Slow progress

Here it is the start of another week and I hope that I can continue to move things forward this week. It would be nice to know that I have been able to get things done. 

Last week wasn't a good week to focus on any crafting as there are a lot of distractions as we were dealing with renovations in our apartment unit. Now that the renovations are hopefully over, we can get back to getting work done and also having some time to ourselves. Most days I did try and spend even a few minutes doing something so that was good.

Forage Shawl - this is the project that got most of the attention in the last week and part of that is because I have been loving working on it. The pattern isn't very difficult so that makes it something that I can pick up and work on easily.

This is the project that will continue to get the attention as I would like to see how quickly I can get it finished. I am just over 60% completed so hopefully before long I can have this project finished. It is a project that I am enjoying working on as the yarn is nice and soft and the pattern is fun to do as well.

Ramsay - here is a cross stitch that I finally started and was able to make a bit of progress on it this past week. This is the second of three of this owl that I am going to be stitching. They do work up relatively quickly which is now so will see when this one is finished.

I am trying to finish a colour at a time on this owl so it does mean that he is going to be looking a little different until I can add some of the other colours. This week I hope that I can spend some time working on him and maybe I will even be able to see him finished.

Other projects - I was able to work on my EPP a bit this last week as it was a great project to work on a little bit at a time. There will be some progress on that to show when I write that blog on the 1st of August.

I hope everyone has been able to find that little bit of time each day to do something for yourself and recharge your personal battery. It doesn't matter what you do as long as you make sure that there is even a little bit of time where you can relax and take some time for yourself.

If things go well this week, I should have some progress on something next week. I have plans for a new start on Thursday, so will see how that goes. Hope everyone has a good week, and we will see you next week.

 

Making progress on things

Here it is the start of another week, and I was able to spend some time working on things that I wanted to work on.

The weather has been nice, and we have been able to enjoy some evening sitting on the balcony after work so that has made it that I am being able to recharge that personal battery in a nice way.

Pandemic - here is a project that came out for a bit of attention this last week. I have wanted to work on it for a while so figured that I would see how much of it I could get done over the last week. After lots of stitching I made a bit of progress in one small area of the design.

I will see when I pick up this piece again because I do have to get back to working on the Christmas ornaments so that I can get them done. Knowing that I have got the ornaments done would make me happy so will see how things go. We will see what I can get done this week as I would like to know that something got some attention.

Laver Shawl - I was able to work on this project for a while this week and I working on the second lace section. It does move forward quickly when you can sit and focus on it. Hopefully, I will be able to continue to work on this shawl because I don't think it will take me long to get it finished.

This project is a good one to work on either in the car or while sitting on the balcony because I don't have to look at the pattern very often which makes it a good relaxing project. I am thinking that I should put this shawl near the balcony door so that when I go outside, I can take it out with me.
 

I am enjoying having a simple shawl on the go because it is relaxing and something that I can make some good progress on without a lot of effort. If things go as I would like it I will try and have a simple shawl on the go most of the time so that I can just pick it up and work on when I need something easy to work on.

Of course, I have found a yarn dyer, Arcane Fibre Works, that I really like and what happens when you get a squishy package in the mail. I didn't have much restraint when the yarn arrived. I had said that I was going to work on the Laver Shawl until it was finished but something happened and now to explain that.

Forage Shawl - this shawl got started this past week when the yarn arrived. The yarn is so nice and soft and after it was sitting, for not even a day it was time to cast on and start another shawl project.

This project does need more focus, so it is something that I do enjoy working on when I have the time to sit and follow the project. It is a lot of fun to work on and I am enjoying how it is turning out. The actual design that is on the shawl will appear when it is blocked after the shawl is all finished.

Other projects - over the last week I have picked up my English Paper Piecing as well so have made some progress on that as well. It is nice having things that are simple to work on when other things in life are being a bit of a challenge.

Making sure that you can recharge your own personal battery is very important as it does ensure that you can handle things that get thrown at you. If things go well this week, I should have something to show you next week, but we will have to see how it goes.

Hope everyone has a good week, and you get the time for yourself each day.

A finish and a new start

Here it is the start of another week and yes it has been hot and humid here so that has meant that I haven't wanted to do a lot of crafting over the last week. I had also a bunch of work that needed to get done so that also took away from the time I could have crafted.
 

It looks like we are going to be having a few more days of hot and humid weather so that means that trying to get things done is going to be a bit more of a challenge, but I will see how things go.

