Old Knitting Projects - part 2

Seems like everyone has middle of the night whiney pets stories. Bert's not alone. He must have sensed I was talking about him because that night he didn't whine and cry - instead he came up to me about 4:30 am and started petting my cheek. And petting - and petting - and petting. I would shoo him away and a minute later he'd be back petting me. Finally I gave in and gave him a good tummy rub. Two seconds later he was fast asleep.



More Projects


Time to continue the tour of old projects around the house.

Back when I was in 4th or 5th grade I discovered cross stitch. My girlfriend and I would sit around and make the stamped cross stitch. One know the ones. You used to get them at the dime store and they came with the fabric pre-stamped with the design and had the thread and needle in the kit. I think this is the first one I finished and gave to Mom. I know I made one for her that took me FOREVER to finish. It was titled "Give Me Time".





Shortly after college I was up to my eyeballs in crafts and couldn't possibly start another one. Mom started a needlepoint picture at a class and couldn't figure it out. So I read the instructions and taught her how to turn the corner. That of course meant I had to do a needlepoint project of my own. At the same time I found out we had a family crest so I sketched it out and made a needlepoint version. (Okay - now you know my last name and where the Jill's Chat came from...)





Yet another craft obsession. While at the Yarn Shed (friend's shop) I tried the frame looms and found out weaving was fun. So -I convinced Dad to make me a table loom from a pattern I found at the library and this lead to going to Siever's one summer for a week to take a weaving class. I bought one of their 4 heddle loom kits and had to build it in my garage. While I was at Siever's I made a sample of weaving designs. I liked it so much I entered it in the StateFair and this is one of my ribbon winners.





Here's another of my crochet pieces. I tend to keep crochet for the doily/ tablecloth type projects because I'm not real thrilled with how bulkier crochet looks. This doily was made to cover a small bookcase top I have.







I also quilt. Here's a couple wall hangings. The Christmas one is quite old a couple weeks ago it was replaced by the spring/valentine's hanging.









Last picture for this time around - I didn't actually make this project(it and several thousand others were made in China) but I was part of the design process. Every year Dayton's (a local department store now owned by Macy's) used to have Santa Bear. For a while it was Santa Bear, Miss Bear, and a short time even Bully Bear. In the summer of 1991 I was approached and asked if I could design something for a bear. They were very mysterious but it sounded interesting so I said yes. It turned out to be for Santa Bear, Miss Bear and Bully Bear (who got cancelled before I was finished because bullies aren't good for kids). Off I went. They gave me what they wanted - snow outfit - music - pocket for a cassette. I made what they asked for and thought it was too busy. I was right. The musical notes and pocket were just too much. The final design ended up being the bear below. It ended up using the snowflake I made for the hat as the main design element and no pocket. This was all complete by November 1991 but he was the bear for 1992. I spent an entire year not being able to tell anyone about it. The summer of 1992 I made outfits for 3 full size Santa Bear costumes. I'll hunt up those pictures some day and post them. Seeing giant bear parts laying around the house was a pretty bizarre sight.

Spell check isn't working so if you've found any bits of strange spelling - sorry.