Dear Ann:
Today we rose at dawn (summer dawn!) to get on the road to Vermont, where young Joseph has a three-week thingy to attend. I will have ample driving help. All I need is knitting: 6-8 hours of sweet, sweet car knitting. The trouble is, my Fort Tryon Wrap is coming up the backstretch; it will soon round the pole and reach the finish line. (Come to think of it, the Fort Tryon Wrap is shaped exactly like a race track, at least before blocking out those corners.) I will likely bind it off on the first leg of the journey, and THEN WHAT?
I was too rushed last night to get my yarns and needles and pattern together for my next project (Anna Maltz’s Sceles top.) Also, Sceles is worked in Kalinka linen, and the thought of winding linen in a car is daunting–all that knotting and slipping. So I turned to one of my most reliable standbys, a never-ending gobstopper of a project:
My Bloomsbury needlepoint.
Does anybody ever finish a needlepoint project? (Serious question.)
I took this Shell Cushion with me on a month of travel last summer. I worked on it steadily the whole time, and then I ran out of some of the colors. (I am working it in basketweave, which takes more yarn than tent stitch, which was specified. Rookie error.) Running out of wool can send a project into timeout for years, but in this case, you came to the rescue, and got me my Anchor Tapestry Wool from the big wall of it at Craft South in Nashville. July must be needlepoint season, because I got the urge to pick the project back up again last weekend. Needlepoint is fun, it doesn’t require counting or keeping track of anything, so it’s totally car-ready.
I feel like I’m cheating on knitting. But that’s ok. At the end of this car ride, I’ll run back into knitting’s arms and hug it around the neck, just like last year.
Love,
Kay
Oh, good grief! How could you forget the humble dishcloth? You could have knit a large supply, and also rung the changes — place mats, table runner, kitchen towels, pot holders, hot pads, refrigerator cozies…!
I could have had a V8! D’OH!
Lol…..
PS Sorry if you’re too young to remember old V8 commercials…..
You flatterer, you! Let’s just say I’m old enough to know better. . .and still young enough to be a brat.
It is needlepoint month! Less woolage to hold in your lap! Starting my refresher class tomorrow. Haven’t done it in at least 10 years.
I have finished one needlepoint project and it was a huge one. I partnered up with another another stitcher to do one of a series of kneelers for our church. She did the motif in the center and at each corner. I did all the background. At 14 inches wide and 32 inches long, ( roughly) that was a lot of background. Many hours!
Dianne
Ohh, that is gorgeous. I always managed to finish the needlepoint but then couldn’t get it together to make the actual pillow. Sort of like knitting a sweater but then never sewing it together.
Of course on the way to Vermont you could stop at WEBS, or at one of the many LYSs in the state, or at Green Mountain Spinnery if you need a knit-fix.
Yes, needlepoint (or cross-stitch) projects DO get finished. A friend just had a cross-stitch she started on her honeymoon be completed by her 18 year old daughter, just short of her 23rd anniversary. I wouldn’t be able to do either in the car, it would make me carsick. And gravol would put me to sleep for the entire journey! Safe travels en route to your son’s “three week thingy” . ;o)
If I stopped knitting in the summer, the stash would finally burst out of its closet and eat the house.
My mother had a needlepoint shop many many years ago. Yes, people complete needlepoint. I still use needlepoint purses completed when I was in high school, and my brother (recently retired) still has a needlepoint pillow that reads “peanut butter is better than pot”.
Needlepoint is not so good for meetings because one needs to look at it and pull out a new thread, etc. However, good car project. Now my mother only does small projects and not so well at age 90 with some dementia and arthritis in her hands. I hope to finish two pieces that she started several years ago. It will take me many years to finish, but I probably will (not that I know what I’ll do with them).
So, keep going; every bit helps get to the end.
Working at odd moments, you really can finish up your Mom’s needlepoint and then have them professionally blocked and made into pillows. It will be expensive but a treasure and lovely memory of your mother (and you!) that will last for several generations.
Welcome to Vermont!! We are so pleased to welcome you:-) We have a lovely yarn shop in Montpelier if you are truly lost without a project. Good luck to your son on his three-week thingy!
This morning’s dawn was breathtaking.
A happy journey to you, I long for some passenger seat knitting…
I can vouch that, no, needlepoint projects are not to be finished. I have a beautiful, 1/3rd finished Christmas Tree Skirt, that I started over a decade ago, that may never be compleyed (anything is possible once my boys have moved out of the house!)
Another welcome to Vermont! Whitney is correct about Yarn! in Montpelier. Lovely shop, great ladies!
