Some slow progress

Here it is the start of another week and yes we are still in lockdown which may get extended again. Remote working is still going strong so that is one of the good things about this.

Mini Forget Me Not - this week I once again worked on this piece each day, and it is making me happy to see that I am slowly making progress on it. I didn't get as much done as I would have liked on this piece but at least I have been able to move it forward.  I am working on the very top section of the piece, and I am loving how it is something together.  It would like to see if I can get right across the top before too long. 

It has been interesting watching the colours come together on the top section and I can't wait to start to fill in the rest of the colour on this piece.  I am going to be added some more forget-me-nots before too long, so that will add some night colour to the top of the piece. I will see what I work on this week as I would like to see more of this design completed before too long.  My goal this week is to reach over 75% completed on the piece and then will see what else I can achieve.

English Paper Piecing - the throw is getting closer and closer to having all the motifs attached.  I now have 8 motifs to attached, and then it will be time to figure out the quilting of the piece as well as the binding of the entire piece.  It is making me happy seeing that I am getting so much closer to having a finish on this quilt top.  

This weekend I started to work on making sure that I will have some fabric ready to start to work on the other throws that I am planning on making with this fabric.  I have learned a lot about English paper piecing through doing this quilt top, and I am looking forward to seeing if the other ones are a bit easier to manage.

Over the last little while I have been trying to figure out how to quilt this throw and have been watching lots of videos and I think I have finally figured out how to do it.  I hope that once the piece is all attached I can then talk to a friend about my idea, and then I can start with the quilting and binding of this piece.  

My goal now is to get the eight motifs added to the throw and then continue to work to get this throw completed and given to my mom.

Socks - I am happy to say that I finally sat down and worked on getting these two socks finished up.  It didn't take me long to get them finished.  Now to figure out which socks I will be starting so that I can have a bunch of socks on the go again.  I currently have one sock started and now to work on making sure that I can get these two circular needles filed again before too long.

I continue to work on some other projects and will be taking pictures of them soon.  My goal this year is to have fun with my projects and not stress about any of them.  I have some projects that need a lot more attention and some that don't so will see what happens in the next while.  While we remain in lockdown I will continue to see which projects get the most attention as I know that my crafts have helped me through this last year and will continue to help.

I hope everyone has a good week, and you continue to find a bit of time each day to do the things that you enjoy doing.  I will see what I do this week as I know finding some time each day is also important to me so hopefully next week I will have more progress to show you.

 

Where did the week go?

It is hard to believe that another week has come and gone.  I know that a lot of that has to do with how things have been for all of us for almost the last year.  One day seems to be like the next without much of a difference. Lockdown is finally being lifted here but there still doesn't mean much change, so we will continue how we have been working for the next while.

Mini Forget Me Not - once again this week I was able to spend some time working on Mini Forget Me Not and have seen more progress on the left side of the design.  I would like to see this section finished before the end of March, so that is going to be my focus.  I am looking forward to seeing how much I can get done as just sitting and working on it a bit each day really helps me see the progress.

I still have the bottom section of the design to fill in, but I am happy seeing that I am able to get some larger sections of colour filled in, and it will make adding the other colours so much easier when I get to them.

Mary Jane Fry 1861 - I decided this weekend that I need to spend some time working on getting the border moved forward.  I wanted to make sure that the border matches up before I started working on the rest of the design.  Yes the border is a simple pattern, so it is pretty quick to stitch when you can sit and focus on it.

Yesterday, I sat down and decided that at least getting more of the outer border done would make me happy, so that is what I focused on, and I am pretty close and the good news is it matches up. I will now finish up this outer boarder and I think I will get the next border section done as well because that is a fast border as well.  I know that seeing some good progress on this piece over the next little while would make me feel very good.

After I get the two outer borders complete I will then start at the bottom of the design and start to fill in all the other motifs and such.  I don't think this design will take long to stitch but once again it just means sitting and working on it for a while.

