More progress and finishes

Here it is another week, and we have continued to deal with the heat and humidity, so I am happy to have something to show for this week.  The forecast says this is the last day with the crazy humidity, but we will just wait and see.

Autumn - this weekend I was able to put a few stitches in on Autumn and have started the second house on the piece.  The houses seem to take a long time to do so it feels good being able to get some of it done even if it isn't finished yet.  I hope that I can continue to work on this piece and maybe get the second house filled in with the main colour and maybe even start the roof on it.

I would like to see more of this piece moved forward, but I am thinking that I might try and work on something else for a while this week, as I do have a busy schedule. I might try and work on this a little, as it is a long weekend coming up here in Ontario, so that might help me get more progress on things.

I still hope to have this piece done and on the way this fall, so that means that I am going to have to continue to work on it.  I think I can do it even if it isn't my true focus piece.  Right now I don't have one of those, and it is making me feel great.

Modern Nordic - here is a piece that was started in 2019 and didn't get any attention after it was started. I had worked two days on this piece, and then it was put away until it came back out this week so that I could see if I could get it finished.

This was my focus for the week as I wanted to get it finished up so that I could have another quick finish, so that is what I did this week. Being able to sit and focus on this made me feel good because it was one colour and that meant that I could just stitch and not worry about changing colours.  This project was also good this week, given how hot and humid it was out.

I am thinking that now that I have finished up a couple of the projects that were started a while ago I am going to try and continue to move some of these forward.  I think it would be really nice to see that I have been able to get more of these projects finished up instead of them sitting with just some stitches in on them.

Baby afghan - here is another project that has been on the go for some time.  It was started in the spring this year and I have only worked on it bits at a time, so that is why I haven't posted pictures of this before now.  I always felt that one or two rounds didn't show much progress, but now this is finished. 

This is a basic granny square using two colours of yarn that I had.  I wanted to get another afghan completed and when I was looking at my yarn I found these three balls of yarn so figured that I would just work them into a simple pattern, and then they were done.  It felt good getting this done, as this was something that I would work on a bit at a time sitting on the balcony in the evenings.

We are still dealing with the fourth wave of Covid-19 here and that isn't great.  The case numbers keep raising, so now sure what is going to be happening with restrictions.  For us, we continue to be extremely careful, so will see how things go.

I hope everyone continues to find a bit of time each day to do something for yourself.  I know that even the 10 or 15 minutes that I have found some days has helped a lot.  It has given me the energy and strength to deal with everything else that is going on around us.  Have a good week, and hopefully I will have a bit of progress to show you again next week.

 

Another week and one finish

Here it is another Monday morning and another week of what might be the new normal.  I am happy with how things are slowly starting to seem a little back to normal but maybe that is because my little bubble is a little more normal.  We continue to work remotely for our clients so that hasn't changed and it was basically a lot of what we were doing before Covid-19.  Other things are starting to get back to normal with a busier schedule so yes that is more normal for us.

Blushing - this piece got a bit of attention this week and what I was able to accomplish was filing in all of those single stitches around the bottom of the rose. By getting all of those single stitches done it means that I am now finished the 3 bottom pages of this pattern and now only have the top 3 remaining to stitch.

I would like to continue to get more of this piece stitched as it is making me feel very good seeing that I have got this much done as quickly as I have.  I started this piece in June but didn't have it as a focus until the middle of July so I am happy with the progress that I have made on it in the last couple of months.  The top three pages are bigger pages so I will see how long it makes me to get each of them completed.

V-stitch baby afghan - this week I was able to sit some evenings and focus on getting the baby afghan finished up. Once I was able to focus on this project it didn't take me long to get it done.

I used just over one ball of yarn for this project and I used Lion Brand "Ice Cream" and it was nice to work with and I love the variegated effect that it gives on this piece.  Now that this project is finished I will be looking to figure out which knitting or crocheting project gets my attention next.

Of course, there are a lot of other projects that are keeping me busy but at least I am slowly starting to see some finishes.  I hope that I can continue to get bits of finishes done over the next while as I know that also makes me happy.

I hope everyone continues to find the little bits of time each day to do the things that you love to do.  It doesn't matter what you do but taking that few minutes each day to yourself is important.  Take care and stay safe.

