An interesting week

Here it is Monday morning and I can actually say that I have been able to make some progress on a few things this week. We continue to deal with large number of Covid-19 cases in Ontario and even in Toronto.  The work continues to be remote most of the time which is good because it means that we can limit the exposure we have with others.

Blushing - here is a project that got some more attention in the last week and it looks like that there is an end in the near future for it.  I am loving how it is turning out and now just have three colours to finish adding to the piece.

Over the last week I tried to get some of the black filled in because there was so much that still needed to be done.  I am now down to the right side of the piece for the black and then two pinks that need to be added to the actual rose.

If things go well this week I am thinking that it might be finished before the end of next weekend.  I know that this will all depend on other demands on my time but at least I am going to try and see if I can get it done.

I have other projects that I am wanting to work on and they have been put aside until this project gets completed.  Now to figure out which project will get some attention once Blushing is finished.  I think I will leave that decision until after I can actually see this piece finished.

Socks - my socks did get some attention in the last week and the attention they got was different than in previous weeks.  One of the reasons that socks got different attention is because there was a two day conference that I was attending this last week. The conference was virtual this year so that meant that I was going to be sitting at my desk for two days watching various presentations.  It was nice to have socks that I could just pick up and work on the main section of them. 

The sock that I was working on before the conference got some attention but of course it still isn't finished.  My goal this week is to get that sock finished and then move these other two socks forward.

It was really nice having something that I could work on without looking at it while I watched the hours of presentations.  There were some presentations that I did take notes but a lot of the presentations were just ones that you sat and listened to them.

For us this is conference season so I am going to try and have socks ready for reach of them so that I can work on knitting the main sections while watching the various presentations.

ETSY - I don't normally talk about my shop (DLKsCrafts) here on my blog but this week I wanted to let everyone know that from October 22nd to December 31st we will be donating $1 from every grime guard sold to the Alzheimer's Society of Toronto.

I continue to work on some other projects but none of them have enough completed to show but maybe if I can find some time this week I might be able to move a couple of the other projects forward.

I hope everyone continues to stay safe and you find a bit of time each day to do something that you enjoy doing. If you are in an area that has lots of Covid-19 cases please take care of yourself and those around you.  It is now time for me to get some work done so hopefully later today I can work on Blushing and maybe next week have a finish.

 

Another week and a small finish

Here it is a Monday morning and I am happy to say that we continue to stay safe while dealing with Covid-19. Last weekend restaurants closed to in-store dining and now another area just north of Toronto has closed it's dining for 28 days.  It something that we all have to deal with and wearing masks and social distancing are things that we all have to continue to do.

Work is continuing as a remote job but for us that is a lot of how we were managing client work before.  Yes, we did have some site visits but for a lot of the normal work it can be done remotely so Covid-19 hasn't resulted in much of a change in where we work.

Blushing - yes I continued to work on this project last week and am getting closer to a finish.  I have been trying to work on areas of the rose as well as the background to see more of it moved forward. I haven't finished many more colours but at least I am slowly starting to see the rose get completed.  I would like to see if I can continue to make the progress that I have been making on this project as I have a couple of other projects that I would like to work on soon but I don't want to start them until this is completed.

This week I hope to be able to get some more stitching in on Roses and maybe even get closer to having it finished. I am currently at 88.8% completed so hopefully by the end of the week I will be over 90% done.

Socks - now here is the project that continues but also changes each week.  The tube socks that I have been knitting are so much fun.  I love watching how the yarn makes each sock just a little different.  

I finished the sock that I was working on last weekend and immediately had to start the next one for that pair.  I love how they are turning out and am looking forward to see more progress on this sock over this week.

I have found that socks work wonderfully when I am watching presentations because it means that I can focus on the presentation but also keep my hands busy (avoiding doing things on the computer).  Having the 8 inch circular need also helps as I find I can now knit these socks pretty quickly with that size needle.  Sure I have to use double pointed needles when I am doing the toe but that doesn't bother me.  I love these and am looking forward to seeing what the other colours of yarn are like.

Last week I got a wonderful delivery and that was another two pair of 8 inch circular needles so I guess you know what that means.  I now have more needles to make more socks so watch for more colours of socks to start to appear.

 

I am still working on a few other projects but nothing that is worth taking pictures of.  I hope that after this week I will have more things to show as it would be nice to continue to see other projects moved forward as well. 

Covid-19 has impacted a lot of things for everyone and conferences are sure different this year.  All of the various conferences that we went to are now virtual so instead of sitting with others we are sitting in front of our own computer attending these events. If you have attending any conferences this year you will know what I mean.

It is now time for me to get some of the work done that I need to do today. I hope everyone continues to stay safe and you also find a bit of time each day to do the things that you love.  Remember that we all need a bit of time to recharge our personal batteries so that we are able to help everyone else.

 

Progess and the 2nd make a pair

Here we are another week of some progress and another week of dealing with Covid-19 restrictions.  As I said last week I thought that we would be getting some more restrictions and they came. For us here in Toronto, restaurants are close to in restaurant dining, gyms, casinos, banquet halls and conference centers are closed. This new restriction is in place for 28 days so we will see how the numbers look after that.

