November Check In

The other day I was cooking dinner and the Smidget, who is now two years old, decided to dig into the pantry and help, toting a variety of food over to the counter so I could assemble some

...banana tacos topped with mayonnaise and decaf coffee. Yum.

Alright, time for a Project Report.

 Autumn Lilliana has grown by a few more rounds.

The Castle as well has been advanced. I don't think I'm going to finish the Castle before year's end like I had hoped but I'm very happy with how much I was able to get done.

And I pulled out the very first HAED I ever started and did a ton of work on it. This  I don't remember if I've gushed about a new program called Pattern Keeper yet. It's currently in Beta and is Android only, but you can follow a tutorial to get it installed on a Kindle if you need to, which is what I did. It's a PDF cross-stitcher's dream. I've barely tapped into all the things it can do, but it makes working with PDF patterns so easy.

As a caution, it currently only works with some of the major pattern publishers, although the developer is working hard to add more. But if you've been  struggling, using ezPDF or a similar program to do your PDF based stitching, give this program a try. It's free for the first two weeks and there are tutorials on YouTube.

I've also done a fair bit on my Lord of the Rings Wreath.

And though I don't have a picture of it, Gnome Pheonix has made it to part 9. Only about 25 more rounds to go before I finish.

Thankgiving is coming up and with it, an insane holiday season. I hope you're all ready!

School is Getting in the Way

 Pic Dump!

I'm taking classes again so there is minimal time for any sort of crafty endeavor and pretty much no time for things like blogging. But really quickly...

Gnome Phoenix through round 80-something.

Add caption

 Lord of the Rings Wreath with a few of the half stitches filled in.

 

Autumn-themed Lilllana, which sat abandoned until today when I could master Round 20 without interruption.

 

Happy stitching all, whether it be cross-stitch, crochet, quilting, or the textile art of your choice. 

October Update

About two weeks ago, I acquired two inexpensive small parts hardware drawers from Walmart. After a couple of evenings work, I have deconstructed the majority of my cross-stitch projects into these drawers. Each drawer holds four different colors of DMC floss. They're all labeled and there is one skein for each number.

I don't have a complete set, but I worked off a DMC master floss list so I do have spaces for the colors I don't yet have.

The reason I went to all this trouble is because I felt like I was spending more and more time sorting through piles of floss to find the color I needed. Now I can easily find it for any one of my projects. This also makes starting new projects easier, because I no longer have to pop out to Joann's and drop $40 on floss every time. I will work from one skein of each color until it's gone and then replace just that skein.

All the duplicate floss colors were sorted by number into ziploc bags and stored in my drawer organizer. Projects that are silhouettes or that are using specialty floss were kept together.

Then I took an entire evening and completely cleaned out and sorted my craft closet.

I even managed to clear about 60% of the floor AND I was able to sweep, so win-win. The organizers are stacked on wood boards so they won't collapse the ones below them, and everything is labeled.

I totally found a ton of projects that I had forgotten about and that I'm dying to finish

The new floss system allowed me to make some amazing progress on my LOTR wreath.

And earlier in the month I put some dedicated time into the Castle Sampler.

I've also been making more purple hats here and there....

...making good progress on my Gnome Phoenix...

... and started a Liliana by Hooked on Sunshine. I'm attempting to make it in autumnal colors, which is a bit of a stretch for me and I'm not sure I like it yet but I'm going to keep going.

And that's about it, other than I'm starting accounting classes in 11 days and we're going to attempt to take the Smidget away overnight later this month which will be an adventure. Please leave me a link to your blog in the comments and I'll be sure to pop over and say hi!

One Ring

It's not officially fall but the weather turned the last week of August. We've had much cooler weather and even a couple of days of rain. I'm grateful that we're in Michigan, because at least we don't need to worry about getting hit with a category five hurricane this week. My Facebook feed is flooded back to school photos, so you know summer is over for sure.

I took advantage of the drive out to the in-laws for a Labor Day BBQ to finish up a couple more hats. They're all different sizes because I was experimenting with adding and subtracting rows in order to get the required size and I think I've finally got it figured out. So far my group has made almost 40 of these hats! I'm going to wait until I have several more done and weave all the ends in at the same time, probably during a movie night.

My stitchy bug abandoned me recently and I couldn't resist a new start to bring it back online. Pattern and fabric were in stash, so I honestly already consider this a WIP. It's how I sleep at night. The pattern is Lord of the Rings Wreath by Mandarinks Design on Etsy, fabric is Picture this Plus in 18 count Mystic.

