I got nothin'

The sweet pea is going well. It should go very quickly if I can keep at it with any regularity.

While reading through other blogs today, I learned that I am Victor Hugo's Les Miserables and that my French is way better than the Google automatic translator's. At least the parts of the article that Angelsan directed us to that I understood could be translated into comprehensible English. Well, the graduate school does consider me fluent in French. (The joke's on them! I can read a magazine article, but I'd never get through any sort of academic work.)

Afghan Report

I have nearly completed the narcissus. All of the stitching is done, and I've begun some backstitching contrary to my earlier vow not to backstitch. There was so much white, it looked like a giant cloud on green shoots, so I put in a very little bit of backstitching. I have begun the Sweet Pea. No new pictures, unfortunately. I got a new computer at work today, and nearly all of the programs I used for creating web pages--Dreamweaver and the Kodak picture software--are on the old computer and need to be loaded on the new. It's a very frustrating transition. I've been here for five years and this is my third new computer. I'm not bragging--the first two computers were hopelessly outdated when they finally arrived. With any luck this one will last me. But back to the afghan...

I've received some DMCFT--thanks to the kind blog readers. What a wonderful interconnected world we have (okay, it is for me because I am white and middle class living in a first-world country, but I digress). I think I'll still require some DMCFT 2319, if you've got it. I am trading one gently used pattern from a rather lengthy list for the flower thread. Or money. That will work, but I know stitchers like prizes.

Since we're on the afghan report, I think I should update you on the dog, just in case you were worrying about her health. She's doing better and all reports of her imminent demise have been greatly exaggerated. Science shows she's got none of the horrible diseases for which the vet tested. But my mother isn't going to do the invite-everyone-she-knows-to-a-party thing. She wants to save money for the new summer house. But she does want my sister and me to be there for the big day. Even that, though, is up in the air because of some doings in my father's business. My mother is very changeable. She reacts very strongly to even small problems (I'll admit the two that I've reported aren't so small); I've never realized this before. Still, she deserves the afghan for getting old! :)

Real Time

In the movies, they hardly ever film in real time because real time is very boring. Imagine a character going to the doctor's office and waiting for the 40 or so minutes this sort of thing takes. You the viewer have to suffer along with them for 40 minutes. It can be effective depending on the subject matter, but, with all due respect to Larry David and Jerry Seinfeld, we watch stuff because it's about something. (I will cop to watching Seinfeld reruns several times a day.) I'm starting to feel like reading this blog is like watching me stitch the afghan in real time.

So I'm going to confine the afghan to Monday reports. That way you can skip Mondays if you feel like you're stitching the afghan in real time. Only without the glory.

I've recently updated my Stitcher's Pocket Inventory (affectionately known as The Geek Book, because you know you are a stitching geek when you can carry a record of every stitching supply you own). I've added some of the pages that I found at Stitcher's Organizer: a rotation page and "finished but not framed." I have created a rotation that will begin the day the afghan goes into my mother's hands.

Rotation:

Hearts and Flowers, Carriage House Designs

Noel Ornament, CA's Eclectic Collection

Eiffel Tower, JCS February 2002 (a new project! A wedding present for a friend, one year mark in May)

You are My Sunshine, Bent Creek (for a cousin's fetus due in May)

Fa La La ornament, Twisted Threads

Toy Gatherer, Shepherd's Bush

Geranium, JCS

Professor Fizzby's Freebee, Dimples Designs

Tulips, Nutmeg Needle

Roly Poly, Heart Strings with thread substitutions by Mimi Shaw

These will be added as others are finished based on the size of the project being rotated out: Itty Bitty Trio of Hearts, Twisted Threads; Hardanger Napkin Rings, Stella Berg; Williamsburg Doorway, Heart's Content; Alpine Garden—remind me this one has a mistake in the center square—Drawn Thread; Majestic Rooster, aka The Frickin' Chicken, Linda Gordanier Jary; Elizabethan Rose, Moss Creek; St. Basil's Cathedral, Dimples Designs; Enchanted Alphabet, Lavender and Lace; Pins and Needles Smalls, Lauren Sauer; Sunflower Smalls (I've decided to redo the scissors keep), Lauren Sauer; Beaded Sewing Pouch (I've looked at it again, and decided I liked it); Heart in Hand Monthly Mania (I've done January and August. I changed the January snowman's nose to a carrot, and I've got to redesign March entirely because that leprachaun creeps me out.)

So, yup, it's true. I have 21 projects on the go.

Bless the Blog Readers

I've received an offer of DMCFT 2469. We're in the middle of facilitating a trade. I am hopeful about the rest.

The French Have it Right

I enjoyed my extra day off; I'm wondering how come we can't have 30 hour work weeks in this country. You know you're slacking off at least 10 hours a week. I feel so much more ready for the upcoming week with an extra day's rest--and it's going to be a busy one!

