February WIPcolaypse

 Another month gone, and we are heading firmly into spring now! This week we've been having some of the first actually warm (well. warm for February) and sunny days of the year, and it instantly improved my mood a bunch.

February was a pretty good crafting month for me - you've seen most of my finishes, but I got a couple more posts in the pipeline, two finishes (that are waiting for a group post) and also a some progress shots. With Charming and the ponchos I got to cross off two more WIPs off my list, so (not counting a small knitting WIP I started for break time at work - and I'm not putting that on the official list as I am gong through one or two of these projects a week recently) I am down to 55 WIPs while still chipping away at some of the bigger ones. Pretty happy with my progress so far!

Since I stuck it out and finished two of the projects that came up with my random wheel, I don't have anything else to show, so next up is the question of the month - What stitch-a-longs (SALs) are you participating in this year? I'm only really doing WIPocalyose these months, as all my other usual go-tos seem to be on hiatus. That is fine, though, I enjoy having an extra degree of freedom in my crafting and blogging, and it's nice to not constantly feel guilty for being behind on check-in posts, haha!

March is one of two One-Stitch-a-Day challenges for the year, so I am going to pull out my oldest WIP (the blue table cloth I was talking about last month) to work on. I really want to finish is this year, and didn't realize we only had two challenges instead of the usual four, so I might give it some extra love to at least finish the third side this month. We'll see how it goes!

 

Charming

 These days, my random wheels keep hitting projects that are close enough to a finish to just stick with them, so that is what I'm doing! In February, I finished Charming, a Dimensions Gold Petite kit that I bought on our trip to California in 2018 (it was one of the big crafting chains that had it on clearance, can't remember which) and started in the hotel while we were visiting Yosamite. It came with me to Japan in 2019 too, so lots of memories in this one! 

I had worked on it on and off, so this month I only had to finish about ~1,200 stitches, plus some back stitch. Here he is:

 This was my first Dimensions kit, and I know many people curse them for the stiff aida and the four stand half stitches, but I have to say, I kind of like them! Which is a good thing because I got a bunch more in stash. We'll see when I can get to them, but for now that's one less WIP on the go!

The Tired Trio

In the beginning of February, we took a little trip to Berlin, and I brought along a little new start for the train ride. I did get some work done on the train, but also stuck with it for two weeks when back at home because I enjoyed it so much!

This pattern was a gift from my good friend Becky, who stitched the pattern last year. But not only was she so kind to send me her copy of the pattern, she also got me most of the threads used in this design! I felt very loved and knew I had to stitch this up soon.

By a lucky coincident, I also had a lovely piece of fabric in my stash in the perfect size, so I got stitching and now I can introduce you to *drumroll please*

 The Tired Trio by Plum Street Samplers! Aren't these three just precious? I very much feel the middle one! Plus, the colours in these flowers are so pretty. I am thrilled with how this turned out!

Two Red Ponchos

I had a big crochet finish the other day - not so much in 'this took ages to make' but literally big! About a year ago, a coworker gave me 20 balls of this red yarn that she herself had gotten from her sister, and neither of them really had a use for. She asked me if I wanted them, and who am I to turn down free yarn?

Turns out, though, the yarn was a bit awkward - it was an old wool/polyacryl mix that's too scratchy to wear on the skin. I thought about making an outdoor cardigan, but the yarn was rather bulky and the yardage wasn't quite right for any of the patterns I looked at. In the end, I decided to make a very simple hooded poncho for myself. And then grandma saw it and loved it, so as I had way too much yarn for just one anyways, I made a second, hoodless and slightly smaller, poncho for her.

 That's all 20 skeins used up, and a whole tote bag of yarn out of my stash! They also turned out very nice and warm and comfy, so both of us are very happy with the result.

Happy Valentines Day!

There used to be a Valentines Day Blog Hop on this day, but hasn't in a while. Still, if you've been following me for a while, you know I like to craft something love-related for Felix every year, and I'll still use this spot to show it!

This year, I had a grande planned, that I only got to implement about 3/4ths. Some years back, my grandma gave me a set of stationary that came in a red leather box that looks a bit like a letter. It was a beautiul packaging but not really practical to keep around longterm, so the stationary now lives in my drawer and the box was to be upcycled this year.

