July Fully Finished Gallery

I had all but given up on posting a fully finished object this month, but somehow I didn't feel quite ready to give up yet, so...watch me try and pull a massive shoehorn on this!

I was tyding up my crafting corner the other day (I needed to pack Guardian of Wayfarers away for a bit as the friend I'm making it for is coming over this weekend, and not supposed to see him), I cam across this pair of Felix' pants that I started mending about a year ago. He tore off one off the back pockets in a way that wasn't salvagable, and after I removed the pocket, some small holes and a very visible seam line remained. So I decided to try my hands at visible mending - basically adding some surface embroidery to cover and close and holes in the process. I got about halfway done and then just put it aside for some reason, and picked it up again yesterday for a pretty quick finish.

It was an experiment for sure...so what do you think? Can one get away with wearing these pants again? Can I get away with shoehorning them into the FFO SAL?

July WIPGO

Another month, another WIPGO update. In June, the numbers called corresponded to Guardian of Wayfarers and Red Velvet Cake. I did actually pull out RVC for a couple hours (and it's so lovely to work on with the silks!) but haven't hit my 10 hour goal yet, so won't show you an update yet.

I did, however, put ten hours into Guardian of Wayfarers. It's at 75.07% now, so I'm basically working on the last quarter of the circle (still have quite a bit of backstitch to add as well), and still have hopes of finishing this as a Christmas present...

Last month, I added mostly blues, and I'm actually startign to finish a couple of the shades, which adds an extra layer of motivation for me!

For July, the numbers called were 6 and 25. That's another round of GoW, and also Dark Forces, my first big ful coverage WIP (I think I started it in 2015). It's been a bit neglected lately, so only 23.85% done. You can see what it is supposed to look like when done on my side bar, and I pulled my current progress from PK do give you and idea:

From previous rotations I know I still enjoy working on this, so it would be nice to give it another 10 hours, and it might even be enough to finish the current page. Hope I can get around to it!

So the current state of my WIPGO is as follows - I realize the goal is to fill in the whole board, but technically I'll get a 'Bingo!' just for stitching the 25, no? ;)  

June WIPocalypse

Well hello there! June WIPocalypse has come around and totally steamrolled me be asking for a Half-year recap:  How are you doing with your goals so far this year?

And I can't believe half the year is over already, but I checked my calender and it sure is! As for my goals, well, you've had front row seats to see how they've been derailed - maybe I'm just not cut out for following a strict rotation of any sorts? However, I am not too mad either, having made good progress on some projects, and snuck a couple new ones in there. And I might still make it for one big finish this year, Guardian of Wayfarers just needs a little over 9k stitches now! 

The Loneliness of Autumn, though, has been terribly neglected for almost 3 months now! But, imagine that, I do have a little progress to report and added 566 stitches in June. That does not sound like a lot, but I am still in a very confetti-y area (maybe that's why I stopped working on it?) and it was actually enough to fill in another page!

I'm now at 84.76% and while I have pretty much given up on finishing the project this year, I still hope I can get a couple more pages filled in. The next two (or three, there is a tiny partial page on the right) should go pretty quickly now, and then I'll hit a lot more white space in the next row, but hopefully that also means more stitches in one colour? We'll see about that!

June Smalls SAL

I have decided to no longer start these posts with excuses about how much behind I am, etc etc, because that must be really boring for you. I think I've decided this before and fell back into old habits, we'll see how it goes this time!

Anyways, the Small SAL is a monthly stitch along to show our smalls stitching ('small' being a very wide term) hosted this year by the lovely Rachel. No link up post this month, I hope she's alright.

This year I had plans to stitch the LHN Little Sheep Virtues for this SAL, but have been busy with something else in June (and probably will again in July) - a mini birth annoucement for two very close friends who had their baby girl early this month.

I haven't added the birth info yet, but won't share it online anyways (or blur it out if I do), so for the purpose of this SAL, this is a finish:

 

This is Squirrel Angel by new-to-me designer MiKaStitchDesign on Etsy. This was very nice to stitch and didn't take too long either!

