Delay Again, Anyone Surprised? :)

Hello all! So, with all those well-laid plans in place, of course, the following Thursday I injured my right elbow and hadn't been able to do any kind of stitching or knitting for several weeks since my last post. 

It turns out, that if you're injured and _can't_ stitch on anything, you really, really want to. So I was making plans, and doing this and that, and sometimes stitched 2 stitches on Do Not Meddle. Literally 2, because more hurt too much. Same with knitting, maybe 60 stitches some days, and that was all for weeks and weeks. 

However, things have been steadily improving and by being careful, i.e. using the mouse with my left hand for about a month, mostly doing everything left-handed instead of using my dominant right hand, etc. I have been able to craft again! 

Just in time for me starting to feel better, Urban Stitches came out with this really cool Gothic Gate blackwork pattern:

And something about it called to me, so I went to my fabric stash and found some Chromatic Alchemy that I thought would work with black thread. I worked at it for several days, little bit here and there and finished it!

Gothic Gate: Kenmore Gate of Taymouth Castle by Urban Stitches

stitched 1 strand black on 28ct Jamboree by Chromatic Alchemy

I also picked up Do Not Meddle for a bit when I finished this because I felt up to doing cross stitch instead of straight stitches, so it has progressed to here:

Do Not Meddle by Dragon Fire Designs

stitched as charted 1 over 1

on 28ct Monaco

There's really not much to go, so still a good chance I can get this finished this year. I had planned on working on one of Whispered by the Winds designs, but I almost feel like getting this completed and having it off my plate. We'll see how the month goes. Plans go out the window with injuries, so it's okay to figure it out and not stress about "goals". All my goals have had to be loose anyway the last few years. 

I hope you've all been doing well without any injuries and have had good crafting successes!

Happy Stitching!

Tiffstitch

Olympics Wrap-Up and Paralympics Plans

I hope everyone had a chance to enjoy the Olympics if they were interested! Seemed like a great games overall, lots of interesting achievements by athletes and great competition. 

I managed to get quite a few WIPs out, so here we go! (there's quite a few again)

Crossed Wing Collection was a good place to start and we last saw Hummingbird Garden here:

and after one night, there's a decent amount of fill:

Hummingbird Garden by Crossed Wing Collection

stitched 2 over 2 as charted on 28ct Largesse by Chromatic Alchemy

The next one is part of the same chart collection:

and I managed quite a bit of this colour:

Thistle Stop by Crossed Wing Collection

stitched 2 over 2 as charted on a scrap of Cumulus? by Chromatic Alchemy

Then a fun Lizzie Kate one that I'm using stash threads on. It used to be here:

and now:

Normal is Just a Setting on the Washer by Lizzie Kate

stitched 2 over 2 with stash threads

Next up another one with words, also a start from 2021:

The second photo doesn't show the fabric well, but it does show the update:

Warm Winter Wishes by Waxing Moon Designs

stitched 2 over 2 on 28ct Cumailitis by Chromatic Alchemy

with stash threads, DD Down Under Blues so far

Another 2021 start coming up:

and now:

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, DMC Etoile

Another one with words! Here's where it was:

and now:

Moon and Back by Heart in Hand

stitched 2 over 2 on 28ct linen with Gloriana threads mostly

And now a rare Satsuma Street was here:

and now a bit more:

Happy Halloween by Satsuma Street

stitched 2 over 2 as charted

on 20ct Fiddler's aida?

This next one is sort of finished, but I decided to try and add a semblance of our actual house:

And the garage is almost complete! Haven't decided if I'll sketch in a driveway or not, but the house will be below the letters.

Everyone Brings Joy by Waxing Moon Designs

   stitched 2 over 1 on 14ct Aida I think with stash threads

Next up was a more Herculean effort, I picked up a full coverage, 1x1 project and worked on it for about 500 stitches (3 days). It started here:

and here it is now:

Peacock Infinity Feather by CrossStitch4Everyone

stitched 1 over 1 full cross on 28ct Amethyst Spirit by Chromatic Alchemy

And that's it for Olympics stitching! No finishes, but quite a few projects had progress, which feels pretty good. Next up is the Paralympics and I think I'd like to try and finish Do Not Meddle during that. I'm quite far along and it just needs a push! 

