somebody who took the class at seminar. I do not have my chart any longer, as I passed it on to another stitcher who admired it here on my blog. Right now, that's the only way it can be legally obtained - by gift or purchase from one of the stitchers who has the instructions from class.

Oh - and if you're one of those lucky few, I know of a couple of ladies looking for the chart!

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Erin Update: The second question was about Erin, and the next steps for her hip dysplasia. (Background: She was born with both hips dislocated as a result of pregnancy complications.)

We visited the orthopedist this past week. The X-ray only took two tries. The first try caught her in the middle of a wiggle and was blurry :-). After the second, non-wiggle attempt, succeeded, I managed to get a new diaper on with no accidents on the table!

The X-rays confirmed that both hips are still very much dislocated. Now I'm waiting for the doctor's secretary to call to set up the mid-June appointment for a "closed reduction" procedure. In this procedure, Erin will be anesthetized and the doctor will attempt to manipulate the hips into the correct position. There's a slight chance he may operate at that time if he thinks it will be a minor correction. If all goes well, she'll then be put in a cast from mid-chest to knees. If, for some reason, the hips won't cooperate, we'll wait 'til she's a bit bigger before going in for "open reduction", a.k.a. surgical reparation, before casting her.

As for the cast - don't ask about diaper logistics. It doesn't sound like fun. :-(

Update: In answer to Megan's question: the cast will be on 3-4 months (to let the muscles, tendons, etc. move into the correct position to support the hips), and yes, hopefully after that she'll be able to go on as a normal kid. The doctor says there's a chance she might need to have additional work done over the next several years, but we're praying this won't be necessary.

Thank you to Robbie and Jean for your support and sharing your stories about similar situations. I'm grateful for your caring notes!

Oh - and thank you to Carin for wishing me a happy birthday on Friday after reading through the archives! :-)

Just 15 minutes

Thank you, Mary Corbet, for reminding me that I don't need to have hours of time to actually see progress in my stitching. Just 15 minutes of stitching can mean some progress. Right now, it seems that 15 minutes is all I can find in a given day. Yesterday, I didn't even find that, but the day before, one of the flowers on my Floral Rondel went from this:To this:It isn't much, but it is progress. Tonight, I think I've even got a bit more time, if I don't spend too much time blogging!

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Erin continues to grow. Yesterday she was up to 6 lb, 7.5 oz! Unfortunately, at that doctor's visit, we found that the doctor is not encouraged that the brace on her hips will do anything. We'll get another ultrasound in two weeks to check, but it's likely that at that point we'll discontinue use of the brace. In most cases like this, the doctor says he's able to rotate the hips into position and then they just need to be held there, but in Erin's case, he's unable to get the hips into position. This likely means that she'll need surgery at 3-4 months of age to reposition the hips, and then she'll need to be in a cast from chest to knees for another 3-4 months to hold everything in place. I don't want to think about the logistics of diaper changing in this situation, but it's a means to an end, as DH keeps reminding me.

Thanks again to all who have commented and emailed, especially those who have experienced hip dysplasia with their own kids! It always helps to know the success stories!

I decided to test my camera tonight when she was waking up and not crying. :-) Here are some of the results.

A lesson in shading

I finally finished the first lesson (a.k.a. the first flower) on Judy Souliotis's Floral Rondel. I'm still really enjoying the Sha fabric. It's wonderful that the silk threads barely have any wear with this fabric, so longer lengths can be used.

The petals of the flower use a basic laid stitch, where metallic threads are laid across the area and silk threads are used to couch them down while providing the color to the petal. I can't remember incorporating shading into this technique before. It was an interesting learning experience, because in this technique, you can't compensate stitches when going from one shade to the next. The line between the shades becomes blurred because they interleave with each other.

I really need to try this idea more with painted canvases. I often use "tweeding" when shading, blending strands of two colors in the needle at the same time (as seen in the gray trees on Winds of Color). If I'm not doing that, I tend to have a hard line of compensation between shades (as seen in the green trees on the same piece).

This idea of simply changing colors from one complete stitch unit to the next isn't completely foreign to me, but I've never really noticed how effective it can be. It looks even better when you take a step back, which I often forget to do when working on the details of a project. It's a case of "not seeing the forest for the trees." I hope I'm not alone in doing this!

