Little Bit More of Everything

Here we are, last week of February already somehow and even with the extra day tomorrow I can't believe how quickly the year has disappeared. We're having very unseasonably warm weather for the Northeastern US as well, which might be making it seem further into the year than it really is. 

Speaking of Leap Day/Leap Year, any new starts planned for anyone? Thursdays are my very busy day, so unlikely I will get any stitching in at all, but I did help plan the Leap Day playlist for my Thursday Night hockey group. If you're interested, this is the list:

                        The Wizard - Black Sabbath ( a member was born on Feb. 29)

                        Jump Jive N Wail - Brian Setzer Orchestra

                        Jump - Van Halen

                        Jumpin' Jack Flash - Stones

                        29 Palms - Robert Plant

                        Jump - Kriss Kross 

                        Jump Around - House of Pain

                        Jump (for my love ) - Pointer Sisters

                        Waiting for the Great Leap Forward - Billy Bragg

                        Jump for Joy - Peggy Lee

                        Jump for Joy - Warrior Soul

                        Leap of Faith - Bruce Springsteen

                        Leap of Faith - The Interrupters

                        Jump Into the Fire - Harry Nilsson

                        Jump Into the Fog - The Wombats

                        Look Before you Leap - Marcia Ball

                        Give - The Suicide Machines

                        Bodies - Drowning Pool (singer born on Feb. 29)

                        The Mob Rules - Black Sabbath

And now, what you've all been waiting for, a bit of progress on Do Not Meddle! ;)

Do Not Meddle by Dragon Dreams

stitched 1x1 full cross on 28ct white with recommended DMC

And I was doing more knitting than stitching after another migraine (boo) hit me on Saturday. Not as bad as the week before, so still able to get some things done. Here's Wiglaf:

    

Wiglaf scarf by Lizi Lowe

knit with Fiber Me This You and the Stars 80/10/10 MCN 

and Sassy Black Yarns Connecticut Snow 100% baby alpaca

If you can follow the colour changes, the blue stripes were decreasing in height until they hit 4 rows, then the white rows will increase to the same height as the blue near the bottom, then it starts over again, so the middle will be mostly white with blue stripes and the 2 ends will be blue with white stripes. 

Jo asked if this was named after Wiglaf from Beowulf, and it was! Here's the designer's note:

- A note on the name: Wiglaf is my favorite character from the Old English poem Beowulf. The protagonist, Beowulf, when faced with a dragon who is terrorizing his people, is abandoned by all his chosen companions. Except Wiglaf. In Beowulf’s darkest hour, one man stands loyal by his side and will not abandon his king.

It's a very easy knit, good for beginners if anyone is interested. It's just garter stitch, but carrying the colours up the side is a nice way to not have to weave in a lot of ends, and it makes a nice edge. 

I hope everyone has a good week and enjoy your new starts if you're having one!

Happy Stitching, 

Tiffstitch

Halfway There?

 

Look! Look!

Do Not Meddle by Dragon Dreams

stitched 1x1 full cross on 28ct white with recommended DMC

I finished a dragon! So excited! I hope I can get the words done tonight, they're almost done, then it's one more dragon. There's a chance this will stay out a few extra days if I get close with the second dragon. I'd love to get this one finished. 

The rest is all knitting, more work on the Wiglaf scarf:

    

Wiglaf scarf by Lizi Lowe

knit with Fiber Me This You and the Stars 80/10/10 MCN 

and Sassy Black Yarns Connecticut Snow 100% baby alpaca

And I made a few hearts for Valentine's Day:

    

made with fingering weight yarn

That's all for this week, so we'll see where next week gets us. I hope you've all had a good stitching week!

Happy Stitching,

Tiffstitch

Secret Stitching Sweetheart

Happy Valentine's Day to all who celebrate! More importantly, it's Secret Stitching Sweetheart day!

Without further ado, who does this amazing piece of stitching belong to? 

Love the finishing on this one and the gorgeous colour and matching trim. 

Also, check out Jo's page for everyone who's found their match!