I hope everyone has been feeling well, and having good stitching days. 

Happy Stitching,

Tiffstitch

Summer Olympics 2024 WIP Update

I decided to work on a bunch of WIPS over the Olympics. Not necessarily one per day, but I'm trying to get at least 2 hours on each WIP if I can. I don't have any particular order, basically the first one I get to in the case that holds all of them. 

The first one I came to was Winter's Feast, which used to look like this:

and now looks like this:

Winter's Feast by Mill Hill

stitched as charted with kit threads and beads on perforated paper

Next up was one that hasn't been out of the WIP box for a while (2020). It looked like this when I got it out:

and now it's  here:

2009 Santa by Prairie Schooler

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

on 28ct Haunted by PTP?

Next up was another Mill Hill kit, I have a few of those on the go! Last time it looked like this:

and now you can see a bit more of the project:

Skating Snowman by Mill Hill

stitched 3 over 3 as charted with kit threads and perforated paper

And there's these little birdhouses by Durene Jones that I started a few years ago and didn't have many stitches then:

and now you can see a bit more of both of them:

Christmas Birdhouse by Durene Jones

stitched 2 over 2 on 28ct Monaco

with DMC as charted

And another one from 2020 came up in the WIP pile, it used to look like this:

and I'm posting this photo first because of the ironic mistake I made:

Can you believe it? How could I misspell school?!? Anyway, I couldn't leave it like that, so this is what it looks like now:

Official Snow Guide by Lizzie Kate

stitched 2 over 2 with random stash threads (DD, WDW)

I dug out another "small", because it's not small in 1/4 and 3/4 stitches and very fiddly, but I got quite a bit done. Here's where it was:

and now:

Honest Santa... I Didn't Do It by The Sweetheart Tree

stitched 2 over 2 with charted DMC

And lastly, I picked up this one this morning:

And added almost all of one more colour:

Stocking ornament by Jane Henderson

stitched 2 over 2 as charted

on 28ct scrap evenweave

And that's where I'm at so far. And it's only been 3 and a bit days of Olympics. Of course this was while DH and DD were away one evening and while I was off work, so the next few days probably won't have as much stitching. That's partly why I tried to get a lot done this past weekend. 

Hope you're all enjoying the Olympics, there's been some amazing performances!

Happy Stitching, 

Tiffstitch

Overdue Update Post

Hey, back again. Life happened and kind of blind-sided me, so here we are 2 months later. Obviously, stitching time went down to almost none, but some stitching was completed. I didn't really progress any more on Snowball Fight, and there's kind of a theme in the projects I have picked up since my last post. 

First, some very minor progress on Do Not Meddle, from here:

to here:

Do Not Meddle by Dragon Fire Designs

stitched as charted 1 over 1

on 28ct Monaco

It's still possible I might actually finish this one this year, so I'll keep it available if the mood strikes. What helps with this one is it's only a few colours, even if 7 or 8 of them are green. 

I pulled out another single colour project to work on since my mental state meant easier stitching was required. Although maybe not everyone finds blackwork easy? I enjoy the fact it's only one thread length and the pattern repeats, so it's soothing in some ways. Here's where I was last on Bibilophile in the red/black colourway:

and now, another finish!

Bibliophile Blackwork Bookmark by Kincavel Krosses

stitched 1 over 1 on 28ct white Monaco

with Flamenco by Jodyri Designs

And I'm sure you'll all be surprised to hear that I changed up my plans and ended up picking up a project not on my list of 12 focus pieces. There's a good reason, I wasn't up to following anything on Pattern Keeper, and I needed something with minimal colours, so I picked up this one, which looked like this last time I picked it up:

and now looks like this:

Animal Parade by Lanarte

stitched 1 over 1 with kit threads on kit fabric

The first photo is more colour correct for the fabric. I'm pretty happy with how much I accomplished on this one. You may have noticed that the rhino on the left looks a little raggedy. I had stitched that one with 2 over 1 and  it was too thick. I've done the rest 1 over 1 and that's been easier and I like the look better. There are several more animals, but they're all smaller than these ones, so it will likely feel easier to get them completed. I will put this one away for a while though. 

I also finished the Wiglaf scarf! This was a good one to work on while I was dealing with everything. It's a very simple all knit pattern with an easy colour change pattern. You carry the other colour up the side, so there's only a few ends to weave in at the end. 

