A finish, a start and some progress

 Here it is the start of another week, and it looks like it could be a rather busy with for me. I guess I am just going to have to wait and see how things go. The warm weather is back at least for the start of the week, so it feels more like August then October.

Summer is Coming - this is the project that I have been working on for a while and working on each of the motifs was a lot of fun.

This past week I set myself a goal and it was to have it finished by the end of September. Once I set that goal, I was able to focus on the piece and yes, get it completed. It feels good having this project done and now I just have two more of the "Is Coming" series to complete but they are going to have to wait for a little while. I have other projects that I would like to work on first.

Jolly Squirrel - this is a piece that I found while watching some cross stitch videos and I immediately needed it. The piece is called Jolly Squirrel and it is by Pigeon Coop Designs. I started this piece yesterday and I don't think it is going to take me long to finish it if I can focus on it. The design is only 64x61 stitches so it will be around 4 inches in size once it is done.

This is one of those projects that I will see how quickly I can get it done and not put it down for days at a time. The piece difference with this project is I am using a paper pattern and I don't have it on my tablet. It does seem to go a little slower but given it isn't a big pattern I am just going to work on it like I did yesterday. 

Preemie blanket - I am continuing to work on the blanket a bit most days. I love being able to sit and knit for 30 minutes at a time and it does help me move a project forward. The good news with this project is this last week I got to the point where I could start decreasing. 

This blanket hopefully now will go a little faster given I am on the decrease rows, but I will just have to wait and see. I know that being able to get more of this blanket done this coming week would be nice so I will see how it goes. I am trying to use up this colour of yarn so after this project is finished, I will have to figure out what else I am going to make with this yarn.

Other projects - lately I haven't been working on multiple projects at a time. It has felt great being able to focus on projects and see progress on a couple of them instead of very little progress on lots of projects.

One thing that I haven't been working on lately is my English Paper piecing, so I am going to need to pick that up again and hopefully move at lease one of those projects forward.

I hope everyone is finding that little bit of time each day to recharge your personal batteries. I know how important it is to take that bit of time and relax. It doesn't matter what you do as long as you take that little bit of time to yourself.

This coming week I hope that I can continue to work on both my cross stitch and knitting but will see how the week goes. Hopefully next week I will be back and have a bit of progress to show you on at least a couple of projects.

Some slow progress

Here it is the start of another week and it's hard to believe that this last week went by as fast as it did. I hope to be able to figure out where the week went but at least I know that I was able to move a couple of things forward.

Summer is Coming - this piece got some attention this past week as I was able to finish off another colour and move the project forward some.  It is nice when I can sit and work on a motif and get it finished and that is what I was doing this past week.

I currently have two colours of floss left to use in this project and hopefully they will go fast. The motif that I am working on is the biggest one in the design and there are lots of stitches in it. Hopefully, I will be able to get this motif finished off quickly and then get to working on the last two motifs that I still have to add to the piece. We will see what progress I can make on this project before next week.

Preemie blanket - this is the project that got the most attention this week as I continue to try and pick it up most days and get the 30 minutes of knitting done on it. I am getting closer to where I can start the decreasing on this project so that feels good. It has been nice to have a project that is simple to work on and I can see progress on it quickly. 

I would like to see if I can figure out how to make this blanket just a bit bigger as I do have quite a few balls of sports weight yarn and would like to see if I can use some of it up. Maybe what I am going to try and do is once again make a blanket that is the two balls of yarn, but they will be smaller balls.

This coming week I would like to start the decreasing on this blanket and will see how quickly I can get it completed.

Other projects - this past week I wasn't able to work on any of the other projects which is different for me. I know that I would like to make a bit more progress on my English Paper piecing before the end of the month so that means I need to work on it some this week.

I hope everyone had a good week and you were able to find some time to do something that you enjoy. It feels good when you can lose yourself in a project for hours, but I know for me that hasn't happened very often lately. 

If things go well, I will have some progress to show you next week on my projects. Have a good week and I will see what I can get accomplished during this coming week, so that I have something to show you next week. 
 

Making progress, a finish, and a start

Here it is the start of another week, and hopefully a week where I find a little more time to work on things that I would like to work on. There is lots of things on my list that need to get done this week.

