Monday, December 26, 2022

Progress and a new project

It is hard to believe it is the start of another week and the last week of 2022. For a lot of us in North America, these past few days have been very cold and windy. I know that for us, we didn't get hit as hard as other parts of Ontario and Quebec, but we have had the wind and cold temperatures. It has been a time to just hide and stay inside. For me, it has been a time to sit and find some time to do some crafting.

Mini The Forgotten - this past week I have had a goal of getting as much of the black done on this piece as I could, and I think I have been able to achieve that.

The focus was just trying to get all the black stitches on this piece before the end of the year, and it looks like I should be able to do that as I only need to complete the top section of one wing. It has been nice being able to focus on one colour and see how much I could get done. Once the black is completed I think I will put this away for the rest of the week, and maybe I will pull out some other projects to work on, but I will see what really happens.

Simple Scarf - now this project got started this week as I have been going through my yarn and found some yarn that I could make into a scarf, so that is what I am doing. As most of these balls were only part balls I am going to be using up each ball and then going onto the next ball and I will see how long this scarf ends up. It is nice to have a project that I can just work on and there is no idea how long the scarf will be. It is just a great way to finish up the odd balls of yarn that I have had lying around for a while.

I had five part balls of yarn for this project, so will see what it looks like by the time all the yarn has been used up. It will be fun to work on this project, as I have no idea how big each of the sections is going to be.

Simple Triangle Shawl - I have continued to work on this project, so will see how much I can get done on it again this week as well. This is another project that is trying to use up some yarn, so will see how large this shawl ends up. It feels great having some projects that are ones that I can just pick up and work on, and I am also use up some of the yarn that I currently have.

This coming week I know that I would like to see if I can continue to work on this project as I want to see it getting closer to being finished before the end of the yarn. 

Other projects - this last week I didn't work on any other projects as I was focusing on making progress on just these. Also, it was Christmas, so getting everything ready for that also took some time. 

This coming week, I am not sure what I will be working on other than getting the black done on Mini the Forgotten and spending some time knitting. Other than that, I think I am going to figure out my other projects as I have the time to work on them.

I hope everyone has been able to continue to find that little bit of time each day to do something for yourself. It doesn't matter what it is as long as it's taking those few minutes each day to relax and take time for you.

As this is the last blog for the year, I want to wish everyone a Happy New Year and all the best in 2023. As someone wrote this week, "May the best of 2022 be the worst of 2023". Have a good week and I will see you again in 2023.






 

Monday, December 19, 2022

Progress and a couple of finishes

Here it is the start of another week and one week before Christmas. We are working on wrapping up a bunch of things here at home and in regard to work, so will see how things go through the rest of this week. 

I have been doing little bits of crafting over the last week, but life got in the way for some of it, so that means that I didn't get quite as much done as I would have liked to do. Now to see what the next couple of weeks are like, as I would like to see if I can spend some time just hiding and getting some crafting done.

Holly - here is one of the projects that I wanted to get done. I had completed stitching the first of the three Holly ornaments that I wanted to do, but still have the other two to stitch and also get ready to give. There weren't very big as the frame is only 2"x3" so something that is quick to make.

This weekend I decided it was time to sit down and work on getting the last two stitched and as soon as they were finished, I was able to put all three of them into their frames, and they are now finished. They were a lot of fun to work on and am now happy that the final things I needed for Christmas are now finished.

English paper piecing - this week I was able to get a few more motifs completed and hopefully over the next couple of weeks I can start to join more of the motifs onto the throw as the bag of motifs is starting to get rather large.

I also need to work on joining the large motifs onto that throw as well, as I better get back to joining motifs instead of just making them. The making of the motifs is a great thing in the evening because I don't need a lot of good light to do these, and it gets something done when I am starting to wrap up for the evening.

Simple Triangle Shawl - yes, I have started another shawl. This last week was a very interesting week and after having some issues with another knitting project, I figured it was time to pick up something that was very easy and something that I could work on and see results quickly. This one is using up some more yarn and I will see how large it gets as I am going to be working on this shawl until the ball of yarn is finished, or at least that is my goal right now on this shawl.

These shawls are very easy to work on and something that I can see results on quickly, and I will just have to figure out what I will be doing with all these shawls after they are all done.

Wavy Lace Scarf - here is the knitting project that I had issues with this week. It is a pretty easy pattern, but after messing it up a couple of times, I figured I needed to take a bit of a break from it. I hope to get back to working on this scarf this week, as I would like to see it finished before too long. 

Other projects - I didn't work on any of the other projects that I wanted to work on this past week. If things go well, some of the other projects will start to come back out, and I will see what I can get moved forward.

I hope everything is finding that little bit of time each day to do something that you enjoy doing. This time of year, is busy for so many people, but we also need to ensure that we are taking that little bit of time each day to recharge those personal batteries so that we can continue to get everything else completed.

As this is my last blog before Christmas, I want to wish everyone a Merry Christmas and hope that you will enjoy some time with the ones that you love.


Monday, December 12, 2022

Making some progress and a finish

Here it is the start of another week and I must admit that I haven't had a lot of time to focus on getting all the crafting done. I know that this coming week is going to be busy as well, so that means that I need to enjoy the little bits of time that I have to sit and relax.
We have been busy with work and a bunch of other things, so getting time to sit and hide would make me feel better.

New Doors - I did get a little bit of time to sit and work on this project, and I am happy with the overall progress that I made on it. I am trying to work on getting each colour finished so that I can just focus on all the other different keys. 

