Made some more progress this week and a finish

It is hard to believe that another week has come and gone. I am sitting here and thinking what did I get done this week, but I know that there are quite a few things that I was able to accomplish which is good. I think a lot of us deal with those weeks that we aren't sure where the days went, but when we can sit back and think through everything, we can see what happened during the week.

Pandemic - here is the cross stitch project that got another week of attention and I am so very happy that it did. Besides adding quite a few stitches to the piece this last week, I was able to also say that I have completed two more pages on the pattern, so now we are sitting with just 5 more pages to go. It feels so good to be able to say that I have now less than 17,000 stitches to go on this piece and I hope to be able to continue to move it forward to get more of it completed before the end of this year. I might not get pages finished but I will be working on at least getting this piece a lot closer to a finish.

Something else that I have started to do this past couple of days is to try and work on adding some of the backstitch to the piece at the same time I am working on adding the full crosses to the piece. It means that I should be able to see a bit more detail added to the project when I am just stitching and moving the overall project forward. I know that there is still quite a bit of backstitch to go after I finish the piece because I haven't been doing a lot of it while I have working on the piece.

This piece is now going to go away for a couple of weeks as I would like to see if I can move a couple of other pieces forward a bit before the end of the year. There are still about 6 weeks left in the year so now to figure out what I will be working on during these weeks. I think I have it scheduled out but we will see what happens.

Little Meg Shawl - large version - here is the knitting project that has been getting quite a bit of attention this past week as I have been trying to get the shawl closer to a finish. As I said last week the rows do take quite a while to get completed so that means having to pick up this piece when I have some time to get even a row or two finished.

This week I tried to pick up the shawl every day and work on it as I wanted to see how close to the cast off edge I could get to before the end of the week. Well, with some hard work and determination I was able to get the shawl to the cast off edge yesterday. Now what I need to do is spend some time working on the cast off as it will be taking some time given there are 573 stitches on the needle.

It does feel good seeing that I have been able to get the shawl to the point that I should have it off the needles within the next couple of days. Once it is off the needles it will mean sewing in the ends and then blocking it so that it will be ready to wear before too long.

Now that this project will be finished soon it is time to figure out what the next project is going to be. I hope to be able to get that figured out quickly so that I can get the ball of yarn wand so that it is ready for when the needle becomes available. I will also need to figure out the yarn that I want to use for this next project and then I will be ready to go as soon as I can.

Toque - this week I decided that I needed to get this toque off the needles and finished so I finally did it yesterday. Maybe knowing that I wanted to show a finished item today helped me get it finished. It didn't take me long to get it done and now I have enough yarn left from making this toque to make another one so I am going to be looking to see what happen I will use this time.

Toques are a great project when you just want to have something smaller to work on especially when you only have a few minutes to pick up and work on something. I am going to be trying to have a toque on the needles through the winter because it will help me have something to donate next year as well as ensure that I am making progress on using some of the worsted weight yarn that I have acquired over the last few years.

Other projects - this past week I was able to get a few more motifs made for my Scrap throw but other than that I have been focusing on getting progress on both Pandemic and Little Meg Shawl. It has been nice trying to focus on the various projects because I now see progress on things instead of bouncing all over and not seeing much progress on anything.

I hope everyone has a good week and you are able to find those bits of time each day to do something that you enjoy. This week I will be trying to finish up the Little Meg Shawl and picking up a different cross stitch project to move it forward. Next week, I hope to be able to show you some progress on at least a couple of projects.


 

Made some progress in the last week

Here it is the start of another week and hopefully I will be able to spend some more time trying to move a couple of projects forward. The weather here has been cold and areas around us have been getting snow.

Pandemic - here is the project that came out this last week to get some attention. My first goal for this past week was to get a page finish, and I was able to achieve so we are getting closer to having this row of pages completed. There are still 2 pages to go, one is full size, and the other is only a partial page so we will see how quickly we can get these two pages completed.

Yesterday when I was working on it, I reached the 75% completed mark and that makes me feel very good however there is still over 19,000 stitches left to go so we will see how things go. I will be working on Pandemic again this week so hopefully I can get closer to having the last two pages of this row completed and then it will mean I just have the top row of pages to do. I am so looking forward to getting this project finished but I do know it is still a going to take a while to get it done.

