Rolling with My Homies

Today I hung with my old ladies. We had our Valentine's Day party, but I have to say their hearts weren't in it. Where were the outrageous themed sweaters of the Christmas party? The vim they put into whipping up fancy desserts? I guess they're tired out from all the snow. (Some of them are out there chopping the ice out of their driveways, god bless them.) We were one member short today. One of my friends--let's just call her the other liberal*--had a cancer return, and she had surgery Tuesday. They think they got it all, but she's got a fair amount of  rehab to do. Keep her in your thoughts; she's a good egg. Politics aside, she buys all of Louise Erdrich's and Michael Doris's books at used bookstores--even ones she already has--because she wants them to have a good home. And she searched the riot of books at the library book sale for the third part of the Dos Passos trilogy because she didn't think it should be sold separately to the unawares. Love her! Anyway, send good healing thoughts toward Thomas Jefferson University Hospital.

But my nemesis! People, I know portraying myself as the Stitch Bitch and being a little cranky occasionally may suggest I am the type to have a nemesis, but honestly, I am not. People like me. I'm like a little Sally Field (or more likely a big one). It's impossible to say this without undermining the veracity of the statement but I am charming in real life. Anyway, today I overheard my nemesis ask the woman sitting next to her if she ever "disliked someone so intensely." The very nice woman said, "Of course, but you don't mean anyone in this room?" Nemesis made a strange nod of her head and VNW said, "really, someone here?" Now I am not taking credit for being disliked intensely. No, there are definitely a couple of other people in the running. I think she doesn't like my neighbor who tells the same stories every week in a sort of spiraling loop with a new story being added weekly for variety. But mostly the same stories. Nemesis seems to have very little regard for these spiralling stories, but our storyteller is very nice to Nemesis, so is clearly seething with venom underneath. (She actually doesn't strike me as the venomous type.) When Nemesis told us it was VNW's birthday yesterday, someone** mentioned it was George Stephanopoulos's birthday yesterday too because she wanted to tell us how crazy his wife seems when she does her GMA appearances for George's birthday. But Nemesis said, "Why am I supposed to care?" You can see she is not charming in real life. 


But she could mean me.


So you can see why I love your comments. Your notes that not only forgive me for being Dr. Johnson (not a good thing) but encourage me to be! (I shall visit his house next time we're in London.) Ones that declare your love for me. (Seriously! Love!) You even want to join my family, if not for the names, then for Maggie***. (Oh you say that now, but wait...just wait.) Anyway, thank you for allowing me to confirm that I am not universally intensely disliked. 


No sooner did I list my goals for February than I picked up Winter Peace. I am short one floss color {Sugar Plum} so I won't be able to finish it any time soon (the local shops seem to be out). Instead, I picked up Screamy Mimi which is on the list. And thus order has returned to my life. 


Order and rainbows and unicorns. Thanks.


*She's always bringing me political cartoons that she gets a huge kick out of, but none of the other ladies enjoy them half so much.
**She doesn't have much of a life since she lost her job, also two years ago. She tells us about what she watches on teevee. Harmless and occasionally interesting if mostly because I can hear about George Stephanopoulos's crazy wife without having to watch GMA.
**Maggie is also a Marguerite, Melissa D.

Sparkle Plenty

I have been so horrible about opalescent fabric. I may not have told you I wasn't crazy about the project you did on it, but I thought it. Oh, I thought it.

And when I was at Stitcher's Paradise... I bought some. For the two Vegas patterns. It seemed completely natural. And now we learn why we never say never--and never make fun of people to their faces. Oh sure, you think you'll never wear the latest trend or stitch on opalescent fabric, and the next thing you know, you look like Britney Spears (only with covered lady parts) or are holding a piece of Picture This Plus Crystal Fog.

I realize I didn't tell you very much about the store. For a smallish shop, they have a ton of stitched models. And they really love monsterbubbles because I've never seen so many of her patterns stitched up in one place. They're so great. They also had a couple of really unique finishing techniques which I asked permission to photograph. But I didn't say, "I'd like to photograph them so I can pop 'em up on my blog," so you'll have to settle for my descriptions. Unless someone from the store writes to me and gives me permission to post them. Both were smallish pieces (4x4 or 5x5) finished as wall hangings. On one, a fringe of ribbon was hanging from the bottom all the way across (all different color ribbons, probably 5 inches in length). The other one had a similar fringe, but it was made from whole skeins of floss. Twenty two of them--I counted just for you. It looked like bullion fringe. So beautiful. And not cheap. That floss was overdyed. Wowza, what an effect.

Last, but not least, hanging in a corner near the front of the store was Tall Flowers. People, I am just going to have to sit myself down and backstitch because we were wrong. I've seen it in person and it needs the backstitch.

Aren't you glad I went? If you ever find yourself in Vegas, go. It's worth the trip. But try to carpool; the round trip taxi fare from Caesars was $45. (I do have the number of a cab driver who knows where it is, if you need that...)

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.