There is also a nice yarn shop in Williston, Vermont……never enough yarn shops, never enough yarn.
Not relevant to this post but couldn’t find another way to contact you. Are you aware that Rowan has lost their mind and is discontinuing a huge number of their yarns including 2 of my favorites – All Seasons Cotton and Wool Cotton? You can learn more here though this may be old news to you: http://www.spinayarndevon.co.uk/tag/discontinued/
I love car knitting! Makes the11 hour trek from VA to VT so much easier. Should you need a diversion during the three week thingy there is the Great Northern Yarn Haul (I’m being linked challenged but there is a Facebook page). My LYS, Must Love Yarn, in Shelburne, VT is participating.
Yes, I must agree that some needlepoint projects do indeed get finished. However, I still have several lingering on for decades. Having since been infected with the knitting bug, it is indeed hard to go back.
Your project is so very lovely tho! How fun!
And what a great image–I love it! Running back to knitting and giving it a great big hug around its neck :-). Perfect!
One thing about linen is it is much easier to wind and knit if pre-washed.
I’ve been working on gifts while in the car. My goal was one per month this year, and I’ve averaged 1.5, so my gift box is nice and full!
I too get the urge to pull out the needlepoint this time of year. Maybe because it seems lighter than a pile of knitting, or maybe because there’s more daylight… I don’t know. I’ve never actually finished a needlepoint project but I only picked it up in the last year or two, so I’m not discouraged.
I do love me some needlepoint. Soothing, and mindless. But I must confess–I cleaned out my craft closet recently (the yarn avalanche that covered my office floor made it a necessity)–and found, ahem, quite a few unfinished needlepoint projects. My favorite was one from the Shakespearean festival in Ashland, Oregon, replete with fleur-de-lis and lions. Don’t laugh when I confess I got this kit before I had children. And, um, I have grandchildren now. But I carefully put it in a new bag to protect it–I will finish this baby one day!
Should you head South anytime soon, The Needle Lady in Charlottesville has not only amazing knitting yarns but a full bore needlepoint section. The wool fumes are powerful there!
Funny, July I must be needlepoint month. I picked up my endless needlepoint project a week ago. All the callous on my fingers is gone so I can only needlepoint until the pain becomes too much, but I would like to get the darn thing done. I bought a new needlepoint canvas at the Quarter Stitch when Jim and I took a 30th Anniversary trip to NO two years ago and I haven’t even opened it. Must finish one before I begin a new one–a concept which has NEVER translated to my knitting!
I love the Quarter Stitch in New Orleans! They have the most beautiful hand painted canvases! I, too, picked up a small needlepoint project when I visited there 3 years ago. I have yet to begin it, but it will be a good refresher to get back into the craft. And then maybe I will move on to finish some of those ufo’s marinating in a cedar chest!
Ah needlepoint – it is always my summer sport. I have completed many projects, but it is the actual finishing that stops me from having fully finished projects. Love the no-brainer part of needlepoint – perfect for the beach, car etc. of course there is still knitting worked on so that they may be worn this winter. I love when my sweaters smell like suntan lotion.
I don’t have a needlepoint, but I pulled out a cross stitch from the stash. I can stitch with one arm pinned under a sleeping baby. When both arms are free, it’s knitting (I just finished the baby’s Christmas stocking. She won’t know she didn’t have it for her first Christmas, right?)
No, it’s not a rookie mistake. It’s a conscious decision to produce a more durable piece of needlepoint capable of standing up to generations of use. 🙂
True!
We are supposed to finish our needlepoint?! I’m still working on a huge pillow from 1997 with another one almost finished from the 1980’s. Two more Erhmann kits in the waiting and there is one bag I’m afraid to open. Stitch on!
The colors in this remind me of my grandmother. And I mean that in a good way as she had a real talent for unusual and distinctive color mixing. Really lovely vintage look to this pillow.
I haven’t done needlepoint in years. In my senior year of high school, I made pocket money by painting needlepoint canvases for kits. They even let me design a few. I could do it at home, at my own speed because they paid me by the canvas. An ideal job for a student. Its probably done differently now, and in other countries.
You’re scaring me. I have never done any needlepoint, but I fell for the Charlie Harper canvases at Purl Soho, hard, and bought two. They are carefully rolled up on the top shelf of the crafts bookcase, and I really want them, so maybe someday I will buy the yarn, too.
Also, I recognize that book! It’s a desert island book, for inspiration, if nothing else.
beautiful – i have this book — you are brave to take on one of their projects! i love needlepoint too and it seems I do finish some, but can’t seem to get it blocked & made into the pillow –hmmmm maybe a good summer project!
