A Surprisingly Not-So-Small(?) January Small

click for info!

Well isn't this embarrassing! I am apparently too used to posting at the end of the month that I completely forgot the first check-in for the Smalls SAL is NOT actually at the end of the month, oops!  I suppose it worked out in the end as I didn't finish stitching until yesterday. :)

before

after - much better light!

I guess it might be obvious it's not a cupcake now.  This was a very happy little stitch, and one of those that magically come to life when the miles of backstitching go on.  I did make a few changes: I did not add the second chimney, nor the majority of the French knots.  Nothing against French knots, but they just looked odd on this piece.  I also left off the "Thinking of You" sentiment and all the random blue dots which I think are supposed to be raindrops.  I didn't want raindrops, thank you very much.

Technical Details

• Cross Stitch Greetings #911 "Birdhouse", a kit by Design Works Crafts
• Designer: Joan Elliot
• 2-over-1 on white 18-count Aida.
• Finished size: approximately 3.5" x 5.5" (~9cm x 14cm).
• Started: January 8, finished January 30, 16 hours.  

The floss supplied was not so great. It tangled very easily and when trying to untangle, it would break! This was incredibly frustrating.  It also is a bit larger than I expected!  I think for the next Smalls, I should go Smaller.

scissors for weight

Here is what it will look like in the card. I was puzzled as to what the recipient could do with the stitching afterwards. What could be done with it and still be sent as a card?  Solution(?): I have a very thin magnet (think of those that come stuck on things as advertising) that should work to attach to the back.  It won't be able to hold much but would look nice on their fridge or filing cabinet... maybe?  I might be the only goofball who loves magnets all over everything.  Any other ideas out there?  It has to be very, very flat.

Okay, that's all I have this time~  I shall endeavor to remember the SAL date is not the end of the month next time haha~

2017 Recap: Do All the Crafts

Hello, howdy, and hi! I always like to do a recap post so here is 2017's little collection.  I've copied the list from my finishes page and created a small collage for each craft, including a few images of stuff I hadn't yet shown on the blog due to various present restrictions.

2017

1. February - Casserole Potholder - thermal crochet, freebie pattern found here, modified by me
2. February - Small Potholder - thermal crochet, freebie pattern found here
3. May - Mock Honeycomb Dishcloth #1 - knit, freebie pattern found here (ravelry)
4. June - Little Cowboy Afghan - crochet, freebie pattern found here (ravelry)
5. June - Mock Honeycomb Dishcloth #2 - knit, freebie pattern found here (ravelry)
6. June - August Gladiolus - 14-count ecru huck towel, freebie pattern found here
7. July - Rubber Ducky Washcloth - knit, freebie pattern found here (ravelry)
8. September - Sunflower Coaster - crochet, pattern cobbled together by me
9. September - Zinogre - 20-count light tan jobelan, pattern by me
10. October - All Hallow's Eve - 14-count black Aida, pattern by Frosted Pumpkin Stitchery
11. November - Star Stitch Dishcloths (4) - knit, freebie pattern found here (ravelry)
12. December - Fan Bookmarks (6) - crochet, freebie pattern found here (ravelry)
13. December - Snowman Mitten - 14-count brass ornament, kit by Bucilla
14. December - Clothespin Angel #4 - crochet, pattern from Leisure Arts leaflet 2518
15. December - Creeper Hat - knit, freebie pattern found here (ravelry), modified by me 

Knitting

knittin's

I felt like this turned into a year of dishcloths!  Apart from the hat, that's all I knit this year haha.  The final count was seven (two of each color of the variegated yarn).  The purple and green ones are done in a "mock honeycomb" stitch which makes a delightfully dainty-looking cloth.

