Some good progress

Here it is another Monday morning, and I am going to say it is way too hot right now to try and function. Instead of warming up to a nice temperature it has gone way overboard, and it is extremely hot here. The weather is now making it difficult to function or do anything so that is making it hard. At least before the weather decided to get this hot, I was able to make some progress on a few things.

Mini the Forgotten - here is the project that got quite a bit of attention this last week. I was trying to focus on moving this project forward and closer to a finish and I must admit that I think that I was able to do that. Of course, some of the areas that needed work weren't too big so that did help quite a bit. The first thing that I had to do was complete a section that had some metallic thread in it so that was the first focus and then it was time to try and move the entire project forward some more.

It does feel good seeing how much I was able to get completed this last week because it means that I have moved this project closer to a finish and that is nice. I have three pages to finish now and hopefully that means before too long I will have this piece finished.

If the weather lets up a bit I am going to continue to work on this piece through this week as I would like to see how much more of it, I can get done. 

Simply Curious Shawl - I have been trying to work on this project a bit, but it is one of those projects that does take some time to do and given it is a heavier weight yarn it is also something that you don't want to work on when it's really hot out.

When the weather cools down a little bit I think I will try and add a few more rows to this piece as I would like to see it finished before too long. I know that being able to at least work on it a bit at a time would be good so we will see how that goes.

Gradient Shawl - I have decided that while it is hot out, I needed something that I would work on while sitting on the balcony, so I started another Gradient Shawl but this time I am using some variegated yarn that I had already. The nice thing about this project is I don't have to think about what row I am on because it is a simple project to pick up and work on.

I don't know how quickly I will get this done but at least I was able to get a start on it before it got extremely hot out and hopefully it will continue to grow once, I can make some more progress on it.

Other projects - I haven't worked on any other projects this past week as my main focus was on moving my cross stitch forward. Just being able to see that I have made some good progress is nice and hopefully before long I will have a finish.

I hope everyone is finding that bit of time each day to do something that you enjoy doing. If you are dealing with the extreme heat and humidity, I hope you are able to stay cool and remember to drink lots of water.

Progress and a shawl finish

It is hard to believe that another week is over, and I am writing another blog to let you know what I have been working on. It has been a busy week so of course; the crafting time hasn't been as much as some of the other weeks. Now to see what this week is going to be like as I know that I have a few things already on my schedule that I need to do.

The weather has been improving which is nice and now we are starting to see buds on the trees, so I think spring has finally arrived. Hopefully we will get some of our seeds in the ground this coming week.

Silver Anniversary - here is the piece that got the attention this last week. I have been trying to move it forward a bit each month and again this month I was able to get more of it done. I am working hard to move this project forward a bit each month as I would like to have it finished next year for our 25th wedding anniversary.

It has been an interesting project to work on as I wasn't sure about the beige colours in it but they seem to be working, and they aren't so bad. This week I tried to work on just a couple of colours so that I could move the entire project forward and I can see a difference in it and some of the little open areas have been filled in. Next time I pick it up I will probably work on it the same way as it was nice seeing the entire project grow.

This project is now being put down as it is the end of a week so it's time for another project to come back out and get some attention. The WIPGO numbers have been called for May, so I will pick up and work on Pandemic is coming week and see how much progress I can get done on it.

Gradient Shawl - this is the knitting project that I have been working on and have loved it. It has been a project that was easy to work on and something that I could pick up and not worry about what row I was on. This last week I decided that I was going to see if I could get the shawl finished because I had just joined the last ball of yarn so figured I might be able to get it done. I ended up having 421 stitches on the circular need and with just under 10 grams of yarn left I figured I didn't want to push my luck, so I did the cast off which did take quite a while. 

The shawl is now off the needles, and I just need to sew in the ends and then block the shawl and it will be ready to wear. I am very happy with how the shawl turned out and cannot wait to wear it. Now to get the next project onto the needles and see how it goes.

Other projects - this past week after finishing the Gradient Shawl I decided to pick up and work on some preemie items that I want to donate to a local charity. I haven't taken any pictures of the items yet but will do so soon as I should have at least a couple of items ready.

I hope everyone is finding that little bit of time each day to do something that you enjoy and for yourself. It doesn't what you do as long as you take that bit of time to recharge your personal battery.

