Hankies

I am very fortunate to have a lovely mother-in-law. In fact, Andrew's whole family is delightful. We care enough about one another not to talk about things like politics, which is the mark of a truly caring family.

Last year, my m-i-l had a surgery that went badly. In the days after, she was hopped up on lots of drugs, completely high, and yet she still was delightful. She was caring, asking (admittedly repeatedly) about other people--"Did so-and-so's son find a job? He had an interview."-- and generally not being horrible. I have a fear that if my filters were out of commission I'd become a swearing, vile bag of rudeness. Many of the things I say in my head are not for public consumption. Let's hope it never comes to that, or, if it does, the only people who witness it are those few who would not be shocked.

My m-i-l is nearly completely recovered, but she still has a couple lingering effects. One of them is that one eye waters a lot. She's taken to carrying a handkerchief in her purse for this reason. I see this as a crafting opportunity, and one of her Christmas presents this year are these:

They're a small gift in appreciation of her kindness... and the fact that she gave birth to and provided half the genes for my very favorite person.

One Step Closer

I'm waiting for more yarn to arrive so I can finished sleeve #2 on the test knit sweater, which means I have no need to feel guilty that I'm not knitting.

In celebration, I finished a pillowcase I'd been embroidering.

I realized this year that I needed*  a pillowcase embroidered with Christmas ornaments as well as a pair of great striped Christmas socks. I have yet to find the right colored yarn, but I'm confident I will.

This pillowcase is actually for a friend. I plan to make myself an identical one.

As I wait for my yarn, and once that sleeve is finished, I can put my focus on my new year's intention of not knitting so much, of giving myself space to rest and let ideas percolate rather than focusing on Getting Things Done.

And I realize I have no idea how to do that.

*I need them in the same way that I need dark chocolate.

Something Is Better Than Nothing

I keep thinking I'll take better photos, and then I'll post things. Turns out, that's just not the case. So, bad photos!

I embroidered a couple pillow cases for a friend's birthday:

This friend and I tied for Biggest Bookworm as voted by our high school senior class.

They weren't wrong.

You just have to love whom you love.

I also made another pillowcase for me, using one of the motifs from an earlier pillowcase:

My love of embroidered pillowcases shows no sign of abating.

Fruit and Veggies Towel

It's surprising how much I've been enjoying embroidery recently. I look through various books at their fancy stitches, admire lovely embroidered art online, and then happily backstitch cartoon-y fruits and vegetables.

I've made a dishtowel* that I won't let anyone use. I fully recognize the ridiculousness.

Ooh la la! Vous etre tres jolie, l'orange!

Wheeee!

I'm just a carrot, dancin' a jig while my neighbor the tomato eyes me hungrily.

I don't really understand what's happening.

Stitch on, my friends.

*Dishtowel is a Most Awesome Tea Towel and pattern is I Luv Veggies, both from Sublime Stitching. 

Embroidery for Lynn

Yesterday was my dear friend Lynn's birthday. I gave her two pieces.

Sometimes you need to gently remind people about the importance of interpersonal communication.

This is more polite than yelling, "If you don't turn off that phone, I'm going to smash it into tiny bits."

Lynn IS magic. I hope this reminds her that I know it, too.

Lynn, I'm really grateful to have you in my life. Happy birthday!

Say What? Embroidery

The Universe has been crapping on some of my friends recently, including Emily. I asked her partner what I could send to cheer her up, and he said she wanted stuff for their new house, including a sign for their bathroom:

Please do not do cocaine in my bathroom.

Emily obviously understands that sometimes it's awkward to have to tell your guests in person, and this is a more delicate way to ensure you don't have pesky white powder to clean out of your grout.

Emily had also recently had a moving spiritual experience which needed to be documented in every medium possible. I did my part:

I am calm and floating...

Another friend will get:

I do not spew profanities. I enunciate clearly, like a fucking lady.

I stitched all of these on cotton dishtowels that I cut to size. I found that neither carbon nor transfer pens showed up very well on this material, which was challenging. I ended up with a faint hint of the design to follow on the material itself and used it and the paper pattern beside me to figure out where the letters went and how they were shaped.

Even though my stitches certainly are not perfect, I am happy to be able to make something with my hands. Every stitch is a physical reminder to my friends that I care about them enough to spend hours out of my life making them things.

