Shelter in Place: Day 70

On May 25, 2020 By FogKnitsIn Shameless Self-Promotion, cross stitch2 Comments

Shelter in Place: Day 70, Happy Memorial Day!

There’s plenty of knitting going on, you’ll have to wait to see it though! Today, it’s all about the cross stitch! In the age of pandemic, instant gratification is king. I love getting that hit of accomplishment and I want more. Cue the cross stitch parade…

finished cross stitch snarky cross stitch funny bathroom art sfetsy fogknits

100 that bitch lizzo cross stitch mini cross stitch fogknits fan art

wash your damn hands cross stitch mini hoop art finished cross stitch quarantine collection sfetsy

finished cross stitch hoop art sfetsy fogknits modern cross stitch lebowski dude abides

stay the fuck home cross stitch quarantine hoop art finished cross stitch modern cross stitch

one is the lonelist cross stitch toilet paper shortage covid 2020 sfetsy handmade

wash your damn hands hoop art cross stitch finished snarky fogknits sfetsy

I’ve been keeping busy! :) So much instant gratification! It’s the best fix for when the Covid blues rears it’s ugly head!

Not only have I updated my Cross Stitch Gallery page, but my Etsy Shop is stocked and ready to ship! Check it out! And if you’ve got an idea, leave me a comment…Maybe I’ll stitch it up! Inspiration is everywhere!

Shelter in Place: Day 43

On April 28, 2020April 28, 2020 By FogKnitsIn Sweater, WIP3 Comments

Shelter in Place: Day 43

I’m finally getting around to working on my sweater sleeves! Woohoo! Sleeve one is nearly done!

The Bay Area shelter in place order has been extended through May. It’s safe to say, I’ll have this finished before then! Maybe even time time to start another sweater…time to start thinking about it.

Of course, it’s likely I’ll get distracted. Still making ‘Wash Your Damn Hands’ for Etsy, pizza for my nephew and I’m attempting to make a felt patch too! I’ve got all sorts of odd ball felt scraps. I couldn’t possibly throw them away. So many fun distractions. A month left to work on them all. I’m really motivated to get stuff done…right after a quick nap!

Hope you guys are hanging in there and making the most of this continued quarantine! :)

Artist in Residency

On October 30, 2018October 30, 2018 By FogKnitsIn Misc3 Comments

This week, I’m the Artist-in-Residency at a lovely, quiet retreat in the sunny hills of Santa Clara. Aka, cat sitting out in the burbs. We started our time together with an afternoon photo shoot. The boys cooperated…at least for a few minutes.

They’re friendly kitties so I had a shadow all afternoon. Like when I scoped out the chainlink fence as a potential cross stitch photo spot.

I got a late start so I missed the best light but this was a good practice run. I’m always looking for new places to take Etsy photos. A backyard with a bunch of random stuff in it, is a treasure trove of spots, just waiting to be discovered. Like the random carpet or this great wall…

In the city, we’d call this a park!

Maybe the ‘burbs aren’t so bad! I mean, how can I be mad when I’ve got a driveway to use all week!? It’s been decades since I’ve known that feeling! Woooo!

New Cross Stitch Gallery

On September 15, 2018September 15, 2018 By FogKnitsIn cross stitch2 Comments

When it was suggested that I have a page with all my cross stitching on it, I agreed it was a good idea! And now, here it is finally…

FogKnits Cross Stitch Gallery

You can also find a gallery link at the top of the homepage. In the gallery, there’s individual pics of each hoop and notes on where the designs came from. It’s a work in progress but I’ll keep adding to it. Turns out there’s a lot of cross stitching that hasn’t made it onto the blog, yet.

These two for example,

A search for Parks & Rec found this one

Found the font online, there are many Little Prince hits in a google search

Sent off as a housewarming gift. Leslie Knope approves, obviously.

