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.

Merry Christmas

Wishing everyone a Very Merry Christmas.

Hope you received everything that you wanted.

If you do not celebrate Christmas, All the Best of the Season to you.

Another week of progress

Monarch Butterfly - Dec 7th

Well this week has been a very interesting week for crafting as I was able to find some time most evenings to craft.

The Monarch Butterfly got some attention early in the week as I was hoping to get all the actual stitching done this week but it didn't quite happen but will see if I can the stitching and back stitch done before the end of the year. I am very happy with how it is turning out and am looking forward to seeing what it looks like once all the stitching has been completed.

Monarch Butterfly - Dec 13th

This week I decided that since I was close to finishing the Monarch Butterfly I would work on another project that I started at the beginning of September.  This is a piece based on a drawing by someone we know.  I started the piece on September 2nd and then after realizing that I didn't like it on 22 count fabric doing full crosses and it would look nicer as a petite point.  Well that meant that Wednesday I got a piece of 25 count canvas and restated the design and am happy with how it is looking now.  I only worked on this piece Wednesday night and was able to make a good start on it and am now looking forward to seeing how it looks once I start adding some colour.  This design will be around 7 x 9 inches and is an oval design.

Flower and Butterfly - Dec 14th

My shrug that I have been knitting while listening to mp3's is still coming along and is around 18 inches now so it is at least getting there.  I have been listening to mp3's and watching video's while I am studying for an exam.  Being able to knit on something simple means that I don't want to start looking at other things on the computer when I should be focusing on listening to the presentations.

Caron Cakes Shawl - Faerie Cake

On Wednesday we realized that there was one gift that we needed so I went to Michael's and picked up a ball of Caron Cakes - Faerie Cake and decided to work on a shawl to see if I could get it finished by this week. The shawl is very simple and it became the project that I worked on while listening to the mp3's over the weekend.  The shawl is now done so that is making both of us happy because we wanted to give it to someone this week.

Cecilia's Shawl

Now after all the blues and greens that I have been working on I realized that I needed a bit of a change in colour so found some yarn and a pattern for a shawl for me.  The yarn was for a project that I realized I would never make so it needed to be used for something else. I started this shawl last night and am happy with how it is working up.  Yes the design is for a shawl that is not the normal triangle and I am loving it.  I am not sure how long it will take me to get this shawl done but I will see how much of it I can get done between now and the end of the year.

This week looks like it is going to be busy at the beginning of the week and then as Christmas approached work will slow down a little bit.  If work slows down some it means that I may have a bit more time to craft but will see how it goes.

To everyone who celebrates Christmas - Merry Christmas.  If you are a crafter, I hope that Santa makes sure you get the crafting items you wanted.  If you aren't a crafter, I hope you get what you wanted.

Slow week

Monarch - Nov 9, 2016

This last week I didn't find a lot of time for crafting but I did get a bit of work done on the Monarch Butterfly design which makes me happy.  I am finally seeing that the butterfly is starting to look like it should and that is making me happy.  I will have to do some backstitch on the butterfly and the flower once all the stitching is done but at least I am feeling better about the design now.

This week I hope to be able to put some more time in on this design as I would like to see all the actual stitching finished and then I can focus on the backstitching.  Just being able to see the rest of the butterfly appear will make me happy and then I will start working on another one of the projects that I have on the go.

Monarch - Dec 7, 2016

I didn't get a lot of knitting done either so the shrug is still around 13 inches so a long way to go before I can start wearing it. I figure that the shrug should get some attention as well this week as I have some mp3's that I need to list to so that is what I will knit while listening to them.  I also figure that I would like to get the shrug done soon so that I can start to wear it now that the cold weather has arrived.

The reason for not getting a lot of crafting done in the last week was that my computer decided that it didn't want to work as well as it should.  This meant a lot of additional stress on both myself and my dh as the computer is what I use for work.  After some investigating we figured it would be a good idea to just get a new work computer so that is what we did this weekend and I am back up and working and happy about that.

Now to try and get some work finished up so that this evening I will be able to maybe find a bit of time to craft.  This week I have a few other projects that need my attention so crafting is still going to be slow but I hope to at least find a bit of time for it.

