Category Archives: Uncategorized

Mar24

Wow, I completely stink at this!!

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TWO YEARS!!!! Two stinking years and I haven’t written anything here!!!

Well, it’s been pretty crazy.

Basically, my back injury ended my Air Force career and I was medically retired last year… and I’m still pretty sad about it. I miss my friends so much it’s ridiculous. Call out to the Air Force and the VA, they have taken very good care of me and I have no complaints.

Secondly, on a whim brought on by boredom, I decided to use my GI Bill and go back to college. Since I retained my GI Bill from my active duty time, I began my first “brick and mortar” college career at Cape Cod Community College, which has an adorable campus and the most amazing staff. I’m really having a wonderful time and making some amazing friends while I’m doing it. Granted, I’m old enough to be their mother but I don’t think it really matters. They probably think I’m a crazy old lady since I normally wear my old sage green combat boots (believe it or not, they’re extremely comfy!!) and the old Harley Davidson hoody that I acquired from my husband (about 2 sizes too big for me but I practically live in it). The craziest thing of all was I was invited to become a member of the National Honor Society for academic excellence… ME!?!?! The one that has stood steadfast that a higher education is a worthless expenditure of time and money?!?!

Yep. Me…

Apparently all of the classes I’ve been taking over the years had an accrued GPA of 3.85 and somehow I became an academic person. I’m still kind of puzzled about that one.

Anyway, I’m still having a ball with college and will keep going as long as I can. I’ve gotten a few art and computer based graphic design under my belt and I’ve become pretty good at it but wondering what I’m going to do with it.

*transition to applicable subject matter…

So now for the big news! Hubby and I just bought laser engravers!!! He bought a more powerful one for engraving metal and relief carving wood. I bought one that can help me with the outlines of my wood projects (I hate starting and outlining a new project!!!). The BEST part is that both run on computer based graphics!!! The magic is coming!

We haven’t gotten them yet but I’m just throwing it out there that this blog will be coming alive again!!!

I’m sorry I’ve been gone so long but I’m back 🙂

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Apr18

Busy, busy, busy…

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It seems like everything that could have happened lately, has.  I’ve been working on getting more worsted weight patterns made but life sort of has gotten in the way; a few weeks ago was my precious husband’s birthday, the next day we had to put our beloved 13 year old German Sheppard, Minnie, to sleep because her poor body was just giving out on her.  Then barely after going through the anguish of losing her, and seeing how much our Jack Russell, Dexter, missed her too…I had to get spinal surgery.  Needless to say, it’s been a tough months so far.

In between the gaps of activity, I was able to get a few patterns done: Worsted Weight Diamonds and Worsted Weight Quilted Stars; both were originally chunky yarn patterns but I converted them to worsted weight yarn.  Chunky yarn blankets are lovely in the winter, because they’re soft and heavy, but way too warm for summer (however, they make lovely floor blankets!).

I’ve also have developed a new obsession…Portuguese pin knitting!  I love working with worsted weight yarn but lets face it, knitting a blanket with smaller yarn seems to take forever!!  But, once I got the hang of pin knitting, I was easily doing 100 stitches a minute, almost twice as fast as standard knitting.  I loved it so much, not only did I make a few knitting pins for myself, I made some to sell in my Etsy shop!

If you’d like to see the new knitting patterns, and the older ones that I’ve had posted for a while, please see them at:

https://www.etsy.com/shop/CapeCodStitchery

 

Feb16

Chunky Yarn Baby Blanket in Wavy Lines

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My latest baby blanket design; this creation was a happy accident because I was going for a large basket weave but once I started knitting it, I noticed that the main vertical lines were waving on their own…and I love the way it turned out!!  I’m thinking that I’m going to make this one into an adult sized blanket but that will be a project for another day.

If you’d like to obtain a copy of this knitting pattern, it is located at:

https://www.etsy.com/shop/CapeCodStitchery

Thanks for looking!!

Jan18

Busy…busy…busy…

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It’s been a pretty busy couple of months for me, between the holidays and everything…thankfully, I was able to add two new baby blankets to my design collection of non-traditional baby blankets.

The first is a knitted, chunky yarn, mustard colored baby blanket, that’s large enough for a toddler.  It’s very soft, fluffy and quite cozy!

The second blanket is also knitted with chunky yarn but in a subtle denim blue, this one is also a good size for a toddler.

Both patterns, along with the other chunky yarn baby blankets patterns in my collection, can be found at:

https://www.etsy.com/shop/CapeCodStitchery

Feel free to message me if there are any questions.

Thanks!!!

Nov25

Honeycomb and basket weave cable knit baby blanket

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Hello everyone!  I’m glad to say that I’ve rolled out another baby blanket pattern at Etsy and I’m very happy with how it turned out.

IMG_1039IMG_1024IMG_1026IMG_1032IMG_1036

It’s is knit with chunky yarn, on bigger needles, and it’s irresistibly fluffy and so soft!  Not only was it a pleasure to make, it’s an heirloom item that can be treasured for years, long after the little one has grown out of it.