The hat was a Christmas present for my husband!  It was my first time doing Fair Isle knitting which I'm pleased to say wasn't difficult at all once I figured out how I was most comfortable holding the second color.  I did make a rather silly mistake though.  The pattern calls for size 6 needles and I accidentally used size 9!  My needles don't have the little underlines to denote those two sizes apart haha. I didn't realize this until I went to put the needles back in their case after the hat was finished.  The gauge was close (mine was 5.5 stitches per inch to the called-for 5) using them, though.  The pattern idea came from here, along with a modification here.  I changed the look of the face to fit the in-game creeper.  Also, it had to have a pompom.  :)

Crochet

hookin's

Crochet was a bit more varied!  The potholders were finished early in the year as a sort of therapy for the move.  Next up was the star baby afghan and sunflower coaster.  Lastly was the thread clothespin angel.  What a fiddly little pattern!  I had to pay close attention to the pattern reading as commas were VERY important haha.  I changed the called-for colors, giving her a bright red dress and a metallic sheen halo (FYI metallic crochet thread behaves much better than metallic floss).  She was fun and I hope to make more in the future.  I certainly have enough thread to crochet an army in a rainbow of colors!

Cross-Stitch

stitchin's

Like last year, this was again a bit sad for cross-stitch finishes.  I am happy to have made my first flatfold for a Halloween stitch, as well as stitched my first Frosted Pumpkin piece!  And the brass ornament was a fun idea.  I did manage another one of my Flower-of-the-Month huck towel finishes, and another Monster Hunter side for the cube.  I even managed to work some on Final Fantasy III (last shown on here for last year's recap!).

It went from here

to here.

Not much of a change but there is a little difference, most notably the right side of the picture with his cape and sword.  I found a new (to me) floor stand that allows me to sit back more comfortably to work on these larger pieces so I have been grazing on it.  The goal is to have it finished in February as the local framing shop runs a special on free museum glass.  I would like it and FFVIII framed at the same time and possibly explode from the excitement.  Even if I just manage FFVIII framed, I will probably still explode from the excitement!

Goals

That's it for 2017's crafty endeavors.  It wasn't as much as last year but still more than previous years so I'll count it as a win, especially with how rough the start was!

As far as "goals" for next year, one item of interest is the 2018 Ravellenic Games.  I enjoyed working on projects during the 2016 Ravellenics where I finished a hat and a pair of house slippers so I'd like to challenge myself again for the new one.  I'm still trying to decide what I'd like to "compete" in.  Cross Country Living is a strong contender since I've already a project in mind.  Toy Bobsled also sounds fun and perhaps a way to get me to actually try my hand at amigurumi!  Or perhaps Sock Hockey.  I've attempted my first pair of socks which has ended in total disaster (wrong yarn, waaaay wrong yarn) but I don't want to be defeated.

I was out of all SALs this past year.  I know I'll be rejoining Gifted Gorgeousness (this is 2017's link).  Other than that, I'm not sure what I'll be doing.  I don't enjoy facebook or flosstube as a medium so that knocks out a few.  I've never stopped collecting my ORTs though I no longer take pictures of them for TUSAL.  I'm considering WIPocalypse (2017 again) as it would fit in with my posting style but because I have very few projects ongoing at a time WIPs are actually scarce!  Plus I don't think I'd link up because of the facebook thing.

It seems I like to stick to broad-spectrum SALs where I can work on whatever rather than ones that have a specific theme.  Maybe I should see if there are any KALs or CALs out there that could help broaden my horizons.  I would love to hear your suggestions!

Thank you all for helping my 2017 get brighter.  Here's to 2018!

