Monday, December 26, 2016

A good week of progress

Monarch Butterfly - Dec 13th
This last week I was able to make some progress on a number of different projects and it made me very happy.

The first project that did get some attention was the Monarch Butterfly as it was just about finished.  Well, at least the actual stitching was just about finished.  I finished up the stitching on the 23rd of December and am now working on getting some of the back stitching done.  It is going to take a bit of time to get the back stitching done as I need to figure out where it is going to go and how much I really want to do on the design.

Monarch Butterfly - Dec 23rd
I am happy with how the design turned out and once I finish the actual back stitching I think I will be even happier with the finished design.  Of course as I look at the design I see things that I could have done differently but it is still nice to see this design basically finished now.

Besides working on this cross-stitch I was able to find some time to work on the Cecilia Shawl and it is now off the needles and ready to be worn.  The pattern is very easy as it is just instead every second row by two stitches at on end.  I got to the 200 stitches that the pattern called for and did the cast off and the shawl was done. One of the reasons this shawl got done as quickly as it did was because I also had a bit of incentive to finish this one up.

Cecilia Shawl - Dec 23rd
See the incentive was some really soft yarn that I wanted to make another one of these shawls with but I had to finish the original one first. I picked up the Unforgettable yarn called "Dragon Fly" on Thursday and of course being a true crafter I wanted to start the new shawl immediately.  I wasn't allowed to start the new shawl until the original one was finished and not just put onto a circular needle.  This rule was set by my dh and of course that also meant that he took the new yarn away from me until I could show him that the original shawl was off the needles and yes finished.

Cecilia Shawl - Dec 25th
The new shawl is working up very quickly and I think it is going to be larger than the first one because I have two balls of this yarn and I am just going to knit until the yarn is finished.  if I get to more than 200 stitches that's fine.  The yarn is rally nice and soft to work with but it is something that you don't want to make a mistake with.  The yarn isn't as easy to take out so doing this simple pattern is great.

Stitch A Long - Joyful World - January - Dec 24th
After finishing the Monarch Butterfly design it was time to figure out something else that  I wanted to work on. There are other projects that are on the go but as it is Christmas time and I hope to have a bit more time to stitch I decided it was time to start a project that I can work on through this next year. This pattern was a Stitch A Long on Facebook in 2016 and it was called Joyful World and is a different block and pattern for each month of the year.  I decided that I was going to wait to see all the designs before I decided if I wanted to stitch it or not so in November the final design came out and I decided it was something that I wanted to do.

The final design size is around 26" x 26" so yes it is going to take some time to work on.  What I like about this design is each month is a separate some pattern so that is how I am going to be stitching this design.  I am going to work on only one month at a time and not work on getting all the borders done first and then try to work on all the different patterns at the same time.  I figure working on a month at a time will also show me some progress through this design.

Besides starting this design I got out the pattern that I am going to be starting on January 1st, 2017.  As it is Canadian's 150th birthday I am going to start a Canadian design so that is what will go onto a q-snap on the 1st of January.  I guess before then I am going to have to try and get a bit more stitch in on the Stitch a Long.

This week there is still some work that will need my attention as it is getting close to year end.  I also hope to be able to find some quality time to craft. Next week I hope to have some more progress on Joyful World and a bit of work done on the Canadian design to show off.

Hope everyone had a very Merry Christmas and I want to wish everyone Happy New Year and all the best in 2017.

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