Catching up for Christmas

Hello my lovelies, Christmas has come and gone, I've had some wonderful days with family and friends, lots of great food and great gifts, and lots of giving gifts which I love even more, especially when those gifts are handmade and the recipients really really like them. Last time we spoke, a few of these gifts were still to be finished, so let me catch you up on those - I'm happy to report that everything that needed doing by Christmas has been done!

 I finish-finished the two little Mill Hill kits, Polar Bear and Panda. They were originally supposed to be fridge magnets, but I decided to give them both hangers and finish them as ornaments. My two coworkers called me 'crazy' and grinned from ear to ear when receiving them ^_^

Lestrona has been successfully blocked, and I couldn't be happier with it! My grandma couldn't as well, she just complained that she had dressed in the wrong colours for Christmas Eve so it wouldn't match and she couldn't wear it right away. Something pulling through with older projects *really* can be worth it...

Grandpa's hat was also finished and loved. I still need to do Felix' hat, but he says he doesn't mind if it takes a bit longer. I'm still trying to get it done while it is still winter!

Not a Christmas gift, but I still managed to make some progress on the Hobbits Meal Plan before we left to spend time with Felix' parents (I can't take it with me because a) it's on the floor stand and b) his brother is here as well). I kind of wanted to finish the whole 'Afternoon Tea' instead of just the 'Afternoon', but I'll still have two more weeks to work on this once we get home.

Last but not least, I also finished the socks for Felix' dad - on the car ride there, with minutes to spare before we arrived! I didn't even have time to take a proper picture before giving them and had to snatch them back for a minute later to take this shot. I'm really pleased with how these turned out, maybe I'm slowly getting the hang of knitting socks.

I realize I still owe you guys the final WIPocalpyse post for the year, but as it's meant to be a recap of 2016 and the year is not over yet - I still have a few days with nothing much but crafting to do! - you'll have to wait a bit longer. There are still some more things I want to get done and show you before then :D

December Gifted Gorgeousness

The third post in one weekend - I'm on fire here! In fact, I was just shocked how long ago my last update has been. I kind of lost momentum with plowing through my list, which isn't very suprising, it's more suprising how long I stayed focused on my target. Recently, I'm craving gaming more than crafting, and while I still intend to finish a few things before Christmas (and I still think I can do so too!) I'm giving myself a bit of a break, so things have been slower. Still, progress has been made, so let's talk about progress!

First, I corcheted this little purse for the now big sister of one of the babies I knitted booties for earlier this year. It was a fun little pattern from ravelry, although I picked my own colours. I had originally ordered some prett cottons, but seeing them in real life I didn't really like them together, so I used the same yarn I used for that owl purse I did a few years back since I really enjoyed those. As usual, the actual crocheting went fairly quickly, but it took me ages to get everything sewn up and finished. It's pretty cute though, that base circle is a little less than 5".

Next, I started the third of my four hats - this one is all blue and for my grandpa, and it's almost done! Well okay, not quite done, but I'm almost ready to start the decreases, and once I get to those I will be nearly done, so it counts!

I also stitched up the next of my Mill Hill ornaments - a cute little polar bear and a gift for one of my favourite coworkers. I'm just in the process of finish-finishing this one and his brother the panda into ornaments.

Of course I did not forget about my corchet a week thing. Here are week 3 and 4...actually, the second take on week 3, as the first time around I somehow completely missed one of the petals and made the think five sided instead of six. But it came out nicely the second time around, and so did week 4. I almost finished week 5 too, which is a shame as I just remembered I should have uploaded week 6 today...so I have some catching up to do here!

Next on my list was working on these basket socks...no idea why these have been going so slowly all this time, because once I sat down, I got the toes of the first one done really quickly, and the start of the second one as well. I think I'm about 1/3rd done with that one, so hopefully, I'll get the heel done this weekend.

Lastely, this weekend I finally got around to blocking Lestrona, and I think it looks really nice spread out like this, so I wanted to show you. Just a bit of waiting and it will be finish-finished for real!

