Monday 29 August 2016

Mad Summer Finish Dash - Day 28

Last day to catch up, yay! On Sunday, we were still out on the field, so I got a bit of stitching in in the morning, when everyone was still asleep, and then, after we left and got everything tidied up (and also took a shower to feel human again! It was really hot out there this weekend) we drove home, where I got some more stitching done. I had a race with the setting sun and could hardly see for the last few stitches I got in, but I made it, and finished the second page of Fire and Ember! So many lovely colours in there, there are a lot of nice bright reds and oranges that I really enjoy using and hope to be using again on the next page in September.






For now, I have a few days to focus on the Halloween SAL, which I'm really looking forward to ^_^

Mad Summer Finish Dash - Day 27

Saturday, we were outside almost all day for out yearly summer party. And of course I took my stitching with me! I could only stitch while it was still light out, and we also did a lot of other fun things, but I still managed some progress on what I now realized are the neck and a horn of the dragon. Not a ton, since the colours are only a few stitches at a time now, but still - progress. Getting closer to a page finish!


Mad Summer Finish Dash - Day 26

Friday was Felix' Dad's birthday. We had a few party preparations to work on during the day, but also a bit of free time to enjoy the nice and sunny weather. I did a fair bit of reading, but also some stitching on the Fire and Ember SAL that I took with me to focus on during the weekend. This time I actually managed to finish the brown and also the second colour, the second-most used on this page. I was kind of surprised to find it was a dark purple, it's so different from what I got to use so far! But I double checked with the cover picture and realized this is actually a part of the dragon already, how exciting!


I also did a bit of knitting on Viajante later in the evening, when the light was too dim for stitching, but I only managed a few rows, so it doesn't look too differently and I didn't take a new picture.

Oh and I almost forgot the most important part - Felix' grandma was there as well, and we gave her the grandchildren project, and she loved it! I got a lot of praise from her and the other relatives that were there, which made me really happy and proud.

Mad Summer Finish Dash - Day 25

Thursday, we drove up to Felix' home village to meet up with his family, but the whole thing turned a lot more stressfull than we had planned when we hat to stay late at work and THEN got a call from his sister to pick up his brother at the airport - which added about 230km to our drive. We just made it there in time, just to realise the plane was late, then playing 'find the right lane' at the airport and finally getting home at about 1:30am. The things you do for family!

Stitchingwise, after finishing the Strawberry SAmpler, I got a few stitches into the Halloween SAL in the morning before work:


Then on the car ride, I worked a bit more on the Fire and Ember SAL, but with daylight getting shorter again, I didn't get a lot done before it became to dark to stitch. Still, a bit more of the brown is done, not soo much more to go!


Mad Summer Finish Dash - Day 24

On Wednesday, we had some shopping to do before the weekend, and also sent some time with my grandparents - with all the trips I don't get to see them as often as I'm used to, so they invited us over for dinner and made some delicious soup! So, all put together, not as much stitching time as I'd liked again, but other fun stuff to make up for it. I did get to work on the Strawberries Sampler, though, and I managed to finish that last row! Some delicious looking cross stitched strawberries. I had so much fun with this project, I wouldn't mind stitching more from this series and I am sure I'll stitch more band samplers in the future. Now we just need to get it framed in time for the Ye Olde Sampler contest deadline on August 31st.


Mad Summer Finish Dash - Day 23 + WIPocalypse

Oh my, another busy weekend and I'm so far behind with posting now, but I'm going to do my best to catch up before the month is over - I have so many exciting progress to share, after all! This post is going to double as my entry for WIPocalypse, not because it is the post for the actual day of the entry (that was the 22nd) but because there is something in it that I wanted to show for WIPocalypse. So without further ado - let's get on it!

So, the 23rd was Tuesday last week. As far as I recall, there wasn't anything special going on that day - which is a good thing, as it meant I got some good stitching time in! But more importantly - Felix got some good FRAMING time in, so the grandchildren project is all nice and framed now, and I have to say I'm pretty proad of him, he did a great job!


 For new stitching, I did work on the Strawberries Sampler, and I did finish the double cross stitch row from yesterday. Then I got thinking, and as we were leaving for a long weekend again on Thursday, I decided I wanted to finish this project before then, so I just focused - I stitched two more bands (another row of plain cross stitch, and the last of the 'pulled' stitches) and started on the very last band, which is all cross stitch again. So close now!


