Happy Groundhog Day!!

I am certain that no matter what Punxsatawney Phil does, our local groundhog, General Beauregard Lee, will not see his shadow. We're kind of already having an early Spring...it was 70 degrees Fahrenheit yesterday, and on Sunday when we went to the Botanical Garden, the daffodils were already blooming!! We usually have one last hurrah of Winter towards the end of the month or the beginning of March, so we'll see....

Thank you all so much for your kind comments on my snowman. You're all more than welcome to "steal" my idea...I'm sure I saw something similar elsewhere and stole it myself! =) Hmmm, I guess I should put poor Mr. Snowman away soon now that it's so warm....

You see this finish isn't nearly so inspired; if I had all the time in the world I would have made him into a cube, with cute fluffy ribbons and everything, but I just sewed him to a piece of cardstock with invisible thread and then mounted that on a bright yellow and that on a blue. No tape touching the stitching. =) I managed to cut the cardstock, but I'm so klutzy I usually make my hubby cut everything. He did make a little stand for me, but if you look closely at the top, you can see that I've already dropped it and dented the thing. *sigh*...should have made that cube!

Finally, Finally Framed

Click now for JiffNotes

Some people make new years' resolutions in January. I never do that, but I do sometimes look around me and think, gee whiz, why haven't I finished all this stuff that's sooo close to being finished?? (And hey, if you are thinking the same thing right now, you probably should be joining in with Theme-tas-stitch Focus Finish February!) So I finally buckled down and framed a couple things that my long-suffering hubby had cut mat boards for several months ago.

First up, Dancer!

(His glamour close-up shots are here if you missed them.)

I found a frame with a molding that was similar but not exactly the same as his brother Dasher's. Here they are together!

I really had to get into the Wayback Machine to see how long ago I finished the stitching for this next one. Almost four years!! Pathetic. I had a sort of vague idea of how I wanted to frame him, but it took a while for it to marinate in my brain, and then for me to actually search for a square shadowbox frame. I finally had to order it from Amazon.com; there was nothing local and getting one custom made was going to be more than I wanted to spend. Anyway, without further ado, here he is!

I'd like to tell you that I spent hours placing each snowflake, but I'd be lying. That would also be kind of crazy.... No, I just punched a bunch of snowflakes out of some translucent metallic paper and dumped them in the bottom of the frame with some tiny snowballs I found in the miniatures section of a craft store (by the dollhouse stuff!) Then I laced the design on the foam core a little North of center so the flotsam at the bottom wouldn't cover up the stitching.

JiffNotes
Poor Dancer languished for six months before being framed, but that is nothing compared to the poor snowman, who had to wait NEARLY FOUR YEARS for me to do something with him.

Smalls SAL January 2017

I'm only a couple days late to check in! No idea what the Smalls SAL is all about? Click the graphic above to learn more (and see lovely smalls from others!)

Every year, on Groundhog Day, I think, "Rats!! I should have stitched that Groundhog Day freebie that's in my stash! I should definitely write myself a reminder in January next year!"

But not this year!

This year, somehow, I remembered this design, in January, WITHOUT a reminder, and WITH enough time to actually stitch it before Groundhog Day.

I stitched it on perforated paper because that was the easiest thing to grab and required fewer decisions (I have fewer colors of perforated paper than I do of linen....) Even so, I managed to pull the wrong color of perforated paper...I wanted "sky blue", but it turns out I stitched it on "periwinkle blue" instead. Oh, well. I changed most of the swirl colors and substituted random beads from my stash for the scattered stitches so that I could use invisible beading thread that wouldn't show through the paper holes.

Stay tuned for finishing! (Spoiler alert: You'll see it on February 2nd! =) If you are interested in stitching this freebie yourself, let me know and I will pass it on to you.

Finished Object Friday: Butterfly Wing

Ravelry project link

My Butterfly Wing shawl was a project for Loopy Academy, Freshman Year, Semester Two. The assignment was to create something with two (or more) color stripes. Of course, simple stripes weren't enough for me, I had to have lace, too. ;)

This was really fun to knit, and the pattern is easy to memorize. I made it longer than the pattern by using her supplementary suggestions on how to extend the shawl. Or, I tried to. I lost count and did a strange combination of the suggested segments, but it all came out fine!

This is one of my favorite things I've knit. I took it with me on our cruise through Norway, and it functioned as a warm expedition scarf, elegant dinner wrap, and casual scarf depending on the day!

Finished Object Friday: Felted Moebius Bowl

Three posts in one week! Don't get used to it. =)

Ravelry project link

This was a project I did for Loopy Academy, Freshman Year, Semester Two. The "assignment" was to create something felted (using 225 yards of yarn). Don't let anyone tell you that front-loading washers don't felt...as I already knew due to an unfortunate scarf incident. It only took me two tries to get the moebius cast-on correct. ;) From there it was a quick and fun knit. The middle of the bowl is a different color because I didn't want to buy extra yarn!!