Little bits

Firstly I have a tiny update on Dragon Rider, I didn't have as much time to stitch this week as I intended, but there are a few more stitches in there! 

Secondly I've been experimenting with flowers this week, I'm intending to make my bouquet, so this has been my first experiments with a couple of different designs.

The School for Good and Evil - Soman Chainani

I'm going to actually start doing book reviews again, I know that I keep saying this, but I'm going to give it another go. I was on holiday recently, I read actual books, now is the time to try this again.

So, The School for Good and Evil is as it sounds a School where you train to be either a Princess or Princess or the Wicked Witch, or if you don't qualify to that level a side kick or a henchman, every year students turn up excited to learn, already knowing which school they're going to be from and two people come from the forest, kidnapped by the School Master.

For the first half of the book I went through phases of really enjoying it and getting really frustrated with it. Our two protagonists are the Beautiful Sophie and the Ugly Agatha, Sophie wants to be kidnapped because she wants to be a princess and escape her boring normal life, Agatha wants to protect her friend and so ends up getting kidnapped with her, however Sophie ends up in the School for Evil and Agatha ends up in the School for Good. The reason I kept changing my mind about this was because it kept feeling like it was being dealt with n a very black and white way then swapping back again. Black and White as in "you're beautiful, you must be good" and "you're ugly, you must be evil", and every time it started to veer away from that I enjoyed it again, and every time it went back to it I started to get frustrated that it really was going down that route.

Very early on you start to see signs that Agatha is the good one and that Sophie is the evil one, but both girls find it hard to accept, Sophie because she's beautiful and therefore believes that she's good, and Agatha because she's spent all her life being told that she must be evil because of how she looks.

I have to admit that I struggled to like Sophie, in fact I spent quite a lot of time wanting to slap her, mostly because she's a selfish brat, although that is pretty much the point. Within each school with have other characters, of course, we have Tedros, Arthur and Guinevere's son in the school of Good and we have the Sheriff of Nottingham's daughter. I have to admit that I struggled to keep some of the character's straight and to which name went with which character, but I have had that problem a couple of times recently so I'm willing to accept that that might be me rather than the book.

As you get to the final showdown, characters switch sides, page by page, so you never quite know who believes what, so I rushed through the last few chapters in one sitting, and of course I'm not going to tell you how it ends, suffice to say that it's set up the next book nicely and I'm now considering getting the next one to find out what happens next, and I@m still not completely certain whether I'm happy or frustrated by the ending.

It lives and it grows!

I've actually had time, there's actual progress, I'm so excited.

There's a tyre, and some stuff in the middle, and some little bits of confetti, which never look worth the time they took, but every little helps.

A little more to show this week

Not the best picture in the world, but I have some semblance of progress this week, so I'm quite happy to be posting it. Although I can't quite shake the feeling that the edges of the tyre aren't going to meet up. Wish me luck!

Late update

I've been such a bad blogger recently, but I'm trying to be good again. The trouble is I've only got so many things that I can post on my blog, there's the odd secret project knocking about as well, so I can't show those.

Firstly, I accidentally started a new blanket, I'm so weak, I know, but I've been in love with this yarn ever since I saw it at Yarndale and it jumped into my shopping bag. It feels amazing, and it's chunky, so it's making up really quickly, this is already three or four inches wide and I've hardly spent any time on it, but I'll have to go shopping for more yarn, I knew my three skeins wouldn't be enough, but I hadn't factored in how quickly chunky makes up and so uses up. So, my favourite blanket pattern makes another appearance, Cosy Stripe from Attic24. 

Secondly I am trying to put a little bit of time aside each week for stitching,  this was only a couple of hours last week, but at least it's something, and I am loving working on it when I can. And looks, I see a tiny bit more motorbike making shape, I'm so happy! I have (as per usual) such ambitious stitching plans, so a little progress makes me so happy!

Just a quick post

The titles says it all. I've managed the next round on my next set of granny squares. Nothing more I'm afraid.

