Emma, the Zig-Zag Scarf - 50%

After finishing my Hermione socks and the corresponding wrist warmers, I needed a new on-the-go knitting project, and instead of starting something new I was good and picked up an old project - the zig-zag scarf named Emma! I actually started this in late 2016 but only posted about it once, and that's pretty much how it had been sitting since then. Which is a shame because it's really fun and pretty! Since picking it back up, it has grown from about 10 inches to almost 32, and I finished the first ball of yarn. I got another one, so that's the 50% mark, and I think I'll get a nice finished length!

This scarf lives in my work bag, so I work on it when I'm not going out during lunch breaks, or during long online meetings. Hopefully this time, I'll stick with it until it is all done!

April Gifted Gorgeousness

Hello and welcome to one of my favourite SALs of the month, Jo's Gifted Gorgeousness! THE place to go for all things gifted and giftee. I'm a little late this month (what else is new?) but I do have some decent progress to show on two projects. Both of them crochet, and both of them you've seen before! First, there is, of course, my big 'Snuggle Up' blanket! I finally finished part 11, so I only got the border left to do. I actually finished for first row of that too, so there are only 3 more rounds to go...unless I decide to do one more repeat to get the colours right, in which case it'll be 6 rows. Right now I got a row of 500+ clusters to face, so we'll see how I feel about it afterwards!

I also worked on my blue amigurumi. Worked on it lots in fact, as it kept me company when I spend a day sick in bed! I even spent some time assembling all the small parts on the head, so you can really see it now...

It's Yoshi! A blue Yoshi, that is. My friend wanted the big knitted Yoshi amiibo, but it's gotten very expensive, so I offered to make him one as a thank you for helping me get my PS5 last year. Hopefully this time next month, Yoshi will be all finished and on his way to a new home!

Guardian of Wayfarers - 90 Hours

Not quite as focused as I'm supposed to be, but I did get in another ten hours on Guardians of Wayfarers! It doesn't all look terribly exciting, as I was mostly filling in more foliage, but I got to use a couple new colours...oh, and the dragon's wing got a couple stitches as well, which was very fun indeed!

What *also* was exciting was that I hit 40% during the last session, 40.6% to be exact. 14,992 crosses done, 17,967 (plus backstitch) left to go! Kind of looking forward to jumping back into this one now.

April Fully Finished Gallery

It's the 10th of the month, and as such, our dear Rachel (the Ten Hour Stitcher) is hosting the Fully Finished Gallery SAL! And for once, I actually got something prepared and am ready to post. You've already seen a couple of these over the years, but in March, I finally stitched up (and finished!) the last of the 2015 Ornaments of the Month by Galdra Stafir (only took me eight years!). Meet Blue Circonia, one of the December birth stones:

Now that the set is all done, I took the opportunity of the nice weather over the weekend to decorate a tree and take pictures outside:

Then I took them down and brought them inside, and to answer the question that I'm sure everyone had (but none dared ask ;) ) - why there is a second loop at the bottom of the ornaments. It's so I can sling them all together and make a (not so little) garland that is now decorating my living room window!

By the way - someone keeps commenting about the tulips in my Easter Blog Hop post. Sadly, they are anonymous so I can't email them directly, so maybe I can reach them here - it was an older kit by Vervaco, so I don't know the designer, but maybe that'll help you find it!

The People Chose: Subversive

Well, how dare April start on a Saturday, so I had zero time to prepare for this (or I could look up the theme before the actual start of the month...but wouldn't that just be prepostorous?!) and now I'm late. As if that *ever* happens to me otherwise! Phew. Lying is hard work. 

Anyways! Welcome to the April Edition of Jo's wonderfully versatile all-purpose SAL, and this month, the topic is 'Subversive'! There are wonderful patterns of that subject matter out there (and Jo even talks a little about the origin of the tradition in her intro post!) but apparently the best I can do is some slight snark. I think I'll need to hit the Etsy wishlists and up my game a little!

Countryside Notes

Sometime last year, I got obsessed with all these miniature its floating around on the internet (I think most of them are Chinese). There are so many and they are all so pretty, and look like they would be a lot of fun to make! I finally caved and bought one. Of course the one I bought was especially small, which is great for display and storage, but in making it I ended up gluing my fingers to stuff more than anything else! However, working on it a little bit here and there, I finished this within a couple weeks of actually starting it (of course the unopened kit sat in my stash for months before I got around to it...), and I think it was well worth some sticky fingertips! Isn't it adorable? I love how it all fits into a little tin!

