I love Secret Needle Night kits from The Silver Needle. The designs are simple, but the variety of threads are amazing. I have learned to use threads in my cross stitch - threads that I thought were so pretty but had no idea what to do with them. As I stitch through my SNN kits, I'm learning to look at threads and fabrics in a whole new way.
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| Finished 12-20-2024 |
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| Close-up of silver threads running through the fabric |
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| Side-view to show texture |
I didn't have a lot of finishes for the year and didn't meet my goal, but life... These are my knitting finishes for the year:
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| MineCraft Socks designed by Heather Cox |
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| Jeck designed by Regina Satta |
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| Bonny Bunny Bag designed by Claire Slade |
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| Furball's New Year 2025 designed by Tabby & Moo Moo |
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| Iowa Crew/Cruise Socks designed by Carol A. Anderson |
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| Helix 101 designed by Cynthia Spencer |
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| Socks for Peter KroySock Yarn designed by Paula Kralick |
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| Mint Chocolate Chip Socks No pattern used |
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| Steaming Mug Dishcloth desgned by Emily Jagos |
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| Towel and Topped with no border designed by Glenda Winkleman |
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| Oval Placemat designed by Hila Lifshitz |
I don't know why I love The Silver Needle Secret Needle Night kits so much, but I do. It saddened me when I received the notice that the kits had increased in price and I had to make the hard choice not to renew my subscription to them next year. It's not like I don't have anything to work on, but these kits are so much fun to work on. I do have a back-log to stitch, so maybe after they are all done, I'll do another year subscription for 2026. Time will tell.
Currently, I am working on a discontinued Secret Needle Night kit that I found on eBay from November of 2000. It is called "Joyful Holiday". The fabric is 10ct. white/silver Tila. There is a variety of threads: Daisies wool, size 5 perle cotton, Medici wool, Cashmere wool,Splendor silk, Artic Rays, Fyrewerks and Treasure Braid metallic. There are also bugle and large red beads (my guess is pebble beads).
I need to finish the wreath, add lettering, highlights to the bow and the beads.
December 31st is my last day to purchase any kits or patterns. Starting January 1, 2025, I will not be buying any cross stitch items except for what is needed to work on my stash. I will only be allowed toSil buy needed threads and fabric. My Secret Needle Night subscription ends this month which makes me a bit sad, but the price has increased and I really don't need any more of them to stitch. I found some of the discontinued kits on eBay and have added a few of them to my collection. I'll need to get all of them stitched before I consider purchasing any more in '26.
I love Dimensions kits and did buy a few over the Black Friday, Black Monday and the Christmas sales. I wanted to show off my new purchases, as I think they are awesome (IMHO).
These ones have been received:
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| A Kiss for Snoman |
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| Joy Ride |
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| Napping Kitten |
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| In the Shadows |
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| Wise Owl |
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| Scenic Farm |
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| Napping Kitten |
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| City & Cats - Summer |
It's been a long while since my last post. Life quite got in the way with starting seedlings and planning a garden to working the garden and weeding and weeding and weeding. I'd like to say that all that work panned out well, but it didn't. The lack of rain, the bugs, birds, squirrels and chipmunks, deer and the dang ground hog left very little to harvest. This has probably been the worst year for getting much out of the garden. It seemed like I worked to feed the wildlife.
Then there was the saga of the missing bell peppers - a mystery for sure. I was out the day before and there were quite a few that were nice and big and ready to be picked. I didn't want to get them then, since I thought the freshest bells would be the best for making stuffed peppers the next day. Well, I got everything around for making them, went out to the garden to pick them and they were ALL GONE! I mean ALL of them!!! I posted to my local homestead list and everyone there insisted it had to be human that would have stripped the plants like that. I don't know - but it is strange.
Our daughter came to visit for 8 days and went home on the 4th of July. It was so nice to see her, as we haven't seen her for 3 years. Way too long, but it's life. The visit was too short and we traveled around the state with her so that she could do something new and fun. She had a list of things she wanted to see. Unfortunately we didn't have enough time. Next time...
We also added a new addition to the family. A sweet 4 week old kitten appeared on our back patio with 2 siblings. No idea where they came from, but we couldn't catch them. That night, one was killed and the next, the other disappeared. We finally caught the last one and she's been with us ever since. She's a sweetheart. The vet gave her the age of 4 weeks when we took her in the same day we caught her. She was definitely small and needed bottle fed. She had blue eyes when we caught her, but they changed the next day. The vet was surprised to find she had no parasites, fleas or ear mites, leading him to believe someone dropped them off. Sad. She weighed just under a pound then. Now, she's 7 months old and a ball of energy!
Not much was done over the year for cross stitch or knitting. I was so busy with that stuff and trying to put up small batches of what we did get out of the garden, that I had no real time to do anything else. Ah well, there's always next year.
Speaking of next year, I've decided to join WIPocalypse and WIPGO next year and focus on my oldest started projects. I actually have one back from the 90's that really needs worked on. So many old ones that I loved at one time and have decided to either finish them or pull them from my pile. I'll be posting more about that in the near future.