English Paper Piecing - I continue to work on adding more motifs to this throw but this past week it didn't get a lot of attention.  I would like to see if this week I can focus on getting a few more motifs added to this.

I know that after getting this throw done I will still have three more to make, so that means that sitting and focusing on getting this one moved forward quickly would be a good idea.  I know that it doesn't take long to attach each of the motifs.

Of course, while I am sitting and working on this project I am thinking of all the other projects that I can work on later.  I have a pile of fabric that is going to be turned into motifs, and it makes me happy to know that I have lots of ideas that will help use up a lot of the bits of fabric that I have.

The purpose of English Paper piecing was a means of using up small bits of fabric easily, and I have to admit that I am enjoying this method of using the remnants that I have left after making all the items for our ETSY shop.  This project is using my dad's shirts and I know that there will be additional items made even after the four throws have been completed.

Socks - I continue to work on the socks that I would like to have finished and this week I was able to get one sock finished up.  It is always nice when I can finish up another sock and especially when it means that I have another pair of socks to wear.  This sock is the second of the pair, so it is now ready to be worn.  I still have two socks on the needles and a trying to figure out which colour will go onto the third circular needle that I have.

Land of Sweets Cowl - last weekend I started this cowl and I figured it would work up quickly and be something that I enjoyed working on with the yarn that I had chosen. I had picked a variegated yarn which I thought would work nicely but after working on it for a couple of days I found that I wasn't loving it anymore and something was wrong.  I knew that the pattern was really nice, and I wanted to knit it, but this yarn wasn't making me happy.

The funny thing was that even when I wasn't sure if I liked the pattern with the yarn I continued to knit and figured maybe it would work out if I just kept knitting on the cowl. This second picture is after I had completed two different patterns on the cowl and had just started the third pattern.  Yes there are three different patterns, but you couldn't see much of a difference.  After taking this picture and talking it over with both my husband and mom, I decided that the yarn wasn't for this cowl and there was no point continuing to knit it if I wasn't going to like it in the end.

I was able to find another ball of yarn that I thought might work well for this cowl and have started to knit it.  I think that the patterns are going to show up a lot better with this yarn, but I haven't got very far.  I have just about finished the first section of the pattern and now to see what the next two look like.  I hope that this time I will be happier with the outcome.

Yes, my crafting is helping me deal with the lockdown and all the different challenges that we have been facing.  I would like to say that things are getting better quickly but until we get a lot of people vaccinated we are still going to be dealing with some sort of restriction.

I hope everyone finds a bit of time each day to do something that you enjoy doing.  It can be only for a few minutes or longer but making sure that you do something that makes you happy each day is very important.  Stay safe and remember that we are going to get through this challenging time, and hopefully we can start to get back to some sort of normal again soon.  Take care and have a great week and I will see what I have to show next week.

Progress, new start and close to a finish

Here it is the start of another week and hopefully after this week we will be moving out of lockdown due to Covid-19 but will find out later this week.

We continue to work remotely and that is good and now to see what changes will happen once we are able to move around a little  more.  The vaccine are finally starting to be given to the public in parts of Ontario, so that is good.

Mini Forget Me Not - I have been working on getting more of this piece done and each day I am getting bits of it done.  I am working on the two sides of the design right now and will see when I actually get back to adding more of the brighter colours.  I am enjoying working on the outside of the design as it gives me an idea of how big this piece is, and it also means that I am getting areas filled in quickly.

I am not sure which area I will be working on this week, but I know that I have been enjoying seeing the progress on this piece each week.  I hope to continue to see the good progress and maybe that is what I need.  I will see what I can get done this week, and maybe I will get closer to having another page finished, but that will all depend on how things go.

Socks - finally there is a picture of one of my socks and that is because it is now close to a finish.  I have been working on this sock as well as another sock a bit at a time, but finally I just need to decrease for the toe of this sock, and it will be done.  I hope to have this finished up in the next couple of days, and then I will have another pair of fun socks that I can wear.  

