Break From Blogger

Hey guys,

So I haven't been feeling the blogging mojo for a while now, so I'm going to take a break. I'm not sure when I'll be back.

I'll still be posting stitchy pics on Instagram, so you can come find me there if you like XD I'm therapy_by_thread over there.

Gaming Over Stitching

Pokemon Go is now out in Canada. Let's just say that I have been taking a lot of walks during the time I would usually be stitching.

This is reflected in my current progress. I've outlined about half the eyes. I think I need to re-evaluate my theory that I'll have this finished by the end of the month...


Swirling Peacock
32 ct Waterlily Jobelan

On To The Shiny

Currently listening to the full cast production of American Gods. It's good, but I've long been spoiled for everything so it isn't as thrilling or captivating as it could be. I have finished off the DMC and started the Kreinik, so that's a plus.


Swirling Peacock
32 ct Waterlily JobelanBarring any major real life issues or a complete loss of mojo, I should have this done by the end of the month!

June Achievements & July Goals

I can't believe half the year is over. It seems like just yesterday I was toasting in the new year!

Goals for June:
1. Finish Swirling Peacock's tail.I got a huge chunk of it done but I'm not finished.
2. Finish the next Heart. No. I think I should just accept that I don't feel like fixing the Hearts, so they're on indefinite pause.

Goals for July:
1. Finish Swirling Peacock.

Keeping it short and simple (and potentially achievable) next month.

A Good Book Will Take You Far

I was hoping to finish the tail this month, but I don't think that will happen. On the positive side I listened to a really great audiobook this week (League of Dragons by Naomi Novik) and was pretty much glued to my needlework the whole time. Swirling Peacock went from this:


Swirling Peacock
32 ct Waterlily Jobelanto this:

Now I just need to find another good audiobook to listen to XD

More Feathers

I'm still enjoying this, so it's more pictures of the same old same old :)


Swirling Peacock
32 ct Waterlily Jobelan

Tail Feathers

It's summer and everything is too hot. And I've barely done any stitching.

Here's what little I've managed on Swirling Peacock.


Swirling Peacock
32 ct Waterlily Jobelan

May Achievements & June Goals

So May is a month that happened.

Goals for May:
1. Finish the next Heart.I didn't touch it.
2. Finish Cinderella. Done.
3. Start something new. Swirling Peacock is about 1/3 done.

Unexpectedly This Month:
1. I only posted once. I have to do better in June.

Goals for June:
1. Finish Swirling Peacock's tail.
2. Finish the next Heart.

Swirling Swirling

Has it really been over 3 weeks since I last posted? ha ha ha...

Anyway since the last post I've
a) finished Cinderella (pictures tomorrow because I deleted the ones I took because I thought I'd posted them and now I need to dig her out of storage
b) started Swirling Peacock by Joan Elliot


Swirling Peacock
32 ct Waterlily Jobelan
It's a pretty fast stitch. Those swirls are a bit of a pain since I have to count very carefully (and had to frog one when I miscalculated). The colours are even more vivid in person. I'm debating whether I should finish up the metallic moon or switch to the tail. I really want to start the tail!

April Achievements and May Goals

I didn't do too well this April. Not with stitching and not with a lot of non-stitchy things. I hope May is better.

Goals for April:
1. Start and finish the next Heart. I started it, but I haven't even finished the outline.
2. Finish all the stitching on Cinderella. Done and I've started the beading!
3. Finish the "secret project". No. I didn't touch it.

Unexpectedly This Month:
1. Finished Mediterranean Mermaid.

Goals for May:
1. Finish the next Heart.
2. Finish Cinderella.
3. Start something new.

From The Depths

As is usual with my bead cannibalism, I ran out of one bead for Cinderella. So I went by my LNS (yes the one I complain about) and while I was there picked up what I needed for Mediterranean Mermaid. It took 45 minutes to finish her off. Why did I put it off for so long?


She has so many beads! It's utterly ridiculous. I'd completely forgotten how blingy she is. I was continually catching the thread on the already stitched beads.

Here's a rather fuzzy shot of her tail.

This entire dark blue/green middle part of her tail is metallics and beads. There isn't a single DMC in here. It's so so shiny in person.