June GIfted Gorgeousness

Once again I am super behind with blogging, both reading and posting and hitting my goals anyways. I know what it is with me this year, but I am still around and eventually I'll get all these posts up and read...probably!

So here is my June checkin for Gifted Gorgeousness, Jo's SAL for all things gifted and giftee.

Last month, I worked some more on the Spice of Life blanket - at this point I don't think I can get it done in time for our nibbling's birth in August, but every row counts!

I also made another Amigurumi - the pokémon Corsola, for my best friend's birthday. She bought an official plush a while back but it was stolen at the post office, and then she was so sad she couldn't get another one, so I made her one instead - these tiny pieces on the spikes were a pain to make, but I'm really happy with the result!

June Fully Finished Gallery

Despite having my sewing done really early this month, I'm posting pretty late...this time it was stuffing the little pillows that had to wait until the very last moment. Maybe I'm just a lost cause! But I did do some finishing this month, so maybe the timing isn't all that important.

First, I finished two more of my Little Sheep Virtues pillows - Peace, which you've seen as a failed finish before, and Faith, a much more recent finish. Since I accepted them all being a little different, I'm really having fun with these!

The other finish is one I believe I have not showed you since I finished stitching, I believe - it's my Meadow Tablecloth, that I used for the last couple WIPocalypse one-a-day challenges, and previously my oldest WIP. I finally finished the stitching earlier this year and, since the stitching as the sparse and the stitches so big, didn't quite trust the backside - so I covered it in very thin iron-on interfacing. Probably won't fall as nicely anymore, but it's a pretty small tablecloth anyway so not the kind you'd have hanging down on all sides of the table - and my stitching is safe now!

I think that's me caught up for finish-finishing everything I stitched this year, at least...but still plenty to go in my box of shame, so we'll see what I can whip up next month!

May WIPocalypse

Another really late WIPocalypse checkin, and another one I don't have much to talk about, as well - my stitching bug has returned, but was almost fully occupied with the Book of Fungi SAL in May. I do have grand plans to return to regularly scheduled stitching, that is, The Loneliness of Autumn, now in June, though; if not for a full 10 hours, then at least for a couple hundred stitches.

I will also not be taking part in the one-a-day challenge for this month; I usuall really enjoy these but, again, does not fit in will with all my SAL stitching currently. I am hoping that by the next challenge in October I will be back to regular business enough to pick up my last tablecloth for this challenge, though!

So the only thing that remains to talk about today is the question - How do you personally distinguish between a Work in Progress (WIP) and an Unfinished Object (UFO)? The simple answer would be, I don't, or rather, I can't. All my projects are WIPs, as I intend to go back and finish them eventually. If I actually want to 'be done' with an unfinished project and find closure, I need to give it away, frog, or trash it.
Currently I got only one project that is steering into UFO territory, it's a SAL that never had all parts released and at this point it is unsure whether they ever will be - although I'm still in contact with the designer, so not giving up hope just yet!

Last time I worked on it was in 2021 and this is how it currently looks:

May Smalls

First weekend of the month and time for the May Smalls post...what do you mean it's supposed to be last Friday, not first Sunday? Shhh, no one noticed! 

So as you (glares at unspecified reader) helpfully pointed out, I'm a little late, but I did stitch up SImplicity, the 6th one of the Little Sheep Virtue series! I am now halfway done and starting unto the second piece of fabric I set aside for this series.

Simplicity was a rather quick stitch - apart from the border, there's not a lot of dense stitching going on, but it was fun and between the birdhouse, the flowers and the little bees, is very cute!

June WIPGO

Look. I know I seem to be caught in a perpetual game of trying to get caught up on stuff, but maybe I find it *fun* to do so...have you ever thought about that?! Well, I kind of do and I kind of don't, but that's not what I am here to talk about today - I want to tell you about my WIPGO progress, before I get stuck in this months's projects! Hopefully. Anyways!

