Embroidery Projects Update Part 5

In March, I finished cross-stitching Marilyn Leavitt-Imblum’s, “Once Upon A Time” that I plan to give to one of my sisters.  The plan is to frame it and send it to her. 

Since completing this project, I took up stitching a Greek Key rug again that I started back in 2004.  A couple of years ago, I put this pattern into my cross-stitch design program and before resuming stitching, printed out the pattern which has made working on it a lot easier. 

The original pattern is in sections that are in an old dollhouse plan.  The rug is being stitched on 32 count linen over 1, so the stitches are very small.  To make it easier to see, I’m using a magnifying lens that my husband bought me years ago to make stitching this easier.  The rug will be put in the living room of the Green Gables house I made.

Another project that I’m working on is a needlepoint oriental rug kit that I bought back in 2003 at a miniatures show.  At the time, I didn’t know where I would put it and only bought it because I’d seen kits like it at a dollhouse store I used to frequent as a kid.  As time passed, I decided to put it in the daughter’s bedroom in the Lily house. 

I’m trying to stop devoting myself to one embroidery project at a time, which is proving easier said than done.  The Oriental rug is worked on 18 mesh canvas, so the stitches aren’t as small as the Greek Key.  The pattern seemed fairly simple at first, so of late I’ve been working on it a bit more. 

At first I thought that I would finish up with this kit quickly, but this idea disappeared very soon after realizing that this wasn’t the simple pattern I thought it was.  When I started, I primarily used the picture of the rug as a guide instead of referring to the pattern constantly.  Then I noticed that the design in the picture on one part of the rug varied slightly from the pattern and thought that it had something to do with the needlepoint stitch format. I was determined to be on the alert to match this discrepancy.  However, as I worked it became apparent that it was just a mistake of the person who stitched the rug for the picture and wasn’t really meant to be in the finished product.  So this meant that the pattern was completely correct. 

This belief then proved to be wrong!  As I continued stitching the design in the four corners of the center section I kept glancing at the pattern as I stitched.  I then decided to begin stitching the darker blue line that goes around the outside of the center of the rug.  This was when I realized that the pattern contained mistakes as well.  The pattern painted on the needlepoint canvas clearly shows a white or ivory colored line that’s nearly continuous around the outside of the center section; however, on the pattern this color wasn’t shown in that part.  Even though, the color ivory is represented in the very center part of the pattern.  Nor, is it indicated that it be used again according to the pattern.  Yet, both the picture and the painted design on the canvas indicate otherwise. 

I’m very glad that I followed the advice of the pattern and started in the center and then worked outward because the directions warned me that if “adjustments” needed to be made then this would be easier.  My thinking is that their definition of adjustment is really just synonymous with mistake. 

Embroidery Project Update

Earlier this year I posted how my current embroidery project was coming along.  I was able to stick with working on it regularly until about the beginning of April when I began preparations for attending Samford and cross-stitch took a backseat in my life.

When I got back from Samford, I thought that I would take it up again, but about a month later the unpredictability of life reared its head and I couldn’t do much with it until nearly two months later.  Since returning to this project I’ve been able to devote the better part of my weekends to stitching on it and have even at times kept a journal of the amount of time spent cross-stitching on it. 

The project is on of my fairly short list of 2012 New Year’s resolutions and hopefully if I’m able to complete a resolution this year, this will be the one.  Earlier this year, I had been hoping to complete the picture this summer and enter it into the county fair, but after weathering a bit of chaos in my life, I see that I was deluding myself.

I very pleased with how the stitching coming along.  The magnifier is working out very well.  However, when I moved it from the top scroll bar to one of the sidebars, I noticed that it had discolored the fabric some.  Thankfully, the dis-colorization is only on the wrong side of the fabric so it’s not visible from the front. 

Stitching progress since 14 October 2012

On a previous project years ago, I did experience the fabric getting stained from a clamp or something that held the scroll frame in place.  The stains did come out when I applied bleach to the affected area with a cotton swab.  Just call me the cross-stitching Heloise!  Thankfully, that hasn’t happened to me with this project and it’s interesting that when things seem to go wrong with projects, it’s the ones that you plan to give to other people.

I’m still having issues with flecks of the linen coming off onto the stitched areas.  I’m still thinking this is just a ‘feature’ or bug as they say in the computer world when working with linen.