Laver Shawl - here is the project that got the attention as I wanted to see if I could get it finished up quickly. I knew it was going to take some time to get the rest of the rows knit but it was the cast off that I knew was going to take a while to get done and it did.

This version of the shawl was a lot of fun to stitch, and I knew that being able to focus on it I might be able to get it done relatively quickly and I did. The cast off was an icord cast off which I hadn't done before so it meant that I had to figure out how to do it and then just sit and work on it until it was done.

It felt so good seeing that I was able get this shawl finished and as soon as the icord bind-off was done I got the ends sewn in so that I could say that the project was finished. Of course, finishing one project only means one thing and that is it is time to figure out what the next project is going to be.

I have lots of projects that I would like to start working on as I have lots of fingering weight yarn and still more on a wish list which I would like to get very soon.

Laver Shawl - Denim - so this weekend I wanted something that I could work on without having to think too much so I decided I would try and make another Laver Shawl but this time using the denim blue yarn that I have.  By the time the end of the weekend was here I had got to just over 15% finished and am looking forward to seeing how quickly I can get this done finished. 

Other projects - this past week I didn't pick up any cross stitch but that was ok because I was able to make some good progress on my kitting. I also was able to pick up and work on my English Paper Piecing for a little while so that has nice seeing some of that done as well.

I hope everyone is finding that bit of time to do things that make you happy. The weather may make it a bit more of a challenge to get things done but at least getting things organized is moving projects forward.

This week I will see what projects I can move forward and maybe I will see if I can spend some time working on some cross stitch as well. Hope everyone has a good week and I hope to have some progress to show you next week.

Two finishes and some progress

Here it is the start of another week and yes, the heat and humidity are back again. It does mean that it is a little harder to focus on things but at least I know that I have been able to get a few things done.

I have been able to make some progress on my crafting which is good and now to see if I can continue to make some progress over the next couple of weeks. There are things that I would like to work on and now to see if I can spend some time giving them some attention.

Laver Shawl - this show has got some attention this past week and I am happy with the progress that I have been able to make on it. 

This is a simple knitting pattern to work on and it does work up relatively quickly so that is one good thing about it. Once I got to know what the pattern was it made for a simple knit and something that I could work on while sitting outside. I hope to continue to work on this shawl as it is getting close to a finish which would make me happy.

Penguin Greetings - this is the project that I was working on at the end of last week and I figured that it shouldn't take me very long to finish it up. As Monday was a holiday here in Ontario, I was able to spend some time working on the piece and before dinner I had got all the actual cross stitches in on it.

It was a lot of fun to work on and I knew that before long I would have the rest of it completed which was just doing all the backstitch that was needed to complete the piece. I decided to take a picture of the penguin before I added any of the backstitch as I wanted to see the difference and yes there is a considerable different in how the penguin looks now that all the backstitch is done.

The only thing left to add to this before I make it into an ornament is adding the "Merry Christmas" onto the strings that the penguin is holiday. I will be doing that once I have figured out how I am going to be finishing this piece.

Of course, once this piece was finished it was time to figure out which project would get some attention next, and it didn't take me long to figure that out.

Ramsay - here is the next cross stitch piece that I picked up and it was another very quick stitch which does make me happy. I started this little owl ornament on Saturday and by last night (Sunday) I had it finished.

I will be making this into a Christmas ornament as well and again need to figure out just how I am going to finish it. It was a fun piece to stitch, and I will be doing another couple of these owls as they are going to be ornament gifts this year. 

Other projects - I haven't been working on any other projects as I wanted to focus on getting some of these things completed which I did.

Of course, I have other things that I would like to work on so that means that I need to figure them out and then start working on them. Hopefully this week I will be able to figure out some of the other projects that I will give some attention to and maybe I will have something to show next week.

I have been enjoying a bit of time on the balcony most days and that is one of the spots where I can sit and enjoy working on something and recharging my personal battery. I hope you are finding that bit of time as well to do just that.

If things go well, I hope to have some progress to show you next week but time will tell. Have a good week and if you are dealing with the heat and humidity, remember to drink lots of water and stay cool. 

English Paper Piecing - June progress

Here it is the start of another month and time to show what I was able to accomplish in the last month. To say that my English Paper Piecing didn't get much attention would be an under statement. 

