All dressed up and nowhere to sew

We had a weekend trip come up somewhat unexpectedly last week, so I packed cross-stitch thread for a few different things I was working on. Sadly, I somehow did not pack the actual fabric I needed to sew on. I didn't notice until I had finished Loch Ness monsters #2 (the first one was so cute I decided to make another), about halfway into the first flight. I was telling Evil Twin on the plane that I needed to manifest something to work with, and he magically pulled a clean handkerchief out of his bag! Even better, one of the designs that I had brought thread for was a present for him! Amazing. 

Even better, Evil Twin had the brilliant idea the next day that we could stop in at a local superstore while out picking up dinner to see if they might have fabric. They did not have any cross-stitch fabric - that would be too much to hope for - but they did have 1-yard cuts of regular fabric! I hadn't been happy with the design I chose for one of my nephews, so I had asked him what animals he liked, and we landed on penguin. So I picked some fabric that I thought would be a nice complement - actually, there was a lot of snowflake-ish fabric, but that seemed too busy, so I just chose grey. But then I had something to work with on the plane home too. Yay! 

In the intervening week at various silly meetings plus regular arts & crafts time with mom, I finished the penguin and started on a new one. I haven't quite finished the bicycle man for Darren, as I need to find some new colors that I hadn't quite appreciated previously. Here are all the photos! 

I'm seeing Darren's family again for Thanksgiving, so I have a goal to finish as many of their presents as possible; if I pick fabric this weekend, it can be cleaned and pressed before next weekend, to go on a sewing extravaganza. But I also have more cross-stitches to make as well... may be a busy week. 

- Catherine

The cute Loch Ness monsters!

 

Nearly complete bicycle man

Penguin is done!

Beginning of gardener for Beth

Socks and vest

Okay, so the formatting in the previous post is totally wild!  I think it put all the text in the caption box for the photo?  I don't know how that happened.

Anyhow...

I have been working on the socks more than the vest, and I'm at the toe of the second sock, so I've picked the vest back up.  I am catching back up after my error, and then I made another error.  Alas!  I only had to undo four rows and then I could start back up again.  Not too bad.  I think I've already recovered what I lost.

Can you spot the mistake?

There's been a lot of stuff going on recently, none of it bad, I just feel really busy.  

During the storage space clearing out process back in October it made me think - at no point after I was dropped off at college did my parents help me move.  Now, in my peer group, we help our kids move all the time.  Is this a good thing?  I don't know.    I think my kids are, for the most part, pretty self-reliant, but then sometimes I think they are not as independent as I think I was at their ages.  It is very interesting to think about.

Good news from Smallest - the tutor is helping.  Good results on the latest test, and understanding is increasing overall.  Passing is possible!

I have been reading a book recommended by Dad, The Power of Habit.  It's actually quite cool, and it makes me want to experiment on Dad.  It's a quick read, only 286 pages long, and I'm in the 70s.  I might finish it by the end of the weekend.  Let me know if you read it.  I'll start thinking about experiments.  I'll see if John has read it too.

So, back to projects!

I need to figure out yarn for the hood-thing for Middle.  I don't think it will take long to make?  It would be great if I could get it done by Thanksgiving as an early present, but seeing as how that's two weeks away, I don't think that's a realistic goal.  Alas.  Oooh!  We can pick the yarn while Middle is here for Thanksgiving.  That would be better.

I have just noticed that you've updated your projects!  I'll see if I can update mine, but I think only you can do that?

I have two Santa cross stitch projects to finish.  Maybe I can work on those in January.  I really need to ride the bus to work.  Maybe 2026 will be my year of riding the bus?  

I've downloaded the pattern for your v2 sweater, so we need to check measurements and then I will begin!

Margie

Better to have a birthday than not!

Something is really crazy with the formatting, so I apologize!  It won't let me left justify!

Look at how cute those flowers are! Well done. I like the tiny people for the pencil cases also, and how satisfying to find the missing book.

 I can't believe October ends today! Where did the month go? 

I made a mistake in reading the pattern of the vest, so I had to rip back several inches. Alas. I have been working on socks instead, but I need to go back to the vest so that it will get done. 

 I have been slow to finish this post!

I like your fancy lady!

We are in the midst of preparing an NSF proposal, and I have another irritating professor to work with. He is the one I complained to you about - he is too important to be responsible. I think now he might just be too busy to be responsible, but he also tends to walk through the world creating fires that he has other people put out. He is exceptionally smart, and can be exceptionally irritating. To his credit, he does thank me and has expressed his desire to hire me away from Rice, or clone me because I am good at resolving issues. So now there's the Man-Baby, and this guy. Sigh. 

 I still need to come and visit soon. Maybe early in December? We submit the grant Nov 21, and then it's Thanksgiving, so I will be free after that. My college roommate, Tina, has invited me to come stay with her when she goes to their place in Winter Park in February, and I am thinking I will do that, so I will definitely stop in and say hello then! 

 What else... We cleared out The Boy's storage unit. That's $134/month that he won't be paying anymore. Very satisfying. I sold several things for cheap, and then we donated the bed frame, mattress, and a loveseat. Good to get rid of it all. The only thing left is a microwave, and I think I have someone picking that up tonight. Now it's time to start cleaning the house in prep for Thanksgiving, and for checking on the vegan recipes I have to plan for Middle's SO joining us. 