A word of caution about patterns from Mandarinks: they have the same symbols for half cross and full cross, but you get two patterns. One with just full cross and one with half cross and back stitching included.

Happy Stitching All!

Purple Hats for ClickforBabies.org

Click for Babies is an organization that distributes purple hats to hospitals. These hats are then given to parents of newborns, to remind them that the colicky crying that may persist for several hours a day is perfectly normal and will end. This is called the Period of PURPLE Crying.

For more information on the Period of PURPLE Crying, please read the information on this website:

What is the Period of PURPLE Crying?

The goal of this charity is to reduce the number of serious injuries and deaths from shaken baby by supporting and educating parents.

This charity was brought to my attention by a friend who is running my LOTR stitchy group on Facebook. For the duration of September, we're attempting to make as many purple hats as possible to send to Click for Babies. Several dozen have already been made for donation by those intrepid knitters and crocheters who started a week or two ago.

Today, I threw in with them, taking advantage of the weekend to pop out for a coffee with pattern and yarn in hand.

Click for Babies has an excellent list of parameters for making hats. They can be found here: Crafting Guidelines for Purple Hats.

If you are interested if sending hats to Click for Babies, I used the Parker Hat pattern by Sewrella in the 0-3 months size, with Red Heart Baby Hugs yarn and a 6 mm hook. It came out to almost exactly 14" in circumference, with 5" from dome to edge, so I will be adding another round or two to the end to meet the 6" requirement.

A couple of things to note is that the hats MUST be soft and need to include either gender-neutral or both girl- and boy-friendly colors and styles. I'll be doing several with green, yellow, or blue brims.

This is a charity that speaks to my heart,  as my husband frequently handles cases where infants under a year old have been killed by chronic abuse or shaking. A common "defense" is the complaint that the baby would not stop crying. Please consider taking some time to make and send a few hats.

When I started the year, I had about a third of The Castle to complete. 

I've really put some effort in and I've only a little tiny bit to finish. I'm really hoping to keep chugging away at it and finish it before the end of the year. It's still so hard to work on because of All. The. Blended. Colors. Yeesh.

My plan is not to put this one away until it's complete. Here's hoping.

I'm also working on my Phoenix still. The fourth yarn cake did everything from the green to the yellow and the blue is the start of the fifth cake. 2400 yards down, 3600 to go.

 I also started an afghan from 100 Afghans to Knit and Crochet. This is using the purple Vanna's yarn that I purchased to make a cable afghan. And then I discovered that I don't like making cable-ghans and so the yarn has been repurposed. The purple rows are supposed to be all puff stitches. I didn't want to do the 106 puff stitches per row so I substituted a dc3tog and it is working out perfectly.

The variegated yarn is Red Heart Super Saver in "Artist Print."


Happy Stitching all.

Gnome Phoenix Continued

59 rounds done of 108, approximately 2000 yards of yarn. According to yarn usage estimates this project is 1/3 complete. I've used 3 cakes and then a good chunk of a fourth.

The Evolution of the Gnome Phoenix

Greetings again crafters, I have been spending the last couple of weeks obsessing over the Phoenix CAL. If you haven't downloaded it yet, the last part is released this Friday, after which it will become a paid pattern. Look up Hooked on Sunshine to find the pattern.

I made it all the way through my second cake of Mandala in Gnome and have made a decent start on the third cake to finish the ex-puff row. I believe I'm up to row 47, but I'll have to check my pattern to be certain.

My other focus project is my Slytherin crest, which is coming along quite nicely.

I'm hoping to make it back into my sewing room this upcoming week, as the grandparents will be picking up the Smidget for a day and there are several sewing projects that I'd like to see completed. I still haven't finished my Amethyst bag and I have several quilts in various stages of incompletion that could use some TLC.

Stitching to Mordor

Greetings all my fellow crafty people. I took a long hiatus from writing due to a plethora of Real Life things that needed attention and a couple Fake Life things that brought me down quite a ways. Something had to give and unfortunately, it was my blogging. My stitchy bug has been on vacation, due mostly I think to how an activity that I was enjoying so much was decimated by a few vindictive individuals.

