A finish and some new starts

Here it is the start of another week and yes we are still dealing with more and more cases of Covid-19 in Toronto.  It looks like some restaurants maybe able to start to reopen for in store eating but will have to see how that goes next week.  For us it doesn't make much of a difference as we continue to support our clients from home.

Blushing - now here is a project that got some love in the last week and I am very happy with the results.  I had been joking around earlier in October that I was going to get it finished by the end of the month but wasn't sure if that was really going to happen but it did.  On October 30th I was able to put the last few stitches in on the piece and am very happy with how it turned out.  I have ironed it yet so the picture still isn't  the best but at least it shows that it is finished and now to start working on some other projects.

Here are some details about this pattern:

Started June 12, 2020

Finished October 30, 2020

Number of stitches: 30,625

# of colours: 90

I really enjoyed this piece and can't wait to see it framed and hanging on one of the walls here at home.  

Of course once this was finished there was another challenge and that was what project I am going to work on. I have some projects that I am thinking about working on but as of right now I haven't decided on the project that I am going to focus on so maybe the next couple of months I will just have some fun and work on some different projects and let January 1st be when I start the next big project.

Moonstone - as I said I wasn't sure what I was going to work on after finishing Blushing so I picked up this smaller design.  Yes, it is full coverage but it is a lot smaller as it is only 81 stitches squares.  I decided that this piece I was going to work on some canvas that I had so I am stitching this on 23 count canvas and it is Moonstone by Carolyn Manning.  The pattern has 1 big piece and 4 smaller versions and I decided to work on one of the smaller versions.

Of course, this piece used a lot fewer colours so that means that I am enjoying working on the larger sections but also seeing some good progress on it quickly. I am not sure how much time this project will get as it will really depend on how it catches my attention and also what else I find that I want to work on.  The piece of projects that I am thinking of working on is a little large but I will see how it goes during the next couple of months.

Kentia Wrap - here is another project that I decided I wanted to work on this week after getting Blushing done. This is a slip stitch design that I saw someone else working on and decided that it looked like a lot of fun so I have picked it up and started working on it.  

I am working on this piece as well as working on the socks so that means that I have a lot of knitting that I also want to work on so now to see what really gets worked on over the next little while.

 

 I hope everyone continues to stay safe and you find the time each day to do something that you enjoy doing.  This week I will try and work on Moonstone a bit more and maybe see if I can get more of the wrap done as well but time will tell.  Please stay safe and hopefully next week I will have more things to show you or at least more progress on these projects.

 

An interesting week

Here it is Monday morning and I can actually say that I have been able to make some progress on a few things this week. We continue to deal with large number of Covid-19 cases in Ontario and even in Toronto.  The work continues to be remote most of the time which is good because it means that we can limit the exposure we have with others.

Blushing - here is a project that got some more attention in the last week and it looks like that there is an end in the near future for it.  I am loving how it is turning out and now just have three colours to finish adding to the piece.

Over the last week I tried to get some of the black filled in because there was so much that still needed to be done.  I am now down to the right side of the piece for the black and then two pinks that need to be added to the actual rose.

If things go well this week I am thinking that it might be finished before the end of next weekend.  I know that this will all depend on other demands on my time but at least I am going to try and see if I can get it done.

I have other projects that I am wanting to work on and they have been put aside until this project gets completed.  Now to figure out which project will get some attention once Blushing is finished.  I think I will leave that decision until after I can actually see this piece finished.

Socks - my socks did get some attention in the last week and the attention they got was different than in previous weeks.  One of the reasons that socks got different attention is because there was a two day conference that I was attending this last week. The conference was virtual this year so that meant that I was going to be sitting at my desk for two days watching various presentations.  It was nice to have socks that I could just pick up and work on the main section of them. 

The sock that I was working on before the conference got some attention but of course it still isn't finished.  My goal this week is to get that sock finished and then move these other two socks forward.

It was really nice having something that I could work on without looking at it while I watched the hours of presentations.  There were some presentations that I did take notes but a lot of the presentations were just ones that you sat and listened to them.

For us this is conference season so I am going to try and have socks ready for reach of them so that I can work on knitting the main sections while watching the various presentations.

