TURKEY TIME

I have been trying to eek out a blog post for a couple of weeks now. I take a bunch of photos of nothing important and then time slips away and I don't get the post done (sigh) - Now Thanksgiving is upon us and I am still struggling to do a post. I am still in the office and there is NOTHING going on so I thought I could maybe whip out a post and wish all my friends in the US a happy turkey day !

My folks will be coming up tonight and will spend a couple of nights with us. It will just be the 4 of us but we'll enjoy preparing and eating our meal just as if we had 12 at our table. We've always had a very small group for holidays since I am an only child and have no children. Anyway - I am working from home Friday so I almost have a 4 day to look forward to . Saturday is sampler guild and that is a fun afternoon to visit with friends and get some serious stitching done in between eating snacks, drinking coffee and chatting about eating too much over the holiday LOL.

OK - I just have to say I HATE whatever change blogger made to posting photos - it is SOOO much harder now to manipulate the photos - makes me dread having to do it which means I seem to be posting less and we all know that these posts are all about the photos. SO ........... without further ado - I am going to show you some great photos from my trip last weekend to Sweet Savannah - that was almost my blog post title but since I ran right into turkey time - that won out for a title.

Last weekend Jody and I went to Savannah - I had some business to take care of so it was a mix of work and pleasure but pleasures abound in Sweet Savannah.

We had a marvelous dinner on Friday night in the historic area at Local 11 Ten which is housed in an old 50's bank building. It was a very posh expensive restaurant but the food was excellent and we actually had a friendly accomodating server. I find that many times in this type of trendy restaurant - the server somehow didn't get the message that "he was serving" - it's like they are doing a favor by visiting your table and dropping off some food. there is no semblance of "service" to be had by this type of "server" I just get tired of this type of attitude and I'm sure you can all relate. Anyway this was a very pleasant experience.
 
Saturday - we putzed around and enjoyed our room at the Residence Inn - I actually slept fairly well and we already knew we were heading straight to Soho Cafe down town.  I've featured them before so I won't bore you again but here is Jody perusing their artwork.

 Can't you just see this portrait in one of those huge victorian mansions.
 
  We had a lovely lunch - I think we both had the crabcake sandwich which is really done right here at Soho.  I am picky about crabcakes and not everyone does them or Shrimp and Grits well but this place does for sure.

In the next block down from Soho is one of my fave yarn shops in the whole world - Wild Fibre

I had already prepped Jody for a visit to a new needlepoint shop and did not elude to a visit to any more local haunts.  He knows how I can spend hours and mucho bucks in any yarn shop but I did manage a quick perusal and got a chance to say hi to the gals that own the shop.  I knew they were a participating shop for Yarns on Stage - these are a collection of limited edition sock yarns from wonderful companies both mainstream and indie dyers.  I was under pressure to grab something quick and  hit  the local needlepoint shop before Jody ran out of patience.  He was running a bit thin since our lunch required over a 30 min wait.  His personal limit is 15 but I got an extension because "hey it's sweet savannah" !  Anyway here is the beautiful skein of Cherry Tree Hill sock yarn in Sweet Pea - have no idea what I will do with it - there is enough yardage for a small shawlette - so we'll see what I can find to do with it.

So now - the real treat of this post - There is a marvelous new needlepoint shop in the historic district - The French Knot -

 What a fantastic shop !!!!!!!  Everything about this shop exudes elegance and taste.  It was rather difficult to find on Whitaker Street which is one way with no street parking.  I got good advice from the owner of Wild Fibre to park on Jones and walk the 1/2 block to the shop which is actually facing an alley off Whitaker.  Anyway - it was definitely worth taking the time to find.

You can read about Audrey the owner on her website so I won't belabor those who are not interested in needlepoint.

Threads anyone?

Oh my goodness - her walls of threads were just awesome - she had several brands of silk such as Planet Earth that I had been wanting to see.  I like the fact they were arranged in color families - and the canvas selection was no less stunning.

She had all these gorgeous built in cabinets all around the perimeter of the shop.  All filled with awesome finished items and artfully displayed accessories and canvases.

Such a beautiful place.  I can't wait to go back and am already schedule to take her ornament finishing class next month.  I only have to get the ornament completed LOL

Here are some gorgeous threads I pulled for my Autumn House canvas.  Audrey had some great suggestions for fibers to finish up my stitching adventure on that canvas.

Well friends - that concludes my pre-turkey day visit with you - hope you enjoyed your tour of the French Knot.  Wishing you the best of holidays with you and yours.

