(such a) Fickle Stitcher

At the EGA National Seminar in Orlando, Florida, I took a class with Jean Littlejohn. She was delightful and inspiring. I purchased a series of books by her and her partner, Jan Beaney. At that time there were about six published; I am parting with five, keeping the sixth as it is a tribute to Constance Howard. Here are images of the five I have decided to offer to someone who will make use of them.

Vanishing Act is by Jan Beaney; Voluptuous Velvet is by Jean Littlejohn; the other three, Bonding and Beyond, Transfer to Tranform, Gardens & More, are co-authored). The four by Jean Littlejohn are signed (to me). Each softcover book is 11.5 x 7.9 x 0.3 inches, 24 pages (plus front & back and inner covers),  and printed in full color. These are beautiful books; I had planned to have them bound together, but never got around to doing it.  Content descriptions are available at their Double Trouble Enterprises website in the Double Trouble Publications section.

I’d like to sell them as a set for $90US plus shipping. If you are interested, send me a comment or email to ficklestitcher at gmail dot com.

My friend, Rissa, doesn’t usually tag when she plays with memes, so since she did, I’ll play along…  

Here are the rules which you must abide by if you are tagged.
1. Link to your tagger and post these rules.
2. Share 7 facts about yourself: some random, some weird.
3. Tag 7 people at the end of your post and list their names (linking to them).
4. Let them know they have been tagged by leaving a comment at their blogs.

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Gee, I have had trouble with this . . .

1.  I love my sons, but when I was pregnant I really wanted a girl.

2.  My name was supposed to be Bonnie Sue. After my aunt, Billie Sue, and the daughter of Rhett Butler & Scarlett O’Hare, Bonnie Blue (Gone with the Wind).

3.  I am lazy! Lazy, lazy, lazy.

4. Mom, Dad, his brother and his three sons, my sister, me, and my sons have all attended the same college. Mom didn’t quite finish, and my boys haven’t yet, but all others have at least their undergraduate degrees from University of Southern Mississippi.

5.  I am a horrible housekeeper! Horrible, horrible, horrible.

6.  We sold our property in the Cactoctin Mountain area of northern Maryland to a Russian Orthodox priest.  He, his two sisters, their husbands and children all moved into our three bedroom house.  The last time we visited when they still owned it, they were building a lovely little chapel across the spring run-off from the house.  (They all returned to Russia after 9/11 — my neighbor said they were terrified.)

7.  I consider seven (and five) my lucky number(s). I was born on the 7th day of July. Go figure.

Rissa tagged most of the bloggers I know… maybe I’ll snag some URLs from the CyberStitchers. Yeah, that works! And, ladies, don’t feel obligated, but it sure is fun to learn about our wyrdness.

Pierrette, Ann S., Jeanne, Katherine H., NC Pat (unfortunately I can’t comment on her blog without being a member of 360.yahoo), Terry, and Geraldine (Geraldine isn’t a CyberStitcher, but y’all go to her blog/site, she has yummy recipes!

On a lark, I returned to Jackson this weekend to attend a class on rughooking with Rissa & Lisa. We went to P is for Primitive in Canton, MS, and were taught the basics by one of the owners, Lisanne Miller. Lisanne is a lovely woman, and a joy with whom to take a class.

Tomorrow, I’ll post photos of my class piece, but this tonight I want to share some photos of something I found when we sorted through my mom’s things.  At the time, and since, I was not sure exactly what it was… now, I’m pretty sure I know now that it is punch hook for making rugs. I know that we have a laprobe (for cars before heaters) that she had hooked… want to locate that pronto!

The label which identifies the item is mostly torn away (but the Good Housekeeping Seal is intact).

The two pieces slide back and forth via the slot in the lower portion. The “needle” is mounted to the upper portion.

There is also a smaller width set of parts. (Those are, I guess, celluloid double-pointed knitting needles.)

Look closely at the left side of the box. My grandmother cut a notch so the unit fit the box.

I would love additional information about this punch, so please leave comments if you know more.  (A kind commenter sent me a PDF of an instruction sheet. I’ve uploaded it for all those who keep asking me for it… here.)

