Making Extravagant Plans

Remember when I said I was going on a mad shopping spree this month? It didn't turn out quite as grand as I imagined. First I decided to go through my charts to see what projects I really, really, really wanted to stitch in the next few years. Then I did a lot of math (there were spreadsheets involved!) and looked at all my leftover fabric to see whether I had any that would work for the projects. And then I went through all the Kreiniks and Mill Hills required for all of them to see which ones I already had.

I narrowed it down to 13 projects and was able to assign fabrics for 9 of them.

So this was everything I picked up: That's fabric for 3 projects and most of the Kreinik and Mill Hill for the rest of them. Archangel was an impulse pick-up I won't get to for a while.
What do I need to pick up: a bunch more Kreinik, Mill Hill, another glow-in-the-dark DMC, 2 charts, fabric for 3 designs and whatever else I feel like randomly grabbing.

For the curious, the tentative projects are:
AAN - Recipe for a Magical Night
Papillon Creation - Alphabettisimo
Lizzie*Kate - Boo Club (yes, several years after everyone and their cat have finished their version)
Victoria Sampler - Canadian Hearts
Jim Shore - 12 Days of Christmas
Joan Elliot - Summer Fairy, Autumn Fairy, Fire Goddess, Swirling Peacock
Teresa Wentzler - Peacock Tapestry, The Castle
Mirabilia - Mediterranean Mermaid
Ink Circle - Cirque des Coeurs
Samsarah Designs - Steam Punk Sea Serpent
Patricia Ann - Romance

And I already have Ink Circle's Cirque des Carreaux and Teresa Wentzler's Tradewinds fully kitted up. And I have Mirabilia's Cinderella, MAIA Misaki, HAED Autumn Winds and PINN Ganesha as WIPs.

Wish me luck?

Card Swapping, For The New Millennium

OK, so the new millennium was ages ago, but I still like to think of Jo's Secret Stitching Sweetheart exchange as an update.

So who sent me this pretty little thing?
Thanks to Cucki~

And where did mine go?

SAL Directory

Since there was a bit of interest in an SAL listing I've gone ahead and set one up at

SAL Directory.

I've posted 5 that I know of. Some new, one really old. I'm defining an SAL as a design released in multiple parts, and restricting the directory to free and almost-free.

I hope that this will be useful and I'm really hoping that folks will mention SALs that they know (more enabling!). My knowledge of the French SALs is nil, so if anyone knows those I'd really appreciate a line or two.

I'm hoping to keep this as up-to-date and informative as possible and I'm counting on everyone's help and support.

Finding SALs

So I'm just curious as to how people find SALs. I usually find out about them when someone whose blog I follow posts a link.

Is there any directory/list out there?

I know of about 10 SALs going on right now, but I know there are tons more that I’m missing out on because I never find out about them.

Would people be interested if I started a blog to advertise/publicize upcoming SALs? I’m thinking that people could submit information on SALs they are running/know about. Definitely free SALs, and also groups that are stitching specific commercial patterns together (all copyright rules being followed of course!).

So what do you think? Is this something worth a shot? Opinions, please!

Recordkeeping

I've occasionally had people comment on how I track my hours and when Lucie posted a picture of her stitching journal, I was inspired to share my (lack of) method.

My method is pretty simple. When I start something I note the title, date, and fabric. Any floss changes go there. Then it's just a matter of putting down a stroke for every hour with each fence equalling five hours. When finished I add up the fences, write the finish date and highlight the title to indicate that it's done.

Hmm, the fabric information is missing on this page because these are all WIPs from previous years (picked a bad page there). Since I try to track how much stitching an year, the count gets restarted every January. I rewrite all the information and the previous stitching gets noted in Arabic numerals. Occasionally I forget to leave space for any changes and end up squeezing them in all over the place. This one is the original page for TGE, I couldn't be bothered to copy the details of every part again, so I'm just continuing it. So there's the part, the stitch, the colour used, and the time taken.

I use my Ipod as my timer, since I actually can't stitch anymore without music/audio in my ears.

And that's pretty much the method of my madness XD

Self Delusion

I've been running behind on the latest part of The Great Escape, and thought the next part would have been out yesterday. So I grabbed my needle, parked myself in front of the computer* and stitched away madly in an attempt to get caught up before the next one came out. The idea being as long as I didn't know it wasn't out it wasn't out. Yes, yes. I know.


