Monthly Goals - August

So I decided I would set myself some small goals each month and this is what I've decided for August:

1. Complete second page of Hickory Dickory Dock
2. Spend half an hour a day on chart inventory
3. Knit at least 20 rows on jumper for Hannah
4. Do at least 200 stitches on QS Blue Rose Fairy
5. Pick a small chart to work on next, grid it and make a start

I'm not sure how realistic these goals are as I haven't set monthly goals before so I'll just have to see how I go.

When I say a small chart I'm thinking of maybe doing one of the Lizzie Kate's I have or maybe a Little House Needlework design.  Anyway we'll see how I go I don't really need a new project right now but I would like something I can stitch on during the day when I can't give my stitching 100% attention.

Treasures SK SAL as of 11.07.11 - Page 1 Complete!

Firstly I want to thank people for voting in my poll and commenting on my previous post.  I have decided that I won't be selling my patterns before I stitch them but will keep them.

Now onto the fun stuff.  I've finished page 1 of Treasures SK SAL and I'm really happy with the result.

I decided I wanted to keep on stitching until I'd finished the page rather than rotating a piece each week and it feels really good to have a finish (even if it is only a page finish!).

I'm also really pleased as well as I have been gridding with Sulky metallic thread in dark blue.  Up to now I haven't completed enough of a project to be able to take the gridlines out but on Treasures I have now taken the gridlines out and I'm pleased to say the thread came out very easily and didn't leave any marks behind.  So if I can get away with it on a project with so much white I am sure it will be fine on all my other projects.

So the stats for this project are 7,350 stitches completed which is 26.49% complete.

So this one can go on the back burner now until I get the next page which I don't think is until September so I'll have plenty of time to get some stitching done on my other WIPs.

I've also started knitting a blanket for my best friend who is expecting her third baby.  It is a design called Sampler Blanket by Debbie Bliss and I have treated myself to the Debbie Bliss Cashmerino wool to knit with.  It is absolutely gorgeous to knit so soft and lovely.  I may have to keep the blanket for myself in the end!

I'm not sure if I mentioned that I had signed up for half yearly goals on the HAED BB.  I set myself small goals this time which were to complete 1 page of Treasures SK and 1 page of Believe QS and obviously with this post I have completed one of those goals.

I'm not sure what I am rotating onto now or whether I'll just concentrate on some knitting for a while.  Once the blanket begins to take shape I'll take some photos.

Treasures SK SAL as of 24.06.11

This week has been the new HAED SK SAL and I chose Treasures.  I've also been away this week so have had a little more time to stitch than normal.  I managed to do 4,389 stitches which might sound like a lot but the upper two thirds of the page are all B5200 so I've been filling in the main part my doing one thread of B5200 and then a thread of another colour at the bottom.  I'm stitching on 20 count aida in a colour called Nougart with three strands in tent stitch.  I've substituted the 032 Kreinik with DMC S5200 which is a silk thread with a lovely sheen and much much easier to use then a metallic thread.  So here's my progress picture of Treasures 15.82% complete.

Believe as of 12.06.11

I've been working on Believe this week and I'm really pleased with my progress.  I've managed to do just under 1,000 stitches and it is now 22.56% complete, the only trouble is I forgot to take photos of each individual colour as I added it and I am not sure how many colours I've completed.  The left side of the body is almost full now and it's looking great.  I'm beginning to think I will have to complete the whole background though.

Hickory Dickory Dock & Blue Rose Fairy as of 05.06.11

I was off work last week and managed to work on two projects.  The first was QS Hickory Dickory Dock I completed just under 500 stitches and this is how it now looks.

I then spent some time on the HAED BB QS SAL Blue Rose Fairy.  I did just over 2,100 stitches which means I have now completed 8,337 of 34,595 which is 24.1% complete.  One of my BB yearly goals was to complete one page of this and although I haven't physically completed one page I have done an equivalent amount of stitches so I am counting this as having completed this goal (although I don't think it will count on the BB).  I've done quite a lot of the sparkly stitches which aren't showing up on the photo but for the first time in a long time I am actually enjoying working on this which is good.

