Japanese Thimbles

I had a wonderful gift waiting for me last night when I got home. Chloe Patricia sent me a Japanese Thimble in exchange for a temari.

This is it! Exquisite! A Japanese thimble is supposed to fit on your middle finger, and is used to push the needle with the side of your finger. The system would work well for me the way I stitch, but this thimble will not be used that way, I would be too afraid of messing up the stitching.




This is the picture Chloe Patricia sent me so I could pick the thimble I wanted. Don't they look like jewels?
(Click on the picture to see them close up.)

Even more exciting, she sent me a preformed base with the stitching started, and another base to practice adding the padding and...

All the supplies needed to start from scratch. Silk thread; bias tape; silk batting for cushioning; and the paper strips that give the thimble its body and are used for marking.

Besides that, she gave me an additional started base to share with a friend. This will not be a random give-away, but if you are interested, let me know. Hopefully, with this help from Chloe Patricia, I will be able to make the bases myself, so more than one request will hopefully not be a problem.

You can make these larger as well, big enough to wear as bracelets, or use as the base for a pin cushion, or wider and used as a pendant/bead on a necklace cord. The possibilities are endless!

DH is worried about new addictions.

Fun Evening

We didn't have a lot of time at home last night. The boy's club at church opened up the Pine car Derby contest to all church groups, and DH entered a car for the Praise Team.

It's an eighth note!



It is named "Presto!" (a musical term that means fast) and he worked on it very hard. I think it is so cool!



If the track had been perfectly smooth, I think he would have won. Here's the aforementioned track. The blue track was smooth and "Presto!" won every time it ran there. The yellow and red tracks both had potholes, and because of the car's weight distribution it bounced around quite a bit. (There are already plans for next year!)



There were about 30 entries, and everyone had a lot of fun.

When there were no cars running down the track, I worked on my mittens, and later that night I finished the right one. It turned out huge! (I didn't swatch, but I need a smaller hook.) It's not too big to wear, though and I started the left one. It will probably be too warm to wear them by the time I'm done, but there's always next year.



I'm enjoying the crochet so much that I'm thinking of making these for others as well... I saw some cute sock yarn at Joanne's that would work. I may even work up to crocheting one with the original pattern!

G.I.T.S.: Year of the Tiger

Kate received her package in UK today, so I can share this one now.

This picture is a little washed out. The colors were chosen to represent a Tiger. I started with a 32 face temari, and worked overlapping kiku on the short pentagon and hexagon lines in dark brown. Then I worked kiku stitches around the 60 hexagons that formed from the previous step in 2 shades of yellow.

After that stitching was completed, I took out the metallic marking stitches (that I had to make a special Friday evening run for) and stitched pine needle stitching (in metallic) in the center of each hexagon/pentagon to emphasize the negative space (white) flowers.



If I make this pattern again (which I might, I really enjoyed it) I would try to overlap the first kiku stitching more to give the flowers more of a cherry blossom shape (a little bit of a bite out of the tip of each petal). When you first see this temari, you get an impression of all the hexagons, but if you look at it from a little further away, you will see the white flower petals. One of the cool things about temari!

Olympic Challenge

I've been reading about the stitching Olympics and the knitting Olympics, so I guess it is only fair that there be temari Olympics, to go along with the Winter Olympics. I saw the challenge on Sunday, so I decided to play along.

P had an "Olympic Party" at school on Friday, instead of a Valentine's day party. He was so excited about it, he talked more about school than I have ever heard him do before. His class (2nd grade) all had to wear black to school; he had black pants and sweatshirt on, but was unhappy because his shirt had white figures on it. They had to "stand on a rope" which I guess means that the different classes traced out the Olympic rings with their clothing. I really am hoping to see a picture, it sounds like some very creative teachers (or parents) had fun with planning.

So, when it came time to pick out a pattern, I had the rings on my mind. I had DD double check the colors for me on line, and quickly stitched up this temari.



