June already? - Progress

I often find myself wondering these days...where the heck did May go? Wasn't is just my birthday in March? Time is running and flying, but at least my needle is doing the same and I have some nice progress to show (nice transition there, eh?). So, let me show you where my current WIPs are at:

I'm still focusing my stitching time on the Grandchildren Sampler - I couldn't resist joining another SAL starting in July (not telling what it is yet!), and the next round of our Halloween SAL is starting in August (you can read about that one on Carla's dA here), so I need to hurry and focus a bit on that one. And I made some nice progress, finishing the lower left corner, so I suppose I am about one third done with the whole thing (minus the customization, which I will need to do some re-charting for).

I also managed do do another 10 rows on the baby blanket CAL, so it's a total of 50 rows now. The new stitch this time was a so-called bubble stitch, which was a lot of fun to do and is even more fun to touch. What a lovely idea to include stitches that feel all differently in a blanket for a baby, with the colours and the different sensations a little one can have a lot of fun with this blanket I suppose!

And on top of everything, I even found some time for knitting. I finally finished the first of my Melon socks and started the ribbing section on the second one, and I started a new project as well - last christmas, I decided to treat myself to the StrickMich! knitting club, where you get yarn and a pattern four times a year. The first one arrived in February, and after the second package got here in May I finally wanted to start the first one! The pattern is called Snowflake Party, which is not very fitting for the season, but the yarn is so lovely to knit with even when it's hot out - sock yarn weight, 50% merino and 50% silk, so light and so, so soft! The pattern is great as well, featuring a border of lovely snowflake/flower structures, and a lot of easy plain knitting. Such fun! I'm at 6 (of 14) repeats of the basic pattern now, and of course the shawl is growing at each repetition.

  

May WIPocalypse

Another update that had been planned for a while - in fact, I took the pictures about a week ago, but then I'd have to do several shots to cover everything so you get one set now and the other one hopefully soon. But for now, it's time to check in with the WIPocalypse for May.

The subject for this month is What were you stitching this time last year and have you finished it?, and it was quite a fun experience looking back in my blog by a year. It looks like last May I was stitching on a lot of different things, so I'll not feature everything here. In my 2015 May WIPocalypse, I was working on Dark Forces - which I just recently pulled out again since it is huge and far from finished - the Aster wedding sampler, which was almost finished then and has been given to the happy couple in the meantime - Cut Thru Cottage, where I finished two more pages, but still have three to go - and some knitting/crochet: the Soyeux-shawl has been scrapped and will be restarted at some point, the baby suprise jacket has been finished (as well as two more of those) and the Lestrona shawl has grown considerably, although I made a mistake somewhere in the last few rows and have yet to figure it out and fix it. The post that was exactly a year ago was my May DESIGN post, and that was about Glendon Place's Red Velvet Cake, which I have to admit is still in the exact same place it was back then. I'd love to work on it some more, but stuff just keeps getting in the way! Maybe I should just pull it out for s quick few stitches sometime...

Now, my current progress mostly focused on two things: One is the mysterious grandchildren project. In case you didn't guess, that diamon-structure is actually a garden fence, so there will be a ton of leaves, flowers and small animals around the borders. Here's the first piece of that:

I've also done the next ten rows on the Baby blanked CAL. This time, there was a band called 'tulip stitch' because it looks like pink tulips on a meadow, and also some more granny stripes. It's getting more interesting now :)

May Gifted Gorgeousness

Hello my lovelies, I hang my head in shame as I have missed an other week of regular updates - and since I can't seem to actually settle for one project at the moment, that means I have quite some stuff to show. I hope you will enjoy this picture heavy update - all but two of my projects qualify for GG anyways (as well as a new small start that I can't show yet because of reasons)!

So, let's start with the weekend we spent away at Felix' parents. As I had said, I took lady with my to stitch on, and on a wonderfull sunny Saturday evening on the balcony I made quite some progress. I moved the hoop again and now I can fit almost all of the remaining area (of this page, not the whole design, of course), so I'm starting to fill in the wide-spread colours (like the greens) while taking turns working on the smaller areas as well.

I also started a new knitting project on the car ride there - this one is for me, and I bought it myself, too, so no GG-relevance here, sorry. It's a lace scarf knit with a very thin and soft lace merino yarn, and I only made a very small start so far - twenty rows from a total length of about 2 meters (more than 6 ft, if my math is correct), so I have a long way to go still, but the pattern is easy and the yarn is fun to work with, so if I can find some time, progress should get along fairly quickly.

