Peek-A-Boo

I should pat myself on the back: I have studied 16 pages of Hebrew today. And I really am able to read it, I just need some serious vocabulary rehearsal - and I still need to study the rest eight pages (to get where we are starting from (approximately)) - but you can't (or maybe you can) imagine the sense of relief I had when I sat on the train on my way home and realised that I can read Hebrew, I really can, and that I do still remember the vocabulary rather well.

I have actually surprised myself today. In addition of studying I managed to tidy up my bedroom (it was a mess when I started with it), take two hour nap and I planned to do a pile of laundry... but my knee has been acting today which has lead to back pain (because I try to protect the knee) which meant that I decided that it's better to leave it to some other day.
What worries me with the pain is that I don't have the slightest idea of its origin - one possibility is that the cold I had has developed to something way bigger, uglier and meaner.

And, I got a promotion... not such you may imagine, but I became higher level moderator on one forum - less than a year after they "hired" me.
But then, I am a sucker for that kind of stuff.

I should get to bed, but I think that I can stitch few stitches to the Halloween Exchange thingy before I call it off for the day.

Aleph, bet, gimel... it's as easy as ABC

I think this will be the final layout for the alephbet sampler (based on the Small Hebrew Alphabet by Kooler Design Studio) accompanied with the floss I dyed for it.

 

I was thinking of adding the vowel points, but those are so easy to learn that I think I will discard the idea (and anyway one has to learn to read Hebrew without vocalization). My main concern is the normal set and the sofits ('ending letters' - in this case the last row).

Mail day!

Now that I finally am back home for few hours (i.e. time enough for a shower, ~8 hours of sleep, another shower, breakfast and off I go again)... It was a great mail day!

Firstly I got my package from Pamela Kellogg (even though mail man had a bad day based on how the envelope was maimed in the mail box) and I can still highly recommend her as a seller. I am happy with my purchases and her service. ^^

Secondly...

Susan kindly sent me some perle by Sassa Lynne! (It is thin enough to be used for cross stitching. )

These are the yummiest and I will surely find a good excuse reason to try them soon! Thank you again Susan!

Yet another thing to make this day good

I entered the class... Shalom! How are you? It has been a while. Welcome back!
In other words my Hebrew teacher remembered me after 2½ years. And, crazy or not, it felt good (and when I stepped around the corner of Radisson SAS and saw the main gate of JCoH I felt like home).

And that If I recall correctly you were rather good at Hebrew spite of your newbieness..., when I said that I would prefer to be just a listening student today (the lack of vocalization in the current phase of the Hebrew book really gets me after this long break), really made me smile.

I think I have said that I like her?

And now, off to shower and I think I could sleep a bit less and stitch a bit before going to bed.

SAT: Happy Dancing Epilogue

This is where I started from

and this is what I have now:

Pieces of information:

• Designer: Ellen Maurer-Stroh
• Design: Bunny Baby
• Fabric: 16 count aida (I know, but while signing up they gave evenweave as another option, but as, less surprisingly people prefer aida (for reasons beyond me) it was what we were given.)
• Why?: This is for Stitchers for Children charity RR.

I didn't achieve as much I wanted or as much I seemed to be able to achieve based on my speed in Friday, but my new allergy medicine makes me really tired - and it doesn't help to take it in the evening as I will be twice as tired during the day...
Maybe I will do better next month, as I will ask for another new antihistamine if my energy levels stay this low.

Nevertheless, a happy dance!

Keeping myself busy

After getting her cell number from the synagogue I called to the Hebrew teacher in Friday... and now I have more things to do every week, in other words I will spend an hour every Tuesday in good company of alefbets.
What makes it interesting is that I haven't been in the lessons in two years and her opinion was that I can easily continue from where I stopped.
Admittedly one of the reasons why I have always liked her is that she doesn't seem to know the phrase I/ you can't do it.

This means that my stitching time will be limited in Tuesdays (as the day will go as follows: course -> back home -> shower -> eat -> head to the synagogue (well, in sense of correct terms the lessons are ran in the Jewish School of Helsinki, which is in Jewish Community Centre which is commonly referred as synagogue - the temple itself is in the community centre and in the same building as the school) -> learn -> come home at 21), though I have come up with a plan: I can stitch small items while waiting the lesson to begin (I usually have about 20-30 minutes to wait due buss scheduling (I'm too lazy to use the bus- train combo)) and therefore have some progress every day.
I will probably take something small with me to the course too, in case there are any idle moments (lunch, coffee breaks etc.).

And now, I am off to bed... (I foresee some lousy peak flow results in the morning. *grin*)

My first SBQ and bookmark finishing problems.

Yesterday I read fellow stitcher's blog and found out about SBQ. It sounded like fun, so I joined in. And here comes my first:

Stitching Blogger's Question.

   "Have you ever just quit a project while in the midst of it? (We're not referring to UFOs here, rather projects that you know that you'll never work on again.) Why? What did you do with it - throw it out, give it away, put it away?"

I have. When I first put it away I ment to finish it some day, but then I found it 2-3- years later (which was this summer) and decided that I'll never finish it because

• Fabric in that kit was aida, and about 12 HPI.
• It was white aida.
• Design was way too simple to my taste
• I don't use table runners which are 80x 30 cms.
• Flower design. (WTH had I thought?)

When it comes to aida, it has to be at least 14 count, preferably 16 or 18. And I don't like to use aida in big projects (though I'm currently working on one big project on 14 count aida, but that is my first and my last big on aida. Period.).
When it comes to table runners I have similar principles as I have with table cloth: they have to hang down from edges of my table (120x 80cm) at least on one direction.

I have to admit that I cut stitched part off and threw it away. I've used those scraps of non-stitched part to my dye experiments, and floss is in my misc. floss' box and I use them when needed in small projects.

I'm bad person, I know.

Thoughts about bookmarks.

I've been wondering how I'll finish those bookmarks I'm currently working on. I've decided winter one's finishing technique, but as I like to try different ways of finishing I want to try every possible way I can imagine.
In fact my main problem is how I'll finish spring bookmark as only nearly wise techniques seem to be in this case

• Leave it as it is after stitching.
• Use iron-on interfacing.
• Buy piece of felt and stitch it to bookmark's back when doing edge's backstitching.

I've to fray it's edges, and for some reason I think it'll be good way with that. Anyway, I've to see.

Then there's other 'problem' (I think it's mainly problem to me): Maybe I'm just too PC, but I'm not sure would it be good idea to stitch whole pattern without leaving text off from it. Because it's 'peace' (שלומ) in Hebrew and I've heard enough anti-semitistic *** from people - though it seems to me that fellow stitchers are quite nice folks, and it's very much possible that I'm afraid for nothing.
I just think that alephbets are beautiful themselves and none of us can't deny that we could use some peace in this world.
And it'd be part of me in that bookmark as I do study Hebrew (Not to mention my general symbathy towards Judaism and Jewish people, or my intention to be one of them some day... ).