I know I made a few changes, but apparently didn't write anything down so I'm not sure exactly what they are. One thing I remember is that I used the same colour as the tiara for her shoulder strands. As charted, it called for something that wasn't used for anything else. Just those strands. And in the interest of frugality I decided that they could be silver like the tiara.

The freestanding beads that are close to her body are correctly placed. After that they're "approximate". I started from either end and by the time I got to the middle I was just eyeballing them to make sure the "bubbles" were in a smooth line. I had zero interest in counting that carefully, and I'm 100% confident in saying that I don't think anyone would be able to tell.

Because of all the beads it's actually a very 3d kind of finish. And because there's so little stitching, and all of it is in a thin line in the middle of the fabric, the whole thing is kind of heavy and floppy around a lot (and the fabric is a very drapey kind too).

I'd forgotten how much I loved this one. I'm so glad I managed to finish it off.

Title	Mediterranean Mermaid
Designer	Mirabilia
Start date	May 7, 2015
Finish date	Apr 28, 2016
Total time	54.25 hours
Fabric	32 ct summersky jobelan
Floss	Kreinik 001 instead of 019

Bring On The Beads

Thanks everyone for all the framing advice! Hopefully now I can get some things onto walls.


I've started adding the beads to Cinderella! Here she is with her top half done. I have the entirety of her skirt left.

Cinderella
32 ct Charcoal Lugana
It actually took me longer than anticipated to get the beading, because when I started backstitching I realized that I'd missed an entire part of her sleeve and dress. So I had to stitch that. Then when I was backstitching I realized her hand was posed awkwardly:


While it is possible to hold your hand like that (I tried it), it would not be how my hand would look when running away while wearing a giant poofy gown and holding my heaving bosom. So to speak. So I had to remodel it. My version is a bit crude and I feel like the hand is a bit too big, but I prefer it to how it's charted.

Framing Question

I was hoping to have all the stitching on Cinderella done, but no such luck.

I do have a question for people who do their own framing:
Where do you get your frames?

I have so many finishes waiting to be framed but the cost of getting things professionally framed is ludicrous around these parts. And commercial frames available at Michaels/Walmart/etc are in fixed sizes, and my finishes are not those sizes. I'm thinking of doing my own framing but am stumped about where to get frames in custom sizes.

So Close

I don't think I've posted a full shot of Cinderella in a while, so here she is:


Cinderella
32 ct Charcoal Lugana
I've just got the silver leaves on the flowers and the backstitch before I can start beading. I want to start beading now!

Fancy 'Do

Cinderella
32 ct Charcoal Lugana
So I managed to find a redhead conversion for a different Mirabilia and modified it a little for Cinderella. I'm quite happy with it.

Now I have a few more roses to finish and then random missed stitches and it's onto the beads!

And What About The Hair?

Cinderella
32 ct Charcoal Lugana
I finished off Cinderella's skin and was about to start her hair. The plan was to make her a redhead, and while the conversion I'm using doesn't come with red hair I thought I had another conversion for that. It turns out that "thought" is the keyword here, because that other conversion is only the dress too and not the hair.

So now I have to decide if I'm going to try and come up with a conversion myself (doubtful since I'm not very good at that sort of thing), google one (there has to be a conversion of a Mirabilia design with red hair, right?) or just give up and go with blonde.

March Small

I finished Heart of the Northwest Territories this month. Next month is recharting Yukon. I guess I should dig out the graph paper...

March Achievements & April Goals

I can't believe it's the end of March already. I feel like this month was terribly unproductive :(

Goals for March:
1. Start and finish the next Heart. Heart of the Northwest Territories is done.
2. Finish all the stitching on Cinderella.I didn't even touch it.
3. Finish one mitt. No. I think I'm done with this for now. Knowing me, I'll probably pick it up again in the summer.

Unexpectedly This Month:
1. Started my new project that I can't post until it's finished because I was asked not to. All I can say is that it's not cross stitch, but it is counted work and I'm enjoying it so far.

Goals for April:
1. Start and finish the next Heart.
2. Finish all the stitching on Cinderella.
3. Finish the "secret project".

More Colour

Taking a break from Venetian Opulence to stitch something I'm not sure I'm allowed to post a picture of. I'll have to check if it's ok.

This is what she looks like going back into the WIP pile.

