Merry Christmas, a start, a finish, and progress

I would like to wish everyone a Very Merry Christmas.

This past week has been an interesting done for me as I had some time to do some crafting. Of course, there was still some work to be done but for me quite a bit of it must wait until this coming week and even just after the New Year. This week was a week where I could find some time to sit and craft and am happy with the progress that I have been able to make on the different projects.

Dudester scarf - this project didn't get quite as much attention as I thought it would. I ended up not working on this piece each day as I originally thought that I would but at least it got moved forward.

This scarf is a lot of fun to work on and it is a pretty quick knit as well so that makes me a great project to work on when I want to see progress on something. I haven't decided how long I am going to be making this scarf, so I am just going to work on it until I either finish the ball of yarn or think it is long enough.

I have been thinking of making a toque out of this yarn as well so if I do that it will mean that some of the yarn will go to that project. Maybe, what I will do is knit the toque from the other end of the ball of yarn and then see what's left and use it for the scarf. I am enjoying working on this scarf as it is a nice pattern, and I am pretty sure that I will be using this pattern again for another scarf.

Star Touched Meadows - December - I have finally started the December section of this stitch along. This has only had a couple of days of work done on it as I didn't want to start it until the November section had been completed.

I am happy with the progress that I have been able to make on this section as I have only worked on it for a couple of days. This should be the project that I focus on over the next week, but I will just have to see what happens.

Star Touched Meadows - November - I have attached two pictures and you probably won't see a lot of difference between the two of them. Yes, I was able to get the remaining red stitches in on the piece and then it was time to finish stitching all the white in the project.

I don't think I will be leaving all the white to the end next time. I know that the white does make a difference when you see it in person but when you look at the piece on camera it doesn't look much different.

Once I have finished a couple more of these sections I am going to be finishing them into small items. Each of these designs' measures 4.25 x 4.25 inches so they aren't very big at all. Given that there are going to be twelve of these when I get them all stitched, I will be able to change them out each month on a board that we have just inside our front door.

Magic of Books - here is a full coverage piece that I decided needed a little bit of attention. I hadn't picked it up since September 2022 so figured I needed to at least get a bit of progress on it. 

I worked on filling in more of the black so that after this section is done, I can work on more of the colour. I am not certain if I will work on it any more this year but at least I was able to get a few more stitches in on it so that makes me happy.

Other projects - I finished up all the Christmas ornaments that I wanted to get done. The Holiday Cardinal was stitched three times, but it was a nice quick project.

I haven't worked on much of anything else this past week but as you can see, I was able to make some good progress on what I did touch.

Now it is time for me to once again wish everyone a Merry Christmas and hope that you will find time in the next week to do something for yourself.

 

Some good progress

Here it is the start of another week and yes, it looks like it is going to be a busy week for us. I know that this week is going to be a busy week for a lot of people. For some it's the last week of work for 2023 and for other's it's trying to get those last-minute projects finished.

For me it will be trying to get as much work done as I can before Christmas as well as finish up a couple of projects that are gifts. I know that I can get the gifts finished up as long as I focus on them for a little bit.

Star Touched Meadows - November - here is the project that I worked on this week and am happy with the progress that I have been able to make on it.  I decided to try and focus on getting more of this piece done over the weekend because I am trying to get it finished within a reasonable time.

I am now working on the final two colours on this piece and hopefully I will be able to get all of them added before too long. Of course, the colour that has the most stitches left to go is the white, so I am trying to do some of that while I also put in one of the red colours. 

This week I hope that I am able to continue to work on this piece even if it is just a few stitches a day. Moving this forward and closer to a finish would be nice. Being able to see the entire piece coming to life makes me very happy and now that I have under 1,000-stitches left to do on this project it feels good. 

I know that I am already almost a month behind on this stitch along but that doesn't bother me because I will get the sections done when I can. Now to try and get this section done before the end of December.

Dudester scarf - I did get some good knitting progress this past week and that is because I have been trying to do the thirty minutes of knitting in on this scarf each day in the past week. I ended up knitting on the scarf 6 days in the past week and given we have been busy it feels great to see this much progress. The scarf if just over 28 inches long so there is still quite a bit of knitting left to go. I will see how much progress I can get done in the next week.

