High Fiber--Sampling Cross-stitch

We had a rare treat at Vintage Stitchers this week:

Carol picked up this great cross-stitch sampler in a silent auction. It's worked on evenweave. What a lot of work must have gone into it! Here's a closeup:

Lucky Carol! We were all drooling over it. Coincidentally, Barbara was working on a cross-stitch of her own. It's a Christmas stocking, but she's going to frame it instead of making it into a stocking.

The two cross-stitch projects reminded me of some I have. This one was made by my mother when I was 1 1/2 years old:

My brother was four and had just entered his wild stage. I don't know how she managed to do this with two of us! That may explain why there's a mistake in it, though. Can you find it?

When she gave it to me it had a big stain in the lower right-hand corner. You can just see a little of the stain left. I tried washing it, but it didn't take out the stain. Then I tried soaking it in water with a little bleach, checking it every five minutes. The stain came out (mostly) and the floss didn't fade. I don't recommend this with today's floss, however. They use more environmentally friendly dyes now, and they aren't as stable under this kind of treatment. At least test it first.

I enjoy an occasional cross-stitch project, too. This one went with me to Ireland on our hiking trip in 2005.

It was a great project to work on because each row was challenging at the beginning, then got easier, was fun to do for a while. Just as the row started to get boring, it was over. It sort of reminds me of my current knitting project, my version of the Dogwood Blossoms Cardigan. Here's a photo of my progress, showing a little bit of the design that goes around the chest.

To the upper right you can see the armscye steek area. I bound off 18 sts, then cast on an equal number on the next round. You can do fewer, but that pulls it in, and I wanted it to look better while I was working on it. You can also just put the sts on waste yarn instead of binding them off. I'm also starting the V-neck decreases at the front steek. I hope to have more progress to show you next week. I'm feeling the urge to finish it, now that the weather is turning colder.

If you're making this pattern yourself, I should point out that besides making the cardigan version, I'm making drop-shoulders rather than the cap sleeves and rounded armscyes. Drop-shoulder sweaters look better on my shape, so it was a design decision. You can see more of this project in previous blog posts.

The bathroom remodel is coming along. They start the tile work today. We have spent the last few days painting. We were amazed how much paint it took.

Bathrooms and closets have a lot of surfaces! (Looks like someone needs a new sweater!)

In the meantime, six-month-old Zachary is crawling! And he's starting to enjoy vegetables. Here's a photo of him, as promised last week:

How much longer will my Dogwood Blossoms take? The bathroom remodel? Stay tuned!

What's on my needles: Dogwood Blossoms, of course.
What's on my wheel: Still the Full Circle Roving in "Pigeon."
What's on my iPad: Still Dean Koontz's Odd Apocalypse.

What's in my wine glass: Nathanson Creek Merlot--perfect for knitters; it has a froggy on the label!

Note: This blog post was produced entirely on the MacBook. Photos were prepared on the iPad. No other computer was used in any stage of composition or posting, and no Windows were opened, waited for or cleaned.