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!

2016 Recap: Craftiness

Hello there.  Thank you to the lovely ladies who messaged me over my long absence, and especially those who ferreted out my email after my last post.  Your kindness and concern was really, really appreciated though I couldn't bring myself to reply to you.  Things are starting to fall back into place again.  Routines are a good thing for me even if a bit "boring."

Though 2016 didn't end on a particularly high note, I still wanted to do a crafty recap post for it because it wound up being one of my most productive crafting years to date.  Rather than a large assortment of pictures, I will put the list from my finishes pages here and a collage of each craft.

1. February - Uno - knit fingerless mitts, pattern found here (ravelry)
2. February - June Wild Roses - 14-count ecru huck towel, freebie pattern found here
3. February - Lemon-Lime Potholder - thermal crochet, freebie pattern found here  
4. March - Speaker Cozy #2 - crochet, pattern from Star Book No. 78: Television and Radio Scarfs
5. March - Shamrock Dishcloth - knit, freebie pattern found here (ravelry) 
6. June - Dolphin Washcloth - knit, freebie pattern found here (ravelry) 
7. July - Rathian - 20-count light tan jobelan, pattern by me
8. August - KitKat Hat - knit, freebie pattern found here (ravelry) 
9. August - House Slippers - crochet, freebie pattern found here (ravelry) 
10. August - July Delphinium - 14-count ecru huck towel, freebie pattern found here
11. September - Brachydios - 20-count light tan jobelan, pattern by me 
12. September - Mittens - knit, freebie pattern found here (ravelry) 
13. October - Kitty Prints Scarf - knit, freebie pattern found here (ravelry), modified by me 
14. October - Fan Bookmarks - crochet, freebie pattern found here (ravelry)
15. October - Jack-o-Lantern Bookmark - crochet, freebie pattern found here (ravelry) 
16. October - Haunted House Dishcloth - knit, freebie pattern found here (ravelry) 
17. November - Yellow Potholder - thermal crochet, freebie pattern found here
18. November - Green Potholder - thermal crochet, freebie pattern found here

Totals:  7 knit items, 7 crochet items, 4 cross-stitch

the knits

I'm glad I completed the "kitty set".  They came in handy this winter and the hat especially got a lot of smiles and comments.  The fingerless mitts taught me how to do cables which, at the time, was very exciting.  And then never again for the remainder of the year.  And the washcloths are plain ol' fun.  I like themed items obviously.

the hooks

Lots of thread crochet this year, which is good, I am very fond of it.  After finishing the two thermal crochet potholders in November, I started a third, very large potholder (think 9x13 casserole dish) in a combination of the yellow and green and a couple skeins of white.  This is the only project I had out as all my yarn/floss/notions/life/sanity was packed away.  I finished it February 3rd (though as it's 2017 it's not a 2016 recap but more of a catch-up).  Of course, I still had a small bit of yarn left over so I made one more smaller potholder, again with the white/yellow/green combo.  I finished it February 10th. It felt nice to have some new things to unpack for the kitchen and it made me feel good to make space for new yarn use up stash.  The collection is the (small, I know) picture on  the far right.

the stitches

A fairly dismal year for cross stitch though.  I finished two of the lovely huck towels and two more sides to the husband cube.  I still love how Brachydios turned out.  I have yet to fish out my cross stitch stuff.  The mojo just hasn't been there.

I also managed a lot of progress on FFIII but it wasn't a finish like I had hoped.  It went from here...

before

...to here.

after

So it's getting there, slowly but surely.

📚📚📚📚📚📚📚📚📚📚📚📚📚📚📚📚📚📚

Also, I read a few books.  I had originally intended this to be its own separate post but for reasons, it's getting tacked on here.  I like to read but am not a very avid reader (gee, I wonder if all the other hobbies take up too much time). I tend to stick with old favorites, rereading them as many times as I please.  I did not include any manga I have read although several series were sprinkled in throughout the year.

Italicized is a book I have never read before.   
Italicized and bolded is never read and a new-to-me author.

1. The Diamond Throne (David Eddings)
2. The Ruby Knight (Eddings)
3. The Sapphire Rose (Eddings)
4. Domes of Fire (Eddings)
5. The Shining Ones (Eddings)
6. The Hidden City (Eddings) 
7. The Redemption of Althalus (Eddings)
8. Hyperion (Dan Simmons)
9. The Hobbit (J.R.R. Tolkien)
10. The Fellowship of the Ring (Tolkien)
11. The Two Towers (Tolkien)
12. The Amazing Maurice and His Educated Rodents (Terry Pratchett)
13. The 5 Love Languages (Gary Chapman)
14. The Return of the King (Tolkien) 
15. Harry Potter and the Cursed Child (Rowling et al.)
16. Anne of Green Gables (L. M. Montgomery)
17. Anne of Avonlea (Montgomery)
18. Anne of the Island (Montgomery)
19. Anne of Windy Poplars (Montgomery)
20. Anne's House of Dreams (Montgomery)
21. Anne of Ingleside (Montgomery)
22. Rainbow Valley (Montgomery)
23. Rilla of Ingleside (Montgomery)

I received both the Elenium and the Tamuli series by Eddings for Christmas 2015, and then just felt like rereading Althalus because he's fun.  Yes, I had never read a Terry Pratchett book before!  It was in our library's book sale for 25¢ and I took a liking to the ridiculous title. 5 Love Languages was interesting.  I found both my husband and I "speak" the same language: Acts of Service.  I hated Harry Potter and the Cursed Child.  It was like a horrible fanfic with none of the magic of the original books.  I put it in bold because surely Rowling did not write such a jaded view of the adult magical world.  I was fully intending to purchase this book but after reading it through the library it will never find a home with me!  strong feelings  One cannot just read one Anne book.  I can never pick a favorite of the series.  Maybe 1-3 and 5.

