Incoherent Scribblings

A Little Bear

Although I am technically not on The Wagon anymore, I have been trying to keep my stash acquisition under control.

However, I never technically rewarded myself for finishing my 26 Projects Challenge, so when I finally found “Bearly a Wizard” by Dragon Dreams on eBay a couple of weeks ago I couldn’t resist bidding. “Bearly a Wizard” has been on my wishlist since I first typed it up so, needless to say, when I won the auction I was quite excited.

I was so excited that when the chart arrived in the mail on Tuesday I dropped all pretense of working on my WIPs, kitted it up, and started it immediately. Of course I didn’t have the DMC rayon it calls for or the Kreiniks, but that didn’t stop me! I substituted regular DMC for the rayon (I am not a big fan of rayon floss anyway… too slippery), chose a couple of Kreiniks from my stash, started stitching away, and after 6 hours, this is my progress.

SBQ: Stitching Weaknesses

This week’s SBQ was suggested by Rachel and is:

What is your cross stitch weakness? (i.e., What do you have to have when you see it, even if you are supposed to be on the Wagon?)

I think that my cross stitch weakness has changed over time. When I made the switch from casual to obsessed stitcher I felt that I had a pitiful stash and so at that point my weakness was stash in general! I had to have everything that was related to stitching that I could get my hands on! I then became obsessed with acquiring a complete set of DMC, so I went crazy buying DMC for a time.

These days I think my two biggest weaknesses are Mirabilia charts and hand-dyed fabric. I think these two weaknesses go hand-in-hand because it just seems to me that those pretty Mirabilia ladies are screaming to be stitched on equally beautiful hand-dyed fabric.

I tend to satisfy myself with plenty of “window” shopping, but every once in a while I succumb. Although I now have more Mirabilia charts than I will ever be able to stitch on the fabric that I receive from Silkweaver’s FOTM club, I seriously doubt that fact will stop me from collecting more!

Homework Sunday

I have a major assignment due for my novel writing class today so I didn’t get a chance to work on “Harvest Witch” yesterday. However, after class on Monday nights I usually try to relax by stitching for a couple of hours, so I will work on her tonight instead.

In preparation for tonight’s class, I spent most of yesterday afternoon with my nose buried in Madame Bovary. I read an excerpt of this novel in French many years ago when I was studying abroad in Paris, but apparently had either forgotten what I had read or never understood it in the first place because I feel like I am reading everything for the first time.

The translation I am reading is the 1886 translation by Eleanor Marx-Aveling and is not exactly an easy read. However, I am plodding my way through and find that I am actually enjoying myself a wee bit. In my opinion, Madame Bovary is an interesting character who I don’t exactly like, but I can’t help but pity her. Her romantic notions may make her a silly woman, but like many women of her day she is trapped in circumstances that are only partly of her own making.

Once I decided I had had enough of Madame Bovary for the day, I took a crafty break and finished “Winter Love” into a pillow-style ornament. I had originally intended to make this into a tuck-pillow ornament, but after I trimmed my stitching I realized I didn’t really leave enough room for the “border” that characterizes a tuck-pillow so I just fell back on a regular pillow-style ornament instead.

I then settled down to work on my mock proposal to a publisher and except for printing it out, had it ready for class before I fell into bed around 1 a.m.

Cool Spring Cat

I know it is not even March yet, but out here in West Texas we are already beginning to see signs of spring, so when I pulled out “Cool Cats” by Margaret Sherry last week I decided it was time to stitch the spring cat. I have now completed two of the four seasons.

I am stitching all four cats vertically on one piece of fabric with the intention of turning it into a wall hanging when finished. However, after I finished the winter cat I noticed that while I have plenty of extra fabric on the left and right sides for finishing, the bottom (and now with the spring cat the top) is a little skimpy. I hope that when it comes time for finishing I will have enough room to do it.

Lunar Eclipse 2008

Lunar Eclipse 2008
Originally uploaded by blondelibrarian

In case you missed it, there was a total lunar eclipse last night. I was very excited about trying out my new camera and taking some pictures of it, but when I looked out my window last evening around sunset I was shocked to see that it was cloudy.

I said a few choice words because, dammit, I live in the high desert these days and I couldn’t believe that the one day that I wanted to look at the night sky was also going to be the one day of the year it was going to be cloudy.

However, as they say around these parts, if you don’t like the weather here wait five minutes and it will change. As I knew the most interesting view of the eclipse wasn’t scheduled until about an hour and a half after sunset I decided to take this advice to heart and wait for a while before giving up on my photographic ambitions.

I peeked out of the curtains several times while waiting for the beginning of the eclipse and was pleased to see that the clouds appeared to be thinning out. Finally I looked out the window and to my great satisfaction, the clouds around the moon had vanished and a chunk of it seemed to have disappeared: The eclipse was underway!

I gathered up my camera and headed outside to find a decent viewing spot, but unfortunately I live on a main street in town that had too many lights blaring to get a photogenic view of the eclipse. Not to be discouraged, I hopped into my car and headed over to a friend’s who not only lives on an extremely dark street, but just so happened to have a tripod as well.

I took a plethora of pictures just before the lunar eclipse became total and although point and shoot astrophotography is challenging, managed to take a few that turned out rather nicely if I do say so myself.

I then spent the rest of the time enjoying the spectacular view of the rust-colored moon while sitting on the porch at my friend’s house enjoying a mild winter night in west Texas. And just as the eclipse was ending, the clouds returned.