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.