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!