Crazy week

It is hard to believe that another week is over, and I am showing you some of the progress that I have been able to make on my crafting over the last week.

This past week was rather busy, so I didn't have as much time to work on projects, but at least I was able to move projects forward even if it isn't as much as I would have liked.

324 - here is the cross stitch project that has been getting all of my attention when it comes to cross stitch. This is so much fun to work on and it is easy to pick up and even do a couple of motifs when you don't have a lot of time. I have completed 8 of the 18 rows so that is good and now to work on the next group of rows and see how it goes.

This project is really enjoyable to work on and I am looking forward to seeing how much more of it I can get done in the next week. It would be nice to know that I have been able to continue to move this project forward even more as my goal is to reach 50% of the stitches done but that is still a little way away. This coming week I should be able to reach that if I can focus on it a bit reach day.

12-bird Mystery Knit Along - here is the knitting that I have been doing this past week. I am really enjoying this shawl since we picked up this new yarn. Of course, this doesn't look like much right now given everything is smushed together on a straight needle instead of a circular needle. I am looking forward to when the picture of this piece is released, and I can see what it is going to look like when it is done. The release of the picture is May 3rd so will see what it will look like when it is done.

I haven't found this pattern too much of a challenge so far, but I am still behind on it. The 6 clues have all been released as of last Thursday and I am just working on clue 3. Given I only started working on this version of the pattern last Sunday, I am happy with the progress that I have made.

Other projects - I have at least been able to get a little bit of English Paper Piecing done so that is at lease something and now to see what I can get done this week. Of course, there are still lots of other things that need my attention so will see how things go. I will show what I have been able to accomplish on my EPP later this week on it's separate blog.

Hopefully everyone is finding that little bit of time where you can do something for yourself to recharge your personal batteries. It is amazing how just spending that little bit of time can make a big difference in how to can handle the other demands. This week I hope to find some time to continue to work on both 324 and my 12-bird shawl and see how much progress on I can on them.

Until next week hope everyone has a good week and remember to ensure that you take that little bit of time each day to recharge your personal battery.

 

At least some progress

Here it is the start of another week and yes, another busy week is ahead for me. I hope that I can continue to enjoy some time where I can make progress on things, but time will tell.

I know that being able to find that bit of time each day is important and that is what I am going to have to try and achieve in the next few days.

324 - here is the focus piece that I have been working on and this week I was able to work on parts of four of the next rows. It is such a fun piece to work on and now that I have my floss a little more organized it is a lot easier to find each of the colours that I need for the piece. 

This week I have been focusing on trying to get a bunch of the larger motifs completed so that when I have time this coming week to stitch, I should be able to work on filling in some of the smaller blocks.

I am looking forward to getting a bit more of this project completed this coming week, but I will just see how much time I have to work on it. It would be nice to see more of it completed and maybe even get more of my floss organized in the process.

Asymmetrical Lace Knit Shawl - I did get a little bit of knitting time on this project and it was nice to see a few more rows added. It wasn't a focus this past week so even getting the few rows done that I did makes me feel a little better.

This project may get a bit of attention this coming week as I do have a course that I need to take this week and maybe it will help me keep from getting distracted. The increases that I am still doing means that I don't have to worry about the pattern because currently it is just two rows, and it is easy to follow. I will see what progress I can make on this project as I would like to get it closer to finished.

12-Bird Mystery Knit Along - here is a project that I had started earlier this month and then it got put done and I didn't pick it up again. This past week I figured out what I think the problem was and it was the colour of yarn that I was using to knit the shawl. The yarn that I had been using was a dusty rose colour and not something that I could see myself wearing too often, if at all. 

At the end of last week, we decided it was time to figure out a new yarn that I could use for this project so we drove to the yarn store that I like and we checked out the various colours of yarn that they had. I had said I wanted something either light or medium grey for the shawl. There was one yarn that kept calling to me and it is a grey/blue so that is what I ended up picking up.

Yesterday I picked up the needles and this yarn and have started to make the shawl again. Hopefully I will get more progress on this one and once the pattern is released, I will be able to show you the progress that I have made on it.

Other projects - I didn't have a lot of time to focus on other projects this last week, so nothing else was given any attention. This week I am not certain how things are going to go so will just have to wait and see.

It is very important to ensure that you remember to take that little bit of time to yourself each day to recharge your personal batteries. I know that for me making sure that I can spend even a few minutes each day doing something that I enjoy.

I hope that this week I will have a bit of time to spend doing the things that I enjoy but only time will tell. Hope to have some progress to show you next week but until then keep recharging your own personal batteries in the method you enjoy.

Making some progress

Here it is the start of another week and yes, another week where I am not certain how much time I am going to have to enjoy some crafting. I think I will just have to wait and see what happens. The weather is slowly warming up as well so it at least it is starting to feel like spring. Now we just need the rain to stop because it has been raining lots the last couple of weeks.

