Biscuit needs a jacket

Poor Biscuit, I had his hair trimmed short because it was hot out and it turned cold again. Yesterday I found a cute doggie vest pattern so printed it out but in the afternoon it warmed up and we went out in the yard, it was fine out there. Today is another story. The wind is chilly. Poor guy needed that jacket. So this morning I went ahead and sewed it up. I think its cute but it is almost too small.

I couldn't find my velcro because it was packed in one of the many boxes in the loft. So I ended up finding the black strips and used them but really I need to get some of those nice little round white velcro button-things. Couldn't find the foot pedal for the sewing machine. After all that was found, I did the embroidery on the outer layer and then had to take the poor dog out without his vest because he hadn't been outside yet.

I fed him lunch, had my lunch, took him for a walk and then came back in to work on the vest. Its lined with polar fleece, probably about 200 weight (you know, the stuff they make baby blankets out of) The outer layer is fluffier polar fleece, at least 300 weight. It didn't really have to be lined and I thought about getting out the serger and doing a blanket stitch edge around it. I still want to do that but maybe next time. I just didn't feel like digging out the serger, looking for the manual in case I had to rethread it--this moving is for the birds.

After all that, I tried his vest on and it fits but could be a big larger so I'm going to make myself another pattern and throw out the original. I really wanted to make it out of sewer paper first just to make sure it fit but I couldn't find that either.

The design is from a set called Ole Shep from Elizabeth's Embroidery http://www.elizabethsembroideries.com/ Actually there was supposed to be gray and more black in the design but but Maltese are white so Biscuit's design had to be mainly white with creamy white shadows and a very light gray. I love these dog designs.

The vest pattern came from
http://www.sewing.circleofcrafters.com/freepetvestpattern.html Have a look at the web site, the sample they put on their dog was really cute, they used a red plaid wool. I might have to do that when I move to Wisconsin and poor Biscuit thinks we went to the North Pole. It will have to be longer for him there too. In fact, I could probably knit a piece of fabric and felt it, then cut it to the pattern shape and I'm thinking that would make a super little coat for him. How I wish my stuff wasn't all packed up!!!

KnitPicks Sampler

Yaaay, my KnitPicks sampler came today. 6 balls of yarn and 4 free patterns to try out the yarn. I ordered their Georgian Sampler because I felt like it was Spring colors although I was tempted with the Winter colors too. Here's what I got: Crayon, light blue; Shine Worsted, Cream Brulee(gold); Cotlin, Kohlrabi (green); Shine Sport, Cream; Main Line, Butter Pecan; Comfy, Flamingo.

I have wanted to try their Cotlin for a while now and the Shine Sport (60% Pima Cotton, 40% Model (what's Model?)..anyway it looks like I'm going to like it actually better than the Shine worsted. Got 4 free patterns with them to try, I like the lace cap but not sure about the Morning Glory purse. Ruffled Wristwarmers would be fun to wear to the Mill. I felt like this was a pretty good bargain for $14.99, the total with shipping was $17-something.

I also got a newsletter today from Debbie Macomber, my favorite author at present. (visit Debbie at http://www.debbiemacomber.com/). She writes stories that often include knitting. Her latest book is Twenty Wishes, and its all about Blossom Street. The stories about Blossom Street revolve around a knit shop. Oh gosh, this book sounds good, the women could be me. Its about 4 widows of varying ages who form an informal support group. They decide to compile list of Twenty Wishes--things they've always wanted to do but never did. Doggone it, I wish I could meet 4 widows who would do that. She sent a knit pattern for a shawl with the newsletter and a coupon for $2.00 off the book. Would you believe she started the newsletter with "Dear Friends and Fellow Yarn Lovers... (no wonder I love this author).

Sorrow

photo from my son's photo album

http://www.mikesphotoshop.com/

I have just lost a wonderful and true friend, Steve Stancell. I met Steve almost 48 years ago when my husband and I were visiting family in South Carolina. As our family ran around the country with the Air Force, my husband kept in touch with Steve through my BIL, Roy. Roy and Steve were as close as brothers and my husband always went to visit Steve when he would come home to visit family. He and his wife, Jane, helped me so much when Howard passed away last year.

I know in my heart that Steve and Howard are together right now in Heaven. Howard is showing Steve around and they are reminiscing about the fun they had hunting, fishing and hanging out. The two of them will look down on me and Steve's wife, Jane and keep their eyes on us as we work through our respective grief. I'm going to try to remember the good times we had with Steve. He had an impact on our entire family, I know my kids remember Steve as fondly as I do Steve was like a brother to me, and as close as a distant uncle to them.