I hope that I can continue to get the 30 minutes of knitting in on the scarf this week because it makes me very happy to see the progress that I can get on the scarf in that time. We will see how long the scarf is by the end of this coming week.

Other projects - I am still trying to finish up a couple of Christmas gifts so I know that I need to focus on them this week as well. My English Paper piecing hasn't had any attention this month so far so that means it will need to get some attention soon otherwise there will be no progress at all.

I hope everyone is continuing to try and find that bit of time for ourselves each day no matter what you end up doing. Sometimes just sitting and doing nothing at all feels so good. This week is going to be a busy week for most people, so make sure you take those few minutes for yourself when you can find them.

Have a good week and I hope that by the time I write my next blog I will have some more progress to show you.

Progress, a start and a finish

 Here it is the start of another week, and hopefully this week will be a little slower and I will be able to get a few more things accomplished. Last week was another busy week, so I didn't have quite as much time to work on my crafting, but at least I was able to make some progress on things.

This week I hope to be able to make a bit more progress on things, but will just have to wait and see what the week has in store for me. I have a couple more things to get done before Christmas, so those should be the things that I try and focus on this week.

Star Touch Meadows SAL - November - here is the cross stitch project that got the attention this past week. I am loving how much I was able to get done and I only worked on over the weekend.

I am currently trying to finish up colours on the entire piece and that has helped a lot. Of course, you can't finish a colour when you have big open sections that you need to work in. The bottom of the piece has all but two colours completed, and then the top have still has 5 colours to be added. 

I am enjoying this piece, but I am looking forward to getting it done so that I can start on the December section. I know that I am behind on this stitch along, but that doesn't bother me. I also want to ensure working on other projects as well, so I will get these sections done as I can.

Hopefully I will be able to work on more of this piece this week and maybe get more of the colours finished up.

Ocean Breeze Shawl - here is the scarf that I was working on for the last couple of weeks. What I was doing was trying to finish up a ball of yarn that I have started.

This was a fun scarf to work on, and I am thinking that I may try and make more of these as scarves, but I will be making them just a little wider and also longer. The scarf that I ended up with was only around 24 inches, so not something that is going to be as useful as I had hoped. At least I finished up a ball of yarn, and now it's onto the next project.

Dudester scarf - this is the new knitting project that I have started. This scarf resulted in a start on Friday and then a restart on it on Sunday. I had started this scarf with the suggested number of stitches, but the scarf was just too wide. I am working on making some scarfs for children from 4 to 12 years old and this scarf that I originally started was almost 10 inches side, and it was felt way too wide.

I am a lot happier with this version of the scarf because it is around 7 inches wide, and it is nice and soft. I hope to be able to spend some time working on this scarf this week, and I will see how much of it I can get done.

Other projects - I have been trying to get other things worked on but with being busy things just haven't got the attention. Now that things are hopefully starting to slow down a little bit, I hope to be able to spend some time working on other projects as well.

I know a lot of us are busy this time of year with the holidays just around the corner. I am going to be trying to find some time to relax and enjoy my crafting, but first I have to get the work completed that is on my list. I am going to continue to try and spend some time each day taking time for myself so that I can recharge my personal batteries.

It is now time for me to get some of the work off my desk, so hope everyone has a good week, and you get your personal time. Hopefully, next week, I will have some progress to show on at least a couple of projects that I have been working on.

Some slow progress

 Here it is the start of another week, and yes, another busy week for us. I know that this time of year can be busy for everyone, and it's been busy for us, and this coming week is another busy week.

I have been trying to make a little time each day to do something that I enjoy, and I have been able to make time most days. Between getting Christmas gifts organized and work it hasn't left a lot of time where I can sit and do my crafting.

Star Touched Meadows - November - here is the cross stitch project that has got some attention this past week. I am trying to make some more progress on the November section so that I don't feel too overwhelmed.

I am working on finishing up a colour at a time on this piece and it has helped quite a bit. Seeing that I have been able to get another couple of colours finished is nice. The other part of finishing a colour at a time is I am working on the entire design instead of in just one section.

The good news is I am now just over 45% finished on this section of the stitch along which makes me happy. Now the bad news is the December section has been released so that means that I need to really work hard if I want to try and at least sort of keep up on this project. I don't think I will be keeping up as there are other things that I would also like to stitch during this next year.