It would be nice to have this finished soon, but I am going to just have to wait and see how things go moving forward. If things go well, I might be able to see this finished early next year. There are so many keys left to do and then all the border needs to be finished, so will see how things go when I can spend the time to pick this up and focus on it.

English Paper Piecing - over the last week I was able to spend some time working on getting a bunch of small motifs completed. The motifs are easy to work on and something very quick to see results on. Between last week and today I was able to complete another 55 motifs for the scarp throw, so will see how things go moving forward.

Of course, now that I have been making motifs I do need to get back to joining them otherwise I am going to have this large bunch of motifs that all need to be joined together to make a throw. My goal is to try and join some of the motifs together during the Christmas holidays, as I hope to have a bit of time to sit and craft.

Wavy Lace Scarf - of course, this week I did find bits of time to sit and work on my knitting, and it felt good to see some more progress on this project. I hadn't worked on this for a while as I was making all the various Simple Triangle Shawls, but now it is time to pull out a bunch of the other projects that I have started and see if I can get them moved forward. This is the first project that I pulled out, and now I am going to be trying to get this scarf finished before too long, as just getting something else finished would make me happy.

Simple Triangle Shawl - here is the project that did get some attention this week as I wanted to see if I could at least get it finished, and I was able to do just that. It felt wonderful sitting and working on getting this project done. It didn't take me that long to see this piece finished, so that was nice. 

What I decided to do that instead of starting another shawl was to start trying to finish up some of the other knitting projects that I have started. I am not sure how long that I will do that type of knitting but at least for now I am trying to ensure that I can see at least a couple of projects moved from being worked on to finished.

Other projects - I didn't work on any other projects this week and yes part of it is because I was trying to focus on just a few, but we were also busy this weekend doing things around home.

I have been trying to continue to spend a few minutes each day doing something for myself to recharge my personal batteries. I hope that everyone is also spending those few minutes each day recharging your own personal battery. It has been something that I have needed this last little while and am happy that no matter how busy we have been I remember to take those few minutes to myself and see what I work on. 

In the coming week I will see how much time I have to work on my projects and hopefully will have something to show next week. Have a good week and hopefully next week there will be a bunch of projects moved forward.

 

 





 

Monday, December 5, 2022

Progress and bouncing around

Here it is the start of another week, and I am thinking that just getting more of the things moved forward would be nice. There are so many things that I would like to achieve, so will see how things go.

I am still trying to make some progress on a bunch of things, so will see how things go. There are still so many things that I would like to get some of the stuff achieved.  I am going to try and make sure that I can continue to get things achieved, so will see how it goes.

Mini the Forgotten - this week I didn't get a lot of time to focus on this piece, but that doesn't bother me because I know that it is a project that I will be working on for a while. The black floss is still the focus on this piece, and hopefully before the end of the year I will be able to continue to move this forward. It would be nice too more of this done before the end of the year and now just to see what happens. I would like to see if at least I can move the black forward before the end of the year.

New Doors - this is the project that got the most attention of my cross stitch projects. This piece was started on my birthday in 2022, and I would like to see it finished before my birthday in 2023. 

It has been interesting working on this piece because there aren't that many colours, but it does take a lot of time to work on some of the areas. Currently, I am trying to work on both the left side of the pattern, but also I am trying to get as much of the black done as I can. I may be moving the q-snap this week so that I can continue to get more of the border completed, as it would make happy to see that the border is at least to the point where I know that it meets up.

I have now reached the 55% complete on this project, and I would like to make a bit more progress on it before the end of the year. It might not be finished before the end of the year, but at least seeing that I am getting closer to a finish would be nice. What I have been trying to do with this project is to move it forward at 5% increments, and it has been helping. The project isn't very big, compared to some of the other projects I have done, but making sure that I can see at least some progress makes it a lot easier.

This coming week I will try and make a bit more progress on this piece as it would be nice to see more of the keys and locks stitched. Hopefully, next blog there will be more of a change to this piece, but will see how this week really goes.

Wavy lace scarf - here is a project that I haven't worked on for quite some time, and I figured it was time to pull it out and get some progress on it. I only worked on it on Sunday, but at least I was able to see some progress. It would be nice to see more of this project moved forward, as I would like to see that I have moved this forward, and I am getting closer to finishing this ball of yarn before the end of the year.

This project has been sitting for a while, so now that it is back out, I will be working on seeing if I can get it finished before too long.


Simple Triangle Shawl - this week I have continued to focus on getting more of the triangle shawl completed. What I have been doing is trying to knit around 1-hour most days just to see how much of this project I can get done.  I didn't get 7-hours done on the scarf this week, but at least I have been able to see some excellent progress on it.

It feels so nice just seeing that I can pick up a project and work on it for a while most days and by the end of the week see some pretty good progress on it. This shawl may end up a little larger than the other versions I have done, but that doesn't bother me because it is something that I have been enjoying working on.  Once this shawl is finished, I'm maybe picking up a bunch of the other projects that I have started, as I would like to see more projects finished before too long.

Other projects - in the last week I did pick up my English Paper piecing one day but didn't get a lot of progress done on it. It is always nice to have a bunch of different things that I can pick up and work on depending on how I am feeling each day and now much time I have available for working on something.

I hope everyone is finding that bit of time each day to do something that you enjoy doing. It might not be a lot of time, but at least being able to see some progress on something is nice. If you read or even watch TV, it means that you are taking the time for yourself and recharging that personal battery. 

This coming week, I am not sure what I will be trying to accomplish, but I hope that I will be able to show you some of the things that I worked on. Until next week, remember to continue to take that personal time each day to ensure that you are recharging your personal batteries so that you are there for those around you.