Tu-whooo!  Tu-whooo!



Here's a fresh-off-the-hoop view of tonight's hardanger project, a slightly modified version of this pattern.  This took two evenings.

I'm having so much fun.

And then there were two!



New one on the left, with woven bars, dove's eyes, picots, and a spiderweb.



So fun!  I just love making these. 

The fabric I'm using is a piece that's been in my stash for quite a while.  As I work, I occasionally come across a fine strand of fur from Cobalt, our dog who died in 2008.  These little bits of her undercoat keep getting sewn into my work, and it's annoying in a very bittersweet way.

Hardanger, and thoughts on scissors.

I have several windows in my new house that need cafe curtains for a little more privacy without blocking the light, and I have a grand plan to make them.  At least a couple of them will be hardanger, because I love the look of that type of embroidery.  Hardanger curtains in my bedroom will make me very happy every morning and evening.

I haven't done any hardanger in a while, so to get back in the swing of it I stitched up a little ornament topper last night.  (I also had a lovely hour or so pulling out all my pattern books and browsing through them.  Moving and shifting and unpacking and arranging is like Christmas!  I get to see all my stuff again!)

Anyway, this is just a very basic design with woven bars and dove's eyes as the filling stitches, and it only took about three hours from start to finish.  I had almost forgotten just how much I enjoy hardanger.  It's so relaxing and orderly, and the end result is so pleasing.

I started with a frame of kloster blocks (groups of satin stitches).



Then I put an eyelet inside each group of blocks:



Then I very carefully cut out groups of four threads from the base fabric, leaving a skeleton that will be needlewoven and embellished.



Then I did the woven bars and dove's eyes. And voila, a finished ornament top, ready to be cut out and stitched to lining and backing fabrics, stuffed, and cording applied around the edge to hang it.  It made for a very pleasant evening.


When I first taught myself hardanger, the most nerve-wracking part was cutting and removing the threads.  Cutting!  The Threads!  Of the Fabric!

But really it's not that big of a deal, and almost any mistake can be fixed.  You just go slowly and deliberately, and double check before you snip.  And don't cut when you're tired.

What helps immensely is having a really really really really really sharp pair of scissors with skinny points. After using my regular small sewing scissors for my first hardanger piece, I went and bought myself a good pair of fine-tipped embroidery scissors.

I got a pair of Tres Claveles 2.75" scissors, in the silver finish.



It was 1999, Shaun was in his PhD course and I had recently gotten a "real job" that paid enough for us to actually live on, and buying these felt like an enormous splurge.  If I recall correctly, they were $40.

I love these scissors, and have used them for many, many projects.  They are incredibly sharp, and even the very tiniest bit of the tip will cut.  Because the blades are so short, I have fantastic leverage and precise control.  I can cut one thread at a time out of the fabric.  Actually, I could cut half a thread if I wanted to! Plus, they make a very satisfying "snick" when they close.  My only gripe with these is that the finger holes are maybe a smidge too small, but it's not a big deal since they're designed to only use the tips of your fingers.

When I hatched the plan for the hardanger curtains, I ordered some fabric online.  While I was doing that, a pair of scissors somehow jumped into my cart and stayed there through checkout.  This is a pair of Dovo 4", in the black satin finish.  This pair cost me $57, which feels like a splurge as much now as it did in 1999, considering this is a pair of small scissors.  However, I have never minded paying for very high quality, and like the other pair, these will last a lifetime.



I have never seen a pair of scissors with blades this narrow at the tip.  They feel great in my hand, the finger holes are nice and large, they are very sharp and solid, and they also make that great "snick" when they close.  My only gripe with these is that cutting one thread with the very tip of the blades isn't as solid-feeling as with the smaller pair.  This is just a function of having longer blades and therefore less leverage.

What these scissors do very well, though, is slide under the whole group of four threads and then... snick, cut them all at once. My little scissors don't have blades this narrow, and with them it's just easier to cut the threads one at a time.  This is a different sort of precision, and I like it.

