It’s been an amazingly strange week in the Krueger household – quite a bit focused on jobs. Erich’s job is changing to something where he’ll have a lot more responsibility (and minions… minions are good). He’s going to be the only lvl 2 tech support person for a product line, essentially handing all of the complex items on software that the lvl 1 folks can’t handle. He may have to do some traveling soon to help train/support some of the folks he’ll be working with.

I’ve applied for a lateral transfer at my company into another administrative job that’s opening up which would give ME a lot more responsibility and challenge. I had a good interview for it, I’m psyched about the possibilities, and I’m very hopeful, but of course “it ain’t over ’till it’s over” and I see an official offer letter on company letterhead.

*crosses fingers*

And Matt seems to be working through some of his depression and is coming around.

So a good week. I’d be lying if I denied my head was spinning a bit!

Aside from work-related things, it’s been a good week socially. On Thursday, Erich and I attended Bye Bye Birdie at Fontbonne Academy . Our best man, Tone, directs two productions per school year there, and we attend primarily to support him. The school has a good drama department, though – and it seems like the plays are generally well attended. It was an adorable production – the kids looked like they were having a blast. Lots of talent on that stage (and I’m a bit envious of all of the poodle skirts, which I think is one of those things I’ll never quite grow out of).

We’ve put out invites for a big St. Patrick’s dinner at our house next weekend. A few replies so far. I make a very good corned beef dinner (it takes Polish boiling methods to perfect on Irish ones *grin*). I’ll probably head out to grab the beef this weekend since it’s going to be cheap.

And tomorrow morning we’ll do our brunch ‘n bowl with Tone, his wife Robin, his brother Smallz, and whoever else shows up. I’m planning on checking out the pro shop at the alley for bowling shoes – we’re going often enough that it’s worth buying my own. Nothing too crazy, but I can justify $30-$40 for a pair that won’t be worn by strangers. I’m tempted to buy rental-style shoes, but there are a couple other styles that I really like, too.

It’s supposed to be a miserably rainy weekend, so other than bowling, I’m planning on spending a good portion of it stitching. My Hush Hush piece for LifesAStitch is due to be done this weekend. All of my stitches are done. I’ve backed it with some of the leftover evenweave, but it still felt a bit thin as a “mug rug”, so I’m adding an additional backing fabric. I just need to do some running stitches on it, so it won’t take long to attach.

Other than that, I’m not quite sure what I want to do. I have two small pieces that are very close to being done – Spirit Dragon only needs backstitching, although I think it’s probably about 2-3 hours worth based on my stitching speed. Home is Where the Cat Is has probably about the same amount. It would be nice to have three finishes in a weekend, but… I also wonder whether I should bring those small pieces on the train with me this week and just work on a larger piece that doesn’t transport as well.

I’m not sure. But I’ll definitely get a good amount of stitching done. I have two DVDs of West Wing to watch, a DVD and an episode of DS9 to watch, and probably a couple shows on the DVR as well.

It’s been an oddly great week.

No wonder my head is spinning!

Where the HECK did February go?!?

(oh yeah… I spent them in front of the TV watching the Olympics and stitching…)

Ready for a long post? I haven’t done one of these in a LONG time. It feels good, actually.

I started this post on March 2nd, by the way, but saved it before heading to lunch and forgot about it.  Since I’m still not as familiar with how WordPress will post things, I’m curious whether it will show up before or after the photo I just posted.

Anyway…

Crazy, crazy month. It flew by entirely too fast. BUT – it was productive, in many ways. I’ll talk about stitching in a sec – but I’ll start with the general life stuff.

Erich and I have *gasp* finally gone bowling. It’s a bit of an in-joke, really. I mean, we’ve been together for nine years this May, and we’d never gone bowling. We’d talked about it – and we live within a mile of three separate bowling alleys (although one’s duck pin only, so that may not count), but we’d never gone.

Our best man and his wife thankfully changed that when they invited us to the Sunday morning bowling hangout they’re doing up in Brockton. So… 9:30 on Sunday morning, we’re now hanging out with them at the lanes, bowling a few games since there’s a special to rent lanes by the hour and bowl as many games as you can. Cheap morning – gets us up and moving (and getting some slight exercise, at least!)

