A Little Yarn On The Side

I love all the suggestions of embroidered shapes on the table runner instead of buttons--I think that will work much better.  I've been working on the reverse side, which I had originally planned to appliqué as well, but I started messing around with stitch options, found one I liked, then found a second one I liked, and I think they make a nice contrast to each other.   I think Theo likes it as well... It's interesting to stick only with primary colors as I've never really done it, but it definitely feels very cheerful and vibrant.  Now to pry the cat off of it and get it sewn together!

So, guess who I got an email from this week?  The new Husqvarna dealer (Twin Falls Sewing Center in case anyone needs a great dealer).  They were just checking to make sure everything was working as it should. Okay--I think I have just the slightest  case of hero-worship now...

I thought it only appropriate to start Craft Weekend with some embroidery and I think Theo is thrilled. I can't blame him--I'm pretty thrilled to have Jeeves working again, but so far, laying on kitchen towels doesn't have the same effect on me.  Maybe I'm doing it wrong. Next up, I started working on a table runner for my friends for whom I recently made the primary color placemats.  I haven't done much with applique, but I like how it looks with the decorative stitching instead of satin stitching around the edges.  Now I'm stuck, though.  I can't decide if I should add buttons or just leave it with the main shapes.  I'm going to make this reversible, so adding buttons to one side might not be a great idea for the opposite side, but I don't know how flat it really needs to be.  So, what do we think--buttons or no?

Whoo hoo!  After a marathon canning day on Thursday, I did absolutely nothing yesterday except craft.  Okay, and a little laundry.  I decided I needed a quick project after all the non-crafting activity of the last 2 weeks, so I dug some of the novelty yarn out of my stashdash basket and: we have a "feather" boa for the costume basket!  I am a big fan of costumes and Halloween and murder mystery costume parties, so new costume ideas are always welcome.  Now I just need the dress to go with the boa or the courage to wear a boa in public.  I also finished yet another scarf: which doesn't look like much right now because it hasn't been blocked and this one will need some SEVERE blocking to look good, but I think it will be nice. That's 4 projects finished from the "dead heat" basket, and I still have the whole weekend before me........ 

Elann.com has new sock yarn.  In case you haven't noticed my mentioning them over and over and over, I am a bit of an Elann groupie.  I've never bought a yarn from them I didn't like, and that says a lot as it's online and I have had troubles with Knitpicks with hating a few of their yarns and colors always being WAY off from their website pictures.  But Elann?  Never.  It doesn't help my case that they are such wonderful folks that when I discovered on lace skien had multiple breaks over a year after I bought it, they gave me credit for it.  They didn't have to--I knew the rules, and it was such an unusual occurrence for them that I sent it back so they could maybe find the problem in their supply chain.  Customer service above and beyond expectations ALWAYS makes me a loyal customer, so I'm even more susceptible to them.  So when I saw that they brought back the Sock It To Me sock yarn, I was almost lost.  I teetered.  I pl...

So after being gone for 4 days, the garden is.....well, let's be nice and say "ready for some attention" ("stupid mangy pain-in-the-arse monstrosity" was my first choice) Sigh....what I would really like to do this week is to lock myself in the sewing room and craft my little heart out now that Jeeves finally works.  What I am going to do is to garden/can like a maniac today and tomorrow, then maybe I can take Friday and Saturday as a crafting mini-vacation.  For the first time since I don't know when, we do not have anyone coming over for any reason all weekend.  Not to be anti-social, but WHOO HOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Traveling with two men, there's no way we were going to be browsing knitting or sewing stores, but our weekend did turn into quite a "tour of historic crafting." First, while on the Pendleton Underground Tour (highly recommended--I'll be adding more info to my main blog), we saw this: It's a trade blanket made by the Pendleton Wool Mill.  Those black stripes are how many pelts it represents--this one being 4 pelts.  Wool as a form of currency!!!!  It turns out I don't have a stash after all--I have a nest egg .  This may have been my favorite part of the entire weekend! If you have any interest at all in historic clothing (though not going back beyond mid-1800s--this is the Oregon Territory of the Old West after all), do yourself a favor and visit the Union County Museum .  It's got a very lousy website, unfortunately, and it's only open from Mother's Day to mid-October, but we spent two hours there and could have easily stayed longer.  They ...