Needles & hooks

Adventures in Travel and Not Much Knitting

I’m back from my cruise. First, the disclaimer. It was this cruise. Yes, a cruise featuring Barenaked Ladies (the Canadian band). I’m a huge fan, I’ve seen them perform close to 50 times (I have to do a new count after the last tour and seeing them 4 times on the ship), and a pile of my friends and I were on the cruise together. It was non-stop fun. So, the projects I worked on recently all had to do with the cruise in some way.

First, there is this cross-stitch piece for a couple I know (glamour shot in the hotel room):

Close-up:

As you might have guessed, it’s from Subversive Cross-Stitch. I planned ahead before I left home and brought the floss and some spare Aida 14. A trip across the street from my hotel to Bed Bath and Beyond got me a frame. A wash in the hotel sink, lay out to dry on a towel while at work (wonder what the maid thought?!), and the room iron and board and it was all done. And the recipients loved it.

There were a few other gifts to give on the boat, not all of which I remembered to photograph. I made a silly wire and bead pendant that was very much an inside joke kind of thing. I made a neat spiral crochet bag for a birthday gift (and I should be getting the photo soon). But the best was my agony in air travel novelty fur scarf.

I needed to flesh out the gift of the silly pendant, so, seeing as Michael’s was selling most of their novelty yarn at steal prices, I decided to make a long boa scarf out of Bernat’s Boa yarn. 12 stitches wide and 2 skeins long. I cast on the night before I left and made sure I liked the width and then packed it up. But let me back track a bit.

As you might remember, I’m in Los Angeles on an extended work stay. The Friday before my cruise was my last day working. I checked on my flight to Miami and found that American Airlines’ website had no record of it! I called my secretary who called our travel department who said that something had screwed up but that it was all fixed and I should see the flight on the web in 30 mins. I did. So on Saturday I went about packing and getting ready. I spent some time getting the best seat assignment possible, and then I shut it all down and dropped some stuff off at a friend’s house for storage. Then I woke up early on Sunday for my flight from Los Angeles to Miami.

When I got to the airport, the computer wouldn’t let me check in. The self-service agent said there was a problem with my ticket and had me wait in line for a real agent. Fortunately, I’m Gold on AA, so I had a short line. The agent told me that I didn’t have a ticket. “But I have a seat assignment!”, I replied. After some tears (on my part), some heroics (on the agent’s part), and a Platinum MasterCard (on my part), I was in my assigned seats on the overbooked flight with no time to spare. While she was processing my charges, she had me run my large suitcase down to the other end of the terminal to leave it with TSA before they closed out the flight. I ran through security (also a Gold benefit), made a quick panicked call to my secretary, and got on the plane. I finagled the seat next to my best friend and we watched The Queen and Arrested Development and I worked through one ball of the Boa.

We landed in Miami and made our way to baggage claim. Now for the moment of truth. My bag was one of the first off the plane! Yay! So I camped out with our stuff and pulled out Boa, ball 2, and kept knitting while K looked for her bag. And looked. And looked. And I finished the 2nd ball. And her bag wasn’t there. The sum of the story is that we waited for the next flight from L.A., we went back in the morning before the cruise and checked the two red eyes, we called AA and they can’t trace the bag because despite putting 12 bar codes on it, they don’t actually scan bags as they get on and off planes. No more planes are due in before we have to get on the boat, so we go shopping for K and buy her new clothes and toiletries. AA only agrees to pay $75 because they’ll have the bag to us tomorrow; “um, we’re supposed to be at sea tomorrow”. We had one port of call, AA didn’t get the bag there. Fortunately, K bought clothes for the whole cruise. And her bag was in Miami on Friday when we returned.

Okay, so that was a long digression. Anyway, I knit a few stitches on the boat. A scarf I’ve been working on. No great “places I’ve knit” photo with the Atlantic in the background however. Didn’t want to get sunblock on the yarn. I didn’t start the project I’d intended to. But tonight is new Gilmore Girls and Veronica Mars, so maybe then.

Comments: 7 — Posted under: Knitting, Cross-stitch, Almost Random

Something a little different…

Today’s post was supposed to be Further Adventures in Dyeing. I’d written out most of the post. I was just about to make the first save so that I could go back and edit, and then I hit something or clicked something, and the whole thing disappeared. I’m no computer novice, but despite my best efforts, that version of the post was not to be. So, while I let that one rest for another day (and search for a WordPress Autosave plug-in), I’ll show you something else I made recently.

I’m a big fan of Dan Savage. He’s the Editor of The Stranger, a Seattle weekly paper. He’s also widely known for his frank and amusing weekly sex advice column, Savage Love. He’s a gay man in a committed relationship, raising his son with his boyfriend. He’s outspoken on a lot of issues, and in addition to his gay activism, he is always one of the first to point out when political actions threaten straight reproductive rights. He’s an engaging writer and I’ve loved reading his autobiographical books about adopting his son and deciding whether to marry his boyfriend.

Often people write to him asking about a relationship and it’s clear from the description in the letter that the writer is being taken advantage of. Dan’s primary advice is “DTMFA” (dump the motherfucker already). In recent months, in response to Dan’s continued frustration with American politics, and most importantly, the man at the top, a reader suggested ITMFA (I=Impeach). It’s a grass roots movement, and he encourages people to make their own ITMFA projects. He sells lapel pins and buttons (donating proceeds to the ACLU), many have gotten license plates, made bumper stickers, and designed t-shirts.