Both scissors are very high quality, are useful for different tasks, and I will happily use both.

I'm convinced that there is some sort of time-sucking vortex that happens every year in November and December. Suddenly here we are three days from Christmas, my dad arrives this afternoon for a week's visit, I haven't cleaned the bathroom yet, and my box of presents somehow never got mailed to Philadelphia. 

How does that happen? Granted, this year was more chaotic than normal because of moving, but still... I do remember Thanksgiving, but most of the past month and a half is a complete blur. I seriously feel like there's a couple weeks that went missing somewhere in there. 

Can I please just say...

New mattress.

Memory foam.

Awesome sleep.

Should have done it ages ago.

The difference in the restfulness of my sleep is unbelievable. My back doesn't hurt.  My hands don't go numb from sleeping on my side.  It is SO AMAZINGLY AWESOME!

I didn't really realize just how uncomfortable my old mattress was until I got the new one.

Because I am thoroughly a geek, I even have Visual Displays and Science(ish) Data to back this up.  I have a dynamic alarm clock app on my phone, which uses the phone's accelerometer to monitor my movements and wake me up when I'm in a light sleep phase during the half-hour period before the set alarm time. I've tested it with the new mattress, because I thought maybe the foam would prevent it from picking up my movements as well, but it still catches the slightest shift.

Here are a few graphs of my sleep pattern on the old mattress.  I picked out some of the better ones - these are nights in late November, after I moved into the new house, when I felt like I got a good night's sleep.



Note that the peaks and valleys are extreme, I completely woke up multiple times a night, and rarely went fully into what the app considers "Deep Sleep".  This tells me I was very restless.

Now here's one on the new mattress:

Granted, this was a Friday night, so I slept about an hour longer than on a weekday. Even so...smaller peaks, deeper sleep, and I only completely woke up once.

My "sleep quality" score, which is a combination of length of time in bed and amount of movement (using some mysterious formula),  has been consistently 95-100% since getting the new mattress.  On the old mattress I considered anything above 85% a triumph, and the average was in the low 70s.

I know this isn't very scientific, but it's pretty cool and there's a definite visual difference in the graphs starting when I got the new mattress.  More importantly, I can tell the difference in how I feel in the morning and function during the day.

I have done so many new things over the past month or so, things I have never EVER done before:

• I purchased my very own house. It is my house and I own it and it is mine (and the bank's). 
• I made my first solo mortgage payment. One down, 359 to go. 
• I used a post hole digger and installed a mailbox. 
• I installed a clothes rod in a closet. 
• I used a high-pressure hose attachment to clean out a slow-draining laundry sink.
• I hung pictures from a picture rail. 
• I changed the water filter in a refrigerator. 
• I reversed the direction on a light switch so that up is on and down is off. 
• I read up on how to prune grape vines. 
• I purchased a wheelbarrow.
• I purchased a ladder.
• I purchased a clothes dryer.
• I reversed the door on a clothes dryer, so it opens the right way in relation to the adjacent washing machine.
• I purchased a new mattress for Emma, to fit her full-size-bed alcove. 
• I purchased a new mattress for myself, to replace the lumpy, cheap, 19-year-old one that my ex-husband bought when he was a grad student. Slept better than I have in YEARS.
• I finished purchasing a high quality musical instrument, by making a lump-sum payment for the outstanding balance so as to avoid the interest and so it wouldn't drag out over the next two years.
• I listened in wonder as Emma joyfully and confidently progressed from squeaky first notes to learning to play actual songs on her paid-off flute.
• I read up on how to strip paint off woodwork.
• I raked leaves in my own front yard. 
• I sat on my front porch and watched it snow.
• I felt like I truly have my own space, a refuge, a place that I belong.

I'm not going to kid you, it was a breathtakingly expensive month.  My bank account is leaner, but my heart is very full.

I made these little hand-stitched felt penguin ornaments to add to the Christmas tree at my office.

I melt from the cuteness. They were so much fun to make! I might have to get some felt and make a couple for my own tree.