Update: Just One July

I'mma just dive right in here before August teleports away.  This is the next side for the Monster Hunter cube, filled with toxic green goodness!  This pattern cleaned up rather quickly once my computer parts stopped catching on fire and worked like they should(?).

endure the punches

I wound up not using a single one of the preliminary floss toss colors. Super Husband to the rescue picking colors! I love turning him loose in the store with the instructions to pick good colors haha. Maybe it's a bit silly to have him pick stuff for his own gift... oh well, he does a wonderful job of it.

hey there

Rather short on the update.  Of course we have over 60 hours in the new Monster Hunter game so progress ground to a halt.  Imagine the things I could accomplish if I didn't spend that time gaming!  But, gaming comes first, especially co-op gaming.  Then, the last part of July was spent on vacation down in Alabama and Georgia.  The Georgia Aquarium was really neat, even the gift shop with the silly fish faces.  Driving in Atlanta was horrendous.  Exit only lanes pop out of nowhere and speed limits are mild suggestions.  Nope, nope, nooope.  But all the stitchy progress was vacation stitching, that's a win for me!  I made sure to prep my fabric in advance; that helped a lot.

Oh!  And I decided to participate in the Ravellenic Games this year.  I will be knitting a hat for the first time and maybe making something else if the hat finishes faster than expected!  Having never done one before, I have no clue about time frames.  It's not a huge goal but it will teach me to knit in the round (normally; I was taught magic loop first) and do a 3-needle bind off, woo!

Just One Gifted Gorgeous in July

Hello! Thank you all for drooling over my sugar cookies. They were dutifully inhaled as is Proper Cookie Etiquette. I wondered if I would miss another Gifted Gorgeousness post this month. Why? Remember that I had a new computer build? Well, the battery backup/surge protector for it caught. On. FIRE.

ಠ_ಠ

I think I set a new world record for the speed of shutting down my computer. Luckily there was no harm done to the computer and only minimal smoke to the house. I won't use my computer without adequate protection so I had to wait for a new backup to arrive. Ugh. It arrived yesterday, whew!

click me!

Anywhoodle, you are here for some gorgeousness, not things catching on fire! This is a c-c-combo post for both GG and JOJ.

before

after

YAY! Madame Rathian is done! :D  I had a lot of issues with her.  First trying to pick the colors.  I went with the avocado DMCs for their brightness.  The olives would've been more "true" perhaps.  The original glyph had her eye blue like Rathalos (see below) but at no point does she have blue eyes in game!  They're golden!  So, I picked a drab sort of brownish yellow that I still don't know if I like.  Another issue was the lack of symmetry.  I wish I had made the pattern better!  Her tail came out well though, and that's her annoying important part. Her only goal in life is to poison you with it.

together forever

Technical Details

• "Rathian" glyph from Monster Hunter 3 Ultimate, pattern charted by me.
• 2 over 1 on 20-count light tan jobelan fabric.
• Finished size: 3.50 x 3.50" (9 x 9 cm).
• Started: February ??, Finished: July 8. 9+ hours, not including infinite floss issues.  

I intended to continue on with these glyphs as part of Just One July but seeing as I needed a computer to make the next pattern, that didn't happen.  I unfaithfully worked on knitting in the meantime.  Of course once I set things up again, the next one just fell into place!  If you know your monsters, perhaps you can guess by this (preliminary) floss toss:

best weapons ever

This one will be fun.  That is assuming I will have time to stitch.  This post is going up on the day Monster Hunter Generations is released here and of course two copies were pre-ordered.  I am going to bet my guy flies home from work and we'll never be productive again.  \ :D /

Gifted Gorgeousness - Rathian Update, and TUSAL

Aloha!  Thank you for your lovely comments!  It was quite a surprise to see the emails as I honestly meant to disallow again for that post.  But, it was a happy surprise and since the holiday season is over I feel a lot less pressured to Do All the Things.  :D  I will slowly be getting back to commenting on blogs, though admittedly at a reduced capacity.  Last year I found myself overwhelmed with leaving comments.  I suppose it's because I talk too much.  I just can't leave a "looks great!" comment and move on.  Because of that, I was spending about 3-5 hours per day commenting (and trying to get blogs to load) and I burnt out.  This was also partly the reason I disallowed comments last year.  Why should I accept comments when I can't return the favor?  Is this silly?  I don't know!  My brain does what it does and sometimes what it does makes absolutely no sense but I can't always tell when it's not making sense.  Nonsense is a way of life for me or perhaps you have already noticed that~

Well, have you had quite enough of me rambling yet?  I'll get to the actual post now and ramble some more. :9

click me!

floss!

yarn!