ETSY - I don't normally talk about my shop (DLKsCrafts) here on my blog but this week I wanted to let everyone know that from October 22nd to December 31st we will be donating $1 from every grime guard sold to the Alzheimer's Society of Toronto.

I continue to work on some other projects but none of them have enough completed to show but maybe if I can find some time this week I might be able to move a couple of the other projects forward.

I hope everyone continues to stay safe and you find a bit of time each day to do something that you enjoy doing. If you are in an area that has lots of Covid-19 cases please take care of yourself and those around you.  It is now time for me to get some work done so hopefully later today I can work on Blushing and maybe next week have a finish.

 

Another week and a small finish

Here it is a Monday morning and I am happy to say that we continue to stay safe while dealing with Covid-19. Last weekend restaurants closed to in-store dining and now another area just north of Toronto has closed it's dining for 28 days.  It something that we all have to deal with and wearing masks and social distancing are things that we all have to continue to do.

Work is continuing as a remote job but for us that is a lot of how we were managing client work before.  Yes, we did have some site visits but for a lot of the normal work it can be done remotely so Covid-19 hasn't resulted in much of a change in where we work.

Blushing - yes I continued to work on this project last week and am getting closer to a finish.  I have been trying to work on areas of the rose as well as the background to see more of it moved forward. I haven't finished many more colours but at least I am slowly starting to see the rose get completed.  I would like to see if I can continue to make the progress that I have been making on this project as I have a couple of other projects that I would like to work on soon but I don't want to start them until this is completed.

This week I hope to be able to get some more stitching in on Roses and maybe even get closer to having it finished. I am currently at 88.8% completed so hopefully by the end of the week I will be over 90% done.

Socks - now here is the project that continues but also changes each week.  The tube socks that I have been knitting are so much fun.  I love watching how the yarn makes each sock just a little different.  

I finished the sock that I was working on last weekend and immediately had to start the next one for that pair.  I love how they are turning out and am looking forward to see more progress on this sock over this week.

I have found that socks work wonderfully when I am watching presentations because it means that I can focus on the presentation but also keep my hands busy (avoiding doing things on the computer).  Having the 8 inch circular need also helps as I find I can now knit these socks pretty quickly with that size needle.  Sure I have to use double pointed needles when I am doing the toe but that doesn't bother me.  I love these and am looking forward to seeing what the other colours of yarn are like.

Last week I got a wonderful delivery and that was another two pair of 8 inch circular needles so I guess you know what that means.  I now have more needles to make more socks so watch for more colours of socks to start to appear.

 

I am still working on a few other projects but nothing that is worth taking pictures of.  I hope that after this week I will have more things to show as it would be nice to continue to see other projects moved forward as well. 

Covid-19 has impacted a lot of things for everyone and conferences are sure different this year.  All of the various conferences that we went to are now virtual so instead of sitting with others we are sitting in front of our own computer attending these events. If you have attending any conferences this year you will know what I mean.

It is now time for me to get some of the work done that I need to do today. I hope everyone continues to stay safe and you also find a bit of time each day to do the things that you love.  Remember that we all need a bit of time to recharge our personal batteries so that we are able to help everyone else.

 

Progess and the 2nd make a pair

Here we are another week of some progress and another week of dealing with Covid-19 restrictions.  As I said last week I thought that we would be getting some more restrictions and they came. For us here in Toronto, restaurants are close to in restaurant dining, gyms, casinos, banquet halls and conference centers are closed. This new restriction is in place for 28 days so we will see how the numbers look after that.

Blushing - here is the project that got a lot of attention over the last week.  Having a long weekend because of Thanksgiving meant that I could spend some more time working on this piece.  It makes me very happy to see that I have got more of the actual rose completed and I have also been able to work on the background as well. 

It is amazing how much I can get done when I can sit for a couple of hours and just work on this piece.  Given all the restrictions including limited dinners to just those in your house it meant that I had more time to work on getting this piece moved forward over the weekend .  I have been completing colours and am now down to having 11 colours left to go on the entire project and a couple that should be finished soon.  

I am loving this project and have been enjoying seeing the change in the piece at the end of each week.  I am looking forward to seeing what this week is going to bring for stitching time.  I do have a few things that I need to do but I will continue to try and put at least one thread of floss into this project each day.