Moving Forward

Teal Shrug - Nov 27th

This last week I finally decided that I needed to spend a bit of time in the evening trying to stitch my mind back together.  No, it didn't happen every evening but at least I was able to do it some evenings which is great.

The shrug that I started a week ago did get some attention because it is something that I can work on and not have to follow a pattern. The shrug is very simple now so that means that I can do it while listening to some mp3's that I need to listen to over the next couple of weeks.  I am knitting on the shrug so that I don't get distractions while listen to the mp3's and it seems to have worked at least yesterday.  I hope to be able to get through the other 11 mp3's that I need to listen to quickly and I will also see how much more of the shrug that I can do while sitting and paying attention to what the mp3's are about.

Teal Shrug - Dec 4th

Besides working on the shrug I have been able to put some time in on a cross-stitch and that was Cirque des Cercles that got the attention this past week.  The pattern does work up pretty quickly when  you can sit for a little bit of time and get some of the circles completed.

Cirque des Cercles - Nov 27th

I am loving the colour that I am using for this design because it is a nice bright teal blue and on the white it looks great.  I hope to be able to spend some more time on this design later in December but I think it is time for another project to come back up for some attention this week. 

Cirque des Cerles - Dec 4th

I did start a small design this weekend and it is a reindeer designed by Kathrin Ellison of Gitta's.  The design for a gift to everyone that went to the Christmas Open House at the store on Saturday.  I got a bit of the design stitched but not a lot so I hope to be able to get it finished up quickly so that it will be something else finished and not sitting partly done.

This week I am hoping to be able to spend some time during the evenings stitching but will see how things go.  I know that there are other things that need my attention so will see how I can juggle everything.

Now to get the work done that needs by attention and then will see what I can work on this evening.

Progress on projects

Teal Shrug - Nov 27th

This past week I didn't get a lot of crafting done but at least I can see that I made a bit of progress on a couple of things.

The first project that finally got started was a teal shrug for myself.  I have been wanting to do something with this yarn for a while so finally picked the pattern and started a shrug for myself.  The nice thing about this pattern is how simple it is because other than the ribbing at both ends of the design it is a simple knit one row, purl the other.  Yes something that I can do when I really don't want to do a lot of thinking about anything.

Cirque des Cercles - Nov 27th

The second project that got started this week was a cross-stitched called Cirque des Cercles.  I have this pattern in a different colour being worked on but I wanted something a little easier to work on so I started this on 16 count aida and am using one colour.  The other version is on 25 count fabric and with two colours in the needle at once.

Cirque des Cercles is about 15 inches x 10 inches but I am hoping that it will stitch up quickly on this fabric.  This is part of one evening of stitching so I am happy with the progress that I was able to make on it.

This week I am not sure what crafting time I am going to have as I have quite a few other projects that need my attention so crafting will be fit in when I have the chance.  I would like to see a bit more progress on the shrug this week so that may be what I focus on when I have the chance. The shrug is just one piece so I have to knit it until around 44 inches so there is still a long way to go but I would like to be wearing it when the weather is cold out.

Oh, I almost forgot to mention, the green mindless shawl.  The shawl is now off the needles and measures almost 68 inches long by 32 inches wide.  It is now drying as I am blocking it so that is why there is no pictures of it on this post.

Crafting is a great way to end my day as it gives me a bit of time to think through the day but there are days when I don't have the chance to craft.  Crafting does help me stitch my mind back together and even solve some of the issues that I have been working on throughout the day.  Stitching no matter what I am working on can really help me figure out what I have to do the next day and also give me some time to file all those other thing tasks into the various folders in my head.

Work now needs to get done so will see how much crafting I can do throughout this week and the coming weekend.

Things moving along

Here Be Tiny Dragon - Water - Nov 14

This week I was able to find a bit of time to craft which was great. 

This week I decided it was time to work on a cross-stitch project that wasn't one of the one's that I have been designing.  I figured that a change was what I needed because I haven't been making a lot of progress on anything for a couple of weeks.

