This and that

Baby hats in progress

The best way of explaining what I have been working on the last little while is a little bit of this and a little bit of that.

Triangle shawl with glitter

As you can see I have been having some fun knitting which is great.  Now to get a few of the knit projects finished.  I have been working on some baby hats so a friend can take them to a hospital in Sudbury for me.  A lot of my knitting of these hats has been while sitting on our balcony so I haven't felt like sewing hats together so I have been putting the finished hats onto a stitch holder so they are now waiting to be sewn together.  Of course sewing hats together don't take long to do but it just me in the right mood to actually sit and sew them together.

Now the second project that I have been working on is a triangle shawl in basic garter stitch.  I know that the picture isn't the best but it is rather difficult to take a picture of a shawl that is still on the needles. This is another project that I have been working on while sitting outside in the evenings and on the weekend.  I still have two balls of this yarn left so will see how big the shawl ends up.  Currently there is around 330 stitches on my needle so am thinking if I get to 400 stitches I will be happy and then it will be time to cast it off even if there is yarn left.

I am still working on granny squares for an afghan and that is coming along pretty good.  I think I have five more squares to make before I can put the afghan together.  The other issue with putting the afghan together is you have to have a day when it isn't hot and humid out.  I really don't want to be holding an afghan on my legs when it is 28C+ out so that will mean the afghan may have to wait for a while to be assembled.

So, yes I am still working on things it is just that I am working on a bunch of projects so am not really getting much completed right now.  I do want to get some of the items completed very soon because just seeing the hats on the stitch holder is starting to bother me so need to get them sewn up.

Well time now to go and work on something for a while.  Maybe I will work on a baby hat.

Siux finally seeing some time

Siux July 1st

As you can see I have finally started working on Siux again.  I haven't put a lot of time into her but at least I am finally seeing some progress on her again.

Last night I was at Stitch Night at Gitta's and decided that I was going to work on this project so that I could see how much I could get accomplished.  Sure I didn't get a lot done but at least it is something considering I haven't worked on her for a while.

Now besides Siux I have been working on the pieces for the animals as well as some baby hats and granny squares.  I have been trying to focus on a project but have to admit that the bouncing around on the various projects has helped.  Of course it means that I don't have a lot to show for progress but at least I am getting bits of projects done.

Siux July 10th

I am really hoping that through this month I will be able to make some more progress on Siux as I would like to see her completed.  I think if I can sit and work on her for a couple of hours at a time I will be happy because I will then start to see progress on her.  The other thing I have decided is I am going to work on an area at a time instead of a colour at a time.  See when I work on a colour at a time I don't feel like I am making a lot of progress because the colour is all over the piece.

So work is now calling so need to get some of that done and then I will see if there is some time to pick up Siux or another project tonight.

Mid year goal results

Yes it is July so I have decided to see where I am with my goals that I set on January 1st of this year.

2014 goals:
1. Blog at least 4 times a month – 5 out of 6 months blogged at least 4 times.
2. Complete 3 items for myself – finished a shawl for myself so far.
3. Get stash to below 360 pounds – will see what this like at the end of the year as so far not great.
4. Start Cirque des Cercles on Jan 1/14 and finish it by Dec 31/14 – working on it but will see if it is done by the end of the year.
5. Get some of my craft items up onto Etsy and see if they sell – decided I don't have the time or energy for this.
6. Complete 3 cross-stitch that I already have started – working on this
7. Spend more time writing both personally and professionally – writing more 

Considering I have been busy with work and dealing with some challenges I can say that I am pretty happy with my 2014 goals so far.  

The biggest one that is making me happy is spending more time writing both personally and professionally.  This has been a goal that I have wanted to achieve and it looks like this year is going to be a good year for that.

Picking up the pieces

Toy pieces

Yes, I have disappeared again and part of that is because of issues that I have been dealing with and crafting hasn't been part of what I have been doing.

I have slowly started to pick up the pieces and the best way to do that is by working on small pieces of craft items.  The project I am currently working on are a few more animals from the pattern that I picked up last month.  What you see in the pictures are the parts for a pig and some of the parts for a cat.  I know it looks like a mess but considering everything that is the best way to show things right now.

I decided that instead of sitting and knitting each piece and then assembling the animal as I go I would make the pieces all at once and then I will sit down later and sew them together.  Also it means that I can work on the pieces quickly as a lot of them aren't very big at all.  When I have wanted to knit I have enjoyed working on the pieces because I feel like I am getting somewhere.

