Knitting Finish and Quandary

Hello all! I managed to finish those socks for my mom:

Vanilla sock pattern size 2.75mm ChiaoGoo needles

Christmas Robin colourway by West Yorkshire Spinners

Then, given my loose end again from the recent small finish, I decided to skip ahead to one of the other monthly focus pieces. We were still catching up on Star Trek Strange New Worlds and Lower Decks, so I went with a fairly simple one, Symphonic Romance. Last time you saw it, it looked like this:

Symphonic Romance by Summer House Stitche Workes

stitched 2 over 2 full cross with WDW Grape Ice

on 28ct evenweave from Jodyri

and now it looks like this:

and it's a little over a quarter complete. However, I realized that where I thought I had 4 skeins of all the same colourway, I actually have 2 skeins with the colour scheme above, and 2 with a much darker grey. I started it on the top right side, and in case it's not obvious, I also took a close-up:

So I've put this aside for now and I'll see if I can find more Grape Ice and see what colourway it has. I'm definitely not frogging all that I've done, so it's possible it will be a restart or a UFO. For now, it will be put away and I'll likely chose another monthly focus project. 

In knitting news, I'm almost done a pair of shortie socks in that same colourway above, DD wanted a pair to match Grandma. I'll show the finished pair next week. 

I hope you've all had more successful stitching weeks!

Happy Stitching, 

Tiffstitch

New Year, New Start(s)!

I hope you've all had a good start to the New Year and thank you for all your lovely comments throughout the year! A very big thanks to all the comments on my 2021 round-up post as well. 

As at least 2 of you guessed, that lovely fabric, Vincent by Chromatic Alchemy, is for another silhouette. It is the sequel of Princess and the Dragon, called Triumphant Ride:

It's charted by Charting Creations if you're interested and is a little over 50K stitches. It fortunately works in Pattern Keeper, which makes these so much easier to work on. I won't say frog-proof, but much less likely to make an error with how they're charted. 

Here's how much I managed, a little over 1K stitches:

Triumphant Ride by Charting Creations

stitched 1 over 1 on 28ct Vincent by Chromatic Alchemy with DMC 310

In case you're interested in the fabric, I don't believe Sam can make this any more because of how she had to change up her business over the last couple years. Perhaps sometime in the future. 

The needle minder is technically just a magnet that Santa brought and I put a strong magnet on the back to make it into a needle minder. 

I also started a 2nd new project on New Year's Day 2022 but don't have any progress photos yet!

A third new project I started for Jo's Facebook Ornament SAL from the JCS Ornament issue. I think the group is called JCS Stitch Along if you search for it, or use the link above. This is the January ornament:

The Robin's Gift by The Little Stitcher

stitched 2 over 1 on 18?ct Nimbus? by Chromatic Alchemy

stitched with stash threads, including Etoile (red gift) and DMC metallics (snow)

This was a fun little stitch. I changed up the colours to whatever I had hanging around in my stash threads box. Whenever I use any variegated or non-standard DMC threads I put them in a bobbin box and use them for these small ornaments. There are some leftover kit threads too in there sometimes. The green gift is one of the DMC variegated threads that had such wild shade changes, but I folded it in half and made it look more reasonable to my eyes. 

I haven't even posted this on FB yet, but I will Jo! :)

Lastly, I dug out a WIP that I started last year to work on till the end of the week:

Simply Christmas by WBTW

stitched 2 over 2 on 28ct Lazurite by Chromatic Alchemy

with Soie Cristal and WDW Turkish Red

I have so many WIPs to choose from and have a sort of loose plan of working on 1000 stitches of Triumphant Ride per week, maybe the 2nd project too, and then spend the rest of the week on either a WIP or SAL. I have a lot of those to work on. I chose this one for a couple reasons. One, it was nearby on my stitching stand and not put away like some of the others, and two, it's a nice, simple repetitive pattern that is easy to get some progress into each evening. This is only a couple days of work and I didn't even have the top row done before. There are 5 total rows of the green "stars" with red ribbon between them, and lastly will be some gold accents. They will likely be with PTB if I have some around. That's a pretty easy metallic for me to work with. 

I think I start the new week on Saturday so I'll work on this again tonight and then likely put it away for a bit until I get at least another 1000 stitches into Triumphant Ride. I haven't decided if I'll pull out the same WIP each week until it's finished or switch it up. I wouldn't mind having some more of these finished this year because I have a big project planned for next year. 

And I'll leave you wondering there. :) I hope this New Year brings us all less stress and more stitching!

Happy Stitching and stay well,

Tiffstitch

End of 2021

Here it is, the last post of 2021! And onto a New Year with lots of new stitching and some plans? First, I managed 2 other finishes and one is almost done, so we'll pretend it's a finish for the end of the year. I will get it completed before the end of the year EST. 