Blushing - here is the project that got a lot of attention over the last week.  Having a long weekend because of Thanksgiving meant that I could spend some more time working on this piece.  It makes me very happy to see that I have got more of the actual rose completed and I have also been able to work on the background as well. 

It is amazing how much I can get done when I can sit for a couple of hours and just work on this piece.  Given all the restrictions including limited dinners to just those in your house it meant that I had more time to work on getting this piece moved forward over the weekend .  I have been completing colours and am now down to having 11 colours left to go on the entire project and a couple that should be finished soon.  

I am loving this project and have been enjoying seeing the change in the piece at the end of each week.  I am looking forward to seeing what this week is going to bring for stitching time.  I do have a few things that I need to do but I will continue to try and put at least one thread of floss into this project each day.

Socks - my socks have turned into the after dinner knitting, when I have a few minutes and not enough time to stitch and also just because I want to knit socks.  The second sock of the colour River got done on Tuesday of last week and that was while I was attending a virtual conference.  It is great being able to sit and work on something while watching a presentation.  I didn't need to take notes on the material so that really helped.

I am happy with how the two socks turned out and more so because when I started the first one I didn't really look to see where I was starting the yarn so it made it a bit of a challenge of where to start the second one to have the two socks look the same. I am happy with how they turned out and I know that I will enjoy wearing this pair of socks.

Of course, I knew that I was going to be finishing this sock early in the week so had the next colour that I wanted to knit decided. With this ball of yarn I ran into an issue even before I started knitting and that was I couldn't get the middle of the ball to come out.  After some fighting with it I handed it to my DH who tried and then decided it would be best to just wind the entire skein of yarn into a ball form the outside so that is what he did.

The sock once again has been knitting up fairly quickly and I have been enjoying seeing how this colour is turning out.  I know that I have just about finished this sock and should have it finished in the next day or two.  After this is it making sure that I immediately cast on the second sock of this yarn so that I can ensure that I always have two socks the same instead of a bunch of single socks.

Last week when we were out running some errands we stopped into Michaels so that I could pick up some more of this yarn as I want to make lots of socks.  I didn't get every colour that they had in sock but I now have multiple of some of the colours so now to work on knitting up all of these socks over the winter.

I haven't done a lot of other crafting lately but hopefully soon I will start to get back to doing some of the other things. We continue to stay safe and limit what we are doing outside of home.  Masks, hand sanitizing and washing hands are just part of the normal routine now.

It is now time for me to try and get some work done that is sitting here waiting for me to pick it up.  I hope everyone continues to stay safe and follow the restrictions that in place where you live.  It is also important to remember to try and do something even for a few minutes each day for yourself. The world is going to get better it's just taking a long time to get there.

Have a good week and hope you enjoy doing the things that you love doing.

Another week of progress

Here it is another week and now to see what I have been able to get done in the last week.  We are continuing to work remotely for our clients as the number of Covid-19 cases continues to climb here in Ontario.  The city hasn't closed places yet but I think it is just a matter of days before we hear of some either closures or limitations.  Restaurants are still allowed to serve in store but I think that is going to be changing soon as that we can get this virus under control again.

Blushing - this project did get quite a bit of attention this last week and part of that is because of how much I am enjoying working on it. It is so much fun to see the different sections of the rose appear as well as parts of the background.

I have been able to get the entire left side of the pattern completed now and am looking forward to seeing the rest of the design appear.  Over the weekend I decided it was time to figure out the outline of the rose so that I could start to add those stitches that there are only a small number of in the entire design.  A lot of these stitches are along the end of the rose so figured getting the outline completed would help me start to add in some of those stitches.

This week I hope to be able to add in some more colours to the rose as I am looking forward to seeing more of the detail.  It is now getting closer to the end but still have quite a bit of stitching to go before it is actually finished.  I know the finished size of it which is good and I know that before long I will start to see the end is getting close.

This has been the only cross stitch that I have worked on in the last couple of weeks and I am not sure what this week has in store.  I know that I have some work that needs my attention so that is first and then I hope to be able to continue to get a few stitches on this project every day. 

Socks - here is a project that gets a bit of attention some nights after dinner.  My pair of socks is getting closer to actually being a pair.  I haven't finished the length yet but it shouldn't take me much longer to knit this one sock.  The yarn is so nice to work with and I have been enjoying working on these. 

I know that I have enjoyed knitting this pair of socks as I have already decided on which colour yarn I will be using for the next pair and it is sitting waiting to be started as soon as this pair is off the circular needle.

Knitting socks it isn't a cost savings but knitting socks is for the enjoyment of making them.  I enjoy knitting these tube socks and I know that they fit me so that is why I am making them.  I love having a project that I can pick up and work on for even 5 or 10 minutes and not worry about finishing either a row or a pattern.

 

It is now time for me to get to work so that I can get everything done that needs my attention. If things go well I might be able to find some time to work on Blushing and my sock later today.

I hope everyone continues to find the bits of time each day to do the things that you love.  We may not get lots of time each day but even those few minutes can help us relax and recharge our personal batteries.  Have a good week and try and stay safe.