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Ok, from the beginning, this blog has been almost entirely about stitching, but with our new addition, I hope you don't mind if I share a bit about Erin on occasion. All of you have been so incredibly supportive over the last several trying months, so maybe you want to hear a bit about her, too. And if you don't, I'll keep these bits at the ends of the posts, so you can skip them if desired!

Erin update: If we're not precisely on a schedule, at least we've found a bit of a rhythm to our days. Things have been getting easier because she's getting bigger and is finding it easier to nurse, so it doesn't take an hour and a half each time she's fed (warming a bottle, feeding, pumping for the next time, and cleaning all of the pump parts). Try that seven or eight times a day, and you'll know why I've only stitched one flower in the past two weeks!

Our visit to orthopaedics yesterday didn't go too well. An ultrasound revealed that Erin's hips are still dislocated despite almost three weeks in a harness. Now we've switched to a rigid brace that's put on over her clothing (which is a pain when it comes to diaper changing!) to try to realign everything. By the end of the afternoon, Erin had screamed all three of us into exhaustion due to her discomfort with removing the harness and going into this new contraption. I'm happy to say she's doing better today, and doesn't seem to mind when we take the brace on and off.

Unfortunately, while my camera takes fairly decent macro shots for stitching, it's not very good with indoor "people" shots, so I don't have a ton of pictures to share. I'll leave you with a couple of pictures from Valentine's Day, when MIL and FIL watched her for a couple of hours so DH and I could take a trip to Babies R Us. Romantic, huh?

Erin update

Yes, Erin and I are now both home. I was discharged on Friday, feeling much better, thank you. Erin had to stay at the hospital one more night, for a reason that completely irritated me. One of her challenges is the fact that both of her hips are dislocated due to the way she was positioned and the cramped quarters that resulted after my water broke. On Thursday, the orthopedic doctors fitted her with a harness that will hopefully reposition her hips, but they neglected to weigh the harness before they put it on her. As a result, her pediatrician couldn't tell if she was gaining weight, and needed to get her weight with the harness (which cannot be taken off except by the orthopedic doctors) on both Friday and Saturday morning. To say I was irritated by this turn of events is putting it mildly.

Anyway, we're home, and we made it through the first night. Miss Erin decided to challenge us by sleeping for four hours at a time during the day, and only 2 hours between feedings at night! Hopefully her internal clock will become more Mom and Dad friendly in the next week or so.

On to some pictures!

Here is her very first picture, taken when she was on her way from delivery to the NICU. Not a happy baby! She looks very short due to the fact that her legs were essentially in a yoga position.
Here she is after she's been cleaned up a bit more. Yes, that's Grandma's (MIL's) finger in her hand.
And a bit of a close-up, showing off her eyes.
For someone so small, she's commanding a lot of attention. I've managed to stitch a total of one length of thread over the past week! :-)

It's a girl!!!!!

I know, it's been too long! The short story is that my walking around early last week worked, and I went into labor Thursday morning. After I finally give in to an epidural around 8 PM, little Erin Christine found her way into the world at 11:03 PM. At 4 lbs, 2 oz and just under 17" long, she was a bit smaller than expected, and has spent the time since in the NICU, just moving to the newborn nursery today. She is a beautiful baby, and more details and pictures will follow.

Unfortunately, I was in a lot of pain over the weekend, and finally ended up on pain meds that left me feeling barely human. I stopped taking them Sunday night, and had weird withdrawal symptoms yesterday. When I still was constantly dizzy today while visiting the hospital, I ended up back in triage getting bloodwork done. Yes, I'm one of the few who manage to develop severe preeclampsia after delivery, with only a couple of the expected symptoms. They re-admitted me and immediately started an IV with the needed meds. I felt human again within an hour, but I'll be here at least 1 night. Hopefully Erin and I can go home together Thursday.

Thank you all for your concern and best wishes. I'll let you know when I'm home!

Blueberry Pocket

This morning, I figured out how to email myself a picture of my partially-completed Blueberry Pocket from Periwinkle Promises. Unfortunately, the cell phone pictures are nowhere near as clear as those taken with my usual camera.

On the up side, I told DH that this was my workaround, so he'll now be bringing me my camera. Apparently each emailed picture adds 25 cents to the cell phone bill, and the potential cost of that is worth the off chance that the camera might disappear! :-)

So, on to the stitching. I started this piece a few years ago to work on at an occasional lunch hour, but didn't get very far. When I started all of the doctor's appointments this year, I was only on the first blackwork band! When I arrived in the hospital this week, I had half of the band of hearts done. Everything below that has been stitched since Monday!

