Superstitch

Not much going on

I've been doing alot of floating on the river....and a lot of cross stitch! But the lazy summer has grabbed a hold of me and i haven't been doing much of anything else! I would really like to get my brown and pink zig zag quilt sent out and quilted since it is too big for my machine. Lots of plans running around my head.... but we'll see what happens!

Have i mentioned my love of cross stitch?

No? Well i do. I love all of the teeny tiny perfect stitches. Everthing is done on a grid so all of the stitches are perfectly even and orderly. I love it! I found a free trial online of software that turns picture files into cross stitch patterns and i've already created 3 fun patterns for myself. I'm at the stage where the tiny x's aren't looking like much yet.

almost like multi colored zebra stripes!

oooh there it is... abstract flowers! If you're thinking that the pattern looks familiar... well it does! I made a pattern based on a swatch of heather bailey's fabric. The cross stitch should measure 10.5 by 10.5 inches when i'm done, it will then become the center of a pillow!

A new bag

This is another one of the gifts that i was talking about.

I made it as an environmentally friendly shopping bag. It has fleece interfacing which makes it nice and sturdy. It is also pretty roomy without being gigantic, see.... it holds all the essentials...

actually i dont know who i'm kidding, we dont ever drink, that beer has been in our fridge since the superbowl... of 06! It just happenned to fit perfectly into the bag with the jug of milk. Enjoy your bag Jean!

Hmmm... i guess i really do have enough yarn

Yarn is a pretty addictive thing, my new favorite hobby is to obsessively check knitty's sale spotters board so i can hunt down yarn bargains. This is a very very bad hobby for my pitiful checking account. In an effort to curb my spending i've created a new photo album on the left sidebar to keep a record of all of the yarn that i own. Hopefully by being able to easily see just how much yarn i have, i will remember that i have plenty to work on and i dont need to add to my storgae bins.

I just started photographing my yarn today so that album will continue to grow as I dig all of my yarn out of every nook of the house. I decided that nothing would be excluded until it became a finished object. If you look through the album you'll see a few projects in progress that i haven't talked about yet, and a few that i have.

Here's where i'm at with the Bonsai Tunic. I've just bound off for the arm holes and i'm working my way up to the shoulders, should be completed this evening. Then hopefully i'll be motivated enough to cast on for the front.... i'm just remembering how long it took to get through that lace on the back that i dont want to do it for the front!  I think that i'm going to have enough yarn to finish, but just barely. Ive gone through almost 5 balls of yarn on the back so far and i think once i've cast off the back i will have used a third to a half of ball 6. Since the front is such a deep v i'm hoping that 4.5 balls of yarn will be enough. Wish me luck!

Long Time Gone

Oh my, it's been a while. I keep meaning to make a post, but then I keep realizing that I have nothing to talk about but school and work, and none of that is very interesting. But then, epiphany!

It is time to tell the story of The Scariest House.

When I drive back and forth from Lubbock and Austin I pass by this one house on 153 and it is the scariest house there ever was. It's abandoned, dilapidated, and spooky as all get-out. It sits on an empty field in a patch of tall grass and weeds, looking like no one has touched it in about seventy years.

Everytime I drive by I wish I had pictures of it, but it's usually just about dusk when I drive by, and that is just too frightening for scaredy-cat me. But then! About a month ago I was driving home, already on 153, when I realized that it was still broad daylight. Time to get some pictures. For most of them I hovered around my pulled-over car, not wanting to brave the thigh-high grass in my flip-flops and corduroys. But as I peered anxiously through my viewfinder I realized that it had taken me this long to actually stop and take pictures, if I wanted close ups, now was the time to get them.

I got close enough to take this one. I was getting confident, thinking I might get some real close ups, maybe even peer in the windows or something.... but then I heard something moving in the grass. I don't think I've ever run that fast. I jumped back into my car and didn't look back until I was at least a mile away. I don't know what it was: a snake, a rodent, perhaps a GHOST. All I know is that it scared the bejesus out of me and I probably won't be pulling over there ever, ever again. But I am glad that I got the pictures I did. You can see a few more over at my Flickr.

This is what it looked like by the time I looked back:

Oh, such a boring, lonely drive.

PS- How cute is the halter bucket? I'm so excited to get it and start using it. That fabric is my absolute favorite of the moment. I love it so much that I might even let Elizabeth teach me how to knit socks, haha. 

A week for gifts, first up - craft bucket?

I've been making alot of gifts lately and i think my new few posts will be me finally getting to show off what i've made! Thats the hardest part about making a gift, waiting for the giftee to finally get it! Well i'm cheating a little bit here because this is a gift for Sarah and as she reads this entry she will see her present for the first time!

I'm not sure what exactly to call this, craft bucket was the best i could do. It looks like a purse, but really its meant to be a sturdy tote that can sit by your feet as you knit, crochet, embroider, whatever you like. I used the same shape that i used for this bag which Sarah likes to call the "halter bag" because the shape resembles a halter top. So maybe this could be called the halter bucket? No thats dumb, i really cant name things.

The bucket is about a half inch shorter than a magazine, so whats that 11, 10.5 inches tall? by about 12 inches wide and 3 inches deep. I filled it with my yarns and knitting magazine to hopefully lure Sarah into the knitting world.... look Sarah..... yarrrrrrrrnnnn.....