Now to make this an official WIPocalypse post, of course I also need to answer the question of the month, although it will be a short answer this time: Have you ever read any fictional books that involve embroidery?  If so, give us some recommendations? Measi asked, and I have to they, I don't think I did. Probably some book (like a historical novel or something) mentioned it around the sides, but nothing where it was actually a plot point. Although I did recently discover a German series of crime novels featuring a cross stitching police officer, those are definitely on my to-read list now!

Thursday 25 August 2016

Mad Summer Finish Dash - Day 22

Now the weekend is behind us, and we have arrived on monday. Monday was kind of a strange day - I had a doctos appointment in the morning, then work was all presentations and organisation stuff, and I don't know exactly why but in the evening, I didn't get a whole lot done either. In fact, I only got about half a band on the Strawberries Sampler done - this one uses double cross stitches, and somehow they are giving me a hard time; I had to frog quite a bit but still the band shouldn't take to much longer.


At least all these presentations were good for something as well, and I got to start another pair of socks! These are for Felix' dad, he asked for a more muted, greenish colour, so I bought some just for him that I think he will like. To make things a bit less boring while knitting, I'm not doing these plain, but in a bit of a pattern, that will probably show up better once I got a bit more done (these first 20 rows or so include only a bit less then half a repeat).


Wednesday 24 August 2016

Mad Summer Finish Dash - Day 21

Sunday felt like a lot of stitching getting done, but then the pictures don't look like *that* much....I'm still content, though.

On the Strawberries-sampler, I added the title - some really fun one over one stitching, so tiny! and another 'pulled' band with pearl thread.


 Then on the Halloween Sampler, I finished the moon and a few stars and two bats and started the roof of the left most building. This one really felt like I made some progress - but then, according to our plan, I was already supposed to start the second part! I'm not convinced this will actually be done before Halloween, but I am not too concerned as it still is a lot of fun to stitch, no matter the season.


Tuesday 23 August 2016

Mad Summer Finish Dash - Day 20

On Saturday, we had a lot of shopping to do and other errands to run, but some stitching still happend. In fact, I think I made some rather nice progress on the Strawberries Sampler - I finished the band from friday, stitched another all-cross stitch band, and started the next one (I did the cross stitch and beads on the left and right of where the word 'Strawberries' will be added).


 I also did some work on the Halloween SAL, finished the roof and started work on the moon. I'm starting to realize how huge this thing really is!


Monday 22 August 2016

Mad Summer Finish Dash - Day 19

Again I'm a few days behind on my posting...which is a shame as I have so many pretty things to show! A whole weekend of prettyness! So let's start with friday. We had friday off, and we were pretty lazy. A bit of neglected cleaning and laundry, but also a lot of gaming, movie watching, and of course, stitching!

First of all, I was working on the straberries sampler, and finished one and a half new bands. The first one was another 'pulled' stitch, the second one is plain cross stitch again, but I only finished one of two colours so far.


 I also worked on the Halloween SAL for a bit, and finished most of the central tower of the manor, only a bit of roof left to go. This is progressing slowly, but it's a ton of fun as well :)


Friday 19 August 2016

Mad Summer Finish Dash - Day 18

Yesterday was the last day of out retreat - we had some more sessions in the morning, then the trip back, then finally some stitching at home in the evening. So, lots of different progress today!

First, there was some more knitting - I got about 20 more rows into Viajante, which is really starting to grow on my. Hat about 80 rows the 'real' pattern will start working in rounds, and I will try to get there before the next round of presentations to knit to will come along.


 On the trop back, I was working on the Dragon SAL, and I made quite a bit of progress - I think about two thirds of the 898 are done now, and I will get back to this in a bit.


At home in the evening, while Felix and I were watching some movies (Now you see me and Juno - both great movies we didn't know yet) I was taking turns working on the Strawberry Sampler, where I finished two more bands (one of simple cross stitch, and a fun chequer stitch), and the Halloween SAL. I will continue to work those two during the weekend (a long one since I'm having friday of)


Mad Summer Finish Dash - Day 17

The last day of the retreat was pretty tiring, and then yesterday we had the trip back, and somehow I ended up two days behind again already - so time for catch ups!