324 - This project did get some attention this week and I am loving how it is turning out. I have at least got 4 rows completed and now have 14 more rows to go. It is a lot of run working on this project because each motif or square doesn't seem to take long to do so you see progress quickly on it.

This project has also made me want to organize all my floss better so that is also what I have been doing while working on this project. When you have to use 324 different colours of floss on a project you need to have a method where you can easily find all of the colours when you need them. When I get all of my floss organized, I will take a picture of it to show you what I have done.

Asymmetrical Lace Knit Shawl - I did spend a little bit of time working on my shawl this last week but not as much as I would have liked. I would like to get back to doing the 30 minutes of knitting a day so that might be something that I try and do a little more often. It would be nice to have this shawl finished before too long and the only way that is going to happen is if I can sit and work on it even a bit at a time.

This project is easy to work on especially when there are webinars that I need to watch, and I also need to pay some attention to the content. Having a shawl that is easy to work on especially for those times is nice and now to see if I can continue to move this piece forward.

Other projects - I have been working on a bit of my English Paper Piecing so hopefully by the end of the month I should have some progress to show you on that.

The Mystery Knit Along that I started for 12 Birds hasn't had any attention again and that doesn't make me happy. The fourth clue has now been released and I am still on the 1st clue, so I have a lot of knitting to do to catch up on this project. This project does require quite a bit of focus so I need to have the time where I can sit and work on it without the other distractions that happen.

This month is a busy month for me so there isn't as much time to sit and work on my projects, but I am trying to make sure that I take a bit of time each day to do something for myself. It doesn't have to be my crafting, it can be reading or just sitting and chatting with my husband. It is time where I am not stressing about all the other things that I should be doing.

I am not certain what this week has in store so will see what I can get accomplished. If things go well, I should have some progress on something to show you next week but only time will tell.

Hope everyone has a good week and remember that just taking that little bit of time for yourself and doing something that you enjoy is very important. We all need time to relax and recharge our personal batteries as that it important to each of us and those around us as well.

 

Progress and a new start

Here it is the start of another week and hopefully a week where I can find some time to work on projects as I know it is going to be a busy work week for me as well.

I have been trying to find time at least most days to do a bit of crafting and that has helped. Seeing bits of progress on things is good. Now to see what this week has in store.

Half the Fun - this project got a bit of attention this last week and I was able to add a few of the modes of transportation to it. Just sitting and working on this for a little while helped me move it forward and now I will see when it gets more attention.

Using the variegated thread has been nice because I am just letting the colours happen where they do. Because I am basically using one colour of thread it means that I can just continue to move from one area to another without having to think about what is the next colour that I need to pickup and use.

I think this project would stitch up quickly if it was my focus piece but currently it isn't going to be that because there is another project that I have started and that will be the piece that gets the attention for now.

324 - here is the new project that I started this week shortly have the pdf was released. This design is by Arlene Cohen of Works by ABC and it was just released in early March of this year at the Nashville Market Place. Arlene released the pdf version of this pattern on April 1st, and it didn't take me very long at all to purchase the pattern and start organizing the flosses for it.

It is called 324 for one main reason and that is because there are 324 colours used in this pattern. Yes, each motif is a different colour of floss so that means that it is going to be an interesting project to work on. I went through all my floss that I could quickly locate and found out that I only needed 3 flosses to complete this project so that made it an easy decision to start it right away. This was going to be a birthday start for me but I ended up starting it a few days early but that is fine because it is a fun piece to work on. Now to see how much of it I can get done this week as it is a lot of fun to sit and work on.

Asymmetrical Lace Knit Shawl - this is the knitting project that got a little bit of attention yesterday. I haven't been getting a lot of knitting done this past week so figured it was time to try and work on something that I could maybe see some good progress on quickly and this project was the one that got the attention.

This section of the pattern is the easy section as I am just increasing every second row, so it means that I don't have to look at the pattern until I have got 134 stitches on my needles. It does make for an easy knitting project especially when I am watching webinars or videos that require a bit more of my attention.

I hope that this week I can continue to move this project forward as I would like to see how much of the increase rows I can get done. The lace section does require a bit more of my attention so I will need to ensure that I have the time to focus on the lace section when I get to it.

Other projects - the 12 Bird Knit Along didn't get any attention this past week but will see when I can pick it up and work on it again. Three sections of the pattern have now been released so that means that I am behind on this project, but it doesn't bother me because I will get it knit when I can.

I didn't work on my English paper piecing at all this week so that means I need to spend some time before the end of the month at least moving a couple of the projects forward. There are going to be times when I can work on these projects so at least something should get moved forward by the end of the month.

I hope everyone is finding that bit of time each day to do something for yourself. It doesn't have to be a long time but just having that little breaks where we can recharge our personal batteries is very important.

