March Recap

Wow, am I the only one that thought this month went by way too fast? For a month with 31 days, it seemed that I blinked and it was over with! Here is my recap of the goals I set for March:

1. Finish Block 2 and 3 of C@HRH - 1/2 way - Finished Block 2 and started Block 3
2. Finish Christmas Ornament - DONE!
3. Finish finish one item - Not done

And here are my goals for April. I'm only setting three because my current class is proving to be very reading and writing intensive so rather than set myself up for not achieving anything stitching related for the month, I will set smaller goals.

1. Finish Block 3 of C@HRH - see my update photo below
2. Finish another Christmas ornament
3. Start Block 4 of C@HRH
I've managed to get a bit more done on Block three of Christmas by getting up earlier and stitching for 20-30 minutes. It's a very nice way to start off the day and maybe by doing this regularly - at least in the early part of the week when I'm not totally exhausted, I will be able to make some decent progress on my stitching.

I hope whatever goals you set for yourself in March, I hope you're satisfied with your progress. Thanks for stopping buy and I hope to make it around to regularly read blogs sometime in the near future.

Another finish and a start!

On Saturday I met Barbara in Belfast again and this time Evelyn (no blog) joined us. Evelyn is from Portland and I picked her up on the way north. We had a great day starting at the Belfast Free Library for a book sale and then moving on to the Co-op for some stitching in the sunshine. I was able to finish my first Christmas ornament of the year which I hope won't be my last.

I was also able to put a fair amount into the start of Block 3 of C@HRH. There won't be much stitching progress for me over the next 6 weeks because my current class has a huge reading and paper writing component. Hang in there for some random updates as I'm able to get some stitching in.

Block 2 Happy Dance - Finally!

Wahoo! I finally finished block 2 of C@HRH while stitching and visiting with Nancy on Saturday. Unfortunately Blogger refuses to load this photo horizontally so you will get a little neck stretch - sorry!
I am so glad to be done with this block - it took forever and there is a LOT of stitching in just that one square. I've already started on Block 3 but don't have enough done to make a photo worthwhile.

Nancy and I had a great visit. We hadn't seen each other since September and the weather was nice enough that we were able to sit out on her porch and stitch. It was heavenly!

Knitting only content!

Okay, this is going to be really short. Here is the finished Oscar mitten - mitten #2 will most likely be cast on this weekend. The mohair for this is a tiny bit thicker than that I used for the Elmo mittens which makes them a bit more fuzzy and I hope a bit warmer. The photo obviously does not do justice to the actual yarn as they are much more vibrant in person.
And, here is my domino/mitered knitting project. The instructor said that this type of knitting became an obsession with her and I can see why. I'm having a very hard time forcing myself to put down the needles and do some class work. I've already found a rug to make using the technique from a free pattern in an old Interweave Knits issue and a jacket I had tagged from the Holiday 2003 issue of Vogue Knitting. Funny how I knew I would come back to that someday - only 7 years later! LOL
Have a great night and I will try to get back to reading all of your blogs more regularly when class ends on Thursday!

A busy weekend but not with stitching

We had the most glorious spring weather here for March over the weekend - full on sunshine and up in the high 40s-low 50s both days. Just incredible for March in New England. Like everyone else, I tried to spend as much time outdoors as I possibly could so there was not a whole lot of stitching accomplished this weekend. I did take a wicked cool knitting class on Sunday where I learned how to make mitred squares. The class project is a potholder and after a bit more knitting, I will have something to show you on that.I don't have much more progress to show on C@HRH but I did get some stitching in on my Christmas ornament on Friday and it's almost 3/4 done at this point.

And here is a photo of the Oscar mitten which I actually completed last night. The thumb on this one gave me a bit of a pain but I ripped it down and started again and it's satisfactory and functional which is important. Now to start on the mate so they will be usable by Barbara should we get a freak snowstorm anytime soon. You never know!Hope you had a great Monday and thanks for stopping by for a visit. I really appreciate the time it takes.

Thank you Mr. Tax Man!

I got my state tax return last week and promptly sent some to Amy! I decided I really, really needed to finish out my collection of BBD stocking books. The top photo shows the stocking books for May, July, August, September, October, the big Halloween booklet and the November and December books that were recently released. I also bought the Joyeux Noel book because I really want to stitch the cardinal design and I liked the new Anniversaries of the Heart designs released at Market last month. Amy always has such super fast service!

There should be more stash arriving soon because I finally used a gift certificate I had from ABC Stitch Therapy - the first ever stitching related gift from my family!

Recap of February

With the start of a new month, it's time to look back at last month's goals and see how productive I was. Here were the goals I set for myself in February along with my results as of today:
1. Finish Block 2 of CAHRH - Not Done 2. Finish CHS The Gilded Cage - COMPLETED! 3. Stitch an ornament - Started 4. Finish an item of the Acorn Sewing kit by With My Needle - Never touched!

Despite a heroic attempt to complete Block 2 of C@HRH, I did not manage to complete it. Here is my progress as of last night. There is a LOT of stitching in this block.

And although I didn't finish it, here is the progress on the Christmas ornament I started. I don't have too much to do to complete it so I hope to get back to it soon.

And I have made progress on the Oscar Mittens however I did not take a photo. I will try and do that tomorrow.

We had some incredible weather here on Thursday with torrential rains and unbelievable gusts of wind. The clocked 94 mph about 45 minutes south of here which is above Cat 1 strength! Here is a photo of the front section of the fence that runs between my house and the rental next door. As you can see, I lost the very first section - it is the one not protected by the side of the house next door. It had blown to the left into the front yard but the next door neighbor's son dragged it back to where it started before I had a chance to do it myself. My wonderful neighbors behind me have offered to help me install a new panel this spring.

And this is a photo of a tree in the front yard of a house I pass on my way to work. Many homes were left without power - some just came back on line yesterday evening and the goal of CMP was to have the remaining customers up by tonight. There is still a lot of tree damage to clean up as well. I am very thankful I had so little damage. Isn't the sky incredibly blue behind this tree? So welcome after such terrible weather. But the good thing was that it wasn't snow!