Random #2: Short Needles are Awesome!

Hiya, everyone~  Thank you so much for all the help on the issue I was having on my blog. Extra big thanks to people who also emailed me screenshots!  It was strange that I wasn't seeing the "no entry" symbols on my version of Chrome.  I played around with the code some and found that there was a renegade apostrophe in the code for the sidebar images.  I'm not exactly sure what the issue was for the banner image, but I moved the location of the image source and somehow, that fixed it.  I guess Blogger doesn't like Google's own picture hosting(???). Everything should now show in Windows/Android-based Chrome, IE, and Firefox!  I haven't got any iProducts to test Safari, nor a way to test the Linux versions so hopefully they were fixed as well. :D

image found through Google search

First up, the winner of The Needle and I Seasonal Hearts pattern!  There were three entrants this time for the cute little primitive hearts and the random number generator chose number three -- Clare at Aimetu's Stitching, yay, congrats!  I will need your address, please, and then off it shall go~

★・・・・・・★・・・・・・★・・・・・・★・・・・・・★・・・・・・★・・・・・・★

tomatoes!

Now for the crafty bits ~ I've finished that pain in the tuchus of a knit!  It's not a large bag but it's remarkably stretchy.  To finish it, I have discovered the wonderful world of tiny circular knitting needles, the kind that have very short tips and cables.  I LOVE THEM.  [please insert your favorite heart emoji here x20] I finished up the top of the bag using a pair I found in a thrift store and even in that short of time, the ladders decreased significantly.  I am currently on the search for an interchangeable metal set in all sizes, including those larger than a US 5.  I can find several bamboo kinds but I don't much get along with wooden needles with how tightly I knit.  Plastic is a little better, but not by much.

such a heavy load

As marvelous as the shorter needles were, they didn't help the binding off -- I should have used a stretchy bind off instead of a "normal" one.  It's still a great and functional bag (maybe a bit cosmetically challenged) that weighs a whopping 0.4oz (~11 grams).  It now lives with the rest of the shopping bags, ready to do its duty.  I think it will be especially helpful when the local Farmer's Market gets back in swing.  This knit also managed to finish off a ball of vintage cotton thread which is a nice bonus as it clears up space for new stash.

Technical Details

• "Weightless Produce Bag 2.0" freebie pattern by Julie Tarsha can be found here (ravelry).
• My ravelry project page found here.
• Yarn: vintage Knit-Cro-Sheen crochet thread - size 10 in white.
• Needles: best with 10½ (6.5mm) short tips and 16" cable (9" or 12" probably would've been better).
• Started December 6, 2018, finished February 10, 2019; unknown hours.

★・・・・・・★・・・・・・★・・・・・・★・・・・・・★・・・・・・★・・・・・・★

cozy comfort

My next project (also using the tiny circulars YAY) is a cover for the hot water bottle.  This is just a plain knit utilizing one of my absolute favorite colorways.  I seriously love the colors of this yarn even if it's "just a cheap acrylic"!  I'm not sure acrylic is the best choice for a cover though, or maybe it's actually perfect because it will never need blocking if it gets wet.  Did I mention I love the colors (it's Banana Berry, if you're curious about the color name)~~~

★・・・・・・★・・・・・・★・・・・・・★・・・・・・★・・・・・・★・・・・・・★

gotta love the vintage

Lastly, I said I would try to inventory my craft books this year -- Project Successful!  I even went wild and logged all of my needles, hooks, sewing patterns, and magazines.  Whew.  They got their own spreadsheet instead of tacking them onto the owned media!  There is an option to log the needles and hooks in ravelry, but I do not find that easy to deal with while on mobile devices.  Plus, I think I'm more apt to keep the spreadsheets updated.  You know, since I seem obsessed with them.  :)  Since I was conveniently flipping through them, I also made note of "patterns of interest" in the magazines.  This will hopefully help with the "Where was that thing I liked 10 years ago?" problem haha.

I do actually have some stitching going on but it's a bit of a secret so it can't be shown here yet. 

