FotM! FFIII! Babbles!

Oh dear, oh dear!  It seems April is trying to slip past me.  Thanks for all the fun comments on the Easter Blog Hop post. :D  I even got some new followers (spastic waving), hi!  I kinda feel like I'm going every which way right now.  I can't believe I had to start mowing the grass in March.  The garden is worked up with onions, spinach, lettuce, potatoes, sweet peas, garlic, and one (of only four) cabbages planted.  The tomatoes are started in their little pods to be put outside when it warms up more, as well as the assortment of peppers, cucumbers, and squash.  I had to dig up some of my blackberry as it's trying to take over the world!  It felt good to work outside in the sunshine but boy-o-boy was I pooped after.  On to the stitching!

before

after

First up, I have a small bit of progress to show on the lovely Flower of the Month series, July's Larkspur/Delphinium.  I am very much enjoying working on this piece though I don't often sit down to work on it. The blues are magical and I finally found the remaining four after a trip to the Big City.  It's a bit like violets was but it must be the enjoyability (new word copyright Rosey175) of blue that doesn't make it so bothersome.  That or I am still in my "I'mma do what I want, when I want" mindset and not worrying about silly little things like Time.

I am in a bit of a panic though.  Hancock Fabrics has declared bankruptcy and is liquidating all of its stock.  While this means (the sad kind of) sales, it also means the end of being able to find these impossible ecru huck towels!  They're available online (for double the price) but I'd really rather avoid that route if at all possible.  I will need five more to finish this set.  I'm hoping to get to our local store and snag some before it shuts its doors forever.  Bah! :(

before

after

Next, delicious progress on FFIII (sorry for the derp after picture; it is not curved).  There's a full word over there, YAY.  Even a start on the III -- that's the black blip at the end.  And even MORE YAY is that the green point above the letter Y is exactly where it is supposed to be which almost made me cry with relief.  Something going right on this piece for a change weeeeee~

And lastly, Crafty Sasha is having a giveaway!  Do check out her blog; she does a neat assortment of projects.  ----  This is what one gets for spending days typing up a post!   Her giveaway is over now but go check out her blog anyway. :D

I think that's all for now.  No crocheting this time!  I do have a bit of knitting but it's Gift Knitting and will be next post.  I didn't work on the Singer 201-2 more since I (still) need to order the rewiring kits.  Maybe I'm hoping it'll fix itself, hmm...  I did clean up all the little bits and bobs that came with it though.  Some of the parts got fresh oil, but most just got a dunk in rubbing alcohol.

Okay, done! Have a productive time! :D

ETA: I'll be joining in Justine's Faithful April after an email encouragement haha!  I will stick to one project at a time, first the knit squares as they need done this month, preferably before Wednesday after next!  Then I will devote the rest of the time to FFIII and see how far that takes me. :D

GG, TUSAL, and Things!

Hi!! It's almost spring! My daffodils have started to bloom and boy are there sooo many more this year. I'm ecstatic. :D When we first moved in to this place I think we maybe got three or four blossoms. This year there are probably 100! Please don't mow your daffodils down before they have time to soak up enough energy for the next year. I will come to your house in the night and dig them up, my preciousssss....

the first blossom

click me!

before

after

It's time for the monthly installment of Gifted Gorgeousness. Rathian grows! She got her dangerous claws added in which means the bottom corners are now done.  I'm saving her most deadly bit for last even though it's the first thing I go for in-game!  If you're new, she is part of a set of video game glyphs I'm slowly working up to a little cube for my husband to show off have on his work desk.

need a good blocking

I have also managed to complete another speaker cozy.  Yay, two down!   These will be the smallest (lol/sigh) of the set and already have a happy home on the rear bookshelf speakers.  I will work on the towers next.

click me, too!

March "strings"

Here are my latest floss ORTs and yarn ORTs. I used to put them out this time of year for the birds to have high fashion nests but I decided I'd try to fill the jars entirely as a sort of mini-finish all its own.  Sorry, birds!

squint ... or click to enlarge

Not for any "a-long" but I managed to knit up this little dishcloth just in time for St. Patrick's Day.  I was very close to running out of yarn for it.  I'm not super fond of this colorway so I didn't want to buy another skein of it just to finish a dishcloth!  But I managed to squeak by, woo! That little squiggle is all that remained after omitting two rows and shortening the i-cord (which was a new thing learned, yay!).  There are shamrocks on it though it's a bit hard to tell in this photo.