In May, we had three numbers called (one of which being the free field), and I actually hit two of my goals, and while that still means I am behind by two, I kind of made up for that in other ways - and I got my stitchy bug back! But first things first, I did work on Guardian of Wayfarers for 10 hours, added 1775 stitches and brought it up to 71%. I'm still positive I might be able to finish it this year!

As you can see I am actually almost finished with the dragon itself, so I think I might do some more backstitching soon. Will see!

The other goal I managed was the new start...and I did a little bit more than 10 hours on that one. The first three parts of the Book of Fungi SAL dropped in May, and I stitched them all, for a total of 6568 stitches. Yes, I was slightly obessed with this, and that's what brought my stitchy bug back, so I spent about 38 hours on it, but here is the completed book cover:

Isn't the little froggy on the back just the cutest?! The first of the actual pages will drop this week, and I'm very excited for it! I will try and stay caught up on this, even if it means falling further behind on WIPGO and other goals.

For June, the numbers pulled were another slot for GoW, and also Red Velvet Cake. This is a project I've been lookng forward to a lot - a pattern by Glendon Place that I got as a gift from my grandparents several years ago, along with the silks and a really nice fabric from Polstitches. I have no idea why I only put in a tiny start and then never touched it again...it must be 8 years or so now!

So my board currently looks like this - as you can see we only need 17 or 7 now for a BINGO on the diagonal, but of course we're all aiming to get the whole thing filled in! Even if it might take me a bit longer than December, I won't be mad if I can also get an additional finish or two on the way.

May Gifted Gorgeousness

Welcome to the May installment of the Gifted Gorgeousness, one of my favourite SALs as hosted by the marvelous Jo, and the one stop SAL for all things gift and gifted! As you know, I've spent a lot of time knitting and crocheting lately, and as my yarn projects are often gifts, you'd think I'd have something to show for this SAL...and you'd be right!

I finally finished the granny square blanket I'd been working on all year - joined all the squares, then added a bit of a border. I've had this project in mind for a very long time and I'm quite pleased with how it all came together - just in time too, as the baby is due June 7th!

But no rest for the knitting (or crocheting!), I already started the nest blanket and hope to be able to finish it by mid August. This is the Spice of Life pattern, quite a popular blanket by Sandra Paul, but I'm doing it in my own colour way of off white with some bright colours. 

This is Part 1 of the blanket - I just started this 10 days ago and hope to have a lot more to show by next month!

The Delicate Cardigan

I feel like I'm always telling you guys how much knitting and crochet I am doing, but don't always update you on what I actually knit and crochet - sorry about that! A big part of the reason is issues with taking pictures - with knit garments, there often isn't a ton of progress visible until it's done, and then you need to wear it and get good lighting to get decent pictures - definitely a two person job! I'll try to get better at updating you though, and maybe find out a good way to take progress pictures too.

For now, I have a finish to report - you might remember the cardigan I started last summer? It's been finished, and finish-finished, and blocked and washed and today I finally got around to taking pictures!

I'm really happy with how this turned out, it's comfy and warm, fits well and I love the colour. It was quite a big project because it was a pretty thin yarn, so it took some time, and I was happy to finally finish it - in time for when the air conditioning goes on in my office, I'll need something warm then!

So that has kept me busy for some time...I got another finish to share, and then a couple WIPs I'll try to get pictures of eventually. But don't worry, a stitching update is coming up as well!

May Fully Finished Gallery

Linking up with Rachel for this monthly SAL of 'doing something with your stitched pieces except for putting them in a folder'...

Another month has passed that I barely touched my sewing machine...it's alright though, because I got an other finish-finish that I am very proud of, it just didn't require any sewing! It did, however, involve one of the oldest pieces in my folder of shame.

Last Christmas, I got a gift set from Rituals (shower gel, body loion and such) that came in a very nice box. I knew I wanted to use the box for something, but it took a while until inspiration struck. Here it is, before I started:

Eventually, I figured out what I was going to do, because the lid had just the right size for this Christmas tree I stitched many many years ago!