The project does have some DMC brand metallic floss in it.  This is always a challenge to stitch with.  Thankfully, there are only fairly small amounts of this being used in the picture, but the funny thing is the more that I study the pattern, the more areas that I can point out as being stitched with the dreaded metallic floss.  As I was working with it today, I considered stitching the other areas that require the metallic floss just so that I could get it over with.  Sort of how one might approach walking across hot coals, their annual prostate exam, mammogram, or Pap test.

I will say that the DMC brand metallic floss isn’t completely awful to work with at least in comparison to others.  The metallic flosses or filaments that gave me the most grief were the ones that came with kits, so I could never be sure where the manufacturer got their stuff from.  I think the worst were in kits from Bucilla and Leisure Arts.  Both companies have beautiful patterns and wonderful kits, but they need better quality control of the metallic flosses and filaments that are included in them.  In the past, my first exposure to metallic floss was when working a project that required a Kreinik brand metallic floss.  This wasn’t horrible to work with, but did require a lot of patience and attention to manipulating the floss so that it laid flat on the fabric. 

 The only issue I have so far in working with the DMC metallic floss was that when stitching with a blended needle, meaning two different colors of floss on one needle.  I found that unless I worked the stitches one at a time instead of my usual method of working a row of one bar of the X for a row and then going back over this row to stitch the top bar of the X that the second (non-metallic) color of floss would loop it’s way up from the backside of the fabric.  I hadn’t experienced this with the Kreinik brand floss or filament.  The plus side of the DMC metallic floss is that I didn’t have issues with the metallic portion separating from the white stabilizing thread, but then the areas I was stitching were very small rows.  Perhaps, if I were stitching large areas this would happen.

Embroidery Update

For the past couple of weeks I've been trying to spend my free time working at my cross-stitch picture.  I had blogged about this project previously, and here's how it's progressing.

 

 

 

Embroidery progress as of 23 March 2012

Using the clip-on magnifier has been really helpful to me and my eyes.  I've discovered that I shouldn't spend most of the day stitching because this leads to some eye strain.  So, gone are the days when I could spend 6 hours stitching. 

This is the second time I believe that I've worked on linen and I'm reminded again that flecks of the fabric or linen particles tend to come off while stitching on it.  The last time I embroidered on linen it did this and I searched online about this to try to find out if this is normal.  My search yielded no information, and so I still don't know if this is 'just a feature' in working with linen.  The linen fibers coming off don't seem to have a detrimental effect on the project.  It's just weird finding flecks of the linen fibers on the base of my scroll frame, on my clothing, or finding them poking out among the floss and having to pull them out from the stitches.  If anyone out there in cyberspace-the cloud-wherever has had this experience please post a comment and let me know.

Embroidery Projects

Now that my miniature project is pretty much complete, I can devote more of my free time to genealogy, embroidery, and knitting.  One of my New Year’s resolutions this year is to finish embroidering a picture that I had purchased all the way back in 1995 at a needlework shop that of course sadly no longer exists. 

I had originally purchased 3 patterns during that shopping spree, with the strong intention that I would complete them and give them to my mother and two sisters.  Since then I’ve completed two of the three, which are being enjoyed by their recipients.  The last picture is Marilyn Leavitt-Imblum’s ‘Once Upon A Time’, it’s being stitched on 32 count linen.  Since making my resolution, I’ve worked on it some and am hoping that I can devote more time to it.  I feel that I’ve made some progress with it, but that it’s taking longer than the other pictures that I completed for my mother and sister. 

Picture of Once Upon A Time from the pattern

While making each of these pictures, I learned something new about the embroidery process.  The first of the 3 pictures, Damask Roses by Mirabilia, was stitched using an embroidery hoop on Aida fabric.  I remember making many mistakes with that pattern and having to frog a lot of it and then restitch those frogged portions.  By the time that I was ready to stitch my mother picture, Garden Verses another Mirabilia pattern, I had a large scroll frame that was a Christmas gift from my husband.  That made the stitching easier since I didn’t have to deal with an embroidery hoop which I felt smashed the stitches.  Also, I decided to photocopy my pattern and then mark with a highlighter the area(s) that I had stitched as a way to help me keep my place. 