We’ve also decided to start doing one other night of bowling per week down by us – the lane in Cranston just down Rt. 1 from us does dollar per game nights on Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday after 8 p.m., which works perfectly for us. So tonight we’ll go after we eat dinner at home and bowl 4 or 5 games.

I’m still playing pretty badly – the last time I’d been bowling was at the end of high school, and 17 years and about 140 pounds more weight (yeah… seriously *hangs head in shame) have completely thrown off my approach in every way. I’m rebuilding it from basics – right now focusing on the swing itself to get my accuracy, and then I’ll add steps into it. Right now if I do a step-approach, my swing gets thrown off because of the width of my hip, and I swing my arm diagonally across my body just as I do while walking. If I do a stand and swing, I have far better accuracy.

The plan next paycheck is to buy our own bowling shoes – just a few times at the lanes will pay them off (and they’ll be ours, not the worn out rental ones that god knows who has used). I’m seriously debating buying a pair of tri-color bowling shoes… because they’re bowling shoes - it seems like it’s a requirement! I’ve honestly always thought the rental shoes at the lanes were cute in a ugly rebellious sort of way.

So… hooray for hobbies as a couple!

Other stuff… Doctor Who is back on air in the UK on Easter weekend, staring here in the States on Apr. 17th. So my weekends will now be full of geekery again. I’m nervous but excited about the new Doctor. I will miss Tennant a lot in the role, but hopefully Matt Smith is fantastic, too. Steven Moffat is amazing, so if nothing else – I know I’ll enjoy the storylines.

Work’s been busy – quite a bit of overtime lately. Some parts of it are still annoying as hell, but meh, that’s work.  I have a job and for the most part, I enjoy it.  I work for a good company.  The things I do in my job are enjoyable, and most of the people I work with are, too.

Oh… and since I’m in New England, I saw no snow in February. No. Really. All of that crap that dumped on the Mid-Atlantic? Never saw it. We had a decent amount of rain, but that’s all. The first storm that gave Washington almost 30 inches or whatever? The weather forecasters up here actually apologized on air for their bad forecasts because they wound up being absolute duds. Everyone called off school and declared snow emergencies, and we barely got anything that day. Boston even offered to reimburse fines and towing fees for cars that had parked on the street – THAT was how badly off they were!

Stitching Stuff

I’ll get my final Stitching Olympics photos up late this week once I know what our weekend schedule is. The final tally, however – 10 projects worked. I managed to put stitches into all but two of my UFO projects (which I define as anything that has sat untouched for 6 months or more), plus a couple WIPs, plus started a piece for an exchange for the Life’s A Stitch board called “Hush Hush.” That’s due to be mailed out on the 15th, so I’ll be focusing on that piece until it’s done and ready to go.

Two projects are now within a couple hours of finishing – Home is Where the Cat Is (finally!) and Elemental Dragon:Spirit. Both essentially have maybe 90 minutes to two hours of backstitching each. They’re both on my radar for March.

So I’m very pleased… even if my goal list for February went extremely askew:

For February, my goals were

1) Rotate through all of my WIPs and UFOs at least once  No.  I was a few projects short.  But I DID get through 10 projects last month, so I’m very happy with the progress I made.
2) Finish Home is Where the Cat Is  So close – I just ran out of time at the end of the month.  I’m 4 hours away from finishing, max.
3) Finish Spirit  All but the backstitching.  So I’m about 90 minuts max on this one from finishing.
4) Put together the individual progress pages on my website  One of these months, maybe I’ll get to this.  But it hasn’t happened for 3 now.  So… yeah.  I’ll just focus on some stitching and call a mulligan on this.
5) Finalize my rotation that will start in March  Yep.
6) Remember to photograph the TUSAL this month.  OMG I finished one of my goals this month!

Seriously though, I’m pleased with what I did this month, even if it didn’t match the goals.

