Stash Delivery

Finally, finally, finally......... the rest of my reward stash arrived yesterday from Little Knits. It's Crystal Palace Cotton Flamme. The Cornflower Blue is what I plan to use for the remake of the Sampler Afghan and the Key West Coral will make beautiful spring sweaters. Must not get distracted - I already have so many stitching (cross stitch & knitting) projects in heavy rotation but life keeps getting in the way. I made a resolution this year to do some type of stitching every day - even if it's only one row at bedtime. That's how the blogs have spoiled me - I so admire the ladies that manage to do it everyday..........

But the weather has finally broken (I hope) and I must pump up my training for the next Avon Walk for Breast Cancer. May 5 and 6 will be my 6th walkathon & I'll be following it up in October with the Avon Walk in New York.

Stash Reward

I blogged about reaching my Weight Watcher goal a couple of months ago. Well, last Tuesday, I reached Lifetime status by maintaining my goal weight for 6 weeks. This means I can now attend any WW meeting, at any time, at any location - free! Huge incentive for me since I've been paying those folks for years. Any who......... to celebrate (without food) I decided to go on a needlework-stash-buying-binge. I am so excited - my first order was delivered today & boy was it a doozy!!!!!

As you can see lots of my favorite things - angels - as well as the rest of M Design's tree ornament series, an adorable baby in prayer, & a really cute cross stitch collector design that reads "..... A stitcher's passion is her pattern collection". All my goodies were ordered from 1-2-3 Stitch (saw it listed on another bloggers site). Great selection, really great prices, and obviously speedy delivery. I now have enough stash to keep me going until the end of time, but this was only my first delivery. I'm waiting on some gorgeous Crystal Palace yarn to start my spring knitting projects....... should be delivered by Monday. Needlework played such a large part in my weight loss journey - it only seems proper that I show my appreciation (lol)

WIP & Stash

Here's progress on the second block of the Sampler Afghan. It's the Little Shell Stitch. Haven't received my new yarn so continue to chug away at the blah-blue. Saw a post asking for local donations of afghans for the homeless, so when I finish this one, it's headed that way. BTW, isn't the basket beautiful? Found it on clearance at Marshall's for $7.00. Great way to carry my projects upstairs & downstairs. Also treated myself to a trip to my LNS/LYS - In Stitches Needlework. Stopped in for silk floss for M Design's "Cherish" Tree Ornament chart. They had a few more of the designs, so I got the "Rejoice" and "Peace" charts. To really torture me, there was a 50% off yarn sale so I got this beautiful 100% wool - Andes (made in Chile). It's shades of gold & olive that should look great as a felted purse or tote. Have never tried felting but have collected some wonderful patterns online. As if that wasn't enough, picked up Lizzie Kate's Santa '04 chart. Have loved it since Sharon displayed hers on her blog. You're probably wondering when I'm getting back to cross stitch........ soon, very soon.

The Sampler

Nope - It's not a cross stitch sampler, but the Leisure Arts knitted Sampler Afghan. I bought the book ages ago with the intention of learning some really great patterns. It contains 60 stitch patterns that you can mix and match to create your own afghan design. Each block is 12 inches and the final piece takes 20 blocks. I finished my first block on the return flight from Houston - the Double Parallelogram. Now I'm on to a pretty Shell Stitch block. If you look closely at the pic below, there are some really great patterns in the booklet. My downfall is that I started using stash yarn. Yes - it's acrylic ; OMG it's baby blue; and there's soooooo much of it! In my own defense: (1) I didn't buy the yarn, it came by way of the yarn fairy; and (2) I didn't expect to like the finished pieces, just wanted something to do to soak up all the excess travel time. So to remedy the situation, I jumped online to the Little Knits site and ordered the Crystal Palace Cotton Flamme in Cornflower Blue (really soft & beautiful).
My first time using the site (saw it on another blog). The 10-skein bundles are a nice option. While I wait for my new (better) stash to arrive, I'll go ahead & use up the baby blue skin-irritant as practice pattern pieces. In the end, maybe I can give it away on my local FreeCycle.