Quite a bit more in there this time around. I've been plowing through the June Rose, finally figured out some Rathian colors, and found some scraps from the little Airou ornaments I made last year.  As I was admiring the layers it occurred to me that the thick dark blue band is a good indicator of time.  It was from my first crochet projects so the tail end of 2014!  Maybe I should put another yarn in to end 2015.  I'll have to steal one because, look!, a yarn ORT jar! Sorry it's so cloudy. It's an older jar and sat in the old food shed for untold years. I like the design on it though.  Those are the ORTs from the Rudolph square alone.  I think this jar will fill rather quickly!

click me too!

Next, the first GG of 2016! I made a small button to use this year from Jo's Mill Hill photo (it made me smile to see that as this year's GG image -- I gifted that! :D). I needed something smaller to fit on the sidebar without scrunching it up so I hope you don't mind, Jo!

before

after

But yessss, Rathian starts to see the light!  Turns out those avocado greens in the flower-of-the-months lend themselves quite nicely to her colors. Design-wise, I find myself preferring Rathalos but I prefer fighting him too. :b  If you're thinking the colors don't match the chart, they don't!  I made the chart with KG-Chart LE which is not known for matching colors very well.  I don't usually have my boxes of floss with me either so I couldn't compare -- which is hard anyway because monitor settings vary, image quality varies, blah blah blah.  But she's on her way after stitching/picking out what felt like every green I own.

That will be all from me for now!  I think this weekend is supposed to be IHSW but I don't know if I'll squeeze in any work on FFIII.  We'll see~  I'll post about it if I do, though it may be squeezed in with my next update for the FotM.  I decided to keep posting at the end of the month despite the FotM SAL no longer being held on blogger (it has apparently moved entirely to facebook, thanks again for the update Mini!).  I do not like facebook groups (no offense, it's just not my thing and they wind up overwhelming my feed no matter how many times I tell the page to STAHPPPP) so I will just plug along here.  :)

2015 Recap & 2016 Ambitions (Image Heavy)!

Aloha world!! I hope you had a Merry Christmas and received all your stitchy desires. :D 2015 is drawing to a close so I thought I'd better start working on my recap post since our Internet is probably going to protest the whole way.  We've just had a ton of rain, more than was really necessary and I think all of our state is closed due to the drama it has caused.  They've moved the planes at our local airport to higher ground because the Mississippi River is in major flood stage.  We are up on the bluffs so no danger here unless getting stuck in the muddy driveway is a danger!

Cross-Stitch
I managed 2.5ish SALs this year! In order to not have so many images in one post, I made a (rather ghetto) collage of them.

2015 finishes!

One SAL was Gifted Gorgeousness hosted by Jo at Serendipitous Stitching. I think it was the most successful even if it doesn't have the most finishes.

1. I designed and stitched a Muppet "baby sampler" for a friend's first baby! I think turned out really cute (sorry, I won't show the whole thing because it contains the full name of their child). Would you believe I still have it?? We've been trying to get together for a while but life has just not played fair. I am afraid to mail it because it's somewhat large and with the glass and questionable mail services...! 
2. Next was the Dolphin Trio, a Dimensions kit given to me eons ago which turned into my longest WIP that I just sorta snacked on when the mood hit. I am so happy to have it finished!  It is not finished-finished but you know how it goes with finding Perfect Frames.
3. Next was Rathalos, a wyvern glyph from Monster Hunter 3 Ultimate, a game both my husband and I love playing together.  The plan was to also stitch Rathian to go with him but silly me mentioned how nice a cube would be so four more are being planned.  Rathian colors continue to be a struggle.  Maybe I just don't like olive greens!

