Which is exactly what I’ve been doing for the last few days. The G on my Sajou sampler had me stumped so a break seemed sensible. I like to let these things roll around in my head a bit before I decide what to do. So I started the Umaro blanket (pattern by Brooklyn Tweed, see it on Ravelry) and have made some decent progress already.

And then the Terra shawl, also by Brooklyn Tweed. (He’s amazing.)

I blame this one on my awesome friend Holly, because she was knitting a Terra so beautiful and squishy, I just couldn’t resist.

Then I spied a delicious Big Herringbone Cowl on Instagram, knitted by the also awesome Jaclyn, and had to cast on for that too.

Oy vey, have I no self-control?!?! But in my defence, all of these new projects are using up stash yarn, which is always nice. On the other hand, there’s a good chance I’m going to run into yardage issues on all of them, which could mean trying to hunt down and buy more. Not really in the spirit of stashbusting.

In any case, I think it might officially be time to say when. These WIPs are in serious danger of getting out of control. And I’m not even counting the cardigan I’m meant to be knitting for my brother, or the socks that don’t ever seem to grow, or the new designs I’m going to start messing with this week. I’m pretty sure my project basket is at its maximum capacity.

And you know what? I’m already starting to feel itchy for the Sajou sampler again. Oh boy.

But first things first. Today’s releases included some of my favorites of this collection – starting with Little Snow-White, as she was known by the Brothers Grimm. I was surprised to find that the original story is basically the same as the version we all know now. (As always, click through to Flickr for larger / more photos!)

Little Snow-White is seen as a threat by her vain and cruel Stepmother, and banished to the woods. There she meets seven wee little mining men. She takes care of them and they help keep her hidden and safe.

Until the stepmother tries to poison her, in a variety of creative ways, including the infamous poisoned apple. Thinking she is dead, the dwarves mourn and the handsome Prince is so saddened, he wants to take her away so he can always look upon her lost beauty. Although the modern re-telling has the Prince romantically kiss away the poison, metaphorically speaking, the Brothers Grimm were a little more practical. When the Prince lifts her casket, Snow-White is jostled and the piece of apple lodged in her throat is moved, allowing her to breathe again, marry her Prince, and live happily ever after. The main difference is actually in the very ending, an odd detail we couldn’t help but illustrate. The evil Stepmother attends Snow-White’s wedding, but as punishment for her wicked deeds, she is forced to wear red-hot iron shoes and dance in them until she dies! Geez. Talk about your creative punishments.

We chose to give our Little Snow-White a slightly medieval feel and pose her and her loved ones as if they were ready for their wedding portrait. As far as stitching is concerned, the only thing I could really point out as special is Snow-White’s hair, which we knew had to be dramatic, shiny, and sleek. I used the DMC Satin (for real this time) in black and couched it down with the tiniest stitches I could manage to keep the line as smooth as possible. But when I gave the whole thing a rinse, and this is the trouble with that thread that I referred to the other day, it went all wavy on me. Like Snow-White had just stepped out of the 80s and had crimped her hair. So I did it over, this time using at least twice as many tacking stitches and a disappearing ink pen so that I wouldn’t need to rinse it again. Annoying to do it twice, but I’m so pleased with those smooth curves now.

The Musicians of Bremen might be a less familiar story, but we just couldn’t help ourselves. What’s not to love about a group of musicians who happen to be a Donkey, a Dog, a Rooster, and an old scruffy cat? And the Donkey plays the lute!!!

Because their owners start to think they are a little past their prime, that maybe they’d make a good dinner or two, this group of rag-tag animals travel together to Bremen and embark upon new careers as town-musicians. They get into a little adventure with a robber, but I’ll let you find out about that yourselves.

You’ll notice the little music notes in this pattern and the next, as well as a few others in our Brothers Grimm collection. Music appears surprisingly often in these tales, usually as an indication of where to go or how to find someone. We’ve stitched them the same in every one, couched in Anchor Lame, to be a little thread (no pun intended) that floats through the whole collection.