Can you tell already? I ended up covering the whole box in Christmas fabrics (using a ton of double sided tape and even some spray on glue) and put my stitching on the lid!

I'm very happy with how it turned out. This will hold my stitched Christmas ornaments and some other decorations that life in an old shoe box for now. Much more in style, isn't it? The stitching itself isn't perfect and there is bit of a permanent crease that, after almost 20 years, I couldn't quite get out, but this way it is still useful and I don't have to be too crazy about keeping it absolutely prestine at all times. I'm pretty happy with my finish and plan to make another one - I got one more sturdy box and a piece to go on the lid, but I haven't found the right fabric yet so it will have to wait a while longer. Still, one down in my folder of finishes!

May WIPGO

Well, I know May is halfway gone already, but I was thinking about what to do about my WIPGO. In my last post I wrote about how my stitching bug had been a bit absent in April, replaced by lots of knitting and crochet, but I think part of it was that both in February and March, I had a WIPGO project I brought close to a finish, then had to put away again just when I was getting into the groove. And Jacquie, which came up in April, was shaping up to be another one on that list, so I was reluctant to pick it up. To be honest, I am still not too sure what to do about it, but the May picks were a bit different, so that gives me another month to figure things out, I guess! I have since started two SALs (one was the Book of Fungi, the other one is a Faby Reilly I'll show you soon) and that has revived my urge to stitch, so what does that say about me? I think I might just not be cut out to adhere to a stitching schedule very closely, I need the flexibility to change my plans throughout the year...

Anyways, the one WIPGO goal I did meet in April was 10 hours on Guardian of Wayfarers, which brought me here (and several new 'zeros' on Cross Stitch Saga as I finished up colours)! I added 1496 stitches for a new total of 66.6%.

 

For May, the numbers called were 5, 19 and 13. 13 is the 'free spot' in the middle of the board, so there was an extra number called. I had put 'new start' for this and while I was planning to start Greenhouse of Oddities when the number came up, I substituted for the Book of Fungi SAL since the first part was released last week and I really, really wanted to start it right away! The other numbers equals two appearances of Guardian of Wayfarers, so I'll try and make some decent headway on him. 

Other than that we'll see if I get back to Jackquie, and I should also work on my small and TLoA but...SALs! Sigh. Days are just too short...

April WIPocalypse

Another month down, another WIPocalypse...this one is going to be a short one, though. Why? Well, to be honest...I haven't been stitching a whole lot in April, and haven't touched The Loneliness of Autumn, my main WIPocalypse piece, even once since the last checkin! One reason for that being that I am firmly stuck in my yarncrafts at the moment, doing a log of knitting and crochet (I just never seem to remember to show those until they are done!), and the other having to do with a bit of personal frustration...I'm still working out what exactly has been putting me off, but will probably talk about it more in my upcoming WIPGO post. Anyways! That's a whole lot of words just to say I am alive and well, just not stitching a whole lot at the moment.

So for this post, I'll only be talking about the question of the month, and keep it short. The question for April was Which designers have you discovered lately? While I haven't actually stitched any new designers lately, I did sign up for a SAL that starts soon and that I am very excited about, and by a new-to-me designer - Living on the Rainbow. Their Ets-shop has a ton of cute designs, but their specialty are 3D cross stitch designs that are finished in really fun ways, including the Witches library, a series of little stitched books. I will be stitching the newest edition in this series, the Book of Fungi, when it starts releasing later this week:

Maybe this will help me get out of my stitching slump! I ordered the kit (everything you need to stitch and finish, minus the threads itself) from Lady Ravenga because it came with these cute metal book corners and an adorable mushroom charm as well as some fabrics for finishing, and was reasonably priced. If it's as much fun as it looks, I might get the other books at a later date, but for now, fungi it is!