The 4th Moonrise ornament was finished earlier, but I forgot to post about it:

Moonrise Ornament #4 by WBTW

stitched 2 over 1 on 14ct Illusion Aida by Silkweavers

with DMC 167, 738, 3823, 3865 as well as RG blending filament in the moon

It's so nice to have all four ornaments complete! I also managed one more smallish finish from my myriad of starts this year:

Irish at Heart by Jennifer Akon? (have to check spelling)

stitched 1 over 1 with WDW Okefenokee and Cactus, unknown Soie Cristals and Waterlilies Plum

on 16 or 18ct light blue Aida

My parents went on a bus tour of Ireland a few years ago, well pre-COVID, and loved it so much! I think I'll try and manage to make this into a St. Patrick's Day card for them. My dad has become somewhat obsessed with Irish music, which isn't a bad thing. I surprised him this year though when DD and I were talking about the song Miss Fogarty's Christmas Cake and he hadn't heard of it. I sent him the link to watch it, since it's another great holiday one like Christmas in Kilarney. 

And the last one which is almost a finish, and would have been if I didn't have to get up to get to work early this morning, this is another Rainbow Gallery freebie when they had a bunch back in 2015(?). 

Easter Freebie by Erica Michaels through Rainbow Gallery's website

stitched 2 over 1 with Carrie's Creations Jellyfish for the border and unknown Dinky Dyes for the bunny, Glinda the Good by Jodyri for the ears, WDW Purple Haze for the eyes, 

WDW Camellia for the nose, and an unknown for the blue/green background 

on 16ct or 18ct light blue aida

So close!! But it was 12:30am by the time I took this photo and I need to be up by 6:45am at the latest to get to work on time. I have at least a 30 minute commute on a good day to get to work on time. 

My best friend from undergrad got a quarantine pet bunny over a year ago and he's just about this colour, so I might send this as a birthday card next year when I get it finished. Or maybe Easter?

I definitely won't have any more finishes than this before the end of the year, and I'll try and update my finishes page to show all of these. 

New Year's plans can wait for another post. Happy New Year!

Tiffstitch

2021 Tokyo Olympic Stitching Challenge Start #5

Today it's time to talk about a sport I've never really attempted besides an old video game called "Skate or Die" back in the old Commodore 64 days. 5 1/4" floppys, those rolodexes full of disks, you remember those days too? 

Check out those graphics! I wasn't very good at this game either, I remember it being fairly difficult to do anything interesting with the keyboard setup we had. 

DD is interested in getting a skateboard and learning how to ride. We have friends who can skateboard, so hopefully we can figure out a time for a few lessons once we get her equipment. She's been saving up her money, although she keeps dipping into it to buy books. And I can't fault her that. :)

Skateboarding is a new event this year in the Olympics. Japan swept the men's and women's street events, and the gold medalist in the women's event is only 13 years old! I think all the medalists in the women's event were under 20 years of age. One interesting fact I noticed was that the younger competitors wore helmets and the older ones did not. A women in her 20s had no helmet and none of the men wore helmets, but I think they were all above 18years old. I'm not sure if it's required by Olympic rules or just a good idea. I've watched other skateboard competitions where helmets are not required for the younger competitors either. 

And onto my new start, which again is not a seasonally themed project. This might be the last one I have that's not seasonal though? I'd have to recheck my pile of to-be-started projects again. 

Eventually it will look something like this:

And here is my start:

Normal is just a setting on the washer by Lizzie Kate

stitched 2 over 2 on kit linen included with the chart

with stash threads, all WDW so far (Bethlehem, Bayberry, Blue Bonnet, Azalea and Americana)

I didn't quite get 500 stitches into this one, so I may get a few more in tonight before starting the next new one. Something more holiday oriented again maybe? Any guesses which holiday? 

I hope you're all staying well!

Happy Stitching,

Tiffstitch

2021 Tokyo Olympics Stitching Challenge Start #4

Day 4 here we go! And make sure you're checking out Rachel's posts. Her day 3 start is a must-have for me. 

Today I wanted to give you a little background on table tennis or ping pong. There's a 12 year old girl competing in the singles event this year, and I don't think she's moving on to the finals, but just getting there at 12 years old is a pretty big deal. I'm always amazed at how fast they can hit the ball back and forth. I've played table tennis, but not with the skill and speed these athletes show. 

Table tennis has been in the Olympics since 1988 and China has dominated the medals in both women's and men's events. The first medal in table tennis this year was an upset though, the host country, Japan, beat China in mixed doubles. I can't imagine how difficult it is to learn to keep out of each other's way trying to play doubles in table tennis! 

Today's start is <shock> not another seasonal project! I found this one while visiting my parent's LNS several years ago. It's been closed for at least a couple years now, so this has been hanging around for a while. It will eventually look something like this:

and I managed about 500 stitches to start:

Symphonie Romana by Summer House Stitche Workes

stitched 2 over 2 on 28 ct Sparkling lemonade by unknown designer

with WDW Grape Ice

I'm happy with the start on this one and love how the threads look on this fabric. I haven't chosen the colour for the central motif yet. I'm thinking about a dark lavender maybe? But don't have anything in mind yet. It will definitely take a while, so I'm sure I'll find the perfect colour someday. Please let me know if you have any suggestions!

