There's No Place Like Home

Hi Knitters,
We're back safe and sound. Isn't is good to come home? We went to Disney World for the week. My husband thought our kids were at the perfect ages to take a fun-filled journey to the land of dreams. He was right. I am not a ride person but I got to see things like one of the original Dorothy dresses from the Wizard of Oz at Planet Hollywood. That's enough to hold me over for a long time.

When I was 8 years old I went to Disney for the first time. When I saw this castle I simply couldn't believe my eyes. It didn't seem true. I felt like magic was all around. I loved seeing my kids feel that same excitement I felt so long ago. Anyway we had fun in the hot, hot sun. It was in the upper 90's everyday and humid beyond belief. In Madison it didn't even reach 60 yesterday and it is pouring rain. Talk about contrast.

I knitted a lot for the first couple days of the trip. I made eight mini-cupcakes for my publicist, Jaime, to hand out to various people she is contacting. It was adorable to see them all stacked up together when they were done. I had three flight attendants stop to talk about the cupcakes on the flight down. They all thought they were cute. Then as I was getting off of the plane the attendants were gathered at the door and they were talking about the cupcakes as I walked by. It is a good sign that they were still thinking about them later. The pattern is in the new book. Hopefully the cupcakes will do the trick for Jaime. We had to find a Fedex/Kinkos last Monday and mail them off to New York. Good thing my kids are patient with this stuff.

After I finished the cupcakes I dove into a new project, embroidery on felt. I fell in love with this project. It is a Jennifer Pudney kit I bought quite awhile ago. I bought several of her kits online just to have on hand. They are stuffed with beautiful materials, high quality goods to say the least. There are brief instructions that were good enough for me but if you want more detail on embroidery I recommend this and this.

Isn't it fun? I kept calling it my stitching and the kids laughed about that. I kept telling them how I loved my stitching. They like to laugh at me but they are very interested too. They kept admiring it and both of my girls want to stitch now that we are home. I will have to get some simple projects going for them.

Now Jennifer Pudney's company is extra great because they offer finishing services for you. You can either get your finished piece framed or for the felt embroidery only you can get it made into a bound journal cover. I am getting this piece made into a 120-page bound journal. I am giving it to my dear friend who is going through chemo right now. What I loved most about this project is that every time I took a stitch I thought about her and the journey she is going through. Most of all I thought about how much I care for her and want her to get well. That is positive energy well spent.

Here is my other Jennifer Pudney creation. This is the Princess and the Pea, only they call it the Pea Story. I had this one framed and they do all of the blocking for you. I sent off my wrinkly, masking taped needlepoint canvas and this gorgeous artwork is what I got in return. What a great deal!

There was a prince next to the mattresses but I took him out. I liked the bed, the pea and princess alone. Who needs that old prince in there?

Here are the kits. They are tiny. The needlepoint kits are called postcards. Anyway, thought I would share with you what captured my mind on the trip. I was completely engrossed and thoroughly impressed with this kit.

When I was waiting for my family to exit the rides I pulled the second pureknits yarntini sock out and knitted away. I made some progress. I got a lot of second looks by passersby while I was knitting. I always wonder what they see. I only had one woman ask me if it was a sock but mainly kids are completely fascinated by the knitting. They are mesmerized, almost walking backwards as they are being pulled along. What do they think? I make a wish sometimes that one day someone will teach them to knit. I little wish never hurt.

One more quick thing, my friend Stacey, made a post about a pea pod topped hat she knitted. She learned this in an embellishing class I taught many years ago. I have this sweet pea hat pattern available in my online shop if anyone is interested. This pattern is the bestseller on my site by far. We keep getting it reprinted and reprinted. Stacey had so many comments about the pea hat that I thought maybe people would like to have the pattern. I haven't talked about my shop much in the blog but take a look if you like.

It's good to be home! Hope you all had a good week.

best, susie