Progress and some finishes

Mini Magic of Books - April 5

Here it is the start of another week.  I know that it continues to be a crazy world that we are all living in.   This week I found that there were some projects that I was happy to work on.

Mini Magic of Books - April 12

Mask Holders

 Mini Magic of Books - I continue to work on this piece a bit at a time, and I am happy with the progress that I am seeing on it. I continue to work on adding the black as it is something that I can do easily when I need to make sure that my attention is available for other tasks, such as being available to take client calls.  The colour addition is something that I do when I have a bit of time to sit and focus on it.

MAP

Mask Holders - this is a project that I started at the end of this last week and I have crocheted 40 mask holders, which I will be dropping off to a Rehabilitation Centre that could use them.  The mask holders are quick to crochet, and then the sewing on the buttons doesn't take too long to complete either. I have enjoyed working on these as it is something a little different, but I am also helping people that are required to wear masks for their entire shift at work. 

Ink Circles - Map

I am going to continue to make these mask holders as long as I have buttons that I can add to them. 

Finishes - yesterday I decided it was time to focus on trying to get a few things finished.  The first project we worked on was getting a fabric map finished and onto our wall.  We had this panel with the map of Canada for a while and finally, I got around to finishing it, and it is now hung up on our wall.

I am happy with how it looks as it means that the wall isn't so bear and we have something to help cut some of the noise in that hall.

After we got the map hung up on the wall, it was time to look at some of the finished cross stitch projects that I had.  I have lots of cross stitch projects that I have finished stitching, but I have never framed.

Avocado

It was fun looking at some of the projects that I have finished over the years while figuring out what frames we had available to start framing pieces. The first two projects that got framed were quick to do as they are both small enough to fit into a 5 x 7 frame.  Map was stitched in June 2019 and Avocado was stitched in February 2019.

I am happy seeing a couple more projects finished and now to see which project I will frame next.  I have a bunch of things that I want to finish, so that is going to be one of the tasks that I hope to get moved forward in the next few weeks.


I hope everyone is starting safe and healthy during this time.  It is a challenge for all of us, and we have to understand that we aren't alone during this time.  Try to find some time each day to do something for yourself that you enjoy.  I hope you have a good week, and I will see what I can do this week.

Moving things forward and a finish

Linen and Threads Mystery SAL - June 23

Here it is the beginning of another week and I actually have something to show.

Linen and Threads Mystery SAL - June 29

Linen and Threads Mystery SAL - now this is a project that I was determined to work on in June as I wanted to get the May section of it done.  I finally was able to get the section finished on June 29th so that means that I could finally start working on the June/July section.

The June/July section is a big section so that is going to take me some time to get it done but I have at least been able to make a bit of a start on it.  I hope that over the rest of July that I can get close if not finished the section so that I am back being caught up on this piece.

Linen and Threads Mystery SAL - July 2

The other nice thing about this piece is knowing that I have been able to start close to being caught up so hopefully by the end of the I will have a finish either in December or early in January 2019.

Temperature - June 24

Temperature - this piece finally got some attention this week and it made me happy as I was finally able to get the April temperatures finished.  Yes, I am still way behind but I am thinking that now that I have figured out a method of stitching this piece it might go a little quicker or at least I am hoping that it will.

Temperature - July 1

The other thing about this piece is now that I am stitching into May the brighter colours are now starting to appear more often and that makes me feel so much better.  I know that even in May we had a couple of extremely warm days so the brightest colour will be appearing shortly.

I am hoping that in July I will be able to focus on getting this piece also worked on as I would like to see that I am getting closer to being caught up and not two months behind like I am currently.

Pink Shawl - finished

Pink Shawl - this is the project that I have been working on and didn't want to post a picture of until it was finished and gifted to the person.

Pink Shawl - close-up

The shawl was a Bernat pattern that was included on the ball of yarn and it knit up relatively quickly.  I didn't work on it as much as I had hoped when I first started it but I knew that I wanted it finished in June so that meant that after a few days of working around 2,000 stitches a day I was able to have a finish.

The shawl was gifted on Friday and hopefully, the person receiving it will enjoy wearing it.

I will be knitting this shawl again as I have a skein of the yarn in a Teal colour and I would like to get it finished so that I can wear my version of the same shawl when the temperature cools off some.  Right now, the weather is pretty hot and humid here so there isn't any need for a shawl as we are having days of 35C and with a humidex of around 42C and the evenings are still in the 20C's so it is still pretty warm out.