So...I kind of wanted to have all my Christmas crafting done by this post, and I haven't, but it's fine. The only thing I really need to do before Christmas is finish that hat and that sock, and that should be very managable. Everything else, I can work on in my time off after Christmas in peace and quiet. Here is the current state of my list:

1. Two toddler-scarfes 'Sharky-Pie' - beginning of one is pictures in blue - as christmas presents for a friend's twins
2. Two One more small Mill Hill kits as christmas presents for friends/coworkers of ours
3. Shawl Lestrona for my grandma
4. One pair of socks for Felix' dad - one sock and a third of a sock done
5. One BSJ for a soon-to-be-a-dad coworkers of mine - due in December
6. One pair of Baby Booties and one Toddler sized purse for the kids of a friend - due in December
7. One pair of Baby Booties for a coworker - due in October
8. Two gifts for the kids of another coworker - plans are being made - due in January
9. Cut Thru' Cottage as a housewarming gift for Felix sister- two more pages to go! - due whenever
10. Four Three Two more hats for my grandparents, Felix and myself
11. 'Elevenses' by fiddlesticksau as a birthday present for Felix' brother - Due in January - 4/7 done 

Of course I already have more planned by now, but I will add that next year. For now I'll just focus on getting those last few finishes I need to do, and being proud of myself!

Alphabet Club Catch Up - H

Still trying to catch up with the catch up :D But I think things are finally getting a bit quieter around here, so maybe I'll make it. We'll see!

Here are some 'Hasen' - rabbits! 'Häschen' if you want the cutsey form.

I really liked the idea of in-translatable words for this series, but I couldn't find any starting with 'H', so I'm going to cheat a little today. You all know 'Heimweh' - the feeling of being homesick. But in German, we also know 'Fernweh', which is kind of the opposite - the longing to travel and see new places.

Another short entry, but I still hope you like it!

Jo's Advent Calendar - Day 17

As every year, the amazing Jo is hosting an amazing advent calendar, and as always I have to be a part of it! I got lucky and got assigned a date on the weekend, because during the week I'm terribly busy lately and would have been hard pressed to get the post out on time!

I haven't done a ton of Christmas stitching so far, and I'm showing Angel of Frost around all the time, so this time I'll pick the other one I did - Peter Polar Bear, stitched for an ornament exchange a few years ago ^_^

Now Jo has asked us to write about our favourite ornaments, the ones that are/or have some kind of history attached to them. Felix and I don't have a lot in terms of Christmas decoration yet...I know traditions differ, but in Germany (or among the people I know here, at least) it's common to only put the tree up on Christmas day (or maybe the day before), and it's only out until January 6th (although some people do middle of February). And since we spend the 24th with my grandparents and then visit Felix' parents until New Years Eve, there's not much sense in putting up a tree we will never really see. This will probably change once we have children of our own, but for now, I'll be telling you about a few of my grandma's ornaments - the ones I grew up with and love deeply :D

The left of these glass birds was a gift my mum got for my grandma many years ago, when she was still a child. The one of the right I got for her when I was a child, kind of to continue the tradition.

 These two birds don't have any special history, I just really like them because the are really pretty. They are also super heavy, so it's not really easy to find a good place for them on the tree.

 When I was a kid, grandma would always do some crafts for me every year to make Christmas presents for all the relatives and friends I wanted to give something to. One of my favourites were these ornaments, made from half a walnut shell, a wooden bead and some fabric and really pretty ribbon.

Those are some of the first ornaments my grandma bought when she and grandpa were newlyweds. They are made from painted wax, but I think they still look very pretty!

Alphabet Club Catch Up - G

I'm super behind with my being behind! But hopefully, I'll get teo TAC posts out as well as a regular post this week to be kind of up to date again. So without further ado, here comes 'G'!

For this letter's word, I was searching the internet for German words that don't have a proper English translation, and one word I came across was 'Geborgenheit'. Geborgenheit is, generally speaking, a feeling of safety, but more than that - it's also feeling warm and cozy and protected. Like you felt as a child when your mum or dad held you tight and you knew that nothing in the world was going to hurt you - that kind of feeling. I can't think of a good translation off the top of my head, but is there actually none?

A long time in the making...

...and finally done! I had a finish that justifies another quick update, even if it's much shorter than the last ones. Today, I finally finished knitting the shawl Lestrona I started for my grandma over a year ago. I didn't always love this project, I was arguing with myself whether to start over or not (since I felt I should use a 'better' yarn than ordinary sock yarn to knit such a pattern)...but after all, it was the pattern and the yarn my grandma picked out, and so I stuck to it, made a few mistakes along the way, and finished it anyways, and I'm quite pleased with how it turned out - so far, of course it still needs blocking, but that should be managable before Christmas.

I also did some more stitching and finished 'Second Breakfast' on the Hobbit Meal Planer. Just one more line going up, then three more going down!

I also took a short break over the weekend to work on this month's ornament. November had two to chose from again, and even though both are very very pretty, I had my heart set on the orange one since I have different plans for the yellow one!

