Thursday, December 27, 2018

Gifted Gorgeousness - December Edition

It's the last GG of the year! Head to Jo's blog for all the other people who've managed to post every month, unlike me. :)

I have however been stitching as well as knitting. So I hope you enjoy all the photos.

Fishing

This one is so close to a finish! I need to get going and get it completed for my uncle. He had a bit of a heart scare this fall, so getting this finished ASAP is a must.

DD's birthday sign


DD is very into space right now and loving a new graphic novel series, The Catstronauts. She says she wants to be an astronaut and likes to play "aliens" with her best friend at school. So I stitched her a sign for her room that has lots of outer space stuff with the letters in B5200 outlined in Kreinik #4 on black and Kreinik #4 and #8 for the other bits, lunar rover, alien, planets, telescope, etc. It was not easy. I also used a lot of GITD Kreinik thread to make it super awesome. :D

Painted Stones Cowl for DH's father's wife (it's complicated)

This is such an easy, fun knit. It's pretty quick to knit up, the yarn is lovely and it's really comfortable as well. The recipient seemed to really like it and I hope will get a lot of use out of it.

Tube socks for DD

I didn't use a pattern, just stitched 2 tubes with no heels for her. I used Regia 8ply so she has some slightly warmer socks. I decided on no heel after hearing how some people prefer this for kids because they're growing so fast. This way the socks should last a few years and just become shorter as her feet grow.

Teacher hats


I knit these hats in one evening. They call for size 15 US needles and super bulky yarn. I added pom-poms, but forgot photos with the pom-poms. Black for the red hat and kind of a cream with black flecks for the blue/purple hat. These were knit with the Perky Little Hat pattern and were very quicky and easy with Lion brand Hometown USA and Lion Brand Tweed (held double).

Socks for Dad

These were knit for my dad's birthday with Regia 8ply as well. I love this yarn. DK means it knits up very fast and I finished these in a week or less. It's a very easy pattern, just used some info from Lion Brand mens socks pattern to make these. I used the scraps from these and DH's socks to make a pair for myself as well. 

That's what I've been up to! I hope you all had a wonderful holiday season!

Happy Stitching,

Tiffstitch

Sunday, December 9, 2018

2018 Advent Calendar Blog Hop

Ack! I'm a little late getting this up, and I apologize!

This blog hop, as many this year, is hosted by the indefatigable Jo! Check out everyone else's posts and get more information through her blog.


This is a little free motif I finished last year. I think it's from The Drawn Thread.

Our question this year was about our favourite Christmas Carol. It's something that has changed over the years, and different versions of songs are some I might love or hate. I think at this moment in time, my favourite Christmas song is The 12 Days of Christmas as sung by the Muppets and John Denver. If you've never experienced this, I hope this link works:

Merry Christmas everyone!!

Tiffstitch

Tuesday, October 30, 2018

Hallowe'en Trick or Treat Blog Hop

Hi everyone and welcome to the Hallowe'en Blog Hop! Hosted as always by the multi-talented Jo of Serendipitous Stitching, here is your letter:
And your next blog is: La Coeur Celtique! Find your next letter to solve Jo's clue. 

For my Halloween stitching, I'd like to share an update for Boo House. I finally got some time to get this one out and stitched on a bit before Halloween this year. 

Here's where it was:



I hope everyone has a Happy Halloween!

Happy Stitching,

Tiffstitch

Sunday, October 21, 2018

Gifted Gorgeousness - October Edition

Hello, long time no post! Hope everyone is doing well. Life and work has been pretty busy the last couple months, so there has been a lot less posting than usual, and usual wasn't very much the previous months either. :)

I have been knitting and *shock* stitching, and I have one great big finish to show off! I'm so happy this one is now complete.

AAN Spider Banner



I received the 32ct opalescent fabric as a gift several years ago and love how it looks! Most of this was stitched with WDW, one of my favourite threads to use and the bottom purple was Soie Cristale, which is so lovely and smooth as well. She is done! Now I must figure out a way to finish. Something bell-pull style would work I think.

A Kiss for a Snowman got a little more done:



And on to knitting! I did a fair bit of this as well the past couple months. 

New pair of mitts, first time ever made them in-the-round (on circular needles)

Finished those pink rainbow socks:

A cowl for my co-worker

Socks for DH in thicker weight, and I knitted these 2 at a time! It was so much easier to make sure they were identical. Defnitely want to do this all the time now. 



Started another mitten for a charity mitten tree:
And finished my first toy with safety eyes for a friend's 3 year old that is addicted to Octonauts, as is my daughter. 

The meerkat is part of an ongoing joke the local yarn store is running and I forgot to get a photo without it of just the Narwhal. :) 

And that is it I think! I will do my best to at least post GG for the rest of the year, and hope to get more into cross stitch now that the weather is cooling. We even had snow today! 

Happy Stitching!

Tiffstith

Thursday, August 30, 2018

Gifted Gorgeousness - August Edition

Here we are again, over a month since posting. Summer has been busy and we've had no relief from the heat until this morning. Tuesday and Wednesday even our A/C at work was broken! Fortunately it was fixed by Wednesday end of day, so today will be okay, but today is only 20C/70F, so we barely need it. ;) That's how these things go I think. 