Little Meg Shawl - large version - here is the knitting project that has been getting my attention over the last week. The rows are continuing to get longer, and it takes longer to even see any progress on this shawl. There are still almost 30 rows to go on this piece so hopefully I can focus on moving it forward again this week so that I can finally see it finished.

I am finding that this project has been taking me a while to get completed and not certain why that is. I know it did sit for a while without a lot of attention and that probably hasn't helped. Now to see if I can at least get this shawl finished so that I can start something new and hopefully it won't take as long to finish as this shawl.

This week I hope to be able to make more progress on this shawl, and I am going to try and get at least two rows completed a day because that helps me move it along. The ball of yarn is slowly getting smaller, but it still is rather large. This yarn was over 200 grams so instead of using two balls this was just one ball of yarn and maybe that is also what seems to be making this project feel like it isn't getting very far.

Toque - well this project didn't get a lot of attention this past week but at least I was able to finish knitting the rows and the decrease. All that is left to do on this project is to get it off the needles and sew it up. Hopefully early this week I can get this toque finished up and then I will see what toque I will work on next.

I am in no rush to get the toques made so they will be going to charity once I find a place that would like to have them. There is one yarn shop that collects items but they only do it in October, so I have lots of time to make some more items to have them ready for next year.

Other projects - I haven't work on any other projects in the last week as I have been trying to focus on both the shawl to get it finished and Pandemic to get it closer to a finish.

I hope everyone is finding that bit of time to do something that you enjoy doing each day. Make sure that you take some time to recharge your personal battery because if you don't, it will be hard to be there for those around you.

Have a good week and I hope to have some more progress to share with you next week.

More progress on projects

Here it is the start of another week and looking out the window, I would say it was either late December or January not early November. I think someone is playing a very mean joke on us we had our first snowfall yesterday and not certain how much we got but I head somewhere between 2 and 4 inches (5 and 10 cm). For November and us that is a lot of snow and it's the most snowfall ever for the 9th of November.

Unleash the Butterflies - here is the project that got some attention over the last week. It was nice to see that I could move this project again and I am slowing starting to see the piece come to life.

This past week I decided that I would work on the colour that had the most number of stitches left to go so that was black. When I started the week, I had 8,742 black stitches to go on this entire piece and at the end of the week I now have 6,830 black stitches remaining. I was able to move black from the highest number of stitches remaining to 4th highest number of stitches left. It feels good being able to move this piece forward like I have been able to do.

Next time I pick up Unleash the Butterflies I may pick up the new colour with the highest number of stitches left and see how that goes. Seeing this piece start to come to like makes me very happy. It is now going to be going away until December, but we will see what I can get done then on it.

Little Meg Shawl - large version - this week I was able to make a bit more progress on this shawl. It takes quite a while to get a row done so that means that I don't get lots of rows completed each time I pick this project up. I am trying to get it finished before too long, so I have decided that I am going to try and get at least a couple of rows done each time I work on it.

A couple of rows doesn't seem like a lot of progress but this week I have started to see some the shawl continue to grow which is good. Being able to spend some time working on this shawl a bit at a time is starting to pay off. For a while I was having a challenge picking up this piece but now, I am starting to see progress on it again.

Of course, as I am working on this project, I am also trying to figure out what the next project is going to be. I haven't decided the next project yet as I want to ensure that I can get this one completed before I really focus on figuring out the next project. The next shawl that I work on isn't going to be as large as this one so that I can see progress on it a little faster. 

Toque - here is the other knitting project that I have been working on a bit at a time. It feels good seeing that I have been able to make more progress on this as well. I had hoped to get more of this done this past week but there is no schedule for when this needs to get done which is good. Hopefully this week it will get a little bit of attention as I would like to see if I can get this one off the needles and another toque cast on. 

Knitting toques or mittens is a great way to use up the odd balls of yarn that you have. I am someone that does have quite a few odd balls of yarn so working on toques is helping me use some of these balls up. I am not certain how many toques I will knit over the winter months but at least I will have some to donate by the end of the winter which is good.