April Smalls SAL

Last Friday was the check in for the Aprils Smalls SAL as hosted by the wonderful Rachel this year - and I am definitely getting closer! For this SAL, I am stitching the Little Sheep Virtues series by LittleHouseNeedlewords this year, and in April I finished #5, Faith.

Now I am not quite sure why there is a giant carrot growing out of the roof of that house, but the little black sheep is very cute, don't you think?

April Gifted Gorgeousness

Here we go for the April installment of Jo's Gifted Gorgeousness - as you might be able to tell, I'm getting caught up, with the distance between link up dates and my actual posting getting slightly shorter, haha.

I'm still working on my granny square baby blanket - getting a little antsy to get this one done as I have so many other babies I should start crafting for, but most of the things I'm planning to make should still be welcome once the litle ones are a couple months old, so as long as I can finish everything this year I should be fine.

For this month, I finished the last of the squares, wove in all the ends, and started joining them. I spent some time finding a pleasing layout, trying to create a bit of a colour gradient. I've now assembled the squares into three long stripes, so I can move them without using the layout, but they still need a ton more joins to make an actual blanket!

I've also had a new vacation start - I project I've been meaning to start for a while, as the yarn was a Christmas gift from my husband. But actually starting required casting on 509 stitches and that just seemed too daunting a task! Perfect to tackle when I had some more time, though, so I did and got the first 10 rows or so in. It's going to be a massive shawl, called Blanket to Go because that's basically what it is, but right now it looks like some green worm of sorts:

It's not all green, though - I did a little colour swatch before I started, to demonstrate the gradient I'm planning:

Probably going to take me a while for sheer size, but I'm looking forward to getting all the colours in there!

April Fully Finished Gallery

Hi, it's me! Still behind and still fighting my sewing machine, but slowly getting there. Today I am checking in (once again, very late) with Rachel's Fully Finished Gallery, where we attempt to do something with all these pieces lurking in our treasure chests and boxes of shame.

Last month I shared my struggles with finishing the second one of the Little Sheep Values. They have been continuing, but after some more sewing and unsewing and cutting and measuring I've come to a couple conclusions:

1) It's a bit of a curse that the first one I finished came out so neat and perfect because

2) I probably don't have the sewing skills yet to make 12 identical pillows and finally

3) I'm probably okay with that.

My first concession was to get some different kinds of lace - I didn't have enough of the original one for 12 pillows anyway - so they'd all look a little different because of that alone. Then, after I had sewn, frogged and resewn Courage just to discover it was still a bit wonky and I probably wouldn't be able to fix it cause I had made a mistake with cutting, I had a good long think and realized - it's okay. I finished Hope next, and for that one I had to do the centering of the stitched piece differently anyways because it has a big button right in the corner, and now that there are three (and not just one perfect and one wonky one) I'm feeling more at ease with them. I will continue to practice, but if in the meantime not everything comes out perfect, I will accept it - how else am I going to make progress? So here we have LSV #1, #2 (finished two months ago) and #4. I'll try to re-finish #3 Peace and #5 (which I am currently stitching) for next month.

WIPGO - April

April is halfway gone already (I know we are getting close to 2/3...but until then, we're going with halfway!) and I am still veeeery much behind on stuff around here...but I just came back from a very nice four day vacation and still got a week and a half of work, and I'm very motivate to get stuff done! In fact, most of the reason I am behind on stuff was putting in some extra time at work so I could get everything done in leave for two weeks with a clean concience. So we'll see what I can get done with all this time! (probably I now jinxed it and won't get anything done at all, but one can hope...)

Anyway, while it's a little late, here we go with my April WIPGO post...March was pretty successful, while I had some spil over into April to get all my goals done, it wasn't my WIPGO-goals, so all is well on that front ;) 

For Guardian of Wayfarers, I added 1481 stitches in March. No backstitch this time as I realized I had a LOT more left to do in crosses! But I'm finally starting to see some 0s (colours with no stitches left), so that was pretty exciting. And in April, I might even get to stitch a bit on the actual dragon, so that's another exciting thing to look forward to!