Technical Details

• "St. Patrick's Day Cloth" pattern by Kris Knits, found here (ravelry) and here (blogger).
• #2 regular and DPNs.
• Yarn: Peaches n Creme Solids in rosemary.
• 8.5" x 8" unblocked. 
• Started March 8, finished March 14, 10 hours.

And last but definitely not least, Kim over at Wisdom with Needle and Thread is having a joyous celebration of her 60 trips around the sun and invites y'all to join in the fun!  She is offering up 60 RAKs to her party guests and if you've never seen her work before, go, go look!  She does such beautiful tiny things.  Really, the borrowers are totally in love with her house.

Alrighty then!  I think I've done enough talking for my two weeks.  I'll be around for Jo's Easter Blog Hop so until then, may you have productive fingers~ :D

FotM - August Edition and New Learnings!

You know what the awful thing about data caps is? When you reach your limit, you can't use the Internet without paying extra. Yes, I am a little grumpy about this but it's a new month which means we're reset, weee~

Here's my sad progress on the Flower of the Month SAL hosted by Alyssa at Brownie's Chair. I am still not in love with this pattern though I do like it a bit more as it takes shape.  But because I'm not loving it, progress is very slow.

before

after

Even though there's not a lot of progress cross-stitching, I have not been completely idle! In the world of crochet, I have randomly found a cute Christmas CAL last week that I'm attempting to complete. I have the first square done and you can find it on her blog (linked above) or here on Ravelry.  So far, five squares have been released: Santa, a Christmas tree, a snowman, a sleigh, and an elf.

sorry for the weird angle

Santa! :D These squares are all done using corner-to-corner (C2C) crochet which makes for a kinda neat texture... and a heavy one. This will definitely be a warm blanket.  These are done in half-double (US terms) instead of the double crochet C2C is normally done in and my square wound up to be a stretchy 14" (pattern says 15").  I haven't quiiiite figured out the color changes to prevent the strange little joins.  Some are okay, others not so much. I'm trying to be creative with the tails to kind of hide the pointy bits. On the blog, it says to put a single crochet border around but I haven't done that yet. I am not sure exactly how this is going to become an afghan/throw so I don't know how many stitches will be needed (or if that will even matter).  But oh, the tails.

*cry*

Can you feel my pain? I can feel my pain. In fact, I can feel my pain down here in the basement and Santa is upstairs, in my yarn bag, haunting me. I can only take so much weaving before I get bored so I do a little here and there. I have his beard and part of his hat done.  I am trying not to think about his face.  Or that I'll have to do this on all the other patterns.  I think I will try to do two skeins of the background color in the next one though, to see if that helps to eliminate some ends.  It's hard to carry over stitches when working diagonal!  I'll get it eventually.  Maybe before the last one is released. :)

so tiny

I have also decided to learn tatting and knitting. Thanks to Preeti and Aurelia for their tatting site suggestions, I can now do a double stitch!  Sort of!  My first impression is that tatting is Very Difficult.  I am having the same problem as I do with crochet -- tension.  Wrapping the thread around my fingers and then working with them is like, oh, I dunno, octopus in spaghetti!  Another issue is that the shuttle I have might be too large for my hands.  I never thought that I had small hands but I cannot weave the shuttle over/under the thread fully.  Or perhaps I am not yet used to the movement.

practice makes perfect!

Knitting is also difficult for me, especially as I cannot watch YouTube videos often (inconsistent speed and data usage, buuuu) so I am trying to learn from written tutorials and books.  I can cast on!  I think!  There is a local knitting group that I have wormed my way into recently (with crochet lol) and they are all sweet ladies.  Their expert opinions were that my cast on stitches looked good so I will defer to their wisdom in such matters.  I think the thing that draws me to knitting is sweaters.  I love sweaters.  Crochet can make some pretty tops, they just don't compare to knitted beauties. I'm a long way from a sweater though! Maybe I'll start with a scarf or potholder, just like crochet. :)  But first I better get the knit stitch mastered...

Hooray for new brain wrinkles!  :D  My Ravelry library is going to explode with patterns at this rate.  Thank you for reading and sharing my "string" adventures!  And before I forget, Santa Nancy is getting started early (or maybe she never stops haha) with the giveaways since she has the wonderful new floss box sets.  I entered Mother's Flower Garden and the Halloween giveaways.