First page finish already

We were away last weekend so I didn't get around to posting, but it means that I'm now posting my first page finish of the year, although it may be the least exciting page finish that the work has ever seen. There were about 20 stitches in the top left hand corner of colour, everything else is navy! Be still my beating heart!

I'm moving on to something with colour next!

Two weeks

I somehow forgot to post last week, I'm not quite sure how that happened, so this week gets two weeks worth of progress, meaning that I instantly get to show of a page finish, along with a (tiny) bit of progress across the entire top row of colours. I've added one colour across the entire row of pages and then finished one page off completely. Considering few colours there are in this with it being monochrome (I think only 18, but I've already put it away so I can't check) I can't believe how smoothly the colours are blending in that first little swirl and flower on the right side. So it's tucked away, something with colour has now come out to play.

A page finish already!?!?!

Technically this is two pages, but seeing as one page is just the bottom two rows, I really don't think that it can be classified as two page finishes... it only just counts as one. It doesn't look like much, it's mostly just pretty swirls at the moment, but I'm proud of how much I've managed to get done this week. The next couple of weeks won't see as much progress (even vaguely), but I'm looking good for a couple of weeks time... so, who do you think is coming out to play next? 

Secondly my colourful blanket continues to be colourful... buying new colours for this is a little bit addictive now... I almost certainly have more than I need, but every time I see something pretty... and I want to include as many different dyers as possible!

New Year...

And you know what that means. It must be time for a new start, and I seem to have accidentally had two, but their in different crafts, so it doesn't count as two new starts really! First up is my stitching start, this is one that had been on this list for a few months, and it fits in quite nicely with this months SAL subject with a group (it's almost as that I got to choose what order the SAL subjects were in). The SAL subject is love, and this is Princess Bride by Medusa Dollmaker from Geckorouge. And what says love more than a book/film about Twoo Wove? Also, our weddings rings have the words 'As you wish' engraved inside them, so it's love for so many reasons, and I love it.

Secondly is my crochet new start. This was last years blanket club from For the Love of Yarn, but I didn't want to start it until I had all of them so I could work out what order I wanted to do teh stripes in. It will get brighter as it goes on, I've gone for pretty much a rainbow theme, but there were a few greys to start with, it sort of makes sense when you see it, I hope so anyway. There may be another blanket start as this years blanket club will come in rainbow order so I can start it sooner. Also, I'm still debating one other blanket, there is a chance that I have a slight problem.

Ooopsie

I know, a bit weird to be posting this on Christmas eve, but I'm trying to keep it up.

Another new start ma have appeared in my life, but in many ways this isn't a new start, it's a restart, after this one was put into the naughty corner about a year and a half ago when I made a mistake on it that would have taken me far too long to unpick and redo. I am not, technically past where I was when I threw a strop at it originally. So, they're back, I do love this chart!

Page finish!

Hello again my dears, can you believe that I'm posting again, and I've got a page finish as well, who would have thought it a couple of months ago? The worm continues to grow, I'll give in now and own up to what it is, seeing as they're now being tucked away for a while, this is Spirited Away by Jonas Joedicke from Geckorouge. I love it, all the more that I've actually managed a half decent page finish for the first time since goodness knows when. I love the Studio Ghibli films, and am always glad to see charts come up, so I've got both of Jonas, and as soon as I get a Howl's Moving Castle chart I'll be so happy!

Second up my ripple blanket is growing, although at the moment it is distinctly more scarf like than blanket like. I'm wondering how many different dyers I can get into one blanket. So far I've got Truly Hooked, For the love of Yarn, Rhapsodye Yarns and All Wool that Ends Wool. I have many others to add to the blanket, loads of Verity's and a few other dyers as well. Sadly I've run out of black and black dye, so I'm waiting for my latest dye order to arrive so that I can get some more black dyed so I can carry on. It's been less than a week and I'm already missing this blanket so much. Despite the fact that I love the blend, this is also my first time actually working for silk blends, oh my word, it feels so lovely! A have a few more silks in the stash for this project so I look forward to using a few more of them.

EDIT: I'ven just gone back and looked, my last proper page finish (a decent sized page) was July 2016, that's horrendous. Right, let the stitching commence!

Progress

Firstly, FOUR WEEKS!!!! Four weeks in a row, you have no idea how happy I am about this. I have missed my stitching so much. Secondly, the worm is definitely getting fatter, and darker, but he is still distinctly work like. After the excitement, I don't, unfortunately have much else to say, I'm just happy that it's there at all.

Three weeks in a row...

I know, I'm posting, and I have something to show, for the third time in as many weeks, who'd have thunk it?

Anyway, this particular picture is just to prove that stitching has happened, as I won't be working on it again. It's a design that I love, but I bought it from a slightly less reliable source, and it turns out that I just feel really guilty about it, so I can't quite bring myself to work on it. I am a fool, and I don't know which bit I'm calling myself a fool over. Anyway, there has been a conversation with a friend, and they are going to contact the artist in question and see if they would be interested in something slightly more official, so I'm hoping that a proper version of this will come out at some point in the future... watch this space! 