For March, I want to…

1) Finish Home is Where the Cat Is
2) Finish Spirit
3) Get my Hush Hush exchange out on time
4) Get my UFO RR mailing out on time
5) Rotate through my new rotation once by the end of March

Rotation for this month will be:

Hush Hush project (finish and mail by 3/15)
Cats on a Staircase (for Yoyo’s Christmas SAL)
Elemental Dragons: Spirit (will finish)
Egyptian Sampler
Apache Wedding Blessing
Home is Where the Cat is (will finish)
Legends of the Dragons (for the TW board SAL)
UFO Round Robin – Round #1

Ah yes… the UFO Round Robin. I’m seriously excited. Our first mailing date is on March 15th, and it’s looking like it’ll be a fantastic robin. Lots of diverse projects that are going around. We’re stitching as one group of eight, and the robin will take nearly a year before it’s over.

And I’m modding this shindig. Heh. I never thought experience with modding friendship book and slam swaps would come in handy!

I’m sending my Magical Night piece, which I adopted from (I believe) Annette back in 2005 or 2006. Due to the proximity to my wedding, it didn’t get the work hours I’d hoped it would. And since I have a glut of Teresa Wentzler pieces (being insane as I am), I decided sending one of them around was probably the best choice. This one’s probably the least far along – so sending it for a robin will give it a very nice push.

Here’s where it currently stands:

Like I said… it’s not far along. But next year, hopefully it will return with a nice amount of forward progress!

Until next time…

- Mel.

I’m participating in Stitching Olympics competitions at two separate message boards this month. Unfortunately the attempt on Life’s a Stitch for a stretch of 5×5 square stitching is off to a slower start due to a TON of frogging, but I’ll be bringing that piece into my rotation this week.

Over on The Wagon, however, I’ve been making some great progress. The competition I’m entered in is the Rotation Relay. Basically… work a minimum of 2 hours on a piece, and move on to the next in your personal rotation. So far I’ve worked on a LOT of pieces, as you’ll see. I’ve intentionally started with pieces that hadn’t been touched since I picked up stitching again back in October.

“Before” photos are on the left (most taken on January 28th to document the challenge). “Afters” are on the right. (photos pop)

Noah’s Ark

Hours: 3
Round finished on: 7 February 2010
It may be tricky to see, but all of my work on this piece were done on the ostrich panel at bottom center. It’s all over-one stitching and most was off-white on white (ick!).

Magical Night

Hours: 2
Round finished on: 8 February 2010
I would have done more on this piece, but I’m oddly missing a LOT of colors that I could have sworn I had. As of now, I’m planning on sending this piece around for the UFO Round Robin that’s kicking off on March 15th.

Elemental Dragon: Spirit

Hours: 4
Round finished on: 15 February 2010
Hooray! This piece is now finished aside from backstitching. I’ll be tackling that the first week of March once this competition’s over to get it done.

Smoky Mountain Cats

Hours: 5
Round finished on: 13 Feb 2010
I wound up spending more time on this than expected because it was in my bag for an extra-long commute. But hey, it’s more done in a very large field of blue.

Garden Sampler

Hours: 2.5
Round finished on: 11 February 2010
I’m working the piece on the left. I’ve discovered the piece on the right was simply some motif experimentation, so I’ll probably keep it for similar practice. This was a piece that I got out of Erich’s mom’s stash as we cleaned through her belongings about 18 months ago. She started it in colors that don’t match the pattern – I didn’t bother switching the green, as they’re only about a shade off from each other. I did, however, pick the flower out so I could match it to the rest of the pattern. It’s not my general stitching style, but it stitches fast – I expect I’ll enjoy it a lot.

Walk in the Woods

Hours: 2.5
Round finished on: 12 February 2010
This is another piece found in Erich’s mom’s stash. Again, not my normal style, but I do plan on finishing it. It’s stitching pretty quickly. I’m missing a couple colors. I do admit that I adore the top border.

So not bad so far!

Up this week in my list:
The “Hush Hush” piece for Life’s a Stitch
Home is Where the Cat Is
Legends of the Dragons
Spring Queen

I’m seriously considering rotating somewhat like this for the rest of the year – it definitely seems to be a fun way to rotate, essentially picking up a different piece every night.

