November MMMM #4 (Final)

Well, here we are on the last MMMM post for November already. Mrs. Frankenstein is finally finished (about dang time)~

done!

Gosh, I did worse this month than last month. Only one finish, and it wasn't even that big! I think there are three different blacks in her hair as I was rummaging through my old kit remains. At least they were all mostly created equal which may be very lucky on my part!

finally together

Well, at least I got one done... @_@ Since I did the two of them, I'm "caught up" from missing last year's entirely. I'll try to squeeze in another Christmas finish to be caught up on that as well but it may not be a mini~ These MMMMs have been quite helpful for slow me but I will probably have to bow out of next month's as there are bigger things I need to be paying more attention to. I really need to get that baby "sampler" done before the poor child turns one eek!

Short entry this time! Am I ever going to be productive again~? :I

IHSW & November MMMM #3 & Giveaway Win!

Well hello again! This is a somewhat late IHSW update so I've combined it with MMMM.

creepy cute as made by Moonpie!

First, looky what came for me from the wilds of England! Aren't they cute? And so well made too! The ever creative Steph at Show and Tell made them for her All Hallow's Read giveaway. Heaven knows I have enough books but there are never enough bookmarks so this is delightful~ :D The little one is a pin too which is great as my Halloweeny pins are sorely lacking! Thank you, Steph~!

before!

after!

Would you believe I'm still not done with Mrs. Frankenstein? Of course you would! :b I can't stitch long with the black on black without my eyes going NOPE NO THANK YOU so as you can see, I have about half her hair attached. I guess I should look into a directly over my head lamp of some kind instead of turning everything on in the room and angling my work. So maybe IHSW was a bit of a bust.  Can you find the picked out thing that was bugging me so much? :D

For my next mini, I would love to work on this little thing. It's a brooch! I found the kit in a thrift store and, at the time, I thought it was just a tiny frame for an ornament. But no, a brooch. I was so thrilled with this (I put pins/brooches on my coat lapels a lot), I went back to the thrift store and bought the other kit haha. I'm not too fond of the pattern that came with it so if anyone knows of some oval-y cute 28 x 32-ish freebies, let me know. It doesn't have to be Christmas themed though I think I would like either holiday or seasonal.  I wonder if I could make a collection and switch them out! O_O

In the crocheting world, our class has finished. I managed to get enough little snowflakes made for all the ladies in class but completely underestimated how long they would take to dry after being starched! So they got bundled up in plastic wrap and baggies and apologies but the ladies were delighted. It seems I was the only one willing to venture into the world of thread crochet haha. And would you believe I forgot to take a picture of them all, ARGH. Instead, please admire this rather goofy picture of them being blocked (yes, I know my blocking needs work; I used what I had and what I had was not appropriate). I hope they turned out all right because I think the 1:1 ratio of sugar and water was like syrup! I think I would use less sugar next time.  But each one is different like snowflakes should be. :)

daffodowndilly

In our last class, I attempted to make a daffodil, from a free pattern I found on ravelry. It had some new stitches in it (crossed double and double treble) and I wanted to make sure I had assistance available when I got confused. But! Look! It turned out fairly well for a first attempt. I just made the flower but I'm not sure if I want to make the whole square. The cup sticks up quite a bit so it wouldn't make a very good potholder (which is a shame as my kitchen is daffodils) but maybe I can whip up a long simple swatch to make curtain tiebacks. That could be kinda cute maybe. I am not sure how much I like the round petals though; they just don't seem daffodowndilly.  I did find a project modification that looked spectacular though, so I may try that next.

braaaiiinnnsss...

No pictures of my scarf progress though it's just over two feet long now. Instead, have my blob of yarn.  I've been trying to organize my inheritance of yarny supplies and as you can see, some are a mess.  I haven't quite discerned if that is two or three skeins in that alien life form.