Ocean Breeze Shawl/Scarf - here is the knitting that I have been working on this past week. The pattern is actually for a shawl, but I decided to make it narrower. What I am doing is using up the yarn that was left after I made the Curling Mist Shawl.

This pattern is a simple pattern, and it does work up pretty quickly when I have the time to work on it. I hope that I can get this scarf finished before too long and then pick up another project that I want to work on.

Other projects - I haven't been able to work on any of the other projects that I wanted to try and do last week so I will see if I can get them done this coming week. I do have a couple of gifts that I would like to finish so that is something else that I am going to have to focus on in the next couple of weeks.

I hope everyone is finding that bit of time each day to do something for yourself. This time of year can be busy for everyone and making sure that you take that little bit of time for yourself each day is very important. We all need to ensure that we have the energy to be there for others but first we need to know that we have the energy to make sure we can take care of ourselves.

Hope everyone has a good week, and I will see what I can get done this coming week. Hopefully I will have some progress on something to show you next week.

English Paper Piecing - November progress

Here it is December 1st, and I am writing to let you know that I got accomplished during the month of November on my English Paper Piecing.

November was a rather different month for me with regards to my English Paper Piecing as I didn't pick it up very often which meant I didn't get much of anything done.

Scrap Throw - this is the only project that got some attention and as you can see it didn't get a lot of attention either. The motifs were already made so it was just a matter of joining them together this month.  I hope that in December I will be able to make better progress on this project and maybe even add some of these flowers onto the actual throw.

Other projects - none of the other EPP projects got any attention in the last month. I really do hope that I will be able to get to working on my projects in December and be able to show some good progress when I write another blog at the end of December.

I am thinking that at the end of December I may even show a comparison of the projects from January 1st to December 31st. It would be interesting to see how much I have been able to get done on the projects.

I hope everyone has a wonderful December and you are able to get some of your EPP moved forward. Until I write my next EPP blog have a wonderful month and if you celebrate Merry Christmas and Happy New Years and I will see you on January 1st.

 

Another week and three finishes

Here it is the start of another week, and I was able to make a little bit of progress on things last week. Now to see if I can continue to make progress on things this week. It is going to be a busy week so will have to see what I can get done when I have the bits of time to myself.

I have been working on getting a bunch of things organized so I didn't spend as much time working on my crafting but that didn't bother me as I was able to at least get progress on things.

Star Touch Meadows - November - here is the cross stitch that got some attention as I wanted to see how much of it, I could get done before the end of the month.

I was trying to make some progress on it as the next section of the stitch along comes out this coming Friday. It would be nice to see more of this done otherwise I am going to feel way behind on this project. I know that each of these sections are a full coverage piece so they aren't going to be something that I will get done in the month unless I just focus on doing this project.

It does feel good seeing that I am getting some of the colours completed and that is what I have been trying to focus on for a while. I was going to work in sections of the piece but decided to try and work on a colour at a time and see if I could get it done on the entire piece and it has been helping. I have finished three of the colours so far and now to work on getting more done.

Holiday Cardinal - here is a project that worked up nice and quickly this week. I wanted to make some Christmas ornaments so found this pattern. It is Holiday Cardinal by Pigeon Coop Designs. It was a fun piece to do and instead of the French knots that the pattern called for I put beads in instead. It didn't take me long to stitch this ornament up and get it into the frame. Now to see if I can get the rest of the ornaments completed before too long. I hope to be able to focus on getting the other ornaments completed in the next couple of weeks so that they are finished.

Scissor fob - here is another quick project that I got done this past week. I had decided that I wanted a scissor fob for my cross stitch scissors that I use so made this in the past week. It was fun to work on and something that doesn't take a lot of materials to do.

Curling Mist Shawl - this has been my knitting focus piece as I wanted to see if I could get it completed by the end of November. The last set of rows were taking a long time to complete, but I was determined to see if I could get this shawl off the needles in the last week. 

Last week I decided to focus on this for a couple of days to see if I could get it finished and by Wednesday it was finally off the needles. It has felt really good getting this project completed as it was getting very long. I still have to sew in the ends but at least it is off the needle and hopefully before the end of the month the ends will also be sewn in.

After finishing this shawl, I haven't picked up any knitting since as I have been trying to figure out what I am going to work on next.

