I did get some stitching done on Briar Rose.

Shhhh! She’s sleeping. As you can sort of see in this picture (and the Page 2 design), my Briar Rose has pricked her hand on her embroidery (presumbably the needle) and not on a spindle. Also, this low-res picture from my camera phone has picked up all the sparklie in the the fabric. These are all being done on Legacy from Picture This Plus.

Speaking of fabric, I picked up some samples from Stitches and Spice while at Market, and already have ideas churning in my head on what to put on them. Hopefully, these hand-dyed fabric companies are gaining a wider foothold in LNS’s across the country because I just like using fun fabrics!

DH and I have been watching the Amgen Tour of California this week. I’ve also done a bit of knitting:

Hopefully, I’ll get all the way better soon and then I’ll have the energy for some more designing!

I’m taking a class from Jen Funk-Weber and managed to finish last night.

This is what it looks like laid flat:

And this is what the back looks like:

That’s a herringbone stitch in blue thread on blue fabric in case you can’t tell.

I also spent Friday night and Saturday morning making this hat:

It was for a friend’s baby shower Saturday afternoon. If you can’t tell, she’s having a girl. I’ve done this hat enough that I don’t even have to look at the pattern anymore.

I’ll be collecting Door Prize entries until midnight EST tonight and announce winners shortly be email and then here on the blog, so stay tuned!

This past weekend, we kept an eye out on Gustav. If you’ve been reading this blog for a while, you know that my folks all live in Baton Rouge, so with east Texas to west Florida in the intial cone of uncertainty, we were all watching out. The good news is that they came through the storm fine, the bad news is that the power is still out and phones are spotty. Sometimes it is amazing how much we rely on modern convienences.

The weekend before this one, DH and I took a little jaunt up to Wichita Falls for the Hotter ‘n Hell Hundred. He rides his bike 100 miles in the heat, while I find places with A/C to hang out until he comes in. I saw this while wandering in the “Fun Zone” by the finish line:

It is hard to ride a bike with a wheel like that (also the back wheel was missing). The guy holding the bike was in the professional race that preceded the general ride and apparently ran into someone else who had crashed (everyone was okay).

Here I am knitting at the finish line (I was still working on my Olympic knitting):

For the record, I was the only one knitting with wool in the 100 degree heat. The scarf is now done, except for the tassels.

I was busy this Labor Day weekend as well. A model arrived last week, and I didn’t like a couple of the colors on it, so I ended up restitching it. That’s all my fault for not doing the test stitching. Luckily it was small, one of a set of three Christmas Ornaments, so I got it done by Monday. I ironed and stretched the other models and spent last night framing them. Stay tuned for preview pictures! Oh, yeah, and I ran 10K in the Nike “Human Race”, so it was a busy weekend. The Fall market is only a week away and the Fall online show falls close on the heels of that, so it time to go crazy!

Me, I’ve just been stressed out over that and generally an emotional wreck.

I’m trying to look on the brighter side, so here are some good things from the past week:
(1) “China” made it to Hoffman’s in time for the opening of the Olympics.
(2) I’ve made some progress on my Ravelympics project:

Yes, it is knitting, but it will turn into this scarf soon!
(3)
Ok, you can’t read the odometer in that, but at the time it said “000070″. We got a new car and sold the Jeep, so that’s very exciting and fun to drive! It is a Subaru Outback, so still keeping transport space (required for biking and cross stitch), but with better gas mileage.
(4) Watching the Olympics.
(5) Backordered canvas arrived – which means I can finally finish up the June orders.
(6) I posted off a project for a model stitcher! Yay! I’m really hoping to have three new designs ready for September. One is finished and the other two are at model stitchers.
(7) I’ve been doing a bit of charting and sketching, so that is always good. I’ll get back to stitching after the Olympics, because I totally want to have my scarf finished for Halloween.

I saw this guy at the grocery store last week (and got a funny look from the seafood dude for taking a picture):

Can you see the other lobsters under the massive lobster? That lobster was gi-normous!

I must dash for now, I’m trying to be good and go to the gym more often. On the other hand, I’ve been getting more stitching and designing done. Yay!

Other than that, I’m having a bit of stitching slump. I’ve done all the hard stuff in my current project, and just have the easy part left. Somehow, that makes it harder to do. To make up for it, I’ve started working on a new sketch. Not what I need to do, of course, but diverting nonetheless.

I even pulled out my knitting last night – how’s that for project avoidance?

Speaking of happy dances, Asa finished a Jolly Roger Cat Hat!

Isn’t it cool? I think it will look great on her! She stitched it in the round, so that is real colorwork, not duplicate stitching! A big round of applause for Asa, please!