I looked in one of my boxes of cross-stitch projects and found that of course I had a few that were started and then put away for one reason for another. I decided to pull out the project called Here Be Tiny Dragon and see if I could get it moved along and maybe even finished soon.  Well, I forgot the reason that I had put this project down was because I had made a mistake when I started it.  I started this design at the Creative Festival in 2009 and it has been sitting and not getting any attention since then.  So I had choices to make and they were 1) put the kit back in the box and ignore it again, 2) try and work around the mistake, or 3) pull out the area where the mistake was and correct it.

Here Be Tiny Dragon - Water - Nov 20

So my decision was to take out the area where the mistake was and correct it.  It wasn't really too hard to fix as there were probably only about six stitches that needed to be corrected so that is what I did.  This project isn't very big as it is on 25 count fabric and I am stitching it over one so the final design is around 2" x 2.5".  It has been fun watching this dragon come to life this week.  I did most of the stitching on Sunday on it.  Once this design is done there is another dragon in the kit and it is Here By Tiny Dragon - Fire so I hope to get that one done soon as well.  Jennifer Aikman-Smith designed - Water and Teresa Wentzler designed - Fire.

Green shawl - Nov 20th

Besides working on the dragon this week I have been able to get a bit more done on the green shawl that I am making. The shawl is now 62 inches out of the 72 inches so I am happy with the progress that I have been able to make on it.  I hope to be able to get this shawl done within the next couple of weeks but will see how it goes.

This week I am going to see what gets the attention because of course besides having these projects on the go there are other things sitting and also wanting a bit of time.

The weather has now turned colder here in Ontario and that means that it is time to focus on trying to stay warm so crafting may be something that gets a bit more attention now.

Slow progress

Monarch Butterfly - October 16th

Well here it is another week and I can really admit that I didn't get a lot of stitching done over the last week.

The Monarch Butterfly did get a little bit of attention and I am happy with that because it is slowly coming along.  I was able to spend an evening working on it and saw a bit of progress so now to see when I can work on it again.

The colouring of the latest picture is so different than the other one and that is because I didn't use my daylight lamp when I was taking the picture this time.  I hope to be able to find some time this week to actually work on the Butterfly as I would like to get it completed soon.

Monarch Butterfly - November 9th

Besides working on the Butterfly I was able to get a bit of knitting done on the green shawl and it is now 56 inches out of the 72 inches so it is slowly coming along.  This week I am going to try and give the shawl a bit more attention because I would like to see the shawl completed and then I will be able to get a good picture of it.

Crafting wasn't something I had a lot of time for last week and that was because work issues were high on the list of getting done.  Yesterday my original plan was to sit and craft for a while but another client issue came up and that needed to be handled.

This week I am determined that I am going to work a couple of evenings on crafting as I would like the time to actually sit and stitch my mind back together.  Stitching is one of the ways that I regain a focus and my energy and I haven't been doing that lately.  My calendar of course has a few things on it that need to be completed this week but I also see that if things go well I should have a bit of time to craft in the evenings.

Work now needs to get done and I will see if tonight will be one of the evenings where I can curl up and craft for a while.  Hopefully next week there will be more things on the list of what got some attention.

A bit more progress on things

Sugar - Oct 30th

 Here it is a start of another week and now to see if this week is going to be better than the last couple of weeks for getting some crafting done.

This weekend I was able to find some time to sit and work on the background of Sugar and I am just about finished it now.  There is just one some area that needs to be completed and then I can work on the actual dog.  The reason the background didn't get finished last night was I finished a skein of floss and didn't go and pick up the other one that is in my crafting bag.  I will work on finishing the background hopefully this evening and then it will just be working on getting the actual face of Sugar done.

Sugar - Nov 6

Besides working on this piece I but a few more rows in on the green shawl that I am making. I think I only knit about an inch this week so not a very good progress week but at least I am still on track to get it finished by early December.  Now I just need to get back to working on it and hopefully it will be done even faster than that.

The black shrug that I started to knit a couple of weeks ago also got a bit of attention this week and it went from 3 inches to around 7 inches but it is still a long way from the 42 inches that it has to be.

I am hoping that this week I will be able to find some crafting time most evening and will see what I work on.  I know that one evening is our local stitch night so I hope to be able to go there and see some progress on a piece. Of course, the time I work on crafting will depend on what work needs to get done and how quickly it is done.