I’ve forgotten to take a picture of this over the past two months. But here is my Totally Useless SAL jar. It’s filling up, although there’s a lot of room in the jar… the threads are still sitting with a lot of “loft” between them.

A huge stitching update is coming within the next hour or so… I just need to write it up and link all of my photos.

I’m a bit silly-punchy right now due to being on the reception desk all day, so if I really go off on a strange tangent or don’t sound quite sane (for me – be nice), that’s why.

It’s odd to know that there’s a raging snowstorm coming up the East Coast that’s going to absolutely bury some places in 20-30 inches of snow, yet in Rhode Island there isn’t even a flake in the forecast. Amazing how these systems work. I’m so used to hearing the Boston-New York-Philadelphia-Baltimore-Washington, DC announcement on Amtrak as if the megalopolis is this continual, reasonably small area of land that sometimes it’s easy to forget that no, it really isn’t.

In any case, my mom will be in this storm, though not in the worst of it. I’ll give her a call at some point to check in tomorrow.

My weekend should be fairly tame – I’m going to stitch all day tomorrow. Literally. Erich and Matt are off to play Dungeons & Dragons (well… a Star Wars campaign actually, but it’s tabletop roleplaying…) all day. They’ll probably leave sometime around 10 a.m., and I expect them home pretty late (10 or 11 p.m.). I’ll have the house to myself.

So stitching’s the plan – and lots of it. I’m going to be working on my Stitching Olympics rotation for The Wagon tomorrow. Unsure how many projects I’ll actually stitch. The official turnaround is at 2 hours. I am going to stick to that as best I can, but I do tend to be a slow stitcher. 2 hours may not give me a lot of progress. Still, it will be good to put stitches in a bunch of things. I have UFOs that literally have not been touched since before my wedding. I’m using the Olympic challenges to form my rotations for the rest of the year, too. I want to figure out which projects are strongly appealing right now and which projects I have a reasonable chance at finishing at some point this year. As far as I’m concerned, the more I can clean off my list, the more new projects I can start. But now I have a healthy group of projects to choose from, so no more from me until a couple others are completed, I think.

I also became the moderator for the new 2010 UFO Round Robin over on The Worldwide Round Robins board today. Susan’s a bit busy with work and other projects, and I was happy to jump in with the experience I have from years past in non-stitching exchanges. The RR’s scheduled to have its first mailing on March 15th, so if anyone’s interested in participating, pop over there, look for the 2010 UFO RR board (bottom of the page, currently) and drop me the info required. The more the merrier!

Time to go home soon, so I’m going to start tidying up around here before heading to the boat. (I drove to Hingham and took the ferry today)

Happy Friday!

I’m participating in The Wagon’s Rotation Relay for the Stitching Olympics, so my rotation this month is a very odd one for me.

The relay guidelines are to work two hours on each piece, then move on. I’ve decided to include ALL of my current WIPS and UFOs in my rotation for the month, and I’ll see where it goes from there. I’m going to do this in a screaming order. I’ll return to my normal style of rotating in March.

Project list:

Spring Queen (Mirabilia) – currently stitching
Home is Where the Cat Is (Dimensions)
Cats on a Staircase (Bucilla)
Elemental Dragons: Spirit (DD)
Apache Wedding Blessing (Kooler Design)
Egyptian Sampler (TW)
Floral Bellpull (TW)
Astrology Sampler (Witches Stitches)
Legends of the Dragons (TW, DD, BS)
Smoky Mountain Cats (Pegasus Designs)
Fantasy Triptych (TW)
Magical Night (TW)
Noah’s Ark (TW)
Millennium (TW)
Walk in the Woods (Cricket Collection)
Garden Samplers (Prairie Schooler)

I think it will be a good way for me to really take a look at what I want to do for a rotation, too. I have plenty of projects kitted up now, and there’s a nice mix of diversity in them. Hopefully that will help me progress on things – particularly those TW patterns which I love, but can’t always focus on stitching.