I've slowed down a bit with the current band because the berries (of which there are four are stitched) are all made up of smyrna crosses. They seem to be taking a very long time! Then again, right now I have nothing but time!

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Pregnancy ticker: 30 weeks, 1 day.
Each day, the doctors come around and ask me the same questions regarding my condition. Each day, I give them the same responses. Essentially, nothing's changing. Today, I said that I must be their most boring patient, and they assured me that boring is good right now. :-)

A change in location

I had grand hopes of finishing my Santa canvas before Christmas, but it was not to be. Instead, I've been working on a sampler pocket from Periwinkle Promises for the last several days.

Why, you ask?

Because this project has been my "doctors' waiting room" project, and it was what I grabbed when DH and I left home at 4AM Monday morning.

Yup. I've been in the hospital all week, and (I never thought I'd be saying this) hopefully I'll be here for several more weeks.

It seems that the complications I've been having have led to yet another: my water broke!

So now, they've been pumping me full of antibiotics to prevent infection, since that barrier is no longer there. At this stage, that's its main purpose, so BJ is continuing to develop, but has little protection against any nasty bugs.

So I'll be in the hospital for up to 5 more weeks. We're at 30 weeks today, and if all continues to go well, they may have to induce at 35 weeks, at which point the doctors say we're actually better off with BJ in the NICU for a bit. I don't really understand why, but we'll deal with that if and when we come to it.

Right now, I feel fine. I'm in no pain, and BJ is healthy and continuing to grow. I'm still stitching, watching TV, reading, and working through puzzle magazines. DH (thankfully) brought me the old laptop so I could let all of you know what's going on.

The camera is at home, so I won't be able to share progress pictures unless I figure out how to take them with my cell and email them to myself. Of course, I don't have anything else I have to be doing, so that might be a project over the next few days. I don't know if those pictures will be good enough to continue with the stitch studies, even if I have DH bring the stitch study sampler to the hospital. We'll see.

Thank you all again for your best wishes. I feel blessed that people I've never met are keeping tabs on us.

I'll keep you posted as best I can.

Gratitude

Sometimes it takes trying times to make a person appreciate how lucky she really is. I'd like to take this opportunity to say thank you to several people.

After I started stitching Joan Thomasson's Celebration Santa, I realized my stitch guide was missing a page. I posted a note to a couple of the needlepoint email lists, asking if anybody had the information from that page.

• Thank you to all the ladies from the ANG list and from the needlepoint etc. list who directed me to Joan Thomasson's website or sent me her email. The online stitching community comes through again.
• Thank you to Jane of Chilly Hollow who brought my problem to Joan's attention via an email of her own.
• And a very big thank you to Joan Thomasson who very graciously and generously offered to send me not only the missing page, but to replace the entire stitch guide so I'd have a complete version!

The response to my stitch study posts has been wonderful. Thank you to all who have written in suggestions and comments, or have mentioned the studies on your blogs. I really appreciate it. (Oh, and in case you're wondering, yes, I hope to have another stitch study up by the end of this upcoming weekend.)

On to life. Up until recently, I've been pretty mum on my personal life. I still intend for this to remain primarily my stitching blog, but of course, from time to time, life takes over. I'm very glad I explained my week-long absence due to my hospitalization.

• Thanks to all of you who wrote expressing concern for me and for the baby. It's meant so very much to me to know that so many are keeping tabs on the "pregnancy ticker" at the bottom of each post.
• Thank you to the stitchers in my local stitching groups who have been so supportive, sending cards and emails to let me know you care.
• Thank you to the folks at work, including my managers, who have been fully behind me. A couple of them took the time to visit today, and it was a welcome diversion. DH and I work at the same company, and he has received many words of encouragement and support. One of his co-workers even purchased dinner (frozen lasagna, salad, and cookies) for us yesterday!
• Thank you to the many nurses, doctors, and support staff (though it's doubtful any of them will ever read this!) who watched me around the clock and continue to monitor our progress.
  
• Most importantly, thank you to my family. DH has been amazing, picking up all the little things I can't do anymore, from grocery shopping, to keeping up with the dog and the household cleanup, to pulling out the Christmas decorations, and a million other little things. Mom, MIL, and my sister have been there during the days to help keep me company (both in the hospital and at home), driving me to appointments, taking the dog out, getting me lunch, and putting up the decorations. Many other family members have taken the time to call, send a note, or visit me in the hospital. Thank you all. It means so much!