If there are any questions, please feel free to comment or send me a private message.  Otherwise, please check out my Etsy store, Cape Cod Stitchery, not only for this pattern but for the others that have already been posted.

Thank you!

 

Aug17

I’ve expanded my “project” for making patterns for my knitting and crocheting!!

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Banner for Cape Cod Stitchery; where my pattern designs will reside.

Cape Cod Stitchery; where the information regarding the knitting and crocheting patterns designs will reside.

Hello to my faithful followers!  I haven’t been around for a little while, because I’ve been a bit busy working on my latest project; not only have I been creating more baby blankets but I’m now actually writing down the patterns for the projects that I’ve designed and am in the process of creating PDF’s from them for publication and putting them up for sale (for a reasonable price even though they take quite a bit of time to create) on Etsy and Ravelry.

There are two main reasons for why I decided to finally make my own patterns.

First, and most importantly, I’ve discovered that the patterns that I see published in knitting/crocheting magazines look very complex and more time goes into deciphering the pattern than goes into creating it.  I guess that’s why I decided to start designing my own creations…it was just easier to do. Fairly recently, the software to create professional looking knitting and crochet charts has become obtainable, by people like me, who have enough of a working knowledge of graphics design to be able to make written charts and patterns clear and easy to follow.  This is so anyone that has a basic working knowledge of knitting and crocheting can accomplish them without frustration.

Secondly, I’ve discovered by looking at my own creations, that making something beautiful doesn’t need to be ridiculously hard to do.  I’ve had several people tell me, over the years, “That blanket looks so difficult to make, I can never do that!” even after I assure them that the projects are actually easy to do.  Since the “pattern” was in my head, trying to explain how to do it was nearly impossible.  I’ve resigned myself to making patterns that are not only clearly explained, with a chart provided if the project can be simplified by creating one, but to also provide step by step instructions (with images) of how a stitch is made.  I’ve also figured out how to create videos, for posting on YouTube, explaining the process as well.

With that said, designing and publishing simple and easily explained knitting and crocheting patterns is my objective.

I’m very close to posting my first pattern, that hasn’t been posted yet but will be shortly, so I’ve created another blog specifically for knitted and crocheted projects that I make, and sell, patterns for: http://capecodstitchery.com/; please pop over and take a look!  This is an image of the first blanket that I’m making a pattern for; a herringbone stitch baby blanket in sage green and off white stripes with an I-cord edge:

cropped herringbone blanket

I will still post my personally made projects here on Etch Stitch and Burn so please continue to pop in, from time to time, to see what I’ve been up to.

Thank you for all of the support!

Aug11

Another long absence but I’m back!!

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Remember when on the last day of December, New Year’s Eve, when you’re sitting around with your family and waiting for the new year to come, the discussion always heads towards “I hope next year is better than this year!”

Well, it hasn’t been so far.  Actually, it’s been one step left of brutal.

The first of the year kicked off with a massive snowstorm that hit the New England and then I deployed to the Midwest for four months.  The time within the four months consisted of:

1.     Unyielding snow storms and bone chilling cold that didn’t let up.

2.     Complete homesickness being away from my husband (and my dogs) for so long.

and the worst one…

3.     My precious father passed away before our eyes.

Needless to say, I haven’t been feeling all that creative and crafty lately.  However, as it is said, “when God closes a door, he always opens a window”; a window opened after being consumed in the fog of loss and grief for my Dad.  Don’t get me wrong, I’m still hurting but a spark of my former self has returned, thanks to my husband, friends and family.

The first shot in the arm was that I decided to go back to college, thanks to the provocation of my friends.  I’m 6 weeks into my first class and I’m pulling a 98.2%; not too bad for an old lady such as myself.  The second is that it’s come to my realization that I’ll be eligible for retirement in the next 4 – 5 years and that I’d better start laying the foundation for what I’m going to be doing once retirement happens.  Knowing that once retirement occurs, my hubby and I will escape into the wilds of somewhere but a concrete fact remains that we are both technology geeks so wifi will be there…so I’m returning to the world of blogging.  I don’t know what I’m going to do with it but it’s time to give it a go again.

So, for my loyal followers that wondered what happened to me, I’m back and will do everything I can do stay relevant again.  Please forgive me, it’s been a really tough year…

Feb15

I really don’t like winter…

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My apologies, I haven’t had the ability to be very creative lately.  Don’t get me wrong, the ambition is there and I’m  still thinking about my newest project on an hourly basis but the stars haven’t alined properly for me to do so.

Shortly after finishing my last project, I started another one (a different style of snowflake ornament) in order to try and expand a color pallet for the inlay.  However…it was really cold!  Unbearably cold actually! It was impossible to be comfortable enough in my workshop to put in any time at my scroll saw.  That lasted for few weeks.