Socks - my socks have turned into the after dinner knitting, when I have a few minutes and not enough time to stitch and also just because I want to knit socks.  The second sock of the colour River got done on Tuesday of last week and that was while I was attending a virtual conference.  It is great being able to sit and work on something while watching a presentation.  I didn't need to take notes on the material so that really helped.

I am happy with how the two socks turned out and more so because when I started the first one I didn't really look to see where I was starting the yarn so it made it a bit of a challenge of where to start the second one to have the two socks look the same. I am happy with how they turned out and I know that I will enjoy wearing this pair of socks.

Of course, I knew that I was going to be finishing this sock early in the week so had the next colour that I wanted to knit decided. With this ball of yarn I ran into an issue even before I started knitting and that was I couldn't get the middle of the ball to come out.  After some fighting with it I handed it to my DH who tried and then decided it would be best to just wind the entire skein of yarn into a ball form the outside so that is what he did.

The sock once again has been knitting up fairly quickly and I have been enjoying seeing how this colour is turning out.  I know that I have just about finished this sock and should have it finished in the next day or two.  After this is it making sure that I immediately cast on the second sock of this yarn so that I can ensure that I always have two socks the same instead of a bunch of single socks.

Last week when we were out running some errands we stopped into Michaels so that I could pick up some more of this yarn as I want to make lots of socks.  I didn't get every colour that they had in sock but I now have multiple of some of the colours so now to work on knitting up all of these socks over the winter.

I haven't done a lot of other crafting lately but hopefully soon I will start to get back to doing some of the other things. We continue to stay safe and limit what we are doing outside of home.  Masks, hand sanitizing and washing hands are just part of the normal routine now.

It is now time for me to try and get some work done that is sitting here waiting for me to pick it up.  I hope everyone continues to stay safe and follow the restrictions that in place where you live.  It is also important to remember to try and do something even for a few minutes each day for yourself. The world is going to get better it's just taking a long time to get there.

Have a good week and hope you enjoy doing the things that you love doing.

Another week of progress

Here it is another week and now to see what I have been able to get done in the last week.  We are continuing to work remotely for our clients as the number of Covid-19 cases continues to climb here in Ontario.  The city hasn't closed places yet but I think it is just a matter of days before we hear of some either closures or limitations.  Restaurants are still allowed to serve in store but I think that is going to be changing soon as that we can get this virus under control again.

Blushing - this project did get quite a bit of attention this last week and part of that is because of how much I am enjoying working on it. It is so much fun to see the different sections of the rose appear as well as parts of the background.

I have been able to get the entire left side of the pattern completed now and am looking forward to seeing the rest of the design appear.  Over the weekend I decided it was time to figure out the outline of the rose so that I could start to add those stitches that there are only a small number of in the entire design.  A lot of these stitches are along the end of the rose so figured getting the outline completed would help me start to add in some of those stitches.

This week I hope to be able to add in some more colours to the rose as I am looking forward to seeing more of the detail.  It is now getting closer to the end but still have quite a bit of stitching to go before it is actually finished.  I know the finished size of it which is good and I know that before long I will start to see the end is getting close.

This has been the only cross stitch that I have worked on in the last couple of weeks and I am not sure what this week has in store.  I know that I have some work that needs my attention so that is first and then I hope to be able to continue to get a few stitches on this project every day. 

Socks - here is a project that gets a bit of attention some nights after dinner.  My pair of socks is getting closer to actually being a pair.  I haven't finished the length yet but it shouldn't take me much longer to knit this one sock.  The yarn is so nice to work with and I have been enjoying working on these. 

I know that I have enjoyed knitting this pair of socks as I have already decided on which colour yarn I will be using for the next pair and it is sitting waiting to be started as soon as this pair is off the circular needle.

Knitting socks it isn't a cost savings but knitting socks is for the enjoyment of making them.  I enjoy knitting these tube socks and I know that they fit me so that is why I am making them.  I love having a project that I can pick up and work on for even 5 or 10 minutes and not worry about finishing either a row or a pattern.

 

It is now time for me to get to work so that I can get everything done that needs my attention. If things go well I might be able to find some time to work on Blushing and my sock later today.

I hope everyone continues to find the bits of time each day to do the things that you love.  We may not get lots of time each day but even those few minutes can help us relax and recharge our personal batteries.  Have a good week and try and stay safe.

