A Relapse Update

Well, I don't know what the hell happened to spring, but winter is back, and I am not impressed. They are calling for s@&% flurries tomorrow, which has the entire state in panic, but as it was 80 on Saturday, it's not like we'll have any accumulation. Actually, that I could care less about; it's the cold and the wind we have today that I could live without (yes, I know, you can't have snow without cold - but you can have cold without snow, and I'm done with cold). Took Lucy out this morning, since the boys are o n break this week, and a gust broke my hair, so I was a disaster before I even got in the car :( At least DH got some of the grass mowed yesterday, before the little sprinkle forced him to give up for the week.

Well, you have probably already seen my post about my gato negro, Booger. That pretty much screwed up my whole week, stitch-wise, work-wise, life-wise. Several years ago, I was surfing the net and found a site with lots of patterns on it, many of them free - Jaenne Bonner. She had a conversion done of that famous Chat Noir poster, and it was a freebie, and the first time I ever saw that poster, I said to myself that that was Booger to a T, so I downloaded that chart, as well as a couple of others, thinking I'd do that one day for Booger :)

Then, when Hancock had that erroneous floss sale a few years ago, it was one of the things I kitted up. I was discussing it with someone one day (Claire???), and went to see if I could find it again, for the picture, and found that Jaenne had changed it show a blue background w/moon. I e-mailed her, just on the off chance she still had the original image around. She e-mailed me back that same day, and said she didn't have it anymore, but she had switched it up to the blue/moon as a tribute to her little black kitty, who's name was in the e-mail, but I don't have it anymore, as it was in a long-dead machine.

So here it is, a few years later, and it's time to start the piece. I started winding bobbins on Wednesday, after I made the appointment to take el gato in, and later that Friday night, once my eyes had dried a bit and my hands stopped shaking, I started. I worked on it all weekend, when I had time to sit down, and I thought about Booger with each stitch. I have to say that I am convinced my HaED & SQ charts are just insanely hard, with all the color changes, as I got great progress in on this piece, about 1500 stitches in in a few days - I couldn't do that on either of those other pieces if I stitched non-stop 24/7. You can see the progress here:
http://rifestitch.multiply.com/photos/album/74/Chat_Noir_a_Tribute_to_Booger#2

Before that, I was working on my small LD Foursome Reel piece. I got the alphabet done, and the inner box around it, and started on the lower motifs. I didn't get very far on it, what with these other things going on, and I almost picked it up yesterday to finish the motif I had started, but I didn't want to put Chat down, so didn't. The progress is here, with a ruler so you can get an idea of how big this is, over-1 on 36:
http://rifestitch.multiply.com/photos/album/50/Long_Dog_Sampler_WIPs#24

If you look at it, you'll notice the bottom row of the alphabet looks like it is misaligned. Well, that would be because I skipped a letter. It took me taking a picture last night to notice it, but it was too late to pick it apart then. Man, do I hate, hate, hate frogging over-1!!!! Especially this small! I will try to unpick when I get home tonight, then put it away - I was so worried about that cat and getting him taken care of and paying lots of extra attention to him, that I apparently forgot my ABCs. Oh well, that'll teach me to be distracted and try to stitch.... Hmmm, do I flip the fabric over and start again on the other end? We'll see how the unpicking goes.

This week, I am supposed to work on Lady & Unicorn, but I may divide my time to also work on Chat; I'm definitely not ready to put that down just yet. I need to get to a stopping place on Lyne's Santa, as we need to shuffle by the 13th - I put about 10 stitches into it last week. I will try to do better during lunch this week on that. I have Friday & next Monday off - a much-needed break after the boss being gone for 3 weeks, and well, I just need a couple of days off. I would like to finish that necklace I've had laid out since October, and Nancy sent me the fob I made her for repair (her son's adorable puppy Barry got hold of it and turned it to bits :) - I'm glad he didn't swallow any of the beads, though I assume they would come out okay?! ), so I'd like to do that, and someone I work with gave me something to restring, as well. I think I have plenty of stuff to occupy my time, so long as I don't get in a fit of spring cleaning - though I will have free child labor on Friday, so we might just do a little then. So, who knows what I'll work on this week? Anything's possible. Until next week, happy stitching, everyone!