January Update

Here we are, almost a month into the new year, and as often happens, I've been able to get a fair bit of stitching in. We'll see how it goes, but I hope to continue on this year and at least keep up with one SAL I signed up for. 

Here's the update on the Starry Night full coverage blackwork SAL:

Starry Night SAL Parts 1-4 by Urban Stitches

stitched 1 or 2 over 1 as charted with charted threads on white 28ct Monaco?

It's not too late to join this one if you're interested, it's been an interesting project so far. You can't use pattern keeper or anything like that since it's all black work, but so far working each square as it comes out has kept me up-to-date, and kept it from becoming too overwhelming. There's a facebook group that's very helpful if people are having trouble. 

So far, the predominant colour is DMC 312. I think you need 5 skeins or so. There's also lots of DMC 799 and only 20 or so colours all told. DD was looking at my stitching and guessed it was Starry Night before I told her, so it seems to have a good resemblance. I took this photo with the scissors so you could have an idea of it's size so far. The SAL is going to be 2 years I think, so it's going to be big. There are a few weeks off over the year, so there's not a new pattern every single week during that time period. 

Without conscious intention, I happened upon what might be a good pattern of stitching throughout the year. I finished Week 1 of the SN SAL, then picked up a small WIP and finished it!

2009 Santa by Prairie Schooler 

stitched 2 over 2 with DMC blanc, 816, and 890

on 28ct Haunted by PTP

This was overdue a finish, it was started in November 2020, and now it's complete. Possibly a flat fold would be a good finish to have it out for the Christmas season? 

That took up most of the remaining week before week 2 came out, and then I worked on another WIP and finished it as well!

Winter's Feast by Mill Hill

stitched as charted with kit threads, beads and perforated paper

One of the smaller Mill Hills I have, and nice to have it finished. It should be fairly simple to finish with some felt and make it into an ornament for next Christmas. 

Then with week 3 I pulled out something that was still on the Qsnaps from November and December, Witch's Gate, started June 2020. Last time you saw it, it looked like this:

    

and now, after a few more days:

Witch's Gate by Whispered by the Wind

stitched 2 over 2 on 28ct Mirage by PTP

with DMC 167, 738, 3823 and 3866 as changes to the original colours

In case I didn't make it obvious, I worked on 2 smaller WIPs the first 2 weeks of the month and a larger WIP the 3rd week. I'll keep Witch's Gate out for the rest of this month as well. That will make my stitching schedule:

1st week of the month - finish Starry Night SAL first, then work on small WIP

2nd week of the month - finish Starry Night SAL first, then work on small WIP

3rd week of the month - finish Starry Night SAL first, then work on larger WIP

4th week of the month - finish Starry Night SAL first, then work on same larger WIP

Any extra days can be anything, plus there will be some knitting in there too. There hasn't been too much recently, just a little colourwork on a cowl that is going to take me a while. 

Very Merry MKAL by Claire Slade

And that's my month so far. I hope you've all had good months and are staying healthy with this colder weather. 

Happy Stitching!

Tiffstitch

2025 Ideas and Plans

Time to figure out what to do for this year. I have a loose plan that I'd like to try and get under 50 active WIPs by my birthday next year. I think it's achievable since I have a few smalls I could work on. I've also started a couple new projects because of course I did! It's a New Year after all. My first new start is this one:

Mystery Project

stitched 2 over 2 on 28ct one-off evenweave from Chromatic Alchemy

I'm not going to post who this is yet, because I'm interested if anyone can guess. There are 2 well-known comic characters (in North America especially) and this is about half of one of them. 

I'm also trying something completely different, although not Monty Python related. This is full coverage blackwork by Urban Stitches. 

It's going to be released one week at a time, with a few breaks throughout the year and it lasts over one year. So no worries if I get behind. It's been interesting so far. I had to frog once so far, but I've come up with a better system now I think. Here's where I'm at so far:

Starry Night by Urban Stitches

stitched 2 or 1 over 2 on 28ct white evenweave as charted

I'm also maybe going to participate in the Peppermint Purple 2025 blackwork SAL, but waiting on the first few patterns to decide on that. 

My loose plan is to work on Starry Night release, finish that, and then pick up a small and hopefully finish a few over the next few months. Not rushing myself or stressing myself out with anything. I hope to pick up some knitting projects to finish too. I worked on a couple advents in December, so I didn't get much stitching done at all. But I finished a pair of scrappy socks:

Christmas Smorgasbord by Becky Greene

stitched with scrap sock yarns and Regia heels and toes

And I started a scrappy Advent shawl by Renee Strouts. This is an easy one with lots of garter and between the 2 of these, I've used up lots of scraps from my sock yarn bag and it can close again!

Hope everyone has a good stitchy year!

Tiffstitch