Of snakes and specs and birds and ladies

Hurray, hurray, it's SAL update day and these days are even more fun when I actually have something to show you on the SAL front. Which, as you know, is not that often :o)

This week's progress on Noah:

Not only is the dreaded coat about 150 stitches closer to completion (which you couldn't tell from the picture because the coat is huuuuuuuuge and 150 stitches don't make an awful lot of difference), but the cat underneath Noah's feet now has whiskers and an eye and is accompanied by a snake. A spectacled snake, in case you were wondering what those brown lines on its face were supposed to be. You see, if I ever get the stocking finished it will be Pelle's and he is very much involved in the stitching process. He keeps track of every little stitch I add and he even urges me to 'borduren maken' ('make embroidering') when I am otherwise engaged. When I asked him if he wanted the snake to wear glasses he looked at me with one eyebrow raised, as if to say 'Well duh. How else is he supposed to read?' (in Dutch, a cobra is called a spectacled snake, a 'brilslang'.) So there you go. A snake wearing spectacles, as per Pelle's request.

And Summer Basket, for the Thursday SAL I'm doing with Cristina, Giovanna and Nadia:

I can't tell you how much I'm enjoying this one. The colours are so sweet. My one complaint is that GAST Clover, which I'm using for the flowers and some of the letters, looks so much like the fabric colour that some parts nearly fade into nothingness once stitched. But not enough to make me frog all of that pink and look for something a bit darker. Barbara confessed she didn't like this design and she said she was more of a Barb Adams stitcher than an Alma Allen stitcher (A.A. being the designer of this particular piece). I have two things to say about this. Firstly: don't you get confused with the bird-brained ladies' names? I always end up calling them Allen Barbson or Barb Almond or Alma Alda and Barb Allen -- oh, wait, that's actually correct... No, it isn't. What the --? Hang on... no, I looked it up, that wasn't correct. Still. You see what I mean. Secondly: with me, it's the other way around, I think: I'm very much an Alma Adams stitcher, more so than a Barb Allen stitcher.*

As if I didn't have enough projects in my WIP drawer/to-stitch pile, I got some more stash.

I love Susan Dunn, in the last picture on the right. She will be my next very very big start and if I ever finish her [insert hysterical laughter here], she will go straight to my pensive ladies' gallery (along the with The Blue Lady and Mrs. Pearson).

Yours slightly hysterically,
Annemarie.

*For those of you who noticed what I did there: I did it on purpose. I love them both!