Lastly, one of my very favorites, the classic story of Hansel & Gretel. These two wee things are left in the spooky woods to fend for themselves when their father and stepmother cannot afford to feed them any longer. Hansel’s a pretty smart boy and uses white pebbles to make a trail leading back home, knowing that the moonlight will reflect on them and make their path easy to see. We made the moon huge and the pebbles bright in silver, contrasting with the blues we used to give the feel of the dark of night.

But, despite their best efforts to get home, they catch the sound of a little bird singing and follow it, only to find themselves at a very tempting, tasty-looking house. The witch is waiting there, ready to cook them up, but they outsmart her in the end and manage to get back to their family. Don’t worry about them.

So there we are – almost to the end of our Brothers Grimm fairy tale-inspired embroidery patterns. They’re all available in the Little Dorrit & Co. etsy shop – and we hope you stick around for that freebie I mentioned, coming up soon!

Wanting something warm and cuddly to play with over this freezing weekend, I lost my last tiny bit of resolve and started prepping a new project: the Umaro blanket. Based on the Hemlock Ring I knitted for my mother, I want this one to be a pretty small lap blanket. For those evenings that are a bit cool, but a full blanket is just too much. Or for times when a full blanket draped all around just isn’t practical – sitting at my desk, surrounded by embroidery bits, etc. I have plenty of bed-sized blankets, this one can be a small one.

So I frogged a sweater I’d never worn, skeined it, and gave it a wash to get rid of the noodle kinks.

I’ve never done this before, so I was surprised that I had the whole process done in a weekend. I was also kind of amazed by the way the kinks just softened right out of the yarn almost immediately on hitting the warm water, it was kind freaky. I have a few skeins hanging over my radiator, so maybe I can get started really quickly.

Of course, now I’m worried that I don’t have enough yarn. Typical.

So, hi everyone! I know there’s quite a few more of you out there now, after the so-very-exciting (for us) Feeling Stitchy post about our Little Dorrit & Co. patterns. That was pretty much amazing! No matter how long I’m involved in it, I’ll never get over how supportive and encouraging this crafty community of ours is. It’s just too dang awesome. So welcome, newcomers, it’s great to have you here!

It’s been psychotically busy around here for the last few days, but I just wanted to give you all a little update on my Sajou sampler progress. That is to say, my non-progress. This G is making me crazy! I fussed for days over how to stitch it, then finally decided on a backstitch fill, only to find that the way I was doing it made such a thick, dense underside that I worried it might cause a framing problem down the line. It was also causing the fabric pucker – just a bit, but enough that I didn’t want to risk it getting worse. So out the stitches come.

So, um, I’m kind of stuck! Any thoughts on what stitch to use to get this G done in the two colors shown? I’ve been puzzling over it long enough on my own, I’m open to suggestions! Can you see in this Instagrammed-up photo the way that the pulled-out teal stitches left a sort of speckled effect behind them? I’m intrigued by that, it’s like very fine seeding – I wonder if there’s something in that?

Squeaking in just in time for Valentine’s stitching, and as a little nod to our next series of patterns (we still have some Brothers Grimm patterns to share, including a different freebie, but there is another set we’ve just started working on and are pretty excited about!), here’s a little romantic freebie for you all to stitch up for the big day.

This line is spoken by dear Romeo about his lovely Juliet, after seeing her for the first time. “Did my heart love till now? forswear it, sight! For I ne’er saw true beauty till this night” Sigh, isn’t he the just the dreamiest?

We kept this one fairly simple, just a relatively quick little project, easy enough to do in time for Valentine’s Day. We went a little crazy and packed ours chock-full of satin stitch, but those flowers would look great in some quick backstitch too, don’tcha think?

The pattern is designed to be about 8.5″ wide and 6.5″ tall, printed over one A4 page. The PDF is two pages – one of the pattern as you see it (previewed below), the other of its reverse, so it will be easy for you to transfer by whatever method you prefer. Have fun – and, as always, if you stitch one up yourself, we’d love to see how it comes out!

