March Madness progress

Really can't quite believe that March is over already.  What has made it particularly unbelievable is the very wintery weather.  Scotland doesn't have the best weather but snow at the end of March is fairly unusual and it snowed most days last week.

March has been a pretty good month for craft progress.

First, of course, was Autumn Queen.  I had hoped for more stitchy progress but my hands are causing me a few problems at the moment again.



Knitting wise I finished these very bright socks which are very much in keeping with the neon clothes in the shops just now.  I'm having flash backs to 1984 when I go into a clothes shop just now. I wore a lot of neon then including some very bright tights - my school had a very strict brown uniform but no one thought to specify colour of the tights we wore.




There has been a little bit of a jewellery product line going on.

Lots of bracelets



Some assorted other stuff



There are a couple of more jewellery bits but as they are for gifts, I can't share just yet.

April's theme is Amazon April - to work on your biggest projects.  I have a more than few things that fit into that.  I'm planning to work on my long term sock yarn left over blanket.  Also I think some of my long term Chatelaine projects might need some attention.

March Madness happy dance

Life continues on at a fast pace just now. Work and studying are keeping me pretty busy.  Thankfully I am still managing to get some time to other things.

The big news is that I've been stitching and I managed to finish Autumn Queen finally. Its stitched on Autumn sunset cashel linen by the Blended needle.





I started stitching her in 2001.  The fabric had to be resent initially as the first fabric order got lost in the transatlantic postal chaos immediately after 9/11 as it was first dispatched on 10th of September.  It got set aside for newer projects again and again and in favour of my knitting projects. At the start of this year, I decided it was time to finish her finally.

This month's theme-a-licious theme is March madness. I've decided to use this to see how many things I can finish this month and I'm including any sort of crafty project.  The Autumn Queen finish gets this off to a good start.

Stuck at home progress

The past week has been pretty much home based for me as I've had a heavy brush with the flu. Not sure if its the H1N1 or regular flu but I do know that its knocked me for six. One week on, I'm still off work and feeling below par. I did the sensible thing and quarantined myself at home with plenty of fluids and lots of rest. Thankfully I'm getting back to normal and hopefully I will be back at work at the weekend. Which will be just in time for me to get my flu jabs at work as apparently the vaccinations start next week.

As I've started to feel better, I've been managing to knit and stitch a bit. Mostly still stitching as it seems to be calling the loudest. And I managed to finish something - Thanksgiving Harvest Fairy by Mirabilia. Its on 32 ct raw linen using the recommended Crescent colors threads.



October is Socktoberfest in the Sock knitting world. My aim is to try and finish some of the socks I have on my needles. First up, the Pumpkin socks I started last September. I've finally managed to finish the first one and I've made a start on the second.



Hopefully I can get them finished before the end of the month.

Knitting progress

Earlier in the month, I decided to set myself some goals for this month, largely because I have a lot of projects just drifting along.

My first two goals were knitting ones - to finish my Central Park hoodie and to finish at least one of the pairs of socks on my needles. Well its going pretty well.

I finished my Central park hoodie on Thursday. I'm really pleased with it as it fits really well and the yarn has softened to a lovely texture on washing. I even managed to find buttons that I liked. I don't have a good modelled shot of it so here's a picture of it in my spare bedroom (hence the slight mess in the background)



I've also managed to finish the pair of Monkey socks that I had on my needles. The yarn is Panda Soy in Positive purple that I bought at the Iknit day last year. The yarn feels lovely in the finished socks but it was fiddly to knit with as it splits very, very easily.



The stitching goals are coming along pretty well too. I'm almost finished the side panel of Japanese Octagon box and part 1 of Autumn Watergarden so I should manage it by the end of the month. I've also managed to finish a Shepherd's bush design called Violets which needs to be ironed before I share a picture of it.