We should be getting the information soon about the SK SAL.  I chose the black and white SK called Treasures.  I'm looking forward to working on another black and white as I love working on Shy Baby.  Here's a reminder of what Treasures looks like.

Believe as of 28.05.11

So I've not updated for a while because of a very intensive course I've been on with work, but over the past two weeks I have managed to get just over 2,100 stitches done on Believe.  I've completed another four colours as I am doing all of one colour at a time on this one.  So here are the four progress pictures for each colour added.

I love how the blues are coming together in the wings of the butterfly and as always seems to be the case the colours are so much more beautiful in real life.  I'm not sure if my plan to not complete the enture background will work out but I am just going to carry on with the one colour at a time and see how it goes.

Shy Baby as of 10.04.11 - PAGE 3 COMPLETED!!

So lots of things to update on this week.

I decided to work on Shy Baby this week even though it should have been the HAED Freebie SAL.  I love working on Shy Baby and even though she isn't in my current rotation I just knew she would help me get my stitching mojo back and I was right.  I managed to do 2,500 stitches on her and completed page 3.  You still can't make anything out but when I compare it with the actual picture I can see images starting to form.

I've made good progress on Little Boy Blue, I've now finished the back, front and both sleeves. The sleeve was supposed to be all stocking stitch apart from one row of pattern at the top of the sleeve but I decided to add in a couple more rows of pattern one of which was in the main design and the other I made up myself. I love how easy it is to make pattern and texture by just changing whether you knit or purl.  So all I have to do now is pick up stitches to do the neck and stitch it up.  I'm going to wait for my mum to come back from holiday though as she is an expert at this and I don't want to mess it up by tying to do something I don't know how I'm doing.  I'm really starting to love knitting and have a whole host of things I want to knit. I absolutely love some of the colours that you can get in sock yarn and would love to knit myself some socks. I wonder though why it is specifically called sock yarn - can you use it for other items or only socks? Any experienced knitters who can answer this I'd be very grateful.

One of my 210 in 2010 goals is to bake all 196 cupcakes from the recipe book 200 Cupcakes. I know it doesn't make sense that there are only 196 recipes but there is a main recipe on each page and then an alternative recipe except for four recipes which are for things like cinnamon butter to dip the cupcakes in. So there are only actually 196 cupcake recipes. Anyway after all that waffle I showed my sister the book and she requested that I make the Mini Simnel Cupcakes next so as I am a good big sister and always do what my little sister says (apart from when she tells me not to buy anymore stash!) I made them a couple of days ago. They have mixed fruit in them and you put a teaspoon of cake mixture in the case and then a little round of marzipan and then put some more cake mixture on top, you then bake them, leave them to cool, top with more marzipan and toast under the grill. To be honest I was a little disappointed with these. I absolutely love marzipan so expected to love these and they were nice but they weren't delicious and I'm not sure I would make them again.

So I'm going back to Masquerade and hopefully I will be able to make some visible progress.

Masquerade SK as of 24.03.11

I am very disappointed with my lack of progress all round this week.  I've had Masquerade on rotation for two weeks and only managed to do 887 stitches.  I don't know if I've lost my stitching mojo or if I'm not enjoying Masquerade as much as I was or if it's just because I've been so damned tired the past few days.  I honestly haven't been out of bed later than 7.30pm for the last few nights.  Anyway I've now completed 78.44% of Masquerade and here is my update picture.

Also I've made no progress on the Little Boy Blue jumper.  I'd done about 30 rows and showed it to my mum and she asked if I had measured it or done a tension square, the answer was no.  So I measured what I had done and it was 10 inches wide and it should have been 10 3/4 inches.  So my mum suggested I try knitting it on a bigger size needle because this should make the difference in size.  So I have had to unpick it and start again, hopefully it will be third time lucky.  I'm really glad though that my mum told me know before I spent a lot more time knitting it and stitching it up.