I decided that there had to be a fiber contribution:

Despite all the other things I disagree with about this administration, I find it hard to believe that an official investigation hasn’t been launched into misleading us about the war in Iraq and the mishandling of it. People are afraid to speak out because they are scared of terrorism, worried about the lives of the soldiers and civilians at the front, and are often accused of being anti-patriotic for expressing concerns and disagreements. Yet, I think these are exactly the reasons people should be speaking out. Freedom of Speech is one of the reasons given for starting the war in the first place. Our personal freedoms are being compromised in the name of fighting terrorism. People are losing their lives in the war. Impeachment is an investigation into the actions of the President. It’s time one was started.

If you want to make your own, I’ve charted the pattern (PDF).

Comments: 8 — Posted under: Cross-stitch, Almost Random

More catch-up

Still playing catch-up with the projects I finished for the holidays. Here are a couple of this year’s ornaments. They are cross-stitch with beads on perforated paper from a Mill Hill kit. As before, I bought one and then just bought additional supplies to complete the rest. I ordered additional beads from them to make all 5 and now have tons of left over seed beads.

Here’s two ornaments (can you play, find the photographer?):

Here’s another shot, showing the back of one. In the past, I’ve glued on felt backings, but I always stitch a date and signature and I’ve never been happy with how it looks on felt. This year, I didn’t have much time, so I decided to use some scraps of paper and stitch little tags for the back. I think they turned out much nicer than felt:

Last night, I finished up the scarf for my niece. The chevron pattern I was working on ended up folding over and started twisting. So I used it as a design element and added big tassels at the end. It really turned out better than I was expecting. So I’ll probably write it up. I have a bunch of photos to take tonight, so I’ll show you tomorrow.

I also got back into Zig Zag. After pulling out my knitting and reviewing the pattern and charts, I found a bunch of line-by-line notes on the backs of several of the pages. Then I remembered that I’d listed out for each row my increases and decreases and other changes. It took me a few minutes to count the rows of my sleeves and get situated, but now I don’t have to keep close track to remember where I’m doing things, I’ll just follow the notes I sketched out….nearly a year ago!

Comments: 0 — Posted under: Knitting, Cross-stitch

A project looking for a purpose

A couple of years ago my x-mas ornament was a small 3-D cross-stitch cottage from a kit by Meg Evershed. I was fascinated by this project because the final result was standalone and unique. The basic technique is that the sides of the house are stitched flat. Then they are assembled around forms made with plastic canvas to provide structure. Then the pieces are assembled into a single house. (I’m travelling, but I’ll post a photo of my ornaments when I get home).

There are several other kits in the series (and a whole set of Santa cottages) and she’s also written a book on the technique. I put this book on my Amazon wishlist a couple of years ago, but no one bought it for me. Recently I noted that it’s no longer in print and so I decided to finally order a copy for myself.

3-D Cross Stitch arrived last week and I find it utterly fascinating. The book builds upon the technique and improves it. It contains patterns for several small houses meant as sachets, a set of buildings that comprise a village, and larger projects like a gift box, a jewelry box, and a clock. Make sure to check out the link to the book. You can click on “Look Inside” and see some of the pages. Including one of the patterns, but not quite all the assembly instructions.

I love the idea of these projects, but I have no idea who I would make them for. They aren’t my style, so I wouldn’t make them for myself. And I can’t think of who else to give them to. Unlike many of my other projects, they don’t have much practical use.

And yet, it also fires my imagination. What buildings would I choose to do if I designed my own pattern? What other confections could I create with this technique? What other projects might I make? For now, I’ll just pet the book wistfully.

Comments: 0 — Posted under: Cross-stitch

All this and cross-stitch too!

Every year I make a new x-mas tree ornament. Actually, I make several, but they are identical. I keep one for my tree and I give one each to my mother and mother-in-law. This year my sister-in-law got married so I’m expanding the tradition and giving one to her.

I’ve made ornaments in a variety of media — beading, cross-stitch, crochet, etc. Whatever strikes my fancy when I start thinking about it. I try to mix it up a bit so that I’m not doing the same media two years in a row. And I’m usually frantically finishing them so that I can pack them in the boxes with gifts that I’m sending off, working on mine last as x-mas bears down. This year I got lucky and picked out the design last year and I actually got started on it well in advance. I might have these done before I’m finished shopping for gifts.

This year’s ornament is cross-stitch. It’s a Mill Hill kit, so it encorporates beads as well. In general I don’t care for kits because of the waste and the difficulty in repeatability, but Mill Hill kits are very easy to repeat. Their beads are coded so I was able to order more of the exact ones. And because I’m making 4, the excess floss will be used (and they also list DMC colors so I can use the right colors if I run out).

This kit is one of the Tiny Treasured Diamonds series — a small diamond square of linen with red, green, and white beads and stitches in a geometric pattern. The finished product will be lightly stuffed and have some beaded fringe at the bottom. So far I’ve completed the stitching on two and have made good headway on #3. I can complete one in an evening of TV, so perhaps once I’ve made some headway on the fair isle, I’ll get back to the ornaments.

Speaking of the fair isle, I’m about halfway through the design on the body and maybe I’ll actually make it to the principal stitching on the body by this weekend. I’m working in 3 colors right now which is near agony in how slow it’s going. And I have to pay far more attention to it as I progress than I normally do, which makes it hard to enjoy watching TV at the same time. I take heart that it’s both the front and back of the body, so I’m making far more progress toward the overall sweater than it feels like.

And I just picked up a new project today because I just learned that a friend of mine is pregnant. I’ve been waiting for this project for a couple of years. But I’ll talk about that later, after I’ve picked out the yarn.

Comments: 0 — Posted under: Cross-stitch, Beading