Getting ready for Fall

Still stitching! Amazing, but true. Behold:

This is Blackbird Design’s delightful Summer Basket, one of my many (many) WIPs. Last year I finished Rites of Spring, and every time I see it (which is several times a day), it fills me with absolute joy, and I think Summer Basket will have the same effect on me, so it needs to be finished some time soon. Also because we in The Netherlands are enjoying (?) the hottest Spring in the history of ever. In fact, we’ve skipped Spring altogether and plunged straight into the hottest depths of Summer. Which is why it seems only fair to me that we, in turn, skip Summer and get ready for a very early Fall. Fall in July. That sounds like heaven to me. And what does one need when the weather gets cooler? You’re absolutely right: one needs blankets, and lots of them.

I know you’re probably sick and tired of my crafty excusions, but I’ve been crocheting up a storm, making cat blankets. And they’re too, too cute, gorgeous, lovely, snuggly, warm, cozy, easy and quick to do. Most of you have pets, right? Tell me, wouldn’t these make perfect blankies for all of your furry creatures? Blankets for Quill and her colleagues, for Master Stewey, Miss Maddy, Thomas and Maisie, for Dagi, for Mia, for Elvis perhaps, for Barbara’s chickes and all her other critters? Ladies, try it. You won’t regret it, and your beasties will be eternally grateful.

Another reason for my cats to be thankful (I think) is the fact that they now have a little safe place in our garden to enjoy life outside our sweltering home.

The possibilities with this thing are pretty much endless, as you see. Now I don’t have to lock Pelle in the crawl space anymore: he can just sit out there with the kitties!

Life in the woods has been... ahem... trying, to say the least. Pelle was home with pneumonia for a total of four weeks (the crawl space is rather draughty, I must admit). He’s over the worst, but not back to his old self. Still, I sent him to school today because Mama needs to work. Hard. Because Mama managed to delete her entire translation from her computer due to sleep deprivation and she has to start all over again. Which means that Mama now needs to finish two translations in five weeks. Five weeks to translate about 500 pages. That’s 100 pages per week... Hey, that’s not so bad. I can do that!

If only I didn’t have to get ready for Fall and crochet all these blankets.

Yours cheerfully,
Annemarie

Toldja!

Remember I felt something crawling up my body? It was the stitching bug!!! I'm sure some of you will be vastly happy to see some stitching coming from me - especially you, Kathy, who seems to think that all her stitching friends have been abducted by aliens, only to be replaced by lookalikes who pretend to be stitchers, but are in actual fact knitters and hookers crocheters. Not so, dear lady. Not me. I'm a stitcher and proud of it! The sampler shown above is this one (you've seen it before, but just as a reminder):

The Scarlet Letter chart comes with two possible texts to go on the sampler. One is the original 'This little piece my friends may have/When I am dead and in my grave/When greedy worms shall feed on me/My name hereunder you may see' that Mary Hart used in her sampler. An alternative for the 'more squeamish' among us stitchers is also provided: 'I'll keep thee safe from cat and cur/No manner o' harm shall come to thee/Yea, I will be thy succourer/My bosom shall thy cabin be'. Two things about these texts: first, I am not squeamish. In fact, I love to stitch me a good graveyard and images of woe and misery, but to stitch a lovely, pink and cuddly cat and then to add a text that speaks of death and worms does not make a whole lot of sense to me. So, the original went out the window. The alternative provided is a poem by John Bunyan, but let's face it, it's not exactly a kind bit about a cat either, is it? Correct me if I'm wrong, but the narrator portrays cats (and curs) as dangerous beasts that need to be kept at bay. Not a good alternative, in my humble opinion. So I went and looked for something else and found this: 'Cats are a mysterious kind of folk. There is more passing in their minds than we are aware of'. Sir Walter Scott.

And just to show you that Sir Walter got it right, here's some photographic proof

Enjoy your weekend!

Yours... Well. Just yours,

Annemarie.

I'm Your Witch Hooker

Don't bother googling my blog title. The results are surprisingly disappointing. Before you click the 'un-follow this blog' button, have a look at the following picture before you jump to any conclusions. This is what makes me a witchy hooker: You see, I've been dipping my toe in witchy waters for a good while now, and I find them remarkably soothing and cleansing. Balmy. Invigorating. Witchcraft is what I've been studying these last couple of months and witchcraft is what's keeping me away from blogging and blog reading. As you all know, I've experimented with dyeing my own fabric using herbs and spices, and slowly but surely I've expanded my witchy ways to other areas (most of which I won't bother you with). So here you see the ingredients for some lovely tea (great for colds and coughs. And boy, did that come in handy in this household!); a tincture of common chickweed for sensitive skin, to put in the bath water, and a balm to put on sunburnt or itchy skin, containing common chickweed, nettle and lavender. Looks rather impressive, doesn't it?

Anyway, enough of the witchy stuff. I hope I haven't scared anyone away. Really, it's not my intention to dwell on this on my blog, but since many people share at least a tiny bit of their religious views on their blogs, I thought I'd share my way of life with you all, just this once.

And now for the part you've all been waiting for: the hooker side of me. I needed something simple to do, after my stitching mojo fled the scene and my knitting mojo received a severe blow after a nasty encounter with a fair isle sock. And what is simpler than hooking? Nothing, honeybuns. Absolutely nothing. Well, breathing. Possibly. Except when you have the 'flu, because breathing isn't all that easy when you have the 'flu.

Whey-hey, look at this!!! Sixty-four squares done, and the end is not in sight yet! And a new start:

I had a sudden urge for sweet spring-like pastel colours. It looks like a delicious ice cream cone, doesn't it? Well, I think so anyway... But what about my orts jar? Because that is why you're all here, isn't it? My TuSal update! Right? Right. Honestly, I don't know where these orts came from, because I can't remember having done any stitching at all. Maybe Pelle...? If I fill the orts jar with hooky orts, though, my TuSal update is the most impressive one to date! As well as the most colourful and fulfilling one :o)

I do believe I feel a tiny little stitching bug crawling up my body. Now if only it could settle in my heart or my brain (or whichever body part your stitching mojo starts), we may see some stitching in the near future.

There is a Dutch saying. 'To be long of fabric', and it means 'long-winded'. I think it applies to this blog post. My apologies, dear readers, but that's what you get when you only update your blog once a month. Sigh... must do something about that...
Yours witchily,
Annemarie.