Yikes!

To my horror, I saw several blog updates popping up on my blogroll that had pictures of jars overflowing with orts and titles that said “August Tusal”. Surely, surely, a month has not passed by already? What, I wonder, have I been doing with my time, that I can’t recall what I did in the past month? I’ve been reading (and listening to) Harry Potter and I’ve been mothering [poor Pelle is having a rough time of it at his new school. Not as rough as I’d expected, but still, he demands a lot of attention and cuddles, which, of course, I am happy to provide :o)], and I’ve been entertaining my dear friend Harmien, and I’ve been knitting and hooking and stitching too. Well, time flies when you’re having fun, they say, and I suppose it’s true. On to the stitching and knitting, then.
 

First of all, I want to say that my love for Sarah Harris is growing every day. Her colours are so unexpected and amazing, bright and subdued at the same time. That sounds odd, doesn’t it? Well, have a look and judge for yourself. Screaming bright Pinks that I’d never even used before, next to the beautifullest, most subtle shades of pearly grays and pastels, with some browns thrown in:

Even though I have not left many comments in the past couple of weeks, I have been visiting blogs and your gorgeous work inspired me to pick up my own WIPs and UFOs. Such as Beatrix Potter. Bea hadn’t seen the light of day since... let me check... March 28th 2009, but whilst watching the delightful film Miss Potter the other day, I was inspired to pick up her books and enjoy the delightful stories with their pretty drawings in sweet colours, which in turn, made me pick up the sampler.

I’m using the entire collection of DMC linen threads for this sampler, one over two on white 32 count linen. Yum.

Hooking has occurred, especially on those evenings when I was too tired to pick up needle, thread, scissors, lap stand, chart, telephone, iPod and plant myself in my stitching chair. Amazing how fast crochet goes, compared with stitching. This blanket is now so large, that it covers my legs when I’m working on it. Yay!

Colour-wise, I suppose you could say I’m using Sarah Harris as my inspiration: just throw together all the colours you can find, basically. It doesn’t have to be a pretty blanket, as far as I’m concerned. Just very, very colourful.

Hooking is especially fast when you compare it with fair isle knitting. And yes, a little of that has been happening too in this house:

This was intended as a sock but, as usual, it is too tight to get past my ankles, so I’m turning it into an arm warmer. I’ve got quite a collection of those now :o)) (and yes, I know some people looking at these pictures will probably think that my garden is in serious need of some de-weeding, but my motto is: weeds are only weeds when they’re in the wrong place, and weeds are never in the wrong place in my garden. I love weeds. They’re incredibly versatile, useful, some of them are tasty, some of them make great skin-care products or cough medicine or any other medicine for that matter, and when you let them grow the way they are meant to, they can be incredibly beautiful. So there.)

Oh, before I forget!

Orts. A great many of them. Well, I’m impressed, anyway.

Yours inspiredly,
Annemarie.

The granny, the bike and the poodle

My dear darling honeybuns, may I present this month’s orts jar:

I was taking a lovely long walk through the beautiful woods this afternoon, and to my astonishment and glee found the forest floor littered with these babies. Ahhhh, Fall is upon us! I thought I’d take them home, put them in my orts jar, and put my orts in a wee wine glass. Well, I say orts but in fact, it’s just one ort, and it’s not a real ort but a bit of thread that stuck out of a newly purchased pillowette.
Does this count as a Tusal update? Please? Pretty please? I really tried to do some stitching, but then everytime I sat down with needle and thread - and lap stand, and chart:

* I had to finish a translation
* I fell ill with a drrrreadful head cold and a chest infection
* Pelle turned 7:
* I had to cart Pelle (and his cousin) around in our new cargo bike. (Pelle can’t ride a bike himself due to him being... Pelle. But he loves to go for long bike rides. Therefore the ex (who is now loaded) thought it would be nice to get Pelle the cargo bike for his birthday):* I decided I needed to start a second Giant granny square blanket:
* I decided I needed handmade gifts for Pelle’s teachers in the shape of hand-knit socks:
This is the first of 8 socks I need to finish before 18 August. Something tells me I’m not going to make it. I would abandon the project had I not already asked the teachers for their favourite colours and shoe sizes. What on earth would I say if they asked me what I needed that information for? That I just go around asking people’s shoe sizes because I’m a shoe size fetishist? No. I’m afraid I’m just going to have to knit the damned socks.