It's humbling to have so much to be grateful for.

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Pregnancy ticker: 28 weeks, 5 days.
According to the doctors, I'm still in the "high risk group" due to some of the complications, but the good news is that TK is in the 42nd percentile for weight and still appears to be developing normally.

Celebration Santa

A few weeks ago, I told the story of winning the opportunity basket at the holiday party of my EGA chapter. Shortly thereafter, I felt like getting into the spirit of the holidays by stitching something seasonal, and realized that despite my pile of (close to 40) WIPs, I didn't have a single Christmas/winter project! What's a girl to do?

Yup. I did it. I started something from my basket. Specifically, I started the Celebration Santa by Joan Thomasson. This canvas came with the stitch guide and the threads, so I didn't have to do any prep work. I started the face on December 4th, at the LNS "open stitch". Santa stayed home while I was in the hospital (though I did have a small project there, of course). Since I've been home, I've been celebrating the holidays the only way I can - by working on Santa while watching Christmas movies on TV.

I've long admired Joan's Santa and angel designs. Her stitch selections are wonderful! I've never done one before, though, because I really don't like the way her characters' eyes are depicted. I decided that my Santa needed a bit more personality in his eyes than just the slash of black.

I started by filling the entire face with tent stitch in pink (for the cheeks) and flesh tones (for everything else), stitching right over the black eyes and the eyebrows. I went back with a single ply of floss, and with a sharp needle, satin stitched the eyes with white. A french knot in blue-gray silk made up the irises. The white blended in a bit too much, so I outlined the top of the eyes with a single strand of brown floss. I used the same brown to sketch a nose. Bullion stitches in white floss worked well for eyebrows.

After the face, I moved on to the sleeves, following the suggestions in the stitch guide. I still need to go back and add fold lines, but I really like the richness of the sleeves.

I've since been working on the toys, but those will be featured in tomorrow's post!

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Pregnancy Ticker: 28 weeks, 2 days.
Regarding bedrest: In my case, "bedrest" only means staying off of my feet as much as possible. With medical permission, I am able to shower each morning before heading downstairs, where I occasionally move (slowly) between my stitching nest and the sofa. Fortunately, I don't actually have to prop myself up in bed to stitch!

Happy Dance: Challenge Ornament

Last week, I finally pulled out the instructions for the Challenge Ornament from Gay Ann Rogers.

Step 1: This was a great opportunity to use up some of the threads in my stash. I started with a skein of Watercolours in shades of violet, periwinkle, and olive green, and then pulled other threads to match it. I found some pale gray canvas that worked well with the colors.

I couldn't really figure out how to start with step 2, but knew I wanted to use the variegated Watercolours on the partial scotch stitch in step 3.

After that, it was a little easier to pick colors for the long couched borders for step 2. I used the Watercolours on the outside border, a bright olive green (though it shows up too bright in the picture) Shepherd's Wool for two other borders, and some purples left over from my Mystery in a Corner for the remainder.

The waffle stitch in the center was step 4. I started with silver metallic ribbon, picked up a heavy purple thread from a grab bag purchase, and finished it with some laid Splendor silk in periwinkle. I really like the effect of the multiple colors, and the use of a thicker thread for two rounds gives it a bit of dimension.

Step 5 brought me to some diagonal borders. I continued to use the periwinkle silk, then just a touch more of the brighter green.

For the rest of step 5, I repeated one of the overstitching combinations I used in Mystery in a Corner, with metallic stitches nested inside longer stitches with Impressions. This brought the violet from the inside borders out toward the corners.

I used a bit more of the metallic violet in the smyrna crosses at the center of each side. These anchored the rest of the overstitching on the sides. I added some pale stitches in Impressions from these to just inside the green border, embellishing a bit on Gay Ann's original directions. I finished off steps 6 and 7 with a lightweight olive green thread in a slightly darker tone than used previously.

That finished off the stitching according to the ornament directions, but I thought the corners seemed a bit bare. I added just a bit more overstitching, again with the violet metallic.

Now, the stitching is finished. I'm going to (eventually) finish it into an ornament on point. I think it looks a little more "right" this way.

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On a more personal note: Thank you to all who left such encouraging comments on yesterday's post. All is still well as of today. The pregancy ticker is officially at 28 weeks today (out of a normal term of 40 weeks). We'd like to reach at least 34 weeks to minimize future complications. I'll continue with an update at the end of each blog post. It helps to know so many of you are pulling for me. Thank you.