The clocks went back an hour on Saturday evening and maybe it helped a bit with the cross-stitching but am not sure.  Now to see which project or projects get the attention this week because I am not sure which one will be the one that gets the most attention yet.  I would like to get at least one project finished before the end of the year so that means that maybe the Monarch Butterfly will come back out and get some more attention.

Time to stitch

This week I am happy to say that I was able to find a bit of time to actually sit and do some stitching.

Green shawl - Oct 30th

green shawl - started

The green shawl is still getting attention and I am happy with that as I am currently seeing a shawl at around 45 inches so I am making some progress on it.  I haven't taken a picture of it since I started it so  it was nice being able to take another picture of it. This week I was able to get another 9 inches done on the shawl so I am getting closer to the 72 inches.

Sugar - Oct 10th

Besides knitting when I had a chance during the week I decided that it was time to work on a cross-stitch for a while.  The actual stitching of the piece was done this weekend and I am happy with the progress that I was able to do on Sugar.  Of course, the background is the half stitch so it does go a little faster so decided that I wanted to see if I could get some of that done and that did make me happy.

Sugar - Oct 30th

I am happy with the progress that I was able to make on the piece this weekend because I am not seeing that I can bits of the piece done when I can sit and focus on it.  The other nice thing about this piece is there are quite a few areas of larger single colours so that makes stitching a little easier and faster.

There are still quite a few projects that need a bit of attention so I will see which one gets a little bit of attention this week.  I am not sure if the Monarch Butterfly will make an appearance this week or maybe another one of the projects.

Work is keeping me busy so the time that I find to work on a project makes me happy. Most of the time is evenings and mostly on the weekend when I can focus on working on something.

Well, it's time to get some work done and then maybe this evening I might be able to find a bit of time to stitch on something.

Where did the week go?

Soft lilac baby afghan

I am really not sure where the last week went other than we were extremely busy which meant that there wasn't a lot of time to sit and craft.

The soft lilac baby afghan did get a bit of attention and I was able to finish it up on Saturday.  I decided that I was going to use up the ball of yarn that I was using for it and that was going to determine the size of the afghan.  I was able to get the afghan to 30 rounds and then realized that I wouldn't have enough yarn to do another round.  A quick single crochet around the outside gave it a finish and I didn't have a lot of yarn left after that.

blue marble afghan

Yesterday I decided that as I do crochet in the car that I needed another project to have with us when we are out and about.  Yes, being a passenger in the car means that I can sit and crochet when we are going out.  I had a ball of blue marble yarn hand so that was started into another baby afghan and will see how quickly it gets finished. This is a project that probably won't get a lot of attention at home for a while but at least it is ready for the next time we are going out in the car.

The green shawl that I am working on is continuing to get a bit of attention and again I made a bit of progress.  I have now reached the half way mark on the shawl so that made me feel very good last night.  The shawl now measures 36 inches and that made me happy.  I know that this week I am going to try and work on it a bit more as I would like to see it moved forward quicker than it had been giong.

Another project got added to the needles this weekend but there really isn't anything to show from it.  I decided that I would knit myself a shrug so that was started on Saturday evening.  It is going to be the project that I work on when I need a break from the green shawl so it won't get a lot of attention for a while.

I was able to find a bit of crafting time on the weekend which made me happy.  My cross-stitch stayed put away for the week as I knew that I wouldn't have the time to confuse on it.  Maybe this week I will see if one of them gets any attention but considering our schedule I don't think any of them will get much attention until at least the weekend.

It is now time to get some work done and then will see if I can find any time this evening to work on a craft for a bit.

Another week

Monarch Butterfly - October 10

 Here it is the start of another week and a little bit of progress from last week.

The one project that got some attention was the Monarch Butterfly and I am loving how it is starting to look.  I was comparing it to the original picture and it is slowly starting to come to life.  I can't wait to see the piece finished just to be able to put the cross-stitch and the picture side by side and see how they look.

Monarch Butterfly - October 16

On the Monarch  there are now a lot of areas with a few stitches of different colours so that means I am not going to be a lot of progress as quickly as I have over the last little while. At least once I finished the various little bits of colour a lot of the design will be done. 