This week there are things that I need to get done but I am going to try and spend a bit of time working on my crafting as I would like to see some progress on a couple of things. If things go well, I should have some progress to show you again next week. 

 

Moving projects forward

It is hard to believe it is the start of another week so that means it is time to see what I worked on over the last week. A lot of other things happened this last week, so I didn't have as much time to work on projects, but I did make progress.

Mini Magic of Books - this project was the second WIPGO project for April, so I was able to pick it up and work on it a little bit. I didn't get as many stitches in on this piece as I normally wanted to do but at least I moved it forward.

My goal with WIPGO is 500 stitches when it is called so getting just over 600 stitches in on the piece was good. Hopefully next time this project is called it will get more attention, and it will be moved forward more. Even getting the stitches in that I did make me feel better because now this piece is finally starting to get moved forward again.

Mini the Forgotten - as last week was a little rough, I decided to pick up a project that is making me happy so over the weekend that is exactly what I did. Mini the Forgotten once again get a bit of attention even after just working on it for a week. I am so looking forward to seeing this piece completed and it makes me happy when I work on it.

I am continuing to work on the upper left corner of the piece and slowly trying to get it done. What I have been trying to do is work on completing one colour at a time in this section. It is amazing seeing how much the piece changes when I only spend a couple of days on it. I am not certain when I will pick this piece up again, but I do know that it is scheduled to get a week of attention of May so at least I will see it next month.

I am working hard at moving this piece forward as I would like to see it finished before the end of the year so that means that I need to focus on it. Having this as a focus piece for this year is making me happy because I have already seen some good progress on it and hope to get more progress on it before long.

This week I know that Silver Anniversary will be coming out for some attention so we will see how that goes. I do have a minimum goal for that piece so hopefully I can get it achieved.

Gradient Shawl - of course, I have been doing some knitting most days and it is nice to see that I am making progress on this shawl. This shawl has 6 shades of teal in it and as of last night I have start joined the last ball of yarn into it and it makes me happy to see that I am now getting slower to the end of the shawl.

This project has been really enjoyable to work on and in some ways, I will be sad to see it finished because of how much I have enjoyed working on it. I do look forward to being able to wear this shawl because it is going to be a piece that I can wear quite often when I want to wrap up in something comfortable. I did make this shawl a nice size because I wanted to have something that I could wear when I needed something to cover my shoulders.

It is going to be interesting to see how long it takes to get the remaining ball of yarn used because the rows are now around 400 stitches so that does take a bit of time to get a row done. This week I will continue to work on the shawl, and we will see what it looks like next Monday.

Other projects - this past week I did work on my English Paper Piecing a little bit so that was nice and now to see what I can do this coming week. Of course, I have things that I need to get completed besides by crafting so we will see how things go.

This week I know that I have my shawl to work on as well as my Silver Anniversary cross stitch project so we will see what progress I can make on them. I am not certain what else will get any attention as I normally just let it happen as the week goes along.

I hope everyone as a good week, and you find that bit of time each day to do something that makes me happy. It doesn't matter what it is as long as you do a little bit of something for yourself. If things go well, I should be back next Monday with some more progress on things.

Moving two projects forward

Here it is the start of another week and hopefully I will once again be able to make some progress on things. The weather is supposed to be warming up as well this week so that would be nice.

Mini the Forgotten - here is the cross stitch project that got my attention this last week. I picked it up on Monday with a goal of seeing some good progress on it before the end of the weekend and that I did.

Now that I only have four pages to complete on this piece, I am trying hard to get as much stitching in on this piece as I can. This past week I worked on one colour on the two pages for 5 days before that colour was finished and I started working on a different colour. So, this week I only added two colours to this section of the design, but I am happy with how much I was able to get done.

This project is going to be put down for a little bit as I do want to add some stitches into the second WIPGO project that was called for April. I hope that I can get those stitches in quickly and maybe I will pick this up again as I am looking forward to seeing this piece finished.

Gradient Shawl - this shawl did get quite a bit of attention this past week as I have been trying to move it forward again. My first goal this last week was to get all the yarn knit back into the shawl that I had to take out and then see how much more of the shawl I could get done. It does feel good because I have now started the fourth colour.