Housebound, Day 1

Last Saturday, I had started a post about working though the Challenge Ornament from Gay Ann Rogers. All the pictures were uploaded to Blogger before DH and I had to run some errands. I had planned to finish the post Saturday evening.

Little did I know that I was not going to be home Saturday evening, or at all until last night. Due to complications with the pregnancy, I've been in the hospital. Instead of writing my blog post, I spent Saturday night and Sunday being poked and prodded, being reviewed by anesthesiologists in case of an emergency C-section, talking to NICU about the possibility of caring for a baby born 12 weeks early, considering the possibility that I might need to be in the hospital for the next three months, and praying that it was all "just in case" and that the symptoms would clear up enough to let me go home.

Fortunately, the prayers were heard. I'm home, after the majority of my symptoms cleared up by Monday afternoon. I'm on "bedrest with bathroom privileges", but at least I can be home instead of in the hospital. The good news is that I can sit up, so at least I'll be able to stitch so I don't go completely crazy.

Later today or tomorrow, I'll finish that post about the ornament!

Good news & bad news

Yes, I know I didn't post as much as I'd intended in Louisville, and I fully plan to still put posts together about my fabulous 4-day class, some of my stash purchases, and some other odds and ends from seminar. I returned home Saturday night, and it's been a fairly emotional week.

Good news or bad news first?

Let's start with the good news, since it's needlework related. A month ago or so, I wrote about sending two pieces to the ANG National Seminar Exhibit in Indian Wells, California. I found out on Sunday (third-hand) that my Lilacs took First Place (!!!!) in the Independent Project, Professional category. Wow! (As to why I'm considered a professional, it's because at one time I was doing some model stitching for a cross-stitch designer, and ANG considers someone a professional if that person ever earned any money doing any needlework, regardless if the pieces being entered are in the same technique.)

It didn't stop there. Apparently the same person who called the person who called me ALSO called our ANG chapter president. I found out this evening at our chapter meeting that the Lilacs also won the Princess Grace Award! I am in complete shock! According to the ANG website,

"The Princess Grace Award may be given to any entry, in any judged category, that is worked entirely in the tent stitch without embellishments such as beads or other attachments, in order to maintain the purity of the stitching technique. The tent stitch is defined as going over one intersection from lower left to upper right with no back stitches, seed stitches, or outline stitches."

On my entry form, I had indicated that this piece could qualify for the award, but I had absolutely NO expectations of winning it! Holy cow!

(And if anybody can confirm this, PLEASE let me know. I'm in a bit of denial!)

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And the bad news (and a rare non-needlework bit of info): Also on Sunday, DH and I turned our male greyhound, Tucker, over to another home. After many, many incidents that indicated Tucker just couldn't continue to stay in a crate when we were at work (the latest happened last week when I was at seminar), we finally had to admit that we couldn't help him live a happy, healthy life.

In the crate, he would tear up any blankets (until we finally purchased a very expensive, guaranteed-not-to-tear dog bed), gnaw on the bars of the crate (breaking several welds and wearing down his teeth), and generally be VERY unhappy for the time we were at work. We just don't have a place to put him where he could be safe out of the crate either, because he has a tendency to eat things that could hurt him, too.

Last Thursday evening, when others were enjoying the auction at seminar, I was on the phone to the leader of our greyhound rescue group explaining all of this, and bawling non-stop.

Tucker had been a part of our lives for over five years, but he has been moved to a new home where the people are home more and have a safe, non-crated area for him (and their other greyhounds) to stay when they aren't home. I'm sure he's pretty bewildered right now, and I tear up a bit each day with missing him, but I know it's for the best. I want to call each day asking how he's doing, but I'm trying to wait until the weekend.

Our other greyhound, Sophie, who was always a bit (ok, a lot) intimidated by him, on the other hand, thinks this is great! She has blossomed in the past few days, and we've learned that perhaps this change is the best for both of them.

The few pictures here are of Tucker on Sunday morning. I'll miss you, Tucker Magoo. :-(

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We now return this blog to its regularly-scheduled (ok, maybe not quite regularly-scheduled) needlework content.