My grandmother needlepointed an entire set of chair backs and seats. And Christmas ornaments.
It was my first love after sewing and how I fell in love with Kaffe. I did do one pillow from his book.
It can be done – I finished two (my only two) needlepoint projects over a period of five years, off and on. Then I paid the bucks to have a professional take those 16″ squares and turn them into gorgeous, firmly-stuffed couch pillows. I could NEVER in a hundred years have finished them so beautifully. Paying someone else to finish the work makes needlepoint an expensive hobby, however. Then again, I hear that some knitters pay people to finish their projects, so . . . you pays yer money and you takes yer choice?
Oh, you’re not nearly old enough to have finished your needlepoint! My first job, at 15, was in a knit, embroidery, and needlepoint shop. The owner had exquisite taste, and we had wonderful needlepoint from Europe in the shop. When I was 16 I bought a petit point purse canvas that had been marked down to $12.00 – a hand painted canvas from Austria, 20 sts to the inch, worked in 3 strands of cotton floss. Except I didn’t realize that and have a few inches that were worked with 6 strands. I just finished the bag last fall – right at my 62nd birthday – 46 years- not bad! I also pulled out a canvas I worked from a chart in McCalls Needlework magazine in the 80’s (?) – an enormous rooster and hen, quite lifelike. I had the sense at the time to buy enough black wool to complete the background, so I’ve been chugging away at that for months. I think I’m about 1/3 done on the background. So maybe by the time I’m 70 it will be done. I really need to get that purse professionally finished.
That needlepoint book by Kaffe Fassett is an old favorite of mine. Kits readily available. Just sayin’.
Oh the stress of setting up for a trip when you’re at the end of a project or have nothing mindless to work on! I just hope the needlepoint doesn’t make you car sick as you may have to look at it to locate the little holes. When I went through an intense needlepoint spree many decades ago (working from charts—anyone remember Maggie Lane?) , the cost of professional finishing in NYC was unimaginable to me, but my mother sent my pieces, including a rug, to some probably long-gone car-seat repair place in Savannah and they did the job. I’m frequently surprised to discover more recent finished canvases stashed around the house and amazed that after all that work, I’d completely forgotten about them. I have the Bloomsbury book, but won’t let myself start anything until I finally repair my favorite needlepoint chair partially eaten (back, arms, and seat) by a puppy who lived a very long life and died three years ago. I just brought the chair back from the country as a possible spur to action and it is staring at me reproachfully as I write this. It’s just so hard to stop knitting.
Oh, if only I could do that. I have a rug hooking project that has been in hibernation for 8-10 yrs now. I got back into knitting and you’d think there was nothing else! Maybe soon.
Summer is made for needlepoint or crewel work and that project is so prettty it makes me want to jump in the car and go to 12th South and cheat on my summer needlework. Seriously.
I am a Needlepointed and a Knitter. Hard to find time to do both, but I try. I have multiple projects in both stashes! It’s all about the yarn/threads, their color and texture, the fun different stitches. Both crafts make me happy!
Your project is beautiful & I have enjoyed watching your progress. I have loved needlepoint since I first saw it pictured in Carole King’s Tapestry album. Over the years I have done several projects & they have brought much enjoyment. Good luck on your project!
I like knitting, embroidery, sewing, and quilting but I love me some needlepoint. I have an embarrassment of canvases stashed and stitched. Also more importantly, thank you for this blog. I lost one of my cats to lymphoma yesterday and while reading your post and all the comments temporarily made me forget how sad I am feeling.
I have, in fact, completed a couple needlepoint projects. But many many more linger in a netherworld. I’m interested in the frameless stitching, that’s part of what keeps mine lingering & not so portable.
As long as everyone is shouting out shops in VT I’ll mention Green Mountain Spinnery in Putney, Nido in Burlington for yarny fixes & Delectable Mountain in Brattleboro for amazing fabrics & delectable (harhar) buttons.
I spent my weekend hooking a rug! It was too hot for wool at mine. It still felt like cheating.
This is the most beautiful needlepoint design I have ever seen. I see that you show it in a book. Or at least I think I see this. Is it a kit or did you make it yourself. Please tell me how I can do this too. And, if your driver is free.
Oh yes, needlepoint does get finished, but not quickly. I’ve just started #7 of an 8-piece set of chair seats. We sit on six of the finished ones; maybe I’ll finish the last two before I die, if I can ever stop knitting long enough! For about 23 years I attended a week-long convention that gave me huge blocks of time during plenary sessions to get lots of needlepointing done; my friends could always find the seat I had used by the many bits of colored yarn all over the floor.