Life is sort of bumbling along at the moment. Work is pretty busy as per usual but I've got a four day weekend off this weekend which I'm really looking forward to, largely because I have nothing particular that I have to do. The downside is that I'm having a few problems with pain in my face and nose which I think is sinus related and I think might be related to a fall that I had several years ago. I hurt my face fairly badly then and its left me with a nose which isn't quite right. I was seen by a ENT doctor at the time but the appointment was slightly too long after the incident according to the Doctor that saw me to tell if anything was broken. I'm a coward when it comes to going to the Doctor about things but I think I really need to go soon. Meantime I've been dosed up on Sudafed for the past few days and I can at least breathe better.

Sunday stitching progress and some goals

Lately the title of this blog has been a bit deceptive as there's not been a lot of stitching going on around here. The yarn and knitting projects have been calling pretty loudly. My stitching WIP list is huge though so I've been spending a little time stitching this week.

I managed to finish one of my WIPs, Spooky spots by Shepherds Bush.



I did start another project though - Autumn Watergarden by Chatelaine designs. I moderate two forums on the Chatelaine BB and one of them is for this design so I thought I'd better get cracking with the stitching as I'm already a little behind. I've only managed a little bit so far as I had to buy some threads to go any further.



Finally I've been spending a little time working on another WIP also by Chatelaine designs - Japanese Octagon box. The bit I'm currently working on is the side of the box. I might make this my stitching focus for a while as I really want this finished and on display.



I'm going to try setting myself some goals for this month to see if it will help me make more progress on the things I want to do.

This month I'm hoping to

1. Finish my Central Park Hoodie - I only have a little bit of each sleeve, the hood and the button bands to do so its achievable.

2. Finish one pair of socks currently on the needles - again achievable as I'm on the second sock of one pair

3. Stitch at least the first part of Autumn Watergarden

4. Finish stitching the box side of Japanese Octagon box and make a start on at least one more section.

Overcoming a fear of sewing machines

Ever since I was a very little girl, I've been around sewing machines and fabrics. My mum was a sewing machinist to trade and spent many years working in a variety of different factories, making wedding dresses, waxed jackets and evening wear amongst other things. Times change and there aren't many factories making clothes around here. Although I've always been around sewing machines and have made some clothes in the past (with help from mum), I've always been really a little scared of sewing machines. At school I hated the home economics sewing lessons we had as the teachers expected me to be a natural because of what my mum worked as. Alas I was really very uncoordinated as a child and although I'm a little better now, I'm always scared I will hurt myself on it or destroy the fabric.

In recent years, I've been finding myself wanting to sew more, especially to finish some of my stitching into something. Up until now, most of this sort thing I've done by hand sewing. A couple of years ago, I bought a mini sewing machine but it really wasn't that good so last year I splashed out on a full sized Janome machine with lots of features. At the moment, I'm off on holiday so I thought I would get cracking with overcoming my sewing machine fear with the side effect of trying to reduce my to be finished into something pile.

I started off with some simple cushions with the cross stitch bits hand sewn on to the front of them.




Happy holidays by Lizzie Kate.



Scatter sunshine by Shepherd's bush



Scatter Christmas cheer by Shepherd's bush.

I then moved on to a cushion with the cross stitch sewn into it.



On the haunt by Shepherd's bush

And a banner type thing.



4 square peep by San Man designs.

Finally and much instruction reading, I put my very first zip in a cushion - normally I either get my mum to do it or just hand sew the side up. Its not perfect, it was a little scary to do but I like it. The stitching is a dragon round robin that I was in a number of years ago.


I don't think I'm ever going to be the most confident sewing machine user but it was a little less scary than it was before. I did do some hand sewing based finishing by making Pumpkins by Little house needlework into a pin keep.



Other than sewing, I've mostly been using my holidays to sleep and catch up with a lot of household things that I've neglected of late. The weather here has been pretty wet, wild and cold so its been ideal. There's also been some knitting but no knitting finishes. There has been a fairly large amount of progress on a variety of projects so I'm hoping for a few big knitting finishes soon. The weather just now is certainly knitwear weather.

