Needle Chick

Update-Grandma

She's home. My mom went to see her today, (I think cause I said, "Don't you want to see her for what might be your one last time to see her?") She ws asleep. Her daughter said she brushed her teeth this morning. I hope she's coming around, but I wonder. It's just touch and go right now.

Naked Man Finished

I finially finished my little scarf knitting naked man. What held me back (the chart should only take less than a few hours), was the fact that it was put on this itty bitty Charles Craft Tote bag, with the aida insert, and it was horrible. I kept catching the handles in the thread and yarn, then, I'd stitch through the handles, then, I'd not be able to anchor my thread correctly.

  I learned a lesson: never stitch on a small tote bag again. I'll post pics  tomorrow afternoon. I just now finished him. My son saw his bottom, and said, "Mom, I can see his  crack. That's nasty." But, it's kind of funny, cause I took this horrible sock yarn, and I kind of wound it all around his waist, and on his neck, and hung an itty bitty actual scarf made with number 4 needles, hanging down from two DMC metallic black stitched needles.

Follow-Up

My grandma is going home today...Not HOME, but to her home. I think they've restarted her interveinous feedings, and I think they've stopped the Roxanol. I think God is giving us time to get our act and affairs together, and to just deal.

And, that's cool.

Awesome Web Site

I was stashing tonight...after I had my bible class at church, and I found this website. I really liked it, and wanted to share it.

http://www.joyfulexpressions.us/

When you buy just the charts, you get an immediate download link, and there's even free charts, and cheaper charts. I really liked them.

The Dreaded Phone Call

My grandma (actually my step-grandma, but grandma just the same) has had a very bad time, with bladder cancer, then, it went into remission, then, I think it came back, but no one said.

So, she couldn't handle a cathetarization, cause she couldn't get her legs in the position for a cathetar. They inserted a supra pubic catheter. Then, she got a "bad infection" from the hospital, and I was told you couldn't go within 3 feet of her. But, no one could say what kind of infection it was, so I guessed it must be VRE, which is a very dangerous infection, and fast moving. That was last week. They started doing parenteral nutrition (feeding her "through the veins" which is a term that makes me cringe...cause, damn it, it's called parenteral nutrition!) last week, and I was told she couldn't eat for three weeks, which made me wonder, but not ask, about pain control. hmm...

   I just got a call that said she's not expected to make it through the day, or maybe tonight. Which I was thinking just this morning, if the infection spread to her lungs, she could catch nosocomail pneumonia, and it could over take her. I guess, which is a nursing judgment type of guess, that it did.

  You know, there's  a nurse part of me, and then, there's the other part of me. I know how the dieing process goes, I've had residents die on me, almost every week. It's sad, but it's part of life, and you pick up your stethoscope and go to the next one, cause they aren't the only one you have to take care of.

  It's been about 3 years that my son's dad died expectantly. That was very sad, then a bunch of red tape I still haven't completely gotten to the end of. When something like this happens, I tend to think about the phases of grief:

                  Denial, anger, bargaining, depression, acceptance         

                                  (dabda)

    I have that memorized from nursing school. I had to know it for state boards. Sometimes, you can bounce from one stage, to another, then, one day, you'll find yourself depressed over it, then, you'll  accept it.  But, not really. So, I look at the death phone call, from a nursing standpoint. I knew my grandma was very sick. We were just talking about her this morning, how she can get pneumonia easily. So, my mom leaves, and goes shopping, and we get the phone call.

  I hope I handled the dreaded  phone call correctly. I told her daughter that I was so sorry to hear that, and it makes me sick to find that out. My mom is gone right now, and I told her I'd not call her on her phone while she was shopping. I didn't ask if there was anything I or we can do, cause, I know it's a matter of waiting. There's not much we can do. I guess we could go down to the hospital, but my step dad insists that she'll make it through, she's done it before, but I don't think so. For some reason, only known to God at this time, I don't think she'll be able to pull through. I know I have to call my friend at work, if I hear anymore. I also have tomorrow off, so I can help them when it comes. I can see my grandma in the hospital bed, having chaines stoke respiration's, and if her daughter called, then this is about it. If they're giving her Rox. (that's a link to the pdf file on roxanol)then, well, this is final. My mom had heard them mention hospice, but they denied putting her on hospice. I'm not sure they are telling everything, but thne, I'm a little cynical about somethings, too. I think that's cause I'm a nurse and I've seen alot of stuff. I guess it's just wait and see for now. I can already feel the shock and slight unsteadiness of the feeling you get when you know it's going to happen. It's as if it already did.