Other projects - I haven't worked on any other projects in the last week but that doesn't bother me as I was able to get a few things achieved.

This week I will see what I can get done as I know that there are lots of things on my schedule, so it is going to be a busy week. I do hope that I can pick up my English Paper Piecing as that hasn't got a lot of attention this month.

I hope everyone continues to find that little bit of time each day to do something that you enjoy. Making sure that we can recharge our own personal batteries is important especially this time of year. 

Have a good week and I hope to have something to show next week.

Again, made some progress

 Here it is the start of another week and I week that I think is going to be pretty busy. I am not certain what I will get done this week with regards to crafting, but we will just have to wait and see.

I have been able to spend some time in the last week getting some crafting done so that has made me a little happier. This coming week I will see what time I have, and which project or projects get the attention.

Star Touched Meadows - November - here is the cross stitch piece that got my attention in the last week. This is a stitch along hosted by Carolyn Manning called Star Touched Meadows. It is a twelve-month stitch along and each month you get a new design that is 77 x 77 stitches but full coverage.

This is the November piece as the stitch along just started. I am going to be trying to make some more progress on this piece as it would be nice to have it closer to a finish before the next piece comes out on December 1st. What I have been trying to do is get some of the diamonds stitched, so that I can work on filling in some of the other colours and have places where I can secure my threads.

This week I would like to see if I can move this forward a bit more, but I also have a couple of Christmas ornaments that I should try and get done. What I may try and do if my schedule allows is work on the ornaments for part of the week and then work on this project for a bit as well.

Curling Mist Shawl - here is the knitting project that I have been working on and trying to get it closer to a finish. Last week I decided that I was going to try and focus on this knitting for a little while and see how much of it I could get done. At the end of last week, I had the cable section and the garter section to do as well as finish a garter section. 

In the last week I focused on getting some of the knitting done and I finished the one section of garter and then I worked on the cable section and got it completed as well. It was nice to get that much of the shawl moved forward. I have also been working on the final garter section and how have 14 rows to go to finish the shawl.

This project is enjoyable to work on, but the rows do take quite a while to get done. I finished out that each row takes about 10 minutes to complete so I don't get a lot of progress during my 30 minutes of knitting that I try and do each day. At least I am moving the project forward. This week I am going to try and find some time to work on this shawl and maybe even get it off the needles.

Other projects - as you can imagine I didn't get much progress on anything else. I have been working on getting progress on the shawl so that took most of my time. This week I am not certain what will get my attention, but I do know that I would like to see some progress on things.

I hope everyone is finding that little bit of time each day to make progress on something. The progress may be reading a few pages of a book or spending that bit of time just sitting and recharging. Progress doesn't have to be something that you can see. Spending time planning a vacation in y our head is also progress.

Next week I hope to have a bit of progress to show you on something that I have been doing. I am not certain what is going to get my attention other than the shawl. Have a good week and remember that we all need to take that little bit of time for ourselves each day.

More progress on both projects

Here it is the start of another week and yes, I was able to find some time and energy to work on both projects that have been my focus for the last little while. It was nice to get more progress on projects even with being busy with work and other things. We will see what I end up working on this week.

Pandemic - here is the cross stitch project that got some more attention this week. I am happy with how much I was able o get done on it. I think Pandemic is going to be put aside for a little bit as I have some other projects that I need to get done. I don't think it will be far, but getting some of the other things done like some Christmas ornaments are now on the calendar.

Curling Mist Shawl - here is the knitting project that I have been working on and am happy with the progress that I made again in the last week. I have been able to get another one of the cable sections completed and am now working on another garter section.  With this project I have two sections to complete after the garter section that I am currently working on. There are still around 70 rows to go on the shawl, so it isn't going to be happening this week, but I hope to have a finish on this shawl before too long. 

This shawl has been a lot of fun to work on even with-it having cable in the design. I am not someone that has ever liked working on cable but at least I have been able to get this shawl moved forward and maybe cable isn't so bad. This is only 2 stitches for the cable so I can do it without a cable needle so that is probably why I haven't minded doing it. The cable sections do take longer to do but at least I have been getting them done. I didn't realize when I picked up this pattern that there was cable in it, but I have been able to get it done so that helps.

Other projects - I haven't worked on any other projects in the past week as I have been trying to focus on just getting these done. I am thinking that I may be working on some other projects this coming week especially now that I am putting Pandemic to the side for a little bit.