It is a c10, with a disappearing marking. I included the Gold, Silver and Bronze medals to emphasize that this is an Olympic temari; I wonder if P will like it?

Another suggestion for Olympic temari was to use the Vancouver colors that are on all the venues, athlete bibs and score-boards. I love the turquoise and green they are using, and I've pulled those colors to use on another temari I will stitch on this week.

I stitched on my Advent Calendar this weekend. I'm working on Elijah under the broom tree. C keeps calling it "our" sampler (!) and she loves to help me and tell me what to stitch next. I (we) finished the tree, and the bird, and now I'm supposed to be working on the ground, but I decided to stitch Elijah laying on the ground instead.

Frames

I finished this one last night, a remake of the one over a week ago. I am extremely pleased with how this one turned out. It is a c8 with additional support lines. I marked the c8 and the first set of additional lines with white cotton, and the second set of supporting lines with gold braid, which effectively outlines the squares. I started stitching the squares 1/2 cm from the corner, which gave me about 7 rows of color. That was still more than the original, last night when I looked I counted 5 rows, but there is still enough room for the lettering.



There are 4 words: Love, Joy, Peace, and Hope, with several blank squares left. The lettering is done with floche thread, a softly twisted cotton thread that is lovely to stitch with. I had the perfect color, an orangy red! The flowers are done in lazy daisy stitch, with pearl cotton.



I have to write the pattern, revise the patterns for 3 other temari, and stitch one more. I think I can make it!

Lunar New Year G.I.T.S.: Year of the Tiger

Since it is Valentine's week, there should at least be a mention of hearts, right? My friend from Moonsilk Stitches was featured today in a guest-blogger appearance in Subversive Stitchers. Both the valentines featured are beautiful, and I can't wait to see what she makes this year.


Last night, when I got home, I received a package from the UK. (My package inspector C was not home, so she missed it! She always announces with great interest when a package arrives, and is on pins and needles until she sees what it is.) This temari is from Karen and is for the Lunar New Year G.I.T.S. (Great International Temari Swap). Sunday (Valentine's day!) is the Chinese New Year, and the animal this year is the tiger. I think these colors are perfect for representing a tiger, and the stitching is beautiful!



My temari for her is finished, and packed, but not mailed yet. As soon as I hear from her that she has received it I will share, because I think it turned out very interesting.

I think February 10th is a wonderful day for birthdays! Happy birthday, mom! Stay warm. Happy birthday Margie, I hope you have a wonderful day. Happy birthday Lois! Miss you! Happy birthday, Janet! I hope you don't have to work too hard today.

Guild Meeting

We didn't have an official guild meeting last night. Our project this month was to make blankets for the Children's oncology dept. of a local hospital, so as soon as we managed to unlock the door (yes, we have issues, and yes, we are looking for a new place to meet) people started making blankets.

There are only a couple of steps:

1. Buy 2 lengths of fleece that coordinate with each other.

2. Cut fringe through both layers on all four sides.

3. Knot fringe together.



This is the fleece I brought, monkeys, leopards and zebras. The blanket turned out so soft and cuddly I was tempted to take it home with me! We had so much fun visiting, and everyone pitched in. You can read more about the process here (when I get to it, please check back).

Last Friday I felt like I had ADD (Attention Deficit Disorder). I had just finished 3 projects, and I had to choose a new one, C requested a crocheted valentine and 3 stocking hats for the girls, and I got the felt stocking kit for P, and of course I had to open that and check it out. So I started my mittens and I felt a lot better. They are not beautiful.



But they are already amazingly warm. This is a picture of the right one, from the back of the hand. (There are two different colors of yarn. I used one for the cuff, and then started the second one right before starting to crochet the thumb.) The loose thread under the thumb is a marking thread, and the threads coming out of the top are the working threads. I have been totally engrossed in them, which is how I got this far. I think I should have stuck with one color, but I will still wear them because of the way they feel. That is, when I get them done; there's a whole 'nother one to crochet yet.