Until next time assuming I haven't been devoured by the zombie yarn~

November MMMM #2

I did hope to have the Mrs finished by this post -- and I did get close! All that is left is the black of her hair and I've been putting it off because stitching black on black always drives me (more) bonkers.

before

peek-a-boo...?

after!

Of course, after uploading those pictures I see a glaringly obvious mistake I'm going to have to pick out and ponder how on earth I made it in the first place.

But I do have a different sort of finish!! I will say this -- I scared my husband last night when I screamed at my crochet! I've always loved those crocheted snowflakes and last night I MADE ONE eeeeeeee. It's like a life goal has been accomplished! It looks a little odd because 1) it was my first one and picots are weird, 2) oooooooold crochet thread was discolored, 3) not yet starched. But! I MADE IT!!! *spazzes* I hope I can make a few more before the last class to give to the ladies a little thank-you-for-putting-up-with-me.

eeeeee

Anywhoodle! Last class we learned how to join colors and make granny squares. My granny square turned out surprisingly better than I thought it would've and they were also surprisingly easy once I figured out where I was supposed to be slip stitching. They're also super mindless to stitch. So very little counting and if you don't count, you still get it right because it's obvious how many are supposed to be in what section. At least to me it was.

it's almost square!

And I also worked a bit more on my scarf. The color pattern is a bit more obvious now. There will be another section of white ~4 inches wide and then miles of blue until I decide I need to start the end pattern. I'm not a very tall person but I like longer lengths so it will probably wind up somewhere between 60-65" long. I haven't decided if I want tassels on the end yet!

totally long enough now

Welp, that's all from me for the week! I'm excited for the weekend as they're calling for a little bit of snow! I hate being cold without snow, it just seems so mean. Plus it will give me an excuse to stay at home and be buried in my crafts. :b Productive fingers, GOOOOO!

November MMMM #1

Aloha~

I decided to go ahead with MMMM for November (this time hosted by Justine!) because it's fun getting these minis stitched up! Of course, that is if one has the time to sit down....

before

after

Such amazing progress, right? sigh It was a busy week again. Things should be winding down soon. I hope. My poor lazy bones need more lazy-ing than they have been getting lately!

But! Look! I finished a crochet thing! Remember this square?

my first square...

...is a potholder!

I made a second one and attached the two together and made a little loopy thing. It's a little wonky but for a first larger project, I guess it's okay. The first side I attached I think I may have gotten overzealous with the stitches lol. I think there are twice as many in that side than the others, oops. :D I love the colors in it but they don't really match my kitchen so I know a Very Wonderful Mom who will probably receive this for Christmas. She was saying she wanted a larger one anyway! And it is quite large; the lamp it's displayed on is about 1.5-2 feet tall. And if for some reason this Mom is reading my blog, shoo! Don't look at the picture you've already looked at!

a thing!

I also started a new project that will hopefully wind up being a scarf. It's a bit wide but I get cold easy so the larger the better, maybe...? I'm stitching it with Yarn Bee Soft Secret in navy and some mysterious white that I had in my stash. My goal is to make it match a pair of gloves I have... and I love matching things! Because I'm still a noob, using the Soft Secret instead of the regular worsted Red Heart is an adventure. It's so... slippery! And soft! I love to just fondle the skein ahaha.

And look what I found!! On my quest to obtain a rainbow of floss boxes, I stumbled upon this on eBay:

purple!

It was a little beat up but has the hinges instead of plastic flaps and came with that rather random assortment of floss. I'm not really sure what the two gold flosses are as they aren't numbered. Maybe some sort of Kreinik? So now I have blue, purple, pink and the ever-so-findable clear boxes. I can finally start winding the rest of my floss.

Well I can guarantee your stitchy fingers have been more productive than mine for the past week so uhhh here's to next week? :D

MMMM #5, The Final One (For October)!