For the ‘Once Upon A Time’ pattern, I made a photocopy of it so that I can mark what I’ve stitched.  This time I’m using a colored pencil instead of a highlighter because I didn’t bother to enlarge the copy of the pattern.  Since I’ve begun embroidering this picture, I’ve noticed that my vision appears to have changed since 1995 or even since the early 2000’s which was the last time that I stitched on 32 count fabric.  I’ve started using a clip-on magnifier to help enlarge the fabric’s weave and my stitching.

What I've stitched so far

I had originally received the magnifying glass when I needed it when I was stitching a miniature rug on 32 count linen one over one.  I have yet to finish that rug, but it’s on my resolutions list after completing the picture for my sister. 

I have many embroidery projects to complete or even begin.  Soon after accumulating these, I said to myself that I wouldn’t buy another kit or pattern until I had finished all of them.  Since then, I’ve pretty much organized the patterns with corresponding fabric and floss if it didn’t include it.  I’ve also developed one pattern that was created from a picture of the Hanging Gardens of Babylon.  I recently was given most of the floss for this project, but found that I needed to obtain the fabric. 

One normally doesn’t consider knitting and embroidery to be similar hobbies.  However, at a recent session with my knitting group, one of my fellow knitters brought in their embroidery supplies to give away.  Amongst the patterns and embroidery floss were several packages of various embroidery fabrics.  Some of the fabrics were of a high count and would be useful to use for my Hanging Gardens pattern or could be used in making embroidered miniature rugs.

Thanksgiving Holiday Weekend Projects

The Thanksgiving Holiday is typically spent eating too much and then going out in the wee hours of Friday morning (or in the case of this year late Thursday night) for some Black Friday shopping for loved ones' Christmas presents.

This year I spent the holiday eating too much, and decided to avoid the Black Friday and after Thanksgiving Day sales to work on some much neglected craft projects.

The first project isn't really something that's been neglected, but was pretty crucial to my knitting world. At the Tuesday before Thanksgiving stitching session with my knitting group I ran out of the pink yarn that I had been knitting my pink and black bathmat with. I vowed inwardly to find some pink yarn soon because I didn't want a UFO floating over me, and the bathmat is something that I kept mentioning to my husband that I would make.

On Wednesday night my husband and I drove around to the various craft stores searching for the perfect shade of pink yarn to match what I had been using to make the bathmat. Unfortunately, that shade of pink has been discontinued. I'm sure the yarn could've been found at one of the local yarn shops in my area, but I really just want something very inexpensive for my bathmat because after all-it's a bathmat. I found an acceptable shade of pink yarn at the local Michael's and I think it's turning out to be a decent choice even though it's a bit more slippery than the original yarn I had been using.

Whenever a long holiday weekend approaches I think about how I would like to spend the time. Various ideas flit through my mind. I spent part of Thanksgiving Day knitting the bathmat between meal preparations and knew that I didn't want to spend the whole weekend working on that project no matter how noble that would be.

I have papers and other memorabilia from my great grandfather that I had been going through and documenting my findings, but I learned last weekend that I could only sit and go through the things for a short period of time-so that project will have to sit on the shelf for awhile.

I started embroidering a miniature rug for one of my dollhouses some years ago. This project made it onto my list of New Years Resolutions for next year, but I've considered taking it up again just because it's been sitting idle for so long.

While installing the tile bathroom floor I made in another dollhouse I found and repaired several electrical problems in the house. One of the electrical problems has remained. I considered fixing it over the weekend.

Then there's the miniature diner that I'm making. I made some progress on the project some years ago, but this too has gone unfinished.

I also have another miniature rug that is in the planning stages. This is a life-sized 'Tapestry' needlepointed rug from an old craft magazine that I plan to scale down to 1/12th the size and make it for one of my dollhouses.

After discussing my dilemma with my husband who put them in perspective by saying that some of them were fairly small and others were large ongoing projects. His suggestion was to work on the diner.

I worked a bit on the diner. I made a pattern for the diner's floor, but because I'm lacking the correctly sized piece of thin cardboard, I didn't get much farther with that portion of it. So I moved on to making the diner's furniture. This mainly involved gluing and then as anyone who has done much crafting or miniature work, there isn't much to do with the project until the glue dries. It's sort of akin to genealogy or blocking knitting. You can order a document or you can block a knitted object, but once those tasks are done you can only sit back and wait either until the document arrives or the knitting dries.