Other projects - I haven't worked on any other projects this past month and part of that is I have been trying to focus on keeping the number of projects on the go down so I don't feel overwhelmed. This coming week I might try and work on my English Paper Piecing a little bit, but we will see how things go.

I hope everyone continues to find that little bit of time to do something that you enjoy doing. Being able to continue to get little bit of progress on something each days makes me happy. I might not have lots of time to do anything but even those few minutes moves something forward.

This coming week I hope to be able to make some more progress on things and there is going to be a different cross stitch project that will get some attention. I am looking forward to this next project so we will see how much time I have to work on it. 

Hope everyone has a good week and I hope to have some more progress to show you next week.

 

Moving projects forward again

It is hard to believe that another week has come and gone. I know that we have been busy so that might be one of the reasons why this week seems to have gone by so quickly. Hopefully this coming week I will be able to find some time to do some more crafting as I know that looking at the planner, the beginning of the week has quite a few things that need my attention. We will see how things go and hopefully there will be some more progress to show next week. 

Of course, I am going to be trying to at least move my projects forward a bit again this week so we will see what happens. I do know that seeing even bits of progress on the projects makes me feel good, so that is once again the goal for this coming week.

Silver Anniversary - here is the project that got the attention this week. I wanted to see if I could continue to move it forward and I think I was able to accomplish that. I decided to try and work on filling in a section, and I made some progress on it.

My goal this past week was to try and at least get the diamonds completed in one section of the piece and I got that accomplished and then it was to start filling in all the little triangles that needed to be completed. I got all of the diamonds completed and some of the triangles done but there is still a ways to go before this section is totally filled in. I figured trying to focus on a section instead of bouncing all over like I have been doing might be a good idea.

This project will now go away until closer to the end of November when I will pull it out again. Giving this project one week a month has meant that I have been able to see some good progress on it without getting tired of working on it.

Toque - this week I made a bit of progress on the toque that I have been working on. I need to get this to 10 inches before I do the decrease so that means that I still have a bit more knitting to go. It has been nice to have a project that doesn't have lot of stitches on the needle.

We will see how much of this project I can get accomplished this coming week. I would like to be able to get this project completed as there is still a lot of worsted weight yarn that needs some attention. Being able to spend some time working on toques has been nice as they are something that is very easy to piece up and work on.

I am going to look at the different toque patterns that I have so that I don't end up working on the same pattern all the time. Hopefully by the time I have done these hats I will have a variety of styles.

Little Meg Shawl - large version - here is the other knitting project that I have been working on. It doesn't look like I did a lot but there were quite a few rows added to this project. I am now at almost 400 stitches on the needle so that means it takes quite a bit of time to even get a couple of rows completed. 

I know that this shawl is going to take a bit longer to complete as I need to reach around 580 stitches on the needle before it is completed. I am enjoying working on the shawl, but it does take quite a while to do so not a shawl that I am going to be making again for a while.

I am of course thinking about the next shawl project that I would like to do so that means figuring out the yarn and the pattern that will be the next one. The next project will be a bit of time before it gets started but at least figuring out the next one would be nice.

Other projects - I did pick up and work on a crocheted afghan that I have been working on a while. I didn't take a picture of it as I only got a bit of a round completed. Maybe this week I will see if I can spend a bit more time working on it. I don't crochet as much any longer as it has bothered my wrists.

I hope everyone is finding that bit of time each day to do something that you enjoy doing. For me, I know that even spending 15 minutes doing something that I enjoy helps a lot. Now to see what I can get accomplished this week as I know that I have quite a few things on my plate that I need to get done. Have a good week and hope to have some progress to show you next week.

 

Another week and some good progress

Here it is the start of another week, and I can say that I am happy with the progress that I was able to make last week on a couple of my projects. Of course, things again were a little different so didn’t get the focus that I wanted on things but at least I was able to get things done.

Pandemic - here is the project that got the most attention again this last week. I wanted to see if I could move it forward a bit more.

It was nice to be able to work on this piece for a bit longer and see that it is getting closer to a finish. I still have over 22,000 stitches to go on the piece, so a finish isn’t going to happen in the next little while. This project is going to go away for a couple of weeks as there are other projects that I would like to try and move forward a little bit, so we will see how that goes.