 
 
 
 
 
 
 

 

 

ORNAMENTS ABOUND

This post is all about our adventure to A Stitchers Dream in Mt Dora.  I arranged for our sampler guild to attend a class Karen the shop owner was teaching on simple ornament finishing.  We had great participation from our group - 8 members from the NE FL group attended.  We got up at the butt crack of dawn and headed down thru the Ocala National forest for a day of fun food and friends.  We met at Starbucks - got all "fueled" up on caffeine and headed off.  It was a beautiful cool day -   

I think there were 11 people in the class.  Karen did a great job of helping and providing suggestions for each person's ornament. 

We broke for lunch and headed to downtown Mt Dora for a lovely leisurely lunch at the Garden Gate Tearoom.  Everyone throughly enjoyed their selection and we decided on the next trip down (there will definitely be a next trip) that we will do the high tea instead of lunch.

 My DM Jane was the only one who finished her ornament in class - doesn't she look proud !

Here is a close up of the Prairie Schooler ornament from the JCS Halloween issue several years ago.  She used Watercolors for the twisted cord edging and stitched with the recommended DMC colors on aida.

Humble beginnings on my BBD ornament - this one is from the Joyeux Noel book from last year. There are so many things in that book I want to stitch.

I am SOOO proud of my finish - I am "finishing" challenged for sure and this was the first ornament I have ever finished.  However I screwed up big time and therefore had to get creative with the trim.  I cut the linen too short to properly fold over and anchor down - therefore I eneded up having to lace my linen to the plastic canvas which Karen recommends for simple finishing like this.  It worked out OK except a narrow edging would not cover up my huge pulled stitches.  Anyway - true confessions on my blog - You can see those big stitches I had to use to " lace" the linen to the plastic canvas in the photo above.

A close up shot  - I send out big hugs and good karma to DF Teresa who dug into her magic box and found this lovely gauzey wide ribbon that worked perfectly for this little piece.  I converted the colors in this ornament to Belle Soie. I used PTP Dill linen called for in the book - not sure of the count.  I am SOOO pleased with my first ornament finish and I definitely gained the confidence to try this method again.

Here is DF Ellen hard at work on her ornament.

DF Kerrie holding up her ornament from the newest JCS Christmas issue - the ornament is by Milady's Needle. I was hoping to show the finished ornaments from our whole group.  Maybe some of them will send me photos so I can post them and share them with you all.

I did take a few other photos but for some reason - if you make any wrong moves at all with importing these photos - you can't do anything but start all over - AAACKKKK - I find this so annoying so I just had to leave off a couple of shots of the whole table full of class participants.

While I had the Joyeux Noel book out - I decided to start the little Merry Christmas pin pillow - I think I was just itchy to start something new since I finished something .

Until we meet again - I hope ornaments abound around your place too !

HOUSES

Happy November !  I fully intended to get a post out for Happy Halloween but that did not happen.  Before Halloween 2010 becomes a distant memory - I wanted to show you my Salem House from Liberty Hill.  I was SOOOO excited to get this about a week before Halloween so I could display and enjoy it.  I have it sitting on my antique sewing table.  It is one of my favorite LH pieces so far.  My number one fave is my personalized primitive Angel work box - I should show that one some time.  The top comes off this house and stores your goodies - I'm sure it would also store a small project if you wanted to use it as a work box of sorts.  The tiny house scissor adornment is just darling and the church thread minder is so pretty.  The pumpkin thread winder is from another LH set but it looked good there with the Salem House items.  All sides of the house are painted - It is a great piece.

The next "house" is an updated shot of my Autumn House.  I am still loving working on this although coming up with the stitches for different areas is a challenge.  I think I already said but I am using a mix of fibers - wool/wool blends/silk/cotton and even silk chenille in this piece. 

This is a closer shot of the right side of the canvas - this house and surrounding fields are finished except for the two fields to the left of the house - they are repeats of fields already stitched so I guess the challenge was not there to come up with something different for them.

Here is a close up of the left side of the canvas.  I was so excited to get in my one lone sheepy.  He is stitched with Thread Gatherer silk chenille - boy was that a bear to work with. It was shredding like crazy but produced a fuzzy looking sheep. That odd thing by the house is a windmill and the field behind it was a pain to plow and plant. I used a Valdani perle and that was my first experience with it - it is a nice fiber but that diagonal romanian almost put me "under the dirt"  Doesn't look too bad in the photo but it was a bit messy trying to compensate.  The apple trees look a bit funky but hey - it's folky right?? I'm still stuck on what to do with those wheat sheaths or hay stacks. My plan is to finish planting the fields and complete the hedgerow all the while I am pondering those stacks and how to stitch them.  I need a few more threads but am so thrilled I have pulled 90% of the threads used so far from stash.