Hopefully, next week I will have some progress to show you on at least a couple of projects, but we will see how things go. 

English Paper Piecing - March Progress

In March I didn't get a lot of time for working on my English Paper Piecing, but I did decide on one of the previous projects that I had started. I had started making two inches motifs for a throw for myself using fabric from my dad's shirts. I wasn't enjoying making that large of a motif, so I had to decide if I was going to continue to make the motifs and struggle to join them or should I restart this project with smaller motifs.

This is actually the third version of the throw that I am making. The first version I just need to finish the quilting section and then do the binding around the throw, and it will be done. The second version is still using the 2-inch motifs and I am over halfway through joining all of the motifs so that one I need to pick up and work on finishing the joining so that I can also get that one done.

As this version is for me, I had just started to make the motifs and hadn't started joining them together. Of course, the motifs are going to be half the size compared to what I started to work on, but already I am feeling happier, with the progress that I have been able to make. I am going to continue to work on this project and I will also work on finishing up the other two throws so that I can give them to the people that I am making them for.

Now that life is starting to get a little more organized and I am feeling good about things maybe I will be able to start moving my English Paper Piecing forward a little more. 

Other projects - I still have the table runner and the scarp throw that I am working on so that means I now have more projects that need my attention. I hope to be able to figure out an order of working on these projects and then see how it goes. Until then, I am just going to enjoy working on a project that I enjoy working on.

In April, I hope to be able to find some more time to focus on a project and maybe more it forward a bit more. It is always fun to see what I can get done so we will see what gets the attention in the next month. Until then, I hope that if you are doing any English paper piecing that you are enjoying your project and getting it moved forward.

Some progress and a couple of finishes

 Here it is the start of another week and yes, it's going to be a busy week for me but at least I know it before it starts. Hopefully I will be able to find bits of time where I can at least get a bit of crafting done but we will just have to see how things go.

The weather here is warming up a little bit so that is also a good thing because now I think we might be able to enjoy the spring after have about 6 inches of snow a week ago. The snow quickly melted so we are back to seeing the brown grass.

Alzheimer's Poem - here is a project that I wanted to get finished as when I wrote the last blog, I was getting a lot closer to a finish. This last week I did pick it up and it only took me part of a day to get it all done.

I am happy to have this piece finished as I did start it in 2020 so it's been hanging around for quite a while. I am not certain what I am going to be doing with it now but at least it is one project off the to-do list which does make me happy.

I started this project just after we were told my dad may have dementia or Alzheimer's and I wanted to do it for him. He never got to see it finished as we lost him in 2021. It is something that I will have to remember the journey that we had with him.

It is now going to be into the finish drawer for now and I will figure out what I will do with it later on. I am happy that I did finish it even if it did take me quite a while to do.

Las Vegas Sign - here is a start and finish in the last week. I started this cross stitch while sitting in the Toronto airport waiting to board a flight to Las Vegas. This piece got a bit of attention when we were away. I worked on it in the airport and then on the flight there and got 299 stitches in on it which made me happy. The next time I picked it up was sitting in the airport in Las Vegas waiting to board our flight home. As you can guess I didn't have a lot of energy or time to work on the piece while we were there. While waiting to board the flight home I added another 44 stitches to the piece.

I did want to get this project finished quickly and the piece isn't very big as it is roughly 2 inches by 2.75 inches. It was a fun piece to work on and it is another memory of our vacation to Las Vegas and walking the entire length of the Las Vegas Strip.

Half the Fun - here is another project that I wanted to start on vacation, and I did. As you can tell it didn't get much attention at all. This project was started while waiting in Las Vegas Airport for our flight home and I added an entire 28 stitches. This piece should get some more attention now that I am home and finished the Las Vegas Sign. Half the Fun is an Ink Circles piece and I am looking forward to working on it for a while.

Twelve Birds MKAL - here is the knitting project that I have started since getting home. You aren't going to be seeing my progress until after May 7th when the actual pattern is released but I can tell you that so far I am enjoying the project and am looking forward to seeing if I can keep up with this knit along.

I was originally going to do the Twenty Four Birds MKAL but last week Helen Stewart released the Twelve Birds MKAL so I decided that I would work on that one instead. It is a project that I think I am going to enjoy and hopefully I will be able to get it done quickly and then be able to show you what it looks like.

Other projects - I haven't worked on any other projects in the last week. It was a good vacation, and I took time to really recharge my personal batteries which I needed to do. Now to see what this week has in store as there are a lot of things on my list of things that I need to work on. 

I hope everyone has a good week and hopefully I will be able to make some progress on other things this week and will have something to show you next week. Remember to take that bit of time each day to yourself as it is important to ensure you are recharging your personal batteries so you can be there for everyone else.