Once the clouds were parting on the arctic blast around here, I felt the pull towards the workshop again.  But alas…we got a blizzard here on Cape Cod last weekend!  I hadn’t been in a blizzard for a really long time so I’d forgotten how frustrating they could be.  The 1 1/2 feet of snow was frustrating enough along with the limited mobility (even though my husband and I both have 4-wheel drives) but losing power for 2 1/2 days was massively annoying!  Granted, we did better than most; we had heat, hot water, radio and light (in a limited capacity) due to the generator.  So many people had to leave their homes because they had nothing.  We even had one evening where we ran an extension cord from the bathroom, into the living room, in order to watch the movie “Army of Darkness” on my laptop with long retired speakers (I’m not even sure where they came from, only that I still had them) while cooking Ramon noodles in an old pan on the woodburning stove.  It wasn’t an ideal evening but we were cozy.

Anyway, the power returned and life went back to normal again so I’m hoping to get some saw time in this weekend.  I’ve been experimenting with different mediums to color resin with and I think I may be onto something.

Hopefully, I’ll have another entry coming soon.

Jan1

Another year, a new project

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Happy New Year Everyone!!  Hopefully 2013 will be a wonderful year for everybody!!

I have to admit, 2012 wasn’t an entirely bad year but I’m not shedding any tears for it’s passing.  I have always felt refreshed by the concept of a new year coming along and always resolve to change something about the way I live my life in subtle ways; some last and some don’t.  As in previous years, I’ve made some resolutions for this years also.  Nothing particularly difficult but will take a bit of commitment all the same.  My primary resolution, for the interest of the blog, is to take my “crafting” to a new level.  Hopefully, I may even achieve the level of “art”…but that is yet to be seen.  More detail to follow…

Anyway, on my last post, I had discussed my intention for integrating wood and resin.  In all honesty, the dog paw in the small, wooden box was exhausting to pull off.  The hand carving of the paw about broke my hand as I did it with a Dremel freehand…big mistake.  However, the possibilities of what I can do with the integration of wood and resin has been brewing and building in my mind ever since.

Thanks to a very generous Santa Clause this year (my dear hubby), I now have a brand new Ryobi Scroll Saw and a brand new NICE camera to use to document my progress.  For those of you that don’t know what the capabilities of a scroll saw are…stay tuned; it’s difficult to explain but can easily be shown in pictures and videos.  Both of which I fully intend to have in my blog entries this year.

Just as before, I am a working woman and time to dedicate to my craft is brief so blog posts aren’t going to be very frequent for the foreseeable future; but I’ll do my best.  I’ve very excited about the new direction I’m about to embark on and the cool little workshop I now have in the basement!!!

Thanks for the support through this and hopefully we can have another inspiring year!!

 

 

Jul19

My crafting ways take a back seat to life way too often

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but still needs a button...

It just dawned on me, as I sit at the computer drinking my morning coffee and trying to wake up, the things I enjoy seemed to have taken a back seat to factors of my life that are necessary.

I make lists in order to make it through my life somewhat organized.  The lists contain bullet statements to remind me of what I need to do once my “stage one” activities take place.

What are the stages that rule my life??

  • STAGE ONE: work and sleep; the things that I have to do in order to exist with some level of comfort in this life but leave very little wiggle room for extra activities or accomplishments.  No list required in this stage.
  • STAGE TWO: necessary things that can be put off for a little while but not for long.  These items include house cleaning, grocery store visit and going to the dump.  Depending on how hectic work is, this can also be an elective category for a list.  Sometimes if I create a list for this category, there are spaces in time created for an element of creativity but normally STAGE THREE items find their way in.
  • STAGE THREE: necessary things that can be put off for a while but not forever.  These things include cleaning fish tanks in the house (we’ve got three), giving dogs hair cuts (again we have three and accomplishing this in a timely manner cuts down on hours of having to chase dog fur balls around the house with a vacuum), weeding the garden and general household organization.  This category also requires a list because I never know when I have an extra window of time available to take care of these things and I have a horrible memory so a list is handy.
  • STAGE FOUR: this category contains the things I actually enjoy doing but sadly find their way to the bottom.  Crafting, creating, going to craft stores, putting in a good movie and just finishing a project that was started months ago…writing a blog entry (I’m breaking protocol today because a dog fur ball just went scooting across the hallway floor…)  These items don’t have a list because there’s only about 5% of my time that I can give to them and I only address what will make me happiest at that particular moment.

So, here’s my quandary…life seems to have taken over my creative side.  I’ve tried to make STAGES 1-3 as efficient as possible but I seem to get really tired when I’m done with what needs to be done.  Sort of makes me sad sometimes but I guess that’s better than feeling guilty.  The sad thing is that I have an incredible husband that’s very helpful around the house but there are always lists to be made and crossed off every day.

In a bigger picture, I dream of having my own little shop on Etsy where I can sell my crafts.  Actually I have a shop built but there’s nothing in it.  If for some reason I do ever load any items on Etsy, I don’t think I’d have time to take care of it and keep it updated at this point in time.  God forbid I actually sell anything!  How in the world would I make it to the post office to mail it out?  So, almost in a defeated manner, I’m a forum lurker on Etsy…continuing to dream about a day where I can just create things for hours one end…

Am I the only one?