That's all for this ramble so I'll see y'all next time with March's Gifted Gorgeousness post.  I hope that by the time GG comes around, Spring Will Have Sprung (meteorological spring started today, that means it must sprung, must).  Right now, we're set to get more snow and temperatures are going to plummet this weekend.  At least when I checked the mail earlier this week, I saw proof it's not delayed forever -- my daffodils have poked through the ground.  :DDD  Have a wonderful day~

End of the Month: Winners and Stuff

Hello again! October has slipped on by with more excitement than I can really take, more on that in a bit!  I hope you had a sufficiently wonderful Halloween and are not in too-terrible of a sugar coma.

e'e

Hello to all my new followers! I do hope I don't talk you to death. :) I have followed those who have linked up via Blogger in my feed reader but have run into a snag with using the actual blogger widget to follow you back! Blogger has evidently changed something in their system and it will no longer allow me to link my blog profile. Instead, it is trying to use my "real name" profile and I. Do. Not. Want. I'm starting to get fed up with Google trying to push having one's real name everywhere, even if I "lied" so my real name wouldn't be on the internet! Bah, humbug. I'll keep searching for a workaround.

Next, you want winners, right?!  :D  I was curious to see if one design would be more popular than the others but I wound up with six entries for each! I used the random number generator to pick the winners  drum rolls

GGG #1

GGG #2

The winner of GGG#1: Garden Samplers is... Christine!

The winner of GGG#2: St. Nicholas is...  Bea!

Yaaaay!  Please contact me with your addresses and I will have them out ASAP and they will be one less thing I have to pack because... we're moving!  O_O!

yikes!

So, I am going to be rather silent on the blog front for a while. My husband has accepted a new position which means things have really been up in the air and throwing everything they have at my anxiety. There is just too much going on with packing, finding a place, NOT finding a place, actually finding a place, planning for a trip that has been known about for a year that just had to be at the same time as all this, leaving the house and community I love, the new job, the new life, the new aaaaaaaaa seriously, I am so ready for 2016 to just be over!  I am a creature of comfort and stability. There is a silver lining though; the place we're moving to has a Jo-Ann Fabrics and a Michael's and a yarn store.  Priorities!

Haunted House

I did manage to squeak in a little something for Halloween.  I'm not sure if this yarn was a good choice for this but it is what it is!  The haunted house is most visible but the tree and bat were kinda ehhhh....  I did not block it as these cotton cloths take a bit longer to dry and it needed packed right away.


Technical Details

• "October Mystery Cloth" pattern by Kris Knits, found here on ravelry (free).
• #3 needles for cloth, #4 DPNs for i-cord loop
• Yarn: I Love This Cotton, amethyst
• Started August 17, finished October 31, unknown hours.

Hasta la vista, baby! panic panic panic...........

Gifted Gorgeousness - June Edition! Finish, New Start, and TUSAL!

Here we are, already in the middle of June so it's time for an update on Gifted Gorgeousness project(s) as hosted by Jo!  And it's the second month in a row for a finish, yaaaay!

click to join the fun!

before

This kit was gifted to me by my husband's grandmother(s) when I first started stitching as they knew I like dolphins. I should've paid it more attention but somehow it wound up a piece to "snack on" so to speak.  It was started sometime in the latter half of 2010 so it is was my oldest WIP!  I'm so glad it's done although I did have some issues with the backstitching charted.  You can't even tell it's there in some of the spots so I wondered what the point was haha.  There's also a healthy sprinkling of French knots which I dutifully ignored the pattern and just put them wherever I thought looked bare lol.

after, and more true to color

And of course I washed it so that helped that goofy stiff Aida some.  There are a few (probably more than a few) mistakes in this piece.  My organizational skills weren't up to snuff at the time and I think I spent more time trying to figure out what color was what than actually stitching!

