It’s been very slow stitching week at my house… very, very slow! One would think that a basic shape like the double doors of the spring “house” would be one of the easiest bits of the entire project.
Ha… it might be if the stitcher could count correctly! (and gentle readers… that is a big IF!)
Somehow…I am off a half a thread on the right side of the door… which carried on to the next row in… for a few “rounds.” I did not notice this until I came back to cross the “x”
This bothered me for about an hour as I set the stitching down to contemplate my inability to count over two-threads! I crossed a few “x’s” and then sat the stitching back down. When I returned the next day I could not easily discern that half the “x” was just a thread off… so I tucked into “done is better than perfect” and stitched on.
I also might have imagined Vivi holding this piece… as she gallops away on her horse. Yeah… no one will ever notice! I stitch on!
Vera is always sharing such fun photos of the doe with her two fawns in her yard. Vera is wise to carry her phone with her … as you have read above… I am not so wise. Last Thursday morning… in the torrential downpour… I took Frankie out against his wishes (he does not mind the rain, but a torrential downpour… not so much.) We surprised a fawn who was hiding in the shrubs. No, I did not have my camera… but the poor thing tried to move away through the thicket of bushes so we exited the back yard to wait out the rain so Frankie could conclude his “business.” Later that morning… again without my camera… we “surprised” the doe as she came to collect her fawn. I am not sure who was more surprised… her or Frankie! Ha! The fawn was still covered with spots and quite adorable!
Perhaps I need to get myself some pjs with pockets so I have my phone with me!
Happy Tuesday everyone! (Also… for all the Word Peep’s… next Monday, August 25th is our update day!)
First, I would like to thank you all for your good wishes with my procedures yesterday. I am so fortunate to have such a fantastic gastroenterologist, Dr. Cho. She is incredibly amazing and I appreciate her so much. I don’t have any news to share, but she took two biopsies – one from my throat and one from my stomach – I don’t know when she will have results and I am not thinking about them… mostly. My throat is a bit tender post-procedure, but I am hopeful that today will be better.
I did manage to find bits of time last week to work on Heidi’s cross stitch… the top “half” is finished and I have begun on the door! I am surprising myself with how much I am enjoying this stitching! I really like that little half-round window… I love a house with a half-round window! I am really eager to see this hanging in Heidi’s kitchen… it is a fantastic motivator! I did no stitching over the weekend but I hope to do some stitching later this afternoon… this morning, the laundry basket overfloweth! Ha!
I have no backyard visitors to share, but instead I thought I’d share my recent good things that are happening with my indoor plants! First up, the African Violet that I got pre-pandemic from Trader Joe’s had been looking mighty sad and woeful… lots of yellow, dying leaves and so I did some research and discovered that it was likely “pot-bound” so I made a trek out to find a new pot for it and some African Violet potting soil. I transplanted it a couple of weeks ago and at first I was so worried it was just not going to make it but then last week it turned a huge corner… the new pot is working and it is blooming off the charts right now! The leaves are greening up and I think it is going to make it! This summer has also been very good for my “baby” Christmas Cactus as well… it has been growing by leaps and bounds! And during the pandemic Steve bought two snake plants from some online thing he found. Neither one has been particularly impressive… and the larger of the two died. I salvaged one “tongue” and it has been in water on my kitchen windowsill for a long time… and I mean months and months with no rooting, no nothing… until earlier this summer. Roots appeared and then a couple of tiny new plants! I transplanted it last week and it seems happy in its new pot! Not to be outdone… the smaller of the two plants also sent up new shoots recently! My interior garden green thumb seems to have found some new mojo! I am trying to contain my enthusiasm and not buy a bunch more indoor plants… but it is an effort!
A very happy African Violet!
The littlest Christmas Cactus is not so little anymore!
I am joining Vera’s Tiny Needle Tuesday’s because… I did a thing. Yes, I bought a set of not one, but FOUR cross stitch kits… and you might be wondering why… Well, my daughter, Heidi, has the perfect spot in her kitchen for them and has been talking about what “might” fit there…so how could I resist?
I started with “Spring” because when I looked at the four different seasons… It seemed the “easiest” to me. Ha! Perhaps I should have started with Winter to entirely take my mind off the hellish temperatures we are experiencing this week!
I have learned that I cannot count and I have unstitched almost as much as I have stitched! How I thought this would be “easy” is almost comical… I am stitching with two threads over two threads.