I hope you've all been well and thank you so much for your lovely comments on the socks I've made. They've all been received well and I'm still working on a few pairs. I even pulled out a little stitching a couple cooler nights and am so close to finishing that spider! 

Since I'm late to the GG post this month, you've probably already seen everyone's post, but just in case, make sure to check out Jo's wonderful (frequently updated) blog

I'm still doing a lot more knitting because of the weather, and here's what I've been working on since my last post:

Santa Hat for DD 
 This one is kind of fun. The yarn is all one piece and has these different colours and textures to it. The yarn includes the "topper" and you tie it on after you're done the hat. DD loves it!

AAN Spider Banner
 So close on this one! I could have danced when the borders matched up too. :) I chose this lovely Soie Cristale purple for the bottom and like it so far. Let me know what you think!

Socks for DH
 These have been languishing a bit. If only he didn't have size 12 feet!!

Possibly blanket square - Kirby for DD


I've recently found out about something called the Geek-a-long. It's by Llamas and Lattes and has been going on for a few years. I can't believe I missed it, or it didn't register until now. These amazing ladies have designed a ton of fun knit/crochet squares you can turn into a blanket. It's using a technique called double knitting that I'm demonstrating in the 2 photos above. You get a reverse colour on the back side than from the front. It's not a fast technique for me yet, but might be eventually. 

More socks! for a co-worker?


I really like these socks, it's a not-too complicated pattern and I was going along really well until the bottom photo when I didn't finish the repetition before starting again. I'm not going to pull it out, but I'll have to watch how I finish this sock. Now I'm not sure about giving it as a gift since it's not as perfect as I can make it, but the mistake doesn't seem too noticeable to non-knitters, so maybe? Her birthday isn't till October, so I can maybe make another pair in time. 

Your thoughts, as always, are appreciated!

I hope you've all had a good month! 

Happy Stitching!

Tiffstitch

Monday, July 23, 2018

Gifted Gorgeousness - July Edition

Well, it's a little embarrassing how long it's been since I've posted, but I'd like to thank everyone again for your lovely comments on everything. Keith loved his personalized gift, my Mom loved the shawl and DD loves her socks too, which are now a complete pair.

Again, I've been doing more knitting than stitching this past month. Part of that is the heat had really set in and it was too hot to stitch because I'm always worried about sweaty hands, but knitting is a little more forgivable that way. I had also signed up for a couple KALs (knit-a-longs), so used the time to work on things for that.

However, I did get out one stitching project last month!

AAN Spider Banner

The top post is a little more true to the fabric colour, not sure why the front legs look darker though, same thread, WDW Okeefeenokee, is the same throughout. I think it was a new skein though, so maybe different dyelot. 


I was doing well until the heat and humidity stuck around for a week, I couldn't work on this when it was that hot. A few more days should have a finish!

I started this 5th pair of socks when I was on my way to my parents. I finished one while I was there, which was good for sizing, and mostly finished the other on the way home. These were mailed to my sister and have arrived safely. She says they're a "hug for her feet" after wearing flip flops all day.
 shortie socks with Berroco Comfort Sock

Pair 3 is complete! DD loves them and has worn them frequently.
 Fiberstash Unicorns in SPACE! and Neon mini skein kit

Pair 2 has one sock complete, other sock is not started yet though
 I think this is Malabrigo sock yarn?

Shawl With No Name 
 first time attempting slip stitch mosaic, I love it!

I'm not sure if this will be gifted or not. I used Great Adirondack Yarn company cotton yarn and it's so soft I might have to hold onto this one.

And that's what I've been up to. I'm woefully behind in blogs and will do my best to catch up. I hope everyone has been well! Cross stitch will still be minimal until it cools off a little more, it's so humid and we don't have AC, although we're having a serious conversation about it this year.

Happy Stitching!

Tiffstitch

Friday, June 15, 2018

Gifted Gorgeousness - June Edition

It's time again for Gifted Gorgeousness and time to show off our latest stitches we plan to give as gifts, or have received as gifts, or any other way we can shoe horn into the theme.

This is, as always, hosted by the hostess with the mostest, Jo! Please check out her blog to see where everyone has signed up and sign up yourself if you'd like.

Let's see what was stitched on since last time, I don't think there were any more Stitch Maynia projects in the last half of May, but I haven't been posting lately and there's at least one finish to show off. :)

4th set of socks, will be for DD
 Finished 50th bday gift! The glasses were changed from the original chart to match similar ones in our office.

 Found this finished, not FFO while cleaning and finally made it into a card
 3rd pair of socks, I read the pattern incorrectly and used tiny needles, therefore ended up with tiny socks that fit DD's doll

 2nd pair of socks, on hold while I worked on DD's and the accidental doll socks
 Fully finished this one to give as a birthday gift, recipient loves it! Backed with felt and simple hanger.
 Finished Hitchhiker shawl for my Mom's birthday

And that's the run-down for last month. I hope you've all had good months. I'm woefully behind in blogs and will see if I can catch up over the summer.

Happy Stitching!

Tiffstitch

Catch-up Post and Mischievous March

Hello again, things conspired so I didn't get a chance to put a post up, but I have been stitching. I also remembered to pick up my Misc...