I might not be able to fix everything that's wrong, but I can make stuff, and that is no small thing.

Make on.

Potential Is Everywhere...

...and I want to play.

Indigodragonfly's "Also, I can kill you with my brain"

 

It's too soon to plant annuals. It's too soon to plant annuals. It's too soon...

Do I need more embroidery floss? No, I do not. Did I buy this pack yesterday? Yes, I did.

All You Need Is...

I'm not yet tired of embroidered pillowcases.

Not even a little bit.

I found the "Love" on pinterest, and it seems to come from here. 

The rest of it, I just did whatever I wanted to. 

French knots! Who knew they were so easy? I remember eons ago when I did cross stitch (for 4-H projects, naturally), and French knots were the meatloaf* of my needlework world. Then I read Jenny's explanation and *POOF* French knots. Genius. If you have any interest in embroidery, I recommend her book. 

*I cannot tell you how much I despise meatloaf. I've been a vegetarian for... hell's bells, five and a half years, and I still shudder whenever anyone mentions meatloaf. Horrors like meatloaf do not fade with time.**

**No, not your meatloaf. I'm sure your meatloaf is delicious, and I am deeply saddened that I cannot try it due to my hippie vegetarianism. 

Pillowcase of My Heart

Back in October, a friend gave me a present, the Crafty Characters embroidery pattern from Kitschy Digitals. On Friday, I embroidered myself a pillowcase.

I am besotted with it. It makes me happy every time I see it.

Lotus

It's December, and everyone knows that means there's tons getting done and nothing that can be made public. 

I did, however, embroider another pillowcase.

I have no interest in being perfect at embroidery. Imperfection is a-okay. I like to do it, and that's enough. I'm not averse to learning though. From this pillowcase, I learned that I really need to wash the fabric first. I didn't, and it puckered on the far left.

I found the lotus online as part of a coloring page, I think. I used carbon transfers from Sublime Stitching to put the design on the case. The swirls I sort of freehanded, which taught me that I need to be better about covering the carbon lines with floss. I had trouble getting them to come out in the wash.

I have another pillowcase planned, and I expect to keep doing little projects like this until it isn't fun anymore.

What Christmas Knitting? I See No Christmas Knitting.

Currently, I'm knitting washcloths requested by Andrew's grandpa. Andrew's grandpa is awesome, so I would knit him kneesocks if he wanted them. Luckily, a couple years ago he wanted a scarf and this year he told me his washcloths were wearing out. No mention of kilt hose at all.

However, I am being tempted to drop the knitting. One of my friends just gave me this:

It's the Crafty Characters embroidery pattern from Kitschy Digitals. I really want to embroider a pillowcase with knitting needles and happy balls of yarn.

My friends are the best. Thanks, Rachel!

Flowers in My Sleep

I'm not even sure what started it, but recently I became enamored with the idea of embroidering pillowcases.

Who does this? I mean, who does this in 2013? Apparently more than just me because there's at least one company that sells kits.

I bought this kit. It came with the two preprinted pillowcases and the pattern showing what colors went where. I went to Michael's, looked at the floss colors they wanted me to use, and then picked prettier ones.

The only change I made besides the colors (and I followed that fairly closely--green where they used green, purple where they used purple. I just picked nicer shades and used two greens instead of only one.) was that there were two flowers that only had petals on the bottom half of the flower. That made me feel like someone was interrupted in a game of "he loves me, he loves me not," and I don't want that sort of flower carnage wrecking my sleep. The orange one here is one that I fixed. It's a bit mashed looking, but not bad.

I started stitching before I checked out a book* from the library that discussed how to make the  stitches. I can tell where I learned to do French knots, and I can tell when I finally understood what they meant by the stem stitch. The stitches get better the farther right I move on the case, and the second is much better than the first. (This is a photo of the second one. I'm vain like that.)

I've done cross stitch before, but this was more fun. It's been years since I last did cross stitch, and I wonder if knitting will have made me more patient. Still, a girl only needs so many hobbies...

I don't know how much more embroidery I'll do (lots of embroidery patterns are hiiiiiid-e-ous), but these pillowcases make me super happy.

*I used Jenny Hart's Embroidered Effects. It's a good book. I recommend it.