I’m thinking of braving the crowds at the new grocery store tonight. Crazy, I know. I need some broth to make a stew tomorrow and might pick something up from the deli for dinner. I was supposed to go to the gym, but I think I’m going to wait until tomorrow for that. Actually, I really want to get home and get some stitching done on the new project! Isn’t that always how it is?

That’s a gen-u-ine Orange County Chopper there, so I’m down with OCC!

Someone came to the blog by searching on “how to knit false seam knitting round” – which means they came by way of these pictures:

I also had a hard time finding information on false (or mock) seams – I finally resorted to my Vogue Ulimate Knitting book. So here are some (hopefully clear) directions from actually doing the false seam:

1. knit in the round until the piece is as long as it needs to be. Technically, you don’t have to be knitting in the round, but as I understand it, false seams are used to do some stabilizing magic on pieces that are knit in the round (and therefore don’t have seams).
2. At the garment mid-point, drop the mid-point stitch. This means take it off the needles and unravel it all the way down to the cast-on edge. Since I was knitting with wool, I had to undo all the purl stitches all the way to the bottom. You will end up with a “ladder” where the undone stitches were.
3. Get out a handy-dandy crochet hook. At the bottom of the ladder, hook two of the ladder stitches together and pull up as if you are fixing the stitch. Then hook one ladder stitch through that loop. Repeat this all the way to the top and then put the last stitch back on the needles. You will have made a vertical column of knit stitches.
4. Rejoice that the false seam is done and don’t think about having to do the one on the other side!

Sunday I got a small case of startititis and decided to wind a skein of the Berroco Peruvian “Dragon” yarn I had ordered for my Tilted Duster. I don’t have a ball winder or a swift (yet) and so I just untwisted the skein and laid it around my knees and wound the ball by hand and I feel in love. I already loved the color, but hadn’t yet come to appreciate the softness of this yarn. Now I am in the process of swatching and I’m still in love (although I still haven’t gotten gauge yet).

The color is somewhat close to what’s in the picture – mostly green, but with strands of red and blue and brown (oh, my!) I feel a definite need to hoard this yarn, or just unwind all the skeins and use it as a big blanket.

In stitching news, The Needlework Show opens tomorrow! Be sure to stop by my booth to see a sampling of your favorite (and new) CEK designs and find out how to register for our door prize! All of the CEK designs are available for your LNS to order, so let them know what you want (check the Gallery for additional designs not shown in the booth).

Also, I did some drawing last night! Yay! Let me tell you, it is hard to get some real drawing done while watching Heroes, but I managed to do it. I’m going to wait a day to see how I like the design, then use my new desk to start the transfer process.

First my dad was in town for a business meeting, which meant we were able to get together Friday night. We stuffed ourselves at our fabulous local Lupe Tortilla’s and had a grand time. Dad had to leave early Saturday, so we waved goodbye and then I went out to Yarntopia to meet Laurie Perry a.k.a. Crazy Aunt Purl! The event was totally awesome (especially since traffic was light, the I-10 overpass wasn’t closed, and I was able to make it into Katy in near-record time). There was food, drinks and alot of yarn. Laurie was very cool and sat and chatted with everyone, signed books, and looked fabulous!

Here’s my obligatory meet the author photo:

I gave Laurie a copy of “With Cat for Comforter” because Mocha and her cat Sobakowa are near twins (both being Tortiseshells).
Here’s Mocha (looking peaceful, but ears are open and she’s ready to strike at a moment’s notice):

Soba can be seen here, along with Crazy Aunt Purl’s other cats.

After the event, I drove back home and even braved the crowds at Walmart to get goodies for the game. We won’t mention anything else about the game. A couple of friends had come over for the game, and afterward, we decided to move the fun to one of their houses. Now, this is Houston, so when I say “He lives across town from us” means that it may technically be in Houston metro area, but might have a different city name and may take 45 minutes or more to get to. We had a fun time hanging out, meeting the kids, and learning about Guitar Hero.

So a recap on Saturday driving: NW Houston to Katy (40 minutes – great time) and back; NW Houston to SW Houston (45 or more minutes with no traffice) and back.

Sunday was a bit more peaceful, and there was more football watching invovled. This enabled me to (1) frame one model of “Nina’s Sampler” (2) finish my virtual booth for the Online Show and (3) learn to do a false seam in knitting.
Here’s the before picture with 5 purl stitches:

And here it is with a knit-looking seam:

Finally, with the warming weather and it really looking like rain, I took a tour of the back yard and found these:

Limes growing on our lime tree! Now, this little tree puts out a bunch of flowers every spring, which then turn into itty-bitty lime looking things shortly thereafter. I go out to check on the progress of the itty-bitty limes a couple of weeks later and they are all gone! I don’t know whether birds get them, or they just die or what. So imagine my surprise when mystery limes show up months later! Maybe there is enough for one glass of limeade.