Winds & Wurth

Thursday evening, I finished the dress in Winds of Color. If you'll recall, I didn't like the transition to the really light pink in the bodice of the dress. I thought that the fourth section from the top was too light. I raided my stash, and found I had another skein of this color that was a few shades brighter than the one in the kit. (For the record: yes, this was DMC. There can be differences between dyelots.) I also found a "better" (for my purposes) skein of the color for the top-most section in my stash, too.

After I fixed the dress, I started the lady's hair. I had my doubts at first about the colors: a bright blue and two shades of mauve. After I started, though, it made sense. The blue is around the edges and in a few places in the middle, showing where the dark sky is showing through the less dense areas. The lightest mauve is used for highlights, and everything else is the darker mauve, which actually turns out looking like a brown with violet-red undertones.

The hair is all stitched in french knots. As I've said before, I like french knots. Unfortunately, I've discovered that stitching mass quantities of french knots triggers my early-stage carpal tunnel syndrome because of the twisting motion used in making the knots. It took a while for it to flare up at first, so I was able to get quite a bit done. After about an hour of stitching yesterday, I started to get the familiar tingling in the thumb, forefinger, and ring finger of my right hand. Being right-handed, loss of feeling in these fingers means I can't continue to hold the needle. This is not very conducive to stitching progress! I had to start alternating between this project and another: one length of thread (sometimes less) on the hair, one or two lengths on the second project. The picture shows where I left things yesterday.

I can hear some of you asking: what was the "other" project? After running some errands, DH and I came home to a perfectly-timed package tucked inside the garage: the latest in the Dodecagon Series by Jim Wurth! Old Country is a combination of orange, red, purple, and dark green. Orange is not one of my favorite colors, but with this combination, it looks great! I was able to stitch quite a bit on this last night. The center area stitched up very quickly! The picture definitely does not do this piece justice. There are lots of metallics, and the sparkle doesn't show up in the picture!

Jewel tones and a visiting teacher

Somehow this week, I let three days go by without a single stitch. I can't tell you the last time that happened!

Tuesday evening, I went to the movies with my mom and sister (Miss Pettigrew Lives For a Day - a really fun movie!).

Wednesday evening was tied up with a very long hair appointment. I brought a book instead of worrying about any chemicals around my stitching.

Thursday was LNS night, but several of us had just received the instructions for the first part of Gay Ann Rogers' new Mystery in a Corner and we spent most of the evening picking out colors. Every person picked something different. It will be a lot of fun to see how they turn out. I tried to go with colors that were a bit outside my usual comfort range. Check out my jewel tones! They're based on the skeins of Plum Watercolours.

Winds of Color won't progress much over the next few days, either - for a VERY good reason. Marion Scoular is in town! Our EGA chapter is hosting her for a two-day class in long and short shading this Saturday and Sunday, then she'll go to Corning (about two hours away) for another two-day class in blackwork on Monday and Tuesday. I'll be taking both classes, driving down to Corning on Monday morning, staying there overnight, and heading home Tuesday evening. I'll try to post each evening to share the progress made that day.

This evening, five of us went to dinner with Marion. She is a wonderfully friendly and charming person, and I'm really looking forward to the next four days of classes.

Happy Blogoversary & Happy St. Patrick's Day!

It's a double celebration here on Just String today.

Of course, it's St. Patrick's Day! I'm only Irish by marriage, but everyone's Irish today, right?

It also happens to be my blogoversary! I have no recollection why I might have chosen St. Patty's day to start my blog. I don't think it was a conscious decision. It just happened! If you missed it, you can check out my very first post here.

It's been a fun year, and when I look back, I realize I accomplished quite a lot of stitching. I also managed 178 posts over the course of the year, and "met" several friends. Thank you all for visiting! Your comments always make my day!

To celebrate, here's a slideshow of all the pieces I've finished over the past year. I really think sharing my progress on this blog helps me focus on actually completing things. When I think about the challenges I've set for myself, I consider them more seriously because I've shared them. Any of you could call me out if I just blow them off! :-) Thank you!!

My apologies for not posting any freebies as I usually do for holidays. I'll try to remember on the 16th next year!

A Very Merry Christmas to You!

Merry Christmas, everyone! I hope Santa has been good to you!

I have stitched several Christmas pieces over the years, but it seems that for the most part, they either haven't been framed or have been given away. The only one I have framed in my home is the canvaswork nativity seen here. This is Once In Royal David's City by Carole Lake. I took it as an online class, but Carole has now released it for a wider audience: the instructions were in the most recent issue of Needlepoint Now.

May you all have a happy, healthy, and blessed Christmas!