While waiting for the glue to dry on my diner, I decided to work a bit on scaling down the rug I was planning. I have a wonderful cross-stitch making program called Pattern Maker. I spent the better part of the day drawing the rug's pattern into my program. I was able to utilize many functions in the program that I didn't know existed. This helped me to recreate the rug. I still couldn't get the size down to something that I could use, but resolved to rework the pattern again on the morrow.

The next day, my thoughts returned to the rug that I had started long ago. I had made a partial pattern for it on paper and because I had been so pleased with my cross-stitch pattern making software I decided to recreate the pattern on my computer.

By using the software I was able to create a pattern for it. The size is a bit smaller than I had originally planned, but I think it will still work for its intended room.

While eating lunch I went through the number of stitches for each portion of the 'Tapestry' rug. I came up with a configuration of the center motif being repeated six times in a 2x3 configuration and then surrounding that with the rest of the appropriately proportioned borders. This hasn't been finished and so far I think the rug may still be too large for the room that I'm designing it for.

Embroidery Database

I use Access frequently in my current job.  I didn’t know much about it before, other than it was a database program.  I’m the sort of person who learns best by doing a particular thing instead of just reading about it.  It must have something to do with being a visual learner.  I wanted to improve my Access skills and tried to read books on it, but each time I would begin a book on Access my thoughts would flit towards actually creating a database.

Finally, I decided that the best way to learn about Access was to use it while creating my own database.  I’m also a Ravelry user and have been very impressed with their knitting social network/database set-up.  I also use Stitcherie, it’s a great place to post images of my needlework projects, but is seriously lacking in helping me organize and keep track of my embroidery projects, patterns, and supplies. 

Since I may never find an embroidery-geared site such that Ravelry is for knitters, I decided to create my own embroidery database in Access.  I started by making a list of things that I wanted to include and how it needed to be organized.

So far, there are 24 patterns in my database.  Some of the patterns are ones that I’ve completed.  The patterns range from simplistic needlepoint, crewelwork, to counted cross-stitch.  I’ve accumulated many embroidery patterns and kits over the years.  Some of these I’ve made and given away to family members.  My initial major embroidery purchase was three patterns that I planned to make and give to my mother and two sisters.  I still need to complete the last one, to my eldest sister.

The database is far from being finished and as I work on it, I keep finding or thinking of different things to add to it.  Creating the database has helped me to categorize my embroidery stuff in a way that I hadn’t really thought of it. 

Before starting this project, I hadn’t really thought of embroidery floss or beads as just being a general item.  It was always in my mind fairly synonymous with DMC or Mill Hill.  To think of it in a more general sense and then to sort by company, color number and name actually made more sense.

The analogy I that formed in my mind was if you took a picture and you basically broke it into pieces and put each of those pieces into different categories.

I don’t think that this database will ever rival Ravelry, but I can see a definite use for it in today’s online world.  Even if this database doesn’t lead me to making something on the same level as Ravelry, at least the idea is out there for someone else to pick up and run with it.

Completing Those Pesky New Year's Resolutions

At the start of this year I made a list of resolutions for the New Year. My intention was to complete many projects that I had started years ago and never finished and to include some things that had been recommended to me by my doctor. I even made a list of things to do in January that were of special importance to me to do. I listed out 10 items on the list for the year and so far have completed half of them.

One of my major goals was to finish the NGS Home Study Genealogy course that I had begun back in August of 2009. By the beginning of this year I had only one lesson to complete on the second of the three CDs that make up the course. My goal was to finish the course in 2011. Finishing the last lesson on CD 2 was my top goal in January 2011. In August of this year I completed the course.

Years ago I had started crocheting an afghan. In 2010, I finished crocheting the strips of the afghan, and had started embroidering them. I wasn't making much progress because of the many other irons that I had in the fire. My goal had been to finish the afghan by the 10th anniversary of 9/11. I joined a knitting group that met once a week where I could work on the afghan at least once a week. Attending their weekly knit-ins really helped keep me on track with my goal. However I didn't finish it by my goal date, I did complete it in early October.