I have a bunch more projects that I would like to work on but right now I am going to be trying to focus on getting Temperature caught up and even the Linen and Threads Mystery SAL caught up.

I have work that needs my attention now so I am thinking that I will stop writing here for this week and see what work I can get done.  I also hope to be able to spend some time this week in the evenings working on a project as I would like to see some more progress on at least one of the designs before the end of next weekend.

A slow week

Sabbatical Beauty - August 29

Sabbatical Beauty - September 5

This week has been a busy week for me so that wasn't a lot of stitching time but at least I have been able to move a couple of projects forward a little bit.

Sabbatical Beauty - now this is the first project that I worked on this week because I was really interested in seeing how this was going to turn out using the over dyed floss.

Sabbatical Beauty - September 9

It didn't take me too long to get this design stitched up and have to admit that I am still not sure if I like this design with the over dyed floss that I used.  Maybe if it wasn't as drastic a colour change it might have looked better but at least I was able to get something finished up quickly which is what I was looking forward to doing.

Halloween Biscornu - September 5

After I finished the over dyed version of Sabbatical Beauty I decided that I was going to stitch it with a solid DMC colour so I quickly started it and have made a bit of progress on it.  Maybe this will be a project that will get finished up this week if I can actually sit and work on it.

Halloween Biscornu - September 4

Halloween Biscornu - here is a project that I have been fighting with since I started it.  Maybe part of it is I have wanted to work on this design on an orange fabric and just couldn't seem to be happy with using a grey fabric.

I also discovered that with this being an over dyed fabric the fabric that was originally a 28 count fabric is more like a 30 count or something like that.  I am still working on this piece but it is taking me a little longer than I had hoped to see some good progress on it.

Halloween Biscornu - September 10th

Virus Shawl - September 7

This week I was able to find some orangey fabic and decided that it might work a little better for what I really wanted for this piece.  I picked up the piece of fabric and of course had to start the new version of it. the piece doesn't show the true colour of the fabric as it is a peachy orange colour and I am loving how this is turning out.  It is also on aida so it is stitching up a little quicker so I hope to be able to get part of the biscornu finished up soon.

Virus Shawl - now this is a different shawl than I was working on last week and this is called the Virus Shawl. I found this pattern also on the Crochet Crowd website and wanted to try it out.  I am going to work on this a little bit at a time but my focus has to be back on the Fluffy Meringue shawl so that I can get it finished before the end of this month.

Fluffy Meringue Shawl - there is no picture of the shawl this week as it didn't change much.  I am working on it but had to admit that over the last week I just wasn't able to get much stitching done on it.  I like having some time where I can work on a spray at a time which is four rows and I just didn't have that time so now to get back to working on it.


Yes I have a lot of different projects on the go at one time and a lot of that is due to the need to have projects that either fit a specific mood or fits into how much time that I have to work on a project.

When you love crafting you just need to remember that you need to find the time to do what you enjoy.  Sure it might only be a few minutes at a time but at least it is a few minutes.  Doing stuff that you love to do is what is important and this week showed me that even without a lot of time I was able to get little bits of things done.

I now have some work that I need to get to so that is what the focus is going to be for today and then hopefully this evening I will be able to move something forward again.

Projects moving forward

Quotes to Live By - part 9 - Sept 3

 This week I was able to work on a few projects and it does feel good seeing that I have been able to move some of them forward and actually have a finish on one of the projects.

Quotes to Live By -- this is the project that I have been working on for 8 months and was looking forward to Friday when the last section was released.  I decided that this weekend I was going to focus on this project so that I could see if I could get it finished.

Quotes to Live By - finished Sept 3

When I saw this last quote I figured it wouldn't take me too long to get it done if I could just focus on it and not get distracted on all the other projects that I wanted to work on.  Friday, I started working on the piece and Sunday evening I was able to take the project off of the q-snap and say it is finished.  The final size of the project is 18.5 inches x 13.75 inches so it is a rather large size project that is now finished.  I am happy that it is finished but also sad to see it over.

I am now going to work on some of the other projects that have been put aside while I worked on Quotes and will see what I can get accomplished over the next while.