Michael Stephen Stancell, 57 husband of Jayne Stancell and father of Robbie Stancell of Central died Saturday, April 26, 2008. Born in Central, he was a son of the late Eddie Benjamin and Pauline McJunkin Stancell.

"There is no problem, I tell you,no
matter how difficult it is, that we cannot resolve by the prayer of the Holy Rosary."

Our lady of Fatima, 1917

Holy Mary, Mother of God Pray for us sinners now,
and at the hour of our death.

There you have it, the 2 sides of washed fair isle. I did try pulling it apart and its not coming apart although I didn't try real hard. This is a hat and I think needle felting it might even make it a little warmer since its adding some fuzzy stuff to the inside. Maybe I'm wrong and I'll never know because it doesn't fit me, its the cement goose's hat

Well I suggest after this experiment, if you do something in fair isle, maybe you should try this on the swatch first. It didn't hurt my hat on the front, or the back, but this is only one piece. I do know Charlene Shafer suggested it originally in one of her newsletters and in one of her afghan books and I think its a great idea. As a reminder, I started it with a single needle and ended up buying a Clover Tool which is much faster to use for this sort of project.

Needle Felting Fair Isle Floats

OK, it was emailed to me that it is possible to contain floats in a fair isle design by needle felting them. Of course, thinking about it, you'd have to needle felt from the front so that the fuzziness of felting would land on the inside (where the floats are). I tried it on a hat that I once made for Goosie Porter (my cement goose). I just did a little area, after all I just wanted to know if it would work. The hat has about 5 white stitches and then a red stitch, 5 more white and a red so each white square is bordered with red. Actually the floats on this design aren't all that bad anyway but it was all I had unless I wanted to get out the machine and make something (not a good idea when I'm in the middle of packing. The hat was made out of 100% acrylic. Here's the front, the felting was done on the left side. This is the front AFTER I did the needle felting. Click on it to see the close up.

Here's the back and you can definitely see the area I needle felted (you can also see where it is in relation to the seam so you can really compare the 2. The question arose on the MKEmbroidery group, what happens after you wash the felted piece? Well--I'm washing it now and I'll post a picture when its dry. I'll also try pulling the fuzzies back to the front, it was mentioned on the group that you can "un-felt" by pulling the fuzzies back out the way they went in (pulling from the front). So we'll see.

Where Have I Been?

I've been training Biscuit to live in a crate when I'm not home (he hates it) and sitting in the car with him for about 30 minutes twice a day trying to get him over his phobia of riding in the car. Poor thing got so sick the first couple days I had him, all my visions of riding around the world with him vanished. Well---for the time being anyway.

We now sit in the car and talk. I sometimes sing, accompanying the radio, to him--they say dogs love their masters no matter what so I'm sure he doesn't mind my singing. We have graduated this week to starting the car and me driving forward and backward up and down our short driveway. That makes him so nervous that he won't even take a "good Boy" treat. When we get out of the car I try to make the whole thing fun by letting him roam around the yard a bit, smelling everything to make sure nothing has changed while we were on our 30 minute journey.

When I'm not sitting in the car feeling like an idiot when someone goes by I've been cleaning out the cupboards in the loft. All I've found were an old pair of my husband's boots and a collection of little ducks that I once thought were sooooo cute and now wonder why I thought that. I'm keeping them though, I'm thinking they would make great models for needle felting.

I've thrown out 7 bags of shredded paper, carefully camouflaged in 2 layers of garbage bags. I took them to the recycle center and tossed them in household garbage rather than paper, because I had visions of a criminal carefully taping the shredded stuff back together to get my credit card or social security number....ok, so I have an avid imagination!!!

Hopefully I'll finish all the cleaning this week and I can get back to what I really want to do--embroider Biscuit a new blanket, needlefelt one of those ducks, finish knitting the sweater I started last winter, so that I'll have it for next winter when hopefully I'll be moving to Wisconsin where its considerably colder than South Carolina. Then I also have a shawl on the LK 150 that I really want to finish so I can get something else on it. In fact if I would hurry up and finish it I could put the HK sweater on it and finish that. I think that's the first project I'm going to do next week AFTER I finish the loft this week.

Why is it that life has to get in the way of fun? Confucius says: It does not matter how slowly you go so long as you do not stop. OK Confucius, I'll stick with the job this week!!! Can't promise I'll keep it up next week though.

Felted Foursome Put To Work

Today I decided to round up my spindles and store them in the Felted Foursome. Now that I found the spindles, I see I need to search the loft for the rest of them and of course buy more to make the Foursome REALLY look good. I can't think of a better excuse to buy a decorative spindle.

I did put my rolled up double needle holder in too but I think I'd love this handy thing if it was filled with spindles. I may stop by the hobby store and get a couple wheels and make a couple for myself as well.