Back at the end of April, the Harry Potter group imploded. This was for a lot of reasons, and I did my best to stay out of it, but I was hit with backlash due to being in Slytherin House and being an active contributing member. I ended up leaving the group entirely. Some of us followed one of our fearless leaders to a new Facebook Group that is called The Stitchy Quest to Destroy the One Ring. We are reading the Hobbit and the Lord of the Rings and participating in a series of events that relate. It's a cooperative rather than a competitive setup, and I think that will prevent a similar disaster from striking. I haven't done any of the short term events yet but I'm still tracking my stitches for the Stitching to Mordor event. 

For Stitching to Mordor, we have a spreadsheet that describes each leg of the Journey for all the Lord of the Rings Books and we've set it to 20 stitches per mile. Which would mean that once I complete the whole things, in say 5 or 6 years, I'll have stitched over 150,000 stitches. Which is a pretty cool way to track things. I'm still on my way along the first leg of the journey, trying to get my reluctant hobbit behind to Rivendell. 

So here's my Slytherin House Crest, which has been my primary stitching project. As someone who has identified as Gryffindor for most of my life, I'm now a Slytherclaw, so the Ravenclaw crest will be next.

One of the cooler things about the LOTR group is that there's also a bunch of yarn artists and we are collaborating to crochet and knit our way to Mordor as well. It's a running total for group effort, so I'm just reporting yardage when I finish a skein and it's added to the group total. I'd like to introduce you to my Phoenix CAL by Hooked on Sunshine. This a free CAL until the last part is released in a couple of weeks, so head over to Hooked on Sunshine and grab it while it's free - and don't forget to download the final parts when they're released, before it becomes paid.

I'm using Lion Brand Mandala in Gnome for this project. I think I have 10 cakes so I'm hoping to get the whole thing done with what I have on hand.

In other news, Ragnarok has come and gone this year and brought with it a huge number of sewing projects. I actually managed quite a bit, most of which I didn't take pictures of, but this dress was the crowning achievement and it took four tries before I finally got it finished. It was a wedding present for a friend who was married in May.

That's about it for me these days. I hope to blog a little more often, if only because I like having a record of what I've been up to. Happy stitching all!

Harry Potter QAL

Okay, I don't know how I missed this one but somehow I did.

Lorna at Sew Fresh Quilts is hosting a FREE Harry Potter QAL this year. It started on January 15.

HP-QAL-2019 by Sew Fresh Quilts (photo used with permission)

While I'm not able to take on such a project at this time, I am saving the information for later stitchy goodness.

I do personally have a couple of sewing projects that I've been putting off as they fall into the category of "have to" instead of "want to" but the deadline is fast approaching and I need to get them done. I plan to spend a lot of time the next couple of weeks in my sewing room in the hopes of just burning through them lickety-split.

And because it would be a shame to not share my most recent photo of a crafty project, here is my progress on Small Cuppa by Charting Creations.

Happy stitching!

Amethyst Project Bag Completion

After TWO YEARS of working on this on and off, I finally finished the gosh darn thing! Meet the Amethyst Project bag. Pattern by Sew Sweetness.

I'm happy to announce that I actually finished two of the three that I was working on and they have been transferred to the person for which they were intended. I did not think to get a photo of the second one before passing it along. I only have one more to go. This one is for me and it should only take me a couple of dedicated hours to complete. 

Is Spring Here Yet?

Happy Daylight Saving Time all and if you are as cranky as I am about it, check and see if your state legislature has a bill pending to remove the twice-yearly time change. Mine does - it seems like we get this going on every year and we've yet to have one pass - which means its probably time to send some nastygrams to the Capitol Building and demand that they pass it this time around. 

In case you're wondering what your hours of daylight would look like without DST, here's a really interesting article on the topic: Here's How Daylight Saving Time Affects Your Part of the Country by Michele Debczak

I personally would have happily done away with it years ago, but now that I've got a toddler who already doesn't sleep well, I'm even more militant about the need to abolish such an archaic and hazardous practice. For example, did you know that the number of car accidents skyrockets in the week following a time change?

Okay, give me a second to put my soapbox away... hang on...

Alrighty. On to the more interesting topics. For your viewing please, Tiger Chilling Out. This is an older picture but one that I hadn't remembered to share before now (I think). I'll be pulling this one out for this week's homework on my School of Magical Stitches SAL. The task is was to stitch on something with claws, because Buckbeak has claws. I'm hoping to polish off the tiger and make some headway on the half-stitches in the water this week.

The other half of the homework was to stitch something in brown, for the chocolate used to help heal from Dementor attacks, so I was able to actually start Hogwarts in a Bottle and I got quite a lot done! 

