The Red Box - All Creatures Great and Small - a treasury of samplers volume II

This is my story about the order that I made on Jan 31^st, 2026, at 7 am.

The box is curated by Nicola Parkman of Hands Across the Seas, and it contains 14 sampler charts and 7 items that Nicola personally selected to do along with the patterns. I am looking forward to this box arriving after it leaves England and arrives here in Canada. This is the fourth box that Nicola has done but the first one that I finally decided to get, and I am looking forward to receiving it.

The experience of getting this box was a bit of a roller coaster because of course everyone was trying to get their box ordered as quickly as they could, so it meant that the system was rather slow. Also, because I was making a foreign purchase, I had an issue with my credit card but that was resolved quickly (needed to reply to text from bank asking if I was making this purchase). Once the credit card number was entered (after the text confirmation) it did take a while for the order to be processed but by 7:40 am I had received an email that my order had gone through.

Now the waiting really begins because it needs to be shipped and arrive at my door. Here is the timeline of how things went:

• Feb 3^rd – receive email that the order is now complete and receive the tracking number for the order.
• Feb 4^th – the box is received by Royal Mail and now the actual tracking begins
• Feb 5^th – the box leaves England so it is getting closer.
• Feb 6^th – the box arrives in Canada and now must go through customs so more waiting and of course it’s Friday, so more waiting is going to have to happen.
• Feb 6^th – checked the tracking and now the system says it will be delivered on Monday, Feb 9^th between 1:30 and 5:30 pm. I really do hate weekends but otherwise it might have been here on the 7^th.
• Feb 9th - the status changed to out for delivery at around 10:30 am and then the waiting began. Of course, it said it should be delivered by 5:30 pm so that was a long wait. Well, at 5:30 I still hadn't received the knock on the door so was getting a little worried. Well at 5:34 the knock came and I immediately ran to the door yelling, "I know who this is and he is holding a box for me."

So, the box has arrived and I have gone through all the contents but it is going to take me some time to actually looking at everything that I received and figure out which charts I want to stitch immediately and what patterns I will do a little later.

As this is a box that was a mystery I cannot show you anything that I received yet, but I can say that I am so happy with the contents of the box and am looking forward to figuring out which patterns I will stitch in which order.

Making progress and lots of focus

Here it is the start of another week, and we have had another week of very cold temperatures and wind chills, so it has made it a little harder to go out and enjoy things. Hopefully the temperature will improve this coming week so we will see how things go.

Pandemic - believe it or not here is the project that came out this week and instead of focusing on getting a lot more of the full crosses in I worked on getting quite a bit of the backstitch completed on this piece. You won't see the entire area that I worked on because I did scroll the piece down so that I could continue to get things done. 

It is nice seeing quite a bit of the backstitch completed and now I am going to be focusing on these last three pages that I need to finish up and then it is scroll to the bottom and add that remaining backstitch to the piece. There is still lots of stitching remaining on this piece but it feels good seeing that it is getting closer to a finish.

Argyle Sweater - this project got a bit of attention as well as week as I wanted to see if I could make some good progress on it.

I am going to see if I can continue to move this piece forward because it would be nice to get this piece finished soon but we will see how things go. If I can get more of this sweater would be nice so we will see what happens. I am thinking that being able to at least spend a bit of time working on this project over the next week would be good so we will see what happens. 

Talisman Shawl - here is the shawl that I have been continuing to work on as much as I can. It has been nice seeing that I have been able to continue to move it forward. I have finished the first ball of yarn and am now working on getting the second ball of yarn into this shawl and finished.

I am going to try and get more of this shawl completed before the middle of this week when I have another knitting project that will be getting my attention. Hopefully I will be able to get quite a bit of this done.  We will see how early this week goes as I know that I want to get more of this shawl done.

Hedgerow Mystery Knit Along - here is the project that I am going to be starting as soon as the pattern is released. I am going to be looking forward to seeing what this shawl is going to look like.

Over the last couple of weeks my biggest decision was to figure out the yarn that I wanted to use for this piece. We were told we needed three colours and the name of the design but that was it. It is always interesting to try and figure out your yarn colours.