On Wednesday, I managed a few more stitches on the Fire & Ember SAL - this is a nice way to work the colour blocks, a bit each day and I'm not growing tired of it!


Most of the day however I spent crocheting on the granny shawl I started last year. I had a bit less then one ball of yarn left, and also I always thought 'this is going to be the last row I can do for sure', I ended up with almost ten new rows. When I was contemplaiting whether to play yarn chicken on more time (not fun when one row is aboit three metres long!) or just call it quits with a bit of leftover yarn, a friend and collegue suggested I use the remaining yarn to add a few tassles, and the more I thought about it, the more I liked the idea! I'm not sure how exactly I'm going to do it (just the corners, or lots of small ones?) but I'm probably going to play with that a bit over the weekend.


So with that settled, I started working on Viajante - they told me I'm crazy to take five projects with me on this trip, but I worked on all but one of them! Sadly I don't much progress to report on this - I started with about 26 rows, but then decided that (once again) I didn't like the way the increments look, so I ripped it all and started again and I'm now up at 30 rows again. But I am determined to knit so fast know that even if I decide I don't like it yet again, I'll be too far in to go back!


Tuesday 16 August 2016

Mad Summer Finish Dash - Day 16

Today was a very productive professor/boss, who knows that I have troubles staying awake when listening to discussions, so he allows me to knit on the side. But first things first, in the breaks I did a bit of stitching, and I managed three or four more rows of 898 on the Dragon SAL, so a little over one hundred stitches again.


Now for knitting - I made some real progress here! It started with Snowflake Party - about 15 rows left to go, and I finished those by about 3 pm. I'm really pleased with how this one turned out - the yarn is a lovely quality, hald silk, half merino, I'm pretty sure I will use this again someday - there are some really pretty colours on the dyers website. I also might knit this pattern again - I can always use a brighter colour and call the snowflakes flowers! I will have to wash and block this once we get home, which will also be a first for me (the blocking part especially), but it already has a pretty decent side - about my arms' width on the link side. I think blocking will mostly make the thin side wider, not the long side longer, if that makes any sense. This also is, to my knowledge, the very first knitting project I finished for myself :)






...but definitly not the last one. Once it was done I continued work on the watermelon wristwarmers - the seconf of which I cast on last week - and tonight at around 10pm (yes, we do have some very late work groups here!) I finished that one as well. Good thing I brought a whole bag of projects to work on! I actually had a hard time taking these off to take a picture, they are sooo comfy and I am very in love with the colours ^_^





Tomorrow, I'm planning to work on a crochet project I started at a similiar occasion last year. Let's see if I can get a third finish for this retreat!

Mad Summer Finish Dash - Day 15

Hello my lovelies :D We went back to our room pretty late last night (everyone watched Deadpool together in the evening), so again I'm a bit late on my latest update, but I think I gave you enough to read yesterday anyway ;)

So yesterday we had a three-hour-car trip, which I used to stitch one the big brown blog of 898 on the Fire & Ember-SAL. I managed a few hundred stitches (only the uppermost row was done before this), even though stitching in a moving car is a bit slower than 'on land', but I was having so much fun that I didn't do anything else for the trip. I'll try to work on this for a bit each day, so I can reduce ce amount of colour block stitching I have to do later at home.





I also did a bit of knitting on Snowflake Party during the first presentations and I only have about 20 ros left to do now!

Monday 15 August 2016

Mad Summer Finish Dash - Day 14 & August Gifted Gorgeousness

Day 14 of the MSFD will double as an entry for WIPocalypse this month - I know that the 14th is technically a day early, but I am posting this on the 15th after all! And this is an exciting day to post, so you'll understand why I wanted to combine the two!

The exciting thing is...drumrolls please...I finished the grandchildren project! Huzzah! On sunday morning (mainly while Felix was still asleep from the long night before) I stitched the two tiny flowes and the three names (Felix and his siblings) and then I also added a free hand little heart in the middle, because with the way we arranged the names (we divided them in four groups, each for the children of one of the four daughters of Felix' grandma) the middle looked to empty. I just checked my older blog updates, and I worked for almost three months straight on this! Can you believe it? I'm pretty contend with how it looks, I made a few changes as I went along (mainly because the trellis didn't continue in some places where it was supposed to continue - I only have one mistake left that I realized, and hopefully noone else will!), I translated and re-charted the 'Grandchildren are the flowers in the garden of life' saying on top, and added the already mentioned little heart in the middle. As soon as we return from our work retreat, this will be framed and we'll give it to Felix' grandma two weeks from now.