I am however, excited to hopefully fill on some of the other colors later this week so that it actually starts looking like something other than brown blobs.

Its been a month of "New Starts" as I was also able to tie the Camelot Sample into last week's homework and make a decent start on it. I wish I could show you the thread list for this (I won't, because of copyright). The colors and blends take up 1.5 three-column pages. It's a doozy and it doesn't look like much now but I think it'll be stunning once I fill it in a bit.

 I'd love to drop by your blog or Instagram and say hi, so please leave me a link in the comments if you are so inclined.

It's March!

Well, I've gotten back into a little crafting this week. We've been fighting a round of the stomach flu last week and any of you who've had a toddler with the stomach flu can imagine how miserable things have been. The Smidget is feeling pretty good again now and up to his usual pesty shenanigans, so as long as I don't catch it, I think we're good to go. 

I had a new start: The Triumphant Ride by Charting Creations. I'm stitching this 2 over 1 tent on 32 count. I'm not thrilled with the look of the sparser areas but I think the solid stitching is coming along very nicely. We've already had one section that I've exerted creative license on because its mostly impossible to frog on 32 count. I won't point it out and y'all pretend that you can't see it ;)

My newest crafty acquisition is my TARDIS mug. IT HOLDS HALF A POT OF COFFEE (30oz) and was a Christmas present from my niece. It is really super cool awesome, I love it, and I'm downing more coffee than ever...*twitch* Regular sized mug for scale.

I've made a start on Ultraviolet of Change by Frank O'Randle. You can find his pattern on Ravelry. Ultraviolet of Change is a paid pattern but there are several free ones available if you want to give them a try. I'd also recommend joining his Facebook group, as he's available to answer any questions you have about the patterns. I'm not going to have quite enough colored yarn for it so I think I'm just going to convert a color section to black and it will work great.

I'm now halfway done with Mini Cuppa by Charting Creations. This is one of my easiest projects to work on, because its just one color and doesn't require a lot of concentration. It is coming out wonderfully and I'm looking forward to actually finishing it at some point. 

Finally, with Easter coming up, I would like to remind you to stock up on those Cadbury eggs. I wish I knew who to credit this meme too but I'm afraid I couldn't find the original author.

We Have A Finish!

First off, an apology. At least one person has contacted me about the Harry Potter Stitch-And-Read-Along that I'm participated in and I'm afraid I didn't get the message until nearly two weeks after it was sent. If you are interested it joining up, we would be more than thrilled to have you along. The Facebook group is School of Magical Stitches and Literature. Please read the FAQ in the files section (it's also linked in the announcements at the top of the group page), as it will tell you how to get sorted into your house and give you a basic idea of how our admins are running things. 

The best way to contact me is through the comment form at the bottom of each post. Those comments go directly to my email and I check that on a regular basis. Again, I'm sorry for the delay. 

A baby afghan finish! This is my Mini Joy's Journey Motif afghan. 

Every project has a story and this one is that I cannibalized yarn from another project for it. I thought I was going to have enough to make twelve motifs but I was wrong and had just enough for nine plus three round of hdc border.

And then honest-to-goodness, not two days after I finished off the border on this project and relegate it to the baby blanket pile, I was cleaning up my crafty room and I found the missing two skeins of yarn. Of course.

Those skeins will get donated to the Hat and Scarf stash.

In other news, my hand dyed floss for my Ink Circles project arrived. I'm actually very disappointed in the color of the floss. Its really nothing like what the picture on the website looked like. Its missing a significant depth of color and there is really no variation. Instead of a deep blue and deep green with a lot of blending, I have more pastel colors that don't overlap at all. It looks okay I guess, just not what I was really looking for. I'm a fair chunk of the way into the pattern but I'm considering tearing it out and just going with a solid color instead.

I'm 2 for 2 on the hand dyed floss disappointment. Next time I go hunting for hand dyed floss, I think I'll make my own. I looked it up and I'm pretty sure I can handle it as long as I can keep the toddler from "helping."

I also just finished a Moss Stitch scarf using Lion Brand Ferris Wheel in Morning Java. Nothing but happy's here! It came out fantastic, although a bit narrower than I had planned, so I'm actually going to make a second one. It would seem that the starting chain for the moss stitch pull in quite a lot once you get several rows done. I lost about a third of the width. Good to know!

We're about to get hit with a series of winter storm over the next ten days or so. Please everyone, stay safe on the roads if you must venture out. They're predicting high winds and power outages with this next one, I hope its not as bad as they are suggesting.