In January, I stitched up the Haunted Hearts Mailbox by Haunted Frames. Isn't it super cute? I then glued that to the box. That was stage 1 of the plan.

 Stage 2 was to write up a bunch of lovey-dovey quotes and saying on little pieces of paper and put them in there, so Felix can take one out and reading whenever he's having a bad day. The original grande plan was to write up enough for every day, but I quickly realized I wasn't going to make 365 writings!

I then wanted to get to a hundred at least, but with work becoming incredibly busy and me being sick this week, I didn't make that too. There are about 40 in there, but it still looks pleasantly full! I might write up some more and sneak them in there when he's running low, we'll see how it goes. 

January WIPocalypse

 Can you believe the first month of the year is already over? And quite a month is has been! However, I am quite happy with my personal achievements this month. I got caught up on blog-writing, almost caught up on blog-reading, and got a lot of crafting done!

Before we get into my progress for the month, the Question of the Month for January. Tell us about the oldest WIP you have in your stash. In fact, this is one you've seen a couple times last year, and WILL see a couple of times this year! This is a stamped table cloth kit I started well over 20 years ago, and have been bringing out whenever we got a "One stitch a Day" challenge going on. What you see here is the third of four sides, so I'm actually over halfway done now and hope to finish is this sometime later this year!

Now for my progress this month. You've seen most of what I've been up to. I had one finish - the One Love KAL shawl - and no new starts, or rather, only one new start that I finished pretty much straight away (you haven't seen that one year, but it's my Valentine's gift for Felix for the year, so I will be posting it closer to the date). So that brings my WIP count down by one to 57. Not a bad start for the year, considering I've mostly been chipping away on some bigger WIPs!

Apart from the gift, there are two more projects I've worked on that haven't come up on the blog so far. Both were picks of my RNG wheel and thus part of my goal to work on as many of my WIPs as possible this year. First, there was Lady and the Tramp - long time readers might remember this kit from the Thomas Kinkade Disney Dreams collection from my early blogging days, but I haven't worked on it in quite a while. I added a little over 500 stitches but also did some house keeping, like replacing disintegrating floss cards.

The other was a crochet project that I've not shown here before. I have since reached my original goal on it, but decided to keep going until I finish. So I'm sure it'll come up again here on the blog quite soon!

February has the Olympic stitching challenge from the 6th to the 22nd of the month. There are different challenges to choose - we can either focus on something representative of our nation or in colours of the olympic rings, rotate through a lot of WIPs, or focus on one WIP alone. I have several ideas of what I want to do, but have not yet decided. I still got a couple of days to think it over, and you know I'm not a big planner! 

Queen of the Pirates - 30 Hours

As predicted, I reached another ten hour mark on Queen of the Pirates before reaching my stitch goal. In fact, I still got about 600 stitches left to go, but I'll get there soon!

I've been working on her hat, adding most of the hat itself, but also the gold trim along the upper edge (doing a bunch of quarter and three-quarter stitches with two strands of blended DMC light effects is *quite* the adventure, let me tell you!) and the feathers (all DMC satin, but not too bad to work with). 

 

 Sadly, the lighting on this picture isn't great, so you can't see how shiny these feathers are - with the short days in winter, I can only really take pictures in daylight on weekend mornings, and I didn't want to wait that long to stitch on her again! So hopefully, we'll get a better pictures next time she comes around.

By the way, while her head and hat feel pretty big already, this ist just about 11% of the deign as a whole...lots left to go, but it's a fun stitch! 

...and into 2026

Just as I ended the last year with some knitting finishes, I started this year with a knitting finish! This is the One Love shawl by Joji Knits. It was a mystery call last November that I started with a couple friends, but I got off track while focusing on Christmas presents and being sick. I picked it back up in January, finished it, and just put it on the blocking matt this last weekend!

 

Isn't the colour just beautiful? I had this one skein of merino/silk dyed with natural dyes by some local dyer (how often can I use the word 'dye' in one sentence?) for ages, but I think combining it with this really simple lace repeat was the right call. It brings the colours out marvelously!