 Jeff is redoing the tile around our fireplace. He has discovered that it is not square, and it is causing much agitation. I am glad that he is in charge of that. 

 Oh! Smallest dropped her Physics class and has found a local tutor for Calculus. Things were not going well. I had suggested that she drop them both, but she had to get permission to take Calculus again (this is her third time?) so she really didn't want to drop it. I am really glad she's found a local tutor. 

 Both of the classes were online, and they weren't live lectures, and she couldn't attend the tutorial sessions because of time conflicts, so they were really hard to begin with. I can't imagine taking 95% of my classes online. Barf-rageous! Middle took some of their classes online during Covid and that was awful. Some of Smallest's HS classes were online, but she got to go back in person in the fall of 2020, so it wasn't so bad for her. 

 Anyhow, I'm glad she got the tutor and we will all be happy if she passes the class. She thinks that it is possible so I am hopeful. She is very determined. 

 I am still working on the socks and the vest. I'm on the foot of the second sock now, so the end is in sight. I did discover a big mistake in the first sock. It would require re-knitting the whole sock to correct, so I think I'll just leave it. It's a feature, not a bug, right? Here is a silly for you!

Lady in green

I finished the fancy lady and started the Loch Ness monsters! I think the monster on the left looks like it has a little sweater on. I hope the other one doesn’t get jealous!

- Catherine 

Flowers finito!

Well, as I suspected, I finished the flowers on the flights to my destination. However, they did take longer than expected - many hours yet to finish the last two blocks, so I'm glad I took it. See? Now I just need to clean it and take it to be framed. 

I had also taken a few smaller designs that I wanted to start, and was able to nearly finish 4 of them! I could have finished them all except there was some white thread that I thought wouldn't show up well on white fabric, and I knew I had a sparkly thread at home that would be a good complement (a byproduct of the bugs for John, actually). So I finished those in the first meeting where I didn't have to be on camera. Ta da!

Now I am working on a girl in a green dress, of similar size, and have several others lined up behind. My goal is to make more pencil cases for Christmas presents, as well as some embroidered handkerchiefs. I also ordered more silly fabric for my team at work, to give them new little bags (and, for the guy who started in May, his first). 

The last fun thing is that I found a book of cross-stitch patterns that I had been looking for without success, yay! There were two people that I had picked a little pattern for but I wasn't really satisfied with those choices - hopefully this book will help me find something more appropriate.  

The last not fun thing is that I somehow hurt my hand this morning trying to open a jam jar. What the heck?? I do not love this middle age thing. :P

- Catherine

Packing puzzles

I am packing for a big trip and trying to decide what to take for projects. Due to my pencil case plans, I have a lot of smaller designs I want to make, which is fun, but also means there are many books and pieces of fabric and colors of thread to deal with. Probably too much to carry? Perhaps I will see how much space all my clothes and such take up, and maybe that will help me control myself.

I am also debating whether to take the flowers - the extra motivation definitely helped, such that I am nearly done (see? Only the top left and big red flower leaves in the top row are left). But now I'm so close to done that it feels stupid to take it. However, I'm probably also underestimating how much more work is needed to finish. Argh.

I'm also a little grumpy because I had wanted to cut out white hexagons before this trip so I could spend time sewing those, but didn't make it happen. Blah.

Happy birthday to Jeff. :) I'm glad he ended the day on a less grumpy note. It would be nice if we just stopped getting older! 

- Catherine

Birthdays

Well, yesterday was Jeff's 60th birthday. He has been grumpy about his birthday all year. When I suggested that we see if his daughters could come in, he didn't want to do that. When I offered to organize a get-together with his high school friends, he didn't want to do that. If sitting alone in a dark room was an option, I think he would have enjoyed that. Instead, we skipped church and went for a walk in a different neighborhood than ours. Then we went to look for tile for a fireplace project, and that was fun. After that, we dorked around at home and his younger brother called to invite us out for dinner, so we went to dinner with them and that was great fun. They brought cake as well, and he was much less grumpy. Both of his girls called, and my kids texted, and there were limited presents, which he wanted, and I think the day ended on a better note than it started.

It was great to talk with you both last night also, and fun to hear that I'm not the only one that thinks I am younger than I am. It was wild to talk about The Boy turning 27 this year, and other kids in the family getting older. Jeff's older daughter is 28 and her husband (I think) is 30. How is it possible? Here is The Boy when he was smaller, which is clearly how old he really should be!

We haven't been watching a lot of TV lately, but I have managed to get a couple of rows in on the vest. I really need to start riding the bus so I can knit during my commute. Here's the update:

Other than that, things are good. The front stair project is never-ending. We need some different side rails, and the place that makes them is relocating next month, so it might be two months before the product would be available. Do we wait that long? Hard to say. Maybe we can put up something temporary over the open gap on the side while we wait. On the plus side, they have pretty lights? I did cut quilt pieces yesterday, and I do think I'll have enough to make two quilts. Ginny did not approve. Now the question is, do I make one for Smallest as well as the baby, or do I make one for another baby coming this fall? I do have another quilt top waiting to be finished, so that one could be for the second baby. Smallest might like a lap quilt? Maybe I'll piece it and then ask her.

Give Nairo lots of love before you have to leave again! Margie