Because, Vera always shares a bit of what is going on in her backyard… I will too. Recently, we have had a rather “rotund” visitor… a very chubby groundhog has been coming late in the day as the sun is setting to get some water. He is hilarious… he gets a good drink of water and then has a bit of a munch of the amazing “clover” patch that is my backyard! I have tried to snap a photo of him, but his hearing is keen… he hears the door open and he is gone! For something so chubby… he sure is fast!
And there you have my Tiny Needle update… I am hoping that by next week I have the windows finished! Ha!
I had an entirely different post planned for today and then I woke up thinking about Mary Oliver’s poem, The Summer Day. I am not sure why I thought of this poem today… perhaps because we have been having a stretch of summer-like days, or perhaps because it is a long weekend and the “unofficial start of summer”… anyways I was thinking about “what else should I have done” and suddenly a summer bucket list was born!
Getting lost is not a waste of time. — Unknown
That little quote is most certainly true! Not wasting time this summer also seems importune… because how many summers might I have left? 10? 15? 20? More? However many, I can tell you it is not enough… so I am setting some intentions… ones I hope I can get lost in… and waste no time!
Be a tourist in my town… at least once!
Opt for more porch time!!
Make some summer play lists… I am thinking a motivating weeding play list will do wonders! And a new Summery Happy Hour play list will be so fun!
Learn something new… and then learn something else new!
Reread some favorite books… I am thinking A Gentleman in Moscow, 4321, and Charlotte’s Web!
Make ice cream!
Make s’mores!
Revisit Meadowcroft Rock Shelter and Ohiopyle
Try a few new restaurants!
Schedule a few “technology break” days!
I am kind of excited about this list… it feels both manageable and challenging! I will check back in on this list Labor Day weekend to see how I did!
Have a great weekend everyone! See you all back here on Tuesday with my May word update!
I had the unbelievable fortune to take not one, but two of the online class offerings from MDSW last week.
My first class, Twist with Maggie Casey, was mind-blowing. For a long time… too long…I have spun the same default yarn. Now, that is not necessarily a bad thing if you always make the same thing… but if you want to make different things, you need to make different yarn.
BFL, Shetland, and Merino
Enter Maggie Casey! I spent 3 hours with her helping me see twist in an entirely different way… and as a result twist and tension have become my new jam! The fibers she sent for her class were just incredible, as you can see!
I loved that she started at our “default” yarn and had us make tiny adjustments from that point. It was dramatic to feel the difference and to see the difference on the bobbin!
And if all that wasn’t enough, I then spent two hours with Judith MacKenzie learning about Columbia Sheep and especially their amazing fleece! I learned about processing wool… washing, carding, flicking, and how amazing fiber makes processing so much easier! (and better quality fiber means better spinning!) Judith sent a gorgeous box of fiber… some washed locks to flick, a batt that I made rolags from, and even some unwashed locks to wash myself! (Have Dawn Dishsoap, will wash fiber! Purists out there…if Dame Judith says Dawn works and I believe her!) This fiber washes up completely white… bright white! And I learned why Columbia wool likes to be dyed! Columbia wool has “dye sites” which is how the fiber draws in dye from the tip and the color is pulled down the fiber in a corkscrew fashion on each strand of fiber (I Googled this to learn more, but I found nothing. However, if Dame Judith says it, I absolutely believe it!) It was also fun to see a familiar face in the virtual class!
On a side note… Columbia Fleece are enormous! If you’d be interested in splitting a fleece with me, let me know!
Columbia in all forms!
Unwashed locks on the far right…it gets so clean!
Flicked locks… puffs of white that begs to be spun!
These rolags… long draw heaven right there!
I did a bunch of sampling this week and I was inspired to move beyond sampling and use my newly learned techniques to spin up the Chickadee fiber from FiberNymph Dye Works and I am blown away! I have a full bobbin and still have fiber to spin! Three ply sock yarn that is actually sock yarn weight has been achieved! I am so excited and hope to finish the bit of fiber I have to go today and ply next week.
This mixed BFL is going to be gorgeous yarn!
I got the second Backyard Birds shipment this week and the Polwarth/Silk fiber is gorgeous! The Colorway…Blue Jay and I am thinking shawlette currently because I don’t know that I could get a shawls worth of yarn spun, but who knows!
I love the hint of blue in the complimentary color fiber!
And that is all I have for this week! Have a great Mother’s Day weekend and I will see you all back here on Monday!
