A start or a finish?

Last time we spoke (wrote/read) I mentioned a possible new BAP, remember? Or were you all so eager to skip right to the comment section in an attempt to score goodies (for which there is still time, mind you) that you didn't get to read about that?

You all know I love words, right? And I love to stitch alphabets. And single letters. And words and even phrases, sentences, lists of names, quotations, sayings, book titles, fairy tales, poems, exclamations or expletives - well, not those, particularly, but you get the idea. I love letters. In every way, shape and form. So I thought: wouldn't it be nice to hammer a couple of nails in the wall (say, six) stitch a complete set of at least 26 letters a couple of letters, leave them in their petite wooden hoops and hang them up so as to form a word. That way, I can have a little word fest every day. My wall can become a Word of the Day Wall. That is, if I get to stitch the entire alphabet, or at least a good portion of it.

Now, I know myself. You know me. BAPs usually end up in the UFO pile never to be dug up again (remember the Prairie Schooler Christmas BAP? I rest my case). So I thought I'd start small, with a five letter word that makes sense every single day of the year, and then build around that, if I feel so inclined. You will be very pleased to know, I think, that I have finished that five letter word and here it is:

Isn't it awfully fabulous??? Aren't I clever? I could even mix up the letters and spell lepel (Dutch for spoon), or even plee (Dutch slang for toilet). And the best part is: I only have to stitch an N and a T to be able to spell lente, which is Dutch for spring. I could stitch my blog name and take a picture and make my own header! I would only have to stitch 10 more letters!! The possibilities are endless!!! [insert maniacal laughter here] [and possibly that song... oh, how does it go... They're coming to take me away, haha][heehee] [haha]

The letters I used so far all come from the book Lettres et Abecediaires au point de croix (excuse the absence of accents) and I'm using scraps of fabric and a mishmash of threads for stitching. One letter takes about an hour or even less and gratification is just about instantaneous. The slight problem is that I have only one tiny wooden hoop and I need a couple more :o)

In case you're thinking, 'That Annemarie is brilliance personified': don't. You know me (we'd already established that), I told you I have not one original thought in my head, and this, alas, isn't one of them either. A couple of years ago I found a blogging lady at Chez Sucre Chez who did exactly this: stitching letters and selling them, too. It played around in my head for ages, wanting to copy her ideas SO badly and last week, when I found that blog again, I just went for it. Even though this lady sells her stitched letters on Etsy and doing a very good job of it, too (how clever is SHE?), apparently she doesn't mind if other people steal her ideas, so that's what I'm doing. With great vigour.

It's deadline week this week, so I'll be working my sizeable arse off for a couple of days. But methinks there's always time for a letter or two!

Yours wordily,
Annemarie.

Blogladi Bloglada

What is it? Is it Blogiversary, Blogaversary, or even, heaven forbid, Blogoversary? Well, whatever it is, however you spell it, today is it. A hundred posts, my dears. Not only a hundred posts, but 5 years of blogging. A hundred posts in five years, I hear you say. Is that really something you should celebrate? Shouldn't that be kept very very quiet? But no. As some of you may know, in another life, I had another blog, which I started five years ago to this month. During those five years a lot has happened and you were always there to cheer me on, comfort me in times of woe and -very kindly- laugh at my wacky wanderings.

Now that I've started this post, I really don't know what to say. How can I say the things I want to say to you without getting all teary-eyed and sentimental? Your presence means more to me than I ever thought possible when I got this crazy idea of writing regular reports about my stitching. I've had comments that made me laugh (or LOL or even ROFLMAO, if you like), comments that made me cry, comments that made me all squishy inside, comments that made me think and comments that inspired me. And what a joy that all of you, the commentators, have blogs yourselves to make me laugh or cry, make me go squishy inside, make me think and inspire me. You're all dears and I love you. Thank you for visiting me and making my life even more special.