The second hoop, started when I was messing with beads a couple weeks ago. The beads were the first element in place. I picked a song lyric to match the stars. I wouldn’t pick Coldplay intentionally. I rather dislike them but the sentiment matched the star beads. I picked a pretty font and a pretty color for no reason other than I liked them. I really hated those beads though. They were dreadful and tacky. I just couldn’t.

Once I got rid of the beads, I was left with a font that just screamed Little Prince to me. I didn’t have room for him but I did manage a lovely replica of his asteroid, B-612. That’s about as artsy fartsy as I get. Despite my intense dislike of Coldplay, I’m really pleased with how it turned out.

Then there’s stuff like this…

Found Calvin & Hobbes online, modified them some, added the text

I love these kinds of blackwork fill patterns, they’re a lot more work than I expected.

Continuing experiment in rainbows and no count motifs.

You can see where all my knitting time has gone :) I’ve been doing a lot of cross stitch this summer. And I’ve got pages and pages and pages of notes with more ideas! It’s just so fun…I can’t stop. I’ve got plenty more to add to the gallery but I’m off to a good start!

And, many of these hoops aren’t for my permanent collection. Check out my Etsy shop to see what’s currently available to purchase! FogKnits on Etsy

Cross Stitch Wednesday

On August 22, 2018August 22, 2018 By FogKnitsIn cross stitch5 Comments

Search for cross stitch baby bibs to find this one. It’s a set of 4 or 5 bibs.

I made a fun amazon discovery over the weekend…cross stitch baby bibs! Of course, I had to try them out! Yay for 2 day delivery! The first one is done already. I wasted no time with it!

I’m not sure how useful it’ll be but it’s pretty stinkin’ cute. Interestingly, I ordered two of the same item, blank cotton aida bibs but received two different items. One polyester bib, one cotton bib. It seemed like too much of a hassle to correct, so I just went with it.

I don’t like the polyester at all though. It’s weird to stitch, floppy and loose, even in a hoop and I question it’s bib-ness. The cotton is sure to be better, for stitching and for catching baby messes. I’ve got an idea. I just need to spend some time with a bit of graph paper!

My other stitching this week was a bit of commentary on television.

This was an example of charting the text and just seeing what happened with a geometric pattern.

I wanted an excuse to stitch this cute little tv. This seemed like the obvious direction to go.

And then, I went a little crazy. It’s a pinterest fail and a glitter bomb all wrapped into one. After seeing some really cool embroidered tulle pieces, I thought…of course I can cross stitch on tulle! and of course, when presented with tulle or glitter tulle…the answer is glitter.

I’m worse than a raccoon stuck in a trap by nothing more than a shiny bit of metal. (Where the Red Fern Grows, amirite?) I know glitter is bad. In fact, I’m a glitter hater. I’ve never liked glitter. It’s bad for the environment. It gets everywhere. No good can come of releasing glitter in my own home. Somehow though, I still walked out of that store with glitter tulle. WTF? I don’t know what I was thinking.

I deserve the mess it made. No amount of vacuuming has helped. It’s everywhere. It, literally, exploded when I unwrapped the spool it came on. I had the vacuum out instantly but it was no use. It’s on my hands. It’s in my hair. It’s waaaaaay in the back of my desk drawer already. It’s all over my clothes. It’s definitely been spread around my bed. That’ll teach me to control my craft store impulses. (hopefully)

At least, the cross stitch was a bust. Tulle and the technique needed for see through work is really much better suited to embroidery and I’m just not having it.

NOPE! I don’t want to embroider and you can’t make me. So, it’s back to standard aida for me. I’m gonna play around with some more beading. That could be fun (and far neater than glitter!)

Making It

On July 31, 2018July 31, 2018 By FogKnitsIn cross stitch10 Comments

It’s finally July 31st! I’ve been waiting for today since March! That’s when I first shared the trailer with you, for Making It! The new craft competition show hosted by Nick Offerman and Amy Poehler. Tonight, Making It makes it’s debut! Woo! I have to wait until it’s streaming online but for you TV types, you can watch it tonight at 10 pm!