  To me, if we don't recieve the last call very soon, I'll be surprised. Then, I'll have to call work, and hope they don't  schedule the funeral for the weekend, which is extremely difficult to get off. (It's my grandma's funeral, and I'll not be at work. Everyone knows she's sick, and my friend at work knows what's going on with her.) So, it's wait for it to happen now.

  I'll  finish my cross stitch, cause I'm afraid to leave the house, for fear of missing the next phone call.

Whoa, long breath

After that last post, I almost need a drink, and I don't drink much. I got more mad, and more mad, and finaly had to stop.

  I'll file all my charts into my filing cabinet, tomorrow. Here's how I have them organized. The letters are where I put the generic charts that might be by a designer I haven't made a file for, or they might be for other smaller topics. it takes two large file holders. When I finish one, I put it into a third file folder.

A

Anagram Disfusion

Autumn

B

Bent Creek (that one is very full)

Bright Needle

Blackwork (that is also full)

Blue De chine

C

Leon Conrad

Christmas

D

Dogs (not a cat person at all)

Dragon Dreams

DownSunshine Lane

Drawn Thread

Dessin's DHC

E

Easter

F

Frogs (I have a real live pet frog, so frogs deserve a file of their own)

Florals

For My Boys

G

H

Hardanger

Heart in Hand (getting a bit on the full side there)

Sue Hillis designs

I

Indigo Rose 

J

Jeremiah Junction

July 4th

K

L

Linn Skinner

Lizzy Kate

Long Dog Designs

M

Mosey and me

N

O

P

Q

R

Raise the Roof

S

Shepherd's Bush (this one takes up two files, one for needle rolls)

Sunflower Seed

Sweetheart designs

Samplers

T

Trilogy

Trail Creek Farm

U-V-W

Workbasket

Waxing Moon Designs

X-Y-Z

Copy Rights -Don't Get Me Started

Or I won't shut up. Copy rights can be ordered here: www.copyright.gov . They cost 30.00 a piece. That's alot of money for someone, like, say you're the artist for Bent Creek, or you're Cecilia Turner, who designs for Heart In Hand. She distributes a hell of a lot of designs a year. (I buy a hell of a lot her designs, too). She releases over 30 designs, easily, a year. That's 900 dollars, probably out of her hands, I imagine, unless she's on contract with the principle owner, which is Bent Creek and Trilogy designs, which she's part of, so she's paying for it.

  When I first got Internet, the first thing I looked for was freebie cross stitch, that was the very first thing, cause I knew it was out there. I don't mean the illegal kind, I mean the kind they give you in LNS/LYS. I knew it was out there, cause before Internet, there was local BBS, and I had that, too. the illegal charts were there, too, but, very ungraphically produced, but there. Scanners weren't in homes, yet, neither was Internet. Internet, if it was available, cost 59.90 a month.

  Then, Internet became available, prices dropped. I got a computer for it. My Internet is 23.95 a month. I love my Internet. I look for freebie cross stitch constantly. That, and free knitting designs, too. The sites are called www.knitty.com, www.lionsbrand.com and www.yahoo.com and type in cross stitch freebies. Tons of sites come up. (Both cross stitch designers, and knitting designers-same problem).

I noticed one site, in particular, and it was odd. It was of Russian design, and written in Russian, except for the Dimension patterns it has available. Some of the patterns are poorly scanned, but readable. It'd give you a migraine to read some of them, but you can, and you don't have to pay for them. Don't get too excited, it's those difficult Dimensions charts that you can never do, anyway, but, I found it. I couldn't believe it. It pissed me off, besides intrigued me as to what kind of idiot would do that. I kept thinking about it, and I had just bought the awesome book Celebration of cross Stitch, which is full of doable designs, by everyone from Leon Conrad to Lizzy Kate, and it explains, clearly, the copy right laws. I already knew them and this is why:

I have tons of needle roll kits by Shepherd Bush, and one time, I decided to make my own design. So, I got my designs copy righted, and never did anything to them. It cost me 30.00, and I'm glad I did it. Of course, no one has ever seen it,  so I won't have the problem. I'm not much of an artist, and would rather stitch other people's work, instead of mine.

I want to buy and stitch on of Linn Skinner's samplers.  You can go here, and find it:www.skinnersisters.com. It's the Rose sampler. It is so pretty, and I could do it, and I'd finish it.  It's kind of strange that there's some idiot who would buy it, and do whatever to get it on to the Internet. And, that my friends, is stealing.  I can afford my hobbies. if you're here, you probably can too. When I get my patterns, I print one copy. That way, I can mar them, mark on them, highlight them, and throw them away, cause by the time I'm done with a chart, you'd never value the copy. I even do that with itty bitty patterns like this: www.heartinhand.com and go down to mother's wisdom. I copy them, cause I want a working copy. That way, I don't bother the original copy.