Ooooooh, I’ve been to the hair dresser’s today, and I look all different. Well, I think so anyway. I don’t like to fuss with my hair, you see, and lately I found that I had to do an awful lot of unwanted fussing to straighten my hair in order for my short bob to look good. Only my hair isn’t naturally straight. In fact, my hair is so far from naturally straight that every time I thought I’d successfully ironed it into submission after hours of pottering about with potions, conditioners, anti-frizz, straightening irons and blow dryers, the mirror told me Mission Short Straight Bob had failed. So I decided to embrace the poodle in me and go for a matching poodle-‘do.
Excuse the freaky looking cat. He was intrigued by the flashing red light of the self-timer.

Well, again I’ve managed to write a post about absolutely nothing anyone could ever be vaguely interested in. My apologies. Next time... more of the same, I fear :o)

Yours poodley-doodley,
Annemarie.

A post of many pictures (including a stitchy one!)

Welllll, that was a long absence, wasn’t it? Not planned, but been kept v. busy because:

What was he doing on that bench, you may wonder. Why, this of course:

Pelle was home for a well-deserved little holiday. Here you see him and his grandmother trying to find relief from temperatures that can only be described as scorchio.
I wouldn’t be here if it wasn’t for the New Moon.
My stitching orts jar picture looks exactly like the ones I’ve been showing you for the last six months, so I thought I’d show you my crochet orts. Much more impressive, I’m sure you will agree. And what about that blanky??? 62 stripes and counting! Pelle is going for another overnight stay at his daycare centre on Wednesday with a slightly bigger blanket. His first stay was a huge succes (for him, at least. I didn’t sleep a wink, but now I know he’s in such good hands and enjoys it so much, I’m sure I’ll enjoy my Mummy Time more this time around).

Been stitching, too.
Sarah Harris, what a lovely lady she is. Quirky and vibrant and slightly eccentric. That’s how I like my ladies.

Sorry, I have loads and loads to share but absolutely no time to do it today. Or tomorrow, or the day after that. Schoolpaper to write and edit, books to translate, life to enjoy.
To all my American friends, enjoy your special day!

Much love,
Annemarie.

Early Birdy

You wil be pleased to know The Plan is wOrKiNg!!! I’ve finished ONE gift (okay, so I still need to finish-finish it. Shut up), and I’m very pleased with it. And I’ve made progress on this lovely thing
AND I’ve started another one.
I just had to.
It’s a mystery.
And it is rumoured to feature some birds.

Birds Of A Feather by With Thy Needle & Thread. Is it strange or even wrong to be in love with a piece of fabric? The picture does not do the fabric any justice, but I promise you it's gorgeous. It’s been in my stash for years and years, a lovely soft 32 count Silkweaver Solo, perfect in every way.

And here’s my TuSaL jar for this month:

I don’t know about you, but I think it should look much fuller, don’t you, considering that my needle has seen more action in recent weeks than in the months before put together? What happened to all the orts? These two look like they’ve got something to hide. I bet they’ve had their paws in my orts jar: (click to embiggen, to catch the sinister and untrustworthy look in Pipien's eyes)


In between translating and... translating really, I’ve been having the most wonderful time searching the WWW for pictures of people standing on benches.

Again I ask you, is it strange or wrong or possibly even fetishistic that these pics make me deliriously happy? If you get that happy bubbly feeling when you see this (as I do), check out the Happy Bench Monday pool on Flickr, it’ll brighten your day. By the way, the blanket you see here is for Pelle, and I hope to finish it before his birthday on 2 August [insert maniacal laughter here].

Yours battily,
Annemarie.

In which I make copious use of the exclamation mark

My orts jar this month.

More dust than orts, my dears. You may have possibly guessed that my stitching mojo isn’t all that it’s supposed to be, and hasn’t been for a long time. Now, last weekend, I sat down and had a really good think about that. Why couldn’t I bring myself to stitch? It wasn’t that I didn’t enjoy it per se, but there was something... something I couldn’t put my finger on.

That is until my dear brother showed me his cell phone (or his CranBerry or his StrawBerry, or whatever it is you call these contraptions) to prove something to me (I don’t know. Something about him being a Twit, or something. Like he needs to prove that to me. I’ve known that for some 36 years. [Just kidding: I adore my little brother]). Anyway, he asked me to read the words on the tiny, tiny screen and I found myself doing something I’d never done before (or at least, not that I was aware of): I kept the device at arm’s length to read what it said on the screen. It was at that exact moment that it hit me:

I need freaking reading glasses!