Besides working on the cross-stitch I continued to work on the mauve granny square baby afghan and it is coming along pretty well.  Most of the work on the baby afghan was this weekend when I felt like I just wanted something simple to work on.  The afghan is coming along quickly as I went from around 9 inches to around 24 inches this weekend. I hope to be able to make a bit more progress on this afghan during this week but will see how things really good.

I was also able to get some knitting done on the shawl that I am working on.  The shawl went from 19 inches to 30 inches this week so I am slowly starting to see some progress on it.  I want to get this shawl done by the beginning of December so it means that I need to focus on it for a little bit to see how much I can get done.  The shawl is suppose to measure around 72 inches when done so will see how quickly I can get there.  Last week I did focus on knitting it a couple of evenings so that is why it advanced as much as it did.

Once the shawl is completed there are a couple other projects that will get my attention but until then I don't want to distract myself from getting both the Monarch Butterfly and the shawl completed.

This week there are a lot of things going on for work so I am not sure how much time I will be finding to craft.  I hope that at least on the weekend that I will be able to find some time to craft but will see how things go.

Another week

This week I was able to find a bit of time to actually sit and craft.  My focus on this past week was to try and get projects moved forward and that is what I did.

Granny square baby afghan

The first project was to work on the granny square baby afghan that I started in July as I wanted to see if I could get it done.  I had around 26 rounds done and wanted to get to 32 rounds so over the last week I was able to do that.  I finished the actual stitching of the afghan on Saturday and now just need to sew the ends in and then the afghan will be complete.  It feels good knowing that this project is finished and I still have some yarn left so will be making some baby hats out of the remaining yarn.

After I finished the granny square afghan I looked around and noticed that I had a mauve ball of yarn that would make a nice afghan so I started another afghan Saturday evening.  I didn't get a lot of it done so there isn't a picture to show off yet.

As this was a long weekend here in Canada as it was our Thanksgiving, I was able to spend some time over the weekend working on some cross-stitch.  Two different projects go some attention and some progress was made on both of them.

Monarch Butterfly - September 30th

The Monarch Butterfly got some time last night and I am seeing that I am slowly making some progress on it.  I hope that through this week I will be able to get some more of this one done as I am really looking forward to seeing it finished.

With the Monarch Butterfly I am still working on getting all the sides completed and then I will just have the inside of the piece to focus on.  I now just have the right side of the piece to finish and then it will be the middle that will get the attention.  Hopefully I will be able to get the side finished this week and then the centre is left and hopefully I will be able to make some progress on it as well.

Monarch Butterfly - October 10th

The other cross-stitch that got some attention was Sugar as I continue to work on getting the background done.  This project is something that I can work on while I am listening to podcasts. 

I still have some of the background to do but I am thinking that I may try and get a bit more of the actual stitching done over the next little while.  I don't know how much time I will have on this project but I am thinking that maybe even spending an evening on this one will help me see a bit of progress on the actual dog.

Sugar - September 5th

These are the projects that got my attention this past week and I will see who I work on this week.

I am pretty sure that the Monarch Butterfly will get a bit more attention as I want to see what this piece looks like very soon.  Of course, a lot of what I can work on will depend on the time that I have available. 

Sugar - October 10th

Stitching is a great way for me to relax in the evenings and I hope to be able to find some time this week to do just that.  It is such a nice way to relax and actually think a lot of the various projects through.  There are evenings when I am stitching but my mind is still on the project that I was working on during the day.

I have a lot of projects that are currently waiting to be worked on in the evenings but I am thinking that I am going to focus on just a couple of projects to see how they go.

Now to see which work project I will focus on and get it finished up as well.  I know that there are a lot of things needing my attention so now to start working through everything.

My week was pretty good

Caron Cakes - shawl

This past week I was able to find some time to sit and craft and am happy with the progress that I made. 

My first project that I wanted to see finished was the shawl that I was working on using the caron cakes yarn that I picked up.  During the week I was able to work on it and actually get it finished.  The shawl is just over 72 inches long so I figured it was time to end it.