before

after

The next SAL was the Flower of the Month SAL hosted by Alyssa at Brownie's Chair.  This SAL seemed to fizzle out at the year went on though several did manage to keep posting about it.  I finished January, February, April (March was finished years earlier!), and May.  They are all done on 14-count ecru huck towels.  Since this post will also serve as the last FotM update, I made a tiny bit of progress on June's flower.  It felt good to get back to Xs after all the yarny things I've been doing lately!  And while I was stitching on this I thought to myself, "Hmm, these look somewhat like Rathian colors."  And then it hit me, these ARE Rathian colors!  I think.  But they do look right in the floss toss.  I'll probably fret some more over them though. :b

before, dug out in June

Lastly was IHSW hosted by Joyze at Random Ramblings.  I decided to work on Final Fantasy III during the weekends of this SAL took place/I felt like it!  It started off with a troublesome mistake which I finally put on my big girl panties and fixed it by means of doing the letters.  I keep feeling disappointed in myself over this piece thinking I hardly had any progress but with the before and after, it doesn't look too bad.   And the mistake is fixed!  I shall be very glad when I never have to stitch on it again though.  This one is determined to drive me nuts.

after

Crochet

just three more!

Since learning this in 2014, I feel like this year was a year to kinda expand my knowledge.  I joined a CAL that went waaaay too fast for me haha. But now I know Very Well how to do corner-to-corner crochet thanks to the zillion squares in the Christmas blanket yay!  I have all nine of the main ones complete now and have the others planned out in charts.  It is so very tempting to say yay~ I am done with the squares ahaha.  But I will be good and make three more so my blanket will be a more acceptable (to me) blanket size.  Rudolph was a Pain In The Buttocks.  Holy moly.  That mouth area was enough to drive me bonkers.  The gingerbread man was pretty rough too.

hey, more Rathalos colors?

doily in action oooo

I also made my first doily and first pair of house slippers, both of which I'm happy to say went over really well with Mr. Husband. :D  It's nice to have such an appreciative guy.  I will be making another pair of the slippers for myself (bluuuue) as my house slippers are currently disintegrating.  You can find the free pattern for them here (ravelry link).  I am disappointed to say this little doily is all that I managed to get finished, though.  Even though each motif takes about 1-1.5 hours, there just aren't enough sneaky hours in my day without ignoring everything else that needs done!  But now I don't have to be sneaky so I'll be able to work on them more often.

Knitting

dishcloths!

kitty prints scarf

This was my new adventure for the year!  I taught myself from books and am continuing to learn through a little group that meets roughly every two weeks at the library.  I first made some potholders (gotta start somewhere) and am currently working on a scarf that wants to curl like there's no tomorrow.  Since it is just the one skein of yarn, I take it almost everywhere with me.  The doctor's office, Mom's house, hotels...  I am a rather slow knitter so far though.  I am very excited to learn socks and then no foot will be safe from my needles!

Miscellaneous

this is Halloween, this is Halloween

My husband's company called for wreaths for their Christmas party with the "requirement" that they be the main colors of red, black, and white.  There was only one solution to that in our household! :D  We had a lot of fun making this and I learned a new thing about Mr. Husband -- he's really, REALLY good at picking colors and making little felt flowers (those swirlies at the bottom were all made by him proud peacock wife moment).  Sally's hair is a bit long in this picture; I trimmed it afterwards to make it even with the bottom of the wreath.

soooo tasty!