Junos Garden – here is the piece that I picked up after working on Pandemic as I wanted to see if I could at least move this one forward a little bit. As this is also a monochrome project it does move forward quickly as you aren't changing colours. It has been nice to see this project come back out even if it was only for a day. 

This piece has been a lot of fun to work on because there are different sections that are part of the entire design so that means that I can work on a different area if I want to and that makes it such a nice project to work on. Given I only had a day to work on this piece I decided to work on getting more of the border around the centre of the design completed so now when I pick it up I can either continue to work on the middle section or I can finish this part of the border and then out to work on some of the other areas. 

This piece is going to be a project that I pick up every now and again as I don't have a deadline on it and it is just a fun piece to move forward even a little bit at a time. 

Toque - this week I decided that instead of working on my shawl I would start to knit a toque for a change. I didn't get a lot of it completed but at least I got it started and that is what I wanted to do. I have decided that I would like to try and make a few toques to use up some of the worsted weight yarn that I have. We will see how that goes and how many toques I end up making.

Hopefully through the winter months I will be able to sit and work on toques some of the time so that I will end up with some toques that I can donate to a place that needs them.

Other projects - I was able to spend some time working on my English Paper Piecing this past week, which was nice. I hadn't picked it up much lately so being able to see the progress on it that I did was nice. I will post about that on the 1st of November.

I hope everyone has had a good week and you have found time to do something that you enjoy doing. Making sure we take a bit of time for ourselves and recharge our personal battery. If things go well, I hope to have some progress to show you next week on a couple of projects. I haven't decided what will get the attention this week yet so we will see what gets moved forward.

Some progress and a new start

Here it is the start of another week, and I was able to spend some time working on the various projects that I had on the go. I also decided that I wanted to knit a shawl for myself so that was the start for this week. It felt good to see some progress on a few things this last week, but of course there were other things that took my time, so I didn't get to spend as much time as I had hoped working on the projects that I had on the go.  Now to see what this week is like as I would like to see if I can make some progress on some of these projects.

Star Touched Meadows Stitch Along - December - well this project didn't get much attention at all this past week which doesn't help me get it finished. Hopefully now that I have done some of the other things, I might be able to move this forward. I would like to see if I can spend some time working on getting this section done so that I don't end up too far behind in the overall stitch along. I am now thinking that I will just work on these pieces as I can, and they will get done as quickly as I can do them. 

Magic of Books - here is the next project that got some attention, and this is one of the projects that I am trying to move forward a bit each month. I hope that each month I can pick this project up and get a bit of stitching done on it. Of course, I am still working in the black section, and it is going to take a while to get through it. I am trying to vary how I stitch in that section just so I can see progress on it.

Now that I have added the stitches for this month it will go away until hopefully next month when I can pick it up and work on it again. I am looking forward to seeing if through this year I can get that entire black section finished.

Beach Haven Shawl - here is a new project that I started on Saturday. This is a shawl that I would like to have finished by the middle of March so that means that I am going to have to focus some of my knitting time on doing just that. It did feel good seeing some good progress on it on Saturday so now to see how it goes this week.

Toque - I finally picked up and worked on the toque that I had started and have made some progress on it.  Hopefully I can continue to move this project forward as well even a bit each week. I do know that the shawl is going to be a focus for a little while.

Other projects - after working on all these projects in the last week I didn't work on anything else but that is fine with me. I have been trying to get some work done as well so that means when I have the time to craft, I am picking up a project that I want to see some progress on.

I hope everyone is finding that bit of time each day to take time for themselves and do something that you enjoy doing. I know for me even if it's just the few minutes of knitting that I try and do each day it is something and it does help a lot. This week, I would like to see some progress on my cross stitch as well as my shawl so will see what happens. Until next week have a good week and remember to find that bit of time for yourself each day.

A finish and a bit of progress

Here it is the start of another week. I hope if you are in an area like we are where it is very cold that you are staying warm. This morning the temperature at 8:30 am was 10F (feeling like -8F) or -12C (feeling like -22C). Yes, it is very cold out and I am thankful that we can work from home most of the time. I do feel sorry for anyone having to wait for transit or walk a distance in this weather.