Caron Cakes - shawl - finished

I do have some more yarn still to go so I am making a narrow scarf with it.  I hope to be able to get the scarf done in the next couple of weeks so that all the yarn has been used up quickly.

I have loved using the yarn as it is so nice and soft and I have had some fun working with it as when I am not really watching the yarn it is a nice surprise when the colour has changed and I am onto a different colour.

Monarch - September 21st

After finishing up the shawl I decided it was time to try and get a bit of cross stitch done. I picked up the Monarch Butterfly design and started to work on it as I figured it would be nice to see some more progress on this design before the end of the month.

Monarch - September 30th

The Monarch Butterfly got one evening worth of work done on it this week so that did make me happy as I was able to see some progress on the outside of the design. This is one of the designs that I am hoping to have finished soon as I am really enjoying how it is turning out. I am going to try and finish at least connecting all the sides of the design so that I will just have the flower and butterfly to finish up.

This weekend we decided that we were going to have a day where we just did some of the things that we have wanted to do and something we haven't done in quite a while. So each of us decided that we were doing to spend one day doing something that wasn't work related to start to recharge our personal batteries.  It felt wonderful having a day like that and yesterday was it.

Salmon Rose - September 7th

My project was to see if I can make some progress on the Salmon Rose that I have been working on. This design was started last year and didn't get any attention for over a year until I pulled it back out at the beginning of September.  Yesterday I enjoyed watching the Blue Jay game and then the preseason hockey game so it gave me some time where I could just sit and stitch. 

Salmon Rose - October 2nd

I am very happy with the progress that I was able to make and am looking forward to seeing how much more of this piece I can get worked on over the next little while. I am how just over half finished the rose and once all the stitching is done I am going to figure out where some of the back stitch needs to go.  That will be after all the other stitching is done and I can sit back and look at the completed piece versus the picture and see where I think some outlining is needed.

Until then I have some work that needs to get done so I am off to do that and will see which evenings I will be able to find some time to craft. Next weekend is a long weekend so that means hopefully I will be able to find some additional time to craft and enjoy the time.

Crazy week

Monarch Butterfly - September 18th

 I really have no idea where this last week has gone but I do know that I have another crazy week ahead of me so will see how things go.

Last night I was able to find one evening where I was able to pull out the cross-stitch and work on it for a while.  The Monarch Butterfly is slowing starting to take shape and I am happy with how it has been coming along.  I am hoping that this week I will find some time to put a few more stitches in the piece as I am looking forward to seeing it done.

Monarch Butterfly - September 21st

Besides working on the butterfly I was able to find a bit of time to work on the Caron Cakes shawl that I restarted last weekend.  The picture of the Pineapple Shawl is the shawl that I started at the end of Shawl as soon as I got the yarn.  After getting so far on the shawl I realized that the colouring wasn't going to work too well so it was time to make some major decisions on the project.  The decision was do I continue working on the shawl and hope it works out so that I will wear it or take it out and make something that I know I would wear?

Pineapple Shawl - Caron Cakes

The decision wasn't really that hard because when I thought about each pineapple being maybe two to three colours I decided I wouldn't be happy with that so it was time to take the shawl out and figure out something else to make with the yarn.

Caron Cakes - Cake Pop

The yarn has wonderful colours it in and I wanted each of the colours to show up so I started a very simple wrap for myself.  The wrap/shawl is a basic double crochet and chain pattern.  I made it wide enough that it will cover my arms and shoulders and then started to crochet.  I have finished one ball of the yarn and am loving how soft it is.  The yarn does have 20% wool in it and that may be part of the reason why it is so soft.

Caron Cakes - Simple Shawl - September 25th

The shawl with being simple means that I can pick it up when I have a few minutes to add a few more stitches.  The pineapple shawl meant that I always had to have a pattern with me so it wasn't something that I could work on for even 10 or so minutes and see some results.  The shawl is giving me a project that I can work on when I have those few minutes.

This week looks like it is going to be another crazy day so will see how much crafting time that I can find.  I hope to even find those few minutes each day when I can add a couple more rows onto the shawl.

The weather has cooled down so that is also nice because it makes crocheting so much easier as the yarn isn't hot to hold.   Now to see what projects get the attention this week when I have the time to work on something.