Venetian Opulence - Mirabilia
32 ct Ivory

A Touch of Green

I stitched some more brown on Venetian Opulence and now am going to stitch a more colourful part. See that smidgen of green I've started.

Venetian Opulence - Mirabilia
32 ct Ivory

Venetian Brown

I was going to work on Cinderella but I decided I needed the brighter colours of Venetian Opulence.

And then of course I end up stitching the architecture, which is brown! She went from this:

Venetian Opulence - Mirabilia
32 ct Ivoryto this:

I'm hoping to finish at least the swirly thing this rotation.

Go (North)west Young Man!

I finally put the last few stitches into Heart of the Northwest Territories. It took longer than expected because I ended up doing the specialty stitch completely wrong and had to frog it.


Heart of the Northwest Territories
32 ct white lugana
The Northwest Territories was originally all the parts that weren't Ontario and places further east. Now it's mostly the northwestern part of the country (but not the most northern-western part; that's the Yukon). Over the years bits of it became Manitoba, British Columbia, Alberta, Saskatchewan, Ontario, Quebec, Yukon and finally Nunavut. At the same time it was expanded north all the way to the North Pole, so it's still the third biggest part of Canada.

It's actually "Northwest Territories", there's no "the", but in practice it's weird to say/write so everyone just calls it "The Northwest Territories". Despite being over a million square kilometers has a very small population. Less than 50,000 at last census. It has oil, diamonds, and gold. And it can get to -50C in the winter.

I switched out the charted red because it seems much too pink compared to the model. I'm planning on going back to Heart of Newfoundland and Labrador and frogging that red too. The specialty stitch is the Burden Stitch which was annoying because it was non-symmetrical and I kept miscounting the blue stitches so I had to frog it multiple times. It wasn't difficult, just annoying. This province's bird and flower are the Gyrfalcon and the Mountain Avens. Because it's such a large landmass you can find forests, rivers and mountains as represented in the design.

Next up are Yukon and Nunavut, which I have to rechart since they're incorrectly named in the designs, so that might take me a little longer to get around to. (For the curious: they're charted as "Yukon Territory" and "Nunavut Territory" but their names are "Yukon" and "Nunavut". There is no "Territory" in their official names".)

Title	Heart of the Northwest Territories
Designer	The Victoria Sampler
Start date	March 1, 2016
Finish date	March 12, 2016
Total time	6.75 hours
Fabric	32 ct white lugana
Floss	DMC 817 instead of 3721, others as charted

Territory One

I'm finally on the first of the three territories of Canada. This is the oldest but not largest territory of Canada (the largest is Nunavut, which will be my final finish).

I was hoping to have this finished for today. But alas. And tomorrow doesn't look good either. Maybe Thursday?


Heart of the Northwest Territories
32 ct white lugana

February Achievements & March Goals

So it turns out I forgot to make goals for January, so everything was an unexpected achievement ;)

Goals for February:
1. Start and finish the next Heart. Done
2. Finish Steampunk Serpent. Done.
3. Finish one mitt. No. The weather turned a little mild so I put it away because I thought spring was coming. Of course, it's -30 right now.

Goals for March:
1. Start and finish the next Heart.
2. Finish all the stitching on Cinderella.
3. Finish one mitt.

(Almost) Done With The Dress

It's been a while since I posted a picture of Cinderella, so here she is in all her pink glory. I just got started on her skin, so I'm hoping to have all the stitching done by March and hopefully a finish by April. Fingers crossed!

Cinderella
32 ct Charcoal Lugana

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

February Small

Pretty much a repeat of my last post since it was my finish of Heart of Newfoundland and Labrador and that's what I did for the Smalls SAL.



I actually got as far as taking out the cardboard to finish-finish it, and then came to my senses. There's no point in finishing one off when I can just do 14 all in one shot like a giant assembly line. (I can always find an excuse to procrastinate XD

I forgot to post my finish of Steampunk Seaserpent. Oops. Tomorrow?

All Provinces Done

And with my finish of Heart of Newfoundland and Labrador, I've finished all the provinces. Canada is composed of 10 provinces and 3 territories. Historically the difference between them is that provinces have their own provincial governments while territories are governed by the federal government. Recently the territories have their own territorial assemblies but their authority is still delegated from the federal government.