Romeo & Juliet: Act I, Scene V Embroidery Pattern (PDF)

Finally! I’m so pleased with how she came out – isn’t she pretty? To be honest, I wasn’t totally crazy about this shawl while everyone else was knitting it. I think the colors the sample was knit in just aren’t for me and sometimes that clouds your judgement of the pattern as a whole. It shouldn’t, we knitters should be able to look past the sample yarn and just see the design, but sometimes it’s hard! I’m sure it works the other way too – a design you might not have liked otherwise looks better to you if it’s shown in a color or yarn you love.

Anyway, I was on the fence about Cladonia until I saw the amazing version knit by Monika of Smoking Hot Needles. Monika’s an amazing knitter, only in part because she has such a beautiful way with pairing yarns to patterns, and I was smitten with her version. Introducing a new high-contrast color into the lace border was genius, and popping in just a touch of a bright color (her green) was even better. Her color arrangement made all the sections of the shawl really work perfectly together.

So what better way to show my appreciation of Monika’s knitting than to shamelessly copy her?! (If you see this, Monika, sorry about that, I hope you know it’s a compliment!) In a mad fit of spinning mojo, I gathered up a pile of batts I’d bought from different people (I’m sorry I don’t have the labels anymore, so I can’t give credit to the lovely batt-makers) at different events only to discover that they looked perfect together. I still needed a fourth yarn for those eyelet rows so I actually just took the leftovers of the lighter purple (from the stripey section) and over-dyed it! I figured that if I kept within the purple family, an over-dyed version of one of the yarns already used would have to match. So I dumped some magenta over it and hoped for the best.

I’m so in love with it, I can’t wait to wear it somewhere! And because I’m not really the best spinner in terms of getting the yarn weight I was aiming for (it’s always thinner than I intended), my yarns were more like a very heavy laceweight (maybe ever so slightly heavier than Malabrigo lace) and the shawl came out very airy and drapey. Funny how Cladonia started off as a shawl I was just so-so about when now I could knit a million of ‘em!

This one was a bit of pain, if I’m honest about it. I wanted a clean line for the main part of the E, so stuck with split stitch (my best for that kind of line) but then wasn’t really happy with the split stitch fill I did there. I’m just not totally sure it works. And after stitching in a darker pink, I realized the color of those swirls had to be much lighter or else they distracted from the E itself. I hope this barely-pink thread is right, I think it’ll be less noticeable once I wash out the fabric marker lines. On the other hand, the lazy daisies went better than expected and, I’m sorry to be smitten with my own work but really, how flippin’ cute are those tiny flowers?! They’re about a half centimeter tall or so; those little petals are so darling, I could just pat them all day long.

You can see a peek of the D there as well, it’ll be almost all in back stitch, which wasn’t quite as easy to get going as you might think. But I’ll tell you about that when it’s finished. And today I get to pick out the next group of letters from the Sajou alphabets I have saved, each one lovelier than the one before.

First up is our vision of the famous Cinderella – a little different than the image that immediately comes to mind, but we think she’s just as pretty. The original tale is, let’s just be honest, a bit bloodier than the version we’re used to. It’s a little weird. But that’s why we love these Grimm tales and found that they make such wonderful embroidered illustrations – they’re all a little on the weird side, some downright bizarre, but some are just so over-the-top that they’re very funny as well. Anyway, in the original story, Cinderella is just as loved by her Prince as in any version, and who can blame him? She’s quite fetching!

We put her in a dramatic, ornate Elizabethan gown because … well, why not?! We couldn’t resist the chance to put all that gold in her dress, all 1600s-stylee. Other than the gold (again, Anchor Lame, can’t go wrong with it!) in her skirt’s border section and her crown, we stuck with your basic embroidery stitches on this one. The floral fill of her skirt adds enough detail without crowding it with too much stitchy clutter. Best to keep it a little simpler and let the design do the work on this one.

We stitched our little Thumbling similarly, keeping it mostly simple. Thumbling is a very little guy who goes on a big adventure. He’s so tiny that he makes a sword out of a sewing needle and hides in a thimble. He is a tailor’s son, after all. This time I used the silver Anchor Lame (I swear we don’t get advertising bucks from Anchor or nothin’, I really just love it that much) to outline the thimble, and some simple lighter grays (in regular DMC stranded cotton) to stitch the markings on the thimble.