 ETA (9:54pm — when I need to be working on my mid-term!!):  this item is a “Tru-Gyde” shuttle hook, and was made by the Wilson Brothers, Springfield, MO. I found mention of an advertisement in the February 1949 issue of Better Homes & Gardens for a book–for 25 cents!–containing information about making the 20 rugs illustrated in the book. (Copies on eBay and used book stores are 100 times that! LOL)  Too bad our library microformat only goes back to 1960; I’d love to see it.

As president of the Mississippi NeedleArts Chapter, I received in the mail today the quarterly (I think) mailing from National HQ. Included was the new Petite Project (PP). I thought I would share a photo of it with you.

Hey! That’s two photos… how’d that happen?

The new PP would be the item on the right. On the left is my own “Poinsetta Noel” designed in the early- to mid-1990s, which has been part of my teaching portfolio (to teach traditional Assisi which uses Italian cross-stitch) for 12 years. 

Now, what is a teensey bit interesting to me is that about that (what seems like) many years ago, I also had two of my other designs published as Petite Projects. (In the intervening years, I withdrew them due to a change in use policy.)

This one (there is a larger, if a little blurry, photo here) was designed in 1995, published as a PP in May 1996, withdrawn (in ????)and has been available on the internet as a free on-line class since 2001.  Another very similar SRE project was published as PP in March 1997 (and is still available from National HQ for chapter and MAL use).

Am I trying to say that not once but twice my intellectual/creative property has been plagerized? No, but it is a mildly distressing coincidence when you see thing so similar to yours.

Robin Atkins doesn’t post to her Beadlust blog very often,  but, often, when she does, it is spectacular.  I keep going back to her October 9th entry, not only because the beadwork is so beautiful, but because her thoughts about feelings about money hit close to home.  My list of “issues” would be somewhat different from hers, but I’ve got me a list, that’s for sure. Go have a look — if only to see whether the $100 bill is real or not.

A few more photos!I took photos of my progress on the twin leaf scarf before I ripped it. I like the pattern just fine (though I think I made a mistake about one repeat in), but I want a few more beads, and in different places. Because I’m using a smaller bead, they really do disappear. I am going to play with placing them along where the decreases are made, and I really think they would look better worked into the stitch rather than just pushed up along the working thread. We’ll see if that looks better. I’d like to find a way to use the remaining red yarn, too, but I can’t figure out how. Also, I may toy with the double decreases; I’m not sure I like the way they look.

Now, on to the green top… the last time I mentioned (and likely the last time I worked on this project) it, was February 13, 2006! I have only worked about two more pattern repeats since I picked it up last week, so it basically looks the same as when I stopped.

I know this pattern — which is another leaf/fern one — is from a knitting magazine. I’ll have to find it though; I can’t remember which one and a quick look at the Interweave Knits website didn’t find it. I’m really about to the point where I am going to start the sleeves and yoke. For that, I am going to use the same shaping as the pattern I used for my hemp yarn sweater.

Both my Swallowtail shawls are finished, but unblocked. Because I had so much yarn leftover from the first one, I wanted to make the second one larger. I didn’t want to have to fiddle with the math (unless absolutely necessitated by running out of yarn!), so I just switched to larger needles. The grey was knit using size 4US, the red with size 6US.

You can see the difference the needlesize made in the photo above (the grey shawl is on top of the red shawl), and the amount of yarn remaining from each ball of MistiAlpaca in the one below.

I found a sweet, narrow, lace scarf pattern at Jimmys Wool, and last night began it in the grey. I had a mixed bag of (mostly size 10, I think) white, pearl, and silver-lined beads which I strung with a mid-eye, two-pointed beading needle. The pattern calls for Blue Sky Alpaca & Silk, which is what I am using on my green top, so we’ll have to see how it works out in the MistiAlpaca lace weight. I’m using the same size needle which is called for in the pattern. I would say for the Alpaca & Silk, though, that you would want at least size 8 beads. If I make enough progress on it today, I will post a photo tonight.

I also have photos of the green top to post tomorrow.