November Gifted Gorgeousness

We're getting closer to Christmas, and that's always the time when I get really busy making gifts...so I actually have lots to show you today! First (and, somehow, most importantly) I finally finished the over one stitching on The Mermaid, and even made a start backstitching! I don't think I've ever been this excited about backstitching before. There's still a lot of it, but I do feel a huge step closer to the finish now.

I've also made lots of progress on Lettuce be Friends. I quit doing it colour by colour but instead started filling in the left guinea pig, and I really love how it's coming along!

Then, I finally got around to making another pair of crocodile stitch wristwarmers. Carla's had the ones I made for her a few years back stolen, and I promised to see if I had enough left over yarn to make another pair, and I did! It's nice getting back to these, I think I have two more pairs to go before Christmas.

And last but not least, I pulled out one of those tiny beading kits I brought from Japan and made this little guy! His name is Nimphodemus Stubby-Trunks (since I accidentily left out a row on his trunk, so it's a bit on the short side), and he will go to my best friend's mum this Christmas! He was so much fun to make and so quickly done too. I have two more of these kits but now wish I had bought more!

Fully Finished Gallery - November

So mark this historic day, I am for probably the first and last time ever on time for this SAL AND actually have a new finish to show! You know a few months back, when I finished my Sashiko coasters, I said it'd given me an idea? After some planning and gathering supplies, I decided that today was the day I'd finally try it. Things didn't go exactly as planned, but I am still quite pleased with what I got :D

So you might remember (or maybe not? I'm not positive I ever shared the finish here) I was a model stitcher for this little tea cup my friend Ashley designed. I didn't really know what to do with it, so it's been lying aroung since, but now I added some cute lace to the borders to make it into a coaster:

I actually bought those clear acrylic coasters to put it in so it wouldn't get dirty, but obviously it's thicker than the photos they are meant to hold, so they won't close with this in it...now I have to figure out how to protect it, or I'll just end up with the prettiest coaster I'll never use! In any way, I think it's really cute, so I might end up stitching the other three cups too if I can figure out what to do with this one <3

The People Chose Autumnal Colors

It's November, so it's time for the monthyl 'The People's Choice' SAL, hosted by our lovely Jo! This month's theme, very fittingly, is autumn colours, which I personally love, so let's see what we can find in the trunk...I actually didn't find a lot!

There's my Halloween sampler I stitched a few years back, and this tiny design I made with one of DMCs colour changing threads:

 I did a little better in the knitting/crochet department - my big autumn shawl (not traditional autumn colours, but reminds me of the season none the less), one of my baby jackets, and the little pumpkin hat I just finished:

I just started another autumn-themed project, though, and I want to use this space to show you, and maybe advertise a little: My good friend Magical525 is hosting an Autumn Mystery SAL this year, on the weekend of th 15th to 17th. It'll probably be a biscornu-type project again, she's giving the front and back, with a new pattern drop every four hours. As usual, she gave two 'pre-stitch' patterns, so we have a little more time to make a base and get our counting right (good thing she did, because I massively misscounted on my first try!), and that is what I've been stitching:

In case anyone wants to join me (It's super fun!), here's the link to the annoncment blog: https://magicalquilts.blogspot.com/2019/10/the-next-mystery-sal-autumn-mystery-sal.html and the facebook group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/172379333367463/

Finish It In - November Edition

Another short update this month as I am still focusing on the same two projects off my list of five:

1) The Mermaid
2) Reindeer
3) Wuffi the Dog
4) March Fobs
5) Viajante

The Mermaid is coming along and I'm getting really close to finishing her skin (that's probably still a couple hundred stitches and TONS of colours, but I'm working on it!):

On Viajante, I used another 18g so I'm down to 150g left - that's actually more than halfway there! (the skein was sold as 300g but I think it was actually closer to 320g the first time I weighed it). My list remains the same - I hope to get the Reindeer out some time before Christmas, but the others will likely be carried over into the new year.

October Stitchy Pie

So with October well and truely done, it's time for my monthly stitchy pie! As you know, October has been a bit of a hard month around here, so it's no surprise that, despite me being off work for over a week, my crafting time is a bit low (I wanted to say all time low, but I've actually had lower times in February and in Novemer '18). Still, I got over 20 hours on the Mermaid, which is nice:

As you can see, I put a little more time into Geostar, and actually managed to finish it! Here are the completed pictures (at 19:50h, since we are in a timer post here), but I haven't decided on a finish-finish yet - I'm thinking maybe hoop finish with a hoop either spray painted or wrapped in metallic ribbon?

So a rather short post today, but I have a couple more to make this week, and lots of stitching to do, so stay tuned!

October WIPocalypse

October has come and gone, and once more I'm late for the WIPocalypse checkin because I needed the weekend to catch up on all my SALs. I'm all good and ready to go now, though, so no more dilly-dallying!

The question of the month is Do you prefer to stitch on a rotation or one project at a time? Well, I am certainly not a one-at-a-time stitcher, but I'm not a true rotation stitcher, either. I kind of change systems all the time - sometimes I focus on a project for a few days or even weeks, sometimes I change every half hour. This year, with all the challenges I've been taking part in, I've done a lot of jumping around, and it has been fun, but I feel I'm getting tired of it. I think I need some good focusing to actually finish a few things before the year is out, but we'll see how that goes!

I'm nicely caught up with my SALs - both the Mamluk and the Blackwork SAL have been stitched shortly after being released, and both were super quick and fun this month. Just two more parts to go each!

 The temperature SAL has been stitched as well - it's getting cooler, lots of green days now, and I don't expect to see any more yellow. I actually started the last regular round (the outer border is a little special), and I'm starting to make plans for next year's temperature project!

Last but not least, October was on other one-a-day challenge, and I stuck to working on the Mermaid. I still haven't finished all the skin, but I'm making good progress and still hope to see her finished this year, with the help of the aforementioned focusing!

 Oh, and I almost forgot - WIP count time! I finished the pumpkin hat yesterday, which brought me down to 46! Isn't that nice? I'm pretty sure I'll have another start or two this month, but hopefully those will be quickly finished again, so...yeah.