I won't be able to show my progress on my shawl until the pattern is released in March, but I will let try and talk about any of the issues or challenges that I am having each week.

Other projects - this last week I haven't picked up any of my other projects, but I am happy with the overall progress I have made on things. 

If you are like me and enjoy the Olympics, I think I know where your attention is going to be for the next couple of weeks. I know that I have been enjoying what events that I can watch. The time difference is making a bit difficult to watch the events that are of interest to me. There have already been times when I turn on one of the events and all I get to see are the medals being awarded. We will see how things go over the next two weeks but at least I am getting to see some of the events so far.

I hope everyone has a good week and you are continuing to find that bit of time to do something you enjoy each day. If things go well this week, I hope to have some more progress to show you next week. I will be working on the Talisman Shawl as well as Pandemic so we will see how the week goes.




 

Making some good progress

Here it is the start of another week, and I am going to stay that it has been a crazy week given the snow that we received last weekend and just trying to dig ourselves out of this mess. We are also dealing with some really cold temperatures so that isn't us at all.

Hopefully things will start to warm up here and we will be able to enjoy some time without feeling like we are going to freeze every time we go outside even just for a few minutes. For me it's been time where I can find some time after getting the work that needs to get completed where I can curl up and work on a project to see how much of it, I can get completed.

Silver Anniversary - here is the project that I picked up this week as I wanted to see how much more of it, I could get done and I am happy with the progress that I was able to achieve. Hopefully I will continue to make some good progress on it each time I pick it up.

I am now at just over 80% completed and that was so rewarding to see that I was able to achieve that this week. What I have also been able to do is making sure that I could continue to move this piece forward and getting rows and columns completed this week was really nice.

This week I was able to complete three rows and three columns and that was great. It is showing me that just being able to focus on areas of this piece helped get it moved forward. I am not certain how much longer it is going to take me to finish this project, but I must admit that I am now seeing that before long this piece will be completed and that is what makes me happy.

Argyle Sweater - here is the project that gets bits of attention when I have those few minutes to pick up something and see what I can get done. It isn't a big piece so that helps as well and just seeing that I can get colours completed on this piece has been good. I have now finished two of the four colours, and I am looking forward to seeing how much more of this piece I can get completed.

Being able to continue to move this piece forward even a little bit at a time is great and we will see when it is completed. I am not pressuring me to finish this piece quickly because it is nice to just work on it when I have those few minutes where I just want to work on something.

I would like to see if spending a bit of time over the next week or so could help me get this ornament completed. There is no pressure or not deadline and that is what makes this project so much fun to work on.

Talisman Shawl - here is the knitting project that I have been working on as I would like to see how much of it I can get completed in the next little while. I do have reasons for wanting this project moved forward quickly so we will have to see how it goes.

I haven't figure out what size that I will be making with this yarn because there are three sizes and it will depend on how big the shawl is when I have finished up using the first ball of yarn. I haven't figured out if it is going to be the medium or large shawl but at least, I know that I have enough yarn to make a shawl that I am happy with. 

Hedgerow Mystery Knit Along - for those of you that have been falling me for a while you may have realized that I really enjoy working on knit patterns by Helen Stewart (link to pattern). So, in the last couple of weeks Helen let everyone know that there was going to be a Mystery Knit Along and it didn't take me long to purchase the pattern so that I could immediately start it when the pattern is released. All I know is the amount of yarn that I need as well as the shape of the project and rest of it will start to come alive on February 12th. If you are interested in joining me making this shawl, I have attached the link for the pattern and just a heads up the price of the pattern will go up on February 12th.  

I haven't figured out the yarn that I am going to be using yet for this piece but hopefully by the time I post next week you will see the colours that I picked but we aren't going to see any progress on this shawl until the final pattern is released by Helen Stewart in March of this year.

Other projects - well, I haven't been able to work on any of the other projects that I have on the go because I have been trying to focus on getting things completed. I am trying to stay focused on the projects that I currently am working on, but we will have to see how things go in the next little while.

