What a Little Sick Will Do...

I've been home sick for two days and so, instead of sleeping, I've been taking care of all the little life things that creep up on you when you're doing the working thing. If nothing else I feel mentally better for having dealt with items related to my professional society, the NYS department of taxation (*sigh*), banking and even some stitching!!

This morning I wrapped up a cute little project that's going to a shiny new person. I'm going to be working on another one soon (maybe later today). In the mean time I'm planning on organizing my crafts area a little more. So here it is:

Finishes Abound

They're all little finishes, but they're done :-). The first is a scarf the I designed - my first ever knitting design. Miss Thunder is modelling it. It's a double cable using roving...

And then I finished a little doodad I got from last year's stitching retreat. I was cleaning my crafts area and decided it was easier to just stitch it up rather than finding a place to store it...

And then I motivated to finish the stitching retreat sampler from last year the night before this year's retreat...

And of course the name tag for this year's retreat...

Currently I'm working on a gift for a friend - so I'm not going to post a photo of that.

This past weekend was the stitching retreat. It was a blast. Teresa Layman and Gretchen came again this year. Teresa gave a great presentation on the history and making of lace. We had a really nifty project from her that combined a number of different techniques. Here's the photo of it before:

And here are the photos of it after:

It was a ton of fun working on it. Now that the retreat is over I'm already wishing it was next year's retreat. What a blast we have!!! As usual I got a ton of things (you can see the charts on my pattern stash page. I won a couple of prizes, including one of the two gift baskets. Mine was a beach basket with a towel, flipflops, a cheesy romance novel, sunscreen (score!), chex mix, a can of iced tea and a spritzer bottle. The basket is gorgeous - I have a band that I'd like to stitch up for it. Oooh ton's of projects to work on. I better get to work!

New Knitting

I found some great fibers when I was in Canada last year. One of them was this odd velour-ish kind of texture. I picked up a patter to knit using it that had a lace style to it. I wasn't sure if I could pull it off, but it worked out beautifully:

I love how it came out and passed it onto a friend as a gift. The only thing I'm disappointed with in this fiber is that it snaps quite easily because it isn't very elastic.

I'm thrilled that I have a computer at home again with internet access and a new camera. I'm hoping to find a little time this weekend to go through my place and get photos of my WIPs and various things in states of being finished.

I've been working on a sewing machine craft to sell. I'm hoping to get that all finished in the next week or two so I can bring my little items with me to dog shows and other venues this spring. I'll post photos of that when it's ready to unveil.

I'm getting ready for this year's stitcher's retreat with my local shop. I got my name tag kit earlier this year and had been sitting on it for a while waiting for inspiration. The theme this year is Oceanside Tranquility. Last weekend my idea came to me. I had it charted and stitched in an afternoon :-). Now I'm waiting for my next thought bubble to decide how I want to finish it. A couple of years ago I copped out pretty badly on the name tag and it's been weighing on me badly since then. I'm amazed with the ideas people come up with - they're so gorgeous!!

Time for me to roll another yarn ball before hitting the pillow for the evening - happy stitching!