This odd looking thing is my Boneyards shawlette - for my knitting friends - it is a Steven West design and available for free on Ravelry.  He used a Rowanspun Tweed in a DK weight and I knew I had Rowan tweed in my stash - I was just surprised I had BLUE -  the photo is washed out - too much light on the subject I guess because it is a pretty blue - navy and should be great with jeans - it is a rustic tweed yarn from my vast stash - something from the Rowan vault. 

This yummy creature is the beginning of a ruffled scarf.  Pattern by Fiesta and the yarn is Fiesta Boomerang which was also in my stash!  Do we see a trend here LOL. This pattern uses the dreaded short row shaping but actually it is going pretty well.

I'm going to wish I had one of these new knits ready to wear this weekend.  We are expecting our first temps in the upper 30's - we'll see if they hit or miss the mark with that.  I'm SO READY! I'm sick to death of wearing summer clothes in NOVEMBER for heaven sake.  I am still wearing sandals too.  I'm ready for hand knit socks and cozy scarves.  Winter in Florida is short but sweet for any knitter.

I have an exciting event this weekend - I have arranged for our sampler guild to attend a class down in Mt Dora.  It is a class on ornament finishing so we'll come home with 1 or 2 finished ornaments.  I am finishing challenged for sure so this will be fun to do a simple finishing technique and maybe it will give me and some of the other members a boost in confidence or motivation to continue and do some simple finishing of our own.  We have a big group of about 8 going and will meet a couple of our central florida members for class and lunch at the wonderful Garden Gate tearoom.  You may remember seeing the Mt Dora report from a class 3 of us took there this summer.  We're packing up 2 car loads of friends - we'll brave our first cold snap of the season with Starbucks in hand. 

One other thing I'd like to mention - when you have time - pop over to my DF Kris' new blog

http://krayolakris-acolorfullife.blogspot.com/ - She is a great knitter and stitcher and I have been encouraging her for months to make her entry into blogland.  She is a lurker and reader of lots of blogs - so please stop by and become a follower and welcome her to blogland. 

So friends - I'll be back real soon with some photos of that excursion and until then - thanks for stopping by my blog and I love hearing your comments.

AUTUMN HOUSE

I've been visiting an old friend lately. NEEDLEPOINT - I learned to do NP before I learned to knit as a young child of about 8 or 10. I did a huge amount of NP in the 90's and early 2000's - that was before I became enchanted with samplers. There were several reasons needlepoint got pushed aside in my preferences. One of which was samplers but then came the new addiction - traditional wool rug hooking. I've been hooking for almost 12 years now and in the beginning years of hooking - I was still buying a lot of NP and taking a lot of classes. Well something had to go and with the loss of two shopowners who were dear friends and were such great mentors for me with NP - I just let it slip farther and farther from my sight. Not to say that I don't have enough painted canvases and class kits to last the rest of my life and also not to say that I did not continue to buy canvases - I do and I did ! However I would see them, love them, purchase them and roll them up and put them away. I have a tremendous stock pile of lovely things which have never even been started. All this came to light when I moved 2 years ago and started digging into my vast stash of needlework related items.

Anyway - I have been a member of a local ANG chapter for a number of years - that group is 95% canvas workers - I have become less active in that group since moving 2 years ago because it is farther away from my new home and because NP was not my main focus these days. So - I decided I would join the EGA chapter which does meet very close to my house and guess what - they are about 95 % canvas workers as well - So - every month I would drag out my little flavor of the month/in progress/basketweave project and go and stitch with them. Most of them are working on a lovely group project called Crazy Dreams which has lots of stitches and colors and fibers - all are different and all beautiful. So one day - I thought to myself - Hey - that looks like fun - I have hundreds of dollars of NP stitch books on my shelf - I know what I'm doing - I know what I like - I know color - I have a vast stash of threads on hand - Why don't I find a canvas I really like and get busy. Here is what I found:

This is a canvas I purchased out of a trunk show that DF Jill from the Azalea House had a couple of years ago. I purchased a bunch of Gloriana Lorikeet wools for it and had all those stored with the canvas.

So - I have been obsessed with this canvas ever since I decided I could do it - I could do it !

Here is a close up of the house and the growing trees and fields surrounding it.

