Tattoos of memories

It is so hard to think of Christmas when the weather is so hot. But, if I want to get Santa’s Journey Stocking done for Christmas this year, then I have to keep at it.



So much brown. I’m nearly done the trim on the coat, though. Then I get to move on to very exciting… beige! Wheee! Ah, but it will look nice when it is done.

Finally, about two years after I started it, Lizzie*Kate’s Peace, Love and a Cure is finally done!



I stitched it on white 28 count linen of some sort. (I’m really bad about labelling things, or taking good notes.) I decided to use the DMC conversion for it since, let’s be honest, I can be cheap. And, I am really pleased with the outcome.



It will most likely be sewn into a shopping bag using the fabrics above. If you have the pattern, you may have noticed that the fabric on the left is the same one shown on the cover. I looked everywhere for it, and ended up finding it somewhere nearby.

Somehow, finishing this gives me a bit more peace. While I worked on it a friend’s sister died of breast cancer and, as I mentioned before, a family member dealt with and overcame another type of cancer. It is silly, I know, but I feel like there is a bit more closure now.

I love to stitch, and I love Mill Hill kits. So, of course I had to stitch this:



I like the design, and it was interesting stitching with Sullivan’s floss. But, I’m pretty sure now that I wouldn’t go out of my way to stitch with Sullivan’s again. Will I avoid Mill Hill kits because of it? No, I don’t think so.

I think my main issue with Sullivan’s is that is very sewing thread-like. By that I mean it is tightly twisted and doesn’t feel as soft as DMC. It also seems to tangle and twist more easily, but because it is so tightly twisted to begin with, it is a bit easier to unknot it. Ultimately, my experience just confirms that DMC is my cotton floss of choice.

I hope the Easter Bunny was good to you! Caden Bryce, Regan, Erin and I were all very spoiled.

Although because of Caden Bryce's peanut allergy, the Easter Bunny goes very light on the chocolate for him, and a bit heavy on the Lego and books. 😉

Regan, Erin and I also received books (and some alcohol - naughty Easter Bunny!), but we definitely got our fair share of chocolate too!

Also known as 'Jade Rachel starts that 30 day meme that's doing the rounds' because it looks interesting, and who doesn't like talking about themselves?
haha

I've also added a few people from a recent friending meme and this seems like a good way to introduce them to me, my life and my journal



Some basic things about myself?

My name is Jade Rachel, I'm 37, I'm Welsh and I live in London with my wife imagineireann and my children reganoutloud and Caden Bryce.

If I throw out a bunch of random adjectives: Scorpio, snake, black-haired, green-eyed, tattooed, pierced, mother, daughter, sister, aunt, wife, widow, lesbian, wiccan, hippy, geek, goth, ravenclaw.

I love life. I love sex. I'm a Dominant and have a submissive named c - although, I don't talk about her a lot.

My favourite music is Green Day, Enigma, Enya.
My favourite movies are Dirty Dancing, Top Gun and Lord Of The Rings

I'm quite crafty and enjoy cross-stitch and knitting. I love to draw and take photos. I'm an avid reader of fantasy, horror and science-fiction. I read tarot. I'm fascinated by Ancient Egypt.

Sadly, I also cannot promise that I blog about a lot - or any - of this. But it gives you a quick overview of who I am and what I like :)

So, according to my doctor and an ultrasound, there is nothing at all wrong with my arm/elbow/shoulder. Imagine a giant eye roll here. I have the worst luck with medical tests. I could be bleeding out of my eye balls and the bleeding-out-of-your-eye-balls test would still come back negative. It is enough to make me want to give up on doctors completely!

Anyway, no more ranting. 😉 I’m happy, healthy-ish, and stitching. I don’t need much more in life to make me happy. And speaking of stitching, I’ve made some progress on Santa’s Journey.



He looks so much better now that I’ve back stitched his face. I do have a love/hate relationship with the back stitching in Dimensions’ designs, but the finished result generally does look good. (I changed his eyes to green because there isn’t enough of us green-eyed people in the world!)

February just seems to drag on and on, doesn’t it? Have you ever thought that it would be a nice idea to switch Valentine’s Day and Christmas? Wouldn’t a nice turkey dinner, some gifts, time with family, and a pretty Christmas tree be just the perfect things to perk up dreary February?

Speaking of Christmas, I’ve started a new project. Yeah, I know that I shouldn’t, but this one was planned for this year and isn’t an impulse start (seriously). It is Santa’s Journey from Dimensions, designed by Peggy Abrams. (If my mam is reading this right now, she just got really excited.)


