The people chose: New Starts

It's a new year, but some things never change, and one of these things are Jo's wonderful SALs on every corner of the year! I somehow managed to be quite on time for this first checkin of the year, but I am not so confident that isn't going to change either...well, we'll see.

In this SAL, we, the stitchers, get to chose the subject each month, and a most fitting topic for the new year is 'new starts'. I have been good and only had one new start this year (and I hope to keep it this way for a while, apart from a few smalls that I can finish right away). The one start I had could not wait any longer because it's a Temperature SAL - the same one Jo herself did last year, in fact, I'm using the same colour chart she did. If you don't know what that is: It's a free pattern created by Hetti which is divided in 365 blocks of 5x5 stitches (some are a little bigger than that), one for each day of the year. The colour chosen for each day depends on the temperature - I am using the avarage temperature in each day to even out 'spikes' in both directions. Here are the first five days I stitched this afternoon:

It was a lot of fun to do these first few stitches, and I'm kind of bummed I can't stitch more right now! I don't know if it's just the 'high' of having a new start, the colours, or being back to my favourite fabric (32ct Murano <3), but I'm really enjoying this one.

Finish it in 2019

My friend Magical is hosting her 'Finish it in 2019' SAL again (well, it wasn't actually 'in 2019' the last time around, but you know what I mean) and since I have big plans to shorten my WIP list this year, I'll be joining her :) My plans for this year's WIPocalypse are in line with this as well, but I'll talk about those in the appropriate post.

My WIP/UFO (aka the list of SHAME) list has gone way out of hand over the last few years, and I really want to clean it up a little. I love everything on there, and those projects just don't deserve being ignored for so long! So the motto of the year is, finish what you start, and finish what you started before as well. Now I won't give you a rundown of the complete list - it's 49 projects, and I don't have pictures for all of them - but instead I'll choose a few to focus on for now, and work from there.

I have four projects that I'll probably finish really fast - I've been working on them throughout December and they are getting close! Those are Bunny Blanket #3 (just needs finishing the actual blanket and assambly), Smooth Sailor (only needs weaving in all the loose ends), Early Morning Santa (needs a little more cross stitch and beading) and BSJ Lucia (2/3 done):

I'll also be working on the NYE Mystery SAL - I'm on part 11 right now (our of 15, plus a backside), and should be able to finish it within the next few days:

Then there are two bigger projects I want to finish on - one is the Baby Blanket SAL I started a few years ago and want to finish for a friend who is due in February, so I better oil that needle!

And then of course there is The Mermaid, which will be a present for my dad's 60th birthday in July, so she needs some attention as well.

So I guess I got my work cut out for now...I will be focusing on these until I finished at least the first five, then I might pick a few more.

WIPocalypse - December Recap

It's the last Sunday of the year (gasp! Wherever has it gone to?!) and so it's time for the final recap of WIPocalypse achievements. This year I was trying to do '18 in '18' - meaning I picked 18 projects, some WIPs, some new starts, to work on and/or finish in 2018. Well, I think concluding I can say, I bit up a little more than I could chew! Thanks to the Longest Day SAL in June, when I stitched on length on every WIP, I have very little projects that did not get touched at all, but here are all the ones that didn't see any noteworthy progress:

1. Snow White - The goal was one length a day but she fell by the wayside pretty early, pretty hard.
2. Whacky Witches in Stitches - I wanted to finish this, but only worked on it for the Longest Day. Maybe next year?
3. Viajante - I wanted to finish this, but only got a few hours of knitting in.
4. Baby Blanket CAL - I think I did a few rows one time, but it's nowhere near to a finish! This is a set goal for early 2019, though.
5. BB8 - I didn't even get around to hunt for the missing pieces on that one...
6. Endangered Young 'Uns - not even started.
7. Fans of the Far East - No progress apart from the Longest Day SAL.
8. Lizzie Wallet SAL - dito
9. Lady and the Tramp - dito
10. Disney Princess Fobs - I stitched one or two in the beginning of the year, but nowhere near to the full set I wanted.
11. Blackwork Water Lilies - No progress apart from the Longest Day SAL.

So that's eleven out of eighteen I failed on...kind of depressing, if it wasn't for the awesome progress I made on the other seven!

Fire and Ember - all finished and framed:

The Puppeteer - the goal was one length of black a day, and apart from falling behind by a few days over the holidys (which I'll surely catch up on within a week or so), I've been doing great. In fact I'm just a tiny bit short of finishing row four, which marks the halfway point!