And then all my books were packed away for the move that felt like it was never-ending.

Okay, I think that is enough for this recap / catch-up post.  All of those items seem so far away, from a different life.  I'm not even going to do goals this year and just take things as they come and enjoy life outside of boxes.  Eventually.  The boxes are never-ending as well.

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. :)

2011 Recap & 2012 Ambitions

Well, hello there, outside world! We still haven't got Internet and prospects are looking grim for ever having it! For a modern technology lover, this is most definitely a hit below the belt, haha~ I spent this weekend attempting to catch up on everyone's blogs but please forgive me the lack of commenting as of late. I am reading everything (hopefully everything -- Blogger is still acting wonky for me) and enjoying everyone's progress and holiday posts (I've lived my Christmas through y'all!). :D

Since I've got no new progress of my own to post, I thought I'd do a recap of my victories in 2011! It was a rather slow year of stitching for me; too many other things seemed to be happening!

Companion Cube - January

First accomplishment was a badge of the Companion Cube from Portal (video game for the unfamiliar). I was in such a hurry to make it into a badge, I forgot to do the backstitching detail! I designed the pattern in KG-Chart but didn't have the specific flosses in my stash so I worked with what I had. I took a darker gray and blended it with white for a lighter appearance. I think it worked pretty well but you can tell I'm not a railroader, ehehe~ Despite its unfinished-ness, I still really like it and it resides on my purse for all to admire.

Sunflower Tag - August

After a long expanse of no completions, I finished up this little piece for my guy's wonderful grandmother. It was a quick stitch pulled from a sampler in BH&G's America's Best Cross-Stitch. It was also my first attempt at learning a new stitch - blanket stitch! I felt wonderfully accomplished for it was quite an easy stitch and really helped make the edge look neat. Now if I could only cut straight. :D

Christmas Crewel - September

I started to pick up the pace and get some things done during this part of the year. Mostly because it gets too darn hot to do anything but sit inside an A/Ced room! This was a crewel kit I picked up at a yard sale. It had been started but I think the amount of French knots may have terrified the previous owner. I love French knots and these weird ones were especially fun. They could be "messy" and look perfectly fine! I did run out of the right green for some of the boughs and had to substitute in something from my stash. It doesn't quite match and was an absolute nightmare to stitch with but I'm glad I persevered and finished it!

FFVIII Logo - September

Possibly the crowning achievement. I'm planning to stitch all the logos in the main Final Fantasy series (again, a video game for the unknowing) but the order is somewhat haphazard. My boyfriend chose the first one and his favorite is Final Fantasy VIII. I designed this pattern in KG-Chart and promptly ignored most of it. Even still, it was fun to design and stitch and I learned a lot about the pattern making process! In retrospect, I almost wish this wasn't the first one I stitched because it's one of the more complicated logos. The gradient was very hard and there's only one area of it in the completed project that turned out as close to perfect as I could wish (the area directly above the T). I've taken that learning experience and applied it to the next FF pattern!

Halloween Blair - October

The last completed project of the year was my Halloween stitch! I designed this pattern from images in the Soul Eater manga (Witch Blair in kitty form and the Soul Eater logo on the "Soul Pumpkin"). I also charted out the font from the Pumpkin font found through a Google search. Limited to only items in my stash, the colors are a little bit darker than I would have liked but it turned out pretty well methinks! Especially considering this was the first pattern I drew completely from scratch in KG-Chart!

Only five completions and two of them were smalls! And no Christmas completions! Ah, how terrible~ I'm hoping to do much better this year. I've got the next Final Fantasy pattern ready as well as the materials for it. I'm raring to start stitching it but I still have to get some things in order at the new place. Maybe I could do some smalls to pacify/motivate/relax me. I really like making the badges.

As for some ambitions for 2012, I'm hoping to get at least two more FF logos under my belt (three or more if I really buckle down). I want to attempt a new style of embroidery (hardanger, perhaps?) or at least learn another new stitch. I'd also like to stitch a few Christmas cards. In terms of pattern designing, I was hoping to really get more active in the Sprite Stitch request forums but without Internet... Quite a damper! Maybe I'll actually finish the Dolphin Trio which is turning into a UFO. I'm signed up for this year's TUSAL (found a jar, wee!) and I'd like to join in a few (all?!) IHSWs! Internet being an issue (yes, I'm going to complain about this way too much), however, posting results won't be as punctual as I'd like but hopefully it'll work out!

I apologize for the wall of text and will let you have your eyeballs back now, haha. Enjoy your stitchings! :D