Mad Summer Finish Dash - Day 1

Felix and I just got home from our weekend in Hamburg - the musical was awesome, and I enjoyed spending time with my friends and some of my relatives very much. We're pretty tired, but also happy :)
As announced in my WIPocalypse post, throughout August I will post pictures of my progress - with a primary focus on deadline-projects - every day, and I am going to call this the Mad Summer Finish Dash, or short MSFD. Here's where I start, with some progress from the trip (and shortly before).

Friday morning: I made a tiny start on my new try of Viajantje, knitted from that delicious yarn I showed the last time around:

On the train ride to and from Hamburg, I made some progress on Snowflake Party, finished the base pattern and the first border. Just 48 rows to go now, and I weighed the remaining yarn, looks like it will be plenty to finish.

 Stitching was harder to work on on the trip, but I still made a bit pf progress on the backstitch of the grandchildren project, and hope to make tons more today and tomorrow:

That's it for now, back for a new update hopefully tomorrow!

July WIPocalypse

Yes, I know I am late (for the WIPocalypse checkin) and I also know I am early (after my last update), but as we are going away for a long weekend in Hamburg tomorrow (The Lion King musical, visiting friends and relatives, and just general sightseeing), that is just the way it works out right now :) Also, I already have a bit to show off again already, so why not!

But first things first: Measi, our host for WIPocalypse has announced she's holding an olympic stitching challenge for the Olympic Games this summer. While it sounds like a lot of fun, I have decided to not participate, as I have already to much on my plate in terms of SALs and deadlines - instead, I have another little fun thing planned, which I will talk about at the end of the post. So my question to answer this month is: Tell us how this year’s stitching is going for you so far, and if you’re meeting your stitching goals so far for the year. I have to say, I am extraordinarily satisfied with my stitching this year. My goal this year was to not make goals, so I've just kind been going with the flow, and it has been a ton of fun while still leading to a lot of progress! I've been able to join a SAL when I wanted to, to include more presents in my rotation, and so far I've been even able to keep all the deadlines. Sure, there are things I thought I'd work on, but not having made plans, I'm not too upset stuff didn't work out.

Now for my current progress...I've been busyly working on the backstitching and wording of my grandchildren project, and I've managed to finish the upper page. The next one is a lot bigger, but less complex as well - mostly because I translated the upper-half-wording (the original ready 'Grandchildren are the flowers in the garden of life'), and the translation needed a few letters that weren't there in the original, so I had to try and chart those out myself...I think it worked out okay, though.

Then, I also worked a bit on the Strawberry Sampler that needs to be done by the end of August, and I finished two more bands. I didn't care much for the plait stitch, which I had to do two bands of, but Herringbone was fun, and so was the cross stitch and french knots (yes, I do like them if there are not too many) in the first actual strawberry-band. I was halfway done with that when I realized it is not, in fact, symmetrical - it's three crosses away from the edge on one side - and I had half a mind to rip it all out again, but then I thought - if I didn't realize until now, after looking at the stitched picture again and again, it wouldn't bother me too much later on, so I just filled in those few stitches the same way Jo, who gifted me the chart, did with hers.

I also had a bit of progress with my knitting - I started to turn the rest of the watermelon yarn (I gave the socks to our admin today, and they fit!, if only barely) into a pair of wristwarmers for myself, and as these knit up really fast, I already finished the first one. I also bought some seriously delicious yarn (that refuses to be photographed in all it's deliciousness), and I even made a small start on what I want to do with it (after giving it the wool winder treatment - at 330g a skein, this almost broke it down, but only almost), but I didn't like it too much so I undid it and I'll look into slight alterations for the beginnung.