 

99 - Finished in July, well in time to be a birthday gift in August:

The Mermaid - started and made some good progress, although I need to really push forward on her now to make the deadline!

Cut Thru Cottage - Finished in December for a Christmas present:

Arke - finished very early in the year and already worn a lot!

Ornaments of the Month: I still have a few extras to stitch, but made a full set:

So...that was my WIPocalypse for 2018. I have yet to do the total count of finishes for the year, but there were a few big ones and quite a few smaller ones - lots of knitting and crochet as well...so I'm content. Over the last few weeks, I've been making plans for 2019...which are similar, but not quite the same, and probably also way to ambitious, but who cares as long as I make progress and have fun along the way!

December Gifted Gorgeousness - Special Christmas Edition

I apologize for the lateness in getting this post up, but with all the gift making going on in December, it just seemed appropriate to wait until after Christmas to write this one. I am currently enjoying a somewhat lazy time, just reading and gaming and crafting at a leasurely pace because the pre-Christmas-madness is finally over!

So...let's see. First, I finished that hat I've been working on. Somehow in the hurry of giving it away, I didn't catch a really good picture, but here it is:

It turned out a little baggy, but it's so warm and soft and I made the pompom detachable following a tutorial from Youtube.

Then, I was working on gifts for two of my coworkers who had babies in November. One is another on of the bunny blankets (it's close to being finished, but I forgot taking a picture), the other is a Baby Surprise Jacket. I love the colours, and had the perfect little bee buttons in stash:

I also finished Cut Thru' Cottage, a present for sister in law and her boyfriend. Felix framed it up perfectly, and I should be happy to be done with all the backstitch - but I just want to start another one right away!

And last but not least, my mum saw the dragon scale wrist warmers I made for my grandma and requested to get a pair of her own, which I made the weekend before Christmas - I think these are my favourite colourway yet, and I should have just enough yarn left over to make another pair!

The people's choice - Dragons!

In the December edition of Jo's 'The people's choice' SAL, our subject is 'Dragons', and you already know what's coming next...after all, there is only one dragon I've been working on for every month of the last two and a half years! I finally finished Fire and Ember in November, and Felix framed it for me last week. Now we only need to find the perfect spot to hang that gorgeous red dragon!

Adventcalendar Blog Hop - 24

This year I got the big jackpot in Jo's famous Advent Calendar Blog Hop - Christmas Eve, or Heiligabend, as we call it here! What will you find behind the door?

I actually tried to stitch something new for the hop, but I also had a last-minute present to finish and then there just wasn't enough time to do both...so here is an ornament I did last year - 'Snow Birds' by Country Cottage Needleworks, from the 2013 Just Cross Stitch Christmas Ornaments Special Issu.

So that is one part of the blog hop done, the other part is talking about our favourite Christmas songs. Man, I love Christmas songs...that makes it reeeeally hard to chose just one! So I'll give you a few runner-ups before I get to the number one.

So, the song that makes me feel the most christmas-y inside is the old German Oh du Fröhliche. It's always the last song we sing in church on Christmas Eve, right before we go home and have food and presents, so ever since I was a child it's just pretty much the song that really start's Christmas for me.

Felix' and mine favourite Christmas album for the last couple of years has been 'A Hollens Family Christmas Album' by Peter Hollens. I love that guy...have you seen/heard his version of Angels from the Realm of Glory? Instant-Goosebumps, and time of year!

But my currently favourite Christmas song is his original December Song. I love the music, the text and most of all the message - let everyday be Christmas!

November Pie

I really don't feel like blogging much lately, so I've had this pie-picture saved and ready for two weeks now...

My overall numbers were a bit lower last month - I think that's mostly because I had rented a game I really wanted to finish fast - but I still got some good work done. I had two do-not-show-yet gifts that I finished (one only had a few minutes as I finished it sometime around 0:30 on December 1st), then I knitted that hat I already showed you (and that would be finished by now if I could only find my pompom maker!), and the wristwarmers for my grandma. I stitched one page each on Fire and Ember and Cut Thru Cottage, and the In The Bleak Midwinter ornament, and did some finish-finishing on the Ornaments of the Month.

Noose is a new, using-up-leftover-yarn project that I started, but there really isn't anything to show just yet:

And the Bascetta Star is a papercraft project that I still vaguely hope to finish by Christmas: