I'm trying to be productive today, I really am. It's a Saturday morning and what am I doing? Going to have some bloodwork done that I was supposed to do before my physical in March. I've been either sick, busy, or forgotten until now, since I have to fast the night before and I tend to be a night owl. Just routine checkup stuff, like cholesterol. Then it's off to COmcast to return the cable box and modem. I switched to RCN two weeks ago and I've gotten 3 prerecorded phone messages about returning my box. Sheeh! I'm going already!

On the craft front, I've now cast on three times for the Lace Ribbon Scarf, and I thnk I've got it. The first time was when I was still working on the baby gifts, and I wanted to have a new project to carry around. Part of the cast on got stretched out, and it still bothered me 4 rows in so I ripped it out last night. Cast on again, went along merrily, and realized that my cast on was waaay too tight. RIP. Now I have 8 rows, can see the pattern emerging, and the yarn is even getting soft. Amazing! I'm using Plymouth Yarn's Sockotta, which I bought a year ago for socks, I think. Now that I've started this scarf I have found a sock pattern I want to try this year, but it needs a self-patterning yarn that makes a clearer stripe pattern so the stitches will show up better. Broadripple by Rob Matyska

I thought that I would spend this entire week cross stitching, since I felt I needed a break from knitting after cranking out baby gifts one after the other. Don't get me wrong; I enjoyed making them. I would think about the parent(s) and baby to be and try put my love into the piece. It all turned out beautifully and is posted on my Ravelry, and I've put the finished pictues below. I did end up working on a hibernating cross stich, the 18th Century Band Sampler (or Long Dog Mystery Sampler). I really like the colors in this piece, and someday I'll get this one finished and framed. I'll post a picture this weekend.

Starting a new sampler

I started my first cross stitch sampler recently, and I've realized that it's much hard to keep your place than on a regular design. I have just spent an evening unpicking a single stitch border. No fun. Apparently in the repeating pattern I missed a stitch, and so half the work I had done needed to be undone. Now I'm back at the place where I messed up, but I think I'll take a break and start something new.

In April I discovered The Gift of Stitching, an online magazine for cross stitchers and had to subscribe right away. One of the features of the magazine is publshing a sampler in parts, a 'mystery sampler'. Well, The 18th Century Band Sampler by Long Dog Samplers was their 4 part myster sampler. I dicovered it at Part 3, and decided to take this one on. Now I finally have all the items I ned to start, and I've stitched the edges of the fabric with my handy dandy new Stitch Pro tabletop sewing machine (bought it for $30 on Amazon).

Resisting Temptation

Why does it take all of my strength lately to resist buying more cross stitch supplies?

I have just started a gift project, and received the supply order I placed last week for the threads and fabric to start the 18th Century Mystery Sampler in The Gift of Stitching, but i want more. I also have some other WIPs, and the freebie kits that came with my last few issues of The Cross Stitcher UK.

Right now I'm looking at the it designed by Sheila Hudson, a vase of anemones. It's very pretty and comes with yellow aida cloth, the threads (presorted), and a needle even! Why do I think i need more projects to work on? More fabric? More threads? I also feel like I need more hoops for holding my work, but I have a tendency to want to leave pieces stretched. I know that's not good, that it'll mark the fabric, so I'm trying to avoid getting more hoops. That way, I can have a max of 3 projects stretched at once, and if I want to switch to something else, I have to take one out of the hoop. That's good isn't it?