Anglewing Needle Arts

I cannot believe that it has been a month since my last post! After returning from vacation, I started babysitting 3 days a week, so between that and trying to keep up with my responsibilities at home I havn't had much time for blogging.
Before we left Oak Island, we stopped at Angelwing Needle Arts. It's a cute little house that has been converted into a shop. When I walked in, I was amazed at the amount of stuff in such a tiny place. There was a small section of cross stitch patterns, an entire room of specialty threads, lots of yarn, a room full of fabric, and a very helpful owner. I didn't remember to take any pictures while I was there, but here are some pictures of what I bought.

For myself, I bought some sock yarn, Addi Turbo needles, ands Weeks Dye Works overdyed threads.

The threads are for a celtic bookmark pattern specially designed for overdyed threads. The socks will be knit up using the pattern 'Spring Thaw Socks' from the Summer 2008 Knitters Magazine.

You may have noticed that the Addis are not in the package - I've already put them to work. I recently bought the book 2-At-A-Time Socks and have started some practice socks.

The needles are great - I see why everyone likes them. Unfortunately, my yarn is yucky low quality stuff I got at a garage sale years ago. It's the perfect thing for practice socks, but makes for difficult knitting. Because of that, and needing to start on Christmas presents, they are in hibernation.

I also got my Mom some flat quarters. She does a lot of different things with them. She makes purses, and one of her patterns uses f(l)at quarters instead of giveing fabric yardage. She also uses them to finish her cross stitch projects.

If you're ever in North Carolina, near Oak Island, make sure you visit Anglewing Needle Arts. It is located at:
507 North Howe Street
Southport, NC 28461

~Sarah

Saturday Shopping Spree

Last Saturday Mom and I went shopping. We stopped at a paint store for a paint chip, and discovered a Farmer's Market nearby. We wandered around and bought a few plants and veggies. Then we went over to Golden Thread Needle Arts to see if the chart Mom ordered had come in yet. It hadn't, but they were having a trunk show, so we looked, and I found this really neat pattern. It's called 'Take Time to Knit', and has some really fancy stitches. Mom has one by the same designer (Jeanette Douglas Designs) called 'Take Time to Stitch'.



We went to Michaels to get some more yarn for Kristy's Hat Project. I should have enough yarn now to meet my goal of ten hats, plus one or two more.











 Since Barnes and Noble was in the same plaza, we just had to stop in. Their used book section is amazing, and I found this book for $7. We were in the craft section later and saw the same book full price - $25! I've wanted to learn this method of knitting socks, but the one time I tried I couldn't make heads or tails of the directions. The directions in this book seem to be very straightforward, and are diagrammed very well.



On Friday night I came down with a Summer cold. It's one of those where you don't feel sick enough to go to bed, but not well enough to do anything productive. I think Carrie at Knitted Bear had the same thing.  I did mange to finish hat #4. I tried starting hat #5, but messed up and will have to rip it out and start over.

~Sarah

Crafty Pondering: Should I take my knitting or cross stitch to the craft night on Thursday? Knitting or cross stitch, cross stitch or knitting....Maybe I'll take both!

Stitches of Life

What do you get when you avoid your computer for a week? Over 200 blog posts to read, library fines (because you didn't get the e-mail reminding you the books are due), and lots and lots of e-mail and junk mail. I keep 'winning' gift cards, lotteries, and ipods. I'm convinced that if I'd really won all that stuff, I'd have enough money to pay my parents' medical bills for them.

Ok, moving on. After much debate, I've decided to expand this blog to include stories about my life and pets and anything else that strikes my fancy. Think of it as 'stitches of my life'. If you're wondering what all this is leading up to....

My Mom and I went to the NYS LEAH Homeschool convention's exhibit hall last month. Thursday night they open the exhibit hall for several hours so you can browse without having to miss any of the sessions on Friday and Saturday. The vendors range from colleges, to used curriculum, to brand new curriculum, to books. I was hoping to find an interesting study guide to work at, but the ones that caught my attention (Chronicles of Narnia) were for grades 4-7 - that would be way too easy. At some point Mom and I got talking about my success (or lack thereof) in arithmetic. (And spelling - what would I do without spell check??) Anyway, I mentioned that I wished we'd been able to get into geometry a bit, and we decided to start looking for some geometry books. (Preferably used.) I rather quickly narrowed it down to two - the expensive new book that made a lot of sense, and the cheaper, used A Beka book. Having inherited my mother's sense of frugality, I went with the A Beka book. So far, it's gone well. Hopefully it will stay that way, because Mom doesn't remember much about geometry, and what is taught has changed drastically over the years.

Among other things, we also bought a book called Do Hard Things. Although it was written by teens for teens, anyone could benefit from reading this book. Alex and Brett Harris started therebelution.com in 2005. Their official definition of the word 'rebelution' is "a teenage rebellion against low expectations." Even before reading this book I had realized that many young people have extremely low expectations placed upon them, and that they frequently excel at meeting those low expectations. By consistently doing hard things, and rising above the expectations of irresponsibility, low expectations can become the exception, rather than the norm. Doing hard things is different for everyone. For myself, sticking to a schedule is my hard thing. I have always enjoyed making lists and schedules, and from years of practice can make them very strict (minute by minute) or very broad (to do today or this week) or anywhere in between. The trouble is following them. As a result, I waste an incredible amount of time doing fun things rather than the things I know I should be doing. That is not to say that I won't allow myself any fun, but right now I have too much fun.
I highly recommend this book to anyone dissatisfied with the low expectations of society. Some more reviews of the book can be found at the following blogs:
How Great is His Faithfulness
Maidens of Worth
If you would like to be added to the list of reviews, leave a comment with a link to the post or web page.
~Sarah