I'm more than a little worried about the thread situation on the afghan. I seem to have seriously overestimated every thread color except 2890, 2319, 2320, and 2469. So I drove an hour out of the way on Saturday to swing by the last "L"NS that carries Flower Thread. I was fortunate enough to find the DMC 2890--and in the same dye lot. But I am going to be short of the others, especially 2319 and 2320. I suppose I could substitute 2500/2501/2502 because I have several extra skeins of those.

I'd also like to complain about just how unhelpful the women at the needlework store were. Now, I know they're not going to make a ton of money off of me buying 8 skeins of flower thread, but they don't know how much more money I might have spent if they had been nice. When I asked about conversion between the DMCFT and the other brands they had (Ginnie Thompson, which I am not fond of because it is nubbly, and Eva Rosenstand), the owner shouts, "Oh, you are not going to be able to find that," while she sat on her substantial ass. Well, there was a DMC to GT guide, but I'm not crazy about the GT. I was told, "you should just get the DMC equivalents and then try to match them." Well, duh. Except there were no good matches. If you know about a secret stash of DMCFT or a conversion chart between DMCFT and Eva Rosenstand, let me know. I did check the Counted Cross Stitch, Needlework, and Stitchery Page, but they just have DMC to GT and DMCFT to Danish Flower Thread, and Danish Flower Thread is now Ginnie Thompson Flower Thread. If you're looking for any of a variety of colors yourself and you have some 2319 and 2320 to trade, contact me: I'm looking for 2319 (dye lot 77540-28032), 2320 (dye lot 77540-28033) and 2469 (dye lot 077540-280537) but I'm not het up about matching dye lots because I should have enough for this square and then I can make decisions about the other two.

Progress pictures.

So. . . Much . . . New . . .Stuff

I know there are more Nashville Market Reports out there, but I've read my first one and there's so much great stuff! Check out Elegant Stitch's report. As you may recall, I when I am not stitching the afghan, I have my husband's anniversary present to work on (Carriage House Sampling's Hearts and Flowers). At first I thought it would be cute to follow the "traditional anniversary gifts": paper, cotton, etc. But now I think, why not stitch a little something for him every year? (Um, because I'm *still* stitching the present from last July?) I was inspired by Good Huswife's "I Thee Wed"; Sheepish Design's "Token of Love"; and the Trilogy's "Wedding Spots". At least they're all pretty small...

The afghan is rolling along. I took a picture on Monday night, but work's been busy, and I haven't had a chance to upload it. I might have time to manipulate the picture and put it up on Friday. At the very least, the picture is taken and the progress will be documented. I had hoped to get a lot more done on it this past weekend, but the s.o. has broken some toes and because he doesn't understand the concept of rest, he's put himself on crutches. This whole ordeal has kept him on the couch far too long, and he was getting difficult, so I took him to the Long Beach convention center, rented him a wheelchair, and took him around the L.A. Times Travel Show. At least two men told me what a great wife I was. (Just what I always wanted to be when I grew up! Squeal.) We had fun playing with people, and their ideas about disability, by telling them we had hiked around Alaska on our honeymoon. (You could see the wheels spinning.) It was sort of funny to watch people backpedal after they told us there was some great golf at their resort. People.

Shopping in my own closet

I've been looking all over the house for my Stitcher's Pocket Inventory recently, and I finally found it today in a backpack at the bottom of my closet. Surprisingly (or perhaps you will recognize this behavior), it was still packed much as it had been when I returned from Tulsa last March. Shockingly, I also found the stash I had purchased there: Heartstrings Roly-Poly Santa (with the fuzzy fibers The Silver Needle likes to substitute. . . mmmm, Very Velvet); Trilogy's Happy Bunny Bunny Day; Liberty Street Designs Rose Bunny: Sisters and Best Friends' Winter Peace; and Birds of a Feather's Scared Silly. There was also a grab bag of fabric. Additionally, the charms I had special ordered from my LNS for Sophie's and Peter's Stockings were in there. I hadn't been able to find them before I left for NH for Christmas where the stockings were to be hung, and as a result, my mother wouldn't hang them. I was wondering if I had ever ordered them. Good thing I found them because that would be a costly duplication. Now that the rest of my crafting stash is organized, I shouldn't have this sort of problem again. "Famous lost [sic] words," as mum says. Because I started Roly Poly Santa--did I mention I love stitching with Very Velvet? ;) --I have to add another project to my UFOs. File this one under "less than 30%". Does this put me back up to 19? Will I ever get ahead?

more photos

Here are the photos of the completed peony (without the backstitch) and the beginnings of the narcissus.

Peony complete

I finished the peony square during the Superbowl. (Yay, Pats!) I have begun the narcissus. There are larger blocks of color in this one, it's all very regular. I think it should go quickly. You'll find out whether it does or not here. Photos to come.