I am going to continue to work on this shawl as I am also looking forward to getting this finished before too long. It is a fun project to work on because it is easy to do but the rows are getting rather long, so it does take a while to get across the row. Including the ball of yarn that I have on the go I have three more balls to add so it is going to take me a while yet before it's finished.

Other projects - this past week I have been able to pick up and work on my English Paper Piecing a bit, so I have started to see some progress on one of those projects as well.

This week I hope to be able to continue to work on my shawl and I will see how much I can get done on the other WIPGO project.  I would like to see if I can get Mini the Forgotten out for when a day or two to try and move it a little closer to a finish.

I hope everyone has a good week and you find time to do something that you enjoy. If things go well this week, I hope to have some progress to show you on my projects again next week. It is also Easter this coming Sunday, and I hope everyone as a good long weekend.

 

Some progress and some frustration

Here it is the start of another week and hopefully some progress on my crafting. I know that this week I have some more work stuff that needs my attention, but I also know that I am going to be trying to make progress on a couple of projects.

The weather here is still feeling like late winter, but hopefully it will start to warm up soon so that I can enjoy being outside sitting on the balcony again. 

Sea Opal - here is the first of my WIPGO projects for April. I am so happy with the progress that I was able to make on this piece in the last week.

When I picked it up, I was going to see if I could possibly get more of the bottom left page completed but then I decided that I just wanted to work on the overall piece and see what it is going to look like. My WIPGO goal is 500 stitches, and it didn't take me long to surpass that number of stitches and I just kept stitching on it all week. It is so nice having a project that I can focus on for a week and see some progress on it. 

Now that it is the start of another week it means that another project is going to be coming out for some stitching time. This week it won't be the other WIPGO project for April, but I decided that Mini the Forgotten was going to get the attention this week.

Gradient Shawl - here is the knitting project that I picked up and worked on this past week. If you look closely, you will notice that the second picture doesn't have as much done on it as the first picture and that is correct. The pictures are not out of order as I had to pull back quite a bit of the shawl earlier in the week and reknit it. On this project I decided to try the magic knot (invisible knot) because everyone said it was great, and it didn't come undone no matter what. Well, I decided to give it a try and last Monday when I was working on the third colour, I noticed that where my join was didn't look right, so I looked only to discover that the knot had come undone. Of course, with the magic knot you cut the yarn right at the knot so there is nothing left to weave in, so I knew I was going to have to take out a few rows to join the yarn differently at that join. 

Once I discovered that knot had some undone, I knew that I was going to have to check the other join between the first and second colour and as you can probably guess what I found. Yes, that knot had also come undone. So, the decision was could I rescue the shawl at the joins somehow or did I need to pull it out. I did try and rescue the joins, but it didn't work well, so it was time to take out the shawl back into the first colour. When I was looking at the shawl after making the decision to pull it back into the first colour, I noticed a stitch that wasn't looking the best so if I was going to take it out to the first colour I might as well take it back a few more rows to also make that stitch look better. It was a tough decision to make but I knew that the joins didn't look great so with the help of my husband we pulled out all of the second colour and part of the first and now I am back to knitting everything back in. 

I am not doing the magic knot like they say to do it as I am leaving some ends that I will sew in as well as tying the knot. Hopefully this will work, and I will be able to see this shawl moved forward more this week.

Other projects - this last week I did pick up and work on my English Paper Piecing a little bit so that was good and hopefully it will get more attention before the end of the month. I didn't work on anything other than that because I was trying to focus on getting some stitches in on Sea Opal and trying to get the shawl back to where it was.

This week I will be working on getting more of the shawl knit up as well as adding some stitches into Mini the Forgotten. I hope everyone has a good week and you find that bit of time each day to take some time for yourself. If things so well, I should have some progress to show next Monday. Have a good week and will see you then.

 

Making more progress

Here it is the start of another week and hopefully a week where the weather will improve, and we will see some sunshine. It is also the start of a new month tomorrow and I am not sure where March went as it seemed to fly by.

I have been busy working on things so hopefully I will be able to continue to get things done and maybe have some finishes before too long.

Silver Anniversary - here is the piece that got the attention in the last week. It was nice being able to spend some more time working on the piece as it is helping me move it forward.