I am really pleased with the stitches I have chosen for the things I have stitched so far.  I've never done a scene like this and previously - I did not do much stitch planning on painted canvases - But I must admit - I am having a great deal of fun searching for just the right thread and stitch for a particular spot on the canvas - one of the real challenges is that all these spaces are very small - the canvas is only 10 X 10 on 18ct which does help a little with doing finite details.  How long this obession will last - one never knows but I'm having a hard time wrapping it up at night to get in the bed. Last night was 12:30 and I just had to finish that smoke billowing from the chimney - I found a thread I just simply had to try.  I'm having so much fun perusing long stashed threads and rummaging thru other kitted projects long left idle looking for threads that might be good on this canvas.  I'm sure once Halloween is over - the allure of this Autumn House will be over but who knows - fall scenes and pumpkins are good for a while and guess what - I have a great Turkey canvas I got on a rug hooking trip to Fredericksburg TX about 5 years ago.  He might be my next conquest !

I had a new shawl project to show you but the photo part of blogger is acting up and I just don't have the patience to do this all over again for the 3rd time today. 

So I will bid farewell - wish you all a good week and hope I get back here again soon .  Thanks for all your comments -

AWAITING AUTUMN

My Halloween things are put out - the calendar says October 4th but the thermometer in my car said 89 when I went to the bank a little bit ago - WHEW - Come on Mom Nature - give us a break !  I'm so ready for fall - how about you?

I wanted to show you a darling pin pillow I got in the mail last week.  It was stitched by DF Henri for me last year but I didn't have time to get the finishing done for the fall season.  Nancy (lovelyinchocolate) did the beautiful finishing on this sweet little piece.  It was in one of the JCS Halloween ornament issues - 2009 I'm pretty positive.  It was stitched on the called for Havana WDW linen with the called for threads.  Henri did a lovely job on the stitching and I used fabric I purchased last fall at the Olde Green Cupboard - our beloved quilt shop that closed in the spring.  Fabric and other purchases always jog my memory of fun times there at the cupboard with dear friends - stitching, hooking and just laughing and having a good ole time.

Look at the cute rusty pins with buttons and beads Nancy put for special touches.  So creative!

Here is the little display of my veggie gourds in a Longaberger basket with the little pillow propped up on the side

I think I've shown this rug before but it was my very first hooked rug that I finished some years ago - I still love the primitive look and it is special because it was my first !  Also in the photo is a cute Halloween guy that my mom bought for me recently.

This will be a short post but I also wanted to show my progress on Garden Glade by CHS - It is a chart I've had in my stash since it was brand new back in 2005 but Jean at the Attic had it as her SOM for September and I succumbed to the lovely Bluegrass linen by Lakeside she was using in her rendition.  I did not realize this was an adaptation of a sampler in the American Folk Art Museum.  Makes me love it all the more.  I received Jean's Belle Soie conversion but I wanted to use a red that was more like what Kathy selected with her NPI choice.  I came up with Gloriana Schoolhouse Red from my stash of silks.  I also changed the color of the big giant leaves to Gloriana Olive Grove - Can't believe I'm actually making color changes - WHEEEE - amazing - I always feel compelled to stick to the colors the designer selected when doing a repro - I know everyone has their own opinion about how to stitch repro's but that is my personal preference - so anyway - I am enjoying this immensely as you can see from my progress in one week.  For me this is amazing and last week - I hardly knit at all.  GG had all my attention.  Some of you would laugh at this amount of progress but remember I work full time and such as last week when I worked a full day on Sunday and till 8pm on Monday.  the most I ever get to stitch on a work night is 2 hrs.

Sad this photo is so crummy - it is actually so beautiful - the colors I mean.

So friends - until we meet again - I'll be awaiting autumn !

SEPTEMBER SLIPS AWAY

I can't believe how long I've been trying to make a blog post.  I have been SO busy since I returned from vacation.  this trend actually started while I was on vacation and I had to cut short our last day to make a quick (not really since it was a 12 hr drive) trip back home to attend to a network issue.  Since I have been just trying to keep my head above water since returning from vacation - I don't have much "new stuff" to report on.

I did go to a great yarn shop while on vacation.  Anyone who has been reading my blog for a while knows how much I LOVE visiting yarn/needlework shops when I travel.  Well - I found a new shop in Maryville Tennessee before I left when I was researching whether there were any new shops that had popped up since I was in that area last year.  So I found The Knitting Nest owned by Antje Gillingham who is actually a famous sock knitter and has written two wonderful books on the subject.  Knitting Circles Around Socks and Knitting More Circles Around Socks is book number 2.  Sorry to say she was sold out of both books when I visited there.  To say this shop was beautiful is such an understatement.  It was gorgeous!  The floors were reclaimed barnwood - there was exposed brick on several walls and the back of her shop had an open balcony which had nice views of downtown Maryville.  Come and take a tour with me - I  have lots of photos to share with you.