I decided to stick with the aida that came in the kit. The last time I stitched a Dimensions stocking I did switch out the fabric for linen. But, my too-large fabric stash is actually really lacking in plain white linen. Hopefully I won’t regret my decision. 😉

I have two more Dimensions stocking kits to stitch after this one - one for Erin and one for my dad. I would like to get a fifth one for me, but nothing has caught my eye. Well, I would love to get my hands on the discontinued Windswept Santa kit but it is selling for a silly amount of money on eBay. I really don’t like it when things sell for so much more than their original price when they really aren’t special. :(

No, there isn’t another baby coming here. (The thought makes me want to faint!) I’ve knit another Baby Surprise Jacket, the classic pattern by knitting genius Elizabeth Zimmermann.

Here it is off the needles:
A big blob of a thing

And after a fold and seaming the shoulders, here is the finished jacket:
A sweet little baby sweater

Amazing, isn’t it? The style might not be to everyone’s taste, but the pattern is such genius. I honestly think that every knitter should make at least one, just to experience the crazy things you can do with knitting.

The yarn is Araucania Ulmo Multi in the enchantingly named colourway 709. It took about 320 yards, and I figure it is about a 6-9 month size, possibly bigger. I did the increases as yo,k1,yo just to be different. And the buttons are “Counting Sheep” from Dress It Up.

Buttons, garter stitch, and yarn over holes.

The pattern itself is available in several places. You can order the ABC Surprise Jacket (adult, baby, child) pattern directly from Schoolhouse Press for US$12+shipping (in my opinion this is the best version of the pattern since it has line by line directions rather than the “pithy” directions in the other sources). The pattern for just the baby version can be found in the books Opinionated Knitter and The Knitter’s Almanac, among other places.

Now that I’ve knit the Baby Surprise Jacket twice, I’m not sure I would knit it again. It is really cool to turn a knitted blob into a little sweater, but the miles of garter stitch are just plain boring! 😉

It seems to me that there are many people who would like to get involved with Tarot, either by giving or receiving readings, but they are unsure of how Tarot works. They suspect that there is some sort of contact with God, the Devil, spirits, or the like. These fears (or hopes) often lead these people to avoid using this valuable tool. But the mechanics of Tarot are much simpler and far deeper.

Tarot cards are nothing more than coloured ink on sheets of laminated cardboard. There is no magic present in the cards, and no spirit or divinity attached to them. Everything that is “magical” about the Tarot comes from the Reader and the Seeker. And by that I don’t mean that these two people cast a spell or call upon a god, rather that it is their intuition and observations that make the Tarot work.

The Reader is in control of the Tarot at all times. The Reader has bought the deck, chosen to use it in this particular reading (or given it as a choice for the Seeker to pick), and shuffled the cards (or directed the Seeker to do so). Every step is directed, all the way down to choosing the spread and placing the cards in the correct positions. The correct cards show up because the Reader has encouraged them to do so by believing that she or her Seeker can make this so.

This, of course, begs the question of how we can direct the correct cards to show up. It would be easy to dismiss it as magic. Rather, there is a theory that our minds are aware of everything that goes on, at a subconscious level. So it is likely that our mind is actually aware of each card as it passes through our hands while we shuffle. It is when the cards are laid down that our subconscious has a great deal of influence. It knows what issues that are bothering us just as well, or perhaps better, then our conscious mind. And it is able to help us interpret the cards before us in a way that will help us to solve our problems (or those of the Seeker, because, remember, our subconscious mind knows everything that is happening). The more we are in touch with our feelings and dreams, through our subconscious, the more accurate our Tarot readings will be.

There is another theory, which says that time is not linear and that our subconscious is aware of this. It is thought that our subconscious is able to understand the patterns of the future, if not outright predict it. Our subconscious then uses the images of the Tarot to help us by giving advice to direct our actions to maximize the possibility of a happy future.

Personally, I see the Tarot as a focus. I don’t know if my subconscious directs the cards or not. But I do know that I am often able to see something of my life in the images before me. They tend to remind me of events that I had forgotten about, or point to things that I didn’t realize were influencing the situation. I do believe that the subconscious has a role to play in readings, by reminding me of these events and connecting the archetypes of the Tarot to my life. I think that it is important to believe that the Tarot works through whatever method you are comfortable with, otherwise you will spend too much time doubting yourself and not enough time focusing on the message of the cards–the message from yourself to yourself.

Caden Bryce and I have spent the last couple of days home sick. He is just about back to his old self, and should be off to school this afternoon. I, on the other hand, am looking forward to a long nap.

I rarely stitch or knit or anything when I’m sick. Instead I read, watch a bit of TV, and sleep as much as I can. Mostly I sleep. 😉