With Silver Anniversary I try and spend one week a month working on it so that I can continue to move it forward with a goal of having it done before our 25th anniversary next year. It is amazing how much you can get done in a week when you focus on just one cross stitch project instead of many like I was doing in the past.

Now that it is a start of another week it means that Silver Anniversary will be put down and I will be picked up a different project for this week to put some stitches in on it. I have decided what project will get the attention, but it will be one of my full coverage pieces.

Gradient Shawl - here is the knitting project that I have been working on. This project is using 6 balls of yarn that are 40 grams each and it is a lot of fun to work on. This last week I was able to get the first two balls of yarn knit into the shawl, and I have just started the third ball. This shawl does knit up quickly which is nice and hopefully I will have it completed before too long.

As the shawl is getting longer, I ended up putting it on a circular needle and I am glad I did because it is making it easier to work on. I am going to continue to work on this shawl because I love the colours of the yarn (shades of teal), and I am enjoying working on it.

Other knitting projects haven't got any attention since I picked up this shawl but that is ok because I can work on them after I get this shawl finished.

Other projects - I haven't done a lot of other projects and part of that is because I have been enjoying working on the shawl and my cross stitch.

I hope everyone is finding that bit of time each day to recharge your personal battery. It doesn't matter what you do but it is important that we all take that bit of time for ourselves and do something that we enjoy. This coming week I hope to be able to make some more progress on the shawl and on my cross stitch that I pick. Have a good week and I will be back next week to show you the progress that I have been able to make.

 

Two more page finishes and a new shawl start

Here it is the start of another week, and I have to admit that I am not sure where this last week has gone. I know that things that been busy around here so that might explain why I am not certain where the time as gone.

The weather is finally starting to improve which is nice, but I am still not going to say that winter is over yet because we could still get another storm. At least the sun is shining which makes both of us a little happier so that is what is most important.

This past week I have been able to spend some time crafting so that is also good. I am also happy with the progress that I have been able to make on things so that is also nice.

Mini The Forgotten - this is the project that came back out to get some attention in the last week and it was nice to have it back out. I do have it scheduled for at least one week a month when it hasn't been called for WIPGO. This month it once again got two weeks of attention, and I am happy about that because I have been able to make some good progress on it.

In the last week I was able to finish another two pages on this piece which means I now only have the top four pages to go, and I have already started to make progress on it which feels great.

Being able to spend at least a week at a time on this project is showing me that I can make some good progress on it when I can sit and focus on it. Now to see how much stitching I will be able to get done in April on it. I do know that it is coming out at least for one week as I want to make some good progress on at least one of the colours that I still have lots of stitches to do. For now, this project is going to be put down but I know that April isn't that far away so it will come out for more attention and hopefully quite a few more stitches.

Gradient Shawl - something that I realized in the last week was I wasn't happy with the knitting projects that was working on. Yes, I was moving them forward which was good, but they didn't encourage me to pick them up and work on them. This is when after a bit of a discussion with my hubby, he pointed out that I didn't have something fun to work on, so I needed that. Well, the next morning after pulling out a bunch of yarn I decided it was time to start another shawl and have some fun. This shawl is going to be a gradient shawl as I have 6 - 40-gram balls of yarn so I am going to work on this shawl until all the yarn is done. Right now, I am still working on the first ball of yarn, so I have no idea how large this is going to be, but of course, it is using a bunch of shades of teal,so I am happy with it. 

This coming week I hope to be able to at least get this first ball of yarn finished and start the next colour so that I can start to see what it is going to look like. Of course, this isn't going to be a project that I can pick up and work on for a few minutes at a time but at least I have the scarf in the round to work on when I have that time.

Other projects - this week I haven't picked up any of the other projects that I have on the go so now to figure out when I am going to pick up my English Paper Piecing as I would like to see some progress on it before the end of the month.

I everyone is finding that few minutes each day to do something that you enjoy. It doesn't matter what it is as long as you have those few minutes to relax and get your personal battery recharged. This week I am not certain how much time I will have to work on my projects, but I hope to spend a bit of time making progress on something. Will be back next week with hopefully some progress on my shawl and on a cross stitch project.