This and that

I've done a bit of everything this week, which means I have lots of little bits of progress to show, rather than one impressive 'look what I did'. Also my secret project is taking up quite a bit of time at the moment and I can't really show that off until it's done and gifted.

Firstly my Harmony blanket continues, second set of colours added to my second set of squares, slow and steady and all that. 

Secondly, I suddenly realised that one of our friends is due to have a small person soon, and as such I needed to decide what I was going to make for this, and this is what I've decided on, a small cream circle! I hasten to add that this is in no way finished. I've used this as an excuse to pull out a book that I've had for well over a year and have been looking for an excuse to use, and as I'm loving this one thus far I'm sure I'l be finding many other excuses in the future. The book is Crocheted Animal Hats, and it's great

And finally, while I'm not getting much time on my stitching at the moment I am loving what little time I am getting, especially as this is a page with quite a lot going on, you can definitely see the dragons tail taking shape, and there's a tiny patch of motorbike done as well now. It's slow, but it's happening.

And finally finally, I think I mentioned last week that I was going to Yarndale, well, I can't resist showing off my stash enhancement, I had a fabulous weekend!

In this picture, yarny goodness. The three solid colours are the softest yarn I have ever felt, it's  amazing, and I intend to make a blanket out of them (along with many more skeins). The pack of six I intend to have a go at this dragon scale gloves that are going round, and the big one it to take a show at a virus shawl to go round my shoulders for the wedding. Wish me lock on all of those.

In this picture are sillies, car stickers (stops suddenly for yarn shops and no yarn in kept in this vehicle over night), a mammoth pattern and yarn (how cute is the mammoth), a big wodge of batting for spinning and some stitch markers. I did manage to resist a spinning wheel, but I got batting knowing that I'll give in one day, I'm going to book onto a class somewhere to give it a go first, and then I'll buy one :-) 

And here's the 'practical' stuff. Two books of patterns, the blanket book is amazing, and so colourful, Edward's Menagerie is always ridiculously cute, I really didn't mean to buy this, but they were a lot cuter than I expected, and the girl offered me a deal on this and the stuff for the mammoth pattern.

There's a hook keeper, it hasn't come out very well on the picture, but the fabric is brilliant, those balls of wool are all actually sheep.

Oh, and a home dying kit, I'm a little ambitions about that. And a sill card that I bought for my other half promising him a pair of socks, one at a time, I gave him the first one last Christmas.

And now I'll finish with some other pictures from the weekend.

A harmonious dragon

So, I do feel like I actually have something to show this week, how often does that happen? First off, here is Harmony from Attic 24, I've finished my first set of 9 squares, and started my second set, although I'm willing to accept that my second set looks more circular than square at the moment. Hopefully they'll square out a bit.

As you can see from my first set of squares, I'm willing to accept that they're not perfect, although the bottom left one is not so much smaller as it looks in that picture, I have some weird photography skills apparently, but once they're all joined together in a pretty blanket I'm sure they'll be a bit squarer.

My plan with this is to make it to the size that Lucy recommends first (single bed) but then I may add more to make it bigger. I bought this kit at Yarndale last year, and I'm back off to Yarndale this weekend, and I have spending money, who knows that I'll come back with this year, I still haven't ruled out a spinning wheel.

And in other news, look, stitching, and look who has come out to play. Yay!

I know, it's not much, but it's stitching, and I'm so glad to be stitching again. I have discovered my perfect Wednesday evening. Bake Off and stitching (for those in the UK, how upset are we about Bake Off on a scale of one to ten? I'm heart broken, it won't be the same, I'm hoping that the BBC will just create Strictly Come Baking and just carry it on with the stars that it looks like they're keeping. Okay, carrying on for the non-Brits). I do love Dragon Rider, and he is my focus piece, and so lovely at that, also the one that I'm furthest along with in all my projects, having said that, considering that I'm meant to work on this every third project, I'm ashamed to say that I haven't touched Dragon Rider since February, I hadn't realised that it had been so long, I'm quite ashamed of myself. My rotation has obviously failed me completely (again!). I've just looked back, I have cheated, there have been four other projects between this page and the last (bad Kim!) so that partially explains why it's been so long. Anyway, he's back out, I'm excited to see Dragon, and also much more motorbike on this page so generally squeeeee