Mostly referred to as Newfoundland, the province of Newfoundland and Labrador is the easternmost province and the last one to join Canada. There are numerous jokes about the "Newfie" accent and it's general incomprehensibility (although I honestly can't hear any difference from every other Canadian). It's also the originating location for both Labrador dogs and Newfoundland dogs. It's believed to be one of the possible locations Leif Erickson the Viking landed in the 11th century. There is actually a Norse settlement in Newfoundland that is a World Heritage Site. Fishing and tourism are it's major economies.

This particular pattern was frustrating because the model did not match the chart. The chart has a tree next to the puffin while the model and the instructions talk about a bird. I stitched the bird which I had to count out from the model. Also, the red in the model looks much more vivid than the one charted. I'm still a bit iffy on whether to leave the dark pink or rog it for a brighter red.

Pictured are the Pitcher Plant, Puffin and Black Spruce, the provincial flower, bird and tree respectively. The specialty stitch was the Slanting Star Stitch which was pretty easy (how many variations of a six-sided stitch can there possibly be???)

Title	Heart of Newfoundland and Labrador
Designer	The Victoria Sampler
Start date	February 8, 2016
Finish date	February 14, 2016
Total time	5 hours
Fabric	32 ct white lugana
Floss	As charted

Slow Stitching

I've been putting a few stitches into Heart of Newfoundland and Labrador but it's slow going. Not because I don't want to stitch, but because I just have. no. time.

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.

January Achievements & February Goals

So it turns out I forgot to make goals for January, so everything was an unexpected achievement ;)

Unexpectedly This Month:
1. Started Steampunk Serpent
2. Started and finished Heart of Alberta.
3. Started a pair of fingerless mitts.

Goals for February:
1. Start and finish the next Heart.
2. Finish Steampunk Serpent.
3. Finish one mitt.

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

Needlessly Complicated

It's almost halfway through winter. What better time to start a pair of fingerless mitts that won't be finished until next winter!

There are tons of patterns online for easy fingerless mitts. So naturally I have to complicate things.

1. It needs to be one that's knitted flat and sewn up since I don't have a pair of circular needles that are short enough and the magic loop method is far too complicated.
2. It has to be long. Not just past my wrists, but all the way up my forearms. My current gloves go just past my wrist and my forearms always get cold.
3. It must have cables.
4. Not just any cables. It has to be the same pattern as my scarf.

So I'm cobbling together a few different patterns and hoping this experiment works! So far I have the ribbing done.

It's All Brown

I dug out Venetian Opulence, which hasn't been seen here since September when it looked like this:

Venetian Opulence - Mirabilia
32 ct IvoryIt now looks like this:

It's not much for a week's worth of stitching (barely halfway through a rotation). I'm blaming my inability to find an entertaining audiobook. Right now I'm trying to get through "The Traitor Baru Cormorant" which is interesting plotwise, but the narrator's voice is a bit too soothing and is putting me to sleep. Maybe I should listen to an old favourite again...

Go West

The first finish of the year: Heart of Alberta.

I actually finished it off late last night but didn't get a chance to post until now.

Let's see, what's there to say about Alberta? Most people probably know about the oil that comes out of Alberta. It's also one of the prairie provinces and the biggest wheat producing province in the country. There's also the Calgary Stampede, which is an annual rodeo festival. And the Alberta Badlands where tons of dinosaur fossils were found.


Pictured are the Wild Rose, Great Horned Owl and Lodgepole Pine, the provincial flower, bird and tree respectively. The specialty stitch was the Crow's Foot Stitch which was a breeze.

Title	Heart of Alberta
Designer	The Victoria Sampler
Start date	January 5, 2016
Finish date	January 10, 2016
Total time	6.25 hours
Fabric	32 ct white lugana
Floss	As charted

Wildrose Country

I've been chipping away at Heart of Alberta. And I do mean "chipping". It's been going at a rate of about 10 stitches a day. The main reason being that I joined a gym. So once I'm done exercising and having a hot shower I'm ready for bed and there is almost no stitching happening. On one hand I'm (theoretically) getting more fit; on the other my stitching time has dwindled.


Heart of Alberta
32 ct white lugana

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.