In other knitting news, I picked my Blanket To Go by knitcat Designs back up. I think I showed it once or twice before when I was still working on the first colour - I have now finished the second and, since taking this picture, started on the third.

 

 There are going to be five colours in total, so I got quite a bit to go still, but so far, I am really enjoying myself, so we'll see how far I'll get before becoming bored with the repeat!

Knitting out of 2025...

 After frantically stitching and crocheting to finish the Christmas gifts I showed you last post, I closed 2025 out with some knitting.

After Christmas, we stayed with a friend for two days, and I had promised to make him a hat. Since I wanted to finish it while there (so I had access to his head for trying on!), I spent those two days busyily knitting away while chatting and playing games, and actually managed to finish in time. He's very happy with his new head, and I am happy getting this project off my to do list! This is the Circle & Square hat from Martina Behm of Strickmich Designs, and I used a Schoppel Zauberball 100% wool in the colourway "Sphinx".

 

Back at home, I spent a little time fully finishing the Tsunami socks (from Knitted Socks East and West by Judy summer) that I had started earlier this year to bring to a conference. I really loved this pattern, it's so simple, but simply stunning!

 

This yarn, called 'Sonntags am Bodensee' (Sunday at the Lake Constance), was absolutely perfect for the pattern. Sadly, it's a one-off by GemachtmitLiebe, who is no longer with us, so there is no way to get more of it now. For this reason I had been hesistant to use it, but very happy with the result now that I did!

2025 Christmas Gifts

I still got a couple of things from last year that I never got around to show you, so I will try to sneak them in between current updates! Today, I want to show you the Christmas gifts I finished in December.

First of all, I finished the "A Spicier Life" blanket by Sandra Paul for my little nephew. After finishing the pattern (I added an extra section so I had equal repeats of each colour) I did the border, while simultanously tying down all the loose ends so I didn't have to weave all of them in. I'm really happy with how this turned out and how the colours came together!

 Next was Christmas ornaments - Silent Night by Barbara Ana Design for Felix' grandma, Grumpy Cat by Brooke's Books for his mum, and the two Shannon Christie Minis were for my sister in law and Nephew's first Christmas:

 

And last but not least, a finished nephew's mini birth sampler for the great grandma's wall of grand- and great-grandchildren! He was born in October, so his birth flower is the Calendula. Here is is before adding the name and birthdate:

 

 

Queen of the Pirates - 20 Hours

I'm not only working on my random wheel projects, sometimes I also focus on stuff for different reasons...in this case, it's a quest for one of my stitching games that has me giving some love to my Queen of the Pirates! 

After doing most of her face, I now started working on the hat, and reached the upper rim which is very sparkly and golden. Which looks great although it is not that much fun to stitch - lots of partial stitches, in DMC Light Effects metallics, and blending two different colours together so I can't even use the loop method! It will be worth it, though, just see how pretty it looks:

 

I just picked her up a couple of days ago and added 600 stitches so far, and brought me to 20 hours...and for this quest I got over 2000 stitches left to go. Pretty sure I'll reach 30 hours and show you more progress before I get there! 

2026 WIPocalypse Kickoff

Hello everyone - in 2012, we all joked about the end of the world, and now the WIPocalypse SAL is starting its 15th year! For me, it's the 13th year I participate - this SAL just won't die, and aren't we all glad about it. Measi's brainchild is such a nice, low-key way to keep us all engaged and checking in every month, and this year, there are lots of fun events planned revolving around the upcoming Winter Olympics and FIFA Worldcup.

Today is the kickoff for the new year of this SAL (well, it is for me...being late with all the check ins is kind of on par for me, but we don't talk about that). This is the time to make (or reveal) our grand plans for the year, but I have to admit, mine are VERY unspecific at this point.

I am starting this year with 58 WIPs (that is all crafts combined), which is about 10 more than I'd like to have. So my goals are a) reducing my WIP count to get under 50. Of course I got some ideas about which of these I'd like to finish (and others I'd like to make progress on), but we'll see how it goes.