Secondly is some stitching that hopefully will see the light of day again, even if it does look suspiciously like a worm at the moment, although that's not as far off as you'd think so again, watch this space. Hopefully I'll get a little bit of time on this this week and it'll look like something, but I wouldn't count on it any time soon, but, lets see if I can make it four weeks in a row shall we? (Shocked face!)

And finally, just to prove that crochet is still happening, and although some of you may be sick of the sign of my hooking, here's my latest project, it's a blanket, just for a change! Not that I'm obsessed with blanket making or anything. This is something that I've had in my head for a long time since seeing a picture of a similar idea, and so far I'm absolutely loving it. I've been collecting lots of lovely hand dyed yarns, and although I'm only on my third colour so far, they're all making up really nicely so far. I was a bit worried that it wouldn't match what I had in my head, but thus far I'm pretty happy! For those that are interested I'm using Lucy from Attic24's pattern, but only doing 1 row of each colour as I worried that the coloured yarns would jumble their colours on the second row.

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!

Stuff's happening (slowly)

I've managed a  little time on Cara Mia, Mon Cher this week, but I suspect that that won't happen again any time soon, as I've suddenly realised how many things I have to finish by the end of the month (I'm doomed!).

I have also (sadly) discovered that Ben doesn't really like this one, I showed him the finished pic and his only reaction was 'what are you going to do with that?' I don't pick pieces based on his taste, but I'd rather that he liked them, as they're basically going to be in my life for quite a long time, no matter what I decide to do them. So, I'm not quite sure what's going to happen to it, but I am still enjoying working on it I think. 

Second up, the sheep continue, and for the first time ever I actually have a little bit of progress to see. I may not be a big fan of football, but I do get a lot of stitching done when it's on. Especially when Ben has a friend room and I go and hide in a different room, I got half of the progress I have to show done last night because of that.

And in other news I've seen so many wedding venues that my head is spinning!

Oh, and I think I've solved my problem with commenting on other peoples blogs, hopefully!

Ooops, how did that happen?

Firstly, thank you so much for everyone who sent me congratulations last week, I have finally stopped being giddy (mostly because I've now realised that we've got a wedding plan, and that's in no way scary, but we've got a couple of long car journeys ahead of us, captive audience conversations, it'll be fine). 

Secondly, crafting, you know, the thing this blog is actually about (I'll try to keep wedding panics to a minimum, but I'm not guaranteeing that they won't happen). So, I finished the baby blanket off, it's not actually that different to last weeks post, as I decided to go for a simple, one round of triples in lemon, but I do still quite like it, now I've just got to organise a visit with the little dude and his parents to pass it on.

And here's the beginning of the next baby blanket, I do so love variegated yarn, it avoids all those tedious yarn changes (and all that darning in), although I do have some lovely colour strip plans in my future, you know with my copious free time. Anyway, this is using Magic Light by Ice Yarns (again) and the pattern is Cosy Strip by Attic 24, just without the actually striping. I do love her patterns and can see myself making many variations of both this and her ripple blanket in the not too distant future.

Finally, a tiny bit of me stitching (because that's what I need in my life, more me stitching that I don't have time to work on). Geckorouge had a sale recently with an additional 10% off on existing member discounts, and I was very weak and ended up with two kits (this when my next members kit is due in a couple of months anyway). This is, obviously, one of those, it's Cara Mia Mon Chere
by Medusa Dollmaker, and I'm completely in love with it. I actually started it last Friday before we went for our weekend away and so in my head it has sort of become linked with our engagement, and it has a sort of romantic theme, if you think about it, so it has now become my engagement project. Chances of it being finished before the wedding, zero! Chances that working on it will make me happy, very! So in to the rotation it goes. I'll finish something, one day, in the dark and distant future.

And talking of new starts (and ignoring the fact that I have a new start list a mile long), I've half got it in my head to make a wedding present for Ben, I'm just mulling over ideas for that at the moment (along with when I think I'm going to do it).

I Scream, You Scream, We all scream for...

I've finished my first page and I love her. I admitted to Kimberley from Gecko Rouge earlier that when I'd done the first two snowflakes (where I posted last week) that I wasn't convinced by the charting, they seemed to faint that you could hardly see them and I was a bit worried that that was what they were all going to be like. But now I see the page coming together with the other colours and see how they look within the page I really like them and it. I admit, not much to see yet, but I love how she's stitching up!

Ice Queen from Gecko Rouge

I've not managed to get a very good picture of this, due to the lighting and my own impatience. This is a beautiful piece, so far I've mostly stitched grey (with a tiny bit of blue) so it really doesn't look like anything.

However, please believe me that this will be beautiful, there's a picture quite a way down on the right bar if you want a look of what she'll look like.

Page finish and oops, how did that happen?

 I got the page finish on Ex Machina by Cris Ortega, loving how it's stitching up, although I'm only now starting to realise what a world of brown I've let myself in to with this. Was really excited to see this released though, so loving working on it.

Having said that I did get distracted by a new start this week. I know, my whole 'no new starts this year' has turned into a complete bust. However I recently discovered and fell in love with some of GeckoRouge's designs. This small grey line has grown slightly in size since I took this, it's now three stitches high, but I'm aware that it looks like nothing yet. One day, in the dark and distant future this will turn into Ice Queen by Medusa Dollmaker from Geckorouge, and I've got my eye on a couple more.