A Happy Weekend

Having posted my massive list of unfinished/unstarted projects I was (as I had hoped) lured into working on some of them. Admitedly the ones which I either really wanted to start or were very close to being finished but nevertheless I have now done 4 of the 26 and worked on two more.

On Friday I make my Project Spectrum Postcard for this month (no piccies until Janette my swap has actually got it or it will spoil the suprise).

On Saturday I finished the right front of the baby cardigan (it's white - doesn't merit a picture) and I go the needles and started the Interweave Knits lace trellis scarf (more on that later).

Yesterday the lovely husband had a hockey competition all day (he came second) and as it was grey and drizzly I installed myself in my study with a fair number of Reese's mini peanut butter cups (remnant of trip to US) and the following projects.

Project number 1 to grace the finish line was this:


It is the cross stitch cushion which was waiting to be made into a cushion finally finished. I finished the cross stitch several years ago and it's been sitting around ever since.

The pattern is very pretty and what you can't see in the picture is that the little blue flowers are outlined in silver backstitch. That was the only modification I made to a pattern which appeared in Cross Stitcher in November 1998!!!!!

Yes, I must admit that this project has been sitting around unfinished for a while. It has been waiting to be made up for 5-6 years (ouch!). I know this for two reasons. One: I can't recall doing the cross stitch in any of my last 4 houses, and two: the backing fabric (and border fabric) is lining fabric which matches the colour beautifully but is a nightmare to sew with, therefore I bought it while still a student.

It took me only a couple of hours to finish this, poor cushion, why did I abandon you for so long (cushion: "because you didn't have a sewing machine, because you had forgotten I existed, and because of the lining fabric as backing thing", Carie: "fair point".)

All this leads us to project number 2, and having had such success with project number one I was inspired to try making up the other cushion in waiting. This was a little bit more trixy as it was a tapestry I did and tapestry requires blocking just as knitting does. I don't have a proper blocking board (big hint to lovely husband for next birthday) but I happily improvised with a cardboard box, stretched it out, damped it down and prepared to wait the potential two days for it to dry. I think as I only sprayed the canvas with water rather than dunked it under Niagra Falls this helped speed up the drying process and it was dry enough to make up after lunch. Ladies and Gentlemen I present to you, FO number two: The Fuscia Tapestry Herb Cushion:

It has Pot Pouri sprinkled into the wadding so it smells lovely and the Fuscia is not quite such a violent pink as in the picture but is in fact a lovely dusky rose colour. It is quite a small cushion - I suspect the formal Martha Stewart term would be that it is a scatter cushion not a go to sleep on type cushion. It's from a kit by Cleopatra's Needle and I suspect also dates from 1998 (that's the copyright date printed on the canvas anyway!)

GRAND APOLOGY TO CUSHIONS

Dear cushions. You are both beautiful and both much loved as WIPs and now as FOs. Welcome to the world of madness (and bizarre mismatched colours) that is Carie and Husband's house. I am sorry for neglecting you for about 6 years.

On the point of the colour scheme, anyone reading this must think I have the most insanely eclectic house out. The answer comes from the neglected for 6 years element of these projects. When I made both of these cushions I was a student. Student decor (in Oxford anyway) comes in one of three colours: Student colour A (grubby cream), B (grubby ivory/white) and C (grubby pink). Nothing goes with these colours so the only way to make your rooms look nice is to pack in as many loud colours as possible to distract the eye. Both cushions will now join some friends in our conservatory which has lots of mismatched but beautiful cushions in it.

And still the day went on. Inspired by this bout of finishing-itis I grasped the nettle and unfinished an FO. Yes the sad sock is now a ball of multicoloured wool and a hank of very nice red debbie bliss aran wrapped around a chair. It's always a little sad undoing something that took so long to do but I know it is the right thing to do when you will never wear the item and never make it's second sock.

At this point lovely husband was still wearing himself out on a hockey pitch so I cast about for another close to finished to just tidy up the loose ends on. When I went to Stitch and Craft 2005 I was very taken with one of the canvaswork projects so I got a kit and set to. I think it hit the wall when we moved house in May 2005 and got tidied into a box. When we moved again in November 2005 it came out of the box and yesterday I finished it. Ta da!

It's called Surf and Sand by Northern Pine Designs and it's counted canvaswork. It reminds me of the beach at low tide when you get those little rippling ridges in the sand and very gentle waves that just lap at the shore.

I think I will struggle to repeat such a crafty day any time soon but it was great fun - I rounded off with a bit more knitting on the IK trellis scarf et voila!

It is a spectacularly bad photograph but it does show the start of the trellis nicely. I have done the 18 row border and the first two rows of the lace repeat. The lace repeat includes the challenging stitch knit 7 together - seriously how do you do that easily!!! I have taken to counting the seven stitches onto my needle by lifting them on with a pin but I'm becoming increasingly tempted to sharpen my bamboo needles in a pencil sharpner to get better point. I will have to consult Knitty as to the best needles for lace knitting.

Hope everyone else had a good weekend! <><