Edna Verenia Nichol - 1884 - here is the piece that got almost all  the attention this week. I have enjoyed working on this piece and as always, I love working on a red sampler.

My goal for this project was to have it finished by the end of the month and I am happy to say that I was able to get it finished by the 13th of the month. Once I was able to sit and focus on this project it moved forward at a good rate.

By Friday, I knew that I was getting close to a finish so between Friday and Saturday I focused on moving this project to a finish and am very happy with the overall sampler. I love being able to work on monochromatic piece because you don't have to think about changing thread colours and all you have to think about is just stitching.  Now that this piece is finished it's time to turn my focus onto some other projects.

Star Touched Meadows Stitch Along - December - after finishing Edna it was time to pull this project back out and see if I can make a bit of progress on it.  As you can see, I was able to add a few stitches to this project, but I didn't get much done.

This project might have got an hour of attention on Sunday, but at least it was moved forward again which is what I have wanted to do. This coming week I hope to be able to make some more progress on it as it would be nice to start to see the lower area of the design completed. I am not planning on leaving all the white stitches to the end this time so I am hoping that I can at least work on small areas of white at a time.

This is now going to be the focus piece for a little while as I would like to see if I can get December finished quickly and maybe even get a start on January before the end of the month. I think the progress will also depend on other things that are going on so will just have to wait and see what happens.

Something else that I have been thinking about is trying to have some small quick projects that I can work on when I need a break from my bigger pieces. I am not someone that enjoys doing all small projects so just having some that I can work on sometimes might be nice. Now to just figure out what the projects are going to be so that I can figure out if that will work.

Toque - here is the knitting project that I was able to work on one day this week. I didn't even take a new picture of the toque because I ended up only adding around 4 - 6 rows on the piece so there isn't much of a difference.

Other projects - I didn't work on any other projects this week but am thinking that some of them might come back out now that I have finished my first cross stitch for the year. Edna Nichol was my focus as I wanted to get it completed and now that it is done maybe I will spend some time working on some of the other ideas that I have.

I hope everyone is finding that bit of time for yourself each day. It doesn't matter what you do as long as you take that bit of time to do something that you enjoy doing.  I am not certain what I will be working on this week but hopefully next week I will have something to show you.

If it is cold where you are please, try and stay warm and safe. I hope to see everyone next week with a bit of progress on something.

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.

Progress again

Here it is the start of another week and this time it is also a start of another year. Where did 2023 go? I know for me it has been a busy year and now to see what 2024 has in store for all of us.

This last week was so different than expected but at least I was able to find some time to craft and do the things that I enjoy doing. Sure, I didn't get as much done as I would have liked but at least I was able to move some projects forward which is what I needed to do. Now to see what I can get done in the next while as I would like to get more stuff done.

Star Touched Meadows - December - I was able to pick up and work on this piece for a while this week and made some more progress on it. It feels good seeing that I have been able to make some progress.

Of course, I am now a month behind again because the January section has been released, but that doesn't bother me because I am going to be stitching this at my pace. This time I would like to get some of the white stitched while working on the entire design instead of leaving it all to the end like I did for November. I think adding the white as I go would be good, so I am going to be starting that very soon.

This piece is a lot of fun to work on and you can see progress on it fairly quickly even when you don't stitch much on it at a time. I do know that this piece is going to be taking a bit of break as it is the new year and I have a new start ready to go.

I am going to continue to work on this a bit at a time as I would also like to see this month done and then see how I do with the rest of the months.

Toque - last week I decided to start working on a toque using the same ball of yarn that I was using for the scarf. This means that the scarf is being knit from the inside of the ball and the toque is being knit from the outside. It does make it a little harder to work on the toque but I have made some good progress on it so that is good. Now to see how quickly I can get this toque done.

Other projects - I have picked up my English paper piecing a little bit so you will see that when I write that blog. It has been a busy week overall so now to start the new year feeling good about what I have been able to accomplish in the last year. 

I hope everyone took a bit of time for themselves over this last week. It is now the start of a new year and let's hope that this year is good to everyone. Hope you have a good week and hopefully I will have some progress to show you next week.