And I just realized, I haven't shown you guys the second of my 'crochet a week' yet either! So here it is, much bigger than the first one, so it makes me wonder at which size those will turn out on average.

Alphabet Club Catch Up - F

I just checked my calendar and was suprised to learn it is, in fact, already time for another Alphabet Club Catch up post! We have reached the letter 'F' now, so let's celebrate this Fact with a visit of this cute little Fuchs (fox), and also some Fliegenpilze (fly agaric, according to my dictionary). He's also a very Fitting host to introduce today's Funny word, which is 'fuchsteufelswild' (fox-fevil-wild, if you take it literally). It decribes the state of being really, really mad about something or someone, and my dictionary offers 'hopping mad' as a translation. Really short post today, but I thought it was a cute little word still!

Fixing Purple Bunny

So in between my vigerous holiday crafing, here's another little project I wanted to share with you.

Ever since he was a little boy, Felix has had this little purple stuffed rabbit. He loves it dearly, but as well know, being dearly loved can take a toll on little stuffed rabbits, so it has become very worn over time. A few years back, I crocheted a pair of flap trousers to help cover all the spots on its belly where the filling started to leak out, but lately, it's neck had become all thin and hole-y as well, so while Felix was on a business trip last week, I decided to make fix his bunny and make it pretty again.

Here's our patient pre-surgery. First, I gave him a good soak and let him dry on the radiator for a few days, then I set to work. I took some soft white cotton and cut to shapes that had roughly the shape of the bunnies body. I sewed the lover half together to get kind of a tube, then I put the bunny inside this tube. I sewed the lower end of the tube to its legs, then sewed around his legs, and lastly I sewed the upper part to his neck/chin area - since the neck was so worn, I had to go pretty far up, so it looks a bit love Purple Bunny is wearing a sleevless long turtleneck now!

Lastly, I put the freshly washed pants back on and added a little neckerchief I cut from some flower-print cotton I had in my stash. Isn't this a handsome little bunny boy?

I'm pretty happy with how my little improvised bunny surgery turned out, and Felix is super happy he can snuggle his bunny again without fearing to accidentally tear its head off!

November WIPocalypse & Gifted Gorgeousness

Just ten days since my last post, and I feel like I already have a ton to write about - and there are two SALs to check in as well! Let's start with WIPocalypse. as the checkin was a day earlier. The question of the month is What pattern (or designer) is on your must-try-to-stitch bucket list? and oh my, where even to start for a question like that? There are, of course, a ton of designs I want to stitch, so I'll focus on designs of designers I haven't worked on yet. So for one, I, like many other stitchers want to do a Chatelaine some day - I haven't decided which one, although I really like the Japanese Garden. I also have been wanting to stitch Joan Elliott's three Oriental Graces for some time now,  and Electra from Nora Corbett's Bewitching Pixies. And of course all the Mucha Princess patterns by my friend Ashley!

Now for my progress, I've been working on a lot of things, three of which don't qualify for the Gifted Gorgeousness SAL - for one, I finished the 5th page of the Fire and Ember SAL. I loved this page, those bright red, orange and yellow colours where so much fun to work with, and they look stunning now!

Then, my friend Carla joined a crochet-a-day challenge on dA, where she attempts to do one small motif every day. She's using some very pretty perle yarn for hers, and they looked so pretty that I couldn't resist joining in as well - more with a corchet a week-ish thing, but let's see how it works out. Instead of the awesome book Carla is using, I'm using the patterns from a 'Crochet for your purse' box my grandma gave me a while back, and also some yarn I got for Easter this year. I'm planning to do most of this in the same two colours and join them together into some kind of wallhanging later.

As Felix is on a bussiness trip this week, I used his room to get my blocking mats out and finally finish-finish my snowflake party shawl I had finished knitting in August. It's more than two meters in length now, and sooo snuggly and soft with the 50% merion, 50% silk yarn. I have to admit, I'm very happy with this pattern and yarn and very proud of the result.

Of course, I also worked more on my list for Gifted Gorgeousness. For the two hats I finished knitting, I bought a plastic pompom maker (which was like 5€ for three different sizes) which was much easier to handle than the paper ones, and I made two nice and round pompoms with which I was finally able to finish-finish the hats. I've been wearing mine every day since then and my grandma loved hers as well. Now just two more to go!