I hope everyone has a good week and you are able to focus on your projects no matter what they are. Being able to focus on things that make us happy is extremely important. I know that I try each day to ensure that I spend a bit of time making sure that I do something that makes me happy and helps recharge my personal battery.

English Paper Piecing - update

I have been writing a monthly update regarding my English Paper Piecing for a while and some of you may have noticed that I am not getting as much completed monthly as I was when I first started doing the updates.

I have decided that I won't be doing a monthly update until I have some progress to show you. I have been putting a lot of pressure on myself to at least make some motifs even when I didn't want to do it. The pressure to make motifs or join motifs to a project started making me not want to do any EPP and that is where we are right now. I have lots of projects that I could be working on but right now I need to allow myself to want to work on the projects instead of feeing pressured to work on something.

My English Paper Piecing projects aren't going away by any means, but I need to find the join again that I had earlier on. I will continue to have a project close by so that if the desire to work on it comes up, I will do that. So, my next update will be on the 1st of some month, but I am not saying when it is going to be only that it will happen.

If you are working on an EPP project, please share with me what you are working on as it makes me happy when I heard what other people are doing. 

Making progress

Here it is the start of another week and a start of digging out from a crazy snowstorm that we had yesterday. If you were impacted by this storm, I hope you are doing ok as I know some people lost power. We just got snow here and broke records for the most snow here in one day.

Pandemic - here is the project that got some attention this past week. It was time to pick up and work on Pandemic to see how much of it I could get completed and I must admit that I am very happy with the amount of progress that I was able to make on it.

I was able to finish the second page on this row and am well on the way to finishing the third page. It was so nice to spend some time working on this piece and seeing. This piece is getting closer to a finish, and it is now going away for a little bit as there are other projects that I would like to try and make some progress on. 

Argyle Sweater - here is the other project that I have been working on, but it didn't get much attention this past week.

I had wanted to try and get a little more done on this project, but I spent the time working on Pandemic instead. This project is something that I work on a little bit at a time and I am not in a hurry to get it done. 

Talisman Shawl - here is the knitting project that got started this past week and it has been nice to work on.  I am happy with the progress that I have made on this piece given it really didn't get a lot of attention. This coming week I hope to be able to give it a little more attention, but we will see how things go.

Other projects - I didn't spend time on any other project this past week as Pandemic was my focus. This coming week I am not certain if I will have any time to work on other projects so I will wait and see. I know that I have things that need my attention so we will see how it goes.

If you are dealing with the storm that happened on January 24th and 25th, I hope you are managing ok because it was a crazy storm.

This coming week I hope to make some progress on some projects and be able to show you want I was able to achieve next week. Have a good week and remember to take a bit of time for yourself each day.

Making some good progress and even seeing a finish

Here it is the start of another week, and I must admit that it has a bit of a challenge to get some stitching done in the last week. Part of me was trying to ensure that I could see progress on things, but it was hard.

I was busy with some work things that needed to get finalized as well as some of the other things that I wanted to get done.

Unleash the Butterflies - here is the project that I wanted to try and move forward a little bit and it was nice to see that I was able to do just that. Seeing that I could get more of her face finished makes me happy and we will see what happens next time I pick this piece up.

I have enjoyed working on Unleash the Butterflies for the last couple of weeks, but it is now time for her to go away for just a little while as I have another project that I want to work on. I know that she isn't going to be far from me, but a break is always a good thing and it's time to work on other things. I love the details that showed up and we will see what happens next time she gets some attention.

Festive Fox - this is the small ornament that I was working on as I am trying to make sure that I can spend some time working on some smaller things this year instead of just working on projects that are rather large. Given this project was under 60 stitches by 60 stitches I didn't think it would be long before it was finished.

Of course, I had to add some beads to this ornament because it was just too much fun. The berries were to be two different colours of read but I figured a bead in the centre of each of them would work as well so that is what I did. 

Argyle Sweater - once Festive Fox was completed, I had to figure out the next small project that would get some attention and this sweater was the one. It is a little larger than the last couple of ornaments, but it shouldn't take me long to get it done or at least I hope that it doesn't.