I did start the ribbing on another sock, but there isn't much to show for that sock.  I am going to try and continue to move all of my socks forward as I would like to have more of them finished up quickly.   This year is so nice to work with and as always I love seeing how each of the socks may be the same in some ways but the white and black areas are always different.

Land of Sweets Cowl - well I had been doing very good and not starting new projects and just working on things that I had on the go until this past week.  I have been watching a lot of people knit this advent cowl called Lands of Sweets and after avoiding it for a while I finally gave in and went onto Ravelry and purchased the pattern.  Yes, it is a pattern that can be done using mini skeins of yarn, but I currently don't have any of those.  I know that I will be getting some soon, but I just couldn't wait.  I guess after DH helping me get the needles and yarn out I just couldn't help but start it late last night.  This pattern is 192 rows, so I will see how quickly I can get this done.  I would like to have most of this cowl knit before my mini skeins arrive, so I better get knitting.

English Paper Piecing - I am continuing to work on this throw a bit each week and this week I hit a milestone.  The milestone was getting all the motifs finished.  Yes, 144 motifs have now been basted, and now they just need to be added to the throw.  It feels good seeing that I have been able to move some of this throw forward as well and now that the motifs are finished I hope to move it forward a little quicker.

I am really enjoying working on motifs and I have a bunch more fabric that will be going into various projects hopefully soon.  First this throw needs to get completed, so I am going to be trying to focus on getting more of the motifs added.  This project is now something that I can't be taking with me very much any longer as it is just getting too big and awkward for that.  I can't fold this piece up any longer, so that means it is going to be staying home until it is done now.

I still have a lot of other projects that are slowly getting worked on when I find I have a bit of time.  The lockdown does mean that there is more time to do various projects but after almost a year of dealing with Covid-19 I think I am like most people, and I am getting very tired of the same routine most days.

I hope everyone continues to find the bits of time each day to do the things that you love doing. I hope to see some more progress on my projects this week, but only time will tell.  No matter where you are please stay safe and take care of yourself and your loved ones.  Life is slowly starting to return to what is going to be our new normal, but it is still going to take a few more months.

Take care and hope you have a great week and find some joy each day.



 

Progress

Here it is the start of another week and now to see how things go.  We continue to be in lockdown here in Toronto but at least with the weather that we have been having makes it a little easier.  We are still working remotely most of the time with our clients.  Our lockdown is scheduled to last at least another two weeks, but we will see if that changes.

Mini Forget Me Not - I continue to work on this piece a bit each day and am happy with the progress that I have been able to achieve. I am still working on completing some larger sections of colour.  

 

I am now almost 30% finished this piece but still have a lot of large blocks of colour to complete, but I think it is time to continue to work on getting some smaller colours added into the design. Not only that, but I am looking forward to seeing more of the overall design appear, so that is one of the reasons why I would like to start adding some other colours.

Mary Jane Fry 1861 - here is a piece that got some attention last weekend and hasn't got any attention since then.  I am still working on the border.  I started to add a bit of the inside design, but I will want to make sure that the border meets up before I do too much of the overall design.  I would like to get back to working on the border so that I know everything will work out on the overall design.  

If I can spend some time on this piece this week I might be able to get more of the border done, and then I will be able to focus on getting the inside of the design stitched.  I don't think the border will take me much longer to do.  It just means that I need to focus on doing it instead of working on other projects.

I like this piece as it only have 6 colours in it, so there isn't a lot of colour changes which makes it a nice piece to sit and work on. The border is two colours so that works up relatively quickly and after that the inside doesn't look too hard.

English Paper Piecing - here is a project that got some good attention over the weekend.  I didn't get a lot more motifs added to the overall throw, but I did get a lot of the other motifs made.  I decided that I was going to focus on getting most of the motifs made so that I can just sit and work on adding them to the throw.  I still have another 38 motifs to make, but at least now when I sit down to sew the motifs on I can just work on that.

I am hoping to be able to get a lot of these motifs added to the throw before too long but will see how things go. If I can get back to adding the motifs I think I might be able to get this done quickly, but I seem to keep getting distracted with other projects, so that doesn't help.