One cute stitchery thing in Thumbling, which was all Chrissy’s, is the way she tied his shoes with real tiny one-strand bows. So cute! We didn’t in this case, but sometimes you have to tack down the little loops so they don’t just twist and bunch up.

Now this one might really be my favorite, and I’ve thought about hanging it in my bedroom eventually. This is The Tree of Golden Apples, which is an image that re-appears throughout the Brothers Grimm tales. Again, we kept ours simple in just a few different threads and only couching and stem stitch.

The trunk / bark was a little experiment though, we tried the Anchor Marlitt floss for the first time — and loved it! (Correction made there: I thought it was DMC Satin, but just found my own notes. Whoops. I think we looked at both but the Marlitt had the right color and was shinier, though I could remember that wrong.) I find that you really need to couch it with more stitches than you do with the Lame thread, especially if you plan to wash your piece when you’ve finished. It kind of relaxes and becomes a bit bumpy. You can see it a little here, which is fine, but it did cause us a little aggravation elsewhere (more on that another day!). Other than that little note though, I found it to be a lovely floss – though I can’t vouch for actually stitching with it, I only used it as the main thread for couching.

There’s, again, more to come soon, and all these patterns are available at the Little Dorrit & Co. etsy shop now. And I should mention that we did so many in this set so we could work on our style together in one clump, and so we’d have something substantial to start our wee business with. We won’t always be working on sets of 9 patterns at a time! So, I will be back soon to show you some more as I get the rest photographed — and I think there will be a freebie coming along soon as well!

It’s so weird that I love this project so much, because I’m really not a lace-and-tiny-flowers kind of girl. But sometimes I find it’s the things that really aren’t your style that end up being your favorite. I have always disliked red as a color, especially on me, but my favorite nail polish lately is a flaming 40s-y bright red. Go figure. Anyhow, here’s B and C — only 24 letters to go! Oy. I do love a large project to really get into though. I suspect I’ll go through phases, like now, where I get really obsessed with it and stitch, say, 5 letters or so. Then I’ll get sick of it and put it away for a month or two. Just a prediction based on past behavior.

In the true spirit of a sampler, I’m trying to make sure I do something different with each letter, with the end goal of expanding and exhibiting my needlework skillz. I did the B quite delicately – a lot of satin stitch, some outlined in split stitch, and a wee touch of french knot fill in the leaves. I love the texture contrast between the french knots and satin stitch – very touchable. Normally satin stitch and french knots are stitches I really struggle with doing well, so I was careful and slow with this one and I’m very pleased with the result. The whole point of a sampler was to practice and improve, after all.

I kept the C a little simpler, so it wasn’t too much next to the detail of the B, especially since it’s quite a large letter. Just simple chain stitch (maybe my favorite stitch, it’s very pleasing to work) in two shades of pink.

I couldn’t quite picture how I wanted to stitch the D, so I skipped ahead to the E. Not much done there yet, just a touch of split stitch again for the thin lines, and my colors for this letter picked out. I think the feature stitch, for lack of a better term, in this one will be lazy daisy stitch, another one I tend to have trouble with. All those little petals and leaves are just demanding it, dontcha think?

And, in the most perfect timing ever, something happened yesterday that allowed me to open this beautiful, charming little box. Little Dorrit & Co. sold an embroidery pattern! Our very first sale! (Was it you? If so, thank you!) It was crazy exciting. So I took this box off the shelf, where it had been sitting for about 6 months, wrapped in tissue paper.

My very generous brother bought this Sajou embroidery knife for me as a surprise no-reason gift when we visited Loop in London last summer. I’d already mentally chosen this knife as the treat I’d buy myself if my hobby became, as I’d been hoping it would, officially more than a hobby. The Brother bought it for me ahead of time, but I saved it for our first sale anyway. Waiting to use it somehow makes it even more beautiful. Thanks, Brother, you rock.