I also finish-finished the puprle baby jacket. I had a few problems with the buttons I wanted to use - I originally wanted to use some cute caterpillars together with the butterflies, but they couldn't be attached safely enought for me to be comfortable with gifting it to someone. So I went to my stash and found some neutral ones that went well with the colours, and I really like the result as well. I will have to increase my button stash eventually, though.

So my new update on my to-do list is as follows:

1. Two toddler-scarfes 'Sharky-Pie' - beginning of one is pictures in blue - as christmas presents for a friend's twins
2. Two One more small Mill Hill kits as christmas presents for friends/coworkers of ours
3. Shawl Lestrona for my grandma- a little over ten rows to go!
4. One pair of socks for Felix' dad - one sock done up to the heel
5. One BSJ for a soon-to-be-a-dad coworkers of mine - due in December
6. One pair of Baby Booties and one Toddler sized purse for the kids of a friend - due in December
7. One pair of Baby Booties for a coworker - due in October
8. Two gifts for the kids of another coworker - plans are being made - due in January
9. Cut Thru' Cottage as a housewarming gift for Felix sister- two more pages to go! - due whenever
10. Four Three Two more hats for my grandparents, Felix and myself
11. 'Elevenses' by fiddlesticksau as a birthday present for Felix' brother - Due in January - 2/7 done

So a fair bit of progress, but still quite a bit to go as well. I still think it can be done, though! Next up I'm trying to finish Lestrona for my grandma, and another two lines on Elevenses.

Alphabet Club Catch Up - E

Time for another Alphabet Clup Catch Up - the letter this week is E, and luckyly, I actually have a fitting WIP to show! My current project is called Elevenses, and I have already stitched this word too. And since the last time you saw this, I've also added about half of the next (or prior) meal, 'Second Breakfast':

I also have another fun German word for you, and this word is Eselsbrücke. A Eselsbrücke (literally: Donkey Bridge) is a fun saying or poem that is meant to help you remember something, like a formula, historical dates or the sequence of something. I'm not sure where the term 'Eselsbrücke' actually comes from, as all the explonations I have read (about the nature of donkeys and how the don't like to cross water unless they are provided with a safe bridge) seem kind of sketchy to me, but I know that it is actually a Latin term as well - pons asinorum. The best translation my dictionary had was 'mnemonic rhyme' - do you know another, colloquial term for this in English or another language?

Alphabet Club Catch Up - C

For a while now, I've been thinking about picking up the Alphabet Club SAL I dropped quiiiite a while ago - but I also knew I wouldn't be satisfied just doing one mashed-together catch up post, and the thought of doing aaaaaall the posts I missed in between seemed really challenging. Then Jo suggested I try and do one of the old posts each week, which should bring me up to date a bit before the end of the SAL, and I think that is a marvelous idea, and something I should be able to manage! So I went back through my blog, and discovered that the last letter I wrote about was 'D', but I also had skipped 'C' - and if I'm doing a catch up, I might as well do it properly! So this week I'll do 'C', next week 'E', and then just following the alphabet.

Now, first for the easy part - the stitching! I went through my pictures and suprisingly, found the same project I already showed in my D post. I present you, on the thrid from the left - Jack Sparrow! Wait, where's the C...oh right, my mistake. Of course, it is CAPT'N Jack Sparrow!

 

Now for the word...this is a bit trickier. You see, the letter 'C' is a bit of a special case in German, as it never stands on its own (other than in words that originate from other languages), but appears either as a 'ck' (which is just a short 'k' - normaly, consonants are doubled to get the short version, but for 'k', it gets an extra 'c'), which can only appear in the middle of words, or 'ch'. I checked my dictionary up and down, but I didn't find any word starting with a 'C' that isn't originally from English or French or some other language...but I still found one that might be worth a little fun fact, and that is the word 'Chef'.
Now in English, a chef is a cook - but in German, 'Chef' means 'boss', so we have a so-called 'false friend' here! That is why Germans, even if they are clever enough to avoid the word 'chef', might think the right English word to use is 'chief', which sounds kinda similiar, but would probably make for a funny mix-up in some situations as well.

It's about time...

...I get this post up! I've been meaning to all week, but you know how it goes. 'I'll just finish this one thing before I post', 'But first, let me work on a million other things!' So I gave myself until today, which marks the last day of our glorious two weeks off work (how did time manage to move this fast again?!) and swore to post what I got, no matter how fast or close from a finish I am.