Socks - there is no picture of the socks this week as I didn't get a lot done on either of them.  I continue to try and work on them a bit each day but haven't got much completed.  I hope this week I can find some time to work on at least one of the socks and get it closer to being finished.  I love working on my socks when I have a webinar that I need to watch and this week I know of at least one that I will be watching, so that should help move the sock forward a bit.

Please stay safe and remember to take care of yourself and those that you love.  Find a bit of time each day to do something that you enjoy doing as it does help a little.  If you are in the areas that are having crazy weather please take care and stay warm.  

I will see what I can get done this week and maybe there will be some more progress next week on some of these projects.  Until then have a good week and find some crafting time.

Progress and a new project

 Here it is the start of another week and also the start of another month.  I can honestly say that the months seem to be going by quickly, but things are still the same around here.  Covid-19 still means we are working remotely, and we are basically in lockdown and not sure when that it's going to end.

Mini Forget Me Not - I have continued to work on this project a bit each day, and it makes me happy to see that I am making some progress on it.  I didn't get as many stitches in on it this week but at least I was able to move it forward again.  I will see what this week is like as I would like to continue to work on this and see if I can make some more progress on the bottom section.  

I have been trying to work on some larger sections of colour so that it is easier to have spots where I can start and ends threads when I have the sections that only have a few stitches of one colour.

Socks - now my socks are continuing to get a bit of attention each day but again not as much as I had hoped that I would do.  I have been at least making sure that both of the socks gets some attention and I didn't even take a picture of either of them as there hasn't been much progress on either of them.  Maybe next week I will have some progress that is worth showing.  I know that making sure that I can continue to pick them up makes me feel a little better.

English paper piecing - now here is where some of my attention has gone in the last week.  Yes it looks like it is a bunch of random pieces of fabric being put together, and I can say that is so true. Now the fabric that I am using for this throw has a very special meaning to my mom, my sister and me.  Each of these pieces of fabric that I am using are from shirts that belonged to my dad.

I decided that after my dad passed away that I was going to work on making a throw for my mom using some of his shirts.  I felt that at least then she would have something to keep her warm, and it would also be a reminder of my dad.  I have started this project and one thing I did realize that a lot of his shirts were plaid or versions of plaid.  We have had some good laughs while going through all of his shirts looking at them and remembering.  I am happy with the progress that I have made on this as I just started putting the motifs together yesterday, and now I am looking forward to seeing how many more that I can get done.

I continue to try and make progress on some of my other projects a bit at a time and now to see what this week is like.  I hope everyone has a good week, and you find some time each day to do something that you enjoy.  It doesn't matter how long you do one of your favourite things as long as you take that time for yourself.  Hope the weather is good where you are, and you aren't dealing with lots of snow or other storms.  Take care, and we will try and be back next week with some more progress on things.

Progress and some finishes

Here it is the start of another week and another week of lockdown for us.  Things haven't changed too much other than the case numbers are slowly starting to come down here in Ontario. The weather has gotten colder but working remotely means that we aren't out in the weather too much.

Not sure when Toronto is going to be able to do much given our Covid-19 case numbers, but they are slowly starting to come down.  Hopefully  schools will be able to open up again soon and life will slowly start to get back to normal. 

 Mini Forget Me Not - here is the project that got quite a bit of my attention this week.  I am very happy with the overall progress that I made on it.  I was able to focus on getting some larger sections of colour done and right now it is looking a little different.  I was able to stitch over to the right-hand side of the piece and have completed one page of the pattern out of the 9.

I don't have a lot of the flowers or the fairy done but at least I am slowly starting to get some background done, and I had to admit that there is a lot of background.  I am not sure which way I will head now but at least I know how wide the piece is going to be.

Socks - I finally was able to make a bit of progress on two of the socks that I had on the go.  I continued to work on these and finally over the weekend I was able to get the two of them finished.  I am happy to know that I have two more socks finished, but the problem is now that I have one sock of two different colours so of course that means that I needed to start the other sock to go with each of these.  I cast on the socks yesterday and both of them got a bit of attention so now to see which sock gets finished first. 