The Great Escape
28ct white Jubilee, DMC 317, 318, 413, 414, 415
Buttonhole Stitch. Wikipedia informs me that if it's stitched close together it's a buttonhole stitch and if there's space it's a blanket stitch. One of the great stitching mysteries is resolved! As far as the stitch goes, I've done it so many times I could go so far as to say that I'm a pro at it.

Unrelated news item #1: I've been horrible, just horrible about leaving comments. I mark the posts I plan to comment on, and a few days later realize that there are too many, clear all the posts, and then rinse and repeat. I've still gawking at everyone's work, but mostly I've been stitching. So I hope apologies in the way of frequent stitchy pictures will be acceptable. *stares with puppy-dog eyes*

#2: Thanks for the inquiries about the missing floss, but I have to head to the LNS because I've run out of the Kreinik for Lily of the Valley, so I'll just grab it them. 'Sides which, it would take atleast 3 weeks for it to arrive by mail!

#3: Three weeks and I've fallen off the no-new-stash wagon. But what a way to go! As a PSA I would like to point out that Zinio makes the magazine available at just under CAD$6. Since Joan Elliot charts retail at about $14, this is a clear steal. The other charts in the magazine leave me apathetic, but Lady Bird Fairy alone makes it worthwhile. Now all that's left is to curse the fact that I never found this website while the Flower Fairy series was coming out.

*In front of the computer because I'm unwilling to print out a chart every two weeks for a minor change that takes about an hour to stitch.
And for the curious: Part nine isn't out yet.

Ominous Signs

16 hours in and I really hope the rest of the year isn't going to be like this!

First a look at last year's goals... Let's just say I missed every single one and leave it at that!
1. Work at least 100 hours on Ganesha (He didn't get a stitch last year)
2. Finish at least 10 of my carry-over WIPs
3. End the year with less WIPs than I started
4. Make one (themed?) pinkeep a month
5. Finish Sleepy Hollow so I can wrap up that contest (I haven't forgotten, just...not feeling Halloween)

So let's make this year's overall goals somewhat more achievable, shall we?
1. Finish Ganesh
2. Sort my life out to where I want it to be

As stated this is my list of permissible new starts. Of course, anything that I have the chart, 90% of the floss and a suitable piece of fabric is fair game. Hey, I have to keep my options open;P

Celtic Autumn     Sweeping Cobwebs     Misaki     Japanese Octagon Box     
Here Comes Treble     First Bass     Egyptian Sampler     Deco Spirits     
Cirque des Trianlges     Cirque des Carreaux     Cinderella     Blue Moon

And my New Year's start was from the list. Yay I've stuck to it!

Blue Moon
28ct Waterlily linen, half stitches in 2 strands
15 minutes in I went to snip some thread and realized that I'd been stitching with the wrong colour. 334 instead of 333. A feeble attempt to fudge failed when I realized that the later is a pale blue while the former is a vivid purple! Frog and restitch and one hour later I finish the 333 only to realize that I somehow don't have the next colour. And since I already highlighted the chart in preparation I'm going to have to wait till work tomorrow to reprint the chart.

It was when I went to note down the hours etc. that I realized that I haven't finished my last two New Years starts. (Legends of Dragons and Spring Queen) Is this yet another sign?

Add in some personal stuff that's making me seriously reevaluate things...

Well, it's a good thing I don't believe in signs and superstition. This year is going to be exactly what I want it to be and nothing is going to stop me!

Gratitude & Acknowledgement

Lisa (who's currently in Cambodia and posts pictures of that exotic locale) sent me this cute little keychain!
So ages ago I won Barbara's giveaway of this year's JCS Ornament issue. And when it never appeared I figured that CP had eaten it (it happens more often than is acceptable). So I was delightly surprised to spot this in the mail. Now in addition to the Christmyth series I've got a whole bunch of designs in this that I want to stitch!
Which brings me to an important question I've also been meaning to ask the readership. How do you deal with the following situation: you won something; it was mailed out; it never arrived; you aren't asking for a resend (really what kind of greedy-guts are you?); you don't want that person to think you got it and are being rude by not saying thanks. So how do you say: Hey, I know you said you mailed [item] out, and that was awesome of you, but it didn't arrive and I want you to know that I'm not being rude, but I wanted to make sure that you don't think I'm a non-acknowledging person, but in no way am I making some sort of "send me something, since that got lost" demand. So yeah, what's the proper etiquette in this scenario?