I know I had planned to focus my stitching time on Cut Thru' Cottage now, but after last weekend I knew I had to stitch up another gift first - Felix' grandma is turning 75 this year in AUgust, and I wanted to make one of these designs that have the names of all the grandchildren for her (she has eight, and loves her family over everything else, so it's perfect for her). So I had to leave CTC for now, and dive right into this new project. I worked on the 'boring' part last week, and will leave it at that just to make you curious, I will show more the next time around (hopefully, there will be more to show by then).

 I also worked on the next part of my blanket-CAL, the rows 21-30. There was a new stitch called star stitch in there, and I had a few problems making it look neat at first, but after a while I figured it out and I think it looks quite nicely now. I might use it again in other projects, it looks like it might make a great border or something.

And between all this (and the aforementioned yet-to-remain-secret project) I somehow also managed to work on Dark Forces (finished the next column - still tons of colour changes, but when I took a step back I was very excited to see one of those small little background-demons, so all the trouble is actually worth it!) and the melon socks (I finished the heel and started the foot of the first sock, so hopefully, there will be half-a-finish soon-ish!).

So that's it with the catch-up game! Seeing it all together in one place like this, I'm feeling much better about my accomplishments already. Still, I hope to get my next update out on time!

Just some regular progress...

It hasn't happend in some time, but it's true - here I am, no SAL checkin due, no super exciting start or finish, just writing because I made some progress I would like to share. Maybe I can get into that regular blogging thing again~

I've been weaving in ends and working on the second part of the Rainbow Blanket CAL (for some reason I kept typing 'blanked' last week...). This time I've been weaving in the ends on the go, so I can dive right into part 3. The rows 11-20 had some granny stripes (I love those) and a lot of basic stitches, and it looks like the next part will be just as colourful and maybe even more fun :)

With me being all excited about crochet, I didn't get that much stitching done, but I did finish the next column of Dark Forces (still a lot of colour changes, I think the whole pages is a little complex) and the last bands of the 'Perfectly kept house' sampler. There are still three tiny buttons to attach, but I'll do that with the framing, as soon as a find a fitting frame. Now I will work on the last three pages of Cut Thru' Cottage and hope to finish those before I pick up something else (although I might work on an entry for the Stitching Pirates Sampler Contest in between).

   

I also did some knitting on the watermelon socks and started the heel on the first one; at this speed I might be able to cast on the second sock next week:

We will be at Felix' parents for the weekend, so I'll take the socks and Lady with my and hopefully have some more progress to show next week.

 

A Rainbow Blanket CAL - Part 1

In my last post I teased my new crochet project, now I can tell (and show) you what it is :) The story behind it is a bit sad, though...
Last week, I read in a German knitting blog I follow that an other, pretty well known knitting blogger had died after fighting cancer for three years. I didn't follow her blog, but checked it out after, and I really regret not getting there earlier - she was wonderfully creative, with tones of ideas and projects, knit alongs and crochet alongs and from her posts and the way people talk about her now, she was a great person as well. One of the projects on her blog was a Rainbow Baby Blanket Crochet Along from a few years back, and that's what I'm doing now - for the sister of a friend of Felix, who's pregnant with her second child, but in honour of Jessica from schoenstricken, a woman I wish I'd known.

The CAL was in thirteen parts, each about ten rows in different colours and stitches, so like a crochet band sampler of sorts. There are the first ten rows, already using all eight colours - I didn't use the kit provided but picked them myself among the Schachenmayr Catania brand. The orange is a bit lighter than I'd like, but they still look pretty nice together I think :)

I won't continue before all the lose ends are weaved in though, I don't want to face like 300 of them in the end. But so far I'm having a lot of fun and I've already had a look at the next part and it looks like even more fun.

I also realized I forgot to show you my newst sock project; another pair for the coworker who loved the first one. I really love the colours on them (Austermann Step Summer Stripes 277) so I'm calling them my watermelon socks :) I saw these knitted on gemachtmitliebe.de a while back and just had to make them as well:

April WIPocalypse

So as promised, it's time for the belated WIPocalypse post, and I have a few new things to show, so I hope it was worth the wait. But first, for this month's WIPocalypse question, which is What do you listen to while stitching? I'm personally not a big fan of audio books - I've tried, and there's a few books for which it works nicely, mostly funny ones or one's with accents - but most of the time I just don't get that great feeling of reading, so I stick to printed books (or e-inked ones ;) ). While stitching, I prefer watching TV shows on amazon prime. It's easier with shows that have more talking and less action, but Felix is trained well and will explain to me what's happening when I can't watch for a moment. Sometimes I also listen to online lectures on coursera or udemy, they have very interesting stuff for free :)