Well, here we are at the final day of October (I swear, it really was just May yesterday...)! I managed to squeak in another finish bringing my grand total of finishes... to two. Lol. Well, two is better than zero, right? I have a feeling I'd have been more productive if I hadn't been taking a class, going on vacation, and in the middle of deep cleaning the house at the same time! But it was fun being part of a sort-of-SAL for once (my first, weeee~). Mahalo to our host at Pull the Other Thread. :D

To match the Witchy Kitty microkit from the blog hop post I give you... Mr. Frankenstein!

toxic green

He's just as cute as Witchy Kitty. I'll probably finish him off with felt like before but as you can see, I completely derped out stitching him and he's very close to the edge! Eek! I'll think of something... I hope.

A Mr needs his Mrs but alas, she was not meant to be finished in time.

feminine(?) toxic green

If I had had my wits about me, they would've been stitched on the same piece of plastic canvas with a gruesome little heart between them. Maybe I can still pull it off?

Anywhoodle, I'm still trying to decide if I can continue into November which will now be hosted by Justine! I still have class, but I won't be taking vacations or scrubbing every corner of the house so I should have a bit more time. I say that now. :)

Productive fingers go.... to bed!

MMMM #4

Hellooooo~

Despite it being IHSW, I got very little stitching done. In fact, I got very little of anything other than walking and eating done! My husband finally (finally) got some time off of work so we took a mini vacation and walked all over a million places like good tourists. Who knew vacations could be so tiring?!

bluuuuueeeee~!

Since we were in a "big city", I had a little stash enhancement. My friend found lovely blue and purple floss boxes and informed me that they were available at Micheal's and Jo-Ann's respectively. I bought the blue one but I wasn't willing to spend $7 for the purple (which was also designed a bit different). I also picked up a skein of E940 which is glow-in-the-dark floss (and is hiding in plain sight)! I'm excited about it because I can't find it anywhere around home and all online places mark it up something ridiculous. My first impression (besides squeaking like an overly-excited dolphin in the middle of the aisle) was that the skein feels weird, hah.

Of course it's time for my rather late MMMM update! The spiffy button was made by Alyssa who always manages to find the most amazing freebie patterns!

Anyway, here is the progress I made over a week. Isn't it amazing? Perhaps some of you recognize the pattern already (there have been a few adjustments) as I did a similar one before. :) Once I found a needle that I didn't have to shove through the perforated plastic, stitching on it became so much easier. I won't impress you with the amount of mistakes and picking outs that I had to do just to get this thing started. I don't know what it is about the plastic; it completely screws up my already screwed up counting abilities. I was also entirely too exhausted to be stitching. I dozed off a few times with needle in hand!

Most definitely you've had more productive fingers this week! Until next time~

MMMM #3

Aloha, everyone! I think I've fixed the comments issue. And gave my blog a Halloweeniesh sort of theme.

This will be a short post because I am simply too tired to do more than be a zombie. Maybe this is a blessing in disguise since I'm sure I ramble too much anyway. ;)

finally framed!

blinding flash

Please ignore the dismal excuse for a ribbon. It's one of those skills I feel I'll never master.

my first square!

This photo was shot at an angle; I swear it's square! It's not "finished" because I haven't learned how to do edging and didn't want to try on it after the countless efforts it took me to get this far. I think I will make another square of the same size and make it into a large potholder because I've never heard of a yarn dishcloth before (that's what the pattern called it).

new stitch floss toss!

This will be the next (two) project(s) for MMMM. I'm not quite sure about the colors but I didn't have the listed ones in stash and getting new stash requires a lengthy trip. I think they will work out. I hope.

And before I forget! CraftySasha is having a really fun pattern giveaway, found here. I suggest you head over there and join in the fun (and admire the super cute paperclip army)!

Until next time~ But now, I'm going to go crash in some soft-cushioned thing.

MMMM #2

I am a bit frustrated with blogger. I don't know what happened to my code or settings but I'm unable to reply on-site anymore. I'm not sure blogger even emails replies to comments anyway! /grumpy So if you happen upon my site over the next week or so and it looks totally wonky, it's because I stripped it down to bare bones code, the silly thing.