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

Here we are almost through July and the Olympics/Paralympics start on Friday. I don't have any new starts planned. I had possibly thought of picking up a different WIP every day, so I might attempt that. I certainly still have enough! We'll have to watch Rachel for her plans as well. 

I hope you've all had a less hectic time over the past couple months and I'll see what I can do to catch up with everyone!

Happy Stitching, 

Tiffstitch

Halfway Through May

Here we are, halfway through May and I'm sure you've been waiting with bated breath on what this month's project will be? I decided to pull out one that definitely needs a little colour since we're heading into spring. This is where it was:

Snowball fight by Gitta

stitched 1 over 1 on 25ct Nimbus evenweave by Chromatic Alchemy

with DMC as charted

and with a few days of progress, I've managed to get here:

So much white! I'm aiming to finish this motif, so 1/3 will be complete by the end of the month. 

I also picked up Do Not Meddle again since I could use my larger Qsnap:

Do Not Meddle by Dragon Fire Designs

stitched as charted 1 over 1

on 28ct Monaco

Still adding a thread or two when I can. It's getting there!

And finally, I didn't get the Stormlight Quotes finished, but since I started here:

and managed to get here:

Stormlight Quotes by Taylor and Cromwell

stitched 2 over 2 on 28ct black evenweave with charted threads

A decent amount accomplished for such a busy month. Lot's of B5200 in this one, but several 0s on Pattern Keeper now, so I'm getting there!

The PWHL playoffs are on, which makes it difficult to stitch because I want to watch the games, so I'm knitting a little more. I should have a finish on Wiglaf any day now. 

I hope you've all had a good couple weeks!

Happy Stitching, 

Tiffstitch

April Catch-Up!

Hello all! Busy month of April up here in the Northeastern US. First the big total solar eclipse on April 8, that was amazing! I've never seen one before, and it was unbelievable. My best photo was this one:

So interesting to watch. It got completely dark in our area and the birds were really loud about a minute before the total eclipse, then became very silent during the eclipse. When the sun came back, it was almost like there was a spotlight that quickly widened to encompass the entire area. 

The week after the eclipse felt like it flew by as well, probably just the feeling of having such an overwhelming experience. Then it was book fair week at our local school and DH is the president of the school and community organization, so he was very busy with that and I was able to volunteer a bit to give him a break. 

Next a friend flew in so we could go to some PWHL games this past weekend! We used to play hockey together in high school and she lives several states away now, so she flew into our area and then we spent a few days in Montreal watching 2 games in Montreal and one in Ottawa! We had great seats for the first and third game, but the second game was at the Bell Centre in Montreal, where the Montreal Canadiens play, and we were all the way up in the back row!

Montreal beat Minnesota 4-3

Toronto beat Montreal 3-2 in overtime

Ottawa beat Minnesota 4-0! (one player had a hat trick)

And we spent one day walking around Montreal a ton, but I won't keep showing photos of that. How about my April project? It's been a while since I've had this one out, but I decided to focus on Stormlight Quotes for this month:

And so far I've made it all the way to here:

Stormlight Quotes by Taylor and Cromwell

stitched 2 over 2 on 28ct black evenweave with charted threads

I started working on this in early April and thought I had some chance of a finish, but seeing as I've had several days of no stitching given all the busyness we've had, that doesn't seem likely. There's lots of B5200 though, so you never know what I might get accomplished. 

I also managed to get both PWHL hats complete for us to wear to our games:

PWHL team hat by Sydney Gerzymisch

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

The pom-poms are faux fur that I purchased at a LYS, Must Love Yarn. They have a snap and you have to sew the bottom of the snap onto the hat, then they work. I tried just snapping them in between layers and the pom-pom flew off! It was kind of hilarious. I had to go back and ask at the store and they said "Well, you sew this part on.." and then I got it. 

And since we had to travel a fair bit to get to Montreal, Ottawa and back, I managed a lot 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

This is over halfway complete. The other side will have the blue pattern repeat. I've hit the widest part of the white and am now slowly decreasing until the blue starts getting wider again. 

I hope you've all had good weeks so far in April and hopefully I'll get a chance to come see all your wonderful crafting!

Happy Stitching,

Tiffstitch