With the afghan complete, I could start finishing up my next project-tiling the bathroom floor of one of my dollhouses. I don't know of any miniature groups in my area, so I couldn't turn to really anyone else but myself in staying motivated. Thankfully, I had progressed enough with making the tiles that I just needed to finish cutting a slew of paint sample cards into tiny squares. I had started by cutting them into 1/4" strips and was in the process of cutting those strips into 1/4" squares. I spent a couple of weeks listening to music on my iPod while cutting the 'tile' strips into squares. As I got closer to finishing with the cutting, I got more and more motivated by the project. Once I had all the paint sample cards cut into tiny squares I began gluing each one to the floor that I had made for the bathroom of the house. It took me a week to complete the gluing process and in a couple more days I installed the floor in the dollhouse.

At the end of 2010 my former boss at Once Upon A Time, Aniene Porter passed away and all I could think about when I heard the news was all of the wonderful stories that she used to tell me about her life. Writing down all of the stories is still a goal for me and hopefully I'll get to it before the close of 2011. If not, this will be put on next years resolutions list.

Aside from my miniature, genealogy, and knitting hobbies, I also do embroidery. I had worked at organizing my embroidery materials. It's fairly organized, because there are no longer skeins of embroidery floss in bags in my closet. Now these are mostly organized into binders. I wish that I could've come up with something better, but I wanted a fairly inexpensive solution to my problem. Organizing my floss, fabric, and patterns is still an ongoing project and will hopefully be soon finished.

I've already started on a list for next year and so far have 6 items. Hopefully, these will be completed in a timelier manner than this year's resolutions.

Further Forays into the Social Networking Universe

In a previous post, I talked about my goal of joining various hobby oriented social networks that interest me. I spent several hours during one weekend joining those groups and here are my reviews and comments of those sites.

The first hobby oriented social network I joined was Ravelry. This is a social network for people who either knit or crochet. So far, I haven't been able to find anything to really criticize about the site. Other than while their photo uploading function is wonderful, and even includes a cool centering feature, please make sure the photo you upload is oriented the correct way. The reason is, because unlike with Facebook, which allows you to rotate the photos you've uploaded, Ravelry doesn't.

Ravelry also contains a fabulous notebook for you to use. The notebook is where you can store photos of yarn that are in your stash, which is definitely something that any knitter has. Needles and crochet hooks can be kept track of in the notebook, as well as projects you're currently working on or are planning to start. The project function in the notebook is great because again you can add photos, update your progress, make comments, and share this project with others on Ravelry . In the project function, you can include all information you could think of that would pertain to working a particular project. There is a space to indicate the type of yarn and where you bought it from and it's cost, needle size, gauge, and size that the item will be made in. The list goes on.

Then there's the multitude of groups on Ravelry . I think I joined about 3 on my first visit. The groups are wonderful and at least with my experience have given me the opportunity to get together with the group's members in person, which I feel is most important with social networks. Why join a social network if you're not planning on conversing with actual people and especially in person?!

The next social network I joined was Stitcherie. I have done needlework since grade school. This is a social network for; you guessed it, people who do cross-stitch or needlepoint. The site's purpose may also apply to other types of threaded needlework such as crewel embroidery-I'm not sure.

My main gripe with the site is that the registration process isn't compatible with the Opera browser I use. Once I switched browsers everything worked fine, but as with anything that's not compatible with Opera; it irritated me.

On Stitcherie , I can't add my future projects or add items in my stash to my page, either. What I can do is upload pics of my projects and in the captions section of these images include pertinent information on these projects.

It doesn't make sense to me about the lack of a stash function or future/current projects function on this site, since like knitters; people who do any kind of embroidery have a stash. Hopefully, the powers that be on the site will read my post and add that as a function.

The site only has six groups and none of these were groups in my area.  I had been hoping to find a group of cross-stitchers or at least people who did embroidery so we could stitch together, but no.  Maybe I should try starting one?

The upside of the Stitcherie is that not too long after posting pictures of my finished projects, I had received many wonderful compliments on my needlework skills. So, I do think that's definitely a bonus that the people are so friendly. No one can complain about an ego boost.

Another hobby of mine is miniatures. This is a hobby that I've been interested in since I was 12. At one time, I even worked in a dollhouse shop. The next network I joined was the mini nook, which is devoted to the world of miniatures.

I didn't see any groups on this site, so that kind of stunk.  However, if the function is there I should at least start one.