I still have one other sock that I have been working on and hopefully this week it will get some love and maybe even get to the point where it is finished.  That sock is the second of a pair so that will mean that I should soon have another pair of socks that I can wear.
 

I have a few other projects that I am slowly working on but as you can imagine there isn't much to show, so I haven't taken any pictures of them.  I am starting to get back to having some time when I can craft and get a few things done so that is making me feel good.   The weather here is cold, but we haven't had much snow yet this winter, but they are calling for some tomorrow, and then we will see what happens after that.

I hope everyone has a good week, and you find some time when you can do the things that make you happy each day. It doesn't matter if it is 5 minutes or hours as long as you can take a bit of time to yourself and do what makes you happy.  Have a great week and stay safe.

Projects moving forward

Here it is the start of another week, and I am happy to see that I was able to make a bit of progress on some projects.  We are still in lockdown here in Ontario but that doesn't change the work for us.  We continue to work remotely with our clients and that works pretty well.

Mini Forget Me Not - here is the project that got some attention this week.  It feels good when you can see a bit of difference when you post the two pictures.  I was able to focus on getting some larger sections of colour moved forward.  I wasn't able to concentrate enough to work on all the little bits of colour changes, so I decided to just work on the larger sections and that worked well for me.

I am not sure what I will be working on this week on this piece, but I am looking forward to seeing if I can get more of this piece accomplished. I look at this piece and there are still lots of large colour sections so will see if I continue to work on them or if I will start working on the little bits of colour. Each day I try and get a few stitches in on this piece and that makes me feel good.  Some days I don't get very many done and then on the weekends are the times that I can make the best progress on this piece.

Poem about Alzheimer's - here is a project that has been sitting without getting any work done on it since March 2020.  I decided that it was finally time for me to get back to working on it so will see how it goes moving forward.  I am not sure how much I will get done on it, but I think I can now work on it with a total understanding.

This is a poem that I charted myself and of course now that I am back working on it, I am making modifications to the pattern. I would like to get this finished so now to figure out how to move it forward quickly while also working on other projects.

Wellington Worksock Shawl - here is a picture of a shawl that I started just before Christmas and have finally been able to get some progress on it.  This is a very simple project so once again something that I can pick up and work on without getting frustrated with it. Of course, the pattern called for grey, white and red, but I decided to do it in teal and cream so will see what it looks like once it is finished.  It is easy to work on so that is something that I am going to be trying to get done over the next little while.

Socks - as you can imagine the socks continue to get attention as I do work on them a bit each day. I haven't finished any of these socks yet, so now I need to focus on getting some of them finished so that I can start either the 2nd sock of some of these or a new colour.  I hope that I can get some more of these socks moved forward and will see what happens in the next little while.

I am working on some other projects as well as I am finally able to focus on things a little easier.  Maybe, I am also trying to keep myself busy instead of dealing with all the emotions that keep bubbling up inside me.  I hope that before too long I can see that I am able to get back to doing all the things that I really love to do without not being able to focus on them for too long.

I hope everyone has a good week, and you find some time each day to do something that you love doing.  I will continue to work on my cross-stitch and knitting and will see what projects get my attention this week. 

 

Moving projects forward

Another week and this week I am feeling a little better.  We are still in lockdown, and it doesn't look like we are going to be getting out of it anytime soon.  I know that the number of cases keeps going out, but I think right now that is due to people gathering together.

We continue to work remotely for our clients so that continues to be the same as even before Covid-19.  I know that we will be working like this for a while as we still aren't sure when we are getting the vaccine.

Mini Forget Me Not - here is the project that I have been putting a lot of energy into it.  Part of this project has been helping me deal with the death of my dad.  I am loving how this piece is turning out and yes it is a full coverage piece, so it is going to be awhile before it is done. I am currently at 7.94% finished on this piece and right now I am loving to see how the picture is starting to appear now.  