Just thinking about it, has got my creative juices flowing. Along with the looming threat of getting a job, it’s super motivating. I’m making progress in all sorts of crafty pursuits.

I’ve been watching Parks & Rec while I patiently wait for Making It. I’d never watched the show before. I love it. It’s comedy gold. Ron Swanson is just the best! (That’s Nick Offerman’s character, if you don’t know.) He’s inspired me to change the cross stitch design on my phone case. It used to say ‘don’t be a prick’, with a cactus. You can still see the outline a bit. I’m just gonna go right over it.

My new Ron Swanson themed phone case is going to say ‘clear alcohols are for rich women on diets’ :) I can’t upgrade my phone yet but I can definitely upgrade my case! It’s gonna be so fun!

In other cross stitch news (don’t worry, there’s knitting news too!), I’ve got an ode to the Violent Femmes’ Blister in the Sun nearly finished. From original concept to execution, you can see it changed a bit.

Violent Femmes. Especially happy with the shading of the sun.

I really wanted to capture the blistering quality of the sun.

Ultimately though, I couldn’t get the colors right, so the oranges and reds got cut. It turned into a study in yellows. After a sunflower phase, two decades ago, I’ve got every shade of yellow embroidery floss imaginable. Good thing because I’m really happy with this result. Now to come up with some more sun song lyrics…Here Comes the Sun (Beatles), Sunshine Daydream (Grateful Dead) and millions more…feel free to remind me of your favorite sunny day lyrics. I’m bound to be missing lots…

The pop culture train continues with this next little project. I had a few scraps of aida cloth. Google told me people make bookmarks with their scraps. Easy enough.

Baby got book, alright! lolololol! Seriously, no one should laugh at themselves this much. I just can’t help it. This joke is getting serious mileage with me.

Anyone who knows Becky, can probably guess what comes next in the series…I like big books and I cannot lie! bwahahahahah. For those not in the know, it’s a play on the song Baby Got Back by Sir Mix-A-Lot. Replace ‘book’ with ‘butt’ and you’ve got the original song. It’s the pun that just keeps on giving. I’ll definitely be turning my future scraps into more bookmarks!

I was going to share some actual knitting content today, but I think you’ll have to wait until tomorrow! All this crafty talk has my fingers itching to Make It! :) I’ll let you know how much I love the new show too!

WIP Wednesday – All Cross Stitch Edition

On July 11, 2018July 11, 2018 By FogKnitsIn cross stitch, Uncategorized6 Comments

Happy Wednesday! It’s been a while. Hope everyone is enjoying the summer and staying cool. While much of the country has been having a heat wave, we’ve been enjoying really perfect weather here in San Francisco.

It’s pretty much always knitting weather here. There’s no summer break because it’s too hot to even think about wool. Despite that, I don’t have any progress to show. I am making progress though. It’s just that my WIPS have all grown to the point where progress is lost to the jumble of fabric crammed on the needles. Soon though, I’m sure to have a breakthrough and get something finished.

In the meantime, I’ve turned to cross stitch for my instant gratification fix. I love a project that only takes a couple hours. Song lyrics are perfect for that! From idea to execution to finishing in no time!

I’ve been watching the World Cup. Our regular knit night takes place in an English pub so when they opened for a 7 am game, I had to go. That was the inspiration for this piece…

and once I’ve got a taste of instant gratification, I want more. These two came in rapid succession, as well.

My lettuce looks more like a pea, but he’s happy about it so I can’t be mad at him. I’m contemplating an upgrade for him, though. In the meantime, I’ve got a jellyfish going on.

His shading is so perfect. I’ve finally found the ideal use for the variegated thread I’ve got. I love him so far! He’ll be joining his friends on the wall soon.

It’s getting crowded…definitely making it’s way to full quickly! I’ve still got a plenty of ideas left!