Right, I'm off to break my credit card at Yarndale, have a fun weekend my dears. Yarn porn almost certainly to follow. (Occasionally I like to add inappropriate words to my blog, I find the idea of someone searching porn and stumbling across this blog strangely amusing. Especially as this is turning into a ridiculously convoluted story in my head where they discover an unknown passion and skill with need and thread or hook and yarn!)

Crochet is all

I had such high hopes for this week, and I've barely achieved anything. However I have at least got something to show, which means I can at least justify a post. The Harmony blanket is continuing. The middle square shows the final round (other than the joining rounds) for this set of squares. I wasn't sure about the dark and light purple together, when I saw the balls next to each other they looked really similar, but that's completely changed when I see it on the square, which is good. Hopefully I'll get this set of squares finished this week. 

I've also been working on my secret project, this is probably the last time that I'll show this. I don't think the person it's for generally watches my blog, but you can't be to careful. I'm basically showing this so you know what my excuse is when I have nothing to show in the weeks to come. These two projects are the reason why I didn't manage to get my stitching project worked on this week. I have the chart out, the fabric is on the frame, and I've highlighted the next colour, but nothing to actually show at the moment. Hopefully this time next week I will have some stitching, but it's also Yarndale next weekend, so I may not achieve much next weekend it self.

I will be a good blogger, I will I will!

 First up is my mystery stitch, I know I'm the only person who is amused by this, so I'll stop being childish and dragging this out, especially as it's now been packed away so I can work on something else for a while. This is Always by Kordek from Tilton Crafts, this is my Alan Rickman from earlier this year, I still haven't quite settled on what my David Bowie tribute is, that are a couple of HAED ones that I'm thinking about, but I really shouldn't add any more new starts into my planned starts and rotation.

So, what is coming out to play I wonder, hmmm, what could it be? Again, I know that I'm the only person that this amuses, thank you for humouring me, or at least not telling me to shut up!

Secondly, and despite the fact that I haven't finished my Toft toy yet, my blanket obsession has won out and a new crochet blanket has been started. This is Harmony from Attic 24. Love this blanket, although I accept that it's not massively blankety yet. I hasten to add that while my crochet isn't brilliant, it's not quite as uneven as this picture makes them look, I think I must have had my camera at an odd angle. Despite the fact that this really isn't my normal sort of colour scheme (I tend to prefer bolder), I loved the colours on this and was really enjoying this. Most of this was actually one evening of work, but as per usual work has got in the way of crafting this week. Besides, if I want to justify starting the new blanket. This was bought at Yarndale last year, and we're only two weeks off this year, so I'm trying to start some of the stuff that I bought this year before I blow everything that I've saved this year. It's quite sad how excited I am about this!

It's changed, honest

I know I say that slow and steady wins the race, but even by my standards this is ridiculously slow! But here is the tiny amount of progress that I have to show. Can you work out what it is yet? I know, there isn't really enough to guess at, clue, the little shmushes at the bottom are letters!

Can you guess what it is yet?

It looks suspiciously like a wrinkled pear, strangely that is not what I'm crocheting (although I'm sure there's a pattern for one out there somewhere). This is my first attempt at one of the Edward's Menagerie's patterns, and as I'm still a bit of a noobe I started with the first one in the book as they're meant to get more complicated as you work through. This is a bunny... well, more accurately it's a bunny's belly.

Slow and Steady

Okay, I may have had a new start, but I noticed a mistake on Cara Mia that would have involved me unpicking half of it and this upset me, so Cara Mia has been put in the naughty corner to think about what it has done and I cheered myself up with a new start. Can you guess what it is yet? (if you can i'll be majorly impressed, because I know what it is and I still can't tell. 