I hope everyone is finding that bit of time each day to do something for yourself. I know even the days that I don't get any crafting done I make sure I take a few minutes to myself to help recharge my personal batteries.

I hope everyone has a good week and next week I will see what projects I have picked up. There are a couple of cross stitch projects that need some attention so those might be what I end up working on. Time will tell and I will show you what I ended up working on. Have a good week and I will see you next Monday.

More progress on at least one project

Here it is the start of another week and I hope to be able to spend a bit of time this week working on both my knitting and cross stitch projects. 

Pandemic - here is the cross stitch project that got the attention again this week and I am happy with the progress that I was able to make on it. I didn't work on this every day last week, but I was able to get a couple of good stitching times which helped move this project forward.

Now that I have figured out how I am going to be working on this piece it has helped me see more progress on it. When I was working on this before I was bouncing all over and now, I am working on small sections at a time, and I feel like I am getting more of it done than I was doing before.

Curling Mist Shawl - this project didn't get much attention at all this past week. I know that I did pick it up a couple of times but not as often as I would have liked.

I am thinking that this coming week I will try and see if I can make some more progress on this project as I am trying to get it finished before too long. Just seeing it completed would make me happy and the only way I am going to be able to do that is to work on it again. I am now going to try and focus on getting more rows done on this shawl this coming week as it would be nice to see it closer to being finished. 

Other projects - I haven't had a lot of time to work on other projects so now to figure out just how to get back to seeing progress on a lot of the different things that I would like to finish up. I do have three Christmas ornaments that I need to make so that means that I am going to have to work on them before long. I don't think they are going to take me too long to make but I still need to get them done.

I hope everyone is finding that bit of time each day to do something for yourself. On the days when I wasn't crafting I sill was able to mind a bit of time where I could do something for myself. Being able to recharge your personal battery is important and it helps you have the energy and focus so that you can help those around you.

Hopefully next week I will have some more progress to show you on a couple of projects. I hope to pick up my knitting a bit more as well as add few stitches into Pandemic. May you have a week where you can get things done and enjoy yourself. I hope to see you again next week.



 

English Paper Piecing - October progress

Here it is the start of another month, and it is time to show some of the progress that I have been able to  \make on the different English Paper Piecing projects that I have been working on. This past month I focused on just two of the projects and I am happy with the progress that I was able to make on both.

Table Runner - here is the piece that I decided that I wanted to try and get moved forward some so that meant sitting and working on getting more of the motifs added to the actual runner. It does make me happy to see that I was able to make a bit of progress on it.

This project is now at the point that if I could focus on it I would be able to get the top of the runner completed before too long. I still need to figure out the number of motifs I have left to add to this project and then maybe I can work on just getting it done. It would be nice to see this runner closer to a finish so that might be something that I try and focus on in the next couple of months, but we will just have to wait and see what happens.

Scrap Throw - here is the project that seems to have got the most attention and part of that is because it was easy to work on when I was trying to juggle a lot of other things. It was nice to have a project that I could work on a little bit at a time and see progress on it.

What I decided to do with this project was to work on joining sections of motifs together so that it might be easier to get them attached to the overall scrap throw. Having these little pieces with me makes it easier to work on and it means that I am not carrying around the big throw when I don't have a lot of time to work on it.

Now that I have a bunch of groups/flowers completed I hope that I can start to add them to the scrap throw and maybe see how quickly that goes. I hope that doing the piecing this way will also help more the project forward a little quicker.

The other thing that I did in October was to continue to make some of the denim motifs that I need for this throw as they are going to be part of the border. I know that being able to get these motifs made would be great, but I need to get more of the inside of the throw put together because a lot of denim motifs will come in happy.

Other projects - I didn't work on any of the other EPP projects that I have on the go as I was trying to just focus on moving a couple of them forward instead of trying to work on too many at once. Now that it is November, I will see what projects I work on.

I am really enjoying working on the different projects and I know that there are a couple that I haven't touched for a while and maybe it's time for me to pull them out and see what I can get done on them. I have 30 days to work on my projects again this month and I will see what happens. 

If things go well, I should have some more progress to show you at the end of November. I am not certain which projects will get my attention, but I hope that at least a couple of them do get a bit of time this month. Have a great month and I will see you for another EPP update on December 1st.