A blogi/a/oversary wouldn't be complete without a giveaway, now would it? The prizes are as yet unwrought, but that's because I want to know who the winners are before I start anything. You know, to avoid disappointment on the receiver's part. I wouldn't want to send warm woolly winter socks to someone living in deepest, darkest Africa. Or a primitive stitchy thing riddled with spelling mistakes to someone who gets eczema on their eyeballs when they spot such errors (I'm not naming names. Besides, I'm one of them). Anyway, if you leave a comment on this post, congratulating me on my awesome achievement (ahem), you have a chance to win something handmade by moi and because this is a special occasion, there will not be one, or even two, but three winners. I will draw the names on March 1st.
Now for the slightly nasty bit: if you don't react to your win within five days if you are one of the lucky ones, I will draw another name. I'm too busy stitching to chase after you :o)
Celebrations aside, I've been working on a new potential BAP. It could also turn out to be a really small, quick stitch. But my desire is to make it a BAP. Intrigued? Well, you'll just have to wait until next time!

Yours celebratorily,
Annemarie.

What, another one?

Hello hineybuns... hineybuns? I meant to write hOneybuns, obviously. Anyway, hello all. I have a finish to share. Didn't expect that to happen so soon, did you? No, I didn't either, but here it is anyway, a sweet sampler for a sweet little girl:

Bienvenue! by Anne Sohier-Fournel, taken from the book Mots doux au point de croix.

The alphabet I used is from another French designer Fees et Brins de Malice, from a birth sampler called C'est un garcon! Actually, this is the third alphabet I tried, because the first two just didn'twork. In the end, I think it might be the white thread that makes the letters look a little... blegh, but there you go. I couldn't very well use blue letters, could I. Or could I...? Nope, no more changes, this is it. I hope the critter and her parents will like it.

Today is the last day of carnaval, which probably means nothing to you, and less than nothing to me - seeing as I'm not originally from these parts and these parts is mostly where Carnaval is originally celebrated. Now, Pelle, on the other hand, is really getting used to life in the province of Brabant. Not only is he developing a certain accent (soft Gs and hard, French-y Rs, rather than the hard Gs and soft, American-y Rs that he's used to hearing at home), he's also developed an uncanny desire to hear Carnaval music and to dress up as a tiger. Behold my Tiger Man:

His Royal Cuteness, Prins Pelle d'n Irste. Anyway, isn't it marvellous that he is speaking well enough to actually have an accent? When did that happen?

This here post is my 99th, by the way, so prepare to party when next you visit!

Sdotty greetigs frob sdowy Hollad

I know, I know, the snow here can never be as bad as it is in the States right now, but still. I’m impressed. This morning, after I had dropped Pelle off, I sailed right into a tree. Not much damage, but it caused a bit of heart fluttering anyway.
With the cold comes… a cold. Harmien apparently saw this coming before I did, because she sent me this adorable snotrag holder, which I received yesterday:

Isn’t it the sweetest? And the NEATEST! She really knows how to steer that sewing machine of hers :o)

I’ve been complaining about the meager effects Pelle’s tonsillectomy seems to have had (he had a dreadful cold earlier this week), but I take it all back. You see, this is the first time in five years that I’m ill and that Pelle isn’t. So I’m looking forward to a very quiet and peaceful, albeit snotty and headachy day under the blankets (electric and otherwise), but not before I show you a little something I’ve been working on, off and on, for the last couple of weeks (remember I'm the world's slowest stitcher):

It’s a sweet little sampler for my niece. Hopefully it will be finished by Monday.

Thank you all for your wise words regarding the eyelet stitches. I think I will take Karen’s advice and make a little doodle cloth, to try out the different ways to go about this eyelet-making business. Haven’t had time yet, but I’m sure you will see the results here sooner or later (probably later. You know me).

Off to bed!

Yours snotfully,
Annemarie.

Fair Find Mind

With the finishing of the Baktus came the abrupt end of my knitting fad. Well, I’m still working on the Bakti in Progress (great projects for car/bed/waiting rooms and for “God, I want to stitch, but I’m too tired to keep my eyes open so maybe I’ll just knit” moments), but the stitcher in me was demanding a fix.

And so I finally started Susan Dunn, from The Scarlet Letter.

This is what I did so far:

Not much to look at yet. It’s not a huge sampler (according to my calculations (which are not always to be trusted) it’s 268 x 174 stitches) (hmm. Actually, that is quite huge), but there’s quite a lot of work involved anyway. In this little piece that I’ve stitched there’s satin stitches, eyelet stitches and quite a bit of over-one stitching, which, on 36 count linen, is not fun. At all. Maybe I should’ve checked the chart before I bought the fabric for it. That’ll teach me…
I have a question, and I would really like to know your opinion. If you would be so kind as to take a good look at the picture here?