It even lights up, and has a little stand for display! The two little bunnies enjoy a little breather on their swing out in the lush garden, just outside their fully furnished house.

All in all, making this was a lot of fun, and I really want to get another one...maybe something a little bigger...but I'm holding off for now because I'm not sure where I'd even put one of those!

Easter Treasure Hunt Blog Hop

I apologize to all European (and Asian/Australian) Easter Treasure Hunters as time got away from me so I'm a little late in the day posting - US peeps should be fine because of the time difference - but I think you all still got plenty of time to hop around this Easter weekend!

That being said, welcome to my little corner of Jo's (in)famous Easter Treasure Hunt Blog Hop! No idea what I'm talking about?! Then you should check out her full description of the event here! If you already know what you are doing, you know there are two things two expect from this post. Of course I'll be mean and post a pretty picture first before giving you what you are really here for...

I didn't get aroUnd to stitch anything new this year, so I picked this tUlip pillow I finished a coUple years ago. Isn't it pretty? The bright coloUrs make me happy any time I see them!

So that's it from me this year...now it's time to hop on to get the next letter at A Patchwork of  Crafts! Wait, what about my letter, you ask? Maybe read that second-to-last paragraph over again...I'm sure you'll find a hint, or four!

March WIPocalypse

 So...I have a confession to make. Wait, that sounds way to negative - I just have to tell you that in March, I lost my stitchy bug a little bit. It might have been one of the challenges I signed up for (a daily bracket in which I pitches my projects against each other, and even though I only had five projects selected for it, the daily swapping soon drove my crazy), but mostly I think there was just a lot of other stuff going on. So I ended up doing a decent amount of knitting and crochet, but not much stitching at all, and that means I did not hit my goals for the month. I'm a little bummed, but trying to be okay with it, so instead of putting this off even longer, I'll just show you what I *did* achieve on my WIPocalpyse goals. And hoping that April will go better :) 

First of all, though - the question of the month - Tell us about your favourite place to buy cross stitch supplies. I didn't really have any new discoveries since the last time the question came up. Only I've not been buying any hand dyed fabrics from my usual, favourite dealers recently, because they are all UK based and since Brexit, they have to pay import taxes when getting fabric from Zweigart in Germany, and then I have to pay the fees again when buying the dyed fabrics. It's a dilemma that's really annoying me but for now, I got some pretty fabrics in stash to use. For 'regular' supplies, I will mostly rely on stickstoff.eu und stickteufelchen.de, two German stores I've only had good experiences with so far (again, Lakeside, no longer a viable option, cost wise...)

So, stitching. As every month, I was working on The Loneliness of Autumn, which I am SALing with Rachel, and she's been working on it as well this month!! after taking a break for a while. Of course now that she's back, I'm slacking off...so maybe only one of us can be on track here at a time? I hope not!

So in March, I finished the 920, and then made a start on 471 which was quite exciting, actually - a nice, bright, spring green was something this project was lacking so far, and I had fun stitching it. I just didn't get all that far, and a total of 846 stitches in this month, which is about half of my usual number.

This brings me to a new total of 82812/118800 stitches or 69.71% progress. A bit over 200 stitches left on the 471 and I believe next up is 911, another green but more on the dark side. Maybe I'll get that done in April? Hopefully so!

March was also the first one-a-day challenge month of WIPocalypse, and I forgot to tell you which project I was using for that last month. It's an old, nameless WIP that I have dupped 'Meadow Tablecloth', that is currently one of my oldest WIPs and I want to use these challenges to finish it this year! The goal was one lenght a day, but also finish one of the four sides, which, as you can see, I fell jsut short of, adding just 791 stitches last Month.

For April, I'd love to make up for what I missed in March, and then some, but since my stitchy bug is still in a delicate position, I don't want to push it, and will rather work on what I want to, rather than push myself to meet this goals. I know from experience that I'll get caught up eventually. What I do know is that I have a couple of blog posts to catch up on, both to read and to write, and I'll give those a good push over the upcoming Easter weekend - fingers crossed!