What is amazing is over the last while I lost most of my interest in crafting and I have been slowly working on getting back to the things that I enjoy doing.  Cross-stitch, knitting and crocheting are things I normally love doing but lately they all have been a challenge.

One of the biggest challenges I have been dealing with lately is being criticized for my choices.  If it had been one person I could have dealt with it easily but it seems that so many people have said something about a project that I have been working on.  All of these criticisms have impacted me and I know that I shouldn't have let me but when that is basically all you hear and nothing positive from these people it gets a little much.  I have now decided that if these people don't like what I am doing that is too bad and I will do my projects the way I want to do them.

The pieces are slowly being picked up and I hope to get back to doing the things that I have loved doing.  My piece of advice to a lot of people is if you can't say anything nice, don't say anything.  Now I am going to go and craft for a while.

Bears

Bear - no face

Bear - finished

Now to explain what I have been up to lately is simple.  I have been having a little bit of fun with my knitting.

The bear that you see is something that I started last night and finished this afternoon while sitting on our balcony.  The pattern was very simple and I really enjoyed working on it.  I did most of the knitting last night except for the legs and today I sewed him all together.

Now, I have to admit that I kept laughing as I was working on him because even before his face was done I thought he had a personality.  He wasn't being very cooperative at some points so that is why his tummy is off center.

I bought this pattern book yesterday because I figured that I would eventually make a couple of the patterns out of it.  There are patterns for a pig, cat, duck, squirrel, dog, bear and something else.  All of the patterns are very quick to make up so I will probably be making some more of these later on.

This project was worked on when I was suppose to be working on an assignment for school.  Now I am going to go and work on the assignment and get it out of the way.

The bear is going to watch over me to ensure that I do the assignment instead of working on another craft project.

Dishcloths

One completed dishcloth

I have to admit that I really haven't been doing a lot of crafting lately and I hope that it changes now.

One project that I did over the weekend and finished yesterday was to sew the ends in on a bunch of dishcloths that I had made and left the ends to be tucked in.

After getting that pile done I found a part ball of handicrafter cotton so I sat down and worked on finishing up the ball of yarn.  This resulted in two more dishcloths being made yesterday.  The good news is the ball of yarn is finished and the ends are sewn in on the last two dishcloths.

The pile of dishcloths

Now the challenge is to find a home for all of these dishcloths because I do have more cotton around that can be used for the dishcloths.  This is a project that I like working on sometimes because the dishcloth doesn't really take long to complete and I have something to show for the time I have spent sitting.  At least right now I won't be working on any more dishcloths because the yarn is out of reach so maybe that is a good thing right now.

My cross-stitch projects have been sitting lately without a lot of work on them so hope to start working on them again really soon.  I have been trying to get a little more organized so that is why projects like the dishcloths are being done.  It is amazing what you can find almost done when you start organizing.

Time to get some work done so that this evening I can work on another craft project and see what I can accomplish.

Time to show

mystery stitching

 So I can finally show you what I have been working on for the last little while.  It has been a lot of fun working on both of these projects and last night there were given to someone.

The first one is a shawl that actually won't be given to the person it was made for until Friday but I can now show it as the person currently isn't on the internet too much.  Also I don't think this person reads my blog so that is also another reason why I can show it.

Shawl - completed

This shawl was a lot of fun to work on as I used fine yarn with sequins on it.  The final shawl is bigger than the pattern originally called for because I wanted it bigger.  The pattern was one that I got this spring at Knitter's Frolic so have now used one of the patterns from there.  The shawl has a button hole or loop made right into the shawl so that you can slide the other side of the shawl into it to keep it in place.

I hope that the person will enjoy it as I really enjoyed making it over the last month.

diagonal scarf - completed

Now the second item was received by the person last night and she was very excited when she got it.  I loved working on this scarf as it was simple garter stitch but increasing at one end of a row and decreasing at the other end made the scarf end up on a diagonal.  This project was quick to make up as the pattern said it would take 10 hours to do and I think I did it in just around 9 hours.  I have already started another scarf like this as I love how quick they work up and they are something that I can work on a bit at a time.  I also was able to get more of this yarn so have a couple of different scarves on the go right now.

I have also got back to working on my cross-stitch so that is making me feel good.  I hadn't really worked on any of those projects for almost a month so glad I was able to get back to working on them over the last couple of days.  Now to see how much of those I can get done over the next little while.  The update on the cross-stitch will be another post once I have something to really show.

Now it is time to get some work done so tonight I can spend relaxing and working on a project.