Okay! I cannot be grumpy for long because I Have a Finish~! Even if it is a mini finish. So I can completely call MMMM successful because I have at least one finish. Finish, finish, finish!

last time on episode mini #1...

after last weekend

This is as far as I got over the weekend. There was just too much going on and I even wound up doing some of that work under a streetlamp in a parking lot, hah. (I do not recommend this unless you 100% know your floss colors -- yikes!)

finished pre-bath

I must admit, this piece took far longer than I was expecting and looks better too. The preview picture showed very muted colors but perhaps it's because it was a kit from 20 years ago haha. And it was even finished in less than a week! I dunno what it was with this piece; I must've been grimy from the Fall Housecleaning, but I felt the need to wash it. There was no drama with any floss bleeding and it looks so much fuller after.

finished post-bath!

I made a few minor changes besides tormenting myself with light effects floss. I added in the tree garland using a strand of gold and fished out a tiny piece of brown from old kit leftovers to do the two tiny tree trunks. And instead of a black outline around the letters, I opted for the same red. It's obviously not framed yet. It came with one of those little plastic hoops... in a sort of faded blue color. I'm not feeling that, haha. I have a gold frame stashed away that I think might work but will require further investigation!

Technical Details

• "Noel" kit by The New Berlin Co., designed by Tina Watson
• 2 over 1 on 18-count white "even weave fabric" - Looked like Aida to me!
• Finished size: 2" x 2.5" (5,1 x 6,4cm)
• Started: October 1, Finished: October 7, 2014. Unknown hours.
• Kit was missing needle depriving me of a chance to lose yet another needle to the carpet/furniture gremlins.

I haven't started my next mini yet, although I have two picked out that I'm going to work on together. I just need to rummage through my stash and see what colors I can come up with... or not, and justify a stash enhancement experience... :)

I cannot say how long they'll take me because I'm taking a class this year at our local adult education center that started this week. I've always wanted to learn how to crochet (doilies, doilies on every surface). A few years ago, my mother started showing me how and that worked well enough that I could do a chain. She has muscular dystrophy, however, and cannot hold a hook. I am hopeless at those diagrams in books and never bothered with youtube videos. But now! I can sort of do a single crochet and a half double in addition to the chain! We have homework -- make something using one (or two, or all) of those stitches. I feel like I'm going to start with the traditional potholder, hah. If anyone has any other suggestions using those stitches, I would love to hear them as I'm a total newb at this!

practice makes perfect...?

Here is my little practice piece from in class. More experience crocheters are probably writhing in agony at that poor thing ahaha~ I tried. :) Now I'll stop talking for a little bit and get back to work~

MMMM #1

Aloha new (and old) friends~ I think I have you followed back but if I don't, feel free to kick me in the pants with your URL!

At the end of September (wasn't it just May?), I went rummaging through my kit drawer to figure out just what I'm gonna stitch for Mega Mini Month Madness. I pulled out anything and everything that looked "mini". Then I went through my stash of magazines/books/leaflets and marked interesting small things. Then I went into my Internet folder.

I don't have a huge stash (unless one considers the online folder) so there's not much to choose from. Even still, I probably shouldn't make any particular goals. One a week would be great but then y'all would have to be watching for those flying pigs again. ;)

As you can see, I started with the tiny kit on the bottom right. I decided I needed to torment myself and "adjusted" the white to contain a strand of light effects floss. Which I cannot for the life of me railroad. !@#$%&

Anywhoodle, despite my first world floss problems, this is a super simple stitch that will hopefully be done over the weekend. Fall is always a busy time of year for me so I am glad to have an excuse to sit down and stitch... assuming I don't fall asleep when I sit down! :)

Hope y'all have productive fingers again~ ZZZzzzzzz...