This weekend I decided to add some different colours as it made me happy to see part of the flowers to appear.  I look forward to seeing how much I can get done on this piece in the next week as well.  I am working on getting the first page finished on this and I think I might be able to get it done in the next couple of months but saying that will depend on how much time I can spend on the project.

I am not sure if this project is going to be what I work on this coming week, but I will see how things go.  I know that I have other projects that I want to work on as well as I will see what actually gets my attention this week.

Socks - these three socks continue to be on the needles, but I know that if I can sit and focus on one of them I will get it done and then be able to start to work on another sock.  It would be nice to wear more of these socks so the only way I can do that is if I actually get pairs of socks knit.

 

I didn't get a lot of anything else done last week but considering I was busy with work and personal stuff I am happy that I was able to find some time each day to sit and put a few stitches in my socks as well as my cross-stitch.  I hope that this week I can continue to move things forward even if it isn't as fast as normal.

 I hope everyone has a good week, and you find a bit of time to sit and do something that you enjoy doing each day.  Maybe next week I will have something else to show you but that will depend on how things go.

 

What a week

Here it is the start of another week and a start of a new year.  We are still in lockdown and if the number of Covid cases doesn't go down we will be in lockdown for a while longer.  Our lockdown is in effect until Jan 23rd at the earliest.

We continue to work remotely and given the last couple of weeks have meant a lot of businesses slowed down for the holidays it was good.  It meant that I had a bit of time to do things that I wanted to do and yes stitching was something that got attention.

Socks - here are the socks that I finished in 2020 and there are 3.5 pairs of socks finished and that makes me feel good.  Now I need to get back to working on socks so that I can continue to finish up socks and end up with matching socks instead of just single socks.

I am also going into 2021 with some socks on the needs and at least one of them is to finish off a pair so that is good. It is nice to have socks on the needles as it means that when I need something to work on I can quickly pick them up and work on them. I am looking forward to seeing how many socks I end up knitting in 2021. I hope to get more socks made and more of the inventory of sock yarn reduced.

Northern Patrol - As it New Years it was time for a new start, so I figured out a couple of projects that I wanted to do. The first project that I started was Northern Patrol and is a full coverage piece which makes me feel good.  I didn't get a lot of stitches in on this piece but that doesn't bother me.  I am looking forward to seeing how much of this I can get done, but it will depend on how the other project that I have on the go proceeds.

I am looking forward to seeing what this project looks like and that will depend on how much time I can spend on this project.

Mini Forget Me Not - this is a project has got a lot of attention since I started it.  I would like to see how things go moving forward in the next little while.  This project means a lot to me and part of it is because it has Forget Me Not flowers on it.  Forget Me Not flowers are also a symbol for Alzheimer's and that cause is very close to my heart.

I hope that I can also spend some time working on this project as it helps me feel better about other things that have been going on.  I lost my dad to both Dementia and Alzheimer's, so I am going to be stitching this piece as a way to remember him.

This is another full coverage piece so that means I am going to be working on this piece for quite a while.  I look forward to seeing how much of it I can do while also dealing with the death of my dad.  I know I won't have this piece completed quickly, but it does feel good having something that I can work on and just hide from the world with.

Covid ornaments - I was able to get four ornaments completed before the new year and that made me feel good.  These were given to my mom and sister, and they were able to hang them on their trees before it was time to take the tree down.

I am going to now try and get my two ornaments done, but they won't be on our tree this year, but I still want to get them made as a way to remember what 2020 was really like.

ETSY and Personal update - as a lot of you know I was raising funds for the Alzheimer's Society of Toronto by selling my grime guards.  I am making this 104 dollar donation,  as my dad had both Dementia and Alzheimer's, so wanted to do something to help one of these organizations.

My dad did pass away on January 3rd, but I know that he is now in a better place and is no longer having to deal with these crazy diseases.

I hope everyone can continue to find time to spend a bit of time each day to do the things that you love doing.  It is important that we all remember to take a bit of time for yourselves each day and do something.