Incoherent Scribblings

My Measly Goals

My goals were a little thin last month and I imagine they will stay that way until I get settled into my new life, but here is the monthly goal post nonetheless.

So, for August I hoped to:

1. Mail my Monochromatic Exchange (Post date August 15). - Yes!
2. If fabric arrives, start “Kitty Cat Row.”- No, still no fabric.
3. Continue working through my rotation. - Yes!
4. If time allows, stitch (and finish) a “small.” - Yes!

For September, I plan to:

1. Get moved and start my new job.
2. Continue working through my rotation.
3. Participate in the September SAT.
4. If fabric arrives, start “Kitty Cat Row.”

She Does Stitch!

August has been a very busy month for me, so in addition to not blogging a whole lot, I didn’t stitch a whole lot either! However as it was next up in my rotation, I recently worked on “Four Seasons Cats.”

As you may remember, it was my original plan to stitch each cat during its respective season. Earlier this summer I completed the border for the summer cat, but when this piece came back around in my rotation last week I didn’t want to work on the summer cat. Instead, I wanted to finish the borders so that eventually I can work on any cat I choose.

Since I am starting to get in the mood for autumn, for this round of my rotation I decided to stitch the border for the fall cat. I have to admit that I was concerned that the oranges of the pumpkins might be too bright when I pulled them out of the bobbin box, but stitched together they turned out quite nicely.

8.5 hours (or 11.5 if you count the 3 hours of frogging I had to do when I was ¾ of the way done with the border and realized it was off two stitches) later and the fall cat border is done. Next up in the rotation… “Poet’s Heart.”

The Call

On Wednesday, I finally got the call I have been waiting for: The one that offered me a job as a librarian.

In keeping with the semi-anonymity of this blog, I am leaving the details deliberately vague, but this much I can say: Around September 15, (specific start date details are still being worked out) I will be moving to west Texas to take a position as Education Coordination Librarian at a small university. For those of you with a library background, the title means my main duties will be reference, instruction, and outreach. For those of you without, it means that I will be doing a little bit of everything in the public services area of the library.

I am really looking forward to beginning this position and have already begun thinking about goals and objectives in a rather abstract way, but as you can imagine, for now the focus is on getting all the paperwork done and moving.

I actually don’t know what else to say right now as I think the whole situation is still sort of sinking in, but one thing I can say for sure: I am extremely excited and can’t wait to get started!

The Last Exchange

Well, I am finally finished with my last exchange. I saw that Terri received her package from me and I finally remembered to take a pic of the lovely heart-shaped ornament that I received from Karin.

For Terri, I stitched a Quaker-esque design in redwork from one of the stitching magazines that I got at that yard sale a couple of months ago and finished it into a diamond-shaped ornament. (I forgot to photograph the back of the ornie, but Terri has a pretty good picture of both sides on her blog.) I also included some floss for Terri and a postcard. I hope you enjoy your exchange Terri. I sure enjoyed stitching it for you.

I haven’t been doing much stitching over the past few days because I have been focused on reading Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. I could have probably finished the book in on sitting, but I decided to try and take my time and enjoy the book… which I almost managed. I only read a few chapters at a time for a few days, but then last night I only had about 350 pages left and since it was getting good, I just couldn’t put it down anymore.

And WOW! what a ride!

I thoroughly enjoyed the story, but realized that I really need to go back and read books five and six. Though I have read the first four books three or four times a piece, I have only read five and six once and though I remembered the main plot points, there are so many details that I had obviously forgotten.

Overall, I would have to say that I am pretty pleased with the way everything came together and wrapped up at the end. There were definitely a few twists, but at the same time, I was pleased to find that some of the suspicions I had concerning a few of the characters were true.

Yep, two thumbs up for Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows!

All But the Charms

I finished my 10-hour rotation on Flo just in time for the August SAT so I permitted myself to start something small for the SAT that I could hopefully finish by the end of the weekend.

Given my recent feline-family addition, it seemed like a perfect time to stitch Brittercup Designs Lil’ Britties “Kitty Litter,” so that is what I finally chose. This chart has been in my stash and on my to-be-stitched list for quite a while now but I hadn’t stitched it mainly because I was lacking the charms it called for. However, I unexpectedly received some cat charms in an exchange a while ago and though they weren’t exactly the ones called for, I thought they would work.

I also sort of wanted to stitch the design with the overdyes it calls for, but given its size I refused to buy overdyes specifically for it. As I have mentioned before, I like overdyed floss, but with small designs such as this one I don’t really see much benefit in choosing overdyes as opposed to DMC. For that reason, I looked through my ever-growing collection of WDW and GAST to see if perhaps I had the necessary floss, but since I still didn’t have all the overdyes that it needed I decided to go ahead and stitch it using plain old DMC instead.

Once I finished with the stitching I found that I had a small problem though: The cat charms I had didn’t work on the design after all.

Nevertheless, I finished the stitching on “Kitty Litter” early Monday morning and was very glad that I chose such a goal for the SAT: I didn’t get as much stitching time in this weekend as I wanted so I just barely met my goal. However, this month’s SAT was a success… even if I do still need to find some cat buttons/charms and finish it into something cute like a pinkeep or cube!