Thursday 30 November 2017

Zodiac SAL - Scorpio

So before the month it's over, it's time for the Scorpio-installment of Jo's wonderful Zodiac SAL! I was really aiming to get this up earlier this month and here I am, sneaking in at the very last minute. Oh, well...

This month, I have again prepared three small finishes for this. First one is a disney princess fob - this month I made a little biscornu, and the princess my friend picked for Scorpio is Snow White! I'm working on the big version of hers as well so this was extra fun to make. So looking at some of the supposed character traits of Scorpios - reserved personality, a tendency to gather cultlike followings - I think she's a good choice too.



Do you see all that sparkly? Between this ornament and Jasmine from last month, I used almost a whole spool of Kreinik! Sooo worth it, though.

I also had to new birthstone ornaments to stitch for November. I already had the front of Citrine, so I added a backside, and then I had to stitch up both sides of Yellow Topaz (I sooo adore those spirograph-style stitches - so much fun!) and then I finished both into ornaments the same way I did with last month's two.





December has not just two, but three birthstone ornaments...with how busy this month tends to be (plus, a ten day mostly-business trip to Melbourne I have coming up) I don't know how much of that I'm going to get done, but I will certainly try!

Tuesday 28 November 2017

November WIPocalypse

Just a dew days late this time...at least it's still November! I've had a great crafting weekend, finishing a few things (I'm almost ready for my Zodiac SAL too...so much for being earlier this month!) and I also have a few things I can show here, mostly progress on my ongoing BAPs.

But first, the question of the month: What finishing style have you never tried but would love to do?
An honest answer to this would probably be 'almost all of them', since I haven't done anything but framing and whip stitch ornaments/biscornu so far. I am, however, in the progress of doing some more sewing intensive finishes (well, I've been working on that for two months on and off since I'm terribly slow with these things) and I also really want to try those no-sew boxes Jo did last year with some of her SALs!

So for stitching, I finished another rotation on Snow White (actually, she's up again this week already...once I get some SAL stuff done. Maybe I'll have to play catch up later.). I almost finished the current shade of yellow, maybe I'll work on her sleeve of bodice for a bit before tackling the next massive block of yellow afterwards!



This weekend also brought a new page finish on Fire and Ember - this is page 15, but the 17th page I've stitched. This was just background, but the next page will have some dragon again.


Another 'pagefinish' happend on the Puppeteer. That was page 10, so on to page 11 it is.


Last but not least, I finished knitting Felix' hat. I still need to weave in the lose ends, but that's one point down on my way-to-long to-do list.


On the topic of to-do lists...I've decided I want to try a "18 in '18" list of projects to work on next year. I've started working on my list, but still need to add pictures, and I might switch out one or two projects as well. I'll consider it 'work in progress' for now :)

Tuesday 21 November 2017

Gifted Gorgeousness & IHSW

For the sake of somewhat staying on top with my check ins, I think I'd better summarize those two to one post! With most of my GG qualified projects being 'not yet ready to be shown here', I don't have much to report anyway.

I did make progress on Felix' had - could be finished if I wasn't that easily distracted, but I'm getting there!






Also, I've been starting to update my finishes (don't get excited just yet, I'm still behind by a fair bit) and realized I never shared Felix' socks when I was done with them! That was some months ago, mind you. So I called in my favourite foot model for a shooting session and here we go:


For IHSW, I focused mostly on my Zodiac SAL (2/3 smalls are done, one of which still needs a little finish-finishing) and also Fire and Ember - I stitched just one colour this weekend (600 stitches of that one colour, though), but I didn't show my favourite dragon last week, so there's a bit more new to you I guess!


Saturday 11 November 2017

A very yellow princess and a very green shawl

So, while I feel terribly busy in my life once again, stressing out usually leads to me using every free minute for crafting, which leads to quite a few things to show, actually - interesting correlation, isn't it? I've even worked on my long, long to do list for a bit! First, I finished the second sleepy blanket bunny for my coworker's son (I just never felt the inclination to finish this since he has yet to introduce us...).


Next up on my list was knitting a hat for Felix - I did the matching ones for my and my grandparents last winter, so it's high time he gets his as well! I made a good start so far, but it's still a bit more to finish it.






I did my usual 'work' on Snow White - another two weeks worth of stitching. There is so much yellow! I think it will be at least another month until I finish this particular shade. I think when I have, I'll work on another section of hers for a bit.





We weren't home last weekend, when I was supposed to start the next page of Fire and Ember. I still found a little time to work on it and since, after finishing a row, I have moved back to the huge colour blocks of the background on the left edge, Is still got more than 500 stitches in - not too bad!





And then I also started a new crochet project since finally, my yarn arrived. This is supposed to be a christmas present for a friend, so I better chopchop! It's another one of these self-colour-changing yarns with a lovely gradient from light green, two different dark greens and blues. Although the first few rows looked very violently green before the darker greens came in! The pattern is called Saffron, and a similiar shawl is apparently worn by someone on Fire Fly (admition time: I have yet to watch that!). So, a bit over 20 rows in, there's still a lot of work to do.





Last but not least, I started this cute little Mill Hill kit...I kept stealing its beading needle for other things so I thought I might as well stitch it! Not much to see yet, but it will be a nice distraction if my other projects ever go on my nerves.





I don't have a lot of plans this weekend, so hopefully, this means a lot of stitching time! We'll see what I can get done...

Wednesday 1 November 2017

October WIPocalypse

It's been a while since I posted about what I've been working on aside from the Zodiac SAL projects, so WIPocalypse is just the occasion to catch up on everything!

But first, the question of the month: How did you begin stitching?

We did a little needlework in elementary school and I liked it, so I kept pestering my grandma until she bought me first a little stamped bread cloth and than my first supplies and kits for counted cross stitch. It didn't take a lot of pestering though, she's always been very supportive of my crafty endevours :D 

So...I mostly worked on my usual. Putting two more weeks worth of stitching into Snow White:



Finishing the October page on Fire and Ember - which was also a row finish, so I took a picture of the whole thing, and for once managed to both get a clear picture and colours that are close to reality!


I also had another 'page finish' on The Puppeteer


And then last weekend, since I had already finished the current page on Fire and Ember, I pulled out Kitsune for the first time in a while and finished the border across one page and then an entire column as well:


It was fun to work on her again, hopefully I can get this page finished soon :)

So that's about it...I'm having a bit of a finishing bug lately, and I'm slowly working my way through my lists and boxes of stuff to do. Most of it is just sewing lose ends in, but maybe I'll have something more fun to show soon as well.