The downsides to this site are similar to those with Stitcherie and even Ravelry in regards to adding photos. The pictures can't be centered and/or rotated once they've been added to the site. Also when you upload the images into an album, you need to take care to only add pictures that are a certain file size. Pictures that are too large will not be added to your album, and this is not made clear immediately. The reason being is that if you're anything like me when uploading pictures, I tend to click the upload button and then go off and do something else. Instead of sitting and watching the site upload my picture(s). Several times I saw a sentence flash across the screen. However, I wasn't paying attention, and then wondered, why aren't all of the pics I uploaded in my album? It took a couple of times of going through the uploading process of these pictures with huge file sizes for me to finally realize why they weren't being added.

A further gripe with the album function on this site is that the order of the images in the albums can't be changed, so you need to be very careful when you chose the order in which to add any images to an album. I added two albums of the same house project and then finally realized afterwards that I should have added them in reverse order because I couldn't change their order once they were uploaded.

The next social network I joined was Genealogy Wise. The site is devoted to people interested in genealogy. This social network had a bit more convoluted registration process. I was able to create an account on the site, but was unable to do anything with it for the better part of a day. This was even after confirming my email address. The reason being was that the powers that be on the site needed to approve my membership.

I have a funny gripe with this site's photo adding and manipulation function. After adding my profile picture, I found that the top part of my head was clipped off. This made me appear to have been hit on the head with an anvil. I tried to adjust the centering and the size of the photo I added, but to no avail. Finally I tried another solution, I added another picture of myself and thankfully wasn't stricken with the head clipping 'feature'.

Unfortunately, unless more functions are added to this social network, I don't see its usefulness to me. I had joined the network thinking that I would be able to upload some of the genealogical data I've collected. Maybe even upload family groups to the site that would be visible to people researching that surname? However, the only useful function I've found is creating a group, which was one of the first things I did. I created a Womble surname group, so if you happen to be researching that family please stop by and join my Genealogy Wise group.

An interesting note is that I did receive a comment from a Genealogy Wise member. I should probably follow up on this because you never know who might know someone or something that could help in furthering your genealogical research.

Google+  is a new social network and is still in it's beta stage.  I was able to join this after finagling an invite from a high school friend.  I tried looking up various people I knew, but so far my only contact is my high school friend.  At my knitting group, it was suggested that I look for the knitters that are using it.  So I definitely have to give that a try!

Gloria Vanderbilt Embroidered, Crocheted Afghan

My current project is an embroidered, crocheted afghan from McCall’s Do-It-Yourself-Guide Gloria Vanderbilt Designs for your Home magazine, Holiday 1975 edition.

I had always wanted to make this afghan.  The unique zigzagged edge fascinated me, so I held onto this magazine for years.  In the aftermath of 9/11, I had heard horrendous stories of the growing prejudice against Muslim and Afghanistan people.  This bothered me.  This feeling grew as I saw French fries being called Freedom Fries and the small French bread loaves that once were sold at my local grocery store as ‘French Twins’ suddenly disappeared.  It made me wonder if those knitted or crocheted blankets called afghans would disappear as well.

I was determined to wage a silent protest against what I viewed as the growing discrimination of the Afghan people by starting work on the afghan that I had long planned to make.  The post 9/11-world was the right time to begin such a project. 

I had recently learned that my favorite local needlework store was going out of business.  Its location in the Alley Shops in the Crystal City Underground in Arlington, VA, which is close to the Pentagon didn’t help it weather the growing fear of Washingtonians of another similar attack occurring so the little shop was doomed.

I purchased most of the yarn at Nimble Needles in 2002 and the necessary Afghan hook that same year from Mary Maxim.  The rest of the yarn needed was bought at Michaels.  

In February 2002, I began crocheting each of the strips.  The afghan is made up of 16 strips that are done in Tunisian crochet.  Each of the squares is 19 ribs high and 20 vertical bars wide. 

As you can see from the above picture, the magazine only shows part of the placement of the 13 flowered motifs.  Thankfully, there is a diagram showing the arrangement of colored squares.  As I worked, I began to think about how to create the same placement of the motifs to match the picture.  I made my own diagram on the computer and realized that I could use what motifs were visible in the picture as a guide and then place the rest in a random pattern.  In the end, I believe that I was successful.

During 2009, I finished crocheting all of the strips.  Next in the afghan’s directions was to edge each of the strips with black yarn. 

