Tiny Needle Tuesday

 Mr. Corriedale is finished way ahead of schedule. He's the last of the sheep that are in the center of this sampler. What's left to do isn't that interesting I'm sad to say.

 The house is half done. The ground floor comes next. Lots of doors and windows, thank goodness. That red brick was making me crazy.

 I thought I had this tiny needle project done.

And then I took it outside to photograph and noticed I had skipped a place between two hexie flowers. It needs a few more inches of stitches and then I'll have to figure how to bind it. Daddio's voice is telling me he wants something bright like purple or turquoise but my head is telling me that there's already enough going on. I'm thinking pink.

The Majors and The Minors

 I've got two kinds of knitting projects going at the moment. Major ones like Lofoten where I have to use a small quilting ruler to keep my place. Norwegian stranded knitting isn't nearly as fun as Fair Isle. Those little repetitive peeries are a piece of cake compared to knitting giant snowflakes. There is just no sense to them.

 Tracery is another major project. I am using no less than three charts to get through one round. At least there is a method to the madness with this one. There is a 30 stitch repeat my brain can wrap itself around. Yippee.

 Thankfully I've also got a lot of minor things going on. The man socks are at the heel.

 I'm on the foot with these two.

And then there's poor Hawthorne dragging up the rear. I started this sock before any of the others and it's just been languishing in it's project bag. I don't know what's going on with me and Knit Pick's Hawthorne yarn but even in a fun color I just can't get excited about it.

An Early Crop

 The Sunflower blocks are addicting.

 I only intended to make one and the next thing I knew I had four. That's the whole top row. I've got to slow down. This project has to last all summer.

I got another Dear Jane block done. A simple one thanks to my mods and some fussy cutting. Ignore the little tails that hang out of the triangles. If and when I join the blocks they will be dealt with.

 The new navy is here and it's a......maybe. It's not perfect but it may just have to do. I'll make a few blocks and decide.

Of course I couldn't just order the navy material. Some pretty clearance yardage came along for the ride. I've got no plans for it. I just liked it.

Rainbow Kitty

 Rainbow Kitty is finally getting worked on.

He looks like this. He's been sitting here since March waiting for me to get started.

 He was supposed to be a stash busting project but you know how that goes.

These are on the way from a vendor on Etsy. I needed some brighter colors for my furry friend.

 Speaking of brighter colors look what Judy sent me. That's a cowl. How fun is that? And purple sock yarn? Wow... they are going to make some happy socks. Thanks so much Judy!!!

Summer Soap Tales

 This is the time of year I make soap for me.

 I don't really gift it once it gets hot because mailing it can be iffy.

 I don't use the fancy colors or techniques. I just make big chunks of rustic soap using all the odd ingredients I seem to collect over the year. In the summer I like clay soaps. They aren't pretty but they do the job.

I've also got quite a collection of sea salts in lots of different colors for my beachy soaps. I don't even use my fancy glitter.

Who needs it when you have black, red and pink sea salt.

 The jewelweed soap is cured and ready for use. My yard is full of poison ivy so I'm pretty sure I am going to be needing it. I also bought a big bottle of the Tecnu cleaner. You can't be too careful.

Being a plain jane soap I got to use my soap stamps on it. Meow.

 I'm still making bath fizzies too. A bath just isn't a bath without them anymore. I've spoiled myself.

 Speaking of bath fizzies, Daughter brought me a surprise home from Vegas.

It's a bath bomb that is supposed to be a sheep. It's actually in two parts. You get to use the head one night and the body the next. Cute but also a little scary, right? If you want to see this guy in action there is a whole blog post about him here complete with a video of him dissolving in the tub which is oddly fascinating.

I also need to thank Sandflies for the surprise that showed up last night. Yummo. You made my morning very happy. Thanks so much!!

Batty

My batting order is here.

 So are my rescue fabrics. I ran out of the main colors for Daddio's Nine Patch. The off whites will work but alas, the navy will not. I've got another order in and if that fails I guess I'll have to hit Joann's. Who knew matching navy would be so hard?

This came along for the ride. I haven't used the Juki in ages so I need a refresher course before I hit any of those tops.

 The delay while I am waiting for more navy material is being put to good use. I have all of the Sunflower pieces cut out.

 I also have another Dear Jane in progress. I am really modifying the heck out of this block. It was...ugly. Sorry Jane but I can't lie. It was a dud.

 I'm using my little clips on the Jane corners now too. They don't look as funny as the squares did.

Yesterday I wrestled with one of those big rolls of batting and now I've got one top in the hoop. Making that quilt sandwich is my least favorite part of the process.

I couldn't decide if I was going to hand quilt this one or not but now I'm glad I decided to go ahead and do it by hand. There is just something about a quilt in a hoop that makes me want to sit down and stitch and I love a good excuse to sit and do anything.

A Fine Mess

 It's been a long time since I've made a mess in the downstairs craft room. For months it's been a bunny card making factory. I've been working on these art journal pages since last fall. It's been a work in progress.

I've also been making mindless collages using all my gelli plate scraps and some of the fancy doodads you get in the card kits. It's brain candy.

I've done a little swatching too. I made this swatch journal and then forgot about it. My plan was to go through all my different watercolor sets so I've got a long way to go.

About that brush pen lettering.....it's hard. Really hard. Tracing a worksheet is one thing but trying to do it on my own. Not happening. Not yet anyway.

Tiny Needle Tuesday

May is done. Miss Faith is on her mound.

This is June but she will have to wait. I've got other things I want to do.

I did finish the top windows on the house but there is still a lot of house to do.

In May I always work on my other sheep sampler in honor of it being MDSW month. I won't be going this year because of the wedding but I'm still getting this year's sheep stitched. Mr. Corriedale, your time has come.

I've also gotten pretty far on Daddio's Easter runner.

You can't really see it but the stitching makes the hexies really pop. I am thinking this would be a great thing for a quilt one day. It's not like I don't have bins of hexies just waiting to go. Daddio was a hexie making machine.

Stranger Things

 I did something really strange yesterday morning. Really, really strange. I knit two sleeves together. On purpose.

 It seems that this pattern has you put the sleeves together with steeks so you can continue with the colorwork chart on the sleeve caps and still work in the round. I'd say that's brilliant but it made my head hurt trying to figure how to actually accomplish this bizarre task. I was already on the verge of a migraine so this little adventure pushed me right over the edge.

Luckily, before I tackled the alien sleeve situation I put Tracery back into circulation. It seems I had charted it all out before I gave up on it so it was pretty easy to sort out where this was going. At the moment I've got 9 blissful inches of doing nothing but following a chart. Thank goodness. I don't like it when knitting gets hard.