Perry the Platypus Hat and Martha Stewart Loom

I know I said I wouldn't start the Perry the Platypus hat but....I did anyway.  Finished the hat portion.  Still need to work on the face.

In case you're wondering, I didn't really use a pattern.  I started with the purple KK loom and made icords.  Then I increased to make the earflaps.  Then I started a set on the other side and started working in the round and did a hat and gather finished it.


I was thinking about getting the Martha Stewart Loom.  I didn't want to order of HSN.  Then I found out it was also sold at Michaels.  Then I found out Michaels had a 40% coupon this week.  So now I own the loom and my husband has cut me off from spending anymore for awhile :)

This is a picture of the box

This is the pieces. 

These are the pegs

I'll be having some fun with it later.

I took Thursday off because my husband has an important appointment and we only have one car so I have a three day weekend.  Hoping to finish Zoé's Kermit the Frog jacket and Perry's face.

Whitework and a Perry Hat

So Brenda Myers (author of the Loom Lore blog), put an owl earflap hat on my Knifty Knitter group.  I thought that it would look nice as a Perry the Platypus.  But I thought I would put it off....but I saw this at Wal-Mart

It's Simply Soft yarn and it matches Perry pretty well.  I might actually have to start it at some point today.

Also did some more whitework.  I apologize, it's hard to see...

The mosaic stitches that make the heart at the top drove me nuts.  I had to frog several times.  Grr.

Whitework

I was up late last night with Zoé.  So, I got some stitching done.  Had to do a bit of frogging since all the stitching I did at work ended up in the wrong place.

Whitework and a trip to Jo-Ann

We were really slow this morning, so I got the first 2 1/2 hours of my shift off.  so I went to Jo-Ann and I got this:

The needles are the size 28 tapestry that I couldn't find at Hobby Lobby.  The stocking kit is long stitch and I'm going to make it for Adele.

Did some more progress on the whitework.  Added some beads.  Definitely going to try the tapestry needle.  The beading needles were very hard to thread.

A trip to Hobby Lobby and progress

So, I went to Hobby Lobby today.  No size 28 tapestry needles, so I'm trying some "beading" needles for the beads.  Also got a pair of scissors so I now own 2 pairs!  I had a 40% off coupon. 

Also did a bit more on the Whitework sampler.  It's a little thick because it's calling for 3 strands over 2 on 28 count and the mosaic stitches are 6 strands.

Stop SOPA!

So, congress has this very poorly written law that will allow anyone's website to be shut down for any reason in the name of stopping piracy.  Now, that may stop piracy but will stomp on a lot of people's first amendment rights.

If you remember last month or so, I had got a notice from google that some of my pictures violated copyright and they were taken off the site.  I could not find out what pictures had violated or even who had requested them to be taken down.  it was a nightmare and I would have had to go to court to fight it.  The album in question was an album of pictures I had take of the front covers of my cross stitching books.  I don't think that violates copyright but as a private citizen, I had no way to fight.  This will make it a lot easier to attack your blog and any "offending" images will be replaced with this:

Whitework start

Couldn't wait to post a picture of the beginnings of my whitework.  Going to be a lot of stitching ahead of me but it's pretty already.

We've already got a variety of stitches.  Regular crosses with ecru floss (3 strands stitched over 2 on 28 ct linen).  Algerian eyelets and straight stitches and a lazy daisy with pearle cotton.  Haven't even got to the beads yet.  Will need to get a proper needle for those at Hobby Lobby tomorrow

Frogs.....interrupted!

So, this is my weekend (I have Sun, Tues, Wed off) and I decided to stitch a bit on my frogs.  Just starting the backstitching.

Then, a package arrived in the mail.  And here's what was in it. 

Some Ecru Pearle Cotton and Cream seed beads

A nice piece of 28 count cream cashel linen

Here's a closeup

Really impressed with 123 Stitch.  I ordered on Friday and got it by Tuesday.  And they even surged the edges of the linen for me!

Football and frogs

So, I watched the Packers get streamrolled by the Giants this afternoon.  Oh, well. 

I did get a whole bunch of stitching done during the game.  Now I'm basically ready to do the backstitching and then I'll have my first finish this year!

Frog progress

I have some more froggy progress. 

Tree Frogs coming to life

As promised on my Yahoo! group, here's a picture of the Tree Frog Trio as it looks right now.

Hoping to order some supplies off of 123 Stitch for the whitework sampler I plan to do for my in-law's 50th wedding anniversary on Friday when I get paid.  I need to see if it meets Becky's requirements for her BAP challenge so I'll have to dig out the mag and check the finished size.  It's kinda big so I hope it does.

Eric Whitacre's Virtual Choir

I've only sung one Eric Whitacre piece.  It was "Cloudburst" and you can see that piece here. (Please note, I'm not anywhere in this choir, I sang it with Martin Luther College Choir back in 2006ish).

Here did a project back in 2009 called "virtual choir."  He took one of his songs and had people individually record themselves singing one of the parts on a webcam and upload to youtube.  You can see the very very cool finished result here.  It turned out so well and was so well received that he did one of his other songs and it was sung by 2000 people and you and you can see that here.

Well, he's doing it again.  Here's his official site.  I haven't sung much in awhile but I really want to do this, so I'm starting vocal boot camp (which generally involves going on Flonaise to clear out all my sinuses, drinking copious amounts of water and singing vocal warmups every day) and then I think I will be singing Soprano 5 which involves one high A which I used to be able to hit but just barely and I'm rusty so...well...we'll see how that goes ;)

An Unexpected Trip and a new project

Tuesday and Wednesday we had to drive to Nebraska and back.  We had to take my stepdaughter to high school.  She's going to be going to Nebraska Lutheran High School this semester but we couldn't find her a ride up there.  So, we packed up her and the girls and rented a car and away we went.

Zoé got to have her very own bed at the hotel.  She didn't pass out until 2 am.  I guess 9 hours in a car will do that to you.  They were running around the hotel room like little banshees for about 4 hours after we arrived.

I started a new project as well.  I still haven't ordered my materials from 123 stitch so I started a kit I had on the trip.

Here's my current progress: