Another Crochet Update!

 

 

 

 

I have been hooking away on the Ripple Blanket when the mood takes me and added the fourth colour over the weekend. I’ve got it all rolled up as it’s easier to handle like that at the moment. This is my progress so far.

 

 

 

Then…I caught the Mandala bug and just had to make one – they seem to be all over the place at the moment and I couldn’t resist the pretty colours. This one, called the Starflower Mandala, was designed by Zooty Owl and the pattern can be found here. I used Patons 100% Cotton DK yarn – the colours are lovely IRL.

 

I’ve dug out a WIP to work on now – a beaded scarf that I started a while back. Let’s see how long I last on it this time!

Hooky News

It’s been a while since I did a crochet update so here we go. I’ve really been enjoying crochet this year and this owl basket was an absolute delight to make. I would have posted a picture of it before now but I had mislaid my bit of spare yarn for stitching his nose on! Found it yesterday and quickly stitched up a little nose for him. He’s doing a very fine job of storing the quilts that we use in the evenings when it’s chilly.

He’ll fit quite a bit more inside yet, he’s by no means full up!

On my list of things to crochet is a blanket. I toyed with the idea of making the same lovely one as Carole but have tried several times to get going and failed miserably. I had the yarn sitting there waiting to be used so I decided to make one of Attic 24 Lucy’s lovely ripples.  As we were going away for a few days I thought it would be the perfect project to take along with me so I speedily hooked a chain a got going. I didn’t pay particular attention to the length of my chain – I did want it to be big but I do wonder whether perhaps I overdid it a bit!

I should put the tape measure against it really. As I don’t have lots of different colours and because it’s so wide I’ve decided to do 4 rows of each colour. I’m using Stylecraft Special Aran with wool – it’s lovely and soft but limited in the number of colours available. The first colour is loganberry and the second is Neon. It’s very relaxing just rippling along – I’m on row three of the neon now so a bit further along than the photo shows.

 

 

Before I began the gigantic ripple project I been playing with my Stylecraft Special DK after being inspired by Sharron at Annie’s Place and I made these cute, mini Grannies. They’re destined to be either a scarf of a cushion, I’m not sure which yet.

I love these colours and unusually for me – there is not a hint of green! Not much cross stitching going on at the moment – it’s easier to crochet in the school holidays 🙂

Stitch from Stash – March update

I’ve had quite a good stitching month during March. First of all I stitched some more on my Papillon Around the World in 80 Stitches until it looked like this…

 

I was going to carry straight on to the next part but I was overwhelmed with a need to finish something off…

I’m really pleased to have this finished. It isn’t framed yet as I was going to frame it myself but haven’t managed to find something that will fit it. I may give up and take it to the framing shop!

The ‘finishing off’ bug was still present so I moved on to finish Miss Peepers…

Again, she isn’t framed yet as I was going to frame her myself but again, I have failed to find a frame. I really think I will be paying a visit to the framing shop!

That ‘finishing off’ bug was still alive and kicking so I moved onto my Blackbird Designs  piece which went from this…

to this…

Not as much as I intended but you can at least tell where I’ve visited! I think the bug may be wearing off a bit now. My plan is to finish this part of the Blackbird Designs and then play with another part of Papillon. I am starting to feel the itch for a new start – I’m hoping that a section of Papillon will calm that down somewhat as I made a list of WIPs last weekend and it’s really quite shameful. Actually, I think I’ll post it here just to strengthen my resolve to shorten the list.

WIPs as of March 2014

Sweet Pea Fairy by Joan Elliott.

Dragon by Joan Elliott

Around the World in 80 Stitches by Papillon

Very Scary by Lizzie Kate

Midnight Watch by Blackbird Designs

The Flock by SamSarah Designs

Stitchers Carousel by Jane Greenoff

Welcome to London by Jardin Prive

Jane Austen Books by Pixystitches

Blackbird Designs Loose Feathers

Tree of Hope by Mirabilia

Yes, that’s definitely caused a relapse – the ‘finishing bug’ is now back in full flow!

This month’s figures:

Spent : £0 (I think we can accrue the monthly amounts available so I now have £45 {$75} in my kitty).

New Starts : None (but oh how I would like to do one!)

WIPs worked on : Papillon Creations Around the World in 80 Stitches, Rosebud Swing by All Our Yesterdays (finished), Miss Peepers by Little House Needleworks (finished), Loose Feathers Autumn by Blackbird Designs.

 

A Pair of Finishes…

Yay! I finished two pieces of cross stitch. The Stitch from Stash is having a really beneficial effect on me and I seem to be in the mood to tackle abandoned projects and get them finished off. It is very, very satisfying 😀

The first one is a piece by Faye Whittaker of All Our Yesterdays. I saw this in a magazine last year and fell in love with it and started stitching it immediately. I made fabulous progress with it and had only the little boy, the swing seat and the grass below the swing left to do when I abandoned it. This chart is also in Faye’s AOY Cross Stitch Collection book – the blue one, which I was very lucky to receive for my birthday.

