In fact I asked Sara to contact Cathy and ask her what fabric she used and the fibers so I can take them to Nashville and start right away. I should have the stitching finished by the time I get home and then I hope I'll finish the construction right away. And then yesterday I saw the new Brenda Gervais and , again, OMG, count me in on this one as well. I just knew she'd design something for the oval boxes, again, so cute. Filled with Easter Candy or a special Easter gift, just perfect for that special someone, if only I had a grand daughter. I can just image my grandsons if I gave them this. Although I've taught everyone of them to stitch and two of them can knit (not that they'd admit it), so I guess grand sons might like it as well, especially loaded with candy or money.
I've already stitched the Christmas, "Jingle All The Way," and the Halloween, "Spirits and Spells" boxes and now she has designed, "Here a Peep, There a Peep" so I've pulled the linen and fibers and plan to stitch that while I'm in Nashville. One would wonder why I've packed about 15 charts w/fabric, fibers, etc., to take with me, when I'm already stitching these two things, well a gal has to have choices. However, to be honest, I couldn't even zipper the project travel bag closed so I started taking some out of my bag last night just so I could close it. I mean how much can I possible stitch in just 7 days? I can finish a small piece done on 18 ct. on the way down and another on the way back normally, but when I'm in Nashville I'm busy ticketing the merchandise every night, etc., but one must be prepared at all times, right. Sara also has me taking a project we both stitch with me which I took last year as well, because once again she swears we are going to finish assembling it. I frankly think the project will just enjoy a nice ride and arrive back home in the same state it went down there in. And God forbid I should not have plenty of choices. Oh No, well now I do have a problem. Today I brought in a knitting project to discuss yarn with Sara. This is a project I saw sometime this summer on the internet and just loved it. I've stayed away from knitting because I do the stitching of models and that keeps me busy, but I just had to have this wrap. It's called the Guernsey Wrap and is a fisherman inspired textured wrap. I taught myself to knit in my 20's and the first thing I did was a fisherman inspired afghan. I loved that afghan and eventually wore it out. But I learned so much about knitting, cables, etc that this wrap just sang to me. I thought I'd have trouble getting enough yarn to do it here as I wanted to use DK yarn, but Sara just went in the back and out she came with 12 skeins of DK weight yarn in that cream color, so I guess it's going to Nashville as well. Although Sara says I have to fit everything into one bag which right now is not possible, but I figure if I put it under a seat perhaps she won't notice it until we are on our way. This may put off the schedule of stitching though....I don't know now what I'm going to accomplish, knitting, cross stitch, well it's just a crap shoot. But I'm sure going to have fun deciding. This week is disappointing because I've finished nothing. I did pull out some projects that were started and stuffed away and I've been working on one such piece started last year, an Erica Michael's 40 ct. gauze piece....backgrounds take forever--but I'm determined to finish this strawberry, it's called Honey Berry, as I love these gauze pieces and have several to do, plus I'm terribly fond of the strawberry ones, so this is a double winner, strawberry and gauze. Now if I could just get it done. I'm over 1/2 there so fingers crossed I'll have it finished by Nashville (oh, yes it's going too.) Well, it's now Sunday so I've had 2 days of yarn balls in front of me so of course, stitching ended and knitting began. I had a tough start, first I had to remember the long tail cast on. I had to teach someone that cast on this past summer so it hadn't been that long and I finally remembered and off I went. I got the first 6 rows of garter stitch done in no time at all and thought, well I guess I can get this wrap done in no time at all, although with 82 stitches on the needles and the finished length of 77 " I knew it wouldn't get done overnight but I plunged in headfirst with a smile on my face. That smile was erased at 10:30 p.m. night 1. I had already started over once, ripped out the design part approx. 4 times and reknit it everytime but on row 6 of the pattern I just couldn't come out with the right amount of stitches. I counted the stitches on the needle and it was correct each time but I was always 1 stitch short. I have never followed a chart like this, which seemed upside down to me. The first rip out was due to the fact I was reading the pattern from the top line and the 1st line of the pattern was at the bottom of the page. You stitch starting from the right side of the pattern on odd row numbers and knit from left to right on even number rows. There are actually 3 different pattern charts being used, one after the other, and each line has 5 or 6 repeats so going into this it was a bit daunting for someone who never read a pattern before. I can follow knitting directions, but that is not what a pattern is. After several rip outs and the clock saying 10:30 I decided to end it and go to bed. But at 5:30 a.m. I entered the knitting arena armed for battle. I had my paper and a pen and I was going to write out the pattern including all the repeats to make sure I got line 6 correct. By the time I left for work I had stitched 20 rows and the pattern was showing and I was patting myself on the back. So day 3 has loomed and I am now over half way through Chart A, working with a second ball of yarn and I have to say I do enjoy it. So different from the counted work. But I started the 50th row and got distracted and now I feel another rip out is on the horizon so I've stopped until I get home where there are no distractions. I felt so guilty last night for knitting that I made myself stitch on sometime (I chose one of the easy new pieces I had intended to stitch in the car.) I'm halfway through it and think it's going to make a cute stand up. I took another look at all that's in the bag and think perhaps I've overshot the reality of time in Nashville. I tried to edit it down, but by morning was reloading them again. I'm thinking of taking a bigger suitcase and stuffing it with needlework and clothes, I mean really what's more important...needlework surely! I've pulled all the fibers for everything I'm taking, and today I'm cutting the last 3 pieces of linen and then I'm done....with the planning, now to execute my stitching schedule. I may not have the time to attend the market...uh, oh. Well my intentions are good anyway. As my mother always said, "the road to hell is paved with good intentions" and she may have been right...I'll let you know . Have a great week and I'll try to post in Nashville, but I've noticed in the past that hasn't been too successful. But again, I intend to. (I can hear mother's laugh all the way from heaven.)
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