Harrogate report and a finish

Well I did finally make it back home but nearly an hour later than I should have and a lot colder too. And this morning it was back off to work for a day at work that I would rather not think about as it was truly horrid. Not the worst ever but pretty high on the list.

Anyway on to nicer topics and my trip to York and the Harrogate stitching show. I've been going to the show for the past few years and I have to say that it was the busiest that I've seen it there for a number of years. Ironically I spent less than I have in the past inspite of lots of temptation. I didn't buy any yarn at all - there were a few things that tempted me but I just didn't see anything that I couldn't live without. Some yarns I liked but the colours that were on show, weren't something I liked.

That's not to say that I didn't buy other things though. First up, I discovered that a favourite beading company have written a book of gorgeous beaded jewellery so the book had to come home with me along with a kit for a beaded bracelet.



I also bought some dyed silk rods to try and make some corsage type brooches that I saw instructions to make in a recent stitching magazine. Hopefully I can get to work out. Oh and some overdyed green thread for an upcoming Christmas project.



I also found a rather fab stall selling brilliant unusal Japanese fabrics and buttons. The stall holder told me that she has lots more Japanese prints on the way as she's going be the importer for several firms. Plus she had wool felt which is tricky to get. The fabric is on the Eternal maker site and the buttons are from the button company.



I bought some other lovely buttons from another stall, The button lady, who doesn't seem to have a website.



I also spent a little money with the ladies of the Nimble thimble who always have lots of Shepherds bush and Lizzie Kate designs to tempt me and also Trudy Anne who had a great range of JBW and Little house charts.



I actually spent two days at the show, partly so I could see everything also I really can't manage to spend the whole day at the show anymore as being on my feet for more than a couple of hours at a time tends to cause a lot of back pain and problems so I tend to spend just a short spell at the show each day so I don't cause myself problems.

On Friday, I caught up with Karoline and her gorgeous little girl plus her lovely MIL and also other friends Pat and Scully. It was lovely to see them all.

On Saturday after the show, I made the time to go the local Oxfam shop in Harrogate. The Oxfam shop there has a little craft based sale timed to the same weekend as the Knitting and stitching show. Last year I got some embroidery threads. This year it was all about buttons. I think they save up the crafty stuff they get donated for this sale. I was pretty lucky with the buttons I found with the bonus that a charity gets the benefit too. I particularly like the grey buttons.



One of the good things about the Harrogate conference centre is the old part of it - the Royal Halls. For the past couple of years, its been out of use due to renovations and dangerous areas of the building. This year, the renovations are finished and the cafe that was always there was back. Its really lovely to look up from your cup of tea to see the pretty surroundings.



On Sunday morning, I got a little surprise when I looked out the window of where I was staying - snow had fallen overnight. It wasn't particularly deep but it was a little challenging to walk to the station.



Whilst I was away, I managed to finish the Country companions Christmas project that I shared the WIP of recently. Not sure if I'm going to frame it or finish it in some other way.

Stitching, knitting and exchanges

I have been meaning to post but just not getting around to it for the past few days. Given that I'm not really short on spare time at the moment, I'm not really sure where the time goes each day. Mostly it disappears into more sleep time, doing strange stretching exercises and general household stuff. I have been catching up on a lot of household tidying over the past 2 weeks as I seem to be further along the road to recovery than I was a few weeks ago. Returning to work soon is looking a lot more realistic just now and I should hopefully have a better idea after a round of different hospital/GP appointments this week.

Saturday I got a lovely surprise in the post. I took part in a Valentine's exchange on the SBEBB earlier in the year but something went wrong and I didn't receive an exchange. On Saturday, I got a lovely replacement stitched by Cathy B who stepped in so I got an exchange.

It is a lovely sweet LHN design finished as a little pillow and she also included some DMC threads and some sampler fabric which will be made into something soon.



A slightly better picture of the pillow



I've also finished some stitching. First up a little biscornu pincushion which I stitched to try out the finish as I've signed up for an Biscournu exchange.