Enjoy something special for yourselves today or start something new, I give you permission! :)

Happy Stitching,

Tiffstitch

Mid-February Update

Another weekly update on stitching and knitting. I added a few rows to the Wiglaf scarf:

Wiglaf scarf by Lizi Lowe

knit with Fiber Me This and Sassy Black Yarns

And I finished the PWHL hat! Still not in love with how the floats show, but maybe it will block out. That's the knitters way of trying to fudge something that didn't turn out quite right. 

and I love the top!

PWHL team hat by Sydney Gerzymisch

in Berroco Ultra Wool in a deep red, green and cream (although it looks white here)

I'm going to make another one in the same colourway, but watch a few videos on how to hide floats first to see if we can lose that kind of stripey look you get in the white part of the hat in the top photo. 

Next comes stitching!

Do Not Meddle came out a few times and I'm almost done the dragon on the left:

Do Not Meddle by Dragon Dreams

stitched 1x1 full cross on 28ct white with recommended DMC

I was debating about outlining the dragon on the right as well before going back to fill it in, but I really, really want to finish the dragon on the left. I had some lighter colour left over after finishing it on the left dragon, so started a bit on the right, but went back to the left dragon with the next darker shade of light green. I think there are 7 shades of green in this one?

I'm still not sure if it will be a finish this month, but definitely the dragon on the left will get finished and maybe the saying as well. It's mostly there as it is. 

I also pulled out Winter Feast again to get one night on it:

Winter's Feast by Mill Hill

stitched as charted with kit threads and beads on perforated paper

So lots of things worked on and a little progress on everything, plus one more finish! Not a bad week. I hope you've all had a good week as well. 

Happy Stitching!

Tiffstitch

Start of February 2024

Here we are again, so far posting once a week is sticking, so I'll try and keep up with it. I've definitely missed it, and feel like I'm maybe in a better mental space to keep up with it and stitching now too. I did get a lot of knitting in this past week, so we'll start with that. 

I managed another knit finish, although this is a terrible photo. 

Vanilla shortie socks in Christmas Robin colourway by WYS

These are very slightly smaller than the ones for my mom. DD's feet are already a size 6ish, so she's on her way to get to 9 like me probably, if not more. 

I also finished a scarf in the Boa yarn that was from my Grandma's yarn stash and still smells like her. I forgot to take a photo though and have put it away for now. When I remember I will get it out again.

I started a new scarf:

This is the Wiglaf scarf and you can find it on Ravelry. I'm using slightly less contrasting colours than they use in their model, but these yarns spoke to me when I was stash diving. I'm trying to actively use up stash this year as much as I can. 

I also got distracted by the PWHL hat, a free pattern on Ravelry The model is in the colours of the Montreal women's hockey team, and a friend I used to play hockey with and I were discussing what colours to use. Neither of us had picked a favourite team yet, Montreal and Boston are the closest ones to me, and the Detroit Red Wings are her favourite team, but there's no Detroit team yet. So, we came up with using our old team colours from the London Devilettes. They're similar to the New Jersey Devil colours at the time, so they're red and green predominantly. Here's where I'm at so far:

PWHL team hat by Sydney Gerzymisch

in Berroco Ultra Wool in a deep red, green and cream (although it looks white here)

I did have to buy this yarn, but it's quite inexpensive and the hat is knitting up fairly quickly if you don't count the colourwork. I'm not great at it and might watch some videos about how to hide the floats better. You can sort of see the vertical lines in the white, and those are where I caught the floats behind. You have to bring along the alternate colour with the other colour, and catch it every so often. I'm maybe not doing it correctly, but this hat is my practice piece and I'll work on improving. I will definitely make more of these. Any extra support they get will hopefully keep the league going. 

Finally, on to some cross stitch. After debating about what project to start on given the disappointment with the last one, I decided to pull out a dragon to go with Chinese New Year. You may remember seeing this one on and off over the years. This is where I started:

and one night got me here:

Do Not Meddle by Dragon Dreams

stitched 1x1 full cross on 28ct white with recommended DMC

I have some hope of actually getting this one finished and sent to the recipient this year. I won't say it will happen this month since there's still a lot of the month left to get through. I enjoyed the stitching though, so I think I finally made my progressive glasses strong enough for 28ct now. ;) I believe I started it back when I didn't need the extra magnification. 

I hope you've all been having a good week!

Happy Stitching, 

Tiffstitch