So let's see...last time, I showed you my preperations for my latest project, and as a few of you have already guessed correctly, it is of course the Hobbit menu plan from fiddlesticksau on Etsy! So far, I have finished two of seven lines, and next I will be working my way up to Second Breakfast and Breakfast. I'm stitching this with Handdyed by Nina floss, and I have to say it is just lovely - very soft, almost like silk. Sadly, I can't get the slight colour variations to show in the picture (Joy is a very light bink/beige, Konico a subtly varingated emerald green), but I will try to get a better picture with daylight once I'm done.

Next, I worked on Lestrona, a lace shawl for my grandma. I actually started this last year sometime, then dicovered a mistake and lost motivation. Now I decided to get it sorted out, and actually I just had to undo two rows to be back on track. I knitted a bit further, and started the actual lace border now. About 20 more rows and I will be done, which I think is very manageable for Christmas.

I also worked on my newest Suprise Baby Jacket, and finished all the basic knitting. I still need to close the second shoulder, knitt the collar, weave in the loose ends and sew on the buttons...which would probably be an afternoon's work, if I could just get myself to do it!

In the beginning of the week, we went to visit a friend we hadn't met in quite a while, and with all the sitting and talking and catching up that happend, so did the second of my series of hats! This one will be my grandma's. I have since tried to make a proper pompom, but it's not as round as I'd like it to be yet, sou I'll probably have to try again. Other than that, not much finishing left to do here, either!

And last but not least, a new month also means a new page on Fire and Ember! I've been stitching on this for the past few days, and already got about half the page done. The second half will have a few colours I didn't use (much) before...mostly more shades of red, but still, so exciting! I hope to show you this page finished soon.

Now tomorrow it's back to work, but I hope with all the relaxing and recovering I got in these past two weeks, I will do okay and still find time to work on stuff. I got a list to work on for Christmas, after all!

Halloween Blog Hop!

Since I don't really celebrate and no kids have stoped by today, I almost forgot it, but as Jo has kindly reminded me, of course it is Halloween today, which means it is also time for her very spooky blog hop!

Here's a very spooky Halloween Sampler I stitched last year, and my letter for this year is D! Now please hop on to http://chaosatlanta.blogspot.com, and happy Halloween!

October WIPocalypse

Hello my lovelies! I'm a bit late for this month's WIPocalypse, but I am also bringing presents...well, pretty pictures of pretty stuff, at least! I've been busy as ever, but now we have two weeks off work and we fully intend to enjoy those, and with the weather being gray and wet as it is, enjoying also means a lot of crafting time for me. But first, onto the topic of october: What online stitching communities do you enjoy? Online stitching communities started with the Stitching Pirates group on deviantArt for me, then came blogging, then a few groups on facebook (and also, not for stitching, but for knitting and crochet, ravelry). Apart from blogging, though, I'm more of a passive member, I occasionaly update on dA (sorry Carla, I promise to try and be better!), but I hardly post my stuff on facebook...I do enjoy reading along and looking at other people's pretty work, though! Online communities are pretty much the only way for me to chat about these kind of hobbies, as I hardly know any stitchers in real life.

Now for my progress in the last...has it been two weeks already? First, I finished page 4 of the Fire and Ember SAL. I thin this page looks really really awesome, I can't stop looking at it, and I even managed to get ist pretty well on the picture:

Next, I worked on the October installment of Magical's monthly ornaments. Here is pink opal - I really enjoyed working on this one, especially with the light pink. It's a colour I don't use often, but I think it's really pretty!

Then, to get back to my list, I knitted up the second pair of baby booties. I don't think you can see in the picture, but I did those a bit different, I think I read the pattern wrong in one point for the first pair. Doesn't look much different, but a lot easier to make! Also, I used the same yarn as for the others, since the leftover of a jacket was just barely enough, and my leftovers all weigh in differently, so...I didn't want to risk running out. And I still had a full ball of this orange/green yarn.

Lastly, I got the threads for my next project, which will be LotR-themed and mostly text, colours on black...so I played around a bit and ordered this wonderful colours of Nina's hand dyed floss from Hungary. Can't wait to get going with this <3

October Gifted Gorgeousness

Oh boy, has it really been another month already? I still have soo much to get done for Christmas and the time around it; why do I fall into this trap again every year? That's right, because I'm loving it, but I still get a bit of ranting time, right? Right? Anyways, let's have a look at what I've been working on lately.

Last week, I was focusing on getting that first of four hats done I was working on. It's still missing the pompom, which I will be adding once I have both hats of the same colour scheme done (so I can just use the left over yarn), but I am happy to report that it fits my head perfectly, and I can go from here to see how I need to adjust size for the other four. I also love knitting with this yarn, it's a really soft pure merino wool, although knitting with four balls at once (since you take the yarn double) gets a bit messy at times.