Here is the charming downtown street and the beautiful brick exterior of the Knitting Nest.

Once inside - oh my goodness - what a wonderful layout on this shop - the space was gorgeous!

Here is a table full of Malabrigo

I'm not sure I even made it to this wall

  Such lovely colors and I loved the presentation.Here is my non-knitting mother making a purchase LOL and Jody and my dad were patient husbands just wandering around and pretending to be interested.

The shop was divided into areas of interest and this is the "sock " area - all her sock books and sock yarns were in this area.  There was a baby/children's area and so forth.  Yes I did find many things I wanted but I settled on a new Rowan book and yarn to do a lovely transitional jacket.  I have already started it so I will show a progress photo on that one soon.

I don't have a lot of other vacation photos to show you - I did not take tons of photos - since we vacation in this area of the Smokey Mountains every year - I just don't do a lot of photos any more.  We did however visit a new place - my folks knew of a great steak/bbq joint in Dandridge - it is a darling little town - so quaint - wish we had arrived sooner so we could have walked the streets and gone in some of the antique and gift shops.  As it were - my mom and I quickly hit one gift/antique shop which was housed in the upstairs back of the 100+ year old store where Smoky's Steaks and BBQ is located.  We got there a little early and were able to nab a seat on the porch which overlooked the downtown street and an interesting cemetery with graves dating back to the civil war.  I could have spent more time looking but darkness was catching us and I'm WAY too much a believer in ghosts to be walking around a place like that at dusk LOL. 

Here is another shot of the quaint downtown street - Oh - I want to live in a place like this !

Vacation 2010 is just a sweet memory now - seems like ages ago that we were sitting on that porch enjoying a blissful conversation and meal with my dear folks.

I have one last photo to show you of a shawlette that I made for DF Carol's upcoming birthday next month.  I am astounded with myself that I actually gave poor Carol her birthday gift in advance of her special day.  Every single year Carol gets her birthday present somewhere between Thanksgiving and Christmas but this year I wanted her to have this to enjoy on her annual pilgrimage home to NY state.  For the knitters out there - it started out to be Multnomah - a very popular pattern which has a feather and fan lace border - well - I did not like the way it was going and after putting in about 10 or 12 rows - I ended up pulling it all out and making it a MultMara shawlette.  Mara is one of my favorite patterns and I pictured one I completed in my last post for another friend.  Not only that - I have already started knitting another beautiful Mara for myself.  So here is Carols - it is knit with Dream in Color Classy which is a hand dyed yarn.  Color:  Chinatown Autumn I think it was called.

I hope this finds all of my friends in blog land enjoying fine fall weather.  Apparently Mother Nature forget to send any fall feelings way down south.  We are STILL having temps in the upper 80's - at least we might slip into the upper 60's at night.  No matter what - it is still better than 110 heat index that we had a month ago.

Thanks for visiting my blog and I appreciate your comments.

AUGUST BIRTHDAYS GALORE

I have so many friends who have August birthdays not to mention my dear mother who turned 70 this year.  I sure don't think she looks or acts her age.

I usually host an August birthday party every year for a few friends who are in the illustrious group.  DF Karen came up to spend the weekend and she sure livened up the party with party favors for all and cupcakes too.

Here is a shot of the gift table - look closely and you'll see a lovely BBD Bluebird framed piece that Karen stitched for my folks 30th anniversary - I'm sick I did not get a close up of it but I did not - suffice to say I did not finish the "hart" sampler I was working on for their anniversary but I will finish it one day.

I also did not get a photo of the gorgeous aqua "mara" shawl that DF Henrietta knit for my mom for her birthday - However here is DF Anne Marie showing off the Mara I knit for her.

Ooops sorry - that shot is a bit blurry but she was twirling around and the others were worse. LOL

Here is Henri with her little Quaker Swan needlebook kit I gave her .

Mom getting the first glimpse of the BBD Happy Birthday that I stitched for her.

I have to show you a close up of the beautiful finish that Lois at Elegant Stitch did on this piece.  It was exactly as I had envisioned it - a lovely little package for my dear mom.

and the back - we used the lovely Old Primrose Inn fabric from BBD.  I LOVE how it came out and I'm so proud I actually got it completed and Lois was able to get it back to me before the party.