My other project for March was Charming, a Dimensions Gold Petit kit I started some years ago. I put in 1639 stitches and look how close it is to a finish now! I finished the cat himself and made some progress on the cushion (or whatever that is) too. Just 1342 stitches left to go (plus some minimal backstitch that I don't have in Pattern Keeper, but it really isn't all that much!). So depending how the year goes, I might come back to finish it, or definitly do that next year - I'm starting to think 2025 might be a year of finishes again!

Now for April the numbers called were 18 and 21, so that means another rotation of Guardian of Wayfarers (that's working well so far!) and also Jacquie comes out to play:

This is the last panel that needs to be stitched, so half of part 7 and all of part 8. I'd say I *might* get a finish on this, but part 8 has a lot of stump work to do (four more of these wings!) and that takes a lot of time, so I'm not sure. At the very least, I will get close, though!

Here is the board for April - looking good so far!

March Smalls SAL

Still in the process of catching up, both stitching and blog wise - and today I'm linking up the the Smalls SAL, hosted by Rachel this year. I started the 4th of the Little Sheep Values last weekend, and finally finished it yesterday! These stitch up really quickly once you get stuck in, and I really enjoy working on them. 

April was Courage, and it's very pretty with the different greens and the purple. I'm really glad I'm finally stitching these this year - now my finishing just needs to catch up to my stitching!

March WIPocalypse

Once again, I am on a mission to get caught up with...just about everything! I need to stitch things, read things, blog things...you know the drill, but work has been a bit crazy the last two weeks and I just haven't had as much time as I wanted, even with the long Easter weekend (most of which we spend with Felix' family). I'll get there though, you know I always do eventually!

So let's dive right into the question of the month - What colors – and brands – of floss do you love using? Do you have a particular color that you absolutely love? I love pretty much anything that isn' brown, tan or gray - nothing against the neutrals, but we use them a lot in stitching and they can get a bit boring! Bright colours though, or pastels...lovem. Especially the ones which are really soft colours, and really soft floss...you know the ones I'm talking about! Brandwise, I don't really have a favourite. I'm perfectly happy with good old DMC, love a good hand dyed, and silk...oh boy. Yes, I admit, I'm a flossaholic! 

Now for actual stitching, again I made progress on The Lonelines of Autumn, my long time SAL with Rachel, the Ten Hour Stitcher! I didn't quite make my goal of one length a day, but still managed more stitches than in February when I did...it's all about how the colours work out, I guess! 1506 stitches added brought me to 84.29%, and 100,132 stitches finished - I have to say, hitting this 100k milestone felt like a big deal!

I also had another page finish up in the middle there - 8 down, many more to go (honestly, I didn't count)!

For the one a day challenge in March, I worked on Meadow Tablecloth, one of my oldest WIPs, and actually it took me just 11 days to finish it! Full picture coming up once it's had a wash an iron, but here is sneak peak in the mean time.

I decided to take the rest of the month off from the challenge, but had a look at my next oldest WIP, another table cloth, and it's actually less stitching than I remembered...so I might just pull that out for the next challenge month!

Jo's Easter Treasure Hunt Blog Hop 2024

So sorry for the late post! I should have written it right after getting up this morning, because then my day got a bit derailed (nothing bad, don't worry, just not quite as planned) and litereally only remembered when I just went to bed to sleep! So this is going to be a quick one, just in case you'e been waiting for the letter all day.

Hello and welcome to my little entry in Jo's Easter Treasure Hunt Blog Hop for 2024! Please check out her blog for all the details, but assuming you've done that, I know you are here for three things: a picture of something Easter-y I stitched - I already used this for Valentine's, but I really liked it, and it really fits for Easter too, this is Valentine's Hare by Stitcher's Anon:

A letter to collect - which is O - and the next blog to hop to: http://www.marysthread.com/

Again, so sorry to keep you waiting - have a very happy Easter, and see you soon!