Then over the weekend, I tried my hands on my very first pait of baby booties. I found a lovely pattern on ravelry that was a real joy to make, and I was even able to use left over yarn from my baby jackets - I was playing extreme yarn chicken in the end, but it was *just* enough*. I'm not so sure about the size, though; this is supposed to be the new born size, and even though I think I'm knitting pretty tight already, it feels more like a 3 month size. Not too mad about it though, they will grow into these!
These weren't on my list before, I just found out a bit ago that yet another guy from work is going to be a father soon - in fact, this month, so I had to whip something up quickly!

Not on my list, but 'just for fun' (not that stuff on the list isn't fun as well!) I also continued working on the current page of the Fire and Ember SAL and got two and a half colours done now. Not very much left to fill in!

Now, the list...let's look at the current progress!

1. Two toddler-scarfes 'Sharky-Pie' - beginning of one is pictures in blue - as christmas presents for a friend's twins
2. Two One more small Mill Hill kits as christmas presents for friends/coworkers of ours
3. Shawl Lestrona for my grandma- about halfway done
4. One pair of socks for Felix' dad - one sock done up to the heel
5. One BSJ for a soon-to-be-a-dad coworkers of mine - due in December - halfway done
6. One pair of Baby Booties and one Toddler sized purse for the kids of a friend - due in December
7. One pair of Baby Booties for a coworker - due in October
8. Two gofts for the kids of another coworker - plans are being made - due in January
9. Cut Thru' Cottage as a housewarming gift for Felix sister- two more pages to go!
10. Four Three more hats for my grandparents, Felix and myself
11. Birthday Present for Felix' brother - Due in January

As you can see there were a few changes - one scarf is reschedules since I still haven't got the yarn, and probably won't get it before at least November, a few things were added (and then a few more I can't talk about here since people might or might not be reading this blog!), some plans have changed, but I still have quite a bit left to do. I'm still positive I can actually make it, though! ...and then I'm already making plans for projects that are due later, say March/April...never ever learning, this one!

Starting the month with a scare...

...and not because Halloween is approaching! After my last update, I happily went to prepare to start the next page on the Fire and Ember SAL...unfolded my fabric to move the hoop...when I saw IT!

Something no stitcher ever wants to see...that fabric is supposed to be landscape, not portrait! Stupid me has started the wrong way around, and those three pages are not even halfway the width...no way it's all going to fit. Needless to say, I was devasted, my mind went from ripping it all out, to immediatly ordering new fabric, to just dropping out of the SAL, because let's face it...I would never be able to catch up if I had to start over. But gladly, I'm not one to easyly fall into despair, because after a while and a little pep talk from both Felix and my girls, I got myself together and started to think about solutions. Clearly I was not the only stitcher to ever fall into that trap, and I remembered reading what advice people had for them - that with a fullcover design, I could probably get away with stitching to the edge and attaching another piece of fabric. I found to promising ways to do that, and I stitched little swatches for both of them.

The first try was just overlapping the two pieces and stitch over the edge - works pretty well, probably because it's aida instead of linen, but so is Fire and Ember. I think I will go with this one, but I still tried the second method, which is stitching on two seperate pieces of fabric and sewing them together. This would probably look pretty good when ironed, but with the small test piece I'd probably have burned my fingers, so I didn't. I still think I'll go with the first method, when it's time, and continue stitching as usual until then.

So, the 4th page of Fire and Ember was one of my focus pieces during the last week, and I almost finished stitching the first colour. Again, this feels like almost half the page, but it's probably a bit less. Still, nice progress for just under a week!

My second focus piece was my little Christmas Panda, and I'm happy to report the first finish of the month here! At least, a stitching and beading finish. I had a ton of fun with the beads, and those special-red beads (there are three of them) are really awesome as well. I'm putting of the finish-finish because I'm not sure how to do it...the kit came with a magnet, but I'm leaning more to finishing it as a hanging ornament. What would you prefer to receive? I'll probably wait until the second one is finished as well (a little Polar Bear), then finish both in the same way.

Since I was at a workshop and a few presentations for work this week, I also had a bit of time for knitting, and I took my newst Baby Jacket with me - made quite a bit of progress, I'm at three times as much as before now, more than halfways through and almost finished with the first skein of yarn.

Next up, more work on the Fire and Ember SAL and finishing that first hat I started knitting. See you (hopefully) soon :)