Now, as I mentioned earlier, I have quite a bit going on in terms of deadlines and SALs - the closest ones being a) the start of our Halloween SAL on the 13th of August, b) having the grandchildren project finished and framed by the 26th for the birthday, c) having Stawberry Sampler finished and framed by 31st and d) stitching another page of the Fire and Ember SAL. Also, we'll be away from home for at least two weekends and four weekdays during the month, so I will have to see what I can take with me and what not. So in order to get all that done and also motivate myself, I will mostly skip regular posting for the month of August - BUT I will try to post quick picture of my current progress every day, just with less text. I hope this is something both you and I can enjoy, and I'm really looking forward to it :)

July IHSW & GG Update

Although I'm almost a week late for both of these SAL checkins, I hope you will forgive me - Felix' sister turned 30 this year, and we spend the IHSW weekend at his parents house for celebrations. I did take my stitching with me, but didn't get much done, but my knitting made some good progress and I really enjoyed it. Stitching progress did happen in the rest of the time, though, so I do have a bit to show you.

Let's start with a piece that doesn't qualify for neither IHSW nor for GG - the Fire & Ember SAL. I finished the first page just in time before we went away for the weekend, so despite also working on other stuff, it only took me two weeks out of the month time I had. Also, my needle minder has finally arrived, so stitching the next page in August will hopefully be even more fun!

My main focus piece during IHSW was the Snowflake Party shawl. As we were not at home that weekend, I had some time to knit in the car and some more on the party itself, and I am almost finished with the base-section now - so in the future, there will be a lot more snowflakes on this!

And then I also worked on two projects that qualify for Gifted gorgeousness - stitchingwise, I focused on the grandchildren project, and apart from the writing and a few small motifs in the center, I'm all done with the cross stitch now. I already started on the backstitching and it's going really fast, so I should be able to show you some more progress soon!
I also got some more knitting done on my watermelon socks, and they are finished! Although I noticed that somehow they turned out a bit smaller than the last pair...I didn't bother measuring and just used the same stitch and row counts and somehow either I've been knitting more tightly or the yarn behaved differently. I hope they will still fit the recipient's feet, but in the worst case I will have to make a new pair for him and keep these for myself.

So that's it for today...there's more exciting stuff coming up, both craftingwise - our Halloween SAL starts in August, and I also ordered some superawesome lace yarn for a new knitting project - and otherwise - Felix and I are going on a short vacation to Hamburg next weekend to see the Lion King musical and to visit some friends and relatives, which also means two 6+ hour trainrides with hopefully lots of knitting time!

Summertime Progress

After the last few weeks where pretty mixed in terms of weather, we now seem to have finally hit a streak of warm days. And now I'm the one having mixed feelings, because I'm kind of enjyoing the warmth but it's also too hot and sunny to be outside without shade, and we're still waiting for the sunshae on our balcony to be fixed. So I've been mostly sitting inside, which let to a nice bit of stitching progress. The enxt few weeks will be busy with stuff though, so I will have to struggle to keep up with everything!

First, I continued working on my current projects. I stitched about half of the top page of the grand children project - not much more to go until I can start on the backstitching and personalization! I also stitched some more on the Strawberry sampler and finished the bands #2 - #5. I got to use the pearle thread and some beads, and it was a lot of fun to do all the different stitches, especially on the tiny fabric count! ALSO I made some progress on the second watermelon sock (and that shows me how long overdue this update is as I haven't knitted in over a week), I finished the heel and started on the foot. I will have some time to knot next week, so hopefully I'll have a finish soon :)

Then finally the time had come for the Fire and Ember SAL! The first page was started on July 2nd and is entirely background, mostly big blobs of brown-ish with some brighter blobs. I enjoy stitching colour blocks from time to time and I am severly enjoying this project so far. Here is where I was one week in (I did a bit more since then) and I think I should be done after another week.

Lastly, I also upgraded by equipment for winding wool a bit. It is so much faster and so much more fun than winding the skeins by hand - and it makes such pretty balls! One by one, I will wind all the wool I have in skeins, and also rewind the balld I bought since the don't unroll as nicely as the selfwund ones.

 

More progress!

Another regular progress update without any SALs to cater to...I'm so proad of myself! Joke aside, I have a few things to share, including a finish, a start and a planned start, so I hope you are as excited as I am :)

But first, for the regular progress - I continued working on the grandchildren project, and have now finished the first page (aside from a few motifs that overlap with the upper page which is actually only a half page). So I am about 2/3 done now - at least with the cross stitch, there will be a ton of backstitch and the costomization to go after that!