March Gifted Gorgeousness

Continuing my theme of late check ins, here we go with the March Gifted Gorgeousness! This long time SAL by Jo continues to be one of my favourites, as I usually have plenty of gift projects on the go.

This year there are a lot of babies to craft for, any my current project is a granny square blanket for one of them. I'm almost done making the squares - just 6 more to go!

Hopefully, by the next GG, I'll have them all done and joined together. I am making this up as I got, so will see how much of a border I'll give it - probably a couple rounds, though. Maybe fringes, too, we will see!

One more gift project was finished this month, for my grandma's birthday - of course she had to have another pair of wrist warmers, and as she really liked the neon yarn from those socks I made, I used that (plus some black since I didn't have a lot left over) to make her some. I was in such a hurry to gift them that I forgot a picture of the full pair, though, so here is the first one and you can use your imagination to picture its twin!

The Sock-Blog

Lately, I've been very into knitting (perhaps helped by the fact that some of my closest friends have also been doing a lot of knitting lately), and I don't always know how to incorporate that into my blog here. I know many of you don't knit and have no idea what I'm talking about when I'm going into specifics, and sometimes the WIP pictures don't give you a great idea of the progress I'm making if you're not a knitter myself! I do try, however, to at least update you on any finishes I have, but it seems I have been amiss doing even that. So today I wanted to remedy that fact, and show you two pairs of socks I have recently finished. I even treated mself to some wooden sock blockers off Etsy - these 2D feet shapes that you can put your socks on so they stay in shape, as sometiems socks can look quite weird without a foot inside!

First, we got the 'Little Hocus Pocus' socks by This Handmade Life. For this, I used some really nice, super soft hand dyed merino sock yarn that I bought at the yarn fair last November. I actually started these socks right after I got home, but then got distracted by other stuff over Christmas and only finished them in early February.

I just love patterns with cables, so these were very fun to make - they are symmetrical, by the way, so the right sock has the same cable, just on the other side! 

These were made for myself (a rare thing for me, I know, but I'm getting better at it) and took me just over 21 hours to make, which seems a ridiculously time for a pair of socks...I'm not a very fast knitter, but again, getting better now that I'm getting more practice!

Then we got these - the pattern is called Mokamami and it's been designed by Birgit Ka. My friend Sam made a pair in a violent neon green and it turns out this pattern is just amazing for crazy yarn, so I dug out this Regia Neon that I got years ago and made a pair of my own.

I really like how these turned out - maybe not a look for every day, but they were so fun to make and I think would make great house socks or something. Again, took me 22 hours to make, but they are a little bigger as they are not for my own tiny feet, but for a friend of mine.

These took me just over a month, from early February to early March, and before you ask, I did start a new pair since then, but it is not much to show yet, so will get to it at some point later.

March Fully Finished Gallery

Welcome to my (very late) update for the March Fully Finished Gallery, in which I...admit defeat? Learn a lesson? Maybe both. 

March has been a bit of a crazy month for me, not because of any one thing, but because I've been sick a little, my grandma has been sick a medium amount, and Felix has been sick a lot (he's still feeling very under the weather this week), throw in a couple birthdays and a lot of work...so my best laid plans have been derailed. Crafting is still happening, but after work and chores and anything else that might come up, I just want to sit on my couch and relax, not get out my sewing machine!

So my grande plans of finishing both Little Sheep Virtues Hope (January) and Peace (March) were severely derailed. I found some time to iron the stitching and cut the fabrics, but couldn't committ to actually sit and sew! not being able to face losing my 'streak' for FFG, I tried to force it last night, sitting at my sewing machine at a time that I should actually have been in bed already...I kept messing up and making stupid mistakes, but I was tired and stubborn and pressed on. And of course, I messed up big time with the seam allowance and ended up with this...I could have screamed in frustration!

I'm moderately sure I can fix it...unpick it, cut new fabric for the front, and do it all again. The stitching is not lost. But lesson learned - I'm getting better with the sewing machine, but not good enough to work tired and under a time crunch! So I'm going to take a step back. I'm going to accept that a finished object is not going to happen this month. I'm sure I'll make up for it eventually...or maybe not, and that's okay too. I'm still posting this to show you I tried, and will (hopefully) be back with better results next year!