I rushed home and sat down with my stitching, and there was all the proof I needed: the stitches of Summer Basket just seemed to dance in front of my eyes, and Summer Basket is worked on 30 count fabric! Imagine me trying to stitch on 40 count! No wonder I seek refuge in crafts that require threads and needles actually visible to the naked eye! Now if only I can find the time to take myself to the optician’s, I should be right as rain and stitching like mad very soon quite soon relatively soon.

Yours blind as a batly,
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.

That time of the month...

New Moon, new TuSAL, new update, new template. New socks!

Basic stockinette stitch socks, 64 sts; yarn Katia Olé Tibet.

Hence the emptiness of my orts jar. As you see, the socks don’t match, but really, who wants matching socks if you could just as easily have a mismatched pair? That’s my motto, anyway. I’m so into socks, right now. A few days ago, I started some with a delicious shade of Noro, but I abandoned the socks and am now turning them into wrist warmers, because much as I love Noro yarn, it makes lousy socks (much too thick!)

I did start a new cross stitch project a while ago:

Tea Time by Notforgotten Farm

I’ve never seen this lady on any of the blogs before, which is odd, because I think she happens to be very charming. So charming, in fact, that I intend to dress her in her milky tea-coloured gown before too long and present her to you as a stitchy finish. Perhaps next week? Who knows. I’ve just finished a translation, so next week will be me-time, filled with stitching, knitting, reading, enjoying the weather (hopefully), my kid and my kitties. Ah, my friends, life does not suck :o)

Have a lovely, fun-filled weekend!
Yours contentedly,
Annemarie.

The (not so) Young and the Restless

Wow. So I guess you’re all quite impressed with my progress on The Blue Lady:o) Well, she is quite large. Only, don’t tell me that every time you see her, because I get a little intimidated when you do that, resulting in me asking myself what the *humph* I’m doing, working on such a huge piece. I haven’t touched her since my last post. You all really scared me.

Just one more thing about her, before I move on: some of you were wondering how many shades of blue are used to make this lady so blue. The answer will probably be more of a shock to you than the size of her, because the total number of colours used in this piece is an astonishing... nine. In total. For the entire piece. Five shades of blue, two tans, one gray, one pink. The illusion of so much colour is created by using different stitches. The face and the dress, for instance, are worked in half cross stitches, so the colours look a little lighter than when they are worked in regular cross stitches. Also, you can see where the threads are tucked into the backs of other stitches, giving the illusion at the front that the threads are hand-dyed, with lighter and darker strands. Hm. I think I may have talked myself into working on her some more :o)

The reason I’m here today is because of the Totally Useless SAL. Honestly, I don’t know where all the orts came from this month, because I hardly did any stitching, it seems!

I will admit I’m not a Scrooge when I stitch. A bit of a thread-waster, I am. Maybe that’s why my ort cup overfloweth sometimes.
The thing is, I’m extremely restless on the crafting front at the moment. Yesterday, I suddenly found myself kitting up an embarrassing number of projects and not wanting to start any of them. Today, I turned one (!!) of my WIP/UFO drawers upside down with a view to doing some rigorous eliminating of projects I’m never going to finish. I made a pile of projects I was going to cut up in order to rescue some good pieces of fabric, and then throw the rest (with hours and hours worth of stitching on them) away. I started off pretty light-heartedly, but as I progressed, my belief that this was the right thing to do started wavering. In the end, I just tucked everything back in the drawer. What is your experience with this sort of feeling? Do you act on it? Do you clear out your UFO drawers every once in a while and throw out the things you know you will never finish? And if you have been that soldier, have you had any regrets?

Although I’m pretty restless when it comes to crafting, I’m in rather a peaceful state of mind right now. If not zen-like, then very nearly so. In the evenings, I just want to read - study, really, but I won’t tell you what, because I'm sure you're all going to be laughing at me. It’s a very long time ago that I did any studying, and I’m really enjoying it. Not when this happens, though:

Pantoef, Pain in the Posterior par excellence. In fact, I got Pipien as an addition to the family to keep Pantoef busy and out of my way when I’m working, but Pien remains blissfully unaware of her job description, because meanwhile, on the other side of the living room:

Ooh! I got the Birds from the framer’s! I’m not entirely sure if the frame is exactly what I wanted... No, actually, I’m definitely sure this is not at all what I wanted, but I only thought of that when I got it home. Maybe I’ll go and have it re-framed some time. What do you think?