A Mishmash of Items

Starting off with mail from Kati.

You know how they say that some people can flog a dead horse? My guidance counsellor once told me that I could flog a dead horse and then keep flogging it until it became a skeleton and still keep going. Why bring up this point? Because CP still sucks. This took a week to travel across 3 provinces. And my mail from the US is over a month late. Hilariously the government letter arrived and a duplicate arrived the next day. *Heads back towards that accursed horse*


So after admiring the charts I headed to my stash to see if I had any suitable fabric for Fine China. I was two seconds from pulling open my fabric drawer when I noticed three of my WIPs stare at me accusingly (one very close to a finish). I couldn't handle the guilt. I've managed not to start anything by avoiding my stitching area. This has the unfortunate side effect of preventing me from adding the ~100 beads necessary to finish off Celtic Spring...

Onto the second item on the agenda: this month's TUSAL.


The gold is from Celtic Spring, who as I've mentioned is waiting for beads. And there aren't that many beads either.

Item three is that my letter from my penpal arrived. I'm crafting my response back. (Ok, I've pulled out a piece of paper.)

Final item: I've decided to make some ornaments for Christmas. I'm not sure why since I don't celebrate Christmas and I've never had a tree and I don't plan on having one and I have no idea where to hang them. But I'm going to make them. I've already got Cool Christmas, and I'm thinking that I'll make things easy by picking some quick finishes. This way if this Christmas mania leaves me there's still a chance I'll have finished the designs.

So far I've scrounged up Daffycat's Reindeer Trio, some of Teresa Wentzler's freebies, Log Cabin Needlework's Noel, gazette94's Noel and Dragon Dream's Christmyth series.

Does anyone have any other small could-be-finished-quickly designs? And despite having several "Noel" I'd prefer secular ones. And this sudden desire to have several small finishes has nothing to do with the fact that it's almost November and I have half the number of finishes I had last year!

Something A Bit Different

I saw this on a couple of blogs, and since there is a serious dearth of stitchy pictures (forgive me!) I figured I might as well play along. According to the US NPR this is the list of Top 100 Sci-Fi, Fantasy books.

Quite a few of the books that I've read was for high school. And I read a lot of the really old classics as a kid.

Bold – read or listened to the audiobook

Italics – partially read

Underline – want to read

1. The Lord Of The Rings Trilogy, by J.R.R. Tolkien – I like the books but I find that I have to work hard to read them. And I must commit sacrilege and admit that I love the movies more.

2. The Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy, by Douglas Adams

3. Ender's Game, by Orson Scott Card – I haven’t read any of the “Ender” sequels but I have read all but the last “Bean” books

4. The Dune Chronicles, by Frank Herbert – Only the original

5. A Song Of Ice And Fire Series, by George R. R. Martin – I’ve read the first 3, and since GRRM takes such a long time between books I haven’t felt like reading and then getting frustrated with the wait.

6. 1984, by George Orwell – Ah, high school…

7. Fahrenheit 451, by Ray Bradbury – Ah, high school…

8. The Foundation Trilogy, by Isaac Asimov - I've also read the "4th" book, but none of the other sequels/prequels.

9. Brave New World, by Aldous Huxley – Ah, high school…

10. American Gods, by Neil Gaiman

11. The Princess Bride, by William Goldman – The book is fun and so is the movie. Cary Elwes is gorgeous!

12. The Wheel Of Time Series, by Robert Jordan – Gave up after book 9(?) when an hour after finishing I couldn’t remember what had happened. I’m just going to look up spoilers once the last books comes out (has it already come out? The 3^rd part of 3?) 

13. Animal Farm, by George Orwell – Ah, high school…

14. Neuromancer, by William Gibson

15. Watchmen, by Alan Moore – My brother’s been after me to read this forever. And since we actually have a copy I really have no excuse…

16. I, Robot, by Isaac Asimov

17. Stranger In A Strange Land, by Robert Heinlein

18. The Kingkiller Chronicles, by Patrick Rothfuss – I’ve heard good things about this one

19. Slaughterhouse-Five, by Kurt Vonnegut

20. Frankenstein, by Mary Shelley  - This is such a classic!

21. Do Androids Dream Of Electric Sheep? by Philip K. Dick

22. The Handmaid's Tale, by Margaret Atwood – Tried reading this for high school English and then again for Dystopian Fiction at university. Couldn’t finish it. My papers tended to be deal with the other books and say “oh yes, we also see this in THT.