It was a delightful day had by all - I got two lovely hostess gifts - a lovely Pandora bead from Anne Marie and this beautiful Just Enough Ruffles scarf hand knit by DF Karen in an OH so typical "mel" color.

Karen also presented each guest with party favors - most of us (knitters)  received this wonderful book

You would have thought it was a party of 10 year olds when the squeals of joy went up as the guests opened their party favor packages.  It was such a thoughtful gesture but then I am the luckiest person in the world to have so many dear and wonderful friends.  Greatly missed this year was DF Katie whose daughter fell at church just before the party and she spent the day in the hospital emergency room and DF Jill who was celebrating her Mom's 80th birthday out of state.  Hopefully there's always next year !

Because I am currently sitting in the Smokie mountains on vacation and Jody keeps asking me what I am doing - I am going to cut this post off with these happy memories of a fabulous day with very special friends.

I hope everyone has a great Labor Day doing whatever it is you love doing !

BIRTHDAYS, BOUQUETS AND BOATS

Looking for interesting blog post titles can always be a daunting challenge.  The birthday part is for my mom.

We had a great time celebrating her birthday this weekend.  Jody and I went to the lake on Saturday afternoon - we decided since we are so close to vacation time that we would just hang around the lake and have a catfish fry and maybe take a boat ride.  That was what my mom requested.  I got some beautiful flowers from the local flower shop and my assistant and I arranged them for my mom.  I went foraging outside the office and found these great fox tail ferns growing in abundance so I clipped off a few and I think they made a dramatic statement in the arrangment.

Here is a closer shot

I can't believe I didn't get a single photo of my DM (sigh) I should have gotten one with her flowers - she loved them or with the special coconut essence cake I got from a local cake designer.  I guess in the world of cakes you are better if you are a "cake designer" instead of a bakery LOL.  No photo of that either.

After we had our delicious fried catfish, my dad's world famous hushpuppies and a few glasses of iced tea - we hit the lake for a long sunset ride.  It was so much fun !

Here's Jody trying to catch some bugs LOL ! and my DD driving the boat.  My mom said "don't you dare take a picture of me"  - her hair was blowing and she had on no makeup - AAACKKK - I should have anyway but she was the birthday girl and I did not want to upset her.

Isn't that the most blissful sunset - the lake was so calm and beautiful and all the egrets were heading for their roost in the cypress tree around from my folks house.  It was getting a little to dusky to get a good photo of them.  Happy Birthday to my dear mom - the "special" BBD gift is on it's way and I'll give that to her this week - maybe I 'll post a photo of her then.

Can you believe I had a knitting finish ! WHOOOOOOOOOOOOT - I bought this yarn in the spring and this was intended for me however I need a special gift for a special GF of mine - she is a knitter too so she will appreciate the effort and hours that went into this.  It is the Mara Shawl -  a free pattern produced and available on the Madeline Tosh website.  This shawl is so easy and I found it to be a very relaxing knit - the yarn is exquisite but the color Port is very dark - almost black with little flecks of dark pink. 

Can't see a thing in that photo except the shape but here is a closer view of the tip and you can see the beautiful ruffled edge.

I loved making this SO much that I have already decided to order more MT yarn and make another one for myself.  When I was on their website today perusing around - I saw another cute pattern I am now coveting and want to make out of their sock weight yarn.  You get so addicted to these hand dyed yarns it's hard not to be day dreaming constantly of casting on your next beautiful project.

Speaking of beautiful projects - I just have to say - Miss Merry Halloween has come out to play after a long hot summer of hiding in the old red cupboard.  She is a little more than 1/2 finished - if I would get to work - she might get to make her debut for the Halloween season this year. 

Isn't she the cutest thing !

This is one of my favorite seasonal pieces - I showed her in a previous post but I've gotten lots of new followers since then and I just thought she should be seen again.  It will give me incentive to keep working on that BORING inky green black backround.  It looks black but it is really a very dark green plaid.  This color plan was done by Diane Stoffel and is predominantly in a 6 cut  but of course the tiny detail is in a 3 & 4 cut.

I don't know why this looks so washed out - the colors are really very vivid on this canvas.  Oh and the design is by Lori Brechlin/Not Forgotten Farm adapated by Spruce Ridge Studios.

Thanks so much for coming around to visit me and for your comments.  Without you - it would not be much fun to do a blog - so please come and visit me again real soon !