On the car ride back, I did a bit more knitting (like 5 rows or so) on snowflake party, then, when we got home, another exciting thing waited for me - the start of Carla's and my Halloween SAL for the year! We're doing Cloudfactory's 'Whacky Witches' design, one of the nine blocks each week, and everyone is welcome to join with this design or something else. I'm stitching this on a 28ct marbled Jobelan, and I decided (after Strawberry Sampler is ths proof that I can get a tension I enjoy working with using scroll frames) to go all out and buy myself an easy clip frame in the right size and also a floor stand to try on this project. And so far I'm really happy - stitching with two hands is possible, although still slowly, but with a bit of practice this will work marvelously I think. It's also easier than I thought to just work with one hand like I'm used too - the main point is, I can use scroll frames now, which I'm really happy about for projects that use a ton of speciality fibres, speciality stitches, or beads!


Now the plan for the rest of August is the following: I took the Fire and Ember SAL with me to the retreat, since it moves the easiest of all my remaining MSFD projects, and I'll work on that (plus a ton of knitting during presentations and discussions - thank God for my understanding professor!) until we return, than I will alternate my focus between the Strawberry Sampler (for an August finish) and the Halloween SAL (to keep up with deadlines). We return thursday night and have friday of, so preper for lots of stitching progress on the weekend, and lots of knitting until then!

Mad Summer Finish Dash - Day 13

On Saturday, I had a bit time to stitch in the morning before we left for the birthday, and a bit more in the evening when I returned (Felix likes to stay really really long on parties like that, so we agreed that he would bring me home earlier, then return). But it appears I didn't take a picture of where I left of in the evening - I'm sorry! I did manage to backstitch all of the cross stitch, which was mostly the trellis and the butterfly, with only the last three names and two more of the tiny flowers left.

What I did take a picture of is the progress I made on Snowflake party - I used the party for a bit of knitting, which I love doing while chatting with friends, and I finished one and a half rows of snowflakes. I think I won't show any more pictures of this until it's done, it's always just more of the same and pretty boring really, and there's only a liiiitle bit (about 30 rows) left to do!


Mad Summer Finish Dash - Day 12

I know I missed a few posts of my MSFD, and I'm very sorry - as I mentioned earlier, we were at Felix' parents house, and while I had my laptop with me, I didn't get to unpack it because there was always something else to do - strangely, stitching progress has still happend, and I did take the appropriate pictures, so I can do the posts now! I decided to stoll do single posts instead of one big one, since we are currently at a work retreat and I will be able to find a few minutes here and there for small posts, but probably won't have the time to sit down for one big post.

So, firday - we had a thee-and-a-half-hour drive to Felix' home village, and we drove rather late, so it was getting a bit dark for crafting in the car. I did get a bit of stitching done in the morning and later after we arrived though; as you can see, I finished that light pink flower in the section I was working on previously, and a lot of the green leaves as well - in fact, everything that is left to stitch is inside this frame!


Thursday 11 August 2016

Mad Summer Finish Dash - Day 11

Tomorrow we're heading of to Felix' home village for a birthday party (usually I'd say to his parents, but actually they are on vacation) and next week we won't be home because of a work retreat, so we spent the evening with my grandparents. Which means, I didn't completly finish the area I was stitching on, but I am SO close - just a tiny bit of green and the light pink flower! (the butterfly is cut of by the frame so I'll stitch it in the next section).


Wednesday 10 August 2016

Mad Summer Finish Dash - Day 10

Ten days into my MDFD, and I'm still going strong...somehow. At least I'm telling myself that, and I am making progress every day! ...that being said, I got a new game to play today, so progress has been a bit less than I had hoped for, but I still finished the big pink-ish flower and a lot of green, including the next cousin's name. Only two flowers and some leaves left before I can move the snap again!