Technical Details

• Dolphin Trio, Dimensions kit 6817
• (Mostly) 2 over 1 on blue VERY STIFF 14-count Aida
• Finished size: 5" x 7" (13 x 18cm)
• Started: September ??, 2010, Finished: June 08, 2015
• Unknown hours as I wasn't keeping track at the time
• Contender for messiest back ever, I hope I have learned better!

king of the sky

And in the spirit of continuing on with GG, I have started a new piece (no, not a FPS, not yet)!  This little thing will be a gift for my husband who likes my "sewing" and sort of hinted that he might put a piece on his desk at work if I just so happened to make one.  I made the pattern from this Rathalos glyph, one of the signature wyverns in the Monster Hunter video game series we both love playing together. Doesn't look like much right now but I hope he'll like it (or at least be a good husband and ooh and ahh over it appropriately ahaha).  It is being stitched on 20-count Jobelan, light tan.  It's my first time using this fabric and it is so soft and so lovely to hold!  And unravels if I look at it wrong.  Or right.  Or if it just sits there.  My goodness gracious.

In other news, I found the ecru huck towels again yaaaaaay!  There is a Hancock Fabrics in the area and although their selection for needlework is quite small, they carry them!  Unfortunately there wasn't a coupon to use on it but maybe there will be one eventually.  Then I could just hoard the rest of the year and not risk not being able to find them again.  I bought just one so I can start advancing my FotM progress again.  Just gotta plow my way through the silly violets.  I won't start April until February is finished, I won't I won't I won't.

June TUSAL... already?!

Lastly, a day early but I'll squeeze my TUSAL in here so we can all sit around my ORT jar and admire the little snippets.  We've got a finish of Dolphin Trio, some snippets of violets, and a little bit of Rathalos.  Woo!  Also, right after this picture I returned the jar to its rightful location -- and dropped it end-over-end.  ORTs were packed so tightly in there nothing moved ahaha.

Until next time!  My fingers almost feel productive for once! :D :D

site update for self-reminder: widened the page, added new header (stitchy girl), added credits to "about"

FotM - January and Messy-to-Classy

Well hidey ho! I'm gonna jump right in here with I HAVE A FINISH!!

January - Carnations

Weeee, my first finish of 2015! At this rate maybe I will have a solid 11 finishes by the end of the year! This is the first check in for the Flower of the Month SAL hosted by Alyssa at Brownie's Chair and I'm so happy to have it ready to show off. Well... I guess mostly finished. See that big empty space above the flowers? I'm hoping to eventually design a "Rosey's Kitchen" or "[month] Kitchen" or just "[month]" (on all of them!) but no fonts have inspired me thus far. I'll keep lookin'. I started off unsure on the colors I selected as they were not the ones called for.  Now that it's finished, I am happy with them but not that bottom carnation.  I think.  It may grow on me.  You may notice I decided to not stitch the border.  It's a tight squeeze on the huck towels as is.  And as I've been mostly quiet this month with no WIP pictures of this project, I thought maybe you would like to see a little GIF of my progress.

grow and bloom!

It is incredibly hard to get the same lighting and position haha.  I'll try harder 'cause I think this looks kinda neat.  :D

Technical Details

• "January: Carnation" freebie pattern by Ellen Maurer-Stroh, found here
• 2 over 1 on 14-count ecru huck towel (called for 3 over but I thought 2 looked okay)
• Finished size: 4.50 x 4.50" (11,50 x 11,50 cm)
• Started: January 1, Finished: January 30.  19.5 hours.

finishes - before

finishes - after

I have a little addition to the Messy-to-Classy link party hosted by Preeti. It is still fairly cold in my craft room so I've been stubbornly ignoring its messiness until warmer weather. Instead, I took advantage of a decent Internet connection and organized my finishes and wishes pages! I originally had them sorted with pictures but my connection cannot handle too many images and as time goes on, the finishes page will grow (I hope!) beyond what I can load. So, I changed everything over to links with a short description.  I may have gone a bit, erm, overboard with the wishlist though, lol. I dream big and will never accomplish half (quarter!) of the stuff listed! I even went scouring HaED patterns after seeing so many wonderful starts with DUCJC I had to give it a second chance. I did not realize there were over 10k patterns on that site, lol. I hope this somewhat unorthodox "cleaning" is okay.

Hi!

In other, less stitchy news, we have a new kitty! Please find yourself admiring this rather potato picture of our newest black and white, Klondike. Peanut took to him rather quickly as Peanut is a loving goofball and Klondike has an unending supply of energy. It's kitty terrorism when they start playing. Oreo, she is still being worked on. She's always been a bit of a stubborn butt-head (even with Peanut, who she grew up with) so I'm not worried. She tolerates Klondike and will play in the same area as him, so small steps. :)

Whew!  That is a lot of stuff; I hope you survived~! 

