New year, new starts, finishes and progress

Here it is the start of a new year and yes, I can say that I have made a good start in the last week of getting things done. This week will be more of a work week for me, but I hope that I can continue to move a couple of projects forward this week.

Pandemic - here is a project that got some attention last week as I am going to be trying to move this project forward through this year. Given I started this in 2020 I think it's time it got some good progress so will see what happens this year.

I hope to work on Pandemic a bit each month just so that I can start to see areas of the pattern finished and then maybe I can start moving up on the design instead of still being at the bottom of a rather large piece.

Edna Verenia Nichol - 1844 - here it my New Year New Start that I did this month. I am loving this piece and have been able to spend some time working on it over the last week. Of course, it is another red sampler, and I am looking forward to getting all of my red samplers framed so that I can enjoy them all together. This is a nice size piece as it is around 8 x 5 inches so something that goes work up relatively quickly.

My goal for this piece is to have it finished by the end of January so that I can get back to the stitch along as I am behind on it.

Knitting projects - this last week I decided to try and get a few things completed so that I could start the year feeling good about my knitting. I had two projects that were close to getting finished so that was my focus.

The toque that I have been working on was very close to a finish, so I decided to focus on it and the good new is here for one of the first finishes for this year. I am happy that I was able to focus on getting this done so that I can add this to a pile of hats and scarves that I will be donating to a local group at the end of 2024.

After getting the hat finished, I decided to work on the Dudester scarf as that was something else that was very close to a finish. It didn't take me long to have that finished either so now I have two knitting projects finished and that makes me feel very good. I hope that I can continue to get more knitting projects finished soon.

After finishing those two knitting projects it was time to start another toque but this one is going to be using a different pattern. It does feel good seeing that I have been able to get some knitting done.

Other projects - I haven't worked on any other project other than the ones that I have written about. It was nice to have some time where I could work on the different projects and see progress on all of them.

I hope everyone is finding that bit of time to work on something that makes you happy. It doesn't matter if it is reading, relaxing, or crafting. Just doing something that makes you happy a bit each day helps a lot.

I am not certain what I will be able to get done this week, but I do know that I will try and spend those few minutes each day doing something that I enjoy. Hopefully next week I will have a bit of progress to show you on at least a couple of projects. Until then, have a good week and remember to take that bit of time to 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.