23. The Dark Tower Series, by Stephen King

24. 2001: A Space Odyssey, by Arthur C. Clarke – I remember reading this and being confused. And then I watched the movie and was still confused. Possibly 12 is not an age to appreciate ACC?

25. The Stand, by Stephen King

26. Snow Crash, by Neal Stephenson

27. The Martian Chronicles, by Ray Bradbury

28. Cat's Cradle, by Kurt Vonnegut

29. The Sandman Series, by Neil Gaiman

30. A Clockwork Orange, by Anthony Burgess – For that Dystopian Fiction course. The movie is quite fun too.

31. Starship Troopers, by Robert Heinlein 

32. Watership Down, by Richard Adams

33. Dragonflight, by Anne McCaffrey – I’ve actually read most of the original stuff by AM.

34. The Moon Is A Harsh Mistress, by Robert Heinlein

35. A Canticle For Leibowitz, by Walter M. Miller

36. The Time Machine, by H.G. Wells

37. 20,000 Leagues Under The Sea, by Jules Verne

38. Flowers For Algernon, by Daniel Keys

39. The War Of The Worlds, by H.G. Wells

40. The Chronicles Of Amber, by Roger Zelazny

41. The Belgariad, by David Eddings  - Some good old-fashioned generic fantasy. I finished the Belgariad, but couldn’t finish the Mallorean since it’s just a repeat of the first.

42. The Mists Of Avalon, by Marion Zimmer Bradley – I’ve checked this out from the library a dozen times and never gotten past the first 10 pages. 

43. The Mistborn Series, by Brandon Sanderson – I adore, adore, adore Warbreaker which is available for free on Sanderson’s website html or pdf (scroll half way down). Elantris is pretty good too. Sanderson writes amazing magical systems. I’m saving Mistborn for when I need a really good pick-me-up.

44. Ringworld, by Larry Niven

45. The Left Hand Of Darkness, by Ursula K. LeGuin

46. The Silmarillion, by J.R.R. Tolkien – I found LotR a dense read. This was too much.

47. The Once And Future King, by T.H. White

48. Neverwhere, by Neil Gaiman

49. Childhood's End, by Arthur C. Clarke – I think I read this during my hardcore sci-fi phase.

50. Contact, by Carl Sagan

51. The Hyperion Cantos, by Dan Simmons

52. Stardust, by Neil Gaiman

53. Cryptonomicon, by Neal Stephenson

54. World War Z, by Max Brooks – Love, love, love this! I got goosebumps reading it. It makes a very ridiculous premise utterly plausible. The audiobook is good (narrated by tons of excellent narrators including Mark Hamill) but abridged which is infuriating, and I’m still waiting for the fully unabridged version.

55. The Last Unicorn, by Peter S. Beagle

56. The Forever War, by Joe Haldeman

57. Small Gods, by Terry Pratchett – I’ve read every DiscWorld novel, except the Tiffany Aching ones. Pterry is a god among men.

58. The Chronicles Of Thomas Covenant, The Unbeliever, by Stephen R. Donaldson

59. The Vorkosigan Saga, by Lois McMaster Bujold – I’ve devoured all of them except Cryoburn and Cetaganda . Cyroburn because I haven’t gotten to it yet and Cetaganda because I keep forgetting to check it out from the library.

60. Going Postal, by Terry Pratchett – See comment for #57

61. The Mote In God's Eye, by Larry Niven & Jerry Pournelle

62. The Sword Of Truth, by Terry Goodkind – The first book is utterly enjoyable. Towards the end I wasn’t enjoying the preachiness. But I finished it, unlike the other epic fantasy of that time #12 WoT.

63. The Road, by Cormac McCarthy

64. Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell, by Susanna Clarke – Yet another book I’ve checked out of the library a dozen times and haven’t read.

65. I Am Legend, by Richard Matheson

66. The Riftwar Saga, by Raymond E. Feist – I hate the narrator for the audio version of this. I may look for a paper version.

