Catch of the Day

I don't remember where I even saw this first, but there was something that just caught me. I had it on my wishlist for months waffling on whether to buy it or not since it's a bit different from what I've been stitching lately. And then I remembered that I stitch for myself and that it was my money so went ahead and bought it XDDD

It was pretty fun to stitch (despite the fact that I felt like I was complaining about it 80% of the time). I will never pick this linen again, but it was a leftover piece from Bluebeard's Princess and I don't think I have any other design in my stash that would even remotly work on it. Plus it gives it a vibe like it's in the murky waters which is kind of nice.

It's charted in Weeks Dye Works, of which I have a few and was uninterested in purchasing, so I went with the DMC conversion. I think I mentioned it before but it wasn't the best conversion I've come across: there were multiple DMC options given per WDW (understandable since WDW is an overdye, but the DMCs were all so widely different from each other and there didn't seem to be that much variation in the WDW) and one of the colours wasn't given any DMC option at all. My choices were ultimately a combination of the suggested ones and literally me sitting there and staring at the stitched colours and the model and trying to pick something out of my box that would match. I don't think I did a terrible job although I'm not too sure about the grey bottom. I think it's a bit too grey; I should have probably gone with a more green-grey.

The design features some buttons that I don't have and I haven't dug through my button box for any replacements. I kind of like it as is, so I might leave off the buttons. This was also my first time stitching Colonial Knots and I was so confused about what I was doing. Next time I'll just do French Knots.

My conversion for future reference, and in case anyone is curious :)

Weeks Dye Works	DMC
Amber	977
Berry Splash	3687
Blue Heron	932
Capri	3766
Daffodil	3819
Deep Sea	3750
Eggplant	154
Grits	3865
Guacamole	3012
Seaweed	3362
Spanish Moss	647
Sweet Potato	920

Title	Steampunk Seaserpent
Designer	SamSarah
Start date	January 1, 2016
Finish date	February 21, 2016
Total time	25 hours
Fabric	32 ct laurel linen
Floss	See above

Here Fishy, Fishy

Update on Steampunk Sea Serpent, since you can actually see the fish shape now.


Steampunk Sea Serpent
32 ct laurel linen
I also just realized that this isn't a sea serpent, since the "serpent" part implies a long snake-like body. Based on the light dangling, this is actually an anglerfish.

This Week In Minimal Crafting

This week had me sleeping every spare minute I had. Not sure why. I didn't do anything different than last week, but I was just so tired. Maybe all the productivity of the first half of the month caught up to me? Or maybe I'm just getting old(er). The big three-oh is coming this year lol

One of the things I missed was the post for the Smalls SAL.
Heart of Alberta was finished earlier this month, and is my only finish so far.


I also got a few repetitions of the cable on my mitts. Let's just say there were colour pencils and graph paper involved when I modified the pattern and leave it at that. Handy at modifying patterns I am not!


And then because I got bored I put several stitches into Autumn Winds (no picture because I forgot) and a few into Steampunk Seaserpent:


Phew!

Next time I'll try to remember to spread things out instead of dumping a bunch of photos all at once. And hopefully I'll have more progress than a couple of hours worth of stitching XD

New Year Whimsy

I decided to start this year off with something a smaller and whimsical instead of my usual large project.


This is Steampunk Sea Serpent by SamSarah Design Studios. Right now it looks like this:

Steampunk Sea Serpent
32 ct laurel linen
It's charted for Weeks Dye Works and I have to admit that I'm not impressed by the provided DMC conversion. The blue suggested doesn't look anything like the one on the cover. I don't think it matters too much because it's a whimsical fantasy fish, but it would be nice if the DMC conversion bore some resemblance to the overdyed one.

I'm stitching this on the last remaining piece of laurel linen I have. I'd forgotten how much I dislike this particular fabric. It's stiff, scratchy and a pain to work with. Sticking it in the Qsnap makes a bit easier to handle but I can't ever see myself willingly buying it again.