I have been trying to finish pieces and I have two completed pieces to share.  The first is a small bargello box.  This was the September meeting topic for the Lake Michigan Sampler Guild.  I started the piece in the meeting and finished it Sunday evening at home.  I had a choice of colors but picked purple so I could give it to my daughter.

The second finish is Eve by Lori Markovic of La-D-Da.  I used Needlepoint Silk on a piece of 40 count linen.  The colors are beautiful on the green background.  I love samplers with Adam and Eve on them or depictions of the Garden of Eden.  This Eve and Eden remind me of C.S. Lewis's descriptions of Venus in his book Perelandra rather than a Biblical description of Eden.

Finished needlepoint

I finished my Mad Miters piece yesterday.  I learned quite a bit from this on-line class presented by Liz Morrow through Cyberpointers.  I would like to stitch another Mad Miters piece but I think I will chart the next one out more carefully and use brighter colors.

I have continued to finish older pieces.  Here are three variations of Orna Willis's piece Making Memories from the ANG Seminar in Milwaukee, WI.  I finished them two different ways -- as an insert on a book cover and as a pendant -- in two different colorways.

2012 Chicago Yarn Crawl and some bargello

This year, I participated in the Chicago Yarn Crawl.  I visited 5 knitting stores:  I'd Rather Be Knitting and Knit Happens in Buffalo Grove, Mosaic in Des Plaines, Fuzzy Wuzzy in Arlington Heights, and Three Bags Full in Northbrook.  I would have stopped in at Gene Ann's Yarns in Barrington, but I did not plan that portion of my trip well enough and arrived after she had closed.   It was fun to see the different types of knitted models in the different shops and to look at all of the yarn.   I bought yarn for three shawls in varying weights and for two pairs of socks or more lace shawl knitting.  I also bought some more small stitch markers to use on lace projects and some new cable needles to replace the ones that have disappeared.  Friday, I also went to Stitches Midwest and looked around the Marketplace.  I some beautiful sweater kits and lots of yarn by independent dyers.  I took my Afternoon Tea Shawl to the Zen Yarn Garden booth to show off what I had made out of their yarn.

I have also been doing needlepoint and have been working on Liz Morrow's Mad Miters.   I decided that I did not want to have to lay threads in this project.  To select the colors, I started with a skein of Caron Collection Watercolors in Bark and selected Silk and Ivory shades that would compliment the colors in the Watercolors.  The instructions recommend using a metallic accent color but I am very happy with the plum Silk and Ivory.