Wilson River Gal

  Hot off the needles: a pair of wool socks for me. Knit in Laura Linneman's "Footpath Sock" pattern - at least for the stitch pattern anyway, I did my "own thing" for the cuffs, heels, and toes - the yarns featured were some Malabrigo fingering (the dark purple-blue) and some handspun 3-ply that I happened to have a big cake of. The cast on is a stretchy Italian cast-on. The heel is a Balbriggan heel, and the toes are the standard wedge toes. Malabrigo yarns often bleed when they're washed for the first time, so when I was finished with the knitting and finish work, I soaked the socks in lukewarm water with a bit of Retayne in it, to head off any dye running. Worked a treat! No color in the water. Rinse, "squoze", and dried the socks on sock blockers. Done! What's new on the needles? The Cozy Quilt Socks using one strand of blue and one strand of cream. Shocker: this time I'm actually following the pattern! Pictures when I have something w...

Hi.  I used to blog on a WordPress site, but eventually it stagnated and got quiet because I couldn't think of anything more to say.  I don't want to discard those previous posts - dating back to March, 2015 - so I am incorporating them here under the label "Back Catalog" and re-publishing with the original date. Thanks. 

My brother was a serious Motocross competitor and loved to ride his dirt bike in the hills of the area then known as the Tillamook Burn (now known as the Tillamook State Forest). His life was cut short by melanoma skin cancer at age 20. After he passed, my parents organized an annual motocross event in the Tillamook Burn to raise funds for cancer research. We are coming up on the 60th anniversary of Mike's death next April, so I wanted to create a piece of cross stitchery to commemorate the his life and passion. My sweet husband happened to find an original Mike Stewart Enduro patch from one of the early races and surprised me with it. After some thought, I went looking for a cross stitch chart featuring a motocross rider in the woods, and found one that - while very complex with 27 colors - is just what I had in mind. My plan is to lay out the image on 14-count Aida fabric, sketch in the boundaries, then arrange the patch and two original photographs in the composition, marking th...