I hope you're all staying well and Happy Stitching!

Tiffstitch

2021 Tokyo Olympic Stitching Challenge Start #1

It's here! The Olympics is upon us, and whether or not it's a good idea, they're doing it anyway, so the new starts commence today. Or actually yesterday to try and give me time to get a post up daily. 

My new starts will have absolutely nothing to do with the Olympics, but I thought I'd try and post a bit about events I like to watch and some history. I'll start with the favourite for a lot of people: gymnastics!

Perhaps the rest of you are also just about to learn that the word "gymasium" is from the Ancient Greek word gymnazein which means to exercise naked. That would certainly be a new way to watch the Olympics. Speaking of that, have you heard the German women's team is going with full body suits, whether they get fined or not? Good for them. It should be about the sport and there's been enough over-sexualization of mostly young girls' bodies. 

Gymnastics was added to the modern Games in 1898, but only for men. Women's gymnastics was added in 1928 in Amsterdam. The events differ for men and women, and I think we all know most of them, so I won't get into that. If you'd ever like more info, please let me know. 

I'm looking forward to watching the incredible strength, flexibility and training these athletes have gone through to get to this point. Canada usually doesn't medal in gymnastics, so no disappointment if there are no medals for Canadians. It will be exciting if it happens. 

And now, onto my start!

You may pick up early on the seasonal theme of these again. :) This is what it will look like eventually:

and I managed a little over 500 stitches to get to this point:

Noel by Bent Creek

stitched on 28ct Chromatic Alchemy fabric scrap

with WDW Fathom and Blue Bonnet, odd Dinky Dyes for orange and the grey is Silks4U PR026 

This was a fun little new start and should only need a few days to finish. It's just finding those few days. :)

I hope you're enjoying the Olympics if you're interested, and if not, at least enjoy a new fact or two. 

Happy Stitching and stay well!

Tiffstitch

Fully Finished Gallery - December Edition

 You may not believe this, but I have multiple finishes this month! I had extra days off over American Thanksgiving and had an urge to do some organizing. Part of that involved going through the "drawer of shame finishes" to see what materials I had, what I wanted to get done, etc. And I managed to fully finish all of these!

Life is Tough by Circus Stitches

stitched 2 over 2 with stash threads, mostly WDW 

on 28ct Rainbow ltd edition by Chromatic Alchemy

framed in a 6x6 inch frame

2018 Ink Spot ornament by Ink Circles

stitched 2 over 2 with Caron Waterlilies

on 28ct Tempest by Chromatic Alchemy

and here it is on the tree. Note the hidden basset hounds :)

Squirrelly by Mill Hill

stitched 3 over 1 as charted

backed with maroon felt and hanger with DMC variations brown thread

Celtic Ice by Ink Circles

stitched 2 over 2 on called for fabric

with Carrie's Creations Night Storm and Blue Dreams

backed with blue felt and hanger with DMC variations blue 

Haunted House by Heart in Hand

stitched 2 over 1 with stash threads

on 16?ct fabric scrap

backed with burnt orange felt and hanger with WDW Trick or Treat thread

Boo! by Bent Creek

stitched 2 over 1 mostly as charted with WDW Trick or Treat border

on 16ct Galaxy by Jodyri

backed with burnt orange felt and black DMC hanger

Joy Snowglobe by Dimensions

stitched 2 over 1 on plastic canvas as charted

backed with red felt and extra red thread from kit for hanger

Woodland Santa #8 by Mill Hill

stitched 3 over 1 as charted

backed with dark green felt and green hanger from extra thread

I'm sure you're all surprised by the amount of finishes, although you'll notice most are smalls. But it's still nice to have them all finished, and possibly ready for gifts this year. Don't expect this kind of productivity again though. ;) 

Stay well and Happy Stitching!

Tiffstitch

Spring Into Summer New Start Binge #10 - Just Breathe

Here we are again! We're well over halfway there and the summer is starting to heat up in this neck of the woods. This weekend we had rain though, so that meant lots of stitching time.

I went off the rails again from my list, but I think that's fairly normal for me at any time. There are so many amazing charts out there, and it's hard to settle on starting on the same one I thought of almost 3 months ago! :)

Please check out Annie and Rachel's posts as well to see what tempting new starts they have this week as well.

I went with one of the free charts for the Be Well and Stitch movement, although I did give a donation to FiddlesticksAU since I think all designers are having decreased sales currently. This is how it's designed:

And I decided to use up some stash threads, and managed to finish it:

Just Breathe by Fiddlesticksau

stitched 2 over 2 on 28ct Realgar by Chromatic Alchemy with WDW various stash threads (Dutch Iris, Purple Majesty?, Bethlehem, Camellia, Azalea and Foliage I think)

I'm hoping to frame this and give it to a friend that's a germaphobe. And this was before COVID, so she's even more so now. I think she'll get a kick out of it.

I hope you've all had good stitchy weeks!

Happy Stitching,

Tiffstitch