Look at me, giving you so much homework with all of my questions! The thing is, I really care about what you have to say. Your comments always make me happy, whether they make me think, or :o) or :-) or :-D

My weekend starts now, so I’d better be off and do some stitching. Or knitting. Or crocheting. Or reading. Or studying. Or... sleeping?

Yours restlessly,
Annemarie.

Blonde and Blonder

Well, hello honeybuns! A new year, a new blog post, as promised.

Truth is, I had to make an appearance in Blogland, because I’ve joined a new stitch-along and the group leader wants us to update at least one a month. No, I'm not a member of the Completely-Insane-15-Starts-In-January-And-Hopefully-15-Finishes-By-December-For-The-Enjoyment-Of-The-Dangerously-Optimistic-Or-Very-Bored-Stitcher like all the rest of you. Doing something like that would absolutely ruin my joy of stitching. Instead, I’ve joined the Totally Useless SAL, which basically means you have to collect all of your orts in a glass jar as you go along and post a picture of said jar every full moon. Of all the SALs in the world, I think (I think) that this one is suffciently useless for me to be able to keep up with the requirements. So I started collecting my orts the day I signed up (roughly one month ago), and here is the first pic:

My designated TUSAL jar at present contains a whole bunch of acorns (remnants of a Fall display that I can’t bear to get rid of), so I stored the orts in an apple sauce jar for now. In this jar, ladies and perhapsly gentlemen, you see the victims of my battle with a new 2011 start and finish:

Believe me, I’m as surprised at this as you are. A start? A stitchy start? And a finish? Of the same start? Yes, yes, yes, and yes.

It’s Emma’s Work Pinkeep Drum by Stacy Nash and it’s delish. Stitched on 36 or 40 count unbleached linen (a significantly higher countage than the 28 count called for in the pattern, in any case) and stitched with DMC 830 and 918 and filled with birch chips.

Stitching it was a doddle. Finishing it would have been a doddle if I weren’t so incredibly, incurably blonde. Sewing in circles... very difficult for me.

As promised a couple of months ago, I’ve also started a Scarlet Letter and this is the one I went for in the end:

Mary Hart. *Love*

***

What about the socks? I hear you ask. Well, my second knee sock is about halfway finished, and I’m still really enjoying it, but something besides stitching and knitting has had me pre-occupied for a couple of days. Only a few weeks ago, while I was busy knitting my knee sock, I remember thinking to myself, ‘With all of these crafts I'm already enjoying and all of that time they're taking up, isn’t it fortunate that I will never, ever get the urge to crochet, because I may be forty, but I’m no granny, and crocheting is something grannies do, like my own granny used to do, and she didn’t do it well, and... she wasn’t a very nice granny anyway and... granny... granny... granny square... granny square... granny square blanket...hmmm, that would be nice, actually. Yes. A granny square blanket on my bed would be just the thing for me, wouldn’t it? Nice and warm and snugly, and apparently, crocheting is much faster than knitting. I could have a granny square blanket in two weeks’ time! Why don’t I teach myself how to crochet?!!!’

Okay, maybe the two weeks was a bit optimistic, but look what I’ve accomplished in 5 days!

And here comes the ‘blonde and blonder’ part of today’s post. I hope there are readers among you who are not as dramatically mathematically challenged as I am, because it’s driving me up the wall and I need an answer, so please, please, if you are in any way gifted in the arithmetic/statistics department, HELP ME:

I’m using 8 colours for this blanket. Each square has four rounds, so that’s four colours per square. First question: how many different squares will I be able to make? You see, I really want every single square to be different, except for two - like they used to do in the old days, with regular patchwork quilts? This leads me to my second question: how on earth do I keep track of the colour combos I’ve already used? Is there an Excel sheet or some other computer program that could help me make a list? Please don’t ask me why I just can’t crochet away and who cares if I make a couple of doubles - or trebles, for that matter. What can I say? I’m a dork. And a blonde one at that.

Yours totally uselessly stitching and knitting and chrocheting alongly,

Annemarie.