The bloomin' thing

I have had one thought and one thought only that colors every single thing that I see and do lately. I think about it day and night and the only reason I haven't dreamt about it is because I'm pretty sure I'm not getting enough sleep to actually dream.

Comps.

I made an attempt at studying for the oral comps by going over the questions from the written exam and I got through a significant chunk before the avoidance began. There's nothing like an impending huge test of knowledge to spur on new projects and encourage me to work on the WIPs.

This is the second pink star hanky I've done in a row. It's not so much that I like pink or stars, but rather that I happen to have a lot of pink thread. I don't particularly care for it, so I tend to work with all the colors that aren't pink, thus leaving great amounts of the stuff in my collection of thread. I'm hoping to remedy the situation by using up what I have so that I can populate my collection of threads with colors that are useful and make me happy.

Here is an example of some of my older work that I came across at Kade's house. The threads are pulled too tight, the edging is machine done, and the design is too close to the edge, but even with its flaws, it's not a bad example of embroidery. I'm just better at it now than I was then. I gave this to Kade's sister years ago and it was found amongst her things only recently.

I hope that those of you out in the world who have some of my embroidery use it. Otherwise, what's the point of having it? This one didn't look like it had been used much, which is a little bit of a disappointment, but I'm glad to have it again.

I've made good progress on the Medieval Pouch as well and am approaching cast-off. I made some errors in the number of stitches to cast on and I'm going to have to block the daylights out of it, but I think it will be a fine thank-you to the lovely lady that passed on the llama. I'll have to line it, but that's no big deal.

You can see where I added spots to the cats and made them leopards. They are far more fearsome that way and reduce the long-ass floats somewhat. 

I even made progress on the Circle socks. I'm still on sock #1, but I'm nearly done with the gusset and the rest of the sock is plain, so it should go pretty quickly from here on.

The savvy among you will recognize these bricks. I stole your sock picture setting, Kade. I hope you don't mind.

(She doesn't mind. She likes it.)

I must bestow upon her many thanks, not only for the use of her front stoop, but for this weekend's whiskey therapy, for the strawberries and cookies she brought me from the farmer's market, and for going shopping with me. What would I do without you?

And now I must abed, but before I go, I shall leave you with one last gratuitous Iris picture. No pics of the girl this week. She's taking standardized tests this week and I know she's going to do great, but I'm wishing her good luck anyway.