Summer is Coming - here is a project that I started in July and then put it done while I worked on Jane Parson. I finally picked it up this week and started to work on moving it forward.

The pattern isn't very large, so I have now reached all the sides of it.  I am working this project so different then I did the other season one I did. This time I am just working on what I want to work on so that is why a lot of the motifs are only partly done. I will see how it goes this week when I work on it because it has been fun not working on one motif at a time.

Curling Mist Shawl - here is a project that got a little bit of attention this week. It has been a lot of fun working on this project as I have been able to try working on a stitch that I haven't done for a long time. 

The stitch that I am working with is a cable stitch without using a cable needle. I learned how to do this stitch years ago, but of course haven't used it in my knitting for a long time. It took a bit of time to get comfortable with it again but finally it is working out and I am not having any issues with it.

This pattern does work on relatively quickly especially when you are in the garter section of the design. I have just started the next garter section so hopefully I will be able to move this shawl forward again this week. This shawl is a light grey, and it is interesting to see the difference in colour depending on where I take the photo.

The Curling Mist Shawl is something that I am enjoying working on and given that there is a pattern in different sections of the shawl it makes it fun to work on as well.
 

Preemie blanket - here it the project that got attention at the very beginning of the week as I was very close to a finish. The good news is I was able to finish this project very quickly when I picked it up on Monday. Just seeing this blanket finished makes me happy.

After casting it off, I quickly sewed in the ends that needed to be done and then I took the finished picture of it. The final blanket measures 39"x39" so it is a nice size. It was a lot of fun to work on and it was something easy to work on while watching the various videos that I watch.

The Preemie blanket was my 30 minutes of knitting a day project and that helped me move it forward at a good speed.  Once I finished this blanket, I looked at the amount of yarn that I still had left and decided what I was going to do with it.

The original pattern makes a preemie blanket that is around 24" square and I thought that would be something that I could work on for a while and it would use up some more of this yarn that I have. I waited until Wednesday and then I picked up my needles and the yarn and yes, I have now started another preemie blanket. This one is going to be the actual size that the pattern makes. 

This blanket is once again in the 30 minutes of knitting a day category and so far, I have been able to make some good progress on it. Of course, the rows right now aren't very long so I can get through them pretty quickly. We will see how quickly this blanket can get done because it will end up with only 170 stitches on the needle instead of the 250 stitches which I did for the other version.

Other projects - I was able to pick up my English Paper piecing for a while this weekend and made a bit of progress on it. We will see by the end of the month how much attention these projects got.

I hope everyone is finding that bit of time each day to do something for yourself. It may be a bit of a challenge each day but even taking 10 minutes to sit and relax and do nothing feels good. Next week I hope to have some progress on a couple of items, but we will see which projects get the attention. Have a good week and hopefully I will be back again next Monday with some progress.

A small bit of progress

 

Here it is the start of another week and now to see how it goes. It has been hot and humid here so that means that I haven't got a lot of crafting done. Also, the last week was a very crazy work week so that also meant not a lot of time to spend working on projects.

Summer is Coming - here is a project that did get started over the weekend as it was finally cool enough that I wanted to pick up some cross stitch again. This is in the same series as Winter is Coming so it isn't a huge project and something that I am going to be trying to work on over the next little while. 

I do have another project that I will be starting on Tuesday, so this piece won't get a lot of attention but at least I have it around for when I need a bit of a change from the other project.

Table runner - yes, I am showing you some English Paper Piecing and it isn't the first of the month. The reason this project is here is because this is what I was working on most of the week. It was something that I could pick up and work on for a few minutes at a time and I could see progress on it.

This project also was a great one to work on while sitting on the balcony, trying to stay cool. I am happy with the number of motifs I was able to add to this piece over the last week because again I didn't have a lot of time to work on things. I hope to be able to add some more motifs to this project before the end of the month so that I can show you how much further I got on this piece.

Other projects - I can honestly admit that I didn't work on anything else this week. It has been a crazy week with regards to work and then the heat and humidity made it hard to focus or want to do anything.

This coming week I hope to be able to spend some time working on some projects and I will see how it goes. I hope everyone is finding those little bits of time to do something for yourself because it really does make a difference.

I hope to have something to show you next week, but I will just have to wait and see how things go. Have a good week and enjoy the time you have doing whatever you do.