Guardian of Wayfarers - 40 Hours

So I spent most of May getting me different rotations in order, but I am finally back on track and so last weekend, I was able to bring out Guardian of Wayfarers for the first time this month, and I finished my newest ten hours pretty quickly! Last time, I had just made a start on the massive blue background:

By some miracle, I was not yet tired of stitching blues (what with this, the NYE SAL and the newest part of the Magical Kingdom also being mostly blue), so I continued where I left of and added some more. 

I think I underestimated this background - there is quite a bit more to go - but it stitches up so beautifully with all the blends, so I am really enjoying it!

2019 NYE SAL - 30 Hours

Earlier this month, I made an attempt to finally finish the 2019/2020 NYE Mystery SAL I started...well, I started on NYE 2019! It was released as a mystery, 32 parts with one part being released every 4 hours. Naturally, I fell of the wagon somewhere around the middle, and I've been trying to finish this ever since, doing a couple parts here and there.

I had worked on this for about 18 hours up to this point:

I had five or six parts left to do on the front until it was finished:

22h in at that point and all the back left to stitch up! But, as I was telling myself, all the starting and stopping threads on the front had taken up a lot of times. I was going to stitch the back all in one go, so that should go much quicker! Well, it did go quicker, but it was still another 2,4k stitches, so not quite as quick as I hoped. As the end of 30 hours (which means I worked on it for about twelve this month) the back was here:

Yes, it does look close to a finish, but that's still 1.1k stitches left to go (there are SO many stitches in that border), plus the finishing. So I won't push through right now, but return to it after a bit of a break, to hopefully finally finish it then!

Hufflepuff Pride Socks - 60 Hours

Since I picked up the Hufflepuff Pride Socks (or just 'Badger socks', as I like to call them), I'm trying to make regular progress on them to get the second sock finished soon. Last time, this was the state of my work, having finished the cuff and a tiny start on the leg:

I continued working on the leg this month, finishing the first and second badger and making a start of the third. As you can see in the finished sock, though, there are seven in total, so still quite a bit left to do!

Still, the next ten hours should get me close to finishing the leg (given I don't attract anymore frogs...I had to undo quite a few rows in this part again!) and I really enjoyed constructing the foot, so I'm looking forward to that!

May Gifted Gorgeousness: Addendum

Going through my notes today, I realized I totally forgot to tell you about a small gift project I finished this month. It's nothing special, but it's unlikely to come up anywhere else, and I really wanted to show you because it's kind of cute!

Our landlady keeps losing her keys and refuses to wear them on a key chain around her neck because 'it doesn't look nice'. But she also admires my crafting whenever she sees some of it, so when I found this pattern I was hoping that if I crocheted a key chain for her, she'd actually use it!

This was a fun little afternoon project using some yarn leftover from another project. I have some more of these key rings, so I might do more in the future.

May Gifted Gorgeousness

Welcome to the May instance of my favourite SAL, Jo's Gifted Gorgeousness for all things gifted and to be gifted! I still haven't managed to make any progress on the little fox ragdoll I am making as a gift, but I think I worked out a new rotation that will finally get me some more time on my gift projects. What I did work on this month, again, was the Snuggle Up blanket CAL which I started in March. Since the last time, I have finished Part 3 (of 12) and size wise, we are getting into baby blanket territory now:

(Yes, I know, I really need to fix the couch, it's getting worse). We are now into the last colours of this cake, so I might have to start the second one already on part 4. Part 3 didn't look that great on paper and in pictures, but was a lot of fun to actually crochet! Here is a close up so you can properly see:

 Aren't these shells just lovely? The next pattern has little stars, I'm looking forward to it very much!

May Fully Finished Gallery

This month for Fully Finished Gallery, I have just one finish (not that that's news), but one I have been planning for a long time! In fact, I had this plan from the moment I finished the stitching, but spent a long time gathering the right supplies and then I was a little reluctant to actually start because I wasn't sure it'd work the way I planned. Well, it did! Meet the Metallic Geostar:

It looks a little out of center, but this one was a really tight fit on the fabric - less than two inches on two sides - so I didn't have a lot of wriggle room. It also doesn't look that bad once it's up on the wall! And I managed to make the back really nice and tidy:

When I stitched this all in metallics, I knew the hoop would need to be equally shiny, so I wrapped it in silver ribbon. I had the ribbon for ages, but finding a hoop just the right size (remember, tight fit) was a bit of an issue. Now I have a couple of extra hoops in wrong sizes, but I'm sure I'll find a use for them. I attached double sided tape to the inside and outside of the hoop, then wrapped away!

I am happy with this finish and might do something similar again sometime.

The People Chose: Witches

This month, for Jo's wonderfully versatile all-purpose SAL, the theme is Witches. At first I thought that to be a little strange subject, being that it is May and not October, but with Walpurgisnacht on April 30th and Beltane on May 1st, it might be appropriate after all!

This time, going through my stitching, I found pretty much what I was expecting to find! There's a  couple of cute witches from Frosted Pumpkin:

 

 

This fun flying 3D-ish witch in front of the blood moon:

 

 

And of course the pièce of résistance, Whacky Witches in Stitches by Cloudsfactory - loved stitching this one: