Last WIPocolypse Post of 2012

Well, I managed to finish one of the projects on my 2012 WIPocolypse list but the rest of the projects on my list kind of languished in their project bags.

Here was my finish for the year - BBD's Winter Wonderland

And here are the rest of the projects as of yesterday.  Now that I've seen them again, I hope to get back to finishing at least one or two more of them in 2013.

This is Nora Corbett's Halloween Fairy and needs the Kreinik and beads done to complete it.  I know that once I get going on it, it would not take long to finish so this might be the first project I focus on as far as WIPs go.

This loaded upside down but it's the restart for Anne Sandles by With Thy Needle and Thread.  This piece just seemed to have a curse on it because the 2nd time I started it on 40 ct instead of the 30 ct called for, I got the orientation wrong and had to rip out quite a bit of work.

 This is my one and only HAED piece called The Story Keeper.  My goal was to complete at least 2 more pages on it and unfortunately, I fell far short of that.  I did finish the first page and manage 2 columns of the 2nd.  This has been my 1st Sunday of the month UFO stitching project for a while but it didn't get much attention past the first few months of the year.  This is a piece I'm determined to finish at some point because I love the design and finishing it will be a serious stitching accomplishment!

This beauty is CHS's Christmas at Hawk Run Hollow.  I did manage to get past the 1/2 way point but just barely.  I had to increase the magnification of my readers to 1.75 to be able to work on this one.  I'd really like to get back to it and maybe have it completed in time for Christmas 2013.  The block below is where I left off the last time I picked it up.

 And finally it's another CHS piece - the alphabet series that I started on 30ct over one with the GAST threads called for in each letter except for the fill in the bottom.  Every time I bring it out of the project bag, I'm caught by the colors and the how cute each miniature letter block is.  This really needs to be finished and framed.

I haven't seen if there is going to be a 2013 WIPocolypse or similar challenge this year but I am going to try and stick with my 2012 plan and finish at least 2 more of these in the next year.

What's kept me from stitching...

I mentioned in my last post that I had not been doing much stitching and this is the primary reason.  I've been knitting my first sweater for myself.  I took a 2 part class in October & November and I finished the body over the Christmas holiday.  

 Now I'm preparing to pick up the stitches for the first sleeve and get this thing finished so that I can wear it.  Winter has come to Maine with a big bang so I need a great warm sweater to wear. 

This is a closeup of the yarn which I really love.  It's a combo of blues and greys from Berroco.  Another reason for wanting to get it finished is that I have a pair of fingerless mitts I want to make next and every time I see the yarn, I want to drop everything and cast on.  But one thing at a time......

December TUSAL

Well, I've certainly fallen off the wagon when it comes to blog posts haven't I?  Not sure why but I've just not been stitching much and staying away from the computer.  Hopefully my mojo will return in 2013. 

This is my final TUSAL post for 2012.  All things considered, I've almost filled my TUSAL jar even though I feel like I did very little stitching this year. 

Daffy Cat is hosting another TUSAL for 2013 so be sure to sign up soon!

November TUSAL

I'm actually managing to post my TUSAL photo on time for the first time in quite a long time.  I can't believe there's only one more month to post for this year.  It has gone by in its usual high speed fashion. 

The last week or so I was able to add some Christmas colored threads to my jar as I've been working on gifts for some colleagues.  I chose this ornament by Country Cottage Needleworks as it really caught my eye on the front color.

I used DMC on 32ct. Lambswool instead of the WDW and Crescent called for and I'm really happy with how it turned out.  I hope to stitch the design several more times to finish up for gifts for work.

It's a Hermit Stitching weekend coming up and I hope to get at least one more ornament completed.  I need to get myself signed up!

October TUSAL

Wow, two posts in the month and it's not over yet.  I am a week late in getting this photo taken and posted but here is my TUSAL as of today. 

I have not put much into it since finishing my October Word Play because I've been obsessively knitting. 

I will show you my knitting results tomorrow though because I want to be ready to catch The Voice when it starts in a few minutes.  Hope you had a good Monday.  Thank goodness they only come once a week!

September gone already?

I can't believe that it's now the 2nd of October and last week was time to post my WIPocolypse update.  I did have a finish in September and I can't wait to get this piece back from being framed.  I expect a call from the store any day now.

And I did pull out the project bag for my next focus piece which is going to be Nora Corbett's Halloween Fairy.  Here is where I left it - I'm not sure when I stopped working on it or even when I started it but it's definitely been a while.

I haven't started working on this because I've been trying to finish the October Word Play by With My Needle and Thread.  I'm almost there - just a two more pumpkins and it will be ready to finish.  I'm off to try and complete it tonight!