Now I promised you pictures, and pictures you shall have! Felix and I did a bit of framing over the weekend. He did Link, which didnt fit in the frame I bought for it, but was perfect in a different frame I got for cheap a while back, and he did a really great job of it. And I finally finished framing the Stacy's Mystery Band Sampler I stitched last year - I started framing it last year but couldn't get it to be perfectly straight, so I put it aside, but after revisiting I think I can live with how it looks, so I only need to find a place to hang it now :)

        

Of course I also did some stitching. I added about 1.000 stitches to Dark Forces since I picked it up again - the first column had a ton of different colours and took quite a while to stitch, the second one is going much smoother. I really enjoy stitching on this again, although the stitches (2 over one on 22ct Hardanger fabric) are looking much messier than the 1 over 1 on Kitsune. But the coverage is great and drom two steps away noone can see it :D

 

   I also stitched some more on A perfectly kept House and finished the writing at the top. I started the first of four band at the bottom but just realized I misscounted on the red flowers, so I will have to redo them, then hopefully finish quickly.

I also worked on some knitting. I stalked Ravelry a lot, planning new stuff, but first there was one I had to finish, another pair of wrist warmers for my grandma from the remaining floss I had from the socks I recently did. I'm not sure I ever mentioned what yarn I used, but it's Lana Grossa 'Meilenweit' in Neon, Colourway 4108.

I was actually planning a new start, but since apparently I can't even get the most basic crochet supplies (like some nice cotton yarn in decent colours) on a Saturday afternoon, I had to order again and only got my supplies today. I'll tell you about it next time, but what I can tell you is it's colourful, fun and also a bit sad - have a sneak preview below ;)

 

Oh and then I also got some very happy mail yesterday - last week I won Jo's GGG (Gifted Gorgeousness Giveaway) for the beautiful 'Strawberries' Chart by Eileen Bennett, which I can't wait to stitch, I just need to get the perle thread first :) Thank you very much, Jo!

April IHSW & Gifted Gorgeousness

Oh my, I just realized I haven't blogged in almost a month...I'm terribly sorry! At first, there wasn't a lot to show, then I fell into the trap of 'Almost done I'll post when I have a finish to show' and then there was suddenly too much to show - very bad planning on my part! I'll do better now, though, and I won't even include WIPocalypse in this post, so I *have* to do another post after the weekend ;)

So, I did quite a bit of stitching during my time off and after, and some of it even qualifies for Gifted Gorgeousness, but to keep things chronological I'll have to mix it with some stuff that doesn't.  One thing that I did finish and that does qualify is page 2 of Kitsune. Quite a bit more of her tails is visible now, which also means quite a bit more confetti when stitching, but that's okay when it is so pretty :) Kitsune was a gift from my friend Carla, but I'll put her away for a while now to work on the next page of Dark Forces which I haven't touched in almost a year.

I've also been working on Link quite a bit, and finally finished him last weekend. I'm actually a bit saf now I didn't get to show him growing here, but I did have a *lot* of fun stitching him, especially the letters. I hope to get him framed this weekend so I can enter him in the stitching pirates gamer's delight contest ^_^ He's also one of the rare things I finished for myself, so he doesn't qualify for GG, but I still love him.

We also had two weekends at Felix' parents, so I took Lady & the Tramps with me to work on and made some decent progress as well. I've finished more than half of the page now and I moved the grid to the second half, so I hope I can work on her again soon. This was a gift from my grandparents a few years back, so another GG piece here.

I finished Link early on IHSW, so for the video hangout with my girls - the first one for me in ages, and the very first time for us to all be there at the same time, it was a lot of fun - I pulled out 'A perfectly kept house', a small Lizzie*Kate I started before Christmas but didn't finished due to other deadline stitching. Now I thought I might as well finish it before I get back to my next bigger project. I added the flowers, the bird and the text block on the left. It's just two more lines of text on top and a few band at the very bottom, so it should be a quick finish. I'm still counting this for GG, even though after missing the original occasion has passed I'm not sure if I will still make this a gift (it was supposed to be a housewarming gift for two friends we had planned to visit on New Year's Eve).

So for this weekend, my plan is to finish A perfectly kept house, and I'm also working on Dark Forces and on getting Link framed. I also have a few knitting an crochet projects either on the go or planned, so hopefully I can show some progress there as well. For know I'm just happy to be caught up here :)