Fluffy Meringue Shawl - Aug 27

Fluffy Meringue Shawl - I have been able to get a bit of time on this shawl and am happy with the progress on it.  I have now finished the first ball of yarn and am working on the second ball of yarn so will see how large this shawl ends up once I have finished using up the yarn that I have for it.  After I finished the first ball of yarn I realized that even with the second ball of yarn it might not be as large as I wanted so this weekend I was able to pick up two more balls of this yarn so will see how much of it I actually end up using.

Fluffy Meringue Shawl - Sept 4

I am now on the 12th spray and am going to see how many more even the second and third ball of yarn takes me.  I am not sure how large I really want this shawl but will figure that out as I go.  I know that the banquet is at the end of September so I have another 3 weeks to go to finish the shawl and think I should be able to get it to a size I am happy with by then.

Halloween Biscornu - Sept 4

Halloween Biscornu - this week I decided that I needed a couple of smaller projects to work on.  I have lots of large cross-stitch projects but nothing that is on the smaller size on the go.

I saw this pattern online in August and figured it would be something that I could work on quickly and  maybe get it done.  It is a Halloween Biscornu and I don't think it will take me long to get it done if I just sit and work on it for a few days.  Of course, because it is a biscornu there are two sides of the design so will finish this one up and then will still have the other side to do but I am thinking of these as two separate projects right now.

Sabbatical Beauty - Sept 4

Sabbatical Beauty - this is another one of the small projects that I decided that I needed to work on this week so it too got started. I figure this is something that I can pick up and work on and I should be able to get this one done quickly as well because it is only around 3 inches by 4 inches when it is finished so not large at all.

Sabbatical Beauty is using floss that I already had and fabric which I also had so that is nice. I am not sure the colour of the floss barbecue it was in an oops package that I purchased so none of the floss had colour labels.  I don't care about the colour name as it is over-dyed floss and I am enjoying working on this project.


The weekend is now over and I have some work that needs by attention so I will get that done and then I will see if I can find a little bit of time to either crochet or cross-stitch. I am looking forward to seeing what I can accomplish this week with my crafts.  I may not get as much done as I would like to achieve but even finding a bit of time each evening to do a few stitches is great.  My crafting is now I wrap up my day and din some ways it helps me solve some of the projects that I have been dealing with and it also helps relax me.

Progress and a new project

Lady - August 16

This week I have been trying to focus on getting one cross stitch project moved forward as I wanted to see how much of it I could get done if I just focused on it instead of bouncing around on a couple of projects. I also knew that I wasn't going to have a lot of time to stitch so something where I could see some good progress would be great.

Lady - August 27

Lady -- this is the project that I decided to try and focus on to see if I could make some progress on it during this week.  I have to say that I was able to spend a couple of evenings working on this design and am happy with the progress.

I have started working on the face and hair and have also been able to get some good progress done on the cloak.  I was going to work on the face but then figured it would be great if I could spend a bit of time this weekend working on the cloak so that is what I did.  I still have quite a bit of stitching to do on the dress and the cloak but at least I can now see that I have been able to make a bit of progress on the area.

I am thinking that Lady may continue to be my focus on project until Friday when Quotes to Live By is released.  I have seen some good progress on this piece and now would like to see a bit this week.

Fluffy Meringue Shawl - August 27

Fluffy Meringue Shawl -- now this is a project that I started this week and am very happy with the progress that I have been able to make. Each of the sprays is four rows so it is a pretty simple pattern and I am loving how quickly it is working up.

I found this pattern on The Crochet Crowd and have seen a couple of pictures of the shawl finished so decided that I was going to get some yarn for it and make it for a dinner that I am going to be attending at the end of September. The pattern is called Fluffy Meringue Shawl and it is a quick project to work on. You do work on the shawl from the top down so yes the rows are getting longer as I go but with it being a simple pattern it is enjoyable to work on.  I have 8 sprays completed now and I am aiming to make it around 12 sprays long so will see how that goes and what it looks like once I get it to that size.


Besides working on these two projects I have been busy getting some of the other projects moved forward and also work has been keeping me busy.  This is the last week of the month so that means that I am going to be trying to get a few more things wrapped up before Thursday evening so will see how things go.  I hope to be able to get some stitching in on the final quote next weekend but will see how the rest of things go.