Next were these little ornaments made for some friends we have over for game night.  This little cat is named Airou and he's from the Monster Hunter world (same as Rathalos and Rathian).  They're made from felt and stuffed with yarn ORTs and felt scraps haha.  I love how these turned out and I think I should probably make another one for ourselves. :D

Overall and Ambitions Onward
I think I did okay for 2015.  I learned a new skill and that's always an amazing thing!  I also bought two patterns online (Frosted Pumpkin patterns, too! Eee!) for the first time ever (if you don't recall the vaaast majority of my stash is freebies and/or thrift store finds).  My goals for 2015 (this post) were mostly met *scooting FFIII under the bed* and thanks to the generosity of some stitchy friends, I got TWO needleminders!  They are remarkably useful inventions and I'm not sure how I survived without them.  One thing I mentioned in passing without any real goal was getting a calendar for my stitching.  My husband provided a small planner from his workplace (he does everything digital so he doesn't need it) and it worked rather well to track hours/days!  I hope he can get another one for this year and I will include crochet and knitting in there too.  Maybe.  :)

I'm not going to be overly ambitious in 2016 and just do what I want (like I don't already :b).  I have already signed up for 2016 GG so I can continue putting a dent in my gifted collection!   I love this SAL!  I don't know if the FotM SAL will continue but I will keep working on my huck towels because I want the set to be finished.  If IHSW continues I'll try to make appearances in it once in a while.  TUSAL will keep going too, maybe with yarn ORTs this time, oooOOOooo.

I WILL HAVE FFIII DONE IN 2016.  RAR.  famous last words

I think that is all from me.  I hope you all have a fantastic 2016!  My husband and I are rather stick-in-the-muds.  We'll probably just go to bed tonight and not watch any ball drop.  But we will have black eyed peas for supper on New Year's Day. Greens will have to be a salad haha. :)

FotM SAL ~ November Edition, Late!

First of all, thank you to those who have emailed me despite my blog silence. I am okay! While I am still a bit busy with Christmas stuffs, the silence has gone on longer than expected. Our Internet is still quite awful and I cannot always load blogs. I have been reading your posts through a bare bones reader, no backgrounds, no sidebar images, no avatars, etc. and that helps a lot, though I cannot leave comments that way. I had to give up reading some blogs (MrXStitch for example) because they do not allow the full post to show in the reader.  I would feel guilty allowing comments without leaving comments of my own.

click for more info!

I must admit posting about this slipped my mind. Not that it matters much, since there was absolutely no stitching progress. On anything, really. Maybe I was subconsciously hoping that I would eventually have something to show.

before

after

This is supposed to be June's rose. Maybe that is obvious. You can totally tell it's a rose from that speck of green that hasn't changed in a month, right?

elf!

wreath!

I did finish two more squares for the pixel square afghan CAL (which has completed). I have decided I will do three extra in addition to the nine in the CAL to make a longer afghan. I don't like toes poking out when I snuggle down. The first one is the elf. I really like how he turned out. I have no idea what that dark blue yarn is, something dug up from the depths of the crafty inheritance, but it is so soft and fuzzy. The second is the wreath. It turned out about 1" smaller than the other squares. Why? I dunno! Perhaps I've somehow managed to crochet even tighter.  I am about 3/4s done with the gingerbread man who is square #7 of 12.  Slowly but surely.  With Christmas gifts being worked on, I don't think this project will be done in time for the holiday.

kitty prints

I have been working on a scarf for my next knitting project. I love the yarn (Yarn Bee Soft Secrets) but I am so disappointed with how the scarf is knitting up. It is curling something awful. One of the ladies at the knitting group said I should be able to crochet around the edge and that will help.  This project has been put on the back burner for now because there are other things that have deadlines!

I'd like to post about those things but, surprise, surprise, the 'net won't let me upload anymore. Bah humbug.  Maybe since they're gifts they're better suited for GG which I will hopefully have up in a slightly more timely manner.  Maybe I should start prepping the post now.  Until next time~!

Gifted Gorgeousness, TUSAL - November Edition!

Ahoy there, crafty peoples~ :D  It's time for the wonderful Gifted Gorgeousness update!

click to join the fun!

At least I have something to show this time!

before

after

...o_o. Well, it's something, right? I mentioned before that the colors were pending on the Missus, and that they still are! I took a picture after the second attempt but this too has been picked out. I think it will work best for her inner swirls instead of main body color, though.  I wonder if I can convince my husband that I need every single green DMC makes to get her colors right. It's his gift and he needs it to be perfect of course! ;)  Maybe I should fish out any and all olive-y sort of colors and see what I can come up with.