 

Making some good progress

Here it is the start of another week and I know that I have lots of things that need my attention this week. I hope that I can continue to move things forward a little bit at a time.

Pandemic - here is the cross stitch piece that got some attention in the last week. I am very happy with the progress that I have been able to make on this piece since I picked it up a couple of weeks ago.

I am trying to work on small sections of the piece at a time and it seems to be helping. What I have been doing is picking one small area and then work on it. It seems to be helping me move this project froward as I am seeing more of it done each time, I put it down. I didn't have a lot of time this past week to work on Pandemic, but I am happy with what I was able to get done.

Curling Mist Shawl - here is the knitting project that I have been working on. It makes me happy to see that I have been able to continue to move this project forward. I didn't have a lot of time to knit last week so i didn't get as much progress done as I would have liked. Now to see what this week is like and maybe I will be able to spend some time working on the shawl.

I have at least been able to finish the first ball of yarn on this project and I am just about at 40% complete for the stitching on this shawl. It makes me happy to see how it is coming along. Of course, there is still a long way to go because I am at 169 stitches, and I need to get to 268 stitches. Lots more knitting to go on this project but I am enjoying it and look forward to continuing to move it forward.

Other projects - I haven't had a lot of time in the last week to work on things so no other project has been touched. Hopefully this week I will be able to see a bit more progress on different projects, but I will have to wait and see. I do know that given that I didn't have a lot of time last week I am happy with what I did get done. 

I hope everyone continues to find that little bit of time each day to do something for yourself. It doesn't have to be a lot of time but even those few minutes of sitting quietly and doing nothing is good. It gives us the time to relax and recharge our personal battery. Last week I was at a conference for two days and just finding that quiet spot and doing nothing felt so good.

If things go well this week, I hope to have some more progress to show you next week. I will also have an English Paper piecing blog up later this week to show you the progress that I have made on these projects. Have a good week and enjoy that time that you take for yourself.

Another finish and more progress

Here it is the start of another week and a week that is going to be very busy for me. I am looking forward to this week as I know it will be a lot different than most of my weeks so I will just have to see what crafting I can get done. 

The weather is currently crazy here as we had a frost warning last night and tomorrow the temperature is going to be back around 20C. No wonder people don't know how to dress at this time of the year.

Jolly Squirrel - here is a project that did come out this past week and I am very happy with what I was able to get done on it. I made a couple of little changes to the piece because I didn't want it to look Christmassy, so I didn't do all the snowflakes that were around the squirrel.

What does make me happy is I have been able to finish this piece and it is now ready to be fully finished. I haven't decided how I am going to finish it yet, but I am looking forward to seeing it done.

This piece was a lot of fun to work on and something a little different for me. The finished piece measures 3.5 inches square so it isn't very big at all which is nice.

Now that this piece is done, I have some small Christmas ornaments that I would like to work on but I am going to leave them for a couple weeks before I pick them up and start working on them.

Pandemic - here is a piece that I haven't worked on since June and I figured it needed a bit of attention.  What I decided to do was to work on one small section and see how it went. 

What is nice about this piece is there are a lot of little areas that you can work on and get them completed and then move onto another section. This time I worked on a small section and then started working on one of the larger sections.

It didn't take me too long to see some good progress on this piece given I only worked on it over the weekend. I hope to be able to continue to move this project forward a little bit more before I decide to work on something else.

Curling Mist Shawl - here is the knitting project that I have been working on and love how it is turning out. I still have a long way to go before it's finished but I do enjoy picking it up and working on it.

The pattern section is a cable pattern, but it isn't too difficult to do and it is something that now that I have completed it a couple of times has become a section that I enjoy working on. I am still trying to pick this project up some days, so it gets attention as I am looking forward to seeing what this shawl looks like once it is completed. I think I am about a third of the way through the actual knitting so will see what it looks like when it is finished and off the needles.

Other projects - I was able to work on my English Paper piecing for a little while this week so when I write that blog at the end of the month, I will have stuff to show.

I hope everyone is finding that bit of time each day to do things that you enjoy doing. This week is going to be busy for us, but I will still try and find those little bits of time to at least sit and relax and do nothing. I hope everyone has a good week and if things go well, I should have a bit of progress on something to show you next week.