Another shawl started

Belted Wrap - Caron

 As you can guess by the name of this blog I have started another shawl for myself.  This shawl is basically one long piece with no shaping which is fine with me.

The thing I liked about the pattern was it was a wrap that I would wear and it had a belt to hold it in place.  Another bonus for someone who doesn't sit still and wanted something that would keep me a little warm when I am doing things. 

Belted Wrap - Belt

In my last blog I mentioned that I had to finish the black shawl before I could start this new one so yesterday I finished casting off the shawl and sewed the ends in quickly so that I could start this pattern.  Yesterday we actually went and I picked out this yarn which is really nice to work with.  The yarn is Waverly by Bernat and the colour is called "Beautiful Blue". 

The picture of the main wrap is what I did yesterday after getting home from running around and dinner.  The belted wrap - belt I did this morning before really getting moving and starting my day.  I wanted to see what the belt looked like and I also figured this way I would get the pattern into my head quickly.  The pattern is only four rows so when it's over 12 stitches it is fast to learn.

Today I have a couple of other things that I need to work on but I think I am also going to work on the belt so that I can see how long the wrap is going to be.  The belt and wrap are the same length so figure working on completing the belt will also give me a quick feeling of satisfaction that I got that much done.

I can't wait to see this wrap completed so I better go and get the other things completed so that I can spend some of my day knitting.

Knitting again

Triangle shawl

So over the last week I have been working on a project for myself.  Of course it has meant that I have been a little more determined to get it finished.

The project is a triangle shawl and a simple garter stitch so something that I can pick up and put down easily when I need to work on something else.  I have had this lace yarn sitting around for a little while so I decided it was time to make something with it.  The yarn is considered a fine weight (2) and it has sequins on it so I figured it would be nice in a shawl. 

Triangle shawl on needle

Of course the increases are on every other row and when you put it down and pick it up you sometimes forget which row you just finished so in the second picture you can see my indicator to show me which row is the increase row.  This has really helped me because it meant that I didn't have to remember what row I was on I just had to look for the indicator.

Right now it is sitting right beside me because I just have two more rows to knit before I can cast off which is making me happy.  I also have figured out the next project that I am going to make for myself so that is another reason why this shawl was made so quickly.  The pattern started with 8 stitches and right now I am at 280 stitches on the needle.  It is now time to finish this project up and maybe I will even be able to wear it within the next few days.

I continue to cross stitch as well when I have a few minutes so hope that I will be able to get lots of different things done over the next couple of weeks.

Time to go and work on another row.

A different project

Dream

 

This week I decided that it was time for another project and this was a lot different than what I have been working on.

Over the last couple of years my husband has heard that I have wanted to try to do a bit of my own designing instead of dealing with just the patterns that are on the market.  I wanted something that was my own.

The past while I have been sketching out ideas of what I would like to design if I had the time and the tools to do just that.  Well after hearing this lately DH decided that it was time for me to get the major tool that would help me start this new adventure.  What he did was told me that it was time for me to go PC Stitch 10 and start trying to do a bit of designing for myself. 

The cross-stitch that is on this blog is something that I thought about for a while and now it is finally stitched.  Of course the first version of it isn't quite what I wanted because I pulled out a piece of fabric quickly and without checking decided to stitch up this pattern quickly.  So it ends up that the piece of fabric was 14ct Aida instead of the 18ct Aida that I had planned on using.  This project was very quick as it took me an evening to basically stitch it up.  Now that it is done I decided that I wanted to see what it looks like on 22ct so have started that version so in the next day or two when I have some time I will see what it looks like smaller.  The butterfly was a pattern included with PC Stitch so now that I have done that I am going to work on a butterfly myself.

Of course I am still stitching on Cirque de Cercles but just needed a chance to try something a little different.  Also doing something with a bit of colour was also fun.  A quick project was nice for a change.

Now to get the things done off my to-do-list so that I can spend some of my weekend trying out my new software to see what I end up coming up with.

Cirque des cercles progress

Cirque des cercles - March 1

On March 1st I said I was going to put Cirque des cercles by Ink Circles back on the scroll bars and that is exactly what I did.  As you can see I had some of the circles outlined by then and my goal was to get all of the circles outlined before the end of March.

Cirque des cercles - March 8th

The good news is it didn't take me the entire month of March to get the circles outlined it actually only took me a week.  Once I sat down and started working on the piece again it seems to go pretty quickly which was great.  You can also see little bits that I did when I had just enough thread left in my need to do a small amount of stitching.

Cirque des cercles - March 10th

Once all the circles were outlined I wanted to start getting things filled in because I wanted to see what it looked like.  Now, I have been meaning to take a couple of days to myself where I just did what I wanted and didn't think too much about work or anything else.  Saturday both DH and I decided that yesterday and today were going to be those days.  See scheduling them to far ahead usually means that something comes up and I lose the days that I have selected.

Yesterday I got up and picked up cirque des cercles and worked on it for part of yesterday. I saw some progress and was happy with it.  Today I got up and once again picked up cirque des cercles and worked on it some more.  Now you can see what I actually completed in a couple of days.  The fabric is 25 count even weave and I am doing this piece over one thread.  Tomorrow it's a day to get back to work so there won't be too much stitching done. 

I am really glad that I took these two days to sit and relax and do something that I wanted to do.  Emails where basically ignored today so now to see what I need to work on tomorrow but that will be done in the morning.  Cirque des cercles will not be far away from my spot where I stitch so will see when it calls to me again to put some more stitches in it.

A finish to report

Positive thinking - Mar 1/14

 So I haven't been writing a blog lately and that is because I was working on getting a project finished.  Over the last couple of weeks I decided that I really wanted to get Positive thinking completed by the end of February.

Well I didn't get it completed by February 28th but the good news is I finished it on March 1st so not bad.  I started this project on February 1st and finished the stitching on March 1st so am happy with that.  Now what I need to do is actually finish it into a bell pull.


The piece was actually a lot of fun to work on and am happy to say that I finished something that I started within a very short time.  Normally what happens is I start something and then I start something else and I don't get the pieces finished.

Part 5 - finished - March 1/14

So now that this piece is finished I think I will work on Cirque des Cercles for a while and see how much of that I can get done during the month of March.  I will take a piece of it once it's back on the scroll bars and then will see how I do.

It's been cold out so having some cross-stitch pieces to work on has been nice.  It has meant that I haven't wanted to go outside as much. 

Time to put Cirque des Cercles back on the scroll bar and get working on it.