—

So onto my January goals…

1) Work on many new starts as I wish for guilt-free January YES – I started three projects.
2) Finish kitting any projects I’d like to start in 2010 YES. I may have overlooked a thread here or there, but I can start on any of the pieces I wanted to kit.
3) Sort any old WIP photos and redo my progress pages online ALMOST- everything’s been photographed, and I’ve updated my main page, but I still need to build the individual progress pages.
4) Have an uninterrupted 6 hours of stitching time YES – had a wonderful one two weeks ago.
5) Figure out which piece I’d like to send around for the UFO RR that will hopefully kick up over on the TWWRR board. YES – have this solved too.

So yes, a very productive month. I’m pleased.

So for February, my goals are:

1) Rotate through all of my WIPs and UFOs at least once
2) Finish Home is Where the Cat Is
3) Finish Spirit
4) Put together the individual progress pages on my website
5) Finalize my rotation that will start in March
6) Remember to photograph the TUSAL this month.

Off to get some work done. I’ll post thoughts on individual projects this week.

Haven’t posted in a couple weeks even though I’ve been meaning to. Nothing’s wrong – I’m just busy with a bunch of little things now that the new year has started.

Another birthday has come and gone – I’m 35. Oddly, this one does feel different, although I’m not quite sure how to describe it.

Work’s fine. The pace has been uneven, but that’s to be expected in the new year. I’m still stressed about the things that normally stress me, but overall… work’s just fine.

I started on some fanfic early in the month, but I’ve been distracted by all of the other stuff going on in my life. Erich has some gaming dates with the guys in the next few weeks, though – so I may reserve some of my time to just tinker. No idea where it will lead. I’m not putting any expectations on myself other than to scribble some scenes and see if anything takes me anywhere. I’m debating posting draft scenes under a friends’ lock on LiveJournal for feedback… any thoughts?

I’ve been doing a decent amount of stitching, too. As part of “Guilt Free January” over on The Wagon, I’ve started two pieces so far this month: Legends of the Dragons and Astrology Sampler. I’ll post pics this weekend on them. I’ve debated starting one more piece for Guilt Free January to throw some variety into my rotations the rest of this year… I’m mulling over starting Spring Queen by Mirabilia or Witchy Washy by Raise the Roof. Not sure yet… but I probably will get something else underway in the next week or so.

I haven’t, to my surprise, been playing a lot of World of Warcraft. Erich tossed the Guild Leader tag on me earlier this month, and I need to start doing something to salvage the guild in some way. Not sure what yet – it will be a casual setup, but I need to get on the polls I took earlier this month.

That’s it for now – new work just came in, so I need to get offline.

Where the HELL did the first week of January go to?!?

So I’m thinking of what goals I want to focus on, both for this month and for this year. Here’s what I’ve come up with… although knowing me, I’ll probably completely change my mind mid-year. This is just for stitching. I have other goals and such in the works, too – including a 210 in 2010 Days (yes… 210.)

So… monthly stitching goals first. For December, I wanted to…

1) Stitch 10 hours on Apache Wedding Blessing Close, but I don’t think I actually got a full 10 done. Eight, maybe?
2) Start Astrology Sampler Didn’t get to it.
3) Prepare a new rotation round to start January 2010 Yes – and I’m already thinking of changing it… again.
4) Organize my stitching portion of my website. Yep! Got all of my charts organized and listed.
5) Plan my long-term stitching goals for 2010 A rough plan, yes. I’ve concluded that if I go too specific, I won’t stick to it.

For January, I want to:

1) Work on many new starts as I wish for guilt-free January
2) Finish kitting any projects I’d like to start in 2010
3) Sort any old WIP photos and redo my progress pages online
4) Have an uninterrupted 6 hours of stitching time
5) Figure out which piece I’d like to send around for the UFO RR that will hopefully kick up over on the TWWRR board.

For yearly goals, I want to do the following:

- Finish one TW project
- Particpate in an ornament exchange
- Finish 3 non-TW projects
- Develop a better floss and pattern organizing system in my office
- Make at least one rotation’s progress on all of my current UFOs
- Go to a stitching convention/retreat/show/thingy
- Attend or host at least 6 Stitch ‘n Bitches with friends
- Finally learn how to finish a knitted piece so I can get my scarf off my needles.