67. The Shannara Trilogy, by Terry Brooks

68. The Conan The Barbarian Series, by R.E. Howard

69. The Farseer Trilogy, by Robin Hobb

70. The Time Traveler's Wife, by Audrey Niffenegger

71. The Way Of Kings, by Brandon Sanderson – Like Mistborn #43, I’m saving this.

72. A Journey To The Center Of The Earth, by Jules Verne

73. The Legend Of Drizzt Series, by R.A. Salvatore

74. Old Man's War, by John Scalzi

75. The Diamond Age, by Neil Stephenson

76. Rendezvous With Rama, by Arthur C. Clarke

77. The Kushiel's Legacy Series, by Jacqueline Carey – I tried reading this at the wrong time. 

78. The Dispossessed, by Ursula K. LeGuin

79. Something Wicked This Way Comes, by Ray Bradbury

80. Wicked, by Gregory Maguire

81. The Malazan Book Of The Fallen Series, by Steven Erikson

82. The Eyre Affair, by Jasper Fforde – I’ve only read the first book, which I quite enjoyed, but I can’t seem to get into the sequels. 

83. The Culture Series, by Iain M. Banks – I recommended this to my brother without having read it myself (I never do this but I couldn’t think of anything else that fit his request that he hadn’t already read), and he’s been reccing it back.

84. The Crystal Cave, by Mary Stewart

85. Anathem, by Neal Stephenson

86. The Codex Alera Series, by Jim Butcher – OMG I want to build a shrine to Jim and I already worship at his feet. The Dresden Files is excellent stuff too. But if I ever feel like an incredibly long comfort read then I head to this. Plus Kate Reading is an amazing narrator.

87. The Book Of The New Sun, by Gene Wolfe

88. The Thrawn Trilogy, by Timothy Zahn – This, along with the Thrawn Duology, was responsible for my high school worship of the Star Wars Extended Universe. I’ve read most of the EU up to the New Jedi Order. Then I learnt that one of my favourite characters was offed in Legacy of the Force and that was the end reading new SW. The Rogue/Wraith Squadron is pretty fun too.

89. The Outlander Series, by Diana Gabaldan

90. The Elric Saga, by Michael Moorcock

91. The Illustrated Man, by Ray Bradbury

92. Sunshine, by Robin McKinley

93. A Fire Upon The Deep, by Vernor Vinge

94. The Caves Of Steel, by Isaac Asimov

95. The Mars Trilogy, by Kim Stanley Robinson

96. Lucifer's Hammer, by Larry Niven & Jerry Pournelle

97. Doomsday Book, by Connie Willis

98. Perdido Street Station, by China Mieville

99. The Xanth Series, by Piers Anthony

100. The Space Trilogy, by C.S. Lewis

 Now I'm really tempted to go back and read some old favs...

...

[Tumbleweed rolls by]

Just In Case

If there's someone out there who's trying to get a hold of the Joan Elliot Bookazine, pre-orders for the second printing are being taken here.

Pretty bad but clickable pictures of everything in the book:

Ghoulish Behaviour

My other LNS is closing. (If you're in Winnipeg that's Kathryn's Stitching Studio. I think she does mail orders too. Last day June 29).

Everything is 40% off.

This was the first dash through accomplished without a shopping list:



Looking at the charts and my bill, I've come to a realization about why I don't stitch many smalls. I don't think they're worth it. Now before I get lynched let me explain:

See those four Lizzie*Kates? They each cost ~10. And I can probably finish one in less than 5 hours. So that's $2/hr.

See that Mira? That cost ~25. And may take about 85 hours. So about $0.30/hr.

Now what about a Teresa Wentzler? The last one I bought cost ~25. And that will take at least 145 hrs.

See where I'm going with this? I'm more likely to buy and stitch larger charts (even if they stay in my drawers waiting to be framed) because some subconsicous part of me feels that I'm getting more "value for money".

Admittedly HAEDs would be "worth" more on my scale, but I don't think a steady diet of them works for me.

So what about you? Any strange and twisty thoughts influencing what charts you buy/stitch?

BORED!

SO BORED!!!

I haven't felt like stitching a thing this week. Spring Queen is beige, I can't figure out what purple I want for Celtic Spring, there's too much black in Something Wicked, Why Hoard Gold? has Marlitt threads, the blue and grey from How Does Your Garden Grow (In The Dark)? look the same, Autumn Winds is over 1, etc etc!

So I dragged out my charts and stared at them all. Then I threw them all back in the drawer.

So I thought I'd start something new (again). But nothing I had kitted appealed to me. I don't want to start Celtic Autumn since I haven't finished Spring. I don't want to start another Mirabilia. I really don't want to start a Teresa Wenztler. I don't have any small pieces of leftover fabric suitable for a small. I don't want to cut into any of my larger pieces of fabric in case I find a larger design that might fit onto them.