WIPGO - March

My second month of WIPGO was slightly less successful than the first one - I actually had to spend about 40 minutes today to reach my last goal. Now could blame that one the month being a day short; but honestly, I was also 'slacking off' around the middle of the month, focusing on a couple knitting and crochet projects, so it's not as if I don't know where the time went! Still, 40 minutes is not a lot, and I did reach my other goals for the month too, so I'm still counting this as a success.

I did 1000 cross stitches on Guardian of Wayfarers - all of them blue - then spent the remainder of my ten hours back stitching (I don't have an accurate count on that, as CrossStitch Saga counts backstitch differently than I usually do). It did bring my new total to 58.5%, however, which is nicely on track to finishing this year!

You can see the difference the backstitch makes...I mostly added the branches in the background, but also started a little bit on the dragon's wing. Lots more to go, though!

My other project for the month was the Lizzie Stitching Wallet by FabyReilley Designs. I continued where I left off the last time I worked on it (probably I couple years ago), finishing section 5 (cross stitch) and 6 (backstitch, knots and beads) of the SAL, which completed the outside of what will evenually be...well, a stitching wallet.

I then scrolled down to a fresh section of fabric, and spent some time outlining the inside of the wallet, which will eventually hold Section 7, 8, and part of 9. I even managed to stitch up all of section 7, and make a small start on section 8.

I think another ten hours might see the stitching done or very close to done (there is very extensive finishing instructions, though). I'll also need to locate the right shade of green felt (not sure if I already bought it when I started this project, or not) for section 8 and 9.

So, let's look at the board for March, then:

My plan is still working out nicely, with one call of GoW and one other project...which is Charming, my little kitty. I've worked on this one on and off over the last year or two, but never focused on it so I'm not sure when's the last time I showed it - at any rate, this is where he's currently at:

I got about 2000 stitches to go on this one, plus some (mild) backstitching, so it probably won't be done in ten hours...but it might just get close enough to try and finish it anyways. We'll see how it goes!

And there we are - add in TLoA, my monthly sheep, and some crochet, and I'm all set for another month - let's go!

February WIPocalypse

Once again, the end of the month hits me completely unprepared...and that with the month being a day longer and all! But that shall not keep me from jumping right into the February WIPocalypse post, and making the rest up as I go.

First, the question of the month - What stitch-a-longs (SALs) are you participating in this year? Most of them are monthly blogging things - I do Rachels Fully Finished Gallery on the 10th of the month, and the Smalls SAL on the last Friday, as well as Jo's Gifted Gorgeousness and, of course WIPocalypse! I also joined a 'Year of the Dragon' SAL on Facebook and WIPGO, which fits nicely as they both focus on my Guardian of Wayfarers.

Now for my stitching this month, it was not as successful as it was in January, but I still met my goal of one length a day and filled in some of the empty space around the middle of row two:

I added just 1379 stitches this month and didn't quite make another page finish - not enough to finish the whole piece at this rate, but I'm not giving up just yet! I did reach one mile stone, and that was 600 hours stitched on this design. At just over 83%, I have a feeling I might hit 700 before it is done...

Now for the making-it-up-as-I-go part: It's the one stitch a day challenge again in March, and since I still haven't made it any further, I am once again participating with my Meadow tablecloth. I think for once I will actually ry to make it every day and not just hit the total number of stitches...I finally want this finished!

February Smalls SAL

And here we go for the February installment of the Smalls SAL, hosted by the wonderful Rachel this year :) I am stitching Little House Needleworks' Little Sheep Virtues this year, and so far I am nicely on track, having just finished the third installment - peace:

Spring has sprung for out little sheep, and there are lots of leaves, flowers, and even some little fish in this design. I love how it's all come together and will try to finish-finish this one soon!