On a positive note I have started knitting my first blanket for SANDS it is a very basic pattern where you start with one stitch and increase on the second stitch at the beginning of every row.  I currently have 50 stitches on the needle so some progress has been made here.  I find I am able to knit in the car while commuting to and from work.

Hopefully I'll get more stitching done over the next week and get some of the jumper done too.

Blue Rose Fairy as of 11.03.11

This week has been the HAED BB SAL and this is my progress on Blue Rose Fairy.

I managed to do just under 1,500 stitches on it this week which means it is now 16.45% complete.

Only a short update today as I am feeling a bit delicate as I've been in bed with food poisoning for the last 24 hours.

Believe as of 20.02.11

Here's my latest update for Believe.  I've completed another two colours I've done just over 1,000 stitches which means in total I have now done 3,508 of 29,250 which is 11.99% complete.

Just to remind you as well I still have lots of items for sale or swap on the Sale or Swap page.  Thanks for looking.

Blue Rose Fairy as of 06.02.11

So here's my update on Blue Rose Fairy.  I've managed to do 2,235 stitches on this bringing the total number of stitches done to 4,194 which is 12.12% complete.  I'm really enjoying watching this grow as it is quite diffferent from any of my other projects.

Christmas Stocking at 03.02.11

This week I've been working on the Christmas Stocking for my son.  So here's the picture of my progress.

It's only been two colours up to now apart from the white snowflakes.  It certainly makes a change from all my other projects which have lots of colour changes.  So I've now completed 2,064 of 17,502 stitches so it is 11.79% complete.

Blue Rose Fairy QS - 2011 SAL - as of 06.01.11

So this week I started stitching the 2011 SAL.  The chart I chose was Blue Rose Fairy and the finished item should look like this.

I am stitching her on 20 count white aida 3 over 1 tent stitch and here is a picture of the progress I have made so far.  I have completed 1,959 of 34,446 which is 5.69% of the total complete.  My BB goal is to complete 1 page and I have completed 24.99% of this goal and my blog goal is to complete 2 pages and I have completed 13.33% of this goal.

Shy Baby as of 30.12.10

Here's the latest update on Shy Baby.  I have now completed 15,102 of 164,850 which is 9.16% complete.  Still love stitching this as much as ever.  Only moving on so I can start on the 2011 SAL.

With regards to my 2011 goals I am about half way to completing the Shy Baby goal.

So here's the picture update.

Hope you all had a lovely Christmas and that you have a lovely New Year.

New Starts

Well this is the first post for two weeks.  Last week I was away for a few days and the cottage we were staying in just didn't lend itself to stitching.  I couldn't find a comfy position to sit in and stitch and the lighting was awful so I didn't do more than a couple of stitches all week.

This week I decided I didn't have enough projects on the go and added another medium project and a small project.

The medium project is a Christmas Stocking for my little boy.  This is a picture of the final product.

And this is the progress I have made on it this week.

 

I decided I wanted something quite simple to work on as I want my son to have it for Christmas 2011 and if I did a HAED stocking he would probably be 18 before it was finished!!  My intention is to do stockings for myself and my husband as well when I have finished this one.  These will be HAEDs though, I want Cherished Christmas Stocking and I am going to do the Treasure Dragon Stocking for my husband.  If I get all these three done then I may at some point in the future do the Faithful Friends Stocking for my son.

I have also tried gridding for the first time with Sulky Metallic threads, will see how it goes before I try gridding one of my BAPs with it.

The second small project I am working on is a birthday card for my niece.  She is 5 at the end of October so I have just over 3 weeks to get this done.  Hopefully my son will let me get some stitching done during the day so I can achieve this.

I have also this week fallen in love with this Amazing Color by Needle Delight Originals.  There are lots of amazing designs but this is my current favourite.  It is so different from anything I have stitched before or have in my stash.  I have been restraining myself very hard so I don't buy it.  Really want to get a finish before I buy or start anything new.