Progress, a finish and a new start

Here it is the start of another week and the sun is shining and that is a nice thing.  Yes, here in Ontario we are dealing with an increase of Covid-19 cases again so now to see what happens with everything regarding that.  We remain safe and continue to work as much as possible remotely.

Blushing - now here is a project that continues to keep me motivated in stitching.  I am loving seeing how each week the rose changes and the background continues to get filled in.  It still have a ways to go before it is complete but I have to admit that I continue to love this project. 

I continue to try and work on this a little bit each day and weekends are when I can get more time to stitch and therefore bigger areas can get completed. I still have quite a bit of confetti along the side of the rose to complete but I do that a little bit at a time as it makes it a little easier to do.  I am trying to focus on the top left page of the design instead of bouncing all over and that is helping some because now I am seeing larger areas completed instead of areas all over the entire piece.

Socks - now here is the finish as well as the new start. I started this pair of socks last weekend and this weekend I was able to start to knit the second sock in the pair.  Yes, I finished the first sock on Thursday and then immediately cast on for the second one of this pair. I knew if I didn't start the second sock quickly I might want to start another pair of a different colour instead.

I love how the first one turned out and am looking forward to seeing how quickly I can get the second sock knit. I did try and make sure that I have the colours very close to the same on both of the socks and considering how I started the first sock not thinking about the changes I am happy that the second sock is very close to the same set up as the first one.

I have other colours of this yarn waiting to be worked on but I know that I need to make sure that I work these socks in pairs instead of just working one sock of each colour and then try and make the second sock.  

I haven't done a lot of other crafts this week as I have been working on work and these two projects.  Now to see what this week has in store as I know that there are quite a few things that I need to get working on.  I know that work will keep my busy planning a couple of projects for clients and then of course there is the usual monthly work that needs to get completed as well.

I hope everyone has a good week and you continue to stay safe and you find a bit of time each day to do the things that you love.

Progress and a new start

Here it is Monday morning and I am going to try and show you what I have been working on in the last week.  Yes, Covid-19 cases have been increasing in Ontario, so that means things have changed a bit but at least we are staying safe and doing what is needed.  

Blushing - now here is the project that has got a lot of attention in the last week.  After getting the bottom section done I decided it was time to work on seeing if I could get to the top corner of the design.  After some work this week I was able to get to the top left corner and also get more of the designed moved forward.  I am happy with the progress that I was able to make this week and now to see what I can do over the next little while.

Blushing has been moving forward a little quicker than I thought it would go and maybe part of that is because of how much I have been enjoying working on this piece. It is nice having a bunch of colours to add to the overall design but it is also nice to have areas where there are large blocks of a single colour.  I hope to see more changed to this piece over the next week but will have to what and see how this week goes.

I am loving how the various colours are helping to outline the different parts of the rose.  Now to add more stitches into this piece over the next week to see the next sections.

Sock - I decided that while I was working on a bunch of things that I wanted to do, it was time to work on some fun projects. I decided it was time to start another sock.

The yarn that I am using for these socks is called Perfect Pair and it is by Loops and Thread.  It is an acrylic, bamboo and polyester blend and I have to admit that I am loving this yarn.  I picked up four different colours of yarn and immediately had to start one of the versions.  Of course, the first ball I picked was the one with the teal colours in it.  I am currently working on a tube sock on my 9-inch circular needles.  I started this sock on Sunday afternoon and by the time I put it down Sunday evening I had completed over 8 inches of the sock.  It is such a nice yarn to work on and I am happy that I got a few different colours to make.  

A lot of people have asked me how I can work on such a small circular needle but I really enjoy it.  I find that I can hold the needle and get a lot of knitting done quickly.  I know that a lot of people prefer using double-pointed needles when they knit socks but for me my little circular needle works great.  I will need to use double-pointed needles when I get to the toe of the sock but until then I will be using my circular needle. Here is a picture of me holder this circular needle and I don't find it difficult at all.

Other projects are getting bits of attention but really not a lot of attention.  I am trying to keep my focus on only a couple of projects at a time as it helps me feel like I am making progress on things.

I hope everyone has a good week and remember to try and spend a little bit of time each day doing something that you love.  I am now off to get some work done and then will see what I work on later.