But this is not the only giftedness I've been working on.  Here is a test piece I worked up to see if a) I could understand the pattern, b) liked the pattern, and c) liked the color combination.

almost like a snowflake

It's not very large, 2" (5cm) square but as a motif in something a bit bigger, I'm very happy with how it turned out!  It was crocheted with a 1mm hook and ancient threads.  I cannot make the rest of them from this thread as there will be enough and I know from past experience trying to match old threads Does. Not. Work!  The motif is from the Star Book No. 78: Television and Radio Scarfs, published in 1950 (originally called for white/green)!  I had a remarkably hard time finding small individual motifs.  This is one of the smallest I've come across (and liked).

Since it's an older pattern, there were a couple of things that I found odd.  One was the "single double crochet" -- what on earth is that?  After studying the description and some Google-fuu the answer:  American half double crochet (half treble for you aliens across the oceans).  Another was the making of the inner "picots."  They're... weird.  Weird for picots even.  I might adjust the pattern.  Otherwise, this is a really quick and enjoyable little motif!  The whole doily calls for alternating the colors (i.e. switch the white and blue) to create a checkerboard effect but I'm not sure I want that... and I can't exactly ask the giftee what they think without spoiling the gift!  I'll make a bunch of this scheme and see if I like the look and decide after (going against all the doily-making rules of joining as you go cough).  I only need 112 by Christmas... if I can squeeze in five per day assuming no weekends or other pesky days off... well... at the very least I need 48 done LOL.

join all the fun!

A few days behind but here's my TUSAL ORTs, looking just lovely in the jar.  Filled with ripped out stitches (again, hah) and some random bits of floss I used for some mending.  I'm pondering starting a big jar for yarn ORTs next year.  I think that pixel square afghan would produce enough to fill it in one go...

November "strings"

Thank you for reading; I know I talk a lot without actually saying anything. :)

FotM SAL - October Edition

Aloha! I am happy you're still reading despite my continued silence. :) I am no longer ill and am capable of breathing through my nose, how exciting!  Are you prepared to be wowed by my spectacular progress on the next flower?

click for more info!

before

after

Yaaaaaa-- wait, that's like, eleven stitches. I won't bore you with the struggle it was just to get those few stitches in.  I haven't touched cross-stitch since then; I'll get back to it eventually but argh.  I'm a bit sad I didn't get any Halloween stitching in.  I may be able to squeeze things in eventually but right now... I dunno.  Guess I'm in a funk.  Or maybe cross-stitch isn't as warm as yarny projects because...

various stash yarns

I did finish another square for the CAL! This is number four of at least nine (I haven't fully decided I want a small afghan haha). I really liked this square though I still hate that black yarn.  The yellow trim at the bottom of the sleigh was a different weight; I should've doubled up but didn't ah well.  Next up is the elf!  He looks like he'll have a couple of fiddly rows where I have skeins of yarn draped everywhere with all the color changes, bah.  I think I've finally learned my lesson about carrying yarn.  As long as it's touching the same color, it's okay to carry it.  If not, snip snip!

I'm still being bad with the ends.  I'll get them in eventually, with much complaining. :D

lemon and rosemary P&C yarn

I also managed to finish another dishcloth (using the same pattern). This time, I tried really hard to control my tension and it shows! However if I knit any tighter it will be a waterproof dishcloth hahaha. I crocheted around the edge out of curiosity. I was expecting to cover the edge but apparently that doesn't happen! At the knitting group, it was suggested that I knit around the edge to achieve what I was going for.

Next up is a simple scarf (yarn bought but not cast on yet)!  I am all gungho about socks and lace but it was strongly suggested that I increase my skills carefully hah. I see the logic but but but......  :)

I'm glad everyone else has been keeping busy with their stitchy goodness~  I'll return sometime.