The design is a freebie from Barbara Ana which I found via a link on her website. I also signed up for her newsletter which sends out some lovely freebies. I can see a few more biscornus in my future.

I also finished a Shepherds bush design On the haunt. The fabric is a lot more orangey in real life.



The sock knitting continues also. I've finished knitting the two pairs I was working on and cast on for some more.





I haven't actually finished any socks in the past week or so. I've been doing some secret knitting for someone and also knitting some squares in leftover sock yarn for a charity afghan that I'm taking part in the Who knits group on Ravelry. Speaking of knitting, this coming Saturday, the Guardian has a knitting supplement featuring designs from a knitter that had a Doctor Who related run in with the BBC

Thanks for the nice words about my baking. I do appreciate it and the biscuits and cake were lovely. I do agree with Lena-lou about the shape of the Dalek cake though. The Dalek cutter came from a kit that you can buy in a local supermarket and I've saved it for further use.

Yay stitching

I've just about recovered from last weekend's stitching GTG and now its the weekend again. The GTG was lots of fun and I really don't think I've laughed so much since the same time last year. During the weekend, I dyed a couple of pieces of linen which I'll share pictures of once I've managed to get around finishing rinsing them and ironing them. Ironing is really not my favourite thing to do but I'l force myself lol. I also made a small trip to Wye needlecraft but I didn't go mad - I only bought a small piece of linen plus two mirabilia charts which were a particularly good price. We also had a stash giveaway in which I managed to give away a good amount of used charts and I gained a couple of pieces of fabric and two chart. All in all, it was a good weekend.

Anyway being around lots of stitchers certainly helped my stitching mojo, especially with all the finished pieces and WIPs that I saw. It helped so much that I actually finished a fairly long term WIP Happy Haunting by Shepherd bush.




I actually finished it on the train whilst the train got very close to Glasgow. Its one of the only good things about public transport - the ability to stitch on trains.
This was the retreat project from the 2006 Shepherds Bush retreat. I had planned to go again this year but being off work and still having back pain, I had to email to cancel. I'm a little disappointed but I had to be sensible.

Inpsired by one finish, I decided to pick up one of the numerous small projects that was waiting to be started and so I started, finished and finish, finished the Purrfect Bookmark from Cat's Whiskers. Its stitched on 40ct.



I'm off now to try and finish my multicoloured monkey socks. Next weekend sees the start of the Summer of socks KAL. I've joined in to try and use up some of my frankly too large sock yarn stash but I need to try and finish some of the socks currently on my needles as only socks started and finished during the time of the KAL count towards it. Currenty I have 3 pairs of socks at various stages of completion on the needles and it would be nice to start the KAL with none on the needles. That hasn't happened in a while.

New month, new look, new projects

June already, it seems this year is going very quickly. Anyway for the new month, I decided on a new look for my blog. I found a few different layouts I liked so there might be a few different layouts during the rest of the year.

There has been a lot of Little house needlework designs being stitched around stitching blogland lately so inspired by that, I've finished up one that I started earlier in the year.



Pumpkins stitched on 32ct lambswool linen. I plan to finish it into a pinkeep.

I've also stitched and finished a little kit given to me by Simone as part of the Here's to ewe SBEBB exchange. Its a dutch kit which came with all the bits to finish it as well but all the instructions were in Dutch too so I guessed when doing the finishing. I used the kit picture as a guideline.



I also managed to finish the first sock of another pair of monkey socks. They are knitted in Shelridge farm soft touch ultra like one of my previous pairs. It is so very soft but without being too fluffy and the stitches are very well defined in it.




This weekend, I'm off on my travels. Myself and 15 other stitchers are headed for a weekend away in some farm cottages. There will be lots of stitching, knitting, eating and drinking plus some shopping hopefully and a dyeing class by Kate of Sparklies fabric. We had a similar retreat last year which was lots of fun so I'm really looking forward to it. Hopefully when I return on Monday, I will have lots of lovely stitchy progress to share.

