stitch it real good

☀ cross stitch of a cat , which is about 1000 years old !

The answer is no. No it cannot. It has been sold to a liquidator just like JoAnns was.

So if there is ANYTHING you want I suggest you get it now. simplicity.com is currently having a pattern sale and I snatched up some that might be useful for cosplay purposes.

Shirts that unsnap at the collar and arm for port access

Walker bags

Wheelchair bags

Imitation button-downs that actually fasten up the back with hook and eye closure, for people with limited mobility who still want to look nice

Fidget page. I know quilters often enjoy making these!

@ghostalservice has put together a craft auction @ofmdcraftfair to benefit the project for southern equality, which helps trans kids in the south. the auction has grown a lot - already over $21,000 raised!! - and there's tons of stuff, not all fandom related. check it out here!!

and you can also spot my listings!

i have put four of my more traditional blackwork stitches up. these are all in 8x8 frames

i also have three pride themed blackworks up for auction!!

Sean's grandma passed this year, and I am now the very proud owner of some really lovely embroidery and crochet pieces for the house. They're not uncool or silly or stupid. They're useful items that were made beautiful by the patience, care, skill, and talent of a woman. Who was younger than I am now when she made at least some of them (there's a whole set of table runners that just scream hope chest).

And these items are USEFUL to boot. That blanket? Keeps you warm. Those doilies? Keep grime from building up under the lamp and sticking to the table.

I'm not immune to the "Huh, silly thing people used to do" take, for the record. I've only recently realized that maybe our grandmothers' (and parents' in my case bathrooms) have fuzzy toilet covers and fuzzy floor mats because it catches all the goddamn toilet paper fuzz in the air, and it's faster to vacuum the fuzzy toilet lid cover and rugs than it is to dust all that goddamn paper fluff off surfaces and then sweep it up and hope half of it didn't end up back on the shelf.

But also, all of the crafts mentioned in the article were about making a home more beautiful. The home was the woman's sphere, and it was her job amongst many to make it an attractive and nice place to be. And in treating fiber arts like you must get away from your grandmother's influence, you are treating the home she built for herself and her family as dismissible and not worth respect.

In the end, it comes down to the dismissal of skilled labor because it was a woman doing it at home. Even if that work kept the family fed (lacework has saved a lot of lives in particular). Even if it kept the family warm (slippers, blankets, jackets, sweaters, mittens, scarves, hats), even if it kept the family house neater (how much dust did those doilies soak up so it was easier and faster to clean the whole house?), even if it kept the family looking respectable (my grandmother once darned my mother's canvas band shoe than buy her a new pair; favorite story). Even if it kept the family safe (potholders and hot pads).

My sweater is finally done!

It has lovingly been named the 'Unicorn Hunt Sweater' and the pattern can be found on both:

Etsy and Ravelry

So, I have inherited a varied collection of knitting needles and crochet hooks, cable needles, sewing needles, and, best of all, now-out-of-print pattern books, mostly for blankets, because that was what this lady loved to make most. Plus, I also have a bunch of gauge swatches she made, pinned to little bits of card covered in perfect schoolteacher handwriting setting out the patterns they were made to test.

And also...

My coworker brought another bag, full of yarn and...knitted blanket squares. Her mother's last started project, before she got too sick to continue. And she asked if there was anything I could do with it.

It turned out, there are twelve completed squares, and I quickly located the pattern book they are from amid those given to me. It's a book of 60 patterns, meant to be put together however the maker wishes into blankets of 20 squares. I figured out which of the numbered patterns were already made, and selected eight more that I thought might go well with them.

So now! I am working on completing! My coworker's mother's last knitting project!

I come bearing a small update! I have completed three of the eight squares I picked to make and just started a fourth. Here’s what the project looks like so far:

(Why yes I did stand on my bed to take this photo.)

The squares are in big need of blocking to get 'em to a uniform size, of course, but this is what we’ve got! Mine are the one at top right and the middle two in the second row.

My coworker told me her mother especially liked to make blankets featuring a popcorn/bobble stitch, but I didn’t find any squares like that among those she’d made for this project, so that’s why I chose to make the one to the left of the book. <3 Otherwise, it seems like she picked a mix of squares with cables and not, with graphic motifs versus repeating textures, so I chose mine to reflect that and have decided on a layout that I hope shows off the variety.

Apparently Mom's usual blankets were knitted all in one piece; coworker said she’d never seen her make a square sampler like this. Meanwhile samplers are MY favorite kind to make, so I’ve been having a lot of fun.

I told her why I chose that square, like I told you guys up there, and she said she was so glad she gave her mom’s stuff to me because I’m “making sure her work is finished beautifully.” Ahhh, my heart, it grows.

Aaaaaand I have a big update tonight! All the squares are DONE!!

You can compare the final layout to what is posted up there to find my squares. :D

I had to fix the crochet borders on several of Coworker’s Mom’s because they didn’t have a uniform 48 stitches per side as called for in the pattern book, but now that’s taken care of, I can start…

IT IS COMPLETED.