I have a confession to make here and it’s somewhat off-topic, I really don’t know much about crocheting.  My maternal grandma taught me the very rudimentary basics of it during a summer visit.  All I really know are making a chain and single crochet.  My grandma crocheted afghans for each of her grandchildren.  I was very interested in learning the craft, but grandma wasn’t interested in teaching me more than what she did.  I never understood why, but it's possible that she didn’t have the patience.  During most of her visits, she was always crocheting something, usually an afghan made up of granny squares.  I can remember sitting and trying to see what exactly she was doing with the yarn so that I could somehow learn how she made them.  I asked her once and all she said was, “I just do the stitch I do”.

I eventually got a magazine and did crochet one granny square.  Later, I learned about such things as double and half double crochet, but honestly know nothing about crocheting afghans.  Also, I haven’t been able to internalize the process like with crocheting chains and single crochet.  So when it came to edging the strips, there was a lot of ripping out the edging and starting again.  The afghans that grandma made had edges that were flat against the edges of the afghan.  Finally, somehow I was able to get the edging the way I felt it should look.  It seemed that when I first began, the edging I was doing was coming out so that it stood up perpendicular to the strip’s edge.

Once the edging was completed, I could begin embroidering each of the 16 strips.  I realized as began that I would have to come up with color combinations for each motif as well.  This color combination according to the picture in the magazine changed with each use.  I saw that I would have to plan out the color combinations of every motif for each row as I worked.

Currently I've finished embroidering the 8^th row, so I’m halfway through with the embroidery.  My goal is to have the afghan finished by the 10^th anniversary of 9/11.  I’m not sure if I’ll reach it, but I’m eager to at least try.  Because it's always better to try something and fail than to have never begun at all.  

The Social Networking Universe

In the July 10th Washington Post was an article about social networks geared towards particular hobbies.  The article specifically mentioned the knitting social network, Raverly.  Being a knitter, I of course joined Ravelry's network and then started a search of other social networks that were focused on some of my hobbies.  By performing a quick Google search, I was able to find social networks on miniatures and cross-stitch.

I've had only limited success with the social networking world leading to real life friendships, but I haven't given up hope.  Part of my interest in joining a social network was to hopefully widen my friends in the genealogy world.  This is a new career path for me and I know very few people in that community.  I've been a member of Facebook since the late summer of 2010 and have connected with people from every city I've ever lived in. Only recently have I added to my genealogy network.  My goal is to spend time joining each type of hobby oriented social network that interests me as a way to stay current in those communities and hopefully meet some new friends.

In about 2003-2004, I had been a member of the Arlington Stitch 'n Bitch.  This group used to meet in the Clarendon area.  I really enjoyed meeting up with them and knitting.  In 2005, I got a new job that required me to work in the evenings.  Unfortunately, my Monday evenings with the Stitch 'n Bitch ladies had to go.  In 2010, I was offered a position in my current non-profit job.  Thankfully, the job offers regular M-F office hours so my evenings and weekends are now free for me to spend as I choose.  After joining Facebook, I tried to locate my Stitch 'n Bitch friends, but to no avail.  For those of you who are unfamiliar with the DC metro area, the transient nature of its citizens is a well known and accepted fact of life for us Washingtonians.

One of Stitch 'n Bitch members managed the now defunct Knit Happens shop in Alexandria, VA.  I believe that the shop closed in August of 2010.  Also, I had read on a local yarn shop's Facebook page that the members of the Stitch 'n Bitch stopped getting together.  By some odd coincidence, while I had other commitments on Monday night maybe they did too.  After all, life sometimes does intervene in different ways for everyone.

Currently, I'm working on an afghan.  I started around 2002 or so and have completed crocheting it.  The afghan is crocheted strips of squares and each square is to be embroidered with a different flowered motif.  I'm about halfway through with the embroidery and am looking to finish it by the 10th anniversary of 9/11.  That in itself is another blog post.  Since my goal is beginning to loom, I've been looking for another knitting group to meet up with so that I can stay motivated to finish by my set goal.

Through the Ravelry site, thankfully I was able to come in contact with a similar knitting group.  I contacted them and told them what I was working on and that I was interested in joining them in their sessions.  They were very open to me joining them; even though, what I'm working on isn't technically knitting or even crochet at this point.   

I met with the group on Tuesday night and told them about my search for the Arlington Stitch 'n Bitch group.  They knew nothing about them personally.  I think someone may have heard of them, but they did kindly tell me about a group who met at the same location on Monday nights.

So now, I have to find out if the group they mentioned are my Arlington Stitch 'n Bitch group!