April Achievements and May Goals

Goals for April:
1. Finish a Mill Hill ornie. Yep. Mandolin was finished at the start of the month.
2. Finish-finish a small from the Drawer Where Things Go To Wait (Forever). No. I completely forgot and didn't even look at my finishes.
3. Put 20 hours into Autumn Winds. Only 10 hours this month.

Unexpectedly This Month:
1. Taught myself to knit.
2. Finished a ruffle scarf.
3. Started a cable scarf.
4. Finished Celtic Autumn.

Goals for May:
1. Finish a Mill Hill ornie.
2. Start something big.
3. 20 hours of Autumn Winds.
4. 20 hours of Cinderella.

April Small

This month's small is Mill Hill Mandolin, as previously posted here.
Next up is either Violin or Trumpet. Probably Trumpet.

Stitch From Stash - April

Month: April
Spent: 9.95

Carryover: 50.85

This month's expenditure was for the Kreinik to finish off Celtic Autumn. I also spent about $26 on knitting needles and yarn, but I'm not counting that since SFS is cross-stitch only :)

I think next month might be when I spend the carryover since my LNS is having a sale and I want to pick up some fabric for new starts. I've only got three projects I'm actively working on (and three on the backburner) and it feels strange.

Autumn Finish in Spring

Celtic Autumn is finally finished!
I finished Celtic Spring in October 2011 and now Autumn can join her to wait to be framed. I have no plans on stitching Summer or Winter. Actually when I first thought about stitching Celtic Spring, she was the only one I was going to stitch, since I find the original Autumn very drab. But then I came across this conversion (I can't remember where and I can't find it again) so I decided to stitch her too.
This wasn't without it's own drama. See here for the drama of starting wrong and frogging. But she was a very easy stitch overall.
I made a few mistakes in the scrollwork. There are some stitches where there should be beads.
She actually took me longer than Celtic Spring, even discounting the mistaken hours. I guess three years has made me slower ;) I'm tempted to start something new, but I think I'll work on Autumn Winds for a bit and see if the urge goes away. I still have a lot of very old WIPs to slay.

Title	Celtic Autumn Orange Conversion
Designer	Lavender & Lace
Start date	November 11, 2014
Finish date	Apri 25, 2015
Total time	91.5 hours
Fabric	32 ct white lugana
Floss	DMC as charted
	Kreinik 26
	MH 2011, 2033, 2055

More Of The Dress

I picked Cinderella back and worked a little on her dress. It's a huge dress so it doesn't look like much progress.

Cinderella
32 ct Charcoal Lugana
In better news, my LNS has finally got the Kreinik I was waiting for so I'll finish Celtic Spring after I pick it up. I've been waiting for this single braid since January. It's ridiculous how long it takes her to get stock in. It's frustrating because it's the only cross stitch store in the city and I want to support it so that it doesn't close down. But it takes so long that it's easier to order things online if I'm not browsing. Sigh.

Merry Mandolin

This month's Mill Hill is Mandolin. I had a brief pause when I had to go pick up the gold beads but otherwise it was an easy stitch. And then it took me a week to get around to cutting it out.

The strings are supposed to be backstitched but I was lazy and just did them as long stitches. They might slacken over time, but that would look a little natural (don't the strings of stringed instruments loosen if they aren't used?) and it would look better than the dips from couching.
There are a few gaps in the greenery where the kit had tiny bells. Since I'm stitching from just the chart I haven't gone looking for any replacements. If I come across them on my random shopping trips I'll add them in, but otherwise they look fine as is.

Title	Mandolin
Designer	Mill Hill
Start date	April 5, 2015
Finish date	April 7, 2015
Total time	3.75 hours
Fabric	14 ct white perforated paper
Floss	As charted
Beads	MH 2001, 2011, 2014, 3043

All Ruffled Up

I ran out one of the beads for Mill Hill Mandolin, so I started a ruffle scarf.
I bought this yarn ages ago with the idea that I would crochet a ruffle scarf. That turned out to be trickier than I thought and I had trouble following the crochetting instructions, so I put it aside. I wanted to try something simple for my first knitted project and this was a good one. The ruffles mean that my few mistakes are well hidden:)
The yarn has tiny sequins on the bottom. They aren't very visible. And the yarn isn't grey. That' just all the artificial light and flash. The first picture is accurate for colour. It's solid black :)

I picked up the beads, so I should have mandolin finished by Thursday at the latest. And I have plans for my next knitting project: a slightly more ambitious scarf with cables!

Title	Ruffle Scarf
Yarn	Red Heart Boutique Sashay Sequins
Start date	April 4, 2015
Finish date	April 5, 2015
Total time	4 hours

I Have Made A Terrible Mistake

On the 31st of March I was looking at random videos on the internet and on impulse clicked on a knitting one. It was a very complicated looking shawl and I was all set to admire it and move on when I saw one of the videos on the sidebar was how to do a beginner knit stitch. So I watched it.

The next day I went out and picked up a pair of bamboo knitting needles so I could just "try it out". My test sampler looks like this now:
I can knit and purl, which is apparently all there is to knitting. Why didn't someone tell me this before? And why did the last person who tried to teach me make it seem so complicated? Clearly they were a terrible teacher and I should have tried again!

I got bored of the knit stitch (called the garter stitch when it's multiple rows), so I moved on to try combinations of knit and purl. I'm going to try a cable next and then increasing and decreasing. I'm pretty sure I'll be able to knit just about anything after that. Oh, and maybe figure out how to do a gauge properly.

It's kind of hilarious and kind of terrifying because I started out with the wooden straight needles because everything I read said that they were the easiest for beginners. I'm finding that they grip the yarn a bit too much for my liking and that casting even 30 stitches in difficult to manage. I guess I'm going to pick up some circular metal needles soon lol

But fear not, readers who are here for my stitching. I have in no way lost my love for that. In fact, I'm starting a Mill Hill ornie today since my left thumb knuckle is hurting. I think I knitted too much last night.