Monday, May 23, 2016

Settling back in

I know you won't believe it -- but I have a stitching finish!!!


This is, of course, Yellow Submarine, by Blackbird Designs.  I stitched it on the called for Cedar Plank linen but in 40ct (I think it was Cedar Plank!) by Lakeside linens.  I used mostly the called for Gentle Arts threads, but not all.  Once again I got frustrated by how the overdyeds weren't even close to the expected colors and changed a few colors to other GA colors and some DMC threads for the sub.

**An appeal to designers:  please stop using these overdyed threads!!  It's impossible to get the colors you use in your designs since the threads are never consistent in color.  It leads to frustration for your fans.

Anyway, it was a fun stitch.  Anyone who has followed me for a long time knows I'm a huge Beatles fan.

I also finished and blocked the back of my Right Angle Sweater.  This one seems to be taking forever to knit!



The boy child has been settling back into being at home.  The living room is looking like a living room again, and boy child's room has been cleaned and rearranged to his liking.  And Mia is quite content to have him back, albeit with a few hisses along the way (she always has to show her displeasure at the long abandonment the boy child subjected her to).


We've also had an outing or two, which is always nice.  Just missing our girl child.






(The sushi was a different day from the other pics in Cold Spring.  In case you were wondering.)

Thanks as always for stopping by and saying hi.  I hope everyone has a great week!




31 comments:

Annie said...

Love your yellow submarine. I always like it when you show x-stitch. And amen to your comment about the over-dyed threads. They are very pretty, but still.... Especially these days when must of us must order on-line and can't be selective at an LNS.

Love the color of that sweater. I'd love to have had a sweater like that for this cold, rainy spring!

Nice to see your family times. Now I want ice cream.

Anonymous said...

gorgeous stitching, love that yellow submarine.
Mia is as always so cute

Vickie said...

Yay, yay and yay for the Yellow Submarine! You should have seen my smile when I saw that it was YOUR post with that picture. :D
THAT sweater! Oh the color. Swoon!
I love the second to last picture of the two sleeping together.

Vera said...

Great pictures Margaret...Mia is so sweet. Love your Yellow Submarine finish and your sweater is fabulous - what a great color! And, yes, your post made me hungry!

Samplings from Spring Creek said...

Thank you for the plea to the designers--so frustrating when fibers look nothing like the ones pictured. Miss Mia looks like she is settling in nicely with the BoyChild. Appetizing food I think I have gained weight looking at the photos

Vicki said...

Nice stitching finish and another gorgeous knitting project! Your work is beautiful, Margaret, regardless of what medium you use!

Glenna said...

Mia says "Yay!" Re the cotton threads--particularly hard for those who have to mail order threads and can't stand in a LNS and go "hmmmm."

Mouse said...

whey to the finish ... and my pet peave is the colour of the fabric on the photos is not the colour of the fabric in real life ... the threads I can live with as they are overdyes ..lol
that sweater looks fab .... and awwwww Mia looks adorable as always :) love mouse xxxxx

Teresa S. said...

Good to have you back onboard and stitching again! Love that raspberry color yarn in the sweater. And the yellows you picked for the submarine look great!

marly said...

I agree with you about the overdyed. I'll bet you're so happy to have your son home. Food looks good!!

Dawn said...

It was nice to catch back up and see what you've been up to. So glad you are feeling better. Lovely to see your knitting and stitching. Congrats to your son.

Amy said...

I love the Yellow Submarine design! Your color choices look great!

It seems like colors charted are so often very different from how the design looks in the designer's photos, even when regular floss is used. But it's extra frustrating when it'starts the expensive hand dyed floss, and there's no LNS so the floss has to be ordered online, and then it doesn't look right, and ugh.

Michele B. said...

I REALLY appreciate your comments on Yellow Submarine. I have about a third of it stitched, but got so frustrated by how the colors looked that I put it away. Seeing how nice yours turned out makes me realize that I can play around with substitutions and hopefully will come up with something I like. Thanks for the inspiration!

Rugs and Pugs said...

Your stitching and knitting is gorgeous as always.
Mia looks quite happy having the boy child home.
Hugs :)
Lauren

Marsha said...

That sweater is so yummy looking. Good to see you stitching again. Love the yellow in the submarine. GA's is having a bad time with their chemical supplier and is having to redo their colors again. What a pain. Mia and the man child belong together- so cute.

Beth said...

Mia looks happy to have Her Boy back -and I expect that you too are happy to have Your Boy back! Yellow Sub is delightful and oh, the sushi looks wonderful! Great food shots!

Brigitte said...

Ha, you have a stitching finish! And it's really awesome.
I have reduced my stitching with overdyed threads to a minimum and often change out threads as the colours of my threads rarely ever correspond to the colours on the pictures. And I'm not willing to cut off those parts of an overdyed thread that don't look like on the picture. So I substitute. I just love my DMCs, lol.