Maybe I'll go to the store and kit something else up and not start that either.

Old Mail and New Mail

Ages ago Christine very generous decided to pass on Midnight by Lavender Wings.


And yesterday the second part of my winning from the Ink Circles SAL arrived. Rachel offered a GC to Anita's Little Stitches which Anita doubled, so toss in a bit more dough and I get this pile in the mail:


I now have all three Cirques. And Dani is to blame for Art Deco Spirits, and Justflo for 12 Days of Christmas. I kinda want to stitch 12 Days for this Christmas, but we'll see how it goes.

In other news I am now officially on Reading Week, a time to study for my exams on Feb 28-Mar 4. Sadly this won't happen since I plan on getting caught up on my stitching and reading (and cram on the last weekend).

Talk About Customer Service!

Ages ago I saw a cute tic-tac-toe Valentine pattern finished, then someone had it few days (and I can't remember either of these stitchers, mea culpa!). An email to the second netted the name: Erica Michael's Hugs and Kisses.

Now this is where it becomes a quest, a tale of excellent customer service and a ridiculous realization.

The quest: I emailed the designer, who didn't have it anymore but suggested a store in Indiana who might have it. So I emailed them.

The customer service: House of Stitches from Indiana had it and sent it to me. Let's recap: I'm in Manitoba, chances that I'm going to Indiana are nil, chances I'll buy anything there are also nil. They send it to me no charge and even threw in a freebie from The Workbasket. If they treat a non-purchasing non-returning customer like this I wonder how they treat their regulars!

And the ridiculous? Turns out that the lady (I can't remember her blog name and am not putting up her real one) who told me the name of the pattern had sent it to me as a jpg. Something I realized five minutes ago when I went to see if I could find her name!

You've Got To Be Kidding!

Somewhere after removing my memory card from the computer, putting it in my hoodie pocket, wandering upstairs, throwing my hoodie over a chair, wandering back downstairs, and then back to the hoodie to get the card so that I can put in it the camera...

I lost it.

Seriously?

It's not along the route.

Which means I need to find a shovel and a machete and go exploring in the jungle that is my room.

November Achievements & December Goals

Goals for November:
1. Finish Sleepy Hollow No.
2. Stitch on the UFO RR and mail it out Sadly no. But since the mail-by date is the 6th I'm not actually behind
3. Send off my exchanges This one I actually did. And good thing too. One's already arrived so that's even better.
4. NO NEW STARTS!!! Well, considering the amount of stitching I didn't do sticking to this goal wasn't too hard.

Goals for December:
1. Stitch on the UFO RR and mail it out
2. Finish Cirque des Cercles
3. Stitch on the next UFO RR (if CP gets it here before the end of the month)

This month was absolutely lousy all round. My stitching mojo was pretty low, my blogging mojo about the same level, and while I still looked at everyone's blog I don't think I made a single comment (well, except for when I entered every giveaway under the sun).

I've also picked up some part time work for the next few months, so I'm not actually sure how much time I'll have for stitching between that and school. *sigh*

And I still haven't posted pictures of what Missy sent me for Halloween or a couple of other things that have arrived since.

And there's far too much snow.

Zen & the Art of Exercise

Turns out that my local Canada Post closes at 3 on Fridays. So still cameraless. But I have now passed beyond anger and frustration and disappointment. I am a calm pebble in an ocean of tranquility.

After a session with Cirque I felt like more colour, so I went green.



Why Hoard Gold?
28 ct white lugana

This is actually stitching up quite fast and I'm enjoying it. The scan exaggerates the difference between the greens. I've decided to finish all the parts that use Anchor Marlitt thread first. It's definitely an interesting experience using them. They don't stay together. And they tangle up like crazy! The modus is short threads and firm, smooth pulls.

In unrelated news, my mum, in a fit of health consciousness, has bought a treadmill. And decided that I'm going to be exercising with her in the spirit of solidarity and because it's good for me (or something to that effect). I think she just wants me to suffer with her.
My first run will be tomorrow. So if I don't show up for the next while I'm probably looking for a chainsaw to introduce to the treadmill.

Really?!

Got the notice today that the camera is at the post office. Am I the only one seeing a connection between a whiny post and a delivery?!

No picture of my WIP because I'm not battling the scanner if a proper photo is a day away.

A big thanks to the suckers awesome people who've agreed to an exchange with me.