Oh my god, I'm not going to stop typing, am I? I pay 1.00-36.00 for most of my charts (the 36.00 is a limited signed edition by Long Dog Designs, beautiful to behold, and one day,I'll stitch it before my eyes drop out.) Every one else can pay for theirs too. I'm still not done. Sorry to write a novel, but it PISSES ME OFF to hear about web sites who post other people's charts that aren't theirs, that they have no business posting. It bugs the hell out of me, and I can't do a damn thing about it.

  I could go on about copy rights...wanna know about my Itunes phone?

I found this, and I want it. It's a kit (I don't usually care for kits, they are limiting, and I usually change out the material in them for something else, and change the stitches and thread if I get bored with it). It's a miniature rug. The price isn't the problem. The stitching might be so complex that I'm not sure I'd finish it. It's a miniature rug. It's French, which is very enticing. I love miniature rugs. I love French patterns. What can be more fun than to translate the charts (duh, everyone can read a DMC number) that are completely written in French, down to the finishing part? I'm not sure if this one is totally written in French. If it is, it'd be so fun to do.

  This rug is a copy of a rug that's from Boston, called a war rug. War rugs were hung in the homes of men who went to war. This type of rug originated in Persia, and also in Turkey. But, if you look at the rug in the kit, you can see the American accents. The weaver purposefully made one mistake in the weaving so the rug, which might be copied, is always one of a kind. There would never be a rug like it. Imagine making one of these rugs?

  I'm not sure that stitching up the rug in the kit would be a joyous experience. It might be an intense pain, that is no less fun than walking barefoot on asphalt. But, I'd buy that kit if I knew the material was 28 count. I should email her, and ask, cause I love area rugs. If it's done on black linen, forget it, and if it's needlepoint, no way.

  I almost finished a very lame Welcome Mat. I have to stitch something to the underneath side so it doesn't skid when they walk on it. (vinyl aida.) It's only about 2 inches by 2 inches. I think it's lonely, so next I'll make an area rug for it. But, not the one in the kit. If I made that, I'd go and have it framed. I have a book of area rugs from Dover, the charts are written horribly,and Dover should be made to stitch each and every one of them.

  Well, that's enough about area rugs, for now.I'll post the picture of the little Welcome mat when it's done.

Socks

We can go to Kohl's and buy socks by the bag of 6 for 5.00, and they are rugged, strong socks. Some are ankle length, some shoe length, some are boot cut. It's certainly quicker for me to run to Gordmans for socks. Easier too.

   I don't do double pointed needles. Double pointed needles are as fiddly as a running back stitch made with 2 strands of Anchor Marlitt.

   I have made one pair of socks, well, it's missing a heel and toe. So, I guess it's 7/8's of a pair of socks. I cheated. I used my knitting machine, and zipped through the boring stockineette stitches. That's why it's missing a heel and toe. The one sock, I guess it's the left sock, it's complete. It will only take me less than a half hour to complete the second sock. The pattern is very well written, and I got it here. I don't know why I just don't finish it. Then I could wear it, and show people the socks I made.

   I also have almost a whole sock made. It's with itty bitty needles, and sock yarn, out of two needles. It's from the book First Knits, and it's a good book to have in your book stack.

  Sock yarn made out of wool is itchy. Sock yarn made out of wool that costs 15.00 a skein is nice, but do they hold up well? I wear out my store brought socks quickly, cause I'm a nurse on my feet. I don't sit at a desk all day, cause I can't I'm too hyper. Therefore, my socks I would make, are useless for me to wear in my situation. I understand the want to learn how to make the socks, then making them. It's fun to knit in the round, on big long 40 inch needles, and then finish them. I intend to make my wrist warmers like one makes socks. what I don't get is, isn't it easier and less trouble to go to Kohl's and get them? It's cheaper too. The socks from the department store last longer, and wash up better, you can bleach them, and if you get a hole in them, you can throw them away, use them as a rag, or turn them into a dog's toy without feeling bad. I would never ever do that if I had hand made socks. The way I wear socks, I'd be afraid to wear them.

   Hat's, scarves, clapotis, sweaters, blankets, wrist warmers, mittens, vests, skirts, sure, but socks are beyond my scope, I think.

   

Stitching Naked men

Here's my next project. It's from an older cross stitch magazine published in Brittain. It says Real Men Do Housework, but I got to thinking...It would be funny if I stitched a man knitting a scarf, and it could say "Real men Knit SCarves" and instead of an apron around his front, it's a scarf around his front.  Cause everyone does housework, but not everyone can knit a scarf.

   Real men stitch samplers also work, but I'm not sure what to cover his front part with.