Seasonal Start

The weather here has been so fall-ish that I decided to start something seasonally appropriate after finishing up Winter Wonderland. So I dug through my stash and pulled out the October Word Play chart from With Thy Needle and Thread. 

This is stitched on 35ct. Abcedarian, which I am really liking, with GAST threads.  This is my progress after a few days work.  It would be great to get this finished in time to hang up for October so I've been working exclusively on this although I did pull out another WIPocolypse piece that happens to be seasonally appropriate as well. 

I decided my next WIP focus piece will be Nora Corbett's Halloween Fairy.  The regular stitching is pretty much complete but it's the specialty fibers and the beads that are left and not my most favorite of things to stitch.  I hope to give that piece some time tomorrow.

Double TUSAL Update

I took a picture of my August TUSAL but just never got around to writing up a post and uploading the picture so I thought I'd post both my August and September updates.  As you can see from the September photo, most of the month was dedicated to stitching on BBDs Winter Wonderland.

 August 2012 TUSAL Update

September 2012 TUSAL

Speaking of that finished piece, I took it to Michael's yesterday (thinking it was AC Moore complete with AC Moore 60% off coupon in hand) and picked a frame.  Did you know that Michael's accepts competitor coupons?  I had no idea they did but was very happy to learn that they had no issue with my AC Moore coupon.  What would have cost me $221 ended up costing me $83 with archive quality glass.  Thank goodness for a coupon!

Vacation Knitting Start

 Thanks for the kind stitches on my BBD finish.  I am going to try and make it to AC Moore tomorrow to pick out a frame and I will be sure to share the final finish. For me, picking the frame is the hardest part of the whole process.

After tackling my first baby sweater, I decided to make something for myself that would be fairly challenging so I could stretch my knitting skills.  I think I saw this pattern somewhere on the whirlpool that is Ravelry and loved the color contrast and that fact that this pattern was multi-functional so I went ahead and bought the pattern and some yarn.

For my Cosette, I chose Madeline Tosh DK in Golden Hickory and Bark for the contrasting picot trim.  Since it's primarily stockinette, I thought it would be a perfect vacation project because there weren't a lot of tricky details to keep track of while chatting with family and friends at the beach. The shaping is done with short rows and wrapping stitches and that is why there are so many stitch markers - they've started to chime musically as I move the piece around the needles. 

I'm sorry the photos are so bad but I just couldn't seem to get a good one that truly shows the colors.  They are really gorgeous and remind me of all the gorgeous fall foliage we get in these parts.  And that change has started thanks to cold nights and warm days - it was 34 when I got up this morning!  I'm so not ready for that yet but it's on its way.

Computer Avoidance

I'm not quite sure why I have found it so hard to sit down in front of my computer and create a post but the good thing about my lack of computer time means that I devoted more time to stitching and as a result, I finished my BBD Winter Wonderland on Saturday.  Thank goodness for college football season - I've been watching a lot of it.  And it means that I've completed one of the projects on my WIPocolypse list which I'm very happy about.

And even better news is that there was a 60% off framing coupon in my email from AC Moore today so I hope to get this up to be framed this week.  It will be ready for Christmas viewing finally!

All Good Things Come to an End

It's back to work for me tomorrow so no more mornings like this one, spent on the deck with a good cup of coffee and some stitching.  I guess I have to go back to pay for the vacation stash I acquired right?

I did make nice progress on BBD's Winter Wonderland (blasted Blogger won't upload correctly).  I hope that I will have a finish to share soon but it's back to a busy couple of weeks so I'm not sure how much stitching will get done.  I'm ready for another vacation!

The BEST way to spend a vacation day!

I'm a couple of states away at the beach and while my family decided to go to Chatham to shop today, I had other plans.  Before I left home, I used the Hoffman site to see if there were any needlework shops within a reasonable distance. 

I was overjoyed to find that there was one within 10 miles of where we are staying.  I can't imagine why I never did this before as this is my 3rd time staying where we are.  I think this is the first non-online shop I have been in in the past 2 years which is a sad testament to how many of our LNSs have closed.

But maybe the third time is the charm because I spent 2 hours poking through a dusty room digging out some great stash. I went to Town-Ho Needleworks in Brewster if you're ever going to be on the Cape.  While I think it is primarily a needlepoint shop, they had a very decent selection of charts and an amazing variety of threads thanks to the needlepoint focus!

Here are some photos of what I came away with:

I just couldn't resist this Cricket Collection when I saw it in person.  It's amazing how much more you buy when you can actually see the chart design!  LOL  Or at least that's how it works for me.....

I was definitely in the mood for some Halloween goodness as you can tell!  This is The Goode Huswife's All Hallow's Eve, Prairie Moon Bow Wow-llowween and The Primitive Needle's Witches Nine.

 I bought three Halloween Prairie Schooler's All Hallow's Eve, Cats, Bats & Witches and Sweeping Cobwebs as well as a fat quarter of 32ct Lambswool and the DMC to start them in case I didn't bring enough projects with me (which I did of course)!

 Prairie Schooler Reindeer Round Up, BBD My Gift to You and a Cricket Collection I had never seen titled A Walk in the Woods.  It's #53 and was published in 1988 so I'm wondering if it's OOP and that's why I had never see it.  It's such a pretty pattern.

Knotted Tree Red Bird Fraktur and the Crescent Colors floss needed to stitch it.

The orientation is wrong but I bought a 10x13 plastic mesh project bag, 2 GAST threads which were all I really needed, a set of 6x6 Q snaps and Prairie Schooler Knock! Knock!

August WIPocolypse Udate

My focus this past month was mainly on BBDs Winter Wonderland so that's what I will show you.  I managed to accomplish quite a lot due to Olympic stitching.  Too bad they aren't on every year... or maybe not!  My house is a mess.  :-)

I'm on vacation for the next 10 days so who knows, I might even have this finished for the next WIPocolypse update! 

Project Frustration

Have you ever had a project that just seemed to be jinxed?  Well, I think Ann Sandles is that project for me.  I had made a fair amount of progress restitching it on 40 count except for the fact that the next time I picked it up it dawned on me that I had started too far in from the left and that I was probably not going to have enough fabric to frame it.  Evidently I measured over 3 inches but had cut my fabric for a 2 inch border.  Talk about frustrating!

So I proceeded to pick out the inner border area and used the remaining outside border to become the inside border instead.  This is where I left off the last time I worked on it.  I have not felt sufficient motivation to pick it up again but I will.  I'm going to win and get this project stitched.  I just hope there's no more frogging 40 ct in my future.

I have been dedicating a lot of Olympic watching time to BBD Winter Garden so I should have some great progress to show for the next WIPocolypse update.  I hope your stitching is going much more smoothly than mine has lately!

What's kept me away....

The baby sweater is done!  I sewed the last ends in last night and took these photos - that's why they are so dark.  While I could be critical about some of my stitches, overall I'm really pleased with how this turned out.  It's my first completed sweater ever and I'm done with 2 weeks to spare before the baby shower so I'm really pleased to have it completed.

While most of my time has been devoted to knitting, I contributed a bit more to my TUSAL jar since the last photo.  A lot has been due to ripping out which I will take about later this week but there was some progress made.

July WIPocolypse Post

I was much more productive on the stitching front in June than I was in May.  For my WIPocolypse update, I worked primarily on BBDs Winter Wonderland, CHS Christmas at Hawk Run Hollow and WTNT's Ann Sandels.

First up is CHS Christmas at HRH.  Where I started in June:

As of today:

 Most of what you see was accomplished today as I had the day off for the 4th of July holiday.

 Here is the restart of With Thy Needle & Thread's Ann Sandels:

 I restarted it on 40 count fabric and am much happier with how it looks.  I hope to give this piece a lot more attention in July.

And finally, my progress on BBD Winter Wonderland.  I think this is the piece I made the most notable progress on.  I hope to keep up the momentum but I'm dreading having to stitch all those windows and the walls of the house!  I've tried loading the new photo three different times and it won't load horizontally as it was photographed.  Sorry!

I hope you had a great 4th of July for those who celebrated.  I walked in our town's parade which gets bigger every year.  It was fun but I think next year I want to be sitting on the sidelines and watching.  We were very close to the end so we didn't get to see much of the beginning floats and entries.  It's back to work tomorrow.  :-(

Summer Weekends

I had company this weekend and the weather was perfect summer temps.  There was time spent at the beach working on tans.  The weather was in the 80s with amazing blue skies.  The water was its usual bone chilling cold and although I tried, I could only stand to mid-calf for a minute at most.  I just don't understand how people can swim in that stuff!  And little kids at that.  I miss my warm gulf coast water.

 We also went into Portland and toured the Old Port which was surprisingly uncrowded for the weekend before a big summer holiday.  I wonder if its because the holiday falls in the middle of the week but whatever the reason, it was nice.

Sunday morning meant a lazy breakfast with some yummy pecan buns in miniature from the Southern Living Almost Homemade cookbook.  And of course the NY Times Sunday crossword puzzle.  I can definitely recommend the pecan buns.  I sent the remainder home with company as they were way too tempting.

I made some additional progress on my baby project but I'm kind of stuck at the moment with the directions.  There may be some reverse knitting in my future.  Hope you had a great weekend as well!