The fabric that I am using is Vintage Country Mocha and I love the colouring on it because it gives that bit of aged look and that is nice. I do know that there are going to be more ornaments on this piece as I have both 20 count and 18 count aida. the sweaters are on 20 count aida and I am so happy that I decided to pick up this fabric for some of the ornaments that I will be stitching.

Rainforest Canopy Shawl - here is the knitting project that got the attention over the last little while. This last week I was determined to make sure that I could get the rest of the shawl knit. Of course, I had one more lace section to go and then the rest of the piece was easy. I got the lace section done quickly and then it was just the last two sections that I needed to knit. It did take a bit longer than I anticipated to get the shawl completed but I am happy that it is now finished and I just need to block it.

Of course, while I was finished up this project I was also thinking about the next project that was going to be put on the needles. The yarn for the next project is all ready to go and the needles are ready so hopefully this coming week I will be able to get this next project moved forward.

Other projects - given what I have worked on there hasn't been much time to work on other things. I know that there are some other projects that I would like to try and move forward so we will see what happens this coming week. I do know that I have a different cross stitch project that will be getting some attention and a new knitting project, so I think I am going to be busy for a while.

I hope you are finding that bit of time to do what makes you happy given the cold weather we have been dealing with. Being able to curl up and do something relaxing even for a little while each day does make things a little easier to deal with.

This coming week I have a few things that need my attention so we will try and get them done quickly so that I can spend some time working on my projects so that I have some progress to show you next week. Have a good week and if you are in the deep freeze like we are, stay warm.

A start, a finish and progress

Here it is the start of another week and yes it was a busy week last week with lots of things that needed my attention. The weather here has been once again a week of lots of clouds and cool weather. Hopefully this week we will see some sun as it would be nice to see it as it hasn't been out much since the New Year. I shouldn't complain as we haven't been having the snow like other's are getting.

Unleash the Butterflies - here is the cross stitch project that got lots of my attention this past week. I wanted to see if I could get more of it done and I think I have been able to achieve that. 

What I did this time when I picked it up was worked on the colour with the highest number of stitches left on the piece. It was a nice way to move the piece forward a bit more because it showed me areas that I could work on and at least start to see more of her face come to life.

I hope to be able to work some more on her this week and we will see what I focus on. I haven't decided if I will continue the face or move to a different section to try and get other areas also moved forward.

Snowflake - here is the first small that I worked on this past week. I didn't have a lot completed before this past week but as this piece isn't very large it did work up quickly. 

It is nice having some projects that work up quickly and you can then say I have a finish. I do have more of these snowflakes to work on and I will be working on them when I want that type of stitching. I do have a bunch of different small projects kitted up so that should help me at least see some projects completed this year.

Festive Fox - after I finished the snowflake it was time to start another small project. This time I picked a different project and get it started. Most of the small projects will only be getting a bit of work on them most of the time it means it will take a few days to get any of them completed.

The small project is normally the first cross stitch project I pick up during the day, so it doesn't get a lot of attention as I want to get onto the larger project to see more of it completed. Most days these small projects will only get around 50 or 60 stitches completed but at least I am moving the project forward and that does feel good.

Rainforest Canopy Shawl - here is the knitting project that normally gets some attention and that does feel good. I have been able to continue to move this shawl forward more this past week. I got another lace section completed and am currently up to the last lace section of the piece.

It was nice getting the other lace section completed, and this time without all the issues that I had on the last lace section. We ill see how this lace section goes and hopefully I will be able to get through it early this week and then work on getting the first of the shawl moved forward.

I think it is getting close to figuring out the next project that will get some attention once this shawl is finished. I am not certain when I will get this shawl completed but having the next knitting project figured out would be a good idea.

Other projects - I haven't worked on any other projects and part of that was last week was a busy week and I didn't have lots of time to work on the different things. We will see how this week goes as I think there might be other things that need my attention before I can think of moving any of the other projects forward.

I hope you are finding that bit of time each day to do something you enjoy doing to help you recharge your personal battery. This coming week I hope to continue to move some projects forward, so I have something to show you next week.