Popsy's throw - I did pick up and work on at least making a few motifs but that only happened on the 30th of the month. June was a month where I was focusing on a bunch of my other crafts, so this one just didn't get the attention.

Other projects - of course, I have a bunch of other projects that I need to give some attention to so hopefully in the next couple of months I can try and focus on my EPP a little bit more.

If you are working on your EPP, I hope it got a bit more attention than mine did but at least I know that I was working on some other projects and got them done. Let's see how much attention my EPP will get in July because I would like to get back to moving projects forward again. Until the end of July I hope everyone has a good month.

Closer to a finish and lots of progress

Here it is the start of another week, and it is the start of another month. The weather has cooled down again but I think the forecast shows that it is going to be getting warmer out in the next couple of days.

Have been busy trying to get lots of work done so that has meant that having a focus on a project hasn't been something that I have been able to do very well. I have been picking up projects this last week and I do have some progress to how for that bouncing around.

Half the Fun - here is a project that I started on our vacation at the end of March, and it didn't get much attention as I was working on a bunch of other things. This past week I decided to pull it out and see if I could make some progress on it. Something I decided to do was to work on getting at least the bottom row of the various modes of transportation completed.

This is a lot of fun to work on because there are times when you are stitching that you don't see what the thing is until you hold it back some. As this project is a mandala it means that I will be stitching each of the items four times so I will be bouncing all over on this piece just so that I can't bored of working on it. I know that it is also nice when you can get one or two of the smaller items done because it means that you have another finish. I am looking forward to adding some more to this project over the next little while.

Lamina Wrap - this has been my focus project as I have wanted to get it completed. The good news is I have finished the actual knitting of this wrap and all that is left to do now is to sew in all the ends and then block it.

This wrap was a lot of fun to work on, but I really should have worked on sewing some of the ends in as I went along because right now just looking at all the ends doesn't make me happy.

My idea now is to try and work on sewing in a few ends in each day so that I can get them done. I would like to see this project to finished so I know it is going to be a wrap that I pull out when I need something to wear. Of course, once I finished working on the knitting it was time to figure out which project I was going to try and move forward for a little bit. There are a few projects in this category so it wasn't too hard to look around and figure out which project would get at least a couple of days of attention.

Penguin Greetings - here is a small project that I just started yesterday, and I think it should stitch up quickly. It is going to be a Christmas ornament when it is done so I will see how quickly I can get it done.

This is a lot of fun to work as it is a lot smaller than any of the projects that I have been working on later.  Hopefully I can continue to give this piece the attention it deservers and I will see another finish before too long. 

After all the stitching is done you thread some small alphabet beads to spell of "Merry Christmas" so that is something that will have to be done just before I get it ready to finish.

Laver  Shawl - of course, after finishing up the Lamina wrap it was time to figure out which was going to be the next project that I was going to work on.

This shawl uses double knit weight yarn and larger needles, so it is so different to work on. It is working up relatively quickly so that is nice because it is something else that is on my list of I would like it completed soon. I am trying to spend at least an hour a day on this project as I would like to know that I can move it forward quickly. I am just over 25% done on this project, so I already have the next project figured out that I want to work one or at least it's the one I am thinking I will do next.

Asymmetrical Lace Knit Shawl - I decided to pull out this project for a little while right after finished the Lamina Wrap.  When I was getting close to finishing the Lamina Wrap, I said that I wanted to give one of the projects that I have on the go at least a couple of days attention so that is what I did.

I added around 50 more rows to this project so at least it got some attention. I am thinking that I might need to have this project in a location where I can pick it up when I have even a couple of minutes so that I can continue to move it before. There are still quite a few stitches in the increase section before I get to the lace work, so I just need to try and focus on it for a while to see progress on it.

Other projects - after working on these projects there wasn't a lot of time to work on other things.  I did try and make a beaded bracelet but that was a bit of a failure, so I am going to try that again and see how things go. It would be nice to figure out what I did wrong and then make some beaded bracelets that I can wear.

I hope everyone is finding a bit of time where you can do something that you enjoy. This coming week I hope to be a bit more focused on my projects so that I don't have quite as many that I am working on but you never know.

Being able to enjoy what you are working on is very important and if it means you bounce around from time to time that happens. Knowing that you are happy, and you are recharging your personal battery is what it is all about.  If things go well, I should have something to show you next week as I hope to move at least one or two of the current projects forward some. Have a good week and will see everyone next week.