Melissa said...

Lovely stitching finish, Margaret! It was great when the BBD ladies started that series. Will you stitch another Beatle-themed one?

I love that second last photo of Mia and Eli sleeping with their heads in the same direction.

Solstitches said...

Well I know I have admired this lovely finish on IG but it is so worth a second look.
I love your Yellow Submarine and hope you will be picking up your stitching more often along with your knitting because I miss those gorgeous sampler finishes.
I hear you on the overdyed threads and am going to be using what I have and then just sticking to good old DMC which is a lot cheaper and easier for me to get hold of.
Great pictures of Mia and the boy :)

Cindy said...

Yes on designers overusing overdyes! What's wrong with good old DMC? Mia is precious and now I'm hungry too!

besomom said...

Bloglovin' suggested your blog to me. Your Yellow Submarine turned out so nice! I ordered the materials for that online a year ago and started stitching it immediately, but I was so disheartened by how dull it looked compared to the model photo that I gave it up. I don't have a LNS so I have to buy threads online, and color inconsistency is a huge peeve of mine. I read on the Lizzy Kate blog that Weeks Dye Works takes great efforts to keep their colors consistent from year to year, so maybe we can stitch patterns using WDW with more confidence.

Congrats on your son's graduation. I have a high school daughter who is thinking of majoring in violin when she goes to college.

Vonna Pfeiffer said...

I could dive right into ANY of those food pics :) (me...perpetual dieting...)
Love to catch up with you sweet family and see the antics :) Mia seems to have given her heart right over again! :)

Melody said...

I was happy to see your stitching finish! I'm glad you got it done. Love it.
The ice cream looks delicious...

Carol said...

Yay! You're stitching more, Margaret--and what a delightful finish!! I'll bet it really was a fun one to finish up although so frustrating about the overdyeds. I feel the same way--I get beyond frustrated when I receive my threads in the mail ready to start a new WIP and they look nothing like what is pictured. I have no LNS so am at the mercy of online stores... I notice that stitching with good old DMC is much more relaxing to me than when I have to use (and change!) overdyeds.

Looks like Mia is in her element--hope you're enjoying your son's visit. I'll never forget the summer my middle one graduated from college, the oldest one moved back to Pittsburgh, and my youngest was still in high school. I felt like I was living in a frat house! Luckily, by September, the two older ones had moved out (and in together in the apartment they still share 8 years later). Enjoy your long weekend, Margaret!

woolwoman said...

Cold Spring , yes I was wondering , looks like a neat place to visit. Love your yellow submarine finish. I resisted and didn't buy any of those Beatle tribute designs. Good to hear your DS is settling in back at home. Hope you are in the midst of enjoying the holiday weekend. Mel

Jackie's Stitches said...

I have Yellow Sub to stitch too along with the fabric. Haven't gotten the threads yet. It always seems like either the color of the fabric or the threads is off in designer photos. I'll probably do as you did and use DMC for the sub as I want that to be a consistent color. We'll see about the rest. Fabric colors change too. I saw the original model to Sarah Elizabeth Brooke. I believe it was stitched on an older LL piece. The shop employee at The Attic said it was more like Light Examplar so that is what I stitched it on and was glad. The called for fabric would have been far too dark.

Glad your son is settling back into home life and you have your living room back!

Penny said...

I love your finish! And share your frustration with the overdyed threads! Your sweater is coming along nicely - such a pretty color! I'm sure it must be so nice to have your son home and so funny about Mia's hisses. : ) Hopefully, all is forgiven on her part. And oh my goodness - so much good food! I'm afraid I have a special weakness for ice cream. Think I will see if we have any. : )

Sally said...

Fantastic finish Margaret! I hear you with the hand dyed threads!

Your sweater is really pretty. Beautiful colour.

Mia looks very happy that your son is home!Even with the hisses!

Kaisievic said...

Lovely to see some of your stitching again, although I do love all of your knitting, which has been so inspiring for me. How lovely for you to have your son back - my DD is about to set off on a big adventure - backpacking around Europe for a few months and then she wants to settle down in London and work there for a few years. It is hard to let go of her.

Chris said...

So nice to check back in with you. Mia looks quite content.
I love the sweater and so great that you are stitching!!! What a fun design.
I hope that you are having a great summer so far :)

Jocelyn is Canadian Needle Nana said...

Hi Margaret your yellow submarine is a sentimental favourite for me as well as the Beatles were such a part of my early teen years. I just recently found Blackbird's Strawberry Fields Forever which is out of print, and I am so looking forward to stitching it. Perhaps the Submarine is part of that series.
I agree with you about the overdyed threads. For the Gardener's Alphabet (Crabapple Hill) we were supposed to cut the thread here and there to find the colour we wanted; I guess you could say fussy cut it!