You see the red eyelet stitches? I don’t like them. There’s so much skin showing, if you see what I mean. In order to create the eyelets, you need to pull your thread quite tightly. It makes a pretty hole, but when a hole is the best part of your stitching, then perhaps there’s something wrong with the stitch. What do you think? Should I continue thusly, or should I use another method? Maybe use three strands instead of two? Do 16 stitches, instead of eight, to create the eyelet? Leave them as they are because, like it or not, this is what eyelet stitches are supposed to look like? Needleworkers of the world, help me please!

Yours ponderingly,
Annemarie.

Hol(e)y Baktus!

Remember a couple of weeks ago? When I thought, like George Michael, that I was never going to dance again? To happy dance, that is, because of my inability to knit a super simple scarf? Well, I was wrong, because it is with great joy and an insane sense of pride that I present to you my first Baktus:

I wanted to show you what you can do with this scarf: you can give it to your son (which I did), you can roll it up in a croissant-shape (which I did also) and you can wear it yourself. I happen to think there is something infinitely pathetic about taking pictures of yourself whilst attempting to show handmade stuff to its best advantage, so I pretended I was actually taking a close-up picture of Pipien, to give you an opportunity to admire not only the scarf, but also her amazing moustache. And to distract myself from the fact that I was, of course, simply taking a picture of myself whilst attempting to show handmade stuff to its best advantage.
The holes along the sides of the scarf weren’t really meant to be there, I believe, but I think they look rather nice and I’m going to do the same thing with my next couple of Bakti. I have two of the buggers in progress:

Not sure if the purple sock yarn (a delicious wool/bamboo mixture) in the second picture is actually suitable to be crafted into a scarf of any kind, but I will just have to make it work, because while a Baktus is obviously do-able, knitting socks is still better left to people who can count to ten without getting confused. (Note the self-made centre pull ball of yarn in the first pic. That nearly cost me my left thumb, but boy, am I busy learning new things!)

It’s high time I got back to stitching, though, because I’m doing an exchange with Melissa and the mailing date we agreed on is February 28th. Also, I promised myself I could start this whopper of a BAP in the new year:

It's all kitted up and since it’s already February I really don’t know what is keeping me from picking up needle and thread… Oh, hang on, I DO know!

Yours Baktus-infectedly,
Annemarie.

Nothing to declare

Like the great Oscar Wilde, I have nothing to declare today but my genius, but I thought I’d pop round anyway. You know, to give a sign that I’m still here. Sort of. You won’t find me in the stitchy corner of Blogland, though, because the knitting bug has bitten me in the behind. Since this is a stitchy blog I won’t bore you with too many details about the several scarves, neck warmers, blankets and throws that have now joined the many cross stitch samplers in my WIP drawers, except to say that I have found my knitting rhythm. My old internet friend (old because we’ve known each other for a long time, not because she is old in person) Maria S. suggested I listen to march music if I was trying to find a rhythm, but I found that listening to the opening tune of the Teletubbies (not out of my own free will, I'm sure you will understand) works very well, too. But do you know which song really got my knitting rythm going? You will never guess. It came as quite a surprise to me, too and I’m not completely sure it was intended to serve as background music for knitting ladies, but there you go… Raspberry Beret by his Royal Purpleness, Prince. Who knew? Not him, surely.

Speaking of Teletubbies, Pelle is doing very, very, very, very well after his tonsilotomy*. In fact, they told me beforehand that the surgery would cause him to not talk so much and I was really looking forward to the sound of quiet coming from my very talkative son, but he opened his mouth as soon as he opened his eyes, and he hasn’t shut up since. He’s such a sweetie. Look at him offering a helping hand :o)

Aaaaand, speaking of sweeties, here is the long-awaited picture of my niece Eline. Included is a picture of her father, my brother, who clearly felt left out, what with all the attention going to his girlfriend and his daughter. His solution? He fell and broke his hand while trying to catch a train. Sigh. Men…

Yours *)jokingly,
Annemarie.