This last week I was lucky to meet someone that was also a crocheter and am looking forward to running into her again.  It is always nice to meet someone else that enjoys crafting.

A week with some progress and a new start

Quotes to Live By - Feb 17th

 A week of focus was what I was trying to do and I think I kind of accomplished that.  I decided to try to work on basically one design for most of the week and it feels good.

Quotes to Live By - Feb 26th

The project that did get most of my attention was Quotes to Live By because I wanted to see if I could get the top section done before the end of this week and I finally did.  I still haven't finished the first part of the pattern but I hope to be able to make some progress on it over the next few days. I still have the border to work on and the first quote so I will see when I can get those sections done.  I am happy with the progress that I made this week on this piece. Once I get the first quote done I will have the January part of the stitch along completed and then there is February and soon March to do.

Linen and Threads - Feb 20th

After spending most of the week working on Quotes to Live By, I decided that it was time to try and get a bit more stitching done on Linen and Threads - Mystery Stitch Along so that is what I did last night.  This piece is going slowly just like Quotes to Live By but I figure once I can get the first section done things will start to progress a little quicker.

Linen and Threads - Feb 26th

I still haven't started working on the second half the first section of this pattern yet as I decided to see if I could get the first half done and then I will work on doing the right hand side of the pattern. Again this is just the January section of the stitch along so yes I am behind on this one as well.

As I have been focusing on cross-stitch for quite a while now I figured it was time to have something else on the go as well so I started a rectangle granny square afghan.  The picture doesn't show the teal very well but I am working on this while I am watching the various webinars that I do for work. Having something to work on that doesn't take much concentration means that I can focus on the webinar but I am not tempted to do other things on the computer during the webinar.

Teal and white rectangle afghan

This afghan was something that I had thought about doing as it will work well in my office area as I do like having something that I can throw over my legs or shoulders if it gets cool.  My office area is also a place where I read sometimes so the afghan will be around when I want to curl up and relax. I got this yarn as part of a Christmas gift and have wanted to work on it since then but of course everything else gets in the way and I never sat down and started working on it.  Well, I shouldn't say that because I tried one pattern but it took too much focus so it wasn't going to work as the project that I could work on and see some quick results so this is the second attempt of an afghan with this yarn.

Of course, work and studying is also keeping me busy but I try most evenings to find a little bit of time to stitch because it does help me regain the focus I need for the next day.  That hour or two of just sitting and relaxing can really make a difference on how I approach the next day.

Where did the week go?

Soft lilac baby afghan

I am really not sure where the last week went other than we were extremely busy which meant that there wasn't a lot of time to sit and craft.

The soft lilac baby afghan did get a bit of attention and I was able to finish it up on Saturday.  I decided that I was going to use up the ball of yarn that I was using for it and that was going to determine the size of the afghan.  I was able to get the afghan to 30 rounds and then realized that I wouldn't have enough yarn to do another round.  A quick single crochet around the outside gave it a finish and I didn't have a lot of yarn left after that.

blue marble afghan

Yesterday I decided that as I do crochet in the car that I needed another project to have with us when we are out and about.  Yes, being a passenger in the car means that I can sit and crochet when we are going out.  I had a ball of blue marble yarn hand so that was started into another baby afghan and will see how quickly it gets finished. This is a project that probably won't get a lot of attention at home for a while but at least it is ready for the next time we are going out in the car.

The green shawl that I am working on is continuing to get a bit of attention and again I made a bit of progress.  I have now reached the half way mark on the shawl so that made me feel very good last night.  The shawl now measures 36 inches and that made me happy.  I know that this week I am going to try and work on it a bit more as I would like to see it moved forward quicker than it had been giong.

Another project got added to the needles this weekend but there really isn't anything to show from it.  I decided that I would knit myself a shrug so that was started on Saturday evening.  It is going to be the project that I work on when I need a break from the green shawl so it won't get a lot of attention for a while.

I was able to find a bit of crafting time on the weekend which made me happy.  My cross-stitch stayed put away for the week as I knew that I wouldn't have the time to confuse on it.  Maybe this week I will see if one of them gets any attention but considering our schedule I don't think any of them will get much attention until at least the weekend.

It is now time to get some work done and then will see if I can find any time this evening to work on a craft for a bit.