 

Here it is now finished – reminds me of my two children when they were much, much younger and there were no teenage hormones flying around the air!

The second one is Little House Needleworks Miss Peepers. I fell in love with the moment the chart came out and had to have her as soon as I could get my mitts on her! I took her on holiday with me thinking that she would be the perfect, small project for holiday stitching. When I happened across her last weekend there were no more than 15 stitches on her – I hadn’t even finished the S that I’d started to stitch. I did a lot of reading on holiday and never really got into the stitching mood. I felt quite ashamed really so I determined that she would be worked upon and I enjoyed it so much that I kept on stitching until she was finished this time!

 

This is turning into a most productive stitching month for me – long may it last! I would like to get another instalment of Papillon completed before the end of the month and I have lined up the next UFO to become a WIP – it is a Blackbird Designs Loose Feathers. It’s the one that came in three parts – Summer, Autumn, Winter. I abandoned this when I started stitching the CCN Cottages and never got back to it which is a shame because I love it…it’s time has come now and I’m looking forward to putting some more stitches into it. I put it back onto my frame this afternoon, here’s where I’m at – part way through Autumn…

 

In my enthusiasm this afternoon I lined up the next UFO to work on after this one – I’ll do a picture of that one next time. I am so glad to have my stitching mojo back!

Papillon Update

So, I was full of enthusiasm again for the Papillon Around the World in 80 Stitches project after finishing off part 7 last month. While the mood was upon me, I stitched part 8…

 

So pretty – my favourites are the little rows of pink flowers. I do get a little bit weary of lazy daisy stitches, there seem to be a lot of them in this project but at least there’s plenty of variety from the other stitches to make up for it!

Once I’d finished part 8 I went straight on to stitching part 9 which stitched up even more quickly than part 8 did…

This is my favourite of the two parts that I stitched. Again – love the row of pink flowers and the large design in the middle (although that couched stitch in green gave me a bit of bother until I got into it) is gorgeous. I like the clematis stitch as well which is the motif either side of the big design in the middle.

Here’s a pick of both parts together with some of the rest of the design…I was too lazy to take it all off the frame :blush:

 

I was going to go straight on and stitch the next part and in fact, I did start doing the outline of it. The next part is actually up on the right hand side towards the top – as I am behind, I can actually stitch the part that’s next to that big 4 petal shape instead and work my way up to the top. Again – too lazy to keep scrolling back and forth on the frame! Not wanting to burn myself out and get bored of stitching this though I decided to tinker about a bit with my All Our Yesterday’s swing for a bit instead. I really am hoping to finish that off now and once that’s done I shall be back to stitching the next part of Papillon.

 

Fabriholics update – February

I am still clean! No buying – although I did do a bit of looking one day but I clicked away quickly and the desire went away 🙂 I managed to finally get my hexagons basted onto their background fabric this month – they’ve been waiting patiently since November last year. So, in between all of the other bits and bobs I’ve been doing I’ve enjoyed having a relaxing around the hexagons. I’ve also almost finished another block of the Primitive Gatherings wool applique quilt that I’m working on.

 

I’ll show a picture of the woolly applique block once I’ve finished the stitching – I think there isn’t much left to do now.

Stitch from Stash – February 2014

This is my February update for Stitch from Stash. I’ve actually not stitched a lot this month due to my current obsession for Crochet and a rather busy month! We had extra spends available to us this month as it was the Needlework market at Nashville with lots of lovely new patterns becoming available. We were given a very generous budget of $100 (about £60). I am pleased to say that I avoided temptation by not looking at all the new loveliness so I remain spend free!

Prior to this, I did almost have a little spend on a Joan Elliott kit that took my fancy. I hunted it down on Ebay and put in my maximum bid. There were quite a few days to go when I bid and in between that time and the time that the bid ended – I realised that I really didn’t need the kit after all 😮 I was winning for quite a long time too so I began to sweat a bit – not that it would have been disastrous if I’d won as I’d bid within the monthly budget. I just realised that I really didn’t need to buy it. Anyway, somebody kindly saved me at the last minute by coming along and bidding above my top amount – phew!

So this month’s figures are…

Spent : £0 (I think we can accrue the monthly amounts available so I now have £30 {$50} in my kitty).

New Starts : None

WIPs worked on : Papillon Creations Around the World in 80 Stitches

I haven’t worked on the Papillon in quite a long time and it kept calling to me from the corner where I had stashed it away. Finally, I listened and got it out and finished off the part that I was working on.

I am pleased to have this part finished – those Maltese Crosses gave me no end of problems! I’ve now started on the outline for the next part which is part 8 (I am woefully behind!)

This is how it looks overall – or as good of a picture as I could get without taking it off the frame completely…

It is going to be quite a large piece once it’s finished. I really love it though – all of the different stitches keep it interesting and I like the colours that I chose, they seem to be working well together.

Magpie Clue 2 and Owl Basket

I finished clue 2 of the Magpie mystery knit a long last week. It was quite intense with all the beading – this is my first knit with beads. It’s looking really pretty with the beads and I’m pleased with the colours of the yarn. I decided though that a little break was needed before I tackle the challenge of clue 3 – lots more beading to come! Here it is at the end of clue 2…

 

I decided that I would start on the owl basket crochet pattern that I recently bought as I thought it would be a relaxing project. I failed to get it going twice in one evening so set it aside and worked on a swap project (can’t show pictures of that yet) instead. Last night though I sat down and decided to try again and…success! woot woot! It’s not that it’s difficult really, the problem for me was that it requires you to use 4 strands of yarn and I was all over the place with it the first two times – things were twisted and I couldn’t see the stitches (because I’d twisted it!) Anyway, no matter because I got it going last night and I’m on a roll. It’s a little tiring on the hands with that huge thickness for yarn but the actual pattern itself is easy so far. Here’s where I’m at…

 

 

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I’m using Stylecraft Special Chunky in the colour parchment and I really like the colour – the Stylecraft yarn is ok too – this is my first time of using it. I think now that I’ve got going on it that this won’t take too long to crochet even with the breaks for hand fatigue!

What Does the Fox Say?

Catherine became quite a fan last year of a song called What Does the Fox Say? As a result, we were on the lookout for items of foxiness! In the recent issue of Simply Crochet magazine there was a pattern for crocheted fox stole – it was a must make! I bought some the specified yarn which was Drops Nepal – this is a new yarn to me and it is very soft, really lovely in fact. I finished the fox on Friday night and managed to get some photos this morning of Catherine wearing it. It was a super easy make once I’d worked out what the instructions were asking me to do on the face part – that’s always my difficulty with crocheted items so I’m pleased that I seem to be making a bit of progress in that area.

Lots of lovely trebling and some treble togethers in the middle of the row to make that chevron shape.

Here’s a close up of his face…

Yesterday was a horrible, rainy day so I decided to press on with a mystery knit that I’m taking part in. We’d had to take a break from each other for a week as for some reason I kept getting my stitch count wrong! I put it right and put it away for a little while. Yesterday I finished off the first half of part one and got a very good start on the second part. This is a pic of part one of part one!

 

There are a few new to me techniques in this knit – crocheted provisional cast on, working with beads and a centre decrease. Fingers crossed it seems to be going ok at the moment. I’m perplexed as to why it’s causing me problems as it’s really not difficult at all. I’m eager to progress onto part 2 now so I think I’ll be spending some time working on this later on today as it’s yet another dark and rainy day!

 

 

Fabriholics Anonymous – January

So this is my report for January on how I’ve managed on the fabric spending front. I. Have.Spent. Not. One. Penny. On. Fabric. Yes indeedy – although I was sorely tempted when Melissa at Happy Quilting started her quilt a long. Let’s find a link for that – Star Light Star Bright Quilt a Long

I wanted to make some of the really large sized blocks but when I hunted through my fabric there wasn’t enough yardage of enough fabrics to do it. I even went so far as to tell myself that I could allow a background fabric purchase if I could locate sufficient prints etc from my stash for the other fabrics. Anyway, it wasn’t a goer so I am just going to have to be happy with a smaller sized block and make either a cushion or a lap quilt. It’s not a problem – it’s not as though I have a lack of other projects to work on! (thinking of all those BOM I have stashed away!)

So, what have I worked on this month? Not a great deal really on the quilting front. I have started foundation piecing December’s Lucky Stars block for an eventual runner for my dressing table. Although I didn’t make all of last year’s Lucky Stars blocks I did sign up for this years patterns too – I really like the designs and I have a large quilt in mind using a lot of the stars. I got about half way through this star before Catherine fell ill with a vicious bug which has kept her away from college all of this week. I don’t recall her ever being so poorly before as to need an entire week away from school. As she’s been at home all week, I’ve spent my time sitting with her instead of spending any time in my sewing room. Not good for the quilting but very good for the crocheting and the brow soothing!

 

I’m looking forward to finishing this off and making another one – I’m using my precious stash of Fig Tree fabrics.

I did spend some time last weekend preparing some more applique for the Evelyn’s Album quilt. I cut out all of the pieces for block 3 and traced the shapes for the blocks 4 and 5. I think this week, given that no more bugs occur, I’ll get those three finished up and ready for the embroidery. I really enjoy these blocks a great deal. I have two more Primitive Gatherings quilt kits to make. I’m trying to be good and not start another one until I’ve got all of the blocks stitched for this one.

 

So yes, this month has gone really well on the spending front and there was really only that one urge I had to take part in the quilt a long and honestly – I have more than enough things to be making, I really don’t need another one! I will file it away for the future though and perhaps content myself with making a pillow from the block design this time.