A little updating

So I haven't fallen down a hole and vanished. I've just been a bit blog uninspired. Anyway I'm happy to report that my things are a little better. I have started physio which is working as I can now feel my left foot properly but it has had the temporary effect of making my back more painful. I'm still off work and have been told by the physio not to go back just yet as it could just make things worse. Thankfully I'm lucky enough to have paid sick time.

The Anniversary sampler got finished just in time. The designs are by M designs and were stitched on 28ct Antique linen using Gloriana silk in Cranberry.



There was a family party to celebrate my parents 40th wedding anniversary held in the local Cricket club. Scotland is not really known for Cricket playing but there are quite a lot of teams and my dad does enjoy watching it. There were a few refreshments taken by my parents to celebrate. They even made a wee speech



Not sure they were really fit for speeches though. Just before the party, my sister managed to get in contact with one of our childhood friends who we hadn't seen for about 16 years. We met her for lunch and she came along to the party. Balwinder is on the left and my sister is in the middle. Obviously I'm the other one.



There was also a bit of dancing. My Aunts, cousin and Mum couldn't resist a little conga.



In amongst party preparations, physio appointments and gym going, there has been some crafty activity. I paid a little visit to Edinburgh just after my last post and met up with Karoline and her lovely daughter for lunch and stash shopping. We visited K1 yarns which recently opened and bought some lovely yarn. Alas I forgot to take pictures.

I've been knitting more socks during my time off. These are No purl Monkey socks in Lorna's laces shepherd sock in Georgetown.



And some very bright plain socks in Regia Nation shade 5399. Trust me, these are even brighter in real life. My camera doesn't capture purple that well.



Stitching wise, I have finished a couple of things which need finishing. I'm hoping to get a bit of finishing done this week and the strong desire to stitch rather than knit is coming back. Its a pity I can't stitch and knit at the same time.

Productive sick time

The only good thing about being off with back pain is that it means I have a bit more knitting and stitching time. I'm still sleeping a lot more than usual due to the painkillers, which have also had the less desirable effect of causing me to have a series of nightmares last night. I think I might have been knitting too much as the nightmare I could remember involved being trapped under lots of yarn . I was watching Heroes before I went to bed also and that seemed to be in there somewhere.

Anyway on with the knitting. I've finished the second sock of two pairs of socks.

The first one is in Lorna's laces shepherd sock in Liberty.



The second ones are in Opal feelings.



I've also finished the first of a new pair in Lorna's laces shepherd sock in Georgetown. The pattern is No purl Monkey, which is a variation of the Monkey pattern by CookieA where all purl stitches are knit instead. I'm rather fond of this pattern.



Most of my stitching time has been spent on an Anniversary piece for my parents, who were married 40 years ago next week. Its M designs Celtic heart combined with their intials. Thankfully I'm on the final stretch with it.


Now I've finished this post, its time for me to head off to the gym for some more therapeutic exercise.

Exchange update

I can now share what I stitched for the Here's to Ewe exchange on the SBEBB as its now arrived with Carol.



Its A Lamb's egg by Shepherd's bush stitched on 40ct linen finished into a little ornament/fob. I must confess that I now quite like stitching on 40ct. I don't think I want to stitch a big project on it but I love stitching small things on it and smaller versions of things I've already stitched are really interesting to me.

The rest of this week has been a little trying for me. Sadly the back problem that I first experienced last year has flared up again and last weekend at work, I was really struggling. I've been to see my GP this week with some new symptoms - altered sensation and tingling in my left leg plus an increase in pain. The visit has resulted in some x rays being taken, me being signed off work for 2 weeks and some strong painkillers being prescribed. I've also been advised that I should change jobs in the long term, which is something I've been looking into anyway. The strong painkillers have codeine in them which have been helping me to sleep in comfort for the first time in a while but have the side effect of making me sleepy for a long time - around 12 hours at a time. So unusually for this night owl, I've been asleep before 1am the past couple of nights. Hopefully things will settle down more quickly this time as I don't think I could take another 3 months on sick leave as I went a bit loopy the last time.