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.

The Birth of a New Project

Welp, I started the next Final Fantasy piece. YAY! Does anyone know which one it is?

The Project Gathering

one hour

three hours

And there I have stopped! Apologies for the crappy photos. My phone does not often like to focus on stitching (and I am not sure what exactly it IS focusing on). Anyhoodle, I am puzzled over this green. Is it dark? Is it bright? It is definitely dependent on the lighting. The floss toss looked great at Hobby Lobby (where my husband so kindly joined me on the floor in the floss aisle and helped pick the colors :D). I would hate to stitch the whole thing and decide I hated the colors after all. Plus, it feels like I've forgotten all I ever knew about cross-stitching after not touching it for over a year. It's kinda scary, haha.

I also did a little tweaking to my blogger page, too. Trying to give it a little bit more of a stitchy feel. And plaid is awesome. Please let me know if you see anything amiss! :D I will be very hit-or-miss with posting. Our Internet has been crap lately so I can barely load text-only pages. It took over 10 minutes just to stay connected long enough for a preview of this entry to load. Hooray for rural broadband...!

Zombie Apocalypse Averted

Wow, okay. It's been almost a year since I've last posted here -- and almost just as long since I've last stitched! It seems like it has been a crazy sort of year (I got married amongst other things, eeeeee!)

Fall housecleaning is out of the way and I'm starting to feel desirous of hibernating under a blanket til spring. This usually leads to needing something to do with my hands so I am currently plopped at the computer working out the pattern for my next Final Fantasy project. Which one? You'll find out! Eventually! Maybe! I have also been playing a lot of minecraft lately. I need to stitch a small creeper that I can hide around the house and scare my husband ahahaha.

I feel sad about not having a shiny WIP but there's been no P'ing. I will try hard to remedy that! :)

Testing 1, 2, 3...

Taking a techy plunge way late, I have acquired a smartphone to allow myself access to the outside world.  Apart from discovering I am part spider on that itty bitty keyboard, I think I may have figured out how to post from it.  Excitement!  Hence this lovely test post with... with... an image?!  Yes, yes an image!  A TUSAL image no less!  (Never you mind it's two months old... :B) I also figured out I could e-mail PDFs of patterns I created to my spiffy boyfriend and he could print them off at work! More excitement! I can get started on Final Fantasy ????!

I'll also take the opportunity to test-link to a couple of blogs that I find interesting~

1) Rensel Studio - So full of eyecandy! She does fabulous framing from stitchers all across the US (and beyond?) and I love seeing what she accomplished during the week!

2) cat vs human - Not stitching related but I think enough of y'all are cat lovers to appreciate the humor in her comics!

3) MrXStitch - Not for the faint of heart (or with online spending habits), this is a collection of odd, awesome, extreme stitch-related items discovered around the 'net. NSFW on Saturday.

Lovely floss with a lovely(?) backdrop featuring the ever loveable Calvin & Hobbes. This is February's TUSAL, not March's, not April's. March's is empty (I'll get the pic up eventually) because I dumped it out on the porch for the birds to pretty up their nests. :) Last year, I had a great photo-op with a tufted titmouse cheekily gathering up a huge beakful and looking like it had whiskers! Of course the camera wasn't charged. :D

Anyway, I think I am going blind typing on this...and I'm sorta cheating because I wanted to try posting while having Internet access for editing purposes. It seems the only way to add pictures is last unless one tweaks it online. Any tips would be hugely appreciated (I'm using the blogger app for droids). :D

Oh, and it's apparently IHSW! I look forward to seeing y'all's progress!

Site Update

Just a quick post to announce that I now have a "patterns" page on here, yay!

Since joining the Sprite Stitch forums, I've been flexing my pattern making skills in the requests area. I'm still pretty new to doing this, so constructive criticism is most welcome!

Most of the patterns were designed with 18-count Aida unless the requester specified otherwise.

Yay!