Now to the starts and finish. On friday I was feeling a bit down, so I allowed myself a new start to pick myself up - the Strawberry Sampler I won from Jo's GGG (Gifted Gorgeousness Giveaway) a while back. I'm planning to finish this as my entry in the Stitching Pirates Ye Olde Sampler contest, so I have until the end of August to get it done. I'm stitching this on a bit of linen I got from a grab back, I think it's a 36ct, and I'm doing another experiment with a (small) rotating frame. This time I'm using masking tape and now the tension is just perfect - I'm going to experiment with a larger frame again soon, maybe I can get that to work as well.

The finish I want to show you I actually finished a few weeks back already - but it was a birthday present for a friend and she only got it this week. It's my first Mill Hill kit, Kiwi the owl. Certainly not my last, I really loved stitching this - the perforated paper, the coverage of 3 over 1, and of course so tons of beads! So much fun, and such a cute owl. I backed it with green felt.

And lastly, what I am most excited about - Jody from Unceonventional XStitch is holding a SAL with the very pretty Fire and Ember design. The startdate is on July 2nd, so it's not to late to join in - I certainly could not resist and I am fully prepared, just waiting for the matching needle minder to arrive. I can't wait to get started, just one more week! You can find the details here if you are interested.

June IHSW/WIPocalypse

Double SAL checkin time! We have IHSW just behind us, which I actually spent a nice amount of time stitching on, and it's also time for this month's WIPocalypse-checkin. It's still going to be a rather short post, since I'm trying to focus on stuff, and focusing means more progress, but less pictures - oh well.
The June question for WIPocalyse was Do you find yourself more productive with stitching in summer or winter?. I'm pretty sure the same question has already been asked last year, but without looking at my answer from back then I can now say that it's definitly winter these past few years. I'm not actually a summer-loving person, so I really like to lay around lazyly when it's hot - great conditions for stitching, right? Well, I'd still love to do that, but for the last two years or so I've been finding myself way to busy during the summertime, so winter is the better time for stitching now.

Now for progress, I stitched exclusivly on the Grandchildren project, and finished the lower right corner - a lovely little birdy with his nest - so I'm more than halfway done with the cross stitch now. I also started charting the customized parts, so I can hopefully get right to stitching those once I reach the area.

I also had a bit of knitting time last week during lectures, so I got a fair bit of the watermelon socks done. I'm just about the start working the heel now, so almost halfway done on the second sock. My goal is to have those done by July 29th, Sysstem Admin Appreciation Day, as the guy I'm making these for happens to be out sys admin at work - I think that goal is quite achievable :)

June Gifted Gorgeousness

I know, I'm technically a day early for Gifted Gorgeousness, but just as I set out to post I realized the date and didn't want to put it off for another day - so I hope it's okay to just post now ;) Also, I happend to just check the view numbers on my blog, and they are kind of EXPLODING these days with more than a thousand views a day, basically doubling my total view over the last month or so - what's going on here?! Not that I don't like it, it's just really unexpected and strange and I don't really think it's for real, unless I've become some new kind of meme without my knowledge?
But as we're probably not going to solve this mystery right here and now, let's just get on with my current progress...I've kept working on the grandchildren project, of course. Only a small bit of progress now, but this was the best place to do a picture before the next, a bit bigger section starts, and I will do my best to actually have that ready by next week. Just some more flowers and leaves for the time being:

I've also done another ten eleven this time! rows on the Baby blanket, including this lovely wave stitch that I've been trying to figure out for ages and now I know how it's done ^_^ 61 rows now in total.

I've also done a bit more knitting on Snowflake Party - this one is not a gift, I'm sorry, but I still wanted to show my progress - another three repetitions of the first base pattern for a total of 9 now (goal is 15 before starting the next one).

And that's it again! I'm sorry if I'm a bit boring at the moment, but I'm really trying to focus on a few projects to actually finish them eventually, and I don't have a lot of intersting stuff to talk about otherwise. I have a massive gaming-bug going on that does cut in my stitching time, and I never seem to get enough time for either stitching or gaming, but still making steady progress on everything.