Tuesday 9 August 2016

Mad Summer Finish Dash - Day 9 + Tenuous Shoehorn

Another day, another MSFD post - but this one is a bit special, since it will have to double as a entry for Jo's Tenuous Shoehorn, which requires as to do a post somehow related to 'summer'. Which is incredibly easy for me, after all this is not a spring or autumn finish das, right?! Also, those beautiful flowers on the grandchildren project do look like summer as well, right? I made a lot of progress on the green, finished the little purple flower and started work on the big pink one.


 And if that is not enough, I made a tiny start on my second wrist warmer today, and that beautiful watermelon yarn is from the brand Austermann Summer Stripes, so there you go! Summer again :D


Monday 8 August 2016

Mad Summer Finish Dash - Day 8

We went to the cinema today to see PETS (it was fun, but the best scenes were all in the trailer already...still, fun!) so I only have a short stitching update today - I started the backstitching in the lower right corner, finished one of the smaller flowers and also one of the names. Lots of flowers to go here, so much fun!


Sunday 7 August 2016

Mad Summer Finish Dash - Day 7

Another day has passed, and this being sunday, some real progress was made! In fact, I finished the current section of the grandchildren project, and thus get to move the snap again. There's still a bit to go, but I think this was by war the biggest section, so I'm more than 2/3rds done now!


 I also added another row on the straw berry sampler - this one was cross stitch with teeny-tiny eyelets.


Mad Summer Finish Dash - Day 6

A bit late but my laptop was still running a backup...here's day 6 of the MSFD! Being a Saturday, I got some more time to stitch today despite the errands I had to run (mostly shopping, cleaning, and helping out my grandparents). I continued working on the lower right corner of the grandchildren project:


 I also worked a tiny bit on the strawberry sampler and put in the next band - nothing exciting here, just plain cross stitch, but then that is kind of exciting after straight backstiching for over a week!


Saturday 6 August 2016

Mad Summer Finish Dash - Day 5

Another day of stitching on the grandchildren project - after moving the snap, there was a lot of interesting stuff to work on, and it went pretty quickly. I finished the nest, eggs and the birdie, and worked on a few more leaves as well:


Thursday 4 August 2016

Mad Summer Finish Dash - Day 4

Again, I don't have much to show - I wanted to 'quickly' do something in an online game with a friend, and somehow we ended up playing all evening. Still, I managed to finish the section I was working on, including the names of Felix' two oldest cousins - today I'm having a nice evening with lots of stitching and I also got to move the snap to the more interesting area below :D


Wednesday 3 August 2016

Mad Summer Finish Dash - Day 3

And we're at day three of the MSFD! Thanks for everyone following along and cheering for me on this journey :) I'm still going slower than I'd like, still working on this one little section of the grandchildren project - but I did chart out all the names and started adding them, starting with Felix' youngest cousin. At least from now on, I just need to stitch and all the planning is done.


Tuesday 2 August 2016

Mad Summer Finish Dash - Day 2

The second update of my MSFD is quite a bit smaller, since now it was really only a day, not a whole weekend to work on stuff - also, we got home a bit late yesterday, and I had more stuff to do today. Still, I managed a bit more of the dark green backstitch on the grandchildren project, and I just started planning the personalization, so that will start soon as well.


Yesterday was also the start of the second page of the Fire and Ember SAL. I won't have time to actually focus on this until later this month; but I still stitched one thread to have a symbolic start on page 2:


Monday 1 August 2016

Mad Summer Finish Dash - Day 1

Felix and I just got home from our weekend in Hamburg - the musical was awesome, and I enjoyed spending time with my friends and some of my relatives very much. We're pretty tired, but also happy :)
As announced in my WIPocalypse post, throughout August I will post pictures of my progress - with a primary focus on deadline-projects - every day, and I am going to call this the Mad Summer Finish Dash, or short MSFD. Here's where I start, with some progress from the trip (and shortly before).

Friday morning: I made a tiny start on my new try of Viajantje, knitted from that delicious yarn I showed the last time around:


On the train ride to and from Hamburg, I made some progress on Snowflake Party, finished the base pattern and the first border. Just 48 rows to go now, and I weighed the remaining yarn, looks like it will be plenty to finish.


 Stitching was harder to work on on the trip, but I still made a bit pf progress on the backstitch of the grandchildren project, and hope to make tons more today and tomorrow:


That's it for now, back for a new update hopefully tomorrow!