Now b), some of these 58 WIPs haven't seen the light of day in WAY too long. Some of them needs some house keeping (changing disintegrating floss cards, switching from paper patterns to digital, and sometimes, figuring out some things I should have written down YEARS ago, lol), others I haven't worked on so long I don't even know whether I still enjoy them. Either way, I want to work on as many of them as possible this year to get a feeling for what I still got going! To help with this, I put all my WIPs into a random wheel spin app and whenever I don't have anything specific I want to work on, I will spin the wheel and then aim for about 500 stitches (or the equivalent for whatever craft comes up) on the WIP in question.

So far, it's going well and I am already working on the third random pick of the year. You've already seen the first one of them - the diamond painting Towards the Light. It was nice to pick up this WIP (and also another one that I hadn't worked on in a while) and see some real progress. Hopefully, things will continue to be fun and satisfying - and if this doesn't work out, I'll think of something else!

So yeah, this is the plan for the year. I'll check in every month with the current WIP count and possibly an update on what WIPs haven't come up in any other way during the month. We'll figure things out as we go, as usual! 

Towards the Light - 10 Hours

 As I will explain in more detail once I get around to doing my WIPocalypse kickoff (any day now, I promise!), this year I am trying to give some more love to my older, neglected WIPs. And the first lucky candidate is one I haven't douched in over a year and I think I never showed here before!

It's actually not cross stitch, but diamond painting. Yes, I got a couple when they first where all the range, but never worked on them much. This one is a pattern by Unconventional X Stitch called Towards the Light - on the smaller side for a full coverage cross stitch at just 38k stitches, but as a diamond painting it will still be almost 50cm x 50cm. 

After 10 hours, I'm a little over 10% in, and look how pretty and shiny it is! 

 In case you're interested how it'll look like when it is finished...some day probably far along the road...here is the pattern mockup:

That being said, I currently really enjoy working on this, it doesn't have too many colours and I can finish up a 400 stitch quare in under an hour. I will probably do a little more before I pack it away for now!

 

 

December WIPocalypse

Hello, my lovelies! I am still busy catching up on blog reading and blogging, but meanwhile, have had a good start into the new year. I do still owe you some updates on what I was up to, and this is an important one!

So for December 2025, the question of the month for WIPocalypse was Recap your accomplishments for the year! (Your finishes, your final before/after photos, etc). For 2025, I only had one big goal for WIPocalypse, and that was to finish The Loneliness of Autumn by Leonid Afremov, as charted by Love Thy Thread. 

I had started this project on January 1st 2020 as a SAL with Rachel the Ten Hour Stitcher, and the plan was to do one length of thread a day. I kept up with that for a couple of years, until I fell off the waggon a bit, but always kept working on it, even if at a slower pace. When I started, I did extreme cross country - finishing one colour over the whole design before picking the next one - but somewhere around the middle I switched over to filling in the missing colours in each page, so it was easier to see progress. 

The total stitch count of this project is 118800 stitches, and it took me a total of 770 hours and 59 minutes to complete it - 144 hours and 37 minutes in 2025 alone. And as you can probably guess from these statistics - yes, I finished late on December 14th!

I have yet to pick out a frame for this, but am very happy to have it done and think it was worth the work. Chances are I will not be pickung up an other Afremov anytime soon, but it was a fun journey over all and will find a place of pride on my wall! 

I hope to soon get the January kick-off post up, but as a little spoiler - no big goals this year, just progress and fun! Until I get another bee up my bonnet, that is... 

                           

SAGA - 40 Hours

 Hello, my lovelies! I am sorry for being awol the last couple weeks and very absent even before that - life has been busy, and not been helped at all by a nasty flu Felix and I both caught in early December! I got a lot to show you from the last months, and there are some posts coming up as I get caught up with both reading and writing, but I wanted to wish you a happy new year first and also try to get my current things posted, even if that might mean things get out of order. You know, perfect being the enemy of good an all that.

So for the last couple days I have been working on Long Dog Sampler's Stories Amongst Graceful Arches, SAGA for short, and made it to 40 hours of progress total. Which, of course, is a very small amount of work for a project of this size! In fact, I just reached 6% of total progress on this. There is so much more to do, but I enjoy it a lot and think I might keep going on this project for a couple more days!