(okay… maybe a teensy bit of one)

One of the things I’ve decided is causing some of the stall in my stitching is the fact that I keep sticking on the same half dozen projects. I’ve been telling myself that I’m not allowed to start anything else in my stash unless I finish the projects I have… and well… that’s turned more into a curse on my progress, honestly. Part of the problem also is just – my Teresa Wentzler addiction. I have plenty of pieces in progress, but those are huge slogs of pieces. I need some smaller – or just easier – pieces to add into my rotation so I get occasional "happy dance" celebrations with completions.

So I decided to allow myself to kit up the following projects to add some variety into my rotation:

• Legends of the Dragons (Teresa Wentzler) – only because it’s part of a stitch-a-long on the TW message boards
• Mirror, Mirror (Abbey Lane Designs)
• The Catfeeder (Cedar Hill)
• Lazy People (Calico Crossroads)
• Wee Beasties IV (Dimples Designs)
• Dragon’s Tea Party (Dragon Dreams)
• Sleepy Hollow (Glendon Place)
• Autumn in the Square (Just Nan)
• Leaping Cat (La-D-Da)
• Witches Dance (Lavender Wings)
• Coffee Menu (Little House Needleworks)
• Dragonflies, Ladybugs & Bees (M Designs)
• Spring Queen (Mirabilia)
• Witchy Washy (Raise the Roof Designs)

I already have tons of fabric from which to choose for these projects. I just needed to check my floss status. And that’s where the problem starts.

About two weeks ago, I plunked on the couch with the projects I’d selected, a bunch of craft organizer tubs and my main floss stash. Like many stitchers, I keep a "master" supply of floss that I’ve collected over the years – either through leftovers from previous projects, or pickups from friends and family and the occasional yard sale. I always try to pull from that supply first, and then I’ll fill in missing colors from the store.

This does mean that any given moment, I may have a bunch of the same color of floss sitting between projects – but to make sure I don’t mix older DMC dyelots with newer ones (or just deal with the natural fading/aging of thread as it stores), I won’t share a color between two concurrent projects. If I wind up with a bunch of leftover, fine – it makes it easier to pull in the future. But I’d rather have the leftover than run out halfway through a project, buy a new skein of the same number… and it doesn’t match.

So anyway… I go through and make a very messy scribbled list of floss color numbers I’m missing. I clean it up during the quiet period of work last week – and this morning, headed off to the craft store to pull colors.

And well… I guess I needed a lot more than I thought I’d need:

It’s fairly deep, although you can’t tell that well from that photo.

The receipt, however, is better proof of what’s going on. (this is my embarrassed smile – Erich wouldn’t allow me to make a terrified face). Pardon the PJs.

The cash register clerk HATED me. Had I known that he had to ring each skein in individually, I’d never have pulled it all at one store.

So yeah – um… $65. All but five skeins are normal, run of the mill 37 cent DMC.

And the really sad thing? I still need to go to an actual cross-stitch store and purchase the hand-dyed threads and beads for a few of these.

(hides and quietly begins winding bobbins)

So… I’ve moved on in my rotation again, and with it come a new round of photos. The only one I haven’t updated yet is the ornament I stitched for Jo for the TWCOE exchange. I’ll post that and the one I received sometime this week.

First off – after nearly a month, my energy finally fizzled on Floral Bellpull. I almost got the entire square stitched, but I just needed a break. I managed twenty hours, which is double what my rotation requirement was, so no complaints.

I also decided to put Spirit Dragon away until the new year – I haven’t put any stitches into it for the past three weeks, and instead have been reading on the train. I’ll get back to it next rotation round (when I’ll probably finish it).

My first attempt at my TWCOE ornament was scrapped, although I do plan on finishing it for myself. It’s Teresa Wentzler’s Beginner Whitework Ornament. My chain stitches wound up very off, but for my own tree, I really don’t care. Instead of sending this one, I stitched up Father Winter (another TW pattern).

So that leads me to the current piece in my rotation: Apache Wedding Blessing. This is how it started yesterday morning:

I’m hoping to get the top border done this round so that I can position it better on my scrollframe. The fabric’s pretty cranky and doesn’t want to stay put.

That’s it for now… more later this week!

- Mel.