Secondly is my next crochet project, I have technically started another blanket, but I'm not settling to it at the moment, so I decided to start my first Edward's Menagerie project while my brain also thinks about what it's also done wrong. I'm very much a blanket maker, but I have some amigurimi projects planned in my future so I figure it would be a good idea to do some other projects in the mean time to get my hand and eye in.

Blanket Finish

I finished the blanket, wohoo. My original plan was to put more border on it, there were going to be another four rounds, but Ben declared it finished last night, and I decided not to fight him on it. Especially as I was going to go straight onto another blanket gift (which I had started before finishing this one, oops!) but was informed that I had to spend some time on my own stitching before going onto other gifts. It's been a long few weeks with long hours at work and very little free time, so the idea of a bit of stitching sounds quite nice. Hopefully I'll have some kind of progress to show next week.

A little stitching time

It's not much, but I've managed to get a bit of stitching done, still all in the same colour, so it's nice easy block stitching, everything under the line is the same colour, so it's mindless, which seeing as we're quite busy at work at the moment is a good thing. I have also crocheted this week, but it's just the continuation of the blanket, so there isn't much to show really, and I'm ripping out another blanket which is taking a very long time because the fibre's are very lose, so I'm having to work it very carefully!

However, I did have one finish last week, (I'd completely forgotten, how is that possible).

I can't believe I forgot this, I've been taunting you with this little dude for a couple of weeks, so here he is all done, this is Groot!

Bits and Bats

The title says it all, I have lots of little bits of progress this week, a few rows of blanket mean that I finally feel like I'm closer to finishing to starting, woohoo. I do love the colours on this, and I finally feel like I've made peace with the pattern, it doesn't seem to taper in the way that it was, this is now bad photography not bad crochet! 

Secondly the second post of 'can you guess what it's going to be yet?' I'm seeing progress, but I'm aware that to most people it looks like a flower pot, and I'm not even going to comment on what the two small bits on the left look like to me at the moment, if you have a filthy mind you'll probably get there too. Hopefully by next week you'll actually be able to vaguely see what it's meant to be. 

Finally, my stitching is back out. I've just scrolled back and the last time I posted something that was for me was mid May, so six weeks ago. It feels like longer, so I'm just grateful that I am finally working on it again. this is now the full bottom width of Cara Mia Mon Chere, I know it doesn't look like anything yet, but I can see the shape, and that makes me happy! Oooh, and I got a new kits last week (ooops), Medusa Dollmaker did a Princess Bride artwork and Gecko got permission to chart it as a limited edition. It arrived and I love it, and I'm having to work quite hard at not instantly starting it, although it has been added to my start soon list, I'm very excited!

Bit of Crochet

So, I've managed to get some crochet done this week, all on gifts, but I'm hoping another couple of productive evenings and I might be able to let myself have an evening towards my stitching... is it sad that I'm excited about that? However, in the mean time, I started a new gift this week, can you guess what it is? 

Secondly, the baby blanket continues! You can see the difference, and I do finally seem to have mastered it not tapering in. I have no idea how, but I'm taking it as a win.

I'm really craving a new start. I'm trying to convince myself that starting a couple of other gifts in the next couple of weeks will do it, but what I really want to do is a block stitch blanket that I have a pattern for. One day!

Ta da!

This is a day late, I meant to finish this over the weekend, but I forgot to take into account just how much I hate backstitch and how long it would take me to do.

But the sheep are finished! This means that in theory my own cross stitch can come back out soon, I'm so excited. And I definitely need to go back to something that doesn't need back stitch, oh how I hate it!

But anyway, I have a finish, I'm so happy to have my annual finish (let's be honest, nothing else is going to get finished this year). The crochet will come out tomorrow to work on another couple of presents, I have so many projects lined up, but once a couple of those are worked on, I can work on my own stuff again. Happy Happy me!